It’s extremely unusual in Scripture to find a woman in a genealogy. Jordan says, “You read down Matthew 1 and all of a sudden there are four women in the first six verses. When a Jew would read that he would go, ‘Whoa! Wait a minute! What’s going on here?!’ You just don’t expect it to show up that way in the genealogy of the Messiah and so the question comes up, ‘Why in the world?!’ and notice who they are.
“Of all the women in Israel’s history—great women—Sarah, Rachel or Deborah could have been chosen to be put here, but these women . . . Just the mention of the name Tamar brings a horrendous memory of wickedness.
“When you read her story in Genesis 38 you won’t want to say she’s a lady. Over and over in Scripture Rahab is called ‘Rahab the harlot.’ Then you see Ruth. Now, she’s a sterling picture of virtue but there’s a problem with Ruth—she was a Moabitess. You know what the law said about Moabites? They couldn’t enter into the land ‘til the tenth generation.’
“Ruth is a Gentile. Rahab is a Gentile. Tamar is a fallen Israeli and they don’t even put down Bathsheba’s name; they just remind you of who she was: the wife of Uriah. She was someone with whom King David had gone out and fallen into gross immorality and sin.
“And you say, ‘Wow! There’s none of these women here that are really the sterling examples of what you and I would put in the genealogy.’ So the question is why are they there? Why would they be put there so early and startling in their appearance at the beginning of the genealogy? How is it these women, two of them Gentiles, demonstrate Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham?
“Tamar is probably not somebody you heard too much about in Sunday school. She’s not an example of who we try to tell the children about. I was reading an article the other day from Germany about a court case recently where they were trying to ban the Bible from public places because it’s full of pornography, violence, illicit sex, stuff like that.
“Well, the Bible’s a record of human activities and there are some real crude things like that that show up in the Bible, demonstrating that the Bible records the truth about even its heroes. And in Genesis 38 there’s an account like that with this lady Tamar.
“Your remember Hebrews 7 says that ‘our Lord sprang out of Judah.’ Here’s the tribe Christ is born from. He’s the lion of the tribe of Judah.
“Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord. and Onan gets messed up and God kills him and so Judah takes this woman and says, ‘Now, when my youngest boy gets big enough, I’ll let you marry him.’
“I don’t know how you are but you got to think about this. If you went and found a wife for your son and when they got married, God killed him, so you took her and married her to your next son and then God killed him, how quick are you gonna be to marry her to the last one?! It’s sort of guilt-by-association but you get the idea that maybe I shouldn’t marry the next boy off to her. 'He’s the last one I got!'
“So it finally dawned on her that the youngest is grown now, and verse 13 and 14 she realized she was never going to get this last boy to be her husband. In verse 15, when Judah saw her, what happens is Tamar, realizing that, goes out and sees Judah come and she literally plays the part of harlot and seduces her father-in-law by making out like she’s the town harlot. She seduces Judah into sin with her and then goes home.
“It’s one of these commercial endeavors. She says, ‘How much you going to pay me?’ and he says, ‘Are you a cop?’ and she says, ‘No, I just work for a living.’ And he says, ‘Well, I’ll give you one of my best vehicles,’ and she says, ‘Where’s it at?’ and he says, ‘I don’t have it here but I’ll give you my signet ring as a down payment.’
“So she takes the ring, makes the deal, he goes home, sends the payment back and they can’t find her. A few months later he finds that his daughter-in-law . . . he didn’t recognize her, by the way. She had painted herself all up and changed her appearance.
“A few months later he finds out she’s pregnant. ‘What’s going on now? Where’ve you been? Here’s my sweet little daughter-in-law and she’s been steppin’ out!’
“You know, it’s always that way. Those guys took that woman in John 8 in the very act of adultery and bring her to Christ. You notice they didn’t bring the man? How would you go find somebody committing adultery in the very act? You’d at least have to know where they were.
“Now, if you’re a righteous Pharisee how come you even know where they are? There was stuff going on there that wasn’t exactly kosher (on the level). And they’re condemning something . . . it’s that old thing, ‘Thou protesteth too much.’ You know too much about this.
“And Judah gets all indignant about his daughter-in-law’s sin and says, ‘You just tell me who it is and I’ll wipe him out. I’ll smush him like a bug.’ And she takes Judah’s signet ring and says, ‘The man that belongs to these. They’re his.’ And he says to her, ‘You’re more righteous than I,’ and she was.
“The baby that Tamar had (actually it was twins) as a result of an adulterous affair with her father-in-law; that’s the rest of the story. That’s who Tamar is. And that shameful history of her sin, full of evil deeds of the flesh, that’s why she’s in the genealogy in Matthew 1.
“Had she not committed adultery with her father-in-law she’d have never been the mother of Pharez and Zara (which means ‘dawn’) and it was being the mother of Zara, there’s the lineage that goes to the Messiah.
“It reminds you she’s there because of her willful, chosen sin and that without her sin, she would have never been able to get into the lineage of the Messiah. Now Israel needed to learn that. Jesus told Israel, ‘I am not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.'
" When the leaders of Israel saw the Lord Jesus Christ over here with the Publicans and sinners they get His disciples to the side and they say, ‘What’s the matter with your master? Doesn’t he know those are sinners?!’
“Luke 15 says they tried to smear Him by saying He’s the friend of sinners. They thought that was a bad thing because they thought they were righteous and He wasn’t and they needed to be reminded that their Messiah came to be a friend of sinners. He wasn’t coming to call the righteous to repentance.
“Genesis 38:28. Notice she tied the scarlet thread on the second one to be born. You read about that scarlet thread through the Bible. You know what it represents in history and the line of the Redeemer and the place of redemption? Not that which is born first but that which is born second. The first is of the earth earthy; the second is of the Lord from heaven.
"Matthew 1:5. Rahab is in Joshua 2 and the question about her is over and over she’s called ‘Rahab the harlot.’ She’s a Canaanite. They were dismissed from the presence of God’s people. In fact, Israel was told to exterminate them. They were unclean. They were outcasts. Here Rahab is known over and over as a woman of ill-repute; a woman who had the stain of a wicked career tattooed on her reputation.
“I mean, if Tamar got in because of her sin, why would Rahab be in the genealogy? The answer’s in Hebrews 11:31. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace.
“I don’t believe Rahab is called the harlot as an accusation. It’s there as a reminder of who she was and where she came from. Go with me to Joshua 2 and I think I can show you that Rahab, when the spies came there, was already a woman of faith. In fact, she had become what Proverbs 31 calls a virtuous woman but she carries that harlot tag as a reminder of why she’s there.
“It’s in James 2 that her faith is set in contrast with the faith of Abraham the friend of God. And then there’s Rahab the harlot. Both justified in James 2 and used as illustrations of Israel’s justification program before God. And she’s called the harlot, not as an accusation, because her life had been completely transformed and changed.
“In Joshua 2 Rahab represents Gentiles who hear God’s word and believe God’s word and who help and assist Israel. And because of their faith in the God of Israel, and their assistance to the nation Israel and participation in God’s program with Israel, they are brought into the blessings that God has promised through Israel.
“Rahab enters into what we would call civil disobedience. The authorities say turn him over and she says, ‘That’s an unjust law. That goes against the laws of God. I’m not going to do it.’ She disobeys the authorities because it’s more important to obey God than man. Verse 9.
“That’s a reference to a business proposition. She was a lady with a home business. I guess we could call her the first home-based entrepreneur. She had her Herbalife business—her flax business. She’s got the product drying on the roof. If she was still making her living as a harlot she wouldn’t be on the roof doing that!
“Something changed in Rahab’s life. She said, ‘Forty years ago we heard what you did when you came out of Egypt!’ Exodus 15. The Song of Moses.
“Joshua 2:11. This wasn’t something the spies were telling her about. They heard this 40 years before and she believed it! Oh, man! That’s better faith than you’re going to find in Israel!
“You remember the Lord would look at His disciples and say, ‘Oh ye of little faith.’ He would look at a woman and say, ‘I’ve not found such faith; no not in Israel.’ And Rahab is an example of a Gentile that just understood the God of Israel was God! She understood the Abrahamic covenant. She said, ‘He’s God! Your God is the God of gods in heaven above and the earth beneath! I got it! You’re His people! I’m going to bless you because I believe in your God.’ She’s not just concerned about herself but she’s concerned about others.
“I love verse 19. ‘Whosoever’ is the special word of Paul’s revelation. Rahab had entered into an understanding where God’s heart was in all of this. She wasn’t like Israel in Christ’s day, or our day, where it was an exclusive thing where you had to perform. She understood that God’s heart was to provide ransom for all.
“It’s fascinating the token they give her. Verse 17: ‘Whoever’s in the house where the scarlet cord is. You take it, you bind it in the window and you let it down outside.’ Again, let me say to you, the scarlet thread didn’t lie on the floor in Rahab’s house; it hung out the window for people outside of her house to see.
“Just like the blood was on the door post outside so when the death angel came by the blood was outside for him to see and people in the house were saved because the blood was on the door post. People in Rahab’s house were saved because the scarlet cord was on the window.
“My friend, your assurance is not an experience you’re having inside your living room; it’s the blood on the door post. It’s the cord hanging out the window. The issue isn’t . . . My assurance is not in what I’m doing; it’s in the objective standard of what He’s done.
“You notice where Rahab’s heart is in verse 13? She says, ‘I want you to save the lives of my father and mother and my brethren and my sisters and all they have and deliver our lives from death.’
“ When you get over to chapter 6, the sisters aren’t there and that tells you it was a ‘whosoever will.’ Just because you were part of Rahab’s family didn’t mean you were going to get delivered; you had to go down there and get in the house. You had to make the choice to be there.
“Salvation isn’t yours because you were born in a family. When you’re raised in a Christian home you don’t sometimes even remember when you made the choice to trust Christ initially. You just know that you do. What a wonderful joy that is. But she had to make the choice or it would never be hers.
“You understand? You can pass on hymn books, pass on tapes, pass on conversation and ideas but nobody can make the heartfelt choice that you have to make in your heart: ‘With the heart man believes unto righteousness.’ "
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Hearing of hearts
In John 17 is the longest prayer of the Lord in His earthly ministry that’s recorded. It’s only recorded in John, by the way.
Jordan says, “It’s a prayer that takes you into the very heart and mind—the inner thinking and the intimacy that the Lord Jesus Christ shared with God the Father. It takes you all the way back, verse 5 says, ‘And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.’
“In other words, He goes way back into eternity past and begins to talk to the Father about what the plan has been.
“Verse 24 says, ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. ‘
“Everything in here, Christ doesn’t claim anything of His own. Everything He had, ‘The Father gave me. It’s the Father’s will. I’m doing the Father’s will. Glorify me because when you do that, it’s going to glorify you. Everybody in the godhead lives for the other members of the godhead and the man Christ Jesus lived His life in complete dependence on what His Father was doing. And everything He acknowledged, He acknowledged it having come from the Father. He’s living as the perfect Son; as the perfect servant.
“He ends verse 24 with, ‘For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.’ So what you’re going to find in this prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ in communion with His Father about the plan the godhead had in eternity past and how they’ve worked it out through history and now they’re at that crucial moment; that lynchpin moment in which everything is going to hang. He’s being obedient unto death; even the death of the Cross.
“If you ever wanted to see the internal self-talk of the Savior . . . if you ever wanted to see someone go through the very depths of life, struggles, difficulties, injustice, betrayal, criticism, hatred—not deserving any of it. ‘They hated me without a cause,’ He said. He’s conscious of it, and yet able to do it with steadiness, joy of heart and complete victory.
“When Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, here’s the mind that was in Christ, and this is one of these rare occasions where you literally listen to Him express . . . one of the things you do when you pray is you open your heart up. One of the really valuable things about verbal prayer (audible) is when you pray with one another (as husband and wife, with other members of the ministry, etc.). You get to hear what’s on the heart of the other person.
“Sometime we are real conscious of that so we try to pray, not to God, but to one another. Grace allows you to be real and honest with people. The thing that makes you put up a mask and try to hide your failures is not grace. That’s the law. That’s a performance.
"When someone’s accepting you based on your performance than you have to be sure your performance is acceptable. But when you have a relationship with someone, and this is a rare thing, it’s the goal of when the Scripture talks about loving one another and walking in love, this is the goal. It’s to be able to value and esteem a person the way God does and not based upon your evaluation or expectation, but based upon God’s statement about who they are and who you are and what the relationship is.
“Theology just tramples this passage in John and it’s a crying shame. But this one writer, he titled a commentary book (on John 17), ‘Take off your shoes because you’re on holy ground.’ And there’s really that kind of sense of sacredness about what’s going on here because the Lord literally opens Himself up to allow you to look into His heart and His innermost, intimate conversation with His Father.
“The Lord constantly was in a mode of prayer. It’s not strange that He would end His ministry with His apostles in that way. When you go back to, for example, Luke 3, in His baptism, it’s in the midst of praying that He goes and is baptized of John.
“When He selects the apostles in Luke 6, He’s up praying all night beforehand. When He’s on the Mount of Transfiguration, it’s an evening of prayer and then that. The very last words that came out of His mouth while He’s on the earth on the Cross was a prayer.
“Psalm 31. The Lord constantly lived in communion with His Father but His prayers were intelligent. They were based, not upon emotion or just circumstantially, but they were communing with His Father about His Father’s will.”
Jordan says, “It’s a prayer that takes you into the very heart and mind—the inner thinking and the intimacy that the Lord Jesus Christ shared with God the Father. It takes you all the way back, verse 5 says, ‘And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.’
“In other words, He goes way back into eternity past and begins to talk to the Father about what the plan has been.
“Verse 24 says, ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. ‘
“Everything in here, Christ doesn’t claim anything of His own. Everything He had, ‘The Father gave me. It’s the Father’s will. I’m doing the Father’s will. Glorify me because when you do that, it’s going to glorify you. Everybody in the godhead lives for the other members of the godhead and the man Christ Jesus lived His life in complete dependence on what His Father was doing. And everything He acknowledged, He acknowledged it having come from the Father. He’s living as the perfect Son; as the perfect servant.
“He ends verse 24 with, ‘For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.’ So what you’re going to find in this prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ in communion with His Father about the plan the godhead had in eternity past and how they’ve worked it out through history and now they’re at that crucial moment; that lynchpin moment in which everything is going to hang. He’s being obedient unto death; even the death of the Cross.
“If you ever wanted to see the internal self-talk of the Savior . . . if you ever wanted to see someone go through the very depths of life, struggles, difficulties, injustice, betrayal, criticism, hatred—not deserving any of it. ‘They hated me without a cause,’ He said. He’s conscious of it, and yet able to do it with steadiness, joy of heart and complete victory.
“When Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, here’s the mind that was in Christ, and this is one of these rare occasions where you literally listen to Him express . . . one of the things you do when you pray is you open your heart up. One of the really valuable things about verbal prayer (audible) is when you pray with one another (as husband and wife, with other members of the ministry, etc.). You get to hear what’s on the heart of the other person.
“Sometime we are real conscious of that so we try to pray, not to God, but to one another. Grace allows you to be real and honest with people. The thing that makes you put up a mask and try to hide your failures is not grace. That’s the law. That’s a performance.
"When someone’s accepting you based on your performance than you have to be sure your performance is acceptable. But when you have a relationship with someone, and this is a rare thing, it’s the goal of when the Scripture talks about loving one another and walking in love, this is the goal. It’s to be able to value and esteem a person the way God does and not based upon your evaluation or expectation, but based upon God’s statement about who they are and who you are and what the relationship is.
“Theology just tramples this passage in John and it’s a crying shame. But this one writer, he titled a commentary book (on John 17), ‘Take off your shoes because you’re on holy ground.’ And there’s really that kind of sense of sacredness about what’s going on here because the Lord literally opens Himself up to allow you to look into His heart and His innermost, intimate conversation with His Father.
“The Lord constantly was in a mode of prayer. It’s not strange that He would end His ministry with His apostles in that way. When you go back to, for example, Luke 3, in His baptism, it’s in the midst of praying that He goes and is baptized of John.
“When He selects the apostles in Luke 6, He’s up praying all night beforehand. When He’s on the Mount of Transfiguration, it’s an evening of prayer and then that. The very last words that came out of His mouth while He’s on the earth on the Cross was a prayer.
“Psalm 31. The Lord constantly lived in communion with His Father but His prayers were intelligent. They were based, not upon emotion or just circumstantially, but they were communing with His Father about His Father’s will.”
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Counterfeit and cohorts
There are somewhere between 30-40 titles, names and descriptions given to the Antichrist in Scripture, primarily in the Old Testament. In addition, there are 18 major types of the Antichrist. One example is Cain.
Jordan says, “There are literally dozens of events that portend and foreshadow activity of the Antichrist. A name is employed to express character and titles are given to denote relationship. The Adversary is called the devil. These titles and descriptions of the Antichrist are very fascinating and permeate all through the Scriptures, especially when you study it not just historically but prophetically.
“Amazingly, the term Antichrist is found very few times in the Bible, although it’s a catch-all term to talk about the devil’s counterfeit of the Lord Jesus Christ—he’s the one who’s the substitute and opposes the Lord.
“I John 2:22 says, ‘Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.’ With that verse you kind of get the idea behind the title—it’s the denying that Jesus is the Christ.
"Now you can use that term ‘anti’ in two ways. You can say it’s anti in the sense it’s opposed to Him or it’s anti in the sense that it’s designed to be instead of. But either way you want to use it, and people argue about that, the term describes antagonism toward the Lord Jesus Christ and what it describes in Scripture is the devil’s counterfeit; the devil’s usurper of the position of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Verse 18 says, ‘Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.’ So there’s the Antichrist, the one person, and then there’s a lot of antichrists (plural) who are his cohorts. It’s like the term ‘devil.’ You have in the Bible the singular for the big guy and devils plural, which we call sometimes demons, for his cohorts.
*****
“It’s amazing how thoroughly the Adversary seeks to clone what God is doing. I said for many years that if Jesus Christ stood right here and the Antichrist stood right there, the average Christian couldn’t decide which is which and wouldn’t be able to identify the right one. And if they were forced to pick, they’d pick the wrong one!
“Satan is such a deceiver. One of the great titles of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Branch title. He’s the branch of the Lord, He’s the man who’s the Branch, He’s the king whose name is the Branch. So He’s the Branch and there are four branch titles in the New Testament about Him and they match Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. One’s the king, one’s the servant, one’s the master and one’s God.
“But in Isaiah 25, talking about the Adversary, and in a passage talking about the activities of the Antichrist, is verse 5: ‘Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.’
“In the context, that’s a reference to the destruction of the Antichrist. But notice what he’s called: ‘The branch of the terrible ones.’ That’s those characters over there in Joel and Isaiah 13 that come out of the spirit world, and then there are the mighty ones who come and fight with the Antichrist. That’s why there’s all that demonic eruption during the earthly ministry of Christ where they’re trying to contend and protect the land, and he’s going to come along and is the counterfeit of the true branch, leading the hordes of Satan against the things of God.
“You have to understand that Satan’s favorite tactic is to counterfeit—his goal is ‘to be like the most high.’ To get Adam and Eve he told them, ‘God knows if you eat that you’ll be like the gods.’ Well, they were already godlike, made in the image and likeness of God, but he’s going to counterfeit something and make them think they don’t have an adequate identity in what God’s done for them.
*****
“ ‘The man of sin’ is a title that describes the Antichrist as the personification--the man of natural human wickedness. He’s the personification of man’s sin. He’s man’s rebellion personified.
“ ‘The son of perdition’ is supernatural, spirit-world wickedness and then he’s called ‘that wicked,’ which is sort of a compilation. The Wicked is the personification of all of that. Then he becomes ‘the Lie.’
By the way, in Daniel 11:21 he’s called ‘vile’: ‘And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.’
“He comes in with lying wonders and lies and obtains the kingdom with flatteries because he’s a vile, evil, wicked—all of those descriptions of him as ‘the man of sin.’ Psalm 55 says ‘his words are smoother than butter.’ He’s got the sales pitch and deceptive, lying flatteries.
“There’s one other term that you see 30 times in Revelation alone and that’s where he’s called ‘the beast.’ The beast is described in terms of grotesqueness. When Scripture refers to the ‘brute beast,’ it’s talking about the the violence, the ferocity, the cruel, heartless slayer.
“Isaiah 11:4. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to reign, He’s going to reign in real justice, not impacted by media concerns, social concerns, political concerns. ‘But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.’
“That’s what we’re studying over in II Thess. 2:8, which talks about the Wicked ‘who he will consume with the spirit of his mouth.’
“When you think about the Antichrist as the wicked one, immediately go to Psalm 10 and you really have an encapsulation of his career as the Wicked one and why he’s called that. You see he’s the wicked, he’s Israel’s enemy. Verse 16. Notice back in verse 5 there’s the crowd but down in 16 it’s ‘the wicked, his own hand.’ That’s the individual who’s leading the crowd.
“From Psalm 10, you see his whole purpose is to destroy them. Verse 4. See, this is where the wickedness comes from. This guy’s filled with pride. The middle letter of the word ‘pride’ is the problem. It’s the same as the middle letter of the word ‘sin.’ It’s what wickedness is all about. If you look at verse 6 and 11 you see it’s a heart problem.”
Jordan says, “There are literally dozens of events that portend and foreshadow activity of the Antichrist. A name is employed to express character and titles are given to denote relationship. The Adversary is called the devil. These titles and descriptions of the Antichrist are very fascinating and permeate all through the Scriptures, especially when you study it not just historically but prophetically.
“Amazingly, the term Antichrist is found very few times in the Bible, although it’s a catch-all term to talk about the devil’s counterfeit of the Lord Jesus Christ—he’s the one who’s the substitute and opposes the Lord.
“I John 2:22 says, ‘Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.’ With that verse you kind of get the idea behind the title—it’s the denying that Jesus is the Christ.
"Now you can use that term ‘anti’ in two ways. You can say it’s anti in the sense it’s opposed to Him or it’s anti in the sense that it’s designed to be instead of. But either way you want to use it, and people argue about that, the term describes antagonism toward the Lord Jesus Christ and what it describes in Scripture is the devil’s counterfeit; the devil’s usurper of the position of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Verse 18 says, ‘Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.’ So there’s the Antichrist, the one person, and then there’s a lot of antichrists (plural) who are his cohorts. It’s like the term ‘devil.’ You have in the Bible the singular for the big guy and devils plural, which we call sometimes demons, for his cohorts.
*****
“It’s amazing how thoroughly the Adversary seeks to clone what God is doing. I said for many years that if Jesus Christ stood right here and the Antichrist stood right there, the average Christian couldn’t decide which is which and wouldn’t be able to identify the right one. And if they were forced to pick, they’d pick the wrong one!
“Satan is such a deceiver. One of the great titles of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Branch title. He’s the branch of the Lord, He’s the man who’s the Branch, He’s the king whose name is the Branch. So He’s the Branch and there are four branch titles in the New Testament about Him and they match Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. One’s the king, one’s the servant, one’s the master and one’s God.
“But in Isaiah 25, talking about the Adversary, and in a passage talking about the activities of the Antichrist, is verse 5: ‘Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.’
“In the context, that’s a reference to the destruction of the Antichrist. But notice what he’s called: ‘The branch of the terrible ones.’ That’s those characters over there in Joel and Isaiah 13 that come out of the spirit world, and then there are the mighty ones who come and fight with the Antichrist. That’s why there’s all that demonic eruption during the earthly ministry of Christ where they’re trying to contend and protect the land, and he’s going to come along and is the counterfeit of the true branch, leading the hordes of Satan against the things of God.
“You have to understand that Satan’s favorite tactic is to counterfeit—his goal is ‘to be like the most high.’ To get Adam and Eve he told them, ‘God knows if you eat that you’ll be like the gods.’ Well, they were already godlike, made in the image and likeness of God, but he’s going to counterfeit something and make them think they don’t have an adequate identity in what God’s done for them.
*****
“ ‘The man of sin’ is a title that describes the Antichrist as the personification--the man of natural human wickedness. He’s the personification of man’s sin. He’s man’s rebellion personified.
“ ‘The son of perdition’ is supernatural, spirit-world wickedness and then he’s called ‘that wicked,’ which is sort of a compilation. The Wicked is the personification of all of that. Then he becomes ‘the Lie.’
By the way, in Daniel 11:21 he’s called ‘vile’: ‘And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.’
“He comes in with lying wonders and lies and obtains the kingdom with flatteries because he’s a vile, evil, wicked—all of those descriptions of him as ‘the man of sin.’ Psalm 55 says ‘his words are smoother than butter.’ He’s got the sales pitch and deceptive, lying flatteries.
“There’s one other term that you see 30 times in Revelation alone and that’s where he’s called ‘the beast.’ The beast is described in terms of grotesqueness. When Scripture refers to the ‘brute beast,’ it’s talking about the the violence, the ferocity, the cruel, heartless slayer.
“Isaiah 11:4. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to reign, He’s going to reign in real justice, not impacted by media concerns, social concerns, political concerns. ‘But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.’
“That’s what we’re studying over in II Thess. 2:8, which talks about the Wicked ‘who he will consume with the spirit of his mouth.’
“When you think about the Antichrist as the wicked one, immediately go to Psalm 10 and you really have an encapsulation of his career as the Wicked one and why he’s called that. You see he’s the wicked, he’s Israel’s enemy. Verse 16. Notice back in verse 5 there’s the crowd but down in 16 it’s ‘the wicked, his own hand.’ That’s the individual who’s leading the crowd.
“From Psalm 10, you see his whole purpose is to destroy them. Verse 4. See, this is where the wickedness comes from. This guy’s filled with pride. The middle letter of the word ‘pride’ is the problem. It’s the same as the middle letter of the word ‘sin.’ It’s what wickedness is all about. If you look at verse 6 and 11 you see it’s a heart problem.”
Friday, April 20, 2012
For refuge have fled
When Jesus Christ proclaims, “I can lay my life down; I can take it again,” it’s a voluntary thing.
Jordan says, “There’s a lot of songs that come off of the psalm that says, ‘He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Him free, but He died alone for you and me.’
“It comes off of Matthew 26:40. That’s a reference back to the Book of Psalms when He says, ‘My own familiar friend have turned up his heel against me.’ Matthew 26 continues, ‘Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
[49] And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.’
“We’re talking about friends in John 15. Judas represents rebellious Israel. Christ is still claiming a relationship with them. In fact, when they don’t want it in the throes of betraying Him, He says, ‘Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
[54] But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?’
“He’s saying, ‘Don’t you understand that I could ask the Father, ‘Let’s stop this’ and He’d send enough angels down here to wipe out everybody . . . you remember back in Numbers how one angel killed 185,000 in one night?
“Now what would happen if you had twelve legions? If a legion is 2,000, that’d be 24,000. I mean, that’s a lot of angels. You could take care of a whole bunch of people in one fell swoop. He said, ‘Don’t you know that I could do that?!’
“In verse 54 He’s right there, facing the Garden of Gethsemane. He’s been there, He’s prayed the prayers and come out of that Garden and Judas comes and He’s being betrayed. Pete takes out the sword and tries to whack off Malchus’ head and got his ear. Jesus says, ‘Put up your sword.’ In John 18 He says, ‘The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’
“Involved in the conversation He says, ‘Don’t you know that I could call on the Father and He’d send legions of angels and get me out of this? I don’t have to do this! But if I don’t do it, how’s the Scripture going to be fulfilled that said I would?!’
“At that moment He still had the privilege not to do it. But He willingly submitted to the Cross, voluntarily of His own free will, as the true son of David.”
*****
“In Israel if you kill someone, you were to be executed if you were guilty of first-degree homicide. If you were guilty of manslaughter, accidental death, you still could be executed. The family of the slain person could come get you and execute you.
“So God established around Israel what are called ‘cities of refuge’; places where the person who’s accused of murder could flee to until there could be a judgment made by the elders about the guilt or innocence.
“Numbers 35:11: ‘Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.’
“That opportunity of safety from the Avenger, well, who was he? Over in II Samuel 14, the whole family of a slain guy
comes to get the dude! But just like the nearest kinsman (you remember Boaz) could redeem, that near kinsman could also be the Avenger and literally had the right to execute the person.
“Now if that person could get to a ‘city of refuge,’ he couldn’t touch him. He had to go to court, seek an order and go through court proceedings. If while a guy is in that city, and the Avenger is there prosecuting the case, the guy happened to go out of town hunting outside the city, you know what, he’d go out and whack him! Take vengeance; avenge the slaying of blood.
“You remember God told Noah, ‘You slay a man’s blood by man’s blood will be shed?’ Not what does all this have to do with? The nation Israel shed the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, ‘His blood be upon us!’ You remember that? That’s actually Deut. 21 when the blood’s on you.
“So there is a cause against Israel. They are guilty, not of innocently shedding the blood, but they purposely, willfully—‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’ That’s why, by the way, in Acts 3, Peter said, ‘I know that through ignorance you did it.’ Peter literally changed the charge from murder to manslaughter so that they could have a place of refuge to flee. And that little flock was like a city of refuge; a place to flee from the avenger of blood.
“But if you don’t flee into the little flock, the avenger of blood has got you in his sights and who’s going to be the avenger of blood? The Antichrist. So literally he’s going to be the one who avenges God Himself against the satanic policy that wound up killing His Son. Now, you talk about God’s wisdom causing the wrath of men to praise him, that’s an illustration of it! And Isaiah 10 says He didn’t mean it so. ‘But that don’t mean I can’t fix it,’ so that that’s the way that it happens.”
Jordan says, “There’s a lot of songs that come off of the psalm that says, ‘He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Him free, but He died alone for you and me.’
“It comes off of Matthew 26:40. That’s a reference back to the Book of Psalms when He says, ‘My own familiar friend have turned up his heel against me.’ Matthew 26 continues, ‘Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
[49] And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.’
“We’re talking about friends in John 15. Judas represents rebellious Israel. Christ is still claiming a relationship with them. In fact, when they don’t want it in the throes of betraying Him, He says, ‘Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
[54] But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?’
“He’s saying, ‘Don’t you understand that I could ask the Father, ‘Let’s stop this’ and He’d send enough angels down here to wipe out everybody . . . you remember back in Numbers how one angel killed 185,000 in one night?
“Now what would happen if you had twelve legions? If a legion is 2,000, that’d be 24,000. I mean, that’s a lot of angels. You could take care of a whole bunch of people in one fell swoop. He said, ‘Don’t you know that I could do that?!’
“In verse 54 He’s right there, facing the Garden of Gethsemane. He’s been there, He’s prayed the prayers and come out of that Garden and Judas comes and He’s being betrayed. Pete takes out the sword and tries to whack off Malchus’ head and got his ear. Jesus says, ‘Put up your sword.’ In John 18 He says, ‘The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’
“Involved in the conversation He says, ‘Don’t you know that I could call on the Father and He’d send legions of angels and get me out of this? I don’t have to do this! But if I don’t do it, how’s the Scripture going to be fulfilled that said I would?!’
“At that moment He still had the privilege not to do it. But He willingly submitted to the Cross, voluntarily of His own free will, as the true son of David.”
*****
“In Israel if you kill someone, you were to be executed if you were guilty of first-degree homicide. If you were guilty of manslaughter, accidental death, you still could be executed. The family of the slain person could come get you and execute you.
“So God established around Israel what are called ‘cities of refuge’; places where the person who’s accused of murder could flee to until there could be a judgment made by the elders about the guilt or innocence.
“Numbers 35:11: ‘Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.’
“That opportunity of safety from the Avenger, well, who was he? Over in II Samuel 14, the whole family of a slain guy
comes to get the dude! But just like the nearest kinsman (you remember Boaz) could redeem, that near kinsman could also be the Avenger and literally had the right to execute the person.
“Now if that person could get to a ‘city of refuge,’ he couldn’t touch him. He had to go to court, seek an order and go through court proceedings. If while a guy is in that city, and the Avenger is there prosecuting the case, the guy happened to go out of town hunting outside the city, you know what, he’d go out and whack him! Take vengeance; avenge the slaying of blood.
“You remember God told Noah, ‘You slay a man’s blood by man’s blood will be shed?’ Not what does all this have to do with? The nation Israel shed the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, ‘His blood be upon us!’ You remember that? That’s actually Deut. 21 when the blood’s on you.
“So there is a cause against Israel. They are guilty, not of innocently shedding the blood, but they purposely, willfully—‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’ That’s why, by the way, in Acts 3, Peter said, ‘I know that through ignorance you did it.’ Peter literally changed the charge from murder to manslaughter so that they could have a place of refuge to flee. And that little flock was like a city of refuge; a place to flee from the avenger of blood.
“But if you don’t flee into the little flock, the avenger of blood has got you in his sights and who’s going to be the avenger of blood? The Antichrist. So literally he’s going to be the one who avenges God Himself against the satanic policy that wound up killing His Son. Now, you talk about God’s wisdom causing the wrath of men to praise him, that’s an illustration of it! And Isaiah 10 says He didn’t mean it so. ‘But that don’t mean I can’t fix it,’ so that that’s the way that it happens.”
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Scattered 'little' ditties
What you learn in Judges is how the judgment cycles work and Israel’s failure through compromise.
Jordan says, “There’s a lot of tremendous spiritual truth to learn in the Book of Judges. In chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, there’s the lack of complete mastery of evil at the outset, which always means constant trouble from that evil afterwards, and often means defeat by it in the end. They don’t master the lands; they don’t master the nations. They don’t throw the Gentiles out. They don’t get rid of the Baal worship. They compromise with it and the result is they fail.
“Every time a cycle comes and they go down and recover, they never get back up as high as they were. It’s just a constant progression downward.
“Verse 10. God delivers Israel from the judgment they were in and there’s a restoration. In verse 11, ‘the land had rest’ and the rest is the rest God had promised them in Canaan. The Canaan rest is a type of the Millennial Kingdom rest and they experience rest for 40 years.
“You understand how that works. You learn the lesson, you live in the lesson, but you don’t pass the lesson on to the next generation. I mean, you’ve gone 40 years and there’s another generation, another group of people who have come on the scene, and you haven’t passed the lesson on to them.
“What do they do? You notice they don’t just naturally serve the Lord. They naturally go out and serve the flesh and the religious system. ‘And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.’ There’s this satanic policy of evil in the land that’s working to constantly corrupt Israel.
“Judges 3 says, [12] And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
[13] And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
[14] So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
[15] But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
[16] But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
[17] And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
“Ehud is a left-handed man and he’s going to deliver Israel and God’s going to use him and his cunning and his wisdom, even in his weakness of being left-handed, to deliver Israel.
“The result of all this is there are many things in the Book of Judges that, doctrinally and dispensationally, are prophetic pictures. Eglon here is a type of the Antichrist. By the way, Eglon was a very fat man.
"Job 15:27, a reference to the Antichrist, talks about his being a fat fellow. The Antichrist is going to be about 40 pounds overweight when he shows up. That’s some of those little ditties you find scattered around in the Word of God.
“From Zechariah 11:17 the indication is when the Antichrist is hit with that sword over there it’s going to be a left-handed man that hits him. You’ve got a picture of it back here in Judges 3:
[20] And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
[23] Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
[24] When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.
[25] And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
****
You’re in a pretty sad shape in Israel when you’ve got women running them. Deborah’s appointment demonstrates the spiritual condition they’d gotten into, because God had given them leadership positions but they weren’t taking them up.
“That verse over in Isaiah 3 about, ‘Woe unto you when women are your rulers,’ is not a put down of women; that’s saying the men aren’t doing their job and they aren’t being who they ought to be.
“God raises up this woman, what Peter calls the weaker vessel. And every one of these judges, as I Cor 1 says, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ‘But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’
“You’ll see these judges will be weak, insignificant, out of place kind of folks and repeatedly you’ll see that through the Book of Judges. It isn’t the people; it’s God using these guys and doing what He’s doing.
*****
“You see Sisera is one of the main types of the Antichrist in the Bible. Do you know where the battle’s going to take place in Megiddo? The Battle of Armageddon is where that’s at. The armies of heaven are going to come down and fight there.
“And Isaiah says the Lord flying is going to pass over like a bird flies. That stuff back there in Samuel where David here’s the goings on the top of the mulberry trees, all that stuff Isaiah 28 says, is what’s going to take place over there at that valley of Megiddo at the Battle of Armageddon.
“What happens over there in the tribulation is really just the culmination at one point, being brought to a head, of what the battle’s been from the beginning back there when God brings Israel into the land.
“In Judges 9 is a parable given by Jotham that’s about Abimelech and his winding up as a ruler over Israel. You’ll remember Gerizim from Deuteronomy 28 and the connection between Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26.
“There are four trees in this passage that are pictures of the nation Israel and they represent different aspects of the life of Israel. You’ll see the trees here fail to take up their responsibility of ruling over the other trees (other nations).
“All the nations of the earth in the parable here come and say to the nation Israel, ‘As an olive tree reign over us.’ It’s as if those the Gentiles come to Israel and said, ‘Come and reign over us like God created you to do.’ What does the olive tree say? ‘Shall I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man and go to be promoted over the trees?’
“The olive tree says, ‘No, I’m not going to go. I’ve got mine! Look how wonderful I am. I’m not going.’ The olive tree is a type of the spiritual life of the nation Israel. It’s a type of the covenant, the position of covenant blessing. It’s a type of being on the right side of the middle wall of partition and being the nation that is near to God.
“All of the other nations are separated. ‘What nation is it that hath God so near unto them?’ For example, when Solomon builds the temple, the door into the holy place, into the presence of God in there, you know what he made it out of? Olive wood.
“Because an olive tree to Israel represents access. The olive tree represents this special set apart access that Israel has. No other nation has it and they have it. Here’s this position of spiritual privilege and they fail with it. So then the trees go to the fig tree. . .”
Jordan says, “There’s a lot of tremendous spiritual truth to learn in the Book of Judges. In chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, there’s the lack of complete mastery of evil at the outset, which always means constant trouble from that evil afterwards, and often means defeat by it in the end. They don’t master the lands; they don’t master the nations. They don’t throw the Gentiles out. They don’t get rid of the Baal worship. They compromise with it and the result is they fail.
“Every time a cycle comes and they go down and recover, they never get back up as high as they were. It’s just a constant progression downward.
“Verse 10. God delivers Israel from the judgment they were in and there’s a restoration. In verse 11, ‘the land had rest’ and the rest is the rest God had promised them in Canaan. The Canaan rest is a type of the Millennial Kingdom rest and they experience rest for 40 years.
“You understand how that works. You learn the lesson, you live in the lesson, but you don’t pass the lesson on to the next generation. I mean, you’ve gone 40 years and there’s another generation, another group of people who have come on the scene, and you haven’t passed the lesson on to them.
“What do they do? You notice they don’t just naturally serve the Lord. They naturally go out and serve the flesh and the religious system. ‘And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.’ There’s this satanic policy of evil in the land that’s working to constantly corrupt Israel.
“Judges 3 says, [12] And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
[13] And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
[14] So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
[15] But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
[16] But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
[17] And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
“Ehud is a left-handed man and he’s going to deliver Israel and God’s going to use him and his cunning and his wisdom, even in his weakness of being left-handed, to deliver Israel.
“The result of all this is there are many things in the Book of Judges that, doctrinally and dispensationally, are prophetic pictures. Eglon here is a type of the Antichrist. By the way, Eglon was a very fat man.
"Job 15:27, a reference to the Antichrist, talks about his being a fat fellow. The Antichrist is going to be about 40 pounds overweight when he shows up. That’s some of those little ditties you find scattered around in the Word of God.
“From Zechariah 11:17 the indication is when the Antichrist is hit with that sword over there it’s going to be a left-handed man that hits him. You’ve got a picture of it back here in Judges 3:
[20] And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
[23] Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
[24] When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.
[25] And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
****
You’re in a pretty sad shape in Israel when you’ve got women running them. Deborah’s appointment demonstrates the spiritual condition they’d gotten into, because God had given them leadership positions but they weren’t taking them up.
“That verse over in Isaiah 3 about, ‘Woe unto you when women are your rulers,’ is not a put down of women; that’s saying the men aren’t doing their job and they aren’t being who they ought to be.
“God raises up this woman, what Peter calls the weaker vessel. And every one of these judges, as I Cor 1 says, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ‘But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’
“You’ll see these judges will be weak, insignificant, out of place kind of folks and repeatedly you’ll see that through the Book of Judges. It isn’t the people; it’s God using these guys and doing what He’s doing.
*****
“You see Sisera is one of the main types of the Antichrist in the Bible. Do you know where the battle’s going to take place in Megiddo? The Battle of Armageddon is where that’s at. The armies of heaven are going to come down and fight there.
“And Isaiah says the Lord flying is going to pass over like a bird flies. That stuff back there in Samuel where David here’s the goings on the top of the mulberry trees, all that stuff Isaiah 28 says, is what’s going to take place over there at that valley of Megiddo at the Battle of Armageddon.
“What happens over there in the tribulation is really just the culmination at one point, being brought to a head, of what the battle’s been from the beginning back there when God brings Israel into the land.
“In Judges 9 is a parable given by Jotham that’s about Abimelech and his winding up as a ruler over Israel. You’ll remember Gerizim from Deuteronomy 28 and the connection between Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26.
“There are four trees in this passage that are pictures of the nation Israel and they represent different aspects of the life of Israel. You’ll see the trees here fail to take up their responsibility of ruling over the other trees (other nations).
“All the nations of the earth in the parable here come and say to the nation Israel, ‘As an olive tree reign over us.’ It’s as if those the Gentiles come to Israel and said, ‘Come and reign over us like God created you to do.’ What does the olive tree say? ‘Shall I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man and go to be promoted over the trees?’
“The olive tree says, ‘No, I’m not going to go. I’ve got mine! Look how wonderful I am. I’m not going.’ The olive tree is a type of the spiritual life of the nation Israel. It’s a type of the covenant, the position of covenant blessing. It’s a type of being on the right side of the middle wall of partition and being the nation that is near to God.
“All of the other nations are separated. ‘What nation is it that hath God so near unto them?’ For example, when Solomon builds the temple, the door into the holy place, into the presence of God in there, you know what he made it out of? Olive wood.
“Because an olive tree to Israel represents access. The olive tree represents this special set apart access that Israel has. No other nation has it and they have it. Here’s this position of spiritual privilege and they fail with it. So then the trees go to the fig tree. . .”
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Rita, GO!
First off, the first anniversary of my sister Rita’s homecoming was Thursday. My brother-in-law Jesse told my mother (in a phone conversation late that night) that he couldn’t even bear to be in their home.
My sister, who had been working on her income tax that day and appeared perfectly okay, suddenly took very ill. She was asleep in her bed upstairs and came down around 11 p.m. in a panic, telling her husband she couldn’t see and she felt like she was about to pass out.
The paramedics came and at 3 in the morning, sitting outside the Mansfield Hospital’s ICU, her husband and daughter were told they should go home and get some rest because Rita appeared to be stabilizing and was likely out of the woods even though her heart had stopped earlier.
That same morning around 8:20 I got a shocking call from my mother that Rita was in the ICU and “not doing well.” My mom was already driving from Akron down to Mansfield to the hospital. I spent the next hour in prayer, at one point calling my boss to tell her I would be late for work.
Nobody knows this but in that endless prayer that hour, with my brain in utter agony running around all the palpable fears, I prayed, “Rita, go, go, go! C’mon Rita, Go!”
Only our family knows what a horrible siege she had been under physically and mentally for the past year, even though in the month leading up to her death she seemed to really have regained her mental health.
The second call from my mother came at 9:42, informing me that my sister had just died. My mom got there only about 30 seconds before her death.
Until that morning wake-up call, neither one of us knew anything was wrong with Rita. I was the one to call my brother and give him the absolutely flooring news. He had NO idea anything was going on.
The doctors told Jesse and Christine (my niece) all about an undetected infection that was the certain cause of death, but they were in too much in shock to hear any of the details. The death certificate simply said she died of a “stomach infection.” She was 48 years old.
What’s remarkable is I love her more now than I ever did when she was alive. I really, really SEE now just what a wonderful person she was—all through her life. I’m eternally grateful, among so many other things, to know that she was such a solid, solid Believer who looked to Jesus Christ just like I do. He was her very best friend.
All along, we both would share with each other how extremely grateful we were to have had the Christian upbringing as young children, thanks to our parents, our immediate family and family friends, the Akron Baptist Temple and the missionary stint we had as kids in Ecuador with HCJB, serving as a family in the same mission field as missionary legends Jim Eliot and Nate Saint. What a gift!
*****
Leading up to last Wednesday night, folks here at the Nathalie Salmon House were carefully monitoring the local weather forecast. Thanks to a board member’s knowledge of the John Hancock Tower’s “Charity of the Month” program, we were given a $3000 dinner on the 95th floor of the skyscraper which included 30 diners, both residents and staff. Of course we wanted to get a great sunset, which we did!
Just trying to say I bought into the hype yesterday and the day before that we could have tornado like weather here on the lakefront and I made the regrettable decision to go home after the morning church service and lunch with my friend Donna.
Jordan has now concluded a great series on the Antichrist that I will be sure to summarize here. Thankfully the weather, which did arrive at around 5:20 here, did not cut out internet reception for the evening service. It was a fantastic study, and I do admit I like learning as much as I can about the Adversary, given what a hostile-demented-spiritually-evil-world it’s becoming—or so it seems?
My sister, who had been working on her income tax that day and appeared perfectly okay, suddenly took very ill. She was asleep in her bed upstairs and came down around 11 p.m. in a panic, telling her husband she couldn’t see and she felt like she was about to pass out.
The paramedics came and at 3 in the morning, sitting outside the Mansfield Hospital’s ICU, her husband and daughter were told they should go home and get some rest because Rita appeared to be stabilizing and was likely out of the woods even though her heart had stopped earlier.
That same morning around 8:20 I got a shocking call from my mother that Rita was in the ICU and “not doing well.” My mom was already driving from Akron down to Mansfield to the hospital. I spent the next hour in prayer, at one point calling my boss to tell her I would be late for work.
Nobody knows this but in that endless prayer that hour, with my brain in utter agony running around all the palpable fears, I prayed, “Rita, go, go, go! C’mon Rita, Go!”
Only our family knows what a horrible siege she had been under physically and mentally for the past year, even though in the month leading up to her death she seemed to really have regained her mental health.
The second call from my mother came at 9:42, informing me that my sister had just died. My mom got there only about 30 seconds before her death.
Until that morning wake-up call, neither one of us knew anything was wrong with Rita. I was the one to call my brother and give him the absolutely flooring news. He had NO idea anything was going on.
The doctors told Jesse and Christine (my niece) all about an undetected infection that was the certain cause of death, but they were in too much in shock to hear any of the details. The death certificate simply said she died of a “stomach infection.” She was 48 years old.
What’s remarkable is I love her more now than I ever did when she was alive. I really, really SEE now just what a wonderful person she was—all through her life. I’m eternally grateful, among so many other things, to know that she was such a solid, solid Believer who looked to Jesus Christ just like I do. He was her very best friend.
All along, we both would share with each other how extremely grateful we were to have had the Christian upbringing as young children, thanks to our parents, our immediate family and family friends, the Akron Baptist Temple and the missionary stint we had as kids in Ecuador with HCJB, serving as a family in the same mission field as missionary legends Jim Eliot and Nate Saint. What a gift!
*****
Leading up to last Wednesday night, folks here at the Nathalie Salmon House were carefully monitoring the local weather forecast. Thanks to a board member’s knowledge of the John Hancock Tower’s “Charity of the Month” program, we were given a $3000 dinner on the 95th floor of the skyscraper which included 30 diners, both residents and staff. Of course we wanted to get a great sunset, which we did!
Just trying to say I bought into the hype yesterday and the day before that we could have tornado like weather here on the lakefront and I made the regrettable decision to go home after the morning church service and lunch with my friend Donna.
Jordan has now concluded a great series on the Antichrist that I will be sure to summarize here. Thankfully the weather, which did arrive at around 5:20 here, did not cut out internet reception for the evening service. It was a fantastic study, and I do admit I like learning as much as I can about the Adversary, given what a hostile-demented-spiritually-evil-world it’s becoming—or so it seems?
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Wonders of the underworld
As Paul tells us about the unbelievers left behind at the Rapture, God literally sends them a strong delusion. They want a lie so God says, “Okay, I’ll send you a lie. In fact, I’ll send you THE liar and THE ultimate lie.”
Jordan says, “In order to get Israel to buy into that they have to depart so fully from the truth to the lie program. Israel isn’t going to receive the Antichrist if they follow the truth God gave them, but they will depart so completely that the lie seems like the truth.
“I mean you imagine II Thess. 2:4: ‘Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.’
“Here’s how he does that. He’s going to substitute the truth of the Creator
for the creature as being God. Where’s the temple of God? It’s in Jerusalem.
“By the way, that’s a great verse to tell you the Antichrist isn’t going to come from the Vatican. He’s the profaned prince, as Ezekiel calls him, and he takes over in Jerusalem. But imagine having this character go in and sit in the temple. You see God had a throne in the temple where He sat. It was between the cherubim on the mercy seat over the Ark of the Covenant. This guy’s going to go into the throne room of the temple and sit there and say, ‘I’m the Creator.’
“Now for them to buy into that they’re going to be so spiritually blinded, departed from the faith so thoroughly that that’s all going to make sense to them. That’s how thoroughly deceptive this character’s going to be.
“The fundamental way he’ll do that is by demonstrating himself to be God by transitioning from the man of sin to the son of perdition by way of that resurrection.
"As the verse says, “that man of sin be revealed, that son of perdition.’ That’s a two-stage revelation of the Antichrist. Those are two very important titles and the third one is in verse 8 where he’s called ‘that Wicked,’ and you see that’s got a capital ‘W’ because it’s a proper name. That’s one of the names of the Antichrist.
“There are a couple of dozen specific names given to the Antichrist in Scripture. These are three of the most powerful ones because they describe him. Psalm 10 ends by identifying ‘that wicked one, that man of the earth.’ It’s a whole psalm about the rise and career of the Antichrist.
“It’s a psalm about him oppressing the poor and the poor there are those people who can’t buy or sell specifically because they didn’t take the mark of the beast. They’re the poor in Matthew 25 when it says ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you gave me clothes.’ The reason for those things has to do with the persecution the Antichrist will be putting on some people in that specific period of time in the last days.
“Rev. 11:8 says, ‘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.’ Notice that Jerusalem has become spiritually equivalent to Sodom and Egypt. That’s not a compliment. Spiritually they’ve become, as Rev. 18 says, ‘The hold of every fowl and unclean birds (spirits).’ This is the center where the Antichrist is going to come and set up his throne.
“What I want you to see is who it is that leads in the killing of these two witnesses. Well, it’s the beast but he’s described in an interesting way. ‘That ascends out of the bottomless pit.’ Now the dudes in the bottomless pit are, well, there not humans. And yet here, when he looks at the Antichrist, he’s been transformed into something that is beyond just a human experience.
“In chapter 17 he’s identified as the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit. There gets be some rather extraordinary, if I try to be polite about it, activities involved in the career of this guy.
“How is it that he, in the middle of his life, becomes the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit? If you come over to chapter 13 you’ll see this character. What John’s going to do here is amplify on who this beast is that you read about in chapter 11 and 12.
“Revelation 13:1 says, ‘And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.’
“In chapter six when he shows up, he’s only got one crown and now he’s got 10 of them. By this time in his career he’s gone out and taken over the ten kings that were there and he’s now sitting as the ruler of the government in that region.
“The chapter goes on, ‘[2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.[3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.’
“Now if you’re mortally wounded and then that wound is healed . . . if you
come down to verse 11-13 it says, ‘And I beheld another beast (this one will be called the false prophet in chapter 19) and he had two horns.’
“So this beast, this false prophet, is going to come along, and through the doctrine he promotes, is going to cause the world to worship. Now who do you worship? Don’t you worship God? The false prophet is going to preach a message that causes people to worship the first beast—the Antichrist.
“Notice the basis for the worship of that first beast is this deadly wound gets healed. The basis isn’t that he was wounded; it’s that he got over the deadly wound.
“Verse 13 says, ‘And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.’ Notice this guy is a miracle worker. Nobody’s gonna look at the miracles and say they were charlatans. He’s literally going to be able to . . . we read the verse in II Thessalonians about ‘lying wonders.’ Wonders that are designed to deceive. So he deceives them that dwell in the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do.
(Editor’s note: To be continued . . .)
Jordan says, “In order to get Israel to buy into that they have to depart so fully from the truth to the lie program. Israel isn’t going to receive the Antichrist if they follow the truth God gave them, but they will depart so completely that the lie seems like the truth.
“I mean you imagine II Thess. 2:4: ‘Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.’
“Here’s how he does that. He’s going to substitute the truth of the Creator
for the creature as being God. Where’s the temple of God? It’s in Jerusalem.
“By the way, that’s a great verse to tell you the Antichrist isn’t going to come from the Vatican. He’s the profaned prince, as Ezekiel calls him, and he takes over in Jerusalem. But imagine having this character go in and sit in the temple. You see God had a throne in the temple where He sat. It was between the cherubim on the mercy seat over the Ark of the Covenant. This guy’s going to go into the throne room of the temple and sit there and say, ‘I’m the Creator.’
“Now for them to buy into that they’re going to be so spiritually blinded, departed from the faith so thoroughly that that’s all going to make sense to them. That’s how thoroughly deceptive this character’s going to be.
“The fundamental way he’ll do that is by demonstrating himself to be God by transitioning from the man of sin to the son of perdition by way of that resurrection.
"As the verse says, “that man of sin be revealed, that son of perdition.’ That’s a two-stage revelation of the Antichrist. Those are two very important titles and the third one is in verse 8 where he’s called ‘that Wicked,’ and you see that’s got a capital ‘W’ because it’s a proper name. That’s one of the names of the Antichrist.
“There are a couple of dozen specific names given to the Antichrist in Scripture. These are three of the most powerful ones because they describe him. Psalm 10 ends by identifying ‘that wicked one, that man of the earth.’ It’s a whole psalm about the rise and career of the Antichrist.
“It’s a psalm about him oppressing the poor and the poor there are those people who can’t buy or sell specifically because they didn’t take the mark of the beast. They’re the poor in Matthew 25 when it says ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you gave me clothes.’ The reason for those things has to do with the persecution the Antichrist will be putting on some people in that specific period of time in the last days.
“Rev. 11:8 says, ‘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.’ Notice that Jerusalem has become spiritually equivalent to Sodom and Egypt. That’s not a compliment. Spiritually they’ve become, as Rev. 18 says, ‘The hold of every fowl and unclean birds (spirits).’ This is the center where the Antichrist is going to come and set up his throne.
“What I want you to see is who it is that leads in the killing of these two witnesses. Well, it’s the beast but he’s described in an interesting way. ‘That ascends out of the bottomless pit.’ Now the dudes in the bottomless pit are, well, there not humans. And yet here, when he looks at the Antichrist, he’s been transformed into something that is beyond just a human experience.
“In chapter 17 he’s identified as the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit. There gets be some rather extraordinary, if I try to be polite about it, activities involved in the career of this guy.
“How is it that he, in the middle of his life, becomes the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit? If you come over to chapter 13 you’ll see this character. What John’s going to do here is amplify on who this beast is that you read about in chapter 11 and 12.
“Revelation 13:1 says, ‘And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.’
“In chapter six when he shows up, he’s only got one crown and now he’s got 10 of them. By this time in his career he’s gone out and taken over the ten kings that were there and he’s now sitting as the ruler of the government in that region.
“The chapter goes on, ‘[2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.[3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.’
“Now if you’re mortally wounded and then that wound is healed . . . if you
come down to verse 11-13 it says, ‘And I beheld another beast (this one will be called the false prophet in chapter 19) and he had two horns.’
“So this beast, this false prophet, is going to come along, and through the doctrine he promotes, is going to cause the world to worship. Now who do you worship? Don’t you worship God? The false prophet is going to preach a message that causes people to worship the first beast—the Antichrist.
“Notice the basis for the worship of that first beast is this deadly wound gets healed. The basis isn’t that he was wounded; it’s that he got over the deadly wound.
“Verse 13 says, ‘And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.’ Notice this guy is a miracle worker. Nobody’s gonna look at the miracles and say they were charlatans. He’s literally going to be able to . . . we read the verse in II Thessalonians about ‘lying wonders.’ Wonders that are designed to deceive. So he deceives them that dwell in the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do.
(Editor’s note: To be continued . . .)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Conquest and compromise
Judges is the next history book after Joshua. Judges 1:1 says, “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?”
Jordan explains, “Joshua dies and Judges is just like Joshua was at the beginning of the book when after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord spake unto Joshua.
“Joshua connects with Deuteronomy and then Judges connects with Joshua and what you’re seeing is the next step in the life of Israel. They’ve gone in, they’ve possessed the land, crossed over, gone in and possessed it under Joshua and then Joshua gives the charge to the new generation; the next generation of people who are going to be in the land and be given the charge to be faithful like their fathers had been.
“That’s about where the similarity ends because there’s a great contrast between the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. Joshua’s a book of conquest. Judges is a book of compromise. In Joshua there is a spiritual upward trend; progress and victory is being won. In Judges there’s a spiritual downward trend where defeat is becoming evident.
“In Joshua one man is prominent. In Judges there is no prominent person. Nobody’s prominent. The main theme of the book is that everybody just does whatever they want to do. There aren’t any real leaders.
“In Joshua you see the faithfulness of God’s people and in Judges you see the compromising of God’s people. In Judges that first course of judgment upon Israel is instituted and we’ll see in the beginning part of the book how they violate the covenant and how the anger of the Lord is waxed against them so that He pours out that first course of disciplinary judgment and chastening to try and cause them to be restored back.
“It’s probable that the Book of Judges was written by Samuel. Judges 18 kind of dates when the book was written. It was written during the reign of King Saul. 18:31. The tabernacle was in Shiloh at the time. Chapter 20:27.
“You’ll see the book is written after the ark had been in Shiloh so there’s a time element there. If you look at the very last verse in the book, it says, ‘In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’
“That passage is found four times in the Book of Judges (Judges 19:1, 18:1, and 17:6). The idea there is if the writer of the Book of Judges is telling you ‘the thing about Judges is there wasn’t any king,’ well, if Israel didn’t already have a king when the book was written, there wouldn’t have been any reason to write that. So evidently the book was written after the beginning of the reign of King Saul but it’s also written before the reign of King David.
“Samuel was the last of the judges but he’s also the man who anoints the first two kings of Israel. He’s the connection between the judges and the kings. Biblically, the name ‘judge’ literally means a correcting ruler. The Hebrew word means ‘to put something right and then to rule it,’ and the judges were rulers.
"They were individuals whom the Lord was with who He raised up at different points of time to put things right in Israel. They never ruled over the whole nation. They were local rulers. They never ruled over Israel like a king did but they were men who brought about deliverance for the nation against their oppressors and enemies.
“Twelve of these judges God raised up and sent and then one of them, the 13th, is a usurper. Now that would fit. Twelve is the right number and thirteen is the number of rebellion (Gen. 14) and Abimelech in Judges 9-10 is a type of the Antichrist.
“The key verse in the book is the last verse. 17:6 repeated. When you come to the end of the book what the writer does is say, ‘This book demonstrates that the spiritual condition in Israel at this time is that there was no ruler and every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’
“That’s a reference to chapter 2:19. In other words, God would raise up a deliverer, deliver them and they would rest, but as soon as they had rest from the oppression, they went out and did their own thing again and wound up being worse, more corrupt, then their fathers before them.
“So each generation, if you wanted to graph a picture on a chart of what the Book of Judges would look like spiritually, it’s like a yo-yo in the history of Israel. They’re up and they’re down. But the yo-yo goes like this:
“They start up here and they go down and they’re in oppression. The enemy comes in and takes them. The judgment hits. Then they recover themselves and the judge delivers them. Then they go down again. Then the judgment comes and God sends a judge and delivers them and they come up and have rest but they corrupt themselves and go down again. He sends another one and He delivers them and then they go down again.
“But every time they come back, they never get any higher than they were before. In other words, they don’t come back up to the same height every time. They don’t get any better. And then the next time they come up they only come up to where they were at the last time.
“So what you’ve got is a constant stepping down and degeneration of the spiritual life of the nation Israel so that each recovery that they enjoy, it only brings them up to the low point of the time before and that’s a sure way to die.
“I remember when my dad was sick before he died of emphysema the last three years of his life they operated on him four times. I noticed after the second operation, he would get over it but he never was back to where he was to start with. And the next time he was a just a little lower. Finally, they said, ‘We can’t do it anymore because if he doesn’t get back up past here, he can’t survive.’
“Well that’s what Israel’s spiritual condition was; it will match what happens to you physically. The judge recovers them and then they drop back down again so the standard keeps going down.
“The book is in three parts. Chapters 1 and 2, then 3-16 and then 17-21. The first section deals with the background on the failure of the nation’s new generation (following Joshua) and why they failed. They don’t keep the covenant.
“In chapter one you see the political failure; they failed to conquer the land. In chapter two you see the religious, spiritual failure; they fail to keep the covenant. And then in 3-16 you have the cycles of the judges and really what you have is the first course of punishment laid on the nation. In the last few chapters you’re given a description of the conditions during the time of the judges and what was the spiritual, moral and governmental condition of the nations.
“After you get past 16 you don’t see any more of the judges. They’re over with. In chapters 17 and 18 you’ll see the idolatry and how Baal worship was introduced into the nation. In chapter 19 you’ll see the tremendous immorality and laxity in the nation.
“In chapter 20 and 21 you’ll see them warring amongst themselves and that’s something to notice. Compare Judges 20:18 with Judges 1:1. The book begins with Israel fighting their enemy, but by the time you get over to the end look at who they’re fighting: The children of Benjamin!
"They’ve quit fighting the enemy and gone to squabbling inside. There’s a complete failure of the nation Israel from the beginning of the book to the end. And there’s a complete refusal of the nation to be restored.”
Jordan explains, “Joshua dies and Judges is just like Joshua was at the beginning of the book when after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord spake unto Joshua.
“Joshua connects with Deuteronomy and then Judges connects with Joshua and what you’re seeing is the next step in the life of Israel. They’ve gone in, they’ve possessed the land, crossed over, gone in and possessed it under Joshua and then Joshua gives the charge to the new generation; the next generation of people who are going to be in the land and be given the charge to be faithful like their fathers had been.
“That’s about where the similarity ends because there’s a great contrast between the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. Joshua’s a book of conquest. Judges is a book of compromise. In Joshua there is a spiritual upward trend; progress and victory is being won. In Judges there’s a spiritual downward trend where defeat is becoming evident.
“In Joshua one man is prominent. In Judges there is no prominent person. Nobody’s prominent. The main theme of the book is that everybody just does whatever they want to do. There aren’t any real leaders.
“In Joshua you see the faithfulness of God’s people and in Judges you see the compromising of God’s people. In Judges that first course of judgment upon Israel is instituted and we’ll see in the beginning part of the book how they violate the covenant and how the anger of the Lord is waxed against them so that He pours out that first course of disciplinary judgment and chastening to try and cause them to be restored back.
“It’s probable that the Book of Judges was written by Samuel. Judges 18 kind of dates when the book was written. It was written during the reign of King Saul. 18:31. The tabernacle was in Shiloh at the time. Chapter 20:27.
“You’ll see the book is written after the ark had been in Shiloh so there’s a time element there. If you look at the very last verse in the book, it says, ‘In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’
“That passage is found four times in the Book of Judges (Judges 19:1, 18:1, and 17:6). The idea there is if the writer of the Book of Judges is telling you ‘the thing about Judges is there wasn’t any king,’ well, if Israel didn’t already have a king when the book was written, there wouldn’t have been any reason to write that. So evidently the book was written after the beginning of the reign of King Saul but it’s also written before the reign of King David.
“Samuel was the last of the judges but he’s also the man who anoints the first two kings of Israel. He’s the connection between the judges and the kings. Biblically, the name ‘judge’ literally means a correcting ruler. The Hebrew word means ‘to put something right and then to rule it,’ and the judges were rulers.
"They were individuals whom the Lord was with who He raised up at different points of time to put things right in Israel. They never ruled over the whole nation. They were local rulers. They never ruled over Israel like a king did but they were men who brought about deliverance for the nation against their oppressors and enemies.
“Twelve of these judges God raised up and sent and then one of them, the 13th, is a usurper. Now that would fit. Twelve is the right number and thirteen is the number of rebellion (Gen. 14) and Abimelech in Judges 9-10 is a type of the Antichrist.
“The key verse in the book is the last verse. 17:6 repeated. When you come to the end of the book what the writer does is say, ‘This book demonstrates that the spiritual condition in Israel at this time is that there was no ruler and every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’
“That’s a reference to chapter 2:19. In other words, God would raise up a deliverer, deliver them and they would rest, but as soon as they had rest from the oppression, they went out and did their own thing again and wound up being worse, more corrupt, then their fathers before them.
“So each generation, if you wanted to graph a picture on a chart of what the Book of Judges would look like spiritually, it’s like a yo-yo in the history of Israel. They’re up and they’re down. But the yo-yo goes like this:
“They start up here and they go down and they’re in oppression. The enemy comes in and takes them. The judgment hits. Then they recover themselves and the judge delivers them. Then they go down again. Then the judgment comes and God sends a judge and delivers them and they come up and have rest but they corrupt themselves and go down again. He sends another one and He delivers them and then they go down again.
“But every time they come back, they never get any higher than they were before. In other words, they don’t come back up to the same height every time. They don’t get any better. And then the next time they come up they only come up to where they were at the last time.
“So what you’ve got is a constant stepping down and degeneration of the spiritual life of the nation Israel so that each recovery that they enjoy, it only brings them up to the low point of the time before and that’s a sure way to die.
“I remember when my dad was sick before he died of emphysema the last three years of his life they operated on him four times. I noticed after the second operation, he would get over it but he never was back to where he was to start with. And the next time he was a just a little lower. Finally, they said, ‘We can’t do it anymore because if he doesn’t get back up past here, he can’t survive.’
“Well that’s what Israel’s spiritual condition was; it will match what happens to you physically. The judge recovers them and then they drop back down again so the standard keeps going down.
“The book is in three parts. Chapters 1 and 2, then 3-16 and then 17-21. The first section deals with the background on the failure of the nation’s new generation (following Joshua) and why they failed. They don’t keep the covenant.
“In chapter one you see the political failure; they failed to conquer the land. In chapter two you see the religious, spiritual failure; they fail to keep the covenant. And then in 3-16 you have the cycles of the judges and really what you have is the first course of punishment laid on the nation. In the last few chapters you’re given a description of the conditions during the time of the judges and what was the spiritual, moral and governmental condition of the nations.
“After you get past 16 you don’t see any more of the judges. They’re over with. In chapters 17 and 18 you’ll see the idolatry and how Baal worship was introduced into the nation. In chapter 19 you’ll see the tremendous immorality and laxity in the nation.
“In chapter 20 and 21 you’ll see them warring amongst themselves and that’s something to notice. Compare Judges 20:18 with Judges 1:1. The book begins with Israel fighting their enemy, but by the time you get over to the end look at who they’re fighting: The children of Benjamin!
"They’ve quit fighting the enemy and gone to squabbling inside. There’s a complete failure of the nation Israel from the beginning of the book to the end. And there’s a complete refusal of the nation to be restored.”
Friday, April 6, 2012
For Fred:
Ever since I got my iPOD people have wanted to know what’s playing in my head. Here’s just a small selection from one of my Genius playlists (where the Apple computer puts together tunes you’ve bought in an order that’s supposed to be like a DJ playing).
This is being presented to satisfy the curiosity of one of my very best friends Fred, my first boyfriend who continues to be a very close friend in his married life and has seen me through my musical tastes (which have not changed much at all) since we first met as juniors in college working for “the Lantern,” the student newspaper at Ohio State:
Ohio (Live) 3:40 Neil Young Live At Massey Hall 1971 (Deluxe Version) Rock
2
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out 2:45 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter 4
This Is It 4:18 Kenny Loggins Outside - from the Redwoods Country 1
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 5:19 Roberta Flack The Very Best of Roberta Flack R&B/Soul 5
Bridge Over Troubled Water 4:51 Simon & Garfunkel Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits Pop
10
All I Know 3:48 Art Garfunkel Garfunkel Pop
Longer 3:15 Dan Fogelberg The Very Best of Dan Fogelberg Pop 3
Be 6:31 Neil Diamond Jonathan Livingston Seagull Pop
Can't Keep It In 2:59 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter
4
Heaven Is in Your Mind (Live At The Forum) 3:23 Three Dog Night Captured Live at the Forum Rock
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live) 5:25 Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel: Live 1969 Pop
Foreigner Suite (Full Version) 18:16 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter
6
The Sound of Silence (Live) 3:53 Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel: Live 1969 Pop
I'm Your Captain / Closer to Home 10:00 Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad: Greatest Hits Rock 10
This is being presented to satisfy the curiosity of one of my very best friends Fred, my first boyfriend who continues to be a very close friend in his married life and has seen me through my musical tastes (which have not changed much at all) since we first met as juniors in college working for “the Lantern,” the student newspaper at Ohio State:
Ohio (Live) 3:40 Neil Young Live At Massey Hall 1971 (Deluxe Version) Rock
2
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out 2:45 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter 4
This Is It 4:18 Kenny Loggins Outside - from the Redwoods Country 1
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 5:19 Roberta Flack The Very Best of Roberta Flack R&B/Soul 5
Bridge Over Troubled Water 4:51 Simon & Garfunkel Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits Pop
10
All I Know 3:48 Art Garfunkel Garfunkel Pop
Longer 3:15 Dan Fogelberg The Very Best of Dan Fogelberg Pop 3
Be 6:31 Neil Diamond Jonathan Livingston Seagull Pop
Can't Keep It In 2:59 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter
4
Heaven Is in Your Mind (Live At The Forum) 3:23 Three Dog Night Captured Live at the Forum Rock
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live) 5:25 Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel: Live 1969 Pop
Foreigner Suite (Full Version) 18:16 Cat Stevens Gold: Cat Stevens Singer/Songwriter
6
The Sound of Silence (Live) 3:53 Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel: Live 1969 Pop
I'm Your Captain / Closer to Home 10:00 Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad: Greatest Hits Rock 10
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Progressive possession
In Joshua 13 Joshua is old and stricken in years. Back in Numbers, He was one of the 12 spies that went in at Kadesh-Barnea before the 40 years of wandering.
Jordan says, “You read on down about Caleb and he’s 83 years old when they finally get to go in. There’s a great old song that says, ‘I want that mountain which the Lord has given me.’ That comes from Caleb’s words over there to Moses. He’s 83 years old and he says, ‘Moses, you promised me that mountain over there, that I could take that and go and whip them dudes in that mountain and I want it now.’
“He said, ‘My hand isn’t any weaker and my eye isn’t any dimmer than it was 40 years ago.’ Why, you know better than that. You know well and good he’s more feeble and frail than 40 years before!
“That old boy was an optimist, man. He knew God was going to go fight with him. He wanted to see the fight! Well, Joshua’s that way. He’s old and stricken in years. ‘The Lord said to him to possess it and he goes on down and talks to him about the land.
“There’s more land to be possessed than what they possessed, and yet Joshua 11:23 says they took the whole land. Well, they took it but they hadn’t possessed it all yet and gone in to get it. There’s more promised to Abraham than they ever actually possessed, but they got all the land that that generation was going to get.
“Joshua 21:43. When He says He gave them all the land, you have to understand that they didn’t possess every piece of land at that moment that God had given it to Abraham. If they went in and took Canaan, how much of the land did God promise Abraham? From the Mediterranean to the river Euphrates. From Lebanon all the way down to the Nile River of Egypt. All the way across to the Euphrates River. They never got all that land. These people just went in and got Canaan and yet he says that ‘all the land which he sware unto their fathers they possessed.’
“The reason He can say to him in Joshua 13:1, ‘There’s a whole lot more land to be possessed than this,’ and yet he can say, ‘I’ve given it all to you,’ is that God sent Israel into the land, but the understanding was very clear in Moses (Exodus 23) that they were going to go in and take a foothold in the land and then the next generation was expected to go out and possess more of the land, and the next generation was to go and possess MORE of the land, that there was going to be a progressive possessing of the land. It didn’t happen all in one whack. They came in and took the heart of it and then they were to go out in faith and possess the rest, but it was going to be the next generation’s responsibility to go and finish the job, as it were.
“Joshua’s generation did its job; now the next generation needs to come and do it and they unfortunately fail. For example, Exodus 23:27.
Verse 30. The land is going to be repossessed progressively in stage by stage by stage. Why? Well, God is interested in the land being taken care of. Remember Leviticus 26. The land is an issue. All those passages over there in Isaiah where He talks about the LAND being married to the Lord. The land is important to God. Not just the people in the land, but the land itself too.
“They’re going to go in to possess it little by little. The issue is He
says, ‘Now go in and wipe everybody out in one whack; nobody’s going to be able to take care of the land. There aren’t enough of you to fill it all up yet. So I’m not going to drive them all out in one year unless the land becomes desolate, the beast of the field multiply against thee. I’m gonna put this generation in and they can take what they can handle. Then you raise up a next generation and they can take some more. And little by little, stage by stage, we’re going to get it.’
“Exodus 23: 31 says, ‘And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.’
“The next generation needs to be faithful and loyal. They need to keep the covenants and it’s in chapter 23 And 24 you see the last advice that Joshua gives them is to be loyal. He recognizes that the seeds of rebellion are already there and that they’re going to fail and that they’re not going to make it and that there are going to be some problems and he actually predicts these things and lays it out for them. They don’t drive them all out and so Joshua’s saying to them, ‘Hey,’ and by the way, it’s only going to be by the Second Advent when Jehovah Nissi comes Himself personally, that they’ll ever get all that God’s promised them.
“Christ when He returns runs the same circuit that Joshua in Israel should have run in taking the land. They’re one day going to receive the land based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Joshua 23:14-16. They got a choice. They keep the covenant and get the blessings (Lev. 26) or they can not keep the covenant and get the curses of Leviticus 26. And Joshua understands that there are the seeds of rebellion and he, like Moses in Deut. 32-24 predicts Israel’s failure, literally says to them, ‘You know, you fail and that first course of judgment is going to come--that evil that Lev. 26 says is going to come.’ ”
Jordan says, “You read on down about Caleb and he’s 83 years old when they finally get to go in. There’s a great old song that says, ‘I want that mountain which the Lord has given me.’ That comes from Caleb’s words over there to Moses. He’s 83 years old and he says, ‘Moses, you promised me that mountain over there, that I could take that and go and whip them dudes in that mountain and I want it now.’
“He said, ‘My hand isn’t any weaker and my eye isn’t any dimmer than it was 40 years ago.’ Why, you know better than that. You know well and good he’s more feeble and frail than 40 years before!
“That old boy was an optimist, man. He knew God was going to go fight with him. He wanted to see the fight! Well, Joshua’s that way. He’s old and stricken in years. ‘The Lord said to him to possess it and he goes on down and talks to him about the land.
“There’s more land to be possessed than what they possessed, and yet Joshua 11:23 says they took the whole land. Well, they took it but they hadn’t possessed it all yet and gone in to get it. There’s more promised to Abraham than they ever actually possessed, but they got all the land that that generation was going to get.
“Joshua 21:43. When He says He gave them all the land, you have to understand that they didn’t possess every piece of land at that moment that God had given it to Abraham. If they went in and took Canaan, how much of the land did God promise Abraham? From the Mediterranean to the river Euphrates. From Lebanon all the way down to the Nile River of Egypt. All the way across to the Euphrates River. They never got all that land. These people just went in and got Canaan and yet he says that ‘all the land which he sware unto their fathers they possessed.’
“The reason He can say to him in Joshua 13:1, ‘There’s a whole lot more land to be possessed than this,’ and yet he can say, ‘I’ve given it all to you,’ is that God sent Israel into the land, but the understanding was very clear in Moses (Exodus 23) that they were going to go in and take a foothold in the land and then the next generation was expected to go out and possess more of the land, and the next generation was to go and possess MORE of the land, that there was going to be a progressive possessing of the land. It didn’t happen all in one whack. They came in and took the heart of it and then they were to go out in faith and possess the rest, but it was going to be the next generation’s responsibility to go and finish the job, as it were.
“Joshua’s generation did its job; now the next generation needs to come and do it and they unfortunately fail. For example, Exodus 23:27.
Verse 30. The land is going to be repossessed progressively in stage by stage by stage. Why? Well, God is interested in the land being taken care of. Remember Leviticus 26. The land is an issue. All those passages over there in Isaiah where He talks about the LAND being married to the Lord. The land is important to God. Not just the people in the land, but the land itself too.
“They’re going to go in to possess it little by little. The issue is He
says, ‘Now go in and wipe everybody out in one whack; nobody’s going to be able to take care of the land. There aren’t enough of you to fill it all up yet. So I’m not going to drive them all out in one year unless the land becomes desolate, the beast of the field multiply against thee. I’m gonna put this generation in and they can take what they can handle. Then you raise up a next generation and they can take some more. And little by little, stage by stage, we’re going to get it.’
“Exodus 23: 31 says, ‘And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.’
“The next generation needs to be faithful and loyal. They need to keep the covenants and it’s in chapter 23 And 24 you see the last advice that Joshua gives them is to be loyal. He recognizes that the seeds of rebellion are already there and that they’re going to fail and that they’re not going to make it and that there are going to be some problems and he actually predicts these things and lays it out for them. They don’t drive them all out and so Joshua’s saying to them, ‘Hey,’ and by the way, it’s only going to be by the Second Advent when Jehovah Nissi comes Himself personally, that they’ll ever get all that God’s promised them.
“Christ when He returns runs the same circuit that Joshua in Israel should have run in taking the land. They’re one day going to receive the land based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Joshua 23:14-16. They got a choice. They keep the covenant and get the blessings (Lev. 26) or they can not keep the covenant and get the curses of Leviticus 26. And Joshua understands that there are the seeds of rebellion and he, like Moses in Deut. 32-24 predicts Israel’s failure, literally says to them, ‘You know, you fail and that first course of judgment is going to come--that evil that Lev. 26 says is going to come.’ ”
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