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Part 5: Psalms 120-150 PSALM
121 By Neville V. Stevens New International Version used throughout unless otherwise specified. A song of
ascents. As we all know, David was
both
a Prophet and a Patriarch (Acts 2:29-30). Throughout all the Psalms he’s prophesied
of the future time when the We also find that Jesus
Christ strongly associated the ancestral beginnings of David with Himself as
a testimony to
the Churches of God. In fact, this was the final message given
to the Churches of God at
the conclusion of the Book of Revelation.
Just so as to avoid any confusion, this is what He said: Rev 22:16 “I, Jesus,
have sent my angel to give you this TESTIMONY
for
the churches. I am the
Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."
17 The SPIRIT and
THE BRIDE say, "Come!"
And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is
thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the WATER OF LIFE.” The
BRIDE is actually the Woman
who gave birth to Jesus Christ, that is, the House of David, of which Jesus Christ is the
offspring. He was born through the
bloodline of David and was therefore a Son of David. The
SPIRIT and THE BRIDE have been telling the Churches of God to “Come!”,
yet they seem too preoccupied with other things to respond! The SPIRIT
spoken of here is the ‘SPIRIT of
Prophecy’, which is what the Book of Revelation is all about. As we all know, the TESTIMONY of Jesus is the SPIRIT of Prophecy (Rev 19:10). Bible
Prophecy is not something that people
dream up from their own imaginations, and the Churches of God would do well to take note! Their track record is not good! Once they come to their senses, they must hold to the Testimony of Jesus
(Rev 12:17). And just one other thing
before moving into the study of this Psalm:
this concerns the WATER OF
LIFE spoken of by Jesus. As
all Bible students should know, the Water
of Life begins under the threshold
of the Psa 121:1 I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? Well may they ask! Help certainly won’t come from
the sausage-grinder doctrine of your local preacher. Is he ever likely to advise you to lift up your eyes to the hills
of
Judea and Well, when Jesus Christ
said that the Spirit and
the Bride say “Come!”
He was directing them, that is, the Churches
of God, to the Water of
Life. This is to be the final
destination of all those who will be rescued.
And this is what the following Psalms are all about. It relates to the time when all the House
of Israel is scattered among their enemies and longing for a country of their
own. Throughout the previous Psalms,
David has been warning us of what to expect, and how it will all come
about. And now he’s comforting us with
the knowledge of the Gospel and how it will become very good news to the
stricken. This is the duty of the
Churches of God to impart this message to the House of Israel – among whom
they will be living. The Churches of
God must accompany the House of Israel into captivity and be a well-spring of
knowledge and hope for them – and to help them to endure to the end. Psa 121:2 My help
comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven
and earth. The first
step in the whole process of rescue and recovery is to acknowledge the Creator God – the
Maker of heaven and earth.
He stands ready to help once you repent of the shoddy way you’ve
treated Him. While it’s true that the
Churches of God have been faithful in obeying God’s Law and Statutes, and
faithfully observing God’s Sacred Calendar and the mandatory Holydays, they
are still not guiltless.
In obeying these things, they have merely done their duty. Luke 17:10 “So you
also, when you have done everything
you were told to do, should say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" So clearly, our
obligations to our Creator God go way beyond this, and this can be summed up
by the words: Faith in God! You must have the faith to believe that God can deliver you from whatever
situation you find yourself in. He
will be watching over those
who possess this faith! Faith
is not something that just drops out of the sky; rather it’s something that
must be developed over time as we faithfully believe God and serve
Him. God does indeed watch
over His servants! He makes the point
that He also watches over the Churches
of God as well as the House
of Israel. Psa 121:3 He
will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; Psa 121:4 indeed,
he who [also] watches over The reason God and His
prophets are watching over Ephraim is because God plans to punish this
rebellious house and then afterwards restore them – after they’ve learnt
their lesson! Having been visited by God, they’ll have
plenty to think about. The Great God of heaven
will be watching intently over the offspring of the Lord Jesus – that is,
true Christians. When Jesus Christ
originally founded His Church it was in a time of severe trouble, and in the
ensuring couple of hundred years huge numbers of them were killed. Yet many survived to became a very great
religion that has continued to exist to our day. It’s in our day that the There has to be rules and
regulations to govern all conduct in all circumstances. We
who live in the Western nations have learned this from birth, and decent
people accept that anything less only leads to anarchy. The schoolroom of life continues to teach
us this. On the other hand, the children of the devil (as the
Apostle John describes them in 1John 3:10) prefer the ways of their father the
devil. These are a sub-class of people
who live among us and probably number one-third
of the population. These are
always the first to revert to anarchy when the opportunity arises. They don’t have the same law-abiding ethic
of the rest of our respective Western nations. They live in the shadows of society, and
are generally ghetto-dwellers, who have no concept of the differences between
the deserving and the undeserving.
They demand privileges that they’ve never earned. When the opportunity arises, they
revert-to-type as anarchists, destroying and plundering for their own
gain. All decent, law-abiding citizens
are their enemy and mercy and compassion has no place in their minds. They are totally without any form of
conscience towards God or man! People can pontificate
all they like about the virtues of these evil creatures who live among us,
and try to justify their behaviour with political correctness, but the truth
is that they will learn their lesson the hard way. At the other end of the
spectrum, there is a class of people who not only obey the laws of the land,
but they also obey the Laws of their Creator God. These people are of course, in the extreme
minority – a small flock in comparison.
As we’ve seen in the previous psalms, these people love
God’s Law and consider it
an honour to be associated with God through obedience. Such dedication to God has many benefits,
not least of which is that they are a part of a privileged class that have
God’s favour. The truth of this will
become very evident in the days ahead as the Psa 121:5 The
LORD watches over you-- the LORD is
your shade at your right hand; Psa 121:6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. Psa 121:7 The
LORD will keep you from all harm--
he will watch over your life; Psa 121:8 the
LORD will watch over your
coming and going both now and forevermore. God is watching over these people
whom He loves and nothing will harm them now
or forevermore. God is
speaking of a very privileged people who have His full attention, and He
refers to them as sons (Mal 3:17-18). PSALM 122 A song of ascents. Of David. In the era that is now
rapidly approaching, God’s sons will rejoice
to see others join them in the worship of God in His Holy City Jerusalem: Psa 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the
LORD." This will
be a momentous occasion to welcome true worshippers to the Psa 122:2 Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. It’s true that the Sons of Jerusalem
will be standing in the Gates of Psa 122:3 Jerusalem
is built like a city that is closely compacted together. It’s the The House of David must
make preparations for the observance of the Feasts of the Lord as prescribed
in Deut
16:1-17. This is in accordance with the statute given
to all Psa 122:4 That
is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to
praise the name of the LORD according
to the statute given to It may seem odd to the
teachings of Christianity today that human beings will continue to live on
earth, but after all, God did create the earth to be inhabited. Christianity has become confused about
God’s intentions. The primary purpose
of the past six thousand years of human existence has been to promote a
replacement for the present spirit rulers of this earth with those who have
faithfully held to His standards of rule of Law. Even the ‘heirs-apparent’ of this rulership class will need to be
judged. And their judges will possess
outstanding credentials: Psa 122:5 There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David. This is a direct reference to Rev 20:4-6
“I saw
thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and
because of the word of God.
They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark
on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ
a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life
until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6
Blessed and holy are those who have
part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over
them, but they will be priests of
God and of Christ and will reign
with him for a thousand years.” These thrones
of the House of David will be given authority to judge!
It’s rather ironic that those who have hated God’s Law will be judged
by the custodians of God’s Law! Psa 122:6 Pray
for the peace of Psa 122:7 May there be peace within your walls and
security within your citadels." There will be peace and
security in Psa 122:8 For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say,
"Peace be within you."
David not only
prayed for Psa 122:9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I
will seek your prosperity. The House of the LORD
spoken of here is the House of
Israel. It’s for the sake of
the House of Israel that
all these things will be done. If
righteous wars were not waged to clear the Holy Land – the
ancestral lands of the Tribes of PSALM 123 A song of ascents. Psa 123:1 I lift up my eyes to you, to
you whose throne is in heaven. This will be the only
hope for the remnant of the House of Israel – when all other hope is gone! Psa 123:2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as
the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
TILL HE SHOWS US HIS MERCY. This is a sure sign that people will be examining their past deeds and
seeking God’s mercy for their offences against Him. In a situation of abject slavery, people
will look to their Creator God for mercy. Psa 123:3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
Haven’t the Scriptures warned about this in
advance, giving details of what to expect when turn away from their Creator
God? God has shown mercy to the House
of Israel many times down through the ages, including these last days when
they’ve become the premier nations on earth in terms of wealth and
power. It was in this very time when
they decided to turn away from Him, and repudiate Him as the Creator God. In fact, they developed theories that could
only be described as insane. One mad
theory actually promoted the idea that all life on earth came from bacteria
from outer space. It’s amazing how
insane people become when they crave recognition as an ‘intellectual’. Thankfully,
such weirdoes are unlikely to seek mercy from God, because they certainly
won’t get it! Since they sought to
corrupt others with their madness there will be no mercy forthcoming for
them. Psa 123:4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant. At such times as this, learn a lesson from the thief on the
cross. He acknowledged his guilt as
being deserving of death, while at the same time, defending the Lord Christ
as being innocent. Consider now the plight
of the Jews in the holocaust of the 2nd World War. Were they deserving of the treatment they
received? What were the crimes for
which they were condemned? Like Jesus
Christ they too were innocent of all the charges against them. They endured the ridicule and contempt and
finally the death that followed – not because of anything they’d done, but
because of who they were! The
House of Israel is about to learn the same lesson! Has If Ephraim ( PSALM 124 A song of ascents. Of David. And now we come to the
reprisals – the Day of Reckoning
when Ephraim will be caught
up in a flood of war. With the whole world now against them,
their enemies are limitless and pitiless.
The whole House of Israel will not be saved or spared, but a remnant
will. It’s not entirely clear how this
remnant
will be determined as worthy of escape, but they are referred to as Jeshurun,
which means the upright ones
or Christians. In this next verse, they are just called ‘ Psa 124:1 If the LORD had not
been on our side-- let Psa 124:2 if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, Psa 124:3 when their anger flared
against us, they would have swallowed us alive; Psa 124:4 the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, Psa 124:5 the raging waters would have
swept us away. Here we see a description
of war and conquest as when men
attack us, and here the Psalmist likens it to torrent of raging
waters. Remember how Jesus
Christ spoke of the days of Noah, when the flood came and swept them away in Matt 24:37-39? He said this is how it would be when He
returns. Jesus Christ was not speaking
of another Noah’s flood, but a flood
of war, which will sweep
everyone away. He further
stated that they would know nothing until this flood sweeps them away. Psa 124:6 Praise be to the LORD, who has
not let us be torn by their teeth. Here is a remnant that is
not torn to pieces because God is on their side. Though caught
in the snare, they actually escape: Psa 124:7 We have escaped like a bird
out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. We are speaking of Ephraim
here who must face the Day of
Retribution. It’s from the
ranks of Ephraim that a fighting force is prophesied, but they won’t be
fighting under their own banner, but the banner of Many wars
will be fought, and as the Prophet Daniel says in Dan
9:26 “....The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been
decreed.” It makes one wonder how Christians have come
to the view that the end will come before any wars that might
put them in jeopardy. Even more
astounding, they keep talking about some mythical ‘rapture’! Where do they
get this nonsense from? Psa 124:8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven
and earth. It will be a prerequisite that they acknowledge
the LORD God as the Maker of Heaven
and earth – which goes against the trend we are seeing today in
present-day Ephraim! Ephraim is going
to need lots of help, and
the only way they will get it is to start getting their priorities right! PSALM 125 A song of ascents. Psa 125:1 Those who trust in the
LORD are like Psa 125:2 As the mountains surround
Psa 125:3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted
to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their
hands to do evil. The wicked are notorious for
corrupting the righteous! This is
something that God warned the Israelites about many times in the past! He warned them not to learn their culture
and to have nothing to do with them.
And what do we see today? Among
the Tribes of Israel, they’ve developed multiculturalism in direct defiance
of God. The House of Israel has
diluted their ancestry in favour of the very people God has warned them
about. Even more specifically,
it should be obvious to all who the ‘scepter of the wicked’ is, as mentioned in
the last verse. Who surrounds
‘the land
allotted to the righteous’ today? The answer to this should be obvious to
everyone! These are the very creatures
that the West is determined ‘to win
their hearts and minds’ to the extreme disadvantage of the present
faithful occupants of the Psa 125:4 Do good, O LORD, to those who
are good, to those who are upright
in heart. Upright and righteous can
be used interchangeably. In many ways
it’s a state of mind. Those who are
allied with God are righteous,
and those who are allied with the devil are evil. Psa 125:5 But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel. There will be Laws in God’s Kingdom that
must be obeyed, and anyone who turns away from these Laws to follow crooked ways will be banished
along with the
evildoers. You’ll recall that
Jesus Christ described these particular evildoers
in Luke 13:22 “Then Jesus
went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Don’t be too
quick to judge these things as unfair!
Consider first the standards demanded of those in political
office. It only requires a word out of
place, or misspoken comment, and elected Legislators can be hounded out of
office. No apology or explanation
given is ever enough in the minds of their self-righteous, hypocritical
accusers! Why wouldn’t these false
accusers be judged by the same measure they used? This is precisely how the Lord Jesus said
it would be! Matt 7:1-2 “Do not judge [or accuse], or you too will be judged [accused]. 2 For
in the same way you judge others, you will be judged,
and with the measure you use,
it
will be measured to you.” What Jesus was saying is, that if you
accuse others, then be aware that the same measure will be used against you! PSALM 126 A song of ascents. Psa 126:1 When the LORD brought back the captives to Psa 126:2 Our mouths were filled with
laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the
nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." In the Book of the Messenger (Malachi), we find a description of those
who dreamed of better things: Mal 4:2-3 “But
for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with
healing in its wings. And
you will go out and LEAP LIKE CALVES RELEASED FROM THE STALL. 3
Then you will trample down the
wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day
when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty.” One could well imagine that the captives who
are brought back to Psa 126:3 The LORD has done great things
for us, and we are filled with joy. Those who revere the Name of the Great God will indeed be filled with joy, and they’ll
welcome God’s intervention against the enemy as a just outcome. Psa 126:4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the The Psa 126:5 Those who sow in tears will reap
with songs of joy. Psa 126:6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will
return with songs of joy, carrying
sheaves with him. There will be no crop
failures; instead the sowers will see astounding growth which will inspire
them to songs of joy. The lesson here
is, in times of severe stress and trouble, those who continue to sow for God
will reap a bountiful harvest. PSALM 127 A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Psa 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its
builders labor in vain. Unless
the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. We’ve spoken a lot about the And so we see that there
was a specific time allotted for the building of the Psa 127:2 In vain you rise early and
stay up late, toiling for food to eat-- for he grants sleep to those he
loves. This relates to V1, where God is telling us of the
futility of trying to build the And now we see that God
is specifically referring to His sons. Psa 127:3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. There are many things that could be said about this verse, especially
in this day and age. But getting
straight to the point, God refers to those He considers sons because they serve Him, and
as we’ve said before, He intends to make a clear distinction between those who serve Him and those who don’t!
(Mal 3:17). And how does God view His sons? Well we know how God views His most famous
Son Jesus Christ! His Son Jesus has
been entrusted with destroying all
dominion, authority and power until He has put all His enemies under His feet
(1Cor 15:24-25). And the Lord Christ is just the one to do
it! The God Family is destined to have
many sons, and they will be modeled like the Lord Christ with the same mind
and the same determination. Wouldn’t
these also have the same objective as the Lord Christ? Psa 127:4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. You can see why God has raised up sons for these last days. They will be warrior priests! As
a matter of fact, just like Jesus Christ! Psa 127:5 Blessed is the man whose
quiver is full of them. They
will not be put to shame when they
contend with their enemies in the gate. I know this is often quoted in the churches concerning our offspring,
and the delight of our children, but the real point here is usually
missed! The real point is
that a man with a quiver full of
warrior sons will have peace when the enemy is at the gate. If you want to get the job done, then a bit
of manliness and masculinity doesn’t go astray! We’ve explained it many
times before, but just to reiterate briefly, Jesus Christ confirmed that all God’s sons are taught by Him: John 6:45 “It is written
in the Prophets: `They will
all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns
from him comes to me.” And who is going to be taught by God? It’s written in the Prophets: Isa 54:13-17 “All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will
be your children's peace. 14 In
righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you;
you will have nothing to fear. Terror
will be far removed; it will not come near you. 15 If anyone does attack you, it
will not be my doing; whoever
attacks you will surrender to you.” God takes good care of His sons, and if
anyone does attack them in How different things are
today as the forces of evil continue to gain momentum, yet no-one it seems
knows how to handle the problem!
You’ll recall how shortly after 9/11 President Bush used the word ‘Crusade’
in regard to a retaliatory response.
It seemed the administration was on the right track, because a good
ol’ fashion Crusade is exactly what is needed now! You’ll note that the Crusaders of old, to
whom President Bush was referring, didn’t go to the PSALM 128 A song of ascents. This Psalm is a message
to the House of Israel (see
V6
below), who are destined to be a very great nation in the Psa 128:1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. Well this pretty much summarizes out duty towards our Creator
God. You’ll be blessed if you have a healthy fear of God! In the past, you may not have believed
this. If you’ve been listening to your
local preacher, you would not have heard that God is
to be feared. You’ve probably been hearing that God will
bless you even though you’ve never served Him – other than by some
sanctimonious lip-service. I’m sure
your local preacher has not been telling you to walk in God’s ways by
obedience to His Law! Those blessed of the LORD will enjoy
fruitful lives: Psa 128:2 You will eat the fruit of your
labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. In God’s Kingdom, the Israelites will live abundant lives, because their
lives will, at that time, be dedicated to their Creator God. They’ll accomplish what has never been
achieved before. They’ll populate the
earth with obedience, God-fearing people, which will result in the
elimination of premature and catastrophic death and destruction for future
generations. Psa 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your
house; your sons will be like olive
shoots around your table. Their wives will be very
fruitful, producing many sons. We are
speaking of a nation of flesh and blood humans, which is what the House of
Israel will be. Their numbers will
grow to a population resembling the stars in the sky and the sand of the
seashore. God actually delights in mankind: Pro 8:30-31
“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence, 31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” God created mankind in His own image to be
the premier ‘kind’ or ‘species’ on earth, and He wants this
to continue forever. So He has no
intention of wiping out all human beings.
Yet it’s very obvious that mankind in its present state is
unacceptable to God. The above
statement: “your sons will be like olive shoots around your table” means that God’s Holy Spirit will be with them and
they will bear fruit. God
intends to pour out His Holy Spirit
on all the people of Psa 128:4 Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD. The average man today couldn’t imagine the blessing of being rescued
from the hands of their enemies. As
for being taken captive, most Westerners couldn’t imagine it happening! At that time, they will be put to the test
to see if they fear God more than their enemies. There is a wise perception among Christians
today that it’s more important to obey God than man, except that obedience to
God, in their minds, is selective at best! Psa 128:5 May the LORD bless you from Psa 128:6 and may you live to see your children's children. PEACE BE UPON So what did the Prophet
Isaiah record in this regard? Isa 65:17-25 “Behold,
I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 18
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create And just concluding the
passage from Isaiah: V23 “They will not
toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they
and their descendants with them. 24 Before they call I
will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. 25 The
wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the
ox, but dust will be the serpent's
food. They will neither harm
nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.” We won’t launch into side issues here, but
just note the reference to “but dust will be the serpent’s food’ and
also note that human beings
are
dust. Remember what the LORD said in the Garden
of Eden concerning this? Gen 3:14-15
“So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed
are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." You have to admit that this serpent (the devil) has consumed
a lot of human beings! There’s a lot
more to it than this, but that’s for another time. PSALM 129 A song of ascents. One thing we learn
quickly in life (if we have commonsense) is that appeasement of evil doesn’t work. And anyone who does this is in league with
the devil. God’s chosen people must make judgments based on God’s
instructions. He alone determines what
righteousness is and what
is evil. Those who appease evil or commit evil are equally culpable. For example, someone may not commit
homosexual acts, but if he condones it in others, then he is just as
guilty. He is condoning evil among
God’s chosen people. Apparently it’s
not fashionable to stand against evil today, and one of the quickest ways of
stirring the ire of the media is to criticize the homosexual lobby. The same applies to the many other forms of
evil that are actively promoted in Western society today. This plethora of evils is
taking many forms today, but the one which ranks above all others is the
mindless defense of Islam against the Jewish people and the For thousands of years
the satanic creatures that surround the Holy Land have been persecuting God’s
people Today we can see the
value of God’s advice. This evil
culture continues to exist in the Psa 129:1 They have greatly oppressed me
from my youth-- let Psa 129:2 they have greatly oppressed me
from my youth, but they have not gained
the victory over me. It’s funny how things
worked out! Here was a multi-nation
army attacking the fledgling Israeli nation with overwhelming numbers and
weaponry, yet the Israelis fought them off with little more than slingstones
– and defeated them! Psa 129:3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long. This is a bit of prosaic
language, but the truth is they left ‘furrows’
or tracks across the Holy Land, deeply penetrating on all sides, yet were
still defeated. Psa 129:4 But the LORD is righteous; he
has cut me free from the cords of
the wicked. Most thinking Christians
today would have to acknowledge that God intervened on behalf of the
Israelis. Christianity would do well
to understand why God intervened to deliver such a victory! This would be particularly pertinent to
those Christians who think they have more favour with God than the Jews. And if they continue to think this, then
they’re going to have a very hard time in the days ahead. Psa 129:5 May all who hate Psa 129:6 May they be like
grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow; Psa 129:7 with it the reaper cannot fill
his hands, nor the one who gathers fill his arms. People who hate Psa 129:8 May those who pass by not
say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you; we bless you in the name of
the LORD." Grass that withers and
dies should not be the object of blessing. In what could be described as the Elijah
chapter (Isa
40), which relates to John the Baptist, a question is asked of the
‘voice
in the wilderness’: Isa 40:6-9 “A
voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" And the answer is given: “All men are
like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 7
The grass withers and the flowers
fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely
the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the
flowers fall, but the word
of our God stands forever." 9 You who bring good tidings to ZION, go up on a high
mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your
voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the TOWNS OF JUDAH, "Here is your God!" So being like grass on
the roof that withers and dies is not the way to gain God’s favour! And the time setting for these verses? V10-11 “See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and
his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.” Recompense means to be compensated for loss
or injury. When the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
He will deal with the ‘grass’ of
this earth: V23-24
“He brings princes to naught and reduces
the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they
planted, no sooner are they
sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than
he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.” The princes and rulers spoken of here are
the rulers of the spirit realm who have control over the human kind. These are the primary ones who must be
destroyed along with all their human offspring. As for their nations of offspring, we find
this back in V17
“Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him AS WORTHLESS AND LESS THAN NOTHING.” Just to add a little
insight into all this, we presently have a famine appeal underway for the
nation of So what should Christians
do? Should they overlook the fact that
these nations are worthless and
less than nothing – as adjudged by God, or
should they continue to support God’s enemies? Well, the ‘slowly withering grass’ of our nations will no doubt opt for the
latter! Give nothing to these evil
creatures! Let their Islamic brother
nations feed them! Christian nations
should start learning the lessons of history, and a good place to start would
be the movie, ‘Blackhawk Down’. Perhaps then they will realize who their most
ardent enemies are! It’s a bit rich,
isn’t it? They declare hatred and
venom towards the West on the one hand, then the next minute they’re
poor-mouthing and wanting food aid.
What cretins these evil creatures are! If the people of the
Western nations are so easily deceived, then they’ll just have to accept that
they’ll deserve what they get! When
they hit rock-bottom, they shouldn’t expect any form of reciprocation from
those who hate them! PSALM 130 A song of ascents. The House of Israel is in
for some depths of despair, and it’s been a long time coming. Almighty God has been storing up their
sins, just as He said He would, to await the day of disasters: Hos 13:12-15
“The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record. 13
Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without
wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb. 14
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? [Both Death and Grave are the names of rulers of the spirit world] "I will have
no compassion, 15 even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come,
blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry
up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.” This mentions the ‘wind’ from the LORD,
which we referred to earlier. It blows
away useless grass like chaff.
Ephraim’s sins have drawn God’s displeasure over a period of time, and
their record is being stored up right now.
When the east wind blows on them, they will be destroyed as a nation and
their treasures will be plundered. During what is described
as a long, dark night, which will last for years, Ephraim will have plenty of
time to reconsider their attitude towards God. Their track-record is not good! God doesn’t judge them against the conduct
of other nations – nations He despises!
He judges them against His Law and His ancient instructions to
them. During their anxious years of
despair, they will long for the dawning of a new day. The survivors of this tragic holocaust will
realize the reasons for their punishment – because they’ll be told! They’ll also realize that the only way out
of their mess will be to turn to their Creator God in obedience. Psa 130:1 Out of the depths I cry to
you, O LORD; Psa 130:2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for
mercy. Psa 130:3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord,
who
could stand? Well, God did keep a record of Ephraim’s sins
and they won’t stand on the day of
punishment! Psa 130:4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. Those who truly FEAR
the LORD will be forgiven. This highlights the need to repent early,
especially when you see the signs of God’s punishment coming as we are
today. For those who believe the
Prophets and the Word of God, the signs are everywhere! The Prophet Hosea had this to say in relation
to Ephraim: Hos 4:1-6
“Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because
the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
"There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2 There
is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing
and adultery; they
break all bounds, and
bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Because of this the land
mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.” You’ll note that while all this is going on,
a wide section of the community is declaring ‘manmade global warming’ is to blame. It has nothing to do with this silly
fiction! The reason is that God is bringing charges against you! There’s been a breakdown of law and order
and this was caused because there is no
acknowledgement of God in the land!
You’ll notice that all the ‘prophets’ of ‘manmade global warming’ have become very rich by deceiving the
people about this. Even a fool should
be able to see through this deception, but it seems that about half the
people love deception. Virtually
everyday, these mad creatures charge others with destroying the planet! V4 "But
let
no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another,
for your people are like those who bring charges
against
a priest.” Bringing a
charge against a true Priest
of God carries horrific penalties, and it’s not speaking
about homosexual Catholic priests who deserve to be charged! It’s quite funny that we
have all these doomsday prophets raving
on about ‘manmade global warming’
even though they’ve been found to be liars, and about half the people still
believe them! And they continue to stumble: V5 “You stumble day and night, and the
prophets stumble
with you. So I will destroy
your
mother (which
is a city- Ephraim’s city. Psa 130:5 I wait for the
LORD, my soul waits, and
in his word I put my hope. This is very good
advice! Ephraim is in for a long
period of waiting, because they didn’t rely on their Creator God
while they had the chance. They
literally provoked God to bring
charges against them – even when it would have been a costless
exercise to turn to God in obedience.
Now the cost is set to become very great! Psa 130:6 My soul waits for the
Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the
morning. The reason this is
mentioned twice is for emphasis! The morning comes at the dawn of a new day. We’ve mentioned this dawning many times before as have all the Apostles and
prophets. It’s speaking of the dawning
of a new Millennial Day when the Lord Christ will take over the Kingdom. At the risk of being repetitive, because we
so often quote it, this is what the Apostle Peter had to say: 2Pet 1:19-21, 2:1-3
“And we have the word of the prophets made
more certain, and you will
do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place,
UNTIL THE DAY DAWNS AND THE MORNING
STAR RISES IN YOUR HEARTS. 20 Above all, you
must understand that no prophecy of
Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.” 2Pet 2:1-3
“But there were also false prophets
among the people (the
general populace), just as there will be false
teachers among you
(the Church). They will secretly
introduce destructive heresies,
even
denying the sovereign Lord who
bought them--bringing swift destruction on
themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and
will bring the way of truth into
disrepute. 3 In their greed
these teachers will exploit you with stories they have
made up. Their condemnation
has
long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” These are certainly not the sort of
people you would want to put your hope
in! Psa 130:7 O Israel, put your hope
in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. There will be full
redemption for many people, but only for those who fear and obey! If you don’t fear God now,
then believe me, you will in the days ahead! Psa 130:8 He himself will redeem As a matter of
fact, there was a time when God allowed Satan to have power over one of His
servants – but with the proviso that he wasn’t to kill him. Naturally enough, Satan went at it like a
maniac, inflicting all the most hateful disasters imaginable. This is the account of the Prophet Job,
which we’ll get to shortly. PSALM 131 A song of ascents. Of David. Now we come to the point
of identifying those whom God will redeem.
It won’t be the proud
and the haughty! Psa 131:1 My heart is not
proud, O LORD, my eyes are not
haughty; I do not
concern myself with great matters or THINGS
TOO WONDERFUL FOR ME. It may be thought that
this last phrase has, at best, an obscure meaning. In fact it has a very powerful message for
the proud and haughty! The proud
and haughty have gone to great lengths to discredit the Creator God through the
stories they make up – with baseless theories - concerning the origins of the earth. It’s one thing to refuse to believe and
obey God, but another altogether to deny His existence! This powerful message is one that was
delivered to the Prophet Job. God reveals everything to His Prophets, and
Job was no exception. You’ll recall
that Job lost all his children, his flocks and herds, and finally his
health. Yet he still refused to sin
against God even though he naturally assumed he had lost God’s favour. Finally God spoke to him and this is what
He said: Job 38:1-7 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 2
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4
"Where were you when I laid
the earth's foundation? Tell
me, if you understand. 5 Who
marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who
stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone--
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for
joy?” We won’t go into
a lengthy explanation of the shape
of
the landmass when
God first created it, but it did have a specific form and shape and it did
resemble a straight-sided triangle – a plan-view of a pyramid. God then goes on to speak
about two beasts who were
undergoing a form of punishment for two rulers of the spirit world. One of whom was king or ruler over all those who are proud and haughty. Job 41:33-34 “Nothing
on earth is his equal-- a creature without fear. 34 He
looks down on all that are HAUGHTY;
he is king over all that are PROUD." (This
harkens back to V1 of this Psalm). And now God commands an answer from Job: Job 42:1-6
“Then Job replied to the LORD: 2 "I
know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3
You
asked, `Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not
understand, THINGS TOO WONDERFUL
FOR ME TO KNOW. 4 "You said, `Listen now, and I will
speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' 5 My ears
had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore
I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." There are
things in this world TOO WONDERFUL
TO KNOW, but God does reveal them to His servants the Prophets. In the space of two chapters in the Book of
Job, God reveals the most wonderful secrets about the earth and the real
enemy of mankind – the invisible rulers.
Those who know and understand these things sit aghast at the mad
theories of geologists and earth ‘scientists’ who conjure up some of the
maddest theories imaginable, and they are always wrong! As Peter pointed out,
it’s not just the people (the
general populace) but also the churches that need to get a
grip on themselves and stop making up stories (and theories) about things
they know nothing about! What is more,
in these last days, it’s Ephraim who is under the gun! Ephraim is the home of the Churches of God
and so God demands far more of them – and naturally enough, He’s going to
hold them accountable for their sins! There have been times
when God has spoken glowingly about Ephraim, and especially of their founding
fathers: Hos
9:10 “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw YOUR FATHERS, it
was like seeing the early fruit on
the fig tree.” In referencing ‘ And now we project to the
day when Ephraim becomes a weaned child after they’ve been ‘stilled’ and have
come to their senses! Psa 131:2 But I have stilled and quieted
my soul; like a weaned child with
its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. In the Book of Hebrews we find the
distinction between a child at its mother’s breast and a weaned child: Heb 5:11-14
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to
explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this
time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word
all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk,
being still an infant, is not acquainted
with the teaching about
righteousness. 14 But
solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained
themselves to distinguish good from evil.” You have to admit that Ephraim has a hard
time distinguishing good from evil
these days! Things have changed since
the days of the founding fathers!
Ephraim can’t even distinguish who
the enemy is – which is a bit hard to believe – especially when they
say that Islam is not
the enemy, but insist that they still have to ‘win their hearts and minds’.
If they’re not the enemy, then why would this
be necessary? We distinguish our enemies by whether they are for us or against us! This seems to be a simple principle – and
one that was used by the Lord Jesus Himself! (Matt 12:30). Psa 131:3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore. This means you, Ephraim! You’re still living on mother’s milk –
which is endlessly promoted by the churches!
You need some solid food if you are ever to distinguish good from evil. Amid the chaos and carnage about to be
unleashed, you will need a lot of training before you put your hope in the LORD – as a nation! One of the smartest things you could do for
starters is to stop blaming the Israelis for everything! They are definitely not the enemy as
every sane person should know! Stop
deluding yourselves – you know who
the real enemy is! PSALM 132 A song of ascents. Psa 132:1 O LORD, remember David and all the hardships he endured. As a true servant of God, David suffered many hardships, and he endured
them all! We’ve just got through
talking about God’s servant Job, and the hardships he endured. Why should any nation think they should be
exempt? Did Jesus Christ suffer for
God the Father in the cause of all those who love Him? Why then would anyone think it strange that
they should suffer adversity from time to time? Both David and Jesus
Christ spoke of the Let’s learn some facts of
life. When God sent Joshua in to
capture the Holy Land he gave him some specific instructions: Josh 11:19-20
“Except for the Hivites living in Psa 132:2 He (David) swore an
oath to the LORD and made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob: Psa 132:3 "I will not enter my
house or go to my bed-- Psa 132:4 I will allow no sleep to my
eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, Psa 132:5 till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty
One of Jacob." This was the type of man
that David was! He lived rough in the
field with his mighty men, and sought nothing for himself until he had taken Psa 132:6 We heard it in Ephrathah, we came upon it in
the fields of Jaar: Ephrathah is the original name of In
referencing Ephrathah,
David was recalling an event that happened in the days of Joshua. Ephrathah
was the wife of Caleb. In fact, Ephrathah is called Caleb
Ephrathah in 1Chron 2:24. It’s worth learning about Caleb and what
sort of man he was. This is the
account recorded by Joshua: Joshua 14:6-15 “Now the men
of Psa 132:7 "Let us go to his
dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool-- Psa 132:8 arise, O LORD, and come to
your resting place, you and the ark
of your might. The The Levites
will be the shepherds referred to here – men
after God’s own heart. They
will establish the House of David
in preparation for another man
after God’s own heart – King
David. Acts 13:22-25 “After
removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: `I have found DAVID son of Jesse A MAN
AFTER MY OWN HEART; he will do everything I want him to do.' 23
"From this man's descendants
God has brought to Psa 132:9 May your priests be clothed with righteousness; may
your saints sing for joy."
With the arrival
of God’s Warrior priests,
the Saints will
have cause to sing for joy.
Saints are those who have God’s Holy Spirit and they will understand
the function of God’s Priests
as
warriors! They
will know that these Levite Priests are empowered to establish the House of David forevermore. Psa 132:10 For the sake of David your
servant, do not reject your anointed one.
Well there is an
anointed one, and soon there will be two anointed ones. This
second one will be from the line of
Psa 132:11 The LORD swore an oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke:
"One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne-- Psa 132:12 if your sons keep my covenant
and the statutes I teach them, then
their sons will sit on your throne for ever and ever." Well this oath can never be revoked, and God will raise up
a horn for David, a
royal prince of David, which we’ll discuss further in V17
below. It should be noted that Jesus
Christ was also a Prince
or Son of David. So you will understand the stature of the
man whom God will call as one of the two anointed
ones in these last days. There
will be something regal or David-like in this man of Psa 132:13 For the LORD has chosen Psa 132:14 "This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will
sit enthroned, for I have desired it-- Psa 132:15 I will bless her with abundant
provisions; her poor will I satisfy with food. So now we all know where the Psa 132:16 I will clothe her priests with salvation, and
her saints will ever sing for joy. For all those who like to posture and dress up as priests in the
churches, you’re sure to find you’re wearing the wrong uniform. Come back to earth and face reality! God is not talking about priestly robes for
Most Bible students would
be aware of what the Apostle Paul had to say about dressing in preparation
for battles against the evil rulers.
You’ll notice that he was not suggesting dressing-up in princely
attire in the manner of some priests today.
He was figuratively speaking of dressing in battle attire. He’s suggesting they should be
emulating the Warriors of God!
This is what he says: Eph 6:10-18 “Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his
mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12
For our struggle is
not
against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when
the
day of evil comes, you may
be able to stand your ground,
and
after you have done everything, to
stand. 14 Stand
firm then, with the belt of
truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and
with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In
addition to all this, take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil
one. 17 Take the helmet
of salvation and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the
saints.” Paul knew only too well
that the Some might ask why God
didn’t simply kill off the inhabitants of the Promised Land and allow the
Israelites to enter peacefully without having to fight their way into the
Land. The answer is, how would God
otherwise test their resolve? The
present rulers of this earth are not flesh and blood!
Rather, they’re the power of
the dark world, evil, menacing, and determined to destroy
the human kind – or at least those whom they can’t control. We know only too well that the Apostle John
made the distinction between the children
of the devil and the children
of God: 1John 3:7-20 “Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is
righteous, just as he (God) is righteous. 8
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The
reason the Son of God appeared was to DESTROY THE DEVIL'S WORK. 9
No one who is born of God
will continue to sin, because God's
seed (the Holy Spirit) remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born of God. 10
This is how we know who the CHILDREN OF GOD are
and who the CHILDREN
OF THE DEVIL are: Anyone who does not do
what is right is not a child
of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” The children
of God are those who are led by His
Holy Spirit. To be born of God is to receive His
Holy Spirit, which is the down-payment of God’s promise
to His sons. V11 “This
is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12
Do not
be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and
murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own
actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be
surprised, my brothers, if the
world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death
to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15
Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” Anyone who hates his brother, who possesses the seed of
God, is akin to a murderer.
It’s worth mentioning here that anyone who doesn’t obey God is not
a brother! God gives His Holy Spirit only
to those who obey Him: Acts 5:32
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom
God has given to those who obey him." Anyone who doesn’t
obey God cannot
have the Holy Spirit, and
are therefore not a brother!
In fact, they are firmly in the camp of the devil – who has been disobeying or sinning from the beginning! The Apostle John knew he
was living in the last days of many of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Things were turning very bleak because they
knew that the world hated them
– the
world being the children of the devil! They had no reason to hate them, but then,
when was ‘reason’ ever a consideration to the children of the devil?
Today, we have professing Christians who hate those who obey God. They screech and holler like maniacs at any
suggestion that they should obey their Creator God.
They don’t want God ruling over them, and they refuse to obey His
Law! If they really loved God then
they would willingly want to obey Him.
After all, God is the One who gave them life, and He can just as
easily take it away. As John points
out, the reason why the Son of God came was to destroy the devil’s work.
Anyone who becomes a part of the devil’s work should know what to
expect. V16 “This
is how we know what love is: Jesus
Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no
pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear
children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19
This
then is how we know that
we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his
presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater
than our hearts, and he knows everything.” John foreshadowed a time when his brothers
would be required to lay down their lives for other children of God – just as
Jesus Christ did. This is the big test
of real love. Godly love means outgoing
concern for others without restriction. Even if it means laying down one’s
life! The advice the Apostle
John gave was for those of his day as well as ours. The bloodbath of the Christian persecutions
in John’s day closely resembles what to expect in our day. The only difference is that the enemy today
is far greater in strength. The
persecutions in John’s day went on for centuries and even became a spectator
sport in the arena. In these last
days, the period will be much shorter.
The reason is that it’s time for the big showdown against the forces
of evil and their ultimate destruction.
Satan and his demons know they are running out of time; their allotted
six thousand years are up and the final judgment is coming. Throughout the entire
history of the Old Testament, God has shown us what to expect and how it will
all unfold. We’ve seen examples in the
Bible of numerous men of God fighting against the forces of evil and
defeating them. One of these great men
was Abraham, whom the Lord Christ
(the
High Priest after the Order of Melchisedec and the Prince of Peace)
greeted after he returned from the slaughter
of the kings (Gen 14:17-20).
This is particularly notable, because Abraham is our Patriarch and the
father of the faithful. There are many
other great and wondrous warriors recorded in the Bible, men of God who went
into battle knowing that God would give them victory. David was also one of
these. Psa 132:17 "Here (that is, in Psa 132:18 I will clothe his enemies
with shame, but the crown on his head will be
resplendent." This Horn from the House
of David will be fighting under the banner of the House of David. Their enemies will be covered with shame
when they are ignobly defeated. A
royal crown will be produced and then set aside for the one to whom it
belongs (Zech
6:9-15). Zechariah’s
account of this is given in parable form. PSALM 133 A song of ascents. Of David. Psa 133:1 How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity! If you want to see this in action, then the best place to see it is in
time of war, when brothers-in-arms
are
facing the enemy. Then
you see true unity! You don’t
see it too often among religious groups however! There’s always some egotist who thinks he’s
more ‘spiritual’ than others and
deserves more recognition.
Self-promotion is something that Jesus Christ hated – and so did John
the Baptist for that matter! Posturing
lunatics are a stench to everyone who is led by God’s Holy Spirit. In a church setting, it’s always the
limp-wristed who feel they qualify as ‘spiritual’
leaders! In a war setting, they’d be
the first to run for their lives! Psa 133:2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It’s hardly a coincidence that the House of Aaron is used as an example for unity! And neither is it a coincidence that it’s
speaking of precious oil – which
is the symbol of God’s Holy Spirit – and which is running down the Levite Priest’s robes. Psa 133:3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there ( PSALM 134 A song of ascents. These next two Psalms
continue to speak of the House of
Levi and more particularly, the House
of Aaron as well as their obligations to the House of Israel. The House
of Aaron is the priesthood line of the Tribe of
Levi. Psa 134:1 Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of
the LORD. The night spoken of here
is the long, dark night – before the dawning.
As we read above in Psa 132:17, it speaks of a LAMP for the anointed one, and this is very necessary during
this dark time, especially when brothers are living together in unity. Since we’re speaking of a LAMP that burns olive oil to create light,
and since the oil is poured on
Aaron’s head, we can understand where this light emanates from and
the purpose of the message. The LAMP of the anointed one
is to provide the light for
the ‘lost sheep of Psa 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the
LORD. Those in the Sanctuary will be blessed by God: Psa 134:3 May the LORD, THE MAKER
OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, bless
you from PSALM 135 Psa 135:1 Praise the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD; praise him, you servants of the LORD, Psa 135:2 you who minister in the house of the LORD, in
the courts of the house of our God. Of course the servants of the LORD praise Him! They
live for Him and are prepared to die for Him!
Worship and obedience to Him is their whole life, and this is why they
will minister in the House of the
LORD, in His very courts!
Why would God accept anything less?
God is creating His servants in the image of His Son Jesus, and they
had better be just like Him! Courts are where justice is
dispensed according to Law! Psa 135:3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that
is pleasant. Psa 135:4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob
to be his own, God also speaks of a time
when he will make up His treasured possession, and it’s found in the Levite
Book of the Messenger (Malachi). The Treasured Possession begins with the
Levites: Mal
3:16-18 “Then those who feared the LORD
talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of
remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 17
"They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty,
"in the day when I make up
my TREASURED POSSESSION.
I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves
him. 18 And you will again see the distinction
between the righteous and
the wicked, between
those who SERVE God and those
who do not.” God
will already have servants who
serve Him in the day when He makes up His treasured possession.
This will be a time of gathering the House of Israel from wherever
they’ve been scattered. And they’ll be
happy to see that their enemies are ashes
under their feet (Mal 4:2-3). And now we come to the
reason why Jesus
Christ came to earth, which we all know was to destroy the devil’s work – just as the Apostle John
said. Psa 135:5 I know that the LORD is great,
that
our Lord is greater than all gods.
The devil and his
demons just love to pose as gods. Many
of the children of the devil
do as well! There’s always some madman
somewhere who claims to be a god, and some even claim to be Christ Himself
reincarnated! Such people are
attention-craving maniacs and it doesn’t say much for those who follow
them! 2Cor 11:14 “And no wonder, for Satan
himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not
surprising, then, if his servants
masquerade as servants of righteousness. THEIR END WILL BE WHAT THEIR ACTIONS DESERVE.” There’s no
ambiguity in this statement! So, it logically follows
that our worship should be for the Creator God. And in order to worship God you need to
know more about Him. Don’t expect God
to always act as you think He should.
More importantly, don’t react if you think things are not going the
way you think they should. For
centuries now, God has been quiet,
because the time to act was not then. He reserved a time for action, a time for dealing with His enemies. We have now come to that time, and
preparations are underway. Isa 42:13-16
“The LORD
will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. 14
"FOR A LONG TIME I HAVE KEPT
SILENT, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry
out, I gasp and pant. 15 I
will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their
vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. 16
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I
will guide them; I will turn the
darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not
forsake them.” This sounds very much like the message John
the Baptist preached about mountains
and hills being leveled and the rough places becoming smooth (see Isa 40:4-5, Luke
3:4-5).
This is no coincidence! After
all, John was a Levite from
the line of Aaron (Luke 1:5), and this is the event he was speaking of. Psa 135:6 The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on
the earth, in the seas and all their depths.
One of the first
things a servant of God learns it that God’s ways are not necessarily our
ways. It takes time to learn all about
God and His ways of doing things.
Human beings tend to be impulsive, whereas God is very
methodical. His actions are based on
long-term plans and He alone knows how to achieve them. Psa 135:7 He makes clouds rise from the
ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. God set in motion the balance of nature so the all things function as
they should. These are things that
human beings can’t regulate.
Only God can do this.
So don’t be deceived into believing that human beings can regulate the
climate! And neither can they regulate
the wind that comes out of God’s
storehouses – as the victims of Hurricane Katrina well
know! When they can regulate
these winds, they maybe they’ll have something to brag about. In the meantime, they need to shut their
mouths! Psa 135:8 He struck down the firstborn of Those who take an
interest in the genealogy of the Bible identities, will know that there are
many genealogy records of families, some of which stretch from Adam to Christ, for
instance, Luke
3:23-38, and then another detailing the genealogy from Abraham to Christ in Matt 1:16. From this we can see that God has long term
interests in the genealogies of the human kind. We have a passage of
Scripture in Rev
7:4-8 where God speaks of 12,000 people from each of the Tribes of
Israel (with the exception of the Tribe of Dan. Instead a double portion goes to
Joseph). Now who on earth today could
possibly determine the tribal origins of these 144,000 people? Those who understand where the Tribes of
Israel settled in Europe, This does tend to make a
mockery of some of the churches of this world who’ve convinced themselves
that they’re the 144,000. The odd
thing about this is that they never seem to know which of the
individual Tribes they
claim to represent! Oops, almost
forgot! They claim to be ‘spiritual’
Psa 135:9 He sent his signs and wonders into
your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. Yes, there were many signs and wonders shown in Jesus Christ instituted
the Passover of the New Covenant with His disciples. In this case, it was a little different, in
that there was no lamb, but Jesus Himself was to be the Sacrificial
Lamb. He told them to observe this
Passover in remembrance of
Him and they continued to do this every
Passover thereafter, and in the prescribed manner.
There are people in this world’s
churches who refuse to observe the Lord’s
Passover and instead substitute it for any time of the year and call it
the ‘Last Supper’ – which might
prove to be very prophetic to those who treat such a solemn ceremony as the Passover
with contempt! Their ‘last supper’ may come sooner than they
think! The Lord’s Passover is reserved
for those who have truly committed themselves to obedience to God; all
others should do as the ancient Israelites did, and sacrifice a
lamb. I kid you not! Soon you will find this out the hard way! So the general consensus
today is that God loves everyone. Even
the children of Satan! Because of
this, God would never strike down whole nations and their rulers. Is this what you think? You probably heard it first in Sunday
school, but this is just one of the many distortions of the Scriptures that
have been thrust on Christianity. Well
here’s the reality check: Psa 135:10 He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings-- Psa 135:11 Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan and all the kings of Psa 135:12 and he gave their land as an
inheritance, an inheritance to his
people Psa 135:13 Your name, O
LORD, endures forever, your
RENOWN, O LORD, through
all generations. God’s RENOWN is the same today as it
was when He struck down all those
nations and killed their
rulers! What is more, His RENOWN continues through all generations. It didn’t stop at the Cross! Jesus Christ emerged triumphant after His death, and now Satan and his demons
face that RENOWN! Psa 135:14 For the LORD will vindicate his people and have
compassion on his servants.
The servants of God are 100% in favour of
God’s way of dealing with the rulers of this dark world along with their evil
offspring. They long to see God’s
Kingdom established in righteousness.
Like the Mighty Christ, they too, see only total solutions, and these
solutions involve the elimination of all of God’s enemies. It this seems harsh, then be aware that God
will vindicate His
servants! You can read about this vindication in Isa 54:16-17. Psa 135:15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. Well, that would be right, wouldn’t it? They don’t want to worship the Maker of the
heavens and earth, but still they crave to worship something greater than
themselves. Well a stick of wood
wouldn’t do, and neither would a stuffed camel. They want to worship something greater than
this! What, then, do they rely on most
in times of trouble? Isn’t it their
wealth? With silver and gold being the
universal currency, it’s a more powerful symbol to worship, and it’s
obviously the idol which the nations choose!
But there’s a disparity, and the nations who don’t have enough ‘idols’ want the ‘idols’ of other nations.
The richer nations merely print their ‘idols’ on paper and scatter it around like confetti, and the
poorer nations gather it up by any means possible – mostly through lies and
deception as they sit around whining about limited opportunities. Gold and silver in the form of paper money
is easy to make. All you have to do is
roll the printing presses and it magically appears! Because it’s not backed by gold or silver,
but by the overall wealth of the nation, only the wealthy nations can print
it and have it accepted by others! It’s the universal ‘idol’ for all the nations. The purpose of printed money originally
came with a promise that it could be redeemed in gold. Fat chance of this these days! Psa 135:16 They have mouths, but cannot
speak, eyes, but they cannot see; Psa 135:17 they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their
mouths. You won’t get much sense out of the nations
‘idols’. There’s a big disconnect between economic
theory and reality, and we’re now finding that wealth is an illusion when
structured on false ‘idols’. Now is the perfect time to stop trusting in
these ‘idols’. Psa 135:18 Those who make them will be like them, and
so will all who trust in them.
Those who make
idols as the object of
their trust will be blown away like paper! And just to put these
things into perspective. God does have
preferences, and He loves some more than others. Among the northern ten Tribes of Israel,
God loved one Tribe more than all the others.
So much so, that He gave all
the ten Tribes to Ephraim to rule over. God loved Ephraim from the day that Jacob
blessed the two sons of Joseph, and made the younger greater than the
older. Ephraim was to become
infinitely greater than his brother Manasseh.
With this blessing comes higher accountability, and God has held Ephraim
to much higher standards. And while
Ephraim has been the recipient of the greatest blessings on earth, God also
holds them more accountable for their sins.
God knew that when they became very rich, they would begin to drift
away from acknowledging that their blessings came from the Creator God. In addition to this, All these things were
foreseen long ago, and all the Prophets reported them, making it very clear
that a day of reckoning would come.
This day would come when God would bring an end to it all, and punish
them for their sins. The Prophet Ezekiel spoke
of this day and the disaster that it to come on the House of Israel.
This is what he wrote: Eze 7:1-27 “The word
of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, this is what the
Sovereign LORD says to the Finally God
told Ezekiel what to tell them, together with the whole explanation: Eze 37:18 “When
your countrymen ask you, `Won't you tell us what you mean by this?'
19 say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I am going to take the stick of
Joseph--which is in EPHRAIM'S hand--and of the Israelite
tribes associated with him,
and join it to Judah's stick,
making them a single stick of wood,
and they will become one in
my hand.' 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have
written on 21 and say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD
says: I will take the Israelites
out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their
own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of As evidence that
Ezekiel’s prophecies were for the distant future, God’s instructions to
Ezekiel for his countrymen continues: V24 “`My servant David will be king over
them, and they will all have one
shepherd. THEY WILL FOLLOW
MY LAWS AND BE CAREFUL TO KEEP MY DECREES. 25 They will
live in the land I gave to my
servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived.
They
and their children and their children's children will live there forever,
and
David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will
make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their
numbers, and I will put my
sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God,
and
they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that
I the LORD make So now we have complete
clarity on the end game. We know how
it all ends up, thanks to Ezekiel and all the prophets. But now we have to learn how it all begins,
and what happens before it all ends.
Continuing now where we began in the Book of Ezekiel, we read in Eze 7:5
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An
unheard-of disaster is coming. 6 The end has come! The end has
come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! 7 Doom has
come upon you--you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near;
there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. 8 I
am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I
will judge you according to
your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. 9
I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will
repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among
you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow.” Notice this last verse? God
is the One we should FEAR – not the enemy! God is the One we should OBEY
– not
the enemy! And if not, then God Himself will strike the blow that will bring the
cascading disasters that will reduce the nation to nothing. Continuing: Eze 7:10-27
“The day is here! It
has come! Doom has burst forth, the rod has budded (a reference to Aaron’s rod that
budded, which happened when God was demonstrating which Tribe had His
blessing.), arrogance has blossomed! (This
brings to mind Hos 9:7 when all the arrogant
preachers call God’s Prophet a maniac) 11
Violence has grown into a rod to punish wickedness; none of the people will
be left, none of that crowd--no wealth, nothing of value. 12
The
time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the
buyer rejoice nor the seller grieve, for wrath is upon the whole crowd. 13
The seller will not recover the land he has sold as long as both of them
live, for the vision concerning the whole crowd will not be reversed.
Because of their sins, not one of them will preserve his life. 14
Though they blow the trumpet and get everything ready, no one will go into battle, for my wrath is upon the whole
crowd.” It gets really serious
when no-one will go into battle, especially when the ‘sword’ is at the gates. Perhaps
it’s just as well, because the usual standard towards the enemy is to ‘win their hearts and minds’. V15 “Outside is the sword, inside are plague and famine; those
in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be
devoured by famine and plague. 16 All who survive and
escape will be in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valleys, each
because of his sins. 17 Every hand will go limp, and every knee
will become as weak as water. 18 They will put on sackcloth and be clothed with terror.
Their faces will be covered with shame and their heads will be shaved. 19
They will throw their silver
into the streets, and their gold will
be an unclean thing. Their silver
and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD's wrath. They will not satisfy
their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it has made them stumble
into sin. 20 They were proud of their beautiful jewelry and used
it to make their detestable idols and vile images. Therefore I will turn
these into an unclean thing for them. 21 I will hand it all over as plunder to foreigners and
as loot to the wicked of the earth, and they will defile it. 22
I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured
place; robbers will enter it and desecrate it.” This sounds bad enough, but it
gets worse! V23 “Prepare chains (or
shackles), because the land is full of bloodshed
and the city is full of violence. 24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations to
take possession of their houses; I will put an end to the pride of the
mighty, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated. 25 When terror comes, they
will seek peace, but there
will be none. 26 Calamity
upon calamity will come, and
rumor upon rumor. They will
try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the
priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders. 27
The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands
of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I
will judge them. Then they will
know that I am the LORD." I hope Christians will realize that these
are the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ – the God of the Old Testament! So don’t be like Ezekiel’s countrymen and
ask, ‘What has this to do with us?’
It has everything to do with you, and especially if you live in Ephraim – the United States of And here’s a bit of good
news! God’s servants will be hard at
work, clearing the Psa 135:19 O house of Israel, praise
the LORD; O house of Aaron,
praise
the LORD; Psa 135:20 O house of Levi, praise the LORD; you who fear him, praise the LORD. We just read where Ezekiel referenced Aaron’s rod that budded, and the House of Aaron will once more figure prominently in the
coming prophetic events. You’ll recall
that John the Baptist was of the direct line of Aaron (Luke 1:5-6), and so will the
Prophet Elijah be of this line. He will
muster the Levites for duty, and will be a horn in the House of David. Elijah is the Prophet whom Ezekiel referred
to in Eze 7:26. At that time, it will be a little late to
be seeking
a vision from the Prophet.
The House of Israel will already be living the vision! God has an interest only in those who
believe Him before the event! God
takes the view that if you reject knowledge, then you deserve to pay the
price! This is what He says: Hos 4:6
“My
people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I ALSO REJECT YOU AS MY PRIESTS;
because you have ignored the LAW
OF YOUR GOD, I also will ignore your children.” By rejecting
knowledge you reject the right to become warrior
priests! You will never serve
under the House of Aaron or
the House of Levi! The House of Israel will be on their own
for a number of years! Even then, only
a remnant will return. Psa 135:21 Praise be to the LORD
from Zion, to him who dwells in PSALM 136 Psa 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for
he is good. His love endures forever. It’s
a great shame that people don’t know whom God loves. He doesn’t
love His enemies – He hates
them! He loves His people In
this regard, God is different! He does
take into account repentance from past deeds, and because of His great love, He will
forgive. Those who come to repentance early will suffer a
whole lot less than those who don’t!
Ideally, people should repent of their hostility towards God, and believe Him now, before they become
immersed in the punishment for their disbelief. We all know what is said of Abraham, that
he believed God and this
was credited to him as
righteousness. James 2:23-24
“And the scripture was fulfilled that says,
"Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him as
righteousness," and he was called God's friend.
24 You see that a person is justified
by what he does and not by faith alone.” Long
before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, Abraham was already living in
obedience to God, and this was confirmed to Abraham’s son Isaac: Gen 26:4-5 “I will make your descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5
because Abraham obeyed me and kept
my requirements, my commands[ments], my decrees and my laws." Obedience to
God is mandatory for all the descendants of Abraham through his son
Isaac. Even the rest of the nations on
the earth will blessed if the House of Israel sets the example. Of course, the House of Israel hasn’t done
this! Yet they will, but only after
they’ve been thoroughly punished for not doing it! And then the rest
of the nations of the earth
will be blessed. It seems that
Christianity is determined to thwart this by refusing to obey God’s Commandments, Decrees
and Laws. They’re not
setting a very good example to the rest of the world, are they? Psa 136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods. His
love endures forever.
There are ‘gods’ in
this world, and these are referred to as demons in the Bible, who, incidentally,
are soon to be replaced as the rulers of this
world. People who worship
anything other than the Creator God are worshipping demons! God is the God of ‘gods’, and even
the demons shudder with fear before
Him! James 2:18-19 “But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my
faith by what I do. 19
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even
the demons believe that--and shudder.” And we all know why they shudder! They shudder
because they’re disobedient to God, and they know this carries a very heavy
penalty. James was pointing out that faith alone doesn’t
cut it with God. Even demons know there is only one God, but they simply
can’t resist playing the ‘god’
role. They literally crave recognition
and worship by lesser beings. They
want power over the human kind and the respect that goes with it. They do it in defiance of God knowing that
God alone is to be worshipped. Satan and his
demons can do as they please with their own offspring, but the Family of God,
the whole family that He brought out of In contrast
to Satan
and his servants masquerading
as angels of light, James goes on to identify who is really the God of Light: James 1:16-18 “Don't
be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father
of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we
might be a kind of
firstfruits of all he created.”
In Truth, God the Father
lives in unapproachable light. 1Titus 6:13-16 “In the
sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while
testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14
to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15
which
God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only
Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who
lives in unapproachable light,
whom no one has seen
or
can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” Those who are a kind
of
firstfruit, that is, the Church, should realize
there is no place for masquerading as angels of light. If this is the best they can do, then
they’ve lost the plot! In view of
all that has happened in the past, one might expect that God would want to
dispense with the family He brought
out of Psa 136:3 Give thanks to the Lord of
lords: His love endures forever. Psa 136:4 to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever. Psa 136:5 who by his understanding made
the heavens, His love endures forever. Psa 136:6 who spread out the earth upon
the waters, His love endures forever. Psa 136:7 who made the great lights-- His love
endures forever. Psa 136:8 the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever. Psa 136:9 the moon and stars
to govern
the night; His love endures forever. Psa 136:10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Psa 136:11 and brought So how does the sun, moon and stars relate to
the Tribes of Israel? Immediately
before the Prophet Joseph was delivered
into slavery by his brothers, he had a dream. A very significant dream! One which irritated his brothers – and even
his father! This is the account: Gen 37:9-11
“Then he had another dream, and he told it to his
brothers. "Listen," he said,
"I had another dream, and this
time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 10
When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and
said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and
your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but
his father kept the matter in mind.” The brothers immediately knew by the
mention of the sun, moon and eleven
stars that Joseph was speaking of them. So did their father Jacob! The brothers rejected it out
of jealousy, but
Jacob kept the matter in mind.
One could write a tome on the full meaning of this, but in its
simplest form, it means that there will be a new heavens and a new
earth, and the 12 Tribes of Israel will be the representatives of
them. All the future inhabitants of
the earth will look to the 12 Tribes of Israel for guidance as a light to
their paths. It’s not the time or
place to be going into all the explanations of this, but we should all be
like Jacob and keep the matter in mind! Following the betrayal of
their brother Joseph, the eleven brothers soon found themselves in slavery,
which lasted some hundreds of years before they were finally rescued. And the outcome of this history lesson
continues: Psa 136:12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love
endures forever. Psa 136:13 to him who divided the Psa 136:14 and brought Israel through
the midst of it, His love endures forever. Psa 136:15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Continuing: Psa 136:16 to him who led his people through the desert, His love
endures forever. And finally, the
Israelites were in sight of the Promised Land: Psa 136:17 who struck down great kings, His love endures forever. Psa 136:18 and killed mighty kings-- His love endures forever. Psa 136:19 Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever. Psa 136:20 and Og king of Psa 136:21 and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures
forever. Psa 136:22 an inheritance to his servant Psa 136:23 to the One who
remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever. Psa 136:24 and freed us from our
enemies, His love endures forever. Psa 136:25 and who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Psa 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures
forever. It’s as well for the
Tribes of Israel to remember their history, because the truth is they are
about to repeat it. There are at least
some of the Tribes who would happily see Joseph
sold into slavery once more – because of their jealousy of him! Ephraim was Joseph’s youngest
son, but Jacob elevated him to the status of his (Jacob’s) firstborn son (Gen 48:5),
and of the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim
was
to be the greater (V19). A
subtle reminder of this is found in Rev 7:4-8 where the 12 Tribes of Israel are
mentioned, where we find the name of Manesseh
(Joseph’s
oldest son) but Ephraim
is referred to as Joseph – an
obvious elevation of his stature!
Today, Ephraim is
like a firstborn son – just
as Jacob confirmed! And just keep in mind that Jacob was representative of the sun in Joseph’s
dream! In this regard, Jacob was like
Jesus Christ, who is the Sun of
Righteousness (Mal 4:2) and the Bright Morning Star (Rev 22:16), who
will arise with the dawning
of the New Day. Not to complicate matters
further, but just bear in mind that the
sun and the moon in
Joseph’s dream represented Joseph’s father
and his mother, which
was RACHEL. There is a
prophecy concerning Rachel weeping
for her children. Rachel
is primarily the mother of Joseph,
but as the ‘moon’ she is a light
to all
the sons of Jacob. This is the prophecy concerning Rachel: Jer 31:15-25
“This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard
in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, RACHEL
weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."
16 This is what the LORD says [to Rachel]: "Restrain your voice from weeping and your
eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded," declares the
LORD. "They will return from the land of the enemy. 17
So there is hope for your future," declares the LORD. "Your
children will return to their own land. 18 "I have
surely heard EPHRAIM'S moaning:
`You
disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me, and I will return, because you
are the LORD my God. 19 After
I strayed, I repented; after I came to
understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I
bore the disgrace of my youth.' 20 Is not Ephraim my dear son, the
child in whom I delight? Though I
often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have
great compassion for him," declares
the LORD.” So even the LORD refers to Ephraim as His dear son! Just as Jacob did! We have an
early fulfillment of this, which occurred at the time of the birth of the Son
of God Jesus Christ. A ruler of the spirit realm – Herod – sought to kill this infant Son of God soon after
He was born. Herod ordered all male
babies of two years old or younger, to be killed. This is the account: Matt 2:14-17 “So
he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for God’s other
tribal son Ephraim, is to similarly encounter a ruler of the spirit realm –
like Herod – who will inflict vengeance on them, just as Herod did to In V22
above, the question is asked, “How long will you wander, O unfaithful
daughter?” Well the answer is, they’ve
been wandering since 720BC and have still not returned to
their ancestral lands. Yet they will
return in time to come, and very soon. Recall earlier how we
discussed the prophecies of Ezekiel, concerning the House of Israel, and how
he went on and on about their destruction and captivity. You’ll remember that the Jews in Babylon asked
what
this had to do with them.
Well, the truth is that it had very little to do with them while they
were still living in PSALM 137 Some people have
suggested that this Psalm wasn’t written by David, because he writes of
things 400 years in the future. They
seem to forget that David was a prophet, and much of what he wrote was a warning
for the future. Like his famous Son
Jesus, David also spoke in parables.
While these people say he didn’t write this Psalm, they happily
concede he wrote the next (Psa 138). Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when
we remembered Zion. The contrasting
differences between the House of Israel and the House of Judah didn’t go
unnoticed by God. The Jews wept and
mourned for the Psa 137:2 There on the poplars we hung
our harps, Psa 137:3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our TORMENTORS demanded
songs of joy; they said,
"Sing us one of the songs of Psa 137:4 How can we sing the songs of
the LORD while in a foreign land? Despite the humiliation
the Jews suffered in a foreign land, they still kept Psa 137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill. Psa 137:6 May my tongue cling to the
roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Psa 137:7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Not only is Esau or Psa 137:8 O Daughter of Psa 137:9 he who seizes your infants and
dashes them against the rocks.
Well, this is
what the Edomites did to Jewish infants and babies when The one who is happy to repay PSALM 138 Of David. Psa 138:1 I will praise you, O LORD,
with all my heart; before the "gods"
I will sing your praise. The spirit rulers of this
world are called “gods” but their
days are numbered. Their masquerade
will end when they’re imprisoned for a thousand years. It’s during this period that other “gods” will replace them, and these
will have the same powers of rulership, though with a vastly different
style! Instead of being led by demon
spirits, these new “gods”
will be led by God’s Holy Spirit,
and will be called the Sons
of God. A situation developed in
Jesus’ day when the religious leaders sought to stone Him for blasphemy: John 10:33-39
“We are not stoning you for any of these,"
replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy,
because
you, a mere man, claim to be God." This is a mistake a lot of religious freaks
make when they don’t understand the Scriptures! They’re always quick to accuse! V34 “Jesus answered
them, "Is it not written in your Law, `I have said you are gods' ? 35 If
he called them `gods,' TO WHOM THE WORD OF GOD CAME--and the Scripture cannot be
broken-- 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart
as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of
blasphemy because I said, `I am
God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do what my
Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not
believe me, believe the
miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I
in the Father." 39 Again they tried to seize him,
but he escaped their grasp.” Did you
notice these words of Jesus: “he called them `gods,' TO WHOM THE WORD OF GOD CAME”? To whom did the word of God
come? Jesus explains: John 6:44-45 “No
one can come to me unless
the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. 45 It is written in
the Prophets: `THEY WILL
ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” And where is this written in the prophets?
We find it in Isa 54:13-14 “All your sons will be taught by the
LORD, and great will be your children's peace. 14
In
righteousness you will be established: Tyranny
will be far from you; you
will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not
come near you. 15 If
anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to
you.” In reality, these sons of God are also called
the “Sons of Jerusalem” – see V11-12. The Word of God comes to God’s
Prophets, and without the Spirit
of Prophecy, no-one is a Prophet! Those who teach lies in God’s Name, calling
it prophecy, are not Prophets.
Those who read the Scriptures and don’t understand them are not
Prophets either! Anyone who doesn’t
have the Spirit of Prophecy
doesn’t
have the Testimony of Jesus
either,
because they are the same thing! (Rev 19:10). So to summarize: those “gods” that Jesus spoke of were taught by God Himself, and
only those who listen and learn from the Father can come to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ always did the will of the
Father, and so do the sons of God
who have the Spirit of Christ
living in them. This Spirit of Christ is called “The
Counselor” in John 14:25-26.
This is the means by which the Father
teaches. And just remember this: Rom 8:9
“You, however, are controlled not by the
sinful nature but by the Spirit,
if
the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong
to Christ.” Psa 138:2 I will bow down toward your
holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things your name and your
word. God has exalted His Name and reputation above all things, and His Word is trustworthy and reliable. It’s funny how some people choose to
cherry-pick from the Scriptures only what suits them while ignoring the
rest! Their choice of Scriptural
verses is what tends to benefit them rather than God. Some even go beyond this in finding fault
with God’s way of doing things. There
are even preachers today who have judged the God of the Old Testament to be
harsh and cruel! They don’t know Jesus
Christ very well, do they? We’ve just
finished reading a whole Psalm that emphasizes repeatedly that God’s
love endures forever. In
saying this, God is confirming His love for the Tribes of Israel – not the children of the devil! The whole purpose of Jesus Christ coming to
the earth is to destroy the devil’s
work along with all his brood.
We’ve just been reading how He plans to deal with Psa 138:3 When I called, you answered me; you
made me bold and stouthearted. Well this is what one might expect of warriors of God like David! God’s answers
don’t
make His servants weak and insipid! Instead they make His servants bold and courageous – even in
the face of the enemy! Would anyone
seriously believe that weak leaders would inspire confidence in the
people? When leaders begin to appease the enemy (as British PM Neville Chamberlain did at
the start of WW2), the people quickly lose confidence in them. You’ll recall how President Obama visited
the One of the great lessons
we’re learning today is that the enemy must be defeated decisively and
totally! ‘Winning their hearts and minds’ is not an
option! It doesn’t work, and never
has, and as we all now realize, it hasn’t worked against Islam. These are the very people who still remain
of the original Babylonian Empire, which conquered the entire As things presently
stand, the response to the Islamic problem has been weak and insipid. All over the world the Islamic rulers have
become emboldened, which they tend to do when they detect cowardice. And when they learn of the ‘rules of engagement’ of the Western
forces, they are become stupefied with disbelief! All the enemy has to do is to mix some
women and children among their force, and they can expect no return fire for
fear of ‘collateral damage’. This is not how you fight
a war! God has given us many answers on the outcome of
losing a war with such evil creatures, and even cites The only way to deal with
these evil, satanic hordes is with overwhelming force so that not a root or
branch of them will remain. This is,
of course, the final solution, and God has made this very clear in the many answers He has given us from
the words of His mouth. The surviving rulers of the nations will
have nothing but respect for Him – or else! Psa 138:4 May all the kings of the earth
praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth. It’s amazing the results you get from a bit of summary justice! Suddenly God’s ways don’t seem to be too difficult after all. Psa 138:5 May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the
glory of the LORD is great. God’s way is the conquest of all His enemies, and the survivors will have
something to sing about. Psa 138:6 Though the LORD is on high, he
looks upon the lowly, but the proud
he knows from afar. In other words, the proud
and the haughty will be kept at a distance. The Prophet Isaiah adds some clarity to
this: Isa 66:2
“Has not my hand made all these things, and so they
came into being?" declares the LORD.
"This is the one I
esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” The Scriptures
are the Word of God and everyone would be well-advised to take notice of
them. There is important information
in them, and they hold the answers to our very survival. Life on earth is set to become a living
hell as the final showdown comes. Psa 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve
my life; you stretch out your hand against
the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. Well, this puts a different complexion on the meaning of salvation, doesn’t it? It’s a little different from the
indefinable meaning given by Christianity today, isn’t it? Almost everyday we are confronted by
Christians who believe they are already ‘saved’. It might seem comforting to them, but their
troubles are only beginning, and they will find themselves in the midst of trouble! Instead of concocting their own answers,
they should have sought God’s answers! Psa 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever-- do not abandon the works
of your hands. The works of God’s hands are likened to that of a Potter. The Apostle Paul does a good job of
explaining the works of God’s hands:
Rom 9:19-29
“One of you will say to me: "Then why does God
still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20 But
who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him
who formed it, `Why did you make me like this?'"
21 Does not the potter
have the right to make out of the same
lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes
and some for common use?” In this, Paul
gives the example of God being the Potter.
Out of the same lump of clay,
God is able to make some pottery for noble
purposes, and some for just common
use. And then Paul speaks of
the objects of God’s wrath,
to which He is showing patience – even though they were prepared for destruction.
The
Christians, to whom Paul was writing, were wondering why God doesn’t destroy
them, then and there, and so spare themselves from suffering. The answer to this question is not always
encouraging, especially when the enemy is closing in. So Paul explains that it’s through persecution that the objects of his mercy, whom
God has prepared for glory, with have the opportunity to show
their faith in God and endure to the end: V22 “What if God,
choosing to show his wrath and make
his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? 23
What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his
mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--
24 even us, whom
he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the
Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea: "I will call them `my people' who are not
my people; and I will call her `my
loved one' who is not my loved one," 26
and, "It will happen that in
the very place where it was said to them, `You are not
my people,' they will be called `sons
of the living God.'" To be
sure, Paul was comforting the Gentile Christians, who may have thought
themselves to be alienated from being called the ‘sons of the Living God’, since they knew that all the
Scriptures relate to the Israelites. Paul put them at ease, since God makes no
such distinction when Gentiles
serve Him faithfully. Dutifully,
Paul goes on to make a comparison between their numbers, and the remnant of
the House of Israel that will survive.
Out of the hundreds of
millions of Israelites, only a remnant will be saved:
V27-29 “Isaiah cries out
concerning The 12 Tribes
of Israel are outnumbered by Satan’s hordes by a factor of 12 to 1
today. It’s not hard to see how
quickly they could be wiped out especially when the whole world clubs
together to ensure its completion. We
are already seeing evidence that the House of Israel, especially Ephraim, is
hated by all nations today. Totally
unjustly is should be noted, but then this is the nature of the beast. These beastly creatures hate those who are
better than themselves. It brings to
mind the old saying about cutting off the nose to spite the face. As you might
well imagine, while there will be few Israelites left, in the final throw of
the dice, there will be few of
anyone left. In this, Isaiah
also cries out: Isa 24:4-6 “The earth
dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the
earth languish. 5 The earth
is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed
the laws, violated the
statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. 6
Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, AND
VERY FEW ARE LEFT.” If you’re going to do things
right, then start with a clean slate, and this is how God feels about
it! The decimation of the peoples of
the earth will be very thorough. In truth, out
of all this carnage, the sons of
God will survive to rule the world.
This was all in the planning from the very beginning. PSALM 139 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. Psa 139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. Now here’s an interesting choice of words! David is saying that God knows him. As
it happens, the Lord Christ spoke of those He doesn’t know: Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who DOES
THE WILL OF MY FATHER who is in heaven. 22
Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and
in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23
Then I will tell them plainly, `I NEVER KNEW YOU. Away from me, you evildoers!'” These are the
people who didn’t want to do the ‘WILL
OF THE FATHER who is in heaven’; instead they
sought to conjure up their own style of righteousness which would impress
others. This led even more people to
believe that holiness could be acquired without obedience! The fact is that God
knows only His own, and David goes on to explain this: Psa 139:2 You know when I sit and when I
rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
God takes a very great
interest in His servants! They are
never alone because God’s Holy
Spirit is always with
them. God’s Holy Spirit communicates back to Him. This Spirit is His eyes and ears in all the
world. Without God’s Holy Spirit, God doesn’t
know you, because God’s Spirit is not reporting back to Him about
you. When God initially
takes an interest in someone, then He sends His Holy Spirit to be with
them, and upon acceptance, God’s Spirit dwells in them. Psa 139:3 You discern my going out and
my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. God knows everything about His servants, and our Lord Jesus even
confirmed that this level of ‘knowing’
extends to the very number of hairs
on our heads. The Saints are
enshrouded with His Holy Spirit, which monitors virtually every molecule of
their bodies – constantly! Isn’t this
what good parents do with their own children?
Good parents constantly monitor their children for discomfort or any
approaching disease, and so does God as our Father. In this day and age, we
shouldn’t be surprised that God can monitor such vast amounts of information
concerning His servants. We, too, have
technology to store millions of bits of information and to retrieve them
instantly to assembly a picture. While
we may marvel at this type of technology, in relation to God’s technology,
it’s primitive! Furthermore, in
relation to God’s many accomplishments, everything mankind does is primitive
in comparison. Today we build
fail-safe mechanisms into our machinery, and we have systems in place to
monitor the functions of everything, even our cars and trucks. On-board computers monitor functions and
report errors, and these can be retrieved with a notebook computer. God’s retrieval of information is far
greater than this, and it’s instant! Psa 139:4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD. God even knows our
thoughts before we utter them. God’s
Holy Spirit is very thorough! Before
our thoughts have been processed into speech, God’s Spirit has recorded them. So God even knows the motivation behind
what we say. Psa 139:5 You hem me in--behind and
before; you have laid your hand
upon me. This phrase relates to
God imparting His Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is the ‘hand of God’ which performs His work in
us. (This is similar to what
Paul said about the Potter and the clay).
The Holy Spirit also acts as a shield to protect us – both before and
behind us. God’s Holy Spirit is a part
of Him – an extension of His being.
This is why we sometimes refer to the God Family as the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The principle behind God’s Great Power
shouldn’t be too hard to understand today, especially in these days of
wireless communications, which are a very primitive form of God’s ability to
retrieve information. Psa 139:6 Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. It’s beyond the ability to human beings to understand how God does all
these things through His Holy Spirit, and those who possess it are sometimes
overwhelmed by the power of it. Psa 139:7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? God’s Spirit moves everywhere with the Saints to report back to
Him. It retains a perfect record of
everything. A Saint is never alone,
God’s Spirit is with him wherever he goes. Psa 139:8 If I go up to the heavens, you
are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. God lives in the heavens, but His Spirit is everywhere we go. Those who possess God’s Holy Spirit
literally have God’s presence with them always. Psa 139:9 If I rise on the wings of the
dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, Psa 139:10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me
fast. This is God’s Holy Spirit in action! Psa 139:11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become
night around me," Psa 139:12 even the darkness will not be
dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to
you. God’s Holy Spirit is not affected by
darkness and is all-seeing
in all
circumstances. As a point of interest,
the Chief Cornerstone – Jesus Christ – is also
represented by an all-seeing eye – which is His Spirit, called the
‘Counselor’, and is a clear addition to the Holy Spirit of God. Amazingly, this representation is still
preserved on the American dollar bill.
Its origins have been preserved from the days of ‘The Knights of the Temple of
Solomon’ – the Knights
Templar. These were the noble
men dedicated to the establishment of the Holy City of God, Psa 139:13 For you created my inmost
being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Some people are known of God from the moment of conception. Jesus Christ is one of these. David was another. And so was John the Baptist. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility
that all the Prophets were. Certainly
Moses was! Even as a new-born baby,
God was protecting him as he floated down the Psa 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully
made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well. Those who have God’s Holy Spirit know full-well the truth of
this. They know that the complexity of
the human body could not have happened by chance. Yet, they see others, who have no creative
ability at all; claiming it all happened by chance through a medium they’ve
called ‘evolution’. Such people couldn’t design a chopstick,
let alone a functioning machine, but still they like to theorize about things
they don’t even understand. Real
builders and designers know the complexities of getting everything right;
otherwise their creation might not function properly. Designing even a simple machine requires a
lot of thought and planning, and this is something that incompetent theorists would never
understand. Since they have no ability
to do anything practical, they rely on their foolish minds to devise theories – which always fail
the ‘logic’ test! Today, we’re literally being inundated with
ridiculous theories based on fanciful ideas emanating from lunatics. In seems that one mad theory spawns another
– and another – and another! What
appeals to theorists is that their ideas are not limited to the facts of
reality. They can fire away with their
nonsense and then retreat by saying ‘Prove
me wrong!’ What these maniacs
can’t do is prove their own theories right!
And now we have theorists who are claiming to be scientists. Real scientists know they must be able to
demonstrate science with provable, repeatable experiments and with
predictable and provable results. Psa 139:15 My frame was not hidden from
you when I was made in the secret
place [the womb]. When I was woven
together in the depths of the earth [the womb], Psa 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. As we just mentioned, David was called by God before he was
born. From the moment he was
born, God had numbered his days. There
is some evidence to suggest that David’s life was cut short before his
allotted 70 years. So was the life of
his most famous Son, the Son of David – the Son of God Jesus. Jesus’ life was cut off, yet He prolonged His days through His
offspring (Isa 53:10).
As a matter of fact, so did David, and Jesus Christ is evidence of
this. Jesus Christ is the Son of
David. Psa 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How
vast is the sum of them! How diminutive we are in
comparison to our Creator God! We’re
like babes in the woods compared to Him.
How much knowledge can we cram into our minds in the short space of
our allotted 70 years? Some more than
others, but even those who build their knowledge base are acutely aware of
vast array of things they don’t know about.
It can be quite galling to encounter young theorists who think they
know everything. Then there are the religious
theorists, who think that
God’s only thoughts are only about getting them ‘saved’. They know nothing
about God and they have no idea about His thoughts. God does reveal His thoughts to His
servants the prophets, and keeps them informed on what He plans to do. The bulk of God’s thoughts are already
recorded in the Scriptures as a broad overview, but there are other things
that God will only reveal
to His servants the Prophets: Amos 3:7 “Surely the
Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing
his plan to HIS SERVANTS
THE PROPHETS.” Obviously, God would not reveal His plans to those who refuse
to do the will of the Father! Just to add
another dimension to this concerning God’s thoughts and our thoughts, Jesus
warned his disciples about a future time when they will be brought before the
courts because of their faith. He told
them not to worry about what they would say, because the right thoughts and
words will be given to them by God’s Holy Spirit: Luke
12:11-12 “When you are
brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about
how you will defend yourselves
or
what you will say, 12
for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." This is the Power of God for
His Saints. God is able to
implant knowledge miraculously, and immediately, to His children. In the usual
course of our lives, Jesus’ instruction was to seek or search
and then you will find. By diligently searching the Scriptures, we
establish our desire to serve God.
People with this degree of dedication will never find themselves
alone. When the chips are down, God’s Holy
Spirit will spring to our defense to fill the gap of our knowledge. A good example of this can be found in the
testimony given by Stephen just before he was stoned to death. The account is found in Acts 6:8 – 8:2. Stephen gave a very good
account of himself while powerfully served by God’s Holy Spirit. He became the first martyr among the Saints
of his day. In regard to implanting knowledge, this is
exactly what God did immediately after creating Adam. Adam was able to speak the language to
communicate with God – without any prior learning. Much later, we find the account of the But now we’re
confronted with another situation, and this relates to Satan and his demons
in the spirit world. The spirit world
has similar powers to implant thoughts, which definitely don’t come from God! Anyone who listens to them usually finds
themselves in a lot of trouble. Demons
can
manipulate people through suggestions planted in their minds. There are many murderers who have reported
that they were told to kill their victim by some unseen entity. And this is very true! Demons have the power to do these things,
and they harass and badger their target until they comply. The only solution for the target is to
continue to resist the demon’s impulses until they give up and go elsewhere. Therefore,
every disciple of Jesus Christ must TEST THE SPIRITS to see if they are of God. Just blindly accepting every
utterances of others is not acceptable no matter how convincing they
seem. The Apostle John gives this
advice: 1John 4:1-3 “Dear friends, do not
believe
every
spirit, but TEST THE SPIRITS to
see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out
into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the
Spirit of God: Every spirit
that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3
but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not
from God. This is the spirit of the
antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in
the world.” We need to understand a few things about
these verses. First of all, is every
spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ came to earth as a man, of God? Well we know of one spirit that knew
very well that Jesus had come
to earth as a man when he tempted the Lord Christ at
the beginning of His ministry. And
this spirit was Satan himself! So John was not speaking about this! What John was referring to was the Spirit of Christ, which God
sent in His Name, and which is called the Counselor. This Spirit – the Spirit of Christ – would live in the flesh of His disciples and lead them into all
knowledge. John was referring to
something he’d previously written about what Jesus said in: John 14:15-27 “If you love
me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever-- 17 the Spirit
of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him
nor knows him. But you know him, for
he lives with you and will be in you. 18
I will not leave you as orphans;
I will come to you. 19
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I
am in my Father, and you are in me,
AND I AM IN YOU. 21
Whoever has my commands and obeys
them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be
loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." 22
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to
show yourself to us and not to the
world?" 23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching.
My Father will love him, and WE
WILL COME TO HIM AND MAKE OUR HOME WITH HIM. 24 He who
does not love me
will not obey my
teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the
Father who sent me. 25 "All this I have spoken while still
with you. 26 But the COUNSELOR,
THE HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will
remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The
Counselor is the Holy Spirit of Christ, which
is a clear addition to the Holy Spirit of the Father. Those with a double-portion of the Holy
Spirit will have BOTH THE
FATHER AND THE SON MAKING THEIR HOME IN HIM. First, there’s the Holy Spirit of the
Father, which is given as a down-payment, then there’s another
Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – which
is sent in Jesus Name. Neither
of these Holy Spirits are given unless the recipient is obedient to God! Getting back
to what the Apostle John wrote in 1John 4:1-3, the second
thing we notice is that John was speaking of false prophets, and said many had gone into the world. There’s a qualification due here. There are many Saints in the Churches of
God, who were baptized and received God’s Holy Spirit, but they have never
received the Counselor – the Spirit of Christ. This additional Holy Spirit needs to be added
in order to prophesy. As these Saints have learned from bitter
experience their ‘prophecies’ have
failed to come true! The Saints who
really do have the Spirit
of Christ are appalled by the crazy prophecies they taught! If they understood the Testimony of Jesus, they would never have
taught such crazy things. In fact,
much of what they taught was demeaning and insulting towards Jesus Christ and
His reputation as a Mighty Warrior and Messiah. Added to this was the ridiculous notion
that God was going to resurrect every one who ever lived to give them a
chance at ‘salvation’. What sort of spirit planted this in their
heads? It certainly wasn’t the Spirit of Christ! It’s plain to see that they never
had the Testimony of Jesus,
and therefore, they never had the Spirit of Prophecy (Rev 19:10). The Churches of God have had
about seventy years in this era to come to their senses and get things
right. But instead they remained loyal
to the ministry and continued to believe their errors. Whatever happened to loyalty to the Lord
Christ? The Churches of God
have had a whole lot of false spirits teaching
them, and they never bothered to test them. And this
brings us back to the subject of testing
the spirits. If you’re going
to listen to the unscriptural ramblings of false prophets, and don’t put them
to the test, then you will be in no position to determine truth from error
anyway. Yet, if you’ve been diligently
searching the Scriptures to
establish your knowledge base, then you’ll have no trouble determining Truth
from error. You’ll have a good
understanding of what the Lord Jesus plans to do in order to establish the In speaking
of testing the spirits,
John was drawing our attention to the antichrist. Anyone who falsifies the reputation of the
Mighty One – the Messiah – is an antichrist! Antichrists come in many forms. There are some who deny that Jesus Christ
came to earth at all, and these are generally avowed atheists, and neither do
they believe the Scriptures are the divine Word of God. So such people are obviously
antichrist! Then there are the
professing Christians who believe Jesus appeared on earth, but don’t believe
a word of His message – except that which appeals to them. They twist and squirm to refute anything
that suggests God might require obedience.
They want rewards, but they refuse to do anything to earn them, such
as, obeying God’s Law. Jesus, they
claim, did it all for them. Beyond
mainstream Christianity, there are other antichrists, and these are even more sinister. These are the authors of total
evil, and they are duly described as the authorities of the heavenly or spirit realm. Their agenda was set when Satan tried to
tempt Jesus Christ, at the beginning of His ministry, to worship him. When he failed, the agenda was to cause His
disciples to stumble and turn away from obedience to God. And this has been going on ever since. Satan has had considerable success, in that
he has managed to deceive the whole world.
It’s not too surprising though, considering that most of the population of
the world belong to him. Psa 139:18 Were I to count them (God’s
thoughts – see V17 again), they would
outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Just a quick reference to this last
sentence! Sometimes God’s servants
have dreams where they find themselves in unusual circumstances. These dreams can be tests to see how we
react to these circumstances. In
David’s case, when he awoke, he was
still with God. In
other words he passed the test.
David was, as God has stated, a
man after His own heart. If
any fail the righteousness test in a dream, then they should seriously look
at their own hearts! Are they really
with God? They need to answer this,
and make the necessary corrections if this is not the case. God’s Holy Spirit reports the dreams of His
servants to Him. Psa 139:19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! Jesus words were just a slight variation from this when He said, “Away from
me, you evildoers!” which we
just quoted in Matt 7:23. Perhaps
these evildoers are also bloodthirsty. It seems that many of them hope that those
who disagree with them will be burned up in the Psa 139:20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Like when they claim to cast
out demons in Christ’s Name,
which was one the things Jesus mentioned when calling them evildoers. These days, casting out demons has become a
stage act, conducted in a carnival atmosphere. We’re probably all aware of the Pentecostal
movement now sweeping across the Christian nations. These people believe that this swarming of demons represents
God’s Holy Spirit. It would be
difficult to think of anything more blasphemous! Psa 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? Do you suppose that maybe these bloodthirsty
evildoers might rise up against the offspring of Jesus? Well, David suggests this is so, and so did
Jesus for that matter. This is why He
rejected them! As we well-understand, evildoers do evil! Psa 139:22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. And a resounding ‘Hear! Hear!’ to this! This sort of bloodthirsty evildoer has no place in the Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know
my heart; test me
and know my anxious thoughts. David’s most anxious
thoughts concerned those whom
He hoped God would slay (V19 above). Psa 139:24 See if there is any
offensive way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting. Well there was nothing
offensive in what David said, because
Jesus Christ confirmed it!
Bleeding hearts may not agree, but then, when did such people ever
believe God? PSALM 140 For the director of music. A psalm of David. David continues the same
theme in this Psalm concerning the day when God will slay the evildoers who
misuse His Name and attack His Saints.
What he describes below is exactly what Jesus Christ had to go
through. But it also applies to
the offspring of Jesus Christ
– the
Saints. Jesus said, ‘If
they have hated me, then they will hate you also!’ And this certainly proved to be true! And just to put a few
things into perspective before we embark on this Psalm. If you ask the average Christian today, ‘Who
killed Jesus Christ?’ they will say ‘the Jews’. Others will be a bit more imaginative and
say it was Pontius Pilate. However,
Pilate plainly stated that he found no
fault with Jesus and publicly washed his hands of any
involvement. Later, Jesus
asked the Father to forgive the
Jews because, as He said, they
didn’t know what they were doing.
So this narrows the field of culpability considerably! Who then, was
responsible? The first clue came when one of Jesus’ own disciples
was possessed by Satan himself: Luke 23:3-6 “Then Satan entered Judas, called
Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests
and the officers of the temple guard and
discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5 They were
delighted and agreed to give him money. 6 He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand
Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.” The first thing
we should notice is that Satan
had
total control of Judas,
and Satan was the one who
actually convinced the priests and officers of the Satan is a
master of intrigue, and he prides himself on being able to persuade
anyone. As a matter of fact, he
requested and received the right to tempt Jesus Christ when He first began
His ministry. Even with Jesus in a
weakened state after fasting for 40 days, Satan still failed miserably! Not to be outdone, he later tried a
different tactic, and this time it worked.
Compared to Jesus Christ, the Pharisees were an easy mark! He easily manipulated and bent them to his
will. He ensured that this betrayal
was done ‘when
no crowd was present’! Satan
realized that Jesus was very popular with the Jewish crowds, the ordinary
citizens of that time, and he feared a violent reaction to his plans. So it had to be done with the utmost
secrecy to avoid this. With this in
mind, he sprung the trap in the middle of the night while the rest of the
city was sleeping. And the rest is history! Not to put to fine a point on it, it was a
follower of Christ – a Christian – who was the human instigator of this
murder, even though he was firmly under the control of Satan. So does this exonerate him from
culpability? Not according to the Scriptures! Anyone who invites demon possession by
their conduct is guilty of their deeds.
There is no defense called, ‘The
devil made me do it!’ Peter
confirmed this with these words: Acts 1:24 “Then they
prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you
have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he
belongs." Where Judas went was to a very
horrible death, which Peter describes in Acts
1:18-19 “(With the
reward he got for his wickedness,
Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst
open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in From this we can conclude
that insanity is not
a valid defense for a crime in God’s eyes.
Murderers must be put to death!
Insanity is just another word for ‘demented’, and this
word means demon-possessed. In God’s Kingdom all God’s Laws will be
strictly enforced, so now is a good time to start getting used to it! As for the Jewish people being
responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, it’s just a monstrous lie! The Jewish
people, as we all know, took the message of Christianity into all the
world, and the vast majority of Christians in the days of the Apostles were
Jewish. Without the Jews there would
be no Christianity! It wasn’t the
Jewish people who rejected Jesus Christ!
It was the Jewish religious leaders who did this. It was the Scribes and Pharisees who loved
the approbation of men. The clambered
for recognition and adoration, and loved to be seen in public. They dressed extravagantly, and loved to be
seen praying on street corners. If
they fasted, they made sure everyone knew about it. They saw themselves as experts in the Law
and expected to be consulted in all matters relating to the Law. This also made them feel very
important. They even went to the
extent of adding to the Law with burdensome interpretations that were
impossible to keep. Of course, they didn’t
keep their own burdensome variations,
but by insisting that everyone else should, they created the impression that
they did. By this means, they appeared
to be very holy! And to the people, they did appear
holy. But not to Jesus –
nor to John the Baptist for that matter!
The presence of God’s Holy Spirit in these men of God exposed the
actions of these detestable deceivers.
Both Jesus and John saw right through them! As for all this type of
masquerading, and trying to create false impressions, we see a lot of this
today. It’s been a problem down
through the ages as the Apostle Paul points out: 2Cor 11:13-15 “For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workmen, masquerading as
apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for SATAN himself masquerades
as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising,
then, if his SERVANTS masquerade as
servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions
deserve.” We’ve
already seen one example of this with Judas Iscariot, whose end was what his actions deserved. It seems that Christianity has their
problems too, with false apostles and deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles
(as distinct from disciples, because it’s speaking of those who consider
themselves to be important). And who
are these lying masqueraders? In
reality, they are the servants of
Satan, just as Paul says. And
they crave to be held in high esteem in their congregations! So there’s not a lot of
difference today between the Pharisees of old and the preachers of today! If there is any distinction between the two,
at least the Pharisees taught the Laws of God – even with their unauthorized
additions. The preachers of today don’t
even obey God’s Law, so they’re really behind the eight-ball! As Paul points out, their end will be what
their actions deserve, both then and now! So what can we conclude
from all this? Well, firstly,
Christians should not be too quick to judge the Jews! It’s the Jews who have remained faithful
to God’s Law, and their
record of obedience goes back thousands of years. Christianity, generally speaking, is
violently opposed to obedience to God, and refuses to be governed by God’s
Law. Their pathetic excuse is that
Jesus Christ ‘did it all for them’! Added to this, Christianity claims that the
Jews rejected Jesus Christ, when, in reality, it’s Christianity that has
rejected Jesus Christ! The Lord Jesus is the God of the Old
Testament, and the Jews continue to worship Him. What the Jews didn’t realize, and the same is true of
Christianity, is that Jesus
Christ is the God of the Old Testament, and He is literally God in
the flesh. He is the only
True God ever known to any of the men of old.
To further confirm this, when Jesus Christ was on earth, it was then
that He introduced the Father,
telling His disciples to pray to Him, the Father – in Jesus Name! The Scriptures very
clearly tell us that no-one has ever heard God at any time or seen His shape
(1Tim 6:16),
and then in John
5:37-40 “And the Father who sent me has
himself testified concerning me. You
have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does
his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You diligently
study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that
TESTIFY ABOUT ME, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have
life.”
So whose voice did the men-of-old hear, including Abraham, Jacob,
Moses and many others – and whose form or shape did they see when He appeared to them? It certainly wasn’t the Father! In fact, it was Jesus Christ! It’s the
strangest thing, but Christianity has rejected the
God of the Old Testament, believing
Him to be the Father.
Inexplicably, they now pray to the Father in Jesus’
Name! What sort of hypocrisy is this? The Jews, on
the other hand, firmly believe they have been worshipping God the Father,
rather than the Son, which Jesus pointed out: John
8:54-59 “Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means
nothing. My Father, WHOM YOU CLAIM AS YOUR GOD, is
the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him,
I know him. If I said I did
not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of
seeing my day; he saw
it and was glad."
This is a reference to when the Prince of Peace visited Abraham
immediately after the slaughter
of the kings and blessed him (Gen 14:17-20). At this point, Abraham knew Him to be a Warrior King – which is
precisely what the Jewish leaders were expecting from the Promised Messiah. Jesus Christ was reminding them that He is
a Warrior King – and He
knows how to bring peace to
the earth! And, incidentally, this is
something that Christianity cannot grasp.
As the Mighty Warrior
that He is, Jesus Christ will bring
peace by destroying His enemies!
Continuing: V57 “You are not yet
fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before
Abraham was born, I
am [God]!" 59 At this, they picked up stones to
stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” When the King of Salem [Peace] appeared to Abraham,
Abraham realized that this was God! Even the Jews believed this, but they
refused to accept that Jesus Christ was that God – the God of
the Old Testament. As soon as
He told them that He was that God, they went
berserk and tried to stone Him. It’s hardly surprising
that there are some Christians today who want to kill you if you suggest that
Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament!
I wonder what they make of this verse: 1Cor
10:1-5 “For I do not
want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all
under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They
were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They
all ate the same spiritual food
(Manna) 4 and drank the same spiritual drink (water from the Rock); for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST. 5 Nevertheless, God
was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the
desert.”
To be sure, Judaism did
survive – because it had to!
There are certain prophecies that must be fulfilled that say it must
happen this way. The Apostle Paul gave
one of these reasons when he said that God entrusted them
with the very words of God: Rom 3:1-2 “What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is
there in circumcision? 2 Much
in every way! First of all, they have been ENTRUSTED WITH THE VERY WORDS OF GOD.” The only
Words of God that existed
in the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles was the Old Testament! It’s
just as well that God entrusted the
Jews with these Scriptures, because Christianity would have, long
ago, tossed them out! Yet, many Christians
still hate the Jews, and prefer to favour God’s enemies – the Muslim hordes,
whom God has always hated! Today we
refer to such people, who favour the enemy, as traitors. Yet now we find vast numbers of these, and
they’re posing as Christians! They
have literally aligned themselves with the antichrist – which the Apostle
John spoke of in 1John 2:18-23. To justify their hatred
of the Jews, they quote from Matt 23, yet they’ve failed to understand the
message. Jesus was not
addressing the Jews! He was addressing the Pharisees
– the religious leaders! And if Jesus was on earth today, He would
be saying the same things to the religious
leaders of our day – who pose as Christians, yet reject the teachings
of Jesus Christ and His Father! Jesus referred to these
Pharisees as snakes! And called them a brood of vipers.
This is very much like what Jesus Christ said to the serpent in the Garden of Eden; and not
just the Serpent, but his offspring
as well! Gen 3:14-15 “So the LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the
livestock and all the wild
animals! You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between
YOUR OFFSPRING and hers; he
will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." We discussed this verse in an earlier
Psalm, but the point is that the Serpent
or devil has OFFSPRING! Or as
the Apostle John refers to them: “The children of the devil”
(1John 3:10). Those who are led by the devil, and who do
the devil’s work, are the children
or offspring of the devil! And now we find in Matt 23,
that Jesus Christ confirms this! He
confirms these evil snakes and vipers killed righteous Abel (Matt 23:35)! Abel
was the son of Adam, and there were no Jews (or Pharisees for that matter) in
the days of Abel. We all know who
killed Abel! It was Cain! So why was Abel righteous, but Cain was not? The Apostle John tells us! Cain
belonged to the devil: 1John 3:12-13 “Do not
be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one
and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and
his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be
surprised, my brothers, if the
world hates you.” These
days, you only have to speak the Truth and you’re already hated by those who belong to the evil one. And there are plenty of these; most of whom
masquerade
as angels of light, yet
their actions are evil. No-one in their right
mind would suggest that the Jewish religious leaders killed Abel. The snakes and vipers who did
were the devil and his demons! In
fact, Jesus plainly stated that these are responsible for all the righteous blood that
has been shed on earth from Abel to that present day (Matt 23:35). And in fact, it was these evil demons that
killed Jesus Christ Himself. So you
can understand why Jesus forgave the Jews – who didn’t know what they were
doing. Satan and his demons did
though! And now, at long last,
we’re back to the Psalms, yet oddly enough, the theme continues. Psa 140:1 Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me
from men of violence, Psa 140:2 who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. So when we hear of wars and
rumours of wars, we know that the forces of evil are at work. In truth, this is the escalation of the
antichrist, and we know who is fighting all these wars and where it’s happening. It’s all over the Psa 140:3 They make their tongues as
sharp as a serpent's; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Selah What
a surprise that these evil war-mongers emulate serpents and vipers
in what they say, as well as what they do!
They’ve all gone mad and are fighting civil wars killing their own
people! Who else routinely kills their own people? You’d
never guess! This is the
hallmark characteristic of Satan
himself! This is what is written
of this craven monster: Isa 14:12-14, 19-20 “How you have
fallen from heaven, O morning star, son
of the dawn! You have been
cast down to the earth, you
who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, "I
will ascend to heaven; I will raise
my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
14 I will ascend above the tops of
the clouds; I will make myself like
the Most High." This is what Satan did long ago
before he was cast back to earth in exile.
And now the Prophet Isaiah goes on to detail his end: V19-20
“But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected
branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword,
those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot, 20 you will not join them
in burial, for you have DESTROYED
YOUR LAND and KILLED YOUR
PEOPLE. The offspring of the wicked will
never be mentioned again.” Have you seen the destruction of Satan’s LAND in the Middle East and And which
nations are Satan’s proposed target nations?
Obviously, they’re the nations that don’t belong to
Satan! He doesn’t mind killing his own
people, in fact he enjoys it, but he’d much rather kill God’s people – the
Tribes of Israel. And this is his
plan! You’ll notice that in Satan’s LAND, only the rulers
prosper! The ordinary people live
their lives in endless poverty and drudgery.
The reason for this is so they won’t be too reluctant to sacrifice
their lives in martyrdom. And the
special inducement is the salacious ‘rewards’
they hope for in heaven. It’s hard to
understand how these cretins could believe there are 70 virgins available for
each of them – but they do! It
demonstrates one thing: their whole philosophy is that of self-interest – just
like their father the devil. All who do
the devil’s work are
the children or offspring of the devil! As we all know, the reason why the Lord
Jesus came was to destroy the
devil’s work: 1John 3:8 “He who does what is sinful IS OF THE DEVIL, because the
devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God
appeared was TO DESTROY THE DEVIL'S WORK.” And what is sin? John just got through telling us in V4. It’s lawlessness! Or as the KJV puts it, sin is the transgression of the Law! Anyone who refuses to obey God’s Law IS OF THE DEVIL! In other words, they belong to him! They are the devil’s children or offspring. Generations of them live on
this earth; they willingly do the devil’s work. They should surely know what their end will
be! It was Jesus Christ who
confirmed these things concerning the generations
of
Satan’s offspring. They’ve
continued from the days of Cain who belonged to the devil! Matt 23:33-36 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will
you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending
you prophets and wise men and
teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will
flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the
righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the
blood of righteous Abel to
the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple
and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.” All the righteous blood that has been shed
on earth has resulted from this evil generation of Satan’s brood! I hope the message is clear! It’s very important to listen to the Prophets, wise men and teachers
that Jesus Christ promised to
send. These will be telling
you that sin carries a severe penalty and you need to repent! If you continue sinning by disobeying God’s
Law, then you will belong to the devil, and you will be destroyed along with all the work of the
devil. It what Jesus said comes
true – and it will – then we can expect to see the lawless
attacking the Prophets, wise men
and teachers He will send! Psa 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from
the hands of the wicked; protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet. Typical of Satan’s brood, they will persecute those more righteous
than themselves! These wicked, evil
snakes and vipers have never obeyed God’s Law and they hate anyone who
does! They accuse and abuse and
set traps for the righteous – casting their nets widely: Psa 140:5 Proud men have hidden a snare for
me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. Selah These
are proud, arrogant creatures, who defy God and insist that everyone else
does likewise. Their whole purpose is
to ensure that no-one obeys God! Psa 140:6 O LORD, I say to you,
"You are my God." Hear, O
LORD, my cry for mercy. The Saints will continue
to stand with their God, regardless of the cost to their own well-being. This is the true essence of martyrdom! These Saints are prepared to die for God! Psa 140:7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who
shields my head in the day of battle-- Psa 140:8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed,
or they will become proud.
Selah. These evildoers
certainly become proud when they manage to
destroy the faithful Saints of God!
However, in the day of
battle, they will see whom God vindicates, and they, themselves, will
be the ones to fall! Psa 140:9 Let the heads of those who surround
me be covered with the trouble
their
lips have caused. These accusers would have
been better off closing their lips and shutting their mouths. But their father the devil will ensure they
don’t! Psa 140:10 Let burning coals fall upon
them; may they be thrown
into the fire, into miry pits, NEVER TO RISE. Remember how Jesus said, “How can you escape being condemned to hell?”
in Matt 23:33? The children of the devil are NEVER TO RISE! They will never live again! Psa 140:11 Let slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down men of
violence. When evil men slander
God and the Saints, their fate is certain! Psa 140:12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and
upholds the cause of the needy. Psa 140:13 Surely the righteous
will
praise your name and the upright
will live before you. In contrast to the murderous slanderers, the righteous and the upright will
live before God in His Kingdom! PSALM 141 A psalm of
David. Psa 141:1 O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call
to you. Psa 141:2 May
my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be
like the evening sacrifice. The
incense burned in the Psa 141:3 Set a guard over my mouth, O
LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Remember how Jesus said that by our words we will judged? Matt 12:33-37 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be
good, or make a tree bad
and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
34 You brood of vipers,
how
can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow
of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 The good man
brings good things out of
the good stored up in him,
and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36
But I tell you that men will have
to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they
have spoken. 37 For by
your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." You can’t get any
plainer than this! Evildoers say evil
things! Psa 141:4 Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take
part in wicked deeds with
men who are evildoers; let
me not eat of their delicacies. Evildoers tend to contaminate righteous people, and we shouldn’t allow
ourselves to be drawn to them!
In fact, the Apostles and Prophets have warned to have nothing to do with them! While it’s true that
Jesus occasionally answered their ‘trick’ questions, it usually ended up in
acrimony. The Lord gave some other
advice concerning such evildoers: Matt 7:6
“Do not give dogs what is sacred;
do not
throw
your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet,
and
then turn and tear you to pieces.” Dogs
and pigs! Jesus had some
quaint names for these evildoers! Sure it’s a parable, but the inference is
still there! For those who
have not yet descended to the stature
of dogs and pigs, David gives some very good advice about listening
to a righteous man: Psa 141:5 Let a righteous man
strike me-- it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers; Psa 141:6 their rulers will be thrown
down from the cliffs, and the wicked
will
learn that my words were well spoken. Who are these rulers
that David is speaking about – the ones who will be thrown down from
the cliffs? The rulers of these evildoers are even lower than dogs and
pigs. These slimy,
reptilian snakes and vipers are to witness their own fate from a high cliff. Jeremiah spoke of this: Jer 51:24-26 “Before your eyes
I will repay The Apostle
John recorded this prophecy: Rev 18:21-22 “Then
a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it
into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city
of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.” With great violence the City of You might
recall something else Jesus said about this
generation: Matt 11:16-19 “To what can
I compare
this generation? They are
like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17
"`We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'” Remember how we read earlier about how they
liked to make the Jews sing songs
of joy about We have a
prime example of this today in half the American people,
who possess this type of mentality.
It’s now years since President Bush left office, and since he doesn’t
drink alcohol, they depict him as a demon. Yet, in their demented minds, everything
that goes wrong, even today, is still President Bush’s fault. The absurdity of their accusations is
totally bizarre! Their whole nation is
falling down before their eyes, and they can’t seem to recognize that their
current President Obama is a demon! They’re not very good at
testing the spirits, are
they? Psa 141:7 They will say,
"As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones have been scattered
at the mouth of the grave.
" The bodies of the evildoers (see V6) will be burned like worthless refuse. Psa 141:8 But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take
refuge--do not give me
over to death. Those whose eyes are fixed on the Sovereign LORD
will not be given
over to death. Psa 141:9 Keep me from the snares they
have laid for me, from the traps
set by evildoers. Evildoers are going to set traps for
the Saints, and the Saints will have to be diligent to avoid
them. They will accomplish this as
long as they have a clear idea of what God requires of them, and faithfully
obey. Psa 141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety. As long as the Saints remain faithful to God, the wicked will fall
into their own traps, while the saints will make it to safety. PSALM 142 A maskil of David.
When he was in the cave. A prayer. Psa 142:1 I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift
up my voice to the LORD for mercy. This Psalm concerns the
Saints in the Churches of God, who have an important role to play. They must emulate Jesus Christ and suffer
accordingly, while still placing their faith in God for deliverance. They must remember Jesus’ instructions to
them to endure to
the end! This is summarized in
these words: Rev
2:26-29 “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will
give authority over the nations--
27 `He will rule them
with an iron scepter; he will dash
them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from
my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star. 29
He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches.” It’s obviously not going
to be easy to endure to the end! But
just remember it wasn’t easy for the Lord Christ either! He endured unimaginably shame and
suffering, but still remained faithful to God right to the end. Those who have taken the name of ‘Christian’
must emulate the Master. Psa 142:2 I pour out my complaint before
him; before him I tell my trouble. The Saints are bound to
find themselves in situations they never imagined. Gone will be the illusions of safe passage,
which they had hoped for! It will be a
soul-searching time, involving much suffering. God tested Jesus’ resolve in the same
manner. The reader would be aware that
the Lord Jesus could have backed out of this obligation at any time, but for
the sake of His offspring, He refused to do so. This is what He said: Matt 26:52-54 “Put
your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw
the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on
my Father, AND HE WILL AT
ONCE PUT AT MY DISPOSAL MORE THAN TWELVE LEGIONS OF ANGELS? 54
But
how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this
way?" At any time, Jesus could have made this
request to the Father, and He would have responded instantly! With this type of back-up, Jesus would have
had the firepower to destroy everything and everybody, and ring down the
curtain on planet earth. And this is
exactly what the Father would have done if His Son had failed. But Jesus loves this creation so much, that
He was prepared to lay down His life for it.
After all, He created it as the craftsman
at His Father’s side. He delighted in mankind (Pro 8:30-31) and knew it was possible to craft them like Himself to
become acceptable as ‘sons of God’ in the God
Family. And this is what was at stake
when Jesus Christ endured to the end and afterward arising in triumph. At this point, the fate of the rulers of the spirit realm was
sealed! Their six thousand
year rule would finally end and be replaced by the As one might
imagine, the new kings, princes and priests would need to undergo a
qualifying period. As we all know,
David went through a qualifying period in his life on earth, and was
reassured by God that he would be resurrected as king over the Tribes of
Israel. As we also know, David
spent most of his life fighting wars, and proved to be a man after God’s own
heart (Acts 13:22). However, for
the Saints in the Churches, God requires something a little different. It’s no reflection on the righteousness of
the Saints that they must suffer under the hand of the enemy. In this way, they are providing the evidence against the present rulers for
the future generations
who are yet to be born. When
these new generations are born, they will ask about what happened, and
they’ll be told of the carnage and bloodshed that was inflicted on the earth
by these evil reptilian creatures. While the Saints must
suffer now, they’ll be leaving a lasting legacy for these future generations,
which will never be forgotten! There’s another
consideration also. There will be new
rulers and teachers on earth once the After the
seals have been opened, and at the 7th Trumpet blast, we read of
the conclusion of the matter: Rev 11:15-18 “The
seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven,
which said: "The kingdom of
the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and
he will reign for ever and ever." 16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before
God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was,
because YOU HAVE TAKEN
YOUR GREAT POWER and have begun to reign.
18 The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for REWARDING YOUR SERVANTS THE PROPHETS
AND
YOUR SAINTS and those who
reverence your name, both small and great-- and for destroying those who
destroy the earth." I don’t know what role
the 24 Elders of God will have
in the future, and neither does anyone else.
But we do know that the angelic beings are to be ministering servants
to the God Family: Heb 1:14 “Are not all
angels ministering spirits
sent to serve those who will inherit salvation [deliverance is the correct
rendering]?” Notwithstanding,
deliverance will seem very
elusive as the Saints endure this essential qualifying period. It will take very brave and courageous men,
men like David and his famous Son, the Son of David – Jesus Christ! We have numerous other examples of such men
in the Bible. It certainly won’t be a
time for the faint-hearted! One can
only fear for those who lack the masculinity and the mental toughness to
endure it! Psa 142:3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Betrayals will be common for the true Saints of God, and they’ll find
that even those who should have supported them, that is, professing
Christians, will be in league with the devil – and against them! The
path where the Saints walk is not appealing to false
Christians. Psa 142:4 Look to my right and see; no
one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no
one cares for my life. In a mob setting, people are
usually a whole lot braver than when they are on their own. When someone is totally alone and in
danger, mental-toughness is essential for survival. This is when the Saints will come into
their own as a result of their faith training. What they
must remember is that they are not alone!
God’s Holy Spirit is constantly monitoring the situation and reporting
back to God. So the message is, don’t
put your faith in men! They won’t care
for your life! Psa 142:5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say,
"You are my refuge, my
portion in the land of the
living." The language is a little difficult, but
it’s saying that our portion of
God’s Holy Spirit is our refuge for
sustaining us among the land of the living.
That is, it will be keeping God’s Saints alive. Psa 142:6 Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue
me from those who pursue me, for
they are too strong for me. Eventually, the whole
world will be arraigned against the Saints and they’ll face defeat. The Prophet Daniel speaks of this: Dan 7:21-22 “As I watched, this horn was waging
war against the saints and defeating them, 22 until
the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the
saints of the Most High, AND
THE TIME CAME WHEN THEY POSSESSED THE KINGDOM.” Notice the use of
the descriptor ‘horn’ which
is describing a commander of armies who is defeating the Saints. God speaks of a similar ‘horn’, a commander of armies,
who will fight on behalf of the Saints.
This ‘horn’ is
raised up in the House of David
(Luke
1:69).
While the Saints will be
defeated, the tables will be turned once they possess the Kingdom!
Then they’ll have the authority of Jesus Christ to dash the nations to pieces like pottery! (Rev 2:26-27). The nations, at
that time, will learn all about justice! And the Saints will be well-positioned to
deliver it! So the Saints
shouldn’t be discouraged if they must suffer for a short time. They’ll be rewarded for their efforts. What is more, their faithfulness will rub
off on others, who have been predestined to join them as
faithful servants of God. Psa 142:7 Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name. Then
the righteous will gather about me
because
of your goodness to me. This is the context of
this Psalm. It’s the duty of the Saints in the Churches of God
to endure their suffering while trusting only in God for deliverance. When their deliverance comes, righteous men will gather to them,
and so the firstfruits of the House
of PSALM 143 A psalm of David. As the numbers of Saints
begins to grow as a result of the efforts of the earlier Saints, trouble
intensifies. It goes on for some years
– until the battle line is drawn,
which begins with the rising of the
House of David. This begins
with the first verse of the next Psalm (Psa 144). We’ve been studying the
progress of the Saints in the Churches of God, and how they will draw others
from the Tribes of Israel to become servants of God and Saints to the Most
High. We know the specific number of
these, and they total 144,000 – 12,000 from each of the Tribes as detailed in
Rev 7:4-8. You’ll notice that one Tribe is omitted,
and a double portion goes to Joseph.
It’s the Tribe of Joseph, and Ephraim in particular, who is the
designated ruler of the homeland of the Churches of God. It stands to reason that the 144,000 will
be drawn from the nation where the Churches of God live. Jesus always confirmed that He had come only
to the ‘lost sheep of Long ago, it was Ephraim
that finally led the northern Ten Tribes into captivity, and they literally
became lost to the record of history. Even today, Biblical scholars seem to have
no idea where they went. Yet there is
so much prophecy about them, you would have thought that it was essential to
find out who they are! Jesus even told
a parable about them, which we know as the ‘Parable of the Ten Virgins’. All Bible students should be familiar with
this parable. The only problem is that
they’ve never understood the meaning of it. It speaks of ten virgins,
five of whom were wise and five were foolish.
In the middle of a long dark night, at midnight, the five foolish virgins arose and dusted off
their lamp – which is the Word of God, and
found they needed oil in order to provide the light to see – yet
they had none! The five wise
virgins, however, had some oil and were able to light their lamps. This is the parable: Matt 25:1-13 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten
virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2
Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3
The foolish ones took their lamps but
did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with
their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in
coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” The five wise
virgins had stored up oil to meet this eventuality. They had taken the time to prepare
themselves. V6 “At midnight the cry
rang out: `Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' 7
"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish
ones said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil; our lamps are
going out.' 9 " `No,' they replied, `there
may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell
oil and buy some for yourselves.'” Not to put too
fine a point on it, the foolish virgins seemed to
believe that the wise should provide for them, and to
coin a well-known phrase, “to spread the wealth around”. We all know whose ‘mantra’ this is today!
It’s the ‘mantra’ of the
greedy, cunning Democrats who demand rights they’ve never earned! More about this in a moment! V10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The
virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And
the door was shut. 11 "Later the others also came.
`Sir! Sir!' they said. `Open the door for us!' 12
"But he replied, `I tell you
the truth, I DON'T KNOW YOU.'
13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or
the hour.” Notice the comment, “I DON’T KNOW
YOU!” – Isn’t this what Jesus said
to the evildoers who were masquerading as Christians? Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away
from me, you evildoers!'” Sounds like the same evildoers to me! So Jesus
message was to the ‘lost sheep of Jesus Christ was clearly
showing us the division of the nation of Ephraim, the largest Christian
nation on earth. The whole nation is
split evenly down the middle politically.
It’s divided between Republicans and Democrats. Which of these two want to “spread
the wealth around” by taking from those who earn their money and giving it to
those who don’t? But let’s not be shy
about the rest of the political ideology of the Democrats! Who was behind the push to legalize
homosexuality? Or same-sex
marriages? Who attacks their
government for going to war against Islam, even after all the outrages
endured at their hands? And who is
against drilling for oil when the nation is crying out for more energy? Or coal-mining? Who was it that created the fiction of
global-warming as a means to tax the rich to give to the poor? Not the poor in The madness of the
Democrats seems to have no bounds.
They want all Christian prayer banned in schools, but
they fully support special prayer rooms for Muslims to pray five times a day,
even disrupting classes to do so.
The Democrats become craven animals when anyone suggests that Creation
is true. They seem ready to kill if
someone questions the ‘theory of evolution’ as only an unsupported theory. Their minds are so limited that they can’t
even recognize intelligent design
in God’s Creation. They’ve turn
everything upside down! These maniacal
Democrats even want to disarm the people through gun control, and at the most
dangerous time in history! When they
elected Obama as President, they sure got what they deserved! Jesus parable about the
Ten Virgins relates to a time when
the Bridegroom is about to return.
The true Saints
know that the six millennial days are up, and the Seventh Millennial Day of
God has begun. The Seventh Millennium
is the Day of the Lord, so the expectation of the Bridegroom begins now. Bible Prophecy details everything that must
happen in preparation for this event, including a special ministry to prepare the way, which all
savvy Bible students should know is a Levite
Brotherhood of Warrior Priests. Psa 143:1 O LORD, hear my prayer, listen
to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. The Saints are going to have to recognize some inconvenient truths in
the days ahead. Firstly, they were
ill-prepared for the events that are coming.
They haven’t believed the messenger because they never understood the
Testimony given by Jesus. In the past,
they’ve chosen only to believe the promises that seemed to favour them. Somehow they managed to convince themselves
that they would never have to endure hardship or persecution or death. They became fully persuaded that they would
be insulated from all this and that God wouldn’t allow it to happen to
them. Did God allow it to happen to
His Son Jesus? Didn’t God turn His
back on Jesus at the crucial moment, and refuse to come to His relief? Remember what Jesus said at that crucial
moment: “My God, my God! Why have you
forsaken me?” The reason is
that this was by prior arrangement – and it had to happen this way! God is not asking anything of you that has
not already been endured by His Son Jesus!
And this is something every Christian should keep firmly in mind. If you don’t, then you will fail! Relief will come, but
only after you’ve proven your faithfulness to God. In fact, this is the pledge made by
Christians when they are baptized, whether they understood it or not. By being baptized they were figuratively
entering into a form of death and pledging that even death would not deter
their faithfulness to God. It is, in
fact, a contract with God! By
confirming your willingness to lay down your life for God, He forgives your
past sins and makes you eligible for eternal life. The repentant person arises from the water
of baptism with the sure knowledge that eternal life is within their grasp –
subject only to them fulfilling their pledge. Psa 143:2 Do not bring your servant into
judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. When someone emerges from the water of baptism, it’s as well to remind
themselves, that they still have a long way to go. If
no-one is righteous while they are living, then the alternative is to
be righteous in death. Through the Prophet David, God gives this
good advice: Psa
116:13-15 “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the
LORD. 14 I
will FULFILL MY VOWS to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
15 PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT
OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS.” The Saints made vows when they were
baptized, and they will be precious
to God if they keep them. And
it is speaking of fulfilling these
vows in the presence of all His people – in martyrdom, just as we’ve
been saying. In so doing, they will be
lifting the Cup of Salvation
for
all of God’s people! This
is the perfect example, just as the death of Jesus Christ was! We are about to enter an
era of unprecedented carnage and death, and all the Prophets of God spoke
about it. Most Christians today have
refused to listen to the Prophets, and instead found themselves beguiled by
lying teachers who only spoke of good outcomes. If anyone wants to continue to listen to
these lying teachers, then they’ll find that God doesn’t consider them to be precious in death at all. If death must come, and it comes to us all
eventually, then let it be for the greater glory of God. Our Lord Christ gave the
perfect example of martyrdom: John 15:12-17
“My command is this: Love each other as I
have loved you. 13 GREATER
LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, THAT HE LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.
14 You are my friends if
you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants,
because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called
you friends, for everything that I learned from my
Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not
choose me, but I chose you
and appointed you to go and bear
fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you
whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.” The Lord Christ
lay down His life for His friends, and He is commanding His disciples to do likewise! If you understand this and do this, then He
will call you friends and
you will be bearing fruit
that will last. It’s those who go early in
doing what Jesus commanded
that will bear much fruit among other disciples. If you submit to martyrdom yourself, in
order to spare other Saints, you will held in the highest esteem by both the
Saints and God as well. Your righteous
deeds will follow you. We’re speaking of very
dangerous times here, when the hatred for true Christians will reach its
zenith. While we see a degree of
tolerance today among false Christians, the enemy that will flood across the
borders will have none of this tolerance.
This incursion is set to become a tidal wave! We’ve been reading a lot
about the children of the devil
and the dark forces of evil that
motivates them. Satan has been
strategically positioning them to take advantage of the situation that is now
developing. The whole world is astir
now, in anticipation of the destruction of the mightiest power on earth. There will be few nations who will mourn the
destruction of Psa 143:3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he
makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead. It’s as well to remember history and understand how things can
unfold. We’ve seen plenty of examples
of how spontaneous rioting can spring up for no definable reason. It often degenerates into looting and
burning and even killing. In the
aftermath of the bloodshed and destruction, the psychologists try to justify
it as the fault of the affluent, who failed to provide for the lazy
degenerates. This type of thinking, of
course, is just delusional. The people
who do such things are the children of the devil, and they do the devil’s work. Psa 143:4 So my spirit grows faint
within me; my heart within me is dismayed. Psa 143:5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your
works and consider what your hands have done.
Well, it’s better
late than never, and some are very slow to learn. This world has had six thousand years of
human experience to look back on, and there are many lessons to learn. The problem is that most people don’t look
for answers until necessity forces it upon them. They don’t recognize the signs of the times, nor the
approaching danger. Jesus spoke about
recognizing the signs of the times,
and pointed out to His enemies (of that day) that they were able to recognize
the mundane changing of the weather, but were blind to the changing of the
times and the evident signs. Matt 16:2-4
“He replied, "When evening comes, you say, `It
will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' 3 and in the morning,
`Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to
interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret
the signs of the times. 4
A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will
be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went
away.”
It’s an age-old problem that people don’t recognize the signs of the times. Our times
are screaming warnings all over the world, and the seriousness of the times are particularly
noticeable in the Western nations.
They know that anti-Christian
forces are building up, even in their own countries, yet they seem
not to notice. There’s a certain irony
in what Jesus said when using the weather as an example. Today, we have people looking at the
weather patterns and screaming ‘disaster
is coming – we have to save the earth from manmade global warming’. These maniacs would have you believe that
this is the greatest challenge of our times.
Their solution is to give our
enemies wads of cash to plant trees.
These lying prophets of doom invent their own lying signs as they
continue to generate them from their addled minds! As a matter of fact,
Jesus Christ gave us the sign of our times, when asked by
His disciples. Matt 24:3-14 “As Jesus was sitting on the Continuing in Matt 24:9-14
“Then you
will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated
by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith
and will betray and hate
each other, 11 and many
false prophets will appear and deceive
many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness,
the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
AND THEN THE END WILL COME.” Dealing with this last
phrase first, when will
the end come? Let’s be clear
on what Jesus meant when He referred to this.
This is what His servant Paul said: 1Cor 15:24-26 “THEN THE END
WILL COME, when he hands over the kingdom to God
the Father AFTER
he
has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign UNTIL he has put all his enemies
under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is DEATH.” Death
is one of Christ’s age-old enemies and an arch-rebel of considerable
power. This mad creature is mentioned
many times in the Scriptures, and is actually mentioned by name in Rev 6:8.
When Jesus says this evil creature will be the last enemy destroyed, He really meant it! Death
is also
called the Beast! Together with the False Prophet, he will be
captured and then thrown into the
fiery lake burning with sulphur (Rev 19:20) – and will never live again. And so this is THE END, when Jesus hands over the Kingdom to the
Father. The important point of when
THE END will come is after
the Lord Christ has reigned
and He’s completed the task of destroying all His enemies of old. Just remember, the Lord Christ came to destroy the devil’s work (1John 3:8). As we’ve just read in Matt 24:9,
the Saints will be persecuted and put to death. What is more, they’ll be hated
of all nations! There’s a growing trend by all nations to hate
Christians – especially the largest Christian nation
on earth! And then Jesus
Christ says this: V10-11 “At that time many will turn
away from the faith and will betray
and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”
Those who turn away
from the faith will betray and hate other Christians,
and this too, is a growing trend. It’s
now official in Soon real Christians are
going to feel very isolated, and it’s these whom Jesus said must stand firm to the end if
they hope for deliverance (V12-13).
And there is just one other thing which Jesus mentioned in this
passage of Matt
24 in speaking of events leading to the end. He said this: V14 “And
this gospel of the kingdom
will be preached in the whole
world as a TESTIMONY to all
nations, AND THEN THE END
WILL COME.” Now who do
you suppose God would appoint to preach
the TESTIMONY of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of
God? First of all, we
should understand that the Testimony
of Jesus is the Spirit of
Prophecy (Rev 19:10).
So only someone with Spirit
of Prophecy is going to be appointed with this task. As it happens, there will be two such
men! These two men will begin to
preach the Testimony to the whole world from the City of And now we come to where
the Continuing in V7 “Now when they have finished their TESTIMONY, the
beast that comes up from THE ABYSS will attack them, and
overpower
and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the
street of the great city, which is figuratively called As we now know from what
Jesus in Matt
24:14, this is when THE END comes: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached
in the WHOLE WORLD as a TESTIMONY to all nations,
AND THEN THE END WILL COME.” The whole world will witness crushing
defeat from the Lord Christ Himself!
He will come in great fury to destroy those who have destroyed the
earth – and there will be few of them left! But we’ve been jumping
way ahead! Before the two Prophets can
fulfill what is written about them in the Book of Revelation, preparations
must be made for the arrival of Jesus Christ, because initially He must come to His Hopefully, this will
dispel the fuzzy logic of Christians today who think that Jesus Christ is
going to appear to them. He’ll be
coming to His Temple in In the meantime, the
Saints in the Churches of God have a long way to go in the lead-up to all
this. Their nations will be shattered
and they’ll be hated by everyone. True
Christianity will be outlawed and their enemies will be everywhere and
stalking them. Psa 143:6 I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched
land. Selah Psa 143:7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my
spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who
go down
to the pit [meaning death]. The phrase, ‘Do not hide your face from me’ indicates death
in martyrdom. Remember how
the Father turned His back; hiding His face at the last moment, causing the
Lord Jesus to say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psa 143:8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust
in you. Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul. In that day, the Saints
will long for morning – the
dawning of the New Day. This prophesied dawning will bring in the
morning rays of the Sun of
Righteousness for the captive people of Psa 143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD, for I hide myself in
you. Isn’t this the role that John the Baptist –
as
the Elijah – was commissioned to fulfill as stated in Luke 1:74? But like Jesus Christ, he was martyred
before he fulfilled everything that was prophesied of him. It remains for another just like him to
arise to complete this prophecy. Psa 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me
on level ground. The days will be long
gone when God’s people Psa 143:11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness,
bring me out of trouble. God will bring His people Psa 143:12 In your unfailing love,
silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for
I am your servant. In time to come, God will
have 12,000 servants
from each of the Tribes of Israel: Rev 7:3-4 “Do not harm
the land or the sea or the trees until
we put a seal on the foreheads of the SERVANTS OF OUR GOD." 4
Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of PSALM 144 Of David. And now we see the signs
of retaliatory war as the House of
David makes its entrance to effect the rescue of God’s people Psa 144:1 Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my
fingers for battle. “The LORD my Rock” is the One still worshipped by the Jewish
people today. Christianity doesn’t
worship “The LORD my Rock”
even though they’ve been told in 1Cor 10:4 that this Rock was Christ! It’s hardly surprising! After all, they’ve rejected the Scriptures
that Jesus Christ and all the Apostles used – the Old Testament! Unlike Jesus Christ, they consider the Old
Testament to be irrelevant to them. If
Jesus Christ is referred to as “The
Word” (John 1:1), then which Word do they suppose it’s referring? The Word
of God in the days of the Apostles was the Old Testament. If
you reject one, then you are rejecting the other! Psa 144:2 He is my loving God and my FORTRESS, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me. Remember how the LORD said in Zech 9:12 “Return
to your FORTRESS, O
prisoners of hope”? Fortress Jerusalem will be the
place to be when the fight-back begins. This will be the base for the Warriors of God. Psa 144:3 O LORD, what is man that you care for
him, the son of man that you think of him? The Lord Christ delighted in
mankind (Pro 8:30-31).
When He created Adam it was like reproducing Himself. In fact, Adam is described as the son
of God (Luke 3:38).
Mankind was created just a little lower than the angels: Heb 2:5-8
“It is not to angels that he has subjected
the WORLD TO COME, about which we are speaking.
6 But there is a place where someone has testified: "What
is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
7 You made him a little
lower than the angels; you crowned
him with glory and honor 8
and
put everything under his feet." This confirms
something we said earlier about mankind being the new rulers of this earth,
and displacing the present angel-class rulers. No longer will the sons of God be dominated
by the rulers of the spirit realm! The
Sons of the Family of God will rule forever, even over the angels. It’s been said that even the angels long to look into these things (1Pet 1:12). Psa 144:4 Man is like a breath; his
days are like a fleeting shadow.
From the days of
David, mankind has been given just 70 years for their lifetimes – the
traditional three score years and ten.
Those who reach this age know just how fleeting their
lives were. Psa 90:10 “The length of our days is seventy
years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but
trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and
we fly away.” It’s therefore incumbent upon us all to
prove our worth to God while we still live. The twilight of our years is not
the best time to be doing this, but it’s better than nothing! Especially today, because things can change
very quickly as the And this is
what we’re referring to: Psa 144:5 Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the
mountains, so that they smoke. Psa 144:6 Send forth lightning and scatter
the enemies; shoot your arrows and
rout them. Isn’t this what we’ve
just been reading in: Zech 9:14 “ Then the LORD will appear over them;
his arrow will flash like lightning.
The astute will recognize this type of weaponry as calling
fire down from the sky,
which is the power given to the two Prophets we spoke of earlier. This is not conventional weaponry! It’s the weapons of God, the same weapons
the destroyed Psa 144:7 Reach down your hand from on
high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners Psa 144:8 whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. This is what happened once before when the Jewish nation of Psa 144:9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre (which is a type of harp)
I will make music to you, Psa 144:10 to the One who gives victory
to kings, who delivers HIS SERVANT
DAVID from the deadly sword. David was a musician and
he speaks of a new song, which he says he will sing. David didn’t write this song, in fact, Moses
did! It’s called the SONG OF MOSES. This song is found in Deut 31:30 – 32:1-44, and is also
referred to in the Book of
Revelation, in Rev 15:2-4 “I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with
the seven last plagues--last, because
with them God's wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what
looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea,
those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the
number of his name. They held HARPS given them by God 3
and sang the SONG OF MOSES
the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great
and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the
ages. 4 Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your
name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before
you, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE
BEEN REVEALED."
The Song of Moses is
the Song of the Lamb, and
it tells us a lot about the Lamb. It
also tells us a lot about those Christians who reject Moses. If you reject the one, then you reject the
other! The Song of Moses tells us what awaits God’s enemies. The Song of Moses tells
us all about God’s righteous acts
concerning
the House of This next verse is a
repeat of V9
above, but in a different context with the introduction of David singing the Song of Moses. It’s a similar rescue, but in a different
era – in fact, in this era in which we live today. Psa 144:11 Deliver me and rescue
me from the hands of foreigners
whose mouths are full of lies, whose
right hands are deceitful. Oddly enough, it’s the same
foreigners, who were called
Babylonians before, but
whom we now know as Muslims. The Tribe of Judah will
be rescued after a brief interval by the servants of God. In fact, the House of David will be like God, and like
the mighty angel that goes before them. This is what God says: Zech 12:7-9 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Psa 144:12 Then our sons in
their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters
will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. This is the sort of peace and security the servants of God can
expect. God is very generous to those
who serve Him! The term, ‘in their youth’ loses something in the
translation. God intends to restore
His people to youthfulness, so that even a man who dies of 100 years will be
thought a mere youth: Isa 65:20 “Never again
will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who
does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will
be thought A MERE YOUTH; he
who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.” A
long and youthful life is what the Children of Israel can look
forward to. There is a precursor to
this, which is mentioned in Psa 103:1-2 “Praise
the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits-- 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5
who satisfies your desires with good things SO THAT YOUR YOUTH IS RENEWED LIKE THE EAGLE'S.” This is a reference to the Eagle! An eagle flies high in
the sky and watches for prey.
An eagle is not a particularly
long-lived bird, but the EAGLE
referred to here, is! In fact,
this EAGLE is a man. In fact, an old man whose youth is renewed to complete
his designated function! When the
nations see this flying ‘bird’
hovering over them, they will be stricken with terror! You’ve probably seen documentaries of how
little animals run for cover when they see an eagle above them, but the prey
of this
EAGLE is the human kind – the foreigners who
have invaded God’s Land!
In fact, the Eagle and his band of Warrior Priests are the Sons of
Jerusalem. The world will recognize
them by their great power and their youthfulness! Back now to the rescue of
God’s people: Psa 144:13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields; Psa 144:14 our oxen will draw heavy
loads. There will be no
breaching of walls, no
going into captivity, no
cry of distress in our streets. Then the people of God will live in safety! This is the objective and this is the
calling of the servants of God
– to
ensure this is so! It will
mean instant death for anyone who attacks Psa 144:15 Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed
are the people whose God is the LORD. When David says, “Blessed are the people of whom this is true”,
he is speaking of a future people, who will administer his House, the House of David. Whose God is the LORD God of the Old Testament? It’s
the same LORD,
the
Creator God, which the Jews have always worshipped! And the LORD God of the Old Testament just
happens to be the Lord Christ of the New Testament. They are one and the same! PSALM 145 A psalm of praise. Of David. Psa 145:1 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise
your name for ever and ever. I think we all know that
Jesus Christ is the King of kings
and LORD of lords, and
there is only one who is higher in rank than He – His Father! When the Lord Christ parts the heavens and
comes down, everyone will know who He is! Psa 145:2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever. Psa 145:3 Great is the LORD and most
worthy of praise; his greatness no
one can fathom. We’re mere human beings,
but soon we will all witness the great Power of God. It will be humorous to observe those who
thought they were ‘intellectuals’
when they invented all their mythical theories about the origins of the
earth, as well as all the other mad theories they developed in defiance of
God. Their world of delusion is about
to be shattered! Psa 145:4 One generation will commend
your works to another; they
will tell of your mighty acts. Those who are left alive of all of humanity
will have a real change of heart. Gone
will be all the mindless theorists who can’t recognize intelligent design
when they see it! The survivors will
be thankful to know their God and will duly pass the knowledge on to
their children – the future generations. Psa 145:5 They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and
I will meditate on your wonderful works. Why couldn’t the inhabitants of the earth be like David? David beheld the wonderful works of the Creator God and never doubted. Those who possess the mind of Satan crave
recognition as ‘intellectuals’ and
will do and say anything to gain this recognition. It’s just an empty ego trip as they are
about to find out! Psa 145:6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and
I will proclaim your great deeds.
The human species
will survive – at least some of them – and they will never forget the
lessons learned. Gone will be the
arrogant theorists who loved to demean God’s Creation and deny His existence. Psa 145:7 They will celebrate your abundant goodness and
joyfully sing of your righteousness. In the Psa 145:8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The lyrics of the Song of
Moses clearly demonstrate this!
It took a long time for God’s
anger to arise, but in comparison, He will be quick to show mercy and compassion. Psa 145:9 The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. We are still speaking of God’s
people here, and these are
what He has made, and it’s these He has compassion on. Long
ago, He chose the Children of Israel as His only family among the rest of the
families of the earth (Amos 3:1-2). Psa 145:10 All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. Saints are those who have God’s
Holy Spirit. Though some might
not recognize this fact, the truth is that the whole House of Psa 145:11 They will tell of the glory of your KINGDOM and
speak of your might, Psa 145:12 so that all men may
know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your KINGDOM. Psa 145:13 Your KINGDOM is an everlasting KINGDOM, and your dominion
endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his
promises and loving toward all he has made. You’ll notice in these verses that the theme is God’s KINGDOM! With the final removal of
the rulers of the spirit world, people will become teachable. They won’t be learning from their demon
teachers, whom they formerly listened to or even worshipped as gods. They will understand the futility of it,
and have a complete change of heart. God has said of the House
of Israel, through them will all
the nations of the earth will be blessed and this was confirmed to
Abraham: Gen 26:4-5 “I will make your descendants
as
numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these
lands, and through your offspring
all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and kept my
requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws." So it’s these
verses which set the stage for the future of all the nations on the earth. In fact, the fate of all the nations rest
on Thankfully,
God has set in motion the means of the rescue for the House of Israel, and
this is well into the planning and execution phase. You’re going to see all these things unfold
with your own eyes, and in your darkest moments, you will see the means of
your rescue. From the time
when God’s KINGDOM is
established, the world will see many changes.
Now we read of how God will turn His hand to others – to all who live
on the earth. He will take control to ensure their crops and the health of their livestock, and
the health of the climate for everything that dwells on earth. God will show Himself to be in control of
everything related to His creation. He will greatly increase the levels of
carbon dioxide to stimulate plant growth, and to create an abundance on earth. Earlier in this study, God gave the example
of the sower going out to sow and returning with sheaves of matured grain –
in order to illustrate the point. Psa 145:14 The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed
down. Psa 145:15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the
proper time. Psa 145:16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Psa 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his
ways and loving toward all he has
made. Psa 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to
all who call on him in truth. In addition to these
things, God will set angels to protect His people and to prevent them from
injuries and death. Psa 145:19 He fulfills the desires of
those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. Elsewhere, God speaks of the children of His servants, the people of So the Children of Israel
will be well-placed for a long and happy life. This is not to say that there won’t be
glitches along the way for the rest of the peoples of the earth. Among these, God will watch over those who love Him, but those who don’t
love and obey Him will fall
victim to the penalty of the Law: Psa 145:20 The LORD watches over all who
love him, but all the
wicked he will destroy. The penalty of the Laws
of God will still claim those who remain obstinate. This sort of disobedience should diminish
further into the Millennium.
Especially since, in the beginning the Saints will beat them into shape
with a ‘rod of iron’ – dashing them to pieces like pottery
(Rev 2:26-27). Some nations will learn faster than others. Psa 145:21 My mouth will speak in praise
of the LORD. Let every creature
praise
his holy name for ever and ever.
Well, this is the
objective – even though it seems impossible right now. Yet it’s amazing what a bit of summary
justice and capital punishment can achieve!
By whatever means, God will ensure that rebellion never arises again! PSALM 146 We’ve just been reading
of the end of the prophesied long dark night and the glories that will
follow. However, we’re not there
yet! There are still many
wars to fight with many rescues to follow.
David followed the example of other Prophets of telling of the good
news and what you might hope for. We
all want peace, but peace is not always dependent on what we want. Other factors can overtake our wants and
desires, and these are already at work in this world. So everything depends now on preparation. You’d obviously be aware
that our governments have not been actively
protecting us from the enemies God has identified. Rather, our governments have embarked on a
course of appeasement, and there is not a lot you can do about
it. The minds of our governments are
befogged with the false idealism of political correctness, multiculturalism,
equal rights, etc, regardless of whose blood is spilt in the pursuit of these
things. You’ve probably noticed
that even your preachers have become weak and effeminate and oblivious to
these dangers. They’ve probably
convinced you that Jesus Christ is going to return and save you from it all before
anything happens. If this is what is
happening in your church, then perhaps you need to question the credentials
of your preacher, like, is he really a Saint? If you attend a Catholic church, then you
will know he’s not. Catholic ‘saints’ have all been dead
for hundreds of years. There are no
live ones – as
the hierarchy of priests and cardinals freely admit! Real Saints are alive and they become
Saints by obeying God and then receiving
His Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32).
Anyone who doesn’t obey
God is not a Saint! Just bear these things in
mind as we progress through the last few of the Psalms. The reason is that you are about to learn a
lot about the Saints of God
and
their duties towards Him.
Most church-goers are going to be shocked to find out the true
function of real
Saints and what their
service to God means. You could say
that David prepared this as the grand finale.
We’ll get to this shortly. Psa 146:1 Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. Psa 146:2 I will praise the LORD all
my life; I will sing praise
to my God as long as I live.
This is a good
habit to cultivate, because otherwise you may not live long. Psa 146:3 Do not put your trust in princes, in
mortal men, who cannot save. I think we’re all aware that our ‘princes’
aren’t saving us from
the hand of our enemies! All
we’ve seen from them is appeasement of the enemy! It they had consulted God’s servants the
Prophets they would have been given the right advice about how to wage war. But no!
They stuck to their crazy philosophy of political correctness and
tried ‘to win their hearts and minds’. After 9/11 they should have waged a total
crusade – like
the Crusaders of old – of Christian
against Muslim, and wiped them from the face of the earth. If this had been done, then ten years later
– which it now is, peace and prosperity would be prevailing throughout the
West. Instead, these evil creatures
are now invading the Western countries and spreading their disease of
Islam. The incursion is almost
impossible now to contain. Even worse,
the Western nations are slowly embracing Shariah law as a form of obedience
to God’s enemies. At the very same time in These mad lunatics will
go to their graves leaving behind an unholy mess that will be impossible to
clean up. Psa 146:4 When their spirit departs,
they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come
to nothing. Well their plans were to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of the
Muslim hordes, wasn’t it? So far
their plans haven’t worked – and they never will! All the architects of this mad philosophy will return to the ground – where
they deserve to be!
They’ll leave behind a crippled nation which is facing ruin – from
which they will never recover! The
people will look back on this and say, ‘What the hell were they thinking!’ Psa 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is
the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, Psa 146:6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them--
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
Concerning the princes and mortal men, this
says it all, doesn’t it? They openly
defied their Creator God by
teaching the lunacy of the theory of evolution, and forbidding any mention of
Him in schools and public places. So
God intends to make an example of them while at the same time, giving help to
those who remained faithful to Him: Psa 146:7 He upholds the cause of the
oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free, Psa 146:8 the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, THE LORD LOVES THE RIGHTEOUS. Psa 146:9 The LORD watches over the
alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, BUT HE FRUSTRATES THE WAYS OF THE WICKED. The wicked won’t fare well at all!
Everything they do will be frustrated,
and they’ll find no peace anywhere!
Wave after wave of disasters will befall them, until they are broken
and destitute and enslaved by those even more wicked than themselves. God knows how to deliver justice! Psa 146:10 The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all
generations. Praise the LORD. It’s in PSALM 147 The account of the rescue
of the House of Israel begins. Psa 147:1 Praise the LORD. How
good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to
praise him! Instead of insulting God
and denying His existence, the House
of Israel is going to learn some respect for their Creator! They’ll see many wonders in Psa 147:2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the EXILES
OF Psa 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. If the House of Israel had possessed the brains to recognize the
enemy, they might have done something to reduce the severity of their wounds. The whole nation seems to be living in some
form of drunken stupor! This is not
too far off the mark either. Even God
refers to their leaders as the drunkards
of Ephraim (Isa 28:1-7). Psa 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and
calls them each by name. What has this to do with
the exiles of So in this V4
from this Psalm, God is referencing the 12 ‘stars’ of One obvious thing you
will notice here is that Manasseh,
the
son of Joseph is mentioned, but not Ephraim. Instead,
Ephraim is referred to by his father’s name of Joseph. In blessing
Ephraim, Jacob made him greater than the others, and elevated him to the
stature of a firstborn son, which at the time was Reuben. As Joseph said in his dream, to which his
brothers sarcastically commented, Joseph
would rule over his brothers.
Jacob’s blessing conferred this on Ephraim – as the ‘firstborn’ of Joseph. The other thing to note
is that the Tribe of Dan is omitted, and a double-portion goes to the Tribe
of Joseph. The Tribe of Dan has very
little esteem with God. The Tribe of
Dan is predominately the southern Catholic Irish. Having regard for their treacherous
terrorism against the Tribe of Manasseh ( Anyway, regardless of
what you think about this assessment, God has made His decision, and the
decision was made long ago and has proven to be true. With every race of people there are
exceptions – as we all know, but God Himself will decide who the
exceptions are, and He’s putting them on notice. The Tribe of Dan will continue (Eze 48:1),
but they will have no representative people in the ruling Family of God. Psa 147:5 Great is our Lord and mighty
in power; his understanding has no
limit. In fact, the
understanding of God’s ways has no limit.
His Word is a wealth of knowledge.
Though it is, at times, very complex, those who seek with all their
hearts will find God’s understanding.
This is the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, which He gives to those who obey
Him. Psa 147:6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground. There’s not a single one of us who doesn’t delight in seeing evil
creatures getting their just desserts.
We know it’s a strong deterrent to others who would do likewise. And God holds this same view! If you listened to the mad ‘psychologists’
and ‘counselors’ today, they would tell you that capital punishment is no
deterrent. Keep your eyes on them in
the days of punishment and you will see they will do anything to save their
lives. They’ll beg and grovel and
betray everyone for just a few more moments of life! There’s very few people who have gone to
the gallows who didn’t have serious regrets for what led to this. They may not regret what they did, but they
certainly regret getting caught. The
urge to remain alive is a big deterrent to the unlawful conduct of people,
who generally consider the risks and the resultant penalty. Psa 147:7 Sing to the LORD
with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. Once again, singing and playing the harp is brought into
focus. This is a reference to Rev 15:2-3
and the Song of Moses. This period refers to the mark of the
beast, and the rewarding of the Saints who are victorious over this. It’s yet another reminder to understand the
meaning of the Song of Moses. Now is the time for worshippers to get off
their high horse and start recognizing what is happening and
to prepare for it. Everything on God’s earth
is controlled by Him. He makes
provision for everything, and everything depends on Him. Nothing escapes Him – even the conduct of
the nations. Psa 147:8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. Psa 147:9 He provides food for the
cattle and for the young ravens when they call. The nations of this earth
put their faith in the strength and their overwhelming numbers to thwart
God’s plans. They think their strength
will somehow counteract God’s intentions.
They’ve mistakenly believed that their puny weapons can stand against
God and His Holy City of Jerusalem – which they hope to destroy. God’s pleasure is not in the
strength of mankind, but only in those who fear Him: Psa 147:10 His pleasure is not
in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man; Psa 147:11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their
hope in his unfailing love. So what does this
reference to the strength of a
horse mean? The Prophet
Zechariah tells us: Zech 12:2-5 “I am
going to make These horses of the nations are also
mentioned in the Book of Revelation as these riders and horses emerge successively. One after the other, the rider rides out,
and is taken over by a horse of a
different colour. And finally,
with the opening of the Fourth Seal, the Beast and the False Prophet make
their appearance: Rev 6:7-8 “When
the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living
creature say, "Come!" 8 I looked, and there before me
was a PALE HORSE! Its RIDER was named
Death, and Hades was following close behind him.
They were given power over a fourth
of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild
beasts of the earth.” Like
Alexander the Great – the king of Psa 147:12 Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise
your God, O |
