Vladimir Putin’s relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and it’s leader “Patriarch Krill of Moscow” is their reason for the war in Ukraine.

Fifty years ago moral values in the west were much like the east. The Russian Orthodox Church has been in lockstep with Putin and has in fact served to advance his ends, a case in point is its position on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Putin often invokes the Russian Orthodox Church in his public speeches, giving the church a much more prominent place in political life and has set himself up as a defender of traditional morality—for instance, by opposing homosexuality, penalizing divorce, and supporting the “traditional family.” His use of traditional Christianity is calculated for political effect: American and European observers would do well to see through the charade.

    When Putin rose to the presidency of Russia in 2000, he inherited the remains of a once-fearsome communist-atheist imperial state. He loves to pose for photo-ops with the Russian Patriarch Kirill, even published calendars featuring themselves in traditional liturgical celebrations.  The Russian Orthodox Church has been the dominant religion in Russia for more than 1,000 years, headed by patriarch, archbishops, bishops and priest. Since  the year 1686 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow. (But last October, the Ukrainian church announced that after 332 years, it was splitting with the Patriarchate of Moscow in an attempt to gain independence from Russia.) This split was facilitated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and approved by the head of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, based in Turkey. Putin blames Ukrainian politicians for the church split, accusing them of “meddling” in the church’s affairs and dismissing the Ukrainian church’s departure as a “secular political project.” Positioning Russia as somehow a defender of religious freedom, saying, “We reserve the right to react and do everything to protect human rights, including the freedom of worship.”

In the intervening 19 years, he has transformed Russia back into an imperial power with global ambitions, ‘transforming the  Russian Orthodox Church’, in his public speeches while giving the church a much more prominent place than under his predecessors. But these invocations hardly seem sincere in the religious sense, rather using the church to justify Russian expansion while trying to discredit the West’s influence in Eastern Europe.  (He cleverly cast himself as a belligerent in the culture war, appealing to some conservatives in America who have grown skeptical of the liberal democratic tradition inherited from the so called enlightenment,) 

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Putin sought to justify his actions by pointing to a shared religious and cultural history: ’saying every one in Crimea speaks of our shared history and pride.’ It’s the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized, adopting Orthodoxy predetermined for the overall basis of the culture, civilization, and human values that united the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. A case in point is its position on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, making the split illegitimate. (Putin maintains that the Patriarchate of  Russian borders into Ukraine and Belarus, continuing to promote Orthodoxy in the process, attempting to seduce former Soviet republics back under the sway of Russia.) 

The Kremlin’s use of Orthodox Christianity makes perfect sense, given religious trends in the region. Orthodox Christianity has enjoyed a marked revival in Eastern Europe in the last two decades. (Nine of Russia’s regional neighboring states—Moldova, Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Belarus—have more than 70 percent of people identifying themselves as Orthodox according to current Pew Research results, noting that a revival of Orthodoxy coincides with pro-Russian sentiment. (Nine former Soviet nations that are majority-Orthodox agree that “a strong Russia is a necessary balance to the West. Not only do these Russian Orthodox Christians—express pro-Russia views, they’re tightly bound up with national identity, pride, cultural superiority, supporting the linkages between national churches and governments, making Russia a bulwark against the West.) These are crossroads between two options: increased integration with the West and liberalization, on the one hand, and alignment with Russia and authoritarianism on the other.

As Putin seeks more influence over these nations, emphasizing traditional religion serves two of his goals. (1) It establishes a common ground between Russia and Eastern Europe, and (2) more importantly amplifies the differences that Eastern Europe has with the West; especially as the Western world drifts further away from traditional values and religion.  (It’s one of the demonic divisions Satan is pushing in his attempt to divide, conquer and cause chaos. Remember only Jesus can bring peace and righteous judgment. Western, Eastern and other nations are playing into Satan’s hands.

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    God’s chosen people, (stubborn Israel) followed gentile gods like Molech and Baal until and after He dispersed them as promised, (but His covenant with Abraham was perpetual. (Passover season and it’s first two annual Sabbaths begins at sunset (Nisan 13, paralleling April 14.) Passover ends at sunset on (Nisan 14, April 15.) “The 15^th of Nisan ‘April 16” at sunset begins the ‘Feast of Unleavened bread’, time the Lord God Jesus set aside for Israel to put leavening out from their dwellings. Leavening (that which puffs up) represented sin and Israel found it easy to overlook; ‘so is the spiritual magnification of Jesus’ command His followers find easy to overlook, as each grow spiritually. (Stubborn Christendom like Israel think, surely God will be pleased with an alternate way, to their shame. They should know when Jesus returns, His followers will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because it, like all God’s law is perpetual.)

    Today’s Christendom practices aren’t Christen, like Israel they make the same errors. Consider Israel conduct in their promised lands and compare with what Christendom does today.

   (Jeremiah 32:35; They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered My mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.) (Way before Jesus had Jeremiah prophecy He was telling Israel about avoiding worldly practices.) (Exodus 20:1-9; The LORD spoke to Moses: “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. I myself will set My face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes to that man when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death, I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. (The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people. ‘You must sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. You must be sure to obey My statutes. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.) (If anyone curses his father and mother he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself.) (God considered alternate ways of worship prostitution then and He doesn’t change.)

God doesn’t change and His covenant promises are perpetual.  Jeremiah 32:36-44; “You and your people are right in saying, ‘War, starvation, and disease are sure to make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylon.’ But now I, the LORD God of Israel, have something further to say about this city: ‘I will certainly re-gather My people from all the countries where I will have exiled them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

   They will be My people, and I will be their God. I will give them a single-minded purpose to live in a way that always shows respect for Me. They will want to do that for their own good and the good of the children who descend from them.  I will make a lasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good to them. I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for Me so that they will never again turn away from Me. I will take delight in doing good to them. I wholeheartedly, faithfully plant them firmly in the land.’ “For I, the LORD, say: ‘I will surely bring on these people all the good fortune that I am hereby promising them. I will be just as sure to do that as I have been in bringing all this great disaster on them.  You and your people are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. But fields will again be bought in this land. Fields will again be bought with silver, and deeds of purchase signed, sealed, and witnessed. This will happen in the territory of Benjamin, the villages surrounding Jerusalem, the towns in Judah, the southern hill country, the western foothills, and southern Judah. For I will restore them to their land. I, the LORD, affirm it!’ “)

                  Review Ezekiel 37: from a previous study, now see more of the same through Isaiah. (Isaiah 26:  If the wicked are shown mercy, they do not learn about justice. Even in a land where right is rewarded, they act unjustly; they do not see the LORD’s majesty revealed.

   O LORD, You are ready to act, but they don’t even notice. They will see and be put to shame by Your angry judgment against humankind, yes, fire will consume Your enemies. O LORD, you make us secure, for even all we have accomplished, you have done for us. O LORD, our God, masters other than You have ruled us, but we praise Your name alone.

    (AFTER JUDGMENT and second death) The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. That is because you came in judgment and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them.)

   You have made the nation larger, O LORD, you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor, you have extended all the borders of the land. O LORD, in distress they looked for you; they uttered incantations because of Your discipline. As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O LORD. We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born.  Your dead will come back to life; your corpses will rise up. Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. Go, My people! Enter Your inner rooms! Close Your doors behind You! Hide for a little while, until His angry judgment is over! For look, the LORD is coming out of the place where He lives, to punish the sin of those who live on the earth. The earth will display the blood shed on it; it will no longer cover up its slain.)

    Recipients of the Holy Spirit are gifted with power to spiritually overcome. (Rom 6:1-14; What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of His resurrection.

   We know that our old man (old self) was crucified with Him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

   We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, He is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.)

    If we suffer for the cause of Christ: (1Peter 4:1-11; So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin,  in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. (For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.)

   So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you. They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

   Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God’s standards. For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

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   Jesus is the Creator and spokesman saying; (Gen 1:26-27; “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.) It was the sixth day.

    (Gen 2:2-3; By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and He ceased on the seventh day all the work that He had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that He had been doing in creation.) (Gen 2:7; The LORD God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.)

   Created people needed instruction, so God said; Gen 2:16-17; Then the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”) Why were they not to eat from the tree of, ‘knowledge of good and evil?’ It was the only way to be AT ONE with God, the only way to inherit eternal life. God knew if people decided what’s good and evil for themselves there’d be chaos, division, war and ultimately no love. People would follow Satan’s deceptive ways.

   Thus the Serpent said to Eve; (Gen 3:1-5; “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.”) (As always study the whole.) (It’s natural that folks like the idea of their eyes being open, being divine and know good from evil on their own, but such thinking makes each individual a god to self.)

    Eve and then Adam was enticed to try what seemed to be good. Sure enough their eyes opened to the fact, ‘they were naked innocence was gone and they were ashamed, likely realizing that God was clothed. The demonic way is to always give a little truth and twist a lot.

     Gen 3:9-17; The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And the LORD God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Again we see the fleshly nature in people blaming others.)

Verses 12-17; The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” So the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring’s heel.” To the woman He said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.” But to Adam He said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.) (So the whole of mankind is under these pronouncements of the Lord.) (Life is in Jesus.)

     (After Jesus fed thousands by re-creating food, one said to Him; “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but My Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. NOW THE FIRST RESURRECTION IS PROMISED. (John 6:33-40; For the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. But I told you that you have seen Me and still do not believe.  Everyone whom the Father gives Me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of the One who sent Me. Now this is the will of the One who sent Me — that I should not lose one person of every one He has given Me, but raise them all up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father — for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”) AND AT VERSE 53; Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.” (SATAN LIED saying to Eve, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.”)

  SO, WHY DID JESUS COME and promise to raise up the last day? (John 6:44-48; No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Me. (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God — He has seen the Father.) I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.)

   AFTER 4 DAYS JESUS RESURRECTING LAZARUS TO PHYSICAL LIFE.     (John 11:17-25; When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days already. (Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, so many of the Jewish people of the region had come to Martha and Mary to console them over the loss of their brother.) So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will grant You.” Jesus replied, “Your brother will come back to life again.” Martha said, “I know that he will come back to life again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The one who believes in me will live even if he dies.) (JOHN 20:31; But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.) SO WHAT DID JESUS’ APOSTLE PAUL BELIEVE? (Rom 5:17; For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ!) AND (Rom 5:21; so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Christ our Lord.) ETERNAL LIFE ONLY THROUGH JESUS. (Rom 6:23; For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.)

    (2Cor 4:9- We are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed,  always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body.  For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.  As a result, death is at work in us, (We apostles) but life is at work in you. But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak.  We do so because we know that the One who raised up Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into His presence.)

    BELIEVERS IN JESUS DON’T DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT’S RIGHT, WRONG, GOOD AND EVIL, AS IN THE KEEPING OF HOLY TIMES. (“The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”) BELIEVERS in God lovingly and respectfully recognize and reflect on God’s creation and their own work. Knowing He’s Creator, Re-Creator, Sustainer, Mediator and our coming King of Kings, when He returns the whole world will ultimately begin to recognize His righteousness, particularly when Satan is bound and knowledge of Jesus will covers as water the sea.

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    As preplanned, Jesus miraculously delivered the Israelites, called, trained and made Moses their Deliverer and ultimately their savior. After 400 plus years in Egypt, Israel was so deceived and corrupted they couldn’t turn to Jesus in the flesh. Likewise in this age people in the flesh can’t grasp spiritual understanding. Of Israel’s people’s deliverance and some 40 years of desert wondering only Joshua and Caleb, (likely descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh) of the original group were allowed to cross over the Jordan River to the lands promised Abraham. That crossing was much like the one at the Red Sea: ‘they carried the Ark out front and Jesus made the waters part allowing a crossing on dry ground. (See Joshua 4)

     See Jesus’ promises, (Joshua 1:4-9; I am handing over to you every place you set foot, as I promised Moses. (Your territory will extend from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north all the way to the great River Euphrates in the east (including all of Syria) and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.) No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them. Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law My servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the LORD your God, am with you in all you do.) (Study the whole book)

           AFTER JESUS’ DEATH & RESURRECTION MANY SAINTS CAME OUT OF THEIR GRAVES AND LATER JESUS PHYSICALLY RESURRECTED OTHERS THROUGH HIS APPOSTLES.  

    (Matt 27:46- At about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, (Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?) that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to Him to drink. But the rest said, “Leave Him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come to save Him.” Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks were split apart. And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many Saints who had died were raised. (They came out of the tombs after His resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared to many people. Now when the centurion and those with Him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!” Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and given Him support were also there, watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.)

    (It was Passover the fourteenth day of Nisan, ‘called the preparation day’, ‘God’s first month’ they hurried to bury Jesus before sunset the first annual Sabbath. The next day, ‘15^th of Nisan’ (day after preparation) was the first of seven annual Sabbaths.) Read it at, (Matt 27:62-66; The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive He said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise His disciples may come and steal His body and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “Take a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the soldiers of the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.)

   (God preplanned that His Son be resurrected on or after the 18^th of Nissan.) In that particular year the weekly Sabbath must have fell on the 17^th of Nisan. Similarly this year, “14^th Nisan parallels April 15 and first annual Sabbath, ‘the 15^th’ of Nisan’ parallels April 16^th, which is also a Weekly Sabbath this year.  The 18^th of April is a Monday, so would parallel the morning after the weekly Sabbath in the year Jesus died.)       

      NOW TODAY, THAT SAME JESUS IS MEDIATOR, DELIVERER, SAVIOR AND COMING KING OF KINGS FOR HIS FOLLOWERS; ‘THOSE SPIRITUALLY BORN FROM ABOVE AND AT ONE WITH HIM.’

   A disciplined Christian’s life is ONE of Godly love and sums up Peter’s teaching to scattered Israelites back then and those in this age. (Peter said; “judgment begins at the house of God, (called out believers in Jesus) “recipient of God’s gifted Holy Spirit” – “gifted immortality: eternal life.” The Holy Spirits equips believers with power to overcome, (thus Peter’s words; “For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God.” And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good.”) See 1Peter 4:17-19)

    (Peter and each apostle was schooled by Jesus, (as recorded in Matthew’s 24^th chapter, and His prophet ‘Daniel’s’ writings on the same subject.) Because of persecutions, wars and the pagan apostate taking place, Jesus’ apostles thought His return with righteous judgment would be in their life time. Only after Jesus’ resurrection and His gifting them with understanding did they know the approximant time of His kingdom’s coming and the first resurrection.)

   (Long before, Jesus had inspired His prophet Daniel with His end of age message similar to Matthew 24 chapter. Things revealed through Daniel, would later be revealed to His apostles. Jesus had Daniel write about a demonic led individual that would magnify himself above every deity, and utter presumptuous things against Him. This one will have no respect for any and will elevate himself, ‘apparently be able to give gold, silver, valuables, treasured commodities, grant considerable honor to rulers and place them over many people, parceling out land for a price.)

    (Daniel 11:40-45; At the time of the end, the king of the south will attack him. Then the king of the north will storm against him with chariots, horsemen, and a large armada of ships. He will invade lands, passing through them like an overflowing river. Then he will enter the beautiful land. Many will fall, but these will escape: Edom, Moab, and the Ammonite leadership. He will extend his power against other lands; the land of Egypt will not escape. He will have control over the hidden stores of gold and silver, as well as all the treasures of Egypt. Libyans and Ethiopians will submit to him. But reports will trouble him from the east and north, and he will set out in a tremendous rage to destroy and wipe out many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas toward the beautiful holy mountain. But he will come to his end, with no one to help him.)

    (Many people will yield themselves and worship this powerful individual; fulfilling Jesus’ revelations to John and His Words at Matthew 24.) Together they give us a good overview of how God plans to end this age of demonic rule. Jesus’ apostles were about the business of preparing His followers for such a time as this.) (The following proves Jesus’ planning.)

    (Daniel 12:1-4; At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over Your people will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time. But at that time Your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape. Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake – some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. “But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about, and knowledge will increase.)

    Scientific knowledge and information has increased on many levels, and now available to the world, on the internet. But the world’s populations are lackadaisical, love has waxed cold, interest is self serving entertainment, and demonic practices.

   A big question to thoughtful believers in Jesus is; ‘how much longer until the God of Abraham, ‘the One who had Sodom & Gomorra destroyed’, intervenes?

        Jesus had His apostle Paul tell of Israel’s error’s and taught His followers how He should be considered .

   (1Cor 10:1-22; For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

    But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day. And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

   These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall.

   No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it. So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say.  (Paul is thinking Passover.)

   Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread. Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? Am I saying that idols or food sacrificed to them amount to anything? No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is?) (Denominations are divided by Satan, wait on God’s revelations rather than seek a religion that seems to fit.

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   Spiritual & physical resurrections are in God’s plans and prophesied by several prophets. Naturally to be physically resurrected, a person had to have lived before. Each in their own order is the key Paul noted in 1Corithians 15:19-26;” For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For, since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to Him. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. For, He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be eliminated is death.”

   Likewise Jesus revealed through His apostle John; mentioning four times in Revelations that there’s a second death.

   (See Revelations 21:1-8; “verse 8; But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.”)

   Jesus revealed Israel’s physical resurrection and more prophecy to Ezekiel.

    (Ezek 37: The hand of the Lord was on me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. He made me walk all around among them. I realized there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to Him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath into you and you will live. I will put tendons on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

   So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. As I watched, I saw tendons on them, then muscles appeared, and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath in them.

   He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’ So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.”

    Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones is all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, My people.

   I will bring you to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, My people. I will place My breath in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”    (Israel to become one people.)

     The word of the Lord came to me: “As for you, son of man, take one branch, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another branch and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the branch of Ephraim and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ Join them as one stick; they will be as one in your hand. When your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what these things mean?’

    Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the branch of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will place them on the stick of Judah, and make them into one stick – they will be one in My hand.’ The sticks you write on will be in your hand in front of them.

     Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from roundabout and bring them to their land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms.

    They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become My people and I will become their God.

    “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My regulations and carefully observe My statutes. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David My servant will be prince over them forever.

    I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place My sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then, when My sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’)

         Review the reason Jacob’s name was changed and the fact that Believers IN, are Called to live it, now.

      (2Peter 3:8; Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. waiting is key.)

  (1Peter 4:7-19; “For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

   (Consider Israel’s wait during their stay in Egypt. God’s promised deliverance was about 430 years after leading Joseph to Egypt. Consider the time from when Jesus revealed His first coming to Moses, until He came in the flesh. (The point, ‘let’s not lose hope and remember, as it was in Sodom & Gomorra, so it will be before Jesus’ return.)

   Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when His glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker.

    (Practicing Jesus’ righteousness has always been opposite the way of this world’s system of things, because God is allowing, Satan to be the god of this age, the world’s demonic way. So, don’t be surprised when trials come, as though something strange were happening. The spirit that rest on Jesus and each follower is oppose the spirit of the world, ‘thus the spirit dominating the world, is our enemy.’)

    But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls, (their being) to a faithful Creator as they do good.)

    Satan’s demonic systems appeals to the inherited nature from Adam. So, many religions use Jesus’ name with a mix of the old pagan god’s to their shame. A mix God warned His people not to follow. Thus the fulfillment of Jesus’ Words; “watch out that no one misleads you, many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He, and they will mislead many.’” Mark 13:6)

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   Jesus the Messiah came as scheduled, to His own ‘Israel.’ Last study we read about Jacob ‘Israel’ saying Joseph would be over his brothers and that his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh was his own like Reuben and Simeon to carry the name ‘Israel’. Jesus’ apostle ‘Matthew’ was given to understand the generation timing from Abraham to Jesus. Much later another Joseph would be Mary’s husband and a daddy to Jesus.

   (Matt 1:16-17; Joseph the husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. (So, all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations.)

   (NOW, Jesus didn’t come to bring God’s message of salvation to the world, but to His own. He had Ezekiel write; (Ezek_2:3-4; He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the house of Israel, to rebellious nations who have rebelled against Me; both they and their fathers have revolted against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign LORD says.’) When Jesus sent His apostles, He instructed them as follows; (Matt 10:5-16; “Do not go to Gentile regions and do not enter any Samaritan town. Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

   Do not take gold, silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for the journey, or an extra tunic, or sandals or staff, for the worker deserves his provisions.  Whenever you enter a town or village, find out who is worthy there and stay with them until you leave. As you enter the house, give it greetings. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. (They were not to debate, nor sell this message.)

  And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or that town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town! I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.) (Remember Jesus had changed Jacob’s name to ‘Israel’ more than 42 generations before, and God’s chosen ‘Israel’ passed his heritage to Joseph’s two sons.

     (Genesis 48:1-16; After these things Joseph was told, “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has just come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed. (Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession. “Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are. Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance.

   ‘MAY MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM and the name of my fathers, ‘Abraham and Isaac.’ When Jacob crossed his hands, putting his right hand on the youngest brother, Joseph attempted to correct him, Jacob said; “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother “Ephraim” will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”) (Today, Great Britain still governs, Canada, Australia, Islands, and more, ‘it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire.’ Likely Ephraim represents Great Britain and Manasseh represents the USA in these latter days. See genesis 48:1-16. NOW, there’s much prophecy about Israel being restored to the land boundaries promised Abraham, & punishments to persecutors of Israel.

    The Good News Jesus brought includes a ‘New Spiritual Covenant, much like the old, but spiritually magnified, representing the intent of His law for our good; the Holy Spirit gifted to make recipients at one with Jesus and gifted eternal life. For example, when people are recipients of the Holy Spirit, God’s laws are ingrained supernaturally to that new nature. It’s born again or Fathered by God; So, at Matthew 5:28; Jesus says, “whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” AND Matt 5:32; “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” AND at Matt 19:9; “Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.” THE INTENT OF GOD’S LAW IS THAT WE OBEY BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM. Study The Love Chapter, 1Cor 13, concludes with “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

The Resurrections.

   The awesomeness of God our Father and our “Creator, Originator of life, ‘Jesus’, is beyond our natural fleshly mind’s ability to understand; like with Jesus’ physically resurrecting Lazarus and His resurrecting Tabitha through Peter, (See Acts 9). Additionally when Jesus was resurrected tombs opened, and many Saints were resurrected and went out witnessing. Why would physical resurrections seem strange to professing Christians? Why do they prefer believing Satan’s lies, Moses recorded at Genesis 3?

    Jesus had Israel keep seven annual Sabbaths, ‘three Holy Seasons’ so to keep them focused on His plan for their future. The fourth was the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’: He had them pitch tents or make other temporary dwellings to remind them; ‘their bodies were temporary & a spiritual one was yet to be.

   Throughout the Holy Scriptures teach God’s purpose in making people in His image and likeness is to increase His Family. In the New Testament His family is called His Church, and His Church’s foundation is, ‘the prophets and apostles with Himself the Chief Corner Stone.

   The called are to separate from the world’s non-Israelites, Jesus had His apostle Paul write, (Ephesians 2:17-22; Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, so that through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Cornerstone.  In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a Holy Temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.) ADDITIONALLY (Recipients of God’s are fleshly temples of His spirit.)

  (1Cor 3:16; Do you not know that you are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? AND (1Cor 6:19; Or do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?) (Next study we intend to print Ezekiel 37, which is also chapter 20 in our, “Jesus’ Good News as revealed to Peter and Paul” by James Nelson.

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   A greater deliverance than from Egypt is prophesied, Israelites from around the world will be miraculously delivered to the borders promised Abraham. (See Isaiah 22:, 35:, 51:,53: and 65: Ezekiel 20:, Jeremiah 31: and Amos 9:11-15 for starters.)

   (Isaiah 11:10-12; At that time a root from Jesse will stand like a signal flag for the nations. Nations will look to Him for guidance, and His residence will be majestic. At that time the Sovereign Master will again lift His hand to reclaim the remnant of His people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the seacoasts. He will lift a signal flag for the nations; He will gather Israel’s dispersed people and assemble Judah’s scattered people from the four corners of the earth.)

   It was the Lord God Jesus leading Israel from sinful Egypt through Moses; an example to today’s ‘follower of Jesus’ deliverance from this world’s system of things and encouragement. The same Jesus is going to deliver as promised through His prophets again. 

   (Romans 15:4-21; For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Receive one another then, just as Christ also received you, to God’s glory.

   For I tell you Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers and ‘thus the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy.’ As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.” (Quote from Psalms 18:49) And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” (Quote from Deut 32:43) And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.” (Quote from Ps 117:1. And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, and the One who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him will the Gentiles hope.” (Quote from Isa 11:10) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe IN Him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. but I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve the gospel of God like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So I boast in Christ Jesus about the things that pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And in this way I desire to preach where Christ has not been named, so as not to build on another person’s foundation, but as it is written: “Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”) (Quote from Isa 52:15, latter part) NOW more Jesus prophecy through Isaiah.

   (Isaiah 52:1315; Look, My servant will succeed! He will be elevated, lifted high, and greatly exalted. (just as many were horrified by the sight of You) He was so disfigured He no longer looked like a man; His form was so marred He no longer looked human – so now He will startle many nations. Kings will be shocked by His exaltation, for they will witness something unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard about.)

   (THIS ‘God’s loving covenant with His chosen’, is about God’s calling to righteousness; compelling individual to seek and practice His Way. It’s a separating of ‘the called, from the yet to be called.’ Asking the called to love unbelievers and foreigners. We should remember; Jacob’s God given name is, “Israel” - meaning God fights or fights for. Israel was a foreigner in Egypt. Here is the spiritual magnification Jesus taught?

  (Matt 5:43-48; You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they? And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they? So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.)

   Recipients of Jesus’ Holy Spirit have the law imputed to their minds and thus ‘a spiritual magnification is ingrained’ as with His saying, ‘I say to you, to look on a woman with wrong intentions is adultery.’ (See Matt 5:29) From our fleshly inherited from Adam nature, we instinctively love our own. Through God’s gifted spirit in us, “we can love our enemy!”

   The Patriarch Joseph was as is God’s church now; made righteous in God’s View by His calling, revealing and leading for His purpose. We each are put on God’s preverbal Potter’s wheel for training, made to realize that He’s the Potter and we the clay. Individually we’re called and made to realize our unworthiness and God’s mercy and grace. In our fleshly nature we contribute nothing.

   Joseph may have known the prophetic word given Abraham about descendants being in bondage 430 years; before being miraculously delivered. As Israel looked forward to deliverance, so do followers of Jesus, but ours include being resurrected to Jesus’ likeness.

   As the tradition set by Abraham and Isaac, Joseph too ask that his bones be buried with them. The Patriarch’s calling and life practices parallel Jesus’ calling His apostles and each Believer. As were the Patriarchs, believers are led to spiritually separate from this world’s system of things. Jesus’ apostle Paul instructed as follows.

   (2Cor 6:15-18; What does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.) Likewise Jesus inspired His apostle John to write.

   (1John 2:15-17; Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.) Jesus prayed to His Father for His followers, saying in part.

   (John 17:15-17; I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but that You keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; Your word is truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I set Myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.) Remember the impact Joseph and Jacob’s family had on the Egyptians and Canaanites.

  (Gen 50:10-21; When they (Israel’s mourners) came to the threshing floor of Atad on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father. When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called Abel Mizraim, (Meaning, mourning of Egypt) which is beyond the Jordan.) (Less than 400 years later, God would miraculously lead the Israelites across the Jordan under Joshua.)

   So the sons of Jacob did for him just as he had instructed. His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite. After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, along with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to bury his father. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay us in full for all the harm we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave these instructions before he died: ‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father. When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept. Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.” But Joseph answered them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so God could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. So now, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children.” Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.”) (God was taking away their stony hearts and shaping them.)

  (Gen 50:22-23; Joseph lived in Egypt, along with his father’s family. Joseph lived 110 years and saw the descendants of Ephraim to the third generation. He also saw the children of Makir the son of Manasseh; they were given special inheritance rights by Joseph.) This parallels followers of Jesus being gifted with eternal life.

  (Gen 50:24-26; Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to you (your descendants) and lead you up from this land to the land God swore on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, “God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.” So Joseph died at the age of 110. After they embalmed him, his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.) Joseph’s knowing faith was gifted, knowing God’s promises would be kept. Followers of Jesus too are waiting on God’s deliverance.

  Israelites’ practices became much like the Egyptians, they were segregated, jealously erupted and Joseph’s reputation was forgotten. Over time Israel was corrupted with paganism, as the world is today. Population grew so that Egyptian rulers became fearful of them, taking their resources and making them slaves was the remedy to their fears. God miraculously deliver Israel by calling and training Moses to be His servant, deliverer and savior to His people. So corrupted that God only allowed Joshua and Caleb ‘of the delivered’ cross the Jordan river to the promised lands.

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  Spiritual understanding is a rebirth, ‘begotten or born again” it isn’t by human choice, or having the wit to join the right denomination, anymore than chosen your parents. (Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ (HOW?) John 3:8; The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”) (Begotten of God, born of spirit & born from above; means to be recipients of THE HOLY SPIRIT OF TRUTH. It’s a gifted miraculous re-birth and the mind to be in total agreement with God.  

   Christians can’t go along to get along, nor take advantages the world offers. People gifted with Jesus’ spirit follow His life examples. Two cowardly followers repented and came forward to care for Jesus’ body after His death.

   (John 19:39-40; “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he went and took the body away; AND Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus at night, accompanied Joseph, carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds. Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, with the aromatic spices, in strips of linen cloth according to Jewish burial customs.”)

   Satan convinces denominations and individuals that it’s okay to practice, “their own faith, that is, what’s truth to themselves” which is one of his lies. (When people are left to themselves without God’s revelations, they practice what seems right to their fleshly minds, ‘that’s idolatry.’ Likewise is choosing a religion, bowing to statues and not respecting the Ten Commandments.  People groups, nations and individuals are victims of Satan’s divisionary deceptions.

   Jesus used and inspired His prophets to use water as a metaphor for His truth AND milk for it’s simplicity. Consider Isaiah 55 and compare with Jesus’ Words recorded in the gospels and Revelations.

   (Isa 55:1-13; Hey, all who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come! Buy and eat! Come. Buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me and eat what is nourishing! Enjoy fine food! Pay attention and come to Me! Listen, so you can live! Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David.

   Look, I made David a witness to nations, a ruler and commander of nations. (God’s prophecies are so sure, they’re stated in the past tense.) Look, you (Israelites) will summon nations you did not previously know; nations that did not previously know you will run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for God bestows honor on you. Seek the Lord while He makes Himself available; call to Him while He is nearby! The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle, sinful people their plans, they should return to the Lord, He will show mercy to them, and to their god, for He will freely forgive them.

   “Indeed, My plans are not like your plans, and My deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so My deeds are superior to your deeds and My plans superior to your plans. The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat. In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to Me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend.” Indeed you will go out with joy; you will be led along in peace; the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you, and all the trees in the field will clap their hands. Evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes, firs will grow in place of nettles; they will be a monument to the Lord, a permanent reminder that will remain.”)

   David did not; nor can we in this physical life, inherited all God’s promises. Long before David, God preplanned Jacob’s heir’s lives and revealing the future for his descendents. One of Israel’s descendents is David.

  (Genesis 49:1-27; Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you what will happen to you in the future. “Assemble and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to Israel, your father. REUBEN, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power. You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father’s bed, then you defiled it – he got on my couch! SIMEON and LEVI are brothers, weapons of violence are their knives! O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel! JUDAH, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down before you. You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness – who will rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him. Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be dark from wine, and his teeth white from milk. ZEBULUN, will live by the haven of the sea and become a haven for ships; his border will extend to Sidon. ISSACHAR, is a strong-boned donkey lying down between two saddlebags. When he sees a good resting place, and the pleasant land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and become a slave laborer. DAN, will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward. I wait for your deliverance, O Lord. GAD, will be raided by marauding bands, but he will attack them at their heels. ASHER’S food will be rich, and he will provide delicacies to royalty. NEPHTALI, is a free running doe, he speaks delightful words.

  (22) JOSEPH is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough near a spring whose branches climb over the wall. The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him. But his bow will remain steady, and his hands will be skillful; because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the Sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb. The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the eternal mountains or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

  (27) BENJAMIN is a ravenous wolf; in the morning devouring the prey, and in the evening dividing the plunder.”)

    Many try to decipher Jesus’ prophecies through Jacob. Remember Jacob had previously said, ‘Joseph was over his brothers and that his name ‘ISRAEL’ was to be theirs. Israel’s prophecies characterize strengths and weaknesses of his 12 sons. Some are playing out before us, others will. It isn’t likely that Israel understood that the twelve gates of New Jerusalem was already named for his sons.

   (Gen 49:28-33; These are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing.) (Appropriate blessings and judgment, await each of us.)

   (Gen 49:29-33; “Then Israel instructed them, “I am about to go to my people. (Hebrew; be gathered) Bury me with my father’s in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. It is the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought for a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite. There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were acquired from the sons of Heth.” When Jacob finished giving these instructions to his sons, he pulled his feet up onto the bed, breathed his last breath, and went to his people.)

   Followers of Jesus are called and chosen, as was Jacob. We too will be given new names. God also called David, making him a king and prophet, giving him insight about the future and judgment. David writes as we should think.

   (Psalms 28:1-9; To you, O Lord, I cry out! My Protector, do not ignore me! If You do not respond to me, I will join those who are descending into the grave. Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to You for help, when I lift my hands toward Your holy temple! Do not drag me away with evil men, with those who behave wickedly, who talk so friendly to their neighbors, while they plan to harm them! Pay them back for their evil deeds! Pay them back for what they do! Punish them! For they do not understand the Lord’s actions, or the way He carries out justice. The Lord will permanently demolish them. The Lord deserves praise, for He has heard my plea for mercy! The Lord strengthens and protects me; I trust in Him with all my heart.

   I am rescued and my heart is full of joy; I will sing to Him in gratitude. The Lord strengthens His people; He protects and delivers His chosen king. Deliver Your people! Empower the nation that belongs to You! Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in Your arms at all times!)

   (Genesis 50:1-9; Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. He wept over him and kissed him. Joseph instructed the physicians in his service to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, “I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’” So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.” So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him – the senior courtiers of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt, all Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. But they left their little children and their flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, so it was a very large entourage.)

   These are the Lord God Jesus’ inspired Words recorded by Moses. His callings and covenant promises are living truths that fits (square with) Jesus’ teaching and the New Covenant with His followers. We plan to review Jesus’ word through Paul on this same subject next time.

To: 35,178 subscribers to original Jerusalem Church of God teaching.  God’s 13th Mo, 2 Adar 15th day, 5,782, 3/18/2022.

  Jacob said; ‘MAY MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM and the name of my fathers, ‘Abraham and Isaac.’ When Jacob crossed his hands, putting his right hand on the youngest brother, Joseph attempted to correct him, Jacob said; “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother “Ephraim” will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.” Great Britain still governs, Canada, Australia and others, it was said that the sun never set on the empire. (I believe Ephraim represents Great Britain and Manasseh represents the USA in these latter days.) See genesis 48:1-16. God made Jacob ‘Israel’ the ancestor of promises to Abraham, accordingly the British Empire and the USA IS modern day Israel. Remember too, God allowed pagan people to conquer Israel of old for their sins.

   Remember too, an angel was sent to assure Hagar about Abraham’s first born ‘Ishmael’s future heritage.’ The point; ‘God chooses whom He will reveal Himself and gives mercy, grace and knowledge of His Ways to. Others may, through observation and study know, that God sustains, has power to bless and that His law is their guardian, ‘teacher.’ (King Abimelech knew of God, he took Sarai to be his wife until it was revealed to him that she was Abraham’s wife. (See Gen 20) Others like Enoch, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were gifted with knowledge of God, ‘chosen by grace and for His purpose.’ (These and our ‘gifted believing IN faith’, substitutes for, ‘our guardian – teacher – law’ before God revealed His love and gifted His spirit.

    Consider; Joseph didn’t need a written law to tell him not to commit adultery when refusing the advances of his master’s wife. (Is it not the same with “born from above people” in this age? People fathered by God love Him and His laws) All are under God’s laws, ‘as guardian –teacher’ until God calls, reveals Himself and gifts, by grace, His spirit which makes each recipient at one with Himself.

Joseph gradually understood that he was God’s tool. His brothers respected Israel’s God and felt guilt for having wronged him but they weren’t spiritually gifted by grace as was Joseph. (Remember, their dilemma was to sell Israel on letting Benjamin go to Egypt with them to purchase food.)

Seemingly Israel had forgotten God’s promises for a time, we all seem to forget God’s promises in time of trouble. At the time, Israel was not faithfully remembering God’s promise at Bethel. Let’s review.

(Gen 25:11-12; Then God said to Israel, “I am the sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants I will also give this land.)

Joseph’s dreams as recorded in chapter 37, unfolded according to God’s plan. Nothing is impossible with God. The called in this age are His workmanship, for His purpose. We’re witnessing how God molds the clay and that Our Creator God is a predestining God. Prophecies are timed and no human nor, Satan’s efforts are able to alter them.

Review Isaiah 29:15-16 regarding God’s planning. It’s what believing IN God is about! Knowing that He knows each person individually. Abraham believed God and that belief IN was counted for righteousness.

   If God has revealed Himself and we are led to believe IN; obedience to His will is imputed to our nature. With His nature in us, we can’t knowingly practice ways He considers lawless, “sin.” Only then is Jesus indeed our Lord; it’s the difference in believing IN and believing that.

Reread & study Isaiah 41:21-29; (Present your argument, says the Lord. Produce your evidence, says Jacob’s king (the Lord Jesus. “Let them (unbelievers) produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, so we may examine them and see how they were fulfilled. Or decree for us some future events! Predict how future events will turn out, so we might know you are gods. Yes, do something good or bad, so we might be frightened and in awe. Look, you (unbelievers) are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent; the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.

  I have stirred up one out of the north and He advances, one from the eastern horizon who prays in My name. He steps on rulers as if they were clay, like a potter treading the clay. Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct?’ Indeed, none of those decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything! I (the Lord God) first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’

   I sent a herald to Jerusalem. I look, but there is no one, among them there is no one who serves as an adviser, that I (the Lord God) might ask questions and receive answers. Look, all of them (unbelievers - false prophets) are nothing, their accomplishments are nonexistent; their metal images lack any real substance.)

Believers know our Lord Jesus inspired Isaiah’s words. (Review John 1:1-5, Colossians 1”15:20 & Hebrews 1 for proof.) NO image has substance and to look to them is idolatry. Much of the world worships images at winter equinox time. Images of a Jesus that doesn’t exist.

God caused unbelievers who partnered with Abraham to respect and yield to him when he was rescuing Lot. God intervened in the minds of those that took Abraham and Isaac’s wives to their homes. God caused Jacob’s would be family adversaries, ‘Laban and then Esau’ to act favorably toward him, and the Pharaoh to believe in Joseph.

   Jesus’ apostles and Deacon Stephen knew the scriptural history of the Patriarchs and that they were tools in His hand. See acts 7 and Paul’s teaching that parallels, at Romans 9:12-33.

We shouldn’t question why some people are hardened and some are compassionate. Why some are called and some aren’t. The Patriarchs’ were God’s Elect and each Believed their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world.

   (If clergy type individuals taught people to study God‘s Word, seek His Way and understand that they’re the clay and wait on God’s revelation, rather than choosing a fitting religion, perhaps more people would persevere spiritually.)

The result of peoples inherited from Adam nature ‘without god’s intervention’ is, an evolution toward the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah. We see it in this present age; folks practicing and condoning detestable to God life styles, inspired by Satan. Except God shorten the time, no flesh would be saved alive.

   (Matt 24:22; But for the Elect’s sake, time will be shortened.) The Patriarchs, Joseph and many more were God’s Elect, they are examples to Believers trying to live His way in these latter days.

Joseph’s brothers acting out of jealously, played into God’s plan and purpose for Joseph’s preplanned life. When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt for food, they were treated harshly and jailed, only then did they ponder their past.

(Isaiah 29:15-16; Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead, who do their work in secret and boast, “Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?” Your thinking is perverse! Should the potter be regarded as clay? Should the thing made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the Potter, “He doesn’t understand.)

As was each apostle’s letter, ‘these studies are to encourage.’ We know unbelievers and denominational minded are likely to be offended, but followers of Jesus are personally called by and for God’s purpose. To live among pagan cultures, is likely the training we need. Knowing God is allowing Satan to be the god of this world is for our benefit. Knowing God sanctifies, “sets aside” people for His purpose is for our benefit.

God’s delivering twelve tribes of Israel from Pagan Egypt, parallels His delivering each individual from a love of this world’s system of things. Unbelievers don’t comprehend that God is allowing the whole world to be ‘as was old Egypt.’ In Jesus’ apostles time God was allowing the pagan apostate to take place within God’s churches. (Study Jude’s short book prayerfully.) Early followers of Jesus fled persecutions. Explore why the Roman calendar days of the week are named for pagan gods.

The Hebrews writer has a whole chapter devoted to faith. In the latter part of chapter 11: he describes how afflicted people of faith endured. (Hebrews 11:35-40; But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (the world was not worthy of them) they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth. And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. For, God had provided something better for us so that they would be made perfect together with us.)

The apostate Jude wrote about was becoming a mix of paganism and Judaism and is still referred to as Christian in this latter age.

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   Almighty God and Lord God Jesus: please give us the love, patience and steadfastness we need to endure to the end; by gifted we know You’re not slack in keeping promises, so make us continuously mindful that our bodies are temples of Your Holy Spirit. Please bless us with knowing faith in these promises, your planning and live Jesus’ example. We ask in Your holy name. AMEN.

   After telling us that (unbelieving) nations will be warring, (Jesus said; And many false prophets will appear and deceive many because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end (of his life) will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end (of this age) will come.)

   We feel for the suffering war brings on people, but believers need not be overly concerned because our kingdom isn’t of this age. Unless this time is cut short for ‘sake of the Elect’, (Jerusalem will experience  the abomination of desolation — spoken about by Daniel the prophet — standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

   Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.) See through Matthew 24:20.

     The prophets Jesus and His apostles, all told of this world’s populations being kept spiritually ignorant by Satan’s influence on religions, worldly educators and politicians. Knowledge of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, major and minor prophets aren’t shared, but through called believers. Satan keeps the world spiritually ignorance of God’s promises to spiritual and physical Israelites, (that God will yet resurrect His chosen; ‘they’ll be examples to the world inherit the lands promised Abraham.

   Unbelievers aren’t yet led to consider God’s awesomeness and preplanning because He hasn’t revealed Himself. They don’t understand because as Jesus said; “you aren’t My sheep.” Believers IN God know He’s the Alpha and Omega.

   So, how long prior to Joseph’s birth, do you suppose God planned his Egyptian adventure? Before the foundation of the world? YES He did! God planned and announced Israel’s stay in Egypt to the very day!

   (Now the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, on the VERY day, all the regiments of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, and so on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil to the Lord for generations to come.) See Exodus 12:40-42

    Remember the name ‘Israel’ means God fight or God will fights for. Their preplanned departure was on the 14^th day of God’s first month ‘Nisan’ and before the foundation of the world. Likewise Jesus would shed His blood on the 14^th of Nisan. Thus Jesus’ tomb was found empty, morning of the 18^th. (Not necessarily a first day of the week.) How awesome to be gifted with the desire to believe IN this, our Creator!

   To think puny mankind would make and use a different calendar than the one that’s holy to God is without question the height of hostile arrogance! To know this proves the degree folks will go to honor their pagan gods.

   Jacob and Joseph knew that they were chosen servants of the Most High. Tools in His hand as are all who are led to be Believers in the Lord God.

   (GENESIS 47:5-10; Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best region of the land. They may live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any highly capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.” Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How long have you lived?” Jacob said to Pharaoh, “All the years of my travels are 130. All the years of my life have been few and painful; the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.”) Israel and Joseph were God’s witnesses to this particular Pharaoh and all who are Believers in Jesus.

   Jacob could have told the Pharaoh of his being a deceiver in his youthful years, about God revealing Himself, his experiences, Esau’s forgiving and how God allowed him to learn from his deceiving father in law. Jacob considered his length of life, “few and painful.”

    Study Genesis 47:11-26, about Joseph settling his family and promised protection. TOTAL reliance on Joseph as their physical savior became the Israelites & Egyptians only choice. Believers in Jesus are led spiritually to yield totally on Jesus as our Savior, Creator, Sustainer, Mediator and coming king of kings: mindful that only in Him can we be saved.

       Joseph was allowed to make this statute, as he was spirit led. (20% should be enough for any government to provide lawful protection and administer the needed services to it’s populations.) For our learning; “God allowed the Pharaoh to be as God and Joseph as their redeemer.”

      (Genesis 47:27-31; Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they owned land there. They were fruitful and increased rapidly in number. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; the years of Jacob’s life were 147 in all. The time for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their “my father’s” burial place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you say.” Jacob said, “Swear to me that you will do so.” So Joseph gave him his word. Then Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.”) ISRAEL, was mindful that he represented a “set aside” sanctified people. Asking to be taken to Abraham’s burial place demonstrates it.

  (Genesis 48:1-16; After these things Joseph was told, “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has just come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed. Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession.)

   (Much of that land was given to Israel when God led Joshua to be Israel’s leader and much later under David and Solomon, but Israel is yet to occupied all the borders promised to Abraham’s heirs. The question. Was God leading Jacob and giving him authority to bless? was God blessing and prophesying through Jacob? Absolutely.)

    “Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are. Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died: to my sorrow in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?” Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” His father said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.” Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph brought his sons near to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

   Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, but now God has allowed me to see your children too.” So Joseph moved them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. Joseph positioned them; he put Ephraim on his right hand across from Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh on his left hand across from Israel’s right hand. Then Joseph brought them closer to his father.

   Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

  Then Israel blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked: the God who has been my Shepherd all my life long to this day, the Angel who has protected me from all harm; bless these boys. MAY MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”)

  Israel is mindful of God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac as well as to himself; also mindful that God used an Angel to protect him. The world has a problem accepting the principle that God chooses whom He will for His planned purpose. Descendants from Ephraim and Manasseh are primarily God’s physical Israel! Followers of Jesus are God’s spiritual Israel.

   Genesis 48:17-22; When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.” So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you will Israel bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. (back to Bethlehem area) As one who is above your brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”)

   CONSIDER the time, ‘number of years that pass before God made MOSES, their deliverer under Jesus. Believers IN need to encourage one another as we remember “a thousand years is as one day with God.” He kept His promise to Abraham and delivered the Israelites; demonstrating His power and that He keeps promises. Remember Paul’s words; “Christians are heirs with Abraham.” Galatians 3:29.