Word XP

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.

The title, from Obadiah 1:1, is speaking of the war we are engaged in, which precedes the end that comes in the enemies’ perdition. As we’ve before seen, this finality is described in the last verse of Obadiah (1:21), which says it is when “saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau [the domestic enemies among us]; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.”

The word “rumor” is the Hebrew word shmuw’ah, which more accurately means a public announcement. We’ve previously discussed it as the word rendered “report” in Isaiah 53:1 where it tells of the arm of the LORD revealed to those who have received the announcement. As we also saw, it’s precise definition is given in Isaiah 28:9 when it is rendered “doctrine,” and then in verse 19 as “report” saying the only vexation is to understand it. In chapter 28 it is the LORD’s teaching those who are weaned, meaning they have gone deeper into more advanced doctrine, which is described as coming precept upon precept, line upon line. Verse 19 says this teaching comes daily, and the vexation is to understand the doctrine announced, which is the same “report” spoken of in Isaiah 53:1. We know, there it is referring us back to Isaiah 52:7 and the one who is publishing peace and bringing good tidings. This is the doctrine (shmuw’ah – report) spoken of as the arm of the LORD revealed, which Isaiah 53 goes on to say is like new life springing from dry ground, spoken by one whose true identity isn’t known because of his outward appearance. The water, this word of God flowing to those who have lacked it, is what reveals him as the arm of the LORD, as the LORD’s presence is manifested from within him.

Isaiah 28
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine [shmuw,ah]? 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 [shmuw’ah].

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.

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

Isaiah 53:1 is quoted by Paul in Romans 10:16 where the word translated “report” is the Greek word akoe, which is from the word akouo, meaning to hear. Here it is speaking of the public confession of what is heard. Paul is saying the LORD’s resurrection is first heard, His voice from us, and when the report is believed and confessed, He is raised (received) in us.

This is what Paul is saying in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 when he says, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard [akoe – the report, heard and believe] of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” As we’ve seen, Paul, in verse 19, then says of the result, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our LORD Jesus Christ at his coming?” The answer to this question is a resounding, YES; therefore Paul says in ending, “For you are our glory and joy.”

Romans 10
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard [akouo]? and how shall they hear [akouo] without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report [akoe – our doctrine]?
17 So then faith comes by hearing [akoe], and hearing [akoe] by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard [akouo]? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he say, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:3 & 4, tells us it is because of false doctrine, that the truth, this doctrine (report), isn’t believed.

2 Timothy 3
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 [akoe – only hearing deceptions that seduce them];
4 And they shall turn away their ears [akoe – turn from hearing the LORD’s doctrine] from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [things men make up – such as the rapture and man-caused global warming].
5 But watch you in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.

We then, in Hebrews 4:2, see this report, the announcement of sound doctrine, the essence of “preaching,” can only be believed when mixed with faith. This is the finished work, the entry into rest found only in God’s kingdom. It is why, in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, Paul says of believing what is heard (akoe), “That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.”

Hebrew 5 then tells us this calling, the report, comes from the LORD, raised in the order of Melchisedec, which some are unable to understand because they are dull of hearing (akoe).

Matthew 13
9 Who has ears to hear [akoe], let him hear [akoe].
10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speak you unto them in parables?
11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
12 For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has.
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing [akoe] they hear [akoe] not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says By hearing [akoe] you shall hear [akouo], and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing [akouo], and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear [akoe] with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear [akouo].
17 For truly I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear [akouo] those things which you hear [akouo], and have not heard [akouo] them.

Hebrews 2
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard [akouo], lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [akoe] him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5 For unto the angels has he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man that you visit him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hands:
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto you.
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given me.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For truly he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [rescue] them that are tempted.

Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has built the house has more honor than the house.
4 For every house is built by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5 And Moses truly was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost says, To day if you will hear [akouo] his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if you will hear [akouo] his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard [akouo], did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews 4
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached [akoe] did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [akouo] it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear [akouo] his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 5
1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, You are my Son, to day have I begotten you.
6 As he says also in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing [akoe].
12 For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles [stroicheion – elements] of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God:
8 But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil [understanding what was covered by flesh];
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

Psalms 111
1 Praise you the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.
2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
3 His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endures for ever.
4 He has made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.
5 He has given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.
6 He has shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.
7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.
8 They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption unto his people: he has commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endures for ever.

Psalms 112
1 Praise you the LORD. Blessed is the man that fears the LORD, that delights greatly in his commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures for ever.
4 Unto the upright there arises light [understanding] in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man shows favor, and lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings [shmuw’ah – report]: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9 He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honor.
10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.

The title, Psalms 124:2 & 3, tells of what we are now, and have been, experiencing from all those who use all information to poison the mind of those who fall victim to their underlying deception. They choose what will or will not be heard, abandoning prudence in favor of malicious hype, they only broadcast what can be weaponized against us: those valuing spirit and truth and refusing to be swallowed by the gaping abyss that is their ever-wide-open mouths.

The word “swallowed” used above to describe this evil act, when further explored leads us to this obvious and undeniable conclusion, and tells us it is into these times the LORD manifests himself as Jehovah our Salvation (Jesus). The Hebrew word used is bala‘, a forty-nine times used word meaning, to make away with; the Strong’s Greek Dictionary saying the translated forms are, “cover, destroy, devour, eat up, be at end, spend up, swallow down (up).”

We start our exploration in 2 Timothy 3, which Paul begins by telling Timothy of these “last days” and the “perilous times” that have now come against us. He goes on to describe these men, who are trying to swallow us up, saying, “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, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof [denying His ability to change men, from sinners to saints]: from such turn away.”

This description is of the enemies foreign and domestic, in church and state: communists and false prophets, all preaching their own form of false religion, all with one common goal: to control information as their means of controlling people: manipulating them into doing their will (as this world’s experts and extortionists – formerly known as wise men and sorcerers). Paul continues by telling of them as (like – in the pattern of) Jannes and Jambres, the priests of Egypt, which, in the prior post and many before, we saw representing those preaching the same ways and ideas that held God’s people captive in Egypt.

2 Timothy 2
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.

Paul is here referring us to Exodus 7, when the wise men and sorcerers of Egypt (Jannes and Jambres) cast down their rods, and Aaron’s rod swallowed (bala’) them up. As we know, this is the same rod Moses later “lifted up” and the sea parted (Exodus 14:16), which also later budded to life in showing who the LORD approved (per the prior post – see Numbers 17:8). Here it is Aaron’s rod turning to a serpent and swallowing the serpents who were devouring God’s people, by their false signs and wonders.

Exodus 7
8 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you: then you shall say unto Aaron, Take your rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed [bala’] up their rods.
13 And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go.
15 Get you unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goes out unto the water; and you shall stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shall you take in your hand.
16 And you shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me unto you, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto you would not hear.
17 Thus says the LORD, In this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood [their words, which flow to the sea, the people, are seen as draining the life from them].

In this context, the Hebrew word dera’own (Dorian) means to repulse. It appears twice, first in Isaiah 66:24 rendered “abhorring,” and then in Daniel 12:2 where it is rendered “contempt.”

What is repulsive is the mass media and all the other false prophets using this storm, one just like all others before it, to advance their false religion of man-caused global warming, and hoping for a US landfall to further weaponized (hype and misrepresent) its destruction to swallow us up. And some wonder why the LORD says of them what He says in using the word dera’own. The destruction they predict is their own, come by their own ways of weaponized information now understood as hype and manipulation – as is almost everything they broadcast and teach.

(Father, we know the way to turn away destruction is to ask for your mercy, which you freely give to all who ask from a pure heart. Thank you, LORD!)

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.
8 Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith your God.
10 Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her:
11 That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, says the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.
21 And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the LORD.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring [dera’own] unto all flesh.

Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt [dera’own].
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my LORD, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

In Exodus, the word bala’ only appears one other time, in Exodus 15:12 in describing when the divided sea came together again as the earth swallowing the enemies who were pursuing God’s people to destroy them.

Exodus 15
8 And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
10 You did blow with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed [bala’] them.
13 You in your mercy have led forth the people which you have redeemed: you have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation.

As we know, this is spoken of in Revelation 12:16 as when the devil knows his time is short and casts out of his mouth a great flood against God’s people, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows it.

Revelation 12
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun [the light of God’s people, His church outside the established churches], and the moon [civil government] under her feet [made her footstool], and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon [a beast, as in a serpent, crocodile or whale, with a large, wide-open, mouth, which it uses to devour its prey], having seven heads and ten horns [in power in church and state], and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars [God’s people] of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman [God’s elect remnant] which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her [with the LORD’s supper – per the previous post] there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And [the devil’s angels] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser [this is obviously the enemies among us] of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows [they know] that he has but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [as they do] which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle [strength given to those who have waited for the LORD], that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

As we have seen, it is the agitation caused by these evil men’s words, the confusion that has now turned to delusion, the insanity that denies and renames even self-evident truth, and has kept the LORD unknown in the belly of the earth. This state of blinded minds is represented as Jonah flees God’s commanding him to preach repentance to Nineveh, is caught in the storm caused by the underlying agitation (these men blinding ways and ideas) and is swallowed up by it (the whale representing the cause of the agitation of the masses). We know, because we have seen, the LORD’s elect are those who rise up and condemn this generation by calling them to repentance. Jonah 2:8 tells us those who don’t receive this gift of God’s correction (His grace) reject the mercy He is offering.

Matthew 23
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees [those sitting in God’s seat], hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill you up then the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Truly I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the LORD.

Jonah 1
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow [bala’] up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

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 have 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.

Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

The LORD uses the word bala’, rendered “destroyed” in Isaiah 9:16, to tell us the underlying cause of the agitation is those leading His people. The chapter, as we know, speaks of the light (understanding) that has lighted upon Israel, meaning those who will reign and rule with God with them and in them. It also tells of these leaders, the cause of the destruction, saying they will attempt to rebuild (without being led by the one God has shown is His approved leader).

Isaiah 9
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
8 The LORD sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turns not unto him that smites them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err [the cause of the agitation of the sea]; and they that are led of them are destroyed [bala’].
17 Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

Isaiah 29
5 Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the LORD said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay [flawed and therefore cast away, and the potter will create a new vessel]: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Isaiah 25
1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For you have made of a city a heap; of a defensed city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you.
4 For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined [this is the LORD supper – here and now].
7 And he will destroy [bala’] in this mountain the face of the covering [the darkness of ignorance] cast over all people, and the vail [hiding His presence] that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow [bala’] up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Psalms 124
1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
2 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:
3 Then they had swallowed [bala’] us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.
7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

(O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.)

A reiteration: the above, from 2 Timothy 2:15, describes how God demonstrates who He has “approved.” The process is rooted in the Deuteronomy 29:29 saying, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

This Deuteronomy verse comes just after the LORD, through Moses’s writing and teaching, describes how He, “in great indignation,” rooted out those who “went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them.”

In 2 Timothy 2:15, the Greek word rendered “approved” is dokimos, the same word used in 1 Corinthians 11:19 to tell of how God roots out heresies, and in doing so shows those He approves. “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved [dokimos] may be made manifest among you.”

1 Corinthians 11
16 But if any man seem to be contentious [constantly questioning, to gender strife, not to be educated, but rather to confuse those seeking edification – tempting them to deny the LORD’s presence] we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse.
18 For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you [caused by the contentious]; and I partly believe it.
19 For there must be also heresies [to part – draw people away from truth, to opposes the truth and choose men’s creation as they follow them into blindness] among you, that they which are approved [those who should be followed, as the LORD reveals His truth and presence in them] may be made manifest among you.
20 When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the LORD’s supper [this feast of truth, provided by Him].
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper [these men bring their own ideas and, with intention, divide you into factions]: and one is hungry [isn’t satisfied, because tghese men’s untruths can never satisfy: give true peace as only the LORD can give], and another is drunken [their minds become unable to function – because these men’s ideas cause confusion, and finally delusion].
22 What? have you not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise you the church of God, and shame them that have not? what shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
23 For I have received of the LORD that which also I delivered unto you [His truth], that the LORD Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me [as Paul is here demonstrating as he gives his body, as the body of the LORD, delivering His message as received].
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
26 For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup [as He did, sacrificing ourselves to deliver the same meal: His truth delivered by Him through us], you do show the LORD’s death till he come.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the LORD, unworthily [without giving it the honor due the LORD’s word], shall be guilty of the body and blood of the LORD.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eats and drinks unworthily [denying it is the LORD’s word], eats and drinks damnation [krima – decides to break the law {crime}] to himself, not discerning the LORD’s body [not understanding the LORD is in us, rightly dividing His word, and warning away from krima].
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are chastened [corrected] of the LORD, that we should not be condemned with the world.
33 Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry one for another.
34 And if any man hunger [lacks understanding and desires it], let him eat at home [this word by himself]; that you come not together unto condemnation [so there is no contention and misleading]. And the rest will I set in order when I come [by rightly dividing the law, as opposed to the chaos of men’s confusion].

As we are told in 2 Corinthians 10:18, this is how God commends those He “approves.” It is the LORD, Christ, in us doing the work and showing His presence, and we, as His earthen vessels (body), though we seem weak in outward appearance, glory in His Power and Glory in us manifested.

2 Corinthians 10
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 Do you look on things after the outward appearance? if any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he [says he] is Christ’s, even so are we [truly] Christ’s.
8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the LORD hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
11 Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.
12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:
15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labors; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.
17 But he that glories, let him glory in the LORD.
18 For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the LORD commends.

Paul here is speaking against those who say they know something, and commend themselves, and form groups around what they believe, and commend one and other for what they think they know. These men are those who are found to be heretics when God reveals His secrets to and by those He approves, not to save us, but for the salvation of those led into darkness by these blind leaders of the blind.

2 Corinthians 13
2 I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
3 Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates [without proof He is in you]?
6 But I trust that you shall know that we are not reprobates [when you realize Christ is in us].
7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we should appear approved [dokimos], but that you should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and you are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the LORD hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.
11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.
13 All the saints salute you.
14 The grace of the LORD Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. 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 hath 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 [dokimos] unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as does a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus [those who refuse to join with the LORD and forbid others from joining Him, while hiding behind a mask of false love, by which they make merchandise of you];
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The LORD knows them that are his. And, let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the LORD out of a pure heart.
23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife [they just want to argue and keep the argument going. They aren’t looking to be educated, but rather, they seek to cause and continue confusion].
24 And the servant of the LORD must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

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, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof [denying God’s power to turn sinners into saints]: 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 [the priests of Egypt – the ways and ideas of the captivity] 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.

Deuteronomy 29
1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb [where He untaught us the ways of captivity and taught us His life-giving word].
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and your shoe is not waxen old upon your foot.
6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when you came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water:
12 That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day:
13 That he may establish you to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto you a God, as he hath said unto you, and as he hath sworn unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;
17 And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
19 And it comes to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what means the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Psalms 47
1 O clap your hands, all you people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
2 For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
5 God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing you praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the heathen: God sits upon the throne of his holiness.
9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

In today’s title, from Ecclesiastes 3:1, the words “there is a season” are translated from the four times used Hebrew word zman, meaning an appointed occasion. When explored, it describes the time when the ways of the wicked, the destruction they have planned for God’s people, return upon their own heads. This is the time (the season) we have entered, and which is in greater detail hereafter pronounced.

The first time zman appears it is in Nehemiah 2:6, where it’s rendered “him a time.” The verse says, “And the king said unto me, (the queen [Esther] also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.”

The king is Ahasuerus, who Nehemiah calls Artaxerxes, an appellative, meaning the great king. Esther is parenthetically mentioned, by which, when it is known she is the “queen,” we are given a greater understanding of why a king of the Medes would allow Nehemiah to assess and rebuild Jerusalem, which is the “journey” spoken of the in the king’s question.

As we know from our many deeper studies, Esther is the mother of Cyrus, who at this time is about twelve years old. We know, she most likely named him after realizing she was the means Isaiah wrote of: the banner lifted by the LORD (Isaiah 13:2), when He stirred the Medes against Babylon. (See the post of 27 July 2019) It is the pattern of the coming of the Son of man and the children of God, God raising them for this purpose.

The word banner in Isaiah 13:2 is nec, the pole upon which fiery serpent was was lifted. It’s what the LORD is speaking of when, in John 3:8 thru 15, He says, “8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh [this is speaking of the spirit moving, unknown to men while He works, as did Esther, as did Nehemiah – see Nehemiah 2:11 thru 18 below], and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit [becuse it is the Holy Spirit moving in them, of which men are ignorant until the time He makes His secret things known]. 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master [teacher] of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The word “journey,” in Nehemiah 2:6, also only appearing four times, is from the Hebrew word mahalak, in context, speaking of the time until we reach the zman, the appointed time, when Nehemiah (meaning Jehovah is our Comforter) “returns” (shuwb). The other occurrences of mahalak are in Ezekiel 42:4, saying there “was a walk” ten cubits breadth (leading into holiness and sanctification), and Jonah 3:3 & 4 where it speaks of the three day’s “journey” through Nineveh preaching repentance. These, in a pattern, are speaking of the work of the LORD, as the Comforter, the Paraclete, leading us into all truth, as the Holy Ghost: unknown to a world blinded by its own ignorance. This three days in Nineveh is the three days the LORD has been in the belly of the earth, in the belly of hell, preaching repentance to the dead, who don’t know Him because of their ignorance, which is the cause of their death, from which they must be born again. “… I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3)

Matthew 12
30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad.
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34 O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you.
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey [mahalak].
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey [mahalak], and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

The above speaks of this appointed time, as does Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3, as does Esther in telling of Purim. The other two times the word zman appears are in Esther 9:27 & 31, both speaking of Purim, first rendered “according to their appointed” and then as “in their time.”

Esther 9
1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people.
3 And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.
4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.
5 Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.
6 And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.
7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,
10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
11 On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.
12 And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? now what is your petition? and it shall be granted you: or what is your request further? and it shall be done.
13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
14 And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
15 For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.
16 But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey,
17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;
24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time [zman] every year;
28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.
30 And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed [zman], according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
32 And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

The ten cubits’ “walk”, the appointed time of the enemies’ destruction, this season, is spoken of in steps described by the translated names of the ten sons of Haman. (These names appear in the original language stacked one on top of the other, as do the times spoken of Ecclesiastes 3:2 through 8.)

Here are the names and their translations as they appear in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, and some, in brackets, with added Hebrew definitions and verse references.

Parshandatha = “given by prayer” [Nehemiah 2:4]
Dalphon = “dripping” [poured out]
Aspatha = “the enticed gathered”
Poratha = “fruitfulness” or “frustration” [our work is opposed]
Adalia = “I shall be drawn up of Jah”
Aridatha = “the lion of the decree”
Parmashta = “superior”
Arisai = “lion of my banners (?)”
Aridai = “the lion is enough”
Vajezatha = “strong as the wind” [as the Holy Spirit moving, unknown to man]

This is the story, the pattern, we see in Nehemiah, Jehovah our Comforter.

Nehemiah 2
1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lies waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
4 Then the king said unto me, For what do you make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may build it.
6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9 Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
10 When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
11 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there THREE DAYS.
12 And I arose in the night [in their ignorance], I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.
13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
14 Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.
15 Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
16 And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
17 Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
18 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you do? will you rebel against the king?
20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

Ecclesiastes 3
1 To every thing there is a season [zman], and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit has he that works in that wherein he labors?
10 I have seen the travail, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He has made every thing beautiful in his time: also he has set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God does it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which has been is now; and that which is to be has already been; and God requires that which is past.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
19 For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man has no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth?
22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

The word puwr, the origin of the name Purim, is only used twice. The first is in Psalms 33:10 in telling of the counsel of the heathen coming to “naught.” The other is in Psalms 89:33, where the LORD is speaking of the sure mercies of David, saying He will correct his children and will not “utterly take” from them His loving kindness.

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 a heap: he lays up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the heathen to naught [puwr]: he makes the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashions their hearts alike; he considers all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in you.

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

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

The above is Isaiah 55:4, a verse preceded by first telling all to come to these living waters and drink. The passage continues by saying all who do drink will live, and the LORD will make with them an everlasting Covenant. The Covenant is said to be the sure mercies of David, of who and what the title speaks. The phrase (the sure mercies of David), as we know, tells of the LORD (in the way of the title) correcting us into right standing (reconciling us to Himself) by His voice and His mercy; as opposed to Saul, from whom the LORD took away his right to reign over His people and nation (church and state).

This passage leads us into deep waters, first flowing from 1 Samuel 25, which itself leads us to Psalms 110. The course then takes us into the answer to the question the religious leaders couldn’t answer; their ignorance as a stone cast from David’s sling. The question appears in Matthew 22 and is the LORD speaking of Christ as David’s son, which is manifested as revealing His authority, as the Father makes the son’s enemies His footstool.

Matthew 22
31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. [This is speaking of the fathers always being alive in the offspring: the means of the resurrection.]
33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished [ekplesso, meaning to smite away, as if struck, in the head, by a stone from a sling] at his doctrine.
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees [by describing the living as those resurrected] to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him [doubting he was the Christ – God with us in man], and saying,
36 Master [Teacher], which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself [showing mercy, as is most often asked for and shown by the LORD, as he is called the son of David – again referring to David and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25].
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
42 Saying, What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.
43 He said unto them, How then does David in spirit call him LORD, saying,
44 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you on my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool [quoted from Psalms 110:1, which is the point of the question]?
45 If David then call him LORD, how is he his son?
46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. [Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.]

Deuteronomy 29
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant [as in Isaiah 55, and the sure mercies of David], and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water:
12 That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day:
13 That he may establish you to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto you a God, as he has said unto you, and as he has sworn unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;
17 And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst [as did Nabal: his name meaning he was a fool]:
20 The LORD will not spare him [as He didn’t Nabal], but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore has the LORD done thus unto this land? what means the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant [the correction into right standing, by these living {life-giving} waters] of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out [by the revelation of His secret things, His word He has reserved for this moment, this time of war against those who think they are giants, who even exalt themselves above the LORD] of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

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

The Hebrew word negiyd, in verse 4 above, is speaking of David, and referring us to the meaning of the sure mercies as described in 2 Samuel 7, which also tells of the pattern of the son, who is Christ formed in us in this way, as we are reconciled to God by a like mind.

2 Samuel 7
…Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler [negiyd] over my people, over Israel:
9 And I was with you whithersoever you went, 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 tells 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 establish 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.

As we have seen, when Psalms 110 begin by saying, “The LORD said unto my LORD” the words rendered LORD are Jehovah and ‘adown, the latter meaning a ruler, the head lifted over all God’s people. These names are used multiple times in 1 Samuel 25 in describing Jehovah and David, none more descript than when verse 29 says, “but the soul of my LORD [‘adown] shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD [Jehovah] your God.”

1 Samuel 25
1 And Samuel [who heard God – as in 1 Samuel 3:10] died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah [in the city on a hill]. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran [where God makes thing clear, by explanation – see Habakkuk 3:3].
2 And there was a man in Maon [in the house of God], whose possessions were in Carmel [in the place the LORD planted]; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3 Now the name of the man was Nabal [fool – wicked]; and the name of his wife Abigail [whose father {God} is her joy]: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb [dogs].
4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal [fool – making merchandise of the flock] did shear his sheep.
5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:
6 And thus shall you say to him that lives in prosperity [the pattern of the thieving TV preacher types – making merchandise of the flock], Peace be both to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be unto all that you have.
7 And now I have heard that you have shearers: now your shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.
8 Ask your young men, and they will show you. Wherefore let the young men find favor in your eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray you, whatsoever comes to your hand unto your servants, and to your son David.
9 And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse [who is the son who is to possess all – see Colossians 1:16 below]? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
13 And David said unto his men, Gird you on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
16 They were a wall [this is the wall later spoken of in verse 22 & 34 – against which these men let out their drunkenness – as does the fool {Nabal} in verse 37 below] unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.
18 Then Abigail made haste [to come out of the house of David’s enemy, to ask for mercy, and become David’s footstool], and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men [I and the children God has given me] came down against her; and she met them.
21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he has requited me evil for good.
22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that urinates [lets out the waters of his drunkenness] against the wall [those who’ve done them no wrong, who can be trusted, because in their mouths is found no guile].
23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground [and became as David’s footstool],
24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my LORD, upon me let this iniquity be: and let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your audience, and hear the words of your handmaid.
25 Let not my LORD, I pray you, regard this man of Belial [those who’ve replace God with their own creations {idols}], even Nabal [the wicked and foolish]: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid saw not the young men of my LORD, whom you did send.
26 Now therefore, my LORD, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld you from coming to shed blood, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and they that seek evil to my LORD, be as Nabal.
27 And now this blessing which your handmaid has brought unto my LORD, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my LORD.
28 I pray you, forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my LORD a sure house; because my LORD fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in you all your days.
29 Yet a man is risen to pursue you, and to seek your soul: but the soul of my LORD shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God; and the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my LORD according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you ruler [negiyd] over Israel;
31 That this shall be no grief unto you, nor offence of heart unto my LORD, either that you have shed blood causeless, or that my LORD has avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my LORD, then remember your handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent you this day to meet me:
33 And blessed be your advice, and blessed be you, which have kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
34 For in very deed, [God showing mercy, to and from the merciful – the sure mercies of David and Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.] as the LORD God of Israel lives [giving the meaning to verse 29], which has kept me back from hurting you, except you had hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that urinates against the wall.
35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to your house; see, I have hearkened to your voice, and have accepted your person.
36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept his servant from evil: for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.
40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke unto her, saying, David sent us unto you, to take you to him to wife.
41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my LORD.
42 And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam [his brethren who please God] of Jezreel [those who God has sown]; and they were also both of them his wives.
44 But Saul [the desire of God’s people] had given Michal [from where the false word of God flowed] his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti [delivered them] the son of Laish [to the crushing of the lion’s mouth], which was of Gallim [which are their corrupt springs].

Verse 37 above tells us the fool and the wicked (Nabal) become as a stone, referring back to verse 29 where we are told of the enemies (as stone from a sling) cast out. We next see in verse 39, this is when the LORD “returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head,” like the stone sunk deep into the forehead of Goliath.

Christ is David’s son, as David became the son of God by the same mind (heart).

Acts 13
…I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus:
24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think you that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
33 God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he says also in another psalm, You shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
41 Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

The brook is the same (nachal) from where David picked his stones. The head that is lifted up is the son of David, who is the son of man and the son of God.

1 Samuel 17
43 And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
45 Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 This day will the LORD deliver you into mine hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.
48 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
51 Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

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

Colossians 1
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

The above is Malachi 1:5, which speaks of the same event as does the previous post’s title, (Psalms 102:16) saying, “When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” The words “see” and “appear” are translated from the same Hebrew word, ra’ah, which later descriptively appears in Malachi 3:2 & 18, first as “when he appears” and then as “discern.”

The title tells us this is when we “see,” meaning “discern,” the words of the messenger “when he appears,” and then we will say “the LORD be magnified,” meaning exalted (per the prior post) at the border of Israel. The word “border” is from the Hebrew word gbuwl, which we have discusses from its appearing rendered “landmark.” We have seen it (gbuwl) meaning a cord, as in what ties us to our inheritance, marking out its boundary; or as a horizon where the sun rises, as in Malachi 4:2, which says, “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

When the title verse tells us this occurs at “the border of Israel” it is speaking of this horizon, when God’s people become Israel, meaning they assume their intended position, as His children, to rule and reign over the earth, as He would, in righteousness.

Malachi 1
1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi [meaning My messenger].
2 I have loved you, says the LORD. Yet you say, Wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons [beasts who devour with wide-open mouths] of the wilderness.
4 Whereas Edom says, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus says the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border [gbuwl] of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD has indignation for ever [ever lasting contempt – as in Daniel 12:2 below].
5 And your eyes shall see [ra’ah], and you shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border [gbuwl] of Israel.
6 A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, Wherein have we despised your name?
7 You offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and you say, Wherein have we polluted you? In that you say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
8 And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept [nasa’] your person? says the LORD of hosts.
9 And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this has been by your means: will he regard [nasa’] your persons? says the LORD of hosts.
10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, says the LORD of hosts.
12 But you have profaned it, in that you say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
13 You said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and you have snuffed at it, says the LORD of hosts; and you brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus you brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? says the LORD.
14 But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

Malachi 2
1 And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away [nasa’] with it.
4 And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial [nasa’] in the law.
10 Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have you done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regards not the offering any more, or receives it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet you say, Wherefore? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

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

Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet [the destroyer of the false prophets who’ve blinded the world – kept it from discerning the LORD] before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

When Malachi 3:2 askes who will stand (‘amad) it is referring us to Daniel 12:1, when the angel Michael stands, his name meaning He is like God, as His messenger, who awaken God’s people (and Edom) from their sleep and into the light (understanding – ra’ah).

Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up [‘amad], the great prince which stands [‘amad] for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked [ra’ah – understood], and, behold, there stood [‘amad] other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half [these verses are speaking of understanding recorded events of the past, and them giving us an understanding of the event in our time, so we can rightly divide their meaning and know the way forward – these are Ezekiel’s wheel within a wheel]; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my LORD, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. [As we know, this is speaking of the time of Abram’s (Abrahams) sleep.]
13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand [‘amad] in your lot at the end of the days.

Ephesians 6
1 Children, obey your parents in the LORD: for this is right.
2 Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
3 That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.
4 And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD.
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the LORD, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the LORD, whether he be bond or free.
9 And, you masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the LORD, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Romans 9
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6 Not as though the word of God has taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall your seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
17 For the scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore has he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.
19 You will say then unto me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
21 Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.
29 And as Isaiah said before, Except the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.

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

Romans 11
1 I say then, Has God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot you not what the scripture says of Elijah? how he makes intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 LORD, they have killed your prophets, and digged down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 (According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you.
19 You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who has known the mind of the LORD? or who has been his counselor?
35 Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Psalms 4
1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
2 O you sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? how long will you love vanity [what is worthless], and seek after leasing [falsehood]? Selah.
3 But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There be many that say, Who will show [ra’ah] us any good? LORD, lift [nasa’] you up the light of your countenance [understanding Your presence] upon us.
7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.

When the LORD shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.

Today’s title verse, Psalms 102:16, is where the LORD led, after beginning in 1 Kings 16, in which He describes when and why He allows a wall to be built between church and state. Church government was always intended to be superior to the state in that it was to form the conscience by which men received the people God raises and prepares to rule as He would rule. This presupposes the people in the church are themselves ruling and teaching as God would, building on a firm foundation of truth, justice, mercy, and the spirit of the what law is intended to achieve.

The point we find in 1 Kings 16 is of the church corrupted and unable or unwilling to reform itself, which results in a progressive degeneration into complete idolatry (replacing God and truth with the ideas and ways men contrive). The chapter ends with a verse that may superficially seem contradictory and thereby hard for the unlearned and unstable to understand. It says, “In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.”

What was spoken by Joshua the son of Nun (names meaning Jehovah’s Salvation shall be continued) is recorded in Joshua 6:26, which says, “And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that rises up and builds this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.”

The word “before” is the Hebrew word paniym, which should be here rendered presence, thereby saying, cursed be the man who builds Jericho when the LORD is present. Remember Jericho, where the wall fell, was the first city taken after God’s new generation crossed into the Promised Land. The wall that fell was the wall erected between church and state. What follows (in spirit) after its fall is the taking of all the governments that didn’t know God and therefore refused His rule and the rule of His people.

This is the wall erected again, as Jericho is rebuilt, Jericho (literally) meaning the moon, which (figuratively) describes civil government, rising when the sun’s (church’s) light is darkened. It isn’t built by man, but by Hiel, meaning the living God, the Bethelite, meaning He is from the house (family) of God. The foundation of the firstborn Abiram is (means) God is exalted, and the gates of Segub are (means) the entry found in this exaltation of the living God the Father (outside and apart from corrupted religion).

Again, remember, the corruption spoken of here in a pattern where the calves were set up in Samaria, followed by the full decline into Baal worship, both of which replaced the true living God.

Context is found first in Joshua 3 as the people were about to Passover the water of the Jordan (the words of men, which carried all into death). The Ark of the Covenant (the Ark of this Testament) passes over before them, after Joshua says, “Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you.”

Joshua 3
7 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
8 And you shall command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When you are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still [‘amad] in Jordan.
9 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.
10 And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth [as represented in the seven cities mentioned in the prior verse] passes over before you into Jordan.
12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man.
13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the LORD of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand [‘amad] upon a heap.
14 And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;
15 And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan [death and the dead, swelled with pride in the destruction they have accomplished] overflows all his banks all the time of harvest,)
16 That the waters which came down from above stood [‘amad] and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam [God’s word took its stand, now separated very far from the words of fallen man], that is beside Zaretan [and it distressed those trusting in idols]: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain [death, the dead sea whereinto the river Jordan carries all], even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho [the wall between church {God’s people – the sun and the other stars} and state {the moon, civil government}].
17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood [‘amad – took their stand] firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

The Hebrew word ‘amad, meaning to stand, refers us to Joshua 10 when it appears in verses 8, 13, & 19. We know this chapter as where we are told of Gibeon, when the LORD cast down great hailstone upon the enemies of His people, which (hailstone) we know to speak of this word of God, which has been frozen in heaven, reserved there for this time, to be released in the war against God’s enemies.

Joshua 10
8 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into your hand; there shall not a man of them stand [‘amad] before you.
9 Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal [the wheel, as in these foretold waters giving us understanding] all night [while the world remained in the darkness of their own confusion].
10 And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon [this city on a hill], and chased them along the way that goes up to Bethhoron [that emptied their houses], and smote them to Azekah [and tilled them under], and unto Makkedah [and all their shepherds].
11 And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron [their emptied houses], that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah [until they were completely tilled under], and they died: they were more which died with hailstones [God’s word released from heaven] than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
12 Then spoke Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites [the famous, ever open mouths that seek to devour] before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun [all churches], stand you still [damam – shut your mouth] upon Gibeon [speak not to My city on this hill]; and you, Moon [civil government], in the valley of Ajalon [oppress not My Strength].
13 And the sun stood still [damam – became dumb, and stopped speaking its own words], and the moon stayed [‘amad], until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher [right – referring us to Deuteronomy 32:4 and what is published there]? So the sun stood still [‘amad] in the midst of heaven [they took their stand, on this rightly divided word of God], and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

In Joshua 5:13 we are told of Joshua, near Jericho, encountering a man who is the “Captain of the host [army] of the LORD.” This man is Joshua himself, realizing He is Jehovah’s Salvation, as Christ Jesus, sent for the Salvation of the world.

Joshua 5
5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD swore that he would not show them the land, which the LORD swore unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that flows with milk and honey [the true word of God].
7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.
8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising [speaking of those who have now been quickened from death into life, by the LORD who is the quickening Spirit of God – see 1 Corinthians 15 below] all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole [chayah – are quickened to life].
9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
12 And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Are you for us, or for our adversaries?
14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What says my LORD unto his servant?
15 And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose your shoe from off your foot; for the place whereon you stand [‘amad] is holy. And Joshua did so.

1 Corinthians 15
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?

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 [exalt] 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 [yashar – Jasher] 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] 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 [did not exalt] 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 [who have twisted and perverted God’s 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 [for your sake]
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 sees 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.
44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea [Joshua] the son of Nun.
45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, whither you go over Jordan to possess it.
48 And the LORD spoke unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
49 Get you up into this mountain Abarim [the region beyond], unto mount Nebo [the {false} prophets], which is in the land of Moab [at the gates of hell], that is over against Jericho [where the wall between My church and My state has been rebuilt]; and behold the land of Canaan [and all My people are brought down and oppressed], which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
50 And die in the mount whither you go up, and be gathered unto your people; as Aaron [the light bringer] your brother died in mount Hor [{the light} on the hill], and was gathered unto his people:
51 Because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh [where contention replaced the Holy – where God told him to speak to the rock in the presence of the congregation, and instead he struck the rock a second time], in the wilderness of Zin [and became as a thorn]; because you sanctified [exalted] me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 Yet you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

Matthew 5
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
13 You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 For truly I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Psalm 102
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto you.
2 Hide not your face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline your ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.
3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.
10 Because of your indignation and your wrath: for you have lifted me up, and cast me down.
11 My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass.
12 But you, O LORD, shall endure for ever; and your remembrance unto all generations.
13 You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.
14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.
15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
21 To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: your years are throughout all generations.
25 Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They shall perish, but you shall endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But you are the same, and your years shall have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before you.

The word the name Nun comes from, the Hebrew word nun, only appears one time, in Psalms 72:17 where it is translated “will be continued.” It is there speaking of the name of the king’s son, which is the son of David, in whom all the nations of the world shall be blessed.

Hebrews 2
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5 For unto the angels has he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man that you visit him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hands:
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto you.
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given me.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For truly he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [rescue] them that are tempted.

Psalms 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.

And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

The title, Matthew 28:17 & 18, is telling of when the disciples went into Galilee, into a high mountain where Jesus had appointed them, and then saw Him. The name Galilee tells of the inner circle, those closest to the LORD, who came to understand, from the LORD’s words, that He would rise in them, and when He did (when they saw, understood) they would go forth teaching, which is baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Friends, today is a massage that points to even our ignorance, blindness, doubting the LORD has truly risen in this manner. The LORD is risen in me, and until we truly believe this is His resurrection we deny Him and ourselves. “At that day [this day] you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” This quote, John 14:20, is the LORD telling of this teaching, explaining the living God, the Father in us, which makes us His sons (children), and by this, He makes us in His image and likeness. We then go forward teaching, the LORD in us as the Holy Ghost, His Spirit unknown to those who hear Him, until they see it is the Father in the Son, and knowing Him they become His children, going forward and reproducing after their own kind. “But some doubted.”

The deeper theology in the title is the LORD telling the disciples that, until they understand His resurrection, they themselves are guilty of His death, unknowingly keeping Him dead as they remain dead in their ignorance of the manner of His resurrection.

Verse 16 above is the LORD directing us to see Joshua 20, where the LORD, through Joshua (Jesus), tells us of the ignorance of His death and resurrection.

Joshua 20
1 The LORD also spoke unto Joshua [the Father speaking through the Son, who is His salvation personified], saying,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spoke unto you by the hand [writing] of Moses:
3 That the slayer that kills any person unawares [shgagah – ignorance] and unwittingly [bliy – without {knowledge}] may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 And when he that does flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.
5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbor unwittingly [bliy – without knowledge], and hated him not beforetime.
6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment [in this time, here, now, at the judgment seat of Christ], and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.
7 And they appointed Kedesh [sanctuary] in Galilee [in this inner circle] in mount Naphtali [where we wrestle with the LORD], and Shechem [where the burden is removed] in mount Ephraim [in this second blessing from the LORD – raising us from the ash heap – pulling us from death and hell], and Kirjatharba [where we lie in our graves], which is Hebron [under deaths spell, by the association with the gods of this world], in the mountain of Judah [who sit in the seats of God, leading and teaching His people ignorance].
8 And on the other side Jordan [of what has carried all the world into descending into death] by Jericho [until the fall of the wall they’ve built, between God and man, keeping man from seeing the sun (son) rising] eastward, they assigned Bezer [making God inaccessible through the ignorance they have learned] in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben [until they see the son], and Ramoth [in the high places] in Gilead [in the heap of this testimony] out of the tribe of Gad [sent to masses], and Golan [and brings again their captivity, and rejoicing] in Bashan [and they again become fruitful] out of the tribe of Manasseh [and remember God who they have forgotten].
9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourns among them, that whosoever kills any person [by keeping from them the true word of God, this teaching, by which only does man live] at unawares [shgagah – ignorance] might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

The word shgagah, rendered above as “unaware,” means an inadvertent straying (from God and His truth). It appears in Ecclesiastes 5:6 and 10:5, both describing this “error,” and in context all referring us to Leviticus 4:2 & 22. These Leviticus uses of shgagah tell us the cost of this ignorance is the LORD’s blood, which refers us to Hebrews 12:24 where we understand this teaching, the LORD correcting us, is by His voice, in me/us here and now, which is shaking heaven and earth.

Ephesians 2
1 And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

1 Corinthians 2
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained [proorizo – predestined, arranged in advance] before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew [because they are ignorant]: for had they known it, they would not have crucified [stauroo, stauros – exposed to death] the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things [as it is now, here at the judgment seat of Christ], yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

Ecclesiastes 5
1 Keep your foot when you goes to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with your mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and you upon earth: therefore let your words be few.
3 For a dream comes through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
4 When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.
5 Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; neither say you before the angel [God’s messenger], that it was an error [shgagah – ignorance, they falsely claim they didn’t know, when in fact the rejected, refused to hear, God’s message – they are willingly ignorant]: wherefore should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear you God.
8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regards; and there be higher than they.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
10 He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt [these true treasure from God, given to us to give].
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begets a son, and there is nothing in his hand [understanding perishes when we refuse to teach our children as we have been taught].
15 As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit has he that has labored for the wind [the false teaching of man]?
17 All his days also he eats in darkness [ignorance], and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.
19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answers him in the joy of his heart.

What we see here is what Peter describes as the perdition (apoleia) of ungodly men, who wrestle with the word of God, to their own destruction (perdition).

2 Peter 3
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [apoleia] of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion – rudiments of this world, these men’s corrupt ideas and ways] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion – these men’s corrupt teaching] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction [apoleia – perdition].
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 10
1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor: so does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor [the self-appointed “experts” of this world].
2 A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left.
3 Yea also, when he that is a fool walks by the way, his wisdom fails him, and he says to every one that he is a fool.
4 If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, leave not your place; for yielding pacifies great offenses.
5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error [shgagah – ignorance] which proceeds from the ruler:
6 Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich [those possessing God’s wisdom] sit in low place.
7 I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
8 He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaks an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
9 Whoso removes stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaves wood shall be endangered thereby. [These last two verses are speaking of the worthless and counterproductive works of ignorant men.]
10 If the iron be blunt, and he does not whet [sharpen] the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness [strong delusion and insanity, denying reality].
14 A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
15 The labor of the foolish wearies every one of them, because he knows not how to go to the city. [Psalm 127: “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”]
16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning!
17 Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
18 By much slothfulness the building decays; and through idleness of the hands the house drops through.
19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry: but money answers all things.
20 Curse not the king, no not in your thought; and curse not the rich in your bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which has wings shall tell the matter.

Leviticus 4
1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance [shgagah] against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.
4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.
5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock’s blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation:
6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary.
7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Leviticus 4
22 When a ruler has sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance [shgagah] against any of the commandments of the LORD his God concerning things which should not be done, and is guilty;
23 Or if his sin, wherein he has sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:
24 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it is a sin offering.
25 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering.

We know from Habakkuk 3:4, the brightness of the LORD’s light is His understanding shining as rays of light from His hand, meaning this written word, which is His manner. The horns, the rays of light coming from His hand, is the blood spoken of in Leviticus 4 above, His word written with the finger of God, given to us to be given.

Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Habakkuk 3
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
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 [the Theophany – the manifestation of God, according to the scriptures, as in John 14:23], and the Holy One from mount Paran [giving us understanding]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light [understanding]; he had horns [rays of light] coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
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 [darkness – ignorance] in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian [strife – endless argument] did tremble.
8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was your wrath against the sea, that you did ride upon thine 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 stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine 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 thine 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 thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered 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.

1 Corinthians 15
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand;
2 By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
24 Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he has put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Psalms 147
1 Praise you the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
2 The LORD does build up Jerusalem: he gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
4 He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names.
5 Great is our LORD, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6 The LORD lifts up the meek: he casts the wicked down to the ground.
7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
8 Who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow upon the mountains.
9 He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
10 He delights not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.
13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends forth his commandment upon earth: his word runs very swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool: he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them: he causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19 He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20 He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise you the LORD.

O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

Today the LORD shows us the bigger picture, the pattern, the wheel within a wheel, regarding foreign and domestic enemies joining against God’s people, as God’s threshing, removing the chaff from the wheat. In the previous post, we saw the title, Isaiah 21:10, saying, “O my threshing [opening the word, referring us to Isaiah 28, and destroying the gates of hell], and the corn [ben – sons] of my [threshing] floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.”

As we have seen, the gates of hell, what holds God’s people therein, is the corrupted words of the enemies among us, advising and teaching what is perverted and misleading. As we know, Immanuel is God coming into the state of confusion created by these men’s lies and deceptions. His manner is teaching, giving understanding as light shining into darkness showing His people the way out of the destruction these enemies have planned for us and our nation. In doing so He separates us from the misleading advice and teaching of the tares, whose end is to burn up in the fires their own ways (stoicheion – elements, rudiments) have created. This is what is spoken of as Isaiah 28 ends telling of this threshing occurring by the LORD’s rod, understood by His enlightening, precept upon precept, line upon line.

In Isaiah 8 we are told of the Syrian (whose rulers exalted themselves above God {China in type}) joining with Israel (God’s people who’ve become idol worshipers, as if Gentiles by not knowing Him), against Judah (God’s elect remnant, who are themselves in need of reformation, by God’s teaching, to which they listen and learn). In Isaiah 9 we are told of the manner, which is the LORD coming as a warrior into the confusion and chaos of the battle, and those who’ve listened, upon whom the light has shined, are called Israel, meaning they will rule and reign with God reigning in them and through them. The threshing instruments are the enemies themselves, whose followers will be blessed in the destruction of their oppressors and the removal of the yoke they’ve put upon them.

Isaiah 9
1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. [This verse is speaking of the vexation, the agitation of the sea, the masses who’ve been blind, unable to understand, and have been thereby carried into death, which is apparent by their inability to understand the pattern, the reality, they are shown. What follows tells of ending the vexation, and calming, stilling, the waters by giving understanding.]
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian [referring to Judges 7:15 thru 25 – see below].
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
8 The LORD sent a word into Jacob [those not knowing they are wrestling {warring} with God], and it has lighted upon Israel [given understanding, by which they will rule and reign with God].
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim [upon whom this second {double rainbow} blessing has come] and the inhabitant of Samaria [those who have become idol worshippers and ignorant of it and of God], that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. [those who are trying to rebuild {revive} without following the LORD’s leading and advice. They forget, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.” Psalms 127:1]
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians [those who exalt themselves above God] before, and the Philistines [illegal immigrants] behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth [by their words and ways]. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people [of GOD] turn not unto him [the enemies] that smites them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts [of the armies of heaven].
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honorable [their leaders and teachers who’ve led them into confusion], he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail [his ways are what bring this end – total ignorance of the LORD’s presence].
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns as the fire [this couldn’t be simpler to understand, but for the people being blinded by the gods of this age]: it shall devour the briers and thorns [those that have risen up into leadership positions – Isaiah 34:8 thru 13, “8 For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness {tohuw bohuw – without form, and void}. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be a habitation of dragons {gaping open mouths, from where comes death and the devouring of prey}, and a court for owls.”], and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
21 Manasseh, Ephraim [those who have forgotten God devouring this blessing]; and Ephraim, Manasseh [and this blessing devouring those who have forgotten God]: and they together shall be against Judah [against God’s elect remnant, upon whom the blessing has lighted]. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Judges 7
15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.
18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.
23 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.
24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.
25 And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.

Friends, as we know, the last point in Isaiah 28, when the LORD says His hand is stretched out still, it is referring to the harpazo, which the false prophets have perverted into the false doctrine of the rapture. This is why God’s people have no idea He has come to revive them, to awaken them so they will take His hand. As we know, the harpazo is His pulling us from the fires, out of the air of this age, which is the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, and blinded the minds of the lost. They should fear, because those who lead them are the ignorant and unlearned who wrestle with God and His word, to their own destruction [apoleia – perdition]. I advise them, and all, to take His hand and be pulled from the fires, and quickened from death into life.

Jude
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only LORD God, and our LORD Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the LORD, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The LORD rebuke you.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speak great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
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 [they should fear – but because of their teaching they are ignorant of the fact they should fear for their very souls], pulling [harpazo] them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh [see verse 12 above, which tell us it is these men’s teaching, their air, their winds of false doctrine that carries people into death].
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.

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Ephesians 2
1 And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)
6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the LORD:
22 In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

Isaiah 8
1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take you a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz [haste to the spoil and quick to the prey; this is telling of being quickened, brought to life from the dead, away from their corrupt teaching and ways, back to God].
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah [Jehovah is my light {understanding}] the priest, and Zechariah [who Jehovah has remembered] the son of Jeberechiah [who Jehovah has blessed].
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father [the knowledge of God], and my mother [the wisdom of God], the riches of Damascus [where the work has become silenced] and the spoil of Samaria [the watchtower that has been corrupted by replacing God with idols] shall be taken away before the king of Assyria [communists – declined by steps – progressive degrees].
5 The LORD spoke also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuse the waters of Shiloah [the word sent from God] that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin [those they desired – in whose words they have chosen to trust] and Remaliah’s son [Pekah – opened these gates of the self-destruction of God’s people];
7 Now therefore, behold, the LORD brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria [the communists – and the degenerate advice that produces after its own kind, ignorance, confusion, and chaos], and all his glory: and he shall come up [swelled with pride in his words that carry death to the masses] over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah [the leaders of God’s people]; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel [into this state and to combat death, God sends His word, to manifest His presence and glory to His children who will receive Him].
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary [a haven]; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. [who have both corrupted themselves with abominations]
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits [spirit of the dead, producing after their own kind], and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter [those using their words to manipulate and deceive others into not listening to God]: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they be looking] for the living [life] to the dead [whose advice is death]?
20 [Shouldn’t they be looking] To the law and to the testimony[?]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry [because they are listening to what can never satisfy the need they have, which is for the ideas and ways of peace and civilization]: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [even deeper ignorance – following the advice that has brought death upon them].

Isaiah 28
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail [see Gibeon in verse 21 below] and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing [see Perazim in Verse 21 below], shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with 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.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [the LORD has broken forth upon the enemies as a breaking of great waters {His word}], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [when He sent great hailstones upon the enemy, His water {word} frozen in heaven, reserved there to be released in this moment of war], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption [kalah], even determined [charats] upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

Psalms 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Psalms 147
1 Praise you the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
2 The LORD does build up Jerusalem: he gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
4 He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names.
5 Great is our LORD, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6 The LORD lifts up the meek: he casts the wicked down to the ground.
7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
8 Who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow upon the mountains.
9 He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
10 He delights not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.
13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends forth his commandment upon earth: his word runs very swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool: he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them: he causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19 He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20 He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise you the LORD.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods He has broken unto the ground.

The above, from Isaiah 21:9, a chapter like most, is describing events past in a manner to be understood now, to educate us to the signs of the time (what we are seeing but without comprehension). The title tells of what the watchman saw, came to understand, after he saw the LORD, as a Lion.

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

Isaiah 22
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in you are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the LORD God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam bare the quiver [The LORD’s arrows are held in His word] with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir [darkness] uncovered the shield.
7 And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And he discovered the covering [which held the elect {and all God’s people} down in darkness] of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool [the word of God without comprehending its meaning].
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall [see verse 5 above and Isaiah 30:13 and 64:2, the other two times ba’ah appears, first telling of the wall ready to fall and then of the waters brought to a boil].
11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago [the LORD, who put the waters, His word, here long ago, in ancient times – stored here to be release {as in Perazim and Gibeon} upon His enemies, who are sitting in His place and judging unjustly, by their abomination which have caused the darkness and desolation].
12 And in that day did the LORD God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die [which is speaking of the idol worship that has replaced the LORD – all the church denominations and sects], says the LORD God of hosts.
15 Thus says the LORD God of hosts, Go, get you unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna [even to those who have a zeal for the LORD, but not according to knowledge], which is over the house, and say,
16 What have you here? and whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here [places where the dead are housed], as he that hews him out a sepulcher on high, and that graves an habitation for himself in a rock [the false rock, in which all God’s people {except the very elect remnant who have fled from the abominations} put their trust]?
17 Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your LORD’s house.
19 And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim [who God’s has raised – from among the dead] the son of Hilkiah [whose inheritance is Jehovah – he is the priest who, about a hundred years later in the time of Jeremiah, found the book, wherein, as now, the desolation of God’s peoples is foretold, and by this ancient word understood, we understand the planned restoration of truth]:
21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
25 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden [the burdens spoken of in the previous chapter, the burdens of ignorance come from a loss of vision] that was upon it [what has caused the offences – skandalon] shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.

Friends, this is the story, the plan that has now unfolded before our eyes and the eyes of the world. It is the good news that the Father has sent the Son (His children). The only sorrow is that men choose darkness, choose the evil and refuse the good, because their deeds are evil. The good news even for them, until they perish (apoleia) there is still time to cast away their corrupt thinking, close their mouths, become as little children willing to listen, and learn. This last point is the only way to cross from hell into heaven, from death into life, and it begins with ending the ignorance about life and death. Life is awareness, knowing it is more than the moment. Death is ignorance, even of death itself.

2 Corinthians 5
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror [phobos – the fear] of the LORD, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences [suneidesis – co-perception, referring to their mind joined {reconciled} with God’s mind].
12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf [perceiving Christ is in us doing the work], that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance [the body], and not in heart [the mind of Christ they perceive in us].
13 For whether we be beside ourselves [existemi – stand away, {insane} in a state of ignorance of reality {away from God and his understanding}], it is to God: or whether we be sober [sophroneo – sound mind {sane}, able to understand reality], it is for your cause.
14 For the love of Christ constrains us [sunecho – hold us together, binds us to Christ, reconciles us to God]; because we thus judge [rightly understanding and declair], that if one died for all, then were all dead [all were ignorant of God and the fuller reality only realized when our minds are reconciled with His – Ephesians 2:1 thru 9: And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.]:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again [which has now again become apparent to our mind reconciled to God and quickened to life].
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit [hos – in this manner], that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for [huper – for the very sake of His acting in us and through us] Christ, as though [hos – in this manner] God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead [huper – yielding ourselves for Christ’s sake, so He can act through us, from in us], be you reconciled to God.
21 For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Here following are some of the Scriptures referenced above.

Revelation 3
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans [the people at the judgment seat of Christ] write; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God [the new creation spoken of above in 2 Corinthians 5:17];
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you wert cold or hot.
16 So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
17 Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that over-comes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.

Jeremiah 49
4 Wherefore glory you in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?
5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon you, says the LORD God of hosts, from all those that be about you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wanders.
6 And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, says the LORD.
7 Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
8 Flee you, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.
9 If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places [see Obadiah verse 6 below], and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not.
11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.
12 For thus says the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and are you he that shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.
13 For I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that Bozrah [the one flock] shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.
14 I have heard a rumor from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
15 For, lo, I will make you small among the heathen, and despised among men.
16 Your terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, that holds the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence, says the LORD.
17 Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished [surprised by their own ignorance], and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion [of Judah] from the swelling of Jordan [the pride of the dead] against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out [I am]: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.
22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah [the entire flock]: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
23 Concerning Damascus [the place where God’s work has been silenced]. Hamath [their walled fortress in which they trust] is confounded [shown to be ignorant], and Arpad [they shall be spread upon my threshing floor]: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet [from the voices causing its agitation].
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turns herself to flee, and fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad [the children of the false god they have created].
28 Concerning Kedar [darkness], and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor [their palaces], which Nebuchadrezzar [the lies of the false prophets, which are the abominations that have caused the total desolation of God’s people – of which they are ignorant] king of Babylon [the confusion that rule over all the world – of which they are also ignorant] shall smite, thus says the LORD; Arise you, go up to Kedar [the darkness], and spoil the men of the east.
29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.
30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O you inhabitants of Hazor [their seats of wicked power], says the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.
31 Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwells without care, says the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.
32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, says the LORD.
33 And Hazor [their high places of spiritual wickedness] shall be a dwelling for dragons [crocodile, serpent, or whale, all with large mouths to consume their prey – death in their words], and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam [those who have removed the ancient landmarks – and hold God’s word in their corruption] in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah [the righteousness of Jehovah] king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, say the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed [kalah] them:
38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, says the LORD.
39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says the LORD.

Isaiah 30
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling [ba’ah] out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus says the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.
16 But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Isaiah 35
1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
3 Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out [as in Perazim], and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing [‘anachah] shall flee away.

Isaiah 51
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning [‘anachah] shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comfort you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forget the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD your God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, You are my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your LORD the LORD, and your God that pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
2 As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil [ba’ah], to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for [because we have become ignorant of your ways], you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him.
5 You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways: behold, you are wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance [knowing your ways], and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.

Obadiah
6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up [ba’ah]!
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, shall be dismayed [be ignorant], to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

21 And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

Psalms 131
1 LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
3 Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.