Typology: the Key to Understanding - Homer Kizer Ministries

This essay will be presented in seven (7) parts. ©Homer Kizer
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Typology: the Key to Understanding

The Argument: Typology allows understanding through visual and spatial constructs, through the visible geography of a region revealing the invisible realm of the conscious and subconscious mind. The geographical boundaries of pre-Flood Eden form the visible referent for the boundaries of humanity's invisible mental topography.

Bread & Typology

When Jesus' disciples urged Him to eat, Jesus said, '"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, "There are yet four months, then comes the harvest"? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest'" (John 4:34-35). Jesus linked food (bread) with the will of the Father, with the grain harvest, and with human beings ready to be gathered to God. The bridging metaphor between the will of God and ripe humanity is the grain harvest, which before being baked into food (bread) must have the sickle taken to it, then be gathered into the barn where it is thrashed and winnowed, and finally ground or crushed into fine flour. The maturing of the grain is at the expense of the plant: the plant dies. Processing then transfers the life inherent within the seed or grain kernel to life for an entirely different nature or design of creature, thereby establishing the comparative relationship of wheat::mankind being analogous to mankind::deity. For the will of the One who sent Jesus is that Jesus should lose nothing that was given to Jesus, but should raise up those individuals He receives on the last day (John 6:39). Jesus said, '"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life"' (v. 40). The Apostle Paul wrote, "For those whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he [Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom 8:29). Therefore, within the context of the bridging metaphor, the hard words of Jesus saying that He was the bread of life (John 6:35), and '"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh'" (v. 51) make Jesus the spiritual reality of the food offering that the circumcised nation had continually presented to God. Just as Jesus on Calvary became the reality of both the daily sacrifice and of the paschal lamb, He was also the reality of the fine flour and oil, and of the wine. The offerings of the temple at Jerusalem were shadows of a reality that is Christ Jesus.

The hard words of Jesus that caused many to quit following Him also contain what remains equally hard for greater Christianity to accept today: the destiny of born-from-above human beings is to be actual younger siblings to Christ Jesus, and to be like Jesus in every way. For the Trinitarian Church, this is blasphemy; this is the sin of the devil who sought to make himself like the Most High. But Trinitarians quit following Jesus so long ago that even they cannot remember when they adopted Hagar as their mother, thereby making themselves spiritually circumcised descendants of Ishmael, who was loved by his father Abraham but was not the heir of promise. Trinitarians, by (1) trying to enter God's rest on the following day and (2) through the cross, have made themselves bondservants to sin and death. The first [trying to enter God's rest on the following day] is sin or lawlessness; the second [the cross] is death, not life. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed Jesus from the cross. Jesus didn't leave the cross alive; He left the tomb or the grave alive. The cross was the instrument of Jesus' death. It is and remains the image of, symbol of, and representation of death.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus privately and said that "we," he and the other teachers of Israel, knew that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God (John 3:2), Jesus asked Nicodemus how he could be a teacher of Israel if he, Nicodemus, didn't understand earthly things or examples (vv. 10-12). What Nicodemus didn't understand was being born again, or born-from-above. Nicodemus thought about birth in terms of reentering a womb. A second birth would then require a second emergence from a womb. Birth-from-above would then require emergence from a womb from above, or a spiritual womb.

Jesus spoke to His disciples in figures of speech (John 16:25); He spoke to the crowds only in parables (Matt 13:34-35). His reason for using literary tropes was to disclose but not reveal the secret things that cannot be determined by human beings through observance or logic. Revelation about or understanding of these secrets was not given to the crowds, nor fully given to His disciples until after His glorification. But by or before His death at Calvary, Jesus had, through tropes or devices, fully disclosed those secret things that humanity still yearns to know, things that greater Christianity still doesn't know, things that will effect every spiritual Israelite in the near future. For Holy Writ records the literary tropes through which the secret things were disclosed but not revealed. Scripture doesn't record what Jesus taught His disciples after His glorification. Therefore, until (or "unless" in individual cases) Jesus reveals through the Holy Spirit what He taught His disciples during those forty days that He was with them, the spiritually circumcised nation remains as the physical circumcised nation then was when He disclosed secrets that could not be understood. This is why the Apostle Paul had his problems with the circumcision faction, for understanding had been given to Paul during those three and a half years he was in Arabia. The circumcision faction, even though coming from the headquarters church in Jerusalem, lacked realizing that physical circumcision caused a disciple to appear naked before God, with the disciple's only covering for sin being his or her obedience to God. To be physically circumcised after being born-from-above causes the disciple to remove the cloak of Christ's righteousness before it's time for the Son of Man to be revealed.

Birth-from-above is a reality as well as a metaphor that in turn has metaphors. Jesus said, '"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit'" (John 12:23-24). Using figurative language, Jesus identifies Himself as a grain of wheat, and crucifixion as falling into the earth and dying. Bearing much fruit, now, becomes His disciples receiving birth-from-above through receipt of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the continuation of what Jesus said (vv. 25-26) has His disciples also dying and producing much fruit so that the growth of the Son of Man is through the propagation of one seed. Fields will be planted through the continuous propagation of the single seed, through Jesus' servants following Him until Jesus draws all people to Himself (v. 32). Following Jesus means dying to oneself, means falling into the earth and dying.

The evening following His Ascension, Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples and said, '"Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma 'Agion or Breath Holy]'" (John 20:22). With this direct transfer of the Holy Spirit, His disciples received birth-from-above. They became the last Eve as He was the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45), a life-giving spirit. And this last Eve, as a woman swollen with child, has grown large from the single seed planted in her when Jesus breathed on His disciples, thereby transferring the life inherent that He had to His disciples.

The mixing of metaphors contained within Scripture has disciples being the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and the Church, or last Eve. As such, disciples are the Body of the Son of Man, and they will be revealed when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30). Their revealing will also be the last Eve giving birth to her firstborn son by the last Adam. And as the last Eve approaches the delivery of her firstborn son of God, a spiritual Cain whose offering to God will be of the ground (bread & wine), the time for the unveiling of secrets has come.

The seven endtime years of tribulation begin with the revealing of the Son of Man; with the birth of a spiritual Cain, who will be accepted by God if he does well (Gen 4:7). But sin or lawlessness lurks at this Cain's door. Sin's desire is for this firstborn son of the last Eve, and the personification of sin is more than the use of a literary trope to represent a state of mind. Sin is the king of the South, a four-headed leopard that comes riding a black horse. And this last Cain, a son of promise, while still in the womb of the last Eve made himself a bondservant of sin. He will be as Esau was, hated while still in the womb when no sin was yet imputed to him. When still cloaked in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, this firstborn son of promise struggled with his brother Jacob, who would wrestle with God and prevail. The two sons are different nations, the firstborn rejected but the second-born holy to God, a nation that can be likened to righteous Abel. The firstborn will be accepted if this son does what is right, for the revealing of the Son of Man is the lifting of the righteousness of Christ. Birth of the last Eve's firstborn son is the entrance into the world of a naked child, whose only covering for sin is his obedience to the laws of God. And because this firstborn son will not believe God, but will believe instead the man of perdition, this spiritual Cain will try to enter God's rest on the following day just as the circumcised nation that left Egypt tried to enter God's rest on the following day. This Cain will turn unbelief into disobedience by returning to his transgression of the commandments of God, by returning to the lawlessness he practiced while concealed by the cloak of Christ's righteousness. And this Cain will slay his righteous brother, who in turn will be planted in the earth so that the fields of the earth will bring forth an endtime crop, ripe for harvesting when the Son of Man returns.

The mixing of metaphors contained within Holy Writ violates grammar expectations: metaphors are not supposed to be stirred together until each loses its identity as wheat and olives do in a loaf of bread. This mixing of metaphors allows those spiritually circumcised descendants of Abraham who will not hear the voice of Jesus to marry Egyptians and settle on a spiritual Sinai Peninsula where they will live as children born to Ishmael. This mixing will not prevent sons of promise from selling their birthright for a bowl of lentils if they are so inclined. With the exception of a spiritual Joshua and a spiritual Caleb, the entirety of the Church will rebel against God 2300 days before Christ returns, and will attempt to enter God's rest on the following day: Sunday rather than on the Sabbath. And Christianity will do that which Christianity does not today believe itself capable: Christianity will actually make war against the nation of Israel and against Sabbath keepers everywhere.

But Christianity will be a house divided: the Trinitarian Church will also fight against the Arian Church during the first years of the Tribulation. The Trinitarian Church, however, will not prevail. As Islam converts to Arian Christianity, the tide of the war turns against the Trinitarian Church. With the false prophet and the man of perdition on the side of the Arian Church, the fourth beast, Death, prevails. And all who take the mark of this fourth beast (chi xi stigma or the tattoo the Cross) mark themselves for death. They will be marked as Cain was, reserved for God alone to kill.

The blood of righteous Abel will cry out from the ground for it is his blood that the souls under the altar await (Rev 6:9-11). And in crying from the ground, Abel will bring forth the third of humanity (Zech 13:7-9) that will be born-from-above as a spiritual Seth, the third son of the last Eve. This son only has to endure to the end to be saved (Matt 24:13). And the announcement of this third son's birth is the good news that will be proclaimed to the world as a witness to all nations before the end of the age comes (v. 14).

The two witnesses are Joshua and Caleb, but are like Moses and Aaron, in that they die before the spiritual Seth is born. Figuratively, they do not cross the Jordan; they do not physically lead the uncircumcised children born in the Wilderness of Sin to victory against the true antiChrist.

The making of bread from the metaphors of Holy Writ intentionally confuses the spiritually circumcised nation that will not hear the voice of Christ Jesus. In the last days, the spiritually circumcised nation has become as the physically circumcised nation was in the 1^st-Century. This nation has the law of God near it (i.e., written on their hearts and minds), but this nation will not keep the law (John 7:19). This nation will not hear the words of Moses and the Prophets, so it will not be convinced by One raised from the dead (Luke 16:31). This nation is of the present world, not of the world above. As such, this nation has adopted Hagar as its mother, thereby exchanging liberty for bondage, blessing for cursing, acceptance for rejection. And it has done all of this before being revealed. No wonder it is hated while still in the womb. It was conceived in promise, but it despises its birthright to obedience before any sin is imputed to it. Its rebellion against God is certain. So too is God sending a great delusion over this nation to prevent it from repenting once it rebels.

The nation that lives over into the Millennium will be of the spiritual Seth. No one bearing the mark of the beast survives; no one of Cain enters God's rest. And whether a spiritually circumcised descendant of Abraham can eat this bread baked from mixed metaphors depends upon whether Jesus allows the descendant understanding.

The endtime earthly example that a spiritually circumcised Nicodemus cannot understand is the consistent use throughout Holy Writ of the bridging metaphor: the early barley and the later wheat harvests of Judea represent the twin harvests of humanity. Disciples born of water and Spirit before Christ's return are barley. Disciples harvested in the great White Throne Judgment are wheat. The hill country of Judea represents God's rest in its triple usage as the weekly Sabbath, Christ's millennial reign, and glorification (i.e., receiving everlasting life in the heavenly realm). Barley or wheat grown in Egypt or in Babylon won't be brought into God's barns. Only barley, then wheat grown on the Judean hills is harvested by God. Rain represents both the Holy Spirit, and teachers of righteousness; i.e., teachers of Israel who have the Holy Spirit. The Judean hills are not like the grain fields of Egypt that are irrigated with the foot (flood irrigation) as a person does a vegetable garden (Deu 11:10-11), but these hills drink the rain that God sends. And the person who has been born of water and of Spirit is as grain growing on these Judean hills. This person will live as a Judean. If this person will not but lives as an Egyptian or a Babylonian or as an Assyrian, the person will not enter God's rest. The person will be harvested by the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21), and will go into the lake of fire with that spiritual king.

The walk of a Christian is simple. The disciple, born-from-above as a spiritual infant in the fleshy tabernacle of a bondservant to disobedience, leaves Egypt or sin when Christ Jesus liberates this bondservant that is the old self. This bondservant is crucified with Christ and dies in sin and dies to sin, hence is liberated from sin through death, through baptism even though the law of sin and death continues to dwell in the fleshly members or tent of the disciple. The liberated mind of a disciple journeys to Judea, but the body remains in Egypt. Thus, the body will die in the geographical land of its nativity. The old self will die because of its unbelief. Sometime after baptism but before entering God's rest, the old self dies. Its desire will be to return to disobedience; where the pleasures of the flesh seem more attractive at a distance than when actually experiencing them. And inevitably, the old self will rebel against God. But the spiritual mind ruled by the laws of God will live, and will put on a new incorruptible body at Christ Jesus' return.

As the circumcised nation that left Egypt died in the Wilderness of Sin, so too does the former bondservant to sin die on the cross of Christ Jesus. The old self never really wanted to leave Egypt, but only wanted liberated from Pharaoh so that he or she was free to sin. The uncircumcised children of the nation that left Egypt crossed the Jordan to enter God's rest. Likewise, the spiritually circumcised, physically uncircumcised child of God that continues to dwell in the fleshly tabernacle or tent of the old self enters into God's rest, first by keeping the Sabbath, then by figuratively crossing a spiritual Jordan and living as a Judean. Thus, the walk of a Christian is from Egypt to Judea, where the child of God, a spiritual Israelite, will live outwardly as a Judean. This child of God is now growing as grain in spiritual Judea, drinking in the Holy Spirit as rain; this child grows as barley grew on the geographical hills of Judea. The old kernel or self died so that new life could spring forth. And planted on near hillsides is the wheat harvest that will not ripen until the fall of the year, until resurrected after Christ's millennial reign and after Satan is loosed for a short season.

The bridging metaphor between the will of God and the salvation of human beings is, again, the spiritual children of God are fields of grain growing in Judea. But weeds [tares] planted by the Adversary also grow in these fields, and the weeds grow higher and faster than does grain. Soon, the weeds look like the crop that was initially planted. Shaded by the weeds; the grain will be starved and stunted yet nevertheless harvested while the tares are gathered and burned when the sickle cuts the ripe field. God knows His own. The tares might appear to have been the crop planted by God, but Jesus will deny knowing them in their judgments (Matt 7:21-23). Thus, lawlessness or sin or iniquity will cause a person to be a weed or tare rather than a stalk of grain. So it isn't enough to grow in Judea rather than in Egypt or in Babylon. A disciple must also grow through keeping and teaching others to keep the Commandments (Matt 5:19).

The offerings of circumcised Israel included a food offering as well as animal sacrifices, the two offerings made by Cain and Abel. The offerings were not complete without both bread and blood. Without both the offering of Cain and the offering of Abel, the offering to God was not complete, what Cain never understood and what greater Christianity now doesn't understand. The harvest of humanity will require the sacrifice of both of these sons of the last Adam and the last Eve; will require the death of the firstborn son of the last Eve who in turn will physically slay his righteous younger brother. The problem with typological exegesis is what's revealed: when the seven endtime years of tribulation begin, the greater Church as the last Eve will give birth to her firstborn spiritual son, who will rebel against Christ and will worship the Cross, the fourth beast, the fourth horseman, Death itself. After delivering a spiritual Cain, the last Eve will again conceive and will bear a second spiritual son, a righteous Abel, the broken-off natural branches that have been grafted to the Root of Righteousness. And Cain will murder Abel. Eighth-day Christianity will, when the man of perdition attempts to change times and the law, hunt down and kill Sabbath-keepers. Nominally religious nations will, following the second Passover liberation of Israel, rally behind Christianity and will make war against all peoples who keep the laws of God, especially the Sabbath Commandment. Observance of the seventh day rest during the first half of the Tribulation will separate who is of God from who is of the Cross, just as the tattoo of the Cross will mark those of spiritual Cain for death during the second half. Eighth-day Christians will again make war against Judaism and against other Christians who Judaize. And eighth-day Christianity will seem to prevail, not realizing that God has sent over it a strong delusion so that none can repent but will go directly into the lake of fire. Eighth-day Christianity didn't love the truth enough to walk uprightly before God when its only covering for sin was its obedience to the laws of God. It made itself like the first Adam, who ate the fruit offered by the first Eve and was driven from the garden of God before he could eat of the Tree of Life. The last Eve, like the first, believed the old serpent that she would not die, and she took to herself the knowledge of good and evil, thereby rebelling against God through determining for herself good and evil, such as when she would enter God's rest.

Again, the problem with typology is what it reveals: the firstborn and the second-born sons of the last Eve will die. Except for a spiritual Joshua and a spiritual Caleb, the spiritual nation that left sin the night of the second Passover will die in the Wilderness of Sin because of its unbelief. (The 144,000 are born-from-above during the first half of the Tribulation.) The harvest of humanity that will enter God's rest is the third-born son, a spiritual Seth that has only to endure to the end to be saved. This spiritual Seth will be led to its endurance victory over the antiChrist by Joshua and Caleb, the remnant of the woman's seed who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17). The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). So the leadership of Joshua and Caleb of this endtime harvest of humanity is the continued delivery of the good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved. These are Jesus' words of patient endurance (Rev 3:10). This is the message that The Philadelphia Church proclaims to the world as a witness to all nations. This is the message that Philadelphia will continue to proclaim even when a famine of the Word exists, for enduring doesn't require understanding the nuances of koine Greek, doesn't require the study of even a written text. The laws of God will be written on the hearts and minds of every person alive through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28). Enduring will mean doing what the person knows it right, will mean leaving spiritual Babylon and having faith in God for daily sustenance.

The work of the One who sent Jesus is belief '"in him whom he sent"' (John 6:29). The will of the One who sent Jesus is that Jesus should lose nothing that was given to Jesus, but should raise up those individuals He receives on the last day (v. 39). Jesus said, '"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life"' (v. 40). The work and the will of the Father is salvation through hearing the words of Jesus and believing the One who sent Him (John 5:24). But the concept of salvation through belief in God is qualified by hearing the words Jesus spoke and looking on the Son and believing in Him; salvation is not unconditional. Thus, to believe the Father is to hear and believe the Son. Belief, however, is an intangible concept, one that cannot be seen except as it manifests itself through action. Even the demons believe that God is (Jas 2:19), and they shudder because of their belief. So for a person to say that he or she hears and believes the Son without the person producing deeds commensurate with the person's expressed belief makes the person a liar. The last three and a half years of the Tribulation will be about spiritual Seth (i.e., all human beings not marked with the tattoo of the Cross) demonstrating belief through faith.

God is not a respecter of persons. Disciples are today accepted by demonstrating belief through faith. Grace is given because disciples today are born as serfs in spiritual Egyptian/Babylon. They are born into bondage to sin, or lawlessness. Liberation is individually accomplished. The old man or self must take the child of God born-from-above in the same tabernacle of flesh as the old man inhabits, and mentally leave Babylon and journey towards Judea. But this old man is crucified with Christ and will die in the Wilderness of Sin so that the spiritually uncircumcised new man or self can cross the Jordan and enter God's rest. Because the tabernacle in which both the old man dwelt and the new man dwells remains in spiritual Babylon and consigned to lawlessness (Rom 11:32) and by extension, death (Rom 6:23), Grace abounds as spiritual Israel awaits deliverance from both sin and death, dwelling in the members of every disciple (Rom 7:25). Presently liberation from sin occurs only in the mind. The body remains in bondage. Thus, this holy nation of God is as Israel was when that circumcised nation cried to God for physical deliverance from Pharaoh. Deliverance lies ahead in the near future for the holy spiritual nation. And when delivered, this spiritually holy nation like the circumcised nation will want to return to slavery where their fleshpots [supermarket meat cases] were full and they had leeks, garlic and melons. Grace conceals the lawlessness of the flesh as the new man born as a serf to sin learns to walk uprightly before God even though the tabernacle in which this son of God dwells actually remains in Babylon. Grace will not be needed when the spiritually holy nation leaves or walks out of Egypt/Babylon. But the greater Church's habit of not being careful to keep the laws and the Sabbaths of God will cause most born-from-above disciples to rebel against God 2300 days before Christ returns.

A harsh statement? The certainty of rebellion against God? The sending of a great delusion so that repentance is not possible? No, not a harsh statement, but a now self-evident statement, which wasn't evident in the 1^st-Century when the Apostle Paul declared the certainty of this rebellion revealed to the prophet Daniel. The harvest of God then waited the sickle. To become as Jesus was, this harvest still needed thrashed, winnowed, and crushed into fine flour from which bread is baked with the oil of pressed olives, wild or tame. The long hours of the spiritual night between when the paschal Lamb of God was sacrificed on Calvary and when the death angel passes over Israel at midnight have nearly run their course. These six long hours are the six days of man, for Christ Jesus was sacrificed from the foundation of the universe. And even when the death angel passes through spiritual Egypt/Babylon, there will remain six additional long hours (years during which enduring in faith will be as mentally difficult as enduring for millennia have been for humankind) before the dawning of a new kingdom comes through the vengeance of God. The wrath of God drives those who have marked themselves with the tattoo of the Cross away from the Tree of Life and into the lake of fire.

The Church in the 1^st-Century was akin to Jacob and his sons returning to Canaan with the household gods of Laban. This sin of Rachel's, hidden from her father Laban by her false claim of menstrual discharge and not forgotten by God, results in her firstborn son Joseph being sent into Egyptian slavery. And the favor Joseph finally found in Egypt didn't bring him freedom, but the position of the favored slave, albeit second only to the Pharaoh in command of Egypt. The sin or lawlessness that the early Church carried into Judea, as if a menstrual rag, then carried down to Egypt/Babylon also resulted in it becoming the favored slave of the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21), second only to this old dragon in power and authority over humanity. But in a like manner to how Joseph's favor fell in Egypt, so too did the favor of the Universal Christian Church fall in the landscape of human politics.

Joseph, cast into a cistern by his jealous brothers, was sold into Egyptian slavery by Ishmaelites. Those physically circumcised sons of Abraham have spiritually circumcised descendants who sold the early Church into bondage to sin through the introduction of Greek heresies, chiefly the immortality of the soul. But Joseph's slavery was also the salvation of the family when famine came to the hill country of Judea. Likewise, the bondage of the Church to the spiritual king of Babylon kept Christianity alive when teachers of righteousness, analogous to rain in due season, failed to come to the spiritual hills of Judea. And even in the geographical landscape that represented sin, Joseph remained faithful to God. So too, despite its bondage to sin, did the post-Nicene Church remain faithful to a gospel about the mighty deeds of Jesus (1 Pet 2:9).

Joseph's first dream was of sheaves of grain: he and his brothers were binding grain sheaves in a field when his sheaf rose up and the sheaves of his brothers gathered around it and bowed down to it. The physical fulfillment of Joseph's dream saw Joseph filling the Pharaoh's storehouses with grain, which his brothers journeyed to Egypt to purchase. And when Joseph made himself known to his brothers, he said, '"God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors'" (Gen 45:7). Likewise, in bondage in Babylon, the post-Nicene Church, preserved by God, kept alive many survivors, each represented by grain held in the storehouses of Egypt.

Typology is more complicated than the simple one-for-one correspondences of allegory. In Holy Writ, the abstract is first given, then a summary narrative, then more in-depth narratives. Each narrative is a spiritually lifeless shadow of the same spiritual phenomenon, that of bringing many sons of God to glory. Each reveals additional detail much like a movie camera zooming in on an event, slowing the action so aspects of the event can be studied. Thus, as the seventy left famine-ridden Judea and journeyed to Egypt where they became servants of Pharaoh, the circumcised nation of Israel went into national captivity because of its unrighteousness. Typology highlights the connection between grain and Israelites that keep the commandments of God. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah suffered a famine of righteousness prior to going into captivity. In Pharaoh's visions, the seven good years are followed by seven bad years. And there was certainly a famine of righteousness in spiritual Babylon before a remnant of spiritually circumcised Israelites left to rebuild a temple for God in the mental lands beyond the River in a manner analogous to how Ezra left Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The journey of this remnant from Babylon to Judea was concealed by the reforms of Luther and Calvin, each of whom ventured a small distance from Babylon before settling down to build for themselves houses on the Chaldean side of the Jordan. They would not rid themselves of the Greek heresies introduced by spiritual descendants of Ishmael.

Jesus connected fields of ripe grain to Israelites ready to be harvested even though He said that none of the Pharisees kept the law. Then as now, the teachers of Israel bound the holy nation with burdens that could not be borne and still have Israelites live. The hard saying that drove many followers away was Jesus saying that He was the bread of life. His words are the mixed metaphors that have been baked together into bread. And to believe His words requires the Father granting the disciple mercy.

The many teachers of lawlessness would make belief a matter of the heart that is unrelated to works or deeds. They convince spiritual infants that a disciple can hear the words of Jesus and believe in Jesus and continue living as a spiritual Gentile and be saved. They have convinced the spiritually circumcised nation of Israel that bondage to sin is really liberation from the law of God. And they have been so successful that when the seven years of endtime tribulation begin, the greater Christian Church will reject the true bread of life, calling it worthless food as did the liberated circumcised nation in the Wilderness of Sin.

Jesus' disciples did not need to lift up their eyes to see fields of barley or of wheat. They needed to lift up their eyes to see that the nation of Israel was ripe for harvesting. The will of God the Father is to gather into His barns both the early barley harvest and the later wheat harvest, with both harvests of Israel ripening in their proper season.

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