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Read MoreThis teaching is on obsessive distractions that do not produce the good fruits of the Torah. Instead, they produce anxiety, bitterness, and the rotten fruit of the “Wicked Lamp.” Yeshua beckons us up the Father’s holy mountain to develop a relationship with Him through the commandments.
Read MoreCorruption
This week we continue the thread of study in the Song of Songs that prophesies of the call to Messiah to possess the earth, the awakening of Gog and Magog, as well as the awakening and ingathering of the Bride of Messiah into the Garden:
“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.” (Song of Songs 5:1)
As with the sending of pomegranates in Chapter Four symbolized the giving of the commandments to Israel, so this expression:
“I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam [oil…]”
…can allude to a “good name.”
Those who bear the good Name have a reputation that is aromatic in the earth already. They do not wait for Messiah Yeshua to return, but they work hard “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles which know not God:” (1 Th 4:4-5)
Because we must show hospitality to the stranger, alien, orphan, and widow, we must be a miniature “house of prayer for all nations” like the Temple. For those seeking healing, comfort, salvation, and the many things for which humans rely on their Creator to supply, we are the Father’s outstretched arms. And because He is holy, we must be holy.
Like the greeter at the door of Walmart represents our first impression of the store, so believers are the first impression the nations have of their Creator’s holy nature.
Like the holy incense was pounded and compounded for the holy Temple, believers will be pounded and compounded to release the pleasing aromas to the world. The discipline of our evil inclination, or yetzer hara, is like a daily death which turns into a fragrant Temple spice. Likewise, myrrh is a death spice, yet it is compounded with other spices like healing balsam oil to create a compounded fragrance.
“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” (Ecc 7:1)
The first statement sounds agreeable, but does the second?
If the gathering of myrrh and balsam is the gathering of the righteous to the Garden who have received the Good Name and who have returned their gifts and sacrifices for the sake of His Good Name to the Bridegroom, then how is their “gathering” related to the day of their death and a better day?
Death must occur before there can be a resurrection. What was sown in corruption must be raised incorruptible. Isn’t this what every righteous soul longs for?
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable G5356 body, it is raised an imperishable body;
it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1Co 15:42-44)
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable [G5349] will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. (1 Co 15:53-54)
“Perishable” is G5349, phthartós, from G5351; decayed, i.e. corruptible, perishable, i. e. mortal, that which is liable to corruption
It is from: Strong’s G5351 – phtheir?
to shrivel or wither, i.e. to spoil (by any process) or (generally) to ruin (especially figuratively, by moral influences, to deprave):—corrupt (self), defile, destroy.
Sin and death go together. As long as we are susceptible to death, we are susceptible to sin. Remove the strength of death, and the strength of sin is removed as well. The aromatic righteous will no longer be subject to the corruptibility of sin that destroys the Temple.
Outline of Biblical Usage G5351:
to corrupt, to destroy
in the opinion of the Jews, the temple was corrupted or “destroyed” when anyone defiled or in the slightest degree damaged anything in it, or if its guardians neglected their duties
to lead away a Christian church from that state of knowledge and holiness in which it ought to abide
to be destroyed, to perish
in an ethical sense, to corrupt, deprave
Ummm…wasn’t Paul a Jew? It explains what he taught the Corinthians, who were quite a lusty folk, that corrupting their bodies with sin was like destroying the holy Temple. Perhaps they were merrily celebrating Chanukkah at the Feast of Dedication with their Jewish friends, yet also merrily carrying on in certain lustful sins, defiling their own temples.
Here are a couple more examples of its use in context:
“If any man destroys G5351 the temple of God, God will destroy G5351 him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1Co 3:17)
“Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts G5351 good morals.’” (1Co 15:33)
When Messiah comes into the Garden, he gathers the spices of those who have attained a “good name” and a new day of birth, which also their day of death. These have grieved over their susceptibility to sin after salvation because they know how destructive it is. They labored in their walk with Messiah to do so worthy of the Good Name, the pomegranates of the 613 mitzvot. They diligently guarded the temples of their bodies. When they sinned, they repented. The death of wrong desires was compounded with balsam oil to make a precious ointment that will only be fully understood when we are gathered by our Beloved to the Garden.
As they have offered this sweet-smelling aroma of a sacrificial life, striving to purify their temples, now they are rewarded with a birthday on their death day so that they may no longer be susceptible to sin and its decaying effects. They are assembled to worship in the incorruptible Temple. What could diminish the joy of being gathered in the Garden? Perhaps knowing we didn’t try very hard to encourage more people to join us!
The lost and needy of the world need to see us practicing habits of repentance. We’re not born good at it; we’re born bad at it! When we manage our sins not by hiding or denying them, but by acknowledging them, repenting of them, asking forgiveness of those whom we’ve wronged, and resuming the holy walk, it is proof that Yeshua DOES have the power to transform us and renew our minds.
When we renew our minds, the body will follow. When the body follows, it is a living testimony of Yeshua’s righteousness. This is how we are pounded and compounded as fragrance for both the Garden of our resurrection as well as this earth right now. This is how we gain a reputation as a Temple builder and repairer rather than a destroyer.
If you love Yeshua, then you hate sin. You hate it when you sin. You wish you didn’t have to fight it day after day because you know it is the “old man,” not the one seated with Messiah in the heavens. Like Paul also said, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” (Ro 7:21) Last week’s newsletter explained why satan’s greatest attraction is to the holiest places. If we follow Messiah and guard our Temples, then surely temptations will come. We will sometimes fail and sin, and yet we have the opportunity through repentance to build a good name in this temple of our bodies. As we walk in the Word, we will be pounded and compounded, but know this:
A resurrection birthday is coming. We will die, even if only for the duration of a twinkling of an eye, but it is even better than the day of our natural birth. On the day of our natural birth, we were born with a sin nature. On the day of our resurrection birthday, we will have only a holy nature. A good name.
That persistent gravity of sin and death will be destroyed, and its corruption will no longer have power over you. Your greatest grief, that you would continue to sin even after coming to Messiah Yeshua to accept his salvation, will be comforted. You will know sin no more because you will not desire it. You will desire only to know Yeshua in all righteousness.
Well, done, good and faithful servant.
Read MoreSatan’s Place in Heaven
Let’s start with our familiar text:
Awake, O north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
Let its spices be wafted abroad.
May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its choice fruits!” (So 4:16)
This call to “Awake, O North” is thought to encompass three distinct calls recorded in
1. Jeremiah 31:7-8 (exiles of Israel),
2. Isaiah 41:25 (Messiah)
3. Gog and Magog (Ezek 38:2)
Why are Gog and and Magog are so attracted to “the beloved city” and its inhabitants to want to destroy them at least twice in Biblical history? Last week’s study of the yetzer ha-ra, or evil inclination, as it pertains to satan, was a key piece to the answer. If we can understand that the power of satan is strong against the holy things of this earth, that will explain it.
It does need to the be strong to cultivate evil from the wicked. They are already his willing subjects. It is the holy who require him to exert his maximum strength. This sounds incredible, but Scripture reinforces this Jewish principle:
“The evil inclination, as a general rule, gravitates toward holiness, and functions at its greatest strength where holiness resides…Evidently, it is because the forces of evil concentrate their greatest efforts on enticing the righteous, those people most deeply immersed in holiness.” (Midrash Rabbah to Shir HaShirim 5§4)
WHAT? You’re telling me that if I pursue holiness by obedience to the commandments that I make a bigger target?
I put that in all caps because we always seem so surprised and indignant when bad things obstruct our pursuit of the Word. I’m not usually an all-caps writer. More than one question mark is just a bridge too far, though. I don’t think I’ve ever had a peeve as a pet, but if I did want a pet peeve, that would probably be it. Multiple question marks instead of one. Only one per interrogative. Please.
So, yes, Scripture suggests that holiness acts like a magnet to evil. Even more perplexing, sometimes the Ruach HaKodesh leads us to the place or situation to be be tested in the Word. Here are a few examples of the principle:
“I was watching Satan fall from Heaven” (Lk 10:18)
“…there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.” (Re 12:7-9)
“And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.” (Re 12:13; 16, 17)
“the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” (Job 1:6)
e. “…a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’ She continued doing this for many days.” Acts 16:16-18; 8:9-18)
f. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Mt 4:1)
When Scripture identifies the intense effort to sabotage the righteous ones and the Holy City Jerusalem, then it is quite evident that the dragon’s desire to dominate the heavens is still strong even when bound!
For that reason, the satan, the evil imagination, must be bound in our daily lives. It does not go away…it is bound. Disciplined. Exercised authority over.
How do the pre and post millennial battles with Gog of Magog (the wicked among the nations, “Amalek”) relate to the texts of Shir HaShirim 4:16 and 5:1?
Both attack the Garden-ruled Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Song of Songs 4:16 invites the awakening of the Anointed One to execute the process of the resurrection of the righteous dead and the purging of the wicked, including the satan. He will be bound and tossed into the Abyss, which will be sealed over him for 1,000 years. That’s important. If he is only bound or imprisoned by the Holy One, then we cannot try to kill it. We must learn how to discipline and bind it with “It is written.”
Just quoting “It is written,” however, is not enough. It must be written and applied in the proper context in which we are tempted! The Word is frequently used by the serpent deceptively…out of context.
This is why Job’s friends fell so short in their “counsel” to the suffering Job. They really hadn’t invested the time to understand how what they knew of the Holy One really applied to Job’s situation. They didn’t understand the dynamics of what had taken place in Heaven in order for Job’s test to be authorized. Job was already confused as to why his pursuit of righteousness was being punished:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)
Knowledge in Hebrew is daat, which means an intimate understanding and relationship. It is beyond wisdom and understanding. It is sacrificial love. Job had wisdom and insight to the Holy One, but until he’d suffered through testing, he would not “know” Him. For a man to “know” a woman is for them to cohabit and bear fruit. In Job’s case, the result of the test would be greater fruit and a greater revelation of who the Holy One is. The verses in Job are majestic in their revelation of His Majesty and glory.
Job could not “bind and loose” the satan completely on his own, but with the authority of Yeshua, we do have the authority to exercise a system of judgment within the holy community as well as to appeal to the Holy One when we are sorely tested. We can invoke Yeshua’s Name, for Yeshua is interceding on our behalf, perhaps something which Job did not enjoy. In His mercy, the Father may respond by shortening the test Himself (“Lead us not into hard testing” of Matthew 6:13) or reveal to us what we need to do to reach the conclusion faster. He will always refer us to His Word as a greater revelation of Him in that test. It is His desire that we answer these situations with “It is written…” accurately.
A proper “It is written…” really does get rid of the satan faster!
Something else to try is to forgive. The Luke text of the Disciples’ Prayer alludes to the appeal to escape hard testing with forgiveness:
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Lk 11:4)
Although spirits are not bound with physical chains, the Living Word, which is Yeshua, does hamper the work of the evil one among the holy. It is as close as we can come to putting cuffs on the satan like the Holy One, for in our obedience, we are exercising His power over the accuser and saboteur of our holy life.
While the satan is bound during the millennium, the nations will be free to learn of and obey Yeshua without that evil inclination constantly hampering their efforts. What a deal, right? Perhaps this is the reason the satan is released one final time, to test those nations. Will they truly love Yeshua and restrain evil, or will they join Gog as Magog to rebel against the Word?
For 1,000 years, the un-resurrected among the nations will be subject to the Word, loving restraing “cords” of the YHVH, Messiah, and the royal priesthood:
“Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’” (Ps 2:1-3)
This uproar among the nations and their rebellion against Jerusalem’s administration is possible because the satan, the yetzer ha-ra, is released to once again deceive and threaten the Garden and rule of righteousness from the Holy City.
The Gog and Magog deception frogs will once again sing a song of deception like they did before the millennium: “And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs…” (Re 16:13)
Among the nations are leaders and people who will invite the deception to take root in their hearts that enjoyed the privilege of learning the Word without its evil inclination for 1,000 years. Ultimately, they will be bound with the lies they believed because they chose not to trust Elohim, their Creator, and His saving right hand Yeshua. They will learn of Him in peace, yet they will reject Him.
The sages associate this rebellion of the created against the Creator as the rebellion of a degenerate child against his parent. They read the prophecies of Gog and Magog along with the rebellion of Absalom against David:
Rabbi Jacob bar Acha said: Why is the portion of Absalom juxtaposed with the portion of Gog and Magog? To teach that a wicked son is more difficult for a father than the war of Gog and Magog…” (Midrash to Tehillim 3:2)
Degeneracy in a man’s house is considered far more grievous than the war between Gog and Magog. For with reference to the war between Gog and Magog it is written: Why are the nations in an uproar? (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 1:7)
and…
Avraham’s taking of a skin of water and bread in sending away Ishmael is also associated with Gog and Magog. “Immediately, “Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water…” , teaching you that he hated Ishmael because he set out on a path of depravity, and sent him and his mother Hagar emptyhanded…and without sustenance?…The path of depravity in a person’s household is worse than the war of Gog and Magog, as regarding Gog and Magog it is written: “Why do nations rage and peoples meditate in vain?”…, wealth, and good deeds….he bound him and tied him, and [Isaac] did not prevent [him from doing so].
The perfect marriage of YHVH through Messiah in the Beloved City and “married” Garden Land with the holy ones, the righteous, is ultimately and finally gained through purging the unrepentant wicked who refuse to cede authority and rulership to their Creator.
It reminds me of a beautiful song from the 90s:
One day every tongue will confess You are God
One day every knee will bow;
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose You now.
(Brian Doerksen. 1998 Vineyard Songs)
Let us choose to serve the Holy One of Israel now. Even before satan loses his place in Heaven. Before he is bound, loosed, and bound again. Let us be counted among those gathered who will be perfected, no longer susceptible to sin after the resurrection. Inheritors. Forever.
“Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the LORD loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. (Ps 37:27-29)
Read MoreThe Rage and Age
of Gog and Magog
Let’s start with our familiar text:
Awake, O north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
Let its spices be wafted abroad.
May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its choice fruits!” (So 4:16)
This call to “Awake, O North” is thought to encompass three distinct calls recorded in
1. Jeremiah 31:7-8 (exiles of Israel),
2. Isaiah 41:25 (Messiah)
3. Gog and Magog (Ezek 38:2)
Why are all three being called to “Awake” simultaneously?
To awake in Scripture can have a few connotations. The contextual explanation is that there has been a period of inactivity, and the prophetic call is to arouse each group to action. Messiah will begin to gather the exiles who have aroused from a period of spiritual apathy, and simultaneously, Gog and Magog will awaken in that generation to create the chaos and darkness necessary to awaken Israel from spiritual “sleep.”
Because the gematria of Gog and Magog is 70 [Gimmel-Vav-Gimmel Vav-Mem-Gimmel-Vav-Gimmel, 3+6+3+6+40+3+6+3], they are thought to represent the symbolic 70 nations of the world, which will gather against both 1. Adonai and 2. Israel.
Various commentaries make oblique references to Gog and Magog, but it will not be understood fully until the day arrives. Some say it is the descendants of Amalek among the nations. Amalek, from which King Agag arose, is the murderous spirit of Edom, or Rome, the fourth beast, headed by Babylon.
In that sense, Gog (chief person) and Magog (his nation, people) has arisen in every generation to provoke the Holy One and people who trust in Him and obey Him. The Scriptures cited below reiterate that Gog and Magog are not a single ruler and nation, but a wicked remnant embedded among all nations. In some generations, they will rise up with enough strength and cunning to marshal huge numbers of the population to join their murderous schemes.
The pre-millennial war will bring Israel to repentance, and Adonai Himself will destroy Gog and Magog with confusion, thunder, hail, blood, and lightning (Ezek 38-39). In other words, an amalgam of Egypt and Assyria’s judgments.
Psalm Two is traditionally associated with Gog of Magog:
Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,“Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” (Ps 2:1-6)
The commentators note that in this attack of Gog, it revisits an important precedent in Babel: at the tower of Bavel, the united conspirators agreed to attack Heaven itself. As a result, YHVH confused them, and the 70 languages of the nations were born. This is the traditional location of Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue. Amalek in the Torah portion Balak is referred to “first of the nations,” in other words, the first to openly rebel against Heaven itself by attacking Israel in the wilderness; this “first” attack was also the first direct attack against Heaven since the “nation of mankind” attempted to penetrate it rebelliously at the Tower of Bavel.
At the final attack of Gog from Magog, the nations will once again undertake to assemble and attack YHVH and Messiah DIRECTLY, thinking the Holy City Jerusalem has a “Patron” who will defend it. They believe this was the wicked Amalekite Haman’s fallacy, attacking the Jews first instead of their God. Something will cause them to believe they have the wherewithal to wage war directly against YHVH and King Messiah.
What do Gog and Magog have to do with the third “awakening” of the winds?
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.” (Re 20:1-3)
The “satan” is the adversary, or yetzer hara, Evil Inclination, which wars and accuses humankind; it is adversarial to the righteousness of the Spirit. The yetzer hara, identified with satan, is in conflict with the image of Elohim in every person, for He is the Creator, and He made mankind in His image. We are “inclined” toward imaginative creative, thought. What should lean toward tov, good imaginations, the yetzer tov, instead wars against the mind of Elohim with evil imaginations:
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“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Ge 6:5)
Not part time, but full-time yetzer hara.
The satan is the Dragon, who holds the authority that is passed on to ”The Beast.” He operates first in deception to usurp the Garden. In CG Workbooks Two and Four, you learned that The Beast represents the appetite, emotion, intellect, and desire of the nefesh (soul), which wars against the truth of the Ruach HaKodesh, “it is written.”
As nations/empires, the Dragon is represented by Egypt, and its deceitful “authority” was wielded by the Beast empires: Babylon, Medea/Persia, Greece, and Rome in conquering the nations. Greece’s “spots” were its systems, much adopted from Persia and Babylon, by which it enticed, coerced, and forced subjugation of the nations. These systems incorporate the natural leanings, “yetzer,” lust of the nefesh: appetite, emotion, desire, intellect.
A wicked seed is deception. It can take root and form intent. Intent leads to wicked action.
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. (Re 16:13)
Lacking the “food and water” of the Word, the beast/nefesh within a human creature is never completely satisfied because the nefesh, or soul, dominates the ruach/spirit.
When we fail to walk in ever-increasing holiness, immersing in the Word Yeshua, we are part of the serpent’s deception among the nations of our exile. Our sin deceives people concerning the purity of the Kingdom coming fully to this earth.
A believer should not be a deceiver.
We can deceive either through
1) not studying to understand the Word
2) failing to apply it
To the undiscipled/undisciplined soul, an achievement or acquisition brings temporary happiness and satiety, but it quickly loses its luster, and the beast must hunt the next soul meal.
In contrast, a soul at rest is “like a weaned child,” (Ps 131:2) able to relax until the next challenge, test, or accomplishment, knowing the Ruach HaKodesh responds to the Word readily, but the nefesh is still in faith training [l’hitamen], re-wiring thoughts and actions to “It is written.”
“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Re 20:7-10)
Although Gog and Magog (the hostile nations) are defeated at the beginning of the 1000-year-reign, when the evil inclination is released again, the evil remnant among the nations gather for war again. The “sand of the seashore” is a hint to the ruined King of Egypt’s dead Egyptian army who served the dragon, the crocodile of the Nile. They were last seen on the sand of the seashore of the Reed Sea, or Yam Suf (the final sea).
Are you awake yet?
Next week, we will learn why Gog and and Magog are so attracted to “the beloved city” and its inhabitants to destroy them. We will also learn why the power of satan is so strong against the holy things of this earth.
Read More