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Understanding God’s Design of a Man! Man Made In the Image of God!
(Ver 1.2) There is a vast amount of confusion surrounding the makeup of the human design of man. Natural and carnal people think they are just a physical body much like every other mammal on the planet. Certain intellectual people in the world think and believe that they are just a mind in the universal consciousness of Nirvana, or some C.R.A.P. (Christian Reasoning Applied Poorly) like that. Please forgive my bluntness, but God is not an intellect or a mind over matter concept of a religion. There are only a certain number of Christians that realize the truth and of course not all of them really know very much about the details of the design of man and they mix up the components when speaking about them. There is just too many differing man made opinions on the subject and the definitions given to us in the Bible are being ignored. So today I will attempt to explore and to explain the 3 separate parts that make up the human design and teach you how they are related, what they are and where they exist using only the Bible to explain them. This will probably be a very long lesson on the subject, so I apologize for not breaking it down into a series of shorter lessons. We should start with the basics from Genesis, because this was the beginning of man and it states God’s initial design concepts and purpose for a man. Why is it important to study this subject? Primarily because how you see yourself reflects whether you came from a monkey or from a created design of God. Based upon the correct interpretation of Human design found in the Bible alone proves that the evolution theory of man is a myth. In Genesis, God gives us His stated purpose for creating a man and what we will quickly discover in Genesis is that God designed man after a divine pattern of Himself:
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the…
So here is the stated beginning of man. Man is a created being. Man had a specific stated point of origin. You could call it a point of origination, but God calls it a beginning. Genesis means a book of beginnings. However we can see that humans are uniquely designed after a pre-existing pattern of God. Uh Oh? That probably bugs natural thinking people who believe only in evolution. God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) existed before time and space existed. God is an eternal spiritual being. This of course is not the complete verse and I left out the ending to simply concentrate on the subject at hand of where did man come from? The rest of the verse speaks about man’s responsibilities and purpose for being here. However, I want to focus in on two specific words in this verse, one is “image” and the other is “likeness”.
Image
From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: – image, vain shew.
This is an interesting Hebrew word from the Strong’s definition. It overall means a resemblance. In other words you could have looked at Adam and seen his family resemblance to his father God. I know there are many religious people who do not like me to call Adam a son of God, but yet that is what the Bible says so I’ll stick with it. I did not say that Adam was the Son of God, so put down your stones. Now let’s look at the word “likeness” and see the Strong’s definition for this word:
Likeness
From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: – fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.
While this is a very similar word to the first, it is also a completely different word. So either God is trying to teach us something, or He is just repeating Himself and confused and I do not think that God gets confused. The key meaning of this word is “resemblance” as in the “family resemblance” was with Adam resembling his father God again. Similitude is another definition of this word. One definition of the word “similitude” is “One closely resembling another”. Adam when created closely resembled his Creator. What we can clearly see is that if Adam closely resembled God, then whatever God was, man was a very closely designed pattern of this God. You cannot look at one and not recognize the other. Adam possessed the traits of the family resemblance of God. When my son was born and grew up, everyone looked at him and said “He looks just like his father” and he did. What I want you to see is this same family resemblance is handed down from generation to generation. Here is a verse in the Bible that says something about Adam’s son resembling Adam:
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
As you can clearly see the same two Hebrew words are presented for another father and son combination. Adam’s son Seth bore the resemblance of his father Adam. Do you recognize a pattern? It is the same pattern between God and Adam, just being perpetuated down the line. Every generation of Adam contained the same resemblance to God. Man has never lost the family resemblance to the Most High. What I want you to realize is that whatever God is, that is also what man is on a smaller limited scale. If God is a Spirit, then man is a spirit. If God is a triune being, then man is a triune being. If God is a speaking spirit, then man is a speaking spirit. There are just too many qualities of God to list them all in this lesson. If you do not understand the trinity of God, I have written a blog on “Understanding the Trinity of God”. So go and read about God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Spirit being One God in that blog. Now, what I want to do is introduce you to the concepts about the triune makeup of man. Man if created to look like God, must precisely follow the pattern of the makeup of God’s design.
What are the three parts that make up a man? Also, I use the term man generically as “mankind” and I’m not leaving women out, so please understand this. According to the scriptures that I have read and studied, the human makeup of man is that primarily of a spirit being. After all God is a Spirit. If a man had no spirit we would be purely just like a monkey. Animals do not have spirits. No animal was ever made in the image and likeness of God Almighty. Therefore, man did not evolve from animals. There are many idiots in the world that disagree and think God used evolution to bring us into the world, but they do err and make themselves to be fools.
Jas 2:26 For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Those who want to see what the Bible says clearly will accept verses like this one. However, those who do not want to accept the truth will be deceived into believing the lies of Satan very easily. Many times you just have to read the Bible and accept it for what it literally says and this is one of those times. Man’s body we are told is dead without his spirit being inside of his body. You can also read into this a complimentary implied truth that is given to us, if the body is dead, then the spirit has departed and is no longer in the body. People who do not want to believe this fact try to say this word “spirit” means breath, to respire, to inspire, to take in oxygen physically. After all God when He created Adam “breathed” the breath of life into his nostrils, Genesis 2 says. When you think naturally you think wrong and this is most people’s problem with their interpretations of the Bible. They forget who the author is; God is a Spirit and not a physical being. Because God wrote the Bible in a manner to give man a choice to be wrong, many think they are right and do not understand they are completely wrong. The Bible says that the “carnal” mind of man is enmity to God. Natural thinking is an enemy to the thoughts and ways of God. If you think that God came down to the earth and did mouth to mouth resuscitation on Adam to get him breathing and to live, you are clearly deceived. God breathed His Spirit into the body of the man Adam and Adam became a living soul. If you go back and look up the references in the Bible using the Greek word translated as “spirit” in James 2:6; you will find that it is used in context with every type of spiritual being. God’s Spirit or the Spirit of God, who is also called the Holy Spirit are examples found with this same word. The spirits of demons, unclean spirits and evil spirits are also defined using this word. Does God breathe oxygen? Does Satan breathe oxygen? Do Angels breathe Oxygen? If you said No!; you are correct. So then do not think that man only breathes oxygen and that is what makes us human. So man’s spiritual makeup is no different than God’s spiritual makeup, the makeup of angels, Satan or demons. The only difference is that we exist physically here on this planet and that means, we eat, drink, sleep and breathe to be here. Do not confuse natural things with spiritual things or you will be totally confused. I guess I still need to discuss the triune nature of man so I will introduce you to this using the Bible:
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To declare something to be whole is to declare it to be complete, missing no parts. Man is clearly described as a “triune” being in this verse. Man has three distinct and separate parts that make up our “whole” existence. These are listed in order of priority from most important to that of least importance. The first part of man and the most essential component to man is the spirit of a man. The spirit of man is the part that God breathed into Adam from His Spirit. God is called the “Father” of spirits in Hebrews 12:9. So if God is called the Father of spirits then God is only the Father of Adam’s spirit and not the father of Adam’s body. Do you understand the difference? When Jesus was born into the world as the Son of God, He is called the “Only Begotten”. That means only Jesus was God’s naturally born physical Son. God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). You can clearly see the difference between Adam and Jesus. Jesus was born here and Adam’s body came from the dust of the ground. These are two radically different creative works of God. So getting back to our verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25; we can see that Adam when created had to possess all three of these qualities in order to live on this planet. The Bible says that when God breathed the Spirit of Life into Adam; Adam became a living soul so we can see that the soul of Adam is different that the spirit of Adam. God did not put His soul into Adam, it says that Adam only “became” a living soul after God breathed into his nostrils and that is completely different. We have not discussed what a soul is, so that is probably the point of confusion for many people right now. The final component of man listed in this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is the physical body of the man. This is the part that we all can see and touch, but yet it is not the man, just the house that the man lives in. These are the three components that make up the human design. We are a triune being, consisting of three distinct parts. We exist in three different dimensions or realms of existence. These realms are the spiritual realm, the mental realm and the physical realm.
I have been in many churches and they sometimes use the words spirit and soul interchangeably. They seem to think that they are one in the same things. They will say after a church service that God saved 15 souls today in church. Or they will pray for the soul of Brother John, because he is going through a hard time right now. Or they will say God bless the soul of our dear sister. So what is the difference between a soul and a spirit? I guess we should first determine there is a difference. So let’s start with this verse:
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
So here we have a verse with the two key words used in contrasting styles and references. God calls the first man Adam a Living Soul; but then He calls the last man Adam a quickening Spirit. If the spirit of man was the same as the soul of the man, it would not be necessary to use different Greek words, would it? Jesus Christ is called the Last Adam and He causes spirits to live. The inferred reference or opposite truth to this is the clear association that the first Adam has caused spirits to die. Since it is impossible for spirits to die, then we have to figure out another explanation of what this means. I believe that it means that unrighteous people who are alive in the world are soul dominated or controlled. In direct contrast to this, true Christians in the world should be Spirit aware and controlled. If a person dies without knowing Jesus Christ and accepting Him as their personal Lord and Savior, they are now separated from God. So any way let me give you another verse that declares the reality that the spirit and the soul are not the same thing.
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
If God can divide the soul from the spirit, they are not one in the same things. What God is revealing to us is that these two things are clearly closely related or even work in conjunction with each other in a joint function or purpose, but that they are clearly and distinctly different components of the human design. God actually gives us a clue in the very last statement to the definition of these two words. The Word of God is said to be a “discerner” of the thoughts of a man’s heart. This word translated as “discerner” comes from a Greek word meaning a “Judge”. The Word of God is able to judge your thoughts. Where are your thoughts? Your thoughts exist within the realm of your mind and intellect. However, God declares that the thoughts are associated with your heart. Your heart is your spirit. So we can conclude that your mind is how you get through to your internal spirit. I think this is a good time to introduce you to the Greek Word translated as “soul”. Here is Strong’s definition:
psuchē
From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you.
No wonder people are so confused. Using this definition is very confusing. It would seem to apply to everything from people down to plants and did you know that in a way this is correct. You see every animal on our planet has a soul. The predominate thing that I take out of this definition is the usage of the reference to the word concerning your “MIND”. Maybe you can clearly see that the Greek word “psuche” is where we get our words like “psyche” or words like “psychology” or “psychiatrist” come from this word. These are all Mind related curriculums and references. These are the study of your mental health and the human mind. This is the predominate realm of the soul of man. To have the ability to think, rationalize, process, calculate, make decisions, among other mental functions are all related actions of the soul of man. Your mind is of course a very complex part of your being, the ability to reason and to create come from God’s nature being imparted into man at creation. This is part of the makeup of man that makes him different than animals. All animals have limited soulish realms, but they do not create nor are they self-aware of their own existence! Sure animals have limited feelings but not like those of a human. Sure in very limited forms animals build themselves houses or things like that. But, I’ve never seen an animal write a song or even try to play the piano on their own without the prompting or training of a man. Animals are not wondering “Why am I here?” and “Who am I?”. Creativity is a part of the soul of man that is unique to us. We learned this trait from our creator God. But, your mind is more complex than just that. How about your memory? The ability to learn information and to recall facts and material on a subject in an organized fashion is definitely a mental function of the human mind. Many naturally thinking people in the world associate or attribute this to the physical human brain. However, this is not what the Bible teaches. Your mind, your reasoning, your memory have nothing to do with your physical brain and I can prove that to you using the Bible.
Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Jesus, God in the flesh tells us a real story about two men who both died. One man was a beggar on the earth and the other a rich man. The bodies of both the beggar and of the rich man are buried. The Angels of God come and take the beggar. Did you understand this? The spiritual angels of God came and took the spirit of the beggar to the bosom of Abraham. Now we are immediately told what happened to the rich man:
Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
The rich man now suddenly appears in hell. We are not told if the angels carried him there or if this is just where you go by default after you die. I find this story to be fascinatingly informative about the afterlife experience. Before Jesus was resurrected, a human could not die and go to heaven, so the righteous ones who died were transported to a place called “Abraham’s bosom” and this is a place different than hell. It is also interesting to note that the rich man could still “see”. Spirits have eyes. Interesting isn’t it? The rich man tries to ask Abraham who was a far off from where he was in hell, to send Lazarus to give him a drink of water because he was being tormented in the flames. Then the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to the earth so that he could tell his brothers not to come to this place of torment called hell. Are you seeing anything here? The rich man had all of his memory, his mental reasoning abilities; his entire soul realm was with him in hell. Jesus told us that his body was buried in the ground so that means your soul works outside of your body. Abraham was also physically dead and his body was buried and they were holding a conversation and using their minds to do it.
Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Here is one of Abraham’s responses to the rich man in hell. He told the rich man to remember and this is clearly a mental function of the soul realm. People in hell even without their bodies can remember, think and process things using their minds. Many try to say this story that Jesus told is a parable and not a real story, but they make Jesus a liar then. Is Abraham a real man? Then if Abraham is real, the beggar is also a real man named Lazarus and finally the rich man must be a real man but one who is not identified by name. I don’t think Jesus wanted to name the rich man or you could see that he didn’t make it to heaven and feel very sad if you knew him personally or he was one of your family members.
This story of Lazarus in the Bible, clearly describes all three components that make up the human design. Every component is clearly identified and separated in one story. It starts in the physical realm and ends in the spiritual realm. The mental or soulish realm transfers wherever the spirit resides. There are just many other Bible verses that speak about the triune nature and the design of man to resemble God, but I guess I have gone too long for one lesson. I have certainly introduced you to some new concepts about the spiritual, mental and physical parts of the human design by God and I hope and pray that you can see them clearly. God Bless!
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Seed Laws Applied to New Testament Truths! Part 6
(ver 1.3) This is Part 6 in the study series about seeds in the Bible. In my last few lessons on this subject, I have been going through some of the parables of Jesus concerning the subject of Seeds. In these lessons we learned some very valuable spiritual information that apply to every Christian believer and unsaved non-believer. Jesus used these natural Seed concepts and laws to describe vast complex spiritual realities that we have never seen or could even attempt to understand. The Bible contains more than 200 direct references to seeds in the KJV Bible and certainly many, many more indirect references on the subject can be found. If you have not been reading this series of lessons from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start with Part 1 first. Today I want to teach you some New testament truths by reviewing and applying some of the basic seed law concepts that we learned from Genesis. We will read and study several New Testament verses that we have not discussed up to this point and learn how seeds apply to them.
THE SEED WITHIN ITSELF LAW
One of the first seed concepts that I gave you was the “Seed within Itself” law and concept revealed in Genesis 1:11. If you do not understand correct Bible interpretation, one rule or law of correct Bible interpretation is called the “Law of First Mention”. By going into the Bible and finding the first occurrence of a subject you are introduced to some basic concepts that are usually critical to understanding the entire subject. So Genesis 1:11 says that the earth brought forth trees with fruit “whose seed was in itself”. We understand this to be a natural law which applies, to fruit as well as to the natural man and woman. This law represents a self-sustaining reproductive system that was designed and created by God. God created one thing and this thing contained the built in capability to reproduce indefinitely, sustaining the existence of the species.
1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
In reviewing the parable of the Sower we learned that the Seed of God was the Word of God. It was the Seeds of God’s Words that produces the spiritual fruit in our spirits. So this verse in 1 John 3:9 tells us that we are born of God. We should be able to clearly understand that this is a spiritual birth and not a physical birth and we can confirm that by reading the words of Jesus in John 3. We have previously seen that the human male sperm was called “seed” in the Bible and we can now begin to see a spiritual application taught from the pattern found within the naturally created reproductive process. This verse says that when we are born spiritually, and it came as a result of us accepting the truth of God’s Word. Now God’s Seed is in us and this is a spiritual repetition of the “seed within itself” law. The more of the Word of God you learn, the more of the Seed of God you have in you and the more fruit of God is potentially produced. It is a very basic concept, but yet very profound.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
So here is another New Testament verse that describes the spiritual Seed of God to be the Word of God. This Spiritual Seed is compared and contrasted with the natural seed of the created man. The sperm of a man is called the corruptible seed. The Greek word translated as corruptible means “decaying” or “perishing”. This is interestingly enough related to the laws of thermodynamics that states everything is in a state of decay around us. Humans are in a state of aging from the moment they are conceived. However, we the body of Christ are Christians that are spiritually “born again”. This birth is not a natural birth, but is a spiritual birth that came as a result of us hearing the Spiritual Words of God. This would be symbolically analogous to our spirits being like the womb of a woman with the fertile egg present. By us lending our ears to God’s Word and hearing it and then understanding it, God’s Word becomes one with our spirit and then God’s Spirit becomes one with our spirit (1 Co 1:16). 1 Peter 1:23 teaches us that God’s word/seed will now “Abide” within us. Abide means to indwell and live in our spirits. This is clearly the seed within itself law from Genesis 1:11. If you have heard the Word of God and have accepted it and know it you have His spiritual seed on the inside of your spirit. Always remember that the Seed of God is in you!
EVERY SEED PRODUCES AFTER ITS OWN KIND LAW
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
God is talking to us about another law concerning seeds in this verse in Galatians. This law is also revealed to us in the first chapter of Genesis 1 in verse 11. However, here God is telling us about the seeds that are sown by a man. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? God says that every man will reap whatever kind of seeds that he sows. This is a basic spiritual application of the first law of seeds that every seed produces after its own kind. When I talked about this law originally, I told you that an apple seed will produce only an apple tree and an orange seed will produce only an orange tree. So what you get in life is determined by what you plant. This verse also says that God is not mocked by those who say this is not true and by those that say that this does not apply to them. In other words God is saying this is the way everything in the world works whether you believe it or not. That was a very strong statement from God. You should be beginning to understand a little better about the power of the seeds that you sow, if you have read this entire series of lessons. If you decide not to believe what you just read, God says you are not mocking the messenger Agapegeek, you are mocking God and I would be very concerned about doing something foolish like that.
Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
The next verse in Galatians is just more conformation to exactly what God has said before. This verse reveals to us that there are two types of seeds that every man can sow in this world. The first type of seed is a natural or carnal seed type and this is another example of a corruptible seed type that will reap only natural death. Then there is a spiritual seed type that can be sown and this seed reaps life everlasting. So let me stop right there and ask you this, what is life everlasting? This certinaly does not mean that you will never die physically if you sow to the spirit. It also does not mean that you will ever cease to exist, if you do not do this. Man was created as a spirit being that will never cease to exist, after we die physically; our spirit will either go to heaven or to hell based upon our current relationship with Jesus Christ. The problem with most Bible interpretations is that people do not attempt to get God’s definition on any of the words that they are reading. They read every word and assume they know what they mean and then miss what God is trying to teach them. Here is a verse in the Bible that gives us God’s clear definition of what “eternal life” is in His eyes:
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
To me this definition changes the meaning to what I thought it meant to live eternally dramatically and it causes me to shift my thinking differently than I had ever thought before. Eternal life is not living forever; eternal life is your ability to know the True Living God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent forever. That is just a radically different perspective of life eternal. Those who die without this spiritual eternal life will never know God or Jesus Christ and will probably not have a clue why they went to hell. I guess they may have some idea since God speaks of a coming time of judgment and there will certainly be some discussion to the charges against them before judgment is passed if God’s court is like our courts. I guess that last two statements was just my opinions so please do not take them as scripture. I also briefly got off of the subject of seeds to define a term that I think is important for you to know.
SEED SINGULAR OR SEED PLURAL?
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
I alluded to this seed concept in an earlier lesson on this subject. I talked about the fact that the word “seed” can be taken as either plural or singular and that it is only determined which one it is referring to by the contextual usage of the word and even that can be very difficult figure out. This is just one of the intentionally designed methods of God used to conceal the truth in the Bible. In this verse in Galatians God is referring to the promise made to Abraham. Since Jesus was in Abraham when God made this promise Jesus was the “Seed” within himself that was to receive the promise. Abraham naturally fathered several children. Ishmael and Isaac are the two obvious sons that everyone remembers from Sunday school. However, Ismael was cast out of the house by Abraham’s wife Sarah and is not the promised child. Isaac was the promised child, the future grand-father to the nation of Israel. But, yet Galatians say that Isaac was not the seed that was to receive this promise. However, again Jesus was also in his father Isaac as the seed. Then the two sons of Isaac were born, Jacob and Esau. Esau, the firstborn was not the selected path either, but the younger son Jacob was. Jesus was in His father Jacob as a seed. I could go on and on through every generation from Israel to Mary and see that Jesus was in each parent. But, none of these were the selected “seed”.
Galatians 3:16 says that the promised “seed” that was in Abraham was only Jesus Christ. This was clearly a singular occurrence and not a multiple pattern of seeds being referred to. Hopefully you can better understand how God can look at Abraham and make a promise about his seed, when God was speaking about Jesus Christ who was in Abraham. The Son of God was the promised seed able to fulfill the requirements of God’s conditions, to fulfill the law, to live a sinless life, to die and shed his blood for you and I and to be raised from the dead so that we could forever go and live with Him. To me that is just an awesome display of the wisdom of God. I think I will end this blog today right here. I have just selected a few New Testament applications of the Seed concepts and laws and tried to show you how God used them to fulfill His plan of redemption. Hopefully you are deriving some benefit from these lessons. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series you may go to “Part 7“.
Understanding the Eucharist! What is the Eucharist and Why do we Receive it? Part 1
(Ver 1.3) This is a difficult question to answer and a much more difficult subject to understand than many people give it credit to be. I had a reader ask me a question about why Catholics receive the Eucharist at every Mass? He said that the Eucharist is given out every day in thousands of languages. Do we have any scriptural basis for this and why would we do it so often? This is Part 1 of a series of lessons on the subject of the “Eucharist”. We will discuss; what it is, why we do it and how it applies to the modern church from a Bible perspective. I will explore many different aspects of this subject and give you quite a few new perspectives on this subject. I challenge you to read the entire series before you become a critic of any small part of the lessons. I will definitely warn you up front what I teach you will be different than what you might expect me to say on the subject, but yet I will only use the Bible to explore this subject and I will do my best to keep my opinions completely out of the discussion. What I am interested in is what God thinks about the subject and not what you or I think about it. I find that God’s opinion is much more important to me than your opinion.
In asking Catholics why they participate in receiving the Eucharist, I found that a vast number of answers to that question was “I don’t know”. Not one could give me a Bible verse or a Bible reason for receiving the elements of the Eucharist. Some knew that the bread and the wine represent the Body and the Blood of Christ. But why we receive it and participate in the ceremony, they could not tell me. Is there any benefit to participating in this ceremony? Is there a blessing attached to it? Or do we do it just because it is the right thing that we should do? What makes it the right thing to do? This might become a widely controversial subject before I’m through, so if you are interested in learning the truth keep reading, otherwise you might want to stop here and go to another website or blog.
So now I will begin to teach you some of the things that I know from the Bible about this subject of the “Eucharist”. There is absolutely no way I could tell you everything I know about this without writing a small book, so I will not be doing that. So today is just the introduction to the subject and like I said, it will probably be totally different than what you might expect. The Bible says that God is a Spirit (John 4:24). God existed throughout all of eternity, outside of the dimensions of time and space limitations that we exist within right now. The Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). So God existed prior to the existence of this physical universe. We therefore know that the physical universe had a specific point of origin. When God created man in this world, God breathed the breath of life into him and this was Adam’s spirit which came from God’s Spirit (Gen 2:7). Hebrews 12:9 says that God is the Father of all spiritual beings. Therefore, man is technically a spiritual being that lives within a physical natural body (1 Th 5:23). Why is all of this important? Sometimes I just need to state the Bible basics before I try to introduce you to more advanced spiritual subjects found in the Bible and I do this to help refresh your memory. If you disagreed with anything that I have said so far, you will have greater difficulty with the remaining things to come. Let’s take a look at a verse that is not directly about the Eucharist but yet applies indirectly by the stated application.
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The Bible says that we need to focus our attention away from the natural physical things that we can perceive with our senses in the world and instead focus on the things that we cannot see. This is a contrasting verse that is comparing the natural dimension to the spiritual dimension. The Bible tells us clearly that those things that are natural and physical are just “temporal”. The English word temporal is translated from a Greek word (G4340) that means “temporary”. Anything that is considered temporary is not eternal. What God is saying is that this world is disposal and will change to the permanent some day in the future. Therefore, physical things can be viewed as being “here today and gone tomorrow” or “easy come and easier go”. What God is saying to us is that there exists nothing in this physical world that is visible that we can call “permanent”. Do you understand this? Only your unseen spirit which is present inside of your body right now will exist forever after your death and this existence will be either in heaven or in hell depending upon what you have done in this life to receive or reject the finished work of Christ Jesus. Of course God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth someday and these will exist forever and we who have received salvation will live there (Rev 21:1).
So I have probably just confused you up to this point. I have not even mentioned the “Eucharist”, or have I? Let me ask you this, can you touch the “Eucharist”? Can you smell the “Eucharist”? Can you taste the “Eucharist”? If you answer yes to any of these questions then they are natural physical things. These natural and physical elements according to the verse that we just read in 2 Cor 4:18, these are just more temporary things that God says we should not be focused on. Uh oh? I warned you that this was going to be controversial, didn’t I? That may make it sound like I am saying we should ignore them, but that is not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is that we should be focused on the eternal spiritual objects represented by these natural symbolic elements that are only temporary physical things used to teach us. I am definitely not saying not to partake of these; I am just asking you to figure out why you are partaking of these and focus on the meaning behind partaking of them and not to focus on the physical bread or wine. You see after you die, you can take the meaning with you into eternity, but the physical bread and wine will remain here on the earth and turn to dust. Do you understand the difference between what I just said? What I am attempting to do is to change your perspective from a physical viewpoint to a far greater spiritual viewpoint. Let’s see what Jesus says about the Eucharist:
Mat 15:11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Uh Oh? Jesus didn’t even mention the Eucharist, did He? As you should be able to clearly see He did talk about the Eucharist in an indirect reference. Jesus is talking about something going into your mouth as natural food. Unleaved bread and wine (grape juice) is normally used in the Eucharist church ceremony. What exactly is Bread and Wine? Here is another verse of scripture that is difficult to understand for many people. Jesus is speaking about the difference between natural things and spiritual things again. Jesus is saying that anything that you eat naturally and put into your mouth does not cause you to be “defiled”. To defile something is to cause it to be “unclean”, “polluted”, or to be “profane”. You can clearly see that Jesus is saying that it is not what you physically eat that causes you to sin and to become spiritually unclean. What would be the opposite truth (antithesis) to this statement that Jesus just made? I believe that it would be “There is nothing that you can physically eat that will make you “clean”, “pure” and “undefiled”. So what am I saying? I am saying that the “Eucharist” is a physical representation of something that is a spiritual truth that is more important than the physical pieces that you handle with your natural hands and put into your natural mouths. Jesus continues in this context to describe the things that you physically eat as being only natural things that are processed by the physical body and expelled down the toilet (Mat 15:17). So what makes the Eucharist elements any different? I think that is a very excellent question to consider. It would only be different if you knew what it all meant and how it all applied to your life as you partook of these elements. Without the knowledge and the reason for the action the action seems to be worthless to me based upon what Jesus just taught us about eating physical food. What we are seeing now in the Bible is a pattern of truths being revealed to us. There is a major difference between natural things and spiritual things. The natural things are placed here as temporary teaching tools and the spiritual things are the eternal things to be focused upon. Doing natural things without understanding the spiritual things behind them actually does you no good physically, emotionally or spiritually. I pray that you are grasping these important concepts.
What I am trying to say is DO NOT do things just because you are told to do them or asked to do them by a preacher or a priest. Do not do something just because others around you are doing them and you want to fit in. People have been poisoned and died by following that type of reasoning, simply because the cult leader that they were following determined it was time for everyone to die. What I am saying is find out why you are doing something in the natural realm using the Word of God and what it means and then use that information to determine if this what you should be doing. Follow God’s Word and not any man, any priest, any preacher, any denomination, group or whatever. Let God be True and every man a liar (Rom 3:4). I am attempting to teach the difference between religion and a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Religion is anyone partaking of a ritual set of elements without any knowledge of why they are participating. Relationship with Christ is worshipping the God in the knowledge of the one that offered His body and His blood so that we could be saved while we remember Him through partaking the elements. Let me give you another example of what I am trying to say from the Words of our Savior Jesus:
Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Jesus is again contrasting the differences between temporary natural things and far greater spiritual things. Jesus is telling those that He was speaking to, that they were hypocrites. Why were they this way? Jesus said they were focused only on the outside of the cup (body) and not the inside of the cup (spirit). This was of course more symbolic representations for the temporary natural things of this world and the eternal spiritual things. Being focused just upon the taking of the “Eucharist” without knowing the reason why you are taking it would be an example of this type of hypocritical religious behavior. If you do something lacking any knowledge about why you doing it, the act becomes a pagan ritual or a religious rite that is attempting to please a god that you do not know and these are what Jesus was calling the actions of ignorant hypocrites. By only doing something externally while not knowing the reasons why you are doing it internally, you could be falling into a deceptive pattern found within any godless religion in the world. Do you understand that? What would make the taking of the Eucharist in a church any different than participating in an Islamic temple rite? I can literally see no difference between the two if they are both done in religious acts of ignorance. This is another statement Jesus said about these hypocrites:
Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Jesus is clearly saying that these men worship God in vain, because they were teaching the “doctrines” and “commandments” of men. So when you do something that you do not have any reasons for why you are doing it, how do you know it is not a humanly created doctrine of man? Perhaps it could even be something that was designed by Satan to deceive you into a lie? Jesus said by adding your thoughts on top of the Word of God, you render the Word of God to be of No Effect! (Mat 15:6) These are all very strong words of warning to all those who practice religion and do not know God. Your religion will not save you. The partaking of the elements will not saved you. Going to church will not save you. Becoming a member of the church will not save you. Being baptized in water will not save you. I could go on and on but you get the point, I hope.
In these verses Jesus is talking about a strongly religious group of people of the Jews called the “Pharisees”. These men came up with their own set of rules and outward traditions that they thought made them righteous in the eyes of God. What you must know is God is much more concerned with the eternal spiritual you than He is with the temporary physical you. What I am attempting to teach you today is that doing things in the natural are worthless if you are not aware of the reasons why they are to be done. The Pharisees clearly did many good looking things externally in this world but internally they were corrupt and this was their downfall. If we die physically and know Jesus Christ the Bible says that we will go to be with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). However, if you die physically and do not know Jesus Christ, then you are eternally lost in hell. Physical things done in your natural body are just temporary things and God is much more focused upon your eternal spirit and your soul that is inside your physical body that you cannot see. Real salvation always starts on the inside in your spirit and shows up on the outside in what you do and say. God changes your heart inside of you and this will always show up in the things you do on the outside later. The opposite of this is Religion which is man’s attempt to change himself to please God and God said this will never work. (Gal 2:6)
Any Christian who can not give a scriptural reason for why they are participate in the “Eucharist”, do you now see why it might be important to find that information before the next time you blindly participate? Does it make a difference if you do something with our without knowledge? Is it just the fact that we did something that makes it right? Is the fact that someone blindly participates in something that causes them to be in God’s favor? I do not think that God would have written the Bible, if He wanted you to blindly parrot and monkey religious rites. What makes Christianity different than any religion in the world? It is the fact that we have a personal relationship with God and in other religions they are trying to just please a god that they do not personally know or understand. So I’ll ask you again, does blindly following a ritual cause you to derive any benefit from what you did? Not according to what Jesus just said in Matthew 23. Jesus told us these were just the action of religious hypocrites. Please do not be offended at what I just said. I am not naming names and I did not call anyone this by name. I’m just reading the Bible and people need to decide if the Bible applies to them or not. I’m not your judge, so I will not judge you or whatever you do.
I think I will stop this introduction to the subject of Eucharist right here for now. I know I did not attempt to define the term or explain what it is or how it applies to us today. I think these will have to be future topics that we discuss as we continue to learn. Today I wanted to get you to think afresh and I wanted to shift your focus off of physical natural things and get you to start focusing on lasting spiritual things. Quit being a person who does something and does not know or understand why they are doing it. There is a major difference between natural and spiritual things and it is time for the Church to realize it. Are the temporary things in the world more important to you than the eternal spiritual things of God in you? If they are God and anything else that I tell you from the Bible can’t help you. Be blessed in the knowledge of Him that is Faithful and True. If you have any specific questions or comments please feel free to share them with me. If you have any experience with participating in religious rites without understanding the reasons why you are doing them, please share those also. Until next time, God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading the next lesson in this series, you may go to “Part 2” now.
Understanding God’s Spiritual Power and the Power of Spirits!
(Ver 1.1) Today is the next lesson, “Part 9” in the series on understanding the Bible subject of spoken words. If you have not read this series from the beginning you should go and start reading with “Part 1“. Most Christians possess the belief that God is omnipotent. “Omnipotent is a theological term that is technically not found in the English translation of the KJV Bible. However the word “Almighty” (H7706, G3841) is found in the KJV Bible and it means “omnipotent. The word “Almighty” appears some 57 times in the KJV Bible with only 10 occurrences appearing in the New Testament and 9 of these are found in the book of Revelation. It appears to me that God emphasized His power and ability more directly in the Old Testament and has given the subject less emphasis in the New Testament based upon His word selection and distribution. The 9 instances of “Almighty” in Revelation seem to be related with God’s sovereign ability to execute judgment. Judgment is not a predominate theme of the New Testament except when you come to the book of Revelation. I did not say that you cannot find judgment in the N.T., I just said it was not the dominate theme of the church age. If you recall when Jesus was walking the earth, people brought a woman to Jesus who was caught in the act of adultery and Jesus’ response should have been that of a judge according to the law; however Jesus was mercy driven with compassion and told those who were without sin, to cast the first stone. However, did you ever think that the only one without sin in this group was Jesus and that He should have been the first one to cast the first stone, but did not? The mercy of God is a much greater predominate theme in the N.T. than the judgment of God. But that is another different subject to discuss at another time. Today we are talking about the subject of spiritual power and the power of spirits. Let’s look at the “Power” of God first. Does God have ALL Power?
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
The Greek word G3841 translated as “Almighty” is a word meaning “all powerful” or “omnipotent”. God has the power, strength and ability to do anything. The power of God is massively demonstrated throughout the Old Testament. From the creation account in Genesis 1 all the way to the flood of Noah, to the scattering of people at the tower of Babel, to the demonstration of power before Pharaoh in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, to the miracles in the wilderness. There are just too many examples found in the Bible to list them all. So we can easily understand that God has great and awesome power. But, does God hold “ALL” power? That was my question originally. Meaning ONLY God has any power? A lot of religious people think in these terms and miss what the Bible says on the subject.
Let me introduce you to a new concept and another term used to describe nature and character of God other than as the “Almighty”. This new term that I will show you is used in the KJV Bible approximately 48 times; again 38 times in the Old Testament and only 10 times in the New Testament. This term or name of God reveals Him to be the “Most High God”.
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Reading this verse we can clearly see that God is described as being “Supreme”. Meaning among spirits there is none greater or more powerful than He is. God is at the top of the spiritual food chain, proverbially speaking. What do we learn from reading this verse? If there is a “Most High God”, then there are other gods that are below him in rank, power and ability. That statement might get some people upset at me, but yet I’m just reading the Bible and seeing what is written there. Can you understand what was said by God? You do understand that the author of the Bible does not need to qualify the name “God” with the adjective modifier of “Most High” if there are no other gods that exist? It only takes limited basic logic and very simple reasoning to see what God says in this verse. Of course some will try to say that God is the only “True God” and all of the others are just false imaginary gods. However, the title “True God” is also found in the Bible and it is a different Hebrew word than “Most High”:
Jer 10:10 But the LORD is the true God he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
We can clearly see that the LORD is called the “True God”. So we can automatically conclude that there are also false imaginary gods that also exist. But this verse also claims God is the “Living God” meaning these false imaginary gods are only defined as those that are dead or have no life in them. A false god would be like when people in the world worship idols, the objects made by the hands of man. These idols are “false and dead gods” and they have no power on the earth whatsoever. Another example of a false god would be like those found in mythology. False, gods like Atlas, Hermes, Mercury and etc. These are gods made up in the minds of men that do not have any basis for existence. So what we have learned is that there are several different types of gods in the world. We created the following list diagram explaining what we have just learned with our God on left and others mentioned or implied on the right.
| Biblical Title of God | Antonym Opposite |
| Almighty God | Limited god |
| True God | False god |
| Living God | Dead god |
| Most High God | Lesser god |
So what is my point? Where am I going with all of this? What I want you to see and learn is there are other gods in the world other than our Almighty God. I am not talking about Greek mythology or Roman mythology or any other kind of imaginary, fictitious of mythological deity powers. What I am about to show you are created spiritual beings in the Bible that God has called other types of “gods”. You can clearly see these gods exist by the implications that we have just read in the Bible from the names given to us by our God. Here is a N.T. verse that you should be aware of, but I’ll remind you of it:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
So who blinded the minds of all those that believe not in this world? This verse is not speaking of humans since they are the ones that have their minds blinded. No this verse is speaking of another spiritual power that exists in the world. This spiritual power is Satan and he is called the “god of this world”. This Greek word translated as “god” in this verse means “deity”. It can also mean “supreme”. This word occurs over 1000 times in the N.T. and is most often used for references to our God. For example in Matthew 1:23 where Jesus is described as “Emanuel” translated as “God” with us it contains the same Greek word. However, in 2 Cor 4:4 we have a new mystery being stated using the same Greek word in reference to Satan. Who gave Satan this title? Or did he steal it from someone? If Satan is called a god by the Most High God, do you accept it? In other words is God a liar? You see that is the problem with many Christians, they do not know that Satan exists and who he is. So if Satan is a god, what type of god would he be? He is not the “Most High”, nor is he the “Almighty God”. I cannot call him the “True God” either. He is certainly alive so he might fall into the living god category. It really depends upon your definition of death. Satan is not a physical being so he cannot die naturally. If you do not know it, you cannot kill a spiritual being or cause them to cease to exist. But, yet the Bible does talk about a “spiritual death” which can be defined as a separation from God. I believe that Satan is now and has been separated from God ever since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that if Satan would have known what was going to happen to himself, he would not have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).
Is Satan a lesser god than the Almighty God, I believe he is definitely on a lower spiritual plane than God Almighty. Satan is not omnipotent, and he is not omniscient, and neither is he omnipresent. So Satan qualifies as both a “lesser god” and a “limited god”. So the question arises does this god Satan have any power? I had one reader tell me that he didn’t think anyone could create anything other than the Most High God. God is the only being that has the power of creation. I’m not sure if I agree with that statement totally. Where in the Bible does it say that only God can create anything? If you know of a Bible verse like that I would be very pleased if you would share it with me. Also, please do not assume that I am saying anything that I have not said. God Almighty is the creator of everything that we see around us in our world. But, many people think that Satan has no power to do anything and that is just not what the Bible says. At least 3 times in Revelation the beast, the false prophet and Satan are stated as having done “miracles” (Rev 13:14, Rev 16:14, Rev 19,20). A miracle is defined as a “supernatural” sign and wonder. That tells me that Satan has significant abilities that he has not fully demonstrated to us. That tells me that Satan is not powerless. I learned a lot from what Jesus taught about Satan:
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the pwer of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Apparently Jesus did not think that Satan had no power either. There are two words in this verse, both translated as “power” but they are dramatically different Greek words. The first word translated as “power” (G1849) was spoken to us (the church) and it means spiritual “Authority”. Jesus gave the Church legal jurisdiction over Satan (serpent) and the rest of his demons (scorpions). The second word (G1411) translated as “power” is in direct reference to a symbolic serpent and some symbolic scorpions. These are the symbolic representations for the enemy of the church called Satan and his demons. This word for “power” means “miraculous power” or the “ability to do supernatural miracles”. So what is a miracle? A miracle would be anything that occurs that is not of the ordinary course of nature. If you scrape your leg and it bleeds, it will heal in the ordinary course of time and nature. However, if you lost your leg in a motorcycle accident and it grew back from a stump that is a miracle. So according to Jesus, Satan is capable of doing supernatural miracles. So do you understand that a spiritual being like Satan has a miracle working type of power? Jesus told us in John 10:10 that the thief came not but for to kill steal and to destroy. The thief is again a reference to “Satan”. To have power to kill and destroy something is the opposite power of giving life and creating new things. So does Satan have spiritual power and ability to do something supernatural in our world? I believe that the Bible says that he does. God’s word at the very least implies that Satan has great power in the spiritual realm. However, He is still well under the level of the Most High God in power and ability.
Then there are other references in the Bible that says people are gods. Jesus looked at the Jews in John 10:34 and said “is it not written in your law that I said ye are gods”? Jesus was quoting a scripture verse written in the O.T. in Psalm 82:6 where God told them they were gods. People in the church today struggle with believing that concept. Does man have the power and ability to do things in the spiritual realm or are we just limited to the natural realm? We understand from Genesis 1:26, that man was created in the image and in the likeness of the Most High God. If we were created to be like God Almighty that would mean that we had the similar features and characteristics that God had. If God had all power, we must have been created with the likeness of this power on a lower scale. You might call us gods of a lesser power. Here is another verse found in Psalms that speaks about the creation of man:
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
As you can see, this verse places man in certain spiritual rank and position of ability. However, the translators really dis a very poor job with this verse ignoring what the original Hebrew language said. The translators did not believe that man had any spiritual significance. You see the Hebrew word (H430) translated as “angels” in this verse is the Hebrew name for God called “Elohiym”. This is the name of the Supreme God used in the O.T. Bible over 2000 times, and it is translated as “God” the majority of the time. What we discover from reading this verse, is that man (Adam) was created to be a little lower than the Supreme Most High God. That does not sound like anyone with No power or ability.
We are children of the Most High but not of the same ability to create worlds, planets and universes. One of our greatest weaknesses is that we lack the knowledge. While knowledge has increased rapidly in these last days that we live in, the ability of man to create real life in a test tube has not even come close to God’s knowledge. Man can create robots and simulated life but, we are not God and cannot create a human body. So man has creative power in a very limited form. Man can write new songs, books and create new movies. While all of these acts demonstrate God’s ability in us, we are still not anywhere close to God’s ability. We are lords, gods, and kings; we recognize our position but do not exalt ourselves above that position. We recognize that we have power, but note the fact that we are NOT all powerful. We can see ourselves as being so valuable to God that He came to purchase us with His own life and blood. We can therefore know that we are not worthless, we are not powerless and that we have great value to God. Knowing who you are and who you are not is very critical to knowing God. Recognizing your correct position in the spiritual food chain is critical for you to know your purpose in life. To know that you are not a nobody, while you recognize that you are also not the Most High.
So who knows how many religious people I have offended by telling the truth. If you are offended I’m sorry, but get over it and learn. We have learned from the words of God in the Bible that there are other spiritual beings in the Bible that are called gods. These spiritual beings have some power or limited power below the scale of the Most High God who holds Supreme Power. But, what is power? How does God define power in the Bible? To our natural minds power is simply someone’s strength and ability to use it. Naturally speaking the bigger your muscles are the stronger you are in this realm and this feature makes others think of you as being more powerful. Take the example of Olympic weight lifting. The strongest man can lift the greatest weight over his head. The winner is the one that lifts the most. That feat makes him the strongest man of the strong. That was a sports analogy of power. But, this is not what God says is power in the spiritual realm. What gives a spiritual being power?
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
You can read this verse and totally miss what God is saying. In this verse, God is informing us that His Word is His Power. The Word of God = the Power of God. Many modern Bible translations mix the words up in this verse and translate it as God’s “powerful word” or “mighty word”. However, if that is what God wanted to say he would have written it that way. God is not stupid; people are just ignorant and come up with these incorrect translations. The “Word” of His “Power” is exactly what God wanted you to see. This informs us that ALL of God’s power is in His Word. If you translate it the wrong way it only says God word has some of His power and this means that there is other power somewhere else not in His word. So if God’s Words are His Power, what are words? Words are thoughts, ideas, knowledge, understanding and wisdom expressed in a spoken language. I hope that you understand these basic concepts. To say that God is the Most High God would inform us that God holds ultimate knowledge, understanding and wisdom above all other spiritual creatures.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus is described 5 times as a being with a “sharp two-edged sword” coming out of his mouth (Rev 1:16, Rev 2:12, Rev 2:16, Rev 19:15, Rev 19:21). In Bible days when this was written, the sword was the weapon of war and wielded much power and strength by the one that was using it. It would be like someone with an AK-47 rifle today. These verses found in Revelation again confirm and demonstrate the location of the “Power” of God as being in His mouth and His spoken words. In Revelation 19:15 Jesus uses this sword to smite the nations that oppose him. In a recent news article I heard about a group of militia in some state that was arming themselves to help God fight the coming anti-Christ. I just laughed at their ignorance. Your little AR-15 will be no match for the Sword of God. What we have discovered is that God’s word is where His power is located and we can clearly understand this by reading Genesis 1 to observe how the world was created. In Genesis 1, God saw a problem, God said the solution and then the solution was. It is just very basic to conclude that it was the act of God speaking that released God’s power to create. I hope that you understand those concepts because I am not going to explain them in more depth today. Let’s move on to see what God says about this power in other verses in the Bible:
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Now we learn some new concepts. The sword of God’s mouth is not all of the swords that exist in the spiritual realm. If God’s sword is more powerful and sharper than all the rest, that makes God’s Sword the Sword Almighty, and the Most High Sword. But, do you see that there is more than one sword in the world? That is telling us that Satan has a sword coming out of his mouth, you have a sword coming out of your mouth and I have a sword coming out of my mouth. That implies power of a lesser or limited capacity. These are all just simple concepts, derived from reading the Bible. If you recall in Isaiah 14:13 Satan uses the sword of his mouth to say the following “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit…” and on I could go. Satan was wielding his power and making great plans to raise himself up to the Most High level.
But, God wielded His sword and said “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit”. Whose sword is sharper? Whose sword is greater? Whose sword will prevail in the end? These are valuable lessons for your life. Humble yourself and do not allow pride to exalt your own power, ability or knowledge to cause you to think that you can also be like the Most High.
If you would like to continue reading about the power of words you can go to “Part 10“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Except a Seed Fall into the Ground and Die! Part 4
(Ver 2.3) This is now Part 4 of a series of lessons on seeds. Seeds are a vast complex subject found in the Bible. God uses natural seed concepts and applies them to spiritual things in repeated references found in the Bible. Today I will show you some more of the references that Jesus used to describe why He was here and how that He was both a physical and a spiritual “seed”. In the last lesson we reviewed the parable of the Sower and examined the symbolic elements to gain an understanding of what Jesus called the most important “parable”. In learning the concepts of this parable we can transfer much of that knowledge to other parables that Jesus taught us. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning, I would suggest that you stop and go back and start reading with “Part 1”. I have been going through the Bible showing you several different things that God calls seeds. Here is the original list again:
- Natural Grass Seeds
- Natural Fruit Seeds
- The Seed of a Man, His Sperm
- The Seed of a Woman, Her Children
- The Seed of a Man and a Woman, their offspring
- The Word of God
- The Seed of your Mouth, Your Words
- The Body of Jesus Christ
- The Church
- Your Body
These are of course not every type of seed mentioned in the Bible, only some of the ones that I wanted to show you. We have gone through and reviewed some verses about natural seeds in Genesis and learned some applicable laws that apply to every type of seed. The first law was that a seed always produces after its own kind. The second law of seeds is that the seed is always within itself. Both of these concepts transfer to many other types of seeds revealed to us in the Bible and you should understand them. If you recall I showed that every future generation or descendant of a man, is said to be in the man. God shows us that whatever the father did, is what their descendants did.
Today I want to show you another parable that Jesus taught us about seeds. After reading this you should become aware of why it is so important to know and to understand this subject. Let’s begin by reading in Matthew 13:31:
Mat 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Again, Jesus refers to the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a man who planted a seed. However, this lesson while very similar is very different than the previous lesson of the Parable of the Sower. Both are about a man, both are about seeds, and both involve planting seed in the ground to grow something. But, this time the seed is said to be singular. This is a new perspective on an old subject about a new type of seed or a new concept about the nature of seeds. In the Parable of the Sower the seed represented the Word of God (Luke 8:11). However, in this parable the seed is something completely different while being completely the same thing at the same time. Hopefully you will understand why I said that as we continue to learn. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a man that plants “One” seed and it grows into a massive tree in a field. Jesus is referring to a specific seed and qualifies it to be a “mustard” seed. Any time you qualify a noun you limit the scope of the noun and narrow the meaning. In other words, you exclude every other seed, for the type described. What we can see is that Jesus was teaching that NOT just any seed will work; it has to be a mustard seed. The mustard seed is not widely used in the Bible, but perhaps we will look at some more references to it later. What we learn is a symbolic meaning that not just any type of seed will work for what God wants to accomplish. God selected a specific seed to accomplish His plan and we will soon discover that Jesus was this seed:
Mat 13:32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Jesus calls this type of seed to be the least among all seeds. Jesus could be referring to the physical size of the seed, but yet I believe that is not what He is saying. We know today that there are many seeds that are smaller seeds than a mustard seed in the world. So Jesus must be referring to something else, a symbolic characteristic and not a physical attribute of the seed. What we should learn from this verse is that most great things have very humble beginnings. It is the classic analogy of the fact that the greatest oak trees come from little acorns. I know of practically nothing that starts big and just stays big. We are being presented a new perspective of the seed concept that all great things usually start as very small things. This goes against human nature, doesn’t it? Everyone wants to hit the lottery and win millions of dollars and then think that will solve all of their problems. However, God is teaching us a different lesson using seeds. This is part of the message that Jesus is attempting to get over to us. This is some of the key reasons of why the natural nation of Israel missed the first coming of their Messiah. Jesus did not come how they expected him to come, nor did He do what they desired Him to do. They were looking for a great and powerful savior and not a humble man that would not even save Himself. The disciples would ask Jesus “are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel now” (Acts 1:6). Israel was looking for the grand restoration and not for a small beginning. This is a classic example of the misunderstanding of the importance of how seeds work. Israel did not recognize the Seed of God as He walked among them. Jesus came to the earth as just a small, insignificant humble man. Jesus was God almighty who became like the least of all the men on the planet. Why would God almighty take the time to wash the feet of His disciples? Why did Jesus do this? It all goes back to seeds. God was planting a seed that would grow into a great spiritual Kingdom and not a physical Kingdom. This Kingdom did not come with a natural conquering mighty force, this Kingdom did not have a natural army with natural weapons, and this Kingdom did not come with much pomp and exalting circumstances. In fact this Kingdom cannot be physically seen at all, unless Christians choose to display it to others. Here is why Jesus said that He came to the earth:
Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Wow! That is a very deep statement about the reality of how seeds work. Who is Jesus talking about? Who is this seed? You should be able to see that Jesus is this seed that He is referring to. Jesus prophesied His death, His burial and the resulting fruit that would spring forth from that planting. Jesus predicts that there will be much fruit that will come from His death. How was Jesus able to do this? It was because Jesus understood the concept of seeds. Plant a little seed and get a great harvest. From little humble beginnings can grow great and mighty things. This is a key seed principle and law that applies to what God was doing on the earth through Jesus Christ. In John 12:24, Jesus says that a kernel of corn (a seed) will be alone if it does not die. I believe that God is trying to teach us that the Seed of Jesus has been planted to produce more people in the world like Jesus. This is just a basic typology of how the seed produces more of itself in the earth. Just ONE little seed planted can produce a huge harvest over time. Let me show you some prophetic verses in the O.T. concerning Jesus:
Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
You can read the Bible without studying and totally miss what is said. In this verse if you do not look up the definition of the key words you will breeze right over what God is trying to teach you about. The Key word that I want to look at is “Branch”. It is qualified to be a righteous Branch so we know this is Jesus. The Hebrew word “Branch” in this verse is a word that mean “sprouts”, “springs up”, “buds”. These are all “SEED” concept words. You plant a righteous seed, and you get a righteous harvest. That is what God is attempting to get you to see. The coming Messiah was a SEED man! Let me show you another verse of prophecy about this seed of God:
Eze 34:29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
Here is another verse about the coming Messiah and Israel missed it. God is saying I will “raise up” a “PLANT” of character. This word for “Plant” in the Hebrew means something that is planted in a garden. Sure sounds like a seed to me, how about you? I just wanted to show you some O.T. examples of this coming seed so that you would not think that I just make this stuff up. It is really amazing what the Bible says when you can see it.
What have we learned? We learned that God planted a seed, and this was a lowly humble man called Jesus Christ. But, through this humble beginning we see the growth that has transpired over the course of 2000 years. The church of Jesus Christ is now greater in strength and numbers than at any time in the past 2000 years. I am a firm believer that Jesus is expecting a triumphant church, a great church that has made herself ready. God planted the original seed, and it has grown over the course of time and developed further into this great prophesied tree that the birds of the air can now build nests within.
So maybe I should explain a little better the difference between the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Mustard Seed. You see in the parable of the sower, the seed is the Word of God. The Word of God is being spread by the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ throughout the Gospels. But, if you have studied the Bible you also know that Jesus Christ is the Word of God!. According to John 1:1, “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God”. By simple laws of mathematics we can substitute “Seed” for “Word” in this verse and see that it now says this:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Seed, and the Seed was with God, and the Seed was God.
From the laws of mathematics, we can apply the truth that if A=B, then B=A and “Word” = “Seed” and see a new simple truth, that God is the Seed and that God had the Seed within Himself. Then we can learn from reading down in the chapter the following:
Joh 1:14 And the Seed (Word) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God’s Seed takes on flesh and lives and walked among us. We can now better understand how Jesus can call himself the Seed. We can also better understand how God can plant this Seed Jesus and expect a spiritual harvest. Jesus was a spiritual seed of God and God now expects a harvest of more spiritual fruit. God believes that you can plant a seed and get a harvest. The ending of a matter is always greater than its beginning. I think where people get confused is in the fact that Jesus is multiple seeds simultaneously and this certainly makes our life more complicated in understanding the differences. Let me give you a list of the types of Seed Jesus is Associated with in the Bible:
- Spiritual Seed = Word of God (Parable of Sower)
- Natural Seed of God (Mustard Seed)
- Spiritual Seed of God (Son of God)
- Natural Seed of Mary (Son of Man)
- Natural Seed of David (Son of David)
- Natural Seed of Abraham (Son of Abraham)
- Natural Seed of Adam (Son of Man)
This is probably not a complete list, but it is all that I can come up with right now. If I locate other reference, I will update this list. I will end this blog here and hope that you have learned some new things from the Bible. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series, you can go to “Part 5“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! The Parable of the Sower! Part 3
(Ver 1.4) 
This is a very advanced set of Bible lessons about the concepts, laws and information found in the Bible about “seeds”. As we study this subject we discover how these principles apply both to the natural realm as well as the spiritual realm. This is now Part 3 of the series and if you have not read from the beginning, I would suggest that you go and start your reading with “Part 1”. We have already covered a lot of information found in the Bible, some of which you may have heard before, but certainly a lot that is new to you. Studying the Bible on any subject is very difficult. Because God has chosen to hide information, and finding every reference to a subject is very challenging. To study the subject of “Seeds” we really need to search the Bible for every verse with that word in it and determine what it is saying. Since there is more than one thing in the Bible called by the name “seed” we must learn what each one is and determine if they are related to any other. But, that is not all of the verses on the subject. What we must realize is that there are related subjects that go along with it, such as soil, earth, rain, water, light, warmth, planting, sowing, fruit and on and on I could go. Then what about enemies to seeds, such as birds, insects, weeds, drought, rocks, heat, cold, floods and again on and on I could go. There are a vast number of dependent subjects that you should learn to see how they apply to what we learn about “seeds”. I am trying to demonstrate how complicated studying the Bible can be and why so many people do not know what the Bible actually says. In order to study the Bible correctly, you must dig and research the subject as thoroughly as possible. This also involves you doing a significant amount of work to find what God has hidden for you.
Today I am going to continue teaching on “seeds” in the Bible with a new perspective that is certainly very important to know. Jesus taught us many things when He was here physically on the earth. However, He placed an extraordinary emphasis on a certain subject as being a key to understanding all the other subjects found in the Bible. Jesus said that this one concept that He taught was more important to understand than any of the others found in the Bible. This critical subject was based upon “Seeds”. You can find this teaching in three books of the Gospel; in Luke 8, Matthew 13 and Mark 4. Let’s start our lesson by reading Mark 4:26:
Mar 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
Apparently the lesson is about the Kingdom of God, so right off of the bat we know it is of great importance. We also understand it is a spiritual Kingdom and not a physical or natural kingdom. At least I hope you understand these types of Bible basics. What does God tell us the Kingdom of God is like? God clearly says it is like a man who plants seeds into the ground. Jesus is teaching using the format of a parable that contains natural things that we can see, to help explain spiritual things that we cannot see. Then consider this, is Jesus a man? Is Jesus THE man that this parable is referring to? I think back and believe that when Jesus was on the earth, He was exactly this man. Since Jesus has returned to heaven, it gets more complicated. Jesus is still the man, but since He is not here physically anymore, He uses people like me who are here on the planet. So while I’m not God, I am a tool used by God. What I want you to see, is that God still uses people today to reach people. Now let’s go back to Mark 4:3 and discover the key Seed lesson that Jesus wants you to see:
Mar 4:3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
Jesus informs us that a sower went out to sow. When you sow, you are doing what? Of course you are planting seeds in a field or a garden. Sowing involves a spreading of seeds into the ground. So Jesus is discussing a farming lesson. I want to jump down to the explanation of the parable and interject the important stuff that we need to see while we are studying the actual parable about seeds. Here is what Jesus says about this parable being a key to understanding all the others:
Mar 4:13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
It would appear to me that if you can understand this parable, then you are at the crossroads of understanding every parable that Jesus taught. This has some vast implications attached to it, so pay close attention. So here is Jesus’ explanation of what the sower is and what the seed is:
Mar 4:14 The sower soweth the word.
Now Jesus begins to let us in on the secret, the sower is planting words. Not just any words, though these are the Words of God according Luke 8:11. However, we can also understand the concept that any words spoken can become seeds. The problem is that many of these words are lies and half-truths and thus plant wrong things. Only God’s Word is Absolute Truth. What we have discovered is that words are seeds. We can also say seeds are words. We can also see that a sower is anyone that opens his or her mouth and speaks words. How do the Genesis seed laws apply to words? We have clearly learned that seeds always produce after their kind. What is the Word of God a kind of? What kind does the Word of God produce? We have also learned that seeds are always in itself. Now let’s examine some more of the parable:
Mar 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
What Jesus does is give us some new related topics about the planting of these seed words. However, Jesus starts to shift the focus off of the sower and the seed and they are not technically mentioned after the beginning. Jesus begins to describe the types of soil or ground that are being planted in. Jesus also starts to reveal that the soil, the seed and the sower all have enemies. The fowls of the air come to devour the seed and thus render them harmless, non-productive or ineffective. Since the parable involves symbolic natural representations, we know that the birds of the air represent spiritual beings that we cannot see or perceive with our natural senses. So let’s examine the explanation of Jesus for these new symbolic factors given to us:
Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Jesus informs us that the soil is representative type of the hearts of people. The human heart is not the physical blood pump organ. The human heart in the Bible is their spirits. Jesus also says that Satan is the enemy that is trying to steal the words of God from our hearts. Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan the prince of the power of the air. The earth’s atomosphere is the current domain of Satan. This verse says that Satan comes immediately to steal the seed from us and that would be really bad news, if Satan could just take the word sown at will. However, by reading in Matthew we learn some additional details on this subject.
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
This is why it is important to read every occurence of a lesson so that we can learn all of the details. This information in Matthew does not contradict the account written down by Mark, it only helps us to see what God is talking about more clearly. What are the potential outcomes whenever you sit to listen to anyone speak at a lecture or in a class room at school? I beleive that there are potentially three possibilities that can occur and your determination will cause the teacher’s words to either be effective or to be ineffective. You can ignore the teacher, you can hear and listen to the words only, or you can hear the words and get the understanding of them. Hearing anything valuable to know and not understanding any of it does you little to no good. In other words you derive no benefit of knowing the information.
There are a lot of people in the world that know Einstein’s equation of E=MC2, but very few that can actually teach you anything about what it means. So what we discover is that understanding what you hear is the greater key factor to whether the devil can come and take it away from you. That is a very important factor to learn. Understanding of any subject is the key to holding on to that subject. Keep in mind that we are talking about spiritual things here and not natural things. We have spiritual seed which are spiritual words being planted into spiritual beings, which are responsible to hear them and then to understand them or the spiritual enemy, will come and take them from you. Read through the rest of the parable and then I will discuss the symbols given in more detail:
Mar 4:5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
Mar 4:6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
Mar 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
Mar 4:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
As you read through the rest of the parable, you discover God’s goal for giving us His seed. God is looking for a people to produce spiritual fruit. The majority of the parable is a lesson of why people either produce this fruit or why they are unable to produce this fruit. If you know anything about farming, you know that the soil is not the master of the seed, but the seed is the master of the soil. Whatever is planted into the soil is that which is harvested. If you are the soil that Jesus is speaking of, then it matters what you allow in your ears. Do you understand why Satan has dominated the TV and radio air waves with lies and perversions? I guess we should stop and examine the soil in more detail. There are actually 6 different types of soil listed in the parable. They are generally representative of 4 different types of people on the planet and the list of soil types does not exclude anyone. If you analyze the list closely you can see that there are actually two groups of 3 that are being mentioned. There are three soils that are representative of saved fruitful Christians and 3 soils that did not receive the seed and let it produce any fruit at all:
| Type of Soil | Description |
| Wayside | These are those that can hear, but that do not understand what is said. Therefore Satan can steal the truth away from them very easily. |
| Stony Ground | These are those that turn away because of affliction or persecution. They lack any depth or foundational root knowledge. They are easily offended. |
| Among Thorns | These are those that care more about the things in the world, the distraction of riches, the natural lusts of the world. |
| Good Soil | These are those that produce fruit. A return of seed is multiplied to produce a bountiful supply. Some 30 times, some 60 times and some 100 times. |
We can learn a significant amount of information about why some people produce fruit and others are unable to. What have we learned? We have learned that God uses people to teach the Word of God and these are those that are sowing “good seed”. However, we have also learned that this good seed has many enemies. These things are designed to keep you from hearing and understanding the truth. Satan is hard at work trying to keep people from bearing spiritual fruit for God. God is looking for the spiritual fruit of the earth and that is one of the key factors that is keeping Him from returning for us today. God sees the harvest field is potentially great on the earth and God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth of God’s Word (2 Peter 3:9). The Bible says God has long patience for this spiritual harvest of fruit (James 5:7). Here are the key symbolic elements listed in the parable and the descriptive meaning of each:
| SYMBOL | DESCRIPTION |
| SEEDS | Spoken Word/Words |
| SOWER | One who teaches with Words |
| Sowing | The process of teaching people |
| SOIL | The hearts/spirits of the people |
| Wayside Ground | Those who are easily deceived, they have no understanding and barely hear it at all |
| Stony Ground | Those that are easily tricked, those that have only a shallow understanding, those that cave to pressure, those who are easily offended |
| Good Ground | Those that hear and understand the Word of God and do not allow it to be stolen from them. |
| Evil Ground | Those that are deceived, lost and asleep in the darkness. |
| Roots | Those who have a strong foundation of the Word of God and are able to drink and partake of the Spirit of God. |
| Birds of the Air | Spiritual enemies that try to take the truth from you. Satan and his demons. |
| Thorns | Natural and Carnal things that take your attention away from the truth. It can be money, sex, drugs, alcohol, food, fame |
| Unfruitful | Those that are spiritually barren, unable to produce spiritual fruit, those who are nigh to burning |
| Fruitful | Spiritual Growth and Maturity, those who are doers of the Word of God and NOT hearers only. |
| Fruit | Spiritual results of those which God is seeking to find and harvest into His barn |
As you can see there are many valuable things to learn from this parable. Seeds play a key role in the spread of the Kingdom of God. Seed laws play a key role in understanding this teaching. God’s word will always produce more people like God. Those that let God’s word in, will grow and mature to be more like the one that gave us these SEED Words. It is the spiritual seed law of Genesis repeated in the spiritual diemension. A seed will always produce after its own kind. The planting of God’s spiritual seed will always produce a spiritual harvest. I think I will end this lesson here for now and expand it in my next lesson.
If you would like to continue reading this series, you can continue by going to “Part 4“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Plant a Seed, Get a Harvest! Part 2
(ver 1.5) This is now Part 2 in a series of lessons on the subject of understanding seeds in the Bible. The Bible contains a vast amount of information on the concept of seeds. There are actually several things in the Bible called seeds and I listed a few of them in the first blog on this subject. If you have not read this from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”. In the first lesson I talked about the first mention of “seed” in the Bible being found in Genesis 1:11-12. What God gives us by the law of first mention are some general concepts that are relevant to the entire subject of seeds. One of the concepts given was the fact that the “seed” is said to be “within itself”. This is a concept with complex implications attached to it. What we discover is that an apple tree produces apples that contain seeds. These apple seeds produce other trees to come into existence which produce more apples and more seeds. This represents a self-perpetuating system of apple reproduction. No matter how many apples come from the seeds produced, they all originated from the one. There is an old saying that goes “Only God knows how many apples are in an apple seed”. I want to take this concept and expand it to show what the Bible says about how this relates to people and other concepts found in the Bible. As you recall in the first lesson we also talked about children being seeds. We saw Seth being called the seed of Eve.
Now let’s talk about the natural human seed of a man. This is commonly referred to as sperm or semen in our world, but in the Bible God also calls it “seed”. Why does God use the same word to describe something that we have other words to describe? Either God didn’t understand any other words to use for this, or God is trying to teach us something new. That is a common mistake that modern Bible translators and interpreters make constantly. They take a word like “seed” and change it to “descendant” or a “child” and think they are helping us to understand what God said. What they do is lose God’s intended lesson on what a seed is and therefore we do not learn what God wanted to teach us. What we must do is be smart enough to realize that God could have selected any word to describe a subject and if He selects “seed” to describe the semen of natural man, then it has a purpose. Could it be that the seed concept of planting and harvesting is a truth that occurs when a husband and wife have physical sex? I think that we should see what God says:
Lev 12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
The Hebrew word translated as “conceive seed” means “to sow” seed. To sow seed is a farming and agriculture type of term and represents a metaphor for a concept that God says is related. I doubt very seriously that many couples think of sex in these terms. It could be that a few do, if they are trying to get pregnant and to have children.
Lev 15:16 And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
It is sometimes difficult to discuss every subject found in the Bible. It seems that God did not leave out anything. I assume since this is the way He created it, then we can assume that it has a purpose for existing. In this verse in Leviticus we again see the sperm of the man being called his “seed”. The term “copulation” means simply a sexual act like intercourse. I have heard narrow minded preachers teach that since a man has seed, a woman cannot. However, in the first lesson we saw that Eve called Seth her seed. So we must conclude that there are different types of seed, and different definitions for seed. This is truly one of the most complex factors of correct Bible interpretation that we are faced with. We can learn one definition of “seed” and then must realize that there exists other definitions of the same word and they may or may not be related to each other. So we have learned that the definition of a word can change based upon the usage and the context of the word.
We have now touched on the first five examples of the term “Seed” found in the Bible. We have seen physical and natural plant seeds in Genesis. We have seen the sperm of the man being called seed in Leviticus. We have seen the children of natural parents being referred to as “Seeds” in Genesis and Ruth. We have also seen that the offspring of other species of animals are also called “Seeds” in Genesis. We have learned that every seed reproduces after its own kind from Genesis 1. So dogs only produce dogs. Orange seeds only produce orange trees. Now I want to start discussing one of the most important concepts of seeds given to us in the Bible. This concept is a spiritual law that God has revealed to us using these natural examples. We have gone through the 5 natural examples, although not in a complete teaching but more in an overview high level pass of the subject, so that we can now focus on some spiritual applications.
We have learned that God calls the sperm of a man, his seed. We have also learned that Adam “knew” his wife Eve and she had a seed named “Seth”. What we see is a pattern of creation that God has designed to teach us. Adam and Eve were the first two humans in the world that we live in. They originated every other human being on the planet. So from 2 people we now have almost 7 billion people on the planet. That is what God calls being fruitful and multiplying. But, I want to demonstrate a seed law to you from the Bible. According to God, whatever happens to your parents is what happened to you. You probably do not understand what I am talking about right now, but you will soon.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
It truly amazes me how smart God is. You can see many things in the Bible and then you can read right over them and not even know what they mean or how they apply to other stuff that you just read. Did you notice that God says that YOU and I were “IN” Adam? I don’t know about you, but my father was not named Adam, but yet God says I was “IN” Adam. As you recall from Genesis 2, God told Adam do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you do, you will surely die. Adam ignored God’s command and ate and we all die because of what he did. Is that fair? I do not know, but yet it is what God says happened.
What we see is a demonstrated application of the seed law of Genesis, that the “Seed is in itself”. In other words Adam was walking around in the garden with the “seed” in his body that was everyone else in the world. Did you understand what I just said? God says that when Adam sinned, not only did he die, but he caused everyone that came from him to also die. That is an awesome revelation of the Word of God, for you see it also tells you how we will live in return. This verse ends with the statement “Even So in CHRIST shall all be made alive”. So by the law of the “Seed Concept” from Genesis 1, if you are in Christ, you have been made alive. We’ll talk about this more and how this works in a later lesson, but for now let’s confirm what I just taught you.
Heb 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
When I read this verse and studied it for the first time, it truly amazed me. God clearly shows us another conceptual application of the law “the Seed Being in Itself” in this verse. So did you read the verse and did you see what God said? God clearly states that Levi was “IN” Abraham. So let’s figure out what God is talking about. Who is Levi? Levi was one of the 12 sons of Jacob and the head of the tribes of Israel. That would make “Levi” a great-grandchild of Abraham. We have Abraham who begat Isaac, then we have Isaac who begat Jacob and finally we have Jacob who begat “Levi” and his 11 other brothers. What we see is a clear concept of family lineage being established. Your ancestry represents a research into your past relatives that you descended from. While not everyone on the earth can trace their natural ancestry to “Levi” or “Abraham, we can all trace our ancestry back to Adam. What we are learning is some seed concepts describing our human family tree.
Heb 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
Now we have still further revelation of the seed mystery, Abraham is said to be the father of Levi, but yet Levi doesn’t come along for another couple of generations. Do you understand how that applies to us and Adam? Even though Adam was not our nearest father, he is by default the father of us all. That also means that every father in between Adam and us is also called our father. As you can clearly read God informs us that Levi was in the “loins” of his father Abraham. The loin is defined to be the pelvic region or the sexual reproductive organs of Abraham. That tells me that out of the millions and millions of sperm cells in Abraham, God knew which one that Levi would come from. That is some amazing attention to the details, isn’t it? This is God’s clear definition of the “Seed being within Itself” law from Genesis. So now pay attention to what this says. Levi is said to have paid tithes in Abraham, because he was in his father Abraham by God’s definition of a seed. Do you understand this concept? Whatever your fathers did, according to God, you did. That is not always very good news for most of us. You see a newborn baby, having just been born into the world has already done everything that their fathers have done even before they do anything themselves. Not really good news is it? I wish I would have learned this concept as a very young child, I might have done a few things differently as I grew up. Oh well?
Lam 5:7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
What we begin to discover in the Bible, is the law of seeds. We can then better understand how family curses, generational abnormalities and physical diseases are often times inherited within a family tree. Doctors constantly want to know if your parents had any diseases, because they want to see if they are appearing in you. Why is this? Why are some diseases contagious and others are more hereditary? It would appear that what one parent does, is passed down to future children and this is the basis for the existence of these hereditary diseases.
Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
You see the seed concept again being alluded to in this verse of the Bible. The people of Israel are in the process of killing the Son of God and they say “Let His blood be on us and our children”. In other words whatever they were doing was being handed down to every generation that would come after them. That is not very good news for the children who were not there, is it?
The Genealogy of Jesus is given to us in Luke. Have you ever wondered why God thought this was so important to include in the Bible? You can clearly see every generation of Jesus going all the way back to Adam. There around 74 generations listed. Seventy four names of fathers of Jesus. If you are a little bit intelligent you realize that God did this on purpose. You can clearly see from what we have learned about seeds, whatever every father of Jesus did, Jesus is said to have done the same. So Jesus was in David, Jesus was in Abraham, Jesus was in Adam and every other name mentioned. This has far reaching consequences for Jesus, doesn’t it? Let’s briefly explore a couple of the references in the Bible as Jesus being a seed in his natural fathers.
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Jesus was born of the seed of David. This is telling us that Jesus was in David when he was king of Israel. Being a seed of David qualifies Jesus as an eternal ruler that will sit upon his father’s throne and that is pretty cool.
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
We can clearly see that Jesus Christ is called the Seed of Abraham. This verse tells us that the intended usage of this word “seed” meant a singular example of the usage of this word. In other words, this seed is not plural. So now we can better understand the seed of Abraham being within him when God came to cut covenant with him. It is very interesting to note that if Jesus was in Abraham his father, then was God making a covenant with himself? I believe that is exactly what we can see happening.
Mat 26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Jesus called himself the “Son of Man” more than he called himself the “Son of God” in the Gospels. Why is that? Part of the reason why is to overcome the difficulty of man’s inability to accept God coming to the earth in the form of His creation. Jesus Christ being a physical man on this planet was also informing us that He was the Son of Adam. You know that Jesus was a Hebrew, yes? Did you know that the Hebrew word for man and Adam are the same words? This is why I can say that Jesus walked around and called Himself the son of Adam. Do you realize what that means based upon what we have learned? That means when God created Adam, Jesus was already in Adam as a future descendant of this first man. Jesus Christ was a future seed in the physical man Adam. What we can see is that God had a plan of salvation for man, even before man was created. God had already designed Himself into the body of Adam. God already knew when He was coming , how he was coming and where he was coming when He created Adam. God could look at Adam and see 74 generations down his family tree and see Jesus. That is some amazing forethought and planning. That is some incredible attention to detail. That is an amazing plan of salvation.
So what have we learned, since Jesus was “IN” Adam, whatever happens to Adam, now transfers to Jesus. Since Jesus was born the Son of Adam, he must die the death that Adam passed upon all of his descendants (SEEDS). These are the seed laws given to us by God in Genesis. Everything produces after its own kind and the seed is always within itself. Whatever happens to you happens to everyone that comes from you. Whatever you did, is what your seed did. I hope that you enjoyed learning some new concepts from the Bible on “seeds”. I pray that you will learn to apply them to what you do going forward. In my next blog in this series we will further explore spiritual seeds found in the Bible.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lesson on seeds you can go to “Part 3” now!
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Plant a Seed, Get a Harvest! Part 1
(Ver 1.6) This of course is a difficult subject to cover, yet one that I believe is very critical for every Christian to understand. God said in the Bible some things that are very profound about seeds and if you can understand them, you will gain vast amounts of spiritual knowledge and understanding of how almost everything in the world works. I know that sounds like a very broad statement but, you obviously do not know very much about seeds right now or you would have to agree with me. Seeds represent concepts that apply both to the natural realm and the spiritual realm simultaneously. When you begin to understand them, you will begin to understand why things have happened in your life and how to affect or change your future results. Too many Christians think that what happens to them in life is predetermined by God. If it is God’s will I will live to be an old man, if not only God knows. While God does know your future, it is definitely wrong to say that you can not change it. If you do not believe me you should read your Bible more often. When you read in the Bible in 2 Kings 20, you will see Isaiah the prophet coming to King Hezekiah and telling him that the Lord says for him to “Set Your House in Order, for thou shalt Die and Not Live!”. The prophet of God tells the King what God has already told him will happen and these are the sayings of the almighty God. King Hezekiah ends up praying to God and as a result God tells Isaiah to tell the King he shall live 15 more years. What would have happened if Hezekiah had not prayed? He would have died. Who changed, God or Hezekiah to cause him to live 15 more years? The Bible tells us “I am the Lord and I Change Not” (Mal 3:6). So obviously God did not change his mind, so what happened? That certainly is a mystery that too many Christians do not understand. It is not totally up to God what happens to you, it is more up to you than it is up to God. However, since that is not my primary subject, we will continue learning about seeds and see if you can figure this mystery out for yourself. Here is one of my foundational scriptures for this series of Bible lessons:
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
What God is revealing in this verse, is that there are established laws in the earth. These laws consist of physical laws as well as spiritual laws. These laws are representative of established natural patterns within creation and even reveal the hidden qualities of God. These laws represent established cycles that will not cease unless God causes them to change in the future. However, it is clear that God says these laws will persist as long as the earth is here, so they are not going away anytime soon. God mentions 3 of these cycles and laws in this verse. The first one mentioned is that of the law of seeds and harvests. You plant a seed you reap a harvest. The next cycle mentioned is that of our established pattern of annual seasons. Winter and summer are just two of the 4 seasons mentioned. Next we have the cycle of Day and Night and again this is representative of a 24 hour cycle of time that the earth revolves in every day. What I want to focus on is just the subject of “Seeds” in this series of lessons. You can read about Understanding Night and Day in another blog series that I have already done.
Planting seeds and getting harvests are a part of the essential design of God’s creation as well as being an essential part of God’s hidden nature and character. Hopefully you will better understand this as we go through the Bible on this subject. But, here is a challenge from God, there are multiple things in the Bible called “seeds” and this is one of the complexities found while studying the Bible. God calls multiple things by the same name and we are required to figure out which one He is talking about to correctly understand each verse. While the overall concepts behind each occurrence of the word can overlap, they are certainly not the same entity. Let me give you some examples of seeds found in the Bible:
- Natural Grass Seeds
- Natural Fruit Seeds
- The Seed of a Man, His Sperm
- The Seed of a Woman, Her Children
- The Seed of a Man and a Woman, their offspring
- The Word of God
- The Seed of your Mouth, Your Words
- The Body of Jesus Christ
- The Church
- Your Body
So I just gave you 10 examples of a thing that the Bible calls seeds and that is certainly not a complete list of all of them. Just for grins let’s start by looking up a dictionary definition of the word seed in a noun form:
A mature fertilized ovule of angiosperms and gymnosperms that contains an embryo and the food it will need to grow into a new plant. Seeds provide a great reproductive advantage in being able to survive for extended periods until conditions are favorable for germination and growth. The seeds of gymnosperms (such as the conifers) develop on scales of cones or similar structures, while the seeds of angiosperms are enclosed in an ovary that develops into a fruit, such as a pome or nut. The structure of seeds varies somewhat. All seeds are enclosed in a protective seed coat. In certain angiosperms the embryo is enclosed in or attached to an endosperm, a tissue that it uses as a food source either before or during germination. All angiosperm embryos also have at least one cotyledon. Many angiosperms were created with specific fruits for dispersal of seeds by the wind, water, or animals.
There are too many things in this description to take note of them all. Also I changed the last sentence to state that seeds were created and did not evolve as some deceived scientists have theorized. According to this definition a seed is a self-contained unit designed for the reproduction of a species. A seed contains specific qualities that enables it to work even after extended times outside of the normal environment that they like to grow in. We understand this because we can buy seeds at the farm and garden store to plant in our backyards to grow whatever we would like.
Seed is a unique word that can either be taken as a single unit or as a plural word meaning multiple instances of the same reproductive unit. In other words if I said that I have a package of watermelon seed, we do not know how many I have in the package. It is more than likely several and logically more than one, but yet it would be legal to just put one in the package and sell it with the same name. The plural word for seed can also be stated as seeds, so the complexity of the words can be significant. If you are a type of person who is into the details you will certainly get into these Bible lessons.
The first mention of seed in the Bible is within the context of the first chapter of Genesis when God creates the world that we all live in. In Genesis 1:11 God says “Let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed”. This is the first mention of seed and the first mention of the reproductive system for propagating the further existence of future plants in the world. Within the same verse, God also tells us of “the earth bringing forth Fruit Trees yielding fruit after its kind, with the seed in its self”. These are very important concepts being given to us from creation. Some have called this the “Law of Genesis”. Everything will reproduce after its own kind. In other words a cat doesn’t come from a dog. A watermelon doesn’t come from an orange. Everything that God created comes from and reproduces after its own kind. That means there was no evolution that took place at any time on the earth. Evolution is a fantasy embraced by ignorant people who deny the design of God. Everything that God created is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. Today on the evening news I watched a humorous story about which came first the chicken or the egg? This has long been a debated controversial subject in the world. However, according to the news, and a group of scientists in England who studied the subject, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first based upon scientific evidence. They discovered that the shell of the egg comes from a protein found only in the ovary of a chicken. Since this protein does not exist anywhere else in the world, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first. But, they certainly did not say where the chicken came from. Isn’t that interesting? I can tell them where the chicken came from, but maybe another day. I’m sure if you search the internet you can find more information on this scientific discovery and why they concluded this.
There are over 250 verses in the Bible that speak directly about seeds in the Bible. I will not even attempt to go through all of these. Then there are many other indirect references of seeds in the Bible so the total number of verses on the subject is by far greater than that. We have already touched on the first occurrence in Genesis 1 of natural seeds from plants, so let’ move on to the second occurrence of seed found in Genesis 3 and it goes like this:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
I have written a blog on this subject, so I will not attempt to repeat that information again. If you want to learn about it you can go and read “The Seed of the Woman, the Seed of the Serpent!” It is noteworthy to see that the woman has seed and so does Satan and I’ll leave it at that for now. It is implied that these seeds are children, and we will find out more about this as we go. The third occurrence of the word “Seed” arises in Chapter 4 of Genesis and this is Eve speaking and she says the following:
Gen 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
Eve tells us that “Seth” is her Seed. His brother Cain had killed his other brother Abel and now she has given birth to another “Seed”. Obviously the implication is given to us that all of the other children are also her “seeds”. So we see a clear pattern that children are called seeds of their parents. Let’s find a confirming scripture to this fact from the book of Ruth:
Rth 4:12 And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
We can clearly see that God refers to children as seeds. The term is related to a concept of planting and harvesting. This concept was first introduced in Genesis 1 when God said to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. You see two descriptive qualities of planting seeds, you always get a multiplied increase and it is always related to bearing fruit. What we discover is that each child produced has the built in capability to reproduce more of its own kind in the earth. The females carry the eggs, the males carry the sperms and they are joined together to produce more of the same kind as themselves. What we have in the world is an exponential growth seed pattern of the population of the world. From Adam and Eve, who were just two people on the planet just around 6000 years ago, we now have well over 6 billion and getting closer to 7 billion people on the planet. That is God’s idea of a plentiful harvest field. These are God’s plans and God’s designed laws of increase being demonstrated. All of these are basic seed concepts, seed principles and seed laws. I hope that you understand them. Let’s look at the next occurrence of the word “seed” found in the book of Genesis. You will find this one in the story of Noah and the flood:
Gen 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
What we have is a reproductive biology lesson from the story of God’s creation. The stated law of how God can create the original pairs of each species, both males and females so that they reproduce and multiply and still be here today for us to enjoy. God informs Noah to gather and place on the ark, the male and the female of every species so that their “seed” would not vanish from the face of the earth. What we learn from this verse is that all we have to do is kill every animal of a particular species and that species is not coming back. That kind of kill’s evolution doesn’t it? Man is doing a pretty good job at eliminating species on this planet so what will the results be?
Gen 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Obviously “seed” is a very important subject to understand. God in speaking to Abram tells him that his seed will be given the land. God is speaking about children or as we can read later in the N.T. God is speaking about a specific promised child. Too many times people like to read a verse in the Bible in isolation and try to interpret it without using God’s helpful commentary and definitions. This causes people to come up with erroneous teachings that results in confusion. You see you can take this verse in many different ways. Some try to take it literally and naturally and interpret it using their own human reasoning. But, later we will discover that God gives us more information and we should always use the Bible to interpret the Bible.
Gen 13:15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Again we have a great mystery presented to us. Is the land given to a natural seed or to a spiritual seed? You will notice that God did not tell Abram that it was his forever, because obviously Abram died and is no longer here to possess it. What we have to conclude is that whoever this seed is that will be given the land, must be an eternal seed or a seed that will live forever. That certainly changes the interpretation dramatically doesn’t it?
This has been an introduction to the subject of “Seeds” in the Bible. I hope that you have learned something that you can begin to apply to your life and to your understanding of the Bible. In the next lesson we will talk further about the other types of seeds that I have listed in the top of this lesson.
If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 2“.
Understanding the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ! Part 3 Getting Paul’s Input!
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. I have been attempting to give you some new spiritual Bible perspectives into the identity of the Son that was born to the woman Mary and the importance of us believing that she was a virgin. Too many people today who call themselves, Christians have an opinion that Paul never wrote about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, so they therefore try to conclude that it did not happen, or was not important or maybe even try to stretch to say that Paul didn’t believe in it at all. All of these are just people who are deceived into believing a lie from the enemy. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would strongly suggest that you go back and read starting with “Part 1”.
While Paul may not have written directly about the virgin birth, that does certainly does not mean he did not believe in it. Nor does it mean that Paul did not write about the virgin birht indirectly using words that are dependent upon the existence of the virgin birth in order to be viewed as the truth. There are literally too many ways to say something without saying somthing directly to say that Paul never understood that the virgin birth was a basic truth. I personally believe that Paul was sent by God to teach the advanced revelation of other truths found in the Bible. Most of these truths could not possibly be true without the existence of the virgin birth so the virgin birth is implied in the writings while never being directly mentioned. Let’s start by analyzing some verses that speak about Jesus and see what they say about him.
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
There are at least two implied references to the virgin birth of Jesus in this verse written by Paul. Either people do not know how to read or they just do not know what to look for when searching for scriptures on this subject. To say Paul never wrote anything about the virgin birth is denying the original author of the Bible. God uttered the words, and men wrote them down. God is the author of the entire Bible and He says plenty about the virgin birth. In this verse in Romans 1:3 Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. Doesn’t that imply or mean Jesus didn’t have a natural father? So how did He get here and who was He born from? People obviously see what they want to see in the Bible and ignore what they do not want to see in the Bible. Then this verse tells us that “according to the flesh” Jesus was “made” of the seed of David. To be made something is an implied creative act of God. Anything that God creates He has made. So what does that tell us? That means Jesus didn’t come into the world, the natural way like you and me. What we have is an indirect reference to the virgin birth being revealed to us. We have Jesus who came according to flesh as being the Son of David, but according to Spirit, He was the Son of God. How can this be if it was not from a virgin birth? This represents the physical and spiritual union of God and the woman Mary and the result was a man named Jesus Christ.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Anytime Paul writes about Jesus Christ being the Son of God, He is inferring the existence of the virgin birth. Anytime Paul writes that God came in the flesh, he infers the virgin birth. Jesus Christ, who was God, took on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh. We again see a clear reference to God’s union with the woman Mary to produce the physical man Jesus Christ. It is interesting to think that the Bible says “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent”. But, yet God becomes a man and a Son of Man. That is a perplexing mystery that causes vast numbers of Jewish people to reject Jesus Christ. You see when Jesus was on the earth in the flesh, He came to John the Baptist and told him to baptize Him. Why did Jesus do this? John was baptizing people for the remissions of sins, yet Jesus had not committed any sins. John tells Jesus in the 3rd chapter of Matthew that he needed to be baptized of Jesus and Jesus tells him do this to me to satisfy all righteousness. Jesus who was God in the flesh, was baptized of John for the “repentance of sin” (Mat 3:11). After John baptized Jesus, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and God spoke out of heaven in a thundering voice and said “This is my son, in who I am well pleased”. So why didn’t God do this before Jesus was baptized by John? I think that is a really good question. Perhaps you can read some of my other blogs and get some clues to what happened, but for now let’s continue with the virgin birth:
1Ti 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
You see again that Paul writes a simple statement that God was “manifested” in the flesh. If this is not a clear reference to the virgin birth, then what is it? How did God come to be here in the flesh? The term “manifested” again refers to being “made” in the flesh. So how do you make babies? How does a Spirit being make babies? It is certainly not the same way that you do it. We know that God is a Spirit. We also know God is omnipotent. So how would omnipotent God become a man legally on this planet? I believe that He gets a virgin woman to agree with the plan and to believe that she will have His son. Isn’t it funny how Mary’s response to the angel of God was “Be unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary obviously believed it would happen to her even before it happened to her. That sounds a lot like someone with faith, someone who believed, and someone in partnership with God. Because Mary believed the words of God, she received the word and He became flesh inside of her.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Those that claim Paul never wrote about the virgin birth are clearly ignorant and foolish. This verse in Galatians compares two sons born of Abraham. The first is called him that is “born after the flesh” and the other one is called “the promised son”. As you recall Abraham was given the slave woman Hagar to have a child by his wife because Sarah was barren and he did. That is called the child after the flesh. This son however never received the blessing of the firstborn since Sarah miraculously conceived the promised child. While this was not a virgin birth by any stretch of the imagination, it was clearly a miraculous birth for a 90 year old woman to give birth to a son. So what is God saying to us? I believe that God is giving us a prophetic view of the virgin birth. You see Isaac was born in a supernatural way and this is a type of the birth of Christ who was born in a supernatural way. These were just types and shadows of another son that was promised. Jesus Christ’s birth was also prophesied to be a miraculous conception by the type of Sarah and Abraham having the son Isaac. However, Jesus’ birth is a much greater miracle than that of Isaac.
Heb 5:5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.
Again we see Paul writing to the Hebrews and he says a prophetic quote from God “Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee”. The Greek word that is translated as “begotten”, means to “procreate as of the Father“. What does the term “procreate” mean? To procreate means to bring forth offspring or children. It can also mean to “conceive”, to be “born” or “to give birth”. Anyone with any brains at all can figure out what he is talking about. If God is the Father and Mary is the natural mother, then how did God get this woman pregnant? It wasn’t the natural way. We have already seen very specific scripture that the Holy Ghost caused this to happen and that Mary was a young girl that had never known a man. So it is very clear to me that Paul believed in the virgin birth and thought it was a critical piece of information to learn. In other words it was a foundational part of his theology and his belief system.
Heb 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
What we have is another witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is “begotten” by God. Never had God done anything like this before and never will he do this again, this is what took Satan by surprise. Satan did not know what to do with this man, Jesus. According to Jesus’ parable Satan thought this was the heir so they had to kill him (Mat 21:38). However, Jesus came into the earth to die and that is what defeated Satan. What you need to do is realize that anytime the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God that is indirectly calling him the one that was born of a virgin. Anytime you read about God coming to the earth in the flesh you are reading about a virgin birth.
Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
In the first lesson in this series I talked about the resurrection of Jesus being different than other people who were raised from the dead. I asked you to think about why the resurrection of Jesus was so important to our beliefs and our salvation. I showed in Romans 10:9 that it says that if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and called him your Lord you would be saved. This verse in Hebrews again refers to Jesus being raised from the dead and this is in conjunction with the “blood” of the everlasting covenant of God. So where did Jesus get His blood? You might recall in another blog I talked about the blood of a baby being a union of the father and the mother’s blood type. So why is this important? What made Jesus’ blood an acceptable payment for our sin and the foundational basis of an everlasting covenant? Obviously Jesus’ blood was not the exact same as our blood, but yet at the same time it was. So we have another paradox, and a mystery of Biblical proportions. If Jesus blood was just like our blood then God could have picked anyone to pay the price for our sins. You should really think about the blood of Jesus for a long time, because it is very important and very significant to your salvation. You need to figure out why the blood of Jesus was sufficient to pay for your sins and why your blood is not sufficient payment for your sins. I’ll give you some clues and more information on this subject later.
Paul writes a considerable amount of scriptures about the blood of Jesus Christ and its value and power. What makes the blood of Jesus Christ so special? In order to understand this it comes back to the virgin birth? That is the only difference between my blood and Jesus’ blood. His natural father was the Holy Spirit and mine was not. My father’s lineage goes directly back to Adam and Eve and there lies the problem with my bloodline and yours.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Why, is Jesus Christ called the “Last Adam”? To me that was a really interesting thing to discover and to study. What we see is a direct comparison of two men. The first Adam is called a living soul and the “Last Adam” a quickening Spirit. One is said to be physical and natural man and the other is inversely spiritual by nature.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As you read through this chapter you find that natural things always came first in the world and then spiritual things came later. This is a pattern for us to understand how God created this world. We were first born naturally, and then we were born again spiritually. Did you notice what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:47? He said the second Adam came from heaven! Uh Oh? We have another clear, but indirect reference to the virgin birth. God says that the body of the first man came from the earth. But, the body of the second man was born here, but came from heaven. We again see an implied reference to God coming in the flesh. This is the Lord of Glory being made a man.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
We can see that through Jesus, the Last Adam, He causes all men to have the ability to live. This is in direct contrast to the first Adam who caused all men born on this planet to die. So was Jesus Christ born a man on this planet? If you understand the Bible you know that He was. That means He had to die like everyone else that was descended from Adam. Realizing that Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh came to the earth to die is a basic part of theology that you must embrace in order to understand who Jesus was and why he came to the earth. What we have seen is two individuals, both are called a man, both are called Adam and both were made originally by God. The first Adam was a natural man whose body was formed from the dust of the ground. The last Adam came by the word of God through a virgin woman.
Now I want to talk about the Blood of Jesus Christ and give you some more insight and understanding on how it was able to satisfy the payment for our sins. Paul writes about the blood of Christ in numerous verses. You can read some of them in Romans 5:9, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:13, and Colossians 1:14. By reading these verses you find out what Jesus bought with His blood. There are many things that were resolved, there were many things purchased, there were many things that were forgiven, and there many things that were accomplished through the blood of Jesus Christ. All of these verses tell us clearly that Jesus’ blood was something of great value, something that would cover the cost of the vast expanse of the sin of all humanity. It also indicates that His blood was more valuable than our blood. Therefore we have reached again a full circle that states Jesus Christ must have been born of a virgin to make Him different than you and I. So what makes the Blood of Christ more valuable than ours? Let’s briefly examine the Bible and find out:
Gen 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
So what makes this flesh uneatable according to God’s commandment to Noah? It is the blood! The Blood of the flesh is said to be the Life of the flesh. Isn’t that interesting? Do you remember what Jesus told us? Jesus said “I am the Life” (John 14:6). Could Jesus have been referring to His blood?
Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
You see we have another confirmation written in the Law of Moses that says the life of the flesh is the blood. So we then see God giving us another key piece of information. The payment of sin comes from the shedding of blood. It is the blood that will provide atonement for us. The Hebrew word translated as “Atonement” is an interesting word that means “to cover”. It can also mean “to forgive”, “to show mercy”, “to reconcile”, and “to cleanse”. These are all the works of God and what He has accomplished in Jesus Christ through His blood.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
So we have another mystery given to us. Clearly in the O.T. God implemented a series of laws that showed the people how to make sacrifices of animals for the sins of the people. However, we discover that God would later say that the blood of bulls and goats would never take away our sins. So why did God do this? What we have is another natural pattern that establishes a spiritual N.T. reality in Jesus Christ. Did you notice this verse didn’t say anything about a lamb? Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)! I’ll wrap this blog up with one more verse about the blood of Jesus Christ:
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
We have another paradox being presented to us. How can God offer Himself as a sacrifice to Himself? This is some really deep stuff, isn’t it? Maybe we can talk about that in another blog, but for now let’s keep going. If you recall from my last blog, there were three that agreed in the earth. These were the Spirit, the water and the blood. The blood represents the life of the flesh. The Bible also tells us that the body is dead without the spirit (James 2:26). We are now beginning to understand a little bit how the blood of Jesus could satisfy the price of our sin. The man Jesus Christ born of a virgin was God in the flesh. The omnipotent God gave His life, His eternal Spirit and His blood as payment for our sin. As Jesus hung on the cross and bled I am convinced that He was smiling on the inside. He knew what was being accomplished, He knew what was being purchased, and He knew the end result for all of His pain and suffering.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So if anybody ever tells you that Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth, tell them to go and read those letters again. Maybe you can help them now by telling them what to look for. God Bless!
Understanding the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ! Part 2
(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 2 of a series of Bible lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many people who call themselves Christians like to try to convince you that they are believers, however they have been deceived into believing a lie from Satan. These are those that pretend that it is not important to believe in the Virgin Birth and they like to make you think that it doesn’t matter to your salvation either. I believe I showed using the Bible how wrong they are in the first part of this lesson. If you have no virgin birth, you have no basis for your salvation, you have no confidence in your savior then you are standing on very shaky ground. These types of people are called the spirit of “Anti-Christ”, those who are controlled by spiritual beings that are not from God and who do not represent God. They teach that God has not come into the world in the flesh and thus they nullify the salvation that was freely given to them. If you have not read the first part of this series you should go back now and start with “Part 1“. Today I want to talk about some other aspects of the virgin birth and give you some new perspectives to think about. So let’s go back to Matthew and look at what God says to us about the virgin birth:
Mat 1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Joseph the future husband of Mary is said to have had a dream where an angel from God appears to him. In this dream the angel informs him that is OK to take this woman as his wife, because the child that is inside of her is from the Holy Ghost. This is the key reason for why it is important to believe in the virgin birth. The son that will be born of this natural woman, Mary will be the Son of God. So the child was a result of a union between God’s seed and Mary’s human egg. The resulting DNA would be unlike any man, except for Adam. You have to think and ask questions when you study the Bible. Where did Adam get his DNA? Where did Adam get his blood? Where did Adam get his spirit? All of these had to originate from God. So was Adam a son of God? Was Adam an older brother of Jesus? I believe according to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, both of these are true. The DNA of Jesus Christ had to be a combination of His natural father and mother, Adam and Eve and his heavenly Father God. Jesus Christ was uniquely God and man in perfect unison. The Blood of Jesus was a result of the union between God and Mary. This is why God could promise David that one of his son’s would sit on his throne forever. Jesus Christ was the Son of Adam, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, and the Son of God all at the same time. We know from scripture that being born of a virgin is God’s legal entrance into the world in a physical form. God could not legally come into the world and pay for our sins any other way according to the Bible. This is what Jesus taught us:
Joh 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
In this verse in John, Jesus is discussing the world and the legal entrances into the world. The world is described as a symbolic sheepfold. According to Jesus the only legal way into the world is to enter through the door/gate. If you have never studied the Bible on the subject of gates, you should. You see this word for door also means a gate. You see if you build a fence around your house to keep stuff in or to keep stuff out of your yard, you always build into the fence gates that allows you to come and go easily. That is a basic concept that God created and man just uses. The subject of gates is a complex subject and one that covers many aspects that appear to be related, but yet are very different. Jesus said “I am the door”, meaning He was the way to God, but this is not the same door that he is talking about in John 10:1. The legal entrance into this world is being born here of a woman. You see a physical woman’s body has a legal portal entry point into the world that we live in. This natural gate is a two way gate, both an entrance and exit. People’s mouths are also called gates in the Bible. The mouth can allow food in and also speak words out, so it is also a two way gate of the human body. Other orifices of the body are only one way gates. Only expelling things or only taking things in. If you never studied about gates, you should you might be surprised at what you learn from God. Being born in the world gives you rights to salvation. Jesus told us that “You must be born again”. Meaning you must be born first naturally, and then born again spiritually if you want salvation. Jesus being born of a woman gave God certain rights to provide salvation to all of humanity.
Let’s go back to the dream of Joseph and the first chapter of Matthew where it tells us about the birth of Jesus Christ. In this dream the angel tells Joseph that the words of God must be fulfilled. These words were spoken through the prophet Isaiah and we looked at these words in the first lesson on this subject. So Joseph took hold of the words spoken to him by the angel in the dream and decided to take Mary to be his wife. Then it tells us this about their relationship:
Mat 1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
I do not know any husbands who do not have sex with their wives. But, clearly this is what this verse is saying. However, it does not say he never had sex with Mary, it only says not until after Jesus was born. Why is that important? I asked myself that question and had a difficult time coming up with an answer. Once you are pregnant, you cannot get pregnant again, no matter how many times you have sex. This is just a basic fact on human biology that you might already know. You see when God includes something in the Bible it is important, even though it is not mentioned again directly. I really do not want to get graphic here, but I believe it is important to understand. A woman as a virgin has a piece of skin that at least partially covers the opening to her vagina. There is no medical purpose for this piece of skin, but yet it is mentioned in the Bible a few times as evidence that a woman was a virgin when she was on her honeymoon. You can see that the bed sheets are presented as proof to her virginity. This small covering piece of skin is designed by God to produce blood when broken or torn during intercourse. Why did God do this? Everything that God does, has a purpose and a reason for existing. I believe that this is a natural pattern for a spiritual reality. The breaking of the female skin and the shedding of blood is representative of a covenant act between a husband and a wife. This is the foundation of a blood covenant relationship between two individuals. But, what would happen to this small piece of skin during the birth of a child if it was present? I believe that the same thing would have happened as if her husband would have had sex with her the first time, it would be torn and bled. Let us see what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus and see if this is in fact what happened:
1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
As you can see God is talking about the virgin birth. God then says that those who overcome the world are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So did God think it was not important to believe in the virgin birth? Obviously not! You can clearly see that those who do not overcome the world are stated as being those who do not believe in the virgin birth. Uh Oh? I think some people have a real problem to think about.
1Jn 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
So what does the Bible say about the virgin birth? Again you have to use your brain, just a little bit to see what God is saying. When a woman has a baby, and it comes time to deliver, she experiences something that is popularly called “her water breaking”. This results in a mess and this is a normal part of every child born on this planet. The water breaking is just another natural thing that God has designed to teach us something that we should see. Did you notice what God said in this verse? God says that Jesus did not come with just a water breaking mess, but Jesus came with the evidence of a virgin birth and that was the shedding of her blood. Notice NOT Jesus’ blood, I said her blood. Jesus when being birthed naturally would have broken the hymen of Mary and thus caused her blood to flow. Why is this important to include in the Bible? Obviously many people think that it is not important, however there it is.
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Now why does God always change the subject? Or did He? God tells us that there exists three in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are all One! What we have is the trinity being described to us in very specific terms. We can conclude that since the context of this verse is preceded with verses about the virgin birth of Christ that we are going to learn some new information about this. Then we see this statement being made:
1Jn 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
So we have a new mystery being presented to us, one that is certainly difficult to relate to. Humans are described as being triune beings also but really we are just talking about Jesus and the virgin birth in a new light. The Spirit in this verse is the Holy Spirit which impregnated the natural woman Mary. The water is the natural birth process every human experiences in entering into this world. But the blood is only present for Jesus, the son of God born of a virgin. So we have God, the father, God the Word, and God the Holy Ghost coming into the world in the body of a man named Jesus, born of a virgin woman named Mary.
These 3 Bear Witness in Heaven
God the Father = God the Word = God the Holy Ghost
These 3 Bear Witness in the Earth
Spirit = Water = Blood
So what is God telling us about the virgin birth? God is saying we have 3 witnesses in heaven and 3 witnesses in the earth that the virgin birth happened just like He said it did. A witness is someone who testifies in a court of law to what they have seen. Because Jesus was born of a virgin, He came into the world with witnesses that prove His works. However, you still have an opportunity to not believe it and remain a spiritually blind man. . In my next blog we will review verses about how God used Paul to write about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ in indirect terminology.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 3“.
Why is Believing in the Virgin Birth Essential to Being a Christian? Part 1
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a series of Bible lessons on Understanding the subject of the “Virgin Birth” and why it is important and necessary to believe in it to be a Christian. This subject is a potentially explosive and very controversial topic among some Christians and churches. We have many Christians, who fully embrace the virgin birth of Jesus, then we have some who are indifferent to its importance and finally we have others who flatly deny that it ever happened. So can you be a real Christian and not believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? I read one blogger who thought that you could and in a way I agree with a lot of what he said. However, why is it important from a Bible defense standpoint, to believe in the virgin conception and the birth of son from a woman who has not “known” a man? To me I can say, it is because if there was no virgin birth, then there was no payment for human sin and therefore no salvation, no redemption and we will all die and go to hell with no hope. You see if Jesus was not born of a virgin, then who is He? Or I guess I should say who was He? If He was just another human man, a descendant of Adam like me then I’m in some real big trouble. If you believe that He was just a man like you, then you are also in some major trouble. If Jesus was a man born exactly like every other man on the planet, that would put Him on the same level as a “Confucius”, a “Mohammed”, an “Aristotle”, a”Caesar”, an “Alexander the Great”, an “Ivan the Terrible” or whoever else that you would care to name. You see if you do not believe in the virgin birth, who then is your savior? What makes your savior different than Islam? What is your salvation based or built upon foundationally? To who or what have you placed your confidence in when you die and leave this world? If it is not in anything that God has personally done, and God’s Word, then you are lost in your deception.
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
If Jesus Christ is not born of a virgin human woman, then He is not God in the flesh as this verse declared. If He was born of a literal virgin human woman without the involvment of a human father, then it is impossible for Him to be anything, but God in the flesh as the Bible teaches in many verses. I know that with modern technology, using test tube babies and in vitro-fertilization methods, it is very possible today for a woman to get pregnant without a man’s direct involvement. However, this was not the case nearly 2000 years ago when it was certainly not possible to get pregnant, except by the natural way that God had created created. If a natural human man was not involved, then God personally must have done something to intervene and circumvent the course of nature to cause the situation that Mary is said to be in in Matthew and Luke. In this verse in Isaiah God prophesies that a “virgin” would conceive. Now a virgin conception is not news, because that use to happen all of the time when she lost her virginity with her husband. But, a virgin woman with her hymen intact giving birth to a child, this had never happened before Jesus came along and entered into the world. The primary relevance from this verse is that there is no natural man mentioned in this future prophesied event in Isaiah other than the son being born. There is however, the direct mention of a spiritual being and that is God. God tells us that He will give us a sign. Signs are something that you are intimately familiar with if learn to drive a car. A sign gives us instructions, knowledge; information, guidance, direction and these are all applicable to God’s message in this prophecy. Do you see how essential the virgin birth is said to be? If you do not have this information or maybe you missed it, or maybe you ignored it, then you are missing an important “Sign” from God on the roadway of life. You have absolutely no foundation for being saved, because you do not know who you believe in or why.
The Hebrew name of the virgin’s son is said to be “Immanuel”, which when looked up, means “God With Us”. This was God in the form of a man. Now we are beginning to understand how a virgin birth is even possible 2000 years ago. However, important this information is, you would think that God would give us many verses that speak to this fact in the Bible. However, I have found that God is not that way. God does not give you overwhelming evidence to anything in the Bible, in order to let you choose what you want to believe in. If God wrote the Bible with clear evidence, you would be forced into believing the truth and that is not how God works by design.
Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God repeats the prophecy of Isaiah in this verse in Matthew and this is one of the only two times it is directly mentioned in the Bible. The name “Immanuel” in the O.T. is said to be “Emmanuel” in the Greek N.T., but it is the same Hebrew word and as you can see it means “God With Us”. Fortunately for us correct interpretation of the Bible only requires two witnesses to establish any truth. So just because there is only two direct witnesses to this truth does not diminish the importance of the information given to us. There are many ignorant teachers on the internet who like to say, Paul never said anything about a virgin birth, so therefore it is not important. People can be so spiritually blind sometimes. Just because Paul did not say anything directly, does not mean he did not write anything about it indirectly. Maybe I’ll talk more about that later. But, for now let’s continue on with the importance of knowing about the virgin birth.
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Ask yourself this question, why is it so important for Satan to try to deceive people into not believing in a virgin birth? Have you ever thought about that? Obviously Satan is hard at work at attempting to get people not to believe in a virgin birth. Satan uses people who say they are Christians, but yet deny the virgin birth and thus they deny God came in the flesh and according to the Bible, this is the spirit of “anti-Christ”. Did you notice what John wrote in this verse of scripture? God tells us that the spirit of anti-Christ will deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Isn’t this the debate that is raging on the internet? Has Jesus Christ been born of a virgin woman? Who is this Jesus Christ? According to the Bible Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. You see Satan is denying that God came in person to the earth. This is directly related to the subject of Christians believing in the virgin birth. Do you understand this? You see if this verse says what I think it does, you cannot be a Christian and not believe in the virgin birth. Otherwise God says you are a part of the “anti-Christ” and that makes you by default as none of His. Now are you beginning to see the importance of believing in the virgin birth?
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Again we see that God says there are those in the earth that are debating the deity of Jesus Christ and these are those that have the spirit of “anti-Christ”. In other words they are being used by Satan to deceive others into believing a lie. What benefit does Satan derive from you not believing in the virgin birth? What advantage does Satan possess when you don’t believe that God has come to the earth in the flesh? Satan gains you as his possession for eternity, and that is not a good place to end up. You do not have salvation, if you do not have a virgin birth. If you think you do, you are going to have to explain what you base your faith on.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Let me give you one indirect reference to the virgin birth that is related to the salvation of every Christian. In this verse God says that if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as your Lord you will be saved. What makes the resurrection of Jesus from the dead different than say the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43)? Didn’t God raise Lazarus from the dead after being in the grave for 4 days? Heck, Jesus was only in the grave for three days, it would seem Lazarus was a greater miracle and sign for us to believe in. What makes Jesus different than Lazarus and why aren’t we saved, if we believe that God raised Lazarus from the dead. Most people just don’t think when they read the Bible, I guess? I hope you are beginning to understand the importance of the virgin birth, at least a little bit. You see the only difference between Jesus and Lazarus is one of them was born of a virgin. One of them was God and one of them was not. Guess who that was? You see if you don’t know or your don’t believe it happened; you have no confidence in your salvation or your Savior. There were multiple people raised from the dead in the Gospels. Why don’t any of them save us? The major difference was that none of them were God. They all died again and were buried. But, Jesus is living in heaven seated at the right hand of majesty forever alive. So next time you meet someone who does not believe in the virgin birth, ask them who saved them?
If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons about “Understanding the Virgin Birth” please continue with “Part 2“.
Understanding How to Become a Light to a Dark World! Part 3
(Ver 1.2) This is Part 3 in a series of advanced spiritual Bible lesson on “How to Become a Light to a Dark World”. If you have not read it from the beginning, I would highly recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1“. Today I want to discuss briefly a false teaching that has been around in the church for a number of years. I probably heard this taught 20 years ago and I’m sure that it was not an original teaching, but something that has been around much longer than that. Here is the basic teaching, the minister said that the church represented the symbolic moon in Genesis 1:16. Because we were those who were a light to the others that were in the darkness. He based his teaching on the presumption that Christians had no ability to produce light upon themselves and were dependent upon the light from the Sun in order to reflect His glory to others. He based his teaching on the fact that the Moon is said to rule the Night and the Sun is said to rule the Day. In listening to him, he thought that the moon represented the church based upon these few facts derived from human reasoning. Unfortunately for him, he could not provide any scriptures to back up what he taught and that is where it all fell apart to me. You must let the Bible interpret itself. You must get two or three witness in order to establish any truth and you must follow God’s rules or you will remain clueless.
If you have read this series from the beginning you should understand that the moon does rule the night and that the Sun does rule the day. The Sun is clearly Jesus Christ so far we agree with at least part of the erroneous teaching. But, that is where I depart company. I do not recall any scriptures that I remember reading that tells me that the church rules the night. To be a ruler means to be a king or a prince over those people. That means you have authority and power to control what they do. Clearly the church does not do that. Evil in the world is growing at a rapidly progressive pace. There is terrorism and evil happening worldwide. So is the church doing anything to control it? It sure doesn’t look like it to me. So I want to address the identity of the moon from a Bible perspective and look at the physical qualities of the moon to analyze them to see who we can see that they could possibly represent.
Searching for the Descriptive Qualities of the Moon!
The moon is a small object that revolves counter clockwise around the earth. As you may know, the moon does not produce any light on its own ability, other than to reflect what is coming from the sun. The moon is a dead, lifeless object that has no known great value. I recall when astronauts brought back rocks from the moon. If they had any great value other than being from the moon, I believe that we would already have mining colonies on the moon recovering them. I realize that the moon helps determine tide cycles and things like that and has purposes for existence, but why do some planets have multiple moons and we have only one? Ok, let’s take this analogy a little further, the earth revolves around the sun in annual cycles. The moon revolves around the earth in monthly type cycles. So when the earth completes one cycle around the sun, the moon has completed approximately 12 cycles around the earth. This is what I believe, I believe that God created natural things as views into the windows of spiritual things. So what do we learn from what I have said so far? It is very difficult to see how the moon fits a type of a symbolic representation for the church, the apostles or any believers, based upon this information only. The church is not dead, it is not lifeless and it is not the ruler of the night or of the world. Heck the church can’t even vote to elect a Christian to be president, so we control nothing to very little in the world.
Also note this fact, the moon goes in cycles and goes from a state of total darkness to a state of total wholeness or full illumination and then back again to total darkness. Also, note that the moon has a dark side that is not normally seen by man. You see the moon has a symbolic side that has not been revealed to men. This is the dark side that cannot be seen and this is symbolic of the deception and the hidden evil spiritual qualities of someone. Is that the church? Does the church have a hidden dark side? I do not believe that is the case. No this fits a picture of Satan more than anyone else. Did you know that we would not know anything about the existence of Satan, if it were not for the Word of God? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever seen Satan personally? You see you have not, the only way you know about the existence of Satan, is by the Word of God that reveals him to us. So in order for us to even see Satan, God must give us the light in His Word to reveal him to us. It is only by the light of the Word of God that shines on this symbolic moon that you can see or understand that Satan exists. So that is a very different perspective on what the light represents and the moon represents that God has taught me. You have to realize that there are still many hidden things about Satan, that we do not know, because, God has not revealed more information or given more understanding to us about the information that is written in the Bible. So the dark side of the moon represents the unknown or hidden parts of Satan, the illuminated side of the moon represents the parts of Satan that have been revealed to us by God’s word. The New Moon when the sky is completely dark is representative of the hidden Satan. I struggle with the fact that anyone can think the moon represents Christians, because it reflects the light of Christ to a dark world. The main problem that I have with that logic is the fact when the moon goes into a new moon phase of the cycle, there is no light reflected and thus no moon is seen. Is this what happens to the church? Does the church go through cycles of complete darkness where God is not available to shine on us? If they do, they shouldn’t. Genesis 1:16, tells us that the moon is the entity that rules the vast night sky and this can only be Satan. I guess I haven’t given you very many scriptures about the identity of the symbolic moon, but I’ll fix that soon.
Christians do not live in darkness any more according to what Jesus taught us in John 8:12. So is the moon of the day or of the night? Is the moon seen normally in the light of the day or in the darkness of the night? I know technically speaking, if you can see the moon, then the moon must be getting some sunlight on its face. But, what dominates the moon? Is it the light of the sun or is it the darkness of the night sky? Which is greater? The little bit of sunlight being reflected or the vast darkness of the night sky? According to some people’s logic, the moon reflects the true light of Christ, but yet still lives in and is dominated by the night and the darkness of this world because Christ is not here and therefore, the spiritual sun has set. We can clearly see that this is not what Jesus said and not what other Bible verses teach either. Jesus said you will not be in the darkness anymore, meaning before you believed you were in the darkness and after you believed you were now in the light. Some try to say that the dark night sky are the unsaved people that we are a light to. But, yet the moon is only partially lit and has a dark side that has no light. This just doesn’t fit the church. For the church, a transition is said to have occurred from total darkness to the light of day. This could only correspond to the difference between night and day and no other condition makes any logical sense.
The Same Sun Shines on Both the Good and the Evil People in the World!
Many people have the idea that only Christians have any ability to see the light of God, and this is mostly true. Then they want to take that and try to convince you that only Christian can reflect the light of God. That is where I begin to deviate from that line of thought. But, I guess it does depend upon your definition of what light is. I have already demonstrated to you that Jesus called John the Baptist a light, before there was any Christians. Here is a verse that is also very interesting to this subject. Jesus is speaking and He says something you should see:
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus said the same Sun shines on the evil as well as the good. Uh oh? If you understand the Bible, you understand that Satan is the originator of all evil. Evil is a synonymous term for the devil. The devil is just another title for Satan. That means if the moon is Satan, that Jesus is telling us it is still possible for the light of God to shine on him. Do you understand that logic? Some people seem to think that Satan is only representative of the darkness and as we can see from what Jesus says, that this is not the case. You see what God is saying, is from our perspective, the sun will shine on everyone equally the same. The Bible says that God shows no favoritism, nor shows any respect to persons. What that is telling us, is that God is a constant and consistent Spiritual being that treats everyone with equal fairness. God is a constant and a consistent source of the light for everyone, that would include Satan also. So using this logic we can see that the light is made available to everyone equally. So there must be another determining factor for who sees the light and which people let this light in. Let’ me give you some scriptures that inform us of Satan’s evil. We do know that Satan is called the “wicked one” in 1 John:
1Jn 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Here are 3 verses that speak a tremendous amount of information about our subject. The devil is called the “wicked one”. The wicked one is another term for “evil one”. In fact if you look up the definition of the Greek work “wicked” you will see that it can mean evil. So Satan is confirmed to be a candidate for the evil that God’s light also shines on. Then in verse 19, God tells us that the whole world is full of wickedness or evil. This is representative of those who are in the darkness. Finally, in verse 20 we see that Jesus has come into the wicked world and given to us an ability to understand and thus to know Him who is True. Then it declares something very profound, we are said to be in Him that is True and it declares Him to be Jesus Christ the Son of God. So let me ask you this, if we are in Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in us, do we just reflect the true light or does the Bible say we are the true light? That statement will probably rock many religious boaters who are afraid to get out of the boat and walk on the water like Peter did. What we need to take away from these verses is the world is an evil place controlled by the wicked one. However, the church is now” in” the True Son, Jesus Christ. Again we have to conclude that, if Jesus Christ is the One that is True, who is the one that is false? Obviously, this is not a trick question, you can see from these verses that Satan is called the evil one! What we have is a classic Good vs. Evil conflict being presented to us.
Finally, in verse 20, it says that Jesus has given unto us an “understanding”. Is this another reference to the Light of God shining inside of Christians? Those who understand the truth? I believe that it is a direct confirmation to what the light is, who gives the light and where the light lives now.
Why Is It Better For Jesus To Go Away?
I think I want to address another point that someone made in a comment. They seemed to think that while Jesus Christ was on the earth, He was the Light and I agree with that part of the statement. But, then they said when Jesus Christ was taken out of the world we now do not have the direct Light and the Sun has set. Which do you prefer, the daylight or the nighttime? Is it better to work during the day and sleep during the night or what? In other words, it would appear that some people think that it would have been better for Christ to stay in the world so that we could have the True Light in all of its direct intensity and splendor. Now that Jesus Christ is not in the world some seem to think that the sun has set and we only live in the darkness with some reflected light off of the moon. However, Jesus taught something that is very different:
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
As you can read, this verse says that Jesus thought it was more highly beneficial for Him to go away than to stay on the earth. Why is that important to see? Jesus said if he leaves He can send us the “Comforter” which you should know is the Holy Spirit and He will enter into your spirit and abide with you forever. You can read more about the Comforter in John 14:16-26 and John 15:26. What Jesus is telling us, is that my Spirit will come into you and abide with you forever and this is better than if I stay here physically. So did Jesus ever leave? Or did He return and rise internally, inside of us by His Spirit? For God to be inside of me 24×7 is far better than having 5 minutes of physical Jesus’ time externally.
The True Identity of the Moon and the False Light!
I have tried to give you scriptures that back up my statement of the definition of Light and Darkness, Day and Night! Now let’s shift gears and go to see some verses about Satan and see how he is described to us. What does the Bible say about this “False Light” that I talked about earlier:
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Some seem to think that Satan has no light, however, here is a verse that would seem to say something a bit different than that. In this verse, Satan is spoken of as a spiritual being that “transforms” into an “angel of light”. What does that mean? If I put on a costume, I could transform myself into a Police Officer, but does that make me a true Police Officer? No you see it clearly does not. It only means I am pretending to be a Police Officer. The word “transform” according to the Strong’s can mean to “disguise”. A disguise is of course a costumed fake or a false appearance. Sound Familiar? You can clearly call it a false appearance for Satan to portray himself as an angel of light. The Bible says that God is Light and in Him is no darkness, so we can see that Satan is trying to present himself as a messenger of the omnipotent God. This would appear to be a picture of the moon who reflects the true light, but yet has no real ability to produce the true light in himself. Someone who appears to be light, but is not really light. Is that a Christian? Or is that a good descriptive terminology for the moon as being a false light? Let’s see another definition to learn more:
2Co 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
Here is that same Greek word for “Transforming” that is used to describe Satan in the very next verse of 2 Corinthians, this time used to describe those that are called “false apostles”. Uh oh? It does sound familiar? Those that are false apostles transform or disguise themselves to appear as true apostles. Isn’t this what Satan was said to do? To transform and appear as an angel of light? You can clearly see that Satan is called the “False Light” by these two verses. Satan is referred to in the Bible as a “deceiver” (Rev 12:9) and a “liar” (John 8:44), both of these terms would describe a spiritual being that is attempting to be something that he is not. You can also see an implied meaning of the moon, being given to us. The moon goes through phases of transformation from total darkness to fully illuminated light and then back again to darkness. To transform means and implies a constant change is occurring. You can see Satan today, tomorrow he will appear to be different. On the other hand, God is Light, and He is a constant never changing source of strength and truth to us. Which one is the church suppose to model our lives after? Is the church suppose to transform themselves constantly like the moon? Or are we to remain constant and consistent, growing into the image of Christ who is the Sun? You see the moon cycle only makes sense for the church on the half of the phase that grows brighter and not the reverse phase where it vanishes. The church is never ever is suppose to go back into the darkness. Here is kind of an interesting verse to see:
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Satan is clearly described, being called “the dragon” (Rev 12:9) as someone who is associated with the beast and the “false” prophet”. Again we see Satan being called a deceiver, someone who portrays himself as a prophet, but is full of lies. The words of their mouth are described as being unclean spirits that look like frogs. These spirits would try to consume or eat the true words, by a plague of deceptive words. At least what we see is that Satan is in control and heavily associated with the spread of lies and false teaching and boy is that all over the internet.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Jesus gives us a word of warning about people who disguise themselves on the outside but are extremely harmful on the inside. These are called “False Prophets” and that would indicate they are “False Lights”. Who do you think controls these liars? It can only be Satan. Here is another interesting verse of Scripture that describes Satan:
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So again this verse is talking about Satan our adversary. It clearly calls him the “Ruler of the Darkness” of this world. Who or what are we told, is it that rules the night? According to the Genesis 1:16 it is the “lesser light” AKA the “moon” (Ps 136:9). I do not recall any verse in the N.T. that says the church Rules the Night? Do you know of any? To rule means to dominate, to control, and to exercise authority over. Jesus is clearly the Ruler of the Church, but who rules those that are not Christ’s? It is not Christ and it is not the church, so it must be the moon, Satan. Don’t get me wrong, the church can certainly be a light to them that are in the darkness, but we do not rule them, we just show them the way out of their darkness by preaching the gospel. If they believe it, they are saved and the Sun of God rises in their hearts and now they are no longer living in the darkness either.
Now you can see in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 and Ephesians 2:2 that Satan is also called the “Prince” of this world. A “Prince” is also defined as a “ruler”, look up the word and see what it means. All this does is tells us who rules the Night and the darkness that is in the world. It is Satan who rules those who live in the darkness and he is the symbolic moon that deceives many into thinking they already have the true light. As long as people believe the lies of the enemy over the truth of God’s word they will remain in darkness and be ruled and controlled by Satan. This is the reality of the spiritual conditions of men’s hearts.
2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
What we have seen are scriptures and many verses in the Bible that show there are true lights and false lights in the world today. These false lights represents people in the world that teach lies in whole or in part. False teachers, false prophets, false apostles, these are all instruments of darkness , controlled by the ruler of the darkness, used by Satan to deceive those who are easily fooled. People walking in the darkness, easily are tripped up and stumble and they do not know or understand in what it is that causes them to fall.
Perhaps you can find scriptures that back your point of view, however, they will not discount or discredit the verses that I just gave you. God’s word never contradicts itself so if you find verses that says the church is the moon, you will have to change the verses that I just gave you or delete them from your Bible. You can change the meaning of the word of God, simply by changing the definitions of a few words. If you do not use God’s definitions, you are buying into Satan’s definitions. This is what happens everyday in the world and on the internet.
Being the True Light to A Dark World!
So I have taught you that to be a true light to the world you must possess wisdom, understanding and knowledge that others in the darkness need and want to see. It is a well known fact that people do not know, what they do not know and this describes Christians as well as unsaved people in the world. Too many Christians think they know something valuable and try to go give it to others, but end up doing more harm than good. If you have only been saved a short time, guess what, maybe you should go and study and learn something that is worthy for others to know, before you try to be a light for Christ. Here is a verse that speaks volumes about internet bloggers that I compete with.
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
God says, that everyone should be on a path to be a teacher to others. Everyone should be learning and growing up spiritually. Every Christian should become a light to those who are in the darkness. But, God clearly says it is a process to become this, and it does not automatically happen. Why is that? God writing to the Hebrews said that by now they should have been teachers, but because of their lack of understanding they were clearly not qualified for this task. They needed to go back and study the basics, drinking the milk meant for babies before they could ever attempt to teach anything that had meat in it. Only you and God know where you are and what you are able to do. Check up with Him before you do anything crazy. God Bless!
Understanding How to Become a Light to a Dark World! Part 2
(Ver 1.3) We are studying an advanced spiritual Bible lesson of “How to Become a Light to an Unsaved Dark World”. This is the second lesson in the series and we have already covered many new ways of thinking about this very important subject. If you have not read the first lesson, I would highly recommend that you go and start with “Part 1” since I cannot repeat everything in every lesson or I would never be able to teach anything new. What we have learned so far is that there are two dimensions of spiritual condition. These were called Light and Darkness or Night and Day by God we were introduced to this concept in Genesis 1:16. In this same verse we learned that these realms also had rulers that controlled each. The Sun ruled the Day and the moon ruled the night. I then taught you clear verses that Jesus was the Sun that rules the day and gives us spititual light. We have also uncovered a new Bible definition for what “Light” is in the eyes of God. According to Bible examples, to give light is the method of teaching people the truth. We also learned of the Bible existence of the “True Light” which was just another title for Jesus Christ. However, the existence of any “True Light” reveals the implied presence of “false light” that must also exist in the world by the law of antithesis. We have reviewed approximately 10 verses that confrimed Jesus Christ’s identity as the symbolic Sun that rules the symbolic spiritual realm of the Day, giving you more than enough references to Him in this capacity. Today I want to continue the lesson with information about other lights that exist in the world besides Jesus the true light called the Sun of Righteousness. In knowing this truth, you will suddenly realize that you have a cmpetition to teaching the truth.
Understanding There is More than One Source of Light!
Getting the correct Bible interpretation of the Truth of God is highly dependent us upon getting God’s definitions of the words spoken in the verses being studied. Given our new definition of what light is (teaching others God’s knowledge and giving them true understanding), only God had all light until He started sharing it for others to learn by Jesus teaching them. Now, whoever, hears the truth and understands it also has the same light from God in them in a very limited capacity. So at one time God had all of the light in Him, but each of us who has heard and believed now has a little bit of His light in us right now. I believe I have just introduced you to how to become a light to the world. There is a concept given to us by God in this lesson that if you do not know anything or understand anything in the Bible then you would be classified as someone who is in the darkness (lacking and true light) and I will give you several verses in the Bible to confirm this later. But, when you believe in Christ and have made Him the Lord of your life, you now have heard the Gospel and let that light shine inside of you.
If you look at the night sky, you might realize that most of those star lights in the sky are far greater in size and intensity than our Sun? The only reason they appear so small and insignificant to us, is because of the distance from our planet. There exists well over a billion suns in our universe and most of them are many millions of light years away from the earth. So obviously God did not create a universe with only One True Light source as an example to get us to think differently. This however, does not mean there are many ways to God or many religions that can give you the true light. We just have to learn there are many sources of light in the world, at least one of them is called the True Light, but yet the others still exist and some of these might qualify as even being a false light. If you understand the Bible, the “stars” in some verses can be a symbolic term used to describe “angels” (for example stars in Rev 1:20 , Rev 12:4). These little lights in the sky can be symbolic of angels and guess who Satan was? Satan of course was one of the chief angels. Oh, well maybe we’ll get into that more later. What I want you to start to see, is that Satan can be called a light producing spiritual being. It is very much like the old saying that goes “God taught Satan everything that he knows, but God didn’t teach him everything that He knew”. If Satan holds some knowledge and understanding of spiritual things, then he is by definition a light carrier or spreader. We will talk more about that later.
What I will now attempt to do is show you scriptures that will inform us of the existence of other stated lights in the world. By establishing the existence of other types of lights in the world other than Jesus Christ, we can begin to see how we can become one of the true lights to a dark world that can counter those that are false lights. I will start this part of the lesson with a description that Jesus gives us when speaking about John the Baptist:
Joh 5:35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist using the terms that he was a witness to the truth. Notice that John the Baptist was not an apostle of Jesus. John was not even a member of the church, since the church does not exist yet. Still, John the Baptist is spoken of in terms that were rarely seen to describe anyone in the Bible up until this point. If you study the Bible closely you should discover that John the Baptist was in the ministery category of a “prophet” of God, but yet he was still just a man like you and me. Jesus calls John a burning and a shining light! That sounds a lot like a description for a sun, but it could also represent a torch type of fire light, or maybe even a description for a candle. We know John is not the Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, but yet he is described using similar terminology. What we can clearly see is that he is never described using any of the characteristics of the moon. The moon shines, but it does not burn. I find that very interesting don’t you? So what made John the Baptist a burning light? I believe it was because he went about teaching people to “Repent and be baptized” ? John is said to be the one that was to prepare the way for the Christ. When John was born, his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy about John and Jesus. In this discourse in Luke 1, you can read that John is called a Prophet of God. Then you can see this statement and it tells us why Jesus called John a light:
Luk 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
John’s father prophesied that John would “Give the Knowledge of Salvation” unto the people of Israel concerning “the remission of their sins”. Wow that is some strong information being given to us. John was a light, because he taught people about the coming works of the Messiah. Jesus came to Save His People from their sins and this was very good news for everyone to hear. What we have just learned, is that John was a light, before Jesus Christ was a light to the same dark world. Interesting, isn’t it? You can obviously see that Jesus is not speaking physically or naturally, so Jesus was definitely speaking figuratively and symbolically about the forerunner and this witness of Christ. John brought the knowledge and understanding to the people that the Messiah was coming, so Jesus called him a bright light to the people. John brought the truth and taught the people and Jesus said it was very good.
Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Jesus also confirms, that we the church are now the light of the world. Here we have Jesus speaking to the apostles, the founders of the church of Jesus Christ, calling them lights, before they were even born again. I find that very interesting to study. This verse in Mat 5:14, is an exact duplication of the same Greek words and phrasing that Jesus used to describe Himself in John 8:12. Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, then in Matthew 5:14 Jesus says “You are the light of the world”. So is Jesus trying to teach us something new? Both of these verses describes us in the same terms of being “Light” as He is the “Light”. This Greek word means to “shine” as with “rays”. It also has an inferred meaning of “fire”. All of this sounds like the sun light and not the reflective moonlight.
Rom 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
We can clearly see that we are the light to them that are in darkness. I guess you could wrongly conclude that means we represent the moon. The moon is in the night sky being illuminated by the sun and that makes good logical sense. However, this verse does not say we reflect the light of Christ, it says we are the light of Christ. Do you understand the difference? This is almost exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we read right before this verse. Have you ever thought or seen where the Bible says “We are the Body of Christ”? Have you ever given that much thought? To be the body of Christ would indicate that we have the same Spirit in us that Jesus Christ had in Him. If that is true, then we are the True Light and we are not just a reflection of the True Light. Maybe you should go and read, Romans 12:5, 1 Cor 12:12-27, and Ephesians 5, where it describes the Church to be the actual body of Christ. That is actually a very important truth to know. Where you go, Christ goes, because the Spirit of Christ is in you. Here is another very relevant scripture that Jesus describes Christians in terms that we need to understand:
Mat 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The church is called those who are righteous(Rom 10:10). Therefore the church is spoken of in terms of being the true light from the sun and not just a reflection of that light. If the church is the moon, this would have been a good opportunity for God to tell us that. Instead of saying the church will shine like the moon, we are described in terminologies of the direct sun. I find that very relevant to our understanding of who we are and what we do.
So what does it mean to be called a light of the world? To be a shining light of the world means to be a deliverer of the knowledge of God and a teacher of the Gospel of Christ. The word of God is the Light of God. If you understand it, you can teach it to others. So far in the Bible, I have not discovered any scriptures that describes the church or believers in terms of just being reflections of the light of Christ as the moon does. What you actually see in the Bible is more terms that describe us to be like the sun, than the moon.
Where is the Location of the Light and the Darkness?
Now let’s describe where this light and darkness is located. By understanding the location of the light and darkness, we can better understand what they really are. We of course know that the sky above us is the domain of natural light and natural darkness. But, since I am talking about spiritual things instead of natural things, where is this spiritual light and spiritual darkness? You see if Jesus says we are the light of the world, that could imply that we just glow in the dark in the night, but clearly that is not what the Bible is talking about. Given my earlier definition of light as being “knowledge” and “understanding” where does this exist? You could say in your brain, or in your mind or within your intellect and that would be very closely related to the truth. Your mind is not your spirit and your spirit is not your mind. However, your mind is in contact with your spirit. I have not given a direct lesson on the human makeup, but I have alluded to it in other blogs. People are spirit beings, that have a soul, who live in a body. That just so happens to be a triune being, made in the image and likeness of God. The soul of man is comprised of your mind, your will and your emotions. Your mind/soul exists between your body and your spirit. Sound waves of spoken words enter your physical ears, and are transferred into your mind by your inner ear, which can allow these words to enter into your spirit, if you choose to believe what you hear. These are just basic Bible truths that I hope that you understand already. So let’s continue to locate the spiritual light using the Bible:
Joh 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
Jesus tells us something very profound here, Jesus says a man that walks at night without the light “IN HIM” stumbles. Where is the Light suppose to be? The light is said to be internal, inside your body, this is the location of the spirit of the man. So where is the Night? It is also inside a man in their spirit? How do you stumble in your spirit? That again is a question that you should ask yourself. Obviously this is not a physical light source, if you cut open a Christian’s body you do not see light rays shooting outward. So what is this internal light a symbol of? The internal light is simply a symbolic representation of spiritual knowledge and understanding that we possess. In actuality there are two types of spiritual light that are related, the light that is in us, is the light we possess internally, because we see and understand parts of the Bible. Being a light to the world is taking this light that is in us and sharing it with those who live in the darkness so that they might also know and understand.
So do Christians have this Light IN them always and forever? Jesus gives us very explicitly the location of the light, to be in our spirits. We can see that a man who has no light in him is in darkness and said to be in the Night and he stumbles. Why does he stumble? Because of his mind and his thinking and his lack of knowledge and understanding. What Jesus is talking about are the differences between those that understand the Bible and those who do not understand the Bible. If I understand the Bible, or at least a part of it, I have some light inside of me. This light came from God, and from His Word. There are tons of people in the world who do not have a clue what the Bible says or means and these people all live in the darkness of the night, because of their ignorance and lack of understanding. Here is a very valuable scripture to see in our discussion:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
What is darkness and how is it related to Blindness? Both of these are the absence of light or the inability to spiritually see the light. No Light, then you have No Sight! Satan has blinded the minds of ALL of them that believe NOT, this verse says. Because of this blindness in their SOULS/MINDS, they are unable to see the light of the gospel of Christ in THEM (their spirits). Did you notice that the Gospel of Christ is called the LIGHT of GOD? What is the Gospel? It is the good news of what Jesus Christ has freely given to every man, woman and child. So we can conclude that those who do not believe in Christ, do not understand the Gospel, because Satan has deceived them into believing something else and therefore they do not see the light of the Truth in their spirits. The Light is again spoken of in terms of being spiritual knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Knowing and understanding God’s word would be the ability to see the True Light. Jesus is said to be the giver of the Light, but Satan is at work diligently to block the light. How does Satan do this? He presents false teachings, false religions, false gods, false prophets, and false apostles to deceive you into a lie. Also, Satan can place thoughts, ideas and suggestions in your mind to cause you to be distracted from the truth.
So I have given you two major scriptures that inform us where the light is suppose to be. This location is said to be in the spirit of man. Also, keep in mind where the darkness is located, it is in the spirits of men and women. So to be a light to them that are in darkness is a practice to tell people the truth of the Word of God and pray that they believe it and understand it. If they choose to believe the truth, the spiritual Sun can rise inside of them also, then they will be born of the Day and no longer live in darkness.
Defining Spiritual Night and Day!
We have been talking about the subjects of darkness and light and I have mentioned that these are clearly synonymous terms for night and day. Correctly understanding the Bible means, finding and understanding God’s definitions of the Bible terms and symbols presented. God many times uses these types of natural symbols to teach hidden things that men think they already understand. But, because we do not get God’s definition for the subject, we are usually confused and live with what we think the Bible says. But, if we can get God’s definition for the words, then we can have greater assurance of a more accurate interpretation for what God wanted us to know in the first place. We have already read many scriptures in this lesson so far on this subject, but let’s go find new scriptures that help us to define what Night and Day is to God using His Word.
1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
As you can read again, Jesus is referred to as the “True Light”. But, it also says that to those who have accepted Him, the darkness has passed. Meaning Christians no longer live in the realm of darkness or in the spiritual night. Therefore if the light is present in us, the spiritual sun (Jesus) has not set, He has only risen internally in our spirits. Day and light and night and darkness are synonymous symbolic terms. Therefore from this verse we can see by implied antithesis that the day has appeared in us. The term “True Light” infers the existence of “False Light” as we have already discussed. People can of course dispute this or explain it away by their human reasoning and their definition of the word “True”. However, in my way of thinking if something is said to be true it would have to be something that was the opposite of a lie, or the opposite of that which is false. Any cleaver lie can appear very real on the surface and be taken by many to be true. It is very much like watching a Hollywood, movie. Everything in the movie is usually based upon lies, but they are presented in a format that appears to us to be so absolutely real. This is exactly how deception is presented in the world by Satan.
What you need to do is see what the Bible says. In this verse in 1 John 2:8, there is a direct connection to the Word of God and the light that shines in us. John writes a new commandment to us, yet this new commandment is more directly called the Word of God which gives us the light. These words are said to be True in Christ and now also in us! All of these words are in direct relationship to the spiritual light that is now shinning in us, because we have heard and accepted it. We have already seen the location of the light as being “In Us”. So we can conclude that the reason for the light that is now shinning in us, was given to us from us hearing, knowing and understanding the Word of God.
2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Reading this verse carefully, it describes a spiritual process that has occurred within every believer. Our hearts use to be called a” dark place” without Christ, that would indicate that we were of the night and did not understand the Word of God. However, now it says that the “Day Star” has arisen in our hearts and the Day has Dawned within us. Do you understand that the sun rises every day and that begins the daylight hours? Jesus is called the “Day Star” and this is representative of our closest star that we observe during the daylight hours. So does the spiritual Day Star ever set in Christian hearts? I have not found any verses that say that occurs, in fact we just read a verse that said the darkness had passed. So the light is always present, when it arises in us, it is there for good. This is just another reason to see that we are not the moon who goes completely dark. The Christians are now described as being of the spiritual Day, because of the “Day Star” that has arisen within us. That would indicate that wherever we go Christ the Day Star goes also. It would also mean that we now have understanding of the Word of God in our sprits that it is permanently resident there.
1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
As you can see in this verse we (the Church) are again confirmed to be of the Day and not of the night. The moon only shines at night and not normally during the day so we have to fit what we believe to what we read in the Bible. I hope that you are seeing and understanding these verses. This verse says that we are the children of the Light, which infers there are also children of the night, but these are not Christians. You can clearly see that there is an established division being stated. This separation between Day and Night is very explicitly defined. The day is a 12 hour period of light, the night a 12 hour period of darkness. These are two separate and distinct spiritual conditions. I believe that the earth symbolically represents both those who are saved and those who are lost. You can understand how I got to this conclusion by studying the parable of the Sower in Mark 4. Jesus tells us that the earth or the soil represents the hearts of people. Now think in terms of the earth and the earth’s counter clockwise rotation. Those on the dark side of the earth that have turned away from the Sun, represents those who are lost. Those who have turned to the Light they are the ones that are saved. Those in the night are ruled by the moon who they can occasionally see at night. The moon appears to be a reflection of the True Light, but yet it has a dark side that is not revealed to people. However, the Sun represents God and His light radiates in every direction lighting the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly at the same time. The Sun rules the Day and those who are in the light and they do not see the moon, only the Sun. The Sun shines during the day and the moon is seen mostly in the night. It is just so obvious to me, that I can see it so very clearly. I guess I can understand how difficult it is to see for others who are new to these Bible verses.
Rom 15:21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.
Here in this verse we can see that it is prophesied about a people who will begin to see. That would be the opposite of blindness and those in darkness. But, it also declares that they will hear with their ears and understand what is said. So we have a people spoken of that were spiritually blind, but now understand and know the truth. Those that see because of the Light of God and those who do not see because they live in darkness.
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Here is another witness to what the light is representing symbolically. In this verse the “eyes of your understanding” is spoken of as being something that is spiritually able to see or perceive the knowledge of God. Just as your body has natural eyes that observe physical light rays, the spiritual eyes have ability to perceive the truth or lies presented to it. All I am trying to do is to get you to see why I described what light and darkness meant in the symbolic usage that we have clearly observed in the Bible.
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ
What we observe in the N.T. is a repeated pattern, that the Bible contains mysteries and things which are difficult or impossible for the natural man to see and understand. This information is concealed from them that do not believe for a purpose. But, to them that are open, God grants light to see and understand these hidden mysteries.
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
There are just so many verses in the Bible that speak of this spiritual situation of darkness and the inability to understand, that I cannot give you them all. I hope and pray that I have given you enough to see them for what they are. Spiritual blindness is a condition of the heart/spirit whereby men are incapable of understanding anything that is spiritual. In this verse in Ephesians, knowledge is spoken of in terms of a beneficial way to the life of God. It is also reported that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is a determining factor that keeps people from the life of God. All of this is spoken of in terms of the ability of the spirit of man to see and to understand. I’ll just do one more scripture and I’ll quit trying to get you to see the definition of light and darkness, day and night.
Col 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
God’s Word and His Spirit are again implied to be the Light that is rising within the hearts of these people to bring them wisdom and all spiritual understanding. That is an awesome prayer to pray for yourself and those that God sends you to. What you must realize is that if there is “spiritual understanding” that it must be different than “natural understanding”. People want to look at natural things and use human logic to determine the meaning of life. However, God says these people are just blind and they do not know where they are going or why they stumble and fall.
So we have seen a number of verses that inform us that there exists two spiritual dimensions. One is called the Day and one is called the Night. These two dimensions of light and darkness represents two groups of children. Those that are children of the day are the children of God. Those who are children of the night are children of Satan. You can theoretically pass from either state or dimension to the other simply by choosing to believe or disbelieve. I hope this is has been an informative lesson and that you have learned a lot. In the next lesson on this subject I will specifically talk about the symbolic identity of the moon. God Bless!
If you like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 3” now.
Understanding How to Become a Light to the Unsaved Dark World!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a series of Bible lessons about the subject of “How to be a Light to the Unsaved World”. Most real Christians have a strong desire for others to come to the knowledge of Christ and accept the same salvation that they have experienced. Why is that? I think that it is a twofold motivation. First knowing how good God is drives me to share with people His goodness. Then second, knowing the consequences for not accepting Jesus that also drives me. But, how do you share something with someone you have absolutely no evidence or proof of possessing? If I could take you to a physical throne and show you God, that would be completely different than the system that God has designed for us to work within. So, how do you get people saved? Do you have a role to play in this happening? Or can God just save anyone that He wants to with or without your help? If you recall Jesus did not think so. Jesus looked at the people on the earth and said, the “harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few” (Mat 9:37). That would indicate that we have a role to play in becoming a worker in God’s harvest field. What works and what doesn’t work in this field? Did you know every crop is not harvested in the same way? How you harvest corn is different than how you harvest cotten or potatoes. How does God define work? It certainly is a very complex world that we live in. Many people are distracted and deceived by many different things. People have been deceived in so many ways, that I cannot even list them all. Today I want to talk about how to be a light to the unsaved dark world using the definitions and methodologies revealed in the Bible. I want to discuss what darkness is, what light is and how we can help people get from the darkness into the light. I want to explore the correct meaning and interpretations of the symbolic references given to us in the Bible on this subject and help you to understand what God is saying. This will no doubt be a long series that will take multiple lessons. There is just too much information to cover in one blog, but I have to start somewhere.
The Moon Rules the Night! The Sun Rules The Day!
Let’s start with the basics. This is something that God taught me a few years ago and it has helped me tremendously in understanding these spiritual subjects. God gives us some very important information in the first chapter of Genesis. This chapter contains prophetic scriptures of future events. In fact the first chapter of Genesis gives us a prophetic view of the entirety of Human history on this planet. In Isaiah 46:10, the Bible tells us that God has made known the end from what was stated in the beginning. Suddenly we can understand that God must have concealed information about the end of the world somewhere in the informaiont of the creation account. Genesis chapter 1 is certainly representative of the beginning of our world, so it must inform us of the end of human history using symbolism or other methods of concealment. If you want to learn about this in depth, I have other lessons that tell about creation events in Genesis in more detail. I just want to focus on one verse for now, because it reveals to us something that we need to understand very clearly about the subject of light and darkness. In Genesis 1:16, God is talking about the events on the 4th day of creation and this is what He says:
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
God tells us of “Two Great Lights”. Did you notice the number reference to “Two”? As in more than One. God clearly tells us there are multiple sources of light in this verse. God mentions, the “Greater light“, the “lesser light” and the “stars“. Then it says the Greater Light will rule the day and the lesser light will rule the night with the stars. So what do we have? We have the mention of “Day” and we have the mention of “Night”. These are normally defined as two 12 hour periods of time, which comprise and make up a full 24 hour revolution of the earth. So what is the “greater light” and what is this “lesser light”? It would appear to me to be references to the sun and the moon. What do you see when you look up into the night sky? The stars and the moon is what I see. I have been up in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and looked at the night sky in the total darkness with the absence of city lights that blocks our view and I have seen the night sky in its splendor. It is very beautiful to see that clearly. In looking at the night sky, there is only one light that is greater than the stars and it is the moon. When the moon is in a phase of full illumination, it can be very bright, but yet nothing even close to the brilliance of the sun. In looking at the sky during the day, the brilliance of the sun, causes the stars and the moon to disappear or become very, very minor. So the Bible tells us in some indirect terminology, but yet very revealing terminology that the Sun is the Greater Light and it rules the day and the moon is the lesser light that rules the night. But, let me give you some confirming verses of this reality and a clearer definition of each of these two lights from the Bible. You can find them in Psalms:
Psa 136:7 To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
As you can see God is again referring to these “great lights” that God created. So let’s continue reading and find out what these lights are:
Psa 136:8 The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:
That is pretty clear now that God tells us his definition of the Greater Light. This time it tells us in very certain terms that this greater light in Genesis 1:16 is the Sun that rules the day. To rule means to “govern”, to have “power”, and to have “dominion” over”. Now let’s see who God says is the “lesser light”:
Psa 136:9 The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Finally, we see a very clear definition of the “lesser light” as being the “moon”. It also confirms that the stars along with the moon will rule the realm of night. These references are all clearly symbolic of natural truths that God is attempting to use to teach us about a greater spiritual reality. If you do not understand symbolism in the Bible you can go find my lesson on the subject and review how God uses symbolism throughout the Bible to teach us. The moon is again said to have dominion and control over the night. Notice the moon does not rule the day nor does the sun rule the night in either of these examples. That is actually very important to understand for later. So what is this symbolic moon and what is the symbolic night? What we need to do is to go and get the definitions of these symbolic words from the Bible in order to see it from God’s perspective and that is what I will attempt to do in the rest of this lesson. I will start with the Sun and then attempt to define light and darkness. Next I will talk about Day and Night. Finally, I will end the lesson with the definition of moon.
Jesus Christ is the Sun and the Light of the World
What we should start to do when reading any Bible verse, is ask ourselves is God talking literally or symbolically or both simulataneously? Is God talking internally or externally or again both concurrently? Is God talking about physical things or spiritual things or as we will soon learn that God is usually using the natural things to teach us about the spiritual things so they are both technically relevant? Many times people struggle with reading a Bible verse and being able to distinguish between these two major differences. THis is why many people do not understand the Bible, they fail to rightly divide it. Then we need to define the terms found in any verse using only God’s definitions and ignoring man’s opinions. The Bible is so much more complex than we give it credit to be. God actually gave us all of the answers in His word, but yet they are not always easily found on the surface type of reading that most Christians do.
I believe it is very important to discuss Jesus first, that is why I selected to introduce you to the identity of the “Greater Light” first. Jesus is the primary reason for every Bible lesson and this one is no different. In the study of “Light” in the Bible we must find out where it comes from and then figure out what it is? So, who or what is the source of all light and life? According to the Bible it is Jesus Christ. This reality is actually very parallel to the natural sun which is the source of all life, light and heat on our planet. We should begin to see how God created the natural sun and see parallel characteristics of Jesus there. Let’s examine some verses that teach these truths:
Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Jesus informs us very clearly that He is the light of the world. I do not think that many people disagree with that point at all. However, Jesus is not speaking naturally or physically, so He must be speaking symbolically and spiritually. Jesus is informing us that He is the source of all of our spiritual light. He then informs us that those who follow him, they will not walk in darkness, but they shall have the “Light” of Life. We’ll talk more about that later. On the earth, the primary source of all light and life on this planet comes from our natural sun. Without the existence of the physical sun, there would be no life on our planet. I believe this is representative of a pattern that God gives us in the natural realm that describes Jesus in the spiritual realm. This verse in John certainly teaches us that they are both strikingly similar to each other by God’s design.
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
You can see that God tells us that creation reveals to us the hidden qualities of even God. By interpreting these natural qualities correctly you can understand spiritual things that you cannot see with your physical eyes. Let’s review some known observable facts about our physical sun and see what they teach us about God:
- Our Sun is only one star out of billions.
- Our Sun is the closest Star to our planet.
- The Sun is our primary source of all light and heat.
- The Sun is the only object in our solar system that produces light of its own power.
- Without the Sun the earth could not support life.
- The Sun appears to Rise and Set daily because of the earth’s 24 hour rotation.
- The earth travels around a complete circle of the sun in approximately 365 days.
Reading this list of sun facts, shows us that the subject is truly more complicated than it appeared at first. However, Jesus is still literally called the “Sun of Righteousness” in Malachi 4:2. That is just one of the most direct confirmation to the identity of Jesus as being the Sun that rules the day. The thing that we learn from studying the Bible is that God has purposely hidden information in the Bible, using several different techniques of concealment. One of these techniques is to call one thing by many different names and descriptions so that you cannot just search the Bible for the obvious name and find all of the scripture references that talk about this single subject. In other words, there are many names and ways that God uses to describe the sun and I will give you around 10 of them right now. We have already seen that the Sun is called the “Greater Light” in Genesis 1:16. Here are some of the names, titles and descriptive terms of Jesus Christ the Sun of God:
- The Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
- The Greater Light (Gen 1:16)
- The Day Star (2 Peter 1:19)
- The Bright and Morning Star (Rev 22:16)
- The Morning Star (Rev 2:28)
- The Dayspring (Luke 1:78)
- The True Light (John 1:9, 1 John 2:8)
- The Light of the World (John 8:12, John 9:5)
- The Light of Life (John 8:12)
- The Sun (Rev 1:16, Rev 12:1)
What I have just given you are some of the many different verses in the Bible that describe Jesus Christ in expressive synonymous names and terms of the “Sun”. If you study these verses you will see they speak of Jesus Christ in terms described as a bright and shining light which emit rays like the Sun. Jesus symbolically shining as rays of light to the people of the world. We will define this reality and learn to understand what it means very soon.
Now I want to talk about another truth about Jesus and give you some new perspectives to look at and to think about. If you study the Bible you can see that God and Jesus are described as being the Word of God. In other words, God and His Word are one in the same:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
What we learn from this verse, is that we cannot separate God and His word, then God tells us in John 1:14 that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. You can by simple logic and the laws of mathematics substitute “Word” for “God” and “God” for “Word” and see that the Bible says “God” became flesh and dwelt among us. In the laws of Algebra, if A=B then B=A. You can also say if A=B and B=C, then A=C. These are just basic mathematical laws that show how we can legally change the word of God to teach us a new truth. The Bible says God is Light (1 John 1:5). So we know that “God”=”Light” and “Light”=”God”. From John 1:1 we have also learned that “God”=”Word” and “Word”=”God”. So we now can make this change legally to John 1:1:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the LIGHT, and the Word was the LIGHT.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was God, and God was with the LIGHT, and God was the LIGHT.
Wow! This is really not that difficult to understand, is it? I hope you understand algebra and the laws of mathematics. Nevertheless, we can also substitute in John 1:14 where the Bible says that “the LIGHT, became flesh” (Jesus) and dwelt among us. So we have a little bit better understanding of how Jesus could legally call himself the light of the world while He walked the face of this planet. What we just learned is that “Word of God” = “Light of God”. This is just one new dimension and definition of Light. I hope that you are understanding it.
Finally, Jesus is called the “True Light” in John 1:9 and 1 John 2:8. This is a very important title given to Jesus and it has vast implications attached to it that I will discuss next. But, notice this fact. Jesus Christ is again called “The Word of God” in Revelation 19:13. If God is the Word and the Word became Jesus in the flesh and Jesus is the True Light. Then Jesus Christ also represents the “True Word”. So we can say TRUE WORD” = “TRUE LIGHT” and “TRUE LIGHT” = “TRUE WORD”! I’m really not sure if you followed my logic here, but it is a legal way to interpret and learn new things from the Bible.
Understanding There Must Exist a False Light!
Do you realize that you do not need to articulate an adjective of “True” before the noun of “Light”, if there is only one source of all light and only one kind of light? An adjective always qualifies a noun and restricts or narrows the scope of inclusiveness of the definition. If I said to you “Go pickup a red ball”. You can automatically conclude that there are other colors of balls available for selection and that it matters which one you pickup. In other words, if God only produces one kind of light and there is no other source of light, then God does not need to do anything but say “I am the Light” and everyone knows automatically what you are talking about because there exists only one light. But, when God says “I am the True Light” that makes it a completely different light from the unstated implied antithesis “False Light”. If you have a “True Light” described in the Bible (1 John 2:8, John 1:9), that would directly imply that there must exist a “False Light” by simple basic logic and understanding of the English language. This is just basic logic, if you have a positive you know there exists a negative. If there exists a North then there has to exist a South. If you say “Left” you know there is also a “Right”. If there exists Truth, then there must exist a Lie. So who or what is the “False Light” of the world? If Jesus Christ came into the world as the “True Light”, who or what is the “False Light”? So that means we need to define “True” and “False” using the Bible also. Now let me bring into the discussion another difficult subject to accept. In John 8:12, Jesus informed us that He was the Light of the world and that those who followed him would not live in the darkness. But, then He tells us that those who follow Him will have the “Light of Life”. Wow, that is another one of those statements that has a direct opposite associated with it by logical connection. What is the opposite of a “Light of Life”? It would have to be a “light of death”. Maybe we will get into that more later, just become aware of what it implies for now. This is all derived from just a basic understanding of the English language constructs and simple basic logic. What I hope to do is to give you a new perspective to see things differently using the Bible as the primary source for what we believe. I will not discuss what the false light is here in this section, but I just wanted to logically establish the existence of this entity, so that we can look for it in the Bible later.
Understanding The Definition of Spiritual Light!
I’ve already given you some new perspectives on what Light is in the Bible by describing Jesus. Right now I just want to focus on what the online dictionary says for this definition of the term “light”. According to what I found light can be defined in very technical terms of physics and can be described as “electromagnetic” waves of illumination within the certain range of visible wavelengths. That is a pretty technical definition and probably not what we are looking for in our discussion. A light can be more generally defined as a source of “illumination” either natural or artificial that helps us to see other objects. A light source produces illumination that reflects off of objects so that we can see them. Without lights we would live in darkness. Ok, that was just basic definitions of a simple light concept. But, you do realize that “light” can have other meanings? For example, if said that I shed some light on the subject of tractors. What does that mean? It means I was able to provide some intelligent information that supplied someone with some basis of understanding of the subject of tractors. So when Jesus said “I am the light of the world, what kind of ‘light” was He calling himself using our definitions that we have seen so far? Do any of these apply to the definition of spiritual light? I do not believe that Jesus walked around the earth glowing in the dark. No, Jesus was not a physical light emitting rays of light everywhere He walked. Jesus was a person who held all knowledge and all understanding and was providing spiritual information for others to learn. So while Jesus was here He gave what He knew to others so that they could HEAR it and begin to SEE and understand these spiritual things that He taught. The Bible tells us that Jesus uttered things that were kept hidden from the foundation of the world. Jesus revealed mysteries about the hidden things in the Kingdom of God (Mat 13:11). This is why, he called himself the light of the world. Jesus brought a new perspective to understanding God for all people to see. So shining a “light” is giving information, knowledge and understanding to other people in the eyes of God. God holds all knowledge, all understanding and therefore is the source of this light to everyone. Later, I will give you scriptures to back all of this. Right now I just want to introduce you to a new definition of light and shining the light to others as being the teaching of the truth of God’s Word.
The Definition of True Light and False Light!
Because we have a better definition for what “light” is, we can now begin to see that there is certainly more than one light being present in the world. If I possess a limited understanding of any specific Bible subject, then I can only provide you limited light on that subject to help you to understand it. What we must realize is that both Jesus and the Bible were utilizing natural terms, descriptions and processes to describe spiritual things that you have never seen. So when we see terms like “light” in the Bible, many times we have to transition to the symbolic meaning and see what else it is referring us to in the spiritual realm. We can also begin to see what is referred to as a true light and how it can give new meaning to what a false light is. A true light would be someone who teaches you something that is absolutely based upon the truth even though it is always a limited view of it based upon their current knowledge. A false light would be someone who intentionally teaches you something that is a lie or contains lies and of course there is a big difference in these two types of lights, however, they both certainly exist in the world even today. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it says at least 30 times that Jesus went around everywhere “teaching” the people, or that He “taught” them. Why did Jesus spend so much of His valuable limited time on the the earth teaching these ignorant people? I think I just answered my own question by how I phrased it, they were certainly ignornat and this is exactly why they needed to be taught the truth. From reading these verses in the Gospel, it is implied that Jesus taught for hundreds of hours over the course of just 3 years. Could this possibly be the way that He was displaying the Trie Light to the world? Could it be that Jesus who held all knowledge and understanding, was trying to get others to see what He knew? I believe this is exactly what Jesus was doing and how perfectly it fits the definition of being the true light of the world. Jesus attempted to illuminate our minds with the words of truth coming from His mouth. Later, I will give you scriptures about the false light, but we will end this lesson here for now. Until next time, I hope you were blessed to learn and hear from God today. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 2“.
A No Fault Religion! A Blameless Sinner Theology!
(Ver 1.1) This is now “Part 7” in a series of lessons on spoken words. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. Man is guilty of one very poor behavior trait that is a major short coming in everyone’s life at some point. It would seem that people like to think that no matter what happens to them or how bad the results, it was not their fault! We have all been faced with the reality of doing something wrong and then being faced with the consequences and suddenly we come up with all kinds of reasoning, excuses and blame shifting of why we did what we did. People would much rather shift the blame to someone else, either God or their spouse, or their children or maybe their boss, or maybe those in authority, or whoever is just available or present. It was because of this reason or that reason, or it was their fault. It would seem to me that people want a God and a religion that alleviates them from any personal responsibility or even accountability to what transpires in their lives. I call this the popular modern “No Fault” Religion, and the “God of the Blameless Sinner Theology” philosophy. If you do not realize it, this is not what the Bible says, it is nothing that Jesus ever taught, nor is it something that you can correctly interpret from the Bible. Let me give you a definition for the term “No Fault” that we have in the world found in the insurance business:
NO FAULT: in which a claimant is compensated for actual economic loss without blame being assigned to a particular party; in which neither party is assigned blame
A “no fault” policy is one that allows for compensation regardless of who’s is said to be at fault. In other words no one gets the blame, no one holds any responsibility in any matter and everything is put back to the way it was before it all happened with no admissions of guilt. This concept has crept into the human life of reasoning and even into Christian theology. In the legal court system they have developed a Latin term that gives some people an alternative way to plead their case. This term is called “Nolo Contendere” and it neither declares your innocence or your guilt, but shifts the responsibility to the judge to decide. In other words the person pleading this way in court neither admits quilt nor declares their innocence. They are in effect saying it was not my fault, I hold no responsibility in this matter. This is just another example of the “No Fault” Religious Philosophy that has been growing in prevalence in the church. However, we need to learn what God says about the situation and our responsibility in every matter and then you will see there is a major difference with God’s approach.
I want to start by giving you an example of this behavior found in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, God puts man in the garden. God tells the man that he can eat from every tree but one. Satan comes along and deceives Eve into eating and then Adam follows her example, and they both are now hiding out in the garden of Eden from God. God calls out to Adam and Adam reluctantly answers. Adam tells God he was afraid and hid himself because he was naked. God then asks him directly, “Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from”. This is Adam’s modern theological response to God’s question:
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Adam obviously shifts the responsibility of his actions to his wife. In other words if God had not given me this woman, I would not have been in this situation. The ultimate responsibility was being shifted to everyone, but Adam. Adam took no responsibility for anything that he had done. It is a classic example, of the philosophy of a “No Fault Religion”! Adam says I did it, but it was not my fault. Isn’t it funny how people do this still today? God then asks the woman in the garden, “What is this that you have done?” and again we see the classic “No Fault Religion” response of the woman:
Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Eve immediately passes the buck to the serpent, it was the serpent’s fault and not mine. If it were not for the serpent, I would not have been deceived. It was his fault and not mine. In this story, suddenly God stops asking questions when he comes to the serpent. It seems God’s is tired of hearing people pass the buck and He starts telling each of them the consequences of their actions. God names a list of things that will happen to each party involved and suddenly there is no more to say. So was it anybody’s else’s fault that each did what they did? Or was this just man’s attempt to shift the responsibility off of them to someone else? Normally this is exactly the motivation for this act of selfishness. If Adam and Eve had not been caught red handed, figuratively speaking, they would have probably never had admitted to doing anything. However, once confronted with overwhelming evidence people immediately start by shifting the focus to someone else to get the judge’s eyes off of them, or so they hope.
In some recent news article in America, I ran across this attitude still being used today. In a local story in one of our surrounding cities, a woman took a gun, that looked like a real handgun and robbed a drug store and got several illegal pills. The woman then calls her mother and tells her what she has done and that she plans on killing herself with the pills by overdosing on them. A few minutes later, her car is spotted by the police and they surround her. After all she had just committed an armed robbery. The woman’s mother had called 911 to report the situation and tell them that the gun that she had was only a BB gun and not a real gun, so please don’t shoot her. Before the police could get this information, the woman gets out of her car and points her real looking gun at the police officers. The officers had no choice but to shoot her. So now the family of the woman gets on the local news and starts shifting all of the blame of everything that happened to the police. They should have known better than to kill an unarmed woman. They should have handled the situation differently. Do you see the pattern of what the family was saying? Was it all the policemen’s fault for protecting themselves and the safety of others and for killing this woman unnecessarily? Does this woman have any responsibility in what happened? Obviously NOT according to her family! Does the family have any responsibility of not recognizing the signs of depression or suicidal changes in this woman’s behavior, Obviously NOT according to the family. According to the family, nobody is to blame except the ones that shot her and that is crazy thinking. I do not understand how people can come to these conclusions and how the news media can even report them as legitimate pieces of news. We live in a crazy world that has things completely backwards.
Let me give you another example, of stupid behavior and thinking. It seems that the family of Michael Jackson is now suing in civil court the doctor that allegedly administered the drugs that killed their relative Michael Jackson. Isn’t it amazing that if Michael had no money that he would not have been able to pay a doctor for dangerous prescription drugs. I do not attempt to justify what the doctor did, however it was not entirely the doctor’s fault. Michael Jackson was a addicted to drugs. He thought that he needed them to perform and that he needed them to sleep. Do you think if there was no doctor present in the house, that Michael would still be alive today? I do not know, but yet do you think that it was just the doctor’s fault and Michael held no responsibility to what happened to him? In my opinion, I would say Michael holds more of the responsibility than anyone else, but his family obviously does not agree with that reasoning.
How can people get any more stupid and still be alive? Do people have any responsibility in what happens to them? Does the Bible say it is not your fault that you are in the mess that you are in right now? Does the Bible put all of the blame for everything that happens to you on Adam, Satan or someone else? Did Jesus ever heal someone and tell them, I’m so sorry this happened, it was just not your fault that this happened to you? If you search and actually read and see what the Bible says on the subject, you will find that is just not the case. People actually hold more of the responsibility of what happens to them, than anyone would care to admit. Let’s see what Jesus said in one example:
Joh 5:14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Jesus after healing this man in John 5, told him “I’m sorry this happened to you, I know it was just not your fault!” No, Jesus did not say this, did He? Jesus actually warns this man that what you do affects what you get in life. Jesus tells the man very clearly NOT to go and intentionally sin again, or his sins would allow or cause something worse to potentially happen to him. There is a clear implication that what happened to him was caused by something that he had previously done in the first place. Isn’t that what Jesus said? What we see in the Bible is a Spiritual Law being spoken of. Many Christians are not familiar with this Spiritual Law even though it governs their daily lives, 24×7. Here is the Spiritual Law that Jesus was talking about:
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
This is a broad statement with broad implications and consequences attached to it. These are the words of the Living God and He tells us very clearly that He will not be mocked! What does it mean to mock? What is mocking? Jesus was mocked at His trial and even as He hung on the cross, the Bible says. The Bible says that Jesus endured words from people saying “Hail the King of the Jews”. To mock someone or something means to ridicule them, slander them, make fun of them, speak words out of your mouth that are the opposite of praise! It can also be the way you say it, that makes it disrespectful. You could say something good in a sarcastic way and this could be mocking someone. It would seem to me that God is at the very least referring to what people say in Galatians 6:7. Isn’t that what God is talking about in this verse? God gives us a farming principle and an agricultural law in direct relationship to what people say. God tells us very clearly that whatever we plant, that is what we harvest in life. You can apply this to things we do, but primarily God is talking about your words. If you read the Gospels you will find that Jesus talks a lot about farming principles, crops and agricultural things like that. However, Jesus was not a literal natural farmer and he was not talking about natural things at all. Jesus was discussing spiritual things in relationship to natural things that we could observe and understand. Do you realize that it is almost impossible for God to discuss spiritual things with people who barely know anything about natural things? In one of the parables that Jesus reveals to the people, he discusses the Sower and the soil. In this parable the soil was of course, the hearts of men. Then the seeds that were planted in this soil were the “Words of God”. We are taught that God’s words are seeds that produce the good harvests in our life.
Did you know if God’s words are the positive seeds, then every other person’s words are also seeds and they can become negative seeds if they are opposite to what was spoken by God? Man was created in the image and likeness of God. Meaning that man was an exact duplication of the God kind of being! The angels of God could look at Adam and recognize God’s spiritual DNA. We were not created on the same level or at the same capacity as God’s ability, but that does not mean we have no power to control what happens in our lives. What is a seed? Have you ever planted a real natural seed in the soil and watered it and watched it develop over time and grow? A seed is a self contained system that has propagative properties to produce postive or negative things. A seed holds properties to replicate it’s kind and produce more of its species. Seeds rarely work by themselves and are dependent upon other factors. Correct soil, light, temperature and water are just a few of the dependencies that many seeds require. All of this is very similar to e the place of words in the world. People say things constantly and most of them they do not mean or even believe will happen. People say “that just kills me”, “I laughed until I died”, “You gave me a heart attack”, and other crazy sayings. If people’s words would suddenly come true, most of the time none of us would be here right now.
If words are seeds that people plant, and these seeds produce crops in your life then what have you been planting? Can you look back on things that you have said in the past and see anything about what you have and are experiencing right now? Maybe, yes and maybe no? Nevertheless, the Bible if you study it correctly never alleviates you from any responsibility. If you die and go to hell, you will not be able to plead it was not my fault. You hold great amounts of responsibility to what happens in your life. If you turn down the wrong street at the wrong time, if you choose to take a flight that will crash, if you go to the wrong side of town, if you eat the wrong foods, if you drink the wrong drinks, if you buy the wrong drugs, if take the wrong drugs or if you do whatever. You see what you choose to do in life matters. Where you choose to go in life matters. Who you associate with in life matters. Who your friends are in life matters. What you eat matters. What you drive matters. Where you walk matters. Where you go to church matters. I’ll go further than that, and say what you think also matters. What you say matters. Your decisions and choices in life ALL have consequences attached to them. Wise choices come only from knowing God and His Word and poor choices come from listening to Satan. The Bible says that those who are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. That also means that there are plenty of those who are not being led by the Spirit of God and they therefore make bad choices in life. Jesus told us that wide is the path to destruction and narrow is the path that leads us to salvation, peace and safety. Now realize that God has set the choices in front of you and you are the one making the choices for your life. If you don’t like what you are reaping right now look back and see what you have been planting! Then change what you plant!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words you can go to “Part 8“.
Getting The People Out of Egypt is Easier than Getting Egypt Out of the People!
(Ver 1.1) God gives us some very valuable information from the Children of Israel in the Old Testament. They spent nearly 400 years living in the foreign land called Egypt, governed by a Godless people who became their masters. Of course the picture is given to us from the New Testament that these things were written to give us patterns of things to come as examples to those in the last days on the earth (1 Cor 10:11). What lessons can we, the church learn from the information given to us concerning the natural nation of Israel? Let’s look at some scriptures in Acts 7 and see a sermon given by the man Stephen.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
God delivered Israel from the bondage of the world slave system of Egypt. God did this by demonstrating a series of great signs and wonders through the faithful service of His servant Moses. So far we have a story with many major spiritual patterns being revealed to us. Egypt is a type of the Word System controlled by Satan. Moses is a type of Jesus Christ our deliverer. Just as Moses was sent to Israel after 400 years of Israel’s captivity, Jesus Christ was sent to the earth after 4000 years of human bondage to the captivity of sin. The people of Israel are representative of the those who are saved who are now members of the church of Jesus Christ. As you read this sermon found in Acts, you can see some of these things being revealed to us. This story tells of Moses being given the Law of God on Mt Sinai and how the children of Israel ignored it.
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Here in Acts 7:39, is the beginning of the key part of this lesson. The children of Israel after spending time in the wilderness, thought it was better to go back into their life of slavery and return to Egypt. All because things got a little tough. This is the title of this lesson, you can get the people out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out of the people is a much more difficult job. What was it that made Israel want to return? Had they forgotten already how much they asked God for a deliverer to free them from their task masters?
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
It’s funny how people see things, isn’t it? These people thought that because Moses had gone up on the Mountain to meet with God and it was such a long time that God did not care about them anymore or maybe God did not really exist. It would appear that they no longer even believed there was a real God. The people all told Aaron to make them gods that they could see. You have to assume that meant they did not have any faith in a God that they could not see. Seems like we still hear that compliant today. You can see that the culture of Egypt was so prevalent within them, they were more comfortable with that old life style and the Old Egyptian ways of worship. They totally ignored all of the great signs and wonders that they had seen God do and wanted to fall back into a system that they had seen was defeated. All they could remember is how they had seen the people of Egypt worship gods that they made with their hands and this was all that they focused on during this uncertain time of trouble. It would seem that their long term memory took over and their short term memory vanished. Maybe they forgot that God killed most of the Egyptians in the Red Sea and there was really not that much to go back to. How do you know what they were thinking, all you can see is what they did. They reverted back to their old lifestyle and this is a major problem found in the church today.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
So the children of Israel, got their way and they made gods that they could see with their physical eyes. They sacrificed offerings to these gods and they worship them. This verse ends with the statement that they rejoiced in the works of their hands. Isn’t that a great way to put what we see in the world today? People make things today and still worship them with their money and their time. Hollywood movies are a great example of this. Oh well, I guess I won’t go there.
Jud 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
I often wonder, why save a people if you know you are going to have to destroy most of them. Thankfully, God is not like people on the earth. People on the earth would not go through that much trouble to bring anyone out of Egypt, if only a small number of them were going to make it into the promised land. However, God would come to the earth and still die for you, even if you were the only one that was going to be saved. You have more value to God than anything. God gave everyone the same opportunity to believe and go into the promise land, because the people did not believe, was not God’s fault. The people of Israel can only blame themselves for not believing God.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
To show you things from God’s point of view, God tells us a secret here in Revelation 11:8. The spiritual name for Israel and Jerusalem, is still Egypt. This just goes to show you how difficult it is to shed your past. God took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but God never really succeeded in getting Egypt out of the children of Israel. You can read this chapter in Revelation 11 and see that this is speaking about a coming prophetic event during the time of the tribulation. So you can pretty much still see that even then, God calls Israel the spiritual Egypt.
We all have pasts and things we use to do. We all have had experiences that we would have rather not gone through. These are the patterns of the Egypt in our lives. What the church should learn from this lesson, is that new converts into the body of Christ will always be drawn back to what they know in their natural past. Until a new Christian grows up spiritually and matures, they are extremely vulnerable to the deception of the enemy. There will always be times in every Christian experience where it will appear that you are going through a wilderness type journey. When in these spiritual wildernesses, you will find yourself, many times asking where is this God that saved me? It is during these times that strong church leadership and mentoring will be required. Just as you should not give birth to a natural new baby and expect them to feed themselves, new Christians need special attention also. In order to continue to grow in spiritual things, people need to continue in the Bible and their personal relationship with God is essential. The encouragement from a Christian mentor, will go a long way in helping new Christians make it into the promise land. When times of adversary come, and you are tempted to go back to your old familiar ways, spend time with God and God’s Word to find direction and purpose. Seek the face of God, like Moses did on the Mountain Top. Renew your mind with the Word of God and eventually, the old ways will not be desirable. Keep walking and do not give up, the wilderness does not last forever. Pretty soon the wilderness will appear as only a distant memory that helped to make you stronger. Only you can make the choice to not try to return to Egypt and die in the wilderness. What’s on the inside of you?
The TOP 10 Reasons Jesus Christ Came into the World?
(Ver 1.4) Many times we study the Bible and only see one perspective, because that is where our focus is. Our minds, our preconceived thoughts and prejudices can cause us to miss what the Bible actually says. People’s Bible study approach is very much like my approach to proof reading my blogs. Many times I type what I think I should say, but when I go back and reread it a few days later, it turns out what I typed was not actually what I had originally intended. Also, many times my typing errors are missed, because I read what I thought I typed and not what it actually says. All this does is prove that people can look right at the words written on a page and still not ever tell what they exactly said or meant. Students in school prove this everyday with their textbooks. This is why I believe that many times people do not see what the Bible actually says either. They see what they think it says and ignore what it actually says and they end up missing what God wanted to teach them in the frist place..
I have already blogged on the fact that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. God purposely becoming a man can cause many people to stumble. The Creator becoming a part of His creation, that just boggles many people’s minds. However, God did this and you either have to accept it or choose to reject it by your onw freewill. Today I want to discuss some of the top reasons that I have found, why God did this. What does God and the Bible say, were the top reasons for God’s personal appearance on this planet? If you think it was just for one reason, you would be greatly mistaken. God rarely does only one thing at a time for a single threaded purpose or plan. God is a highly complex and intelligent being that can accomplish many things with one simple act. We just have to be smart enough to read and find out what these were and then why God said that He came to visit us. While I do not profess to know every reason I will give at least 10 of the top reasons that I have discovered from the Bible.
1. To Die
I believe the number one reason why Jesus came to the earth and was born a human man, was so that he could die. Did you know that it is impossible to kill God? God is a supreme spiritual power and it is impossible to eliminate God from existence. But, that does not mean that God as a man could not die a normal physical death. It is pretty obvious that Jesus proved that after hanging on the cross. When Jesus said it is finished, He fulfilled His number 1 purpose for coming into the world. His death accomplished more than you can imagine right now, but read this verse:
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of Jesus, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Jesus Christ was born a human male on the earth so that he could taste death for all of us. The Bible says that it is appointed unto every man, once to die (Heb 9:27). In becoming a man we can clearly see that God did not intend for Jesus the man to live on the earth forever or to set up a natural kingdom or rule in this dimension of time. God specifically came to the earth in a very temporary capacity, on purpose with the set goal to die after 33 years of being present as a man. Death is also a separating force that terminates covenants. You can learn this by reading the words of Ruth, when she says “Until death separates me from thee”. If God wants to die on the earth, you can conclude that He wants to end whatever covenants that He was previously tied to. I know that is not a popular teaching, but it is a logical deduction based upon the facts established in the Bible. You do realize that the living mortal man Jesus of Nazareth did not establish a New Covenant with anyone while He was here in His mortal physical state? You see the New Covenant was implemented by the risen from the dead Jesus Christ. The Risen Jesus is now an immortal and omnipotent spiritual being and only He can implement a new eternal covenant that never existed before. This is a fact that you rarely hear taught in church. Jesus Christ is the first born from the dead and the heir of everything (Heb 1:2). What is an heir? An Heir is only someone who inherits what someone who died has left. Uh oh? Who died? What was left? Who are the heirs? You see why the Bible is so difficult to understand for most people? The Bible is more complex than most understand.
2. To Save Sinners
I believe the number two reason Jesus came to this planet in a physical form was so that He could save us. We of course are like everyone else and we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Even though we are not really worthy of salvation, God chose to save us anyway. I have heard many people in the world say we just want what we are deserved. In other words in their minds the government owes them something and they deserve to get it all just because they belong in this country. That is an attitude that is based upon pride and error. You do not want what you are deserved, you are far better off asking for mercy.
1Ti 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Sin was a separating force from the righteousness of God. God had to do something with the sin problem of man, if we ever were to have any hope. God does this by becoming the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God’s own personal blood was shed to pay the price for our sin. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb 9:22). It also goes on to say that the blood of natural bulls and goats cannot take away the sins of the world. So it required a higher price and only the blood of God Himself could satisfy this price.
3. To Save That Which Was Lost
This reason I will probably not be able to elaborate on fully in this lesson. Many will read this next verse that I give and think that it is talking about the previous reason, but I do not personally think that is what Jesus was talking about. Jesus did tell us that He was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Mat 15:24). So we do understand that people are spoken of in the Bible as being lost. What I think is that it was more than that, which Jesus was talking about in this next verse.
Luk 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Did you notice that this verse does not say, “Those Who Were Lost”? Why is that important? Why is that necessary to see? What was lost? What must be saved? Many just think we the people were what was lost and that is the only thing that God came here to save. That of course is a very narrow minded focus on what God is capable of doing. Let me answer these questions by asking you a question. Why is it necessary for God to create a new heaven and a new earth? You should really give that some serious thought before you try to answer that question. Could it be that is what was lost? I only buy a new car because something happened to my old car, either a wreck, or just old age and it died. Some people trade cars like they buy new underwear or socks, but God is not this way. You have to realize that there is a major problem with the old, if God implements a new anything. I mean think about it, can’t God ever create anything that lasts? Is He not God? It would appear that something happens to the old heaven and the old earth that causes God to create a new physical and spiritual realm. So I do not deny that people are also lost. In 2nd Corinthians 4:3 it says “If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. But, this word can mean “destroyed” or “perishing”. So while you could say people are lost, you actually find this statement:
Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
You see you can find more scriptures about people having been reconciled back to God in the New Testament than you can find scriptures that speak about people being lost.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
So the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ’s death is that we have been reconciled back in right relationship with God. I think I will leave the rest of this discusion to a future lesson on the subject.
4. For The Resurrection of the Dead
God told Adam, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said that in the day that you do, you will surely die. That of course represents the poor choice that Adam made that perpetuated death upon the entire human race. Death ruled man, man feared death, death is an enemy to man and God came to solve the problem of death. Here is a scripture verse that helps us to see this:
1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus Christ is called the “Last Adam” and because the first Adam brought death into the world, Jesus was able to come as a second man to end death’s domination over us. You see death was a separating force that kept us from God because of Sin. Adam sinned and sold himself into the bondage of sin and Christ came and paid the cost for our redemption with His blood. It is an awesome work of God that He has accomplished. The immortal God becomes mortal and dies so that the mortal men and women in the world can become immortal and live with Him forever. It’s all a part of God’s great exchange offer. Exchange your life for His life and you become the winner!
5. To Undo the Works of the Devil
I hope that you do understand who the devil is? I hope you also understand that Satan is not on God’s payroll and does not work for God. You see God has the power to tell Satan what to do, but yet is this the way God is? Is God pulling all of the strings in heaven and causing everything in the world to happen exactly like He wants it to happen? You see I do not think so. You do understand that the Sovereign God is able to give man “freewill” by His choice and design? If you do not understand that man has a “freewill” you do not understand that it was you that chose to get out of bed this morning and not God. If you think that God controls what you do every day, then you need to come to understand the Bible with greater clarity. Let’s keep going and look at what the Bible says about Satan:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Both of these verses speak of God attempting to “destroy” the devil or the works of the devil. Why would this be necessary, if God is in control of the devil already? You see the problem that some seminaries teach, don’t you? The term “destroy” does not mean to obliterate into non-existence as you would think it does. It means to “loosen”, “dissolve”, “undo” or “reverse” the actions of the devil. In other words Jesus came to undo the consequences of something that Satan directly caused. I hope you understand the concept of “cause” and “effect” found within the physical sciences. I think I first learned this concept in a High School Physics class, that every effect that we can observe always has a root cause. For example, when you see waves in a pond, you can deduce that something was thrown into the pond to cause the waves. It is not a hard concept to grasp. What you have to ask yourself is what were the effects of Satan’s work that God had to come personally to reverse? This is a tough question to answer in this lesson, so we will continue on.
6. Jesus Came and Died, So that the Holy Spirit Could Come In and Abide
This is a simple truth, but yet very important to understand. Without Jesus’ death we would not have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us today. Of course the Holy Spirit is only in those who have received Him and not in everyone. God does not force His entrance into the spirits of anyone. Here is a verse of scripture that tells us something that Jesus said to us personally:
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and will open the door, I will come in a sup with him”. So Jesus said I will come inside, if you open the door to your house and let me in. This is a symbolic representation of the heart of man. The comforter residing on the inside is a benefit, that nobody possessed before Christ died. Jesus told us that it was better that he go away so that he could send us the Comforter (John 16:7). While Jesus was here in the flesh, that would have been really cool to see. However, Jesus clearly tells us that it is better the way we have it now than the physical Jesus when He was here. You see a physical Jesus was the manifestation of the omnipotent God of Creation with limitations. Jesus could only talk to a limited number of people at a time. Jesus could only say one thing to everyone at the same time. Jesus had to eat, sleep and do other business, just like we do every day. Jesus was God with severe limitations and restrictions. If you do not understand that statement, I’m sorry I do not have time to explain it. Now that every Christian has God on a personal internal level, they have a teacher, the guide, the comforter and a true friend on the inside that cam speak to everyone independently and say something different to each of us at the same time. That is the benefit of the Holy Spirit over the physical Jesus.
7. To Fulfill the Law
Jesus made several statements about the law that are very profound. One of them was that heaven and earth would pass away but the law (God’s Word) would never pass away (Luke 21:33). This would indicate that the Word of God is something that is eternal. What does it mean to fulfill something said? I believe that it means to perform that which was spoken.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
God’s words are prophetic and contain information about coming events. God tells us that the “End is declared from the Beginning” (Isa 46:10). God therefore knows the outcome even before He started. God always recorded the outcome in the Bible for us to see before it actually happens on our timeline. Before God did anything, God spoke and then it happens. Jesus spoke repeatedly about the words of the prophets being fulfilled while they were walking about. Jesus declared that everything written about him would be fulfilled. We can therefore logically conclude that Jesus came to fulfill the Words of God that were prophesied about him.
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
As you can see the Old Testament Law of Moses is said to be words that describe Jesus and what He will do and accomplish. These are very important things to note.
8. To Reveal the Hidden Wisdom and Words of God
The Natural Nation of Israel and the Natural Jews have held the Words of God for thousands of years and yet they still do not understand what they say. Jesus tried to teach as many who would hear the truth, but not very many people actually grasped the truth. What you must realize is that the Bible was written in a manner that concealed information making it difficult for natural men to understand. I believe that Jesus came to give us understanding and teach us the truth. Now that Jesus is raised from the dead, I believe this understanding has been made available to us by the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Mat 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
God has recorded many of the hidden wisdoms of God in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Jesus came and taught about natural things in the form of parables that revealed vastly profound spiritual truths, yet most of the listeners did not understand them.
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
You can go into many of the verses in the New Testament and see what Jesus revealed to His disciples. Jesus went through the Old Testament starting with Genesis and showed these followers that He was written about on almost every page. All of this was secrets hidden from the plain view of man. I call this hiding the truth in plain sight. God used many techniques to disguise the truth, but yet it was right there for us to see. Did you know the term “mystery” only occurs in the New Testament? While God wrote the mysteries in the Old Testament, God did not specifically tell anyone that they were there. Jesus came along and read the scriptures and could see and understand the hidden secrets in the Word of God, since the Author of the Word was inside of Him. Jesus took these secrets and opened them up for people to see and after He was raised from the dead the disciples finally got it.
9. To Build a New Spiritual City
Jesus Christ became the chief cornerstone to a new spiritual City of God, called the New Jerusalem. This spiritual city reflects a new beginning, with a spiritual people who are called those who are righteous in the eyes of God. This organized spiritual structure is a new spiritual family of God and many of the old family members of God’s previous family have been omitted. That is not very good news for them.
Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
You see even as Solomon built God a temple in Jerusalem as a type and pattern for the future spiritual work of the One that is greater than Solomon, Jesus came to the earth to become the builder of a new name of God. As the Son of God, a son’s responsibility is to marry and carry on the family name.
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
God tells us very clearly that each of us in the church is a “Living Stone” in a “Spritual House”. Do you understand this type of building project? Probably not, but yet God is using natural things to describe a spiritual structure made up of people. This new spiritual house is the Bride of Christ, called the New Jerusalem in Revelation. If you want to learn more about that you can go and read my blog on that subject, “The Bride of Christ Revealed“.
10. To Divide
Here is my reason number 10 for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. This is of course a controversial reason for the coming of Jesus Christ, because it is not widely taught nor understood by many. As you read this statement that Jesus makes, it would appear to contradict what the Bible says in other places. Let’s just read and see what Jesus said personally about coming to the earth:
Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), yet here in Luke Jesus said this is not why I am here. That is a pretty radical statement being made by the Son of God. God says I came to divide the earth and not to bring peace on the earth. What is God talking about? If you have read my other blogs you may already know the answer, but I will tell you again briefly. On the 4th day of creation God divides Day from Night and gives the Sun to Rule the Day and the Moon to Rule the Night. The Night is a 12 hour period of darkness, the Day is a 12 hour period of Light. These two separate divisions are symbolic representations for what Jesus is talking about in this verse in Luke. Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal 4:2). Jesus is called the “Light of the World” (Jo 8:12). Jesus is called the “True Light” (Jo 1:9). Jesus is called the “Day Star” (2 Peter 1:19). Jesus is called the “Bright and Morning Star” (Rev 22:16). All of these are synonymous terms for the Sun that produces light on our planet. Jesus came into the world as the spiritual Light of the World and His Word causes illumination in the hearts of men and women so that they no longer live in darkness. Being children of the light and children of the day, we are the ones that have been divided from those that remain in the darkness (1 Th 5:5). All of this is a division that is taking place in the spiritual realm. God is dividing those who belong to Christ from those who belong to Satan. The end result is said to be completely different for both of these groups.
Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Jesus speaks of two divisions of people in this one basic statement. Those that are righteous go to a realm of life everlasting, and those that are unrighteous to everlasting punishment. Two different results, two different people, two different divisions. This was one of the key reasons Jesus came to the earth and God declares it. You can choose to believe it or reject it.
The Spiritual New Birth! The Importance of Learning Spiritual Things in the Bible!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in an essential basic Bible study series on the subject of Savlation and the Spiritual New Birth of God.. So many bloggers on the internet want to ignore the real important eternal spiritual things of God and want to only focus on the temporary natural things that mean very little. Because they think carnally they have been blinded spiritually to the things that God wants to teach them. I hope that I am not talking about you. Today I want to discuss a Bible Basic Truth that every Christian should already know a little bit about. This is the subject of the New Birth, a subject that totally revolves around spiritual actions of God and not the natural thoughts of men. What you should see when you study the Bible is that God gives us natural things as patterns for us to understand the hidden spiritual things. Of course if you do not understand these natural things, you will not understand the spiritual things either. Here is the challenge that God throws down to us in 1 Corinthians:
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
How natural are you? We are all a little bit natural and many are more natural than they are spiritual. God is very clear when He states the problem we are faced with in the church today. We have many people teaching spiritual things and many people that are just not able to grasp it because they are not able to understand it without getting the knowledge past their flesh and minds and into their spirits. People want to figure out God using only their natural human minds and reasoning and God says your mind is incapable of understanding anything about His spiritual things. The more natural thinking you are the more difficulty you will have with understanding anything that is spiritual.
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Every new Christian starts as a spiritual baby in Christ. Just as natural babies cannot eat steak and the food that grownups eat, baby Christians have trouble digesting anything that has great substance and meaning to it. Have you ever noticed that kids and children often times think they know more than they do? They like to pretend that they are highly intelligent, even teenagers tend to think they know more than their parents.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is why many people even in churches today are unable to understand anything about the spiritual things that other people teach. Jesus made a definite requirement to enter into the Kingdom of God. What does it mean to be born again?
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
This is a classic example of a spiritual teacher trying to teach something to a natural thinking man. Jesus is attempting to discuss spiritual things and this man in John 3 wants to ask a natural question. Nicodemus asks Jesus how a man when he is old can enter back into the stomach of his mother. To Nicodemus it was a good question, but to Jesus it was just a clear indication that this man did not understand what he said.
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Jesus tries with another statement to explain the process. I would doubt that you fully understand this scripture either. Jesus is not speaking of Water Baptism in this verse and I would bet that most people think that is what He is talking about. Jesus is comparing two different births, one natural and one spiritual. When you are in your mother’s womb, you are surrounded by water. When her water breaks, she knows it is time to deliver. Jesus is comparing this natural event to the spiritual birth process. Again Jesus tells us that unless a man is born naturally and spiritually you will never make it into the Kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We can again see the comparison being confirmed in this next verse in John. Jesus tells us very clearly that being born again has nothing to do with the flesh. To be born again is a spiritual birth process and something that happens inside of you. No one can observe it when it happens, but they can observe the changes that it makes in you externally. This verse represents a spiritual law being revealed to us. Whoever is born of the flesh is just that, flesh! But, whoever is born of the Spirit, they are now a new spirit.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
You see the spiritual birth process dramatically resembles the natural birth process, but yet it is completely different at the same time. Both birth processes were initiated by planting seed. The natural seed of a man is called sperm and it impregnates a woman and a natural child is born. This natural seed is called corruptible seed and this is directly compared to the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Everyone that becomes a Christian does so as a result of hearing God’s Word.
1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
You see these people in Corinth were disputing among themselves, again thinking naturally and carnally and missing the spiritual things of God that Paul was trying to get them to see. This is the same chapter that Paul said earlier that he could not talk to them about spiritual things because they were still baby Christians. Paul reveals a part of the spiritual birth process in this verse. Paul planted the incorruptible seed of the Word of God into the hearts of the people and Apollos came along and watered it to get it to grow. If the people understood any of it, it would eventually begin to grow and produce fruit unto God.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
You may not fully understand the process of being born again, but yet you can still participate in it and learn about the process later. God designed a specific plan and a specific process for getting men and women born again. This process is actually outlined in this verse in Romans. It seems to start with a preacher being sent to the people. The preacher tells the people about Jesus, what He has done for them and the people can choose to believe it and to accept Jesus as their Savior. It is not a long or complicated process, but yet it is also very profound. Salvation is a system based upon Words and Faith. If you have ever read any of my other blogs you know that I say some pretty new things about these two subjects from the verses found in Bible. God’s Word System of Salvation is vastly criticized and ridiculed by those who think naturally and do not understand it.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
This verse found in 2 Corinthians speaks about the new birth. God informs us that we have become a new creation. This of course is a creation within the spiritual realm of God. The term “new creation”, means we are now something that has never existed before. We are something “fresh” and “brand new”. Being born again spiritually, gives us a new start, a new beginning as this verse says. The old things, the old ways, the old behavior and the things we use to do have now passed away or vanished. You could say the old you was buried and the new you has been raised to life. The Old Man was natural and carnal with a self centered focus. The New Man is a person that sees things differently and has a new spiritual perspective on life and others around them.
When God says “All” things have become new, you have to understand what the term “All” means in this context. It does not mean everything as in an all inclusive new you. While the inside spirit part of you is new, the outside physical parts of you are still the same. The body still wants the same foods you ate before you were born again. The flesh still wants to do the same things that it has always done. Then there is the mind and you have the same mind that you always had. You still have the same memories, the same experiences, the same way of thinking and all of these things are part of a spiritual growth process that begins when you are “Born Again”. God tells us in Romans 12:2 that “we should not conform to this world’s ways”. He then tells us “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. To renew your mind is a lengthy process that involves you learning spiritual things that will allow you to grow and mature in Christ. Just as children take many years to mature physically, so it is with spiritual babies. They need time to learn and understand the new spiritual things that God wants them to learn.
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
What we learn by reading the Bible is that there is a growth process. It starts with the Word of God and will end with the Word of God. The milk of the Word represents the basic concepts, ideas, facts and information that provide you with the foundation for your spiritual beliefs. Most of the time, these concepts are not as simple as you would like them to be, however you keep drinking them in until you grow enough to mature. As you mature you will be able to grasp more complex and advanced topics in the Bible. These are not always easy to digest either, but yet if God gave them to us, then they have a purpose for us to know and to understand.
This has been a comprehensive overview of the New Birth process. This is a spiritual reality that occurs when you accept Jesus as your Savior. What God has done in the natural is a direct pattern for what God has done in the spiritual realm. If you can learn and understand this process, it might help you to share it with others.
If you would like to contiue reading in this series of lessons you may go directly to “Part 2“.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How to know that I am saved?
The Hidden Jesus in Genesis! Jesus Revealed in the Hidden Patterns of Genesis!
(Ver 1.5) Jesus makes a very profound and awesome statement in the Gospels while He was speaking to the people of the natural nation of Israel. These are such tremendously important words that we (Christians) need to grasp and fully understand what they say and what they mean. Please read with me this statement spoken by the Almighty God personally to humans:
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
A witness is someone who testifies in court of law. A witness in a court of law is someone who comes in and testifies about what they know, what they have seen or for something as an expert that is relevant and pertains to the case in question. An expert witness in a court case is someone who can speak with a certain level of authority on the specific related subject about the case. So God’s claim in this verse appears to indicate that the Bible is an expert witness for God’s case that He is presenting to us about the existence of Jesus Christ and His true identity. We should be able to clearly see what God is saying about the purpose of the Bible. God claims that the Old Testament contained hidden information about who Jesus was and what He is going to accomplish before He was done. 
Jesus also clearly informed us that we needed to search the scriptures to find this information. If we are required to become a “Sherlock Holmes” type of Christian doing a search of the written word in order to find these facts, that would mean that this information is not always clearly presented on the initial surface reading. This would also indicate that the information about Jesus was purposely hidden either from someone or for someone like us to find. For example, why do parents hide Easter eggs for their young children? Is it to protect the candy from being discovered? No actually it is more for the fun of seeing their children search for them with eager expectations of finding them. The purpose of hiding eggs is not to keep the children from ever finding the candy but it does simply create a challenge for them that provides the parents the pleasure of seeing the excitement derived from their discovery. This is a key concept that is needed to fully grasp about the words found in the Old Testament. The Bible contains literally many hidden secrets about Jesus and these concealed clues were placed there by our Heavenly Father for us (His children) to search and discover.
The Law of Moses was given to Israel on Mt Sinai and they carried these words for many hundreds of years. The Jewish people preserved them and cared for them and then when the author of the book appeared before them in the flesh they killed him. Why is this, I asked myself? I can see Jesus in the Old Testament, why couldn’t they see Jesus in the same way? That of course is a really good question to consider. I would guess that it is extremely more difficult to see what you do not know personally exists. For Christians who know Jesus personally, they have a much greater advantage over the people in Jesus’ days on the earth. They did not know Him like we can know Him so it is much easier for us to discover Jesus in the hidden verses in O.T. books like Genesis. The rest of this lesson will be about something that I have blogged on before, but maybe not in this direct context and under this specific title. This lesson will focus on the hidden Jesus in Genesis and I will give you at least three really good examples of Him that maybe you have not seen before. I will focus only on the first two chapters of Genesis and you will certainly be amazed if you can see it. Before, we start, I pray that the eyes of your understanding be opened and enlightened to see God’s truth.
Genesis 1:1
Let’s start with Genesis 1:1, where it says “In the beginning God created, the heaven and the earth”. Did you know Jesus was Hidden in this verse in Genesis by the Author? However, unless you read and study it in the original Hebrew language you probably did not specifically know this. The 4th word of the original Hebrew text is a word that has been completely omitted from the English translation and this one word reveals Jesus in this verse in a very profound way. The Hebrew word omitted in this verse is actually not a real word at all and thus the reason for the omission of a translation to the English language. The translators simply did not understand what to do with it, so they omitted it. This omitted word consists of only two Hebrew letters. These two letters are the “alef” and the “tav”. These two Hebrew letters just so happen to be the very first and very last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Does that help you to see Jesus better now? What I am saying is that Genesis 1:1 should have read “In the beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth”. The translators did not understand the significance and they ignored the word being connected to the name of God.
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
This new information should start to illuminate many spiritual light bulbs inside your heart and mind. You see , here in the book of Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8 Jesus calls Himself the “Alpha and the Omega”. It just so happens that these are also the very first and very last letters of an alphabet, but here it is of the Greek Alphabet. If the translators would have converted these two Greek letters to English properly Jesus would have said “I am the A and the Z”. Now do you see the connection more clearly? Also consider the fact that Jesus was a Hebrew. He spoke predominately Hebrew to the Jewish people. Therefore, when spoken this verse in Revelation could have been written in Hebrew and said “I am the Alef and the Tav”. Since it was written in Greek the Apostle John did the inspired thing to convert into Greek letters from the original spoken Hebrew. The English translators could have followed His example and legally translated it as the A and the Z.
What God is doing is revealing who created the world that we live in. Jesus Christ was the Word of God and He created ALL things that we can see and observe. Without Him was nothing that was made, made (John 1:1-3). So Jesus is clearly identified as the creator God, the “A-Z God” who created everything that was created. This is a very profound and priceless conformation of the identity of the Messiah to be the man Jesus Christ. In the Beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth. That is how this verse should have read, now let’s go find Jesus in some other verses in Genesis.
Genesis 1:15-19 Day 4 of Creation
Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
I want to skip down in chapter 1 of Genesis to the described Day 4 of creation. This day is one of the most important hidden references to Jesus in all of Genesis. I do not profess to know every hidden reference to Jesus in Genesis, but I feel this one is one of the most important to see based upon my current understanding of the Bible. You see on Day 4 of the creation account, God tells us of two opposing lights. What God is doing is speaking symbolically and prophetically in these verses about Jesus Christ and what will be accomplished by His appearance on the earth.
In studying the days of creation I learned that every day of creation represented a prophetic day of man’s future on the earth. Since the beginning of Adam’s creation it has been approximately 6000 years. 6000 years can be divided evenly by 1000 giving us an answer of 6. These 6 equal periods of 1000 years represent a prophetic day in the definition of God’s timetable for man. We learn in 2 Peter 3:8 where God gives us a definition of a prophetic day that is a direct quote of a verse found in Psalm 90:4. God defines that a day to Him is exactly like 1000 years to humans. So the 6 days of creation plus the 7th day of God’s rest turn out to be prophetic days of all of man’s history on the earth. So what happens on the 4th day of creation? God assigns a greater light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night. The greater light is of course a synonymous title for the Sun and the lesser light is certainly the moon. But, God is not talking about only natural things, God is prophesying about two spiritual kingdoms to come. Jesus was born on the earth some 4000 years after Adam and this can be easily translated as during the time of the 4th day of creation. God is prophesying that Jesus will rule the kingdom of day and be the Sun light of our world. God is further stating that Satan (the symbolic moon) will rule the kingdom of the night and all those people that live in this darkness. There are so many scriptures that can be found in the Bible that speak of this profound revelation. I will not attempt to give you them all, but I will go through a few to get you started. You can read other blogs that I have written to find more information on this subject. Or just search your Bible on your phone or computer and look for words like night, day, darkness and light.
Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
In Malachi 4:2 Jesus Christ is prophesied as coming again in a very similar way that was being described in Genesis 1. Here Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness” that will “arise”. In this verse He is not spoken of as the “Son of God”, but here He is in direct connection to being the “Sun of God”. You can understand that God is speaking symbolically again about far greater spiritual truths. These are clues to knowing the truth but we are required to search and put them together correctly with the Lord’s help of course.
Joh 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
Joh 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
Joh 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
In John 1:7-9, the Bible talks about John the Baptist and Jesus and calls Jesus the “True Light” in verse 9. You see if you think about this logically you can see that our sun in the sky is our physical natural true light that rules over the day and the moon represents the opposite realm that rules over the night. This is a direct comparison of the two great lights in the sky mentioned in Genesis 1. In John 8:12 Jesus is speaking and He calls himself the “Light of the World”. He then says that those who follow Him will not walk in darkness (night) where the unstated moon (Satan) rules. You can again see a spiritual reference to a truth that is revealed in Genesis on the 4th day of creation. These opposing truths are called Day vs. night, the Sun vs. the moon, and the Light vs. the darkness. These are all symbolic representations of the hearts and spirits of men and women in the world today. Two spiritual dimensions and conditions that are directly opposed to each other and ruled by opposite spirits. Again in John 12:46 Jesus says, “I am come as a light to the world, that those who believe in me should not abide in darkness”. Jesus says those who do not follow Christ and His ways are those that are walking and living in the darkness and who are ruled by the night and Satan. This CANNOT be speaking of Christians. There is absolutely no logical way this can come close to the truth for those that believe the moon represents Christians. I have heard this belief from several people before, but it just does not balance with scriptures. A Christian is either ruled by Jesus in the Day or governed and ruled by Satan in the darkness..
2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Here we have another great verse that declares Jesus to be the Sun that arises and shines in human hearts to light our spirits so that we can see and understand His truth. Notice the keyword connection “arise” given here that matches what Malachi prophesied about the “Sun of Righteousness”. That is NOT a coincidence. These are all profound confirmations to the 4th day of creation. Notice that this verse in 2 Peter is speaking about previously written prophetic words concerning a light arising in a previously named dark place. We have to search and look for these words and find them, could this be those that we found mentioned in Genesis and Malachi? All you have to do is read it and see what it says about these two lights to see how much is related to what we have observed.
That is part of the difficulty in correct Bible interpretation. The Sun is called by many different names, titles and descriptions in the Bible so we have to be wise enough to see the connections and find them all using God’s help. In Genesis the Sun is called the “Greater Light”. In John the Spiritual Sun was called the “True Light”. Here in 2 Peter the Sun is called the “Day Star”. You do understand that our sun is our closest star to our planet and normally this start is the only one we can see during daylight hours? These are just some of the ways that God uses to hide information in the Bible for us to find. In Revelation 22:16 you can see Jesus being called the “Bright and Morning Star”. This again is a new symbolic reference to the Sun in Genesis 1 and Malachi 4 that arises in the hearts of men. These are all extremely important things to learn and to understand. I hope and pray that was sufficient to at least motivate you to go learn more.
Genesis 2 Adam and Eve
Another way God uses stories in the Old Testament to hide spiritual information concerning Jesus is through the use of typology. These are true natural stories of real natural people, places and things that have greater spiritual meanings attached to them to reveal to us hidden things that we cannot see. Sometimes types and shadows can be hard to recognize and difficult to discover or understand. However, God has given to us some clues in the Bible to help us and to point us to what to look for. Always trust the Holy Spirit to help you in your Bible study. He is the only one that truly knows what it means. In the 2nd chapter of Genesis God gives us the detailed account of the creation of man and of the woman, the law of marriage and the story of the beginning of the first human family on the planet. This entire chapter is a more detailed view of Day 6 of creation described in Genesis 1. Why is this detail information important and how does this relate to the claim of Jesus to be hidden in Genesis? That is a really good question. So here is the beginning of the primary reason why this is so important to know:
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Here is a direct clue from God showing us a direct connection between two different men both called Adam. This verse compares the first created man Adam to the man Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ here is being called the “Last Adam”. Why is that? What you discover when you study Genesis 2, is that the first natural man Adam was a natural pattern for the last spiritual man Adam that was to come. So whatever God did to and for the first man Adam, is what will happen to the Last Man Adam in the spiritual realm. That of course is some totally new information to many Christians and it may be hard to accept at first, but just keep studying and you will see that it is true.
God created Adam’s wife and took her body from his body. You will recall God put Adam asleep and took from his side the bone to create a woman. As a result of what God did, Adam says “She is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words, Eve was called the “body of Adam”. According to the law of marriage given to us in Genesis 2, it says “The man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh”. One flesh is just another way of saying “One Body”. Many people know that the Church is called the Body of Christ in the N.T. and yet they do not know how we became the Body of Christ. We can answer this mystery very easily if we see that by the law of marriage and the pattern of the first man Adam Genesis 2, the church has now become the Body of Jesus by a new covenant of marriage. You can see this very clearly by reading verses in Ephesians 5 about husbands and wives and then God reveals that this is a mystery that concerns Christ and the church.
Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross? He died on that cross and in the N.T. this is often referred to as being asleep (1 Cor 11:30, 1 Cor 15:51). Jesus Christ being dead (asleep) on the cross was pierced in His side by a Roman soldier’s spear. Does this sound familiar to what we read in Genesis 2? Out of His side flowed Blood and Water. These are two powerful elements of our salvation to become His bride. Jesus Christ is the spiritual Last Adam who marries a wife who becomes His Body born out of His side. Because Eve is a woman that births every natural and physical being on this planet she represents a natural type of another spiritual woman who will birth spiritual realities in God’s new covenant family. I have many other blogs that talk about this in much more depth if you are interested.
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Conclusion
These were just 3 of the examples of the hidden Jesus in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. I hope that you learned something and can now begin to see how to learn to search out other hidden references to Jesus in Genesis trusting in God’s guidance. Many times these hidden references are not obvious at all, so we have to search for scriptures and find references, definitions, types and patterns revealed in other parts of the Bible. Jesus told us to search the scriptures, for these are they that testify of Him! The evidence for God can be found in His Word. God Bless!
God’s Word Based System! Are ALL Spoken Words Prophetic?
(Ver 1.1) Today will be another lesson (Part 6) from the Bible on the spoken words of God and man. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. As we read the Bible we can clearly see that God assigned certain men in the Bible with a gift of “prophecy”. These men were called the “Prophets” of God and they wrote vast amounts of scriptures about future events. So a prophetic word is one that could be taken as a future prediction of events to come. I’m really not a big fan of that definition of Prophecy. You see you can very easily confuse the words of “Nostradamus” as being future predictions, but did they come from God? Were they “Prophetic” or were they just someone writing down random thoughts of what they think will happen? I personally do not think they were prophetic or from God. Here is what I believe about prophecy and the realm of time. I believe that God lives outside of the limitation of time and space. The Bible says “In the beginning, God created….”. So we know before the beginning of time and space, God already existed. I believe that God can see all of humanity in a single view from start to end. The Bible says “I make known the end from the beginning”. Therefore, I believe that when God showed men in the Bible what to write about concerning future events, in the eyes of God, they had already happened from God’s perspective and God was just reporting what happened, before it actually happens in our time line. This is of course very difficult to comprehend how this is possible, yet men like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein probably could better see it with many of the things that they have written about, to name a couple of modern day people who think outside of the box. So God’s prophecies are not predictions of things that might happen, they are just news reports of things that have already happened on our timeline. This is of course not predestination either. God did not cause all of them to happen, many times God just knew what men would do and used that for His purpose and plan. There is a major difference in the two perspectives of Prophecy. Every day, economists and people on Wall Street predict where the market is going based upon world events and factors that they observe around them. However, many, many times they are totally wrong so what they say did not come from God and was not prophetic and God did not perform what they said to fulfill it.
The complexities of the Bible are so huge that this is a very difficult subject to teach on. There are many factors and dependencies that we need to be aware of that it is impossible to teach on everything at once. Right now I am primarily concerned with the subject of Spoken Words so that will be my main focus of the rest of this lesson.
A while back I wrote a blog on “Speak to your Rock” and then I wrote a follow-up to that about “Idle Words“. At the very least, it would appear that God is trying to teach men, that what they say has significance to what happens in their lives. So I had a reader ask me this question, “Are words spoken by people prophetic because God showed them what will happen and therefore, they speak it and then it comes to pass in their lives”? Today’s blog will be an attempt to answer this question and hopefully explain what I meant in the other blogs that preceded this one on Spoken Words.
We can clearly see that every word spoken by people does not immediately happen to them. I believe this is by God’s design, if things happened exactly like people say, very few would have made it past a very young age. You see we have many people who say things out of ignorance and they generally do not mean a thing. You have many other people in the world who lie and these words generally do not mean anything. You have many other people who say things as a joke to be funny and these generally don’t mean anything either. Then there are words of slang that have crept into our mainstream that say the opposite than what they normally mean. Michael Jackson use to say “Ilm Bad” when he really meant “I’m Good”. There are just too many examples of people saying things that never happen so how do you balance that with other specific examples of men and women who have said something and it actually happens, exactly like they said? Was it a coincidence or an accident or was it something greater? In one blog I told you about Elvis Presley who was heard more than once to say that he would never out live his mother’s age when she died. Elvis died in 1977 at the age of 42, His mother had died in 1958 at the age of 46. So did what Elvis say cause what happened to him, or was it just a prediction that accidently occurred? You have to at least think about it and see that it is pretty amazing. I also gave you another example of my personal grandmother. She was getting older and did not like to drive her car in traffic. She was over heard by some other family members to say that “Some crazy driver would be the death of me”. One day as she was leaving one of her son’s houses and on the way back home, she pulled out in front of a couple of teenagers who were racing on the street where they should not have been. They broad sided my grandmother’s car and she was killed instantly. So again, we have to ask the question, did what she say cause it to happen or was it just an amazing coincidence? I could give you more examples like these, but I think we should shift focus to the Bible and see what we can find there about this subject. What the Bible says is far more important than any personal testimonies of people you cannot verify what they said.
In the O.T. in the book of Numbers chapter 13, God gives us an example that is very profound and has great significance to our current subject of spoken words. In this chapter, God tells Moses to send out 12 spies into the land that He has given to them. Their job is to look at the land and see if it is good and come back and report it to the people. Moses chooses 12 men, one from each of the tribes of Israel and they go and spy out the land. They then return to make their report back to the people after 40 days bringing large clusters of grapes. The twelve spies were divided into two groups. Ten said that there are strong people and walled cities. Two of them Joshua and Caleb said, “Let’s go up and take it, we are well able”. But, the ten said “We are not able, for they are stronger than we are”. The ten spies said “We are but grasshoppers in their eyes”. The ten spies stir up the majority of the people to believe they were unable to take the land that God had given to them. As a result of the “Evil Report” they began to say “Let’s go back to Egypt, and it would be better to die in the wilderness”.
In Numbers 14, Joshua and Caleb try to convince the people that they are able because God is with them and the defense of the inhabitants of the land has departed from them. What can we learn from this lesson found in the Bible? The Bible says these things happened and were recorded to be examples for us, the church. Two spies said “We can do it” and ten spies said “We are not able to do it” and both of these groups of people got exactly what they said. This is a lesson that you should begin to apply to your life and see how it applies to the things that you say. Review what you have said in the past and see if it is not what you are getting right now!
Let’s look at another example of a Bible story, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. In 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath is a classic Sunday School story of how God used David to kill the giant Goliath. But, how was God able to do this with David and not with any of the other thousands of soldiers in the army of Israel? What was different about David? If you notice when you read this chapter, David was not afraid of this giant and all the other men in the army were terrified. Does this sound familiar with the story of the 10 spies? Weren’t they all afraid of the giants also? If you read this chapter closely you will also notice exactly what David said that made the difference to allow God to use him and not anyone else.
1Sa 17:37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
This is the beginning of a series of positive things that David says. David has great confidence in God’s ability to deliver. David has great confidence in God’s covenant. David says “God will be with me and deliver me from this Philistine”. Isn’t this like what Joshua and Caleb were saying? Can you tell the difference between a good report and an evil report? Both are spoken words, but one says “I will win” and the other says “I will lose”. Does what you say have any bearing on what God is able to do? If you do not understand that it does, you will forever be deceived into thinking that you have no responsibility in the outcome of your life.
Now let’s examine the real battle of David and Goliath. In Numbers 17:43 Goliath who also has a mouth full of words for Israel, starts to speak to David and asks “Am I a dog that you send out a boy with a staff?” Goliath curses David with his gods and tells David what he is about to do to him and his flesh. Can you see this is the real battle? David could have believed what Goliath said and run back home to watch the sheep and said forget this war stuff. Instead, David says this:
1Sa 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
These are the words that permit God to do mighty things. Because of David’s faith in God and God’s ability to save, David continues to speak and declare the end even before the beginning:
1Sa 17:46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
As you can see David got exactly what He said. The stone left his sling and hit the giant in the only exposed spot on his body that was vulnerable and David ended up taking the giant’s head off with the giant’s own sword. As a result of David’s victory the rest of Israel suddenly got religion and remembered the God of Israel and were not afraid anymore. The army of God was victorious over the Philistines that day because of the words of a shepherd boy who would eventually become King. Did David’s words have anything to do with David becoming King? You bet they did exactly that. There are many Bible lessons that speak of things exactly like this. Because you have never looked for them, does not mean they do not exist.
What you discover by digging deep into the Bible, is that the world is based on a word and faith system. God tells us in the Bible that everything we see was created from things that we cannot see (Heb 11:3), these things that we cannot see are words. The words of God became the things that we see around us. If you look at Genesis 1, you will notice the Bible repeatedly would say “And God Said….”. These words that God spoke originated from God’s Spirit and became the things that we perceive with our natural senses. If Words created our universe that we live in, then Words can still change it. Of course are these changes only limited to God’s Words or does the words of others effect what happens in the world? That is a big question to consider. Many religious people like to think that God controls everything that happens in the world. A huge volcano eruption that was God’s work, so they think. A big hurricane, that was also an act of God, so they think. I guess what we need to figure out is, is this what the Bible says?
Jesus Christ is called the Word of God in Rev 19:13. Then in John 1:1 it says “In the beginning was the Word and the Words was with God and the Word Was God!”. So we cannot separate God from His word, they are said to be one in the same. In John 1:14, it says “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” in speaking of God becoming a man in Jesus of Nazareth. John 1:14 gives us an example of how God’s word, by His Spirit can become something natural and physical. So God is His Word and the Word of God is God! God’s Word can also become a physical something that we can perceive with our senses. So far so good?
Then we see Jesus teaching us a farming lesson in Mark 4. The parable given there is about a farmer who throws seeds into different types of soil and some of the soil produces fruit and some does not. There are numerous symbolisms given to us in this parable, the soil is said to be the hearts of man. The birds of the air are demonic forces that attempt to eat the seed so that it will not produce. Finally, Jesus tells us that the seeds that are being planted are “The Words of God” (Mark 4:14). Now let me ask you a simple question, if God’s words are seeds, are all words that are spoken seeds? Is this possible? If you read another parable you might begin to see that it is entirely possible. In Matthew 13:24, Jesus tells us another parable about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is like a man who sows good seed in his field…”. Remember the fields are the hearts of men. The Good Seed is the Word of God. What is the opposite of Good Seed, I believe it would be Bad or Evil Seed. Uh Oh, remember the “Evil Report”? So in verse 25 of Matthew 13 Jesus says “an enemy came in and sowed tares among the wheat”. If you read on you find that the tares have become the children of the enemy and the wheat the children of God. Who is the enemy? Satan would qualify as the enemy of God who has sown the bad seed or evil words into the world. So now we have two different kinds of seed being spoken of, one evil and one good. Those from God are good seeds, those from Satan are evil seeds. I hope that you are understanding that people now have a choice of what to speak. They can choose to speak the “good seed” or they can choose to speak the bad or “evil seed”. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God says “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that you and your seed may live”. Did you notice the reference to seed again? This is a double reference to two different things simultaneously. Seeds can be your children and seeds can be your words. In this verse this is spoken of in terms of blessing and cursing again and we can see more implied references to your spoken words. Jesus cursed the fig tree and blessed the little children with the same mouth. Jesus gave us object lessons of how a mouth can produce two completely different results based upon the seeds that they sow. One was a blessing to the children and one was a curse to the fig tree. So man can choose to live or die by their spoken words. Is this what the Bible says? If you read in Proverbs you find a very powerful truth being spoken of and it says “Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue, those that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”. So did you notice what this verse said? It said your tongue has power and your words are the seeds that produce results, either good or bad. Do you understand this?
So words are seeds that are planted in your heart that produces some result or crop in your life. You can plant good seeds from God’s Word or you can plant evil seeds from Satan. The soil of your heart really does not know the difference. Someone asked me if I thought that your words were prophetic? I would ask you, if a farmer planted a field full of corn seed, is that the crop he will harvest in the process of time? Did the farmer prophesy “corn” into existence or was it the fact that he planted the seed and the crop grew up and produced what was put in the soil. So Words are seeds and produce either the good or bad things that were spoken or planted in your heart? I of course oversimplified this lesson because it takes more than just speaking words to get something to happen in your life. Faith must also be present. Faith is the belief and expectation of something or someone that you do not see or feel with your physical senses. You believe in God and that He exists, even though you have never seen Him, that is faith. You believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead, and that is faith, since you were not there to witness it personally.
What people say with their mouths and believe in their hearts, that is what will happen in their life, either positive or negative. It is the law of Faith. Faith always existed in the world from Adam until now. Galatians 3:23 tells us that “Faith was Revealed” in the New Testament, meaning it was present in the Old Testament, but hidden from man and they did not understand it. So the Law of Faith existed when God told Moses to Speak to the Rock and God said that because you did not believe, you will not enter into the promise land. Moses did not believe, that is the opposite of faith. God told Moses what to do and Moses didn’t do it.
This is why God did not reveal the secrets of the Bible to the Old Testament saints. If they would have figured out how spiritual things worked back then, before Jesus came and provided salvation, we could have been in some real big trouble. God is now revealing how spiritual things work in these last days before Jesus comes back. Those who are spiritually mature will be able to see them and understand them, and those who are still childlike will reject them more than likely. I pray that you have understood these Bible verses and the spiritual laws revealed in them and now can apply them to your lives so that you can get Good Results and you and your seed will Live!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 7“.
Understanding Spoken Words! From the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Leaks!
This is now Part 5 in a series of lessons about spoken words found in the Bible. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading from “Part 1“. God woke me up this morning and spoke to me. I read a guy on the internet and he blogged about God being allusive and hidden and so he concluded that God must not exist. A few minutes ago God woke me up in the middle of the night to convey some things to me about spoken words. People who say God does not talk to them do not know how God speaks so they are not listening to what He says. Today I want to discuss spoken words in the context that they are proof that God exists. Have you ever thought or asked yourself why people are communicators? Humans are social creatures that like to talk. Do you think that if no one was there to listen you would talk so much? What if you were on a deserted island and there was no one there to talk to, would you still talk to yourself or to God? Being made in the image and likeness of God we can clearly see that man was made for a purpose. By the design of God, man was made with the ability to communicate with God. God listens to your words no matter where you are or what you say. There is a direct spiritual connection between your mouth and God’s ear. Since there are billions of people on the planet and only one God, I do not know how He keeps track of everyone’s words at the same time, but He does and it must be easy for Him to do. God tells us in Matthew 12:36 that every idle word that we speak, we will give an account of each of them in the day of judgment. So apparently God has some ability to record and recall every word spoken from every human being that has ever been alive on this planet. Being a computer programmer, that is some amazing demonstration of power. That makes Google look like small potatoes. Google over the last 12 years or so has accumulated literally astronomical amounts of data, but this pales in comparison to what God is tracking in heaven.
Just the existence of your mouth and your tongue proves that someone was there to hear you even when you didn’t think that someone was listening. It goes to a simple debatable point that men sometimes try to make about a tree falling in the forest and no one being there to hear it, they always ask does it still make a sound? You see what difference would the sound be if there was no hearers. The sound would be just waves of energy that go nowhere and mean nothing. Atheist have a problem with answering why we are how we are. How we got here and why we have these intelligently designed features like a mouth that communicates with others and ears that have the ability to hear the sounds that others make. Nothing in the world that has any useful purpose got here by chance or accident. It is absolutely STUPID to think that man just evolved into what we are today. There is too much evidence to the contrary.
I have written hundreds of pages and thousands of words on a blog, why? Because someone takes the time to read some of them. Because I write, proves that you are out there reading. This is a very simple concept and a very profound truth. Because we can speak words, proves that God is listening to them. You might not like my logic or you might just ignore my logic, but nevertheless it is based upon truth.
Jesus taught us that our words have a spiritual connection to them. People do not understand this, clearly they are oblivious to the truth. Words spoken are not meaningless or mindless, even though many words are spoken without any thought given to them. This is what Jesus spoke to the Jews one day:
Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
The heart of man, is the spirit of man. If you do not understand this you should study and use your brain to figure it out. Jesus clearly gives us a direct connection of the words that people speak to what they have in their spirits. You could say what comes out of your mouth comes out of your spirit. Jesus tells this group of people because of the evil that they have abundantly in their heart, it is impossible for them to speak anything but evil. Jesus repeats this statement in Luke 6:45. Good men speak good things because it is what they have abundantly in their hearts. Evil men speak evil things, because it is what they have abundantly in their hearts. This is some amazingly important information, yet people generally do not attempt to understand the significance. Here is another set of words spoken by Jesus about His words:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
This is again some very significant information about the spiritual realm. The spirit has precedence and dominance over the flesh. The only reason your body is here reading this blog is because your spirit is in your body to give it life. To quicken in the KJV Bible means to “give life to”. Why is this important? It is very important because of how Jesus ends this verse. Jesus said “My Words are spirit and life”. Jesus was informing us where the words came from, that He spoke. His words were from God’s mouth and God’s Spirit. Because God put abundantly good things into the heart of Jesus, Jesus was able to speak good things that caused people to live. You cannot separate God from His Word. You cannot separate the Word of God from God either. Both of these are the same person. God’s words are God’s Spirit!
So what does all of this have to do with you and I? If you can agree with these things that I have said from the Bible. How do they apply to the here and now? Since you were made in the image and likeness of God, you can easily make some assumptions that if God’s words are His Spirit, then your words are your spirit. After all that is what Jesus said, from the abundance of what you have in your spirit, your mouth speaks. Jesus is described in the Bible as having the “Sword of the Spirit” coming out of His mouth. This is just another way to say what Jesus said in John 6:63. The sword of God’s sprit is His spoken words. The sword of your spirit is also the words of your spirit and what is abundantly in it. Many people in the world, utter curse words and blaspheme God’s name in every other sentence. This represents what they have abundantly in their hearts. Whatever you have abundantly in your heart is what will leak out of your mouth, this is a law of God and the way things work and connect to the spiritual realm from the natural realm and vice versa. Your mouth produces words that originated from the spiritual realm. These words are a result of whatever you put in your spirit, good or bad. In Proverbs God said this:
Pro 18:21 Death and Life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Those are some of the strongest words found in the Bible about the words that come out of your mouth. This verse in Proverbs tells you very clearly that your tongue has power and as a result of what you say, you either live or you die. Please keep this in mind and learn what God is trying to get you to see. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can continue with “Part 6“.
Understanding God’s Circumcision of the Heart!
(Ver 1.2) This is of course a potentially explosive subject of an extremely controversial nature. There are well over 100 verses in the Bible that have a related topic or subject. I will of course not be trying to speak to all of these verses. What I will be attempting to do is focus on God’s typology from the O.T. and how it applies to the spiritual realm in the N.T. The Bible can be very complex, God can speak of natural things and spiritual things and call them by the exact same names. This makes Bible interpretation very difficult for many people and causes a great number of people to be very confused. Today’s subject is a key example of this point. Circumcision is normally thought of in natural terms only, but we soon discover that God gave us this natural example to teach us of something that we could not see with our natural eyes. Here we go with today’s Hot Topic, the Circumcision of the Heart. Let’s start by looking at an Old Testament prophecy and see what it says:
Deu 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
If you can read and see what this verse declares then you will better understand the verses that we will look at next in the New Testament. This verse tells us that God will do something that we are unable to do. This verse is not speaking of your physical heart, it is speaking of your spirit. In this verse God says I will circumcise your spirit. This of course is a symbolic spiritual operation and not a physical operation. After you are born again your spirit is uncovered, enabling you to see spiritual things. We’ll probably talk about this more soon, but notice this is an Old Testament verse so it has to be a prophetic future event. It also mentions your heart or your spirit and your soul and your flesh or body is the implied reference of circumcision. This helps us to see that man is a triune being made in the image and likeness of God.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
As you can clearly see in these two verses in Romans, God is contrasting and comparing two different groups of people. Both are referred to as being Jews, but one group is said to be circumcised by God and the other group by the hands of men. What do you think this is talking about? I’m sure if you do not want to accept what it says, that you must have already created an alternative interpretation. What we discover in the Bible is that, God initiated natural circumcision in the flesh way back with Abraham. This was an outward sign of the Old Covenant. Of course this was only a male practice and not done to females. This was not something God did personally, you do understand that, don’t you? So down through the centuries, the priests of Israel would perform this ritual to the male child on the 8th day after birth. This is the circumcision done by the hands of men that God is speaking of and comparing it to the real circumcision. God says very clearly in Romans 2:28 and 29 that these are not the true Jews. As you can see that is an extremely unpopular verse of scripture in many churches. Of course I added the word “True” before Jews in order to introduce a qualifier or an adjective to distinguish one kind of Jew from another kind of Jew spoken of in the Bible. So you may not totally agree with my adjective, “True”. You see God calls them that have been circumcised inwardly of the heart and the spirit to be the “real” Jew. God does the inward circumcision in man’s spirit and this is a fact whether you are male or female in the natural realm. What God does in the spirit realm is the Real Deal and everything else that man does is just a temporary patterned type of the real.
When God says something is “inward” and describes this in relationship to the terms of “hearts” and “spirits”, God is revealing a world that we cannot normally see with our eyes. Unless God gives you a vision into the spiritual realm, you are limited to your natural perception of reality. You can of course learn about the spiritual realm of God, by correctly observing what God teaches us in the Bible. The Bible says that God is a Spirit (John 4:24), have you ever seen God? The Bible actually says no man has ever seen God (1 Jo 4:12). So God is speaking of a Spiritual Realm or Dimension that is different than the natural realm that we live in here. I would venture to say that there are many Christians in the world that must not know this.
So why did God give Israel the Law and all of these outward practices that they have done such a poor job at keeping? I believe one reason that God gave Israel the Law was to prove to man that he was incapable of keeping it. Meaning God recorded the law for man to see God’s level of expectations and His requirements to obtain or earn righteousness by works and no man has ever fulfilled these requirements, except for Jesus Christ.
Rom 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made un circumcision.
We can again see in Romans that God declares that man could achieve righteousness of his own works if he was able to keep all of the law of God. But, since everyone has broken at least one law, God declares that you are guilty of breaking all of the law (James 2:10) So as a result of breaking the law, God says your outward physical circumcision has been rendered useless, you have become like the un-circumcision. So apparently the fact that you are circumcised in your flesh has been superseded by a spiritual requirement that you were not aware of.
Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
These are the words of Stephen speaking to the natural Jews on trial for his life as witnesses came before the elders and priests and lied to them about the words of Stephen. God further confirms that those who are judging Stephen are not the True Jews that God is looking for. God did not care about their fleshly signs of the Covenant of Old. God was using Stephen to look into their hearts and see that their spirits needed this circumcision done by God’s hands. You do understand that both Stephen and Paul were circumcised in their flesh and they counted this as unimportant. I guess I should change that, they saw a need for a greater circumcision done by God to be more important than that which was done by the hands of men. You can also learn that this circumcision involves your ears also. Did you know your spirit is connected to your ears? The Bible says “Faith comes by hearing”. Faith is a spiritual force and a factor that comes from hearing the truth of God’s Word. The truth can be easily rejected, as evidenced by the number of denominations in the Christian body. Evidently part of God’s circumcision results in the ability to hear the truth. Men can still choose to reject it and thus we have such a vast array of writings about what the truth is.
Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
This is another verse that declares the church to be the “circumcision” made without the hands of men. This of course is a spiritual circumcision done by God. This verse informs us that God has cut off the body of the sins of the flesh. What is this talking about? Just because we become a born again believer in Christ, we still have the same body that we did before we were saved. So God must be talking about something symbolically that occurred within us that has not occurred in those in the world. If you do not know what I am talking about, I would be concerned that I am not saved. You see Christians should be becoming more and more spiritually aware as they grow in Christ.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spiriit, that we are the children of God:
God is a Spirit and if you are born again the Spirit of God has now come into your spirit on the inside of you and He now is the witness to the fact that you are a child of God. Isn’t that what this verse is saying? Apparently according to this verse, Christians are suppose to be spiritually alive and aware. If you have become more aware of spiritual things and less aware of natural things, then you are a Real Christian. If you have more concern with things about your body, than you do with your spirit, I would be very concerned. God gives us a fact that the circumcision of the body is a removal of the dominance of the flesh that every non-believer still experiences. People in the world are more concerned with how they feel and how you make them feel than they are about you personally. This becoming spiritually aware is the circumcision of the body from the spirit of man done by God. God gives you the ability to focus on what is more important. God gives you the ability to focus on eternal things more than the temporary things of this world.
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
What are these things that you can see being referenced in this verse? You can see your face in the mirror, you can see your food on your plate. You can see the house that you live in. You can see the car that you drive to name a few things that God said that are not that important. What are the things that you cannot see that God said were eternal? If your body is not eternal and God said you are, then you must be a spirit being that will live forever somewhere. Within the body of every human being is a spirit being that will exist somewhere forever. God is a Spirit and He will live forever. Every spiritual being is eternal. Did you know that the only thing that you will take with you to heaven or to hell is your experiences and memories on the earth. You will get a new body eventually, but that is not the body you have now. So what are the eternal things that you should be concerned with? I believe it is your job to get as many of your friends saved as you can. I believe it is your job to tell everyone that you can about Jesus and what He has done for them. These are the eternal things that you can take with you. Thank you for reading my Bible study on the circumcision done by the hands of God.
The Book of Ruth, Types and Shadows Revealed
(Ver 2.1) This is “Part 5” in a series of essential Bible lessons on “Understanding the Book of Ruth”. We have explored a lot of information, but have conceivably left out a lot of information at the same time. It is almost impossible to fully cover any subject in the Bible, because no one knows everything about the subjects in the Bible, except for God. I am a firm believer that God created this book of the Bible with an infinite number of thoughts and ideas, words and phrases, subjects and topics that are so well connected that it near impossible to discover them all in a human lifetime. I have already given you a significant amount of evidence that the type of Ruth appears to correspond to the spiritual characteristics of the church of Jesus Christ called His bride. We have also seen evidence that Boaz appears to be a type and “the” pattern representative of the spiritual savior and kinsman redeemer named Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There are a lot of Christians who do not understand these hidden types found within the Old Testament patterns. There are even some preachers who teach against these symbols being Christ and the church. I have heard several internet bloggers and teachers that attempt to convince us that the natural nation of Israel represents Ruth as the Bride of Christ. The claim proposes that only natural Israel can represent the woman Ruth who will be married to Jesus. These teachers further claim that since the Bible says the Church is the Body of Christ, they also call the church the husband to Israel. What they do is take one truth found in the New Testament and fail to balance it with other truths correctly. That is a major problem for the source of confusion.
I am saddened how people can be so ignorant and come up with such wild and crazy theological theories. These types of theories have such broad holes of contradictions within them and these can be easily seen if desired. But people do this and Satan enjoys the confusion that is caused in the church. Opinions and theories like these, do not hold water when analyzed correctly using the Bible. If you have not read this series of lessons from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“.
First of all, we need to remember that Ruth was a Gentile and that is obviously the first problem with this erroneous interpretation of Israel being the bride of Christ. A gentile by definition is not a natural Jew or a descendant of natural Israel. Ruth was a Moabite and a descendent of Lot, Abraham’s relative, but clearly clearly Ruth did not descend from Abraham. While reading the book of Ruth it is very challenging to see and know everything about what applies and how they apply to each of the given types and shadows. God selected truthful natural events, peoples and places in the Bible to represent future spiritual patterns that have or will occur in the future. However, the natural people, places and events do not always fit exactly and perfectly with what we know at this time. So it becomes difficult for some to understand how they all fit completely together. Much like a shadow being cast on the ground by the bright sunshine, a natural object makes a recognizable pattern on the ground, and so it is with Bible types and shadows also. The spiritual shadows found in the natural things of the Old Testament Bible leaves out most of the details of the coming spiritual reality that is causing the shadow. This is just how Bible types and shadows work by God’ design. Shadows always represent broad strokes of truth with a limited direct set of all of the details. But God is very wise and kind to insert enough clues to teach us how they are representative of the real spiritual realm. I hope we all understand this concept going forward. At the minimum please understand a lot of the details were omitted by God on purpose to both conceal and reveal the truth simultaneously. The fact that we do not know everything, we are blessed and should be thankful to God for our ability to see the parts that were revealed to us. Thank you LORD!
Let’s start today’s lesson by listing the primary themes and patterns that are found in the book of Ruth. I will list these in no particular order, and give you a brief description of what I believe they mean and then we will look at how to apply them.
|
Themes Found in the Book of Ruth |
Description |
| Life and Death | Elimilech and his sons all die after leaving Bethlehem. Death is said to be a separating force from the living. Thus represents the end of a covenant/marriage between a husband and wife as is said in many marriage vows, “until death do we part”. Therefore, Death is also the simultaneous ending of two in unity and the beginning of the problem of needing someone to be the answer/redeemer that can only come from someone that is living (Rom 7:1-4). |
| Families | One major theme of the entire book. Ruth is the story of one family’s struggle with life’s difficult circumstances and how a close relative comes to redeem and save them to create an heir so that the family’s name would not be erased without an heir. |
| Hunger and Famine | A lack of food that causes people to do things that they would not normally do under better circumstances. |
| Widowhood | God’s legal separation for a marriage covenant between a wife and her husband (Rom 7:1-4). |
| The Law | The plans and rules of God based upon His wisdom to help man learn their need for a redeemer. |
| Faith and Faithfulness | Faith is believing in something is true even when it looks like it is not true. Faithfulness is remaining loyal to someone or something even though it does not look like the best choice at the time. |
| Humility | The opposite of pride. A humble person always obtains the favor and the grace of God. |
| Wheat Harvests | A crop of intentionally planted seeds. |
| Passover | A specific time of the season for remembrance and the partaking of a covenant meal. |
| Near Kinsman | A relative that is living who is legally qualified and required by law to become our redeemer. |
| Love | The central theme of all the Bible. |
| Grace | That which is given to us freely, even though we do not deserve it. We partake of God’s grace by our faith. |
| Redemption | The act of restoring one’s former sold possessions back into your legal ownership. |
| Marriage | A covenant between a man and a woman. The two shall become one flesh! |
| Children | The primary reason for redemption of the dead brother. A redeemer would marry the dead brother’s wife and have a child. This child would be raised up as the dead brother’s heir of his property. Therefore, this child would keep alive the name of the dead. |
In reading through my list of the primary themes found in the book of Ruth, I hope that you can begin to see how they fit into the spiritual picture of Christ and the church.
Now let’s list the primary people and places found in the book of Ruth and see if we can determine who they possibly represent by looking at the definition of their names from the Strong’s concordance.
|
Name |
Definition of the Name |
| Elimilech | God of the King |
| Naomi | Pleasant |
| Mahlon | Sick |
| Chilion | Pinning destruction |
| Ruth | Friend |
| Orpah | Mane, back of the neck |
| Boaz | Unknown Root Word of unknown Meaning |
| Obed | Servant |
| Mara | Bitter |
| Bethlehem | House of Bread |
| Moab | The Mother’s Father |
BETHLEHEM
These are most of the primary characters and places revealed to us in the book of Ruth. As you can tell by reviewing the list, we still have a lot to learn. Let’s start near the end of the list first with BethlehemJudah. Places are often times used in the Bible to signify a spiritual state or a realm of existence. BethlehemJudah as it is called in verse 1 of Ruth chapter 1 is like the key place where the descendants of the tribe of Judah lived. When Joseph and Mary were about to have the baby Jesus, they were required by decree to go to Bethlehem, because they were of the lineage and descents of King David who came from the House of Judah. Because of this royal command of a census they were required to travel to their home city to pay their tax. Thus Jesus was born in the exact prophesied location (Micah 5:2), even though his parents did not live there. That was a very tricky thing for God to accomplish. If you recall, the Jews thought Jesus was from Nazareth and thus missed the coming of their Messiah. We can conclude or at least assume that the story of Ruth is related to Jesus, because of this given specific location.
Most of the time, the names of people and places in the Bible have meanings attached to them. Many times these names help to reveal the characteristics and types of the spiritual realm entity that they represent. Often times the meaning of names reveals clues that are definitely important to understanding the meaning of the typology in the story. Judah is a Hebrew word that means several things and has vast implications attached to it. Judah comes from a word that means “to throw with your hands”, it also has implications of reverence and worship as in to “praise”. In other words to “worship” with “extended hands”. Bethlehem as we have already seen means “the house of bread”. We can see that the word “house” means a family of relatives. The term bread means “food for the implied life and strength of men”. Are you seeing anything that sounds familiar? Jesus said He was the bread of life (John 6:48). So we must be talking about the family of God in this story of Ruth. This would mean that Judah represents the people who praise God, who are part of the city and the family of God.
MOAB
Moab is of course much more difficult to get people to see, because they have really given it no thought or deep study. Moab was the incestuous son of Lot and his daughter. Moab the son of Lot was also a half-brother to his mother. Moab was both the son of Lot and the grandson of Lot and all of this just complicates things. The term Moab means “the mother’s father”. The region of Moab was where Elimilech traveled when he thought there was no food (bread) in Bethlehem. These Moabites were Gentile people who were not in covenant with God and were not the children of Abraham. So we can see that this has an implied meaning of those outside of the family of God. This could be representative of the unsaved world and the all the people in it. Ruth of course was a Moabitish woman and therefore came from the realm of the unsaved to be married in covenant with the Savior and her redeemer. Moab is mentioned more than 100 times in the Bible and most of the time it is not a positive place or reference. Moab is usually a better place to be from than a place to be living in now. We can understand this is a picture of the Bride of Christ. Those who have come out of their Moab and now live in the House of God’s Bread of Life. The type of the church is a very good picture of those who have come out of false gods, to know the true living God. Ruth is a great type of this picture and I believe this is why God put her in this book of the Bible.
RUTH
The name “Ruth” means “a friend”. Jesus picked up on this in the book of John and revealed to us the connection when speaking to His disciples:
Joh 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Jesus clearly speaking to the future church calls them His friends. Do you think this was an accident or a coincidence that Jesus did this? I definitely do not think so. I believe it is a clue that represents His connection to the book of Ruth and helps to identify the symbolic reference to the bride of the redeemer. We know that Ruth exemplified certain qualities in the Bible that are related to those of the church today. The primary quality that qualifies Ruth as a type of the church is “faith”. Ruth trusted in a God she did not yet know and God came through for her above and beyond all of her expectations. Next, the quality of “faithfulness”. Faithfulness is related to faith, but yet still different. To be faithful to your spouse is what Ruth was to Naomi and eventually to Boaz. The third quality of Ruth that qualifies her for the type of the church is “humility”. The true church should be humble in their attitudes and come with respect and reverence towards their Savior and Redeemer. Humility is the opposite to pride, and pride was the downfall of Lucifer. By remaining humble before God we are qualified to receive the grace of God.
I want to add a fourth quality. Ruth trusted completely in a religion and a people that were not her people. As sinners we are not in the family of God. We were born naturally as uncircumcised (not in covenant) with God people. But Ruth saw something in this family that was different than how she was raised and she followed her mother-in-law into this path of becoming a part of her family. The Jewish family of Naomi became her family. How does this pattern fit the church? We should know by reading the New Testament that the New Covenant began with only Jewish people. The 12 disciples were Jewish, the 120 in the upper room in Acts 2 were all Jewish, the apostle Paul was Jewish, etc. So when God moved to save the Gentiles, they all had to trust what these Jewish people were telling them was true. Wow, I think that is amazing. I thank God for the Jewish people that spread the message of Good News to everyone in the world.
BOAZ
Boaz has a name that has no direct definition attached using Strong’s definitions. But the BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs) says it means “fleetness” and the NASEC says it means “quickness”. This appears to indicate a person who is fast in motion, reaction or response. But, I believe the best description of Boaz comes from his personal title descriptions. These seem to help us identify his spiritual position within the story in precision. We saw earlier that Boaz was called the Kinsman Redeemer. That means a near relative who has the legal ability and responsibility to redeem. That is exactly what Jesus is. Jesus left heaven and became a man just like one of us. Because of Jesus’ unselfish acts of kindness and love we have an unmerited opportunity for salvation made available to us.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
We can clearly see in the N.T. that it talks of Jesus being the redeemer of the church. He has bought us out of a situation that we could not solve ourselves. This was exactly Ruth’s situation in the O.T. As you recall Ruth was from Moab and we have found that this represents the unsaved natural world.
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
The church is said to have been bought with a price and we have become His property from the purchased price of His shed blood. This is exactly the pattern of the transaction that took place in the book of Ruth. Boaz redeemed the property of his dead brother and also bought the woman Ruth to be his wife in the transaction. This is what God did, and it was God’s idea, God’s plan for redemption, and God’s system of salvation. To humans it does not make much sense, but to those who can see , it is a great and wise plan. Boaz is called a near relative, Jesus you could say was our near relative. Because Jesus became a man, like one of us, that qualifies Jesus to be our redeemer. Boaz demonstrated love, kindness, grace and extends favor to his future bride when she is unable to do anything to save herself. This is also a perfect picture of Christ and the Church. By Grace are we Saved through Faith.
The Marriage of Boaz the Jewish Brother to Ruth the Gentile
While the Bible is very complex, it does present us some clues to the relationship of Jesus and the church. There are specific verses found in the Bible that declare the Gentiles will trust in the coming Messiah. Ruth obviously trusted in Boaz enough to lay by his feet on the threshing floor. Ruth put her confidence in her redeemer and this was a picture of church to Christ.
Isa 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
This verse in Isaiah is referring to Jesus Christ, who is the picture of Boaz. In relationship to Jesus, He is mentioned to be the “Light of the Gentiles”. We can easily see how this fits with the picture of Ruth. So while the name Ruth is not directly mentioned in the Bible, the type of Ruth is mentioned in verses like these that I am giving you. Here is another one that is applicable:
Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
The Root of Jesse is again a reference to Jesus Christ our redeemer. The reference is given to us in this verse that the Ruths of the world will seek after Him. In reading the story of Ruth, you notice that Ruth goes from a poor widow field laborer to a woman married to one of the richest men in the city. Do you think Boaz’s rest was good for Ruth? How does the wealth of Jesus compare to that of Boaz’s money and possessions?
Mat 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Speaking of Jesus, in Matthew, the Gentiles put their confidence in Him. This is the church to their redeemer. Isaiah 11:10 is also quoted in Romans 15:12 and declares that the Gentiles have put their trust in their Boaz. The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son….”. We could say it in another way also, that “God so loved Ruth from Moab that he gave His Boaz to redeem us…” and all I did was change the names to the symbolic names found in the Book of Ruth. We can easily see that Boaz was motivated by love when he did what he did for Ruth and Naomi. Because of Ruth’s faith towards God she is now the wife of the savior and redeemer. A marriage in the Bible is a covenant in the eyes of God and a covenant is a marriage. You can see this revelation clearly by examining verses found in Jeremiah31:32 and Malachi 2:14 to name a couple of the obvious verses that you can find and read in the Bible. So far the picture of Ruth as the church and bride fits with other verses in the Bible that state Jesus is the bridegroom (John 3:29, Revelation 21:9).
ELIMILECH
Elimilech is a very specific Hebrew name that means a very specific thing. The name “Elimilech” means “God of the King”. Right there is where the difficulty begins for most Christians. That is a Hebrew word that has the name of God “Elohiym” joined to the Hebrew word for “King”. This of course has widespread implications written on it everywhere. As you recall from the book of Ruth, Elimilech dies. So who in the Bible is the “God of the King”? David was a popular King in the Bible and the God of King David was “Elohiym”. But I do not believe David is the correct answer for who this represents.
Maybe we should start with who is the real King? Our King is said to be Jesus Christ. Jesus is called the King of kings (Rev 19:16, Rev 17:14). David was told by God that one of his descendants would sit upon the throne forever as eternal King. Jesus also qualifies as a Son of David for this position. So we can fairly easily conclude that Jesus is the King. Who is the God of Jesus? You can begin to see the challenge starting to get much deeper now and much harder to understand. We all should know that Jesus was God and there is none beyond or above Him. The God of the Bible is the only true and living God. We can begin to see glimpses into the complexity of God’s manifested and revealed natures and personalities. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and yet these three are all still One God.
So anyway, Elimilech must represent our Creator God the Father, just using the name’s definition. But how is this possible? It is technically not possible for God a Spirit (Jn 4:24) to die, however if God does not personally die for our sins, our sins are not forgiven. Thus, we have a paradox and a puzzle presented to us from the Bible. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, yet at the same time He was still God in the flesh (2 Cor 5:19). We also know that Jesus said, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Therefore, whatever happened to Jesus, happened to God. This is just basic logic using the verses that we have covered. If Satan and the Jews hang Jesus Christ on a cross, they are hanging God himself on the cross. Do you remember what Jesus said in a parable about killing the “heir” (Luke 20:14)? Jesus tells of a field that has been let out to a husbandman and the owner of the field sends servants to collect of the fruit, but they come away empty. Now, finally the owner of the field sends his son, saying they will respect him, but they do not, instead they kill him because he is the heir of the property that hey do not own but are using temporarily. By killing the Son of God, they think they have possessed the inheritance. Instead, they have sealed their fate.
It is important to note that Elimilech in this story represents God who dies. Through His death a redeemer is now required to save the property that He had owned. The Redeemer is of course also God and His name is Jesus Christ. Do remember what Romans 7:1-4 teaches us? Paul writing to Jewish people in these verses because they know the law, tells them they are under the bondage to the LAW and their covenant with God the Father until He dies. Then in verse 4 Paul gives them the good news (Gospel), that they are now freed from that law because of the death of Jesus on the cross. But, by Jesus having died, the Old Covenant was terminated for everyone that accepts God’s New Covenant righteousness by faith in His risen from the dead “Son” (Rom 4:13). Now the Jewish people bound to the law were legally free to enter into another marriage covenant with someone and Paul informs us this should be the Risen from the Dead LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wow, this should cause a lot of new light to begin to shine within your spirit.
NAOMI
Naomi is called “Pleasant” by the meaning of her name. Since she is married to Elimilech who represent God the Father, then we can conclude very easily that Naomi is an allegorical representation of the people in the natural Nation of Israel and those that were under the law of Moses. Naomi represents the Old Covenant relationship with God. Israel was the female wife of the Old Testament God of Abraham (Jer 31:32). She knows the law and uses the law to try to obtain her righteousness by works. In the book of Ruth Naomi is the mother-in-law to Ruth and she tells her what to do based upon her knowledge of the law to get her redeemer. This again is an exact picture of the early church. Do you realize that the only Bible the early church had was the Old Testament? Jesus taught exclusively from the text from these O.T. books. Peter taught from the O.T. in the book of Acts. The New Testament contains a whole bunch of quotes from the Old Testament. What God did was finally reveal the true meaning of the Old Testament to the church. Before, the church came along the O.T. was a giant spiritual puzzle of information that no man could understand. However, the New Testament is written largely from the revelation given to Paul and the other apostles about the things that explain what the O.T. really means. However, it also gives us a pattern that God can still hide more information for us to discover, even today.
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
As you can clearly see in this scripture written in Jeremiah, God says that His Old Covenant was a marriage to the people of natural Israel. God is said to be their husband, they are implied to be the wife. We can therefore conclude that this is a revealed pattern of the coming New Covenant also. If one covenant was a marriage, the other covenant is also a marriage. The first is to a natural people, and the New is to a spiritual people.
So Naomi was married to Elimilech and Israel was married to Elohim (God). Naomi became a widow after her husband died, and so did Israel. So it still is a little bit difficult to understand, I know. We know that Ruth is faithful to Naomi and this seems to be a perfect picture of the Church’s continued faithfulness to the nation of Israel even today. It seems that the whole world wants to destroy the nation of Israel, except for a few that are controlled by a predominate Christian presence. The hatred towards the nation of Israel is extremely unique among all nations. I do not recall any other nation being so easily maligned and attacked in so many different ways. It is noteworthy to mention that the nation of Israel receives support from the Christians of the world and this is a picture of Ruth. Just as Naomi benefited from Ruth’s marriage to Boaz, Israel benefits from the church’s marriage to Jesus Christ. However, it is still important to note that Boaz was not married to Naomi, only Ruth was in covenant with Boaz and this is how the New Covenant is today also. Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God is in covenant with the Church and not natural Israel. Israel can receive benefits from the church’s relationship, but they are required to be born again and join the same church for salvation as everyone else. The Bible says that Israel is being provoked to “jealousy” (Rom 10:19). What makes you jealous? What makes women jealous? Other women make women jealous. Jealousy occurs when someone has something that you do not have. The church now has a better covenant with God, that Israel does not have anymore and this is the point of jealousy.
Rom 9:25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
God prophecies something in Hosea that is very profound and reveals the coming jealousy of Israel. Israel who were God’s people are now said not to be God’s people. Yes or No? Of course that is what it says, whether you like it or not. The nation of natural Israel who was the beloved wife of God, is now not the wife of God. These are physical vs. spiritual truths being presented to us. God is saying that I will make a New Covenant with a people that were not my people and now they will become my New Covenant spiritual people and my new beloved wife. This is the picture of Ruth and Boaz given to us in this story of love and redemption.
Death and Marriage
Now let’s examine a new aspect that the Bible talks about that maybe you have not seen before. If you recall I said earlier that death was a legal separation of marriages. That means when Ruth’s husband died she was now free to marry another man without retribution or the accusation of adultery. This is a Bible principle and a law found in the Bible that I refer to as the “Law of Marriage”. This is what Jesus says about the subject:
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
These are the words of God himself and they tell you exactly what God thinks about people’s wrong attitudes in the world today. I believe the divorce rate within the church is up to around 50% and that is crazy. So what does this have to do with the story of Ruth, you ask? This is what it has to do with the story of Ruth:
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
In this chapter of Roman God is discussing marriage covenants and He says that a woman is bound to her covenant husband by the established law of God (Gen 2:24). If you recall in Genesis 2, when God created woman (Eve), she came from the body of her husband Adam. God then gave us the law of marriage. “A husband shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh”. So just because you get a divorce that does not solve the “one flesh” part of God’s covenant arrangement. As you can see in Romans 7:2 the wife is joined to her husband as long as he is alive. But, since Ruth’s husband was dead that changes everything. Let’s keep reading in Romans:
Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
So a woman who divorces her husband and marries another man is called an adulterer. So what does this have to do with Ruth, well you have to just read the next verse in Romans to find that out:
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
In this chapter of Romans, God is speaking directly to the natural Jews and not the Gentiles. Why is that important? Because the natural Jews were the people that were married to God in the Old Covenant and if they now wanted to be married in covenant with another man while their first husband was still living, they would be in adultery. This is of course a very difficult thing to think about. God is a spiritual being and it is impossible to kill a spiritual being. That is why God became a natural and mortal man. By becoming a natural human man, God can now experience death (Heb 2:14). As you can see in Romans 7:4 it says very clearly that because Jesus died, they (Jews that know the law) are now legally free to “marry” another husband. This is a picture of the risen Jesus and the New Covenant. Did you realize that the New Covenant is with the Risen from the dead Jesus and not with the natural Jesus who walked the face of the earth as a natural human mortal male? Did you realize that this is an important fact to know?
The risen from the dead Lord Jesus is an eternal being and now a manifested permanent member of the Godhead. So the difference between Jesus the natural man and the risen Jesus, is that the natural man was born of a woman as a mortal man who could die and the risen Jesus was born of the Spirit cannot die anymore. The risen Jesus was born of the Spirit and He is the Immortal God Man. There are some big differences between the two. In Hebrews 13:20 God informs us that Jesus was raised from the dead in order to implement an everlasting covenant marriage. This statement has staggering implications that other covenants not implement by the same Power of God are potentially not everlasting. In fact Jesus claims in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by and through Him. Wow, that is an amazing statement. This would seem to imply angelic beings as well as every human on the planet, past present and future.
I know that Jesus our savior we have a covenant with Him alone. I also know that He was God in the flesh, but yet He was not God in His full Omnipotent Powers, or it would have been impossible to kill Him. Jesus was a man that was able to be killed and that is not God in His FULL Deity Power. So did God die? If God did not experience death then you and I will soon have to experience it and we won’t like the end results. We know that “through death he (Jesus) destroyed him that had the power of death (Satan)” (Heb 2:14). So it is important to note that Jesus died physically and through his death he accomplished many positive things for us. Thank you Jesus
The Coming Wheat Harvest
This story of Ruth is a natural example of a spiritual truth that has occurred and is occurring already in the spiritual realm. We the church are gleaning and gathering in the harvest of God’s spiritual crop of people in the world which is God’s harvest field.
Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
You see in the book of Ruth, the woman works the field to bring in a ripe crop. This is all typological to the story of the Church reaping the harvest of God’s precious fruit that He is still waiting patiently for. There will come a time when the harvest is over and that is a day of grave consequences for many, yet that is the reality of God. Jesus told us in Matthew 9:37 that the “harvest is truly plenteous but the laborers are few”. God is of course not talking about a natural harvest, but a spiritual harvest of people. Jesus taught numerous things about spiritual things, using crops, fields, seeds and laborers. You should go and study all of these and see how they relate to the story of Ruth. I believe you will find them very important to know.
The Nearer Kinsman Redeemer
I would like us to look at the “unnamed” man in the story of Ruth that is referred to as the nearer kinsman redeemer. It will be good for us to stop and understand what the meaning of a “Nearer Kinsman” is defined to be in the Bible. This term “nearer” is referring to the eldest living relative, and most of the time refers to a male that is a related blood brother by birth. We learn this concept in several examples of the Bible. For instance, reading the story Judah and his three sons in Genesis 38. This eldest son Er was given a wife named Tamar, but he died before having children. The next eldest son was given the dead firstborn son’s wife next. He refused to have children by her because it would ruin his inheritance. He died and now the youngest son would have the final chance, but he was not given to her. Tamara seeing this, dresses as a prostitute and has intercourse with Judah the father of her husband. She becomes pregnant and because of this the blood line of Jesus remained intact.
Another nearer kinsman example is found when Jewish religious leaders ask Jesus a question to test Him about the resurrection (Mat 22:22-28). In this test, they create a story of 7 brothers who all share the same woman as wife. Each died without creating a child and then they ask which husband will be married to the woman after the resurrection, since all had her? This again teaches us that the Jewish people who knew the law understood the law of redemption. Each brother from the eldest firstborn, to the last youngest would have married the same woman to raise a family heir. They would have accomplished this responsibility in the order of birth, from eldest to youngest.
The parallel example of the eldest to youngest near relative takes place in Chapter 4 of Ruth beginning at verse 1. It might be good for you to go and reread it to see the details given to us by God. Boaz goes to the gate of the city. This represents the place of government and business. Boaz requests the elders of the city to witness what he must do. Then a man that Boaz recognizes comes by the gate and this is the nearer kinsman redeemer that has the first right of refusal to buy the land of Naomi. Boaz tells the nearer relative that he must buy the property of their brother Elimelech and if he does not, he will do his family responsibility to buy it. But Boaz also informs this nearer kinsman redeemer that he must also marry Ruth the Moabite gentile to raise up a seed for the dead brother. This when the nearer kinsman informs everyone that this will “mar” his inheritance.
The Hebrew word H7843 that is translated as “mar” literally means to “ruin”. This nearer kinsman redeemer believed that by him taking this dead brother’s inheritance it would cause him to lose his own birthright. It is a very interesting problem. When is the first time this situation occurs in the Old Testament? It happens to occur in Genesis 38. In Genesis 38 God describes the story of Judah, his wife and his 3 sons. Judah arranges a marriage for his firstborn son and her name is Tamar. The firstborn son’s name is Er and he died without having any children with Tamar. Judah then gives Tamar to be the next in line kinsman brother named Ono. But this son is just like the nearer redeemer in Ruth and refuses to have a child with Tamar because he would be raising up seed for his dead brother and not for himself. Onan finds displeasure with God for this act, and he dies. There is a third son named Shelah and he is too young for Tamar, and she is asked by Judah to wait until he is old enough to become his wife. But this never happens. It would appear that Judah fears to lose this son also by marrying him to Tamar.
Now we get to Tamar’s righteous deception again. She tricks Judah into thinking she was a prostitute, and she has Judah’s children. One of these twins becomes the continuation of the family line that produces Jesus the Lion from the tribe of Judah. Wow, this child for the dead was the one that carried the family line forward for Christ. Wow! Ok, what do you see in all of this typology? Remember that Ruth was a Gentile that became pregnant to carry on the same family lineage for Christ. Notice, how the Hebrew word that is translated as “daughter-in-law” in the book of Ruth is the same word used in Genesis 38 for Tamar. This is God connecting them together by His word selection, family lineage and repeated pattern. It is important to see the patterns being repeated with the parallels and similarities in these two stories.
Who could this nearer kinsman redeemer represent in our Bible typology examination? I see him as a mystery in the puzzle since he is unnamed. This is a very challenging spiritual person to solve. I have learned to observe what Satan is attempting to deceive us with in the church and the world. By carefully observing Satan’s plans to distract, discount and discourage us from believing in what the Bible teaches us, he causes people to have doubt like Eve. “Has God really said?” One thing I have seen is there has been a satanic agenda that has been extended in the world to try to get people to believe that Jesus our Lord and Savior (God in the Flesh) had physical children on the earth while He was in His mortal human body. The accusation is made that Jesus had a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene and she gave him natural children upon the earth that are still existing today. Wow, this is such nonsense. But it became a huge movie in 2003.
So why would the mortal Jesus not want to take a natural wife and create His own family on the earth? The answer is simply because this was NOT the plan of God. We need to go and read Romans 7:4 again. This verse reveals that the marriage covenant with the church is with the Risen from the Dead LORD Jesus Christ. This is so very important to know. The Risen LORD is now fully deity absent of mortal flesh. He can then legally send His Spirit to live on the inside of each of us (His Body & Bride). This is one of the main reasons why Satan would have never crucified the LORD of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).
We will end this section with this information that is new to many Christians. Why did Jesus say a man must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Did Jesus include Himself in this statement or was he implied to be excluded in the statement because of His sinless life? I believe the statement was ALL inclusive and Jesus spoke of Himself prophesying His destiny to be God’s “FIRST” chosen Son and Heir. You see in Colossians 1:18 where Jesus was called by God to be the “FIRSTBORN from the dead”. God then tells us very clearly why this planned choice took place. God says He was born “first from the dead” in order to give Him “preeminence”. What does that mean? This Greek word G4409 means the first in rank and order.
God is teaching us that before Jesus was the first born from the dead, he was not the first in the order of rank or “preeminence”. Ok, now we are getting somewhere good. Boaz was not first in order when it came to his kinsman redeemer status to marry Ruth. So, they went to another to legalize the purchase of Naomi’s land and the marriage of Ruth. Because natural Jesus refused to make any covenants this indicates there could have been others that were above Him in rank or order that had the right of first refusal to covenant with the church. I believe this could have been Lucifer aka Satan. But the time to rejoice is Satan thought this would cause him to lose his legal inheritance in heaven. Of course that was my opinion and I am still looking to confirm this in the Word of God. It is interesting that most humans and many Christians do not believe in a devil! Let us wrap this section up.
Nevertheless, since Jesus is now “preeminent over and will always remain this way, every other spiritual being that came before Him has been eliminated from claims to us. The church now has their legal kinsman redeemer that will allow us to live forever (Jn 3:16) and have a marriage covenant that will not cease (Heb 13:20). Praise the LORD!
The Heir of the Dead
This was the book of Ruth and while we did not attempt to go into every detail or every type given, I gave you enough details to get you started. I will leave you with this thought. If Ruth does represent the church and Boaz represents the Risen Jesus Christ. Why did Boaz marry Ruth? The primary purpose and responsibility of every kinsman redeemer is to raise up an heir for the dead. So how does this apply to the main story characters: God, Israel, Jesus, and the Church?
Boaz has a son through the Gentile woman Ruth, they called this son Obed, which means “God’s servant”. Who died? God died, Adam died, Jesus died to name a few obvious choices and candidates. Jesus the eternal God Man now resolves two primary spiritual and natural patterns. By Jesus’ death on the cross, God is now free from every previous covenant relationship, whether this was Israel, Adam, or Satan. By the Risen Jesus establishing a New Covenant that is said to be better, man’s eternal separation from God has also been resolved, if you want to receive it. In the Book of Ruth, Ruth has a child that is the heir of the dead man’s family. If Jesus is the husband and the church is the bride, you have to see that Jesus will have a spiritual child through His new covenant bride/wife. This child has to be the Spirit of God, since the church is a spiritual woman and Jesus said that which is born of spirit is spirit (John 3:6). So we can see that the church must be going to have a child some day that will become the heir to everything that is or was in the spiritual and natural realms and the ownership of both of these realms will revert completely and totally back to God forever. We can see a prophetic view of this coming pregnant woman and her child in Revelation 12. From this point forward in Revelation God reveals the end and the demise of Satan’s future and decrees Satan’s destiny from the heavenly Judicial system using the law of God. This of course is all new stuff, so I anticipate it will be difficult for you to accept until you learn more. I would recommend that you not throw it away, just because it is new and different. At least study it and see if it is true. Thanks for studying the Book of Ruth with me. God Bless.
The Book of Ruth, The Man with a Shoe Loose and The Marriage of the Bride! Chapter 4
(Ver 1.1) We are now in chapter 4 of the book of Ruth. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning you should go back and start with “Part 1“. As you read chapter 3 of Ruth you should have noticed that Boaz tells Ruth that there is a closer relative than himself and he will have to see if the closer relative is willing to fulfill the law and marry her. You should remember that the law gave a specific order of precedence for the fulfillment of the requirement of the law. The order went from the closest or nearest relative to the most distant relative and always included the oldest male first down to the youngest male. So Boaz was not the first in the line of living relatives to marry Ruth according to the law of Moses. Therefore, Boaz in chapter 4 goes to the city gate and finds the nearer relative to discuss the situation with him. Boaz at this point must already know his intentions because Boaz has gathered the elders of the city to witness the discussion between himself and this closer relative.
Rth 4:3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
Boaz starts with the good news first. Naomi the widow of our dead brother, is come back and she is selling his property. So far this is a deal for any man that has money to buy it. To own land is a sign of wealth and to own a lot of land is a sign of great wealth. But, that was the good news and not the complete picture so here goes Boaz to explain what else is required.
Rth 4:4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
So Boaz before the witnesses of the elders of the city informs this relative that it is his responsibility and his decision to make. He then informs him that besides them, there are no other relatives that are able to redeem the land of Naomi. This means that they are all either dead or there were just no other living male relatives born in the family.
Rth 4:5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
Now Boaz starts in with the potential bad news. I guess it depends upon your point of view, but it is either good or bad based upon how it will affect you personally. Since Boaz was the younger brother in this relationship, it affects him differently than the older brother. Let’s think about this and how it affects each man. Boaz says that by buying the land from Naomi, they must also buy it from Ruth since she was married to the son of their brother. According to the law of Moses, this involves marrying the widow of the dead so that the family name is not removed from the face of the earth. Whatever son that Ruth and the redeemer has, becomes the heir of Elimelech ‘s land. You see it starts to get a little complicated at this point, since the future heir is now the owner of the dead family’s property, the relative that married the widow has no family or heir. I know this is not technically correct, but yet this is the way that these people viewed the situation. You can see that by the reaction of the closer relative to the news of marrying the widow Ruth.
Rth 4:6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
Did you see what the nearer kinsman said? He told Boaz I can’t redeem this land or marry the widow, because it will mess up my inheritance. In other words everything that he is in line for and everything his heirs are in line for will revert to the dead brother’s family and he would end up with nothing, so he thinks. So the nearer kinsman tells Boaz, I won’t redeem it, so you redeem it. This is of course what Boaz wanted to hear happen, yet the process had to be followed in the law and the procedures must be satisfied in the eyes of God and all legal actions satisfied with the elders of the city who were the witnesses.
Rth 4:7 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel.
Rth 4:8 Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.
As you can see, the nearer relative’s house is now called “the house of him who has his shoe loosed”. In the eyes of the law, Boaz has satisfied all requirements and responsibilities and is now free to legally marry Ruth. Boaz tells the elders and the people of the city that they are all witnesses to the fact that he has bought the property of Naomi and Ruth.
It might help you to understand what just happened based upon another story found in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 38 there is a story of another family who is directly related to our story. The story of the son of Israel named Judah. He has three sons and the firstborn is named, Er. When Er grows up big enough to marry, Judah gets him a wife named Tamar. Remember Tamar? The Bible says that Er was wicked in the eyes of God and so he died very young. Judah then told Er’s brother to take the dead brother’s wife and have an heir for his dead brother, the firstborn Er. But, the Bible says that Onan knew if he had sex with Tamar and had a child that it would be for his brother and he would not get anything. So Onan basically refused to fulfill his requirements and the Bible says that he was found to be evil in the eyes of the Lord and he also died young. So far not a good story, but yet this is how those in the Bible dealt with these matters. Judah tells the widow Tamar to wait for the third and last son to grow up and she would become his wife and then that son would raise up an heir for the dead firstborn. In the process of time, Tamar waits, but nothing happens. Apparently Judah was not a man of his word. Judah’s wife died and one day he went up to the city to do some business. Tamar hears about this and takes off her widow garments and dresses up like a prostitute, covers her face and waits for Judah to come by. She deceives Judah into having sex with her and she becomes pregnant. Judah did not have the payment for the sex, so he left her his signet ring, a bracelet and his staff as collateral security until the agreed payment could be sent to her.
Tamar was not there for the sex or the payment that was promised to her. She was there because Judah had not fulfilled what he had spoken to her and her dead husband, Judah’s firstborn had no heir to continue the family name. So even though her methods were not very admirable her intentions before God were highly commendable. So Judah eventually sends the payment back for the harlot that he could get back his collateral, but they could not find any prostitutes to pay.
Then time passes and three months later Judah is informed that Tamar has played the harlot and has become pregnant by harlotry. Judah is outraged and tells them to get her and she will be killed for her error. So she appears before Judah and tells him that before you do anything, I am guilty of nothing. Here is the father of my child and she shows him, his signet, bracelet and staff. Judah’s reaction is shock and immediately says she has been more righteous than him, because he had not given her to his younger son to be his wife. Like I said, this is not a great or a highly positive moral standard Bible story that you want to teach your children in Sunday School, yet it has great significance to the story in the book of Ruth. It helps to explain the dilemma that the nearer relative was experiencing. Tamar is also a name mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus so it must have some relevance to something we need to know. If you search the Bible, you will discover that the term “daughter-in-law” is not widely used. In fact Tamar and Ruth are only two of four women in the Bible called by this title. So they are directly related and tied together meaning they share some commonalities that are very distinctive. As we continue through Ruth chapter 4 you will see why I went over this story.
Rth 4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.
Boaz tells everyone to be witnesses to the fact that he has bought the land of the dead husband and he will marry the widow wife to raise up the name of the dead.
Rth 4:12 And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
The people of the city now speak a blessing on the actions of Boaz. Did you notice the name of Tamar being mentioned? You see if it was not for the illicit actions of Tamar there would be no Bethlehem or people to witness these deeds of Boaz. There would be no elders of the city, there would be no Elimilech, in fact there would be no Boaz. Everyone present was a descendant of the house of Judah whom Tamar his daughter-in-law bore to him. All of these people recognized that they would not be present if it were not for Tamar and they could foresee that down the road in the future there would be many people born on this planet who would be grateful that Ruth was there to raise up and continue the family name of the tribe of Judah. In fact looking at the genealogy found in the Bible, if not for Ruth and Boaz, there would have been no King David and eventually no Jesus Christ.
Rth 4:15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.
Boaz fulfills the requirements of the law and marries one of the few women in the Bible that get mentioned by name in the genealogy of Jesus our Savior. Boaz is called the redeemer, the restorer of life. and a nourisher. These are all terms that could describe Jesus to us today. The story of Ruth is different than what many people think of when thinking of Jesus and the church. Yet it has many natural patterns in it that are very significant to this spiritual reality. In my next blog I will try to explore more of these patterns given to us in the Book of Ruth.
You can continue reading this series, by going to “Part 5“.
The Book of Ruth, The Marriage Proposal! Chapter 3
(Ver 1.1) We have already seen in chapter 2 where Ruth has found favor in the eyes of Boaz her potential kinsmen redeemer and she has even eaten with him in resemblance to a covenant type meal where they have shared bread. We can tell that Boaz likes this woman and grants her grace beyond all others. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law knows the law and has recognized who Boaz is. In this next chapter we will see that God has orchestrated the answer to Ruth’s problems because of Ruth’s faith. God has answered her confidence in Him beyond her wildest imagination. It is amazing what trusting God a little can do. If you have not read the first part of this series I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“. Now, let’s now look at chapter 3:
Rth 3:2 And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
Apparently, Naomi has some inside scoop on what Boaz is up to. Either Naomi is very nosy or Boaz has been dropping some clever clues in some obvious places. You figure out which one it is. Naomi knows that tonight Boaz will be working late in the threshing floor with the harvest. Of course all of this is symbolic and has meaning. Threshing in the Bible times was the harvest time activity by which the grain was removed from the husk. The husk represented the tares (or false grain) when it was separated from the actual usable good pieces of the plant. It really does not matter how this is done for this story, just the fact that it is being done is the part that is significant to what we need to know. If you study the words of Jesus you find that there is another coming harvest of people in the world in Matthew 13. Jesus informs us that the world is the field and that the wheat is the children of the kingdom of God. The tares are the children of the evil one. So we can see the Book of Ruth is prophetic in nature and speaking of something, an event that is coming soon. You should go and read Matthew 13 and find out the pattern of things to come. Then you will better understand the shadows contained in the book of Ruth.
Rth 3:3 Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
Obviously Naomi knows the law of Moses and tells Ruth to clean up herself really good and dress in her best garments and then to go to the threshing floor to meet Boaz. You can see that this is the picture of the church given to us in Revelation 19:7 where it says “his wife has made herself ready”. But, she tells her not to do anything until after he has eaten and finished drinking. It almost sounds like wait until the party is over and then do the following:
Rth 3:4 And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.
Here is where it gets complicated to understand. Maybe Naomi knows something I don’t, but Ruth is instructed to uncover Boaz’s feet and then to lay down and wait for him to wake up or return to a sober state and see what he has to say and then do what he says. The best that I have been able to figure out is that in Leviticus 18 God tells people not to uncover and make nude certain relatives for sexual purposes. God gives us a long list of individuals including your children and your grand children and says the reason why is if you see them naked, it is your nakedness that you are looking at because they came from you. What we can deduce from this, is that the practice of uncovering someone even partially is for sexual reasons and it is only OK for the husband and the wife. So in effect, Ruth is saying you are my husband, I have seen you naked. I know she only uncovered his feet, but it is a symbolic gesture that he realizes when he wakes to find her there at his feet.
Rth 3:7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
So Ruth told Naomi that she will do what she has spoken and that is exactly what she does. Remember Naomi is the one that knows the law and Boaz is the one that is suppose to follow the law and fulfill his obligation to the dead. So Naomi is in effect speeding up the process and making it happen. It would appear that Boaz is either dragging his feet (figuratively speaking) and not doing what he is required or there is more to the story than we know right now.
Rth 3:8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.
Now midnight comes around and we can assume it has been at least a couple of hours. Ruth must have went to sleep also at the feet of Boaz waiting for him to wakeup. Midnight is a very specific hour. It is the 6th hour of the night, the beginning of the 3rd watch of the night and represents the middle of the darkness. It is interesting to note that this is the hour when people are easily frightened and become scared. It was around midnight when the death angel visited in Egypt and killed the firstborn who did not have the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. It is also interesting to note that in Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the 10 virgins. It just so happens that the bridegroom shows up at midnight and 5 of the virgins had oil and 5 of the virgins did not and were called foolish. So there is some significant parallels being given to us. Jesus Christ is called the “bridegroom” and the church is His bride. We can again see the connection between Jesus and the man called Boaz.
Rth 3:9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
The word that is interesting in this verse, is the word for “skirt”. This word actually refers to the wing of a feathered bird like an eagle and is translated like that many places. It is also used to refer to the hem of a garment or robe. The priests were required to sew tassels on the hem of their garments. Then there is this reference in Deuteronomy that seems to be in reference to an elicit sexual encounter.
Deu 22:30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.
You can see that the man’s father and his father’s wife are spoken of in terms of being one. By the son uncovering his father’s wife he is said to uncover his father. So obviously Ruth must have learned something about the law herself. Boaz wakes up and is startled and asks who are you in the middle of the night. Ruth tells him I am Ruth and you are my near kinsmen redeemer. Now here is the other part that you miss reading the English part of the translation from the KJV Bible. This word “skirt” also occurs in the previous chapter, but is translated in a completely different way:
Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Reading this verse we can better understand what Ruth was trying to say to Boaz. Ruth was telling Boaz you are God’s answer to my problem, spread your wings over me and I will put my trust in you. If this is not a marriage proposal I do not know what you would call it. Wings are spoken of as a covering, and a place of safety in the O.T. Bible like in the Psalms. Many times this is God’s people under the wings of God’s protection. This is the picture of Ruth and Boaz as well as the Church and Jesus.
Look at this verse in Ezekiel and see if this is not what the woman Ruth is saying for her Redeemer to do to her.
Eze 16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
God says to Israel, when I looked upon you I spread my skirt over you. You can again see the reference to nakedness and being unclothed. In association with these words God says I have entered into a covenant with you and you have become mine by marriage. This is a very clear picture of Christ and the church. If you recall in the N.T. the church is said to be clothed with Christ. We wear Christ as a symbolic garment. This is a covenant marriage description when the husband covers his bride.
Rth 3:10 And he said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.
A reference to the kindness of Ruth is exemplified by Boaz. She is also portrayed to be a woman of character and integrity who is not doing things just for her on good. Her thoughtfulness and the fact that she followed her wiser mother-in-law’s instructions all proved that Ruth was a great candidate for a wife. We do not know how old Boaz is, but by implications given he is not a young man. Based upon him potentially being one of Elimilech’s brothers who has already died, we can assume that he is closer to Naomi’s age than to Ruth’s age. Nevertheless, Ruth is commended for doing what she has done.
Rth 3:11 And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.
Boaz says that the whole city knows that she is a virtuous woman. Of course remember we are in Bethlehem, the future birthplace of Jesus. The Hebrew word translated as “Bethlehem” means the House of Bread. Another symbolic term for God’s spiritual house. Boaz commits to Ruth to do whatever is necessary to accomplished what she needed to satisfy his Lawful duty. Boaz has committed to do whatever is necessary to make her his wife. This is a marriage commitment and a verbal contract. Boaz has committed to redeem his dead brother’s debts and to raise up an heir for him, by marrying his dead brother’s son’s wife. This is the law of God, but also the wisdom of God and a picture of Christ and the church.
If you would like to continue this series of lessons, you can go to “Part 4“.
The Book of Ruth, Introduction to the Redeemer! Chapter 2
(Ver 1.1) In chapter one of Ruth we were introduced to many of the characters of the story of Ruth, but not all. If you did not read Part 1 of this series I would suggest that you go back and read the foundation and introduction and all of the information that I covered in chapter 1. I will not normally repeat myself so if you missed it, you just missed it.
So far we have seen that Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem during the time of the Barley Harvest and that they are in desperate shape financially. All of the men in their family have died and they have great needs just to survive. So let’s get into chapter 2 and the introduction of another primary character that will come to save the day.
Rth 2:1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
We are immediately introduced to some new concepts and a new character in the very first verse of Chapter 2. Boaz is described as a near relative of Elimelech, the dead husband of Naomi. This is where it starts to become important to learn and know what the law says. Because of God’s wisdom, the law provided for the situation that Naomi and Ruth now were facing. The law says that if a man should die without leaving any heirs, that a brother or near relative of the dead man was required to marry the widow and to have a child by her to become the heir of whatever was owned by that man who died. This would also mean that the dead man’s family name would not perish from the face of the earth. One of the men that was qualified to fulfill this requirement was a man who just so happened to be a very wealthy man and his name was Boaz. Here is the law of Moses that pertains to this matter:
Num 27:8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
Num 27:9 And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.
Num 27:10 And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren.
Num 27:11 And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses.
What we see is an order of precedence and responsibility being established by the law of God. God declares a specific inheritance order when a man dies. God does this by design and for a purpose, that I will not get into in this blog. Let’s look at the order and analyze it, the order is always from the firstborn son, then the next born son, until the youngest son. If the man who dies has no sons, then his daughters can inherit in the same order from the firstborn to youngest. Next, if he has no living children, then the inheritance goes to the brothers of the man who died, again from the firstborn to youngest in that order. If he has no living brothers you go up the family tree to your father’s brothers, from oldest to youngest. The responsibility is thus passed to whomever is still living in the family from oldest to youngest, to inherit the dead man’s possessions. But, of course it is more complex than that. You also get the man’s debts and you must pay off those debts and redeem them. You just don’t get to take whatever he owned and make it yours, especially if his wife is still alive. Because she was also his and by the law of marriage she was one with him. So she has now also become your responsibility and there is more to it than that also. Here is more of the Law concerning widows and the brothers obligations:
Deu 25:5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.
Deu 25:6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
Deu 25:7 And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.
Deu 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
Deu 25:9 Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.
Deu 25:10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.
This is some very strange stuff, however as you continue to read in Ruth you see that they definitely follow these rules and protocols as the law of God dictates. God says that if a woman is a widow it is up to her husband’s brother to marry her and raise up an heir for his dead older brother. If you recall it was the eldest who inherited everything anyway and the younger son would have had to work for the older son because he would have inherited it all from their father. This was just how it was in the Law. By the younger son refusing to marry the older son’s wife they had legal recourse to take it to the elders and thus the reputation of the younger son who refuses to take his brother’s wife, his name would be disgraced and he would no longer be a person of any significance within the House of Israel. They would change his name to “Him that has his shoe loosed”. We will talk about this more later as we go through the rest of the chapters of Ruth. For now let’s go to verse 2 of chapter two:
Rth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
Obviously Ruth and Naomi are hungry and in need of food. Ruth asks Naomi if she can go into the field and glean to find food for them to eat. Fortunately for Ruth and Naomi God also provided for them in the law of Moses. God wrote a commandment that establishes a principle that we should probably even be following today:
Lev 19:10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
God told the children of Israel not to pick their crops totally bare. Harvest time was a time to go and reap the crops, but it was also a time to leave some for the poor to come and get also. However, this was not a welfare system like a US government type of program. God did not give anyone anything for free. If the poor wanted to come and work and pick the crop to eat, they could eat, but if they wanted to have someone come and drop it off at their feet, they would go hungry. We can clearly see that Ruth had to go into the field and work to gather their food supply. Being a lone individual, she was unable to get rich from what she picked, but at least they could eat and not go hungry. Ten times in chapter two, it speaks of Ruth going into the harvest field to glean. Boaz happens to own the field that Ruth is working in and he sees her and asks his people who is this and they tell him Ruth the Moabitish who returned with Naomi from Moab. Boaz makes some commands and grants Ruth some extreme favor and grace. He commands his workers to help her gather and not to touch her. She is granted the ability to rest in their facilities and to drink from their water pitchers. This Gentile woman has found extreme favor with the right man and she does not even realize it yet. However, Ruth has one quality that exemplifies her beyond any other that might also be gleaning, she is humble. Humility is always the key to receiving grace.
Rth 2:10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
The Bible says “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). This is a Bible law and an established principle for receiving what you need. Boaz speaks further to Ruth and tells her that she has done well to stay with her mother-in-law and to live with a people she did not know. In other words Boaz was telling her that she had made the right choices:
Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Boaz now tells Ruth that she is trusting in the God of Israel. Because she has placed her confidence in the true God, God will reward her. Another way to say this is there are benefits to trusting in God. Ruth left her relatives and walked away from her old familiar life into a place she did not know and she has now found the favor with God. What made Ruth different than the other hundreds of widows that were in the land at that time? Ruth had faith, she trusted God. I really have not discussed applications of any of these scriptures up until this point. I have told you that the book of Ruth contains many significant types and shadows, which are natural examples of spiritual truths. I guess you might have already noticed that Ruth appears to be a type of the church. Those who have left their old lives and followed after the living God, trusting in His grace by faith. Does this sound familiar? It ought to if you are a Christian.
Rth 2:14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
Continuing through the 2nd chapter we see another pattern being discussed. Boaz invites Ruth to eat with him and gives her bread and vinegar. Did you know that in Bible times you did not eat with someone casually, because by eating with them you were entering into a covenant with them. Simply by sharing bread with someone a covenant is established. If you do not understand covenants, this is not something you do with your enemies by accident or chance because it could cost you your life. A covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God so that is why you do not enter into them by accident. Boaz obviously likes Ruth a lot and has decided by this action to enter into a covenant with her, for her to become his wife. After all of this Boaz commands his reapers to grant her even more favor and let her pick anywhere she wants, even from the parts they are working in. The reapers are further ordered to leave handfuls on purpose for her to get easily. I would say Boaz has a plan.
Ruth goes back to Naomi and tells her all the good news that she knows so far. How she met a man named Boaz and what he had said to her. Naomi becomes ecstatic and almost can’t contain herself and says the following:
Rth 2:20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.
Naomi realizes and knows the law of Moses and God. She recognizes now that God has not forgotten them or their dead husbands. It is important to note what Naomi says next about this man named Boaz. She calls him a near kin. That means he is not a distant relative. It could place Boaz in the category of a brother to Elimilech. She then calls him “one of our next kinsmen”. It is interesting to note now that she does not say our next kinsmen, just one of the next kinsmen. What’s the difference? Remember God had a specific order of priority and the oldest always had first responsibility to fulfill the law first. Now here is the introduction to one of the keywords found in the this Book of Ruth that you definitely need to know. The word “Kinsmen” is a Hebrew word that means a “Redeemer”.
What is a “Redeemer”? Obviously a Redeemer is someone who redeems? So what does that mean? It is often compared to someone who visits a modern pawn shop and sells a valuable item for cash. The owner of the pawn shop usually pays them pennies on the dollar for their item in hopes of them not coming back to redeem their item. To redeem your item means you pay the price to get your item back. Does any of this sound familiar? Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, he has paid the price for our sin and bought us back. This is redemption by God from the fact that mankind sold themselves to Satan.
Isa 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
This is God’s message to the church. God declares that we have sold ourselves for nothing and therefore we would be bought back without money. In other words God was not going to pay any money to get us back, but that did not mean it didn’t cost anything. You see Jesus Christ gave his blood and life to pay the price of our redemption and this was more valuable than any money, gold or natural wealth.
At the end of chapter two of Ruth, Ruth tells Naomi that Boaz asks her to only work his field until the time of the end of the harvest season. I really do not know how you can read this story and not see the church and Christ throughout it. Christ owns the harvest field and the church are the laborers that are working to bring in the harvest. There is a coming time of the end of the harvest when it will be over. Jesus said in the Gospels “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few”. Jesus is not talking about a wheat or barley harvest or a natural crop. I guess because the natural Jews do not know the New Testament, they do not see the types and shadows given to them so clearly. It reminds me of a shadow portrait my son had done when he was young. I could look at it and recognize his profile immediately even though it was just an outline and showed no facial details. But, I could do this because I knew him and if you did not know him you would not know who it was a picture of. This is how the Bible is to those who do not know Jesus Christ. Because they do not know him personally, they do not recognize when they encounter a shadow that is projected and points you to him.
If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 3“.
The Book of Ruth, An in Depth Study of the Church and Christ! Chapter 1
(Ver 1.1) I like the book of Ruth a lot. It is a very unique book of the Bible and a story full of types and shadows of the Messiah. The Bible is full of complex hidden information and this book contains some of the keys to information found in other places of the Bible. While the early church started with only Jewish believers and the disciples of Christ, today the church is widely considered to be a Gentile majority. There certainly exists Jewish Messianic believers and they are very valuable in the church, but yet they are a clear minority. These Jewish believers are called the “Remnant” in the book of Romans. What makes the book of Ruth unique, is the fact that the book is primarily the story of a Gentile woman. The life of a woman outside of the covenant of God’s Old Testament family. Why would God put a story of a Gentile in the Jewish O.T. Bible? Why is this significant? What information does it convey and reveal to us? Is the book of Ruth a prophetic statement on events to come? I will be going through this book of the Bible chapter by chapter and then wrap it up with a study of the typologies and symbolism given to us in the book of Ruth. In the entire Bible the name of Ruth only occurs 13 times in 13 total verses. There are 12 times in the book of Ruth and once in the book of Matthew. So other than the Book of Ruth itself, there is no direct references to Ruth, except in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. God must have a special reason for naming this woman in the genealogy of Jesus our Savior. You see in the Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew only 6 women are directly mentioned and only four by actual name. One woman in the genealogy of Jesus is a symbolic spiritual reference. These women are 1.) Tamar 2). Rahab, 3). Ruth 4). the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) 5). Babylon and 6). Mary the mother of Jesus. That is some very unique company, and a very honorable mention, isn’t it? What does Ruth have in common with these other women that God included them all in the genealogy of Jesus? I mean what a mixture of women they are, one is a deceiver Tamar who plays like she is a prostitute, 2) Rahab a woman who actually was a prostitute, 4) Bathsheba a woman who committed adultery with King David. Babylon is called the Great Whore in Revelation. Why mention any women and not all the women? Why pick what seems like some of the worst possible women to include in the Genealogy of Jesus? Both Ruth and Mary seem like saints compared to the others. You should really ask these kinds of questions, if you want to know the truth. God does nothing by accident or chance in the Bible. Every word, every name, every mention has a purpose and is designed to conceal or reveal information. Obviously these women are all mothers, so they have that in common. If it were possible and you could check the mitochondrial DNA of Jesus you would also see that Jesus’ DNA had signatures of each of the women encoded within His DNA. It also appears on the surface that all of the women mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus are also widows. While it does not say that directly about Rahab, we can assume it. It does call Tamar a widow, Ruth is a widow, Bathsheba became a widow. Mary also became a widow. These are interesting little points to keep in the back of your mind. Perhaps we will get into more of the similarities between the women later, but for now let’s concentrate on just Ruth.
Let’s start by listing some of the characters found in the book of Ruth. There is of course Ruth, but she is not mentioned at first. What we discover is the underlying story is about a family from Bethlehem, the same city of the birth of Jesus. We can already begin to see some implied meanings based upon the city of David being the originating place of residence. The story starts with the mention of a famine being in the land around Bethlehem. The book of Ruth mentions that this family of four is forced to move in order to look for food. The head of the family is a man named “Elimelech” and his wife is called “Naomi”, and they have two sons, one is called “Mahlon” and the other is called “Chilion”. The Elimelech family is a family who has descended from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. The book of Ruth starts by telling us that the story occurs during the time of the judges. This would have been after the children of Israel had taken the promised land and before the appointment of Saul as their first King. This would have occurred somewhere around 450 years after Jacob had his 12 sons. We do know that Israel was in captivity in Egypt for approximately 400 years and they wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years. So somewhere after that we can see that there came a famine in the land of Israel.
Elimelech decides to up and move his family to the land of Moab, because they have heard reports of there being food there. Now Moab is a region where the descendants of one of Lot’s sons lived, also named Moab. If you recall the story of Lot, Abraham asks God to spare him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and God did. However, as they were leaving the cities, the wife of Lot looks back and turns into a pillar of salt. Now that only leaves Lot with his two daughters. So the story of Lot is that his two daughters get their father drunk so that he could have children or sons through them and their father’s name and family could continue. Not a very good story is it? It seems like the more you dig into the book of Ruth the more strange things you discover. What you must realize is that if there was no incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters there would be no story of Ruth. So while I do not say incest is good, God can cause good to come from anything that man does, no matter how wrong. So Ruth is a descendant of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters.
The book of Ruth does not actually say how long they lived in Moab, but it implies that it was at least a little while, at the least many years. We do see in Ruth 1:4 that after Elimilech died and the sons married that there was a span of 10 years mentioned. We are not told how long it was before this or after this period of time is spoken of. So Elimilech moves his family to Moab. After a time there Elimilech dies and we do not know why. After this his two son’s find themselves wives to marry from the women in Moab. One wife is Ruth and the other wife is named Orpah and not Oprah! It then declares that after another passage of time, the sons also both die without having any children or heirs for the family. All of this so far is the just the first 5 verses of the book of Ruth and it covers several years of information.
Let’s put into perspective the family of Elimilech and the given time frame of these events. We know that Israel had departed from Egypt, being led by Moses and during this time period in the wilderness God gave Moses the Law. God is establishing a covenant relationship with the natural nation of Israel. God gives Moses the first 5 books of the Bible often times called the “Torah”. We also know that during this time period of Ruth that it was during the time of the Judges. So there were judges who ruled the people of Israel with the help of God’s prophets. Judges represent a legal system that is based upon laws. If anyone did wrong, they would face the judges. Moses had been given patterns of the temple of God, the ark of the covenant, the inclusion of the Levitical priests and the origination of animal blood sacrifices. So what do you think would happens if the covenant people of God would move away from all of this and go and live with a group of people who were not in covenant with God? Could this be the reason they died? I really do not know, but I can make logical assumptions based upon what happened, that it was at least related.
We know from reading the rest of the Book of Ruth that Naomi was familiar with the law of Moses. So they did not move away in ignorance, they moved away knowing what they were doing. However, since Elimilech was a descendant of Judah and not Levi, there were probably no more sacrifices being made for them. Unless of course they traveled back to Jerusalem to the temple and there is no reference to this happening. So Naomi, Ruth and Orpha are in a quandary. A predicament of tremendous proportions. Without any men left in the family they are doomed to a life of poverty and homelessness or either a life of prostitution. Naomi of course is older and is in the worst situation. Naomi tells her two “daughter-in-laws” to leave and go back to their families, thinking they have the best chance of finding new husbands with them. Her daughter-in-law Orpah does that and returns to her family and to her previous gods. However, Ruth demonstrates a different resolve, a different spirit of confidence. Even after Naomi told her that she is too old to have any more sons for Ruth to marry, Ruth tells Naomi, “Where you go, I go, Where You Live I will Live, Your People will be my People, Your God will be My God”. That if you do not realize it, is very strong covenant words for a lady who was not previously in covenant with the Almighty God. Then Ruth makes this statement:
Rth 1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
I made mention earlier that the book of Ruth contains clues to other events in the Bible and this is just one of them. The mention of death as a separating force is the only natural force that is capable of breaking a human covenant relationship. When a man marries a woman, in many ceremonies that I have attended, there is a clause in the vows that says something like “till death do you part”. In this statement, the participants are vowing to remain committed to the marriage covenant until one of them dies. Death is the only legal separation allowed from the law of marriage. Once you have sex with someone of the opposite sex you are legally married in the eyes of God and you are not separated legally until one of you dies. Because, Ruth’s husband had died, she was free from the law of marriage and is now able to legally marry another man. She could have chosen to go back to her family and find another man, but she chose to trust the God of her mother-in-law “Naomi” and the results of her faith was tremendously greater than she could have imagined. Ruth was also married to the older firstborn son of Elimilech, meaning she has a significant advantage over the other daughter-in-law. For Orpah to gain the same benefits as Ruth, would not have been possible according to the law, but we will get into that more later.
Let me briefly talk you through the law of marriage. The law of marriage is given to us first in the book of Genesis, chapter 2. God creates woman, a wife for the man Adam. God makes the woman’s body from parts of the man’s body. Adam saw Eve and said “She is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words Eve was the body of Adam in a different form. God then declares “that for this reason, shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”. That is the law of marriage covenants, between a husband and a wife. Ruth was joined to her husband and the covenant of God, becoming one flesh with him. Ruth was technically under the law by marriage. However, since her husband died she was freed from the law.
Because Naomi had heard that God had visited the people of Israel and that there was again bread in the city of Bethlehem, they return back to Naomi’s former home city. Upon arriving, the people still remember her and are excited to see her, but she is really down and depressed that she left full and came back empty with nothing and very little hope. Naomi changes here name to “Mara” and tells people to call her that because it means “I’m bitter”. It is funny how people will accuse God of doing something that was of their own making. I never read anywhere that God told them to leave Bethlehem, so just because the circumstances didn’t look like they should stay, that did not mean they were suppose to leave. Did you understand what I just said?
So this is some of the basics found in chapter 1 of Ruth. Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem and it is in the time of the beginning of the Barley Harvest. So we know that Naomi had returned in or around the time of Passover, which can occur somewhere near March or April. In my next blog, I’ll talk more about the other primary character of Ruth that I have not introduced you to yet. This character is named Boaz and he is called the “kinsman redeemer” and we will discuss why this is also.
If you would like to continue reading this series you can continue with “Part 2” where we talk about chapter two, the introduction to the Redeemer.
Blessings and Cursing from the Same Mouth, This Ought Not to Be!
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 4 in the series of very important lessons on spoken words found in the Bible. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. The Bible contains some of the strongest language on what people say. Either Christians are not aware of this or they simply ignore it and pretend that it does not apply to them. God says in His Word that it is impossible for Him to lie. We can obviously see that with men and women in the world this is entirely possible. In my earlier blogs on spoken words I talked about the sword of your mouth and how it cuts two ways. A double edged sword proceeding out of your mouths, is a symbolic representation that tells us words have spiritual power. You can speak good things or you can speak evil things. Speaking evil things is much more than just speaking lies, as well as speaking good things is more than just speaking the truth. There is an established precedence in the Bible that spoken words establish blessings and in the opposite realm spoken words can also establish curses. Today I will explore this subject in more depth. Let me give you my foundational scripture reference s from the Book of James, let’s read them carefully:
Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Jas 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
You can clearly see that God is talking about your mouth, your tongue and the words that they produce. It is mentioned in verse 8, with the concept of the tongue being a potential poisonous serpent. That does not sound good, does it? Then in verse 10 it says your tongue can produce both blessings and curses. What are the blessings and cursing that this tongue produces? We are not talking about curse words, those 4 letter words that mature Christians do not normally say, although these could be a small part of what God is talking about. Let’s get a Bible example of cursing something. In the book of Mark, Jesus is visiting Jerusalem and traveling in and out of the city. One day Jesus on his walk, views a fig tree and walks up to it and finding no fruit on it, Jesus does the following:
Mar 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Many people read these stories in the Bible, but ignore the point that is being made. Was the words of Jesus a blessing to the tree or a cursing to the tree? Jesus looks at the fig tree and does not find any fruit on it. I do not believe that Jesus is angry at the tree, but I do believe that He chooses to use the barren fruitless fig tree to demonstrate a very powerful spiritual life and death lesson to His disciples. Jesus does not pray, or ask anyone else to do anything. Jesus simply looks at the tree and speaks words directly to it. Please notice that these words were not positive. The negative words were directed only at the bare fig tree, but they were loud enough for everyone near Him to hear them. The next day Jesus and the same disciples are passing back by the same fig tree and Peter stops everyone and says this:
Mar 11:21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
Peter tells Jesus, that the fig tree which He had cursed was dead. Jesus had just spoken negative words to something inanimate and living and Peter remembered it and called it speaking a curse. Notice that Jesus did not dispute it or deny it. The definition of this word “cursed” in the Strong’s means to “doom” and to “execrate”. To speak words that have a very negative effect on something is a better definition of the word. Jesus spoke some very simple words and said “No man eat fruit from you hereafter forever” and that resulted in the tree dying within 24 hours. Of course Jesus was God and this does not apply to you and me, and if you think that is true then you are wrong. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God came to the earth in His omnipotent Godhead powers. In fact if we study and search the Bible we will find the opposite being taught to us. In Acts 10:38 it says God had to anoint Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost power to do miracles. If Jesus was God in full power of the Godhead, Jesus would not need to be anointed by God, would he? Then in Hebrews 2:17 it says Jesus was made like us, his brothers. Jesus was a natural man and the Son of God at the same time. Jesus Christ the God Man became like the rest of us and chooses to become like one of His creations:
Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
These two verses in Philippians are very interesting. The term that Jesus “made of himself no reputation”, can be taken as He removed or separated Himself from His Deity power. Think about the “reputation of God” and then compare that with the reputation of Jesus Christ (the Anointed). These verses tell us very clearly that God became like a man. He looked like a man, he walked like a man, he talked like a man, he got tired like a man, he slept like a man, he ate like a man and went to the bathroom like a man. If God was here in his full deity power, you would not see some of the things that we see in the Bible. Jesus got hungry and thirsty, Jesus slept, Jesus wept, I mean look at the characteristics of God and see how they change in the life of Jesus Christ. While hanging on the cross Jesus said “I thirst”. Would God in his omnipotent power ever be thirsty? If Jesus Christ was here in the full deity power of the Almighty it would have been impossible to kill him physically, yet we see Jesus dying on a cross. Then there is the temptation of Jesus in the Gospels that I mentioned in the last lesson in this series. Jesus fasts for 40 days so he is obviously hungry and weak physically. Satan tries to get Jesus to do something simple for an Almighty God to do, by turning stones into bread. This is not something that is hard for God to do, is it? Why is this consider a temptation to God the omnipotent? It would only be a temptation if God had stripped himself of his deity power and was here on the earth operating within the limitations and constraints, like a normal human male. Do you understand this?
Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
How is it even possible to tempt an omniscient God? A God who knows everything is unable to be tested or tried like a human yet that is what this verse said happened. Therefore, we cannot believe Jesus was God in His full deity abilities or this would invalidate the truth found here in Hebrews 4:15. If God is God and has the power and ability to create whatever He wants, whenever He wants how is it possible to ever tempt Him? You see in this verse in Hebrews it clearly says that Jesus can identify with how we feel. Because He was tempted in the exact same way that we are tempted, yet He did not sin. Was it possible for Jesus to sin? If it was not possible for Jesus to sin, it would not be a temptation to Him. If He was here as God, it would have been impossible to tempt Jesus with anything. Do people understand that Jesus was tempted in every way just like we are? How is this even possible if He is here in His Omnipotent Glorious Ability? Obviously it is not possible, so what does that teach us?
There are just so many references in the Bible to the man Jesus Christ not being in His omnipotent Godhead power that I cannot give you them all. I will give you another couple of examples of Jesus healing the sick. Was there anything that hindered or kept Jesus from healing anybody? You see if Jesus was God in his omnipotent power, no one would ever not get healed, if that is what God wanted to do. Do you agree? However, we find some conflicts with this thinking in the scriptures. If you read the 6th chapter of Mark you find some very interesting things occur. Jesus is visiting his hometown and place where he was raised as a child. But, when Jesus tries to heal people there, this is what the Bible says:
Mar 6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
So it did not say that Jesus would not heal anybody, it said He could not heal anybody. A mighty work is easy by any of God’s omnipotent standards, yet Jesus is unable to do anything mighty here, so obviously we have a situation that is very hard to explain away. Either Jesus was not operating in His Godhead Omnipotent power or there is a force greater than God that kept him from it. What do you think it was? I do not believe there is any force greater than God’s power so Jesus must have made the decision not to use this power. There are many other scriptures that you should take note of, but I will stop there for now.
The Jewish O.T. Bible says “God is not a man” (Num 23:19), therefore, the majority of the Jews did not recognize Him when He became a man in Jesus. Today we have the same foolish philosophy and reasoning in the reverse being projected that says Jesus was God in His full deity power and this is how He did all the miraculous things that He did. People put God in their religious box and expect Him to abide by their rules and this is a major mistake. Is God still God? If God chooses to do something different than what you like to think about on how God is supposed to act, can He only do that? If God wants to come to earth in the form of a man without using His deity powers in manifestation, can God do that? Is it legal? Is it even possible? I believe it was God’s choice to what He did and how He does it without our input or consultation. Obviously we need to realize that we have a lot to learn.
So let’s explore the flip side of the coin and look at the blessings. A blessing like a curse is a word based expression that someone speaks out of their mouth that results in a positive outcome. There are a lot of examples of this in the Bible and I will give you only a few of them:
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
There is an established pattern of words of blessings found in this verse in Genesis. Can you see how these words contrast with the example that Jesus showed the disciples when speaking a curse to the fig tree? By the law of first reference also called the law of first mention, we can discover that Spoken words from God can contain blessings. Blessing are what I will call “word containers” filled with love, favor, goodness and mercy within them. The words of curses that Jesus spoke were containers filled with poison. Uh oh. I believe we are now learning something very profound.
If God would have said nothing, there would have been no blessing from Him given even if He thought great thoughts about them. What we should realize is that silence is not always a blessing. I just like to call silence “Empty” buckets waiting to be filled. In many service times in churches people stand up for a moment of silence, thinking they are paying honor or respect to someone or something. I have not found a Bible verse to confirm this practice, have you? Could silence be something that Satan wants us to do instead of speaking a blessing over them? Could this silence simply be those empty containers awaiting to be filled with a positive expression? I believe that we can learn a very valuable spiritual lesson from this verse in Genesis. God speaks positive words as full containers of blessing to His children and the result was a positive God given outcome that occurred in their lives or we could also say this was God’s vision of possibility that was being transferred to his creation. I believe that this was the establishment of the spiritual law of either Blessings and Curses from spoken word containers being taught to us. God was teaching Adam and Eve by His awesome example, however, I’m not really sure if they got it.
Let’s move into the 27th chapter of Genesis and see the story of Isaac and his son Jacob. We know that Jacob became the Father of the natural nation of Israel. But, how did this occur, since he was not the firstborn son of Isaac? If you recall the story, I’ll shorten it in order to get to the part I need to get to. Jacob got Esau to sell his birth right for a meal. Later, Jacob’s mother helps Jacob implement a plan to get the blessing from his father Isaac. Isaac comes to his father when he was very old and he brings him a meal and some drink. Jacob is also dressed like Esau and smells like Esau.
Gen 27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.
Isaac is tricked into blessing the younger son Jacob, thinking that he is blessing Esau.
Gen 27:27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
This is the beginning of the blessing, but not the end of it. What we again see is the established pattern of God being passed down upon the generations. Just as God blessed Adam and Eve with His words, Jacob is now getting the words of blessings of his father.
Gen 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
Gen 27:29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
Jacob receives the words of blessings from his father Isaac. Jacob then goes out with the blessing and his brother Esau comes in from hunting and asking for the blessing. But, Isaac is very surprised saying “who are you”? Who was it that I blessed earlier?
Gen 27:33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
If you read this carefully you will discover a principle, it is not as easy to take back your words after they have already been spoken. There are just a lot of Christians who do not have a clue what I just said and how it applies to them. If they say something by mistake they simply think it is OK to start over and do it again. It’s funny Isaac did not take this position or attitude. Isaac knew what was done was done. The blessing was given and it would not be taken back. Like I have said before, your words have more power and significance than you can imagine.
Gen 27:34 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
Esau pleads with his father for him to bless him also. But, Isaac says that it is too late:
Gen 27:35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.
This chapter in Genesis contains some amazing information, if you learn to apply it to your life in the here and now. Words are significantly powerful and can bless others, transfer blessings, transfer authority and ownership, and they are a legal contract in the eyes of God. Like Isaac you should learn to be a man or woman of your word, stand up and stand behind your words. Mean what you say and only say what you mean. Esau did not get a blessing from his father, because the blessing had already been given to Jacob. This represents character and moral fiber that few have in our world today.
There are just so many stories in the Bible about the blessings of God, I’ll just give you one more example from the O.T. This next story is also from Genesis and occurs in the 48th chapter. Joseph brings his two sons to Israel to be blessed. Israel is presented the sons with the older son on his right hand and the younger son on his left hand. The older son is expected to receive the Right Hand of blessing and the younger the Left Hand of blessing. But, Israel crosses his hands over and speaks the blessing upon his grandsons. Again we see a principle that Words are the mechanism of blessing containers being transferred upon these children. But, the hands are also being placed here with great significance and meaning.
Gen 48:20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Joseph was not happy that his younger son got Israel’s right hand blessing. So there must have been meaning and significance to what happened. If it did not mean anything, it would not have mattered would it? The right hand of blessing is intended for the older son and Israel gave it to the younger. The net result was the younger son became a greater people in the eyes of God. So what you do and what you say matters and makes a difference in the life’s of your children. Learn the lessons from the Bible of the power of the blessing and then learn not to curse your children with your the words of your mouth and they will achieve and rise to level of what you have spoken over them. Words are seeds that grow in young hearts. If you tell your children they are nothing and nobody good, that is exactly what they become.
Mar 10:16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
People while Jesus walked the face of the earth realized the potential for the blessing still existed. People would bring their little children to Jesus for Him to bless them. There were those who tried to stop people from bringing their children to Jesus, but Jesus rebuked them and told them not to do this. Jesus said this is a spiritual law and a foundational way of the Kingdom of Heaven. To touch someone and speak positive words of blessings has a benefit that you probably do not fully understand. Children today are growing up and their parents put curses upon them rather than blessings. As a result the children grow up cursed. Your children will live up to your words, either positive or negative. What you transfer into them, is what they will achieve to. What you speak over them, is what they will become. It is a spiritual law found in the Bible.
If you like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 5“.
The Sword of Our Mouth! Our Words Cut Two Different Ways!
(Ver 2.0) I have taught on this subject of the significance of the spoken words of our mouth a couple of times now. Today’s lesson will be Part 3 in the series and I will be talking about something that is completely new and different to many Christians. However, if you haven’t read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“. This lesson will be focused upon God’s usage of the symbolic nature of a “double edged sword” to describe spoken words. If you have read through the Bible you should already be aware of how God teaches us very clearly that Jesus has a double-edged sword coming out of His mouth. We will see verses in this lesson that describe Jesus is able to destroy those who oppose Him with this symbolic sword. This double-edged sword is widely accepted by theologians as a figurative representation of the power of God’s word spoken. If we do not understand this concept, I will attempt to expound next in this lesson on this subject to clarify it and to help us better understand the concept of the power of spoken of words. Let’s start by reading some foundational verses found in Revelation:
Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
God is truly an awesome God! It shocked me a while back when I heard about a group of people in the U.S. that were getting together to form a militia to help God fight the coming Anti-Christ. They were gathering guns and ammo like it would be useful to God’s victory over evil. Where do people get these types of foolish ideas? I really have no clue. These people obviously do not know God, the Bible or understand the omnipotent power of God. This verse in Revelation 19 reveals to us that the LORD Jesus will be sitting on a white horse and He will be able to kill everyone opposing Him, simply by speaking some choice directed words at them. That is a clear example of the power of God in action. God says something and then it happens. Pretty awesome, isn’t it? You can learn concept this from reading the Bible starting in Genesis 1 and going all the way through to Revelation 22. God’s spoken words will always prevail and will always come to pass. Let’s examine some additional verses because the Bible instructs us to establish every truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Mat 18:16):
Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword1 of my mouth.
Jesus speaking to the church in Pergamos, warns them to change or else they will also see the sword of His mouth come against them. We can easily understand that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and that God is not talking about a literal physical sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. 
We must therefore, conclude that this described sword is a symbolic representative for the spiritual force that exists in the power of God’s Spoken Word. I really hope that you understand this concept. Did you notice that God says this figurative sword has two edges? Two edges describes a weapon that can cut in either of the two directions depending upon which way a person swings it. Two edges could could also symbolically mean something else. The words of our mouth can be a blessing to someone or a curse to someone. There exists two possible realms of opposing types of words in the world. In the last Bible lesson we observed two types called “idle” or “lazy” words versus “working” and “productive” words. But there are others like “good” words or “bad/evil” words, “positive” words or “negative” words and words of “blessings” or words of “cursing”. All of these are examples of a sword that can be used for two different purposes.
I find it fascinating that the English word “sword” is the letter “S” followed by word “word”. I believe the letter “S” can stand for “Spirit” and we will learn more about this very soon. The power of any sword or spoken word is always the same. It is non-existent until used or spoken. Therefore the power of any weapon will forever be dependent upon the directed purpose of the user. In much the same way how a natural gun is used in the hands of the shooter, a spiritual weapon can be used for two completely different purposes. The natural gun can be used as a positive weapon to help feed or protect people or as a negative weapon to hurt or rob from people. These are parallel truths concerning the words of our mouth. What I would like to do is give some additional scriptures that help to confirm what I have just said so let’s take a look at these:
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
God is speaking prophetically in this verse about the coming events in Revelation. The wicked one described here is the future antichrist who will soon be revealed. The double edge sword we read about in Revelation in the mouth of Jesus is now called something completely new and different in this verse. The symbolic double-edged sword of Revelation is now defined to be the “Spirit of His Mouth”. This is still the same equivalent description of God’s Spoken Word that is infinitely powerful. God’s spoken word has ALL of the ability to destroy or literally consume anyone who is opposing Him. Do you understand that God’s spoken words are His Spiritual Power released? This is an awesome revelation of something that is found within the character and nature of God the Almighty. God is often described in the Bible to be omnipotent, but what is that makes God this way is what we will explore now:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
You can see a second confirmation that the Spoken Words of God are Spirit! This verse was Jesus speaking to us and He says that His words are this Spirit that quickens. To quicken is an old English term that means to give life to us. God’s words are declared to be a force of life to us. Because of what God has spoken to us we can live. Now recall, what we previously read in Revelation. In those verses God states His spoken Words are something that produces death. These represent the same spiritual power directed two different ways for two different purposes. This is an example of a double-edged sword. A knife can be used to kill someone or it can be used to save someone’s life if used in a wise knowledgeable way by a surgeon. Wow, these are very important lessons to learn and apply to our spoken words.
You will notice if you study the Bible, that Jesus chose His words very carefully and never shot off His mouth with random thoughts. His words were always focused, directed and had a purpose. Much of what Jesus said to people were words recorded by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In John 12:49 Jesus said He was told what to speak by His Father in heaven. How many of us can say that? How many of our words come from the God in heaven? We should learn to become more like Jesus because, God’s words were always active, relevant and important. Now let’s look at what the Bible says about the Power of God?
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
We can now see and learn from another verse about the Word of God. This time God reveals to us that “All” of His Power is in His Word. The Greek written here does not say “His powerful Word” it says “The Word of His Power” and that makes a huge difference. Some translators tried to change the meaning to “powerful” word but the KJV Bible stayed true to the original Greek and preserved it as an accurate truth. Here is the difference, does God’s Word have power or is it His Power? Can we try to think why this is important? If God said I am LOVE it would be completely different than Him saying I have love. I believe this principle is what God was saying to us in Hebrews 1:3 to His spoken Word. I believe that God is attempting to give us a revelation that His Word is His Power and His Power is His Word.
Therefore, we cannot separate God the omnipotent from His omnipotent Word or we could say His Word is God (John 1:1)! This is why John 6:63 said the Words that Jesus spoke to us were from God’s Spirit and they contain His life giving Power for those who received them. Always remember that God’s Words are Spirit! God’s Words are Life! God’s Words are His Power! As we have seen before they are also a weapon against His enemies. So we can all begin to understand that the Spoken Words of God can give life to some that will receive them and can take life away from others who do not accept the free gift of salvation. That is the nature of a double=edged sword. One aspect and application is always positive and the other is very negative. That was a summary of several foundational truths that the Bible teaches us about the Word of God and the Sword of the Spirit.
So how does this apply to us? What good does all of this information do me? Are there any benefits to speaking God’s Word for me? In other words what’s in this lesson for me? We all know that God is all powerful, so how does this power help me? Start by asking yourself this question. Why did God give us a huge book of His Written HOLY Words? Does the written Word of God have any visible power rising out from the pages? Obviously not! Therefore, these written words can only help me if I can learn to speak them. I beleive that only by learning to believer and speak His Word will it ever help us. I beleive this is “one” of the main reasons why God gave us His written Word. God gave us His Word so that we can put it in our minds (Eph 4:23). He also gave us the Word so that we could put it in our hearts (spirits) to believe it. Finally, I believe that He gave us His Word so that we can now choose to put it in our mouths to speak it (Mat 12:34).
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than ANY two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of( soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Let me introduce you to a hidden secret, in the Bible it says God is not the only one with a “two-edged” sword in his mouth. In fact we do not have to think very hard or for very long before we figure out that every created human in the world can open their mouth and speak words either positive or negative. This also includes other created spiritual beings like angels, demons and Satan. All of these beings were created with mouths which emit words that come from their spirits (Mat 12:34). But, this verse in Hebrews says plainly that God’s sword is sharper and more powerful than any of the others that might exist. This verse clearly informs us that the other mouths have power in them, but implies that they are in a limited capacity compared to God’s spoken Words. Do you get this concept?
If man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26), like the Bible clearly says we were, and if God’s Words are sharp and powerful, then our words must have a limited resemblance to His. But, here is the major part of God’s contribution to man, God gave us His spoken words written in a book form in order to permit us to put them in our mouth to speak them. And the Bible says that God watches over His word to perform it (Jer 1:12). Wow, I hope you understand what I just said. The implications are far reaching if you can accept it and believe it.
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
In Ephesians chapter 6, God commands the church to put on the armor of God. 
Each of the armor pieces described to us is a symbolic representation of a spiritual truth of the completed freely given work of God to and for humans. In fact every piece of armor is something that God has already provided to us freely. It is now up to us to make the freewill choice to take each item and put it on. This aromor included the Shield of Faith, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Belt of Truth, the Helmet of Salvation, and the Shoes of Peace. God is telling the church that there is a spiritual war and we must get ready for it. So far all of the weapons of armor that I just mentioned were defensive types of weapons to keep us safe from the blows of the enemy Satan. But, then in verse 17 of Ephesians 6, God finally tells the church to take the “Sword of the Spirit”, which is directly defined to be “the Word of God”. How is this Sword of the Spirit going to help us? I believe very firmly that we now have the direct implied connection to our mouths! Can’t you see this? The only way that we can use the Spiritual Sword of the Word of God against an unseen spiritual enemy to our advantage is to speak it. Leaving the Bible on our coffee tables will do nothing to keep the devil out of our houses. This is a very powerful, spiritual Bible law being revealed to us. What you say is far more important than what you can possibly imagine or know right now. Take a look at this verse in Isaiah:
Isa 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
God is prophesying an awesome new covenant reality that is now established with us in the church and God says that He will put His Spirit upon us and His Words in our mouth. Can you see the direct connection between our mouths speaking His spoken words with His Spirit?
God literally says that these words will not depart from our mouths, nor from the mouths of our seed. Who are those called the Seed of Abraham? We in the church are the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:29)! Who is the Seed of the Woman? You probably do not know this, but Jesus was the chosen Seed and we the church are in that Seed of the Woman (Rev 12:17). God’s Word will not depart from our mouths and we will overcome Satan by His Blood and His Word that He has given to Us (Rev 12:11)! I taught you earlier that this was a Biblical Spiritual Law being revealed to us. Let’s look at an Old Testament example of this.
Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
The lessons found in the Bible through intense study are usually very deep and complex and have many hidden truths associated within them. Because we do not understand them completely we can easily just read over a truth and not grasp that these words apply to us and what we should be doing today. Here in the book of Joshua God uncovers the secret to a human’s success on this planet. It is a basic spiritual principle and law that is not very difficult to follow if we can understand it. God tells Joshua that He should speak His word both Day and Night. We could say that means constantly and continually or every waking moment. God was teaching Joshua about the Sword of the Spirit that will cause him to be a great success in this world. But, there is also an implied opposite truth found in this verse. God says by impled antithesis that if we do not speak the Word of God we will not be a success. Do we want to be prosperous and successful in life or dismal disappointed failure? God is telling us how to do both, right here! We have to make the choice. We are not forced to do either but usually being passive results in failure and this is many people’s wrong defaulted selection.
Remember when Jesus was tempted by Satan in Luke 4:1-13? Three times the enemy came to tempt him into a subtle trick. But, here is the lesson learned from this example. Every time the enemy Satan came with a temptation, Jesus brought out the Sword of the Spirit called the Word of God and said “IT IS WRITTEN”. Wow, that is extraordinarily critical to learn from and apply to what Satan does to us. You see the Bible says that Jesus was tempted the very same way that we are tempted (Heb 4:15). But, He was wise enough to use the sword correctly as a living example. I pray that this will be a benefit in your life today.
I guess I have gone long enough in this lesson and given you plenty of new things to think about. The sword of your mouth is either going to be a blessing or a curse to you and to those you direct it at. While your negative words will never be able to put a curse on me, they will cause curses to come upon you and your children. What we say is so completely important that it cannot be emphasized enough for us to think before we speak. If we do not have a Bible verse that backs up what we are about to say, we probably should not say it.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words you can go to “Part 4“.
The Spiritual Family Structure of God’s Family. Part 2
(Ver 2.8) The spiritual family structure of God is one of those Bible basics that every Christian should be intimately familiar. God is said to be a triune being. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Yet these three personalities of God are reflected in One True God. In my first blog on this subject I talked about Jesus starting a new family of God. I talked about Jesus being born into the world, a product of unique circumstances. Because, God was His Father and Mary was His mother, Jesus was both God and man totally and completely. That means Jesus Christ was 100% God and 100% Man. Jesus Christ was the only one that was both the Son of God and the Son of Adam. This made Him uniquely qualified to fix problems in both dimensions of the spiritual and natural realms simultaneously. Maybe you did not realize that there were things to fix in the spiritual realm, but you really need to stop and go back to read “Part 1” of this series first. Today I will continue to talk about the spiritual family structure of God’s family and I want to start with some things that Jesus said to us:
Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
These are the Words of God coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. These words declare that Jesus and God are one in the same. Jesus very clearly tells us if we believe in God, we better believe in Jesus. Because, Jesus was God in the flesh, walking among us like He was one of us. This is the amazing truth of God’s word. It is also the only way to be saved, whether you like it or not.
Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Jesus continues His discourse revealing great spiritual information to us. Jesus announces that where He came from was His “Father’s House”. A house is always a family structure with relatives and family members living within it. Now, think with me and see who is speaking, it is Jesus the Son of God on the earth. When you are a son on the earth do you live with your father forever? That is an interesting question. Here in the natural realm a man will marry a wife and usually establishes a new independent family and they normally do not live with their parents. What I am getting at, is that Jesus is inferring His Father’s house is not His house. The Bible contains some very complex truths in it and this is certainly one of them. It is definitely hard to understand since the Son of God on the earth is God. But, God’s intelligence is so far above our mind’s thought process that He can do some simple things in ways that are difficult for us to understand. What I want you to begin to understand is that Jesus does not call it His house and that is very important to see. You see Jesus is choosing His words very carefully and using extreme wisdom to reveal something that is far greater for us to know. What we need to do today is to start thinking differently about the family of God. Jesus tells us that He came from His Father’s house from heaven and we now need to figure out what this is or I should say was.
You see, in John 1:18 the Bible says no man has ever seen God. We also know that when Adam was created and his wife was brought to him by God, that God established a new family on the earth which was detached from God’s spiritual family in heaven. You see this truth when you study what God says in Genesis 2:24 “for this cause shall a man (Adam) leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife”. From this statement we can understand that God was Adam’s father that we are told that he left to be joined to his wife. But God is establishing a new type for a future pattern for the Last Adam (Jesus) to come into the world and leave His Father and Mother and to be joined to His bride. Therefore, the family of Adam is a separate earthly family from God’s existing family in heaven that Jesus is speaking of where He came from and this is a prophetic view into an event that was to come after the time that Jesus was speaking these words in these verses in John. Therefore this family of God where Jesus came from was not comprised of any of the men or women that were on the earth. Think with me and make a note that Jesus declares God’s family consists of family members that are not men, so who are they? We will definitely explore this information in the Bible later in this series, but for now let’s continue with what Jesus is saying. Jesus says if it were not this way I would have told you. Then Jesus makes this statement, “I go to prepare a place for you!” Jesus is talking to you and I and He is saying that He was going to be leaving this planet soon and going to build a new household for His new family. To “prepare” has an implication of a building project. I believe that it is not just a renovation of the old, but the creation of a new home that will be better the previous one.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Jesus continues to speak to us and tell us that where He goes we will also be going. Jesus tells us very clearly that He will soon return and “receive us unto Himself”. Have you ever thought about what those words mean? Why is Jesus receiving us unto Himself? So many Chrisdtians in the church like to call the church the body of Christ only. Then they ignore the rest of the Bible. If we were just the body of Christ, we would not need to be received unto Him, would we? I do not ever wake up in the morning and receive my body back to myself. Do you understand what I am saying? It would appear that Christians are now separate from Christ in order to be received by Him. It helps if you understand “Bible Covenants“. Since I have already done lessons on this subject I will not repeat the information here again. You should go back and read these lessons and learn what a Covenant is in the eyes of God. I will help you to some extent, Jesus is called the “Bridegroom” and He is in covenant with His Bride, the church. The church will soon be fully assembled in heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. During this time we will be fully and completely joined to Him and become one with Him forever. Jesus later tells us in John 14 that “He is the truth, the life, the way”. He also says that “No one comes to the Father except through Him”. Meaning there is no other religions in the world that will offer you salvation or an alternative way to God. That also means there are no other covenants of God that will save you either. God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to provide one way for all the people of earth to come into this new Family of God. We have already seen that God’s previous family structure was in heaven and had a very large location with many mansions in it, before Jesus ever came to the earth. Jesus then tells us that He was leaving the earth to go back to heaven to prepare places for us. So either God has a housing shortage in Heaven or the Heaven that we knew is going away and God is preparing a new place.
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Why is it necessary for God to build a new heaven and a new earth? I can understand the earth, but heaven is a tricky thing to consider to be something that is in need of repair. Man has done a pretty poor job of keeping the earth intact. But, come on we are talking about God in heaven now. Why is it necessary for God to create a New Heaven? Evidently, we can see that there was a major problem in heaven that also consisted of a heavenly spiritual war.
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
If God’s wars are like our wars, there is always a lot of damage done to infrastructure and buildings. Now I do not mean to imply that God makes war like we make war, that is not what I am saying at all. After all it is God’s forces defending Heaven and not threatening to take it. It is Satan and his angels that are trying to overthrow God’s throne. God sends Michael and His angels to fight this enemy. What we have is some new things to consider. Why is Satan at war with God in heaven and what changed? You see in the Book of Job, Satan walks up to God without any conflict and discusses Job. By the time we get to the book of Revelation, we see that Satan is no longer welcome where he previously use to walk freely. Do you remember in the book of Daniel when Daniel prayed and fasted for an answer from God. Do you remember what happened in that story? It appears God sent an angel to answer the prayers of Daniel and Satan and his angels were in a spiritual battle that lasted 3 weeks, until the angels of God finally prevailed. The prince of Persia withstood God’s answer to the prayers of a man on the earth. That is an amazing story of why things can take so long when you pray and ask God for help. There is an enemy of God that is opposed to you and to God. He tries to stop your answers from happening. If Daniel would have resigned after only two weeks of prayer and fasting, Satan would have won. But, since Daniel did not give up, God did not give up and God prevailed and the answer came. Let me give you a picture diagram of the family of God revealed in the Bible as of Genesis 2:
Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Since we are discussing God’s spiritual family structure, I thought I would give you some more verses to establish that God has a family and then also describe the locations for this family. According to this verse written to the church God’s family is now in two different realms of reality. One is spiritual and the other is physical or natural. This verse in Ephesians declares God’s family to now be within the scope of both of these two sets of reality. We have one set that is found in heaven and one set that is on the earth. And God’s family is comprised of selected individuals from both of these places. However, do not attempt to be all inclusive and say that everyone in both realms has been saved and are in the unified family of God. That is what Universal Salvationists like to teach and project. They claim in error that God will save everyone eventually. They clearly do not understand that Jesus came to divide the good from the evil and not to change the evil back into the good.
Here is a graphical representation of God’s new spiritual family. God’s family now consists of members of two different set realms. In the previous diagram I showed how the two families were separate in Genesis 2. The first set realm heaven existed prior to the other set realm created on the earth. The earth is the natural temporary realm where we all live today. God created our current world system approximately 6000 years ago and turned the authority of His creation over to His created man Adam (Gen 1:26). Adam represented a new start and a new natural family structure of God’s spiritual family. Adam’s family was separate from God’s family that already existed in heaven. God did all of this for many reasons and I cannot get into all of the reasons in this blog because it would take a tremendous amount of time to explain. Today, man exists within the constraints and limitations of time and space. We are spirit beings created in the image and likeness of God, but limited to the confines of a natural body. Since Adam’s family was separate from God’s family, that is one of the main reasons that Jesus had to come to the earth in the form of a man. God’s new family established by Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Son of Man, consists of selected members of both of these set realms. Jesus was able to accomplish and provide salvation for man because He was a man as well as a division from His father’s house simulataneously by His death on the cross. Let’s look at the definition of the word translated as “family” in Ephesians 3:15.
G3965
As if feminine of a derivative of G3962; paternal descent, that is, (concretely) a group of families or a whole race (nation): – family, kindred, lineage.
This verse in Ephesians uses a word for “family” that is very interesting. You can see from the definition some widely applicable truths. God’s new family structure is a pattern of another previous structure that God did in the Old Testament. We are said to be a new nation of people descended from the Most High God. This is an interestingly different word that has a feminine connotation attached to it. Why would God put a female reference on the church? Because we are the bride of Christ. The church is a representative spiritual pattern of natural Israel. The natural nation of Israel was God’s wife in the Old Covenant. This was a pattern given to us for the New Covenant.
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
You need to see what the Bible says and then interpret it using the Bible. God declares to the nation of Israel that I was your Husband. If God was the Husband to the nation of Israel that makes natural Israel the wife of God. A covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God. God proposed marriage to a nation of people and they accepted and entered into a covenant with the Almighty God. This is another example of God being a spiritual male in a spiritual family structure. We can clearly make many assumptions based upon this unlimited information. If God can marry one group of people, what stops God from marrying another group of people? Nothing really, except if you just marry a new group of people and you are still married to the other group of people you are now a polygamist by definition. There is a lot of men on earth that would like to think that God is married to multiple women, but you have not studied the Bible and therefore have put your thoughts into the mix where they do not belong.
Why did Jesus come to earth, being the Son of God? It is because Jesus Christ the Son of God was never married to anyone else before now. I know technically Jesus is the same God and He was married to Israel, but was that God the Father that was in Covenant with them or Jesus, God the Son? You soon realize how smart God is and how tricky He can be. I do not mean to imply that God is a deceiver, what God does is very legal, but yet very unexpected. Satan did not anticipate Jesus Christ and therefore, now realizes that he should not have killed him. Why is that? Why was the death of Jesus so detrimental to Satan? You should really give that some serious thought. You see you can learn from God by reading a clue given to us in the book of Ruth, when Naomi and Ruth are talking and Ruth says I’ll stay with you until “death separates me from thee” (Ruth 1:17). Death is a separating force. Death is a spiritual power that naturally divides one from another. In a marriage ceremony the husband and wife are said to be joined until death do they part. Marriage is a covenant relationship and God uses His death on the cross to separate Himself from Satan. Yes that means Satan was in covenant with God also. You should really study the Bible more, you might find all kind of new things in it, if you look for them. Let’s move on to a verse that helps to clarify what I was saying about Israel and God the Father’s covenant relationship:
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
This verse in Romans has some amazing information in it. God is writing this section of Romans directly to the Natural Nation of Israel. You can read the context and see this very clearly if you understand the wording. So while the context is talking about the law of marriage that was given to only natural Israel it then declares to them that they have been released from their previous covenant with God, by the death of Jesus Christ so that they can be legally married again. God says very clearly that they are now free to “marry” another, and then describes Him to be the Lord Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. Did you ever realize that the Jesus who died was different from the Jesus who was raised from the dead? That is what God is saying in this verse. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and became the “firstborn” from the dead (Col 1:18). This verse now declares to natural Israel that they have been freed from the law of marriage with God the Father by the death of Jesus on the cross. The marriage to Jesus who is risen is in reference to the New Covenant and their opportunity to become the bride of Christ. Jesus confirms this reality in this statement:
- Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If the old covenant was a way to be saved then Jesus lied. The Old Covenant is not the New Covenant. We can clearly see that truth in verses like Hebrews 8:6 or Hebrews 12:24 when Jesus becomes the mediator of a new and better covenant. Any covenant called new is one that never existed before. All of this information that I am introducing you to will become clearer as the series continues and more scriptures are revealed to you.
Many like to think that God is a polygamist and is in covenant with natural Israel and the church simultaneously right now. While they do not call it Polygamy, that is what God calls it. However, once you realize that the Old Covenant was with God the Father, and the New Covenant is with God the risen Son, I believe that changes everything dramatically. It also means that God is not in covenant with Natural Israel anymore. I do not have time or space to explain that, but you can read my other blogs and find more answers, if you want to know the truth. The natural nation of Israel is able to enter into the New Covenant with Jesus Christ, if they want to. However, most of natural Israel has chosen to close their eyes and not to see the truth, so they reap the works of their own deceptions. There is more I could write and many other scriptures that we could explore, but I have gone too long in this blog. Hopefully I can continue this subject in the future.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons about the spriitual family of God you may continue with “Part 3“.
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