Inheriting Sonship: Part 3 – An Ancient Hebraic Cultural Understanding of the Fall and Redemption

Contents

Trees, Fruit and Seeds

In Hebrew the word for tree meant something solid, firm or upright and was related to the word for counsel which meant good, solid or sound advice that could be relied upon to achieve. The word fruit meant literally to open the head and was related to the word for threshing the head of grain to reveal the seed and also the word for father. In Hebrew the word for seed meant literally tooling the head of grain and was related to the word for spreading or sowing the seed with a mattock or hoe. In Genesis 1 God declared that the earth would bring forth fruit yielding seed after its kind. The word for kind meant the continuation of blood, or the strength of species to generate and regenerate the same seed in the same image, or likeness or behaviour. Hebraically an acorn is the seed or son of its father oak tree. The acorn is a son of its father and having been planted, it grows and behaves like its father, becoming like its father by bearing more fruit, seed or sons. The father oak tree lives within its acorn or son and is its strength of breath (or spirit) to behave like its father tree who dwells within it. So, a bad tree bears bad fruit because it is a continuation of its kind and good trees bear good fruit. As Jesus said:

Matt 7:15 ‘But, take heed of the false prophets, who come unto you in sheep’s clothing, and inwardly are ravening wolves.
Matt 7:16 From their fruits ye shall know them; do men gather from thorns grapes? or from thistles figs?
Matt 7:17 so every good tree doth yield good fruits, but the bad tree doth yield evil fruits.
Matt 7:18 A good tree is not able to yield evil fruits, nor a bad tree to yield good fruits.
Matt 7:19 Every tree not yielding good fruit is cut down and is cast to fire: Matt 7:20 therefore from their fruits ye shall know them.

God’s Purpose for Adam

It says in Genesis and Isaiah:

Gen 1:26 And God saith, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.’
Gen 1:27 And God prepareth the man in his image; in the image of God he prepared him, a male and a female he prepared them.
Gen 2:7 And Yehovah God formeth the man – dust from the ground, and breatheth into his nostrils breath of life [neshemah ruach], and the man becometh a living creature.
Isaiah 64:8 And now, O Yehovah, thou art our Father, We are the clay, and Thou our Framer, And the work of Thy hand – all of us.

The most fundamental aspect of animal life is breath. Without breath there is no life. Adam was created by God as a breathing-being or living soul. Unlike all of the other animals (in Latin “animale” or breathing-being) which just breathed natural breath, Adam had the unique ability to breathe both natural breath, and also the supernatural breath of God, the “qodesh ruach” or Holy Spirit (the breath of the Holy One). God created Adam from the dust of the earth and unlike the other animals Yehovah God actually breathed into Adam’s nostrils his very own breath of life personally. By breathing the Holy Spirit as his very own life’s breath Adam was able to become the visible image and likeness or reflection of the invisible God into the natural world. Just as Jesus as the son of Adam (Man), the son of Abraham and the son of David was the image of the invisible God who shone with the Glory of God on the mount of transfiguration, Adam was originally created to do the same. It was God’s intention that by being filled with the Holy Spirit (breath of the Holy One), in effect with God as his father, God would have an inheritance within him to sit upon the throne of Adam’s heart and partner with Adam his son to have dominion upon the earth together with him. Adam and his descendants or corporate body or “adamah” would shine like stars into the world of nature.

The Serpent and his Purpose

In Genesis 3 is the first mention of the serpent and the serpent was ultimately responsible for the fall. In Hebrew the word for serpent was related to words hiss, enchant or cast a magic spell. The word was related to the word for strike and meant literally strong teeth in the mouth and the lifting of the head to strike. The serpent was described as being cunning or subtle, the word in Hebrew meant smooth or something easily swallowed. Eve told God when she sinned that she had been deceived by the serpent. In Hebrew the word for deception was literally “continual pressing” and was related to words for debt, loan, extortion, deprive and forget. It is related to the English word “gnash” and deception results in some form of debt or loss and the gnashing of the teeth in anguish. Within the ancient world there was little or no knowledge of Satan or the serpent as a personal adversary or devil or hinderer or deceiver or opponent. For these ancient peoples the whole world was full of gods or powers and the people were dedicated or given over to appeasing or serving or bowing down to any god or power or supernatural being of any description that would give their worshipper any kind of benefit, strength, provision, protection or victory over the forces of nature or their enemies and bring any kind of benefit at almost any cost including the lives of their children. In English the word “godly” was originally “goodly” and the association between god and good is a modern invention. The gods were not seen as good, they were to be feared and served or even saved from but certainly not to be loved. In the Old Testament, the term Satan is only used a handful of times and in Hebrew the word means literally “to continue to be hemmed in or surrounded or constricted by thorns or a snake”. It says in Deuteronomy 29 that the secret things belong to God but the things revealed belong to us and our sons forever that we may become the words or actions of God. God has revealed the origins of Satan, his purpose, power, and his dealings. Satan has a purpose which is in direct conflict with the purpose of God. Satan was originally created by God to serve God’s purpose. In Ezekiel 28 it states:

Ezek 28:12 ‘Son of man, lift up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, And thou hast said to him: Thus said the Lord Yehovah: Thou art sealing up a measurement, Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Ezek 28:13 in Eden, the garden of God, thou hast been, Every precious stone thy covering, Ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and gold, The workmanship of thy tabrets, and of thy pipes, In thee in the day of thy being produced, have been prepared.
Ezek 28:14 thou art an anointed cherub who is covering, And I have set thee in the holy mount, God thou hast been, In the midst of stones of fire thou hast walked up and down.
Ezek 28:15 perfect art thou in thy ways, From the day of thy being produced, Till perversity hath been found in thee.

Satan had been in Eden the Garden of God as a covering cherub on the holy mount and he walked in the midst of the stones of fire. In Hebrew the word for stone was related to the world for building, house and son, and fire was associated with God. Walking up and down in the midst of the stones seems to indicate that he was somehow involved in governmental administration or “dealing” in preparing the universe for God’s ultimate purpose which was to give the whole of his created order to his son Adam and his seed or sons or living stones as an inheritance. The word covering in Hebrew was related to words for booth, hedge and entwine. In Isaiah 14 it says that Satan was originally called the “son of the morning” or Lucifer (“light bearer” in Latin, “shining one”) or the “Bright and Shining son of the Morning of Creation”.

Isaiah 14:12 How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one [Lucifer, light bearer], son of the dawn! Thou hast been cut down to earth, O weakener of nations.

It seems that Satan’s original purpose was to administrate and regulate the glory or weightiness of God’s amazing goodness into creation like a power transformer or lamp shade to stop the created order from being completely blinded by God’s incredible wonder. He was not actually described as being a star as such but more of a shining reflection, like the moon shining on a dark night. Satan was intimately involved in that which was very close to God’s heart and desire for a son (Adam) and it seems that God intended that his role as the bright and shining son of the morning was temporary. Once the morning or dawn was over, this mantle was to be one day passed on to God’s very own son. It was God’s intention that his son or sons would become actual stars, the bright and morning star spoken of by Jesus in Revelation 2 and 22 with the glory of God shining from within them. No doubt God had something wonderful planned for Satan once the mantle had been passed on, but unfortunately Satan had other ideas. In Isaiah 14 his fall is described:

Isaiah 14:13 and thou saidst in thy heart: the heavens I go up, Above stars of God I raise my throne, And I sit in the mount of meeting in the sides of the north.
Isaiah 14:14 I go up above the heights of a thick cloud, I am like to the Most High.

It is clear that Satan saw himself like God and that he could become or replace God by derailing God’s purpose of sonship and inheritance or house by making one of his own with the deceptive breath of lying words within what God had created for Himself. In Hebrew the word for lift or raise means literally to be raised up on an abundance of seed or sons. The stars of God, the mount of meeting and the clouds are the sons over which he would reign. His created or reflected beauty, and his intimate knowledge of God and God’s purpose for creation, caused Satan to set himself apart and lift himself above the rest of God’s created order. Satan determined to establish himself as a father of lies, in place of God over a race of dust- sons, within whom his kingdom would be established and upon whom he would be worshipped and lifted up.

Ezek 28:16 by the abundance of thy merchandise They have filled thy midst with violence, And thou dost sin, And I thrust thee from the mount of God, And I destroy thee, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.

In Hebrew the word merchandise means literally a travelling man, trader or peddler. Satan’s intimate knowledge of God’s purpose became like a currency or merchandise that he used to barter, peddle and deal with many of God’s purpose-created messengers or angels, and he deceived many of them into following him in his diabolical rebellion. These diabolical dealings caused him to be filled in the very centre of his being with what is described in the Hebrew as a violent shaking and the utmost cruelty. Maybe he told them of God’s plan for a son to whom he would give the universe as an inheritance and lied and said that they would be disinherited or thrown out. Maybe he promised them a chance to become, replace or displace God and become “gods” with a place of being worshipped and an inheritance within his coming kingdom so that in rebellion together they could establish a kingdom of their own in which he alone would be pre-eminent but that in which they would have their share or place or inheritance.

Satan intended that he and his willingly enslaved followers and fellow- dealers would take God’s place in the hearts of men by deceiving and dealing themselves into the air or breath or spirit or strength or power or gods that they naturally breathed. Adam was to be deceived into inadvertently joining the serpent in his plan to disinherit himself and his seed from the fatherhood of God and the incredible purpose that God had for him. Adam was to be tricked or enchanted by the hiss of the serpent into giving away his crown and trading away the inheritance that God wanted to freely give him for the benefit that he was promised by the serpent that would make him wise or able to be “god”. This was to establish the serpent and his diabolical followers as the gods of this world who would dwell and seek to gain an inheritance or bad breath within the house or city or Babylon or world or corporate Adam within the bodies and breathing-beings (souls) of Adam’s sinning sons. In doing this Satan intended to replace God’s purpose of reflecting God’s glorious image into creation to rule in partnership with Adam and instead fill Adam’s heart with the bad breath or evil breath or spirit of the serpent and his followers and destroy what God had so lovingly created for his son. Through this Satan intended that the corporate “adamah” or world would bear his image or reflection and through them destroy everything that he could not possess.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life

Abraham was an independent rational being who was a wise man. He knew what was right and wrong, good and evil and it was he who decided what was best for those who lived within the protection of his house. Abraham loved Isaac his son and Isaac lived within the blessing of the protection, provision, presence and purpose of his father. Isaac never went hungry, and was never in need or had any worries that we know of as long as his father was alive. In that sense, he only knew good and his father protected him from evil. Isaac was dependent upon his father and his father decided what was best for him. His father was his greatest blessing and strength and because he stayed within the confines and protection of his father’s house he inherited his father’s blessing. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Scripture says that Esau was literally a “seeing chaser” or hunter. He roamed the fields of Canaan with his eyes open looking for pleasure, satisfaction and fulfilment outside of his father’s house and he married Canaanite women without consulting his father. Esau brought these women into Isaac’s household and they were a grief and terror to Rebekah his mother. Jacob was described as being “complete, perfect or upright” who dwelt satisfied or in “shalom” being dependent within his father’s tent or house. His eyes had not been opened to the pleasures of independence by roaming the fields looking for something better. In Hebrew, good meant literally a “place of protection” and evil to “shriek out in terror or woe”. In the end, Jacob inherited Abraham’s blessing but Esau shrieked out woe in anguish when he was told he would be “far from the dew of heaven” and his blessing sounded more like a curse.

God created Adam and Eve as dependent beings who lived within the confines of the garden that God planted in Eden. In Hebrew the word garden meant literally “the lifting up or gathering of seeds” and the word also meant “a place of protection”. Gardens were a place for growing seeds and crops and were protected from grazing animals by a wall or hedge. God was in effect the Father and protector of Adam and Eve, he was responsible for them, they were dependent upon him. In the centre of the garden within Eden were two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, both of which bore fruit that could be eaten and give strength for different kinds of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents independence and self-determination. The fruit of the tree is experiencing the results of independence on a day by day basis by no longer living a life dependent upon the provision, protection, purpose and presence of God as a father. Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means going your own way and doing your own thing and deciding or judging for yourself what is right and wrong, just like Esau. It means finding out the hard way that what looked good turned out to be evil and resulted in woe. The fruit of independence looks good in one’s own eyes because it is doing what seems best “for me” at the expense of anyone else. Eating this fruit would mean Adam and Eve having to fend for themselves. They would no longer have the luxury and blessing of being able to live within Eden because they would become blinded to dependency upon the fatherhood of God and they would be responsible for, and answerable to, only themselves. They would have to till the cursed ground to produce the fruit on which they would feed to find their strength to live but which brought forth thorns and thistles. They would have to eke out an existence as best they could and in their hunger they began to eat things that in reality brought bitterness.

Prov 27:7 A satiated soul treadeth down a honeycomb, And to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

In many Bible translations, the words like ground, earth and land are often used interchangeably and the true significance of such words can be missed. It says in Genesis 2 that the LORD God (Yehovah Elohim) formed man (“adam”) of the dust (“aphar”) of the earth (“adamah”), breathed (in Latin “inspiravit”, inspire or in-breathe) the breath of life (in Latin “spiraculum vitae”, in-spirit or breath of life) into his nose, and that man became a living breathing-being (in Latin “homo in animan viventem”, animated wind or breath breathing man). The word used for dust in Hebrew means literally “to open the head” and meant to grind or pulverize a head of grain or clod of earth to make earth, powder, ash, mortar or something thrown into the air. The word for earth (“adamah”) was generally tilled soil from its colour red and was related to the word for blood. In the Bible it is sometimes translated land, ground, earth, territory. The word often translated earth or land is “erets” and means literally a potsherd or fragment or something firm broken up and divided into tribes or nations. In Hebrew the word for stand was related to words for pillar, support, raise up, dwell, remain, confirm, a rising stalk or plant, to resist or place and strong wall. Falling or fallen was related to the word for rubbish or refuse, a ruin or something collapsed or no longer fit for purpose and thrown out.

God had spoken to Adam and said that in the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. In Hebrew the word means literally the “mark of chaos” and meant practically to gasp out the breath of God’s life and return to dust. The serpent spoke words of lying breath to Eve and promised that if she ate from the tree her eyes would be opened and she would be literally “hayah elohim” (become gods) which is very close to “Yehovah Elohim” (I AM God), as God knowing or deciding what was good and evil, right and wrong. Adam was originally created by the word of God and filled with the breath or Spirit of God. He was created out of the dust of the earth which is part of God’s natural creation to be a reflection or image of God within the created world. God had created Adam and Eve to bear his image by being filled with God’s Holy Spirit or breath and life, not replace God’s image with the worship of themselves and God described his replacement as death. It was in his heart that Adam in effect died to God, his physical death followed centuries later. Because Adam in effect gasped out God when he sinned, he was literally living dust and filled with natural breath, establishing the curse of the true lies of the serpent within the breathings of his personality. He became a natural (“psuchikos” in Greek) rather than a spiritual (“pneumatikos” in Greek) man, Hebraically living dust is flesh and was equated with weakness as flesh without the breath of life actually died. To dust Adam returned because having originally been created by the word of God, he breathed out the breath or strength (or Holy Spirit) of God’s fatherhood and he was left with only natural breath that couldn’t keep him alive forever. His only hope was to bear a son in his own image through whom he could somehow live on.

It says in Genesis 5 that Adam begat Seth, a son or seed in his own image or likeness to perpetuate his kind. Seth and his descendants or seed or sons or house bore the image and drew their strength from their father, the serpent and not God. Adam and his descendants became as gods or powers that were yoked or enslaved by the power or strength of sinning because they now ate the fruit of independence from the same tree as the serpent. The fruit of this tree became their treasure and as dust they became the serpent’s seed or sons and food because the serpent and every being within his kingdom also ate from this deadly tree. Like real fruit the flesh of the fruit was edible and gave the strength to live but the seeds within the fruit were poisoned with the indwelling inspiration of the serpent and his followers. As dust-men they sinned for a living, and as gods their eyes had been opened to themselves and their own self-interest and they were in effect blinded to worth-shipping or valuing the treasure of the only true God. Instead they were bewitched by the hissing of serpent into trading away their inheritance in God in exchange for the bad-breath infected images or idols of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel of most precious wood, and brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and perfume, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and of horses, and of chariots, and even the images and idols and their own over-inflated opinion of themselves. The lying words of the serpent became in effect “true lies” as they were accompanied by the curse of the serpent’s lying breath that became established and made real within the sinful breathings of the personality of Adam’s self-worshipping sons.

The tree of life represents amongst other things dependence upon the fatherhood of God and his delight to provide, protect and give purpose to his son or sons, seed or seeds. In effect the fruit of the tree of life is figuratively Jesus’ physical body, and his body was broken and torn to reveal the seed or son of God’s indwelling fatherhood and breath (or Holy Spirit) that dwelt within the fruit or house of Jesus body. Within Jesus was life and the indwelling presence of God and that life was the light of men. In Hebrew, the word life meant literally the “stomach” and strength of breath because for the Hebrews a full stomach and strong breath equated to life. It represents those who, like Jacob, are full or complete or had “shalom” or fulfilment or satisfaction within their father’s house and do not hunger or thirst for something better. They are fully dependent upon God as their father for everything and know that they are protected even when bad things sometimes happen. They love him because he loved them first and have embraced his purpose for their lives – they know that he works all things out for their good. They are God’s responsibility not their own and they are answerable to him and not themselves. As his sons, he gives them the answer that he is looking for because he dwells within them just as they dwell within him. They are full and rich because everything that is God’s is theirs and the blessing of Paradise literally dwells within their hearts because it is their inheritance. As the sons or the seed of God they gain their strength of an indestructible or endless or never ending eternal life to live from the love of their Father. His life’s breath and indwelling presence within their hearts enables them to naturally bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.

The Kingdom of Dusty-Darkness and the Kingdom of Star-Light

The two trees in Eden bear seeds that perpetuate their kind – two different fathers, two different types of sons or seeds, two different sources of food and strength, two different kingdoms, two different doors, two different pathways, two different houses, two different ways of behaving, two different breaths, two different names and two different destinies. Hebraically it was the father of the original tree that dwelt within the seed to produce its strength of kind from the continuation of its blood. Hebraically one seed or son was the same as many seeds or sons because they came from the same tree and therefore had to produce fruit of the same kind. The original seed or son of each tree and all of the generated seed or sons that were actually within the original seed all have the same destiny.

In Hebrew the word orphan means literally being empty or not full and also lonely and the kingdom of darkness is populated by millions of independent and rational beings or seeds originally created as good by God from different ages and all of whom at one stage in their personal history were deceived by establishing as true the words of lying breath within the breathings of their personality or name into becoming as orphans or emptied of God’s goodness by rejecting the worth-ship and blessing of God and his glorious purpose for their existence. They turned and twisted away to follow a path that they mistakenly thought would bring them a greater sense of pleasure, satisfaction and fulfilment. Instead of finding more pleasure they shrieked out a woe of pain and anguish and the gnashing of their teeth as the deceiving serpent beat them to a pulp, broke every bone in their spiritual body and stole their crowns leaving them completely subordinated and enslaved to his diabolical will. They now exist in a continual state and are enslaved to bear the name of emptiness, hatred, rejection, fear and slavery and are completely cursed, dominated and controlled by the father of their rebellion. Their rebellious father is like a huge venomous snake and hideous parasitic leech that sits upon a government or mountain of misery and is puffed up and feeds and finds strength from the cruelty that it has caused. They became the dusty sons of Belial which in Hebrew means sons of nameless, characterless, rebellious, un-correctible and unteachable wickedness. They are now a hierarchical and highly regimented army of diabolical chaos hell bent on destruction, completely consumed by or burn with the incensed pride of their cravings and lusts, and like the moon reflecting the sun they simply reflect the darkness of the environment in which they live. They now have no choice but to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and this fruit determines the pathway upon which they walk, the house to which they belong, the way in which they behave and therefore their character, name, and their ultimate destiny. The kingdom of light is populated my millions of dependent and rational beings or seeds who were spoken into existence by the power of the words of God’s almighty breath and are being filled with the utmost sense of pleasure and glory and delight in the fact that they are completely dependent upon the blessing of God. In all things they are totally satisfied by God’s infinite love for them and are utterly convinced in God’s goodness and ability to determine what is best for them. They shine like stars with the light of God’s breath that dwells within them. They eat the fruit from the tree of the breath of life and this fruit determines the pathway upon which they walk, the house to which they belong, how they behave and therefore their name and ultimate destiny.

The Fruit of Separation from God’s Fatherhood

In English, the word witchcraft came from witch or “wicce” which was probably from “wigle” meaning divination and “wig” or “wih” meaning idol. The word craft was “creft” or “kraft” meaning power, strength, skill or might. In English the word wizard was from “wys” meaning knowing or wise. The word sorcery came from the Latin “sortiarius” meaning teller of fortunes or fate and Latin “sors” meaning lot, fate or fortune or sort. Most of the sins that God described to Moses in Deuteronomy that the people of the nations were committing were some form of witchcraft or sorcery or immorality – interaction, transaction or business dealings with the breath of the serpent and his kingdom. Moses described these gods as shades, insolent destroyers, goat idols and in the Septuagint, demons. Yehovah said:

Deut 18:9 ‘When thou art coming in unto the land which Yehovah thy God is giving to thee, thou dost not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations:

Deut 18:10 there is not found in thee one causing his son and his daughter to pass over into fire, a user of divinations, an observer of clouds, and an enchanter, and a sorcerer,
Deut 18:11 and a charmer, and one asking at a familiar spirit, and a wizard, and one seeking unto the dead.
Deut 18:12 ‘For the abomination of Yehovah is everyone doing these, and because of these abominations is Yehovah thy God dispossessing them from thy presence.
Deut 18:13 perfect thou art with Yehovah thy God,
Deut 18:14 for these nations whom thou art possessing, unto observers of clouds, and unto diviners, do hearken; and thou – not so hath Yehovah thy God suffered thee.

They burnt their children to death in sacred fires, they cast lots to determine fate or fortune, they hissed out spells and enchantments to control or influence situations or people, charmed and connected with snakes, communed with familiar spirits (in Hebrew “ob” or the hollow gurgling of wineskins), lay with cult prostitutes in sacred groves and sought guidance and instructions from the dead. These sins were predominately the religious sins of Babel and Ur of the Chaldeans that Abraham was called out of and was the seeking of the release of power, strength or secret knowledge of the gods in order to pacify their anger and overcome their enemies or obstacles to satisfaction, success or fulfilment. Such sins enabled the serpent and his followers to possess the land or wide-open spaces within the “adamah” or personality of these people by words of their lying breaths. In the Proverbs, Wisdom warns against partnering with such sinners:

Prov 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing.
Prov 1:11 If they say, ‘Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,
Prov 1:12 We swallow them as Sheol – alive, And whole – as those going down to the pit,
Prov 1:13 Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses with spoil, Prov 1:14 Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is – to all of us.’
Prov 1:15 My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path,
Prov 1:16 For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood.

Prov 1:17 Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird.
Prov 1:18 And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives.
Prov 1:19 So are the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.

This possession of personality resulted in these dust-men becoming the seed of the serpent, having “one purse” with them and breathing the bad breaths or evil spirits of darkness expressed in being willingly enslaved to their name or way of behaving. These things were an abomination to God, in Hebrew the word abomination meant literally a “plank in his eye”.

Levi 18:26 Ye have kept My statutes and My judgments, and do not any of all these abominations, the native and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst,
Levi 18:27 (for all these abominations have the men of the land done who are before you, and the land is defiled),
Levi 18:28 and the land doth not vomit you out in your defiling it, as it hath vomited out the nation which is before you

In English the word abominable is from the Latin “abominari” which meant “an evil omen”. These sins are the deeds of the dust-men who sin for a living and this sin is the fruit of separation from the fatherhood of God.

The Restoration of God’s Fatherhood

Imagine a huge forest world of thorn bushes that had all ultimately sprouted from a single original thorn bush or tree. These thorn bushes were all sons of their father, the original father dwelt within its thorny sons and they all behaved like their thorny father by bearing thorns. Some of these bushes were very thorny and some had only a few, but none of the thorny sons or bushes could do anything except behave like their father. It was in their strength and life’s breath or name that dwelt within their blood. Imagine that a huge vine spoke to a thorny bush and said “Leave your father’s thorny house and this forest of thorns. Go to my vineyard that I will show you. I will bless and gift you with my wine, I will change your name from thorny bush to fruitful vine-branch. If anyone spikes you with their thorn, I will crush them in my wine-press and all the thorny bushes of the forest will be blessed with my wine just like you”. This is what God did for Abraham. Abraham was a thorny bush just like everyone else. He had no choice because seeds bore the fruit of their father after their kind. The only way that Abraham could be any different to his fathers or people was by having a change of father. Just as the father thorn dwelt within Abraham to produce thorns, so Abraham needed a different father to depend on, different land to grow in and different strength to dwell within him, so that he could have a change of name and bear different fruit. God said to Abraham:

Gen 12:1 and Yehovah saith unto Abram, ‘Go for thyself, from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, unto the land which I shew thee.
Gen 12:2 and I make thee become a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.
Gen 12:3 and I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground.’

In Hebrew the word father is the symbol for the head of a bull and a house. It means literally the strength of the house. Abraham was born into his father Terah’s household and Abraham lived as Terah’s seed within his father’s house or strength. The word for god in Hebrew is the symbol of the head of a bull and a staff or yoke. It means literally yoked strength and power. Terah’s indwelling strength and provision came from Adam and ultimately the serpent and the strength of Terah and Nahor was the moon god Ur-Nannu. God called Abraham out of Ur and his father’s house and inheritance so that God himself could become Abraham’s strength and God and inheritance.

For Abraham, believing God was not an intellectual pursuit. It had nothing to do with having an overactive imagination, confessing religious doctrine or creed or performing mental gymnastics, trying to persuade himself that something that somebody else had told him or even forced him to believe about God was true. In Hebrew faith is the word for truth and meant to establish like a pillar or support or to nurse and establish a baby in infancy. It meant making something firm, real and true. For Abraham faith was that act of catching the breath of God within the soul- breathings of his heart like a sail on a ship and establishing the promise of sonship that God made to him personally through his inspired obedience. Sons behave like their fathers because they are the seed of their fathers just like a planted thorn bush grows and produces thorns like its father thorn bush. For Abraham the gospel or good news of God’s blessing and covenant saved him practically from the power of the sin and curse that came from the rotten death-bringing fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by circumcising his heart and ears and inspiring or empowering Abraham with the living breath of resurrection life that gave him strength to behave differently to his fathers. In Acts 3 Peter explained that the blessing of Abraham poured out at Pentecost would empower people with the blessing and anointing of Jesus himself to save (“yeshu’ah” in Hebrew) them from their evil ways:

Acts 3:25 ‘Ye are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant that God made unto our fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall be blessed all the families of the earth;
Acts 3:26 to you first, God, having raised up his child Jesus, did send him, blessing you, in the turning away of each one from your evil ways.’

Just as natural words are spoken with the power or strength of natural breath and they work together as one to achieve the purpose for which they are spoken, God speaks his word with the almighty power of his divine breath (or Holy Spirit), to achieve his purposes. When God’s word is reunited with the breath of God that originally spoke those words, the result is blessing, resurrection and revival. Abraham was originally created within Adam by the power of God’s word, and through the covenant of the words of promise spoken to him by God, the breath of God’s fatherhood, strength or great name entered in to the life of Abraham and enabled Abraham to bear the image of the vine instead of the thorn. By turning his back on his natural thorny genealogy and the weakness of his flesh or dust he was turning away from and disagreeing with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for his strength and he was no longer to be the serpent’s thorny seed. This turning and the reuniting of God’s word and breath (or Holy Spirit) set him free from the law of sin and death passed down from the original sinning father and restored his lost crown, disinheriting the serpent and his lying breaths from Abraham’s heart, reversing the power of sin and removing the curse of slavery to sinning that he had inherited from his fathers. God’s inspiration or strength of breath of life or blessing started to change Abraham to behave like Jesus the true vine who was genealogically his heir and who one day would carry Abraham’s cross, the seed of Eve who drew his strength from the tree of life and the breath (or Holy Spirit) of the fatherhood of God. Abraham’s blessing was a down payment or deposit of the true vine and eternal inheritance of sonship that he will receive at the first resurrection and that in effect came from the breath of God that Adam gasped out when he sinned and in effect died. Because of this deposit of the gift of righteousness, Abraham bore the name son of righteousness and became a blessing to those around him, and those who blessed Abraham were themselves blessed.

Abraham’s Land of Promise

In Genesis 15 God told Abraham what was to happen with his seed, son or sons. His seed was to live as a stranger and slave in Egypt for many years and then return to Abraham’s land of promise to possess the land. The land of promise was given to Abraham and his seed because of the sins, iniquity and twisted behaviour of the people that lived there.

Gen 15:13 and he (Yehovah Elohim) saith to Abram, ‘knowing – know that thy seed is a sojourner in a land not theirs, and they have served them, and they have afflicted them four hundred years,
Gen 15:14 and the nation also whom they serve I judge, and after this they go out with great substance;
Gen 15:15 and thou – thou comest in unto thy fathers in peace; thou art buried in a good old age;
Gen 15:16 and the fourth generation doth turn back hither, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’

In Genesis 15 God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed, son or sons to give them the land of promise:

Gen 15:18 in that day hath Yehovah made with Abram a covenant, saying, ‘To thy seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates,
Gen 15:19 with the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, Gen 15:20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,
Gen 15:21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.’

At the time of Abraham the Babylonians called the peoples of Syria and Palestine the “Amurru” or Amorites which later became the Hittites. For Abraham the Amorites were all of the peoples south of the Euphrates.

Amos 2:9 And I – I have destroyed the Amorite from before them, Whose height is as the height of cedars, And strong he is as the oaks, And I destroy his fruit from above, And his roots from beneath.

These peoples were further broken down into clans or family groups that God specifically identified here. Of the different peoples mentioned, the Rephaim stand out as being different. The root of the word in Hebrew means literally an “open man” and was related to words for idol, heal, wound, pulverize, breathless, weakness and death. As a people group it was often translated as giant but also shades, shadows and the dead.

Isaiah 26:14 [the] dead – they live not, Rephaim, they rise not, Therefore Thou hast inspected and dost destroy them, Yea, thou destroyest all their memory.

Just as within Canaan dwelled other people groups and God promised dominion or kingdom to Abraham’s seed within the land, Abraham’s personality or “adamah” or personal land or dusty flesh had been occupied by the breaths or thorns and thistles inherited from his natural father. Abraham’s fathers had committed the same sins of the peoples of Canaan as they had all migrated from Babel. In his great love, God “assigns” or gifts the blessing of messengers or angels to save and protect everyone born from the oppressive and deceptive bad breaths or thorns of darkness.

Psalm 34:6 This poor one called, and Yehovah heard, And from all his distresses saved him.
Psalm 34:7 A messenger [angel] of Yehovah is encamping, Round about those who fear Him, And He armeth them.
Psalm 34:8 Taste ye and see that Yehovah is good, O the happiness of the man who trusteth in Him.

However, angels are required work within the desires and permission of those whom they are assigned to protect. Those who choose to sin by seeking pleasure, satisfaction and fulfilment outside of God’s perfect will, forfeit angelic protection and instead partner with the bad breaths or evil spirits of darkness. These bad breaths come to kill, steal and destroy by gaining “rights of possession” or tenancy within the personality or breathings of life. God’s protective angelic “deed of assignment” is overruled or cancelled out from that particular part of the sinner’s life’s breathings and their character or name degenerates. This “grant of permission” given to bad breaths is a “right of possession” and is a curse that can be passed down through the generations of the family line from father to son. Abraham’s promise of the restoration of God’s fatherhood and blessing included the indwelling breath and presence of God within his heart, the reassignment of angelic protection, and the cancellation of the “grant of permission” or “rights of access” to his personality from being enslaved to the name, or the breaths or spirits of the idols, images, shadows, shades of the dead that as the serpent’s seed had been valued and worshipped by his fathers. It says in Proverbs 2 that the blessing of God’s wisdom would:

Prov 2:16 to deliver thee from the adulteress, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,
Prov 2:17 who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.
Prov 2:18 for her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.

Such deliverance or salvation saved Abraham and the land of his personality or name or life’s breath from the oppressive hand of his enemies. For Abraham the Kingdom of God’s fatherhood was a close to him as the air that he breathed, and breathing the breath of God became his strength and source of supply that changed Abraham and his true sons to behave like stars and not dust.

The Dust-Men and The Star-Men – Two Seeds of Different Fathers

In Genesis 3 God cursed the serpent for deceiving Eve into joining his rebellion by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God referred to the two seeds, the seed of Eve, and the seed of the serpent:

Gen 3:13 and Yehovah God saith to the woman, ‘What is this thou hast done?’ and the woman saith, ‘The serpent hath caused me to forget – and I do eat.’
Gen 3:14 and Yehovah God saith unto the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all the cattle, and above every beast of the field: on thy belly dost thou go, and dust thou dost eat, all days of thy life;
Gen 3:15 and enmity I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he doth bruise thee – the head, and thou dost bruise him
– the heel.’

Jesus is the seed of Eve because Hebraically the blood came from the father and Adam’s independent sin-tainted blood did not flow in Jesus veins. Jesus is Immanuel, God seen by the people, fully man as the seed of Eve and fully God. He said in John 8 “Before Abraham was born I AM (Yah in Hebrew)”. The dependent seed or Heavenly Star-Man had his heel pierced by being nailed to a tree. He laid down his life for the dust-men who crucified him, to die and rise to become many seeds or sons all of whom one day will be ascended and exalted just like the original seed or son and share in his destiny.

The independent seed or dust-man sold his friend for the price of a common slave and betrayed him with a kiss, who hung himself on a tree, whose intestines burst out into his field or place or inheritance of blood, whose head (ultimately the serpent) was crushed and who shares in his destiny. Jesus described Judas as a son or seed of destruction (in Hebrew the word meant alone, separated and in a place of ruin) and through his dealings with envy, greed and theft, the deceiving-destroyer and his bad breath dwelt within him. Jesus said no-one picks grapes from thorn bushes and so if a tree is made good its seed or fruit will be good. Hebraically, apart from God’s blessing, everyone who has ever been born, except Jesus, had no choice but to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it was all that they could breathe or see and to a greater or lesser extent has been the seed of the serpent.

By looking at how the seed behaves, or seeing how the fruit tastes, you can see the source or strength or indwelling father of the original tree and the ultimate destiny of each. Those who are dependent upon the blessing and fatherhood of God, just like Jesus is, have another seed and father within them. Through God’s blessing and the outpouring of the Paradise of Pentecost, they can choose to be changed to become the seed or the sons of God just like Jesus because having experienced a change of fathers, God’s breath and life dwells within them just as God dwelt within the original son or seed of the tree of life. They become the actual scrolls within the Lamb’s Book of Life because God has written his name and character and power of Himself as the indwelling Father within them so that they bear his fruit for all to taste and see just as Jesus is. They become the image of the invisible God because like seeds from a tree the one is many and the many are one. The destinies of these two different seeds or sons are mentioned in Daniel 12:

Dan 12:1 ‘And at that time stand up doth Michael, the great head, who is standing up for the sons of thy people, and there hath been a time of distress, such as hath not been since there hath been a nation till that time, and at that time do thy people escape, everyone who is found written in the book.
Dan 12:2 ‘And the multitude of those sleeping in the dust of the ground do awake, some to life age-during, and some to reproaches – to abhorrence age-during.
Dan 12:3 and those teaching do shine as the brightness of the expanse, and those justifying the multitude as stars to the age and for ever.

The final judgement of the seed is based upon the fruit of the indwelling father of the original tree. The stars shine with the brightness of the light of the Holy Spirit or indwelling father that shines out from within them.

Prov 4:18 And the path of the righteous is as a shining light, Going and brightening till the day is established

Jesus of Nazareth, the Heavenly Star-Man describes the life or behaviour of the shining star-men in the Sermon on the Mount. The star-men are salt and light who naturally fulfil the Ten Commandments by walking in love and living in love because God is love and God lives in them. Being full of the Holy Spirit or the breath of the Holy One they bear the name of the word “the son of God”. They are reflections of the invisible God that dwells within them and they are generous, forgiving and merciful, do not look at things or people lustfully, naturally turn the other cheek, give and fast secretly, do not slander or hate. They are made perfect or complete in the light and knowledge of the love of their Heavenly Father that shines within them. The light within them is not darkness. They ask and receive, seek and find and knock and the door to the Paradise of God’s fatherhood and indwelling presence is open to them. This is the blessing of Abraham and anointing of David.

The dust-men have a different name and walk or behave in a different way:

Prov 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness, They have not known at what they stumble.

Unlike stars, the dust-men reflect the environment that they find themselves in. In a prosperous place of plenty the dust men flatter themselves and look down on others not understanding where wickedness and true righteousness actually come from. Jesus told a parable about an unnamed rich man and a beggar called Lazarus. Lazarus is from the Hebrew “Eleazor” which means “God is my helper”, the rich man had no name because he was a dust-slave of sin. Lazarus was laid every day at the gate of the rich man and longed to eat even the crumbs that fell from his table but was never given anything.

Luke 16:22 ‘And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers to the bosom of Abraham – and the rich man also died, and was buried;
Luke 16:23 and in the hades having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he doth see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,
Luke 16:24 and having cried, he said, Father Abraham, deal kindly with me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and may cool my tongue, because I am distressed in this flame.
Luke 16:25 ‘And Abraham said, Child, remember that thou did receive
– thou – thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus in like manner the evil things, and now he is comforted, and thou art distressed;
Luke 16:26 and besides all these things, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that they who are willing to go over from hence unto you are not able, nor do they from thence to us pass through.

The rich man would have considered his great wealth as the obvious sign of his spiritual superiority and would have imagined the unfortunate Lazarus as being cursed because the sins that he or his fathers had committed. However, when Lazarus died, the messengers or angels carried Lazarus to the bosom of Abraham his father to receive love and comfort, but the rich man when he died went to hades where there was no love or comfort, only fire and torment. The rich man was genealogically a descendant of Abraham through Isaac but was not really his son because he did not behave like Abraham by receiving his blessing and therefore bearing his name. He behaved like a goat and not a sheep and kept on doing so. He was not changed as Abraham had been from dust to a star in life. In death his destiny became fixed and a great chasm separated the rich man from Abraham’s blessing of the indwelling fatherhood of God. Jesus declares in Revelation that destiny is determined in life but is fixed after death:

Rev 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. (KJV)

The rich man chose not to shine like a star by loving Lazarus his brother, and did not inherit sonship as his father Abraham and indeed Lazarus had done. On the Day of Judgement, Jesus will say to his sheep, the blessed of his Father, who had lived in love like stars within the inspiring power of his supernatural indwelling breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood:

Matt 25:34 ‘Then shall the king say to those on his right hand, Come ye, the blessed of my Father, inherit the reign that hath been prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
Matt 25:35 for I did hunger, and ye gave me to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye received me;
Matt 25:36 naked, and ye put around me; I was infirm, and ye looked after me; in prison I was, and ye came unto me.

Jesus will say to the goats, the cursed, who despite being surrounded by God’s blessing had not lived in love but instead had brought forth thorns and thistles:

Matt 25:41 Then shall he say also to those on the left hand, Go ye from me, the cursed, to the fire, the age-during, that hath been prepared for the Devil and his messengers;
Matt 25:42 for I did hunger, and ye gave me not to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me not to drink;
Matt 25:43 a stranger I was, and ye did not receive me; naked, and ye put not around me; infirm, and in prison, and ye did not look after me.

The goats were living dust who had chosen to remain divorced from the guarantee of the inheritance of the breath of God’s Holy Spirit and life. They lived only with their natural breath and received their allotment or portion or measure within the lake of fire or valley of Ben-Hinnom (gehenna) of the rubbish or garbage that they had worth-shipped, that burns within them and consumes them. Just as they had partnered with the idols of their gods to jointly benefit from the satisfaction of their lusts so they share in their punishment of being given over to be consumed with whatever their hearts had craved.

Abraham’s Two Seeds – Dust-Men and Star-Men

Within ancient Hebrew culture, the unborn sons were seen as being in the physical body or house of their father. God had blessed Abraham in many ways but his wife Sarah was barren and could not give life to the seed or sons that dwelt within his body. The word barren in Hebrew meant literally plucked out by the roots. Hebraically this was seen as a curse and in order to alleviate growing pressure of this awful curse, Sarah turned to the laws of the land and gave her slave girl Hagar to Abraham for her to bear a son on Sarah’s behalf. Hagar was not provided by God to enable Abraham to establish God’s house or dwelling place as an inheritance within his son. Sarah’s gift of Hagar to Abraham did not bring the blessing that Sarah had hoped for. Instead Hagar the Egyptian in her natural born reasoning couldn’t help but curse her mistress in her heart every time she saw her because Sarah seemingly being cursed had not blessed Abraham by giving him an heir. In turn Sarah blamed Abraham who gave her permission to beat Hagar for cursing her mistress which she did. Hagar fled from the beatings but was met by a messenger from God who named the child Ishmael and told her to return and said Ishmael would be like a wild donkey and become a countless multitude. Later on, God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled and Sarah bore Abraham a son called Isaac within whom God would have an inheritance. In Genesis 13 and 15 God promised that Abraham’s seed or sons would be like the dust of the earth and the stars in the sky. These two pictures are two types of sons or seed.

The natural born independent sons are thorny sinning slaves represented by Ishmael who mocked his baby brother and would not share Abraham’s inheritance with him but was cast out of Abraham’s house and orphaned from Abraham’s fatherhood. They are the uncircumcised of heart and ears, the dust of the earth, the fleshy seed of the serpent who are outside of Abraham’s covenant with God and continue to do their own thing and eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and sin to find their strength and source of supply. They are called sinners because judging others and doing their own thing is in their life-blood, it is their inadvertent independent purpose and way of life. They are answerable only to themselves and fight with the weapons of this world and their strength or armour that they inherited from their father gives them no protection from or any power or strength to overcome their real enemy, the slave-driving serpent. As Abraham’s sons, they could have walked in his blessing but instead they did not despite their religious observances, beliefs and traditions:

Matt 7:21 ‘Not everyone who is saying to me Lord, lord, shall come into the reign of the heavens; but he who is doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens.
Matt 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, lord, have we not in thy name prophesied? and in thy name cast out demons? and in thy name done many mighty things?
Matt 7:23 and then I will acknowledge to them, that – I never knew you, depart from me ye who are working lawlessness.

The sons of promise are those who experience the strength and inspiration and inbreathing (or Holy Spirit) of the fatherhood of God and are represented by Isaac. They are the stars in the sky. These sons of the true vine are dependent upon God and as such draw upon the blessing and strength that wells up from within their hearts given by a foretaste of the fruit of the tree of life. These sons without the natural genealogy or corrupted blood that they had previously inherited from a natural human father find that love comes naturally and the commandments of God for them are their purpose and way or pathway of life. Because of God’s blessing they no longer hunger or thirst and they are not scorched by the heat of the sun or any other form of pagan idolatry. Instead they dwell within the shadow or image or reflection of God as their very own Father. Instead of replacing God with themselves, their Father dwells within them by his very own life’s breath (or Holy Spirit) and shines within them and gives them the armour or protection of his love and this inspires them and empowers them to love and to overcome and demolish the strongholds of darkness. The knowledge of his love changes them to be just like Jesus or Yehoshua whose name means amongst other things “saviour and overcomer”. Their change of father results in a change of way of life or behaviour and name and they are branches (sons) of the true vine, led by the Good Shepherd to the fountains of living water and God himself wipes every tear from their eyes.

Joshua the High Priest

Zechariah 3 describes the high priest Joshua being changed by the blessing of God’s fatherhood from being a dust-man to a star-man:

Zech 3:1 and he sheweth me Joshua [Yehoshua] the high priest standing before the messenger of Yehovah, and the Adversary (Satan) standing at his right hand, to be an adversary to him.
Zech 3:2 and Yehovah saith unto the Adversary: ‘Yehovah doth push against thee, O Adversary, Yea, push against thee doth Yehovah, Who is fixing on Jerusalem, Is not this a brand delivered from fire?’
Zech 3:3 and Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and is standing before the messenger.
Zech 3:4 and he answereth and speaketh unto those standing before him, saying: ‘Turn aside the filthy garments from off him.’ And he saith unto him, ‘See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass away from off thee, so as to clothe thee with costly apparel.’
Zech 3:5 he also said, ‘Let them set a pure diadem on his head. And they set the pure diadem on his head, and clothe him with garments. And the messenger of Yehovah is standing,
Zech 3:6 and the messenger of Yehovah doth protest to Joshua, saying:

Zech 3:7 ‘Thus said Yehovah of Hosts: If in My ways thou dost walk, And if My charge thou dost keep, Then also thou dost judge My house, And also thou dost keep My courts, And I have given to thee conductors among these standing by.
Zech 3:8 Hear, I pray thee, Joshua, the high priest, Thou and thy companions sitting before thee, (For men of type are they,) For lo, I am bringing in My servant – a Shoot [the Branch].
Zech 3:9 For lo, the stone that I put before Joshua, On one stone are seven eyes, Lo, I am graving its graving, An affirmation of Yehovah of Hosts, And I have removed the iniquity of that land in one day.
Zech 3:10 In that day – an affirmation of Yehovah of Hosts, Ye do call, each unto his neighbour, Unto the place of the vine, And unto the place of the fig-tree!’

In English the word “natural” comes from the Latin “natura” meaning the course of things, being, character, essence and principal of life which itself comes from the Latin “natus” meaning born or generated. Joshua (Yehoshua) the high priest was naturally born as an image or shadow of Adam and was as the dust of the earth. He was genealogically descended from Isaac and had spent a year before the day of atonement symbolically cleaning the outside of his cup, but practically speaking he was an Ishmael who had soiled the inside of his garments or cup with natural born independent selfishness. Like a leopard he could not change his spots because he inherited them from his father. God has the power to become someone’s father by changing their blood or inherited life or strength. Satan the adversary stood at his right hand to request to rake Joshua like coals or sift him like wheat and as such find a legal right to withstand Joshua as High Priest and prevent him from fulfilling his destiny in God for himself and God’s chosen people. However, because of the finished work of the Servant of Yehovah, the Shoot or Branch or Breaker or Mashiyach (Messiah) or Lamb of God who was to take away the iniquity or sins of the land on the cross in one day, Yehovah was enabled to rebuke Satan and bless Joshua with a change of father symbolized by Isaac (in Hebrew laughter) or David (in Hebrew beloved) – a crown or anointing and new garments or covering and therefore character, name, provision, protection, presence, purpose and destiny. This dis-inherited and dis-established the words of the serpent’s lying breaths from the heart of Joshua that had dwelt within the breathings of Joshua’s personality and that came from the Fall.

Joshua was given unconditional love but also a conditional promise. If Joshua walked in God’s ways or character or name and guarded or shielded or protected his commandments by being inspired to do them, then in turn God would grant him what originally belonged to Satan – judge (in Hebrew a door of life) over God’s house, guardianship of his courts (the enclosure around his house) and to become a messenger or administrator of God’s blessing, breath, justice and kingdom. Because Joshua experienced a change of fathers and a change of strength he was in effect a new creation in the anointing of Yehovah and found it easier to walk in obedience and blessing rather than disobedience and curse. In effect Joshua was to be changed from being the dust of the earth to being a star in the sky by walking in the blessing of God’s fatherhood.

Dust-Men and Star-Men in Conflict

The battle of the ages fought out between the two kingdoms or fathers or seeds or sons or trees or houses or destinies is repeated within families, churches or gatherings, cities, regions, tribes, nations and within people’s own hearts across time and space seen ultimately in the battle of Har- Megiddon mentioned in Revelation 16. The conflict can be seen between Isaac and Ishmael, and between Jacob and Esau. It can also be seen in the lives of the sons of Jacob, who because of their jealousy, sold their brother Joseph as a slave to a caravan of travelling Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt to trade. The Ishmaelites were the natural sons or seed of Abraham dealing in amongst other things, slaves. Abraham would not have been impressed because Joseph was the heir of his blessing. This conflict within the two seeds can even be seen in individual lives and hearts as in the life of Lot. In Genesis 13, the herdsmen of Abraham’s nephew Lot (in Hebrew Lot means something secret or veiled and covered) quarrelled with Abraham’s herdsmen because their flocks were so huge that the land couldn’t support them. Abraham suggested to Lot that they part company. Abraham allowed Lot to choose which way he would go and it says that Lot lifted up (Hebraically gave life to) his eyes towards the fertile plains of the Jordan and pitched his tents towards Sodom. In Hebrew Sodom means something scorched or burnt.

In Job 2 Satan describes himself as walking up and down upon the earth and travelling backwards and forwards (in Hebrew the word means the scourging or lashing of the whip) upon it which seems to be what he had done in the midst of the fiery stones that God destroyed him out of. Everything that Satan does has purpose and he behaves like a travelling salesman endlessly going up and down looking for customers who become bewitched into finding what he has to offer attractive. They do not realize that their dealings with him will cost them everything they have and more, even their own lives. He is like a moneylender or loan shark who charges an exorbitant rate of interest and lashes those who are indebted or enslaved to him and scourges their flesh with his whip demanding payment that ends in more debt. He is like a fisherman going up and down casting his line like the crack of a whip on which he has sharp barbed fishhooks baited with repulsive maggots that his bad breath bewitches people into thinking look attractive and are good for food. In reality they are empty but addictive and once people take a bite, he tugs the line and pulls the fish off the straight and narrow to a dark and twisted place of more maggots and hooks and lines until eventually the fish becomes so trapped and hooked and entangled it is like a puppet-king or marionette completely enslaved by the strings of its master. This is in order to build his own business or house or kingdom within the lives and hearts of those who do business with him by eating his maggots and swallowing his hooked lines. This is what happened to the people of Sodom who had grown exceedingly wicked in the face of God, even more so than the people of Ur from where Abraham and Lot had come out of. Their sin made real the false promises of the serpent and established the curse or breath of these lying words as in effect “true lies” within their lives and community – they had so many dealings with the serpent that the outcry or shriek of woe, grief and misery that they together had caused reached the ears of God in Heaven who came down in person to see if things could really be that bad. They were, and Lot chose to live amongst these people, in Sodom.

The King of Sodom was a puppet-king, and representative of, and the seed of, the serpent. Lot in effect traded his huge inheritance for a presumed place of blessing and protection within his city or house. Lot chose to live in a beneficial relationship with the serpent and his son, the king or reigning-one of Sodom. He, in his own heart, weighed up the cost and benefits of dealing with this serpent-son and decided that the benefits outweighed the cost. He arranged marriages for his daughters with the sons of Sodom and Lot’s natural inheritance or sons or seed would have been amongst these people and in that city or house. Because of Abraham’s prayers, Lot was saved out of Sodom, but Lot’s inheritance was burnt up in the fires of God’s judgement. His wife, who loved Sodom and who lingered and looked back longingly (in Hebrew to regard with pleasure, favour and care), was killed in a pyroclastic cloud of volcanic ash. Lot escaped through the flames, but what he had built for his sons or seed to inherit was destroyed. In fact things were so bad for Lot that in the end, like the Laodicean church, he became wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. In desperation his daughters got him blind drunk and slept with him in order to save or preserve or Hebraically “give life” to his unborn seed or sons, so that he would still have an a natural inheritance or name upon the earth. His sons were called Moab (meaning “his mother’s father”) and Ammon (meaning “inbred son”). These peoples were the seed or sons or dust-men of Lot and with his daughters and through their continued dealings with the serpent their chosen form of worship was the passing through or burning of their children to death in the fires of the gods Chemosh and Molech. In effect they traded or exchanged the lives of their children for the presumed favour of these despicable and deceptive gods. When Lot originally lifted up his eyes towards Sodom, Abraham did not. God told Abraham to lift up his eyes to see the land of promise that God had given him. Abraham did not behave like Lot the dust-man, who independently used his eyes to see what looked best for him. The eyes of Abraham’s heart had been opened to God, his love and purpose and Abraham had become a star-man and blind to the things that were outside, or independent of, the blessing of God’s fatherhood.

Redeemed Blood – The Heavenly Star-Man

In Hebrew the word redeem means literally something brought back full circle. In Hebrew the word for “adam” means literally a strong flowing backwards and forwards and means the flowing of water or blood. It is similar to wine because wine is the flowing water of the grape. The son of his father resembles and behaves like his father because the strength or likeness is in the blood. The word “adam” is also related to the colour red and also the word silent because when blood is shed, the ground becomes red with blood and man becomes silent. In Leviticus 17 the Israelites were forbidden to eat blood because the soul or breathings of life or name or character of the slain animal dwelt within the blood. They had to respect and honour the life of the animal by pouring out the blood upon the altar and the ground. Everyone who was ever, or will be, born except Jesus was in the house of the body of Adam when he sinned and the character or behaviour of sinning was in the blood passed from father to son. Only the blood of a different father could change the way that the sons of Adam behaved.

Isaiah 59:16 And he [Yehovah] seeth that there is no man, And is astonished that there is no intercessor, And his own arm giveth salvation to Him, And his righteousness – it sustained Him.
Isaiah 59:17 And he putteth on righteousness as a breastplate, And an helmet of salvation on his head, And he putteth on garments of vengeance for clothing, And is covered, as with an upper-robe, with zeal.
Isaiah 59:18 According to deeds – so he repayeth. Fury to his adversaries, their deed to his enemies, To the isles their deed he repayeth.

God looked down from the heavens and saw the sufferings of mankind and in his great love was moved with compassion. He was astonished that because of corrupted blood there was no man who was capable of redeeming the fallen human race back into God’s eternal purpose of sonship for mankind. So in order to reveal the true nature of the Fall and redeem and bring back full circle the self-worshipping sons of Adam from the cursed blood line of independence and sin that resulted in death that was passed down from their original sinning father, Yehovah God was willing to put himself in the place of fallen mankind. In love he was personally willing to take corporate responsibility for sin and suffer what mankind suffered by both paying the price for and also experiencing as the son of Adam (Man) first-hand the dreadful curse of betrayal, injustice, rejection and crucifixion. He made great and precious promises to Abraham and David and their son and heir, then he prepared a body within the womb of Mary who was figuratively Eve the mother of all the living. The power of the Most High overshadowed Mary and Yehovah spoke the word “son” and breathed Himself fully and completely into her womb as the Heavenly Son or Star-Man Yehoshua or Jesus of Nazareth who is also the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace but also the son and heir of the promises spoken to both Abraham and David:

Isaiah 9:6 For a Child hath been born to us, A Son hath been given to us, And the princely power is on his shoulder, And he doth call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:7 To the increase of the princely power, And of peace, there is no end, On the throne of David, and on his kingdom, To establish it, and to support it, In judgment and in righteousness, Henceforth, even unto the age, The zeal of Yehovah of Hosts doth this.

Moses predicted his coming and warned the people that they needed to listen to and obey the words of Yehovah which he would speak and which of course they ignored:

Deut 18:18 …. a prophet I raise up to them, out of the midst of their brethren, like to thee; and I have given my words in his mouth, and he hath spoken unto them all that which I command him;
Deut 18:19 and it hath been – the man who doth not hearken unto My words which he doth speak in My name, I require it of him.

Yehovah sent John (Yehochanan) the Baptist to preach a baptism into repentance for the forgiveness of sins which prepared the way for Yehovah’s salvation:

Isaiah 40:3 A voice is crying – in a wilderness – Prepare ye the way of Yehovah, Make straight in a desert a highway to our God.
Malachi 3:1 Lo, I am sending My messenger, And he hath prepared a way before Me, And suddenly come in unto his temple Doth the Lord whom ye are seeking, Even the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye are desiring, Lo, he is coming, said Yehovah of Hosts.

He came to shepherd and feed his sheep.

Isaiah 40:10 Lo, the Lord Yehovah with strength cometh, And his arm is ruling for Him, Lo, his hire is with Him, and his wage before Him.
Isaiah 40:11 As a shepherd his flock he feedeth, With his arm he gathereth lambs, And in his bosom he carrieth them : Suckling ones he leadeth.

He is Yehovah God, he is the redeemer, he is the saviour, he is the Holy One of Israel and their King and servant that he has chosen:

Isaiah 43:10 Ye are My witnesses, an affirmation of Yehovah, And My servant whom I have chosen, So that ye know and give credence to Me, And understand that I am He, Before Me there was no God formed, And after Me there is none.
Isaiah 43:11 I – I am Yehovah, And besides Me there is no saviour.
Isaiah 43:12 I – I declared, and saved, and proclaimed, And there is no stranger with you, And ye are My witnesses, an affirmation of Yehovah, And I am God ….
Isaiah 43:15 …. I am Yehovah, your Holy One, Creator of Israel, your King.’

God’s chosen people Israel had already rejected Yehovah as their King and had asked for a man:

1 Sam 10:17 And Samuel calleth the people unto Yehovah to Mizpah,
1 Sam 10:18 and saith unto the sons of Israel, ‘Thus said Yehovah, God of Israel, I have brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I deliver you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms who are oppressing you;
1 Sam 10:19 and ye to-day have rejected your God, who is Himself your saviour [“yasha”] out of all your evils and your distresses, and ye say, ‘Nay, but – a king thou dost set over us… ’

He, Yehovah God became a man and put on righteousness (faith and love) as a breastplate and the helmet of salvation (“yeshu’ah”) upon his head. The Redeemer Himself came to Zion (Jerusalem) in peace as a man on a donkey:

Zech 9:9 Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, Lo, thy King doth come to thee, Righteous – and saved is He, Afflicted – and riding on an ass, And on a colt – a son of she-asses.

Yehovah God was again rejected by the religious leaders of the people, this time as a man, but this man was the son of both Abraham and David and the heir of their promises.

Mark 10:33 – ’Lo, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered to the chief priests, and to the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the nations,
Mark 10:34 and they shall mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, and kill him, and the third day he shall rise again.’

As the son of David he redeemed his people who were all corporately responsible for his murder by in hs great love imparting to them his resurrection life and Abraham’s blessing and breath of God’s fatherhood in exchange for their sins, sicknesses, diseases and death:

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains – he hath carried them, And we – we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:5 And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on him, And by his bruise there is healing to us.
Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have wandered, Each to his own way we have turned, And Yehovah hath caused to meet on him, The punishment of us all.

Yehoshua was crucified in place of Barabbas, whose name actually means “Bar-Abba”, son of the father:

Mark 15:7 and there was one named Barabbas, bound with those making insurrection with him, who had in the insurrection committed murder.
Mark 15:8 And the multitude having cried out, began to ask for themselves as he was always doing to them,
Mark 15:9 and Pilate answered them, saying, ‘Will ye that I shall release to you the king of the Jews?’
Mark 15:10 for he knew that because of envy the chief priests had delivered him up;
Mark 15:11 and the chief priests did move the multitude, that he might rather release Barabbas to them.

Yehoshua the Redeemer was crucified as the King of Israel and became like a son of Adam (Man). The Messiah cut off, orphaned or divorced from the breath of life but not as a result of his own sinning (see Daniel 9).

Isaiah 44:6 Thus said Yehovah, king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Yehovah of Hosts: ‘I am the first, and I the last, And besides Me there is no God’.
John 19:19 And Pilate also wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and it was written, ‘Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews;’
John 19:20 this title, therefore, read many of the Jews, because the place was nigh to the city where Jesus was crucified, and it was having been written in Hebrew, in Greek, in Roman.

They looked upon The One that they had pierced:

Zech 12:10 And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit [“ruach”, breath] of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

As the son and heir of Abraham and having never sinned he had a perfect relationship with Yehovah God as his Father. David was also his father and David predicted both the resurrection of Jesus and his own. Jesus was not within Adam when Adam chose to sin and so sin and death had no hold over him.

Psalm 16:9 Therefore hath my heart been glad, And my honour doth rejoice, Also my flesh dwelleth confidently:
Psalm 16:10 For Thou dost not leave my soul [breathings] to Sheol [grave], Nor givest thy saintly one to see corruption.
Psalm 16:11 Thou causest me to know the path of life; Fulness of joys is with Thy presence, Pleasant things by Thy right hand forever!

In the grave God remembered the promises that he had made to Abraham and David, and God reunited God’s word “son” and breath of life or the Holy Spirit within the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Through the power of the resurrection he inherited the possession of the eternal land God’s indwelling presence promised to Abraham and crown of the God’s anointing and throne of his dominion promised to David (Yehovah’s Mashiyach). The breathings of life are in the blood, and Jesus blood was poured out upon many to establish a new seed or blood line without the genealogical curse of breathless selfish independence, rebellion and death that was passed down through the natural family line from Adam, the original sinner and author of death. Yehoshua is the Passover Lamb of God slain before the foundation or fall of the “adamah” or world and whose blood takes away the sinning of the “adamah” or living dust by the indwelling life of the breath of God that dwells within the breathings of the blood and inspires a change of behaviour and therefore name.

John 1:29 on the morrow John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Lo, the Lamb of God, who is taking away the sin of the world;

Jesus breathed the breath of God into his disciples on the day he rose from the dead:

John 20:21 Jesus, therefore, said to them again, ‘Peace to you; according as the Father hath sent me, I also send you;’
John 20:22 and this having said, he breathed on them, and saith to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit;
John 20:23 if of any ye may loose the sins, they are loosed to them; if of any ye may retain, they have been retained.’

As their God, and King, Deliverer and the bondage Breaker, Jesus went before them into Galilee.

Micah 2:12 I do surely gather thee, O Jacob, all of thee, I surely bring together the remnant of Israel, Together I do set it as the flock of Bozrah [sheepfold], As a drove in the midst of its pasture, It maketh a noise because of man.
Micah 2:13 Gone up hath the Breaker before them, They have broken through, Yea, they pass through the gate, Yea, they go out through it, And pass on doth their king before them, And Yehovah at their head!

Matt 26:31 Then saith Jesus to them, ‘All ye shall be stumbled at me this night; for it hath been written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad;
Matt 26:32 but, after my having risen, I will go before you to Galilee.’

Yehoshua is now the head of a new corporate body of the living flames or stars or sons or City of Yehovah, who breathe God’s breath and have exactly the same relationship with Yehovah God as Abraham and David, because Yehoshua is their son and heir and amazingly also Yehovah their God:

Heb 2:10 For it was becoming to Him, because of whom are the all things, and through whom are the all things, many sons to glory bringing, the author of their salvation through sufferings to make perfect,
Heb 2:11 for both he who is sanctifying and those sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Heb 2:12 saying, ‘I will declare Thy name to my brethren, in the midst of an assembly I will sing praise to Thee;’ and again, ‘I will be trusting on Him;’
Heb 2:13 and again, ‘Behold I and the children that God did give to me.’
Heb 2:14 Seeing, then, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself also in like manner did take part of the same, that through death he might destroy him having the power of death – that is, the devil

The sons of Yehovah God have been delivered from the power of death and can now eternally breathe the Holy Spirit as their very own life’s breath and become the visible image and likeness or reflection of the invisible God into the natural world. Just as Jesus was the image of the invisible God who shone with the Glory of Yehovah on the mount of transfiguration, in their hearts the sons of God can do the same.

Moses spoke with Yehovah face to face and his face shone with the glory of Yehovah:

Exod 34:29 And it cometh to pass, when Moses is coming down from mount Sinai (and the two tables of the testimony are in the hand of Moses in his coming down from the mount), that Moses hath not known that the skin of his face hath shone in his speaking with him….
Exod 34:32 ……and afterwards have all the sons of Israel come nigh, and he chargeth them with all that Yehovah hath spoken with him in mount Sinai.
Exod 34:33 And Moses finisheth speaking with them, and putteth on his face a vail;

Paul describes the reality and experience of being transformed into God’s image:

2 Cor 3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;
2 Cor 3:18 and we all, with unveiled face, the glory of the Lord [Yehovah] beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Just like the fragrance of the anointing oil remains upon the head of the King, the sons of God are continually filled and repeatedly and eternally breathe the breath of God’s life, the breath of the “qodesh ruach” or Holy Spirit or breath of the Holy One that exists within the word “son of God”. God now has his inheritance within Mount Zion, the corporate son of God. The sons of God are like stars and will shine forever – the light of their lampstand will never get snuffed out. By being filled with the Holy Spirit, God as their Father breathes within them his very own life’s breath, character, behaviour and name. He shares the throne of their hearts that he partners with them and they are transformed from glory to glory by the blessing of his fatherhood and indwelling presence. They are blameless, harmless and crowned with love and compassion. They are blind to doing their own thing, going their own way and judging and deciding for themselves what is right and wrong. Yehovah said in Joel:

Joel 3:21 And I have declared their blood innocent, That I did not declare innocent, And Yehovah is dwelling in Zion!

A change of blood, a change of fathers, a change of strength, a change of breath, a change of house, a change of behaviour, a change of name and a change of destiny.

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