The Fulfillment of Pentecost – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

May 23, 2010

Thought I’d mention first of all here about the Holy Day offering.  We do have some new people, I guess, on a regular basis obviously in different area, but I think everyone as a whole through reading everything on the website and so forth understands what we do on this particular day, on every High Day.  We have seven of them through the year and God tells us in Deuteronomy 16:16 what we’re to do at this particular time. It says, Three times/three seasons in a year, and obviously we understand that as the Passover and Unleavened Bread Period, this period here now being Pentecost and the last period which is everything that happens in the fall from the Feast of Trumpets up through Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, Last Great Day; and this is the period of time being specifically for us.  We understand seven specific High Days that is the tradition within the Church of being able to take care of this, of being able to do this in honouring God and the calling God’s given to us; to be thankful.  It says, three times in a year shall all your males appear before the Eternal your God in the place which He shall choose; and obviously that’s everyone.  We understand what that meant in the Old Testament and what it means for us today, that everyone is to appear before God.  And it says; in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the beginning of the High Day season, the Feast of Weeks, which is the period of time, obviously, of what we’re observing today because of the time you count; seven specific Sabbaths – the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles: which includes all the High Days in the fall season. And it says...they shall not appear before the Eternal empty/empty handed.  So it has to do with a special offering above and beyond that which God says were to do as far as tithing is concerned.  It’s in a personal private relationship between us and God that we do this, that we obey this.  This is something we do every High Day.  We don’t always go to the scriptures because we understand it well; no need to repeat it seven times in the year, but on occasion we go to these scriptures.

We’re going to pick up right from where we left off yesterday backing up just a tad here because we need to get the context of what was being discussed; backing up here in Leviticus 23 where we have the command for the Holy Day season and the observance of it and how to go about it.  God is very meticulous, very exacting in everything He says and gives and in leading and guiding and directing us.  And the reality is as human beings we need to recognize when we begin to be called that our human nature is such that we resist God and oftentimes we rely upon our intellect rather than striving to understand and see God’s word and that which God intends for us to have in spirit and in truth.  Something that God has to reveal by the power of His spirit.  It isn’t something that can be intellectually understood because many people with great knowledge and great intellect have gone through these pages of this book and especially in the Old Testament, inside and out studying it, making their whole lives one of studying the words and the wording and so forth.  And they have come up with huge erroneous errors.  I marvel at my experience in the Worldwide Church of God when I was first called and  so many people that you would run into who have these different ideas they would come up with of things that they have read in the Bible and their idea of what it means; and then they’d begin to spread it around.  Things that weren’t in unity and harmony with how God was working in the Church because they didn’t get it!  They didn’t grasp, or it didn’t sink in yet...there is one way that God works in His Church by His spirit and how it’s given to us; and it’s so basic and so simple.  But we, as human beings, so often resist that, we fight against that and too often we tend to rely upon our own thinking, our own intellect.

I remember Mr. Armstrong at different times crying out about that; those who relied on their own intellect!  And the main reason he did that as a whole was there was one evangelist who did that and he tried to constantly teach his own ideas in the Church.  And sadly there are a lot of people who went out as ministers later on who looked up to that individual as a great intellectual!  Well, he was an intellectual; he just wasn’t smart when it came to understanding God’s word all the time – because he didn’t rely upon God’s spirit to teach and lead and guide and direct him!  Foolish things that he did – inviting people into his office to discuss with them when he knew they were possessed, and discuss things with them because he knew he was speaking to demons...and trying to reason with them and talk to them and find out things from them.  Dumb! Stupid!  Ignorant things that God says we’re not to do.  But he thought he was intellectual enough to go ahead and do those things.  Incredible the things that have happened.  The very one who pushed and pushed and pushed to destroy the Passover in the Church of God, because when you turn away from the truth...  He did not accept what Mr. Armstrong gave in the booklet he wrote talking about ‘Pagan Holidays or God’s Holy Days – Which?’ and right in that book in the heading in one area it says ‘14th or 15th? Passover’.  He addressed it and he gave three basic scriptures that we’ve already gone through in this sermon.  And that individual and many others didn’t accept the simplicity and the basic truth of that.  They began to reason around various wording and various things that were said in scripture and various things that had happened in history and began to rely upon the intellect of Judaism and what they taught, not understanding that Jesus Christ condemned Judaism in the very beginning.  They didn’t get better in 2,000 years; their understanding became more clouded, more darkened.

So much of this Feast has to do, as so many do, and so much of what God’s word has to do with, with being in unity and oneness and harmony with God – following the simplicity and the beauty and the exact way that God leads and guides and directs us and how He tells us what to do and how to do it and how to live.  Because in that, when we start thinking that way and receiving it from God that way, our life is richer, our life is happier, our life is more fulfilling.  God can then grant us more of His spirit.  And this day is about that!  ...the receiving of God’s help; the receiving of God’s spirit.  We can’t rely on our own thinking, on our own intellect.  That’s why it’s so important to have a close relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father... with God the Father in and through Jesus Christ.  We understand that.

And so God has given us that ability and those opportunities in a great calling He’s given to us; and this day picturing that, especially for the Church in this age because in the last 6,000 years there are going to be those who are going to be a part of what this day pictures; first fruits, those who are first into the Family of God, the Kingdom of God.  Jesus Christ entered into that 2,000 years earlier; the first to be born of human beings, of mankind, the first of the first fruits to enter into the Family.  And now we’re very close to 144,000 being added to that and the Kingdom of God actually existing on this earth, the Government of God existing on this earth governing and ruling over all the world.  So we’re so close to that now and all the things pictured in this day that are so beautiful, so exciting, so inspiring...but my oh my how man has resisted it.  How the Church of God has even resisted that because we have a battle that goes on inside of us, we truly do, and we have to fight that day in and day out.  And so we are to develop a close relationship, a personal relationship with God Almighty and seek to draw closer and closer to Him.  We must rely on God and God’s spirit to lead and guide and direct us.  Whenever we rely on self and our own thinking and our own intellect we will always go off base.

If you rely on your own thinking, on your own way of seeing things you will always, always, always, always go off course, you can’t help it.  You have to rely on God.  On decisions I make, on things I do within the Church, people who are around me learn, my wife’s smiling back there... she knows because we talk about it often about different things that happen and I let her know, “I don’t know yet, but when I know I’ll know.”  When God gives it to me about certain situations, how to deal with it, what to do, what to say – I rely on God to give it to me because if He doesn’t give it to me you know what I do?  I keep my mouth shut.  I strive to keep my mouth shut because I don’t want it to come out of here, I want it to come through me by God’s spirit that God is inspiring, leading and guiding and directing.  Just like in sermons that are given.

I'll share with you some things... there was a period of time when all the ministry around the world was brought into Pasadena, California for what we called ‘Ministerial Refreshing Programs’.  They generally would last two weeks, sometimes one week depending on time and finances and so forth, but generally they lasted for two weeks.  Every minister around the world had the opportunity, every elder around the world as a whole had the opportunity to come in and that was the point.  We were to be refreshed.  We had the opportunity of receiving from different department heads and from different ones who were teachers, different evangelists and so forth and from Mr. Armstrong himself sometimes, oftentimes, one way or another – either through personal or through video, things that would be recorded of him. Rather than him being there all the time it’d be recorded and then we’d be able to watch what he had to say to us: as a part of leading and guiding and helping the Church and being able to keep focused on what the work was at that time, what God was doing and so forth.  And so we had those opportunities to come in on a regular basis and all the ministry did as well.  And again here, I think back of those times and what God gave to us when we were able to come together like that, and again, what we have experienced in the Church of people who resisted and didn’t receive what God gave and did things their own way instead of receiving what God gave to us.

Over and over and over again, God shows us the importance of striving to be at one with Him, striving to be in unity with Him and doing things exactly the way He says to do them.  And as I was mentioning in those refreshing programs, one of the things that was brought up one time was how the ministry should give sermons and prepare sermons.  And they began to bring up the term that I wasn’t really familiar with – hermeneutics, the way to organize sermons.  It’s a word from the world.  It’s a word used by Protestant ministers in the world.  So much of it had to do with studying your Bible and preparing sermons in advance and how you organized churches and so forth and it had nothing to do with relying on God’s spirit.  There was nothing... it was about how to plan sermons, sometimes months in advance, on childrearing or husband and wife relationships or things within the Church, different kind of organizational things and so forth and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... and nothing about God or relying on God.  You can’t decide; you can’t plan on what to give God’s people.  It better come from God; and that’s where the ministry, again, began to go off course.

So, don’t go off course.  You have a short time.  And those of you going on to a new age... we have people come along and we have people leave and it’s always been that way.  It’s been that way for 2,000 years.  God has called people, they come along and somewhere along the way they go off course.  And I’ll tell you right now it will continue to happen all the way to the end.  And you say, “How can that be when people have the evidence of everything happening around them in a very profound and powerful way?  Why would anyone leave?”  Why has anyone ever left?  Because they begin to rely on self or there’s something they resist that God is giving and there is some pull or whatever it is in the world that they’re pulled to more than toward God – they don’t have a desire and a love toward God like they should have.  Something along the way has tripped them up.  Don’t let that happen to you!  You have such a short time left.  Two years...and yet there will be some who’ll come along in the next two years who will still leave in the next two years.  Incredible!

Leviticus 23 – this instruction that God gives helps us to understand and plug everything together as far as His plan and His way of life is concerned; and how to number and how to count something; He is very meticulous about it because He wants us to learn from that, to listen to every word, to listen to every instruction and to understand that when we live by that and we obey it we are blessed!  Our lives are blessed!  We’re happier for it.  We’re inspired because of it!  The more you come into unity with this the more inspired you are.  I don’t care how many times...and I’m going to be preaching about it a lot, because it’s not going to stop in two years...I know that I’ll still be preaching far into the future.  And I’m going to go through these verses and every time I do I’m going to be inspired, I’m going to be excited about God and what He’s doing and what He’s giving to us.  That’s God’s spirit.  It’s God’s spirit that gives that excitement; otherwise, it just becomes a story after a while, just an old story.  And after you’ve heard it a thousand times, if it’s an old story it’s not too exciting and people start falling asleep, people in the Millennium will start falling asleep.  God’s word should always be exciting and if it’s not it’s so dangerous.

Leviticus 23:15 - And you shall count unto you the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Eternal. You shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth deal: they shall be of fine flour and they shall be baked with leaven; again, we talked about that at the end of the sermon yesterday.  What an awesome picture here to understand these two wave-loaves that represent the first fruits.  The Wave-sheaf was all about Jesus Christ and we read the scriptures about Him, that which was waved before God to be accepted of God for us and then what Jesus Christ said when He told Mary, don’t touch Me, and later on in the same day He told them to touch Him and showing indeed; He said I have not yet ascended to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.  He said go back and tell them that.  And He fulfilled the Wave-sheaf offering on the exact day that God said the Wave-sheaf should always be offered; because He was resurrected at the very end of the Sabbath; and so through Sunday there, in the first day of the week He’s already resurrected, so in the morning when they came rushing to the tomb to see Him, to put more spices and so forth around the body and with the body that’s the moment that He began to appear and talk to Mary and to other along the way through that particular day there.  Incredible story!  And He fulfilled then the Wave-sheaf on the exact day, the first day of the week as it should be done.[1]

And the wave-loaves that are to be offered up on the 1st day of the week, always, always, always, always, always, always because Pentecost is always on the 1st day of the week.  And I marvel how we could have ever thought it was Trumpets.  Now I marvel, because it’s so clear that the wave-loaves, just as the Wave-sheaf... you couldn’t offer it any other time of the year and neither can you offer up the wave-loaves to be accepted by God which picture the first fruits.  It has to be on PENTECOST!  Incredible – the power that God gives to us of understanding that’s exciting and inspiring when we finally see it and it’s so clear. Before that, it wasn’t so clear, seemed to make sense the other way.

And so again ...baked with leaven, because we have sin.  The first fruits and all who follow through time that go through the same process as the first fruits – not through the same hardships, because there is a big difference between those who have to fight their human nature during the Millennium and the Great White Throne than there is through what we go through in the last 6,000 years, those whom God has called in Satan’s world, with Satan in it, with the demons in it.  That’s why there’s more fire and more testing and more refining and more preparation and more moulding and fashioning that God is going to use in His Family throughout eternity.  Jesus Christ will always be under God the Father in power and glory and might and government.  And the 144,000 will always be under Jesus Christ in the form that is given when we begin to understand it, on the Day of Pentecost in a couple years from now.  And it will exist that way throughout eternity because that’s the way God has moulded and fashioned His government and His Kingdom.  That will never change.  Just like a family – it is what it is ...mother, father, children different ages and so forth.  So again... baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Eternal...  ‘they are the first fruits unto the Eternal’; very clear, very beautiful.

Verse 19 - Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of a peace offering. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Eternal, to be accepted by the Eternal.  That’s what this meant.  Waved to be accepted; the priest did this.  And what an incredible picture: Jesus Christ working as He has and all that has gone through Him, the ability, the blessing of mankind being able to be forgiven of their sins and now the 144,000, the first fruits that come together and then to be presented before God to be accepted by God.  It’s a beautiful picture, it’s an awesome thing.

And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Eternal with the two lambs: and they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priest. With Jesus Christ for eternity.  And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it’s a holy convocation: Pentecost; you shall do no customary work therein: it’s a statute forever throughout your dwellings and all your generations.  A beautiful picture.

The Wave-sheaf leads us to the wave-loaves and there is a process here that God gives that’s meticulous in counting and He was very descriptive regarding all those things that led up to the children of Israel coming into the Promised Land.  But let’s jump ahead a little bit and look at some scriptures in the New Testament that talk about these first fruits just to fill in the entire picture here in scripture.  Let’s turn over first to James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, again, a beautiful picture; everything that’s right and good and lasting, that’s perfect...has to come from God, does come from God; with whom is no variableness, in other words who doesn’t change; that which comes from God that God gives to us that lasts and lasts and lasts.  And we look at His law and His way of life and how to live and that lasts and lasts and lasts and never changes.  That which is in the Holy Days and pictured by the Holy Days lasts and lasts into eternity.

...neither shadow of turning.  In other words, it’s a term here that’s used like a shifting of a moving shade when the sun is moving and you see things shifting and moving out here because of different light and different shadows that are cast.  God’s way is not that way, it’s clear, it’s bright, it’s to be seen.  Of His own will He had begotten us with the word of truth, because it’s about the truth.  God’s truth doesn’t change; Of His own will we have been begotten by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits; so again, we receive the promise of the holy spirit, that which is given into us on Pentecost and we receive it when we have hands laid upon us after baptism; that pictures that continuing process, that impregnation of God’s holy spirit that lives and dwells within us, a life, a begettal of life.  But that life is in the process that we understand because God places His truth here and that truth is able to grow, it’s synonymous with His spirit, the word, the word that was made flesh, the logos that was in Jesus Christ – that word, that spirit, that mind, that being.  And that’s what God places into us, a portion of Himself; that mind, that spirit, that truth – that’s what it is.  It’s a portion of God living and dwelling within human beings.

...that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His, as it is in the Greek language, His creation, and that’s an interesting word, the word ‘firstfruits’ – the word ‘fruit’ isn’t really even in it.  We understand that’s what it’s about, that’s what it’s referring to and that’s what it’s talking about; but in the Greek language it’s a word that has to do with that which is first; but it means ‘to be separated out of or from’ – and that’s what God does.  It’s the first to be separated; for His Family, out of the world.  It brings in the entire picture of what takes place in our lives so that we can be a part of His Kingdom, a part of His Family, begotten so we can be different and become different – a part of His creation, a creation that continues on.  This is the most important part of His creation because this is what it’s all about – His Family.  Everything else is created out here in order to bring about His Family.  That should be such an awesome thing to us to understand.  I often think about the greatest miracle of God – is what’s going on inside of us!  It’s not what’s out here in the world around us, what’s created around us; because God just commanded and it came into being.  Nothing resisted Him...but we do.  We do!  And it’s the only way to become a part of His Family; by choice, by free choice.  What an awesome thing!

Revelation 14 – again, just fulfilling the entire story here as it is because it’s about this day, a day that the holy spirit was poured out upon mankind, a day that the law was given to mankind, the holy spirit because it’s the only way you can live God’s way of life, every word of God – by every word of God; to live by those things meticulously so with great desire to be in absolute unity and harmony with Him – not wavering to the left and not wavering to the right.  But we do!  And we have to repent of that when we do.  Someone had told Johnny that about the only time we were on the center of the road, on the straight and narrow, talking about the Church being on the right track, is when we crossed over it careening from one ditch to the other going back and forth.  Sometimes that’s the way life is – we go to the left a little bit, we go to the right and we do this through a process where we’re constantly seeking to be more at one with God and we experience this part of our nature that goes to the right or goes to the left and always... or at least striving to and hopefully on a constant basis.  Even about the Sabbath; how to observe the Sabbath... and it’s a life-long process – how to do it better; what’s right and what’s wrong, what is the balance, what is the soundness?  What is right on the course spiritually?  It’s a constant process we go through and that’s the way it should be.  If we’re not examining and doing those things than something’s wrong with us in life.  That’s how we grow.

Revelation 14:1 - And I looked, and, behold, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, which is about the Kingdom of God, which is about what God is building.  It’s all about that’s which is spiritual in God’s Family – it’s about the Kingdom of God indeed... with Him a hundred and forty four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, and a voice of many waters, and the voice of great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers playing their harps: And they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: that no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth.  That’s what God is doing, redeeming us, calling us out of, separating us from the earth, from the world.

These are they who are not defiled with women; that’s what God brings us to spiritually, that’s what it’s talking about here; for they are/have become virgins.  It’s a process spiritually of what God does with us in a relationship that we have with Him.  Cause you see with God, idolatry, adultery spiritually, spiritual fornication includes all those things that aren’t in unity and oneness with God – perfectly so, meticulously so.  If it’s to the right and to the left then we’ve committed adultery/idolatry.  We’ve lifted up, as it were, an obelisk, we have lifted up something above God that we would do something else other than what God tells us to do on the straight and narrow, on the right path.  We strayed off of it; and when we do that, by our own intellect, by our own thinking and justifying it in our own mind we go off course and we commit sin.  Every sin, every bit of pride that does that in life has to be repented of, and thank God we can do that, we can repent because of our Wave-sheaf, because of our Passover.

These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. That’s our life!  That’s what God wants us to do.  That’s His intended purpose from the beginning when we’re called – to follow wherever we’re lead, ready to turn left when He says turn left, turn right when He says turn right – just like the camp of Israel when the trumpets were borne and the shofar was borne ,they knew the signal, they knew what to do.  They obeyed and they went in the direction, or stopped and built the camp, or took up the camp – they knew everything by the signals that were given to them.  And God lets us know what to do – every turn we’re to make and when to make it and how to make it.

I think of Mr. Armstrong continually talking about ‘The Work of God’, and how that continually over and over again we’d receive letters on a regular basis and he would tell us about what we were doing then at that time – because it changed constantly; what we were focusing upon, what he was focusing upon, what God was focusing upon and having him focus upon for the Church, for the sake of the Church what we were to be doing and so forth.  And the same thing is true to this day, isn’t it?  That’s how God works with us, leads, guides and directs us – and some things change along the way, and sometimes we have to be able to shift gears or to turn in a different direction because of things that are going on.  A lot of what’s going on right now has to do with what God has planned from the very beginning, but we don’t know it all and He hasn’t given it all because He doesn’t want to give it all until it’s His time to give it all.  There are certain things that God has intended.  He intended for us to have a two day fast long, long ago whether you know it or believe it or not.  But He led us to that.

See, sermons come from Jesus Christ – they come from God Almighty and they’re given to Christ and Christ gives everything to the Church.  And there’s much to do out there that isn’t just about us, it’s about mankind, it’s about the world and it’s about the fall and the eventual end, for a great end right now for a spirit world – Satan and his demons.  And there’s much that God does – some things that we do at times that we change later on in.  Why monies were put in Switzerland for a while and then why they were brought back... because of that being.  Certain things that we sometimes do that casts him off course and causes him to focus and to use his intellect, which is so distorted and disturbed, to begin to attack at something else, to try to distort.

And so God works with various things; in the Church first and in the world as well to bring things about in a certain way at a certain time.  And always in this picture is Satan and the demons and things they’re doing and why they go after and why they do certain things that they do – because they’re trying to thwart what God is doing.  They want to upset, even to this day.  And you think... How...?  I don’t grasp that... I think, “With that kind of a mind, how dumb!”  But I see the intellect of the world; I see how dumb it is!  Evolution – it doesn’t take very long to see how dumb mankind is, that they won’t accept the Great God who made everything.  “We had the big bang!”  That was a gargantuan bang and where did all that stuff come from that’s flying around out there – constantly expanding the universe – but where did all that come from in the big bang?  How dumb can we be?  There’s no intellect in that at all – something scrambles the brain, scrambles the mind.  Pride.  Self.  Foolishness. Ignorance.

And so these beings, even when Jesus Christ was born, thought they could overturn God’s purpose and plan.  To think that they could cause Him to be killed and put to death, to inspire a king to go out and kill the children up to two years of age because he wanted Him destroyed?  To think that he could take Him aside for a time and somehow seduce Him into worshiping him?  ...in order to have power now?  ...a kingdom now?  ...in this world?  Didn’t understand the mind of God and the mind that was in Christ, the mind of Christ.  You can’t understand insanity.  You can’t understand unsound reasoning and unsound thinking - yet many try.  There’s no point in it.

And so many things that God does with us, it has to do with what we’re still going through and why we’re going through them and what things are happening in the world and even what’s happening in Europe has much to do with what we have been doing and are doing now in the Church – truly is.  Because God uses those things because of those beings and how they respond to different things that God does and then they go after something else.  God knows what they’re going to do.  He knows exactly what they’re going to do just as much as He knows what we’re going to do under different circumstances and different situations.  God is all powerful and all mighty and is going to bring everything together as He always has – meticulously, perfectly so.  We should be in awe always of God Almighty...just as we should be in awe of all these things that are given here about the Holy Days; the timing, the Wave-sheaf, the wave-loaves and all that it pictures that is so meticulous.

Again, These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Loyal, faithful to follow God, to follow the Lamb, to follow Christ wherever Christ is leading and guiding and directing the Church.  And when   someone doesn’t and they go off on some different direction, you can’t help them, you can’t give this to them because it’s a personal thing between each person that’s drawn and called – between you and God.

Again, These are they who were redeemed from among men, from among mankind, the first from among mankind, the first to be separated from mankind; being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. They comprise the wave-loaves; And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. How?  Because they’re perfect now?  Nope.  Until you’re changed or the day you die, you are imperfect; but God Almighty is cleansing you and justifying you through His blood, by His sacrifice... that your mind and your way of living is one of continually repenting  when you see sin; and God has blessed you in your growth to see sin.  And you have grown, or you will have grown to the point where every time you do you will quickly repent before God and say, “Father, have mercy upon me – forgive me for I have sinned again. Strengthen my mind; help me to think right toward everyone around me.  Help me to be right toward everyone around me.”  It doesn’t matter how many times in a day you repent of those things. When you come in contact with people, you see the selfishness of the world and it gets to you and you respond carnally instead of with God’s spirit...because we do.  And we generally respond carnally; and that’s why we have to continue to repent.  But there’s growth in that because every time you do you know what you’re acknowledging?  That God is right and you are wrong – that God’s way is perfect and yours is imperfect.  And you grow in character when you do that.  You actually grow in character – something that God just can’t give to you.  God cannot give you character.  He can’t give this to you in your mind – to be in agreement and oneness with Him – it’s by your choice; and every time you repent, you’re making a choice.  It’s an awesomely beautiful thing how God purifies and cleanses us.

...so they are without fault before the throne of God.  Brought to a point in time where they can be changed, where God knows them as He talked to Abraham and said now I know you.[2]   And at whatever point that time is in life; then He takes us out of this weak body and gives to us strength of His mind, of His purpose in such an incredible way: always dwelling in us, far more powerfully dwelling within us than we’ve ever experienced in human life.

So again, this is an awesome picture that God has given to us concerning everything that leads to the fulfillment of Pentecost 2012...Great moments in history in God’s plan; great moments in history in the Great White Throne.  What an incredible thing – the Last Great Day.  The Last Great Day... last Holy Day!  The Feast of Tabernacles and what we picture and recognize as a period of time coming for this earth – 1,000 years without demons and without Satan around – where all mankind is going to have one government to live under, one Church to be able to see and to know and to understand.  Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread...all that God did in history, in time in a physical way to teach that which is spiritual to the Church later on.  All the things in the Holy Days and Pentecost; the wave-loaves offered up before God.  Incredible!  And we’re almost there!  You live in such an incredible time in history to see this, to be able to be (in some cases) a direct part of it, or to be witness of it.

Let’s go back here to Joshua now and look at a very physical story that teaches much about our spiritual journey of coming out of sin and being brought into a Promised Land that God gives.  Because there’s much back here that really has to do with a process of things that we can learn in a different way, and the timing is a little different because of what happened to them, because of what they were to fulfill; but some of the spiritual story is still there of a process we have of coming into a Promised Land... more when we understand what it is all about; The Kingdom of God.  When it talks about those who looked for a city whose builder and maker was God; all the different kinds of terminology that are used, the Kingdom of God.  We understand it’s not about physical territory and physical land.  We understand what that means when we talk about God’s Kingdom, but that’s our Promised Land; it’s what we look forward to – being in God’s Family.

Joshua 1:1 - After the death of Moses the servant of the Eternal it came to pass that the Eternal spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying,  Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Incredible!  The land that God is giving; that which they were looking forward to when they first began to come out and some of the things God was telling them.  He was telling them He was taking them to a Promised Land; He was going to give that to them and so when He gave them Leviticus 23 they knew what it was about.  They knew what that meant at a time when they would be given that land and here they were 40 years in the wilderness.  They looked forward to a time when they could finally be there.  They weren’t ignorant of it in any fashion or form.  Every place, every place, that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you,  in other words when He leads them in, going over the Jordan as He said, and every place you’re going to be treading upon I’ve given to you.  It’s yours.  ...as I said to Moses. From the wilderness, and so He maps it out. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.  God makes it very clear there’s specific land, it’s a promised land and every bit of it that you tread upon is yours.

No man shall be able to stand before you, in other words to prevent you. Nothing is going to prevent you from having this although they understood all these peoples and different armies and different nations and kingdoms that were there – power.  No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life: unless they disobey, unless they don’t do what God says and that’s exactly what they experienced.  As I was with Moses, I will be with you: I will not leave you, nor forsake you.  Powerful words.  Powerful words; to know that that’s what God promises us if we seek to obey Him and seek to remain close to Him and understand what we’ve been given and we’re of a thankful spirit always, always inspired and moved by His spirit – God’ll never forsake us, He’ll never leave us.  Great power in that, great confidence in that.

Let’s go over and notice something in Hebrews 2. We’ll come back here to Joshua.  It’s interesting to know what God says to us and first of all to the first fruits.  Because everyone that comes into God’s Kingdom will go through the same kind of process of coming out of sin, of changing, of overcoming and conquering self and having a Passover and understanding that; and the process then of their nature changing and fighting against human nature.  And so again, this promise here of going into a promised land and so forth, but notice Hebrews 2:1 - Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to those things which we have heard, so he’s talking about different things and talks about the angelic realm and so forth and things that were spoken in times past and different places at different times.  And we get to this verse finally and it says; lest at any time we should let them slip. In other words, as to slip away.  So give the more earnest heed to listen to, to take heed to what God gives.

For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; in other words payment; it’s a term used as payment of wages; that what has been earned in other words, what a person deserves.  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; in other words what God is offering us.  What is God offering us?  What did He offer them and what is He offering us?  It’s night and day the difference in what the promise is of what God’s leading us into.  What they understood in very physical terms we understand in great spiritual terms. ...which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them who heard Him; God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with many different miracles, and gifts of the holy spirit  according to His own will? For unto the angels He has not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, What is man that You’re mindful of him or the son of man that You visit him? In other words look upon him or look after him; ‘as to care for, provide for’.  You made him a little lower than the angels; and You covered him with glory and honour, and you did set him over the works of your hands:  I love these verses in talking about the great plan that God had from the very beginning of time and how it’s been God’s purpose to give us everything; that we inherit everything that’s out there; that God wants us to share with Him everything that’s His.  That’s what He wants.

You have put all things in subjection under his feet.  And He told them they had a territory and a land that they were going to go through and every step, everything under the sole of their feet was theirs.  This is magnified so much more in what God gives to us and tells us; that the greater purpose is to put all things under our feet, all into subjection.  “Every place,” as He said, “that the sole of your feet will tread upon, I will give.”  Incredible!  And God offers us, places before us everything, not just a specific territory that they had, but everything.

Verse 8 - You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now, in other words, at this present time, we do not yet see all things put under him, under mankind.  He goes on to say, But what we do see is Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, as we have been made as human beings, that’s what it’s talking about here.  He was made human flesh, for the suffering of death, a very specific purpose for Him to be our Passover; crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Our Passover, our Wave-sheaf. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, so all things were going to have come through Him.  But all things will be under subjection to all of God’s Family.  We only see Jesus Christ having received that at this point in time; but in time God includes that for all.  ‘What is man that You’re mindful of him?  ...that you made him a little lower than the angels!’ It’s about God’s plan for all mankind.

So it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare, in other words make known, Your name unto My brethren, in the midst of the Church, the assembly, the congregation; I will sing praise unto You. Beautiful verse there; ...and I will sing praise to You;  ...And again, I will put My trust in Him.  Behold I and the children whom God has given to Me. The wave-loaves for the priest to be waved, to be accepted by God – His.  It’s a beautiful picture.

Let’s return to the book of Joshua.  Joshua 1:6 - Be strong and of good courage: for unto this people shall you divide for an inheritance the land, which I swore unto your fathers to give unto them. God intends that everyone who has ever served Him have this mindset; to be strong and of good courage; to remember stories like this, to remember how God has worked and how He never forsakes nor leaves; and how that everything is in His charge and His command and His power that He’s given to His Son to give to us to lead and guide and direct us.  And that gives strength; because in the world there is great resistance to God.  And we experience that in our lives, in our jobs, in our communities, in our families sometimes; we experience the world and the resistance of the world.  And yet God tells every one of us be strong and of good courage and He’ll give you what you need to be so, to do so, to be able to stand in those things; that no one can stand against you.  Incredible!

Be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law, which My servant Moses commanded: do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, over and over and over again in the Bible God telling us don’t turn from it, not even a little to the right or to the left – but right on to what I say, to what I give to you – exactly as I give to you because that is your life and that is your power. That’s why I’ve talked about all the truths that God has given to us.  It’s your life! It’s your power!  It’s the truth!  It is the word of God!  It is the spirit of God, the mind of God in you and there is great power in that.  And the more you’re at one and in unity with that, the more at one you are with God; logos... and with Christ.

Do not turn to the right hand nor to the left that you may prosper wherever you go.  And so we do prosper and we grow in prosperity in life, we truly do – far beyond what this world has to offer.  It’s not about physical prosperity; it’s about the prosperity we have.  And in time we have everything anyway.  It’s all God’s and He wants to give it all to you.

This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate, think about it, think upon what God has said.  And we do that.  He’s shown us how to do that.  Sabbath by Sabbath we think upon it, He feeds us, He nurtures us.  And we think about those things during the week and we grow in those things that God has given to us as we grow, as we mature.  He continues to teach us, lead us, guide us, direct us, mould and fashion us.  But you shall meditate/think upon it day and night, so there are times we think about God, we think about what God has done, we think about what God is doing.  We’re thankful for what God is doing as we think about it.  ...that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it: for then: then, as you do these things, as you think in that way, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.  Even in life and how you deal with life and how you’re able to keep focus, to be strong and courageous in everything that God has placed before us.

Haven’t I commanded you be strong and of good courage; I’ve commanded you this!  It’s not a suggestion – it’s a command that this is the way you’re to be, this is the way you’re to think, that this is the way you’re to respond to your God and to what He says, to every word He gives to us to live by.

Haven’t I commanded you be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid neither dismayed:  there are things that have happened in my life at different times where because of this world, because of the way of this world there are moments in time where we have that twinge of fear that comes over us and we talk about ‘anxious thought’, ‘worry’ in the scripture, in the Bible.  And then you pray to God and ask God for help to deal with whatever that trial is, whatever it is you’re going through, whatever it is that has confronted you in life; and you come through a process of placing it in His hands.  It’s God’s...because we’re God’s and we tell God that.  He wants us to know that; and so we repeat it back to Him, “I’m yours and I know that nothing will happen to me save what is in Your charge.”  What did Jesus Christ tell them at the very end when He was about to die and He talked to those leaders of the world at that time? He talked to Pilate, You can do nothing except it be given to you by My Father, by God.[3]   And they can’t.  And if something does... if your life is in God’s hands that way then it’s for a purpose, it’s for a reason that you will grow through and grow from and others.  And even if not, it’s for others that they may learn and grow from.  Everything in our life is God’s - truly is.  It’s what you said at baptism.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the multitude, and command the people, saying, Prepare provisions for yourself for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan, just like a little like Trumpets last year...before three days is over you’ll be there, within about 2½ years, ‘Time, Times and a Half a Time’  ...you will pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land, which the Eternal your God has given you to possess. So again, this occasion of passing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land marks a momentous time for Israel.  It’s a profound time, and yet intellectuals, different ones who go through the scriptures don’t accept it for what it says, the simplicity in it. And it has to do with the meticulousness that God gave of getting from Passover, the Wave-sheaf, and getting on to the point of that which involves the first fruits of God and Pentecost.  And it has to do with following God meticulously so the way God says to do it.  Awesome when we understand that!  To listen to every word, to put it all together with God’s blessing and favour and help to be able to do it because there’s no other way of doing it.

We’re going through this story now because it is the actual fulfillment of some of those things back in Leviticus 23 when God said you’re going to come into the Promised Land and so this is what we’re building up to, the actual fulfillment of all those things that took place.  And because God says there’s certain things that you’re going to do, that are going to happen in a certain way that have to do with the Wave-sheaf at that time; and it’s the book of Joshua that reveals the rest of the story about how to count because you can’t get all of it out of Leviticus 23.

Joshua 1:7 - Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law, it was given on Pentecost so you can do according to those things that God gave from the very beginning; which Moses My servant commanded you: do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

So again, the entire story here of what God told Joshua, in three days you’re going to be going over – tell the people... and so forth.  We know about the spies who went in and spied out the city and Rahab helped them escape and we know her story in history through time.  Incredible how God used her in time.  Joshua 3:1 – Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from the acacia grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over... (verse 5) And Joshua said to the peoples, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, in other words, set yourselves apart for holy use and purpose; that’s what it’s about.  Set yourselves apart before God to serve God, to be used by God, to do God’s work, to do God’s purpose.  Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Eternal will do wonders among you. And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over, in other words the Jordan, before the people.  So telling them very specifically how they were to go through and do this.  And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before/ahead of the people. That’s the process they were to follow; And the Eternal said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses so will I be with you.  When I read something like this I’m deeply moved and inspired by it because in reality my attitude and feeling is I’m humbled before Mr. Armstrong who was before me.  And I’m dumbfounded by all that God did with him and through him through that period of time.  In awe of it, with what God did...  And the example of his life and that desire and that fire that existed in his life for so long.  I am humbled before that and so when God says something to this nature I recognize there was something that took place in the Church as well; that is just a reality and a fact of life and something I know that we understand.  God made it clear to all the people through whom it was He would be working.  He’s done that.  How did He do it?  Awesome!  In order to give courage, confidence and strength because that’s what it’s about.  God wants us to have courage, confidence and strength.

If we only had 21 truths most of you wouldn’t be here today.  Why would you be here today?  What would give you the courage and the strength to fight some of the battles that need to be fought?  It’s the truth, as I talked about earlier; it’s the truth that gives you strength.  It’s the truth that gives you strength and power and might and so God continues to give us growth and continues to give us more truth and that is your strength, it is your courage!  That’s why so often when you’ve gone through those things that God has given in addition to, it gives you a boldness and a confidence because you know IT COMES FROM GOD!  It’s not about any man or woman!  It’s about God and what God gives to us.  And you see the truth that comes from God and inspires, it lifts you up; it’s powerful!  And so God reserved many things for the end here for a great purpose; and to give us strength to go through, and courage to go through some of the things we have to go through and what we’ve already been going through that you had to have courage to go through – or you wouldn’t be here to this day... if there had been a certain change in time – talking about Trumpets to Pentecost.  Without any of the other truths many of you would abandon ship.  I might have abandoned ship at some point because where would my courage and strength come from, where did my confidence and boldness come from if I didn’t know what God was doing and how He was doing it and have that to rely upon and that to see because you see God.  Do you understand what I’m saying?  You can’t go forward unless God gives you the strength and the power to go forward and gives you the strength and the courage.  And He does it.  And so God was about to give them strength and courage by what He was going to do, like He did with Moses – to pass it along to Joshua.

And after all we went through, after an apostasy and everything else that took place, God used that pattern, spiritually for the Church at the end of an age, at a time when we’re getting ready to go into a Promised Land; into something far greater than what the Israelites did.  And He’s giving us far more, far, far, far more than what they were ever given.

So I think about all those truths – 18 that God gave through Mr. Armstrong; and then I think of all those that have been added since.  Every one of them powerful, strong, awesome and mighty.  And when I think of all of them I think about 2005 and the Feast of Tabernacles.  I had much anticipation coming up to that point in time.  I knew every sermon was about a single subject; Jesus Christ and God Almighty and who they truly are in spirit and truth in a greater way than we’d ever understood.  But I knew that in time everyone would see the same thing if we follow God, if you follow Jesus Christ wherever He goes; and it was His time to give that to us, to reveal things about Himself.  He was revealing to us, His Church, “I haven’t eternally existed and it’s time you understand that.  Only My Father has; He is Yahweh Elohim, I was not.  I had a beginning and you need to understand that.”  And God gave that to us and we came into unity and harmony with this because every sermon at the Feast was geared about/around God and about His Kingdom and about His power and His might and His glory...and what an awesome thing – something that we couldn’t see before but it had to be given by God and it had to be in God’s time.  And so that gives us greater courage.  There are battles we’ve had to go through the last few years here, the last three years, last two years that if all those things hadn’t been given to us I wouldn’t have been able to follow and continue to do the things I’ve done because I know what I am as a human being and I hope you know that about yourself as well.

Joshua 3:8 - And you shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the edge of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come and hear the words of the Eternal your God. And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.  Amazing!  God said I’ll take care of it.  And so we see obstacles and we see things in front of us and we see some things that aren’t in front of us yet and we wonder “Why aren’t they in front of us?”  I hope you don’t think that because I’m glad they’re not in front of us yet.  But we’ve grown in that as well.  The farther the better!  Thank God!  But we now have a boldness and a confidence that I really haven’t seen in God’s Church till now.  To have peace of mind because you just know and you have a comfort and a rest about you, a peace as we’re calling it, about you that you didn’t have a year and a half ago when there were some anxieties; but now you have a peace.  How do you have that?  God gave it to you through the experience of what you’ve experienced.  It is an awesome thing; because we’re striving to follow and do the things in the right way that God has given to us.  And so God has blessed us accordingly.

And so we understand that all those who occupy, or are an obstacle to what is in front of us, God will remove.  He’s going to remove China and Russia.  He’s going to remove Europe.  He’s going to remove every government on every continent.  He’s going to take away everything that resists Him, that resists His people, that resists His Kingdom – because the time has come for His Kingdom to reign.  And so all those things, just like He promised them, He says I will remove them from before you.  And that’s what God’s getting ready to do in front of us...in His time, in His way, with the awesome power.  We’re going to see things begin to happen and we’re going to be able to witness and live through and see some incredible things take place on this earth.  The most momentous and awesome times in all human history are getting ready to take place between now and the return of Jesus Christ; and you get to observe it; you get to be a part of it and in a unique way, not just to observe it from the viewpoint of the world, but in the Church of God, in the Body of Christ with God’s spirit.

God is going to remove all governments who occupy where His Kingdom is going to occupy, including Satan and his demons.

Verse 13 - And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear/carry the ark of the Eternal, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that flow down from upstream; and they shall mass together in a heap/stacked up, in other words.  That’s exactly what took place.  Farther upstream they just started stacking up and piling up.  Incredible!  It wasn’t a matter of separating now, because this was a river while the other was a sea; He had to take both sides then, now it’s just stacking it up.  Because this is in flood season, this is in the season of flooding; Passover season, the season of harvest when the Jordan always overflowed its banks.  Scripture makes it real clear about all that; and so it’s showing this is a time of flooding and you just don’t cross over the Jordan.  But God gave them ability to cross over by backing the water up and just stacking up in a certain location. He said the exact region He was going to do it in.  Whether there were mountains on the side, don’t know, and just held it up there like a dam, clear as it was when the children of Israel went through in the sea; a dam that held it back, invisible, the hand of God, the might of God.

And so again here,  verse 14 – And it came to pass when the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they who bear the ark had come unto the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bear the ark had stepped into the edge of the water, (for the Jordan overflows all its banks [it floods] all the time of harvest,) (verse 16) That the waters which came down from upstream massed together and rose up in a heap/stacked up very far from the city of Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and that which normally flowed down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and was cut off: and the people passed over right next to Jericho.  And the priests who bare the ark of the covenant of the Eternal stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people had passed completely over Jordan.  Incredible what God did here; something akin to, similar to, in a similar fashion to what He did when He first brought them out of Egypt and they passed through the Red Sea.  Incredible story.  And what God did that we can relate to, that we can understand.  And I remember going back in time and was, as so many battles have been sometimes, of what to say and not to say, because I so hate, I so loathe human beings who raise themselves up, I so loathe and am thankful to God He’s helped me to loathe such attitudes of spirit and mind, that God helped me to see those things in Worldwide and later on in Laodicea, of individuals, of people, of ministers who would raise themselves up and the subject would be about ‘me’, about ‘I’.

I remember at Ambassador College, in the very beginning with God giving that to me; that I never liked to use in any kind of a speech the word ‘I’.  I did all I could to make sure I never used the word about ‘me’ or ‘I’.  ‘I did this’ or ‘I did that’.  And God was training me in those things.  I didn’t know it at the time what He was preparing me for.  We should not want to elevate self, we should resist that, we should seek to fight against that with all of our being and if you loathe that you will not do it.  If you loathe sin, you will not do it and our problem is sometimes we still like the sin!  We still like whatever it is and that’s why we resist God!  ...because there’s something we want that God says you shouldn’t have!  But what a blessing when you loathe it.  And you won’t do something you loathe.  Amazing!

So I’ll tell you, started writing the books... for me that was hard, it was hard, it was hard to say that I’m a prophet.  I resisted it, I had a conversation with God about it, I prayed to God about it, I didn’t want to write it down but I knew I was supposed to.  I had a horrible battle in that first book. I wouldn’t accept it all the way and so I had to qualify and quantify what I was saying; that I was only a prophet in the sense of inspired interpretation.  So God let me do it; He let me put that in there because I had to work through it, I had to have time to get adjusted to it.  It’s kind of like some of you women now, some of you ladies who are anointing and doing other duties and so forth, but especially the first time you’ve anointed.  I’ve heard it over and over again; my own wife included in there; because we have taught for so long about certain things within the Church structure that it’s been hard for you.  It’s not comfortable, is it?  And you have to fight against something of thinking of the past or whatever and yet accept what God says, to be comfortable with it and say, “So be it.”  ...with boldness, confidence and courage.  But you have to work through that and God gives us time to work through it until it becomes the norm.  It’s an awesome process, it truly is.

I think of one, I won’t say her name, and it’s not my wife, but one wife that was to anoint her husband; and I’ve got to be careful how I say this because I might say his name and then you’d know who it was.  She said his name, said “I can’t do it!”

And He said, “Yes you can.”

She said, “I. Can’t. Do. It.”  because she had this battle going on.  Not comfortable with doing it.  She did it; but we work through those things.

And so that’s good, it’s good that we receive from God the things to the degree God gives it and not take anything more to ourselves than what God gives to us.

But again, when I go through things like this and I think about it I think about how hard it was for me to even in any fashion or form suggest that we could categorize truths beyond 21, if you understand what I’m saying; because what does that do?  It makes a comparison with something that God had given before and the reality was the truth is the truth and the reality is reality and that’s what God wanted us to have.  Just as this occurred, that occurred for us to produce the same thing in us because as we could relate to our past and what God had given through Mr. Armstrong that was so abundantly clear, now it was time for us to ‘see’ and to understand what God had given to us in a very powerful way to give us that boldness and courage and strength to know where Jesus Christ was without hesitation; an absolute knowing, and with that knowing comes a great boldness and a confidence.  That story, and this story here are akin spiritually, perfectly so to God’s intended purpose of entering into a new Promised Land.  Awesome what we’re living through!  And we’ve only begun.

You know, what we have ahead of us and what you’re going to experience... was talking to some last night as we were out eating and visiting; talking to some about some people in some other areas and different ones whom God is calling and some who knew each other and grew up together, went to school together in this one area of Canada and how several in one particular location were being called and drawn together and to see those kinds of things happen and that’s just a small sample.  But it’s a taste, a little bit of a foretaste of something that’s going to happen in a massive way.  And every one of you who seeks God, who is close to God, who desires God in your life, who has that relationship with God in your life... you’re going to talk to people and work with people and teach people just by common conversation of what you have.  They’re going to ask questions. This is what you wanted to do in the beginning, to share this with others and you didn’t get a good response; but you want to share this truth with others.  And you'll know what it’s like in a massive way, not just on occasion.

Some of you experience different occasions where someone you’ve known or whatever has asked a question and they really want an answer – because God’s starting to work with them, He’s giving them an opportunity of being drawn.  But when you start repeating that one, two, three, a dozen times, two dozen times, a dozen times a dozen times...of people you come in contact with and they’re asking you questions because they’re hungry, because they’re afraid, because they see something happening in this world that scares the liver out of them.  That’s what’s going to take place, and you’re going to have full attention.  And all of a sudden people you know, people you know at work, neighbours; you’re going to have the opportunity of... you... we do not grasp the magnitude  of what’s getting ready to take place until you start experiencing it; but it’s coming.  It’s going to be awesome!  And it’s going to give you power and strength, the encouragement, the boldness that you’ve never experienced in your life.  And that’s going to be good in order to go through bad times – because you see the purpose of it and you’re excited about what’s just on the other side of it.  Victory in a very powerful way that God’s getting ready to give to the earth.

Anyway, these stories are powerful.  A physical Promised Land, and now a spiritual one that’s right in front of us and we get to live it, just as they got to live it; in a very physical way what they got to live.  See, everyone else that was there... what a type, what an incredible type.  All those who were in the wilderness that came out... it’s their children that got to come in (as a whole), except individuals like Joshua and Caleb.  Moses and all the others died in the wilderness...didn’t get to enter into the Promised Land.  And when I think of that, I think of what happened to the Church; but by the grace of God we have the opportunity where many tens of thousands don’t have the same opportunity.

Going on in Joshua;  it talks about what took place here and the waters that were there, a type of something that happened with Moses.  And God has made it clear that we have a very powerful type of something that’s happened with Mr. Armstrong and myself at the end of an age.  Jumping ahead here to Joshua 4:14 – so it talked about the waters being held back and the dry ground that they were to go across on.   Joshua 4:14 - On that day the Eternal/Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; see, it’s what God does; it’s not what we do.  It isn’t what Joshua did, it’s what God did and if we serve God and we’re faithful to God and we seek to be close to God and God gives us the mercy and the grace to continue forward He’s going to do His work.  So it says, the Eternal magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him, in other words, they had great respect because they saw what God was doing.  They saw something that human beings can’t do; but they were able to relate to a story in a very powerful way...back to Moses and coming through the Red Sea.  They knew it well; as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.  Had great respect because of what God was doing.  It was a matter of the office, it was the matter of understanding that this is what God is doing and how God is doing it.

And the Eternal spoke unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests who bare the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. And Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan. He did things when God gave it to him because that’s the way we’re to do everything in our life.  When God gives us something, we’re to do it; when He tells us to move, we’re to move.  If He tells us to stay, we’re to stay.  We’re to do things exactly the way God says to do it.  He says turn left, we turn left, turn right, we turn right.

Verse 18 - And it came to pass, when the priests who bear the ark of the covenant of the Eternal had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet had lifted up unto the dry ground, that the waters of Jordan returned into their place, and flowed over the banks, as they were before.  ...flooded. And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, at the east border of Jericho.  Beautiful!  The tenth day again; the tenth day.  Just a short time now till Passover and the focus is on the Passover, the focus is on the one through whom all this is made possible; even here, Jesus Christ who was set aside.  The Passover lamb who was set aside on this day and they did it on that day.  They set aside the lambs; they obeyed God.  They were getting ready because in four more days they were going to observe Passover and they were going to kill the lamb just as God said.  So the focus again is on the lamb and the victory and the blessings they had of being able to come into the Promised Land through Him, by Him; the glory and the honour being toward Him; even in the Old Testament.  Incredible!

Joshua 5:1 - And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were on the sea, heard that the Eternal had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had passed over, that their heart melted, they lost heart, another way of saying it; they were weakened in spirit.  “Oh no! Look what’s happening!”  They knew the stories, they knew about a people out there wandering around – a nation... they knew about Israelites out in the wilderness and now they’re coming this way.  And now the Jordan river... other people, Gentiles saw what took place.  There were those who witnessed the water backed up.  There were those who witnessed that the Jordan was dry and then the children of Israel came across on dry ground.  There were those who witnessed those things and they were afraid.  Incredible!  And there are going to be people in this world who are going to be made afraid.  Amazing what God’s going to do.

...that their heart melted, they lost heart, neither was there spirit in them anymore, in other words it’s an expression used as ‘though paralyzed with fear’.  They were paralyzed with fear because of what was taking place; because of the children of Israel.  They saw something else besides... it wasn’t just a mass of people and a great army.  They saw power that they had never experienced; they’d heard of, but they had never experienced it.  And this God... His name had gone out before of what happened to the Egyptians and a nation that was destroyed.  Because you see Pharaoh and all his army was destroyed in the Red Sea.  And all the nations around there knew what had happened.

Then we come to the most overlooked and misunderstood scriptures that are a great bridge between Passover and Pentecost and give understanding to God’s Church about how to count it exactly and in an exacting way as God gives it.  Joshua 5:10 - And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept, in other words past tense, looking back, the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.  The reason I mention that is because some don’t understand when you go back in past tense and you use this word.  It’s like if we were to say that we ‘kept’ the Sabbath at (using this particular word here because it’s a particular word in the Hebrew that’s important here) if we said we ‘kept’ Passover on the 7th day at even; we understand what that means.  We kept it beginning at Friday sunset and this we understand is the beginning of that period of time on the 14th.  And so it says they kept it – they kept it at the right time.

Verse 11 - And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, is that what your Bible says? ... ‘the old corn of the land’?  It’s wrong.  ...on the morrow after the Passover, see, translators, especially... you know especially in English and a lot of other translations are taken from that as well, but some of the things were done so long ago.  As a whole people didn’t care about the Old Testament.  They didn’t care about the Old Testament stories.  Now they did about the New Testament; that’s why they inserted the word ‘Easter’ for Passover, knowing what they were doing; and they twisted and distorted other things and put it in certain phrasing so as not to translate properly the thought and the intent; but gave a little bit of their own beliefs when it comes to the trinity, the holy ghost, and some of those things there and their ideas of a trinity and different words that are used to convey Protestantism or that which is from the Catholic church even, obviously.  But all those things that came from there they’ve tried... but in the Old Testament they didn’t care so they went to the Jews to know how to translate it.  This came from the Jews.  It’s the Jews, and anybody who relies on Judaism to understand this timing here gets messed up, and we did at the time, we didn’t understand, we didn’t grasp what was being said.  And so it wasn’t the corn from the previous year, it wasn’t the old corn and they came in and ransacked the place and the farms and the places around there and gathered up all the old corn because...  Anyway, let’s go with the story...

...so they ate of the produce, is what it’s about, of the land on the morrow after the Passover.  It’s telling about when they did this, unleavened cakes, and parched corn on the selfsame day. So again here, these things that they did are not things that are old, these things are newly having just grown and been harvested and being picked and the like.  And you have to realize, again, the timing here of when they actually came across and when this timing was and what took place here.

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the corn/the produce of the land; so what’s the timing here?  Okay, the manna ceased on the morrow after, so the day after they’d eaten of the corn of the land.  And so there’s timing in here that’s beautiful, but you have to understand the law of God. You have to understand Leviticus 23 to know what these days are and why they’re so important.  Even in the world...the world miscounts; even over here isn’t there a week where it’s a week off over here because of certain counting and so forth and certain things that have come out of the traditions of Judaism?  That’s where it comes from, okay, of how to count certain things here and they’re off base.  And there are many in the scattered church who went off base, who didn’t adhere to and stay close to what God gave to Mr. Armstrong back in 1974; and God gave us that again in a very powerful way and added more to it just as He did with the Passover.  So we could shut the mouths of those who are liars and try to twist and distort the truth of God, who were ministers in God’s Church at one time.  So they’re without excuse and prove them to be liars even though they won’t accept the truth and won’t acknowledge that they’re liars.

...and the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the produce of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna anymore; Isn’t that amazing?  Here the manna had gone on and on and on throughout the period of time that they were there; and now there’s an important occasion of something that’s taking place and it’s all about the Wave-sheaf.  ‘When you come into the land that I give you and you’re to wave the sheaf at a certain time...’ God gave the counting in here of how to do it on years that become a question; and it was a question for Judaism, has been a question for some of the scattered groups.  This tells the rest of the story if they’ll accept what’s taking place here as being from God and being a fulfillment of what God said in Leviticus in the first place.

And so they didn’t eat manna anymore.  I think they were quite happy.  40 years of going out there on twigs and branches and places and gathering this stuff and a certain routine that they had; and they learned about the Sabbath through all this, I’ll tell you, they learned when that day was.  That was ingrained in their minds for 40 years because some didn’t and they died because of it, because they tried to do it differently from what God said.  Anyway... incredible the mind of human beings.  But tell you what – 40 years of such training and they learned – there’s a time... they knew when the Sabbath was!  Oh did they know!  And they knew when the Holy Days were; it was ingrained in their minds.  This manna taught great lessons.  And the manna we receive teaches great lessons, the true manna comes from God – we can’t live without it.  We love it, we want it into eternity, always, always, always the mind, the being, the way, the word of God that lives within us that gives us life.

So, neither had the children of Israel manna anymore; but/for they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. It was that years fruit/food/produce that they were able to eat of.  Because they were able to eat of it... When could they eat of it?  New harvest... new produce... God told them they couldn’t eat of it – that’s what the phrasing is.  That’s why the Jews say you can’t start harvest until that time.  That’s a lie!  You can’t eat of it until a specific moment in time, but you can start harvesting, you can start gleaning.  And then they crossed over on the 10th day, some of the women and so forth who went out to gather the food and the produce and so forth of the land because the men had a bit of a battle right then and there of some healing having to take place; little harder to get around just to put it bluntly because they all had to be circumcised, because they hadn’t been in the wilderness.  Only those who came across in the beginning were, and so this was this second great period of time like that; and that’s when it happened.

Some try to use that to say, “They couldn’t have gone out to harvest because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...”  Well, that was a very common thing for women to work and do those things.  They did it.  Men and women.  But at this time here, some of the men weren’t working.  ...and the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the produce of the land, and again, because this talks about how that they did eat of it, the fruit of Canaan that year.  So it makes it very clear here where they got it, they got it when they crossed over – they started gleaning it, but they couldn’t eat of it until a specific day and a specific time; and this is all so important in counting.

Joshua 5:10 - And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even, so they kept the Passover.  What happens after the Passover?  The Wave-sheaf.  And at this particular year here, just to tell you, Passover was on the weekly Sabbath.  And what has given people problem; just to cut the quick here because of time... is that Sunday was the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread.  It was a High Day – okay? And so because some have not wanted to count when Passover takes place on a Sabbath like this as it did this particular year, they don’t recognize then that that is the Sunday then...because it talks about back in Leviticus... it mentions about following the Sabbath there and the Wave-sheaf and when it was supposed to be waved and so forth.  And so some think that it’s to be the Sabbath on the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which makes the following day of Sunday a Wave-sheaf.  Does that make sense?  Do you understand how some of them take that?  So they’re using that weekly Sabbath that’s the 7th Day of Unleavened Bread, that following Sabbath there – they use then the next day for the Wave-sheaf.  And that’s what didn’t take place, it didn’t happen that way.

God makes it very clear here the timing of everything in the sense of what took place with the children of Israel when they came into the Promised Land, that they couldn’t go out and gather on the 14th, they didn’t go out and gather on the 15th because that was a High Day and it talks about when the Manna ceased.  It never appeared again.  They didn’t go out and gather on the other days.  They never gathered on a Sabbath or a High Day; but they had gathered before so they had enough for the Sabbath during Passover to eat manna...and on that day, on Sunday, they had the Wave-sheaf on the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread, on that High Day.

And so there are those that try to count Pentecost from the Sabbath after the 7th Day of Unleavened Bread when it falls on a Sabbath; and because of that they put the Wave-sheaf outside of the Days of Unleavened Bread and it has no meaning.  And God very clearly reveals here by this story, if you follow this story and you follow the timing of this story, you come to only one conclusion and that is... Friday sunset was a weekly Sabbath, the beginning of Passover; they killed the lamb and they ate the lamb that night and they had manna because they had already gathered it up before.  But they’d also been harvesting before; but they couldn’t eat of the produce of the land until what?  Until the following morning when they brought the first wave of some of the sheaf there that was to be offered up (of some of that which they had already gathered) and they waved it before God...and then God said you can eat of the produce of the land; after you’ve waved the sheaf to be accepted by Him.  And so that happened on the High Day.  It was a great High Day for them!  They didn’t have to have manna that day.  They were able to eat of the produce of the land that day, of what they’d been gathering up.  And on the following day, the day they would normally go out, Monday, to gather again... there was no manna.  They had no need to go out and gather again.  And that’s what God says here, that’s when the manna ceased.

So let’s read it all again here, verse 10, it’s a beautiful section here - the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.  And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the Passover, that’s what drives it home in a very powerful way, the morrow after the Passover, that Sunday after the Wave-sheaf had been offered, the morrow after the Passover is the High Day, the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread; unleavened cakes, unleavened... and parched corn in the selfsame day. They didn’t have a problem eating unleavened things at that moment; not the time for anything; And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the produce of the land; Saturday, Sunday, Monday... three days in a row here spoken of, very powerful, very clear as to how God counts time, how God wants us to count time that leads up to Pentecost because it’s all about the Wave-sheaf, when it was offered and this tells us when the Wave-sheaf was offered; on the 1st Day, the High Day.  And so they didn’t have manna anymore.

If you’re having any difficulties understanding some of what I went through, because I went through it quite rapidly, go back to the article on Pentecost and it’s all there.

Joshua 6:1 - Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. They were afraid; they wanted everything shut up and they were prepared for war, they were prepared for battle in one respect so they were afraid of any Israelites coming in and they didn’t want anyone in there, they didn’t want anything to take place, they didn’t want anyone to sneak in.  That’s why the spies went in ahead of time and did what they did and it says here; And the Eternal said unto Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.  You know, sometimes God says something, “This is the way it’s going to be.”  ...and we do what God says and it’s there.  Doesn’t mean we always believe it.  Hmmm... Pentecost 2012... that’s only 2 years; a lot has to take place, doesn’t there.  It. Will. Take. Place. ...exactly as God said.  Just as He’s told them... “I have given it to you.”  It’s going to take place, it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of us doing exactly what God says and go forward, march forward.  It’s awesome!

I have given Jericho into your hand, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. In other words, to Joshua and therefore all of Israel.  And you shall compass, in other words ‘surround’, in other words ‘as to march around’, the city, all men of war, and go around/circle/march around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days.  So He’s saying this is how you’re to do it.  You’re to go around the city once, one time.  And He tells them exactly how to do all this – where the army’s to be, where the ark is to be, where the priests are to be and where the rest of the congregation of the children of Israel are to be; because they all were a part of it.  He says, “I’m sanctifying... go sanctify yourselves.”  In other words, set yourselves apart for God’s work.  That’s what God tells us, “Set yourselves apart.”  Draw close to God and you’re going to do mighty things because God’s going to do mighty things through you.  You’re going to experience mighty things.

So you’re going to do this for six says, verse 4 - and in front of the ark seven priests shall bare seven trumpets of rams' horns: and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast, so there’s going to come a point in time they’re not just going to be blowing the trumpets, but there’s going to be this long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, when all this takes place at this moment in time then all the people shall shout; so there’s a specific moment.  It’s amazing how meticulous and how exacting God is in everything He gives to us.  These are very physical and ours is very spiritual.  God tells us to be exacting; don’t bear to the left, don’t bear to the right, don’t add to it and do not take from it and it will happen exactly as God has said.

...all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.  In other words, when the city’s totally encircled, God’s telling them, and everybody placed where they are and when you hear this long blast of the shofar and the trumpet sound that takes place at this particular moment in time, when you hear this is different from what’s been taking place before then wherever you are, every one of you proceed straight in!  The walls going to come down and you, in essence, charge in; destroy, kill, take it.  Very simple.  So the city’s totally encircled, the wall comes down – go in.

You know, a lot of times in war it was about trying to break through in one part of the wall and then everyone tried to squeeze through and massive numbers of people would get killed; but here... whew – God takes it all down.  There’s no defence; destroys it all.  And He says take it from all angles.  What do the people do?  They can’t do a thing; just given to the Israelites on a platter.  And so this is what He’s telling them.  And so He says, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before him.  What’s right in front of you – go right through the wall that’s down now – attack... it’s like to move forward, or to charge forward, in other words, at that moment in time.

Verse 6 - And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before/in front of the ark of the Eternal. So this was how they were to carry it, the priests here with the horns and so forth. And he said to the people, Pass on, and circle the city, Move forward, in other words, and march around the city; start this process.  So he’s passing along how this is to take place; and let those who are armed move forward in front of the ark of the Eternal. And it came to pass, when Joshua spoke to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns advanced forward in the presence of the Eternal, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the Eternal followed them.  So this happened every day.  They blew the trumpet every day, but on the seventh day there was to be a unique sound and when that took place, and the trumpets, the shofars did the long blast...that all the people were to shout at that moment in time – then the wall would come down.

And it says ...in the presence of the Eternal, and they blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the Eternal followed them. And the armed men advanced in front of the priests, so the army, the armed people were in front of the priests marching  ...and the armed men advanced in front of the priests who blew with the trumpets, and the assembly followed after the ark, so there’s a very specific format here that God used of how to approach this battle, this war and how they were to do this in front of all those in Jericho.  ...and the priests going before and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people saying, You shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout; then you shall shout.  And so again here, everything was meticulous, everything very specific how things were to be done.  And that’s the way it’s going to continue to be as we go forward.  There’s going to be times when we’re going to be told to do certain things in a certain way and we’re going to be excited and willing to do it, and wanting to do it when that comes.

Verse 11 – So the ark of the Eternal circled the city, going around once: and they returned to the camp, and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, in other words, second day; and the priests took up the ark of the Eternal. And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Eternal moved forward and blew with the trumpets: so they were doing it again here; and the armed men went ahead of them; but the assembly came after the ark of the Eternal, just exactly as it was given, the priests moving forward and blowing with the trumpets.  So this was the first day and the second day and then it goes on to say... so on the second day, it’s going back and saying this is what they did on the second day; they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: and they did so for six days. So they did this on the first day and then they did it on the second day and the priests were blowing the trumpets but there was something different to happen on the seventh day.

And it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and circled the city after the same manner seven times: there was a time here and I don’t know where it came from; I think it was even passed on in sermons I’ve heard in times past where ...and I know it stuck in my mind that the priests and when they went around the city it was always quiet on the first six days.  It wasn’t quiet.  The priests did blow the trumpets.  But the people were quiet.  They weren’t to shout and there was to be a difference in the kind of blowing that took place at the very end on the very last time there; but again here, there was this process they went through and there was the noise and you have to think of how unnerving that had to be if you’re on the inside.  Not just the people going around, but the noise of the trumpets and then they go back to camp and it’s like... “When are they going to do it?”  They’re going to attack.  They know what’s going to take place, they just don’t know when; but it’s coming and that had to be awfully unnerving; 6 days of that and then the 7th day... they keep... you know they were amassing on the 7th day.  You know they manned the walls and were ready on the seventh day because on that seventh day they were doing it more than once and so you know that it went out that  there’s something different going on today.  So you can put yourself a little bit in their place and think about some of those things that take place.  We just read the story sometimes and we don’t think about what was actually taking place, what was going on.

So it came to pass on the seventh day that they arose early, about the dawning of the day, and circled the city after the same manner seven times.  And on that day only did they circle the city seven times; and it came to pass at the seventh time when the priest blew with the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout; for the Eternal has given you the city!  You know what I think of when I read that?  ‘Babylon, Babylon has fallen...that great whore!’[4]   The system of mankind, the way of mankind and at the end here talking about that which has to do with the Catholic church and the religions of the world; not just them, but it’s all the religions of the world because of that which came from Satan.  And talking about the economic system that’s primarily geared into what the United States has and all the rest of the world that’s tied into it.  You know the world today – amazing!  And you think about the euro and what’s taking place and people are scrambling.  Where do they invest their money? Last week some were investing more in the Australian dollar.  The whole world is tied together in one great big bow; they’re all tied together.  They can’t live without each other and when it starts to crumble and finally gets to the very end... well, God brings it all down.

But anyway, there’s a system here, a process.  I think of seven trumpets; I think of 7 Thunders; I think of what God does and how God does it and what He does at the very end.  The 7th Trumpet... 7 Vials are poured out.  7 days around the city... on the seventh day... It’s awesome!  A type of bringing everything down, of bringing down the walls, of bringing down everything that opposes, everything that reflects or resembles or represents that which opposes, stands in front of God’s people, God’s Kingdom, God’s Promised Land.  It’s an awesome thing.  A different period of time, but see... this story in Joshua is the bridge, indeed in a very powerful way both physically and spiritually that ties Passover and the Wave-sheaf in with Pentecost and that which happened to them at the season of Passover.  Again, brings out the thing about the Wave-sheaf that leads us to the fulfillment then of a spiritual plane that happened with them physically, that happens to us spiritually.  An awesomely beautiful picture if you see it, when you see it, as you see it.

Verse 16 ...Shout; for the Eternal has given you the city.  I think of what happens on that last day there and the shouting that takes place.  When it talks about the shouting that takes place and the resurrection that takes place at the very beginning and right into that period of time then, that last great day, that last incredible day, if you will, of what takes place on this earth when God gives His Kingdom to this earth.

Verse 17 - And the city shall be set apart for destruction, even it, and all that’s therein, to the Eternal: set apart to the Eternal; only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers who were sent. And you, by all means are to keep yourselves from what is set apart for destruction unless you set apart yourselves for destruction if you take of what is set apart for destruction and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. Some words that are used differently here but again, there were certain things that were to be dedicated to God and everything else was set apart for destruction and they were not to partake of any of it, period.  And someone did and we know some of what happened later on in some of the story if you want to read it later.

It goes on to say in verse 19 - But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Eternal: and they shall be placed in the treasury of the Eternal. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets; and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat so that all the people went into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

Sometimes people read stories like that and they think, “That was harsh, that was hard.”  No it wasn’t.  All life is in God’s hands and none of us deserve life.  After the moment we sin we deserve one thing before God, before our Creator, before the one who placed us on this earth and gave us every breath of air to breathe... and it’s the death penalty.  And God mercifully lets us live life because He has a great plan and great purpose.  And God has a great plan and great purpose too for those... and so many people; frankly some of them the younger they were the better off they are. They didn’t have to live in that world, in that age, and learn the bad ways of man.  They get to be resurrected, given a new body, a new life at the beginning of a hundred years and the less time they’ve had to pollute their minds the better off they are.  God’s merciful and He’ll give life in a better world.  It’s far better for the world to live in that 100 years, than had ever had life before.  We don’t know the mercy and the strength and the power of God, nor the justice and the righteousness of God.

Verse 22 – But Joshua had said to the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out from there the woman, and all that she has, as you promised unto her. And the young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred; and left them without the camp of Israel.

A powerful story here.  I was going to go back into Revelation and read some of those things there but we’ll save that for another time, tying it into; and I think we know the story well, obviously, about the things that God is going to do at the end of this age and the things that are going to take place in a very short time here leading up to a type of something that happened at that time as He brings in and ushers in His Kingdom on this earth that we so look forward to in just two short years from now.  I think about today being Pentecost and the timing. What time is it right now? 2:30 PM? – think about Israel... a lot will have happened by this time, several Vials will have been poured out already... awesome!  Awesome, awesome, awesome!

~~~end

1. John 17; Luke 24; Matthew 28; Mark 16

2. Genesis 22:12

3. John 19:11

4. Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 18:2

Table of Contents

1

2

3

4