Word XP

The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD has forsaken the earth, and the LORD sees not.

(Today’s revelation is a culmination point, only understood if you’ve read along and acquired the knowledge needed to see the LORD and hear Him speaking.)

The title verse is from Ezekiel 9:9, a chapter which was discussed in the prior post. It begins with the LORD, through the son of man, Ezekiel, as the writer and one of the prophets, his name meaning the strength of God (returning), speaking to Judah. The time is when Judah had become fully immersed in idolatry, and Jerusalem is under almost constant foreign attack. He is speaking a final warning to the house of Judah, calling them to understand the evil (ra’) that is the underlying cause of their troubles, which is partially described in the title verse. As we saw in the prior post, the men he is warning are totally ignorant that it is the LORD speaking, warning them through Ezekiel.

This takes us to the prior chapter, wherein we are told of Ezekiel receiving his understanding, through the means of the wheel within the wheel, which he has earlier described. As we have discussed in previous posts, Ezekiel description of the wheel within a wheel is speaking of a time within a time, the written record given by an earlier inspired writer and passed on into the future. There it is read, and the pattern is understood. In understanding, the providential hand of God is seen at work, His voice and His presence are understood as what is ultimately revealed to those who believe the report and receive it as the mark in their forehead. Those who reject it are the ignorant and blind spoken of in the title verse, which is a repetition of the pattern Ezekiel sees and identically describes in Ezekiel 8:12.

Here is what Ezekiel sees and describes in Chapter 8. He is seeing the house of Israel’s ending, from the perspective of after it has happened, which is coincidentally approximately 1290 years after the birth of Isaac, and into Abram’s deep sleep. We have, in several previous discussions, seen the pertinence of these this time, and times, and the associated events.

Ezekiel was almost certainly reading Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and Nahum; all writing during Israel’s downfall and carrying into captivity (see 2 Kings 18:10 & 11). Abraham’s sleep began in 1897 BC, Isaac was born in 1896 BC, and Israel falls in 611 BC. Hosea’s writing ends with the fall of Israel in 611 BC, the others see the end, and Isaiah seemingly writing of it in Isaiah 34, in the context of confusion and emptiness. Isaiah 36:1 gives us its time as the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, which makes it 603 BC. (Coincidentally – 1290 years after Isaac’s birth and Abram’s sleep would fall during the time between the fall of Israel and the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib king of Assyria. See 2 Kings 18:13)

We can speculate that Isaiah’s writing is what warned and caused Hezekiah’s repentance, for which he and Judah were given additional time, before the eventual fall (477 BC) of Judah and Jerusalem, after they reject the warnings of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 8 
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the LORD God fell there upon me.
2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber.
3 And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looks toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north [toward Israel and her capital Samaria]. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy [the calves set in God’s place] in the entry.
6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, see you what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here [the calves then replaced with Baal], that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn you yet again, and you shalt see greater abominations.
7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.
11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah [those who Jehovah hears] the son of Shaphan [who think they’re hidden from the LORD], with every man his censer in his hand [the strange fire]; and a thick cloud of incense went up [and the LORD saw every bit of their wickedness].
12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, have you seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark [in blind ignorance], every man in the chambers of his imagery [every man with his own ideas]? for they say, the LORD sees us not; the LORD has forsaken the earth. [later quoted in warning Judah, in chapter 9]
13 He said also unto me, Turn you yet again, and you shalt see greater abominations that they do.
14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz [longing to join the dead].
15 Then said he unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? turn you yet again, and you shalt see greater abominations than these.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. [See Jonah 2:4 & 7 – they look to the advice of strange gods of the east – Babylon]
17 Then he said unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah [seeing what has happened to Israel] that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shalt not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

In verse 4 above, Ezekiel says the vison is as he saw in the plain, where he also saw the glory of the LORD. This is the plain he speaks of in Ezekiel 3:22 & 23, where he saw the glory by the river Chebar, and when Spirit of God entered into him and spoke to him. Earlier in the chapter, the son of man, Ezekiel, is told to eat the roll (the volume of the book) he finds. We know from our discussions, the river Chebar is the river that carries God’s word through eternity, and here we are shown it is the written word of God. After Ezekiel eats, reads and is given understand by the LORD’s Spirit in him, he is then sent to speak the word of God to His people.

Ezekiel 3 
1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that you find; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this roll that I give you. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words you canst not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have hearkened unto you.
7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shalt speak unto you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
11 And go, get you to them of the captivity, unto the children of your people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus says the LORD God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.
13 I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.
14 So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib [where the people were rising in the new birth], that dwelt by the river of Chebar [by the word of God], and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
18 When I said unto the wicked, You shalt surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way [which is the warning spoken of above], to save his life; the same wicked man shalt die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shalt die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shalt die: because you have not given him warning, he shalt die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shalt not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shalt surely live, because he is warned; also you have delivered your soul.
22 And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you.
23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.
24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me, and said unto me, Go, shut yourself within your house.
25 But you, O son of man, behold, they shalt put bands upon you, and shalt bind you with them, and you shalt not go out among them:
26 And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shalt say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; He that hears, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

As we have seen, these men who willingly sacrifice themselves to speak God’s word, to give warning by an accurate assessment of the fallen condition and to correct into right standing, are representations of the sacrifice the LORD desires of us – of which Christ is our perfect example.

Hebrews 1 
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shalt be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he brings in the first-begotten into the world, he says, And let all the angels of God worship him.
7 And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But unto the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
10 And, You, LORD, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands:
11 They shalt perish; but you remains; and they all shalt wax old as does a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt you fold them up, and they shalt be changed: but you are the same, and your years shalt not fail.
13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shalt be heirs of salvation?

John 1 
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
18 No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

Hebrews 10 
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do your will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 And having a high priest over the house of God;
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
26 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shalt devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shalt he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense, says the LORD. And again, The LORD shalt judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions;
33 Partly, whilst you were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst you became companions of them that were so used.
34 For you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.
36 For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shalt come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shalt live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shalt have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

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

And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then You showed me their doings.

The title is Jeremiah 11:18 and is Jeremiah telling of the LORD letting him know the evil (ra’) being done by His people, and of the evil (ra’) they are plotting against Jeremiah (against Jehovah rising, in an attempt to thwart His raising up His Nation).

Jeremiah 11

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,2 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;3 And say you unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant,4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice [the essence of the Covenant, new and old – as we are told of Abram in Genesis 15:6, saying, “he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”], and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.6 Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil [ra’] heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.9 And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.11 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil [ra’] upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble [ra’].13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble [ra’].15 What has my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil [ra’], then you rejoice.16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted you, has pronounced evil [ra’] against you, for the evil [ra’] of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showed me their doings.19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judges righteously, that tries the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I revealed my cause.21 Therefore thus says the LORD of the men of Anathoth [praying for the LORD to answer], that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand:22 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword [by refusing to hear the word of God]; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine [the self-inflicted famine of not hearing the word of God]:23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil [ra’] upon the men of Anathoth [those asking the LORD to answer their prayers, which they are ignorantly praying against Him], even the year of their visitation.

The idea above is that these men who are choosing to remain in their evil, who are refusing to believe the LORD, are rejecting His voice, and thereby are continuing on the path taking them into the consequences of their own evil. Instead of repenting, reconsidering their own understanding so they would be healed (be able to see His presence, and hear His voice), they with feigned humility and prayers contradicting Him, are ignorantly asking Him to stop His own voice. They are praying He would save them from His saving them.

The “visitation” spoken of in verse 23 above is the Hebrew word peqaddah, from the word paqad. In these words, we understand it is speaking of one sent (come) to assess the condition and to give a correct accounting. The word is precisely used in this context in Ezekiel 9:1, where it is rendered “cause them to have charge.” There it is speaking of six men, all with weapons of slaughter in their hands. These represent the six halves of the sacrifice spoken of in Genesis 15:9, prophets whose weapon is the same sword, the word of God they have written, we saw above in Jeremiah 11:22. They represent all the prophets who have been slain for the word of God, for giving their testimony as the LORD sent it by them.

Ezekiel 9 speaks of the man sent to mark those who have seen the abomination corrupting God’s people, and have sighed. The mark is in the heads, forefront of the minds, of those who come to understanding. I am the writer the LORD has sent, and through me He has healed the eyes and ears of those who’ve believed our report. He has, by my hand, brought all the sacrifices of all those He has sent before me, together on this other side, into one coherent message, the gospel of His salvation.

Ezekiel 9

The only problem 1 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge [pequddah] over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lies toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go you after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have you pity:6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go you forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah LORD God! will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your fury upon Jerusalem?9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD has forsaken the earth, and the LORD sees not.10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.11 And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as you have commanded me. [Amen!]

In the above, we see allusions to Daniel 12, which we have recently discussed in this context. There we are told of the time of passing between the sacrifices as the river where the same men in fine linen are seen. Daniel is told of it as the time during which the word of God would be sealed, and he is told it’s opened at this ending. These times are the beginning and end of Abraham’s deep sleep, which we have seen described in Genesis 15.

Ezekiel only uses the word pequddah one other time, also in telling of the time of this opening, when the east gate is opened again, for the LORD to enter. There we are told it has been closed since He left by it (according to the scriptures), which tells of the long sleep of God’s people – when their minds where closed by the corrupt teaching of the men who’ve led them away from His light into darkness (from understanding into ignorance).

Pequddah is rendered “charge” in Ezekiel 44:11, where we are told of the priesthood, which had strayed away from God and went after idols, who will in this ending again have charge at the gate of the house. It is in their hand to lead their own people out of darkness, by repenting. Daniel’s prayer of repentance in Daniel 9 should be their song. They need to be the witnesses to exactly what has happened here. The LORD is present and has made Himself apparent for the salvation of His people. Behold the glory of the LORD God Almighty!

Ezekiel 44

1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looks toward the east; and it was shut.2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say unto you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.6 And you shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the LORD God; O you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,7 In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.8 And you have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.9 Thus said the LORD God; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge [peqaddah] at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, says the LORD God, and they shall bear their iniquity.13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok [righteousness], that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, says the LORD God: 16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. [clothed in fine linen, righteousness, again – as they were on the other side, before they went astray.]18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causes sweat.19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my Sabbaths.25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves.26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.27 And in the day that he goes into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the LORD God.28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.29 They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering: and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.30 And the first of all the first-fruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest’s: you shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in your house.31 The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.

Do you understand Daniel 9? If not, it is because of your own abominations, the idols you have created or worship, have blinded your eyes to His presence and closed your ears to His voice.

Matthew 23

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 Zechariah 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 kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!38 Behold, your house 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.

Daniel 9

1 In the first year of Darius [the seed of David – through Esther, the hidden star – the sun at night] the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.3 And I set my face unto the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O LORD, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and from your judgments:6 Neither have we hearkened unto your servants the prophets, which spake in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.7 O LORD, righteousness belongs unto you, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.8 O LORD, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.9 To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him;10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed your law, even by departing, that they might not obey your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.12 And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem.13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand your truth.14 Therefore has the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does: for we obeyed not his voice.15 And now, O LORD our God, that have brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten you renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.16 O LORD, according to all your righteousness, I beseech you, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all that are about us.17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolate, for the LORD’s sake.18 O my God, incline your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our supplications before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies.19 O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken and do; defer not, for your own sake, O my God: for your city and your people are called by your name.20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding.23 At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.24 Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Psalms 91

1 He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.3 Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.4 He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you trust: his truth shall be your shield and buckler.5 You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.7 A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.8 Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.9 Because you have made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation;10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling.11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.12 They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet.14 Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name.15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.16 With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

Are the Minority of Larger States Constitutionally Authorized to Abandon Republicanism, to Rule over the Majority of States?

If they do, they have abandoned the Constitution and have thereby nullified it. In examining this question, I must now revise a previous statement: I am not only a Nationalist, but I am also a Federalist. In the truest definition, being a Nationalist only means you advocate the elimination of the States’ authority in matters not granted to the Federal Government. The Federalist recognizes the States’ authority and yields, not assuming power not granted to the Federal Government. In other words, the Nationalist (only) reduces us to an Absolute democracy – which as James Madison said, “have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” Federalist #10

Before going on we must remember the principle that tells us the lawless do not care what any laws say. They will twist their interpretation, just as they have twisted even observable reality, and have with intention destroyed all truthful discourse. They will not be swayed by reason; nor will they recognize any truth that contradicts their distorted perception. They have entered the dimension of the insane and deluded, choosing a world that only exists in their darkened and blinded minds. They have no idea where they’re being led, neither do they understand what/who is leading them, nor do they care. Don’t expect them to change – they have been chained to (reserved therein) their own darkness, intentionally; as is the plan.

Posted here following, addressing this topic of Republican Principles, is James Madison again writing as Publius, Federalist #39, titled, The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles.

To the People of the State of New York:

THE last paper having concluded the observations which were meant to introduce a candid survey of the plan of government reported by the convention, we now proceed to the execution of that part of our undertaking. The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government. If the plan of the convention, therefore, be found to depart from the republican character, its advocates must abandon it as no longer defensible.

What, then, are the distinctive characters of the republican form? Were an answer to this question to be sought, not by recurring to principles, but in the application of the term by political writers, to the constitution of different States, no satisfactory one would ever be found. Holland, in which no particle of the supreme authority is derived from the people, has passed almost universally under the denomination of a republic. The same title has been bestowed on Venice, where absolute power over the great body of the people is exercised, in the most absolute manner, by a small body of hereditary nobles. Poland, which is a mixture of aristocracy and of monarchy in their worst forms, has been dignified with the same appellation. The government of England, which has one republican branch only, combined with an hereditary aristocracy and monarchy, has, with equal impropriety, been frequently placed on the list of republics. These examples, which are nearly as dissimilar to each other as to a genuine republic, show the extreme inaccuracy with which the term has been used in political disquisitions.

If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior. It is ESSENTIAL to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic. It is SUFFICIENT for such a government that the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just specified; otherwise every government in the United States, as well as every other popular government that has been or can be well organized or well executed, would be degraded from the republican character. According to the constitution of every State in the Union, some or other of the officers of government are appointed indirectly only by the people. According to most of them, the chief magistrate himself is so appointed. And according to one, this mode of appointment is extended to one of the co-ordinate branches of the legislature. According to all the constitutions, also, the tenure of the highest offices is extended to a definite period, and in many instances, both within the legislative and executive departments, to a period of years. According to the provisions of most of the constitutions, again, as well as according to the most respectable and received opinions on the subject, the members of the judiciary department are to retain their offices by the firm tenure of good behavior.

On comparing the Constitution planned by the convention with the standard here fixed, we perceive at once that it is, in the most rigid sense, conformable to it. The House of Representatives, like that of one branch at least of all the State legislatures, is elected immediately by the great body of the people. The Senate, like the present Congress, and the Senate of Maryland, derives its appointment indirectly from the people. The President is indirectly derived from the choice of the people, according to the example in most of the States. Even the judges, with all other officers of the Union, will, as in the several States, be the choice, though a remote choice, of the people themselves, the duration of the appointments is equally conformable to the republican standard, and to the model of State constitutions The House of Representatives is periodically elective, as in all the States; and for the period of two years, as in the State of South Carolina. The Senate is elective, for the period of six years; which is but one year more than the period of the Senate of Maryland, and but two more than that of the Senates of New York and Virginia. The President is to continue in office for the period of four years; as in New York and Delaware, the chief magistrate is elected for three years, and in South Carolina for two years. In the other States the election is annual. In several of the States, however, no constitutional provision is made for the impeachment of the chief magistrate. And in Delaware and Virginia he is not impeachable till out of office. The President of the United States is impeachable at any time during his continuance in office. The tenure by which the judges are to hold their places, is, as it unquestionably ought to be, that of good behavior. The tenure of the ministerial offices generally, will be a subject of legal regulation, conformably to the reason of the case and the example of the State constitutions.

Could any further proof be required of the republican complexion of this system, the most decisive one might be found in its absolute prohibition of titles of nobility, both under the federal and the State governments; and in its express guaranty of the republican form to each of the latter.

“But it was not sufficient,” say the adversaries of the proposed Constitution, “for the convention to adhere to the republican form. They ought, with equal care, to have preserved the FEDERAL form, which regards the Union as a CONFEDERACY of sovereign states; instead of which, they have framed a NATIONAL government, which regards the Union as a CONSOLIDATION of the States.” And it is asked by what authority this bold and radical innovation was undertaken? The handle which has been made of this objection requires that it should be examined with some precision.

Without inquiring into the accuracy of the distinction on which the objection is founded, it will be necessary to a just estimate of its force, first, to ascertain the real character of the government in question; secondly, to inquire how far the convention were authorized to propose such a government; and thirdly, how far the duty they owed to their country could supply any defect of regular authority.

First. In order to ascertain the real character of the government, it may be considered in relation to the foundation on which it is to be established; to the sources from which its ordinary powers are to be drawn; to the operation of those powers; to the extent of them; and to the authority by which future changes in the government are to be introduced.

On examining the first relation, it appears, on one hand, that the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification of the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore, establishing the Constitution, will not be a NATIONAL, but a FEDERAL act.

That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these terms are understood by the objectors; the act of the people, as forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate nation, is obvious from this single consideration, that it is to result neither from the decision of a MAJORITY of the people of the Union, nor from that of a MAJORITY of the States. It must result from the UNANIMOUS assent of the several States that are parties to it, differing no otherwise from their ordinary assent than in its being expressed, not by the legislative authority, but by that of the people themselves. Were the people regarded in this transaction as forming one nation, the will of the majority of the whole people of the United States would bind the minority, in the same manner as the majority in each State must bind the minority; and the will of the majority must be determined either by a comparison of the individual votes, or by considering the will of the majority of the States as evidence of the will of a majority of the people of the United States. Neither of these rules have been adopted. Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution.

The next relation is, to the sources from which the ordinary powers of government are to be derived. The House of Representatives will derive its powers from the people of America; and the people will be represented in the same proportion, and on the same principle, as they are in the legislature of a particular State. So far the government is NATIONAL, not FEDERAL. The Senate, on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as political and coequal societies; and these will be represented on the principle of equality in the Senate, as they now are in the existing Congress. So far the government is FEDERAL, not NATIONAL. The executive power will be derived from a very compound source. The immediate election of the President is to be made by the States in their political characters. The votes allotted to them are in a compound ratio, which considers them partly as distinct and coequal societies, partly as unequal members of the same society. The eventual election, again, is to be made by that branch of the legislature which consists of the national representatives; but in this particular act they are to be thrown into the form of individual delegations, from so many distinct and coequal bodies politic. From this aspect of the government it appears to be of a mixed character, presenting at least as many FEDERAL as NATIONAL features.

The difference between a federal and national government, as it relates to the OPERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, is supposed to consist in this, that in the former the powers operate on the political bodies composing the Confederacy, in their political capacities; in the latter, on the individual citizens composing the nation, in their individual capacities. On trying the Constitution by this criterion, it falls under the NATIONAL, not the FEDERAL character; though perhaps not so completely as has been understood. In several cases, and particularly in the trial of controversies to which States may be parties, they must be viewed and proceeded against in their collective and political capacities only. So far the national countenance of the government on this side seems to be disfigured by a few federal features. But this blemish is perhaps unavoidable in any plan; and the operation of the government on the people, in their individual capacities, in its ordinary and most essential proceedings, may, on the whole, designate it, in this relation, a NATIONAL government.

But if the government be national with regard to the OPERATION of its powers, it changes its aspect again when we contemplate it in relation to the EXTENT of its powers. The idea of a national government involves in it, not only an authority over the individual citizens, but an indefinite supremacy over all persons and things, so far as they are objects of lawful government. Among a people consolidated into one nation, this supremacy is completely vested in the national legislature. Among communities united for particular purposes, it is vested partly in the general and partly in the municipal legislatures. In the former case, all local authorities are subordinate to the supreme; and may be controlled, directed, or abolished by it at pleasure. In the latter, the local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority, than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere. In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot be deemed a NATIONAL one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects. It is true that in controversies relating to the boundary between the two jurisdictions, the tribunal which is ultimately to decide, is to be established under the general government. But this does not change the principle of the case. The decision is to be impartially made, according to the rules of the Constitution; and all the usual and most effectual precautions are taken to secure this impartiality. Some such tribunal is clearly essential to prevent an appeal to the sword and a dissolution of the compact; and that it ought to be established under the general rather than under the local governments, or, to speak more properly, that it could be safely established under the first alone, is a position not likely to be combated.

If we try the Constitution by its last relation to the authority by which amendments are to be made, we find it neither wholly NATIONAL nor wholly FEDERAL. Were it wholly national, the supreme and ultimate authority would reside in the MAJORITY of the people of the Union; and this authority would be competent at all times, like that of a majority of every national society, to alter or abolish its established government. Were it wholly federal, on the other hand, the concurrence of each State in the Union would be essential to every alteration that would be binding on all. The mode provided by the plan of the convention is not founded on either of these principles. In requiring more than a majority, and principles. In requiring more than a majority, and particularly in computing the proportion by STATES, not by CITIZENS, it departs from the NATIONAL and advances towards the FEDERAL character; in rendering the concurrence of less than the whole number of States sufficient, it loses again the FEDERAL and partakes of the NATIONAL character.

The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both. In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the government are drawn, it is partly federal and partly national; in the operation of these powers, it is national, not federal; in the extent of them, again, it is federal, not national; and, finally, in the authoritative mode of introducing amendments, it is neither wholly federal nor wholly national.

PUBLIUS.

Psalms 44

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

Psalms 45

1 My heart is inditing [My reasoning mind is overflowing with] a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.2 You are fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into your lips: therefore God has blessed you for ever.3 Gird your sword upon your thigh, O Most Mighty, with your glory and your majesty.4 And in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and your right hand shall teach you terrible things.5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under you.6 Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of your kingdom is a right scepter.7 You love righteousness, and hate wickedness: therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.8 All your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made you glad.9 Kings’ daughters were among your honorable women: upon your right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father’s house;11 So shall the king greatly desire your beauty: for he is your LORD; and worship you him.12 And the daughter of Tyre [those who have trusted in the false teaching and leading of the darkness, and held there in bondage] shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat your favor.13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto you.15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.16 Instead of your fathers shall be your children, whom you may make princes in all the earth.17 I will make your name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise you for ever and ever.

Psalms 46

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he has made in the earth.9 He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder; he burns the chariot in the fire.10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

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.

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.

The opening verse is Daniel 12:10, which is saying, if our minds have been purified from the corruption that has poisoned the minds of all men, and we instead follow the LORD, He leads us into understanding. The point made is that all men have been corrupted, all are therefore in need of repenting, and without repentance, there can be no understanding.

Now is the time of repentance, not feigned humility or contradictory prayers, which are merely continued rebellion perpetuating corruption.

Here is understanding for the pure in heart. (“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8) Daniel 12 defines this time, first giving us the formula, and then the years as days. He tells us of a time, and the times, and a half, the last meaning this rightly dividing the word of God. The time is 1290 years, the times are 1290 plus 1335 years, the sum of these equaling 3915 years, which is time between Isaac’s birth and today. This is what Daniel 12 is describing, the time of the sleep (yashen) of God’s people.

Abram was one hundred years old when Isaac was born, which was the beginning of the fulfillment of the Covenant the LORD made with him the year before. This Covenant is recorded in Genesis 15 (and repeated in detail in Genesis 17), given as Abram falls into a deep sleep, and the horror of great darkness was upon him. Therein Genesis 15:6 we are told Abram (Abraham) “believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”

Genesis 15
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him [ignorance fell upon God’s people].
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites [those who exalt themselves above God] is not yet full.

This sleep is the river that is carrying all men to death, as we have discussed, and which is alluded to in Genesis 15, which coincides with Daniel 12. Daniel sees what is occurring on the two sides of this sleep, but even He is unable to fully understand it, the LORD reserving the revelation to Himself alone, to be released at this time, as we have seen spoken of by Peter and Jude.

2 Peter 3
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night [when the ignorant are blinded to Him by their corrupt ideas]; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [the ideas of these men who exalt themselves above God – who is an all-consuming fire] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works [all they’ve built upon a foundation of their own confusion] that are therein shall be burned up.

Jude
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 [exalting themselves above God], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling [harpazo – {not a} rapture] them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh [their covering of lying vanities].
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.

As we know, these same self-exalters, have twisted the LORD’s sending this revelation, to pull them from the fires they themselves have created, into a fictitious off the planet escape; in doing, and refusing to repent, condemning themselves to remain therein. (Jonah 2: 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.)

Daniel 12 
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up [He who is like God shall rise 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 [the time we saw in the prior post, in Jeremiah 30:7, which Daniel is referring to]: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
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.
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.
13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days.

The Hebrew word used above to tell of understanding is biyn, meaning to separate mentally. In Genesis 15 the sign of the Covenant is shown as separating (cutting apart) the sacrifice and passing between the pieces. It is speaking of understanding coming by perceiving the whole of the separated parts. This idea is as we have recently discussed, the word of God understood in consort, bringing together the ideas separated and given through many writers.

This understanding is what Isaiah 6:9 & 10 speaks of, which is what heals us, awakening us and giving us again sight and hearing.

Isaiah 6
8 Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you indeed, but understand [biyn] not; and see you indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand [biyn] with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, LORD, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them [as a tree whose life is in them, sleeping, through the long winter], when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

The LORD quotes the above in John 12:40, as he is describing those who have witnessed His works, His understanding as light with them, yet they remained unable to see Him. We know, Paul precisely describe this blindness in 2 Corinthians 4, saying it comes as minds are blinded by the gods of this world (those who sit in the judgment seats, in God’s place).

The Greek word the LORD uses in place of biyn, rendered understanding, is noieo, meaning to exercise the mind, to consider and perceive. The deeper importance is found when this word is compounded with meta, and rendered “REPENT,” meaning to reconsider what you think you understand. It is speaking of humbling yourselves, coming down from your self-exalted seats, and submitting to the higher power.

Luke 17 
1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. [This is spoken of the unrepentant – who refuse to be corrected.]
3 Take heed to yourselves: If your brother trespass against you, rebuke him; and if he repent [metanoeo], forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent [metanoeo]; you shall forgive him.
5 And the apostles said unto the LORD, Increase our faith.
6 And the LORD said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird yourself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward you shall eat and drink?
9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow [think] not.
10 So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. [Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.]

There is forgiveness for the repentant, but without repentance there is no purification, and lacking this, no man can see or hear God. (The unrepentant are the atopos – unreasonable men, unwilling to be moved by reason. See 2 Thessalonians 3:2)

Acts 17
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is LORD of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; [He dwells {lives} in human flesh, as do we, together with Him.]
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the LORD, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent [metanoeo – reconsider what you understand]:
31 Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by [I Am] that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.

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.

John 12
26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.
27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to him.
30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever: and how say you, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?
35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes.
36 While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38 That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, LORD, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again,
40 He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand [noieo] with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.
42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees [the gods of this world] they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Jesus cried and said, He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me.
45 And he that sees me sees him that sent me.
46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Psalms 14 
1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good.
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
6 You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

At the same time, says the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

The above is the first verse of Jeremiah 31, and “at the same time” is referring to what is pronounced in Chapter 30. There, the LORD commands Jeremiah to write in a book all the words He has spoken, for the days come when He will return the captivity of all His people and will cause them to return to the land He gave our forefathers. As we know, this speaks of the pattern of now, when the LORD’s presence has captivated our minds and freed us from captivity we were in. It comes by Him giving us the understanding that allows Him to, through us, lead all His people in the same way into possessing the land He has given us – This Nation under God.

Chapter 30 goes on tell us this is a time such as never before, the time of war, when God’s people are weak and tremble in fear, and in this state, a man brings forth a child. This historically unique event is after spoken of in Jeremiah 31:9 as when God’s people come with weeping, when He leads us with supplication, when He will cause us “to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

Nowhere else does the LORD call Ephraim His firstborn, and instead of it referring to the ten tribes of Israel, as it is supposed, it is referring us to Exodus 4:22. There is found the one other time the LORD speaks of His firstborn, here as all Israel who is in the captivity of Egypt. There we find the context of the “captivity” we have returned to, before the LORD comes to redeem us through His firstborn.

These ideas, when understood in consort, tell of what the LORD pronounced in Deuteronomy 18:15 thru 18, where we are told of the one the LORD will send in the pattern of Moses, who the people will hear. This pattern is further illuminated as we are first told, in Jeremiah 30:1, of the LORD telling Jeremiah to write His words, which are what brings the first-fruits to life, who the LORD calls Ephraim. Ephraim, as we know, means the second blessing, here alluding to Jeremiah as the pattern of the firstborn, the first blessing. As we have many times discussed, the translated name Jeremiah tells of Jehovah first rising in him, and through His leading in Jeremiah, raising many others with him. Thus, we have the time when a man (Jeremiah) brings forth a child (the elect remnant of Israel), as the LORD through Moses brought the firstborn out of captivity.

Jeremiah 31:31 thru 34, tells of this as the time when the LORD make the New Covenant with His people, not as the Covenant He made with us when He brought us out of Egypt. He tells us this is when, as now, He will put His law in our minds, and write them into our reasoning (heart). He says this is the time when men will not say “know the LORD,” because the LORD himself will be known by all, through His teaching and leading.

Just before we are told this, the LORD, in Jeremiah 31:29 tells of a saying heard among His people: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This is speaking of the old Covenant souring by the hand of those before us, and it distorting the words of the following generations as they pay the price for the sins of the fathers. It is spoken in the context of the LORD saying, that in the New Covenant every man will hear His teaching, and will, therefore, be responsible for their own response.

These ideas are spoken of in Hebrew 8, when they are, in verse 1, said to be reiterated, which itself is referring us to both Hebrews 1:2 & 12:25 thru 29; each telling of the LORD speaking through the firstborn. In Hebrews 8:5 we are told these are the pattern we hear and by which we build, as the LORD appears in the mediator He sends, teaching by the better Covenant, which leads us into the presence of God, by the revelation of Himself.

Hebrews 1

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

4 Being made so much better than the angels [messengers], as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Hebrews 12

22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels [messengers],

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:2

9 For our God is a consuming fire.

Again, read the chapters as prescribed. In them is the power that effectually works in us, God working to reveal Himself, His presence, and to Himself lead us into light and life.

Jeramiah 30 & 31, Ezekiel 18, and Hebrews 8 thru 10.

Psalm 78

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 And forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12 Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as a heap.

14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.

26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again.

40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan [the place where they departed from God].

44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies:

57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.

66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he has established for ever.

70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

The argument against killing an unborn person: a defense of the defenseless.

We begin with the Declaration of Independence: the fundamental premises therein precisely stated, upon which this nation was conceived (came into pre-birthed existence).

In the preamble, the Founding Fathers describe the state of existence in which all men are entitled to live, “under the law of nature and nature’s God,” and separation from those who were depriving us of this right is given as the first cause prompting them to Declare Independence from them.

The law of nature is the law that is self-evident, proving itself in the experience, and relates to the whole duty of man: to self-govern by a well-formed conscience that promotes peace in minds and in societies. (example: killing, imposing your will upon another, or stealing are acts that destroy the peace. This truth proves itself true and becomes self-evident when it is experienced – even in a wilderness void of written law.)

The law of God is written law memorializing the rules of civilization, and from which these ideas can be, when taught, learned without having to suffer the experience.

The Declaration goes to generally describe these rights, to life, liberty, and to pursue happiness (by wealth or peace – security in estate), as endowed by our Creator, which secures them from the whims of men who seek to destroy the peace, by stealing, imposing their will upon others, or deny happiness by placing under threat the much or little others possess. It says “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

With these principles in mind, to birth them into the law of the land and bring a new nation into the world, the Constitution was written. Its intention was to keep our Government just, by restriction of its powers, only allowing it to act in ways that promote the General Welfare: which defines the “general” state, of wellness and comity, that comes when men are self-governed by a well-formed conscience and willingly respect these rights. (We are now in a world, which, by rejecting these ideas and replacing them with their antithesis, has become without this form, and in the void of their ignorance unable to reap the value found in these treasures of knowledge. It, without learning from written knowledge, has again taken itself into experiencing its truth self-evidently demonstrated, as the result is reproduced in the current state without peace or security.)

The people of the States, fearing the National body could become antithetical to these principles, the larger states or groups of states imposing their will upon the others, (even as now to the point of legalizing death without due process,) before they agreed to ratification, demanded other more specific protections.

As we know, these additional protections are the Bill of Rights (even though protection against these abuses already existed in the Constitution’s republican principles – see Federalist #10, the conclusion in the last two paragraphs saying, “The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

“In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists.” By James Madison, writing as Publius.

The preamble of the Constitution says its objective is to, “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Posterity speaks of generations yet born, and therefore it is extending to them (those not yet born) the protection of their rights, here specifically saying they have a God-given right to not have someone else impose their will on them (the Blessing of Liberty).

Science argues in favor of the fact that life begins at conception, (redundancy intended) when life begins. Modern science, which itself has in large become antithetical to the existence of the metaphysical realms, ideas of intelligent design, and argues there is no such thing as a soul, must be consistent with its own philosophy and concede this point. It also has no problem admitting abortion is killing a living creature, which is of the species human, which has a unique identity defined by their “one of a kind” DNA. They are persons!

The abortion proponents are either ignorant of these facts, or know and just don’t care. They are one of the factions arising, with an improper and wicked project, of which Madison speaks. Who, without a well conscience, have gone through the provisions of the Constitution, as a whale through a net. It is here and now they must be stopped, in the further Providence, by enforcing the Bill of Rights.

Amendment V says, “nor shall any person … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary says procedural due process means, “a course of formal proceedings (such as legal proceedings) carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principles.” It says substantive due process, is “a judicial requirement that enacted laws may not contain provisions that result in the unfair, arbitrary, or unreasonable treatment of an individual.”

Among the many “rules and principles” of due process are those which establish the accused is innocent, and, if accused or charged, has the right to be defended, either by self, or if unable to provide for their own defense, a public defender is provided for them. When the case is heard, a verdict is rendered, and if found guilty the sentence is rendered and carried out. All of these ideas and protection are subverted by a perverted presupposition that defines the individual as not a member of the human species (not a person).

As we have seen in many of the most populated states, this factious idea has become popular, even to the point now of killing individuals after they have been born. This is the natural progressive degeneration into depravity, the proverbial bottomless pit into which the lawless and insane endlessly descend. These are places where the rejection and redefinition of reality remove all bounds of civilization.

This brings us to Amendment X, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

This Amendment is the further reinforcement and reiteration of the protection Madison speaks of in Federalist #10, where he describes how these ideas would be contained in a place where they became popular and wouldn’t be able to be forced on the nation in total. These are the protections of a republic over a democracy.

“From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party [the innocent unborn] or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

“A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.” Again, James Madison, from Federalist #10.

As to the argument where we now find it, having heretofore established an unborn human individual has the God-given and Constitutionally protected right to life, and the States have the right make their own laws, we now move forward to understand the Constitution doesn’t give the states the right to deprive life, without due process.

Amendment IX says, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

It is saying an idea in the Constitution cannot be construed (frowarded – twisted into perversion) to deny another right. Here where the right to life is clearly enumerated, other aspects of the Constitution cannot be twisted and contorted to produce a right to privacy that negates the right to life.

Also, because the right to life is clearly enumerated in Amendment V, the States have no authority to change it, and must under law (Amendment X) abide by it, and the Federal government has an obligation to protect this right if the states violate it.

Psalms 20

1 The LORD hear you in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend you;

2 Send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion;

3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.

4 Grant you according to your own heart, and fulfil all your counsel.

5 We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

6 Now know I that the LORD saves his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

9 Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.

And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.

The title is Hosea 1:5, which speaks of the LORD describing Israel by the homonym Jezreel, which means God will judge and God will sow. The verse prior says this will be when the LORD avenges the blood Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. The deep theology here is found in the culmination (the meaning of the name Gomer, the mother of Jezreel) of our receiving the full revelation, of the associated aspects, into one cohesive idea, (as the LORD is the light which is divided into these many hues.)

We know from 2 Kings 10 that Jehu destroyed all the worshippers of Baal, the idol Ahab brought in. As we know, Baal worship was a step in the degeneration that began with Jeroboam’s leading Israel away from God, which we are told of in 2 Chronicles 11. There in verse 15, we are told of his setting up calves in God’s place, and ordained priests: devils instead of Levites. The sin of Jehu, recorded in 2 Kings 10:29 thru 31, is that he destroyed the Baal worship, but continue on with the idols Jeroboam created, which were maintained by all the false kings of Israel after him, and by the devils in the false churches. We are told in 2 King 10:30 that because Jehu had destroyed the house Ahab (and Baal worship – but for his own self-serving purposes) he would have children that would sit on his throne for four generations after him. We are told of this end, in 2 Kings 15:8 thru 12, which come with the end of the six-month reign of Zachariah the son of Jeroboam II.

In that day, spoken of in the title verse, is referring to the end of Israel under the final king, who is Hosea; when Israel was carried away by Assyria. This is described in 2 Kings 18:9 thru 12, where it is revealed that the same steps (Assyria) become what leads to the eventual end of Judah. There we are told of Israel, her capital Samaria, besieged and taken, carried away by Assyria (steps) to the cites of the Medes (of where Darius, the seed of Esther, would become king – see the prior posts).

The effects of this “carrying away,” the steps into desolation, are described in the name of the Medes’ cities mentioned in 2 Kings 18:11, “And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah [in pain] and in Habor [joining them to] by the river [the foreign ideas and ways flowing to them] of Gozan [cutting off – from God], and in the cities of the Medes:”

The “bow” Hosea 1:5 speaks of is later described, in Hosea 7:16, as the deceit of those who have led her. In this chapter is found the conclusion, that as did Jehu, God’s people now return to their idols, which have been put in God’s place, thinking they have returned to Him, and thinking this because those (devils) who’ve led them away from God to idols, tell them these calves are their gods.

Again, I urge you to read the chapters and passages referred to here, and in doing hear for yourselves the voice of the LORD speaking. This is for you to understand. It is not for those who observe lying vanities, and who in doing refuse God’s grace and mercy.

Psalms 109

1 Hold not your peace, O God of my praise;

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set you a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has; and let the strangers spoil his labor.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

21 But do you for me, O God the LORD, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver you me.

22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh fails of fatness.

25 I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shake their heads. 26 Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Bethany, the story of God’s people’s fall into a house of misery, wherein they ripen and from where they are raised.

The passages surrounding the eleven times the name Bethany appears first tell of the corrupted priesthood, the temple, and worship in general; all a product of the abomination brought into the temple and put in God’s place. These further speak of the LORD leaving corrupted Jerusalem, and going to Bethany and Bethphage, meaning the house (family) of misery and of unripe figs. In the family are Mary, Martha, and dead Lazarus, a house (Christian and Jew) outside the established corrupt order, both the women’s names meaning and telling of them being those who rebelled against the (corrupt) status quo.

As we know, Lazarus is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Eleazar, meaning he is who God helps. He is historically the son of Aaron, who was raised to the priesthood after his two brothers (Christians and Jews) became idol worshipers and offered strange fire (ways far from and thereby foreign) to God.

It is in this family (house) the LORD is anointed (by those who have come out of corruption), and where abides the priesthood the LORD raised from the dead. These are the easily understood and recognized embedded meanings.

The deeper meaning is in telling of how the fall occurred, and has now again; and how the restoration comes. The next step is to investigate the name Judas (Judah) Iscariot, which is from the Hebrew words Yhuwdah ‘iysh qirya‘. These words tell of those who are the celebrated men, the celebrity leaders of God people, of His city (which are among His people in Zion and Jerusalem). Examining the usages of these words we see they are used in telling of betrayal, which ends in the release of the vessels carried away into confusion (Babylon) where they were held in the treasure house of the idols of Babylon.

The word ‘iysh only appears one time, rendered “show yourselves men” in Isaiah 46:8, where we are told the betrayers are called to remember. The chapter begins by telling of when Bel and Nebo bow down (yield); these are the idols of the corrupt house to where the vessels were carried away and held. This carrying away is spoken of in Daniel 1:2, where we saw it is into Shinar, the sleep Daniel speaks of in Daniel 12:2. We have seen this as when the book is sealed, in the treasure house of these idols, meaning in the current corrupted church by its dead priests. We understand the restoration, the rebuilding of God house, His city and His wall, come with the fall of the wall these men have built, which can’t be trusted and will surely fall on any near when it does (because it is built with stones of emptiness {bohuw}, upon a foundation of confusion {tohuw} – Isaiah 34:11).

The betrayal is spoken of in Ezra 4, the only place the word qirya’ appears; and where it is rendered “city”. Their it tells of the rebuilding of the wall and how it was halted by the adversaries, who heard the sound of the trumpet and great noise (Ezra 3:10 & 11). The enemies first said they wanted to help build, and when their attempts at subversion were rejected by Zerubbabel and Joshua (Jeshua), they frustrated the building all the days of Cyrus, until the days or Darius.

Until the days of Darius take us again to Daniel, where in chapter 9 we are told of the first year of Darius, when Daniel found the book of Jeremiah and learned of the LORD foretelling the seventy years in accomplishing the desolation of Jerusalem. We know the chapter ends with Daniel speaking of the time between when the commandment goes forth, to build the wall and Jerusalem, (which came from Cyrus) and accomplishing it. He says this building comes after the time between, which is referring to what is spoken of in Ezra 4 and which ends in Ezra 6 and the decree of Darius, to restore the treasure to the temple, after the house of rolls (volumes) was searched. Verse 2 tells us the record of the original decree of Cyrus was found at Achmetha, a name that appears to tell of a time without rain, which led to drunkenness, meaning without God’s word producing a mental stupor, as in Shinar where Daniel 1:2 tells us these treasures were taken. We know Cyrus is spoken of by the LORD in Isaiah 45:1 as the anointed who will build His city. Daniel 9 tells of the same anointing, which comes at the end of the time between the commandment and the completion, which comes with the sealing of the prophesy (unsealing the book and writing the meaning in our heads) and the restoration of the vision. The final step is the anointing of the Most Holy, which takes us back to Mary anointing the LORD, in the house outside the corrupted order (in Bethany), after He raises the priesthood. We know this priesthood, and those who are born by coming out of Babylon (confusion in the status quo), are spoken of in Zechariah 3 & 4 as Joshua (Jesus) and Zerubbabel.

All these names speak of the same people and group, in consort.

And the prophesies unsealed are those which tell of me and my coming, as the first begotten from the dead, sent to raise many of God’s children into the same glory.

Darius is the son of Esther. He is the child whose mother is a Jew and His father a Gentile, which is telling of the pattern of Timothy, whose mother was a Jew and father a gentile. As in the pattern of Mary and Martha, as Christians and Jews who are born out of the confusion of those before them, Gentile and Jew into one House.

Ephesians 5

30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Today, instead of pasting the above-referenced chapters, I urge you to open the book and read them. Amen!

Today a new phase, an assignment, to examine the name Bethany as it appears in the New Testament. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, one of its meanings is the house, or family, of misery. It appears eleven times; Matthew 21:17, & 26:6, Mark 11:1, 11 & 12, &14:3, Luke 19:29, & 24:50, and John 11:1, & 18, &12:1.

Some items to note: in Matthew 21 the LORD had just entered Jerusalem, the place thought and founded on ideas that flowed from God. There He as recognized by the people, and then leaving, He enters the house of misery. Bethany is said to be the town at the mount of Olives, which we know is from where flows the oil: the ideas taught, which bring health: peace to those in misery.

Remember, these words of God, given through four different inspired (inspirited) writers are a harmony, heard as one song. Examine what they all say; understand the names used, and the stories associated with the people mentioned. Look at the translations of the name; more deeply research them if needed or led.

Remember our previous conversation, and know that Bethany is a town on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho: where the wall fell. Remember the surrounding context; pay deeper attention to the peripheral and seemingly meaningless aspects mentioned. See the unseen, and hear the voice of God speaking. Think: meditate on these things.

Amen!

Psalms 88

1 O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you: 2 Let my prayer come before you: incline your ear unto my cry; 3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draws nigh unto the grave. 4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength: 5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remembers no more: and they are cut off from your hand. 6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7 Your wrath lies hard upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah. 8 You have put away mine acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 9 Mine eye mourn by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands unto you. 10 Will you show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise you? Selah. 11 Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction? 12 Shall your wonders be known in the dark? and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But unto you have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent you. 14 LORD, why caste you off my soul? why hide you your face from me? 15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer your terrors I am distracted. 16 Your fierce wrath [this word of correction] goes over me; your terrors have cut me off. 17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. 18 Lover and friend have you put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness [in ignorance, without understanding I am alive and preaching life].

Isaiah 24

1 Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. [and I saw, “2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.] 2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. 3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. 7 The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh. 8 The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of them that rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases. 9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. 11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. 12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. 13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. 14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15 Wherefore glorify you the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise agai 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

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 defenced 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. 7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it. 9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab [the gates of hell – holding men in the belly of the earth] shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim [parting and rightly dividing the waters – the word of God]: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Thus says the LORD God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

Today’s title verse is Ezekiel 13:3, where the LORD, in the following verse, says, these men are as jackals (foxes) scavenging through the ruins (deserts) their works (lies) have produced. He says they haven’t gone into the breach (gap) in the house of Israel, to repair the wall (hedge) they can trust in, which would strengthen them so they “stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.”

As we have many times discussed, the chapter goes on to speak of the wall these men have built, by their lies, which has become what the people now depend upon, saying it is what will provide them peace. Herein we see the contradiction, the LORD calling His people to stand in the battle, while the false prophets are telling them they will have peace.

After the LORD tells the son of man to prophesy against these false prophets, and he does (as I have), He tells him to set his face against the daughter of God’s people who prophesy out of their own heart (using their own reasoning). As we know, these women represent the unfaithful church, to whom the LORD tells the son of man, “say, Thus says the LORD God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes [so the arm of the LORD isn’t seen at work], and make kerchiefs upon the head [to hide the face of the LORD – as in 2 Corinthians 4:3 & 4] of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and will you save the souls alive that come unto you?”

We are later, in verse 20, told the reason these women hunt soul is “to make them fly,” which is telling us the false prophesy is promising an escape. The false prophesies are lies saying they will escape the battle, which they aren’t taking a stand in, and that they will fly away with their lives. In verse 19 the LORD says, those telling the lies are doing it for the gain they receive from telling them.

The LORD tells of when the wall these men have built inevitably falls, as it now has, when His people realize the LORD never promised peace, when the corrupt ideas of men are followed. He has promised peace to those who follow and trust in His advice, not the false wall these men have built, against which the LORD’s wrath comes.

The LORD says that once this wall has fallen, He will them tear away the covers of ignorance that has hidden His work and presence from the eyes of His people and the world.

Ezekiel 13
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say you unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear you the word of the LORD;
3 Thus says the LORD God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
4 O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
5 You have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD said: and the LORD has not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.
7 Have you not seen a vain vision, and have you not spoken a lying divination, whereas you say, The LORD said it; albeit I have not spoken?
8 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Because you have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the LORD God.
9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the LORD God.
10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed it?
13 Therefore thus says the LORD God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.
14 So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the LORD God.
17 Likewise, you son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy you against them,
18 And say, Thus says the LORD God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and will you save the souls alive that come unto you?
19 And will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
20 Wherefore thus says the LORD God; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith you there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that you hunt to make them fly.
21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am the LORD.
22 Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
23 Therefore you shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and you shall know that I am the LORD.

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
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.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal [: the deeper meaning revealed by the Spirit, to those who have put on the same Spirit and mind].

Psalm 82
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods.
2 How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

Jeremiah 12
1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
2 You have planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried mine heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?
6 For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yea, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you.
7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 Mine heritage is [become] unto me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.
9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
12 The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
14 Thus says the LORD against all mine evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the LORD.