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 greater Christendom’s desire to kill Sabbatarian Christians that Obadiah writes.
Printable/viewable PDF format to display Greek or Hebrew characters
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of December 11, 2010
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 vision of Obadiah. …
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so all the nations shall drink continually;
they shall drink and swallow,
and shall be as though they had never been.
But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
and it shall be holy,
and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau stubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,
and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
The exiles of this host of the people of Israel
shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
to rule Mount Esau,
and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. (Obad 1, 15–21)
___________________
To Abraham was born one son of promise, Isaac, with whom the Apostle Paul identifies 1st-Century Christians:
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Gal 4:28–31)
The son born according to the flesh was Ishmael, born to Hagar, the slave woman who was the handmaid to Sarah. But the natural descendants of Israel were not biologically of Ishmael; yet in Paul’s analogy, natural Israelites equate to Ishmael while Christian converts, circumcised of heart, equate to Isaac, Abraham’s son of promise, with Christ Jesus being in the role of Abraham.
Although bold, Paul’s analogy is fairly straight forward: for Paul, a son of promise is a son born by the breath [pneuma] of God, with the promise made to Abraham that his seed would be as the stars of heaven (Gen 15:5) referencing not biological descendants but the sons of God that would form a great nation (Gen 12:2), with all families of the earth being blessed in Christ Jesus, a type of Abraham and a descendant of the patriarch. It was about the promise that his seed be as stars that Abraham had his belief of the Lord counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3). Therefore, for Paul, the breath [pneuma] of the Lord in the form of speech that had promised Abraham his seeds would be as stars is the same breath of God [pneuma Theon] that gives life to the inner self, resurrecting the dead inner self to life in a manner analogous to Jesus being raised from the dead to never die again.
As Paul did elsewhere in his epistles, in his analogy of Christians being of Isaac Paul takes importance away from what is physical—of this creation, the cosmos—and places that importance on what is non-physical, a movement that natural Israelites did not understand nor want to understand. After all, if the things made are no longer of importance in and of themselves, then the natural descendants of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob no longer have a “special” relationship with God, the logical outgrowth of the movement from a stone temple [Herod’s temple] to the temple of God being the assembly the glorified Jesus creates when He breathes on ten of His first disciples (cf. Matt 16:18–19; John 20:21–23). Hence, Paul claims that disciples are the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16), and that he laid the foundation for this house of God (1 Cor 3:10–15), with Jesus being the cornerstone upon which this house is built and with Jesus being worthy of more glory than Moses as the builder of the house has more glory than the house itself (Heb 3:3).
In Paul’s allegory of disciples being Isaac, Jesus is Abraham—but Jesus is also the reality of Moses, with the reality having as much more glory over its shadow as God has over the sun (e.g., Mal 4:1–3), thereby establishing the connection that the visible, physical things of this world reveal and precede in time the invisible, spiritual things of God (Rom 1:20), with the sun, a rather small star but the source of life on this earth, being nothing more than the lifeless shadow of the Creator of all things made, this Creator not being the Most High God but the Logos [o logos] who was God [theos] and who was with the God [ton Theon] in the beginning (John 1:1–3). Therefore, buried in Paul’s allegory is awareness that the Creator of all things made is to the Most High God as entering the Promised Land of Canaan, the rest that the Lord gave to the children of Israel, was to keeping the weekly Sabbath, which represented and continues to represent entering into God’s rest as in entering into God’s presence (see Ex 33:14). Thus, keeping the Sabbath forms the shadow and type of entering into heaven (cf. Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14), whereas keeping the day of the sun [the day after the Sabbath] as a person’s day of rest forms the shadow and copy of perishing with the coming of the new heavens and new earth about which the prophet Isaiah spoke (Isa 66:22–23).
The movement from physical to spiritual is the movement from death to life, which for human sons of God forms the mirror image of rebelling angelic sons of God’s movement from life to death when the world that presently is passes away with the coming of the new heavens and new earth. Therefore, in a human being’s “natural” life, death follows life as non-existence precedes life … for rebelling angels confined to the outer darkness [lifelessness] that this world represents, death will follow life as their non-existence preceded their receipt of life. But for human sons of God, death in the form of a physically living tent of flesh in which a dead inner self presides precedes receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of God [pneuma Theon] that brings eternal life to the dead inner self, thereby raising this inner self from death, giving to this inner self life as angels have life, but life that still needs a heavenly tabernacle in which to dwell, with the Son to give immortality to perishable tents of flesh when judgments are revealed—
As both the Father and the Son must give life to a human being before the person enters heaven as a son of God, both the Father and His glorified firstborn human sons must condemn rebelling angelic sons of God before life is taken from these rebels. It is for this reason that no angelic son of God lost his life prior to when the man Jesus, as the First of the firstborn sons of God, entered heaven to there confirm the Most High God’s condemnation of the firstborn “son” of the Adversary, with this firstborn being the first horn [king] of the federated King of Greece. Likewise, the two witnesses, when resurrected from death, will confirm the Most High God’s condemnation of the beast and of the false prophet: the beast is the king of the North, the fourth king to emerge from around the stump of the broken first king (the fourth horseman), whereas the false prophet is the first king to emerge from around the stump (the first horseman of the Apocalypse).
It is by the testimony of two or three that a thing is established. The Father and the glorified Son are two witnesses against the first king of the federated King of Greece. The Father and the glorified two witnesses will be three witnesses against the false prophet and the beast, the first and fourth kings to emerge from the federated King of Greece once the first horn is broken. Likewise, the resurrection of the man Jesus from death and of the two witnesses from death complete the Father’s testimony that Death has been defeated, that men can live forever. So also the sudden breaking of the first or great king of the federated king of Greece and the deaths of the first and fourth kings to emerge from around the stump of the great king complete the Father’s testimony that angels can die.
Unimaginative, undereducated, and uninspired scholars have found a conflict between Paul and James the Just, the brother of Jesus, but no such conflict exists today or existed in the 1st-Century; for Christians are not the circumcised or uncircumcised tents of flesh in which living sons of God temporarily dwell once dead inner selves are raised to life in a resurrection like that of Christ Jesus. Rather, Christians are the living inner selves that have been born of God through receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of life received by the man Jesus when the breath of God [pneuma Theon] descended upon Him in the visible form of a dove.
Indwelling physical life is sustained by human breath, with the expansion and contraction of the lungs bringing into the lungs oxygen molecules that are then carried by the blood stream throughout the body, with these oxygen molecules permitting the cellular oxidation [burning] of simple carbohydrates at the cell level. Physical life is sustained by many internal physical fires that are unseen by human eyes.
Indwelling everlasting life, or indwelling life in the timeless heavenly realm is sustained by the breath of God [pneuma Theon] that Ezekiel identifies as the glory of God (Ezek 1:26–28) is described in a manner analogous to how physical breath sustains physical life, but with a caveat: the breath of God is an ever-burning fire that would consume the human being if it were not contained in a vessel that has also come from heaven, with this “vessel” being Christ Jesus in the form of His breath [pneuma Christos] or glory. … The glory of a human being isn’t his or her body [i.e., how strong the man is or how sexual the woman is], but the life that exists in that body.
The Apostle Paul writes, “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image [eikon] and glory [doxa] of God, but woman is the glory [doxa] of man” (1 Cor 11:7) … Adam was created in the likeness of God (Gen 5:1). Seth, the male descendant of Adam through Eve, was formed in the likeness and image of Adam (v. 3). Thus, for man to be in the image of God, man must look similar to how God looks. Woman/women do not look like men although woman should be the unmarked representative of the species, with the marker being the penis as any man unwittingly testifies by lifting his shirt. So glory as opposed to image does not address appearance or likeness, but the acknowledgement of life given first to Adam, then to Eve through Adam.
As an aside, when a person encounters a category of things and does not know how to describe these things, the person begins by looking for difference and for what creates this difference. All of those things that do not display difference are “unmarked”; whereas those things that display difference are “marked.” The marker is what creates this difference. Thus, when encountering human beings, it isn’t feet or legs, hands or articulated thumbs that create difference between one human being and another. It isn’t hair or teeth or speech or nipples that establish difference. The marker that establishes difference—that subtracts “fe” from female or “wo” from woman—is the presence of a penis … the absence of the marker doesn’t establish difference, but the base for describing the category of things, making humankind an unusual category; for there is no unmarked human woman. From the shoes a woman wears or doesn’t wear to her hair style, every aspect of the woman “marks” her when it is the male that bears the true marker of difference. Therefore, in Adam being created in the likeness of God, the marked difference appeared before the unmarked category is created, with the name Eve in Hebrew sounding like “life-giver” and resembling the word for “living.” The unmarked category is the living: woman is the representation of life or the giving of life. The man in the likeness of God gave “life” to the woman, who in turns gives life to the entirety of the category. The marker that distinguishes the man from the woman will now serve a symbolic function that is not of God but of humankind’s inability to describe itself—
Elsewhere, Paul wrote,
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (1 Tim 2:8–15)
Lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling is not an action that women should do, but an act based upon the authority a man possesses in being in the image of God, with this authority humanly represented by the marker that distinguishes men from women, the marker that represents the authority of a firstborn son …
In the theme song for the 1958 movie, Thunder Road, about running moonshine whiskey, Lucas Doolin goes where angels fear to tread—and that is the case in here addressing Paul’s instructions to Timothy, instructions that have alienated at least two generations of ideological feminists.
Seth is not the firstborn son of Adam, but the living son appointed by God as the replacement for righteous Abel, whom Cain slew. And Seth was a son in the likeness and image of Adam whereas Cain was not; for Cain was “marked” by the Lord, with this mark thereby separating Cain from the living (i.e., from Eve). Seth remained among the living as his descendant Noah became the chokepoint that separated the living from the dead through the additional marker of righteousness.
What Paul wrote to Timothy that has been badly misapplied pertained to the distinction between image and glory: the phallic symbol that has been used profanely and as an idol is the marker that outwardly represents the inner self of a human being, with this marker concealed by the attire of the man as the inner self is concealed by the tent of flesh in which it dwells. In order for a human being to be physically alive, an inner self representing the glory of the man must be present. But this inner self is “dead” until the human person receives a second breath of life, the breath of God pneuma Theon] that is the glory of God. Thus, woman represents the category of living persons with dead inner selves as in not-present inner selves; whereas man represents the category of living persons with living inner selves as revealed in the presence of the penis. This is not to say that “men” of the human species have living inner selves whereas “women” do not. Rather, this is to say that to be in the image of God, a human person must have a living inner self.
It is the human person who does not have a living inner self that is to be quiet and learn from her husband, whom for disciples is Christ Jesus but for non-Christians is a “Christian.” And if the preceding sentence is left without further explanation, a theological firestorm will be kindled; for without explaining more than “Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Tim 2:13), Paul created a sexual maelstrom by equating maleness to praying with uplifted hand, with maleness being a phallic symbol representing the living inner self that has received life as a son of God … the Adversary has long understood that the human penis outwardly represents the living inner firstborn son of God, the reason why Adam had to precede Eve for Jesus as the last Adam was the first human being to receive a second breath of life and a living inner self that made Him the First of the firstborn sons of God—
Eve would be saved through childbirth; i.e., through the inner self being resurrected from death to walk in newness of life as a son of God. The living inner self is a son of God, its maleness coming from the glory/breath of God. The living inner self of firstfruits is never female, but always the firstborn son of God, with the son who kept the commandments and taught others to do likewise being great in the kingdom whereas the son who relaxed the least of the commandments and so taught others being called least in the kingdom (Matt 5:19). Hence, in moving from physical to spiritual and from sexual [i.e., pertaining to the flesh] to the hierarchy of heaven, the marker that distinguishes great from least is keeping the commandments, with this spiritual marker forming the reality of circumcision of the penis.
The woman is not circumcised … what Muslims call “female circumcision” is mutilation of the living so as to make the living dead in this world and before God. It is the man who is or isn’t circumcised; it is the person who has received a second breath of life that is or isn’t circumcised of heart, with circumcision of the heart forming the reality foreshadowed by cutting away the natural foreskin. Thus, being born of God (i.e., having the dead inner self resurrected to life) isn’t enough for salvation: as the circumcised man has no “covering” for his nakedness but his obedience to God, the son of God must make a journey of faith that cleanses the heart before the heart of this son of God can be circumcised—and that journey of faith will have the son of God keeping the commandments by faith because this son of God hears the voice of his Elder Brother speaking the words of his Father, and this son believes his Brother and his Father.
Islam has transformed a third of the living into a spiritual cover crop that will be plowed under in the Affliction; whereas greater Christendom has spoiled a third of the living as spoiled wine becomes vinegary, not even fit for pickling what will be consumed later in the lake of fire.
As the first Adam received the first breath of life when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of this man of mud, with that breath of life transferred to every human being since the creation of Adam by the biological processes inherit to the womb of a woman, the last Adam—the man Jesus, a life-giving spirit (from 1 Cor 15:45)—received the second breath of life when this breath of the Father descended upon Him, lit, and remained with Him (Matt 3:16), with this second breath of life transferred to every Christian since by the breath of God raising the inner dead self of a human being [the spiritual equivalent to the lifeless red mud from which Adam was formed] to life as a son of God via the indwelling of the breath of Christ [pneuma Christos] … the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:23), with the indwelling of Christ Jesus being the vessel able to hold in a disciple the glory of God that appears as non-oxidizing fire. Again, this heavenly fire would utterly consume the person if not held in a vessel that has also come from heaven. Hence, no person has indwelling eternal life apart from those human beings in whom the breath of Christ dwells.
It is always a lie to teach that human beings are humanly born with immortal souls … men are not the unmarked classification of the living, but the “marked” classification. The spiritually living are “marked” through the indwelling of Christ Jesus.
Immortality is an attribute of life outside of time and space; i.e., of life that has come from the supra-dimensional heavenly realm. And without the indwelling of a container or vessel that has also come from the heavenly realm, this life-sustaining fire would consume what is physical, meaning simply that unless a person first receives Christ Jesus the person cannot be born of God; the person cannot receive the holy spirit [pneuma hagion] without perishing.
What the Apostle Paul understood, as did James, was that when the glorified Jesus breathed on His disciples (John 20:22), Jesus directly transferred to His disciples a second breath of life, the breath of life He received when the breath of the Father descended upon Him in the likeness of a dove, with these ten first disciples upon whom He breathed being analogous to Eve from whom human life comes … there is no conflict between James and Paul. Modern scholars misread Paul’s epistles.
Although Paul did not know about the Endurance in Jesus (Rev 1:9; 3:10), knowledge given to John after the other first disciples died—knowledge not intended for 1st-Century Christians—nor did Paul know that there would be a Second Passover liberation of Israel, also knowledge deliberately not given to the first disciples, Paul well understood the significance of the formerly dead inner self being resurrected to life to walk as Christ Jesus walked. And Paul took his knowledge of the movement of Israel from being the outwardly circumcised firstborn son of God (Ex 4:22) to being the inwardly circumcised firstborn son of God to peoples that would not have listened to James about anything. So James and Paul were not competitors, with Paul telling converts that they need not be circumcised and keep the Law while James taught converts to practice outer righteousness according to Moses—this is what Christian scholars would have their students believe. Rather, they complimented each other, with Paul revealing what John certainly knew: receipt of the breath of God brought life to the inner self that was humanly born “dead” as in a human person being born into slavery/serfdom, with liberty representing life. Paul also understood that the woman represented inwardly dead but physically living Jews and Gentiles, and that the woman would be saved through childbirth that would see the dead inner self resurrected to life in a resurrection like that of the man Jesus of Nazareth.
The temple was liberated from death [from being a lifeless stone structure] when Jesus, six months into His earthly ministry cleansed the temple by driving out the livestock, the merchants, and the moneychangers, then speaking about His body said, “‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (John 2:19) … the liberation of the inner self from death—the giving of life to the inner self—breaks Babylon’s hold on the person’s inner self, thereby disrupting the inner self’s desire to pursue the things of this world.
John writes,
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17 emphasis added)
The desire to have the things of this world; the desire to possess the nice and pleasant things that denote success in this world; the desire to rise above poverty and surround oneself with nice things—these are not desires that come from God, but from the Adversary, who has deceived the entire world (Rev 12:9), with the deceived person not realizing how he or she has been duped by the subtlety of an enemy that is without mercy.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. / I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? / Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. (1 Cor 4:1–13 emphasis added)
What does any person have other than what the person received, with the desire to have the nice things of this world coming from the Adversary so that he might devour the person.
A person does judge him or herself through the simple act of believing the Father, with the judgment being made on an ongoing basis to be revealed when Christ Jesus returns as King of kings and Lord of lords. Although it doesn’t seem like a disciple is in the continual act of judging him or herself, Paul judged himself:
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. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. / So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Rom 7:8–25 emphasis added)
Without judging himself, Paul would not have known that sin dwelt in his fleshly members. Likewise, without a disciple coming to John and seeing in John condemnation for loving the things of this world, the fine things of life, those things that distinguish between flesh and spirit, the disciple would be as Paul was before the Law awakened Sin, a slumbering beast well able to buy and sell disciples as if they were commodities on Chicago’s Board of Exchange.
Without judging oneself, a disciple doesn’t realize that a simple desire to dwell comfortably in fine surroundings comes from the Adversary, not from the Most High God who is not a respecter of persons, having one human person living in the squalor of Manila’s municipal dump and another person living in the elegance of an Aspen chalet … the poor will always be with Israel because the Adversary rules over the nation and the people, having respect for one person but no respect for another person.
The importance of things and especially of fine things comes from the person serving the Adversary: the Father promises to supply His sons with their needs … the fine things of this world are never needs that the Father has promised to supply. Rather, life in the heavenly realm is the only need the person has. Not even the life of the flesh is a need; for the saints slain for the word of God and for the witness they have borne (Rev 6:9) have lost their physical lives yet still live, asleep under the altar, awaiting the slaying of their fellow saints who are to be killed as they were (v. 10).
So there is no mistake: the desire to have the fine things of this world is not of God, but of the devil who has deceived the entire world so that the person dwelling in splendor is no more satisfied with his or her life than is the person dwelling in poverty. The person who jets around the world, sleeping on soft beds, eating the delicacies of kings and presidents, garbed in well fitted clothing is just as much as slave of the Adversary as is the person begging for handouts on the streets of Iraq: the appetites of the belly and loins rule the person, reducing the person to meat to be butchered as it seems appropriate to the Adversary, who may well keep a magic slave at his beck and call, serving as his voice, his representative in this world, a posturing talking head who is all ears and tongue.
A person who professes to be a Christian mocks the Apostle Paul when the person is not satisfied to live as Paul lived; for there is an element concealed in Paul’s allegory about 1st-Century disciples being of Isaac that has long been overlooked by saints:
These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. (Gen 25:19–26 emphasis added)
For approximately twenty years, Rebekah was barren, giving no son to Isaac nor grandson to Abraham. Yet through these two decades, the Lord’s promise to Abraham that his seed would be as stars remained binding on the Lord, meaning that Isaac became a shadow and copy of his father Abraham as disciples are fractals of Christ Jesus, who is one with His Father and disciples’ Father. Thus, Esau and Jacob are both sons of promise, born to a barren womb, as Isaac was a son of promise, born to a barren womb. And of these two sons of promise, Esau is hated [disrespected] but Jacob is loved (Mal 1:2–3).
Now we can return to the prophecy of Obadiah concerning Esau; for if Paul’s tour de force allegory is continued, the children born to the barren woman (from Isa 54:1; Gal 4:27)—the children that Zion shall bring forth in a day (Isa 66:7–8)—are Jacob and Esau, with Jacob described as a righteous Abel born of God at the Second Passover liberation of Israel and with Esau described as a murderous Cain, born with Abel as if a twin but not separated from Abel until the lawless one is revealed on day 220 of the Affliction. For the rebellion evident in Cain was not manifested at birth, or even when both Cain and Abel made an offering to the Lord, with righteous Abel’s offering concealed in the offering of Cain—Cain would have been accepted if he had done well [i.e., been without sin — Gen 4:7]—but Cain’s rebellion became evident when sin, lurking at his door, devoured him as a wolf devours a lamb.
The Passover sacraments of bread and wine are an offering made from the fruit of the ground, but on one day of the year, the dark portion of the 14th of Aviv, by being blessed by the Lord Cain’s offering becomes righteous Abel’s offering, the firstborn Lamb of God. Thus, from the fruit of the ground comes the acceptable offering made to the Lord, but acceptable on only one day of the year for the Israelite who is not defiled by touching a dead body or absent from the nation by being on a long trip … if the trip is nearly two millennia long as Jesus’ trip to heaven has been, the Israelite would not take the Passover sacraments with his people as Jesus will not do until disciples are glorified (see Matt 26:29). And Paul’s admonishment to the saints at Corinth now comes into play:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed [the 14th of Aviv] took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. / Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Cor 11:23–32 emphasis added)
In the same epistle in which Paul wrote that he didn’t judge himself (1 Cor 4:3), he commands the saints to judge themselves so they will not have to be judged by the Lord and disciplined or condemned along with the world … failure to righteously judge oneself causes the saint to be disciplined by the Lord, or condemned as the world is condemned. In this same epistle, Paul commands saints to judge the Church (1 Cor 5:12–13); therefore, the lawless Christian who mocks a Philadelphian from judging him or herself as well as the Church—this lawless Christian will not accept the discipline of the Lord, leaving this lawless Christian condemned along with the world.
But it is the often cited sentence, For as oft as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you show the Lord’s death until He comes, that here needs addressed: this sentenced has been repeatedly used as justification for partaking in Cain’s offering and calling it a sacrifice to the Lord on every day of the year except the Passover. Yet, for the defiled person on a long trip into death, the frequency with which the person has eaten the bread and drank from the cup isn’t many times, but not at all … the first time the person takes the Passover sacraments of bread and wine on the 14th of Aviv will establish the baseline for how frequently—how often—the saint shows the Lord’s death. Today, for almost 100% of Christendom, how often is never.
The Israelite defiled by touching a dead body—the lifeless Body of Christ [lifeless because collectively the Church has lost the Holy Spirit]—would not keep the Passover on the 14th of Aviv as greater Christendom does not do, but would instead keep the Passover on the 14th of Iyyar, the second Passover that forms the shadow and copy of the Second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death. This is not to say that Philadelphians should keep the second Passover rather than the Passover—they should not—but is to say that as a manner of reflection, Philadelphians have very little interaction with the dead Body of Christ. A Philadelphian, under no circumstances, would do the things that define the dead Body of Christ, with Sunday worship and Christmas observance forming the foremost examples of the dead Body’s mingling of the sacred and the profane, with this mingling having kept the Corpse from receiving the Holy Spirit for centuries.
The preceding is convoluted enough that a textual explanation seems appropriate: because greater Christendom and Christians within the greater Church have not kept the Passover for the centuries between the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE) and when the last Elijah first laid over the Body of Christ to figuratively give to this dead Body mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, breathing His breath [pneuma Christos] into the dead Body (ca 1525 CE), the greater Church is defiled by its death and is not eligible to take the Passover sacraments on the 14th of Aviv, but will be eligible to take the sacraments on the second Passover. This suggests that some event outside of Scripture and outside of prophecy will occur after the Passover and before the second Passover in the year of the Second Passover, with this event causing many within the greater Christian Church to turn to God and to take the sacraments, thereby covering their lawlessness when death angels pass over all the land. In the United States of America alone, nearly 30 million Christians will dedicate or rededicate their lives to Christ Jesus on the Feast of Dedication, which coincides on Philadelphia’s calendar with New Year’s this year (i.e., from sunset on December 31st to sunset January 1st). This rededication will be in the form of a New Year’s resolution, which would normally be forgotten by Passover but may well not be forgotten if an event occurs that keeps the focus of these rededicated Christians on the Father and the Son.
But when the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs, greater Christendom will be born of God in a day as the children of Zion are born in a day—and two sons will be born, with both sons initially being righteous through being filled-with and empowered by the breath, the glory of God. Sin, however, lurks at the door of Esau/Cain, the son of promise that the Lord hates—
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Rom 9:6–13)
The woman represents the children of the flesh; whereas the man represents the children of promise, with the man divided between the circumcised-of-heart and the uncircumcised, a division that will be broken down when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man and the world is baptized [submersed] in the breath of God so that every living person becomes a firstborn son of God. It is in this childbirth that the last Eve, the Zion of the prophet Isaiah, will be saved; for every living human person will then become Seth, or an appointed son of God.
What the prophet Obadiah wrote concerning Esau/Edom pertains to the greater Christian Church in the Affliction; for Esau will kill and try to kill his brother. It is about greater Christendom’s desire to kill Sabbatarian Christians that Obadiah writes.
This reading introduces subjects that need greater explanation, with these subjects to be addressed in subsequent readings.
*
The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
* * * * *
"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."