Life - The Temple of God (Tabernacle/House) “repair the breaches of the House” – 2 Kings 22:5 |
- At the hour of wrath upon Israel, the walls are breached and the city is taken, and if the wrath of God is provoked far enough, then the house of God is defiled and destroyed. God says, “I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours” (Lev. 26:31). Read the heart-wrenching words of the prophet as he is rent by the emotional trauma of God Himself, and that the living prophetic word might rend you and me:
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at My very heart; My heart maketh a noise in Me; I cannot hold My peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are My tents spoiled, and My curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For My people is foolish, they have not known Me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge” (Jeremiah 4:19-22).
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Can you hear it?! Shame on you, reader, if you cannot gasp at such words! God says, “My bowels!” He is pained at His heart! He says that He hears the sound of the trumpet, NOW, long before it has sounded from the city wall, and behold – the whole land is destroyed. This is a matter much more grave than that of the land – the very Temple of God is laid waste in destruction. Speaking in reference to this, God said, “suddenly are My tents spoiled, and My curtains in a moment.” Men who have experienced the trauma of war can understand the sudden fear that grips a city when the trumpet alarm sounds to warn of the approaching enemy hosts for war, but will you understand that the prophets are pained at their heart, NOW, in the fellowship of God’s broken agony, and that they do ever hear the alarm of war and the declaration of destruction long before it arrives? If you knew a prophet and saw him tremble, dear reader, you’d better understand that you should tremble too. Oh Lord, have mercy. My reader, the Temple is like the fortified walls of the city; it is representative of the promises and salvation of God, and if it is destroyed and spoiled, then damnation has been executed in the fullest measure! Prophets do preach what they hear and see, and as they hear the alarm of war, they do also see the city as it will be at the war’s aftermath. Read carefully of the visions that followed the trumpet alarm of war which was declared in the former passage above in Jeremiah 4:19-22. Think of it. At the prophetic sound of the trumpet horn was heart-rending pains, and then the first-Person utterances of God’s anguish came out from a prophetic vessel of clay - an earthly vessel animated by heaven’s anguish in God! “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid” (Jer. 2:12)! The trumpet sounds, and pouncing upon the prophet are the seizing emotions of God, and then the overflowing words of our Highness, the King, which He spoke in heaven, do come forth from this human figure which is comparable to dust and ashes – thus, God’s voice is echoed throughout the lower world, the earth is instructed by the mouth of a prophet, and immediately after this, visions. God, knowing the end from the beginning, and dwelling outside the confinements of time, doth open to His prophet the visions of the future which He does lament over now, and lo, they burst upon the prophetic vessel with overwhelming power. Prophets do live in and walk out experiences yet to come, and behold, the lattice of the future opens before his eyes that he may gaze upon it, and declare it, hearken therefore and behold his visions:
“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I will not repent, neither will I turn back from it” (Jeremiah 4:23-28).
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Can a man go up to heaven and return to the earth, yet still be the same as he was before? Can a man go down to hell and then back up to the earth, and then behave like other men? So it is with a prophet and the exploding visions which prostrate them; behold, when they arise they are ne’er the same. What they see they do experience as if it was now, thus they live out future realities as living messages at hand. When God speaks to His prophets, He doth also lift and move them, making them a living theater of prophetic revelations. They would stay prostrate as dead men, but God has plans and employments otherwise. As said to Ezekiel, “Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? That thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 21:6-7). When God reveals His command for future damnation unto His prophets, He commands them, He constrains them, and they are hurled into theatric movings of God’s emotions; as it were, they are an alabaster box hurled to the ground and broken before the eyes of the people, filling the world with the scented savour of the knowledge of God.
When God reveals the command of judgment to a prophet, like as, “Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter” (Ezek. 21:9-10), He simultaneously enflames and animates the prophet with the rush of these imminent realities, saying to him: “Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon My people, it shall be upon all princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh…thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together…”, for God saith, “I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it” (Ezek. 21:12-17). The prophets do prophesy a living, breaking, and burning word, and they, engulfed in the flames of it, burning alive, that the consuming flames do mesmerize the people to watch on – thus the people hear, see, and smell the knowledge of God. God sets them on fire and the people come to watch them burn! Ezekiel did cry, he did howl, and he smote upon his thigh, being overwhelmed by the prophetic Word, thus he was in clay-crumbling and holy seizures. He smote his hands together to portray the invisible God behind the veil of heaven Who will, God saith, “smite Mine hands together.” “Is not My word like a fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29)? Understanding the mystery of prophecy is to behold, lo, not the spoken word only, but the demonstration of the Spirit and power which is influencing the prophetic men in holy animation, and you are filled with a holy assurance that these men are a wide open window into heaven, and gazing at them, you do gaze upon God! A prophet’s madness is heaven’s brightness, praise be to God! “Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? …ye know the man, and his communication” (2 Kings 9:11).
As for prophetic revelations surrounding judgments toward the Temple, do you see how when the Temple is destroyed the whole land is destroyed? Read again, and see how the walls of the Temple are mentioned together along with the assemblies and ministrations which bring peace and salvation before the just anger of God.
When God reveals the command of judgment to a prophet, like as, “Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter” (Ezek. 21:9-10), He simultaneously enflames and animates the prophet with the rush of these imminent realities, saying to him: “Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon My people, it shall be upon all princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh…thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together…”, for God saith, “I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it” (Ezek. 21:12-17). The prophets do prophesy a living, breaking, and burning word, and they, engulfed in the flames of it, burning alive, that the consuming flames do mesmerize the people to watch on – thus the people hear, see, and smell the knowledge of God. God sets them on fire and the people come to watch them burn! Ezekiel did cry, he did howl, and he smote upon his thigh, being overwhelmed by the prophetic Word, thus he was in clay-crumbling and holy seizures. He smote his hands together to portray the invisible God behind the veil of heaven Who will, God saith, “smite Mine hands together.” “Is not My word like a fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29)? Understanding the mystery of prophecy is to behold, lo, not the spoken word only, but the demonstration of the Spirit and power which is influencing the prophetic men in holy animation, and you are filled with a holy assurance that these men are a wide open window into heaven, and gazing at them, you do gaze upon God! A prophet’s madness is heaven’s brightness, praise be to God! “Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? …ye know the man, and his communication” (2 Kings 9:11).
As for prophetic revelations surrounding judgments toward the Temple, do you see how when the Temple is destroyed the whole land is destroyed? Read again, and see how the walls of the Temple are mentioned together along with the assemblies and ministrations which bring peace and salvation before the just anger of God.
“And He hath violently taken away His Tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. The Lord hath cast off His altar, He hath abhorred His sanctuary, He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the House of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: He hath stretched out a line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying: therefore He made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD” (Lam 2:6-9).
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The Temple was an emblem of the Covenant; which is all the promises of God in salvation. According to the words of Solomon, read how the Temple is the focal point of salvation, that we might understand, if the Temple is breached and broken, so also are the promises of salvation and the Covenant. At the time of the Temple’s dedication and sanctification, Solomon preached a sermon, made a prayer, and gave a blessing. During the prayer he prays for six different circumstances where each one is a different experience of Divine wrath with differing individuals and companies, but in all six circumstances Solomon prays and points to one and only salvific hope to stand sure heretofore – God honoring His Name at His Temple. Men turn toward the Temple and so turn toward God, because the House is called after God’s Name. It became the focal point of salvation, thus if it was destroyed then salvation is lost.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded? Yet have Thou respect unto the prayer of Thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which Thy servant prayeth before Thee to day: That Thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which Thou hast said, My name shall be there: that Thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken Thou to the supplication of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place: and when Thou hearest, forgive” (1Ki 8:27-30).
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“Toward this place” is now salvation, so that, circling and centering around the place called by God’s Name, men recognize and understand that it is the LORD’s salvation and work – “that all the people of the earth may know Thy Name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel; and that they may know that this House, which I have builded, is called by Thy Name” (1 Kings 8:43). This House, therefore, is emblematic of God’s Name and presence, and if it is destroyed then God’s name and people are being destroyed, for even the people are called after God’s name. When God’s people are saved, they, alongside God’s name, are exalted: “And all the people of the earth shall see that Thou art called by the Name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee” (Deut. 28:10). Thus when the people are in salvific blessing and grace, they become “high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour,” because Israel hath become a “holy people unto the LORD” (Deut. 26:19). These are the relational parallels attributed to those who are connected to the Name of God. So all the earth, and especially God’s people, must learn to “fear this glorious and fearful Name, THE LORD THY GOD” (Deut. 28:58), and therefore fear the dwelling place of His presence which is called by His Name. God will maintain their fear of this place by plagues of wrath when necessary, that Israel will continue to cry, “Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the Tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying” (Numbers 17:13)? The House, Presence, and Name of God ought to be a blessing, but it can become the support and exactor of every legislative curse upon Israel, if so be Israel hath merited such for themselves.
There are means to prevent wrath and maintain obedience with reverence to the Name of God, but if these means are neglected then the process of chastening and destruction begins. The fires and severity of chastening and destruction will change in degree and determination by the heart of the people: looming into hardness and disobedience or running into repentance and returning. Ordinances were given to the people which forced their travel from their states and countries to appear before and minister AT THE TEMPLE, and so they were brought nigh to God’s Holy Name. At this place the ordinance rituals were practiced, some of which included a reckoning and re-invoking of their oaths with God (Deut. 26). Thus this Place, the Temple, is the place to come, Moses says, “that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always” (Deut. 14:23). These ordinances were to maintain and nourish the fear of God in the people. The Temple was the only place for atoning sacrifices which absorbed the wrath of God, as it was said: “Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place His Name there” (Deut. 16:2). This was the place where judgment went forth in its finality, being laced with the very Name of God, and here the judges did continually reside so that the people must, God says, “arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose” (Deut. 17:8), the Temple. “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:19). This is the place of the firstfruits offerings where the people gave glory to God, before God, standing right before His Presence: “That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place His Name there” (Deut. 26:2). All rival places, altars, or any such thing which was used for worship, praise, judgment, blessing, and relational ministrations representative by the Name of God were thus destroyed. The Temple was the only place for these works, and certainly, the only direction to seek after God. Deuteronomy 12:1-7 summarizes the emphasis of all these things:
There are means to prevent wrath and maintain obedience with reverence to the Name of God, but if these means are neglected then the process of chastening and destruction begins. The fires and severity of chastening and destruction will change in degree and determination by the heart of the people: looming into hardness and disobedience or running into repentance and returning. Ordinances were given to the people which forced their travel from their states and countries to appear before and minister AT THE TEMPLE, and so they were brought nigh to God’s Holy Name. At this place the ordinance rituals were practiced, some of which included a reckoning and re-invoking of their oaths with God (Deut. 26). Thus this Place, the Temple, is the place to come, Moses says, “that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always” (Deut. 14:23). These ordinances were to maintain and nourish the fear of God in the people. The Temple was the only place for atoning sacrifices which absorbed the wrath of God, as it was said: “Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place His Name there” (Deut. 16:2). This was the place where judgment went forth in its finality, being laced with the very Name of God, and here the judges did continually reside so that the people must, God says, “arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose” (Deut. 17:8), the Temple. “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:19). This is the place of the firstfruits offerings where the people gave glory to God, before God, standing right before His Presence: “That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place His Name there” (Deut. 26:2). All rival places, altars, or any such thing which was used for worship, praise, judgment, blessing, and relational ministrations representative by the Name of God were thus destroyed. The Temple was the only place for these works, and certainly, the only direction to seek after God. Deuteronomy 12:1-7 summarizes the emphasis of all these things:
“Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee” (Deut. 12:2-7).
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When a man understands the centrality of the Temple and its vital connections to all the promises and persevering graces in salvation, he sees that when or if the Temple is destroyed, so also are salvific promises. When the Temple is breached, the people are destroyed. When the Temple is breached, the heart of God is breached, even broken in agonizing hurt, even wounded with grievous wounds – emblematic and parallel to the breaches of promise, there is a breach (wound) in the very heart of God! Thus God said: “Woe is Me for My hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. My Tabernacle is spoiled, and all My cords are broken: My children are gone forth of Me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth My tent any more, and to set up My curtains” (Jer. 10:19-20). In such a case when the love of God is turned again toward His people, then the breaching wounds are healed within the heart of God, and therefore, God returns and repents of wrath, pities His people, and arises in jealousy for His Name (Joel 2:12-19). At such a time there is a Revival! That is, namely, a restoration of the breaches in salvation along with all its emblematic, physical manifestations (whether fortifying walls or hedges, the Temple, or all foundations thereof), and thus such ones which restore the Covenant do restore these emblems: “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of the paths to dwell in” (Isa. 58:12).
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“O LORD, why hast Thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary” (Isaiah 63:17-18). “Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste” (Isaiah 64:11). |
Contrary to these prophecies of damnation and desolations, which are prophecies of breaches (first spiritually and then physically), so the prophecies of salvation and restoration are specified as, for example: “In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the LORD that doeth this” (Amos 9:11-12). At such a time like unto this prophecy, such men like Jehoash (guided under the counsel of the good man, Jehoiada the priest), Hezekiah, Josiah, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel arose. Of the salvific work of revival through Jehoash, he did say, “Let them repair the breaches of the House, wheresoever any breach shall be found” (2 Kings 12:5). Of Hezekiah’s salvific works, they are well-summarized under his preaching when he said:
“Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the House of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the Habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a Covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us” (2 Chron. 29:5-10).
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Josiah, like the good prophets, did intercede with breach-amending intercession (spiritually), thus he arose in the physical intercession “to repair the House of the LORD his God,” that is, “to repair and amend the House” (2 Chron. 34:8, 10). During the heated days of Nehemiah, with danger crouching on every side, Israel prevailed through the reviving prophecies of Zachariah and Haggai, instruction in the law through Ezra, and godly and courageous leadership through Nehemiah: and “the people had a mind to work” and “the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and the breaches began to be stopped” (Neh. 4:6-7). Nehemiah’s call was, “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (Neh. 2:18). They did, like the good prophets Zachariah, Haggai, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel did do: they built with tempered mortar that would hold a firm trust in time of need, and so, the wrath of God was deflected spiritually and physically. Daniel’s cries of intercession that he made did foreshadow and tell of this future restoration in the days of Nehemiah, when he said:
“O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy Name” (Dan 9:16-19).
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As Daniel’s intercessions, so were Nehemiah’s labors for the wall, and thus was the face of Zerubbabel’s works for the Temple. These men were energized by the mercy of God, as God did say: “I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem” (Zech. 1:16). And again, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this House; his hands shall also finish it” (Zech. 4:9). Like unto the prophetic summary of Israel’s fall written in Isaiah 63, the book of Lamentations depicts a historical snapshot from another angle; notwithstanding, both declare God to become “an enemy” (Lam. 2:5) against Israel, nearly annihilating all the lying children He did formerly love. Oh, what a shocking picture is painted with words! Pictures of wrath, ready wrath! The pointed, aimed, and intelligent focus of God’s destroying wrath toward Israel was thus: “He hath bent His bow like an enemy: He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: He poured out His fury like fire” (Lam. 2:4). Here, in greater detail, stringing together the themes at hand, read the following passages again:
“And He hath violently taken away His Tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. The Lord hath cast off His altar, He hath abhorred His sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: He hath stretched out a line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying: therefore He made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD” (Lam 2:6-9).
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False prophets, causes of wrath, deceptions, and emblematic barriers of salvation are breached; thus Jeremiah laments:
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment” (Lam 2:13-14).
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In the most humiliating attempts for mercy, face down to the lowest press on the ground, so Jeremiah fought to intercede: “He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope” (Lam. 3:29), and gasping with intermittent cries, He said, “Hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry” (Lam. 3:56). His chest heaving and his heart horrified-amaze, thus was his face in flames of emotion. The destruction of the Temple is the end of the last hope, and with its fall any wise man or prophet goes pale in terror. This is a spiritual hurt beyond language, and so, forgetting about bread and life, for this they would say, “our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim” (Lam. 5:17). This is like Nehemiah’s intercessions which availed and awarded his God-sent mission to lead Israel to repair the wall, but look how he, at the first, was in secret weeping over the breaches therein! The messenger came to Nehemiah and said to him, “The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (Neh. 1:3-4). Like as Nehemiah for the wall, so Jeremiah travails for the Temple: “How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter” (Lam. 4:1-2). Those men who give God no rest, they have no rest! They are in “great heaviness and continual sorrow” (Rom. 9:2) because they are the forerunners for salvation. They are a nation’s secret servants who bring it to exaltation. In restless pursuit they are God-empowered to the holy call: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isa. 62:6-7).
Wound for Wound
An unrepentant purpose in God to destroy is as an unrepentant breach of a promise, which is as, speaking in typology, an unrepairable breach in a fortifying city wall or in the Temple of Israel, which likewise is as when there is no intercessor to stand in the gap to repair it – but have you noticed the connection between breaches and wounds? Briefly I have referenced the passage where the breaches are, in the very heart of God Himself, called wounds (Jer. 10:19-20), and these wounds are also imparted to the prophet’s heart. They, the prophets, are His companions, thus they commune with and dwell in His pain. Seeing that God is able to be wounded, we can see another relational plane of “human to human” justice called “breach for breach” (Lev. 24:19-20), only now it is from “man to God” - wound for wound. God is hurt with a wound, and He says, “My wound is grievous” (Jer. 10:19); thus He returns to Israel their own deeds and inflicts wounds upon His people. He does this in “The Righteous Judgment of God” through retributive justice. God is moved to jealousy when the people forsake Him, therefore He does likewise move the people to jealousy as recompense: jealousy for jealousy (Deut. 32:16, 20-21). God’s people breach their promise, as it were, wounding God, so God breaches His promise, and as it were, wounds them back.
Wounds are inflicted upon the body, affecting life, health, and strength. The promises of God for personal and corporate life, health, and strength can be summarized in two passages cited in the parentheses (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-5). These scriptures detail the promise of physical prosperity stemming from the Divine blessing; God says, “I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-5), but we need to understand the other side of the token: “I kill, and…I wound” (Deut. 32:39). As a people would seek to repair a city wall’s breaches for the sustenance of corporate life, one would suspect the address of such restoration to always be described in terms like building and mortar. Nevertheless, in another place, in the context to describe a city, nation, and people, God uses the word “heal” – “For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?” (Lam. 2:13-14), and this is no mistake. We must see the synonymous use of these prophetic words: breaches and wounds.
There are two purposes for God’s glory and work in the earth which He is careful to perform: “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand” (Deut. 32:39). This twofold purpose is further revealed in the NT as, firstly, wrath through plaguing power upon individuals called “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction”, and secondarily, the riches of glory on individuals called “vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. 9:22-23). He is the God of eternal life through salvation, and eternal death through wrath; in these two veins is all His glory told. The praises of His people declare these twofold powers in God when they did adoringly confess: “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death” (Psalm 68:20). Knowing such, we should pay good attention to the OT term “I kill… I wound,” so that we might understand what is being said (physically and spiritually). Dear reader, this is the question to focus upon: what manner of glorious wrath is being revealed by this woeful wounding of God to man?
When God, having no mind to repent, breaches a promise unto a man’s reprobation, prophetic language reveals that God is minded to wound with a mortal blow that cannot be bound up, called an incurable wound. This body that God wounds is another emblematic image that is a physical representation for salvation. The body and life of the whole person that receives the wounds now represents Israel as a whole, and in this metaphorical language, the prophets relate to God like as, and exactly parallel to, the emblems of the fortifying walls and the Temple of Israel, only now the breaches are called wounds. Attempting to prevent the dispersion, Jeremiah prays in intercession, but is denied (Jer. 15:1), and the reprobation transpires, as you know, but look at the prophetic terms for intercession, damnation, and salvation used below: cures, sown or bound up wounds, and healing medicines.
Wounds are inflicted upon the body, affecting life, health, and strength. The promises of God for personal and corporate life, health, and strength can be summarized in two passages cited in the parentheses (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-5). These scriptures detail the promise of physical prosperity stemming from the Divine blessing; God says, “I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-5), but we need to understand the other side of the token: “I kill, and…I wound” (Deut. 32:39). As a people would seek to repair a city wall’s breaches for the sustenance of corporate life, one would suspect the address of such restoration to always be described in terms like building and mortar. Nevertheless, in another place, in the context to describe a city, nation, and people, God uses the word “heal” – “For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?” (Lam. 2:13-14), and this is no mistake. We must see the synonymous use of these prophetic words: breaches and wounds.
There are two purposes for God’s glory and work in the earth which He is careful to perform: “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand” (Deut. 32:39). This twofold purpose is further revealed in the NT as, firstly, wrath through plaguing power upon individuals called “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction”, and secondarily, the riches of glory on individuals called “vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. 9:22-23). He is the God of eternal life through salvation, and eternal death through wrath; in these two veins is all His glory told. The praises of His people declare these twofold powers in God when they did adoringly confess: “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death” (Psalm 68:20). Knowing such, we should pay good attention to the OT term “I kill… I wound,” so that we might understand what is being said (physically and spiritually). Dear reader, this is the question to focus upon: what manner of glorious wrath is being revealed by this woeful wounding of God to man?
When God, having no mind to repent, breaches a promise unto a man’s reprobation, prophetic language reveals that God is minded to wound with a mortal blow that cannot be bound up, called an incurable wound. This body that God wounds is another emblematic image that is a physical representation for salvation. The body and life of the whole person that receives the wounds now represents Israel as a whole, and in this metaphorical language, the prophets relate to God like as, and exactly parallel to, the emblems of the fortifying walls and the Temple of Israel, only now the breaches are called wounds. Attempting to prevent the dispersion, Jeremiah prays in intercession, but is denied (Jer. 15:1), and the reprobation transpires, as you know, but look at the prophetic terms for intercession, damnation, and salvation used below: cures, sown or bound up wounds, and healing medicines.
“For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.” (Jer. 30:12-13).
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And again:
“Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.” (Mic. 1:8-9).
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At another time Jeremiah himself was personally caught under the condemning wrath of God, but he did avail against it through personal intercession and repentance, unlike Israel. At this time he described the terror of his estate by this complaint and supplication unto God: “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail” (Jer. 15:18)? In these same terms which reveal the threat of damnation, so the hope for salvation is likewise said: “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up” (Hos. 6:1). When God prophesied a coming salvation, therefore, He prophesied the healing of the wounds which He inflicted upon Israel, “for He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:33). One prophecy in these terms was thus said: “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (Isa 30:26).
Iniquity procures condemnation, and condemnation leaves the people stripped of hope and faith for salvation. This is, prophetically speaking, the wall of promises being breached – “ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant” (Isa. 30:13). This staggering wall, weakened and swelling because of the wrath of God, is as the prophetic language that likens Israel to a failing body full of wounds and deadly blows because they cannot be bound up, meaning that they are sure to drain the lifeblood of the body. To declare the death of a nation, He preaches it by the metaphor of a failing body, thus signifying the actual nation’s utter desolation and destruction. See below how this direct signification is made – where the body is the country/nation/people.
Iniquity procures condemnation, and condemnation leaves the people stripped of hope and faith for salvation. This is, prophetically speaking, the wall of promises being breached – “ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant” (Isa. 30:13). This staggering wall, weakened and swelling because of the wrath of God, is as the prophetic language that likens Israel to a failing body full of wounds and deadly blows because they cannot be bound up, meaning that they are sure to drain the lifeblood of the body. To declare the death of a nation, He preaches it by the metaphor of a failing body, thus signifying the actual nation’s utter desolation and destruction. See below how this direct signification is made – where the body is the country/nation/people.
“From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers” (Isaiah 1:6-7).
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Do you see the synonymous connection to the prophetic language “body to nation”? One may wonder why God has used an additional metaphor to describe the same things. What benefit would come from the metaphor of the body and personal health (representative of Israel as a whole) that the city wall and Temple could not produce? With many common folk there is a naivety to war, and as for the Temple structure, it also is known by a select portion of Israel because not all are Levites, and depending on a man’s age, wealth, education, and sex, in balance with personal, spiritual maturity, there could be a general ignorance of the Temple amongst the common people. A common person who cannot be aroused by the language of war may feel dull and unaffected because he or she has never experienced war, so it is difficult to identify with or imagine it. Such a man has never experienced the rush of battle or the looming potential of sudden death that can occur at any moment, with any slip. The troubling experience of war is undergone by a select portion of society, but troubles of body are experienced by all of humanity! Such men that cannot hear the language of alarms in war would otherwise remain emotionally dull if God did not take up another metaphor, a metaphor more widely experienced; hence the category of personal, bodily health.
Every man is taught to know the fear, sorrow, and emotional distress of wounds, sores, and feverish sicknesses. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man” (Job 33:29), the scripture says. God writes of His practice of humiliating the common man, saying - “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers… then He [God] is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit” (Job 33:19-24). “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28). Thus God, through sicknesses, wounds, pain, and near death experiences, exercises man, “that He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man” (Job 33:17). Those who cannot relate to war can relate to bodily ailments. Think of it. Those that will not shake with the tremors of the earth as a host of invaders gallop their charge, perhaps they will tremble at the tremors of their own failing body. “Out of sight - out of mind”, says the modern proverb… and sadly, sinners cozy up to a hibernating bear and sleep on the judgments of God, which, as in a moment, will awake to slay them. What a woeful condition is this? God’s “judgments are far above out of [the sinner’s] sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity” (Ps. 10:5-6).
Every man is taught to know the fear, sorrow, and emotional distress of wounds, sores, and feverish sicknesses. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man” (Job 33:29), the scripture says. God writes of His practice of humiliating the common man, saying - “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers… then He [God] is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit” (Job 33:19-24). “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28). Thus God, through sicknesses, wounds, pain, and near death experiences, exercises man, “that He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man” (Job 33:17). Those who cannot relate to war can relate to bodily ailments. Think of it. Those that will not shake with the tremors of the earth as a host of invaders gallop their charge, perhaps they will tremble at the tremors of their own failing body. “Out of sight - out of mind”, says the modern proverb… and sadly, sinners cozy up to a hibernating bear and sleep on the judgments of God, which, as in a moment, will awake to slay them. What a woeful condition is this? God’s “judgments are far above out of [the sinner’s] sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity” (Ps. 10:5-6).
“His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle” – Job 19:12
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For many, war is out of sight and therefore, because of the sedating effect of iniquity, it is out of mind, but God would not have it so. Those roaring terrors of war beyond the city walls are “out of sight and out of mind” for many; thus God takes up another terror which comes straight at all men, even within them, and that is the invasion of plagues, sicknesses, wounds, and bodily ailments. When invading armies bruise the city wall and it is well-nigh breached, it is then that the soldiers lunge into their most valiant efforts to recover it, but when a hoard of alien organisms infect and assail the personal space of your own fleshly body – destroying it – it is then that the lazy heart awakes! A thief in the city or roaming the streets, this is one thing, but a thief in your house will unfold the hands at once! When the house around the heart caves in, then a sleepy soul arises and prays! The history of a person’s health is a storehouse of personal alarms. The language of this metaphor has a rich library of memories to draw from to bring alive the message, memories which contain emotions and experiences to make alive spiritual urgency and agony.
Oh! How many prophetic languages the mercy of God doth undertake! Unctionized metaphors move once-born men, awaking them from the oblivion of sin. At sundry times in the course of life, men are and have been near to death by a sickness, and others nearer to death by a wound, but one thing is a sure commonality – when life is near its passing, men do seek God at last. At this time, no other desire can be compared to the value of the soul, and men become exceedingly aware of their END. Here, they are long exercised with the uncertainty of their end and the bitterness of a life wasted and spent. Here in this place is the horror of darkness which comes upon men because of a neglected and empty soul…and feelingly, it is as if life is out of his hands like as a freefall, and he is falling to his death with nothing to grasp on to. He has neither profit in what he has done with his hands, nor all that he has enjoyed under the sun. He thought death would slowly come upon him like the evening tide of the sea, or perhaps a soothing sunset arising to illuminate the heavens so that they become colorfully arrayed, and thus, the man thought he would have a long season of preparation for his death as it slowly seizes him through old age, but with the surprise of death’s untimely touch standing at your door, it seems unreasonable and impossible that he would find God in time. He tries to “feel after Him and find Him” but He seems so far away while death and justice are so near (Acts 17:27). The oblivion of pleasure without God is gone, and the man is left wandering around his own empty and lonely soul, as if he has never known himself before. An empty soul to a dying man is as the shame of nakedness, and while he would flee for cover and privacy he has nowhere to go. In his heart is the relentless agony to flee, and alas, he cannot! He would look up for love, but behold, it is wrath, and while he would lie to himself and cover with a covering, “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13), and at last he can feel it! “Dead man walking”! The executioner heralds as another man walks those short yards of death row, and so, sick and dying men feel as though death is knocking at their door...they are dying, and oh! Laden with sickness, they cannot walk toward death, but they sit still and watch as eternity steps toward them!
“As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind? All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness” (Eccl. 5:15-17). Thus, the man has empty hands. He has nothing to carry with him into eternity, and furthermore, no Intercessor to guide his soul through the Judgment. A lifetime of memories makes a sinner ashamed to meet his Maker. His memory is like a burning furnace at its hottest heat, kindled by the precipice of eternity that is now in view. Eternally conscious, yet he is in “the now”, and it has become a prison of suffocation like the pressure of a million pounds of ocean water over his head – he is, as it were, digesting in the belly of a whale – and now, alas, the devil’s world is vomiting him into eternity. Unable to arrive and land upon the clean shores of God’s holy heaven, he is hurled into hell as an unclean thing. On your death bed, alas, your life appears to be but a wind, a breeze, and now it is well-past and ready to cease. The fun is over. Your life was like a wild night of drunkenness, and the night is ready to pass, the dawn is ready to break, and on Judgment morning you will awake into hell’s hangover. All you have is “now”, and how suddenly death will arrive, with but seconds, minutes, moments, or days to wait – and you feel no power to turn your wretched will to God! Oh the terror of it! That your eternal soul could suddenly fly to its eternal destination and no man can hinder it! Now the songs of those Christian hymns do witness against you. “Once earthly joys I craved, sought peace and rest, now Thee alone I seek, give what is best” (“More Love To Thee, Oh Christ”, Elizabeth Prentiss). The sinner cries, and cries, and cries, but with every vow he makes, he lies. Oh this wretched will! Oh this alienated mind! Had the torrents of death laid hold upon the sinner before now, just enough that he might peek into the realm of eternity which he sees so clearly, he may well have repented. Had he been alarmed over his own spiritual death early in life, he would have sought eternal life. These deathbed emotional compulsions are spiritual awakenings! Men become eternally conscious, and under its compulsion men prepare to meet their God Who dwells outside the canopy of time.
God knows how to wake men up! He shows men a monster mightier than the Leviathan – the face of death with teeth arrayed – and what can men think but that the devil’s smile is upon their soul. The Old Serpent is ready to rejoice at every soul brought under the sting of sin. Consider the time press upon men who are struck with a deadly wound. Men who have a deadly wound are frantic, for now, with their own eyes they do behold a gaping hole in their body – their skin torn like a cloth, lacerated and mangled loose, with the fats of their body, like jelly, sprinkling and coating their raw flesh that surrounds the gaping, deep wound, whose valley exposes inches of red muscle right down to the bright, white bone – Haply, it is only a matter of time before blood gushes out of the wound, and you, by your own hand, must seek to plug the bleeding IF YOU CAN. What arteries, veins, and nerves are at hand, God knoweth, and now, perhaps for the first time, you must look death in the face and recognize – it could be only a matter of time. Wide wounds make for wide eyes, and at such a sight as this, there comes a certain grip of adrenaline, shock, and trauma that cannot be compared to much. Prophetic language touches pressure points to bring the soul into subjection. These are experiences in life that hang the soul in an uncertain balance, as from a thread before the chasm of eternity, and there is an unforgettable agony in the darkness of uncertainty, and like a sky high freefall you land where you land at your everlasting abode. It is as if the soul is in a freefall while the body lies still, and you are left with a paralyzing and uncontrollable fear! It is as if there is a chilling presence of evil and death near to you, and a kind of filthiness and uncleanness, like as the hot breath of the devil upon the back of your neck. You did not bid him welcome and you cannot bid him to leave – that old murderer. Thus men are haunted as they wait, AND SUDDENLY, that which was felt and feared is immediately seen, THE DEVIL, and he seizes the soul and drags a man to hell. To arouse these states of mind now, God knows best; thus He speaks prophetic woes in terms of incurable wounds, sicknesses, and sores. This is attention-grabbing language which should arouse the faculties of faith, fusing real experiences men have experienced in their personal life with the reality of their present spiritual dilemma, and so men remember the preciousness of time and the value of NOW. This is that men would be seekers of God! Jeremiah’s intercession below does effectually link together the language of breaches, wounds, and the smiting of God upon the body – all used in reference to intercessions denied for Jeremiah’s generation, God declaring incurable wounds to be the state of castaways.
Oh! How many prophetic languages the mercy of God doth undertake! Unctionized metaphors move once-born men, awaking them from the oblivion of sin. At sundry times in the course of life, men are and have been near to death by a sickness, and others nearer to death by a wound, but one thing is a sure commonality – when life is near its passing, men do seek God at last. At this time, no other desire can be compared to the value of the soul, and men become exceedingly aware of their END. Here, they are long exercised with the uncertainty of their end and the bitterness of a life wasted and spent. Here in this place is the horror of darkness which comes upon men because of a neglected and empty soul…and feelingly, it is as if life is out of his hands like as a freefall, and he is falling to his death with nothing to grasp on to. He has neither profit in what he has done with his hands, nor all that he has enjoyed under the sun. He thought death would slowly come upon him like the evening tide of the sea, or perhaps a soothing sunset arising to illuminate the heavens so that they become colorfully arrayed, and thus, the man thought he would have a long season of preparation for his death as it slowly seizes him through old age, but with the surprise of death’s untimely touch standing at your door, it seems unreasonable and impossible that he would find God in time. He tries to “feel after Him and find Him” but He seems so far away while death and justice are so near (Acts 17:27). The oblivion of pleasure without God is gone, and the man is left wandering around his own empty and lonely soul, as if he has never known himself before. An empty soul to a dying man is as the shame of nakedness, and while he would flee for cover and privacy he has nowhere to go. In his heart is the relentless agony to flee, and alas, he cannot! He would look up for love, but behold, it is wrath, and while he would lie to himself and cover with a covering, “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13), and at last he can feel it! “Dead man walking”! The executioner heralds as another man walks those short yards of death row, and so, sick and dying men feel as though death is knocking at their door...they are dying, and oh! Laden with sickness, they cannot walk toward death, but they sit still and watch as eternity steps toward them!
“As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind? All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness” (Eccl. 5:15-17). Thus, the man has empty hands. He has nothing to carry with him into eternity, and furthermore, no Intercessor to guide his soul through the Judgment. A lifetime of memories makes a sinner ashamed to meet his Maker. His memory is like a burning furnace at its hottest heat, kindled by the precipice of eternity that is now in view. Eternally conscious, yet he is in “the now”, and it has become a prison of suffocation like the pressure of a million pounds of ocean water over his head – he is, as it were, digesting in the belly of a whale – and now, alas, the devil’s world is vomiting him into eternity. Unable to arrive and land upon the clean shores of God’s holy heaven, he is hurled into hell as an unclean thing. On your death bed, alas, your life appears to be but a wind, a breeze, and now it is well-past and ready to cease. The fun is over. Your life was like a wild night of drunkenness, and the night is ready to pass, the dawn is ready to break, and on Judgment morning you will awake into hell’s hangover. All you have is “now”, and how suddenly death will arrive, with but seconds, minutes, moments, or days to wait – and you feel no power to turn your wretched will to God! Oh the terror of it! That your eternal soul could suddenly fly to its eternal destination and no man can hinder it! Now the songs of those Christian hymns do witness against you. “Once earthly joys I craved, sought peace and rest, now Thee alone I seek, give what is best” (“More Love To Thee, Oh Christ”, Elizabeth Prentiss). The sinner cries, and cries, and cries, but with every vow he makes, he lies. Oh this wretched will! Oh this alienated mind! Had the torrents of death laid hold upon the sinner before now, just enough that he might peek into the realm of eternity which he sees so clearly, he may well have repented. Had he been alarmed over his own spiritual death early in life, he would have sought eternal life. These deathbed emotional compulsions are spiritual awakenings! Men become eternally conscious, and under its compulsion men prepare to meet their God Who dwells outside the canopy of time.
God knows how to wake men up! He shows men a monster mightier than the Leviathan – the face of death with teeth arrayed – and what can men think but that the devil’s smile is upon their soul. The Old Serpent is ready to rejoice at every soul brought under the sting of sin. Consider the time press upon men who are struck with a deadly wound. Men who have a deadly wound are frantic, for now, with their own eyes they do behold a gaping hole in their body – their skin torn like a cloth, lacerated and mangled loose, with the fats of their body, like jelly, sprinkling and coating their raw flesh that surrounds the gaping, deep wound, whose valley exposes inches of red muscle right down to the bright, white bone – Haply, it is only a matter of time before blood gushes out of the wound, and you, by your own hand, must seek to plug the bleeding IF YOU CAN. What arteries, veins, and nerves are at hand, God knoweth, and now, perhaps for the first time, you must look death in the face and recognize – it could be only a matter of time. Wide wounds make for wide eyes, and at such a sight as this, there comes a certain grip of adrenaline, shock, and trauma that cannot be compared to much. Prophetic language touches pressure points to bring the soul into subjection. These are experiences in life that hang the soul in an uncertain balance, as from a thread before the chasm of eternity, and there is an unforgettable agony in the darkness of uncertainty, and like a sky high freefall you land where you land at your everlasting abode. It is as if the soul is in a freefall while the body lies still, and you are left with a paralyzing and uncontrollable fear! It is as if there is a chilling presence of evil and death near to you, and a kind of filthiness and uncleanness, like as the hot breath of the devil upon the back of your neck. You did not bid him welcome and you cannot bid him to leave – that old murderer. Thus men are haunted as they wait, AND SUDDENLY, that which was felt and feared is immediately seen, THE DEVIL, and he seizes the soul and drags a man to hell. To arouse these states of mind now, God knows best; thus He speaks prophetic woes in terms of incurable wounds, sicknesses, and sores. This is attention-grabbing language which should arouse the faculties of faith, fusing real experiences men have experienced in their personal life with the reality of their present spiritual dilemma, and so men remember the preciousness of time and the value of NOW. This is that men would be seekers of God! Jeremiah’s intercession below does effectually link together the language of breaches, wounds, and the smiting of God upon the body – all used in reference to intercessions denied for Jeremiah’s generation, God declaring incurable wounds to be the state of castaways.
“Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of My people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not. Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath Thy soul lothed Zion? Why hast Thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good; for a time of healing, and behold trouble! We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against Thee. Do not abhor us, for Thy Name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory: remember, break not Thy Covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee: for Thou hast made all these things. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth” (Jer. 14:17-15:1).
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Therefore let the reader understand...
When you are spiritually wounded, God is expecting you to see it and be alarmed about it, as we have discussed that the language is meant to alarm you, and He will warn you in the light of it that there is a certain amount of time left for you to find healing, binding up, medicines, and bandages, so that this does not become an incurable, mortal wound to the individual person or corporate body of Israel.
As false prophets filled the breach of the city wall with “untempered morter” (Ezek. 13:10-11, 14-15, 22:28), here they are healing the hurt, wounds, and bodily injuries of Israel falsely, with an appearance that it is healed, insomuch that it can be said that it was healed “slightly”, but it is altogether a vain confidence. These false prophets deceive them so that the people do “look for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble” (Jer. 8:15). False prophets will also preach the liberty to turn to worldly wisdom, which in turn forsakes God’s “foolish” ways, to the end that the people are rejected by God. If the false prophets succeed to win the people by false confidences, then reprobation will come for the many called Israelites, till there be few left instead of none left, for God will not totally annihilate Israel. Thus God clearly states, in the language of wounds, hurt, and healing, a message which is continually repeated ever since it was first prophesied in Deuteronomy 32:26-43. It is the strange speech which defames God’s holy Name, by which Israel is called, that motivates God to save a remnant which deserved, like the others, to be annihilated. Through this near annihilation, shockingly, God will make Israel righteous, and He will gather them again, but all of this is because the heathen have spoken the strange words – “outcast”, and, “this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after” (Jer. 30:17) |
-->“before Me continually is grief and wounds. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited” (Jer. 6:7-8).
--> “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 8:11). These false prophets deceive them so that the people do “look for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold --> “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hos. 5:13). --> “For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof” (Jeremiah 30:11-18). “Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.” (Jeremiah 33:6-7). |
The experience described in scripture, which is as fatal, deathbed, incurable wounds, is indicative of the spiritual experience of darkness, God breaking His Covenant, and all that is understood to be the cursed trauma of “The Deception of God.” God does not necessarily open up the earth to swallow men down straight into hell, but the earth, that is, their flesh, called “earthly members” (Col. 3:5), does open up and men are swallowed into the passions of hell which do incessantly and furiously rage in the flesh. It is not that God necessarily floods the earth, cities, or nations anymore, like as Noah’s day, but He floods individual persons with spiritual floods and overwhelming billows of wrath – the soul frantically treading water for his very eternal life (Lam. 3:54). These are drowning billows which are declared by saints under the darkness, chastisement, and curse of God’s wrath, and they do cry for a saving revelation of God’s hidden face. Their soul is decaying, thus, their flesh follows after into a similar decay, and such descriptions they speak of are telling parallels to what has been said heretofore in other brilliant languages of life-gripping power.
The exhaustive perpetuity of the word “breach”, which was be used ever since Numbers 14:34, is astounding, at least when its synonyms and parallels are identified and compared. Then we are able to see, like every other doctrine in the Bible, that there has been a progressive revelation and explanation of the doctrine of “breach of promise” (Num. 14:34) since the beginning.
As that first promise was breached, even so, when one studies through the centuries the rest of the promises which are given, and then, what God says in response to when they are not fulfilled, it becomes clear as day why certain descriptive vocabulary is used. The amplification which is given to the doctrine and word “breach” is utterly amazing to me. To name two of many in which we have studied in this chapter, we have studied how the Temple and the protective walls around Israel, which are emblems of the Covenant promise, are both breached in times of wrath. We have studied how other metaphors and synonyms are used to describe a breach, like the word “wound”. So also, the fall of the Davidic Covenant is described in the very same term – breach. The house of David was promised to last for eternity, as you know, but that promise was breached in his son’s lifetime, as you know, and therefore was the promise of the Covenant’s final fulfillment spoken of in light of the former breach upon it, when God said: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:”(Amos 9:11).
Equally relevant to us is the need to understand the beginning use and continual perpetuity of the doctrine of perfection, which, as you know, is directly connected to a breach of promise. Beside the perpetuity of the use of the word perfect in the NT alone, a correct view of biblical history would prove to us of what utter necessity the doctrine of perfection is for us today. Biblical history describes the lives, generations, and centuries of God’s work of salvation in terms of personal and corporate perfection. Depending on if whether or not they obtained biblical “perfection,” this determined their destiny of heaven or hell! The scripture explicitly states that Job (Job 1:1, 8, 2:3, 8:20), Noah (Gen. 6:9), Abraham (Gen. 17:1-2), Joshua (Deut. 18:13), David (Psalm 101), Solomon (1 Kings 11:4, with his repentance, which is in Ecclesiastes), and Hezekiah (1 Kings 20:3) went to heaven because they were perfect. As for all other heaven-bound men, even though it was not explicitly mentioned that they were “perfect,” they, nevertheless followed the ways of them who were called “perfect.” The scripture, likewise, does explicitly state that Abijam (1 Kings 15:3), Asa (In light of 2 Chron. 15:17, comparatively to 2 Chron. 16:7-13), and Amaziah (2 Chron. 25:2) went to hell because of a single indictment – that they were NOT perfect. Furthermore, every major vocation is taught the saving expression of their office and duties by the term perfection. Kings (Psalm 101), Priests (Lev. 22:21), Judges (2 Chron. 19:9), Warriors (Ps. 18:32), and all, were taught what it is to be perfect in the execution of their office, and depending on whether or not they were perfect, they went to heaven or hell. All other men and women of every generation were taught perfection in the principle of its meaning, even though the very word is not explicitly used. Let it therefore alarm us, if, haply, we don’t understand what biblical perfection is! To firstly inherit, dwell in, and remain in salvation one must be PERFECT. “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it” (Prov. 2:21). “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help the evil doers” (Job 8:20).
The exhaustive perpetuity of the word “breach”, which was be used ever since Numbers 14:34, is astounding, at least when its synonyms and parallels are identified and compared. Then we are able to see, like every other doctrine in the Bible, that there has been a progressive revelation and explanation of the doctrine of “breach of promise” (Num. 14:34) since the beginning.
As that first promise was breached, even so, when one studies through the centuries the rest of the promises which are given, and then, what God says in response to when they are not fulfilled, it becomes clear as day why certain descriptive vocabulary is used. The amplification which is given to the doctrine and word “breach” is utterly amazing to me. To name two of many in which we have studied in this chapter, we have studied how the Temple and the protective walls around Israel, which are emblems of the Covenant promise, are both breached in times of wrath. We have studied how other metaphors and synonyms are used to describe a breach, like the word “wound”. So also, the fall of the Davidic Covenant is described in the very same term – breach. The house of David was promised to last for eternity, as you know, but that promise was breached in his son’s lifetime, as you know, and therefore was the promise of the Covenant’s final fulfillment spoken of in light of the former breach upon it, when God said: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:”(Amos 9:11).
Equally relevant to us is the need to understand the beginning use and continual perpetuity of the doctrine of perfection, which, as you know, is directly connected to a breach of promise. Beside the perpetuity of the use of the word perfect in the NT alone, a correct view of biblical history would prove to us of what utter necessity the doctrine of perfection is for us today. Biblical history describes the lives, generations, and centuries of God’s work of salvation in terms of personal and corporate perfection. Depending on if whether or not they obtained biblical “perfection,” this determined their destiny of heaven or hell! The scripture explicitly states that Job (Job 1:1, 8, 2:3, 8:20), Noah (Gen. 6:9), Abraham (Gen. 17:1-2), Joshua (Deut. 18:13), David (Psalm 101), Solomon (1 Kings 11:4, with his repentance, which is in Ecclesiastes), and Hezekiah (1 Kings 20:3) went to heaven because they were perfect. As for all other heaven-bound men, even though it was not explicitly mentioned that they were “perfect,” they, nevertheless followed the ways of them who were called “perfect.” The scripture, likewise, does explicitly state that Abijam (1 Kings 15:3), Asa (In light of 2 Chron. 15:17, comparatively to 2 Chron. 16:7-13), and Amaziah (2 Chron. 25:2) went to hell because of a single indictment – that they were NOT perfect. Furthermore, every major vocation is taught the saving expression of their office and duties by the term perfection. Kings (Psalm 101), Priests (Lev. 22:21), Judges (2 Chron. 19:9), Warriors (Ps. 18:32), and all, were taught what it is to be perfect in the execution of their office, and depending on whether or not they were perfect, they went to heaven or hell. All other men and women of every generation were taught perfection in the principle of its meaning, even though the very word is not explicitly used. Let it therefore alarm us, if, haply, we don’t understand what biblical perfection is! To firstly inherit, dwell in, and remain in salvation one must be PERFECT. “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it” (Prov. 2:21). “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help the evil doers” (Job 8:20).