(sure enough I picked up some kind of something that has had my digestive system in turmoil with roiling stomach and all. I am coming out of it already thankfully and am expecting to be able to go to work tomorrow. I wasn't able to finish new post this evening and time has now run out, meaning I will have to wait until tomorrow as a result)
Jude: [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Those angels are kept in chains of darkness awaiting the great day of judgment. In other words, not just lost men and women are judged here, but the loss of the angelic creation also find their judgment here, explains Richard Jordan.
So they face this great white throne. Solomon builds a house up here that has this great white throne on it. The parallel is Jerusalem here on the earth and up north up here in the universe . . . by the way, come with me to Isaiah 14: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
[13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.
That expression, "the sides of the north,"’ there are passages back in Samuel where he talks about going up into the sides of the cave. That’s a reference to going way back into the recesses of the thing. When you get back to the farthest part of it.
Up in the northern part of the universe there is a mountain—it’s called the mount of the congregation—up in the extreme northern part of the universe. There’s a mountain in which the angelic host congregate together to give account of themselves to God and to have their stewardship of their responsibility judged by God.
Literally that mount of the congregation of the sides of the north is a throne of judgment. You remember in Job 1 and 2 when it says that the angels came to appear before God and Satan came with them?
And people always say, "Well, how could Satan have gotten up into the third heaven where God is? Why would He let him?" He wasn’t up there!
These angels are coming and there’s a regular routine back here where they give account to God. We’ve read about it in Isaiah where in the millennium they come up on that regular basis and worship before the Lord; they do the same thing in the angelic host up here and where they come to is that mount of the congregation on the sides of the north.
What Solomon’s doing over here is he’s building in the land of Palestine a replica of what God has in the universe. He’s not building it in order to honor the Lord; he’s going to build it in order to have a counterfeit to try to thwart what God’s doing.
When you counterfeit something it’s not because you like the original real thing; it’s because you want to take the real thing and have something like it.
Isaiah 14:15 says, "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
Over and over and over, what they do is try to make something like what God’s doing in order to subvert and supplant what God is doing.
In Judges 17 you have a very critical moment in the life of the nation Israel. Micah had a house of gods and he made an ephod (the robe the priest wears) and a teraphim (the idol used) and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. He’s got his own church. He starts his own religion. But his house of gods is a counterfeit to Israel’s religion. The message was, "You don’t need to go to Jerusalem; you can come here."
Revelation 12:12 says, ‘"herefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
That war in heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ comes out of the third heaven up here, there are passageways through here. They’re identified before you back in the book of Nehemiah.
He comes out of that heaven with the armies of God and He comes down into this universe and what He’s going to do—you see the reason He starts up here in His Second Advent on the earth is He starts up here and takes this territory away where Satan’s stronghold was. He comes back into the earth and comes in and takes possession.
My point is what He does in the heavens is mirrored by what He’s going to do in the earth. And what Solomon was doing back there in building that house . . .
Go to Ezekiel 31 and you’ll see those cedars are used to describe Pharaoh, a type of the Antichrist. When you look at these things about the Second Advent of Christ, the prophetic program and all of that, it’s fascinating to see how Scripture continuously gives you more threads of understanding and how these things weave themselves together.
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Rev. 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." James said the Judge is at the door. He’s coming. He’s standing at the door and knocking. He wants to come in.
There’s a famous painting of this verse with Jesus Christ standing at the door of a cottage. Now the painting is by one of the Renaissance Italian painters where you have a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus standing in front of you. The painting is the artist’s rendition and it’s not very true, but there’s a significant thing about the painting.If you look at the door, you’ll see there’s no door handle on the outside. The door has to be opened from the inside. And there’s a great truth in that. Because the way Jesus comes in is when the inhabitants open the door. And that’s what’s going on here.
“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice AND open the door." He doesn’t barge in, snatch the door off the hinges and stomp in. He has to be invited in. It has to be opened.
“I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me." Now when He comes in, and then He sups with him, you see how He says, "I will come into him"? He just told them that in John 14: "I go away and yet I will come again. And when I come, I’m going to come and receive you unto myself. And when I come I will sup with you."
That word "sup" is shorthand for the word "supper." Luke talks about how after they supped, He took the cup. The idea is, "I’ll come in and when I come in, I’m not just going to sit there; we’re going to have a meal! I’m going to fellowship with you. I’m going to enter into a fellowship ‘and he with me.’ We’re going to enter into a mutual fellowship!"
“To him that overcome my throne his throne." Jesus goes away, sits at the Father’s right hand until His enemies are made His foot stool, then He comes back, sets up His kingdom, "sit on His throne with all the holy angels with Him (Matthew 25:31) and shall sit upon the throne of his glory."
Then what’s going to happen with the 12 apostles? In the regeneration, they’re going to sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. They’re going to go into that kingdom with Him and rule and reign and have a fellowship—a communion sitting around the table.
When you sit around the Father’s table, the idea is we communicate, but there’s a family relationship. I don’t know about you, but most of us don’t have family meals at the end of the day every day and talk about what went on. There’s a deep bond in that.
That’s the idea of sitting at the table, fellowshipping, delighting in what one another’s doing. Delighting in being able to tell the events of the day. There’s fellowship together with one another!
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