Archive for the ‘Bible Study’ Category

Betimes

Tuesday, October 8th, 2019

It is written by THE SPIRIT in Job 8:

5   If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

6   If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

Given that “betimes” is an unusual word which is either translated “early” or “diligently”, I asked my friend Alan to look at the original Hebrew word.  The following is his response:

Noah Webster lists ‘betime’ as this:    BETI’ME

BETI’MES, adverb [be and time, that is, by the time.]

1. Seasonably; in good season or time; before it is late.

To measure life learn thou betimes.

2. Soon; in a short time.

He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes.

Hopefully, now, the rest of what I say will make more sense.  Remembering that all Hebrew words/concepts come from a three-letter root verb, Strong’s numbered words #7835 thru #7842 are all dealing with the same concept; the same root idea.  And #7815 is also included in that same concept.  Your question involved Strong’s #7836, ‘shah-hkhar’, but all of the words in this grouping are dealing with the same concept or situation.  Hebrew didn’t know anything about Strong’s, or care.  These words are all addressing ‘darkness’, with the need for Light to overcome the ‘darkness’.  In my ‘theology’, all of scripture is addressing the spiritual darkness in ‘adam’.  All scriptures, even the ones that seem to be concerning a physical ‘land’, or objects, are dealing with the spiritual (or lack thereof) condition in man; ‘adam’.   ‘adam’ is in need of Spiritual Light to illuminate the darkness in ‘adam’.  And only Our Father is the source of Spiritual Light. To me, now, that is a ‘given’.  Spock would say, “That is an axiom”.  Or in other words, that is an obvious truth.  At least to me.

I shared a few days back “Re: 70 Nations Lamb Sacrifice on Mt Olives – YouTube”, the comments I included about Lucifer are dealing with this exact same word; shah-hkhar’.  In Isaiah 14:12 we read:  “How are you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning”  In my Bible, translators punctuated that phrase with an exclamation mark, as if to indicate emphasis on the condition of how much ‘lucifer’ has fallen.  However, the Hebrew word translated ‘How’ in this verse is a question; an interrogative.   ?  Omitting the question characteristics of this verse, and making the verse an emphatic declaration, distorts the communication.  The question this verse is posing is this: “What has caused you, lucifer, to fall away from heaven”? Heaven is obviously a spiritual mindset; and attitude; and a personal identity.  So the question is posed; “What has caused you to fall away from the heavenly reality of life, and caused you to embrace this more negative and deteriorated concept of yourself”?  This question is of the same nature as Genesis 3:9.  “Where are you, ‘adam’? What has happened to you”?  The question is posed to cause us to ask ourselves “What thinking has brought me to this condition”?  Also, ‘lucifer’ is not referring to a personal identity, but is referring to a condition of the heart/mind.  My, how we have distorted the simple Truth of Our Father!

The Hebrew word translated as ‘morning’ in Isaiah 14:12 is the exact same word/concept translated as ‘betimes’ in Job 8:5. 

From the e-mail:  “And this is the condemnation, (condemned nation?), that Light is come into the world, and man loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (dark; black).  Lucifer was called “…son of the morning;”  The Hebrew word (shah-hkhar, Strong’s #7838) that is translated as ‘morning’ in Isaiah 14:12, in reference to the darkened mind of Lucifer, is also translated as ‘black’ in Zechariah 6:2 & 6.”  And this:  “Morning’ and ‘Darkness’ and ‘Black’ are all communicating the same Hebrew concept; an absence of Light, and therefore a need for Light.

We can add to that list the word ‘morning’ when it is translated from this same Hebrew verb ‘shah-hkhar’.  In Job 7:21, this word ‘shah-hkhar’ is translated as “…seek me in the morning”.

Another good example of this is Gen. 19:15:  “…when the morning arose,”.  Or in my own words, “When the darkness began to arise from off him,…”   Again; ‘morning’ and ‘darkness’ and ‘black’, when translated from this verb ‘shah-hkhar’, are all referring to the darkness that prevails when there is no Spiritual Light functioning in the individual.  Hence, ‘Lucifer, son of the morning’, should be better translated as “…lucifer, son of darkness”.  “What has caused you to fall away from heaven, lucifer, son of darkness”?  Again, “What thinking, or heart condition, has brought you to this condition, or state of mind”?  Is it maybe time to acknowledge that you are wrong?

Now, back to Job, and my own translation of the Hebrew language of 8:5.  “If you, manifesting darkness, seek God, El Shaddai will be gracious to you”.

 Summation:  If we, acknowledging our darkness, the darkness of our deeds and our thinking and our attitudes and our appetites, turn to Our Father, He will turn our darkness into Light.  However, if we continue to love our darkness, as ‘lucifer’, we will remain in torment.  For there can be no ‘heaven’ in me when the torment of darkness is prevailing in my appetites, attitudes and actions.  Incidentally, this condition is the exact and true condition of those referred to as ‘Luciferian’.  They are just filled with darkness, and aren’t yet ready to turn to the Light.

Gad; A House Being Divided

Saturday, July 6th, 2019

Our Beloved Brother Alan has added a new installment to his study of the sons of Jacob:

As the story of Jacob, as revealed through the names of his sons, continues to unfold we see a continuing saga of chaos, disharmony and turmoil.  We read of the ongoing patterns that reveal the painful growth of a family that is experiencing all of the symptoms of dysfunction and crisis that many of us can recognize in our own family histories.  These inevitable malfunctions are the predictable events that are insured by a household consisting of one husband, two wives that are competitive sisters, and two concubines that are under the authoritative management of the individual sisters.  A lifestyle of this making is destined for trouble, and as the crescendo increases, also increases the likelihood of a major disruption, or split.  Jacob’s family troubles are getting worse, and can only go downhill from here. This broken and splintered family that is developing is indeed the beginnings of ‘Jacob’s trouble’ that Jeremiah wrote about, which all began to spin out of control when Jacob was willing to access the birthright by deception and deceit.  “Oh, what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.

We left off following this saga with the birthing of Naphtali to Bilhah, the handmaid to Rachel.  Bilhah, as you remember, was given to Rachel as handmaid by her father Laban when she married Jacob.  When Leah was conceiving and birthing sons to Jacob, and Rachel could not conceive, Rachel gave her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob as a wife.  Jacob dutifully sired two sons with Bilhah, whom Rachel named Dan and Naphtali.  Leah also received a handmaid as gift from her father Laban.  The handmaid to Leah was Zilpah, and when Leah realized that she was no longer getting pregnant, she gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob as wife, and Jacob, nice guy that he was, dutifully impregnated Zilpah.  Zilpah bore a son to Jacob, and Leah named the child Gad.  This is where this narrative of the sons of Jacob takes a conspicuous twist.  Keep in mind that a major motivation of this series of articles about the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel is to show a distinct parallel of the progression of the names of these sons of Jacob with our own personal individual experiences on our journey from ‘adam’ to Christ.Jacob’s journey to an identity as Israel is synonymous with our own journey from ‘adam’ to Christ.  The parallels are unmistakable.  And just as Jeremiah prophesied about Jacob being saved ‘out from’ his troubles (Jeremiah 30:7), so shall all receive their ‘saving’ in Christ.

NKJ Genesis 30:9-11;“When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad.

Of all of these ‘names’ of the sons of Jacob that have been investigated to this point, this ‘name’ of Gad was the most difficult to understand; at least for me.  But if these ‘names’ of the sons of Jacob, birthed by these different women, are of any Spiritual benefit to our own understanding, we must recognize the spiritual implications of these individual ‘names’.  These names have proven to reveal a progression to this point, so we must assume that Gad will also reveal a progression of spiritual illumination; once we plumb the mystery of what these names are revealing to us.

“Then Lead said, ‘A troop (gad) comes’!”  Could it be that Leah is offering a prophecy, maybe even unwittingly, about the coming troubles of this tribal family that is to later be referred to as ‘Israel’?

The name ‘Gad’ has been loosely translated into English as ‘troop’.  While this name may have some relevance to the quantity that this family is becoming, describing ‘gad’ as a troop does very little to reveal the spiritual chaos and dysfunction that this family is becoming.  The name ‘Gad’ comes from the three-letter root verb of ‘gadad’, Strong’s # H1413 and #1414.  This verb, ‘gadad’, is recognized as a cutting process; as the cutting down or felling of trees, and the cutting of stalks of grain into sheaves for harvesting.  This verb also refers to the cutting into the skin of people.  Many warrior cultures have a legacy of cutting into their skin to mark and scar themselves as a means of making themselves distinct from other peoples.  Sometimes this is done to send terror and fear to the opposition.  But it is also used as a means of motivating the ones cutting themselves into a more intense fighting mode, as if cutting into yourself will make you a more fierce antagonist.  This process of cutting into skin is referred to as ‘gah-dude’, Strong’s # H1416, and is used many times throughout the Old Testament language.

There are scriptural references to this activity of cutting into self, and most of these are warnings to avoid this type behavior, for it is not becoming of the sons of God.  Deut. 14:1, 1Kings 18:28 and Jeremiah 16:6 are all references to this process of marking one’s self by cutting into the skin.  However, the most prevalent use of this word is in the idea of groups of people ‘cutting off’, or separating into bands or ‘troops’, for the purpose of distancing themselves from identity with others.  This latter form as ‘separation’ became the most prevalent use of this word ‘gadad’, in all of its numerous forms.  The most recognizable idea of the word ‘gadad’, Strong’s # H1413, was when it was used to refer to those of the family of Jacob that had ‘cut themselves off’, or separated themselves into bands or ‘troops’ to distinguish that they did not continue to identify with, nor have comradery with, their previous tribal family. Psalm 94:21, Jeremiah 5:7 and Jeremiah 47:5 are examples of this ‘separation’ by cutting off.  And Micah 5:1 uses this word three times in one verse.  This word is also used in Joshua 3:15 and 4:18 and Isaiah 8:7, which Strong’s designates as #H1415, where it is translated as ‘banks’, as in the banks of a river, to indicate where the rivers water ceases, and the land begins.  Isaiah 8:7 is a metaphorical reference to the might of the king of Assyria coming up over his ‘banks’, describing the recognized limitations of the king of Assyria, to punish the apostate ‘people of the LORD’.

So, why would this word ‘gadad’ be used as a name for one of the sons of Jacob?  What was Leah seeing, spiritually, that caused her to call this child Gad?  What division or cutting off or separations did Leah sense in the birth of this son that compelled her to name him Gad?  Many, in their religious musings, have described this word ‘gad’ as referring to a troop that abounds in blessing and benevolent prosperity.  But if this were so, why is the most prevalent use of this verb form referring to separation, isolation and/or division?  Something is wrong with the ‘theology’ that ascribes ‘gad’ to an abundance of prosperity and success.  However, if we recognize that the word ‘gadad’ is referring to a time, or set of circumstances, that impel or compel an individual separation from familiar identities, then this word makes perfect spiritual sense.  I believe Leah was prophesying of a coming ‘separation’ within the mindset of the descendants of Jacob, all experiencing their own individual journeys to Christ.  And that ‘coming separation’ would require that the individual sojourner ‘gadad’, or separate and cut themselves off, from the domination of their previous familial identity, in order to take their destiny into another direction; a direction that eventually leads them to the Cross of Calvary, and to resurrection out from among the dead.  For this is just what was prophesied in Jeremiah 30:7. In this scenario of thought, naming the ‘seventh’ son of Jacob ‘Gad’ speaks volumes.

KJV Genesis 30:11 And Leah said, A troop (separation) cometh: and she called his name Gad.

If Leah was prophesying of a coming separation, an individual coming separation that could and would apply to us all as individuals, that ‘prophecy’ should be confirmed somewhere in the scriptures.  I believe that confirmation is revealed in Gen. 49:19.  Many recognize that Genesis 49 is the prophetic vision of Jacob, near the end of his life, where he reveals his own vision of the ‘Sons of Jacob’, the twelve sons that will eventually be recognized as Israel.  In this narrative, Jacob speaks the vision he has for his own twelve sons, a vision that only a father in his old age could reveal.  When Jacob gets to his vision of Gad, the surprise of the millennia is revealed. 

KJV Genesis 49:19 “Gad (gadad), a troop (gadad) shall overcome (gadad) him: but he shall overcome (gadad) at the last”.  All of these words in brackets are from the root verb ‘gadad’.  Remember, this word ‘gadad’ is referring to ‘separation’.

Allow me to translate this verse in my own South Carolina Hebrew descriptions. 

“Gad (separated); a troop (separation) shall overcome (separate) him: but, he shall overcome (separate himself) at the last.”  The wonderful surprise of this verse is revealed in the words translated as “…at the last.”   For the words “…at the last” in this verse are translated from one Hebrew word; the word from which we get the name ‘Jacob’.  WoW!!!  For thousands of years this verse has concealed this mystery: the phrase “…at the last” meant that eventually Gad would overcome by separating himself from his Jacob identity.  For ‘Jacob’, as an identity, has to die to self before ‘Israel’ can be realized and expressed.  Jacob gives us one sentence to declare about the future manifestation of the legacy of Gad.  And in that one brief sentence, Jacob describes the entirety of the message of the Gospel; we must die to self to recognize our Christ Identity.  And some say there is no God!  Tell that to Gad.

To be continued: ?

The Final Broadcast of the Series- Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 22 “The Big Picture”

Sunday, January 18th, 2015

Over the last few weeks, the broadcast has endured much interference.  This is not unexpected.  Anytime FATHER calls us to a project, resistance will normally occur before we cross the finish line.  This has played out multiple times over the last four decades and this project is no different.  This week I acquired a memory stick for one of our cameras in order to have a second backup to today’s broadcast if the Internet becomes unstable again.

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 22.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

We have had 102 broadcasts over the last 27 months focused on the books published by Servias Ministries.  This will complete our broadcast series on these publications.  You can order our books at www.unity153.net

As of yesterday we have had 23,642 views of the baptism of love channel.  I am grateful for the ongoing financial support that allows us to fulfill the mandate of Servias Ministries.

This will conclude the broadcast of our Bible study.  We will see what FATHER wants us to do next.  Until then, we will move into a time of “compression” in anticipation of the next major “expansion”.  One project, process, function, or area of preparation must end to allow the next to begin.  I am extremely excited about this what is coming forth this year.  The excitement began in early September and has grown since.  I expect something noteworthy to come forth.

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 21

Sunday, January 11th, 2015

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 21.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 20

Sunday, January 4th, 2015

FATHER wiling:

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 20- Our Covenant of Love.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 19

Sunday, December 28th, 2014

FATHER wiling:

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 19- Self Serving Motivation.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

Our live broadcast issue last week has hopefully been resolved by my Internet technician who came out this week and replace an incoming cable.

Sunday’s Broadcast is now available

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 18 Broadcast was recorded since we were unable to keep the Internet connection up.  It has now been uploaded to ustream at:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 18

Sunday, December 21st, 2014

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 18- Love unifies.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go tohttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 17

Sunday, December 14th, 2014

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 17- Love your enemies.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.

Today’s Online Bible Study Broadcast: Circumcised Heart of Love Chapter 16

Sunday, December 7th, 2014

We will have our Sunday afternoon Bible Study at 3PM CST in Bethany.  Bob will be directing the discussion today.  We will continue our focus on Love using the book “Circumcised Heart of Love” as a basis of discussion.  Today, we will be covering Chapter 16- Love never fails.

To participate live or watch this Bible study as a recording afterwards, go tohttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love  The chat room should be open today for your comments.  We look forward to your participation during our live broadcast.