Job 1:20-21 “. . . the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Ecclesiastes 8:4 “Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?”
Romans 9:6-24 “Hath not the potter power over the clay. . . ?”
Colossians 1:18 “. . . that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
SINS OF THE FATHERS PASS TO THE SONS
Exodus 20:4-6 (v. 5) “. . . for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. . . .”
(See also: Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, & Deuteronomy 5:9)
Deuteronomy 23:2 “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation. . . .”
v. 3 “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation. . . .”
And Then:
Galatians 6:1-5 “For every man shall bear his own burden.”
As Prophesied:
Jeremiah 31:29-30 “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
SWEARING
Leviticus 19:12 “And ye shall not swear by my name falsely. . . .”
Hosea 10:4 “They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.”
Malachi 3:5 “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Deuteronomy 6:13 “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.”
(also) 10:20 “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God . . . and swear by his name.”
(Joshua 23:6-8 “. . . neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them. . . .”)
(Jeremiah 12:16 “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.”)
(Zephaniah 1:4-6 “. . . and I will cut off . . . them that . . . swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham. . . .”
Nehemiah 13:25 “And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.”
Matthew 5:33-37 “But I say unto you, Swear not at all. . . .”
James 5:12 “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven . . . neither by any other oath. . . .”
DIVORCE
Deuteronomy 24:1-2 “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement. . . .”
Matthew 19:3-9 “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Mark 10:2-12 “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
(Malachi 2:13-16 “For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. . . .”
ORDINANCES
Exodus 12:12-14 (Example) (First time used) “And . . . ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.”
Numbers 10:7-8 “And the sons of Aaron . . . shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations.”
2nd Chronicles 2:4 “Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord . . . and to burn before him sweet incense . . . on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.”
What’s going on here?
Leviticus 18:1-4 “After the doings of the land of Egypt . . . and after the doings of the land of Canaan . . . shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances. . . .”
[The Lord commands Israel to forget Egypt’s ordinances, and gives his own.]
Israel did not keep the ordinances.
Malachi 3:7 “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.”
The church is then told:
Ephesians 2:11-18 “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. . . .”
Colossians 2:13-14 “And you . . . hath he quickened . . . blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. . . .”
v. 16 “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. . . .” [See again: 2nd Chronicles 2:4.]
and also:
1st Peter 2:13-16 “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. . . .”
[because the church is living in “Egypt.”]
THE EARTH
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
(This “heaven” is also referred to as “heavens” and includes the first and second heaven, but not the third.)
(2nd Corinthians 12:2 “I knew a man . . . caught up to the third heaven.”)
(Deuteronomy 10:14 “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God. . . .”)
v. 12 “And the earth brought forth . . . and God saw that it was good.”
vs. 27-28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. . . .”
(The Lord has already destroyed the world before Adam.)
And then:
Genesis 3:17-19 “. . . cursed is the ground for thy sake. . . .”
6:13 “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
(vs. 9-15 “And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.”)
(Ignorant and foolish persons think God will never again destroy the earth!)
And then:
Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (How will it pass away?)
Revelation 6:9-17 [a picture of the scene when the Lord comes back]
2nd Thessalonians 1:7-8 “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God. . . .”
Matthew 13:37-40 “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.”
(1st John 2:15 “Love not the world. . . . If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”)
Luke 17:23-30 “. . . so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man . . . as it was in the days of Lot. . . .”
v. 29 “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
2nd Peter 2:1-10 “For if God . . . spared not the old world, but saved Noah . . . turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes . . . making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: . . . the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. . . .”
3:1-7 “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
vs. 10-12 “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
Daniel 2:35 [Nebuchadnezzar’s dream] “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”
And then: (continuing in 2nd Peter 3)
v. 13 “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth. . . .”
Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”
v. 2 “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. . . .”
QUESTION: What happened to the old Jerusalem?
THE ANSWER IS IN THESE VERSES:
Revelation 11:8 “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” [Spiritually speaking, God calls the old Jerusalem wicked!]
(See again: 2nd Peter 3:10-12.)
vs. 3-5 “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”
Isaiah 65:17 “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. . . .”
(QUESTION: Is this the end of things?) (No, even this will have to go!)
Revelation 20:7-11 “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. . . . And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”
SUMMARY:
(1) [The world as it was populated before Adam passed.]
(2) [The world as it was populated before Noah passed.]
(3) [The world before Antichrist will pass.]
(4) [The new heaven and earth will pass.]
TITHING (can not be separated from the Levitical priesthood)
Genesis 14:1-20 “And he gave him tithes of all.” (This is the first time “tithe” is used.)
28:10-22 “ and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”
Numbers 8:13-26 “. . . after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation . . . as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites. . . .”
Numbers 18:20-31 “And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land . . . I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service . . . of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Deuteronomy 12:6-8 “. . . 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. . . .”
Malachi 3:7-9 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. . . . In tithes and offerings.”
And then:
Hebrews 7:1-18 “. . . they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham . . . there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.”
A HOUSE FOR THE LORD’S NAME
Luke 6:3-4 “And Jesus answering them said, . . .[David] went into the house of God. . . .”
[At this time, “the house of God” was only the “the ark of God [which] dwelleth within curtains”.]
And Then:
2nd Samuel 7:1-13 “He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”
[The same is contained in 1st Chronicles 17:1-12.]
1st Chronicles 28:1-6 “Solomon thy son, he shall build my house. . . .” (David quotes the Lord as saying it was His house.)
Jeremiah 23:11 “. . . yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.” (The Lord calls it his house.)
Isaiah 66:1-2 “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me?”
[This is a display of God’s dissatisfaction, and of change to come! (God is not wondering out loud where his house is!)]
Luke 13:35 “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. . . .” (See how the Lord now calls it their house?)
Matthew 27:50-51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. . . .”
(It is not the “Holy of Holies” anymore: God vacated that place: it is empty now. It is “desolate”.)
Acts 7:44-51 [Stephen sums it all up.] “. . . the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. . . .”
(WELL, HE DID AT ONE TIME!)
(See: Exodus 25:1,8 “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”
(What happened here?)
And Then:
2nd Corinthians 6:14-16 “. . . ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them. . . .”
(Hint:) Luke 11:24-26 “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.” (A man can be a house for God or devils.)
1st Corinthians 3:9 “. . . ye are God’s building.”
vs. 16-17 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
6:19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (Is that why “liberated” women say, “Well, it’s my body!”?)
Ephesians 2:10-22 “. . . In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Hebrews 3:1-6 “. . . But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we. . . .”
(Yet it will not always be this way, either, because it is prophesied otherwise.)
And Then:
Isaiah 56:7 “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. . . .”
John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you.”
Revelation 21:1-3 “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Now it is again, “with them”, not “in them”.)
LAW WRITTEN IN STONE
Exodus 24:12 “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.”
31:12,18 “And [the Lord] gave unto Moses . . . two tables of testimony . . . written with the finger of God.”
32:16 “And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.”
Deuteronomy 4:1-13 “. . . and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” (This is where the expression comes from.)
5:22 “These words the Lord spake . . . and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone. . . .”
10:1-4 [and also the second time]
And Then:
Romans 7:1-4 “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
Galatians 2:16-21 “. . . for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
3:13-14 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (not obedience)
Romans 2:11-16 “. . . the Gentiles . . . shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. . . .”
[For advanced thinkers: compare Romans 2:13 with Galatians 5:4 (vs. 1-6).]
(See: 1st Corinthians 7:19 “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.”)
[QUESTION: Is it really possible to “write” in a man’s heart?]
2nd Corinthians 3:1-3 “. . . ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
[God’s new way is compared with (and shown to be better) than ordinances.]
(Prophesied of:)
Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. . . .”
[QUESTION: Why couldn’t God have put his law in the Jew’s hearts before?]
Zechariah 7:8-12 “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law. . . .”
Romans 8:7 “. . . the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
[QUESTION: What is the solution?]
1st Corinthians 2:16 “But we have the mind of Christ.”
Romans 7:22-25 “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
(Prophesied of:)
Ezekiel 11:17-20 “. . . and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh. . . .”
(Also in 36:26)
JESUS CHRIST IS KING ONLY TO THE JEWS (Depending on how you define the terms, this remains true even now.)
Matthew 2:1-2 “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”
27:29 “. . . they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”
QUESTION: Where did they get this?
John 18:33-34 “Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?” (Good answer!)
19:19-22 “Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.” (Jesus Christ WAS King of the Jews!)
Matthew 15:22-24 “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
10:1-6 “But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (The Lord sends his disciples only to Israel!)
And then:
Matthew 28:16-19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. . . .” (What just happened here?)
Romans 15:8-12 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God . . . And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.” (What did that mean?)
Philippians 3:3-6 “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. . . .” (If anybody is a Jew in the flesh, Paul is, but that is not enough!)
CIRCUMCISION
Genesis 17:10-14 “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. . . . and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”
17:23-25 “And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.”
21:4 “And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.”
Exodus 12:48 “And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.”
Leviticus 12:3 “And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”
[QUESTION: Is this system going to work?]
26:40-42 “. . . if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled . . . then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.”
(This is a hint that more is needed!)
Joshua 5:4-5 “Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.”
(As slaves they remembered to obey God: as free men they forgot!)
[QUESTION: Is this working well?]
Jeremiah 6:10 “. . . behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. . . .”
9:25-26 “. . . all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.” (Hint, hint!)
Acts 7:51 “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. . . .”
Romans 4:8-12 “How was it then reckoned? . . . Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.”
1st Corinthians 7:18-20 “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. . . .”
QUESTION: What happened here?
ANSWER: Circumcision of the flesh is taken away in favor of something greater and more profitable to the Lord.
Galatians 5:2-3 “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”
QUESTION: Is circumcision done away with?
ANSWER: No, not at all: it has taken another form, which can only be done in Christ.
And then:
Colossians 2:8-12 “. . . ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. . . .”
John 3:6-7 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
Romans 2:29 “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
(Prophesied of:)
Deuteronomy 30:6 “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”
MEATS” (as it was in the garden)
Genesis 1:29-30 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”
And then: (after Adam and Eve sinned)
9:1-3 “. . . all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”
(v. 4 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”)
And then: (when Israel is separated)
Leviticus ch. 11 “This is the law . . . to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.”
(17:10-11,14 “And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. . . .”)
Deuteronomy 12:15-16 “. . . thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean [people] may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.”
And then: (when the Gentiles are grafted in)
Acts chapters 10-11 “. . . all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice. . . .”
Matthew 15:10-11 “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth. . . .”
1st Corinthians 10:25-27 “Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”
1st Timothy 4:1-6 “. . . some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils . . . commanding to abstain from meats. . . . For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. . . .”
Romans 14:2 “For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.”
(Acts 15:19-20 “. . . abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”
And later: (in the new earth)
Revelation 21:1-4 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away . . . and there shall be no more death . . . for the former things are passed away.”
Isaiah 65:17,25 “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. . . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
BLESSINGS TAKEN AWAY
Psalm 107:35 “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”
v. 33 “He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground. . . .”
SACRIFICING
Hebrews 10:1-10 “In burnt offerings and sacrifices . . . He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
vs. 18-22 “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”
OBSERVING DAYS