SECTION III.  WISDOM & NATURAL BREAKTHROUGH

 

When God calls us to a new thing, a new process begins.  To either a greater or lesser extent, we understand through our relationship with God, what He has called us to do.  And, because God sees the beginning from the end, He may view us very differently from the way we view ourselves.  Gideon was meekly thrashing in the Midian valleys, but God saw the “mighty warrior,” into whom Gideon was invited to grow.

 

Up to the point where we enjoy our first natural breakthrough, we have received a calling and started to equip and test ourselves.  Once we receive our intitial breakthrough, and we have begun to grow and mature in our ministry, we will face external obstacles, internal obstacles and personal obstacles on our way to the confrontation with our impediments and objectives.

 

So, while David had many sons, God saw Solomon as the one with the ability to grow into a wise King, and He may have hoped that it would involve the same heart for relationship that David had continually demonstrated through times of darkness, times of conflict and external attack, times of internal subterfuge, times of personal weakness, and times of tribulation.

 

David’s natural kingdom was an example of simultaneous attacks from the external (including Goliath of Gath of the Phillistines, the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, etc.), the internal (Absolom’s natural arrogance and Joab’s tendency to ignore God and take matters into his own hands), and personal (starting when he looked across the roof tops to Bathsheba, the bathing beauty).  And, while David continually fell short, his heart for God continually brought him back into relationship, and allowed him to overcome a multitude of sins – i.e., including the external, the internal and the personal.  But, when success in the natural had been achieved, David wanted to build the Temple.  But, enjoyment of the breakthrough would elude Moses, and fall to Joshua.  Enjoyment of the breakthrough would elude David, and fall to Solomon.

 

But, with the natural breakthrough, the wealth of Solomon, the natural wisdom and easy relationship with God, came the tendency to take things for granted, and fall in our own arrogance.  In our natural success, the tendency to multiply our wives and houses, horses and gold (we’d call that forsaking the wife, brining in the mistress, and buying more houses, cars, and toys of every kind and nature.)  If we’re not stewarding them to glorify God, we might be surprised how quickly they will be ripped out of our hands, as the 10 tribes would be ripped out of Solomon’s hands and given to Jeroboam.

 

Many of the disciplines that help us attain to our natural breakthrough are lost the first moment we receive comfort and the human adulation that comes with our first trappings of success.  Through three centuries, the early follower of Jesus’ “The Way” suffered ridicule, persecution, martyrdom, and every form of adversity.  So, when God moved the heart of Constantine’s mother to visions of the Cross, and Constantine to see Jesus as the savior of the Eastern Roman Empire, there was a moment when David’s heart and the perseverance of Paul, Justin Martyr and the other champions of the Persecuted Church could have carried that humility into the Third Church Age.

 

But, as soon as there was success, the Church adapted the natural tendencies of their former oppressors.  They multiplied all of their natural blessings, and forgot many of their supernatural roots.  What had been planted as a small, grass roots collection of believers hiding in home churches, glorifying Gods and keeping their heads low to avoid persecution or martyrdom.  When they grew beyond the small circle of believers with an intimate relationship with God, there was a lot of room in the much larger circle of semi-believers to enjoy only a convenient relationship with God.  And, when it was socially appropriate, it became easy room a much larger group of non-believers to have no relationship with God.  As the mustard seed grew, many saw an ever expanding realm of God, and others saw the outer circles moving further and further away from the God who empowered them.

 

When God cast his seeds before natural bureaucrats, they could have understood the supernatural power of God, or they could have perverted them into a way to control the Roman masses, with Christians who had gone through years of persecution happy to go along with an administration that picked on other people.  These seeds that fell by the side of the road were easy pray for administrators with a tendency towards natural power, and an inclination to ignore anything they couldn’t see.

 

They looked at the new power of the Church manifesting in the natural, and they forgot that the whole power of the church was in God’s supernatural.  God brought the truth from the supernatural to manifest in the natural, and the power of that truth was like a “double edged sword,” strong enough to conquer all evil, and powerful enough to seduce those who wielded it. 

 

One thing we have observed in every generation of the church is a group of financially challenged, humble believers, seeker a deeper relationship with God.  They grow up, enjoy success and their church grows.  In their success, they want fewer lectures, fewer rules, a lighter church. 

 

When God called the Hebrews out of Ur of Chaldees, they had no idea why they should be leaving the comfort of the Tigris and Eurphrates.  When tAbram’s clan arrived in Terah, they weren’t sure that wasn’t where they were going.  Abram would pass through Canaan and Mamre, Sodom and Gomorrah, before landing in Egypt and giving up Sarai temporarily.  But, the evil empire of the first part of Genesis had been Babylon, and the evil empire of the second part of Genesis has been Egypt.  The first time the wandering Hebrews found comfort was when Joshua took them across the Jordan into their inheritance, and so the evil empire of the final portion of the Torah was Canaan.  Surrounded by Nephilim that God brushed aside, Jehovah provided the Hebrews with their first time of comfort, allowing them to build up kingdoms, take lands, multiply wealth and horses.  Until the time of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the only significant challenges to the Hebrews would be from their friends, families and themselves.  When they failed themselves, God would allow them to suffer, and force them to cry out to Jehovah.  But, for the most part, Jehovah led the Hebrews to a land flowing with Milk and Honey, and invited them to enjoy it forever in the humility that they carried out of Egypt.  But, they quickly acclimated to the nations that had gone before them, the ones that God had vanquished to give them their land.  This third of age of the Hebrews would demonstrate the danger of the double edged sword of natural breakthrough, success, and complacency.

 

As Solomon grew heavier and more comfortable, he married women from any ethnicity, with which he wanted an alliance.  But, then with more than 600 wives, there can’t have been that many ethnicities 960 B.C.  Despite promises on Mount Ebal, he multiplied wives and horses, and began to forsake the principals of discipline for the satisfaction of his soulish nature.

 

As Americans grow heavier and more comfortable, they become more attached to their comforts – and we are reminded of the phrase “Californication.”  But, as shocking and “new age” as we want to see that phrase, “Corinthianator” was the same thing two thousand years ago.  The most successful, most studied, most productive, most naturally admired, and most socially acceptable people in the Roman empire became the most personally corrupt.

 

And, if we look at the consequence on New Testament theology, this period of luxury and comfort bred the heresy of “Replacement Theology,” where the church imagined than God had changed His mind about Genesis 12 and Romans 8-11, and that He was really done with Judah.  

 

When you decide that God is no longer the same yesterday, today and forever, but rather the God whom you want him to be, you may find your kingdoms all violently ripped away.  That is the trial of the Kingdom of the Natural Breakthrough.  Will you take your newfound blessings, steward and multiply them for God’s glory, or will you just sit back, start finding a way to attribute God’s mercy to your own “natural abilities,” and become heavy and comfortable.

 

Chapter 21.  Mustard Seed

 

The Mustard Seed

“Matthew 13:31He presented another parable to them, saying, "⁽W⁾The kingdom of heaven is like ⁽X⁾a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

“ 32and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that ⁽Y⁾THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES."

            So, the natural implication is simple.  When God comes in glory, He can take something as small as a mustard seed, and He can turn it into anything He likes.  God and any individual will always be a majority

The third Kingdom Parable talks about the mustard seed for the first of two references. In the second reference, we refer to “faith” as small as a “mustard seed,” and we conclude that it is enough to move a mountain:

“20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."^[a^]1^”

            For that abundant fruitfulness to come, a man may plant God’s seed.  With the seed in the soil, supported by water and nutrients, and stewarded with faith, the man can reap the hope that he sowed in love, and the motivating power is the man’s faith.

            If a man starts in love and sows in hope, he can reap in faith.  The fruit can be abundant, and become a source of nourishment.  People and animals of every kind can find peace in the shadow of His wings, and the protection of its fruitful abundance.

            We can even rejoice in the bucolic images of the birds resting in the shadows of this resplendent covering.  As in Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 31:6  'All the ⁽C⁾birds of the heavens nested in its boughs,
         And under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,
         And all great nations lived under its shade.
    7'So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches;
         For its roots extended to many waters. 

But, Jesus also left a deeper meaning behind the parable of the Mustard Seed.  In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream before boanthropy, the tree became over-extended, and the bounty of splendour and plenty turned dark:

Daniel 4:10  'Now these were the ⁽Q⁾visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a ⁽R⁾tree in the midst of the earth and its sheight was great.
    11'The tree grew large and became strong
         And its height ⁽S⁾reached to the sky,
         And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
    12'Its foliage was ⁽T⁾beautiful and its fruit abundant,
         And in it was food for all
         The ⁽U⁾beasts of the field found ⁽V⁾shade under it,
         And the ⁽W⁾birds of the sky dwelt in its branches,
         And all living creatures fed themselves from it.

Parable of the Mustard Seed

With both of the dream interpreters (Joseph’s baker with his baskets attacked by birds, and Daniel’s world dictator with his bird infested tree), the revered administrators of whom nothing negative is spoken, the birds and overgrown trees spoke of a church grown up so quickly, like a weed beyond purpose, with enough confusion to cover the works of Satan’s ministers, and allow them to camouflage themselves amidst corrupt congregants and self-deceived “leaders.”

There is so much insight in these Kingdom parables relative to the way that the ministers of Satan invaded what appeared in the natural to be a virtual “heaven on earth.” With the king who excelled in natural wisdom, and who either engineered or elevated biology and ornithology, natural wisdom was not enough. Without continuing to walk in relationship with god, Solomon’s beautiful Temple and robes of fine fabrics and gold were as small as a mustard seed.

When the natural appeal of Solomon’s kingdom extended to horses and wives from Egypt, cedars from Lebanon and queens of Sheba, the smallest of seeds had become the largest of the garden plants. Solomon had grown beyond the garden and relationship with god to the overgrown tree, that would become the unwitting host to Satan’s ministries, who manifested in the form of a series of foreign wives with sophisticated ways.

Mark 4:30⁽A⁾And He said, "How shall we ^[a^](B⁾picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

 31"It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,

 32yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that ⁽C⁾THE BIRDS OF THE ^[b^]AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE."

            There are some images in the Parable of the Mustard Seed, which should frighten the ardent student of the Bible, especially if and to the extent that he is familiar with the law of first mention.

We owe much to Chuck Missler, who explains that the mustard seed in Israel yields an 18-36” bush, not a tree.  Have you ever seen a bird lodge in a small bush?  And, while the seed is small, so is the fruit.  No matter how much energy we put into this shrub, God’s will doesn’t seem to allow it to create a large tree, a thick trunk, or branches.  Mustard seeds grow into bushes about 3 feet tall. Have you seen a bird lodge in a small bush? This mustard seed apparently grows to become a monstrosity, something larger than it is supposed to. It becomes a structure so large and specious that birds come and lodge in the branches. Remember from the Parable of the sower and the 4 soils, that the birds that picked up the seed are the ministers of Satan. And, in this case, they’re in the overgrown portion on the mustard bush, which would equate to the seed choked in the brambles.  There is no room for the BIRDS  OF THE AIR to nest in its non-existent branches.  There is not enough height for a shrub to offer SHADE under which the birds can nest.

 

What we learn from the parable of the mustard seed, is that it is one of many parables that takes place on two levels.  The natural instance of the mustards seed, which is the lesson for the whole natural world, is that the smallest of seeds can grow into the greatest of trees.  While we may feel that we are the tiny Gideon-like seed, God can see ahead to where we grow into a mighty oak.

 

And, because God is not just a person with time.  He is a person outside of time.  And, it’s nothing for Him to see ahead a few generations, so that when he sees Shimei thumbing his nose at David, God helped David see tolerance in God’s heart.  After several generations, that seed of tolerance would bare Mordecai as its fruit, and Mordecai would help Esther to save the Hebrews from extinction.

            Luke 13:19"It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and ⁽A⁾THE BIRDS OF THE AIR NESTED IN ITS BRANCHES."

 

            More frightening are the references that we would draw with these unnatural birds nesting in these unnatural branches.  Joseph had a dream about unnatural birds, and these are the first unnatural birds to appear in Genesis:

 

“16 When the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, "I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

 17and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."

 18Then Joseph answered and said, "This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days;

 19within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off you."

 20Thus it came about on the third day, which was ⁽J⁾Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; ⁽K⁾and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

 21He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and ⁽L⁾he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand;

 22but ⁽M⁾he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.

 23Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but ⁽N⁾forgot him.”

            These are not the only unnatural birds  But, ravens were unclean from the time God gave the Law to Moses.[1]  Leviticus clearly sets forth the admonitions against ravens, and these are repeated for the sake of clarity in Deuteronomy.

Avoid the Unclean

“Leviticus 11:1[2]3  'These, moreover, ⁽E⁾you shall detest among the birds; they are abhorrent, not to be eaten: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, 14 and the kite and the falcon in its kind,  15every raven in its kind,  . . . , and the bat.”

 

Birds would become part of the threat of being torn apart by animals and devoured by the birds of the air.[3]  They were part of the consequences of disobedience on Mount, and the threats would be repeated by Goliath and David[4] against one another, David’s psalms[5], God’s prophesy about Baasha[6] to Jehu, Jeroboam[7], and about Jezebel[8], Isaiah[9], Jeremiah[10], and finally the eerie images of the Revelation.[11]

 

 

 

Chapter 22.  Seeds in the Road

 

We already knew these Matthew 13:31 birds, because they showed up along the road, and stole the seed the Sower had planted:

 

Matthew 13: 3  “And He spoke many things to them in ⁽D⁾parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow;

 4and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.“

     The natural images of the birds coming to kill, lie, steal and cheat is very easy to understand.  Along the road, the seeds are easy to spot, and the birds are primed to steal them.

Mark 4:2  “He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up”

     But, the natural imagery gives way to metaphor, in the parable, where it is clear that the Sower goes to great lengths to impart the seed.  The seed is trampled.  The seed is stolen.  The seed is criticized, ridiculed, whipped, beaten, and finally crucified,

Luke 8:5  "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.

            With the explanation of the Road a few paragraphs later:

 

Matthew 13:19"When anyone hears ⁽O⁾the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, ⁽P⁾the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

 

So that nobody misses, Matthew makes it clear that the one who steals the seed is the Devil, who has been a murdered, a liar and a thief from the beginning.

 

Mark 4:13Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

 

And, if the followers of Jesus don’t readily know to look for a deeper level of meaning, then “how then will (they) understand any parable?”  When Jesus spoke in spirit and in truth, we understand by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that which can be taught by the Spirit of Teaching.

 

Luke 8:11  "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

 

And, the Devil is not an ordinary thief.  He steals FROM THE HEART, and knowing how close the road is to everything that Jesus has for us, we know how insidious Satan and his demons can be.

Chapter 23.  Teaching Gift & warfare

 

Because we live in Faith, Christians have a tendency to minimize the importance of teaching and intelligence.  We know that God will put the words in our mouth, that Wisdom will come upon us, and He will show us the way, especially if we come before Him with child-like faith.  But, God never calls for child-like wisdom.  He teaches us, and he brings the Gift of Teaching to some as a Roman’s Motivational Gift.  He empowers some with the Spirit of Teaching as a Corinthians Gift of the Spirit.  And, He calls some to the office of the Teacher as an Ephesians calling to ministry. 

 

23a.  The downside of Teaching Gifts

 

Before exploring all of the benefits of the Gift of Teaching, we will explore the threas of teaching in the Third Phase.  We often hear about families sacrificing their own natural blessings to help their kids get a better education, grow up more nicely, and enjoy a better future.  The desire of any family to bless their children with a better education is the kind of drive that led Abram to “Lech Lecha,” or “get up and go.”  We feel called to provide for our children and grandchildren, and in this calling we are driven to sacrifice and persevere.  Once a family makes the decision to forego their own happiness for the sake of their children, things get worse before they get better. 

 

But, soon there comes a time when the children are well educated.  They received an education for which they did not sacrifice, from parents who made sacrifies that they may never fully understand.  And in their time of comfort in their $40,000 per year dorm room, they might forget the Nephilim their family might have confronted to get them to this point.

 

Until the time of the children face their own Assyrians and the Babylonians, the only significant challenges to the them would be from their friends, families and themselves.  When they failed themselves, God would allow them to suffer, and force them to cry out to Jehovah.  But, for the most part, Jehovah led the children to a university flowing with Milk and Honey, and invited them to enjoy it forever in the humility that their families carried out of Egypt.  This third of age of the family would demonstrate the danger of the double edged sword of natural breakthrough, success, and complacency.

 

As our children grow heavier and more comfortable, we face the consequences of their life choices, and understand that they make their judgments based on the values taught in their towers of intellectualism.  Despite promises on Mount Ebal, our children have multiplied their blessings, and began to forsake the principals of discipline that brought them there.

 

If we remember that teaching and education are blessings from God, and steward them for His glory, then we have received the blessings of teaching in the spirit that God intended it.  But, if we allow our breakthrough and success to lead to vanity and complacency, then the Devil has already stolen the good Seeds which the Sower has sown in us.  The spiritual principals of God, as God Himself, is the same yesterday, today and forever.

 

23b.  Motivational Gift, Spiritual Gift and Office of Teacher

 

With teaching showing up as a gift of Romans, Corinthians and Ephesians, it’s a wonder that a professing Christian can ever take teaching lightly.  If we are to engage in spiritual warfare, knowledge of God, His ways, His resourcing, natural resourcing, tent making, and everything else under the sun are assets that God can work through, and things that God can use in us.  Since they’re all from Him, when we minimize teaching, wisdom and education, we’re really just minimizing His gifts and giftings for us.

 

Because we rely on Jesus for Godly wisdom, we tend to bypass the knowledge of man.  And, we tent to lump much of the teaching and educational policy as part of the natural perversion of God’s plans for us.  But, teaching is a Motivational gift from God. 

 

It is given to many of us by God to be motivated to impart knowledge, explain the more complicated aspects of God’s will for us, along with the practical aspects of family raising and tent making.  Eating of the bread of life is the nourishment for the soul, but Paul also admonished us that those who do not work shall not eat:[12]  Providing the resources for family and community, as well as teaching the skills to help us provide, are all part of the plan laid out in our Romans’ giftings.

Romans 12:4For ⁽J⁾just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,

5 so we, ⁽K⁾who are many, are ⁽L⁾one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

6 Since we have gifts that ⁽M⁾differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: . . . or he who ⁽P⁾teaches, in his teaching;

            Beyond the motivational gifts, teaching is also one of the offices of those who are called to lead.  The fivefold ministry and the Apostolic church both placed significant importance on the office of teacher:

 

Acts 13:1  “Now there were at ⁽A⁾Antioch, in the ⁽B⁾church that was there, ⁽C⁾prophets and ⁽D⁾teachers: ⁽E⁾Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of ⁽F⁾Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with ⁽G⁾Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”

 

The fivefold ministry giftings are set out as essential for warfare in Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:10  “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended ⁽T⁾far above all the heavens, so that He might ⁽U⁾fill all things.)

 11And He ⁽V⁾gave ⁽W⁾some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as ⁽X⁾evangelists, and some as pastors and ⁽Y⁾teachers,

 12⁽Z⁾for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of ⁽AA⁾the body of Christ;”

            And, while fivefold ministry speaks to office and function, Corinthians addresses teaching as a gift of the Spirit:

1 Corinthians 12:27  “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues^[d^]? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire^[e^] the greater gifts.”

 

1 Corinthians 14:26  “⁽A⁾What is the outcome then, ⁽B⁾brethren? When you assemble, ⁽C⁾each one has a ⁽D⁾psalm, has a ⁽E⁾teaching, has a ⁽F⁾revelation, has a ⁽G⁾tongue, has an ⁽H⁾interpretation Let ⁽I⁾all things be done for edification.”

 

So, whether we are motivated by the gifting or anointing to impart knowledge (Romans’ motivational gifting), or whether we are called to fill the office function of teachers (Ephesians’ ministry gifting), or whether we are given fruits of the Spirit in the moment for impartation of knowledge (Corinthians’ spiritual gifting), leading is Wisdom is part of the essence of preparation, ministry, and ultimately breakthrough.

23c.   he who teaches, in his teaching;

Some of us may like to teach, or we may detest the process of learning.  Some of us may like academia or theorizing, and others may prefer the more practical.  Whatever our attitude about education, natural wisdom, sophistication or supernatural wisdom, when Jehovah has given us to teaching as a Motivational Gift, it is because He has called us to function in that gifting.  To do otherwise would be to frustrate God’s will that “many members” function properly in the Body of Christ:

Romans 12:4For ⁽J⁾just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,

5 so we, ⁽K⁾who are many, are ⁽L⁾one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

6 Since we have gifts that ⁽M⁾differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: . . . or he who ⁽P⁾teaches, in his teaching;

 

Chapter 24.  OT Breakthrough

 

            The blessings and challenges of natural breakthrough come to almost every generation of the Bible.  The temptations are always the same, the blessings always well deserved, and the frequency with which the flesh leads us to failure far outweigh the successes.  However, we should hardly be surprised that all fall short of the good things that God has ordained for us.  Because we tend to look at our success, instead of focusing on His blessings, we miss the obvious.  We see the lie of the natural, and failure to keep fixed on Jehovah.

24a.  Fig Leaves & Skins

 

When man had fallen, only God could pick him up. Long before atonement at the Cross, Jehovah demonstrated that “it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement:”

 

Leviticus: 1710  '⁽E⁾And any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, ⁽F⁾I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.

 11'For ⁽G⁾the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for ⁽H⁾it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.'

 12"Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'No person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.'

When man’s eyes were first opened up to good and evil, his first instinct was to cover his nakedness.  Man’s first attempt at natural wisdom was a natural act to cover his sin with the fig leaf

Gen 3:6  ⁽E⁾When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they ⁽F⁾knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

            We are frequently told, and frequently forget, that we cannot cover our own sin. No matter what we do, we will fall short of God’s glory:

 

Rom 3:21  “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Jehovah prepared this lesson for us in the garden, when he sacrificed His own cattle to cover our sin, just a forerunner of the fact that the Father would sacrifice His own son to atone us to God:

 

Gen 3:21  “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”

 

Adam’s natural breakthrough was his spiritual falling.  The Adamic Covenant is more of a curse than a blessing, but it activated Jehovah’s Plan of Salvation.  Adam knew Jehovah intimately, which gave him an opportunity to move in what He knew of God.  When he forgot God’s promises, and moved in what his wife told him, and what he wanted to hear, he experienced the pride and fall that has come to all mankind since that time.  But, mankind always has the opportunity to fix our eyes above what we see in the natural, and focus on God’s promises for a future, where we do well, and do not come to calamity.[13]

 

As Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden, Jehovah’s mercy was activated.  Outside time in a way that never would have been imagined by humanity, God had a plan of salvation.  Jehovah would model the plan, by instructing Abraham to sacrifice Isaac at the top of Mount Moriah.  Two thousand years later, the Father would carry out what He had ordained from before time, that Adam would be atoned to the Father by Jehovah as the Second Adam.

 

While there’s no way that Adam would have known, God activated that plan of salvation when he took away the fig leaves and covered Adam and Eve with innocent blood.

 

24b.  Ararat & Rainbow Covenants

 

Men began to call on the Lord in the days of Seth.  Noah learned testimony, and was a witness for Jehovah.  And, while there were many good men, Noah was the most righteous of them all.  And, while he probably came into contact with many, the yield from six hundred years of testimony and more than 100 years of boat building was:  his family, and zero others.  Yet, Jehovah placed Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives on the Ark, and modeled Christ as the deliverer:

Gen 7:14  “In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

16"Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.

17"Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may ⁽J⁾breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

            God’s promise and Covenant were signified by the Rainbow, an image which Noah could understand . . . at least in the natural. And, Noah couldn’t have missed the radiating beauty of the rainbow as a metaphor for God’s love:

 

            Gen 9:1  “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "⁽A⁾Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2"The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.

3"Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, ⁽B⁾as I gave the green plant.

            But, without context, the shedding of innocent blood foreshadowed the fact that the atonement is only in the blood.  God teaches us that salvation and atonement are in the blood.  While the animals were given to man to eat, the blood was held back, because life is in the blood.  Natural life is in natural blood, including that from the beasts of the field.  Supernatural life is in the blood of Jesus, which only comes from the mercy and grace of love for a fallen Adam and the race of mankind:

Gen 9:4  "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, ⁽C⁾its blood.

5"Surely I will require ⁽D⁾your lifeblood; ⁽E⁾from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man.
            6"⁽F⁾Whoever sheds man's blood,
            By man his blood shall be shed

And, we can only understand the depths of God’s love for Adam, Noah and mankind in the fact that we were made in the image of God, “for in the imageof God, He made man.”  God teaches us that He has filled us, so that we should always know that He is with us, even until the end of the age.  And, as Jehovah was God of creation, we wished man to model God’s love by being fruitful, multiplying and populating the earth:

,
Gen 9:6b  “For ⁽G⁾in the image of God
         He made man.
    7"As for you, ⁽H⁾be fruitful and multiply;
         Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."

 

After the failure of mankind, the interbreeding with the Nephilim and the threat of defilement to the Seed, Noah and Shem fixed their eyes on the promises of God, and Ham reverted to comfort in the natural.

24c.  Lot, Land Division and Deliverance

 

            After wandering from Ur of Chaldees through  Haran (delay) to the fields of Canaan, Jehovah blessed Abraham abundantly.  Rich in lovestock, silver and gold, Abraham had followed the Promises of God, and he had received every good and perfect thing from above with appreciation and humility:

 

Abram and Lot

Gen 13:1  “So Abram went up from Egypt to ⁽A⁾the ^[a^]Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.

 2Now Abram was ⁽B⁾very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

 3He went on his journeys from the ^[b^]Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, ⁽C⁾between Bethel and Ai,

 4to the place of the ⁽D⁾altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.”

            There are so many who reach that place of blessing, and take pride in their natural achievements, forsaking the fact that everything they had came from God’s blessings in their lives, as rewards for watering the good Seeds the Sower planted in hope and faith.  At that moment when they could become prideful and complacent, the good and faithful servants of God understand that their blessings come from God, and that they remain Jehovah’s property:

Gen 13:5  “Now ⁽E⁾Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

 6And ⁽F⁾the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, ⁽G⁾for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

 7⁽H⁾And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock Now ⁽I⁾the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.

 8⁽J⁾So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.”

Rather than keeping or holding onto the blessings he had received, Abraham gave Lot the choice of the better properties, as they would appear from a natural perspective.  Lot would never understand that the blessings on the land were from God, and that Lot’s land would be as his faith allowed, and Abraham’s successes would be as his faith enabled.

Genesis 13:9  "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left."

 10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the ⁽K⁾valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere--this was before the LORD ⁽L⁾destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah--like ⁽M⁾the garden of the LORD, ⁽N⁾like the land of Egypt as you go to ⁽O⁾Zoar.

 11 So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.

 12Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in ⁽P⁾the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.”

It is ironic how frequently what appear as riches in the natural are poverty, like the church of Sardis, which was tainted, even though they believed their were in relationship with God:

 4'But you have a few ⁽K⁾people in ⁽L⁾Sardis who have not ⁽M⁾soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me ⁽N⁾in white, for they are worthy.

 5'⁽O⁾He who overcomes will thus be clothed in ⁽P⁾white garments; and I will not ⁽Q⁾erase his name from the book of life, and ⁽R⁾I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

            Lot’s rewards were as per his character, not by the gifts given to him by Abraham:

 13Now ⁽Q⁾the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and ⁽R⁾sinners against the LORD.

            And, when Abraham had shown that his eyes were fixed on Jehovah, and not on the nicer fields across the way, God blessed him.  Because he gave freely as he had given, and because His heart was fixed entirely on God, he received the blessing, that all the lands of Canaan would be given to his descendants forever:

Geneses 13:14  “The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "⁽S⁾Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, ⁽T⁾northward and southward and eastward and westward;

 15⁽U⁾for all the land which you see, ⁽V⁾I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”

24d.  Potiphar’s House & His Wife

 

            Joseph was called to greatness, with the prophecy that he and his brothers “were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and ⁽I⁾bowed down to my sheaf.”[14]          And, even that “the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to” him."[15]

           

When Joseph shared his prophetic calling, his brothers despised him, and sold him to Midianite traders.  After his dark night of the soul, he rose to prominence, with a combination of his character, hard work, intelligence, blessings and God’s perfect will.  And, as soon as he attracted the tools that would give him breakthrough, power and complacency.  With his blessings, he attracted the attentions of Potiphar’s wife, a beautiful woman.  If he had lacked character, this might have felt like a spectacular moment to “get even” with his slave owner. 

 

            But, Joseph’s life was dedicated to God, and he would not have been complacent in sinning with Potiphar’s wife or violating his trust to Potiphar. 

Joseph's Success in Egypt

Gen 36:1  “Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the ⁽A⁾Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.

 2⁽B⁾The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

            And, in terms of Joseph’s growth in God, it is more important that he understood out of his relationship with God, that he was a successful man, only because the LORD was with him.  If this message had been lost on him, he might have alluded prison, but he would have never been able to come into all of the incredible giftings that Jehovah had planned for him to do well, and not come to calamity.

            The fact of Joseph’s giftings from God was also not lost on Potiphar:

Gen 36:3  “Now his master ⁽C⁾saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD ⁽D⁾caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.

 4So Joseph ⁽E⁾found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and ⁽F⁾all that he owned he put in his charge.

 5It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD ⁽G⁾blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus ⁽H⁾the LORD'S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.

            Joseph had risen from one of twelve brothers tending smelly sheep in a field to a man in charge of considerable wealth.  At this point, we must imagine that he had all of the comforts of the house.  But, more than the possessions, he honored the blessings from God and the trust from his master.  Joseph seems to understand the supernatural bondage to God as parallel to the natural bondage to the house of Potiphar:

Genesis 36:6  “So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Now Joseph was ⁽I⁾handsome in form and appearance.

 7It came about after these events ⁽J⁾that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, "⁽K⁾Lie with me."

            As readers, we are horrified that this woman would lie against Joseph, and that Potiphar would suspend his trust in order to place Joseph in prison.  But, we would have to imagine that if Potiphar had not trusted Joseph over his wife, he might have had Joseph put to death, which would have been his right as a slave owner:

Genesis 36:20  “So Joseph's master took him and ⁽Q⁾put him into the jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.”

            And, as readers we are struck by the irony of he fact that righteous character took Joseph down in the natural from head of a household to prisoner.  But, in the Kingdom, the way up to God in the supernatural is down in the natural.  Descending from follower to disciple to bondservant, Paul rose to the level of apostle to the Gentiles.  With Joseph’s growing character, the LORD’s favor on him grew commensurately:

Genesis 36:21  “But ⁽R⁾the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and ⁽S⁾gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.

 22The chief jailer ⁽T⁾committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.

 23⁽U⁾The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because ⁽V⁾the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, ⁽W⁾the LORD made to prosper.”

            Joseph would return to the Wilderness in prison continually, and his spiritual growth and blessings would be enormous.  And, unlike many who were distracted by their success, Joseph and Daniel are two examples of stewards who never overlooked the significance of their blessings, and who always endeavored t shepherd everything the LORD handed to them.

24e.  Exodus, and the Red Sea

            As if Jehovah demonstrating serial miracles with the serpents andblood in the nile; frogs and flies; cattle plagues, boils and hail; locusts and darkness, and finally the Passover plague wasn’t enough supernatural proof of God’s love.  And, as if the gold and jewelry they received from the neighbors before their Passover exit wasn’t enough of a natural blessing.  Jehovah sealed the exit of the Hebrews from Egypt by burying Pharaoh’s rebellious army in the parted Red Sea:

 

            Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, took the Hebrews by the hand, and led them to freedom in Promise

:

Exod 13:17  “Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, "⁽X⁾The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt."

 18Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea; and the sons of Israel went up ⁽Y⁾in martial array from the land of Egypt.

            God had promised the impossible, and He had continually delivered.  Jehovah knew that they were doubtful people, and that their reluctance to be stewards of their own gifts would threaten their future Promise.  Jehovah kept them from the external threats of the Phillistines, so their only risks would be their internal and personal failings.  They could watch idly as the weaker ones turned to calves or as the greedy hid idols under their tents, but Jehovah kept all of their enemies away.  They were given a time of peace, and we have continually seen the tendency of the blessings of promise to lead to complacency and sin.

Exod 13:19  “Moses took ⁽Z⁾the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you."

 20Then they set out from ⁽AA⁾Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness.

            In fulfillment of the promises of Joseph, Moses returned to the promise of Jehovah to Abraham in Canaan, with the natural confirmation of Joseph’s natural body and the supernatural confirmation of Jehovah appearing in the pillar.

            Lest they forget the Lord’s blessings, Jehovah remained with them in the camp in physical form.  We know God through a still, small voice, but these Hebrews physically observed “the LORD . . . going before them in a pillar of cloud by day” and “in a pillar of fire at night.:

 21⁽AB⁾The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

 22He ⁽AC⁾did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

            But, this Wilderness led the Hebrews to the promise of the Presence on Mount Sinai, the Tablets of the Commandments, manna in the desert, quail that appeared when manna seemed excessive, provision for millions, shoes that never wore out, and the assurance that Jehovah knew and would meet their every need.

 

            But, their stewardship was weak, and their faith and character allowed them to forget about God’s promises just long enough to mumble, fall into idolatry of a golden calf and then see Nephilim, instead of the promises of God.  It is amazing to realize that their failures all came in their time of comfort, and it was their feeling of security that set the stage for them into the curse that would allow an entire generation to fall in the desert before Joshua could lead them into the promise.

            Branham looked at the story of Joshua and Caleb, and discussed the Third Church Age significance of their foray into Canaan:  “Our promised land is coming in sight even as theirs did. Now Joshua means "Jehova-Savior", and he represents the end-time leader that will come to the church even as Paul came as the original leader. Caleb represents those that stayed true with Joshua.

            “Remember, God had started Israel as a virgin with His Word. But they wanted something different. So did the last day church. Notice how God did not move Israel, or let her go into the promised land until it was His own appointed time. Now the people might have put pressure on Joshua, the leader, and said, "The land is ours, let's go and take it. Joshua, you are all through, you must have lost your commission, you don't have the power you used to have. You used to hear from God and know the will of God, and act quickly. Something is wrong with you."

            “But Joshua was a God-sent prophet and he knew the promises of God, so he waited for them. He waited for a clear cut decision from God and when the time came to move, God placed the full leadership in Joshua's hands because he had stayed with the Word. God could trust Joshua but not the others. So it will repeat in this end day. The same problem, the same pressures.”[16]      .

 

24f.  Crossing Jordan and Captain of the Guard

 

            As Moses led the Hebrews into the Wilderness in Exodus 13, in Numbers s13 Joshua and Caleb led twelve spies into Canaan, with a calling that would ultimately complete was Moses had been called to undertake forty years prior:

 

Numbers 13:1  “ The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders."

 3 So at the LORD's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names:
. . . 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; . . . 16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

 17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

            The land had been promised to Abraham, and Joshua was ready to receive that promise as his breakthrough.  This led him to understand that the Nephilim were no obstacle to God delivering on His promises:

 

            And, Joshua and Caleb were ready to stand on those promises.  When others grumbled and rebelled, they tore their clothes.  They knew the land was good, that it flowed with milk and honey, and more importantly tha the LORD was pleased to deliver it into their hands:

Numbers 14:6  “Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;

 7and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "⁽G⁾The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

 8"⁽H⁾If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us--⁽I⁾a land which flows with milk and honey.

            Joshua and Caleb knew that the Hebrews would not take the land out of their own strength, intelligence or righteousness.  They knew that the land would come to them from the LORD’s promises, and that the LORD would protect the Hebrews, and deliver the Amalekites, Amorites, Jebusites, Hittites and Canaanites,

 9"Only ⁽J⁾do not rebel against the LORD; and do not ⁽K⁾fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

 10⁽L⁾But all the congregation said to stone them with stones Then ⁽M⁾the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

            Joshua persevered his time of testing and period of growth.  He came to maturity in the Wilderness with Moses.  He was one of the two who departed with Moses, and crossed the Jordan into the promise.  With the promises of Jehovah and the massing of Moses, Joshua came into the confirmation that the LORD had given Joshua every place on which the sole of his feet would tread, just as the LORD had promised to Moses’ descendants:

 

Joshua 1:1  “Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' ^[a^]servant, saying,

 2"Moses ⁽A⁾My servant is dead; now therefore arise, ⁽B⁾cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

 3"⁽C⁾Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

 4"⁽D⁾From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

 5"⁽E⁾No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; ⁽F⁾I will not fail you or forsake you.

            And, while Joshua was imperfect, and occasionally fell short of God’s hopes, he also pressed into God and stewarded Jehovah’s blessings in his time of breakthrough, success and complacency.

 

            Jehovah did not allow Joshua to fall into the mistaken belief that he had prevailed at Jericho.  The army did nothing.  The Hebrews marched around the fortress for seven days in silence.  And, then, on the Lord’s Day, when they usually did no work, they marched seven times around. When they were usually quiet, they all shouted in unison.  And, Jehovah delivered the victory.

 

            When the Captain of the Lord’s angel army  meets Joshua, it is clear that the fight is not the Hebrews of the Amorites, but God’s victory in the plans of Jehovah.  We are called to fight His cause, and He is not called to our triflings:

 

Joshua 5:13  “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

 14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord ^[d^] have for his servant?"

            When Joshua realizes that he has come face-to-face with Jehovah, he receives one of the ultimate blessings of being a good and faithful steward, when our distractions might have let his breakthrough and success destroy him.

 15 The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.”

24g.  Let us Reason

 

            When we come into our time of breakthrough and success, we try to cover our failings and sins as Adam did with his fig leaves in the garden.  Having learned that Jehovah preferred blood sacrifice to Cain’s vegetables, we tried to give better sacrifices.  But, unless they are the product of a broken heart or contrite spirit, they will fall short of God’s expectations:

Isaiah 1:18:  “ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
       Your incense is detestable to me.
       New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
       I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

 14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
       my soul hates.
       They have become a burden to me;
       I am weary of bearing them.

            And, even if man understands that sacrifice means nothing without a broken heart and contrite spirit, we should understand that prayers must come from the heart, and not from a wagging tongue:

Isaiah 1:15 “When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen.
       Your hands are full of blood;

 16 wash and make yourselves clean.
       Take your evil deeds
       out of my sight!
       Stop doing wrong,”

            But, no matter how little we understand of God, Jehovah is still reaching out to us, hoping that our hearts will find a way back to Him through the wilderness.  He longs for us to break through to Him, so that he can shelter us in His wings.  There is nothing more important to him than to lead us to do right:

Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right!
       Seek justice,
       encourage the oppressed. ^[a^]
       Defend the cause of the fatherless,
       plead the case of the widow.

            If we learn to steward our world, we can encourage the oppressed.  We can help the widows and the fatherless.  Jehovah wants us to love those whom He loves, and to steward them well.  In our time of comfort and complacency, stewardship is what we can offer:

Isaiah 1: 18   "Come now, let us reason together,"
       says the LORD.
       "Though your sins are like scarlet,
       they shall be as white as snow;
       though they are red as crimson,
       they shall be like wool.

 19 If you are willing and obedient,
       you will eat the best from the land;

 20 but if you resist and rebel,
       you will be devoured by the sword."
       For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

            If we reason with God, the time of our breakthrough can be everything that God has planned for us, and we can truly receive his blessings.  If not, then we will wander aimlessly through life, happy with our natural surroundings, and blind to Jehovah’s supernatural hopes for us to do well, and not to come to calamity.

 

Chapter 25. Reign of Solomon

There were 490 years of the Patriarchal period from the promises of Abraham until the Temple in the Wilderness. (Actually, a total of 505, but Ishmael was the heir apparent for 15 of those years, which God doesn’t seem to include in His computations). There were 490 more years from the time of the Judges until the First Temple (actually, a total of 601, but the Philistines and other foreigners were in charge during those years, which God doesn’t seem to count.) .It was those 490 years that Jeremiah referred to in computing the sins requiring atonement in Babylon, and it was on those 490 years that Daniel computed his the70 years of Days until the edict of Xerxes. Then, he computed as 69 weeks of years (i.e., 173,880 days) from the day Zerubbabel began construction of the Second Temple until the presentation of Jesus as the Passover Lamb (followed by the period of the Gentiles, which God doesn’t seem to include in His computations)and the final 70thweek of Daniel, the famous time of the tribulation, which precedes the new heaven and the new earth of the Revelation.

The Kingdom Period substantially began with the Hebrews preparing to build the first Temple. Saul had ideas, and David raised money, but the third kingdom is when the Temple and Palace were built. It was in this third Old Testament kingdom age that the kingdom first reached maturity, when Temple was actually built, and the Ark of the Covenant was given a permanent home under the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.

From the promises of Jehovah to Abraham in Genesis through the Exodus led by Moses to the Wilderness, the Hebrews strove to find peace and rest. Saul’s baby steps faltered, and David created the first powerful kingdom, and Solomon got to enjoy the rest. He used peace to move from military perspectives to diplomacy. . In the time of Nathan, the Prophet succeeding Samuel, there was so much material distraction that the king with the most widely respected natural understanding of the world was completely pulled away from the supernatural, taking the church’s eyes off God, and placing them on expanding wives, horses, chariots, palaces and (ultimately) foreign idols

25a.  King Solomon

 

As a shepherd and as a king, David sought only the Lord’s heart, and challenged anybody like Goliath who challenged the glory of God.  By seeking to humble himself before God, Jehovah continually built David’s Kingdom, even to the promise of Eternal Kingdom, when Jehovah would sit on the Throne of David. The more David humbled himself before the Lord, the more he abased himself dancing before the Ark, the higher God raised him up in the natural.

Jehovah left Solomon to be raised up in the supernatural, as the one who would reign in a time of peace, and build a Temple for God, and a seat of Mercy for the Presence.  When Solomon’s time came to receive the blessings that go with stewarding his natural kingdom, instead of asking for riches and wealth,

 

I Kings 3:5  ⁽K^)”In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon ⁽L⁾in a dream at night; and God said, "⁽M⁾Ask what you wish me to give you."

Solomon's Prayer

 6Then Solomon said, "⁽N⁾You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, ⁽O⁾according as he walked before You in ^[a^]truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and ⁽P⁾You have reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

 7"Now, O LORD my God, ⁽Q⁾You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet ⁽R⁾I am but a little child; ⁽S⁾I do not know how to go out or come in.”

            At the beginning of Solomon’s kingdom, he understood the challenge of the time of breakthrough and complacency.  He lacked nothing.  His father had been used by God, and everything he could have imagined had been earned by others, and he rules a kingdom he did not found, and was protected by an army he did not form.

I Kings 3:8  "⁽T⁾Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, ⁽U⁾a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted.

 9"So ⁽V⁾give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people ⁽W⁾to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?"

            Because Solomon’s heart for God led him to want to love God’s people the way that God loved him, Jehovah delivered an immensely greater degree of breakthrough, success and complacency.  So, while there were many things that Solomon would take for granted, Wisdom was not one of them.  In an era of unparalleled natural success, with a kingdom beyond the natural imagination, Solomon would bring natural wisdom to a whole new level, and learn more about God’s wisdom in the process.

God's Answer

I Kings 3:10  “It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

 11God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and have ⁽X⁾not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice,

 12behold, ⁽Y⁾I have done according to your words Behold, ⁽Z⁾I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

 13"⁽AA⁾I have also given you what you have not asked, both ⁽AB⁾riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

 14"⁽AC⁾If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ⁽AD⁾prolong your days."

The parable of the minas and the parable of the talents showed us that to whom many blessings are given, to the extent that they shepherd the blessings well, Jehovah will entrust them with substantially more.  Despite a kingdom beyond the natural imagination at the time, God blessed Solomon in the supernatural and natural at this early stage in Israel’s Third Kingdom.  When that stewardship comes in a time of breakthrough, the blessings are magnified.

 

A good definition of a time of natural breakthrough and abundance quickly followed Solomon’s ascension and blessings:

I Kings 4:25  ⁽AF⁾So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, ⁽AG⁾from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

 26⁽AH⁾Solomon had ^[c^]40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

            And, first among Solomon’s accomplishments is his violation against the admonition against collecting horses and chariots:

Deut 17:14  "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you ⁽P⁾possess it and live in it, and you say, '⁽Q⁾I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,'

 15you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one ⁽R⁾from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

 16"⁽S⁾Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ⁽T⁾cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since ⁽U⁾the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'

 17"⁽V⁾He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

            Deuteronomy makes it clear that the LORD will give the Hebrews a land of their own.  And, Jehovah knew that he would be giving them a King ten generations after Judah’s illicit relationship with Tamar brought about a line for Judah through Perez.

            Deuteronomy had explicit laws against tainted blood “entering the assembly.”  For example, any male who had been emasculated could enter the assembly. 

Deut 23:1  "⁽A⁾No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

 

Ruth sets out the ten generations of the woman that Judah had given to Er and Onan, his first and second sons.

Deut 23:2  "No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

 3"⁽B⁾No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD,

But, with the tenth generation, David would take the place prophesied for the line of Judah by Jacob:

            Gen 49:8  "Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
         Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
         ⁽H⁾Your father's sons shall bow down to you.

 

As Joseph had prophesied for himself, Jacob prophesied that his other sons would praise Judah, and that they would bow down to Judah’s descendants.

 

Judah would grow up as a lion’s whelp, and mature , couch and lie down as a lion:

 

Gen 49:9  "Judah is a ⁽I⁾lion's whelp;
         From the prey, my son, you have gone up
         ⁽J⁾He couches, he lies down as a lion,

 

As a lion, Judah would have the ability to protect his family from anybody who might threaten it.  As the protector, he would be the rules of all of the offspring promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  As such, the scepter would never depart from Judah, and the ruler’s staff would always  be between his feet until Shiloh comes:

 

          Gen 49:9b:  “And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
    10"⁽K⁾The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
         Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
         ^[a^]Until Shiloh comes,
         And ⁽L⁾to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

 

And, if the point had been lost on the Hebrews, Jehovah takes the point in Jacob’s Farewell address in Genesis one step further.  Now only shall Judah be the ruler until Shiloh comes, he will wash us with the blood.  The garment Jehovah gives to us will be drenched in blood, and in this cleansing, His teeth will still be as white as milk.

 

          Gen 49:11  "⁽M⁾He ties his foal to the vine,
         And his donkey's colt to the choice vine;
         ⁽N⁾He washes his garments in wine,
         And his robes in the blood of grapes.
    12"His eyes are ^[b^]dull from wine,
         And his teeth ^[c^]white from milk.

            But, the blessings of Gerizim and the curses of Ebal quickly left the minds of the Hebrews.  They had been admonished about these blessings and curses in Deuteronomy:

Deut 11:29  “When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.”

Deut 27:11   On the same day Moses commanded the people:    12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

            And, so it was.  When Joshua led the Hebrews across the Jordan, they gathered on Mount Gerizim to proclaim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal to proclaim the curses as the Lord had commanded Moses: 

Joshua 8:32   “There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing those who carried it—the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

 34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.

            Yet, with all his wisdom, when Solomon became king in this time of breakthrough, blessing and comfort, he forgot the words of Moses, the writings of Deuteronomy, the Deuteronomy curses of Chapter 28, and the pledges of the Hebrews at Gerizim and Ebal.  The most literate man in history forgot the most obvious and basic of writings from the same Jehovah, who had granted his wisdom:

I Kings 4:27  “Those deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.

 28They also brought barley and straw for the horses and ⁽AI⁾swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

 29Now ⁽AJ⁾God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, ⁽AK⁾like the sand that is on the seashore.

 30Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ⁽AL⁾the sons of the east and ⁽AM⁾all the wisdom of Egypt.

 31For ⁽AN⁾he was wiser than all men, than ⁽AO⁾Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, ⁽AP⁾Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

 32⁽AQ⁾He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

But, these were the blessings of his natural wisdom. His discernment triumphed in the natural, and was found wanting in the supernatural.  The breadth of his mind impressed Hebrews and foreigners, but Jehovah’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and his ways higher than ours.  He was wiser than all men, but not wiser than Jehovah.  And, he may have even occasionally forgotten that the 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs were the Holy Spirit speaking through him, and not the product of his natural intelligence.  Such is the double-edged sword of wisdom.

            The warnings to Solomon, despite all of his natural wisdom, reach as far back as Deuteronomy with the instructions that God gave before the first natural kingdom. The Word was given to Moses in the Wilderness, before Joshua and the Judges:

            Deut 17:14  "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you ⁽P⁾possess it and live in it, and you say, '⁽Q⁾I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,'

 15you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one ⁽R⁾from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

 16"⁽S⁾Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ⁽T⁾cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since ⁽U⁾the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'

 17"⁽V⁾He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

 18"Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ⁽W⁾in the presence of the Levitical priests.

 19"It shall be with him and he shall read it ⁽X⁾all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

 20that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen ⁽Y⁾and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel..2

            But, Solomon multiplies wives, horses, chariots, gold and everything else that would have indicated that the Wisdom given to him by God would be ignored:

            1 Kings 3:7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"3

            The problems repeated themselves in Third Church Age, when Constantine married the church to the world. After years of the Aryan crisis, when the followers of Athanasius prevailed at the Council of Nicea. After years of persecution, the church was accepted by a natural monarch, who imposed the church on everybody, and belief in Jesus was no longer an option. With faith a precondition of Roman citizenship, social success was contingent on a pledge for Christ, but not a heart for Christ. This gave many non-believers a way to become apparent citizens of a kingdom in which they had no spiritual commitment. In the marriage of the church to the world, Christ was watered down to a commitment in the natural realm to a person with all of the limitations of greater humanity, starting with the fact that His way are higher than all of ours . . . even those of a monarch.

            The problem of Solomon is well described by the mustard seed. The Kingdom of Solomon was so great that Sheba could come to learn and hundreds of wives could be included from hundreds of cultures and faiths. Constantine followed the same problem, when Rome absorbed so many non-believing pagans into the Church without winnings their hearts to Christ. So many of ministers of Satan were actually brought into the community of the Kingdom that there was enormous room for evil.

            Those same evils could be found in Corinthians, and they describe the sexual excesses of which Solomon availed himseLf:

            Ecc 2:10  “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
       I refused my heart no pleasure.
       My heart took delight in all my work,
       and this was the reward for all my labor.

 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
       and what I had toiled to achieve,
       everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
       nothing was gained under the sun.4

And, as society progress, the marriage of Christ’s church to the natural world became even more firmly rooted in the natural, not the supernatural.

25b.  Nathan, the prophet, and Zadok the Priest

 

            Solomon inherited a wonderful priesthood from David.  Nathan, the prophet, had become famous for bringing the news of God's judgment to David, the man who had slain the one sheep of Urriah when he took Bathsheba.  Nathan delivered the message in a parable.  David quickly discerned the significance of the story:

 

            2 Samuel 12:5  “Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this (D)deserves to die.

 6"He must make restitution for the lamb (E)fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion."

            Then, Nathan delivered God's judgment to David, echoing David's comprehension of the nature of his sin:

            2 Samuel 12:7  “Nathan then said to David, "(F)You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, '(G)It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul.

 8'I also gave you (H)your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!

 9'Why (I)have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? (J)You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, (K)have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

 10'Now therefore, (L)the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'

 

            The Zadokite priesthood would be historically significant through the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, when the parameters of the Zadokite priesthood would define what was expected of inter-testimental rabbis for hundreds of years to come.

 

            Nathan, the prophet, was the one who brought the news of Adonijah's betrayal of David and attempt to usurp Solomon's kingdom:

 

1 Kings 1:11  “Then Nathan spoke to (O)Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, "Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know it?

 12"So now come, please let me (P)give you counsel and save your life and the life of your son Solomon.

 13"Go at once to King David and say to him, 'Have you not, my lord, O king, sworn to your maidservant, saying, "(Q)Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne"? Why then has Adonijah become king?'

 

            With gifts of Wisdom, a direct relationship with God, prophesies of Nathan and blessings from Zadok, Solomon had it all.  God wrote Proverbs, the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes through him. He blessed him with the opportunity to build the First Temple and riches and knowledge, natural breakthrough beyond imagination.  But, despite the teachings of Nathan and Zadok, great breakthrough would bring great temptation, and great fall.  Solomon's failure to heed the prophets of his time led to the split between Judah and Israel, where Jeroboam would lead the house of Joseph out of the house of David.

 

            The prophetic nature of Solomon's kingdom was underlined when Solomon rode into his kingdom on King David's mule.  Speaking to the promises of God to David, as Jesus would be presented to Jerusalem on the day of presentation, the 10^th of Nizan, Solomon was anointed and presented to the people of the Kingdom:

Solomon Anointed King

1 Kings 1:38  “So (AJ)Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, (AK)the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule, and brought him to (AL)Gihon.

 39Zadok the priest then (AM)took the horn of oil from the tent and (AN)anointed Solomon Then they (AO)blew the trumpet, and all the people said, "(AP)Long live King Solomon!"

 

            Solomon was surrounded by God's righteousness from the beginning, and while Adonijah was the first to come against him, the threats to be posed by Jeroboam would be more significant:

1 Kings 1:42While he was still speaking, behold, (AQ)Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came Then Adonijah said, "Come in, for (AR)you are a valiant man and bring good news."

 43But Jonathan replied to Adonijah, "No! Our lord King David has made Solomon king.

            Jonathan and Adonijah would understand the significance of the blessings of Zakor and Nathan, and Abiathar would understand the risk that Adonijah had undertaken by their aggressive coronation:

1 Samuel 1:44  "The king has also sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites; and they have made him ride on the king's mule.

 45"Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there rejoicing, (AS)so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard.

 46"Besides, (AT)Solomon has even taken his seat on the throne of the kingdom.

 47"Moreover, the king's servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, 'May (AU)your God make the name of Solomon better than your name and his throne greater than your throne!' And (AV)the king bowed himself on the bed.

 48"The king has also said thus, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who (AW)has granted one to sit on my throne today while my own eyes see it.'"

 49Then all the guests of Adonijah were terrified; and they arose and each went on his way.

 50And Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he arose, went and (AX)took hold of the horns of the altar.

            And, Nathan would be the one to deliver to David both the promises to his natural kingdom in the “House of David,” and the knowledge that the First Temple should be built by Solomon:

2 Samuel 7:1  “(A)Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest on every side from all his enemies,

 2that the king said to (B)Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in (C)a house of cedar, but the ark of God (D)dwells within tent curtains."

 3Nathan said to the king, "(E)Go, do all that is in your mind, for the LORD is with you."

            As the chief advisor to David, the Word of God relative to the First Temple would be delivered through Nathan to David for the instruction of Wisdom.  The breakthrough would not come to David, because of the blood on his hands.  But, his son would receive the blessings of the promise associated with the First Temple:

2 Samuel 7:4 “But in the same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying,

 5"Go and say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD, "(F)Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?

 6"For (G)I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about (H)in a tent, even in a tabernacle.

 7"(I)Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, (J)which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'

25c.  Jeroboam

 

            Solomon failed to discern the exhortations and warnings of Mountains Gerazim and Ebal, and he had multiplies wives, horses, charriots and sins.  Jeroboam would lead the sinful out of the house of Judah, with the opportunity to either follow God or the Egyptian cali in Aaron's wilderness:

 

            1 Kings 11:1  “Now (A)King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

 2from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, "(B)You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love.

 3(C)He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

            More important than the natural sins was the fact that he allowed his focus to be turned away from God:

 

            1 Kings 11:4  “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and (D)his heart was not [a]wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

 

            God's instrument of punishment for Solomon's half-hearted devotion was Jeroboam:

 

            1 Kings 11:26  “Then (X)Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow, (Y)also rebelled against the king.

 27Now this was the reason why he rebelled against the king: (Z)Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of his father David.

 

            Solomon's appreciation of Jeroboam's strengths in the natural were ironic, and, in the natural, he would supervise many of Solomon's natural achievements before the prophesies of God were delivered:

            1 Kings 11:28  “Now the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior, and when (AA)Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he appointed him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

 29It came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that (AB)the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field.

            We know that a man's mantle was on the hem of his garment.  Ahijah replaced Jeroboam's hem by nature of a new cloak.  The prophet then spoke of the separation of Israel from Judah, symbolically the house of Joseph from the house of David:

            1 Kings 11:30  “Then (AC)Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.

 31He said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Behold, (AD)I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes

 32((AE)but he will have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, (AF)the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel),

 33because they have forsaken Me, and (AG)have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, (AH)Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and observing My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did.

            Jeroboam's kingdom, foreshadowed by the prophetic decision by Solomon to appoint him to forced labor over the household of Joseph, would not take away from the promises to Judah through David:

            1 Kings 11:34  “'Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of My servant David whom I chose, who observed My commandments and My statutes;

 35but (AI)I will take the kingdom from his son's hand and give it to you, even ten tribes.

 36'But (AJ)to his son I will give one tribe, (AK)that My servant David may have a lamp always before Me in Jerusalem, (AL)the city where I have chosen for Myself to put My name.

 37'I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you shall be king over Israel.

 38'Then it will be, that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight by observing My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then (AM)I will be with you and (AN)build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

 39'Thus I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but not always.'"

 40Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death; but Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt to (AO)Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

 

 12Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, "(H)Return to me on the third day."

            And, one chapter later, Solomon was dead, and Rehoboam's selfishness would cause the people of his kingdom to turn to Jeroboam. 

            1 Kings 12:11  “'Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'"

            The people followed Jeroboam, and the new kingdom was prophetically born on that third day.  From the sins of the house of Judah, the house of Israel was born, with new promises and new opportunities, which would lead to new failures:

            1 Kings 12:12  “Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, "(H)Return to me on the third day."

 13The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him,

 14and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "(I)My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."

 15So the king did not listen to the people; (J)for it was a turn of events from the LORD, (K)that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

            But, the opportunity of Israel was born in sin, and Ephraim was never right with God, having determined in the beginning that if “the kingdom will return to the ouse of David,” that he would return to the golden calf from the Wilderness:

            1 Kings 12:25  “Then (U)Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there And he went out from there and built (V)Penuel.

 26Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

 27"(W)If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."

 28So the king consulted, and (X)made two golden (Y)calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; (Z)behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt."

 29He set (AA)one in (AB)Bethel, and the other he put in (AC)Dan.

 

Chapter 26.  Paul’s letter to the Corinthians

            The frequent comparisons of the Corinthians of scripture to the Californians of modern day is both amusing and indicative of trends. As with Solomon, with natural breakthrough, there was a marriage to the natural.  Although Solomon knew that “Fear of the Lord was the beginning of Wisdom,” he sought blessings in every natural direction. With his natural wisdom, success and breakthrough, in Ecclesiastes Solomon realized (unfortunately, a little too late) that natural breakthrough would be meaningless without God's blessings.  Marriage to the world, the Worldly church, is meaningless. In the daus of Paul's ministry, an adulterer was called a “Corinthian.”  The Corinthian church was blessed with much natural fruit, and cursed with much carnal distraction.

            1 Corinthians 5:1  “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has (A)his father's wife.

 2You (B)have become arrogant and have not (C)mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be (D)removed from your midst.

 3For I, on my part, though (E)absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

            In the same way, Solomon was blessed with much fruit, blessings of every sort, the wisest man in history, the author of Proverbs of wisdom the Song of Solomon in love. Yet, he was cursed with more carnal distraction than any of the other kings of the Old Testament.  Like the Corinthians, Solomon achieved every natural pleasure.

 

            Ecclesiastes 2:1  “I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with (A)pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility.

 2(B)I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"

            Solomon was most famous for carnal pleasures of multitudes of wives, and stimulating his natural senses:

            Ecclesiastes 2:3  “I explored with my mind how to (C)stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of (D)folly, until I could see (E)what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

            Even monuments and building the First Temple was not enough to keep his eyes focused on God:

            Ecclesiasates 2:4  “I enlarged my works: I (F)built houses for myself, I planted (G)vineyards for myself;

 5I made (H)gardens and (I)parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees;

 6I made (J)ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.

Letters to Corinthians

            Paul's letter to the Corinthians seems to start where Ecclesiastes ends:

          1 Cor 1:18  “For the word of the cross is (AI)foolishness to (AJ)those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is (AK)the power of God.

 19For it is written,
         "(AL)I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
         AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE."

            The time of national blindness described by Jesus is Luke 29:40 had been prophesied by Isaiah:

            Isaiah 29:14  “Therefore behold, I will once again deal (A)marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
         And (B)the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
         And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."

 

            When God allowed national blindness to pervade Jerusalem, the Word of God seemed like foolishness, because it lacked all of the natural blessings that we have come to appreciate.  Men respect wealth, success, and natural breakthrough, but God knows that these can be either resources for the kingdom or snares, depending on where our heart stands with God:

            1 Cor 1:20  “(AM)Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of (AN)this age? Has not God (AO)made foolish the wisdom of (AP)the world?”

            All of the wisdom of the world hadn't helped Solomon properly discern God, and it led to the separation of Joseph from Judah.  It also led to the separation of the followers of “The Way” from Judah.  This happened because the Hebrews were looking for signs of success and breakthrough in the natural, and Jesus was looking to free their souls from spiritual slavery, not their lives from the natural slavery of Rome:

            1 Cor 1:21  “For since in the wisdom of God (AQ)the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, (AR)God was well-pleased through the (AS)foolishness of the message preached to (AT)save those who believe.

 

            The natural blindness that had plagues the Hebrews came from the stumbling block of Ben Joseph, the suffering servant.  For those impressed by blessings in the natural, the idea of God as a suffering servant, bleeding helplessly on a Cross, was too inconsistent with the idea of the manifestation of God on earth:

            1 Cor 1:22  “For indeed (AU)Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;

            The concept of God suffering had been set out in Isaiah:

            Isaiah 53:2   “He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
       and like a root out of dry ground.
       He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
       nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

 3 He was despised and rejected by men,
       a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
       Like one from whom men hide their faces
       he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

            God's faithful were expecting to see God manifesting in the clouds, coming in glory, a pillar of fire, opening the Red Sea, or doing something more than being plain, sorrowful and suffering. 

            The Greeks looked at philosophy as theory, so they were less inclined to appreciate that God means what He says, and says what He means.  We are given rules for our protection, and god's laws are designed to bring us into relationship with God and a deeper understanding of His nature.  The philosopher's robes and the natural wisdom of Solomon don't bring us to a deeper relationship with God, but they ensnare us to the distractions of the natural.

            The Hebrews stumbled on Christ's humility, and they found it harder to rise in the supernatural world because they were so focused on signs and wonders in the natural.  A suffering servant didn't fit their idea of God.  They didn't expect somebody who might be despised in the natural.  And, because their eyes were fixed on the natural, they couldn't understand the subtle supernatural blessing of a man bleeding on a Cross taking away the sins of the world:

 

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

            The blessings were lost in the apparent cries of helpless suffering, as David has prophesied in Psalms 22:

            Psalms 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
       Why are you so far from saving me,
       so far from the words of my groaning?

 2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
       by night, and am not silent.

            But, spiritual insight takes the heart where the eyes would not go:

            1 Cor 1:23  “but we preach [c](AV)Christ crucified, (AW)to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles (AX)foolishness,

 24but to those who are (AY)the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ (AZ)the power of God and (BA)the wisdom of God.

 25Because the (BB)foolishness of God is wiser than men, and (BC)the weakness of God is stronger than men.

            The lesson of Solomon's wisdom was to look above natural promises, and see what God was promising in the supernatural.  Solomon and the Greeks were all wise according to the flesh, but they went by what they saw in the natural, and not what they heard in faith:

            1 Cor 1:26For consider your (BD)calling, brethren, that there were (BE)not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

            After years of listening to the words of the prophets, men have learned to respect worldly success, and they forget what they know in God.  Jesus spoke of the block, which the builders had rejected.  After years of taking their eyes off of God, and placing faith in the things of the flesh, God was entreating the faithful:

            1 Cor 1:27but (BF)God has chosen the foolish things of (BG)the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of (BH)the world to shame the things which are strong,

 28and the base things of (BI)the world and the despised God has chosen, (BJ)the things that are not, so that He may (BK)nullify the things that are,

 29so that (BL)no man may boast before God.

            Because the only wisdom that matters is the Wisdom that starts with the Fear of the Lord, and lets us know that what matters is our faith in God and the fact that He wants to come live in our hearts.  If we know who we are in Him, and who He wants to be in us.  That is the only thing worth boasting, that He may live in the hearts of the faithful.

            1 Cor 1:30  “But by His doing you are in (BM)Christ Jesus, who became to us (BN)wisdom from God, and (BO)righteousness and (BP)sanctification, and (BQ)redemption,

 31so that, just as it is written, "(BR)LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."

            Like Solomon, we can search the world for answers that we can see.  We look for down microscopes and up telescopes for complication, but we learn that the primordial goo is more complex than anything it a computer program. 

            The “foolishness” of the world is that there is nothing in science as complex as the mysteries of God, and the fact that the center of the natural universe starts and ends at the Cross.  The “superiority” of speech or wisdom comes from Jesus, laying his life down at the Cross for our redemption, which was God's plan of salvation from the the point where God created the dimensionality of natural time. 

            In our limited understanding of natural dimensionality, we have trouble how God created something that we can barely measure, accept as an absolute, and allow to govern our lives.  But, the overlying fact is that there is nothing more important to our Wisdom or growth or being than Christ crucified.  It is the beginning of our understanding and the center of our universe. Fear and trembling, along with weakness in the natural universe it the basis of our redemption and blessings through the Cross:

            1 Cor 2:1  “And when I came to you, brethren, I (A)did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you (B)the [a]testimony of God.

 2For I determined to know nothing among you except (C)Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

 3I was with you in (D)weakness and in (E)fear and in much trembling,

            In the natural, we tend to respect smooth words and deep insight.  It's ironic that we can focus on the gifts that God has given us, because we can see their benefits in the natural.  We don't see the supernatural blessing that underlies the gifts, and this was part of the crisis facing the Corinthians.

            They were gifted in knowledge of the natural, and even in their understanding of philosophy.  They reveled in the Spiritual gifts, but, like Solomon, they tended to appreciate the gifts more than the Giver.  They fell out of relationship with the Giver, and needed to be brought back from natural wisdom to supernatural relationship.

            It's wonderful to study and understand more about God.  But, if knowledge leads only to more facts and details, then it's taking us away from relationship.  We would be depriving ourselves our the breakthrough that God intended for us.  Instead, we have the opportunity to grown in relationship with the Creator of the universe.  The more we understand who He is, the more we can grow in relationship with Him.  And, that's the advantage of supernatural understanding of God's nature as it heightens our relationship with Him, allowing us to live more consistently with His will and receive all of the blessings He has intended through and for us.

            The Truth comes to us not in the power of naturally persuasive words, but in the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” so that our faith is in God, and not in anything that proceeds from our natural wisdom, or anything contained in our natural breakthrough:

            1 Cor 2:4  “and my message and my preaching were (F)not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of (G)the Spirit and of power,

 5so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on (H)the power of God.

            The lesson for the Corinthians was rooted in their appearance of breakthrough in the natural.  Maturity and wisdom in the LORD lead us away from the snares, which have caught so many of the rulers of this evil age.  Those who seek natural success may enjoy it for moments in the natural – and those who seek treasures in heaven are less likely to be deceived by the appearance of shiny objects in the natural by the maturity and wisdom that come from Fear of the Lord::

            1 Cor 2:6  “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are (I)mature; a wisdom, however, not of (J)this age nor of the rulers of (K)this age, who are (L)passing away;

 7but we speak God's wisdom in a (M)mystery, the hidden wisdom which God (N)predestined before the (O)ages to our glory;

 8the wisdom (P)which none of the rulers of (Q)this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified (R)the Lord of glory;

 9but just as it is written,
         "(S)THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
         AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
         ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."

 10[b](T)For to us God revealed them (U)through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the (V)depths of God.

            If we can overlook the natural, and rest in faith for the LORD, then we can overcome natural snares and receive the blessings that “God has prepared for those who love Him.  We don't learn about life from natural details, but by perceiving what God has made in the natural, both in Spirit and in Truth.  Natural understanding without knowledge of God leads to spiritual death.  Overcoming our bias against the “unseen” will always appear to be “foolishness” to those who are not “spiritually appraised:”

            1 Cor 2:14  “But a (AA)natural man (AB)does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are (AC)foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

 15But he who is (AD)spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.

 16For (AE)WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But (AF)we have the mind of Christ.

 

            And, we can only receive what the LORD has for us if we invite Christ to come into our hearts and allow the Spirit of God to transform us from trust in what we see to faith in what God has for us.  When God has come into our lives, we can know the mind of the LORD, and He will instruct us in the Wisdom of salvation and eternal life.

            When we move to Christ through the Cross, we allow our hearts to be transformed, and we begin to conform our minds to the Mind of the LORD.  When we accept the transformation that the LORD has for us, we move from the milk of God's will for us into the blessings of God's plans for us to grow in relationship with Him:

 

            1 Cor 3:1  “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to (A)spiritual men, but as to (B)men of flesh, as to (C)infants in Christ.

 2I gave you (D)milk to drink, not solid food; for you (E)were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

 3for you are still fleshly. For since there is (F)jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking (G)like mere men?

            The most important distinction between God's Wisdom and natural wisdom is that we only move “up” in the Kingdom to the extent that we humble ourselves, taking away our honor in the natural, condemning the “Old Man” to death, to allow Christ more room to live in us.  As we become a spectacle, fools for Christ in the natural, we become “prudent in Christ,” and enjoy the heights of His grace in the strength of our human weakness.

            1 Cor 4:9  “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men (O)condemned to death; because we (P)have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

 10We are (Q)fools for Christ's sake, but (R)you are prudent in Christ; (S)we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.

            It is ironic that we focus on gifts, because that is all we have.  If God has not given it to us, then we would have nothing.  Our heart for works, and our efforts towards works are all from His gifts.  Our heart for God comes as one of His gifts.  Our ability to discern and do good comes as one of His gifts.  Our insights and intelligence are all His gifts.  When we do something for God, we are giving back to Him what was always His.

            The hardest thing for the natural mind to comprehend is that we bring nothing to the table.  The strongest achievements and potential of mankind is severely below the least of God's miracles.  Even with all of the gifts, we can not achieve our own salvation, because that comes by His goodness, grace and mercy alone.  The only thing we can do is exercise the free will and discernment that He gave us to choose to accept His love, which we can't even begin to fully comprehend or return on any meaningful basis, but for His gifts of love in our lives:

            1 Corinthians 4:19 “But I ⁽A⁾will come to you soon, ⁽B⁾if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are ⁽C⁾arrogant but their power.

 20For the kingdom of God does ⁽D⁾not consist in words but in power.

 21What do you desire? ⁽E⁾Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

            While we can do nothing to contribute to our own salvation, there is one thing that we can do.  We can show our appreciation for His gifts for trying to be conformed to Him and his nature.  We can try to be holy, set ourselves apart for God, and respect His laws because it brings us into closer relationship with Him, and makes it easier for Him to give us every good and perfect thing that He desires for our lives:

            1 Corinthians 6:8   “On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your ⁽A⁾brethren.

 9Or ⁽B⁾do you not know that the unrighteous will not ⁽C⁾inherit the kingdom of God? ⁽D⁾Do not be deceived; ⁽E⁾neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ^[a^]effeminate, nor homosexuals,

 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ⁽F⁾inherit the kingdom of God.

            Solomon's natural wisdom had led him to take many wives, mitigating against God's exhortations against multiplying wives.  Paul exhorted the Corinthians to one wife, understanding that the relationship between a husband and a woman helps guard against falling into Corinthian temptations and immorality:

1 Cor 7:2  “But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

 3The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

 4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

 5(B)Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that (C)Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

            Solomon had natural gifts, which made him a great natural leader.  The Corinthians, because of their knowledge and understanding of metaphysics, quickly developed an understanding and appreciation of the Spiritual gifts, but they focused more on the gifts than the Giver.  They were more focused on exercising “power” than using them to forge a deeper relationship with God, or to develop a more profound understanding of God's purposes being fulfilled in their lives.

            Paul explained to these gifted Greeks that there was a variety of gifts, with a variety of uses and purposes, but that they were all given to them by the Spirit of God for God's purposes, not their own purposes:

            1 Cor 12:4  “Now there are (J)varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

 5And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.

 6There are varieties of effects, but the same (K)God who works all things in all persons.

            The gifts were divided among believers to encourage them to function in Unity, as God functions in unity.  The gifts function to bring the Body of Christ together, in the same way that the Father, Truth and Spirit function as One:

 7But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit (L)for the common good.

 8For to one is given the word of (M)wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of (N)knowledge according to the same Spirit;

 9to another (O)faith by the same Spirit, and to another (P)gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

 10and to another the effecting of (Q)miracles, and to another (R)prophecy, and to another the (S)distinguishing of spirits, to another various (T)kinds of tongues, and to another the (U)interpretation of tongues.

 11But one and the same Spirit works all these things, (V)distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

            The overall objective of use of the gifts is not to lead to power or control, but to bring everybody together in unity of love, first for God, and then for each other as God loves each and every one of us.  We cannot miss this as the most important faced of the gifts, that they are designed to bring us into greater relationship with the character and characteristics of Love in God:

            1 Cor 13:1  “If I speak with the (A)tongues of men and of (B)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a (C)clanging cymbal.

 2If I have the gift of (D)prophecy, and know all (E)mysteries and all (F)knowledge; and if I have (G)all faith, so as to (H)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

 3And if I (I)give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I (J)surrender my body [a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

            The gifts, the commandments, the church, and all of the elements of the Christian life mean nothing if they don't bring us into a deeper relationship with God, lead us to a deeper understanding of Love in God's terms and His character, and lead us to receive and return His love as best we can, and to model that love among all men as best we can.  And, if all this doesn't lead us to love, then no matter what we have achieved in the natural, “it profits me nothing.”

            In the famous citation for wedding vows, we are exhorted to take the principal of love into every aspect of our lives.  It's ironic how we struggle just to keep Love active in our marriages, and forget that it is supposed to govern every aspect of our relationship with all mankind, as God's love supersedes any particular group, and is a hand that He holds out to all mankind as an invitation to receive Him in our lives:

            1 Cor 13:4  “Love (K)is patient, love is kind and (L)is not jealous; love does not brag and is not (M)arrogant,

 5does not act unbecomingly; it (N)does not seek its own, is not provoked, (O)does not take into account a wrong suffered,

 6(P)does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but (Q)rejoices with the truth;

 7(R)bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of (S)prophecy, they will be done away; if there are (T)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

            While we're busy learning to love each other as God loves us, we come back to the concept that is so simple, and yet so complicated.  We're never going to fully understand God's love for us.  The depth of His ways and thought are so much more profound than a human mind will ever comprehend.  But, while it has an infinite number of working parts, the essence is simple.  All we need to know is the Gospel, which is that Jesus was born the son of God, crucified as the Lamb of God to atone for our sins, and that He conquered death so that we might have everlasting life as set forth in the Scripture: 

 1 Cor 15:3  “For (F)I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died (G)for our sins (H)according to the Scriptures,

 4and that He was buried, and that He was (I)raised on the third day (J)according to the Scriptures,

            And, while we will never fully comprehend the profundity of the Gospel, we wait until the end of natural time to understand the Resurrection power inherent in our relationship with Christ:

            1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now Christ ⁽AC⁾has been raised from the dead, the ⁽AD⁾first fruits of those who ⁽AE⁾are asleep.

 21For since ⁽AF⁾by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

 22For ⁽AG⁾as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

 23But each in his own order: Christ ⁽AH⁾the first fruits, after that ⁽AI⁾those who are Christ's at ⁽AJ⁾His coming,

 24then comes the end, when He hands over ⁽AK⁾the kingdom to the ⁽AL⁾God and Father, when He has abolished ⁽AM⁾all rule and all authority and power.

 25For He must reign ⁽AN⁾until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

 26The last enemy that will be ⁽AO⁾abolished is death.

 27For ⁽AP⁾HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET But when He says, "⁽AQ⁾All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.

            True Wisdom will come when our relationship with God is not distracted by the natural.  And, that Wisdom comes in the resurrection of a perishable natural body raised in an imperishable body with God's resurrection power:

            1 Cor 15:42  “⁽BH⁾So also is the resurrection of the dead It is sown ⁽BI⁾a perishable body, it is raised ⁽BJ⁾an imperishable body;

 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in ⁽BK⁾glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

 44it is sown a ⁽BL⁾natural body, it is raised a ⁽BM⁾spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

 45So also it is written, "The first ⁽BN⁾MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL " The ⁽BO⁾last Adam became a ⁽BP⁾life-giving spirit.

 46However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

 47The first man is ⁽BQ⁾from the earth, ⁽BR⁾earthy; the second man is from heaven.

            True Wisdom comes when we come into His Kingdom:

            1 Cor 15:50  “Now I say this, brethren, that ⁽BV⁾flesh and blood cannot ⁽BW⁾inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit ⁽BX⁾the imperishable.

 51Behold, I tell you a ⁽BY⁾mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be ⁽BZ⁾changed,

 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for ⁽CA⁾the trumpet will sound, and ⁽CB⁾the dead will be raised imperishable, and ⁽CC⁾we will be changed.

 53For this perishable must put on ⁽CD⁾the imperishable, and this ⁽CE⁾mortal must put on immortality.

 54But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "⁽CF⁾DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

 55"⁽CG⁾O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"

 56The sting of ⁽CH⁾death is sin, and ⁽CI⁾the power of sin is the law;

 57but ⁽CJ⁾thanks be to God, who gives us the ⁽CK⁾victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 58⁽CL⁾Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in ⁽CM⁾the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Chapter 27.  Sharper than a Double Edged Sword : Jesus’ letter to Pergamus

 

            One explanation of this period is that the age of Pergamos was a time when Constantine's political protections of the church allowed them to “settle down.”  An atmosphere of safety replaced a time of fear.  Without continual external pressures and oppression, the need for vigilant protection of the Way relaxed.  As with most of us, when we relax, we get sloppy.  When there is too much comfort, there tends to be an opportunity for lethargy and aparthy to lead to disastrous results.

            In the Age of Pergamos, the time of relaxation allowed the enemies of the Biblical principals had a chance to share their ideas in the interest of diversity.  Since the law required everybody to be a Christian, outside people brought their original beliefs into the church, and an anti-Christ spirit of age found lots of areas of darkness and ignorance to flourish. 

            Jesus' Relevation letter to the Age of Pergamos spoketo the “seat” of anti-Christ,”where Satan's seat is.”  The Pergamean thoughtshad drifted from ancient Babylonian religion, previous biases in Asia Minor (homeof the Nicean council in A.D. 325) and the desire for non-confrontational worldwide acceptance.  To make things fun for families, this was the time when pagan festivals were adapted to the new faith, and Astarte's eggs and the Yule log could become part of the traditions on Easter and Christmas.

27a.  PERGAMEAN AGE

            This age lasts from 312 to 606.  The invasion of the Christian Church by the Babylonian spirit ushers in the”Dark Ages” for the Church.

            Pergamus has strong similarities to Corinth (and Calfiornia).  Branham's text explains that “Pergamum (ancient name) was situated in Mysia, in a district watered by three rivers, by one of which it communicated to the sea. It was described as the most illustrious city in Asia.”[17] So, like the Greek city of Corinth and the American city of Los Angeles,it was a great sea port and center of trade.  The enormous amount of commerce through the city made it a center of wealth, and breakthrough, wealth and natural success come the various snares of natural wisdom.

            With natural wisdom come the intellectuals who guard the natural throughts, philosophies and literature of their cultures.  Branham explains that Pergamos was also “a city of culture with a library second only to that in Alexandria.”

            If you like to watch movies, or read much literature, we know that every culture tends to attract the carnal element.  When there is money, power will always lead men to covet control, and sexuality seems to be a significant part of a culture of success and affluence.  So, it is no surprise that Branham describes Pergamos as “a city of great sin, given over to licentious rites of the worship of Aesculapius, whom they worshipped in the form of a living serpent which was housed and fed in the temple. In this beautiful city of irrigated groves, public walks and parks lived a small group of dedicated believers who were not fooled by the veneer of beauty, and abhorred the Satanic worship that filled the place.”

27b. PEGAMEAN MESSENGER

            Branham saw God's messengerof the day as Martin, a military man from Hungary who moved into ministry and peformed many miracles. But, he was best known for takinga stand against the organization that was coming to the church from Rome.

            Branham wrote that “by signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit, Martin was truly vindicated as the messenger to that age. But not only was he gifted by a great ministry, he himself was forever true to the Word of God. He fought organization. He withstood sin in high places. He championed the truth in word and deed and lived out a full life of Christian victory.”

            “A biographer wrote of him on this wise. "No one ever saw him angry, or disturbed, or grieving, or laughing. He was always one and the same, and seemed something beyond mortal, wearing on his countenance a sort of celestial joy. Never was anything on his lips but Christ, never anything in his heart but piety, peace and pity. Often did he weep for the sins even of those his detractors, who when he was quiet and absent attacked him with viperous lips and poisoned tongues. Many hated him for virtues they themselves did not possess and could not imitate; and alas! his bitterest assailants were bishops."[18]

            But, I think that most would have seen God's messengers to the beginning of the Pergamean Age circling around the controversies of the Aryan crisis, when the Eastern bishops of Nicea engaged in life and death political struggles with the Western bishops of Alexandria.  When the orthodoxy of Athansius' followers in Nicea triumphed over the heterodoxy of Arius in Alexandria, there was no longer room for open theological diversity, and the power and might of Constantinople would lead the church for years to come.

            As Branham described Constantine, he had seen the Church at Rome and other Christians “disagreeing over various matters, one of which involved Arius, Bishop of Alexander, who taught his adherents that Jesus was not truly God but a lesser being, having been created by God. The Western Church held the opposite view, believing that Jesus was the very essence of God and as they said 'co- equal with the Father.' With such matters, along with the intrusion of pagan ceremony into worship, the emperor called for the Nicene Council in 325 with the thought that he would bring all groups together where they could iron out their differences, and come to a common understanding, and all be one.”[19] 

27c.  THE SALUTATION

            In Revelation 2:12-13, Jesus introduces himself in the letter to Pergamus with His description of Himself:“These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne.”1

            The salutation of the Letter to Pergamos shows the maturity of the church.  The “sharp sword with two edges” shows the development since the “Ephesian Age” of the Apostles, when Christ's followers argued to an unbelieving secular worldthat “He was set forth as an unchanging God.”  Then,in the Smyrnean Age or persecution and trails, we learned to endure wildeerness and testing because “He was the ONE TRUE God, and besides Him there was no other.”  But, in this Pergamean Age, “there is a further revelation of His Godhead, set forth byHis association with the shartp two edged sword,which is the Word of God.”[20]

            To those who would try to follow the crowd, blend in with the newly institutionalized faith, and pay lip service to His Word, they would find that The Word was a true and living God, who was not willing to be mocked or demeaned.

            The sword is real, and while it may come from the supernatural, it's manifestation in the natural will be more profound than the words of a roman Emperor pretending to be god.  Branham points to Ephesians 6:17, where the Word says: "And take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God." Again, in Revelation 19:13 & 15a, the Word says "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called the Word of God. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp two-edged sword."  This was a sword that would take both natural and supernatural lives, and leave dripping blood in its wake.

                 The failure of the Word of God following believers from relationship to organization is that the institutions, traditions and words of men supersede the Word of God.  Man-made manufactured prayer superseded Spirit-filled prayer, but Branham asked:  “I wonder if we are sufficiently impressed with the Word in our midst. Let me give you a thought here. How do we pray? We pray in Jesus Name don't we? Every prayer is in His Name or there isn't any answer. Yet in I John 5:14, we are told, "This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him."

                 Branham lamented that:  “Now then, this Word He has left behind on the printed page is a part of Him when you accept it by faith into a Spirit-filled life. He said that His Word was life. John 6:63b. But that is exactly what He is: John 14:6, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Romans 8:9b "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." There it is, He is Spirit and He is Life. That is exactly what the Word is; that is exactly what Jesus is. He is the Word. So when a Spirit-born, Spirit-filled man in faith takes that Word into his heart and places it upon his lips, why that is the same as Deity speaking. Every mountain has to go. Satan cannot stand before that man.”

                 But, the natural intelligence of those who had led Jesus' flock led them to believe that they could present The Word better than Jesus had presented it.  They forgot the power of His Word:  “If the church, way back there in that third age had only held on to the revelation of the living Word in their midst, the power of God would not have faded as it did in those Dark Ages. And right today, when the church returns to the Word in faith, we can say without doubt that the glory of God and the wonderful acts of God will be in her midst again.”

27d.  CHRIST EULOGIZES THE CHURCH

     Revelation 2:13 "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."

            Branham emphasizes the importance of the words:  "I know thy works."   he notes that “These are the identical words uttered to each of the seven messengers relative to the people of God in each age. As they are spoken to the two vines (true and false) they will bring joy and gladness to the hearts of one group, but they ought to strike terror in the hearts of the other.

            “ For though we are saved by grace, apart from works, true salvation will bring forth works, or deeds that will please God. I John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that DOETH (worketh) righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." If this verse means anything at all, it means that what a man DOES he IS.”[21]

            We are frequently admonished to be examiners of “fruit,” and not examiners of gifts.  When we receive knowledge, and the ability to discern the complicated and solve the inconceivable, we may be recognized in the natural.  But, the gifts are resources for His purposes, times, will and way, and not merely a snare to lead us to pride.  If we perceive and execute our actions based on childlike faith, God can useus mightily.  But, if we see the gifts as starting from or being us, then we will not be working righteousness, and our bad fruit may be proof that Christ has not come to live in us.

            If we have lots of gifts and no fruit, we may be forced to examine which spirit we are of.  Our lips may profess Christ, and we may attend church, but our hearts may still live in the Old Man, where Satan dwells.  If our actions do not evidence our fruit, we should examine our own hearts, and make sure that our confession of Christ comes from our heart, and not just from our lips.

            Branham pointed to Matthew 12:33-35:   "Either make the tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."

            As fruit inspectors, we should be able to discern good and evil treasures from believers and non-believers.  But, if a many is truly a believer,then he is born in the Word:  “Now if a man is born of the Word (Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. I Peter 1:23) he will produce the Word. The fruit or works of his life will be a product of the kind of seed or life that is in him.”

            Branham continued that:  “His works, therefore will be Scriptural. Oh, what an indictment this truth is going to be against the Pergamean Age.”  Because the Word of God is alive, we must be cognizant of the double edged sword, which demands faith, not vain repetition from lying lips:  “There stands that Matchless One, and in His hand the sharp sword with the two edges, the Word of God. And that Word will judge us in the last day. In fact the Word is judging even now, for it is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It cuts asunder the carnal from the spiritual. It makes us living epistles read and known of all men to the glory of God.”

            On the subject, Branham concluded that:  "I know thy works." If a man fears that he might not please God, then let him fulfill the Word. If a man wonders if he will hear those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," let him fulfill the Word of God in his life, and assuredly he will hear those words of praise. The Word of truth was the criterion then; it is the criterion now. There isn't another standard; there isn't another plumb line. As the world is going to be judged by one Christ Jesus, even so it is going to be judged by the Word. If a man wants to know how he is making out, let him do as James suggested: "Look into the mirror of God's Word."

27e.  THOU HAST NOT DENIED MY FAITH

            Branham reminds us that we bring nothing to the table, when he reminds us that we are saved not by our faith or righteousness, but by Christ's faith and Christ's righteousness.  The problem with the institutionalization of faith was that it took our focus off of Christ's faith, and put it on our faith in Him, giving the impression both that we did have something to bring to the table, and that our actions might be righteous enough to earn our way into heaven.  That would have meant that His grace was not sufficient for our salvation without the contribution of our mundane works in the natural.  This takes away the power of Christ's sacrifice, and creates the argument that we carry our own sins, and that the Blood would not bring salvation without our faith and our actions.  This is heresy, and this is one of the lies that Satan used to creep back into a church, even when it was filled with people professing the importance or relevance of their faith:

            “In Acts 3:16 when Peter was asked how the mighty miracle had taken place upon the crippled one at the Gate Beautiful, he explained it on this wise, "And His (Jesus) Name through faith in His (Jesus) Name hath made this man (former cripple) strong, yea, the faith which is by (from) Him (Jesus) hath given him (the man) this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." See, there it is. Jesus' Name, and Jesus' Faith brought about the miracle.

            “Peter did not claim it was his own human faith any more than he claimed that it was his own name. He said that Jesus' Name used in the faith which is from Jesus performed that great work. This faith is what the Lord was speaking about in Revelation 22:13. It was HIS faith. It was not faith IN Him. But it was HIS OWN faith that He had given to the believers.[22]

            As the church became institutionalized, church men forgave sins.  The traditions of the church and the “faith” of its leaders superseded the faith OF Christ.  They emphasized the importance of their faith in Christ, instead of Christ's supernatural faith.  They spoke of the faithful following of the believers, dragging truth from Heaven's intention to man's convenient application.  In personalizing Christ's love, and in imagining that conforming to Christ gave us the power of Christ, whether or not He truly lived inside a carcass of a dead “Old Man,” led us to become homes for Satan.

            “This was a living faith. "I live by the faith of the Son of God." Paul did not say that he lived by faith IN the Son of God. It was the faith of the Son of God that had given him life and kept him living in Christian victory.

            No, they had not denied that salvation was supernatural from start to finish. They kept alive the truth of His Name and His Faith and they were blessed by the Lord and accounted worthy of Him.”

27f.  Where Satan's seat is

            Protestant theology has always pointed at Roman and the Catholic church for evidence of the Pope as the Anti-Christ and Mary as a remnant of worship of a female fertility goddess.  Anti-Trinitarians have pointed at the Trinity as evidence of Babylonian influence in the church.  But, the fact that Satan tends to mimic the things of God is more likely to indicate that God created a holy original, and that Satan mimicked it with an unholy fake.  But, this is how Branham explans the roots of Satan's seat in Pergamus.[23]

            While a portion of Branham's narrative comes from the Bible, portions come from the “profane” parallels to Bible history in the Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek secular histories.  We know that as Babylonian culture pervaded Egypt, and that Egyptian culture then influenced Greece at different times, its influences in mathematics, science and theology were profound.

            The story of Babylon starts at the tower of Babel, the root of confusion and the moment when the pagans moved away from the worship of the One God, towards whom they were building their tower.[24] 

            “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

            Secular histories acknowledge Babylonian religion as the one that drifted away from the normal monotheism after the Tower of Babel.  Every culture on earth has a story about one God speaking the natural world into existence, and placing upon it primordial man and woman in a garden of His creation.  Every culture has a story about this couple's existence.  And, later some of these cultures distinguished a series of gods from the one who spoke at the garden:

            “Historians such as Wilkinson and Mallett have proven conclusively from the ancient documents that at one time all the peoples of the earth believed in ONE GOD, supreme, eternal, invisible, Who by the Word of His mouth spoke all things into existence, and that in His character He was loving and good and just. But as Satan will always corrupt whatever he can, we find him corrupting the minds and hearts of men so that they reject the truth. . . . History bears it out that those of the tribe of Shem that stood with the unchanging truth were in solid opposition to those of Ham who turned away from truth to the devil's lie.”

            The wicked son of Noah, the evil which survived the flood was Ham.  We know that Ham despised Noah and Jehovah, whom Noah served.  In the seeds of that hatred, Satan planted the great lie.  There is a counterfeit trinity, which traces its roots to Babylon and Asia:

            “In Asia the polytheistic idea of three gods in one came out in an image with three heads on one body. He is expressed as three intelligences. In India, they found it in their hearts to express him as one god in three forms. Now that really is good modern day theology. In Japan there is a great Buddha with three heads like the one we previously described. But the most revealing of all is that which sets forth the trinitarian concept of God in a triune form of: 1. The head of an old man symbolizing God the Father, 2. A circle which in the mysteries signified "Seed" which in turn means the Son. 3. The wings and tail of a bird (dove). Here was the doctrine of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three persons in the Godhead, a veritable trinity.”

            Unlike Christianity, where Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing, and where we could come only to the Father through the Son, in Eastern religion, there was a silent father, and the relationship of the followers was through a partly natural mother and her god-son:

            “Since it was not necessary to worship the creator-father, it was only natural that worship swung to the "Mother and Child" as the objects of adoration. In Egypt there was the same combination of mother and son called Isis and Osiris. In India it was Isi and Iswara. (Note the similarity of names even.) In Asia it was Cybele and Deoius. In Rome and in Greece it followed suit. And in China. Well, imagine the surprise of some Roman Catholic missionaries as they entered China and found there a Madonna and Child with rays of light emanating from the head of the babe. The image could well have been exchanged for one in the Vatican except for the difference of certain facial features.”

            The Isis/Osiris and Isi/Iswara images had their roots in Babylon.In Babylon, the original goddess-mother was Semiramis (known as Rhea in Eastern countries).  The original tall, strong, handsome son, captivating to woman, was Ninus (referred to as Tammuz in Ezekiel 8:15, and Bacchus in ancient Roman culture).

            The son of Ham was Cush, and he is credited with founding Babylon, a word which means “confusion.”  According to Babylonian culture, they refer to the founder of Babylonia as “Bel.” Secular history credits Bel as the father of Ninus.  Egyptian hstiroy credits Hermes as the founder of Babylon.  According to Branham, the word “Hermes” (Hermes in Greek mythology, Mercury in Roman) means “son of Ham,” which parallels the Biblical description of Ham as the father of Cush/Hermes.  In Greek mythology, Hermes delivered messages from the pagan gods to mankind, and the study of the delivery of Christian messages is still referred to as Hermeneutics.  In Roman mythology, Bel would be called Janus, the two-headed god of their coins and emblems.  Ovid said that Janus carried a club, and that he would wield it in a way that led the ancients to call him Chaos.  These would be same pantheistic gods Christianity would describe as demonic, that Babylon would describe as the Baals, and that Muslims would say populate the Caba in Mecca.  From the scattering at the Tower of Babel, Cush, Bel, Hermes and Janus delivered messages that would carry monotheistic followers of Jehovah away towards a multiplicity of pagan gods, for whom they would interpret. 

            According to the Bible, the son of Cush was Nimrod, who was known as a mighty warrior.[25]  According to Pompeius, "Ninus, king of Assyria, changed the ancient moderate ways of life by the desire for conquest. HE WAS THE FIRST WHO CARRIED WAR AGAINST HIS NEIGHBORS. He conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia as these men knew not the arts of war." Diodorus says, "Ninus was the most ancient of Assyrian kings mentioned in history. Being of warlike disposition he trained many young men rigorously in the arts of war. He brought Babylonia under him while yet there was no city of Babylon."  Parts of the city of Ninevah, founded by Ninus, is still referred to as Nimroud.

            As readers of the Bible, we know that the first evil world leader, Nimrod was ambitious: “He wanted to build a strong nation, which he did. He wanted to propagate his own religion, which he did. He wanted to make a name for himself, which he also accomplished. His accomplishments were so monumental that the kingdom of Babylon was called the head of gold amongst all world governments.”

            Branham's analysis continues that “Cush introduced a three god worship of father, son and spirit. Three gods who were all equal. But he knew about the seed of the woman coming, so there would have to be a woman and her seed come into the picture.  When Nimrod died, his wife, Semiramis, became both wife and mother, calling Nimrod "Zeroashta" which means, "the woman's promised seed"

            Babylonian paganism centered around the sun and the moon, with the moon most frequently identified with fertility gods and godesses, who entreated Babylonians to fertility festivals.  The symbols of writhing snakes adorned their bodies, and accented their spiritiual rituals.  Baal became the sun god, and sin was the female fertility God near where Abram lived in Ur of Chaldees.  The sun would often be depicted as a circle of flame,and soon a serpent appeared around the flame.  The serpent became a symbol of the worshiped sun, and Satan's symbol that separated man from the garden would be worshipped.  The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was worshiped as a symbol of the seduction of both Eve and mankind.

            The direct connections between Babylon and Pergamus are ominous.  Pergamus was founded around in the Third Century BC by the Attalid family.  The father of Attalus (Attalus 1 Soter, 269 – 197 B.C., ruler of Pergamus 241 – 197 B.C.) was Attalus the Elder, and his mother was Antiochus. Attalus has come to Pergamum from Babylon to escape Roman rule.  But then, under Attalus, Pergamum allied with Rome against Phillip V of Macedon during the first and second Macedonian wars, and then against under Eumenes II (197 – 158 BC) against Perseus of Macedon.

             Through his mother, Attalus was married into the Seleucid family, best known for Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Temple of Solomon, erected a statue of himself in the Holy of Holies, and forbade the reading of the Torah on December 25, 170 B.C.  Hansen's history would quote Antiochus IV Epiphanes on Attalus, saying “king Attalus and queen Apollonis … because of their virtue and goodness, which they preserved for their sons, managing their education in this way wisely and well. “

            In 205 BC, after the "Peace of Phoenice", Rome turned to Attalus, as its only friend in Asia, for help concerning a religious matter. An unusual number of meteor showers caused concern in Rome, and an inspection was made of the Sibylline books, which discovered verses saying that if a foreigner were to make war on Italy, he could be defeated if the Magna Idaea, the Mother Goddess, associated with Mount Ida in Phrygia.  A distinguished delegation, was dispatched to Pergamon, to seek Attalus' aid. According to Livy, Attalus received the delegation warmly, "and helped them obtain ”the sacred stone which the natives declared to be "the Mother of the Gods," and bade them carry it to Rome", where it would be known as Magna Mater.”[26]

            Attalus named the last of his four sons Athanaeus, which would be the name of the  Turkish bishop who's philosophy would prevail over that of Arius at the Council of Nicea.  His first son, Eumenes II, would succeed him as monarch of Pergamum, and reign during the time that his cousin was performing the Desecration that casues Abomination.  Upon Eumenes' death, Attalus (II Philadelphos, the second son of Attalus I Soter, born 220 BC, became co-regent 168 BC, died 138 B.C. ) would take the throne and marry Eumenes' widow Stratonike.  His son, Attalus (III born 170 BC, became king 138 BC, died 133 BC). He was married to the famous Bernice of the Seleucid-Ptolomy wars described by Daniel.  Attalus III willed the region to Rome, where Pontifus Maximus became the god-priest-king of Pergamum, a title which passed from Julius Caesar to Maximus III, before the the title of Pontifus Maximus was formally bestowed on the Pope.

27g.  THE DENUNCIATION

            Revelation 2:14-15 "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate."

            In the denunciation of Pergamus, Jesus draws upon two doctrines:  the Balaam doctrine of idolatry and sinful excesses at Baal-Peor and the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which had plagues the Ephesians in the Ephesian Age.  Junius and Andronicus, two apostles named in Romans 16:7, founded the first church in Rome in 36 A.D., and were promptly expelled by Emperor Claudius.  Without a firm basis for the new Messianic faith, spiritualists of every sort filed into the church of miracles between then and 54 A.D.

            When Junius and Andronicus, there choice was to work with the resident pagans in the existing church, or start a third church from scratch.  In the interest of unity, they decided to gently guide the Roman church back to Christ.  That was the church at Pergamus, with its pagan roots dating back to its founding in 36 A.D., and pagan roots of its forefathers directly dating back to the hatred of Jehovah by Ham, Cush and Nimrod.  In 92 A.D., Antipas would be martyred in Pergamum.

            Polycarp would be one of the first church fathers to try to mitigate the perversities of the second century church of Rome.  Anicetus, an early second century bishop, greeted Polycarp holding pagan ceremonies, having believers bow down before images of apostles and church leaders, and calling the Passover after Ishtar, where they elevated disc shaped bread to the honor of the sun god, and poured out wine to a multiplicity of gods.   After journeying 1500 miles to this disappointment, Polycarp dismissed the Church of Rome, saying, "Ephraim is married to his idols, let him alone," Hosea 4:15. Polycarp never more returned.

            Branham sees this and the Council of Nicea as the wedding of Babylon / Cush / Nimrod to the church, including the fact that a recently pagan monarch brought Baal background, lip service to Jesus, ancestral worship, regal buildings, federal aid, white marble altars and idols all under the Church of Rome.  Branham believes that the “beast” of Revelation 13:3 was the wounded Roman pagan empire, which was “wounded to death,” and fraudulently resuscitated as the “Holy Roman Empire.”  But, whether it was the malice of Satan or the sloth of Solomon, natural breakthrough, including the multiplying of sex, horses, idolatrous statuary and other natural distractions became institutionalized into an organized church, where the leadership was respected over and above the Word of God, which was kept away from the believers in arcane translations by politically-motivated bureaucratically-appointed and supervised, professional clergy.  The Cushite/Babylonian head of gold had now fallen to the feet of iron and clay from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2.

            The theology of the Married church would be manifest in Augustine of Hippo (354-430), with the concept of using Roman state force to force people into an unvoluntary relationship with a loving God:  “It is indeed better that men should be led to worship God by teaching than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain, but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better men, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage (as we have proved and are daily proving by actual experience) in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching, so that they might follow out in act what they have already learned in word... whilst those are better who are guided aright by love, those are certainly more numerous who are corrected by fear. For who can possibly love us more than Christ, Who laid down His life for the sheep? Yet after calling Peter and the other apostles by His words alone, when He came to summon Paul, He not only constrained him with His voice, but even dashed him to the earth with His power; and that He might forcibly bring one who is raging amidst the darkness of infidelity, to desire the light of the heart, He first struck him with physical blindness of the eyes. Why therefore should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return? The Lord Himself said, 'Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.' Wherefore if the power which the Church has received by divine appointment in it's due season, through the religious character and faith of kings, be the instrument by which those who are found in the highways and hedges - that is in heresies and schisms - are compelled to come in, then let them not find fault with being compelled."

            Because these leaders respected the Caesar more than God, they respected the power of organization, but not the Resurrection power of God:

            “The thirst for blood was growing apace. The false vine in Spain now played upon the Emperor Maximus to join in the attack upon the true believers who had the Word and the signs and wonders with them. Thus some Priscillianists were brought to Treves by Bishop Ithacus (385). He accused them of witchcraft and immorality and many were executed. Martin of Tours, and Ambrose of Milan protested this, and pleaded in vain for the persecution to cease. When the persecution was prolonged these two bishops refused to fellowship with bishop Hydatus and others like him. Strange to say the Synod in Treves approved of the murders.”

27h.  THE DOCTRINE OF THE NICOLAITANES

Revelation 2:15, "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate."

            Branham explains the derivation of the word, Nicolaitane, which had always appeared to me as an obscure philosophy lost in the annals of time.  But, Nicolaitane comes from two Greek words.  “Nikao” means to conquer, and the word “Lao” means laity.  The literal meaning is “to conquer the laity.”

            From a modern perspective, when specialization of trades and functions is a part of the mechanized words, “specialists” in the word of God may make some sense.  But, there was a priesthood of believers.  Most of the Apostles were fishermen, builders or tradesmen, and Paul was a tent maker.  There was no professional priest class separate and apart from laity.

            But, giving the socialization of the church into a control group in alignment with the policy, there was a desire to conquer the laity, and make them easier for the polilty to control.  It would appear that one of the greatest incentives to Constantine to bring the church into the state was to make it easier to control the laity.  By the adaption of a highly modified Christianity, Constantine could “conquer the laity” without firing a shot.

            As Branham skifully articulated, God “has placed His church in the care of God-ordained, Spirit-filled, Word-living men who lead the people through feeding them the Word. He has not separated the people into classes so that the masses are led by a holy priesthood. It is true that the leadership must be holy, but then so must be the whole congregation. Further, there is no place in the Word where priests or ministers or such mediate between God and the people, nor is there a place where they are separated in their worship of the Lord. God wants all to love and serve Him together. Nicolaitanism destroys those precepts and instead separates the ministers from the people and makes the leaders overlords instead of servants.”[27]

            Ignatius, who was born sometime between 35 and 50 AD, and who was martyred some time between 98 and 117 AD, took over as Bishop of Antioch after the martyrdom of Peter and St. Evodius, some time around 67 AD.  He would be one of the first of the professional “priest class,” where the knowledge and maturity of early leaders would become institutionalized into a spiritual “ruling class.”  Early churches had bishops and elders, who could lead though their knowledge and experience, as older men In Christ.  Bishop was a leadership position.  The motivation to seek the guidance of these elders was not that they were elected or ordained, but that they had been around longer, and knew more about what their predecessors had come to expect of church membership, worship and observance:  “'Elder' always has and always will refer simply to a man's chronological age in the Lord. He is an elder, not because he is elected or ordained, etc., but because he IS OLDER. He is more seasoned, trained, not a novice, reliable because of experience and long standing proof of his Christian experience.”

            But, the older church leaders appointed themselves to spiritual power, gave themselves hegemony over the laity, and perverted the concept of “overseers” into a controlling class, minimizing mere believers to an inferior status as laity.

            Branham discusses the extension of this principal to Polycarp, who saw himself more as a supervisor than a fellow beleiver:  “Such a concept was neither Scriptural nor historical, yet even a man of the stature of Polycarp leaned toward such organization. Thus, that which started as a deed in the first age was made a literal doctrine and so it is today. Bishops still claim power to control men and deal with them as they desire, placing them where they so will in the ministry. This denies the leadership of the Holy Ghost Who said, "Separate Me Paul and Barnabas for the work where-unto I have called them"”.

27i.  THE DOCTRINE OF BALAAM

Revelation 2:14, "Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."

            Early in Genesis, Abram divided the land in two, and Lot went towards Sodom, and Abram went towards Mamre  Lot's progeny would come by incest with his daughters, and the Moabite heritage.  Four centuries later, Balak would be the Moabite King, and Balaam would be the Moabite priest.

            Abraham's progeny would be delivered in God's first Passover, baptized in the Red Sea, and follow the Shekinah glory through the Wilderness.  With God taking through victory after victory, Balak would have been threatened by these Spirit filled believers bringing the victories and excitement through the Moabite land of murky spiritualism and emotional darkness.

            Balaam knew Jehovah.  He spoke with Him, and walked with Him.  And, yet, he honored Balak's offers and enticements more than God's will.  This perversity brought him to the place where he would receive ministry from his donkey.  Years later, God would speak through handwriting on walls and men drunk in the Spirit at Pentecost.  And, in Rome, men who knew God and had grown up with a profound understanding of the Gospel, were ignoring the warnings against subduing or subverting the laity, and were using God's resources to suppress God's followers, placing obstacles in their way that would cause them to stumble in their pursuit of a relationship with God.

            The doctrine of Balaam has two aspects.  The first is that the spirit of Balaam will lead people in apparent spiritual authority to misrepresent God to believers.  The second is that in their wickedness, they will try to set up God to be a stumbling block to these peoples' relationship with God.  To all of those who would come to God with childlike faith, they are truly presenting them with scorpions and stones.

            Balaam invited the Israelites to a party, where he put food sacrificed to idols and thinly-clothed women as enticements for them at Baal-Peor.  When the Israelites succumbed to temptation, God allowed 42,000 of them to be slain:

            “Now in spite of the fact that Balaam knew the proper approach to God and could bring forth a revelation from the Lord by means of a special enduement of power, he was still for all of that a bishop in the false group. For what did he do now in order to win favor with Balak? He formulated a plan wherein God would be forced to deal with Israel in death. Just as Satan knew that he could beguile Eve (cause her to fall in fleshly sin) thus causing God to pass His pronounced sentence of death against sin, so Balaam knew that if he could get Israel to sin, God would have to deal with them in death.”[28]

            When the church married the world, the Roman priests did to the Christian believers what Balaam had done to the Israelites.  They came to the wedding fiest, and they were tempted with defilements.  And, when it was no longer legally permissible to defy the new Romanized church, the early Christians were helpless, as the early Israelites had been years before at Baal-Peor.  When they sat down to eat in innocence and peace, they partook in the ceremonial pagan festivals and feasts, renamed as Christian rites, and their were trapped.  They had committed fornication, and God walked out on the Church at Rome.

            The pagan birth day of the sun god, which had been the day the seleucids had used to defile Solomon's Temple, became the birth day of the Son of God, instead of the warm spring day when the shepherds had been out tending their flocks:

Now notice that Constantine gave special feasts unto the people. They were the old pagan feasts with new names taken from the church, or in some cases Christian rites were taken and abused with pagan ceremonies. He took the worship of the sun god and changed it to the Son of God. Instead of celebrating on December 21, which is when they used to celebrate the feast to the sun god, they put it up to December 25th and called it the Son of God's birthday. But we know that He was born in April when life comes forth, not in December.

            The resurrection of Christ would neither honor him as the Passover Lamb (slain on the 14^th of Nizan and risen on the 17^th of Nizan, the day that the Ark led to new life in the Old Testament) nor as the risen king, but rather with a fertility rite to Astarte.

And they took the feast to Astarte and called it the Easter celebration wherein the Christian is supposed to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord. Actually it was a pagan feast to Astarte.

            The early church followed the spirit of Balaam and sat down to every form of pagan ritual, and they were plunged into the Dark Ages when God left them alone with their Nicolaitan leaders and their perverted moon festivals

27j.  THE WARNING

Revelation 2:16. "Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth." . 

            The Word of God is against the Nicolaitanes who rule over the laity, chasing them away from God with power trips, Pharisaical rules, and natural distractions from the lbessings of God.  The Word of God is against the spirit of Balaam, which places roadblocks in the road between God and the people who would love to live in closer relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  To those who would use any natural lies or distractions, or who would use any Satanic device to keep God's children from relationship, God's Word will come against them like a double-edge sword.  Nothing more than the Word of God is required, because nothing could be more powerful than the Word of God.  Repentance doesn't seem like much of an option, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of wiggle room.

27k.  THE REWARDS

Revelation 2:17. "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."

            The invitation to see God, despite the distractions, stumbling blocks and power trips of the church, requires a true relationship with God.  It's complicated to figure out how to find God without being misled by all of the self-appointed, self-important experts.  But, if you can do it, God has untold riches, untold promises, and a personal white stone (personal relationship with Christ, who will live within you) and a new name in the secret place (so that none of the experts can take it away from you).

27l.  Pergamus explored

            If there is an area where Solomon’s failure’s are most apparent, it would be in the area of marriage, where he had hundreds of wives, and hundreds of concubines. Despite his understanding of every corner of the natural world, he fell into marriages in the natural in a way that is anything but “set apart” for God in holiness.

            Through God’s most sacred institution, the marriage of people by the man leaving his parents and cleaving to his wife, which contains all of the mysteries of Jesus’ love for his blessed Church/bride, the wisest man on earth went beyond simple “vanity” to worldly perversion and idolatry of every conceivable type from every neighboring evil.

            Married Church. The opportunity to expand the Body of Christ, when Constantine married the church to the civil government, official sanction could have been a good thing. But institutionalizing the church gave anybody in government a way to find a place of respectability in the church.

But, Jesus warns us of loving the world, when the natural world, prisoner to Satan as the prince of the natural world:

            John 15:18  "⁽Y⁾If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

 19"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but ⁽Z⁾I chose you out of the world, ⁽AA⁾because of this the world hates you.

 20"Remember the word that I said to you, '⁽AB⁾A slave is not greater than his master ' If they persecuted Me, ⁽AC⁾they will also persecute you; if they ⁽AD⁾kept My word, they will keep yours also.

 21"But all these things they will do to you ⁽AE⁾for My name's sake, ⁽AF⁾because they do not know the One who sent Me.

 22"⁽AG⁾If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

 23"He who hates Me hates My Father also.

 24"⁽AH⁾If I had not done among them ⁽AI⁾the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

 25"But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their ⁽AJ⁾Law, '⁽AK⁾THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.' 1

1 John 15:18-25.

 

 

Chapter 28.  Canaan, Philistia and Ephraim:  The Distractions and Snares of Breakthrough, Success and Wisdom in the Natural.

            28a.     Joshua leadsHebrews out of the Wilderness into Canaan

          28b.   After the Ark had been lost to Gath, Ashdod and Ashkelon, David leads Hebrews into success against the Phillistines

          28c.     After his brothers had sacrificed Joseph, his natural success led his brothers into Goshan, where they would live for 430 years as slaves.

 

 

 

Chapter 29.  Theology of the Married Church Age, 312 – 590 A.D.

In exploring the parallels of the third Old Testament kingdom to The Third Church age, we turn to Constantine. During his reign, where the church was, for the first time, adopted by the world and became rich. With the protection of the Roman Emperor, Christianity was imposed on the Western world. And, with the age of complacency, the distinction between right and wrong were now drawn from secular realities and projected onto a world with a merely spiritual “point of view.”

 

29a.  Augustine

29b.  Jerome

29c.  Crysostoam