The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary return to subjects previously discussed, but hopefully, with greater insight and depth. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is the key of David.

Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free.

Possible songs include the following hymns:
God of Our Father
Sing Praises and Rejoice!
How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings
O That Men Would Praise Their God!
I Will Praise Thee, O Eternal!

Weekly Readings

For the Sabbath of March 18, 2006

The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

The person conducting the service should now begin by reading Isaiah chapter 48, verse 12, and Psalm 146, verse 1, followed by Psalm 148, verse 1, and Psalm 149, verse 1.

Commentary: As observed when reading Isaiah chapter 43, the structure of Isaiah’s poetry—of all Hebraic poetry—features thought couplets that move from natural to spiritual, from darkness and death to light and life. These couplets have the same relationship in their first presentation of the thought to their second presentation that the first Adam, a man of mud, had with the last Adam, a quickening spirit.

‘“Listen to me [YHWH], O Jacob’” (Isaiah 48:12) is a direct address to the natural nation that only knew Yah [half of the tetragrammaton, the radial /YH/] as God, for Jesus came to reveal the, until then, unknown Father. Thus, the second clause of the sentence and second presentation of the thought—‘“and Israel, whom I called’”—is primarily directed at the spiritual nation that has prevailed with the Father [the second half of the tetragrammaton, the radical /WH/]. For until the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, the Father draws or calls disciples from the world as He pleases, this calling making some human beings special vessels chosen as firstfruits. So together, the names Jacob and Israel represent the physically circumcised nation and the spiritually circumcised nation—but Jacob also forms the spiritually lifeless shadow of Israel, who wrestled with God and prevailed, as the natural nation of Israel forms the lifeless shadow of the Christian Church.

The disciple who desires to know how the Church appears in the heavenly realm to God need only look at its shadow, reading, in particular, Ezekiel chapter 20.

In his mature years, King David understood the natural/spiritual metaphor inherent in Hebraic poetry—and possessing the “key of David” causes disciples to also understand this metaphor. The key of David isn’t knowledge of who the endtime descendants of the ancient house of Israel are. Such knowledge is physical and is, or has been obtained physically; such knowledge need not be revealed by God.

The much bandied key of David that one particular fellowship believes it possesses is a plagiarized scroll over which the fellowship’s disciples will stumble into their physical deaths early in the seven endtime years of tribulation. And this same scroll is referenced or indirectly used by other fellowships of the slivered Church of God, each sliver setting its disciples up to worship the old dragon when he is cast from heaven halfway though the seven endtime years…it cannot be said too strongly: the key of David doesn’t pertain to physical peoples, but to the relationship between the physical realm and the supra-dimensional heavenly realm, this relationship is that of Jacob to Israel, or of the first Adam to the last Adam, or of Theos [Yah] to Theon (from John 1:1-2).

The mature David wrote,

Praise the Lord [Yahh]!

Praise the Lord [YHWH], O my soul! (Ps 146:1)

Yahh [Strong’s #3050) is not a contraction for the tetragrammton YHWH (Strong’s #3068) as has been popularly taught for a very long time. Rather, it the only half of the tetragrammaton that was known to the natural nation of Israel; it is the personage seen by the seventy elders, and by Moses.

The reader should now read Exodus chapter 24, followed by John chapter 1, verse 18, and John chapter 17, verses 25 & 26.

Commentary: Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of the physically circumcised nation saw the God of Israel (vv. 9-11). So what does the Apostle mean when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18)?

Textual variations present more difficulties reconciling the two passages than should exist: “the only Son” who also is God, Theos or Jahh, and who is in the bosom of the Father, or at the Father’s side—“he has made him [the Father] known” (remainder of v. 18). Therefore, the seventy elders saw Jahh, or the Logos, who was Theos, and who was with Theon from the beginning. It is, now, Theon whom natural Israel never saw, or knew.

The man Jesus of Nazareth as the Logos made flesh came to reveal the Father, or Theon, whom the physically circumcised nation of Israel never knew, with one notable exception: King David, a man after Jah’s own heart.

The following comes from the Sabbath reading for June 11, 2005:

Commentary: The word translated as "God" in the Genesis creation account is Elohim, the regular plural (constructed from adding the square "m" to the end of the word) of Eloah, which deconstructs to the radical/El/ plus the radical /ah/. The radical /El/ is the Semitic signifier [or word] for God, as in El Shaddai, or God Almighty (Gen 17:1). The radical /ah/ signifies aspirated breath, or vocalized breath (as opposed to silent, or shallow breath). Thus, Eloah is God plus Breath, with Elohim being the regular plural of /God plus Breath/. In the creation account, Elohim is used in a singular sense, except in verse 26, where the plural pronoun is also used as Elohim speaks.

In Genesis 1:27, Elohim created man [adam -- not a personal name] or humankind in his own image [singular pronoun], in the image of Elohim he created him [the pronoun refers back to adam, or humankind]; male and female he created them.

In creating humanity in the image of Elohim, the Lord created them male and female. The Lord created one human being from the dust of the earth, then created the second human being, the help mate for the first human being from the bone and flesh of the first. Thus, the two together began as one flesh, and shall again become one flesh through marriage.

The person reading should now read from the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 34.

Commentary: In the Greek, the Logos [Word] was with Theon [God], and was Theos [God], and all things were created by Theos, the Logos, who became flesh and dwelt among human beings. Greek uses linguistic gender: the /os/ suffix is used for masculine singular nouns in the nominative case. The /on/ suffix is used for neuter singular nouns. Thus, both Logos and Theos are masculine singular nouns--they agree in number and in gender. But Theon does not agree in gender. Linguistically, Theon is a different deity than is Theos. But they are both God, and they, together, are God. However, one of them (Theos) created flesh and became flesh.

Theos did not create two human beings from the dust of the earth, but created one (Adam) who became two (Adam and Eve -- "Eve" sounds like the Hebrew for "life-giver" and appears as the word for "living") to again become one. The Apostle Paul identifies the man Jesus as the last Adam, a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). Thus spiritually, where there is neither male nor female, Theos has in relationship to Theon the role of life-giver, the role that physically belongs to Eve.

Returning now to Genesis 1:27, humanity [adam -- not the proper name] created in the image of Elohim is created physically male and female. Theon and Theos, together, are /El/ plus the plural. They are God, and Theos, as the man Jesus, give to all who received Him, who believed in His name the right to become children of God (John 1:12). He fulfilled and continues to fulfill the role of life-giver, the role of bringing forth sons of God.

Returning now to Psalm 148, verse 1:

Praise the Lord [Yahh]!

Praise the Lord [YHWH] from the heavens.

The earth, the natural creation made by Theos (John 1:3) praises its creator, but the heavens, the angels and all the host (Ps 148:2) praise the Father and the Son [YHWH]. The sun, moon, and stars—all created by Theos—praise Jahh, in advancing to the natural portion of the second thought couplet in the psalm. The “highest heavens and you waters about the heavens” praise YHWH (for a discussion of the “waters about the heavens” see the article at: http://homerkizer.org/typology.html).

In Psalm 149, verse 1, the same juxtaposition appears:

Praise the Lord [Yahh]!

Sing to the Lord [YHWH] a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!

The world is subject to death and decay; all of humanity is consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32). The world has no life but that received from the breath of Elohim [singular in usage]. There was no other life in either man or beast (Eccl 3:18-20) until the last Adam received the Spirit or divine Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] of the Father (Matt 3:16) to fulfill all righteousness. Human beings do not have immortal souls, but must be born anew, or born from above, or born of Spirit before they have life in the heavenly realm—and Jesus was first to have such life.

The godly (i.e., those who have been drawn by the Father — John 6:44) praise the Father and the Son, not just the Son, who is worthy of praise but who has the same God and Father as do disciples (John 20:17). Those disciples who have bit into the fruit of the Sacred Names Assemblies, regardless of flavor, do not know the Father, but know only the Son, for they assign the works and workmanship of Yah to the Father, thereby revealing their lack of spiritual understanding and discernment. Those disciples mistakenly use Yahweh for the name of the Father, and are inevitably Arian Christians.

King David understood the relationship between Yahh and the Most High Lord God, the Ancient of Days—again, David was a man after Yah’s heart. And those of us who come behind David will also understand the relationship between the natural nation, with authority to rule over it (Isa 22:22), and the spiritual nation of Israel, with authority to rule over it (Rev 3:7).

The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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