To Be Courageous, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

January 12, 2019

In this current series To Be Courageous we are now in Part 2 and we’ve been following up on the phrase that was used in the charge that was given to Joshua when he entered into the promised land. The phrase was that he and Israel were to be strong and courageous. This series is focusing upon what it means to be courageous.

We ended in Deuteronomy 30 in Part 1, so let’s return there and go back through the last couple of verses before we continue on. Deuteronomy 30 and we’ll pick it up in verse 19, because in this story here now going back a little bit God had told Moses he wasn’t going to go into the promised land and that Joshua was to take on that task. And, of course, the great meaning in all that has to do with Joshua the Christ, because he is to fulfill everything that was a type that was given to Joshua to fulfill because the greater promised land, that which is promised by God, that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had to do with the Messiah and the Messiah reigning and ruling on the earth and that which God was going to deliver to mankind in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne.

So again, those things are a type, and again, understanding that that work has already begun because it’s about a work that’s starting in us, or that’s been working in us for a period of time now before we’re able to continue on, or the Church is able to continue on in that age. When we understand that, to grasp and comprehend that a lot of these things are about us, they’re written to us because that wasn’t the fulfillment; a piece of land or an area of land was not the fulfillment of the promises. It was given as a type and we learn from that; God teaches us through that. To me it’s an awesome story, an incredible story as you go through some of this and realize this is for us. This is about what we’re getting ready to accomplish and what’s going to happen then as so many in the world are able to become a part of that process when Christ returns.

So again here, Deuteronomy 30:19—I call heaven and earth to record this day before you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life. Again, in those things that were recorded in Deuteronomy, the giving of the law a second time. The first time in the beginning when they were able to leave Egypt and go into the Sinai, and then the second time, nearly forty years later, when it was given again, in that respect, and recorded again, and the things that God had added to it at that point in time to complete and finish the work that Moses was doing. And here, some of the things being said then after all the law, judgments, and everything else had been given toward the end of the book now, it is God speaking, in essence, through Moses, giving the words to Moses to speak and to write.

Again, I call heaven and earth to record this day before you, that I have set before you life and death. That’s a matter of a choice and our calling is a matter of a choice. That’s why I marvel when I think about how many have gone before us in the last 2,000 years alone because that’s when so many more began to be added in the sense of God working with people, calling people. Because, before that in 4,000 years there really weren’t that many, and then God began to work through a group of people, a body, the Body of Christ, a church, and many more then being brought in and being able to be worked with to be molded and fashioned to become a part of the temple. That expression, “Many are called, but few have been chosen,” is mindboggling, is astounding, is hard to grasp and comprehend sometimes, that that’s the very reason I mentioned last week that if you are still here you are exceedingly blessed because you’re making choices whether you are to be here, whether you want to be here, whether you want to fight the fight. Because there are many who haven’t fought it, who haven’t been fighting it and are no longer able to be with us.

Sometimes God moves us, shakes us, molds and fashions us, corrects us, helps us, encourages us, strengthens us because it’s a long process we go through in being worked with and being molded and fashioned. There are those times in our life that we need a jolt and God has been given that to us as He measures us. If we’re responding, He’s measuring us to be measured, to be placed into a part of a work that’s to be done. Some a completion of the temple itself in the first phase of it, of the 144,000, but most to go on into a new age who have to be molded and fashioned for what they’re being prepared for. None of this is by accident. None of this is by random choice, random numbers. God is precise in everything He does. He is working out a plan. We don’t know all of it. We don’t know exactly some of those things, the numbers and so forth except for the 144,000, but God has an incredible plan He’s working out and everything is very meticulous. Timing is very meticulous and we’ve been going through some incredible things that God has given.

But for people not to make a choice to continue to be a part? Well, it’s their choice. So much of it just goes back to obedience, whether we really want God’s way of life, whether we really love God, are learning to love God because we love His word, we love His way of life, we love what He’s revealing to us, and therefore, we love God, we learn to love God because that’s the mind and the being of God! Everything about all the truths we have, all the law of God, the ways of God, it’s the mind of God. It is God. It identifies God. It shows who He is.

Just like us, it’s not our body; it’s what’s in the mind that reveals who we are, that comes out of our mouth, that comes out of our actions. Those are the things that identify who we are. God can change that, give us a different body, and it’s the mind that goes with it. It’s the thinking. It’s how we think.

We are so exceedingly blessed to be able to be transformed, to have a process we’re going through, and yet have in this human body a lust of the flesh, a lust of the eyes, the pride of life that we have to battle and fight against, and because of that we have to make choices all along the way because there is this part of our human nature pulling at us in a particular direction and then God gives us the ability to see truth and to make choices: Do I want it? How much do I want it? Am I willing to fight for it? Because this isn’t just given on a silver platter and we can do anything we want to do in this world and exclude God, put other things before God. It doesn’t work that way.

God is making sure of that toward the end here because what’s going to continue on in a new age is a Body that’s been fully prepared to the level, to the maturity that God intends it should be. There is so much more to this story that we don’t have time to go into, but so much more that God is doing.

He tells us choose life. That’s what God wants. “I love you. I’ve called you. I’m working with you. I have an incredible plan for you to be a part in, to share in,” because it’s God sharing that, “and choose life or death.” I mean, what kind of a choice is that? We say, “Oh, I want life!” Okay, but do you want it God’s way? Because that’s the only way. That’s the only way of life there is. Then too often we choose self and selfishness and pride and what we want and exclude God and put other things before God – little things, puny things, unimportant things in the scheme of it all. Human nature.

So again, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.” Obey God, love God, you’ll be blessed. You will be blessed so much more than you can even comprehend in your being, in your mind. What’s ahead of us, the blessings that are out before us, we can’t grasp them and we don’t know them all yet. Primarily because we’ve never experienced, no one has ever experienced anything like what’s coming.

And cursing. Choices. Wrong choices, you’re cut off from God, you’re cut off from the flow of God’s spirit. You want to talk about a curse in life, that’s it. What could be worse than not to be in God’s hands anymore, in His care, in His purpose, in His plan and being able to share with Him?

Therefore, choose life so that both you and your descendants may live. It’s not just physical life. It’s the kind of life that God is offering.

Love... Love the Eternal your God. What a simple thing because that’s what it’s about. It’s about a choice to choose life, to desire blessings of life, the real blessings of life that come through a right relationship with God. It’s a matter of learning to love the Eternal your God. That’s how we grow. That’s how we mature. The more we learn, the more we come to understand, the more we can come to love God.

...obey His voice. Simple. Because it’s the only way to life to live, and in that is life, God’s kind of life. ...obey His voice, cleave unto Him. I love that, the expression there used in Hebrew to hold on with all of your being, to hold on with your might, to not let go; cleave to this way of life that God has given to us. That’s cleaving to God

...cleave unto Him who is your life. That’s the life we’re talking about, not a physical life of existence, of just existence. That’s what the world has been experiencing for 6,000 years. Look what that does – all the hideousness of the world. Mankind is so sick, but people don’t understand that. Selfishness is sick because it’s opposite of God.

...cleave unto Him who is your life and length of days, so that you might dwell in the land which the Eternal promised to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give them. It wasn’t the promised land that they went into. That was just a portion of a type to be fulfilled, to show what it is like to be a nation being worked with as they were, who had incredible blessings offered to them, and to see indeed what they would do on their own.

What did they do? They disobeyed God. They turned from God. Only those with whom God was specifically working and calling and dealing with at that particular time, or through those periods of time, were continuing to work on to what is really promised, see. We’re way past those who went into the (so-called) promised land. It’s far beyond that, the promises given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob on a spiritual plane and a physical one as well, if you want to talk about the Millennium and the Great White Throne and many who will be spirit beings in those periods of time working in a physical realm and a spirit one because they’re spirit beings, but they’re dealing with human beings of mankind on the earth. Incredible!

We’re going to continue on now here in Deuteronomy 31 where we left off. Verse 1—And Moses went and spoke these words to Israel and said to them, I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to go out and come in. Incredible, the life he was given. One hundred and twenty years divided up into forty’s. Forty, forty, and forty for him. Forty years in Egypt. Forty years in the region of Sinai. Went back to Egypt, back to Sinai, forty more years with the children of Israel. Incredible story of things he went through, of things he experienced.

It says, I am no longer able to go in and to come out; also the Eternal has said to me, You shall not go over... You know, pass over, go past or go forward, this Jordan, past this Jordon into the promised land, in essence. The Eternal your God will go over, or pass over or go forward, before you, all those words that means. It’s used in all those ways. ...and He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall possess them.

So that portion was a very physical portion, of showing the power and the might of God to deliver hundreds of thousands, perhaps a few million people that had come through the wilderness and that were going in to this region of the world, into this area of the land. He said “You’re going to possess this.” Well, again, this is only a partial fulfillment for a physical people. It isn’t the end. It isn’t what it’s all about. There is much more ahead. That’s the story here.

“And He shall destroy the nations before you.” So He did, and we’ve been going through the story of how all these different nations. First on the one side of the east side of the Jordan that had already been conquered, the two kings that we spoke of, and that region there, because that was given to some different tribes there. Ephraim and Manasseh had part of it. One tribe was on the one side and one was on the other. Manasseh, half and half. Just like the United States, it talked about how there are two different kinds of thinking and perhaps that great river that runs up right above us and you drive a little way and you’re on the other side of a river, north of the Mason-Dixon line, so you have that’s the high point of it. People talk about a difference between the north and the south and there always has been. There was a great war fought and some of the things because there’s a different kind of thinking.

In Manasseh there was a different kind of thinking even within that region of the world, except one was on the east side and was on the west side of the Jordan. So some people have speculated, maybe because this is the nation of Manasseh, some of that same kind of thinking has been over here. Maybe. Probably is. But anyway…

So, part of that area, but most of the tribes are going to inherit, including Judah, the areas, the larger region to the west of the Jordan. God showed to them first what it was like to give them that portion of land He was going to give them and to, in essence, destroy those kings and a kind of an encouragement or giving courage to Israel, “Look what I’m doing for you.”

Now, so many of them had not experienced anything of this nature. So many of them, candidly, were born during that forty years and this was something unique to them. They didn’t go through the Red Sea. So many of those who went through the Red Sea weren’t going on the rest of the way either, depending on their age, see. So, again, an incredible story here of things that took place and what they were being told at this particular time.

So, anyway, getting back to the story. I want to get back to the story here.  So he says, The Eternal your God will go over before you and He will destroy the nations from before you and you shall possess them. So looking into the future of a particular time that we’re living in now, “and shall destroy the nations before you.” Well, before who? Joshua? That’s who is being spoken to, in essence here, and the rest of the Israelites going to go into the promised land, but it’s a work that was going to be accomplished by Joshua—Joshua the Christ—and those who follow and those being worked with but on a spiritual plane, speaking of the Church and of how the Church is going to be added to mightily on the other side of all this.

It’s going to blow your mind as soon as he returns of people who are going to repent, of tens of thousands who were once a part, who were asleep spiritually right now who are going to be awakened and have the opportunity before it’s over with. They’re going to be able to understand what’s taking place and they’re going to know this is the end and they’re going to repent and they’re going to come to understand they were a part of the Apostasy, the scattering that took place. They’re going to be able to repent of what they did, that they became sluggish as others of us who have been called out of that earlier on. They’re going to come to the same recognition, just later on, and they’re going to be able to go forward with tremendous courage and strength, powerfully so. Then all the rest of the world that can begin to start a process of repentance as they come to acknowledge and recognize we’ve been lied to. Every religion out there: “We have grown up believing what we were told and none of it was true, and look what is true. He’s here. He stopped a world war! Wow!”

A lot has to be destroyed before it can be possessed, even in this respect before the Millennium, before the Millennium can become a reality, before people can continue on, a Church to grow to the magnitude it’s going to because there’s only going to be allowed one Church on the earth, one truth on the earth. People are going to be able to be under one government under the earth, a righteous and a just government. Before that happens everything has to first be destroyed.

No more economy of the world like it is in the world. Nothing is going to be taken over. You’re not going to have dollar bills to spend on the other side of this. You’re not going to have Euros to spend on the other side of this. We’re going to be starting all over as God introduces a right way to live and a right system of how to finance, how to deal with matters of finance and so forth in the world.

So we’re not taking anything with us, in that respect. No government is going to continue on as it is. Nothing. It’s not going to be allowed.

So this expression here, “He will destroy the nations from before you,” it’s because of the Millennium because they have to come to an end before what is true can be established before the Millennium. That’s an incredible thing to understand, what God is telling and what He’s saying here that went far beyond something about a physical people going into a physical country because what they proved is you can be worked with by God and you can be given every advantage over all the other nations around you and God can fight the battles and give it to you, but unless you obey God it doesn’t mean a thing.

The reality was without God’s spirit they couldn’t obey God, they wouldn’t obey God because they were left to their own nature. Only those who are worked with by God have the choice to choose life. They couldn’t. They couldn’t because it wasn’t given to them to choose life. I hope you understand that.

“This day I set heaven and earth before you...” or “I call heaven and earth before you.” “I’ve set life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life.” They didn’t have that choice! It wasn’t about them! That’s an incredible thing to understand. They didn’t have the choice to choose eternal life, a relationship with God on a spiritual plane. We do. It’s about God’s people...about God’s people. Only when you’re called by God to receive of His holy spirit can you make such a choice. Awesome! It wasn’t for them. God knew what they were going to do because they weren’t going to be given the holy spirit.

...and you shall possess them. Joshua shall pass over before you, as the Eternal has spoken. That’s what he’s doing right now with the Church. He’s preparing all that to go on, to continue on, preparing a people that can pass over. We’re not there yet, and even once we get there a lot of work has to be done. Just like when the children of Israel went into the promised land, they didn’t have it yet. They had to fight a lot of battles. The example for us is one we have a lot of battles to fight before we can get there. It’s just the way it is; always has been.

“And he shall pass over before you as the Eternal has spoken.” He is the one leading the Church. He has been for the past 2,000 years. There are going to be those who are resurrected who are going to go with him at that time, 144,000. How awesome is that? There aren’t words to describe how great that is. There truly aren’t. He’s going to pass over before everyone. Everything is being prepared to accomplish that. The 144,000 and the Church, small as it is, that’s going to be able to continue on, except it’s going to be a lot bigger at one point before his feet stand upon the Mount of Olives again. That is the Church that was scattered. There’ll be tens of thousands who will have been awakened and they’re going to pass over as well, but into a new age to be a part of the Church.

So we may be small, 200, 300 that pass over out of this group wherever we are, that continue on, whatever the number is, but it’ll be joined by tens of thousands who will be awakened and pass over with us together because they’ll have come to repentance and their minds will be opened up, awakened in that sense, and to see what took place since the Apostasy.

What we’re living are some of the most incredible times of all human history, and it’s hard for us to grasp that, at the pinnacle of what God is doing with mankind so that greater things can follow.

And the Eternal shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to the land of those He destroyed. So he’s giving a type here of something. “This is what I’ve destroyed. You have this region already on this side of Jordan. Now, go on and receive the rest of it. So a physical fulfillment of something that is a type of something far greater.

...so that you may do them according to all the commandments which I have given you charge.

Verse 6—Be strong and courageous. So they were to do this as physical without God’s spirit, but to receive a type of encouragement of what God is doing that they could see on a physical plane. So it’s a matter of believing that God is going to do this. He’s done it here. He’s told us He’s going to do it over there. They were to be courageous in that and to remember what God had done for them to bring them to that point. That’s on a physical, carnal plane to say, “Yes, we’re going forward and God is with us.” But it wasn’t with understanding on a spiritual plane by any measure.

So, be strong and courageous. For us it means much more, as we’ve talked about in the past series. It’s about being strong in the power of God’s spirit. It’s about a relationship with God. It’s about drawing closer to God and especially now to fight more against self and to desire and to want to be a part of what’s ahead of us. And then to be courageous? Again, it’s a matter of believing God and what He’s telling us, and to receive courage and encouragement from that. To be encouraged, I’m kind of moved by the fact that some have responded to what was said last week in a statement that was made: “If you are still here, you are exceedingly blessed.” That means a lot. It really does.

So, be strong and courageous. Do not dread nor be fearful of them, because of the Eternal your God. We’re not to fear what’s ahead of us. Now, we can have knowledge of that right now, but we don’t know it yet. You don’t understand it yet. You can kind of try to imagine it to a degree, but you don’t know that kind of fear yet, of what human beings are going to be confronted with. We really don’t.

Our hope, our strength, our courage that God is telling us about right now is what we’re going to have, that takes us through. Truly is, but even more so spiritually in our lives that we can have peace at a time (in our minds) because we know what’s happening, because we know how close and how soon we’re going to be at the other side.

You know, World War I, people didn’t know how long it was going to be. How long are they going to be in the trenches? All the suffering, the dead, the smelling bodies, because they couldn’t even get them out in some cases, you know. It was not a pleasant thing, the gasses that were used and so forth, and how they had to live their life.

We were out in Arizona recently and stopped by a place and bought a shell canister. They call it trench art because someone had taken a shell and they spent so much time in there that they beat into it beautiful flowers into the side of it. There are a few shells like that that are out there, from 1918, 19-whatever dates that are stamped on the bottom of those things. They were in those trenches for so long. That’s why they call it trench art. People made things because what do you do with your time? What do you do and not go crazy, months after months, not knowing when it’s going to end. World War I, when is it going to end? How much is going to be destroyed? How much more? Are we going to be able to, whatever, different ones as they fought?

We know. We know it’s not going to take long once it starts because this is massive. Thankfully it doesn’t have to last a long time this time. If it lasted a long time there wouldn’t be anything left.

People almost bragging, as it were, right now, “We have hypersonic missiles 10 times the speed of sound.” The speed of sound is 1,125 feet/second, 343 meters/second. Hypersonic speed for the missiles developed by Russia and China have been reported to be 10 times the speed of sound, or 7,670 miles/hour and 12,340 kilometers/hour). “Yeah, we’re bragging. You can’t shoot it down. We have these.” Russia and China both. They’re not saying whether we have them. We may not. Who knows?

Be strong and courageous; do not dread, do not be fearful of them because the Eternal your God, He goes with you and He will not fail you nor forsake you. You know, if we don’t forsake God. Those who do, they’re not going to be a part. Those who continue to desire with all their being to be strong in the power of God’s might, to be filled with His holy spirit, to cry out for His spirit every day of your life because you know you need it to live right, to think right, to continue in the fight, and then to have courage to move forward, to be courageous. It’s not easy. It wasn’t meant to be. Obstacles? Absolutely. But God is with you. You make the right choices, He’ll help you through.

We don’t have a whole lot of time, whatever that time is. Whether it be another month or two months before things begin, or whether it be a year and a month, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m just hoping I haven’t been given better health here to last longer. I don’t want to last longer. I want to see this through, to get this over with. But you know, it’s not up to me. God has a plan that He is working out for all mankind, for all the earth and we move forward, we pass on, we continue on.

Moses called Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land which the Eternal has promised unto their fathers to give to them, to take possession. The Eternal is going before you. So, they didn’t fully know what it was all about yet. Moses said he wanted to be able to see that glorious land, and God said no, because that’s what his desire was from the time he left Egypt, to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness, to go on, not knowing at first it was going to be forty more years.

That was all by design. That’s what I marvel at sometimes. We don’t grasp the power of God, the mind of God. It was God’s intent before He ever led them out of Egypt, knowing exactly what they would do as soon as they went across the Red Sea. As soon as they got across He knew exactly what they were going to do because of their carnal, human nature. He knew what they would do when they went to spy out the land. He helped two. He worked with two to remain faithful and bring back a true report. But what do people do? Well, if the majority are saying it, it’s got to be true. This isn’t good! They believed the ten lying spies, if you will. That’s what happens. That’s what human nature is.

God knew what they were going to do. He said you’re going to be out here. As you were forty days there you’re going to be forty years here in the wilderness. You think that was an accident? It was all by design. I hope we understand these things because they glorify the power and might of God to perform things exactly as He’s going to do it. We have an opportunity to share in it if we want.

That’s what’s amazing about all these things. None of us are to decide what might be better or to think we know because this has happened a lot in times past in God’s Church, people who have God’s spirit who have thought about things that conflict with what God is doing and why God is doing it. No, we have choices to make. To follow God, to yield to God, to love God, to realize there’s a great purpose in exactly the way He’s doing it and to support that, to be behind that.

Verse 8—The Eternal is going before you and He will be with you. What more could anyone ask? To have that confidence, to have the courage that comes from that, to be encouraged by that. He will not fail you, nor forsake you. So do not be fearful nor discouraged. God is with you. If we grasp the Great God and we’ve been striving to draw closer to Him and the power of His might, then we can have that kind of courage as a response.

Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests and the sons of Levi, those who bare the ark of the covenant of the Eternal, and unto all the elders of Israel. Moses gave them charge, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel come to appear before the Eternal your God in the place which He shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel for them to hear.

Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, the foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn and fear the Eternal your God, and observe to do all the words of this law. So they were given this. They didn’t do it very faithfully and they suffered because of it. When they did do it faithfully, when different ones did it faithfully, because it started with the leader, like with David, and Solomon for a time, most of his life, and then different ones through different periods of time, and the more they would adhere to the law as they could see it, mostly, obviously, on a physical plane because they didn’t understand it spiritually, they were blessed and God gave them favor, God gave them peace, God gave them victory over enemies, and so forth. It’s on a physical plane.

It’s like tithing, in a sense. There are people in the world who tithe and they’re blessed. They don’t tithe to God, but in their minds they’re tithing because they see it as a command from God so they want to obey it. People who follow that principle are blessed. The Jewish people, in so many cases, have been exceedingly blessed, and that’s one of the primary reasons, financially, in their lives, because they believe that law.

People who keep the seventh day Sabbath, their family life can be so much better when they do it God’s way. Even those who are deceived and do it with a Sunday because it’s physical for them, it’s not spiritual at all. People are deceived.

Verse 12—Gather the people together, men, women, and children, and the foreigner that’s within your gates, that they may hear, that they may learn to fear the Eternal your God, and to observe to do all the words of this law. And their children, who have not known may hear and learn to fear the Eternal your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over Jordan to take possession of it. So again, a very physical thing as far as a people was concerned. Again, incredible to understand what they went through, what they did on a physical plane, because it definitely wasn’t a spiritual one, but it pointed to an end-time here.

Verse 14—Then the Eternal said to Moses, Behold, the day has come for you to die. Call for Joshua and present yourself in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. Then the Eternal appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. We can’t even understand these things. We’ve never experienced or seen anything like that. We can try to picture something like this. God did everything in a physical way because He was dealing with them as a physical people not a spiritual one at all. Something had to be there to help them to be in awe, to see something greater and something that they couldn’t grasp nor understand on a physical plane and to have an awe and a fear of the Great God.

But again, it wasn’t a matter of spiritual insight and understanding that they had this because that’s the far greater and more meaningful thing, is when it’s done on a spiritual plane because of a relationship toward God, because of really coming to know God, to know His law, to know His truths, to know His way of life because then in choosing those things to choose God, to love God, to see God spiritually. That means so much more then, obviously, than something that’s just done on a physical plane in a physical relationship and being able to try to do things physically as you can.

Just like, again, the Jewish people who keep the seventh day Sabbath. In their minds they haven’t forgotten that day, but they don’t understand any of it spiritually. It’s just a physical thing that they do by their own ability and might, not God’s. We do what we do by God’s. If it has any meaning and purpose and depth it’s because of God and God’s spirit living in us to mold and fashion us, to work with us. That’s why all the praise, all the honor, all the glory always goes to God not to us. We’re just blessed to share in it and be a part of it and thank God for it. He’s the one that then lifts us up. We don’t have to lift ourselves up.

People sometimes strive to lift themselves up, to feel better about themselves, to feel good about themselves. I think of times past and things that were done in the Church. To be in charge of something it was like, “I’m in charge of this.” “I’m in charge of that.” “I’m going to give a sermonette.” “I’m going to do a prayer.” “I’m going to give a sermon.” “I’m going to do this,” and “I’m going to do that,” and wanting everybody else to be sure to see it. Or, “I have this to give if I just had the opportunity.” That’s not what it’s about. It’s not about lifting ourselves up. When we do have an opportunity, when God gives something that is seen, that it’s not about us. It’s not about the individual that gets up and does it, performs it. Really. That’s a spiritual thing to grasp and comprehend. But too many take it physically so they can be seen. Sometimes you can tell it by the words that are spoken and by the way that it’s said. I’m talking about times past and the way it used to be. People have experienced that. Human nature is so ugly.

So it says here, verse 16—The Eternal said to Moses, Behold, you shall lie down with your fathers; and this people will rise up and play the harlot as they go after the gods of the strangers of the land where they go among them. What a story! Because it wasn’t spiritual for them, it was all physical. As soon as Moses is gone and as soon as Joshua comes along and does what he does and they see that God is working through him and performed certain things, but it’s not going to take long once they’re mixed around other people’s in other areas.

That’s what happens in time. Look what happened in the time of Saul. Look what happened in the time before the kings were even established, back and forth. They had different judges that came along that worked with the people at different times and they suffered a great deal.

What were they doing in the meantime between different ones that came along? Like Deborah the prophet, different ones at different times, Gideon, different people at different times whom God worked with. Then finally there was a king. They no longer wanted God to rule over them. Samuel wanted to know what to do and how to do it. Basically, he took it personally. “It’s not you, Samuel. It’s Me they’ve rejected ruling over them. Give them what they want.”

So now what do we have? What’s Ephraim and Manasseh and the rest of Israel had throughout the period of time? It hasn’t been good. God said what would happen. “They’ll take your young people and they’ll send them off to war to die for their ends, for their purpose.” To me that is so sick, what human beings sometimes do. Then how do you treat them when they’re back? “Well, they did their portion.” We have people living under bridges trying to find warm places when they’re farther north.

You want to talk about something that is exceedingly ugly and evil? That is. Truly is. You send them off to war to fight for you and something you think is so important and you glamorize how great it is to be a part of it. Join the whatever it is. You go out and do it and then you come back and you’re forgotten, you’re put aside, you’re waste. That’s a horrible, horrible. I don’t even have the words to express how horrible it is...and disgustingly horrible, if you will.

I don’t want to get into the tax part. But they’re going to come after you more than what God has a system of functioning and working with because God does it righteously. God does it for a certain purpose there and uses what is given to Him righteously so. Man doesn’t. People always want something else. They want to do something else. Then people want to take advantage of it. Corporations take advantage of it, take advantage of the government. Get, get, get, get while you can. Everybody wants a chunk of the pie. I better shut up. It’s just so appalling what has taken place.

But anyway, God said “Give it to them. This is what they want. They don’t want Me to reign over them anymore.” So Saul was chosen and what happened there. David came along. Finally, God found a man after God’s own heart. God was calling him, working with him, and giving David insight on a spiritual plane. God worked with him. I think of all the things he went through physically, carnally, and yet God worked with him, prepared him for something great later on. He went through a lot of things, a lot of bad things and a lot of good things. The good things were from God and God’s part.

So to say this, The Eternal said to Moses, Behold, you shall lie down with your fathers; and this people will rise up and play the harlot. That means against God, go after other gods, put something else before God, first before God. We’ve had many people who have been called who have done exactly the same thing, which is worse because it’s on a spiritual plane, who have played the harlot. Who have gone back to keeping Christmas and Easter. Where does that come from? What is that all about? People who get cut off from God’s spirit because it’s playing the harlot because something else is more important to them.

No, God wants to know where is your heart? Where is your mind? Where is your desire? “And if your desire is with Me and you love Me and you want to be strong in the power of My might, I’m with you. I’ll not forsake you. I will not leave you. I will bring you through this.”

...and this people will rise up and play the harlot and they’ll go after other gods of the strangers of the land where they go among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. God knew exactly what they’re going to do so He’s telling Moses this. Here you have, you brought them up here and this is what they’re going to do.

You know, I’m so thankful Mr. Armstrong didn’t have to see what happened. With all that he did, all the work that he did, poured his heart into it like he did, to see the Church grow to the size it was, for the colleges and so forth to be where they were, and then to see what happened afterwards. I am so thankful he didn’t have to see that. Now, he’s going to come to understand it one day and it’s going to be, you know, that’s the way it is, human beings even with God’s spirit have the capacity to do something of this nature, to come to a point of having an incredible falling away, an apostasy, to leave the truth.

Then My anger shall be kindled (raised up) against them in that day. Again, it’s a matter of not anger like we become angry as human beings, but a matter of something that’s forced upon, if you will, God, because it’s a matter of judgment, that He must execute judgment. If people come to a certain point then He must execute judgment. “It rises to that point in time where I can no longer give grace, no longer give mercy, but it must be dealt with.” Just like it is within the Church, people who do some of the things they do sometimes as human beings, after being worked with, in some cases, for such a long time.

I think of tithing. I keep going back to that because money in today’s world has a lot to do with how we think in the mind sometimes. If we hold back those things from God and don’t do them, it’s not a matter of God getting mad at us, angry. He wants us to succeed! But He has to come to a point where it says, “No more mercy. No more time. Judgment has to be executed.”

That’s what these things are about. That’s what these expressions are about when you read them in scripture. Not like people translated them because they don’t get it. They don’t understand God. They don’t understand the mind of God. God loves His creation. He loves mankind. He understands mankind and his weak frame, that without God’s spirit He knows exactly what they’re like, that they can’t obey Him, they can’t make the choice to choose life. He knows that when He calls them then, obviously, they’re able to choose life because they have the ability of having access to His holy spirit to be able to see things that they otherwise couldn’t. Then they have to make choices along the way.

Then judgment is upon them. That’s why it says in scripture there, “Judgment is upon the house of God.” It’s not on the world! Now, they’re going to come to a time to judgment when God says no more, because we’re at the end of 6,000 years, because we’re there, and because of what God has said is going to come to pass. It’s time for it to take place. Then because the world is starting to destroy itself He has to intervene because He has a plan of something that goes beyond that, thankfully.

...and I will forsake them, because they have forsaken Him. If people turn from God as the Israelites did, and set that example when they went into the promised land when they turned their back on God in the days of the judges, and so forth, in periods of time there, God let the enemy come in and destroy. Then finally when their fear would turn and they cried out for help and they wanted help because they saw what was taking place then they would humble themselves and call on God and then God would intervene again and give them the answers and help they needed. This back and forth thing. Then it happened with some of the kings later on.

...and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall fall upon them... And what happens when someone is cut off from God’s spirit? People are left to this world. People in times past who I’ve known of and seen and things that happened in their lives, no longer a part of the Church and left to a spirit world that’s out there, a spirit world that has power over them in ways they didn’t have before, obviously, never had that power over them while they were in the Church, but now their life is not the same anymore.

...and many evils and troubles shall fall upon them so that they will ask in that day, Have these evils come upon us because God is not with us? The answer should be obvious. That’s why they went back and forth. Then they started thinking about the history of what they had before and then they would ask God for help, ask for God’s mercy and God would intervene for them again.

You know, God does that in our lives. We do stupid things sometimes as human beings, but as long as we’re not cut off from God’s spirit, as long as we have opportunity He wants us to repent. That’s why Joshua died so that we could repent, so that we could continue, have a relationship with God, so that God could dwell in us and we in God and have that ability to see things in a spiritual plane and have this transition of the mind take place. What’s being offered is astounding. Choices.

Verse 18—I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they have acted upon, in that they have turned unto other gods. So for them it happened physically, physical things that took place. There were times that God said, “Not now.” There were other times, obviously, depending on the individuals and depending on the depth of their repentance and God intervened and had mercy upon them again. So much of that was according to His plan as well, but in the beginning He didn’t. He allowed peoples to come in and destroy and kill thousands upon thousands of Israelites. Then, after a time, God would intervene and help them.

But the more important thing is about the Church and about God’s people, that there are times if one comes to that point of being totally cut off, then if they cry out – and that’s the lesson – cry out to God, God will not answer and He will not give the help. So when we have that ability and that time and crying out to God, we may not receive the answer that day, but if we keep at it and keep fighting we will be given help to go through whatever is before us.

Verse 19—Therefore, write this song to teach the children of Israel, and put it in their mouths so that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel, or toward the children of Israel. Because it wasn’t about being against them, it was about blessings and cursing’s, in essence. It’s about, you do things that are right, this is what will happen. You do things that are wrong, this is what’s going to happen. It’s a song to remind them, a song that goes through time, in essence, for them, of history and of looking forward and of God’s promises and what happens when you obey God and what happens when you don’t obey God. Simple.

For when I shall have brought them into the land which I promised unto their fathers, that flows with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and have gotten fat; then they will turn unto other gods... That happened to the Church. That happened during Laodicea. It got fat! Fat! Fat! Fat! Thought we were so good, in respect, in what we knew and understood. Little bit later lethargy began to set in, the lukewarm spirit. That’s what happens. People begin to turn more to themselves. They don’t have a sense of urgency.

When Mr. Armstrong wasn’t there anymore to continually, month by month to have a mind of a sense of urgency about the work and about what had to be done and looking forward. That’s why I’ve talked about markers along the way. If we didn’t have markers along the way we would not be here, as a whole. We just wouldn’t be here because of the carnal mind. God works with us in incredible ways. He knows our thinking in our minds.

So it was with the Church and what happened. “Getting fat” is the same sort of thing as a lukewarm spirit here because of how they thought about themselves, not understanding, “No, we’re weak. We need constant help. We need stirred up in God’s spirit. We need to have a sense of urgency. He told us we did on a regular basis, now, and we failed in that, we didn’t continue on with that. We didn’t have a sense of urgency. We were lulled to sleep over time.”

...then they will turn unto other gods and serve them, and treat Me with contempt, and break My covenant. That’s what happens when anyone turns from God, begins to go a different course, begins to do something different from what God says. It’s not a matter of serving God any longer. Sometimes the god is us, the god we made, the choices we make or something we want or desire that in our minds conflict with what God says is a matter of obedience, and we choose that. Like stealing tithes. When those decisions are made horrible, horrible, horrible. “Turn to other gods and serve them, and treat Me with contempt.” It’s treating God with contempt then, taking so lightly the very sacrifice of Joshua the Christ.

...and break My covenant. Then it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles have fallen upon them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness, or before them as a witness, against. It’s God’s desire that they never make wrong choices, that we don’t make wrong choices. But we do, and His word is written that does testify against us. It’s written.

...for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouth of their descendents. I know the intention of their behavior today, even now before I have brought them into the land which I promised. Isn’t that amazing? God says, “I know them. I know their intention. I know their heart. I know the intent of the mind.” It’s about self. They didn’t have His holy spirit. So God’s going to give them all that land, now they’re going to be able to do things that they weren’t able to do in the wilderness in a richer, better land that flows with milk and honey, far more prosperous, far friendlier to an agrarian world.

If you’ve ever been in certain areas down there, even in the southern part, some of the parts down there, the desert areas, nothing grows. No water. You remember some of their complaining? No water. So a rock was giving water. It was coming out of a rock, you know. God performed a miracle out there because it’s a not a pretty part of the world to have to live in. You go to Petra; it’s not a pretty place in the world. What an incredible thing the Church used to think that that’s where, you know, we’re going to be protected there. Where are you going to get your food? Where are you going to get all the water? Well, strike the rock. Well, if that’s where God wanted us then that would be the case, but that’s not the case.

Moses, therefore, wrote this song the same day, and taught it unto the children of Israel. He gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and courageous. That is for us and for those who are going to come after us. Those who are asleep right now are going to be awakened, and then others.

For you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I promised unto them: and I will be with you. You think of all times to understand, to have a confidence and a boldness, to have courage, this is it. This is a time that God has looked forward to we don’t know how many billions and trillions of years. We don’t know time that it took to create everything that’s out there and then to put man upon the earth and to be here over the past 6,000 years to this point in time, to look forward to this, of a plan that He’s had for so very long and we’re a part of it.

It’s hard to see things that way. It’s hard to magnify things that way in our minds, in our thinking, because we don’t tend to think of our lives as being that great, being that important. It’s like, what’s great about my life? What’s important? God is. The plan of God. The calling of God. The purpose of God. Where we are of all time to live.

For you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I promised unto them and I will be with you. So it was, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of the law of a book, and it was completed, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bare the ark of the covenant of the Eternal, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Eternal your God, so that it may be there for a witness. “Against you,” is not there. “So that it may be there for a witness.” That’s what it’s about. That’s what it means. Because God knew what they were going to do, so, obviously, when they disobey God it’s going to be about the curses, it’s going to be about disobedience.

When it’s about the Church and we obey God and we yield to the calling God has given to us it’s about blessings, blessings that we can’t even begin to fathom. All who have gone before us who are going to be a part of the 144,000 have never been able to grasp what’s ahead of them. Thinking about eternal life? What does that mean? All we have is the physical, earthly experience. We don’t know what it’s like to be in a spirit body. We don’t know what it’s like to have a mind that has no lust of the flesh, no lust of the eyes, no pride of life. We don’t know. We’ve never experienced that yet. We can’t grasp how incredible that’s going to be, to be at-one with God. We hope in it. We look forward to it. We believe it. How much do we cleave to it, fight for it?

I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. It’s what human nature is like. We want our way. We get things in our mind that we want to do and oftentimes we just do it. Oftentimes we just do it.

I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. In the days while living with you, you have been rebellious against the Eternal; so how much more after my death? He’s telling them, Moses is, I know what you’re like. Moses is saying this! “I know what your rebellion is like. I’ve experienced it. For forty years I’ve experienced this. I know what you’re like. I know what it’s like, the stiff neck.” “And in the days while living with you, you have been rebellious against the Eternal. So how much more after my death?” Beautiful, if we understand it. He’s just making it very clear, “I know what it’s been like all this time in how you have responded to God, so once I’m dead I know what’s going to happen later on.”

Gather unto me all the elders of the tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth as a witness toward them. I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves... That’s amazing for that to be said. But it was by inspiration of God’s spirit. The word “corrupt” here means, in essence, “destroy.” That’s what the word means. The way of mankind is to destroy his path in front of him, to destroy self, their purpose and so forth.

New King James says, You’ll become utterly corrupt and turn aside from that which I have commanded you. It’s happened to many who have been called in God’s Church. It’s not over with yet. Some listening today, it’s not over with yet. To turn aside from what God has commanded? ...and evil will befall you... Look at this, amazing...and evil will fall upon you in the latter day. So what’s it all about? Talking about through time here and there’s going to come a time in the latter day. ...because you will do evil in the sight of the Eternal, to provoke Him through the work of your hands.

It’s been that way for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years since this is recorded. For Israel, for all the world, in essence, save those whom God has called. But even on a spiritual plane to understand here that this is all about a purpose that God has given and that all this is written to His people. Not to physical Israel, but to spiritual Israel, to the Church. About things of choices that are always before us, as it says here, “You will utterly corrupt yourselves,” and that’s what’s happened. Candidly, it’s happened to the majority of people who have ever been called. They’ve become corrupt and turned against God. “...and turn aside from what I have commanded you.”

That’s why it’s hard to grasp and comprehend, and a lot of times people leave and one thing that they’ve held on to (I think of Worldwide days), people would leave and one thing you’d find out later on is they still don’t eat pork. They still don’t eat pork. They don’t keep the Sabbath anymore, but man, they’re not going to touch that pork because it’s such a physical thing. They can go and have other ideas of other doctrines and other beliefs. They can go back in and become a whatever, Pentecostal, Baptist, whatever, different things that people have gone back to, go back to raising Christmas trees, growing Christmas trees. I knew a minister like that; he went back to his family. The family business he was called out of was growing Christmas trees. He’s the one that baptized me. Thankfully there was another man there that was with him, but that doesn’t matter. One thing I always held on to was what Mr. Armstrong wrote in the book about baptism. It doesn’t matter what they do afterwards. That gave me a great deal of comfort, because it wasn’t a matter of what they choose to do afterwards, if they go astray, choose to go astray, because what they did then and what you said to God then is what is important. So that gave me great peace because when I found that out later on I thought, “Well, man.” Anyway.

But you think people can go that far away from God after being a minister in the Church? It doesn’t matter who it is, when you turn against God these things happened to people. Even within the scattered Body, people who have been a part with us in PKG, to go back to now and believing there wasn’t an apostasy? Just physically that’s hard to grasp. But it’s spiritual and people can lose what they have. That’s just what happens. You lose what you have. To go back and believe certain things. It’s hard to imagine sometimes, but that which is spirit we’re blessed to have.

Evil will befall you in the latter day. So it’s what’s happened. It’s what’s happened to the Church. Evil fell upon the Church because of what we did and because of our minds, and only by the grace of God are any of us here, because He had a purpose of having a small group, a remnant, because He’s going to show everyone, us included, and the whole world, “Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit.” It’s not us. It’s not how big the group is. It’s about what God does.

That’s why I think of the story of Gideon and why we turn to that so often. They didn’t need several thousands of people to fight against this army that was much greater than they were. Just three hundred to drive the point home, “I did it. You didn’t. You had to fight. You had to choose to go forward. You had to be strong and courageous and keep going forward, but you did not do it. I did it.” That’s what God teaches us and shows us.

Because you will do evil in the sight of the Eternal to provoke Him... Again, this thing here “to generate, to engender, to rise up.” It’s about judgment. ...through the work of your hands. Moses spoke in the ears of the congregation of all Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

So we’ve gone through some of the story here of what led up to this, of what has already been planned out. It was given in the book of Deuteronomy. Then the things that were given to Joshua, written about and recorded in the book of Joshua that we’ve gone through, partially so. Then we’re going to move a little forward farther in time. I think it’s good that we go through some of this section here in 1 Chronicles. We’ll turn over there.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we covered an area of scripture here that had to do with this subject that we need to revisit here in the context of what we’re covering here about being courageous, about being strong and courageous. This first area concerns the time when King David was preparing materials and builders for the temple and also preparing his son Solomon to construct it. We’re going to pick up a part of that story because it’s so pertinent because it wasn’t about a physical temple. Never was. It was about a spiritual one. God had a plan.

It talks about, “David had it in his heart.” Where did that come from? Did he just decide this on his own without any help from God? Or did God have a great purpose in a temple being built, of something of great magnificence and detail, minutely so, in everything that was put in it that pictures something spiritual? Because every part of it does. Those things are used throughout scripture to teach different lessons.

Again, not by accident that this happened, for something to be built of this magnificence, this great as far as a physical world is concerned. In that time it was an incredible thing that was undertaken, and it was in David’s heart to do it. God blessed him to have such desire. God molded and fashioned him to grow into having such desire. God is the one who transforms our minds. God is the one who works with us to come into greater unity and oneness with Him and His purpose and His will. He can work with us to do such things like this, whatever it might be that God is molding and preparing us for, of thing that we don’t grasp and comprehend.

So often we just don’t see God and what God is doing and what God is molding and fashioning and how awesome it is, what He does. We’re blessed to be a part of it because what’s happening in us, through us, is far more important than what they did here. Hope you understand that. That was a physical temple of stone and gold and brass and woods, various kinds, of things that were used to make everything that was there. It’s all about God’s people. We’re the first phase of that temple, in that respect, of what God is constructing, of what He’s building. Far more important than anything physical.

So just as much as the story of going into the promised land is about a future time and a time we’re experiencing and getting ready to experience in a greater way, so are these things here as far as a calling that God gives and a molding and fashioning that God does in the first phase of the temple when Christ returns and 144,000 with him. That’s the first great phase of the temple. The building is not over with yet because there’s another 1,100 years to continue on building and constructing and molding and fashioning people, minds, to transform the way people think to be a part of it, to fit into it. God knows how to work with us to accomplish those things if we just yield to that process of being able to share in something so great.

1 Chronicles 22:1— Then David said, This is the place for the house, or the dwelling, the temple, if you will, for the house of the Eternal God, and this is the altar for the burnt offering for Israel. Then David told them to gather together... So we’re breaking into part of the story here of what he’s passing along, what he’s saying. Then David told them to gather together foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and to set masons to chisel out smooth stone to build the house of God. So again here, it wasn’t just the people of Israel that was going to be a part of this, but it was go find the artisans, the people who are masters in some of these different areas of workmanship, and bring them in, hire them to be a part of accomplishing this. That’s what was taking place here. The best of the best. And frankly, even God gave them, different ones out there it talks about in other places in scripture, gave them the talents and the abilities to do things. Incredible! To accomplish some of the things that they were able to do that normally they wouldn’t be able to accomplish in the same way. They were prepared for this. They were prepared for this.

Just like things that God is preparing for now that we don’t even grasp taking place in the world right now, working with different peoples and leaders and so forth to bring about something in the future here. You’re the primary ones. Leaders. You’re the primary ones.

Then David told them to gather together foreigners who were in the land of Israel, and to set masons and to chisel out the smooth stones to build the house of God. David prepared large quantities of iron for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the clamps; and large quantities of brass beyond what they could weigh; also cedar trees that were innumerable. Because the Zidonians and those of Tyre brought a vast amount of cedar wood to David.

So this was in the works for some time, and all the work and all the preparation David was doing in order to accomplish this task. So all these peoples were being worked with already and they were bringing these things forward. Having such abundance, as it talks about here, not even being able to weigh it all there was so much.

Verse 5—Now David said, Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Eternal is to become very great, famous and glorified throughout the land. So there was a purpose for it. The Great God of Israel, the Great God that we follow, this is His house, so it’s going to be made magnificent, in that respect. All the peoples around about, and the countries around about, and the nations around about, they knew of what was taking place, what David was doing here.

So I am now making preparation for it. So David prepared mightily before his death. Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the Eternal God of Israel. David told Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Eternal my God. He received that from God. It didn’t just pop in there on his own. It wasn’t from his own thinking. It was because of a relationship he had with God because he came to love God so mightily through his life, and that heart and that mind and then God spoke of him, “A man after My own heart.” Awesome, to have that kind of heart, to pray for that kind of heart and that kind of thinking. That’s the way he lived his life. That’s the way he thought, anyway, not that he was able to always do that. But that’s where his heart was, that’s where his mind was, and God said so, “A man after My own heart.” In time this became a part of his thinking from God, to build something because God had a purpose in it being built at this time.

Some of the things told to David about a son who would reign, it wasn’t about Solomon. It was about a lineage of the one that God had told through time was to be the Messiah, to be the Christ. Everything points to the future. Everything that God has done always has pointed to a future time. Not to be accomplished primarily in the first 6,000 years, that’s just the preparation and the work to prepare for things that are happening in a greater way later on, primarily the beginning of the Millennium and beyond.

... it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Eternal my God, but the word of the Eternal came to me, saying, You have shed much blood, and have made great wars: you shall not build a house unto My name, because you have shed much blood upon the earth in My sight. God revealed a different purpose He had. Not for David to do it and accomplish this, but for his son to do it.

I think of the analogy here sometimes of things that we can look at. There are some things that we may not be able to fully share in, although we might greatly desire to in times in our life in our calling. Sometimes because of past choices and because of decisions we have made in the past. But God works with us and molds and fashions us. What is prepared and waiting for David is great, incredible. It talks about him reigning again and where he’s going to reign. Over Israel. Awesome! In a far greater way than he reigned before.

Verse 9—Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. So there is a duality here. It’s about what’s going to happen on a physical plane with Solomon and what they were able to see on a physical plane, but it goes way, way beyond this, because “a rest waits for the people of God.” That’s what it’s about. A rest for this earth, a millennial period and a Great White Throne period.

Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about him. Incredible! That happened with Solomon on a physical plane. How much more the Messiah? Because as he receives rest so does all the world, from all the enemies. Because, see, this is spiritual. All enemies are, in essence, to be destroyed. All enemies are to come under his feet, and then when it’s all done everything is handed back to God, in essence. That’s what it speaks of, once it’s completed, once the Messiah has completed his work in the next 1,100 years. It’s a beautiful story.

So he says, I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon. It’s from a word that means “peaceful,” or “restful.” ...and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. Again, physical, yes. Spiritual? Yes. That which is accomplished spiritually is far more meaningful for those who are able to come into a unity and a oneness with God.

He shall build a house for My name... What has Christ been doing for 2,000 years? It’s about the temple, it’s about the house of God, a house that God will dwell in because this physical one, He wasn’t going to. He made it very plain, very clear, has made clear to David as well and the things that were written in scripture that nothing can be built for God on a physical plane. But a spiritual one? Yeah. ...and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. Now, my son, may the Eternal be with you; and may you prosper and build the house of the Eternal your God, as He has said to you.

Verse 12—The Eternal gives (grants, sets before) you wisdom and understanding... It’s something that sometimes is very difficult for people on a spiritual plane in God’s Church to come to grasp and understand. The Eternal gives, or as the word means, “to grants,” or “sets before” you wisdom and understanding. First comes some understanding. Through time we begin to learn, we begin to be able to learn God’s way and God’s truth and see things that are false in the world and be taught things that are right. Then as we begin to experience things like the Sabbath it can take a long time to really come to great understanding, in the sense of a spiritual plane, of the Sabbath and what it means to obey the Sabbath. It’s something you grow in through the time of your calling. It’s not an immediate ability to understand it, what God has given. Then wisdom that follows, that talks about there’s knowledge, there’s understanding through experience, and then as something takes place in our mind and we make the right choices, that’s about wisdom. It’s about being in unity and oneness with God, agreeing with God. We do what we do because we agree with God and what He’s given to us.

So again here, it’s God that gives these things. God gives us the ability to have true wisdom. Because what is that? It’s the mind of God. When your mind is being transformed you’re growing in the mind of God. You’re growing in a unity and a oneness of thinking with God, with the word of God, the truth of God. The more we’re at one and agreement with all the truths, all the commandments, all the way of life that God has given to us, the more like God we become. That’s His desire. He’s the one, then, that will give a spirit body into life everlasting. He gives that, one that’s completely transformed and given God’s spirit and the ability to continue to be at one.

…the Eternal gives/grants unto you wisdom and understanding, and gives you charge concerning Israel, that you keep, again, that word “to maintain, to preserve, to sustain the law of the Eternal your God. That’s what we have to do. We have to work to preserve it, to keep it, to sustain it. We want it be sustained in our lives and that around us.

Then shall you prosper. You know, if we do that, like we went through the Part 1, we will prosper. We will be blessed (blessings and cursing’s), blessed ...if you keep...keep...to do the statutes and judgments which the Eternal charged Moses concerning Israel. That’s why it’s such a hideous thing of things that even happened within PKG, I think at different times, but different ones who spoke out in rebellion against what God was doing. We’ve gone through that at different times, people that had a different course, decided they were going to do things a different way, came to a point where they decided women shouldn’t be ordained, even though some had been themselves ordained, and turned against God. They began to talk about what they didn’t agree with. “No person is going to tell me that I can’t have fellowship with someone else because they’re disfellowshipped.” Had been a minister in God’s Church and made those comments. “No one is going to tell me...” Because, see, someone that they’d been close to, another minister, had been disfellowshipped because of their sins. That’s pretty bad rebellion when you come to the point of being disfellowshipped. Someone wants to continue to keep fellowship—themselves a minister, herself a minister —and decided “I’m going to continue in a relationship with them, and therefore, no one, no man is going to tell me.” This goes way back in time. That’s what people do, “No man is going to tell me that I can’t do this or that.” Well, that’s how God works. He worked through Mr. Armstrong, a man. Sorry! But you better do it because if you’re not in unity and oneness with that you just don’t get it anymore. Anyway, sorry.

So, anyway, that was the attitude of mind. How lightly do you think God takes that? That’s what we’re talking about here, that kind of a mind that is willing to speak out against what God is doing, to turn against what God is doing and how God chooses to do it. People haven’t realized the things that have come out of their mouths, the things they’ve said against God at times in their life, rebellions that take place. As God says, “Rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft.” Sure don’t want that a part of my life, but hey, it happens out there.

So again, then you shall prosper if you keep to do the judgments and the statutes which the Eternal charged Moses with concerning Israel, to be strong and courageous and not be fearful or discouraged. That’s God’s desire for us. That we be strong in His spirit because you can’t be encouraged if you don’t have God’s spirit in you. That’s why we had that first series of being strong in the power of His might. It’s His might! It’s God’s might. It’s God’s spirit. That’s what makes us strong. It’s a relationship with Him. How much do we want that? Then if we want that and are seeking that then we can have a greater confidence and courage in our life, of doing whatever comes in front of us and not take this way of life nonchalantly, mildly, but to understand the seriousness of a calling that God has given to us and to be so deeply thankful for what He’s given to us. Or are we just warming a seat and taking up space?

Then you shall prosper, and do the statutes and judgments which the Eternal charged Moses concerning Israel: to be strong and courageous, and not to be fearful or discouraged. So again, how do we respond to what God gives to us? Well, depends on how we think toward Him and how thankful we are for what He has given.

Then a few chapters later it’s covered what David’s then passed along to his son Solomon. I’m not sure we’re going to get through this but I’ll try, maybe just read the story quickly.

1 Chronicles 28:1—Now David assembled at Jerusalem all the officers of Israel, the officers of the tribes, the officers that ministered to the king by their divisions, and the officers over the thousands, the officers over hundreds, and the officers over all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, with the palace officials, the mighty men, and with all the army unto Jerusalem. So it was an incredible gathering of people that David called there. But it was all for a purpose, God working through him.

Then David the king rose to his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Eternal, and for the footstool of our God, and have been making preparation for building it: but God said to me, You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war, and have shed much blood. Yet the Eternal God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. Isn’t that amazing? We don’t know how deeply he understood all that, but there was that which was given to him because he understood certain promises of things that were to be given in time, of prophecies to be fulfilled, of a Messiah that would come from that lineage. Whether he grasped fully that he was going to be, I don’t know, but God inspired the words to be written, to be spoken by him. Because, in essence, that’s what happens when he’s resurrected, of a reign that he’s going to have over a large portion of what becomes a part then of God’s temple in a very powerful way.

...for He has chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father He was pleased to make me king over all Israel. What an incredible thing to come through, through all your life and then come to that point and realize, because this is what he’s saying, all this and God was pleased. “I have been so blessed,” in essence, “to be called by Him, to be worked with by Him, to be molded and fashioned by Him, to have been able to serve in this capacity now toward the end of my life, to prepare the building of this temple that’s been in my heart to do, and I have great desire to accomplish it.” We can’t comprehend that, that desire that he had in his heart to do this. Because it was something that God wanted done and if God wants it done and it’s God’s will, which it was, then this was in David’s heart powerfully so because of the holy spirit that he’d received, because of the spirit of God in him. So it was a very powerful thing in him, in his mind to accomplish this.

I think of what was referred to as the house dedicated to God that Mr. Armstrong built. It was to be made great, in that respect, as far as the campus was concerned, and a similar sort of thing for why some of those things were accomplished and why they happened at that particular time, but this here was of a far greater scale of what was accomplished.

He’s expressing these things. That’s why it’s good for us sometimes to pause and think about our calling. How great is it? Who are we? “Who are we,” that’s what he’s saying, “that of all my father’s house, of all my family, that He was pleased to call me? Who am I?” Why not the other… We don’t even ask that. You just come to a point where you say, “I’m just thankful. I’m grateful and I want to respond accordingly. In my heart is to build this temple.” In our heart it should be to yield to be a part of the temple that we understand the temple to be on a spiritual plane.

That’s what he’s expressing here. Sometimes reading something like this we don’t grasp what’s inside, what he’s expressing in deep, deep ways. He knows he’s at the end of his life. He knows that everything is going to be passed along to Solomon and he’s looked at his life, of what he’s had, and now all this has been prepared for you to build this temple. It’s been in my heart to do, that I’ve been blessed to be a part of. “Of all my father’s house, and he chose Judah...”

...and of all my sons (for the Eternal has given me many sons), He has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Eternal over Israel. Now He said to me, it is Solomon, your son, who shall build My house and My courts. For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Moreover... Can you imagine how David felt when that was told to him? “I’ve chosen your son to continue on and I’ll be to him a father. You won’t be here any longer, but I, the Great God, I’ll be his father and he’ll be My son. I’ll work with him in that way.” Do we see ourselves that way, children of God? Sons and daughters of God whom God has called? Because that’s who we are. It’s hard for us to grasp how incredible that is sometimes. We look at our lives and think, “Nothing great about my life.” Well, there is because God’s in it, because God’s called you because what He’s preparing and molding and fashioning in you, oh, yes, there is. Far greater than you can see.

Moreover, I will establish his kingdom forever, if—if, if, if—if he... Now, the word here isn’t “be constant.” It’s a word that means “harden.” It can be used in different ways. To be strong. That can be good and that can be bad depending on how the choices that are made. It was the same expression that was used about Pharaoh, “I’m going to harden his heart.” In this case it was about being strong and solid, if you will, toward God, toward God’s way. It’s a choice that human beings have to make.

...if he will be strong, is another way it can be translated when used properly, when a person responds properly. It should be really translated if he strengthen himself to do My commandments. That’s what it’s about. It’s about keeping His commandments. So it’s not about being hard in the commandments or with the commandments, it’s about being strong in the commandments. In other words, his heart is in strength in the commandments and the ways of God and what God has given. Pharaoh’s was different; it was strong in his own desires, his own will and what he wanted, and he hated Moses and hated the Israelites. It was because of carnality and normal human nature, pride of life.

Now, therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the Eternal, and in the audience of our God, keep, that same word there, to preserve, to maintain, to sustain, to seek after all the commandments of the Eternal your God. “If you will do those things.” “Therefore, do this.” And did he? That’s what’s incredible in the story. There are some other things that are said here by God. “And so if he will, I will establish...” In other words, his family will be able to continue on reigning. Didn’t happen. Things changed, in that respect, as to what took place, and Israel was divided right after that, not all of Israel, but the ten tribes of Israel separated right after his death, not long after. Jeroboam and Rehoboam. One king over Judah, one king over the rest of the tribes of Israel. Split up. Couldn’t reign anymore. That kingdom wasn’t going to continue anymore. Awesome, here, that was being revealed, what was given.

But he said, this is what God had said, that He would give him this “If you strengthen yourself in My commandments and My judgments.” But what did he do? He had wives of different countries, of different gods toward the end of his life, and he went after them. Mind boggling. Astounding. Shocking.

So again here, If you’ll, in other words, keep here, to preserve, to seek after the commandments of the Eternal your God so that you may possess the pleasant land. That’s the pleasant land, that which Moses wanted to see, and leave for an inheritance to your children after you forever. Again here, there’s that which is being revealed here especially for us in this end-time, and of that which is before us that’s coming, a different age, a different time, that we’re going to be given opportunity to be in possession of something far beyond what the promised land was all about. This is the greater fulfillment of it all as a type. That which is going to be passed along in very powerful ways the more faithful, the more zealous we are, especially now to be able to accomplish that the more your lineage, the more those who come after are going to be blessed, truly are, because of what they’re going to receive.

Can you imagine being reared in a world where there is no deception, there is no false Christianity, there is no false religions? None of those things exist anymore. Where there is a government that’s righteous and just? Incredible! The ability to hold on to, the ability to continue on, to be faithful to what is true is going to be far greater then than what it is now and what it has been in the last 2,000 years, candidly. That’s why it’s like pioneers going across a land suffering and dying so that in time you can have massive highways and jets and everything else, and a prosperous land that God has blessed – because of those who went before and leading to something far, far greater. This is so much greater.

Verse 9—As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. That’s God’s message to us, to strive. Not to be imperfect in life, not to give into imperfection, but to fight against it, to want what’s better that God is offering us, to recognize our faults and our weaknesses, like I talk about sometimes, the number 1, 2, and 3 at the top, and don’t forget about 4, 5, 6, and 7. But there are three always that are going to be the greatest in front of you and to hit them head on. Those are going to help you in mighty ways placing God first and being able to conquer the rest then. Those become peanuts in comparison if you know what the greatest weaknesses and battles you have before you are and fight them.

So he says, again here ...serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. Not for the wrong motivations. Not for the wrong reasons. Not to get something. Not to be thinking we’re going to get all that, whatever, if we’re fooling around in the courtyard, being deceptive. A willing mind is because we love it, because we want it, and not out of constraint, not out of fear.

...of a willing mind. For the Eternal searches all hearts... He knows how we think, and understands all the imagination, or as the word is, “the intent” of the thoughts. We don’t. God has to reveal those to us, what our real intent is and why we sometimes say the things we do, what the prejudice might be, why we judge things incorrectly. He’ll help us to see those things because it comes from something deep in our mind, in our thinking that causes us to respond or to react or to speak in certain ways. God wants to show us a better way and how to change some of those things to be in unity with Him.

If you seek Him, He will be found of you... That’s the answer to us. If you seek Him. How do you do that? Prayer; every day crying out to God, asking God, primarily, first and foremost for help, for repentance and for help of His spirit to live and dwell in us and to make the changes we need to make, and to respond to what the battles are in front of us, to continue to fight.

If you seek Him, He will be found of you, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. Now, kind of awkward here in how it’s stated, but basically with understanding, understanding that it’s until repented of because there are still those who just like in the scattered Body, or those who were a part with us who aren’t, who aren’t going to be given opportunity to continue on, but will at a later time. “Until repented of.” When they’re awakened and given a new life, a new body, and they’re able to see back, look back, and they’re going to remember exactly what they did at the end because time, a thousand years passes and they don’t know it, but then they’re in a different body, a new body. It’s up to them to repent then, come to weeping and gnashing of teeth to realize how stupid I was to do this or to make this decision and to see what God has blessed the earth with now and what has happened over the past thousand years. There’s going to be a lot of deep repentance.

So, if you forsake Him, He will reject you... not forever, in that respect. It means until something else takes place or unless something else takes place. In this case until it’s fully repented of.

So look upon this, for the Eternal has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong, and do it. Incredible words here. Then David gave Solomon his...

For us it’s a spiritual thing – be strong and do it! This is what you’re called to do! Solomon was called to build something physical. We’re called to be a part of building something spiritual. The first is this big rock! It can change. It can be chiselled down to be smooth, to get rid of the imperfections so that it is something that fits perfectly into place. That’s our choice.

Then David gave Solomon his son the pattern of the structure, the housing of it, the treasuries, the upper rooms and the inner rooms, and the place of the mercy seat. He gave him the pattern of all that he had by the spirit. He didn’t make up these things. He didn’t decide how to build it. He didn’t decide how it was to be constructed, let alone the different divisions of it, the separation of it. He didn’t decide any of that stuff. God’s spirit gave it to him. That’s what this is about.  Piece by piece God gave him the design, inspired him to do it exactly a certain way. That, to me, is an amazing thing, an inspiring thing.

Because that’s how God works. When we yield to God, God gives us what we need. There are times that God has to reveal things according to His will in a certain way. This is what He’s doing here. He’s doing it through David how the physical temple was to be built, and every piece of it, every part of it, everything that was constructed had something that is a type of something of the spiritual temple. Amazing. Really is.

So he gave him the pattern of all that he had by the spirit... In other words, it’s making it very clear here he didn’t dream this up in his mind. He didn’t sit down with some piece of paper here and start to draw a line here and draw it out here, how big is it here and how tall. God gave him every bit of it in the mind. Incredible. ...of the courts of the house of the Eternal, the rooms throughout, the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: also for the divisions of the priests and the Levites.

It wasn’t just the temple but it was about what was to take place in the service of the temple, the divisions of the tribe of Levi and how they were to be divided in a certain way. This continued on as long as they had the temple and were faithful in ministering certain things to it. There was a physical routine that the Levites went through by course, by their time. It talks about that in the time of Christ, of different ones who were fulfilling a particular role for a period of time. I think in some cases, like, just a couple of weeks, because there were so many and different ones that were divided up in a certain way to perform their duty during that time. Then when the next year came around they fulfilled that duty again, whatever that duty was. Only the High Priest had duties continually. Only one time did he ever go into the Holiest of Holies to perform certain of those duties, but all these things were given, the design of it all, of these divisions and stuff, given by God to David.

...also for the divisions of the priest and the Levites, for all the work of the service of the house of the Eternal, and for all the vessels of the service of the house of the Eternal.

Now jumping down to verse 20 here, And David said to Solomon his son... Isn’t that an amazing thing, repeated over and over again - Be strong and courageous... Be strong and courageous.

It’s applied to what was revealed to Moses, written in Deuteronomy concerning Joshua and the promised land because it was a type, and now to David, another type, the temple. It wasn’t about the physical temple and neither was it about a physical promised land. It’s about us and where we are in time. That’s what’s so incredible to understand. All these things were written about a lead up to this period of time that goes into a new age and of the manifestation of the first great phase of a spiritual temple with Joshua the Christ the chief cornerstone and the first great phase of 144,000 ruling and reigning with him for the next 1,100 years. Incredible.

And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and courageous... That’s the same message to us. It’s the same message to us before we pass over, before we continue on, before we go into that area. This is what God is working in the Church right now, preparing us. I think of the name; God inspired a name, Preparing for the Kingdom of God. There was no other period of time that was preparing for that to be established on the earth. It wasn’t during the period of Ephesus. It wasn’t during the period of Smyrna or Thyatira. It wasn’t during the period of Sardis or Philadelphia or Laodicea. It’s in this period, a time of a remnant that God has prepared to do this and to prepare to go into a different time. How incredible is that?

So when is it going to happen? Well, that’s the question. We have our eyes focused on this year. Can it happen? One spark. Is it going to? Well, that’s in God’s hands right now. There are things we don’t know. There are things that God is not showing us right now and revealing to us right now. We’re to watch. As Johnny’s talked about, we have a front row seat and we’re going to see it. We’re going to witness certain things take place.

Whether it’s now, whether it begins to happen in January, February, what, the first week of March, there are things that have to have happen by that point in time. If not, we look forward to the following year just as we did before. Had a dry run, perhaps, I don’t know. 2012 and 2013, another... I don’t know. I hope we don’t. But if we do we’ll continue to move forward the way God leads us. I don’t even want to think about on that one.

So if we’re yielding to the building of the temple and crying out to God, hopefully, prayerfully, we’re where we need to be and things can be continued. Because you know what? Again, it’s been said over and over again, it’s about us first. It’s about the Church first, and especially about those who are going to finally be a part of the 144,000 fully sealed, when it’s fully completed. Then those four angels that are being held back they start it. It starts. It begins. You’ll know exactly when that is. Nobody has to tell you.

So he said, Be strong and courageous and do it. Just do it. Do what you’ve been shown. Do what you’ve been led to. Do what you’ve been prepared for. We’ve been preparing for a long, long time, and it’s an incredibly unique thing that we have. And do not be fearful or discouraged, for the Eternal God, even my God, will be with you; He will not fail you, nor forsake you... Words that need to ring in your mind later on. You might know them now but later they need to ring in your mind very powerfully so. He will not fail you nor forsake you, to finish all the work for the service of the house of the Eternal. Something to think about and meditate upon, pray about.

With that we’ve ended this series.

1. Chapter 1