The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course 9-25 Essay Answer
1 ¶ Ho, every one that thirsteth,
Every one who seeks the spirit of God; see Matthew 5:6 and Amos 8:11. Said differently, those who seek the gospel, as the proverb plainly says…
Proverbs 25:25 As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country [heaven].
For “gospel” simply means… “good news” and thus… cold water (Matthew 10:42).
come ye to the waters,
The source of that spirit; which is various types of waters, but compare specifically to Jeremiah 2:13 and Revelation 7:17. Note that the Lord is the fountain, but the Lord also leads them to fountains – plural – of living water.
For as the Lord is the vine, the apostles are the branches; so likewise the Lord is the well and the saints are the springs of water. And it is to their houses within His house that the world is called to find the water of life – the words of life (John 6:63, 68).
and he that hath no money;
No way to pay for that spirit. For this cannot be purchased with money, nor can those who have money find it (Mark 10:23, Acts 8:20).
come ye, buy, and eat;
Now it switches to eating, instead of drinking. This is now speaking of the body of Christ. So first the spirit of the Father – the water – and now the body of Christ, the bread.
yea, come, buy wine
Then naturally the wine, the blood of Christ; picturing the spirit of Christ.
and milk
And finally, the milk, the digested meat of the word. But Christ doesn’t give you the milk; because He is a man! No, the milk comes from the woman of which He is the head, the ekklesia, and is given to newborns in the house by them.
Thus four things in a row here – water, bread, wine, and milk, are offered to those who experience the famine of the Word of the Lord.
Compare to Romans 8:8-11, where it says we must have the spirit of Christ (verse 9), the body of Christ (verse 10), and the spirit of the Father (verse 11), to have life. Where then is the milk? The milk came from Paul (1 Corinthians 3:2). The book of Corinthians WAS the milk!
without money and without price.
Note the unnecessary repetition – without money, or without price. These are different things and God never stutters.
Money here is literally the Hebrew word “silver”; and the value of a man’s life is a talent of silver (1 Kings 20:39). Thus, these four gifts should cost your life, but in truth will not.
“Price” is a cost, such as the hire of a person to work. But the truth cannot be hired, it is available only for those to whom it is offered (Romans 4:4-5, Romans 11:5-6). You cannot buy it with your works.
2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?
And yet Israel was spending their silver – their lives – for bread which is not the TRUE bread; doing the works of another Jesus which was not the bread of life.
and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not?
…And working for that which cannot satisfy your thirst. Notice that these last two lines in this verse reference both money and labor, referring back to “without money and without price”.
Notice also the correspondence between silver buying bread and labor buying water. Because silver buys a human body, and bread (the body of Christ) likewise bought our human bodies with His own.
On the other hand, labors (works) are done to satisfy the law, which is likened to water (Psalms 147:15-20). Thus works “hire” water, since those who work to keep the law shall live by it. But they don’t purchase it, because they must continually work to maintain the law, else they die.
hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good,
“Listen to me so that you can eat the bread which is good”. In other words, listening buys you water, not rents but buys it, so that you can eat the true bread; as Abraham believed God and it was treated as righteousness (Romans 4:3); but he only believed God because he first heard God (Romans 10:14). Thus hearing was necessary to purchase the water.
and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Fatness is oil; your soul delights in oil (Psalms 63:5). Oil pictures good works, the end product of the olive tree, of the house of the Elohim. So in this case, the works of the green olive tree – Christ – are prepared for you (Psalms 52:8), after you have had the four foods above (water, wine, bread, and milk), in order to fully satisfy your soul. Compare to the 10 virgins in Matthew 25, the two trees of Zechariah 4, etc.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me:
Ear is a symbol of the spirit, thus an inclined ear is a lowered ear; a lowered ear, then, is a humbled ear; which is, therefore, a symbol of a broken and meek spirit. Which is necessary in order to dwell with Him (Isaiah 57:15).
hear, and your soul shall live;
Because the Lord only dwells with a broken and contrite spirit – thus, you must “lower your ear” to hear Him, because a high ear doesn’t listen (Zechariah 7:11-13), and those who don’t dwell with Him can’t live because of Him
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
The covenant of Genesis 15 was a time-limited covenant of 7 or 14 years. This, therefore, is the open-ended covenant of Genesis 17 to “walk before me, and be ye perfect”.
even the sure mercies of David.
The same covenant David had, which brought him the mercies he had. However this is also a reference to the mercies given to us by a descendant of David, who would be merciful on those in the Genesis 17 covenant, as we see from the next verse…
4 Behold, I have given him [Jesus, son of David] for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Note the triplication: a witness, a leader, and a commander. He was, therefore, three different things to us; the Word, Mechizedek, and Jesus. The Apostle, High Priest (Hebrews 3:1) and King of our profession. King of kings, Lord of lords, and Savior of saviors.
5 Behold, THOU shalt call a nation [that] thou knowest not, and nations [that] knew not thee shall run unto THEE because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Note that this is speaking to the reader; WE shall call a nation that WE don’t know, and nations who don’t know US shall join us because of the Lord our God who has glorified us. We, then, are to be saviors of the nations, because He has saved us, the wells of salvation! (Isaiah 12:2-4).
We who have been watered, shall water others; and we who have been fed, shall feed others (Proverbs 11:25). This, then, is speaking of the apostles calling all nations into the Lord’s house, as commanded in Matthew 28:19.
6 ¶ Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
But first, before you can save others you must save yourself. You must seek the Lord while He may be found. Today is the day when you understand these things; today is the day when you are repentant, aware of your weaknesses.
Today is when you are cognizant of how badly you need someone to rule over you and break your spirit and your heart which you are not able to break on your own. For to inherit these blessings, you must have an “inclined ear”, which you do not have. You must have a contrite heart, which you do not have and cannot create on your own or you already would have done so.
Tomorrow, the devil may come and take that knowledge away (Mark 4:3-19). Tomorrow the cares of this world may overwhelm and distract you; tomorrow the persecution of the world may make these things seem less important in comparison.
If you lose your repentance, if you forget what you are truly like, if you decide you can do this on your own and don’t need any man to tell you what to do – no matter what the reason – then it will not be possible to renew you to repentance again in this life (Hebrews 6:6).
When you leave this mirror you have been staring into for all these lessons, you will forget what manner of man you are (James 1:24). So NOW, while you can, is when you must make a decision about your life going forward – because now is the only time when you can be certain the Lord can be found.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Things which will happen best in a house. Again note the apparent redundancy; which isn’t redundant at all, it simply commands you to forsake your wickedness, your ways, and your thoughts (heart, soul, spirit).
And thereby to return to the Lord (the Genesis 15 covenant) and then return to our God (Genesis 17 covenant) over the course of the decades in the house.
8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
If you could have figured all this out on your own… you would have. But you don’t understand the way God looks at things. You are simultaneously too lenient, and too hard, on yourself. Your sins which are repented of, you never forgive yourself for; and the sins which you commit, you make excuses for.
If you could have seen clearly what the Bible was telling you… your essay on this chapter would have looked a lot more like this one. How much did you miss, just of the things I’ve shown so far? And yet I myself don’t see a fraction of what is there to see. I dimly grasp but a tiny portion of the things God meant for us to learn from these inspired words.
9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And yet if you ever expect to be “as the stars of heaven” (Daniel 12:3), as high above the Earth and its ways as the stars are above the Earth, you must become like Him, think like Him, act like Him; and to do that, you must become His child; and like any child, you must be in His house.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
These are not identical symbols. Again – God is never redundant! True, both of these are water, and hence spirit. And since they’re both spirits which fall from heaven, they’re both holy spirits. And yet they are not the same – for one is frozen spirit and one is living spirit!
Water from heaven – rain – is the living spirit of God. Snow from heaven is the spirit of God in FROZEN FORM, thus, the same water but conveyed as a message, and not as a conversation. The Bible, then, is a kind of snow; these lessons are snow.
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,
Yet both of these kinds of spirit, the living and the frozen, water the Earth. But we all know, plants grow best when watered by rain – living water. Few are the plants that grow well when watered only by snow.
All young trees grow better with water… through interactive contact with the spirit of God in wiser, older humans. And how is snow melted, to become water that can nourish the Earth? By the sun, the light of the world; the Lord… or else by a fire.
Fire, which pictures the ministers of God (Hebrews 1:7). Whose job it has always been to take God’s messages and make them live in the people. So you need a fire to melt the frozen spirit of the Bible, to make it live and breathe for you – which is what these lessons have begun to do.
that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
God sent this water into the Earth, both kinds, in order to give seed to the person who sows seed and bread to the person who eats bread (duplication again!).
Thus, the person who planted the seed is the person who harvests the seed. In that sense, the Lord plants, and it is to the Lord that the harvest goes (Mark 12:1-2).
But also, I planted these seeds in you through the lessons (1 Corinthians 3:6). I watered, with words that were living, adapted to this age, using metaphors and similes you might understand; but those words, having been written, instantly froze and became ice.
Ice, and not snow; for snow is pure and came from heaven, as the words in the Bible did; but my words are not from heaven, at least, not all of them – and once snow touches the Earth, it becomes instantly tainted by it.
So in this case I planted, and I watered. Yet it is God who gives the increase; God who builds the house else the laborers work in vain; and if God had not given me His spirit I could not have passed it on to you… yet nonetheless I did do this. And the laborer is worthy of his hire.
I therefore will also reap benefits from it, both of your worldly things (1 Corinthians 9:11) and from being able to present you “as a chaste virgin unto Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2), for which I will expect a reward from Him (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Thus, the seed I sow, I plant in order to get more seed back from you, to create future generations in my house, AND also bread (silver) for this generation to eat. This is WHY the rain and snow were sent from heaven, after all – to accomplish this very thing – seed for the sower, and bread for the eater.
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.
The word that left the Lord’s mouth is here directly compared to the rain and snow, for His words are that spirit. And that spirit He placed in His servants and wrote down in His book will not return empty; He will build His ekklesia, and the gates of the grave will not prevail against them.
*I* might not build His ekklesia. The gates of the grave may well prevail against MY house, and my ice; but His house will endure, for His snow is pure. Whether my house is pruned or flourishes, lasts for generations or dies tomorrow, is not important. The words that were sent into the Earth will bring forth fruit somewhere; even if He has to compel those in the hedgerows and highways to come to His supper (Luke 14:16-24).
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:
Go out of Egypt? Out of Sin? Out of “her”? Sure, but fundamentally, out of churches. And be LED forth – led forth by a leader, by a head of a house, to receive the peace OF that house (Luke 10:5). For it is only by taking upon you the bondage, the yoke of the house of Jesus that you can find rest for your souls on this Earth (Matthew 11:29).
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,
The great nations and the smaller nations shall sing before the house of the Lord – both in the kingdom, and today (Psalms 105:6-15). Remember, His anointed was Jesus; thus, this verse is speaking of the relationship that all nations and kingdoms have with the house of the Lord.
Notice also that this verse speaks of the same everlasting Genesis 17 covenant; that the servants of God are sacrificed unto the world (Romans 8:36), but that in exchange the world is sacrificed unto us (Galatians 6:14).
and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.
Trees are symbols of houses; literally, family trees. And it should be noted that the rain and snow falls first on the trees, before it touches the Earth. Just as the sunlight melts the snow on the trees first, before melting the snow on the ground.
As for why these trees are clapping, it can be for either in a positive or negative reason (Job 27:23, Psalms 47:1). In this case, it is clearly a positive way, a clapping of praise, as in Psalms 98:8. Because the trees of the world should be impressed by us (Philippians 2:15-16, 1 Peter 3:15, etc.).
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
Thus, the briar tree is a tree full of thorns that hurts its master and brings evil fruit. Which is what we WERE. But the fir and/or cedar tree is one of the principle trees/families of which the house of God was made (1 Kings 6:15, 34, etc.). Thus, a CHANGE from a thorn to a fir; from a sinner to a saint.
On a larger level, you could also say that the briar represents the house of Babel, whom the world has chosen as its leader (Judges 9:8-15), which was specifically adversarial to the cedar of Lebanon! But this whole chapter is about calling us out of that tree, to be grafted into a better tree. Out of that house, and into the house of the Lord.
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree:
Briar is another kind of thornbush; doesn’t much matter which kind, it’s clearly a bad house; likewise the myrtle, though it is also uncertain exactly which tree this is, is by comparison a pleasant tree that shades its master, for it was of these myrtle branches, among others, that the booths of the Feast of Tabernacles were built (Nehemiah 8:15).
Yet again, there is a redundancy of thorn to fir and briar to myrtle; very similar, but not the SAME! I would speculate that it refers to the two great houses that contrast; from a bad version of the OC (say, Babel, Catholicism) to a good version of the OC (Moses) and between a bad version of the NC (say, Protestantism) and a good version of the NC (the true ekklesia).
and it shall be to the LORD for a NAME, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
And to prove that all of these things, this whole chapter, was all about the house… these trees, the NC myrtle house in particular, is what gives the Lord a NAME. Which means the myrtle tree in some way pictures His house!
For without a house, a man has no real name – no future, no legacy. And this house, with its everlasting covenant, will be a permanent sign that will never die, for it will never sin; a sign that the Lord was right and mankind COULD please God.
Absolute, incontrovertible proof that He didn’t ask too much of us. That His commandments were not, in fact, grievous. All we ever had to do was humble our heart, break our spirit, and submit our souls to learn righteous judgment from the house of God.
While He may be found.