About Prophecy - The Book, Serialized - Chapter Eight

About Prophecy

The Book

—serialized—

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Chapter Eight

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The length to which the Lord went to get Nineveh to repent is only exceeded by how far the Lord went and will go to get Israel, physical and spiritual, to repent, with both nations of Israel having much harder hearts than the men of Nineveh, who in type, represent the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9) in the Endurance whereas greater Christendom in the Affliction is the reality foreshadowed by Pharisees and Sadducees to whom Jesus preached. And about outwardly circumcised Israel, the Lord told Ezekiel,

And He said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel—not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house." (Ezek 3:4–9)

Pragmatism would hold that it is a vain act for you to preach repentance to someone whom you know in advance will not repent—

As greater Christendom is the reality of the house of Israel to whom Ezekiel was sent, his forehead supernaturally hardened to match the hardness of minds of the house of Israel, filled-with-spirit Christendom in the Affliction will be the reality of Pharisees and temple officials to whom the man Jesus preached, with the two witnesses—two brothers as Moses and Aaron were brothers—being types of the glorified Christ and the Remnant (of the Elect) in the Endurance of Jesus. Hence as the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he wouldn’t let Israel go into the wilderness three days’ journey to worship the Lord until the Lord devastated Egypt because of Egypt’s idolatry, and as the Lord hardened Ezekiel’s mind so that Ezekiel could withstand the blandishments of captive elders of Israel, the Lord will supply to the two witnesses the minds and hearts they need to bring devastation onto rebellious Christendom, calling into existence plagues and famines without remorse.

No Christian, having love for neighbor and brother, wants to see anyone, especially another Believer, even an errant Believer, suffer disease and hunger, thirst, exposure to the elements. Yet, the two witnesses will be tasked with bringing punishment upon rebelling Christians so that, perhaps, the third part of humanity will be saved without loss. The work the two witnesses will be given to do is that of bringing physical condemnation upon rebellious Christendom while bringing knowledge to the third part, none of whom will be Christians at the Second Passover liberation of Israel. And in doing their work, they will be hated by all, this hatred cultivated by their calling into existence plagues and famines so that they will be killed on a specific date, day 1256/1257 of the Affliction; for their public resurrection from death will complete the defeat and decapitation of Death, the fourth horseman (Rev 6:7–8).

The prophet Zechariah saw the two witnesses in vision:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?" … Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?" And a second time I answered and said to him, "What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?" He said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth." (Zech 4:1–4, 11–14)

Compare with,

“And I [the glorified Christ] will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. (Rev 11:3–5)

An underappreciated characteristic of timeless is when the two witnesses enter heaven, they enter the same heavenly “moment” as existed when Abraham sat in the shade of his tent by the oaks of the Amorite Mamre … Abraham “lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth” (Gen 18:2).

Abraham recognized the Lord, apparently from his earlier visions, but the two men who went on to Sodom are not identified except as the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth; the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

For a decade I have said privately that the two who call fire down from heaven on Sodom and her sister cities are the glorified two witnesses who will not be humanly born until mid 20^th-Century CE … what greater honor can God give to the two witnesses, who will function as aide-de-camps for Christ Jesus, than to permit them to meet the man Abraham, whom they will come to know when all are glorified in the same heavenly moment. The gates/gatekeepers to the heavenly temple are already assigned to the Apostles. The spiritual prince who will reign over Israel will be the glorified King David. The glorified Moses will be the “house” that the Lord built, a “house” adopted by Christ Jesus as Pharaoh’s daughter adopted the infant Moses as her son, with Pharaoh’s daughter functioning as the life-giver to Moses when she plucked the ark carrying the infant from the river, with the passage of time (one earthly moment decaying into the next earthly moment) functioning as a flowing river that will eventually dump into a sea and be no more.

Again, understanding Scripture requires the auditor to think in metaphors—

The narrative details that Moses’ parents were Levites; that Moses’ mother hid her newly born son for three months (a symbolically significant length of time); that when Moses’ mother could no longer hide her son, she took a basket (an ark) made from reeds (paper was made from these reeds) and daubed it with pitch as Noah’s Ark was waterproofed with pitch (Gen 6:14), and she hid the basket in the reeds where Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe …

The structure of this narrative was used in pagan antiquity, and was used by John Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath, where migrant farm workers [from Oklahoma] in their desperation placed a dead infant in an apple crate in a flooding ditch, conveying in symbolism that the farm workers had no savior, no one to deliver them from their economic slavery.

Because the motif of an abandoned infant being found in a river is part of mythic antiquity isn’t reason to reject Moses, or to spend time and resources searching for the name of the Pharaoh who ordered Hebrew male infants killed. To search for the Pharaoh’s name would be analogous to searching for the decree of Herod ordering that male children under two years old in Bethlehem be killed (Matt 2:16) … no such decree was given, but the author of Matthew’s Gospel needed to get Jesus into Egypt and out of Egypt, with Egypt representing sin, before the child was old enough to sin; for in the author of Matthew’s Gospel having God call His Son out of Egypt, with Jesus being this Son that fulfilled Hosea’s prophecy (Hos 11:1), the author of Matthew’s Gospel slipped Jesus in behind Israel as the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22), and thereby negated the validity of the history of outwardly circumcised Israel.

What the author of Matthew’s Gospel did in sending Jesus to Egypt then bringing Him back out of Egypt was literarily sophisticated (actually, brilliant), but not good history. But it need not be good history to serve its purpose of denying legitimacy to circumcised-in-the-flesh Israel.

There were reasons why 2^nd-Century Ebonite Christians used Matthew’s Gospel, sans its first two chapters, as sacred Scripture; for these Christians apparently recognized the falsity of both Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus as well as the journey into Egypt. However, Ebonite Christians were not sophisticated enough readers of texts to appreciate what the author of Matthew’s Gospel was attempting, telling the story of the indwelling Christ Jesus, the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou], that enters the spirit of man [to pneuma tou ’anthropou], thereby bringing to life the inner self of this human person through receipt of a second breath of life—

Moses’ biological mother gave to the infant Moses the breath of life that came from Adam through Eve to her. But this single breath of life wasn’t enough to keep Moses, as a male Hebrew infant, alive for more than the three months Moses’ mother could hide her son. Moses needed “permission” granted by the Pharaoh to continue to live, with this permission liberating Moses from death as well as from physical bondage to the Pharaoh. This permission to live functioned as a second breath of life in a manner analogous to Northwest Coast Formline art being three-dimensional art placed on two-dimensional surfaces, with examples seen in my past work.

As the glory of the Lord shone from Moses’ face after he entered into the presence of the Lord, this glory representing a physical type of Christ Jesus being glorified, Pharaoh’s daughter fishing Moses from the Nile, then returning Moses to his mother to be nursed until he was weaned symbolizes disciples [the Elect] being born of spirit and then left in place to further grow in grace and knowledge until disciples are no longer in need of spiritual milk—

Paul wrote to the holy ones at Corinth:

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? (1 Cor 3:1–3)

Obviously, the disciples at Corinth were not weaned. Same for the Hebrews:

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Heb 5:11–14)

Moses was not returned to Pharaoh’s daughter, who figuratively gave him a second breath of life, until he was ready to eat solid food. The Elect will not be glorified until they are ready to eat solid food, and judging by how many Christians can ingest solid food, the Elect are today very few in number.

Spiritual growth comes via constant practice of distinguishing good from evil, not closing the Christian’s eyes so evil will not be seen, but in confronting good and evil and choosing to do what is good and right, thereby not doing what is evil and of sin, unbelief.

Because of the uniqueness of timelessness, the Lord simultaneously sees all that flows in the river of time. He simultaneously sees Pharaoh’s daughter and the virgin Mary. And this reality the author of Matthew’s Gospel understood. This reality the author of John’s Gospel understood. This reality the Apostle Paul understood. But none of these three, when spiritual infants, understood what they would come to know: at one time, all three were spiritual infants.

Those disciples who are weaned—and again, there are not many—were initially born of spirit knowing no more about God than a human infant knows about his or her father. But it isn’t Christian pastors who are the teachers of these infant sons of God … does a shepherd “teach” the sheep he herds to drink, to graze, to avoid some weeds and to eat others? Or is all of this “sheep knowledge” inherited with being a sheep, coming through the spirit that is placed in sheep by God, this spirit analogous to the spirit of man taken from King Nebuchadnezzar who was then given the spirit of an ox which caused Nebuchadnezzar to know to graze on the lawn of his palace, but to know nothing of Babylon’s political affairs?

Do I, called to reread prophecy, teach other Christians to keep the Commandments? I would if I could. But greater Christendom will not listen to me: who am I, an impoverished writer with a bad back, two torn-up shoulders, knees that don’t work as they should? What credibility do I have? In this world, none. So is it not presumptuous to preach repentance to those who I know won’t listen?

If the Lord knew in advance that the house of Israel would not listen to Ezekiel because this house of Israel would not hear His words [this house of Israel is not the northern kingdom of Samaria, but is what remained of Israel in Judea — see Ezek 12:9–10, 23–24, 27–28 for further refinement of who was the house of Israel in Ezekiel’s prophecies], then for the Lord to send Ezekiel to this house of Israel will be, would be a fruitless endeavor unless the house of Israel that will not listen serves as a symbol or type of another house of Israel that doesn’t represent a physical people but the spiritual house of Israel, the greater Christian Church that is also unwilling to listen to God because of hard foreheads and stubborn hearts.

Of course Christians will deny that they have stubborn hearts, that they refuse to listen to the words of God, but consider even a smidgeon of evidence to the contrary: what day did the Lord command Israel to remember and to keep holy? And for what reason were they to remember a particular day and a particular seven day weekly cycle, with their “remembering” enhanced by the giving of manna, bread from heaven?

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of [YHWH] in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Then [YHWH] said to Moses, "Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." (Ex 16:1–5 emphasis and double emphasis added)

Gathering only the manna that would be eaten on the day, plus resting on the seventh day, the Sabbath, was the two-trial test the Lord placed before Israel to determine whether this nation would walk in His law—and how did the test go?

And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that [YHWH] has given you to eat. This is what [YHWH] has commanded: 'Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.'" And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, "Let no one leave any of it over till the morning." But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, "This is what [YHWH] has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to [YHWH]; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.'" So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to [YHWH]; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none." On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And [YHWH] said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! [YHWH] has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day. (Ex 16:14–30 emphasis added)

The people of Israel did not listen to Moses, and Moses became angry with them … consider now what Jesus said to temple officials, that none of them kept the Law (John 7:19), and consider the structure of John’s Gospel and when Jesus said to Jews in the temple that none of them kept the Law. Does not Jesus’ condemnation closely follow Jesus declaring that He was the true bread from heaven? It does, doesn’t it?

God was again testing Israel to see if this latter nation of Israel would walk in His Law when Jesus said that those who would be saved must eat His flesh and drink His blood: “‘Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him’” (John 6:54–56).

Moses told Israel on the 15^th day of the second month that the Lord was testing Israel to see if the nation would keep His Law, which was not the Sinai Covenant that had not yet been given … the only Law that had been given to Israel at this time was the Passover Covenant, with gathering manna on six days and not gathering on the seventh day being an addition to the Passover that complimented the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with manna [“what is it”] being unleavened bread from heaven and a type of Christ Jesus, received for six days but ingested daily, with no work of gathering being needed to eat the seventh day, analogous to no transactions being made during the Millennium, the reality of the Sabbath for those Israelites who do not take judgment upon themselves following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, with the second/Second Passover following the pattern of the Passover (see Num 9:11–12).

I just jumped logical declarations needed to establish that during the Millennium, a type of entering into God’s Rest, heaven, and a type of the Sabbath which represents entering into God’s Rest (see Heb 3:16–4:12; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14), there will be no buying or selling—no transactional economy—for on the sixth day, the sixth year, representing this millennium in which humanity dwells near its end, God will give enough increase [harvest] to last through the Sabbath, through the Sabbath year, the Sabbath millennium, not that the land won’t bring forth crops but that the land will never again be worked the way it presently is being farmed and exploited.

Without a transactional economy, there will be no Facebook or Twitter, no I-phones or satellite television, no autobahns or Interstate highways, no fracking, no electrical grids, no hydroelectric dams, no Empire State Buildings. There will not be much that Americans recognize as America, unless a person is Amish, who have adapted the technology of industrial agriculture (such as round hay bailers) to horse-drawn farm implements.

The contoured fields of mid America will still be contoured and ready to plant when the Millennium begins. No heavy earth-moving equipment will be needed: the hard work of clearing land has already been done … the hard work of clearing Brazilian forests has already been done. Keeping the land clear of trees will be difficult, but easier than initially clearing the land.

My ancestors journeyed from Pennsylvania and Virginia to northwestern Ohio in 1807, where two hundred plus acres of heavily forested land were obtained. Clearing began, seven acres a year, with ax, saw, and team—hard but necessary work if a crop was to be taken from these acres. And for the most part, work that will not be required of those persons who physically live into the Millennium.

Those who live into the Millennium will not need to mine iron deposits to obtain iron for tools, nor prospect for copper deposits. This work has been done for them in the past millennium. Hence, swords will be beaten into plowshares; tank tracks into pruning hooks.

These prophecies are known, but consider what is actually declared: there will be no need for mineral extraction, for hard rock mining, for miners extracting silver from shafts a mile deep. Again, this work has already been done. Rather, the person shall dwell under his and her own vine and tree, eating from both as the Lord provides.

Because of when the people of Israel complained about nothing to eat (Ex 16:1–2), and because of when quail and manna were provided to the people a month after Israel left Egypt (on or about the second Passover), and because of manna as bread from heaven symbolically representing Christ Jesus, the true bread from heaven, and because the people of Israel were physically liberated from physical slavery to a physical king in a physical land, the giving of quail and manna as liberation from hunger serves, symbolizes liberation from indwelling sin and death; from the appetites of the flesh that produce death. And if the Lord manipulated Jonah into place so that Jonah would be swallowed by the whale then puked out as a believable spokesman for a god that Nineveh worshiped, He certainly could have manipulated Israel into not complaining about hunger until it was time for Him to give the people “bread from heaven.”

Returning to Jesus being the true bread sent from heaven:

So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." So they said to Him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." So the Jews grumbled about him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." (John 6:24–41)

Putting the passages from Exodus chapter 16 with John’s Gospel, chapter 6, we find that the giving and withholding of manna, bread from heaven, establishes the Sabbath and the seven day weekly cycle, with this cycle beginning with the 16^th day of the second month (because of the ambiguity of the language, possibly the 17^th day, the day when Noah was sealed in the Ark), thereby making the 16^th day the first day of the six days when manna would be given before the withholding of manna occurs on the seventh day, the Sabbath, this pattern self-repeating to this day without interruption except in localized cases such as the sale of Alaska …

At Sitka, the United States took possession of Alaska on Friday, October 18^th (Gregorian calendar), 1867; however this was the second Friday to occur in Sitka that week, for Friday, October 6^th (Julian), 1867, had ended in Sitka some thirteen hours earlier and according to the Russian officials, the United States took possession of Alaska on Saturday, October 7^th (Julian), the one weekday difference coming from St. Petersburg laying west of the International Dateline and Washington, D.C. laying east of the Dateline and the custom of territories of a nation being governed by the day’s date in the capital of the nation. So in Sitka, the week of October 1^st through 7^th (Julian) had two Fridays in the week, the first being October 6^th (Julian), and the second Friday being October 18^th (Gregorian) with the Sabbath being October 19^th Gregorian, eight days after the previous Sabbath, thanks to the peculiarities of the International Dateline, necessary for establishing the Sabbath on a globe, as the equator is necessary for establishing the High Sabbaths so that the Christian Passover is always a spring observance.

A localized exception is not a negation of the pattern, or of the Sabbath. Hence, a 1^st-Century Christian fellowship—or several such fellowships—not keeping the Sabbath did not/does not negate Christendom’s obligation to keep the Sabbath; does not negate the Millennium. Nor do Christian fellowships not keeping the Passover negate the Second Passover liberation of Israel.

Returning to manna being given on the 16^th day of the second month: this day and date should not be used to justify the Wave Sheaf Offering being made on the 16^th day of the first month as Pharisees did and as rabbinical Judaism does today. This day and date has significance after the Second Passover liberation of Israel, which will be immediately followed by all Christians being filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God, analogous to God sending Christ Jesus into the creation as the true, unleavened bread from heaven.

The giving of manna and the giving of Christ, His body eaten and His blood drank through the taking of the blessed bread and drink on one night a year, the night He was betrayed, are both amendments to the Passover Covenant that continues until God again gives the lives of men (Isa 43:3–4), all uncovered firstborns, to end the covenant He initiated by the giving of the lives of firstborns in Egypt. He will then initiate the New Covenant that has the Law [Torah] written on hearts and placed in the minds of all Israel, the nation circumcised of heart, so that all, great and small, will know the Lord—and under this New Covenant, there will be no covering sacrifice for sin, for sins will not be remembered. The New Covenant moves fully inside the Israelite, making unbelief rebellion against God. And when unbelief equates to rebellion and to the Adversary’s heavenly rebellion, every Christian will cover his or her sins by his or her obedience to God, thereby committing no intentional sin and having no need for a covering sacrifice. The Christian who sins intentionally (such as ignoring the Sabbath) will pay for his or her sin with his or her life in the second death, the lake of fire.

God intends on saving everyone by first filling all Christians with spirit at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, thereby liberating all Christians from indwelling sin and death that He put into every person. Then 1260 days later, dominion over this world will be taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man and the remaining third part of humankind will be baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11) and thus filled with spirit, giving to every person the opportunity to be numbered in the harvest of firstfruits. But what God knows is that of the seven billion persons alive today, only a tithe will be gathered to God in the harvest of firstfruits … look around you: if you will be saved in the harvest of firstfruits, then nine people around you will not be, which doesn’t mean that uncovered firstborns who perish when ending the first Passover Covenant are lost: they will be judged in the great White Throne Judgment by those things they did while they were physically alive. But this does mean that of the two parts of humankind that remain alive to live into the Affliction, only a tithe of the initial total (seven billion) will be glorified, with a second tithe living into the Millennium as physical people, filled with spirit and liberated from indwelling sin and death but not glorified.

Today and tomorrow, God tests and will test Israel just as the Lord tested Israel when this physical people came into the wilderness of Sin—

So the question is, will you, today, put on the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, this garment causing you to walk in this world as Christ walked; this garment of Christ’s righteousness hindering you from walking in this world as a person of the nations? And while the garment of Christ’s righteousness might well be too large for you today, covering you as a tent would, you, by walking in this world as an obedience Judean, will hopefully quickly grow to fit the garment of Christ’s righteousness before being disrobed and required to cover yourself with your own obedience following the Second Passover liberation of Israel.

Or will you, as Israel did in the wilderness, call Christ’s righteousness worthless food:

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." Then [YHWH] sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. (Num 21:4–6 emphasis added)

Would a Christian call grace, the most common euphemism employed to represent the garment of Christ’s righteousness, worthless food? Unfortunately, yes—the Christian will do so by ignoring the words of Christ.

When Matthew’s Jesus told His disciples, “‘Drink of it [the blessed cup], all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matt 26:27–28), Christ Jesus equated drinking from the cup with forgiveness of sins.

Not drinking from the cup means no forgiveness of sins.

If a Christian refuses to drink from the blessed cup on the night Jesus was betrayed, the sins of the person are retained, both on earth and in heaven …

With Jesus giving the holy spirit to His first disciples (John 20:22), Jesus gave to His disciples authority to forgive sins or to withhold forgiveness:

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive spirit holy. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." (John 20:21–23 emphasis added)

In a practical sense, would Christ Jesus give authority to His disciples to forgive sin, the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4) that is rooted in unbelief (Rom 14:23) if His disciples did not, themselves, keep the Law? Not logically. He would only give authority to forgive sin to those who, out of spiritual maturity, understand why another person would inadvertently transgress the Law.

For ancient Israel, the sacrifices were for unintentional transgressions of the Law:

These preparations having thus been made [construction of the temple], the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. (Heb 9:6–7 emphasis added)

Grace covers unintentional transgressions of the Law, not willful sins. The garment of Christ’s righteousness doesn’t cover the Christian who deliberately breaks Commandments because this Christian doesn’t believe the Law applies to the person. Grace does not cover willful murder, lying, stealing, coveting, or neglect of the Sabbath. Grace doesn’t cover willful adultery, willful disrespect for parents, willful idolatry.

Assuming for a moment that you have authority to forgive sins, would you forgive the transgressions of the person who, when called upon to repent, flips you the bird? Or would you permit your emotions to overrule your compassion and mercy? Would you not tell the irreverent Christian that his or her sins are held? What would be best for the Christian, warning the Christian that his or her sins are no longer covered by grace, that they are being held against the person, or telling the person that whatever the person does, his or her sins are covered by grace when Jesus warned Jews,

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:26–29)

The evildoer shall not live, but shall perish in the second death. Grace does not cover the transgressions of the evildoer regardless of whether the evildoer purports to be a Christian. Hence, a person can claim to be a Christian until the person runs out of breath, but if the person doesn’t walk in this world as Jesus walked, the person does not wear the garment of Christ’s righteousness. The person is not under grace, but is a pretender. The person is a dead man walking.

And in a citation already employed several times, Paul wrote, “For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:11–13).

Thus, if a Christian refuses to keep the Commandments because the Christian insists that he or she is not under the Law, the Christian who transgresses the Law will nevertheless perish without the Law; for under the Second Passover Covenant, it isn’t the acts of hands and body that condemns the Christian, but the Christian’s unbelief that causes the Christian not to strive to keep the Law. For as long as the Christian sincerely strives to keep the Law, transgression of the Law will be unintentional and not counted against the Christian.

In the wilderness of Sin, who kept manna overnight before the sixth day? Was it not those Israelites who didn’t believe Moses (Ex 16:20). The Commandments had not yet been given; so sin remained dead, unable to devour Israel—

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Rom 7:7 emphasis added)

Before the giving of the Law, sin (as unbelief) was in this world, but it wasn’t counted as sin (Rom 5:13). Thus, Israel sinned when tested by the Lord in that the people didn’t believe Moses, but Israel’s unbelief didn’t bring sin to life so that it would devour Israel. That occurred at Mount Sinai, when the people demanded Aaron make for them a gold calf/gold calves to go before them for they did not know what had happened to Moses. And their demand that Aaron make for them elohim [lower case “e”] brought sin to life, and sin devoured the nation so that before Israel left Sinai, the nation was condemned to spiritual death through the prohibition against kindling a fire on the Sabbath (Ex 35:3).

· Fire represents life, with the dark fire of cellular oxidation of simple carbohydrates sustaining physical life;

· The bright fire that is the glory of God as seen by Ezekiel (1:26–28) sustains spiritual life;

· The Sabbath symbolizes entering into the presence of God—

· By prohibiting Israel from kindling a fire on the Sabbath, the Lord prevented in symbolism Israel from having life in the presence of God, or from receiving spiritual life from God.

Compare the difference in how transgressions of the Sabbath were addressed before the giving of the Law, then after the giving of the Law:

Before:

On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And [YHWH] said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! [YHWH] has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day." (Ex 16:27–29)

After:

While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And [YHWH] said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as [YHWH] commanded Moses. (Num 15:32–36)

With the giving of the Law, unbelief (of God) brought sin to life inside the person, and the Lord’s means of addressing living sin was to kill the person in whom sin was alive, which made what Paul wrote about dying when sin was brought to life a real possibility if not for Christ Jesus covering Paul’s lawlessness with His garment of grace, thereby permitting Paul the time he needed to learn to truly walk in this world as Jesus walked.

For greater Christendom, collectively spiritually dead as evidenced by how Christians walk in this world, the Law is given when it is written on hearts and placed in minds according to the terms of the New Covenant (Jer 31:31–34; Heb 8:8–12), the spiritual Second Passover Covenant.

Christians are today as Israel was in the wilderness of Sin before arriving at Mount Sinai. But following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, Christians will be as Israel was in the wilderness of Paran, from where the twelve spies were sent into the Promised Land. And greater Christendom will rebel against God on day 220 of the Affliction as Israel rebelled against God when this circumcised-in-the-flesh nation refused to enter into God’s Rest when the promise of entering His rest stood:

All the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is [YHWH] bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt." Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If [YHWH] delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against [YHWH]. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and [YHWH] is with us; do not fear them." Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of [YHWH] appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. And [YHWH] said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." (Num 14:2–12)

Except for Joshua and Caleb, none of the men numbered in the census of the second year were permitted to enter into the Promised Land because of their unbelief (Num 14:11; Heb 3:19). Likewise, no Christian who rebels against God in the Apostasy of day 220 will enter into heaven. All will perish in the lake of fire, which is sad, but the reality of committing blasphemy against the holy spirit when no sacrifice remains for the Christian.

When Israel entered the wilderness of Sin on the 15^th day of the second month, sin remained dead for the Royal Law was not yet given. But there was law in effect, the Passover Covenant, with the Sabbath being instituted as part of this Passover covenant, which is why the fourth Commandment of the Royal Law begins,

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to [YHWH] your God. (Ex 20:8–10)

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as [YHWH] your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to [YHWH] your God. (Deut 5:12–14)

Israel was to remember the Sabbath day, because the Sabbath was initially given as an addendum to the Passover Covenant; for consider the reason for keeping the Sabbath, according to the Moab Covenant: “‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and [YHWH] your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore [YHWH] your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day’” (Deut 5:15).

The Sabbath is linked to entering into God’s rest: “‘For in six days [YHWH] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore [YHWH] blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy’” (Ex 20:11).

English translations of Exodus 20:11 reinforce the concept of a seven day creation week, but Adam was created on the same day as the Lord made the heavens and the earth:

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that [YHWH] God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for [YHWH] God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then [YHWH] God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Gen 2:4–7 emphasis added)

Something is amiss: the Genesis “P” creation account is the poetic abstract for the spiritual creation of the Most High God, not an account of the physical creation even though it would seem to be such. For a literal reading of this “P” creation account would have day one, the second day, and the third day defined by light [day] and darkness [night] before there is either a greater or a lesser light to rule day and night, meaning that in a physical sense, the sun shone for three days before it was created on the fourth day, which is a nonsensical notion, especially when Paul identifies the light of day one as Christ Jesus (2 Cor 4:6). Day will now be when Christ is inside the creation, and night will be when Christ is absent from the creation. So what’s seen in the Sabbath Commandment as given in Exodus is a veiled reference to the abstract for the plan of God, with Sabbath observance being the stand-in for entering heaven for as long as the person lives physically.

In the physical, the Sabbath represents for those persons who have taken judgment upon themselves entering Heaven. For those persons who have not taken judgment upon themselves, the Sabbath represents entering into the Millennium as a physical person. But in the spiritual, the Sabbath represents liberation from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, which is why the Sabbath was initially given as an addendum to Passover Covenant.

Beginning with the 16^th day of the second month, for six days manna was given, but on the seventh day, no manna was given. Not even the light work of gathering manna was permitted. Now, bring this timeline to the children of Israel entering the Promised Land:

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. (Josh 4:19)

At that time [YHWH] said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time." So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of [YHWH]; [YHWH] swore to them that He would not let them see the land that [YHWH] had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children, whom He raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. And [YHWH] said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (Josh 5:2–12 emphasis added)

The Passover lamb was to be selected on the 10^th day of the first month (Ex 12:3)—Israel entered the Promised Land as the Passover lamb of the Lord … it is primarily for this reason that the author of Matthew’s Gospel had to place Jesus in Egypt and have God call Him from Egypt; for Jesus was the Passover Lamb of God, not Israel, which proved to be a blemished lamb, bringing into the Promised Land the idols of Egypt (Ezek 20:18–21).

After Israel entered the Promised Land, the children of Israel born in the wilderness were circumcised, probably on the 11^th day of the first month, then when healed, they keep the Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, they ate the produce of the land, meaning that on the 15^th day of the first month, they should have (but probably didn’t) observe the Wave Sheaf Offering before the produce of the land was eaten—

The language concerning the Wave Sheaf Offering specifically references Israel harvesting the land (“‘When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before [YHWH], so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it — Lev 23:10–11), not looting the harvest of the people Israel was to dispossess. Thus, most likely Israel made no Wave Sheaf Offering that first year in the Promised Land; for Israel did not harvest Canaanite grain: the people stole the grain that the nation ate. And if this is the case, grain of the land was eaten on the 15^th day, and manna ceased on the 16^th day of the first month, one month short of forty years. And in Christ Jesus being the reality of manna, bread from heaven, Christ will cease covering the sins of Israel the day after the Second Passover liberation of Israel. But this will be the subject for Chapter Nine.

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