Before we begin this brief
study, let us first review and establish an important but basic fact. When the term spiritual Bible
studies is mentioned or thrown around loosely, one might assume that the
concept or method of interpretation is dependent upon the person giving the
study or proclaiming the interpretation.
What you will hear most often in response to this is that safe Bible
studies should be given by organized churches through their pastors, elders,
deacons, and so forth. Studies
outside of church “ordained” circles are frowned upon by and large by the
organized corporate church. It is
true; however, that there are babes in Christ or others who hold Bible studies
who have not labored in the Word and/or who have little knowledge of scripture,
other than perhaps a few areas. The
result can be interpretations running rampant and this is one reason the
organized churches frown upon independent studies. In essence, they discard all spiritual
studies for this reason, yet they themselves (in general) want nothing to do
with the real spiritual meat of scripture as it was intended to be. The overall conclusion is that the
congregations of the world preach and rehash, review and repeat, revise and
retrace the milk of the word over and over, week after week, month after
month, year in and year out. How
then will a babe in Christ go on to the meat of God’s Word? If he or she is truly born of God, they
will simply study on their own, trusting God’s Holy Spirit to lead and guide
them in these truths. Sadly,
millions of church goers will simply listen to the same type of messages year
after year and never go on the spiritual meat that Christ speaks of. It is true that all Bible studies must
be spiritual in nature, since the scriptures are spiritual. Having said this, we want to emphasize a
most important point: when we conclude with an interpretation of a highly
spiritual nature, we must not demand that this is what God is teaching, unless
it is overwhelmingly clear from scripture.
We should only suggest that the interpretation appears to be what
God is teaching. Many organized
churches will emphatically declare that it is wrong to - as they call it -
“spiritualize scripture.” Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Churches, on one hand, should always preach the simple Gospel of Christ
without the hidden depths of spiritual interpretation. This is an important necessity in order
to accommodate the unsaved or new Christians who are in among the congregations.
However, they need to recognize
another important issue; that being the fact that they need to continue on in
the meat of the Word; something most congregations never accomplish. In my thirty years of sojourning through
the massive wilderness of churches, I cannot recall listening to one in-depth
spiritual message from a denominational church. What does scripture really say
concerning the basic Gospel versus the more in-depth study of God’s
Word?
Our Spiritual Meat
1 Corinthians 10:1-4
1 - Moreover, brethren, I
would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the
cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 - And were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 - And did all eat the
same spiritual
meat;
4 - And did all drink
the same spiritual drink: for
they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Yes, Christ is our spiritual
meat and our spiritual drink. This
is usually as far as many congregations will go in allowing the “spiritualizing”
of scripture. But what does
scripture say?
Hebrews 6:1 - 3
1 - Therefore leaving the
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God,
2 - Of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of
eternal judgment.
3 - And this will we
do, if God permit.
We must be careful in
teaching this and not give
the impression of leaving or ignoring the basic doctrines of Christ in pursuit
of deep spiritual matters. God
forbid! It is the basic doctrines
of Christ that propel us into further deeper study of His Word. Please consider the following
reference:
Hebrews 5:12-14
12 - For when for the time
ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the
first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat.
13 - For every one that
useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a
babe.
14 - But strong meat belongeth to them
that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil.
The term strong meat
in the Greek is defined as nourishment (literally or figuratively). In the account of the woman of
Scripture’s
Morning
Isaiah 58:8 - ¶Then
shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee;
the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
The Bible tells us that
Christ is the light of the
world. The above verse speaks of
God’s light breaking forth as the morning. In Matthew 4:16 Christ quotes Isaiah 9:2
in referring to Himself: “The
people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
The Greek defines the term “spring up” as to rise, arise, risen, sprung,
or spring up. The light of Christ
has certainly broke forth or sprung up as the morning daybreak. This is what much of the Old Testament
is all about - the coming of Messiah.
God uses many
characteristics of ancient daily life in
Jeremiah 12:10
- Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my
portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate
wilderness.
God also declares that
His church shall be like a watered garden:
Isaiah 58:11 - And
the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make
fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not.
God tells us in Psalm
Ninety that man is as grass that grows up in the morning and is withered
by evening.
Psalms
90:5-6
5 - Thou carriest them
away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass
which groweth up.
6 - In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth
up; in the evening it is cut
down, and withereth.
In the same token, God’s
Word comes to us in the morning of God’s salvation program, but, as scripture
teaches, will wither away and be cut down in the evening. No, God’s Word will never die, but His
testimony on this earth will indeed wither away in the spiritual evening of His
salvation program. Even though God
is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2), yet He seems to display His
salvation plan in the form of both earthly seasons and daily periods.
God often speaks of His
church as an olive tree, figs, plants, etc. To those who fear the LORD and walk in
His ways, God says:
Psalms 128:3 - Thy wife
shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children
like olive plants round about thy table.
Some say that Song of
Solomon is teaching how a Christian woman ought to live. No, these eternal words go far deeper
than that. Song of Solomon is a
love story between Christ and His bride - all those who are called into
salvation. Here in chapter four of
Song of Solomon God speaks of His spouse in varying ways and with many different
descriptions:
Song of Solomon: 4:12-16
12 - A garden
inclosed is my sister, my
spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed.
13 - Thy plants are
an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire,
with spikenard,
14 - Spikenard and
saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of
frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief
spices:
15 - ¶A fountain of
gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from
16 - Awake, O north
wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may
flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant
fruits.
God’s Spirit blows spiritual
life upon His garden during His day of salvation.
We also find areas of
scripture where we see the morning being in view as a day when the Gospel is
flourishing. Ecclesiastes 11:6
says: In the morning
sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest
not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be
alike good.”
This teaching has nothing in
common with the literal toiling of planting and harvesting crops. In Ecclesiastes chapter eleven God is
teaching that we do not know all the ways of His Spirit and we do not know the
works of God, verse five tells us.
He then teaches in verse six that we must continue to sow seed from
morning until evening. AND WE MUST
NOT WITHDRAW OUR WORK BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW WHICH SEEDS WILL SPROUT AND WHICH
ONES WILL NOT. As we see the
shadows of the evening approaching, we are to remain stern and steadfast in
sowing the Gospel seeds right up into the very night. We of course do not have the mind of
God, and it is not our job to decide when to stop preaching the Gospel. God forbid! Even when scripture’s night arrives, we
are to remain focused on sending out the Gospel every way possible regardless of
what the spiritual fields are like.
Let us quote this same verse from the Young’s Literal
Translation:
Ecclesiastes 11:6 - In the
morning sow thy seed, And at even withdraw not thy hand, For thou knowest
not which is right, this or that, Or whether both of them alike are good.
We can’t know if the seeds
of faith fall upon deaf ears and bad soil of if they fall upon the good
spiritual ground wherein Christ will cause them to spring up into everlasting
life. Our job is to plant in God’s
When we speak of morning in
highly spiritual terms, we must remember the significance of God’s morning. At the end of God’s Word, just five
verses from the end, Christ tells us that He is the bright and morning
star:
Revelation 22:16 - I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I
am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Why is Christ the morning
star? There are undoubtedly many
reasons, but the most prominent one seems to be the fact that Christ brings
salvation to the earth in the beginning of God’s spiritual day - the
morning. Christ is the dawning of
our eternal day; our bright and morning star. This truth is not only spiritual food;
it is shown in a very literal manner as well in Mark chapter
sixteen:
Mark 16:1-6
1 - ¶And when the sabbath
was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought
sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
2 - And very early in
the morning the first day of
the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the
sun.
3 - And they said among
themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre?
4 - And when they
looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very
great.
5 - And entering into the
sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long
white garment; and they were affrighted.
6 - And he saith unto
them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here:
behold the place where they laid him.
Since Christ is our morning
star, it should not surprise us that Lucifer, whose age-old desire is to be like
unto God, is given one of many titles as “son of the
morning:”
Isaiah 14:12 - How art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to
the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
2 Peter 1:19 - ¶We have
also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your
hearts:
Christ indeed is that light
that shines in a dark place. “The
people that walked in darkness have seen a great light…,” Isaiah 9:2. He is our day star and our morning
star. God tells the church at
Thyatira that for those who overcome, He will give them the morning star, Revelation
2:28.
One spiritual byproduct of
the morning is dew, which is a term that is synonymous with God’s saving
grace. Consider the following
verses:
Hosea 14:5 - I will
be as the dew unto
Micah 5:7 - ¶And the
remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers
upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of
men.
Zechariah 8:12 - For
the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground
shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant
of this people to possess all these things.
The above verse in Zechariah
may ultimately be speaking of something more than earthly dew that moistens
crops. The verse certainly may have
carried this literal interpretation for ancient
Scripture’s
Day
2 Corinthians 6:2 - (For he saith, I have heard
thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I
succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day
of salvation.)
The Bible speaks of
particular sections of a day which can be shown to represent the spiritual
condition of the earth. Let us now
look at the word day. In the spiritual essence, this is when
Christ’s Gospel is being proclaimed and people are becoming eternally
saved.
Luke 19: 41- 44
41 - ¶And when he was
come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 - Saying, If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 - For the days shall
come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 - And shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in
thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation.
Christ was speaking to the
Jewish nation, knowing that they would reject their Messiah in the day of
salvation. It was their day or
era.
Romans 1:16 - ¶For I am
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek.
Romans 2:10 - But
glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the
Gentile.)
Christ stated the following
to the Pharisees in John 8:56: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my
day: and he saw it, and was
glad.” He was clearly speaking of
the day of salvation. And how did
the Pharisees respond? They
blasphemed Him. But Christ went on
to tell them “before Abraham was, I am.”
Christ was telling them that He Himself was always in existence, even
before Abraham was born. Not
“before Abraham was I was,” but “before Abraham was I AM.”
The Old Testament is packed
with rich spiritual teachings that foretell the coming of the Gospel Era, which
is the day of salvation.
In Psalm 72:6, for example, we read
of the coming of this DAY:
“He shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.”
As manna from heaven rained
down upon the children of
Micah 5:7 - ¶And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the
midst of many people as a dew
from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor
waiteth for the sons of men.
Hosea
14:5 - I will be as the dew unto
Has Christ’s Gospel (this
dew or rain) fallen upon any nation as a whole today? The answer is no, God does not favor any
one nation above another today. No,
God favors one nation only today, and that nation is not of this
world.
1 Peter
2:9 - But ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Christ, of course, was
speaking to all - then past, present, and future - who would believe on
Him. These together make up God’s
holy nation; His bride, the spiritual Israel of God, Galatians 6:16. God’s view of all worldly nations may be
seen from the following one verse alone:
Isaiah
40:15 - Behold, the nations
are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance:
behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
The DAY of salvation was
foretold long ago in scripture, encompassing many parables, metaphors,
allegories, and more.
Isaiah
35:6 - Then shall the lame man
leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert.
The above verse, and many
like it, are beautiful spiritual prophesies of the coming of the Gospel Age or
the Day of Salvation. These waters
and streams in the desert have nothing whatsoever in common with the flourishing
agricultural life in the deserts of national
Isaiah
43:19 - Behold, I will do a new
thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way
in the wilderness, and rivers in the
desert.
Isaiah
61:11 - For as the earth
bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown
in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and
praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 58:11 - And the
LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat
thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters
fail not.
Isaiah
41:18 - I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the
valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
springs of
water.
All of the above symbols are
words and terms that God uses in describing the going forth of His Gospel at the
Day of Salvation. God’s Word is
said to be a fountain of life and a fountain of living
waters.
Jeremiah
17:13 - O LORD, the hope of
Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me
shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living
waters.
Many symbols are used in
depicting the Gospel of Christ such as waters, streams, springs, rivers, dew,
and on and on. God references His
elect on this earth as His garden or His vineyard. This is seen as the great period of the
New Testament’s Church Age.
2 Corinthians 6:2 - (For he
saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I
succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.)
Isaiah 49:8 - Thus
saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I
helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the
people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate
heritages;
We read an interesting verse
in Romans 13:12 where the Apostle Paul states that the DAY is at hand and
admonishes the churches to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the
armour of light. However, that
particular verse begins by stating that “the night is far spent.” More on this verse later.
Scripture’s
Evening
Isaiah 17:14 - And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before
the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of
them that rob us.
By reading and studying the
entire chapter of Isaiah seventeen one will discover hidden truths that relate
to the time of the end. Isaiah 17
is speaking of a time in which the glory of Jacob shall be made thin (verse 4),
which is a reference to the gradual cutting off of the true Word of God. Speaking of the olive tree, which can be
shown to be symbolic for the church, verse six explains that there will still
remain two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, and four or five
in the outmost fruitful branches.
This appears to indicate that not all of the corporate church will be
desecrated. This chapter is
addressing those throughout the ages who have forgotten the God of their
salvation (verse 10). Verse eleven
tells us that they will plant and sow but their harvest shall be a heap (shall
flee away) in the day of grief and
desperate sorrow. What day or time would be
equivalent to this time of desperate sorrow? Would it not be the time Christ spoke of
in Matthew 24:21? “For then shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be.” What
is more grievous and more sorrowful than this? Desperate, as in the above verse, can
mean incurable or woeful. This same
Hebrew word is used in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who
can know it?”
Isaiah chapter seventeen
speaks to all who have forgotten their God. Judgment is coming and God seems to be
using the spiritual evening as an indicator that His judgment is
about to fall. “Behold, at
eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not.” The word trouble here carries the
meaning of destruction and terror.
It is certainly not the believer who is to fear the events of the end of
the age. It is clearly the unsaved,
whether they are alive at this time or not, they are the ones who face this
trouble; this judgment of God. At
that time God will give them their lot (meaning portion or destiny) as
Isaiah 17:14 states.
The Bible has much less to
say about the evening of scripture, and that doesn’t surprise us since our focus
should always be on the Day aspect.
The word evening in
both Old and New Testaments means dusk; the approaching of night. Among the references to evening,
we find an interesting account in the sixth chapter of Jeremiah.
_________________
Jeremiah 6:1-4
Verse 1 -
¶O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of
We know that much of
Jeremiah’s focus was in warning
The attack upon believers
near the end of time comes from Satan as he surrounds and encompasses the
spiritual
Isaiah 14:13 - For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
the sides of the north:
Was it coincidental that
Let us continue in Jeremiah
chapter six.
Verse 2
- I have likened the daughter of
Who or what is signified as
the daughter of
Verse 3 - The shepherds with their flocks shall come
unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about;
they shall feed every one in his place.
Young’s literal translation reads verse three this
way: “Unto her come do shepherds
and their droves, They have stricken tents by her round about, They have
fed each in his own station.”
It appears that the end of
verse three here in Jeremiah chapter six is teaching that these shepherds feed
not the flock of God in unity, but they feed every one in his own place or in
his own station. We dare not
pretend to have all the answers, however, diversity and not unity is what
appears to be in view from what we can gather. Who are these shepherds that surround
and pitch their tents against
Luke 21:20 - ¶And when
ye shall see
Revelation 20:9 - 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.
Luke 19:41-44
41 - And when he was come
near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 - Saying, If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 - For the days shall
come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep
thee in on every side,
44 - And shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave
in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation.
The above four verses
prophesy of the literal temple in
The Abomination of
Desolation, as possibly portrayed from Jeremiah chapter six, tells of a foreign
nation invading the literal city of
Jeremiah chapter six can be
confusing, no doubt. The
interesting aspect of this particular chapter is that it details so much of Old
Testament
Verse 4
- Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! For the day
goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched
out.
A particular verse comes to
mind at this point. “I must work
the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can
work,” John 9:4. The thought is
very similar to what we just read in Jeremiah 6:4. And what is this work that Christ is speaking
of? Pure and simple, it is
this: “Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of
God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent,” John 6:29.
The bottom line is true belief that
Christ is God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
It is this belief that will
fade from the world as the shadows of evening approach. Yes the twilight hours are the shadows
of evening, signaling the soon approaching night. It reasons out nicely in Jeremiah 6:4
that the call to prepare war is sounded.
Let us go up at noon, or possibly go up as if it were noon. In other words go up with the full
armory of spiritual weapons that is used during the spiritual day. Woe unto us! For the day goeth
away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. Isn’t
this the same truth that Christ spoke when He said the night cometh when no man
can work? Of course it
is.
_________________
Jeremiah 5:6 speaks to those
of backsliding
“Wherefore a lion out of the
forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a
leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be
torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings
are increased.”
It is unclear why the King
James Version, along with the American Standard Version, both use the term “wolf
of the evenings” while other versions of the Bible translate as “wolf of the
deserts.” The desert here carries
the meaning of wilderness. Either
way, these wolfs are representative of God’s enemies.
In Mark chapter fourteen we
read of Christ sending His disciples into
Mark 14: 16-18
16 - And his disciples
went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they
made ready the passover.
17 - And in the evening he cometh with the
twelve.
18 - And as they sat
and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with
me shall betray me.
Jesus made this announcement
on the evening of His betrayal:
“Jesus said unto Peter, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice,” Matthew 26:34.
It wasn’t until much later that night, after Christ left His sleeping
disciples at
Perhaps the mentioning of
evening has nothing in common with the fact that Christ was about to be betrayed
into the hands of sinners. Or
perhaps it has much in relation to spiritual truth. The betrayal of Christ displays bits and
pieces of the end of the Church Age and the cutting off of the true Gospel. The
shadows of betrayal first appeared that evening at the Passover feast,
and were fulfilled later that night.
Christ spoke often of
wolves. One characteristic of
wolves is that they come out at evening for their prey. Scripture alludes to the enemies of
Zephaniah 3:1-4
1 - ¶Woe to her that is
filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
2 - She obeyed not the
voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not
near to her God.
3 - Her princes within
her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw
not the bones till the morrow.
4 - Her prophets are
light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they
have done violence to the law.
(Please see the study “The Kingdom of heaven suffereth Violence” at
spiritualiblestudies.com.)
The oppressing city in its
fullest form is most likely the end-time apostate corporate church. Scripture gives many references to
her.
Isaiah 1:21 - ¶How is
the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment;
righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
The city that Abraham sought
out, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10) is God’s own heavenly city
of eternal salvation. Consider the
following verse:
Isaiah 26:1 - ¶In that
day shall this song be sung in the
Satan’s final attempt to
mimic God is manifested in his false church at the end of time. Satan’s desire is to be worshipped as
the city of
“And a mighty angel took up
a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with
violence shall that great city
Night: Another Spiritual
Condition
We have briefly discussed
three spiritual conditions upon the earth in relation to God’s salvation
plan. First we saw the morning
being the dawning of time wherein the light of Christ enters into this darkened
wilderness. We also saw the day
being symbolic of the New Testament Era in which the light of Christ is
displayed upon the earth. We
then looked at the spiritual evening as holding many clues to the falling away
from the light of Christ as spiritual darkness once more begins to settle upon
the earth. The next condition
follows the previous conditions in succession: the night when salvation is no
longer available, or at least very minimal. We know from scripture that the Old
Testament Era was also viewed as spiritual night:
Romans 13:12 - The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: let us
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light.
This verse was inspired and
penned in the early Church Age as the day of salvation was indeed at hand. The Apostle Paul, in referring to the
Old Testament days states that the night is far spent. When Christ is out of the picture there
is no light to be seen. Even though
God has eternally saved souls from the Old Testament Era, yet the world
basically remained in darkness until the coming of Christ, who is the light of the world, John
9:5. As we mentioned earlier,
Christ tells us that the night will come when no man can
work. We saw that the work of God
is defined as to believe in Christ.
What else does scripture tell us concerning this night that is soon
approaching? God has much to say concerning this
subject, so much so that we cannot even begin to expound upon it
properly.
Scripture tells us that the
Day of the Lord (judgment of the world) will come as a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:2
- For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a
thief in the night.
2 Peter 3:10 - But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up.
It will certainly not come
as a thief in the night to God’s elect, for God tells us:
1 Thessalonians 5:4-7
4 - But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a
thief.
5 - Ye are all the
children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of
darkness.
True believers will not know
the day, nor will they know the hour in which our LORD returns. Perhaps we will not know the year as
well but Christ assures us that His return will not overtake us as it does the
world. It will come upon the world
suddenly and as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. Again we observe the word night in
which God uses to display the spiritual darkness of those days in which He will
return.
6 - ¶Therefore let us
not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 - For they that sleep
sleep in the night; and they
that be drunken are drunken in the night.
The night that Christ was
betrayed does carry spiritual similarities to the spiritual night of the last
days preceding Christ’s second coming.
Christ, as the true Word of God, was hated by the world of His day. As His time drew to a close He found
Himself alone in the
Luke 22:45 - 47
45 - And when he rose up
from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for
sorrow,
46 - And said unto
them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation.
47 - ¶And while he yet
spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went
before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.
The account of the disciples
sleeping at that crucial hour and before may tell us something about the true
Church at the end of time. It will
be scattered, confused and disoriented as its replacement, the harlot church,
will be thriving. During those
times the global effectiveness of the true Church will be as dead bodies lying
in the streets (Revelation 11:8).
The true Church will be as if it were asleep in the night.
When Christ comes at the
last day to rapture His Church, we read once more that it is the spiritual night
of the earth:
Luke 17:34 - I tell
you, in that night there
shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be
left.
Christ tells us there will
be no night in the eternal New Jerusalem:
Revelation 22:5 - And
there shall be no night
there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
_____________
JOEL CHAPTER ONE - VERSES ONE
THROUGH THIRTEEN
The first chapter of Joel
lays out the conditions of the spiritual night in much detail. Granted, it had its literal fulfillment
in Old Testament days, but once again we have to realize that Old Testament
scripture ultimately pointed to the New Testament days in many instances.
Joel 1:13 - Gird
yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of
my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the
house of your God.
The meat offering and the drink offering is
withheld from the once faithful church.
Recall we spoke of Christ commanding us to eat His flesh and drink His
blood? Yes indeed, Christ is the
meat offering (His flesh) and the drink offering (His blood) that
will be withheld during this spiritual night. Of course during the days of ancient
Revelation 11:8-9 -
8 - And
their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of the great city, which spiritually is called
9 - And
they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead
bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put
in graves.
Could this be
what Joel 1:13 is teaching? It does
harmonize perfectly with what scripture teaches will encompass the true
believers during the dark days ahead.
Let us do a quick breakdown of Joel 1:4 -13:
Verse 4 -
The palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the
caterpillar have eaten God’s vineyard. These are types of insects and are most
clearly symbolic of false prophets, etc. who rule in the congregations of the
world.
Verse 5 -
All the drinkers of wine will howl (be in sorrow) because the new wine is
cut off from their mouths. (The Gospel is silenced.)
Verse 6 -
A great nation is come up upon God’s land without number; whose teeth are as the
teeth of a lion. Teeth can be
characteristic of those who would strive to kill God’s people, both physically
and spiritually. One example is in
Proverbs 30:14 - “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and
their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy
from among men.”
Verse 7 -
These ambassadors of Satan will symbolically eat away at God’s truth until the
end result is God’s vine being laid waste (desolation in the Hebrew). They have stripped off the truth from
God’s vine and cast it away.
They have barked (meaning fragmented or splintered) God’s vine
until its branches are made white (withered).
Verse 9 -
The meat offering and the drink offering (the true Christ) are cut
off from the House of the LORD.
Verse 10
- The field is wasted, (without the Gospel, the world is wasted and ripe for
judgment.) The land
mourneth; (mourning among the true Church). The corn is wasted, the new
wine is dried up, and the oil languisheth. God uses many synonyms for the Gospel;
corn being only one of many. The
new wine of course is the New Testament covenant. Now note what the end of this verse
say: “and the oil
languisheth.” What is this oil
God speaks of? It is the anointing
oil of the Holy Spirit. Is it also
wasted or dried up? Not exactly; it
languishes, which is the opposite of flourish. It is interesting to note that God’s
Holy Spirit may not be completely lifted from the earth.
2 Thessalonians 2:7- 8 -
7 - For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he <Holy Spirit> who now
letteth will let, until he
<Holy Spirit> be taken out of the way.
8 - And then shall that Wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming:
The Hebrew
defines this word “languish” as to be weak, mourn, or to wax
feeble.
Verse 11
- In this verse of Joel chapter one God says to howl for the wheat and
for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. One prominent verse comes to mind:
Revelation 18:11 - “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth
their merchandise any more:”
Verse 12
- “The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the
pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the
sons of men.”
We can talk
forever in defining this joy, but let us quote only one
verse:
Psalms 48:2
- Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,
is
Verse 13
- “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar:
come, lie all night in
sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering
is withholden from the house of your God.”
Again - lie all
night in sackcloth may be a prophecy of God’s Church being silenced and lying in
the spiritual streets of
Scripture’s Midnight
Hour
The word midnight in
scripture denotes the middle of the night (away from light); figuratively
adversity (Strong’s Hebrew 2676 and 3915). “Midnight” in both the Old and New
Testaments defines the middle of the night. This signifies the highest point of
darkness. Scripture indicates that
the true Church is silenced by the midnight hour, at which time Christ returns
for His Bride; the rapture of the saints.
There are thirteen verses in all of scripture that mention the word
midnight; we will only look at a few. In some of these verses the meaning is
clear, while in other verses there may be a second and third level of
interpretation. We have the
historical interpretation and perhaps the immediate spiritual
interpretation. And then again
(sometimes it is very difficult to see) we may also have a second or higher
spiritual interpretation.
Acts Chapter
Sixteen
Acts 16:25-26
25 - ¶And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed,
and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 - And
suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison
were shaken: and immediately
all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were
loosed.
This is a partial account of
Paul’s second journey. Paul and
Silas were thrown into prison in
Paul and Silas prayed and
sang at the midnight hour. Perhaps
they both signified the true Church at the end of time, in that the two of them
might have denoted God’s two witnesses (Christ’s
Psalm 119:62 - ¶At midnight I will rise to give
thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Paul appears to be a type of
Christ in the New Testament. He
established many of the churches.
Perhaps Paul and Silas are a portrait of the true Church in the Acts
chapter sixteen prison account.
Though we who are saved have been spiritually freed by Christ at the
cross, we are still to remain somewhat in bondage to our physical being until we
receive our new and glorified bodies at the resurrection of the Last day. It is only then that we will be complete
in Christ.
As Paul and Silas sang and
prayed to God at the midnight hour, likewise the true Church will know the
approximate time when Christ is about to appear.
Luke 21:7 - And then
shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
The true Church will be in
fellowship, waiting, praying, and singing hymns to God at this time, precisely
as Paul and Silas did in
As Paul and Silas prayed at
the midnight hour, suddenly there was a great earthquake and the foundations of
the prison were shaken and immediately all of the doors were opened and every
man’s chains or shackles were loosed, Acts 16:26.
It is at the midnight hour
that our salvation will be total and complete.
IT IS DONE
Revelation 11:12-13
-
12 - And they heard a
great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld
them.
13 - And the same
hour was there a great
earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake
were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave
glory to the God of heaven.
Revelation 16:17-18
-
17 - ¶And the seventh angel
poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple
of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is
done.
18 - And there were
voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was
not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so
great.
Revelation 6:12-17
-
12 - And I beheld when
he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as
blood;
13 - And the stars of
heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when
she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 - And the heaven
departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island
were moved out of their places.
15 - And the kings of the
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the
mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens
and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 - And said to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 - For the great day
of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
It is at the spiritual
midnight hour that Christ returns.
Not only was Paul and Silas set free at midnight, but the foundations of
the prison were shaken by the earthquake.
So much so that the prison doors were opened and the bands of the
prisoners were loosed.
Christ came to set the
prisoners free. That was
accomplished at His first coming.
Isaiah 61:1 - ¶The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound;
We do not have to wait for
Christ to return in order to be set free from our bondage to the
Romans 12:2 - And be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will
of God.
Once we become saved our
shackles or bands that we are bound to Satan with are loosed. This was accomplished through Christ’s
resurrection, and will be completed at His Second Coming. In the spiritual setting, the prison
might be representative of Satan and this earth. At the rapture or resurrection of the
last day, the earth, as we know it, will be destroyed. Its very foundations will be shaken as
Paul and Silas’ prison foundations were shaken - at the midnight hour. It is the completion of our
salvation.
Matthew 25:6 - And at
midnight there was a cry
made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
This parable alone teaches
that Christ returns at the spiritual midnight hour.
Revelation 14:18 - And
another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with
a loud cry to him that had
the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of
the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
This loud cry is synonymous
with they midnight cry; it calls for the judgment of the
earth.
Acts Chapter
Twenty-Seven
In this account of Paul’s shipwreck we find many hints that point to the end of the Church Age and the return of Christ. As the Chur