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and they shall hear Jezreel…. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people: You are my people; and they shall say: You are my God ” Hos 2:22 ,23
And in the 60th chapter of Isaiah, we behold an enlargement-in-glorification of the above: consummated in a perpetual and absolute righteousness.
Is, then, God Unrighteous? PERISH the thot! Has it taken him these thousands of years, and the seeing of untold human suffering to eventually ‘repent’, and make His people GOOD? Yet precisely that becomes the inevitable conclusion-in-logic IF we accept the evil frothings in our midst by parrots in cloth!
Did not Christ say in His parable that the good seed are the children of the Kingdom? (Mat 13:88). Here He corroborated the words He spoke thru His mouthpieces seven and eight hundred years previously.
The seed for the physical body is planted by man. But the SPIRIT which comes to indwell that body is ‘sown by God.’ It is HE who decides what class of ‘seed’ is to be planted, where and when. So long as there are immature spirits in abundance, mostly in the power of Lucifer; that long do we see evil rampant wherever we look. And so long as God sees it good and needful that a certain people or nation be predominantly foolish, obstreperous and evil, just that long does He ‘sow that people’ with that particular spirit seed which bring about the conditions He has decided upon.
It is not for us to conclude that He should ‘sow the earth’ with all good ‘seeds’. Even as in our institutions of learning, ALL cannot be university graduates simultaneously – of necessity, they must grow up (first). Therefore we find kindergartens, elementary grade-school, in-betweens, high schools, colleges and universities. It would be inane folly to charge our minister of education with evil, merely because we don’t find all pupils in the top class simultaneously.
“A sower went forth to sow —-.” GOD is that sower of spirit-seed thruout die earth, and, thereby He controls the destiny of man and nations!
Or you Christian believers: HOW have you ever been able to justify your God, or even to retain respect for Him when reading such passages as Isaiah 6:9-10:
He said, “Go and tell this people: “`Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Jesus quoted those words, saying they were being fulfilled then and there!
Did He plummet out from the Glory to take on a lowly slave-form: be rejected, abased, humiliated, beaten and tortured to death for THE SALVATION OF PEOPLE, yet deliberately ‘hardened their hearts’ (Is 6:10) – ‘lest they become converted?’ How UNreasonable can you be? How much forthright evil dare you impute unto our God? Or how SLOW can you be of understanding?
God wanted the heart of that particular people HARD at that specific time, in order that His Plan might lurch into gear for ALL of the world. Therefore had he selected younger and obstreperous spirits by which to ‘sow the house of Israel-Judah’ for those days – that they might bring about the planned dramas. Similarly does He at all times and places to bring about that which He pleases; or more correctly speaking: to bring about the detailed national dramas and events in human life; which He has carefully considered in the Throne room, and weighed in the balance of His Justice, in order that both the most appropriate and utmost lesson-in-Truth shall be ‘taught in class’ at the right time and place for all concerned! And, at the end of the ‘semester’, those who fail in their ‘exams’, must REstudy previous texts.
Even from the commencement of Scripture has God told us the same time and again. To Abraham He said that the orbit in iniquity which He had granted unto the Amorites and older Canaanites had, at that moment not been completed. But WHEN completed, He would release the descendants of Abraham, that they might swarm back into the land, and execute that richly’ deserved punishment which God would decree upon the Canaanites. And a little later thru Moses He voiced the same immutable justice in declaring ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ That is not ‘vengeance’ but rather God’s JUST method in administering a sorely needed lesson.
Naturally, what they have not perceived in this earth life, they must come back to acquire later – UNTIL they arrive at that stage where, thru the weakness engendered by suffering they come to repentance and ‘healing’ at the hand of God our Savior. THEN a deathless soul body becomes their permanent vehicle for expression: THEN is another re-birth needless for in their death less soul bodies they can go on into perfection.
We must distinguish between a true spiritual repentance, in contrast to one but skin deep occasioned by the duress of the moment or some emotional experience. The criminal who is caught may be ever so repentant over his folly perhaps a hundred times over, but has he REPENTED? Usually the records show otherwise. The youngster caught in a lie or misdemeanor may be ever so repentant when taken to task by a stern parent: repeated may be the promise of ‘never again’. But parents are sadly aware that only too often are such repentance and promises of no value.
Emotional experiences may appeal to that which is better within, and bring forth the pronouncement that henceforth there shall be the ‘turning of a new page.’ In some very rare instance we observe the transformation, but usually NOTHING!
THIS is what God referred to thru His prophet, and that which the Lord Jesus chose to emphasize: there is A TIME for true repentance and the consequent ‘conversion’ (from the paths of evil). There is A MEASURE of experience-in-evil with its consequent anguish and suffering which an indwelling spirit must pass thru, before it reaches that ‘spiritual maturity’ which makes a true, or lasting conversion possible.
It is not that God deliberately ‘hardens the heart’ of man – ‘lest he be convened and becomes healed’; but rather that his spirit is still too foolish thru immaturity, and his soul too attuned to Lucifer’s realm, to permit of an effective repentance.’
And for His chosen nation, God had a peculiarly important drama for them to execute in His over-all plan for the nations, Wherefore, He had ‘hardened’ their national heart by means of that apathy -to-righteousness which is common to the immature spiritS from Lucifer’s ranks: that horde of spirits He had selected and commanded to incarnate and rule in that particular era.
The selfsame Truth did Yahweh of old declare in the days of David:
* “For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brot up
* Israel unto this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from
* one tabernacle to another.” – 1 Chron 17:5
David loved the Lord. And he yearned to ‘build a HOUSE – for his God.’ Was God a bit temperamental? Or shortsighted? HE didn’t want David to build the house (the temple-sanctuary), but reserved it for Solomon! Yet David was by far the nobler character – save for his one great sin (which God ‘put away’).
Here Yahweh was trying to show us – both by word and thru drama – how His Spirit had gone from tent to tent and ‘from one tabernacle to another’ – UNTIL the fullness of time arrived: THEN would He settle down into a permanent dwelling!
The ‘tent to tent’ phase of God’s wandering with Israel (as a nation) is the type or PICTURE of God’s Spirit, with the spirit in man as it goes from one physical body to another ‘tent’ to be set up later. And while such are in the phase of learning, or state of spirit of David (meaning BELOVED), God watches over them carefully, smoothing the path before them. Figuratively, such are then in the state of the ‘prodigal son’ when he had ‘come to himself’ and decided to ‘return unto his father’s house.’ When the spirit in man arrives at that milepost, he becomes greatly BELOVED – as was manifested by the father who ran to meet him in an embrace of eternal love.
Yet that ‘David’ is not permitted to build a HOUSE unto his God I WHY should not the ‘beloved’ one build a house for his Lord?
The tents were temporary dwelling places: they bespeak the short lived human bodies which are wrecked by sin and go down into the grave. In contrast to the poor appearance and short life of the tent, stands the enduring HOUSE unto God; overlaid within by pure gold; built of choice stone and oil-impregnated cedar, and set with precious gems. THIS one bespeaks the IMMORTAL human body, wherein the spirit may dwell for ever going no more out.’ (Rev 3:12)
WHY should that HOUSE be built by Solomon instead of David? Because Solomon means PEACE. He depicts the ‘OVERCOMER’ who has attained unto a perfect PEACE with God. He it is who enters into immorality HERE and NOW. Altho the ‘prodigal sons’ on their way HOME, with a right thot in their hearts, are GREATLY ‘BELOVED’ (‘David’), yet they haven’t entered into the stature of the ‘overcomer’ and, therefore, cannot enter into immorality (the HOUSE) which is the lot of the ‘Solomon’.
Yet David made great provisions for the building of that house unto God, Naturally! We read how he warred against his enemies, OVERCOMING them, and carrying off great booty.
* “—and with him all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass.
* Them also king David dedicated unto the Lord, with the
* silver and the gold that he brot from all these nations——————– 1 Chron 18:10-11.
This gold, silver and brass went into the building of the HOUSE of God. The gold portrays SPIRIT and all that the Spirit of God stands for; silver portrays soul-qualities, while brass depicts the framework of the human body. Thus God showed us thru this account, how our warring with the vicissitudes of life, and in OVERcoming them, we cart off booty: the ‘gold, silver and brass’ which becomes ‘dedicated unto God’, in order that His permanent ‘HOUSE’ may be built when the son of PEACE (Solomon) has fully taken over.
How is it that these simple Truths are not commonly understood? Why are they not preached from the pulpits? Because their forebears ‘took away the key of knowledge; they entered not in themselves and, those who were entering, they prevented.’ And today His Ministry thru our land has degenerated into a profession Ministers are taught by men and preach for money. Thus did God roundly condemn in days of old (see Micah 3:11, Jer 5:31; 12:10; 50:6 and Ezek 44:12)
With reference to God’s ‘planting’, the Lord Jesus Christ brot out the same Truth as God spoke thru Hosea in 2:22-23. This was by His well known parable of the sower (Mat 13:3-8; 19-23). In the Authorized and other versions I have seen, the word ‘seed’ is used freely; but in none of the eight oldest Greek mss is the word (seed) to be found! It can only be inferred: that a ‘sower would be planting seed, and that it was seed which the birds came and devoured. But again I repeat (for emphasis) that the word ‘seed’ ‘was not used even once by the Lord in this parable. Here follow the Greek words as found in the Textus Receptus, together with their transliteration:
In the next parable of the tares which He also explained a little later (Mtt 13:37-43), He did use the word ‘seed’; but also specifically stated that ‘the good seed: these are the sons of the ‘Kingdom’ (Tode kalon sperma, outoi eisin hot hujot tas basiletas.) Wherefore, in both these parables He stated emphatically that God sowed people into this world, and into different conditions. But manifestly: since it is man who plants the seed for the physical body, it is God who ‘sows’ them with spirit-beings from His own storehouse. Naturally, those who are of age (spiritually), are those RECEIVE (or HEAR) His word of Truth, and bring forth fruit according to the degree of receptivity (or spiritual maturity’.)
Yet let no one conclude that he needs must await his own spiritual maturity before he may ‘arise to return unto the Father.” This is a matter of WILL. The past of misty eons lived by every incarnate spirit in the world today is far more than sufficient ‘age’ for all to be full-blown ‘saints’ of the highest order. But their depth of delusion and embroilment in Lucifer’s disobedience, has hardened and estranged the spirit to such extent that deep and prolonged suffering is required for their ‘coming to themselves’ in weakness, and unto repentance: opening the way for a return unto the Father’s estate, and into the embrace of His love.
