The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is widows indeed.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of August 3, 2013
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.
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Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (Rom 7:1–15)
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The second through fourth verse of Romans chapter seven (both the verses and the chapters are late edits of Paul’s treatise to the holy ones at Rome—lower case script and spaces between words are fairly early edits) have traditionally been read physically, that is referring to actual marriage and widowhood whereas the inner self of a person is the head of the outer self of the person, giving to the inner self the characteristics of the husband while the outer self functions as the wife, with the outer self continuing to live when the inner self “dies” in baptism into “Christ.” For the outer self as the “fleshly body” of the person cannot divorce itself from the inner self that animates it … in the beginning, there was no divorce. Only death ended a marriage. And the inner self consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) through the person being humanly born as a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3) could not understand spiritual things (i.e., the things of God) and could not keep the commandments, but was, as Paul wrote [“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” — Rom 8:7–8] actually hostile to God.
Consider human society today: are political leaders hostile to God? Is not condoning homosexual marriages open hostility to God? Is not approving the aborting of infants hostility to God? Is not preventative military interventions hostility to God? Is not suicide bombings hostility to God? Does God need mere mortals to fight His battles? Is He not capable of defending His own? When the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary (Dan 7:9–14) and given to the Son of Man halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation (Rev 11:15–18), will Christ Jesus need His servants to bear arms for Him? Or will Christ be able to annihilate the assembled armies of this world when He returns as the Messiah? Is humanity not being prepared by Hollywood to fight against the Messiah when He returns?
While a person is still a sinner, Christ Jesus dies for the person:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. (Rom 5:6–10 double emphasis added)
We as former sons of disobedience—
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1–7 double emphasis added)
—that have been raised from death with Christ and raised from death through Christ dying for us while we were still sinners, have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places … the preceding is correct from the perspective of God in heaven: we who were dead in our sins, we who could not “force” our fleshly bodies to do the things that our spirit [pneuma] desired, we could not perfectly keep the commandments though that was our will, we have been raised from death and seated with Christ Jesus as His younger siblings (Rom 8:29–30) in high places. Yet today, we do not see ourselves anywhere but here on earth, in a world subjected to decay and the destruction of the flesh, whether through a drone strike initiated by President Obama or through the aging process initiated by God in the days of Noah when the world was baptized into death so that at the proper time God could have mercy on all (again, Rom 11:32) by “baptizing” all in spirit, His spirit [pneuma Theou] or breath of life that will transform even the “natures” of the great predators.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of [YHWH] shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of [YHWH]. And His delight shall be in the fear of [YHWH]. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of [YHWH] as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. (Is 11:1–11 emphasis added)
In that day when there shall come a shoot from the stump of Jesse—a root sprout that reaches behind King David and grows not from King David, nor from Jesse, but from Boaz and Ruth (from the old man and the honorable widow)—this shoot shall change the nature of the great predators as well as recover the remnant of Israel that remains in a second Passover liberation of Israel, a recovery of Israel that shall cause the Exodus from Egypt to be forgotten:
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares [YHWH], when it shall no longer be said, “As [YHWH] lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but “As [YHWH] lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares [YHWH], and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. (Jer 16:14–18)
Behold, the days are coming, declares [YHWH], when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: “[YHWH] is our righteousness.” Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares [YHWH], when they shall no longer say, “As [YHWH] lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but “As [YHWH] lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.” Then they shall dwell in their own land. (Jer 23:5–8)
Elsewhere, the prophet Isaiah wrote:
But now thus says [YHWH],
He who created you, O Jacob,
He who formed you, O Israel:
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name,
you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am [YHWH] your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you
peoples in exchange for your life.
Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made. (Isa 43:1–7)
The prophet Isaiah wrote in Hebraic verse (thought-couplets) in which the first presentation of a concept is physical [water] and the second presentation is spiritual [fire], with the Passover and Israel’s Exodus under Moses forming the shadow and copy of a second Passover and recovery of the remnant of Israel under first the two witnesses, then under Christ Jesus and the Remnant of the offspring of the Woman (from Rev 12:17) forming the Exodus that will cause Israel’s Exodus from Egypt to no longer be remembered; for the Second recovery of Israel shall be from indwelling sin and death, but only after the Lord twice repays Israel for its idolatry.
The Lord will send for fishermen and hunters to recovery the remnant of Israel, not for pastors and preachers; for when this second recovery of Israel occurs, all of Israel will have the Law written on hearts and placed in minds so that all Know the Lord (Jer 31:31–34; Heb 8:8–12).
The person who feels called to pastor disciples still does not understand the spiritual things of God, but is—if genuine—still a novice, a spiritual infant in need of milk and not meat, what fishermen and hunters deliver to the people of God that to this day remain dead in their idolatry. A person such as Glenn Beck who sincerely feels that the United States is on the brink of going the way of ancient Rome will, nevertheless, not give up his idolatry; will not keep the Commandments; will not keep the Sabbath; and will become bitter against God when—in the case of Beck, himself—his son, adopted, is a firstborn, is suddenly slain (because his is an uncovered firstborn) in the Second Passover liberation of Israel, with this bitterness causing Beck to do what he cannot today envision himself doing … the preceding is almost true: in those dark regions that remain in Beck’s thoughts, those places where he consciously doesn’t want to go or to remember when he challenged God, the base was long ago laid for him to actively oppose the people of God. The Adversary hasn’t released Beck, who remains a son of disobedience, the bondservant of the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, with the evidence of his continued enslavement being found in how he reads Scripture. Permit him, in his own hand, to make a copy of the last chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, of Mark’s Gospel through verse 8 (everything after verse 8 was added more than a century after the Gospel first appeared), of Luke’s Gospel, then compare the three post Resurrection accounts with each other and then with chapters 20 and 21 of John’s Gospel. Compare the accounts in English, then in Greek. Then permit him to reconcile the accounts.
The Adversary didn’t enter into Judas Iscariot to possess him when Judas was first given to Jesus as a disciple, nor a year later or two years later or even three years later. Rather, the Adversary entered into Judas Iscariot on Passover as initiated by Moses, who had Israel in Egypt, on the dark portion of the 14th of Aviv, roast with fire and eat their Passover lambs on the same night that Egyptian firstborns were slain, the night that Israel was commanded not to leave their houses until dawn (Ex 12:22) … 2nd temple Pharisees, not understanding the relationship between Exodus and Deuteronomy, ate their Passover lambs a day late. And the Adversary will enter into the man of perdition, the Lawless One, at the Second Passover liberation of circumcised-of-heart Israel, with this “circumcision” coming through all who profess to be Christians being filled with and empowered by the spirit of God [pneuma Theou]. The man of perdition will mistake being possessed by the Adversary for being filled with spirit.
The author of John’s Gospel writes, “(For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)” (John 6:64), and records Jesus praying, “‘While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled’” (John 17:12) … today, the glorified Christ Jesus not only knows who will serve as the man of perdition during the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation, but those who will oppose this Lawless One who is today as Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, chosen by God for a purpose,whose money bag burdened Judas Iscariot: it was Judas Iscariot that engaged in the transaction that Christ Jesus and His disciples needed to make in this world.
The person who feels called to shepherd disciples inevitably strives to make disciples for him or herself. To do so, this person will construct some form of a hierarchal organization that is of the present prince of this world. The organization may elect its board of directors; may appoint board members; may not have a board but be run by an autocrat. Regardless, the making of disciples is problematic when no person can come to Christ Jesus unless God the Father draws the person from this world (John 6:44, 65), and only those who are foreknown by God and predestined, called, justified, and glorified have been truly born of spirit as sons of God.
Jesus’ earthly disciples were not born of spirit when Jesus was physically with them. The spirit was not given to any until Jesus breathed (John 20:22) on the ten assembled together the afternoon of the day after the Sabbath, the afternoon of the Wave Sheaf Offering as the Sadducees reckoned when the waving of the first handful of ripe barley should occur, the barley that would be accepted by God without first being beaten into fine flour and baked as bread with leavening.
With the turning of the century, humanity entered into a period that will end shortly, but not before there is a Second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death, followed by the single kingdom of this world being taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man so that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth … most of humanity will perish: a tithe of the seven billion alive today will remain alive seven years after the Second Passover. But firstborns sealed in death at the Second Passover are not necessarily lost: resurrection in the great White Throne Judgment awaits those firstborns who have not tasted the goodness of God and rejected this goodness. However, the Sabbatarian who refuses to take the Passover sacrifice on the night when Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples probably has tasted the goodness of God and rejected God.
Jesus is today the Head of the Church (1 Cor 11:3), with the Church not consisting of an assembly of physical bodies but the assembly Jesus established through His indwelling in the inner self of the person. The Church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) is to the glorified Christ as the woman is to her husband, her earthly head if she is married. The Church is to the glorified Christ as the flesh is to the invisible, non-physical inner self that animates the flesh. Thus, when that older inner self who was a sinner and in whom Jesus entered when the person was still a sinner—when this “old man” dies in baptism in a death like that which Jesus died and is raised from baptism in a resurrection like that Jesus experienced when the glory of God entered into Jesus in the bodily form of a dove—when the fleshly body of the human person is a widow indeed via the old inner self perishing, the “person” is free to marry another, but only in the Lord. And this shall be where next Sabbath’s Reading begins.
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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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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."