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Praise the Lord. We are continuing on with our study, The Woman with the Alabaster Box, which we now know is not an alabaster box but an alabaster statue. For those people who may be picking up this message or reading this message before the earlier parts, we found in the Interlinear Text that there was no Greek word translated box. The word is simply "alabaster." It is the translator’s license to determine what was made of the alabaster.

 

As we considered the whole verse and the whole circumstance and sought the Spirit of revelation, we came to the conclusion that it was an alabaster statue that the woman was worshiping, not an alabaster box.

 

We thank God for the parable because everybody is not capable of understanding or dealing with the reality. When those people read or hear the parable preached, what happens is that the truth of the message goes into their subconscious mind, and then one day, hopefully, that seed that enters in will mature to the point that those people will be able to comprehend the true spiritual reality of what was happening and what Jesus was saying.

 

Of course there is always the possibility that we do not have the ultimate truth either. I do not know what the Lord will do with this message 5 years from now as we continue on with our maturation.

 

The messages that are coming forth from Christ-Centered Kabbalah right now are on a level of spiritual maturity that everybody in the Church cannot deal with. What should comfort us is the knowledge that Jesus said He had things to tell us that we could not bear. I listen to the preaching in the church today, and I have no trouble bearing everything that I hear.

 

That should tell us, we should be able to draw a conclusion from these facts that there is nothing that I cannot bear in the church today, and Jesus did say that, that would be the case. We can legitimately draw the conclusion that the whole message is not being preached publicly in the church.

 

We also know that Jesus told the parables to the people and gave the understanding to His disciples. It is not my intention to try to create any kind of exclusivity. Anybody that studies with me knows that. The only thing that is special about us is that we are called to humble ourselves and help to spread the seed of Christ to others that the Lord leads us to.

 

It is not possible, however, I found out to have exclusivity in the Church, because everybody is not in the same place, and everybody cannot deal with the spiritual truth. What looks like exclusivity and pride to other people should not necessarily be so in God’s household.

 

If you find a ministry that is founded on pride then something is wrong with the ministry, but in Christ there is exclusivity simply of necessity. We do not tell our children everything that we know, and we are all spiritual children of different ages.

 

Those of us who have been accused of exclusivity must bear the burden until. We are not to defend ourselves but just to go forward with this word that is such life to me that I consider it such a privilege to have whatever people we have that are willing to listen and want to pursue this word. I thank God for every one of you.

 

Although the church does not know it, we are a great blessing to the Church because when we preach deep doctrine like this, it draws down the powers of God into the Church, not just for us but for the youngest member of the Church. That is our job.

 

That is the purpose of prayer, to draw down the power of God into this world. This kind of doctrine, which is the Doctrine of Christ, the spiritual understanding of the Word, the mysteries, does what prayer does, it draws down the power of God. In addition to drawing down the power of God, it builds God in us, it builds Christ in us.

 

I went through a struggle at one point. I was spending so much time studying that I was concerned that I was not praying enough, but today I understand that this is a prayer, pulling the scripture apart, getting the spiritual understanding, seeking the Spirit of revelation, sharing it with others, joining in the Spirit which is the true communion.

 

The Spirit of the Word, breaking the Word together, this is what glorifies God for those of us that can cope with it. Everybody cannot cope with it. Some people have, there are all kinds of manifestations for people that hear this Word for the first time. Sometimes they do not feel well. God will be glorified. If we just do not become afraid and run, God will be glorified.

 

On with the message for today. Once again we are doing a comparative study on the account of the woman with the alabaster statue in the four gospels. I fully expect that by the time we complete the Alternate Translation of the four accounts, we will have four different views of what happened. Some of the information may be duplicated, but each account will have additional information that will modify the other accounts.

 

Ultimately, I hope to be able to, I will not know until I finish the four translations, but I hope to be able to lay out the four translations in a continuous manner that will make it one ongoing story, integrate the four accounts in the four gospels. I try to do that today with our Alternate Translation from Luke and our Alternate Translation from Matthew, and I could not do it so we will wait for the other two translations and see how we will fit it together.

 

Two points I would like to point out to you before we actually start with the notes. I do not know if you are familiar with the book, “The Zohar?” Has XXX familiarized you with that? The word “Kabbalah” is a name that is an umbrella name for many books that offer up…let me say it this way. There are four kinds of Kabbalah. We teach Philosophical Kabbalah here. There are multitudes of books that come under that name “Kabbalah.”

 

One of the foundational books is called, “The Zohar.” It is a translation of a Hebrew commentary on the Scripture. A commentary that comes from a deep spiritual place. It was written by a Rabbi, I think in around the year 1500, but I could be mistaken about that but a long time. He died a long time ago.

 

The Rabbis of those days, when this book came out, sent one of their most esteemed Rabbis to read it, investigate it, and then make a judgment whether this material was of God.

 

At the time, the powers that existed at that time, declared this book to be, that the spirit behind the writing was God. What we have in the world today are many spiritual philosophies that sound like the Doctrine of Christ, but the spirit behind it is not Jesus, is not Jehovah, it is not the God that the Jews worship.

 

For this reason, many Christians are very afraid of advanced philosophies, because the truth of the matter is that you should not be pursuing it unless the Lord has witnessed to you that you are pursuing it by following a teacher that is in the Spirit of Christ. There are not many around at this time. I hope, some day there will be many more teachers teaching in the Spirit of Christ.  

 

Right now, it is true that experimenting with spiritual philosophies can create some dangers but we cannot atrophy because we are afraid. We have to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and our own relationship with Jesus Christ to go before Him and ask if He wants us studying with a particular teacher. Ask and ask and ask and ask.  

 

I do not care what you ask Him about Him. I do not care if you ask Him 10 times a day for 10 years. If you are supposed to be studying with me, that does not frighten me. Your asking the Lord if you should be studying with me does not frighten me.  

 

In the Church, I was taught, "Stay away from Kabbalah because it is anti-Christ, an anti-Christ message." That is true, it is an anti-Christ message in that there are elements of it that would deny Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior. That does not mean that there cannot be an exposition in these books on what we call the Old Testament that can be by the Spirit of Revelation of Jehovah that was operating in the Jews of those days.

 

The challenge for me and my commission from the Lord is in the vein to study the Zohar under the anointing of the Spirit of Revelation of Jesus Christ. He shows me what would enlighten my present understanding of the Scripture, and He shows me what is anti-Christ, what I should avoid. Usually, what is so exciting about what He is doing in this ministry right now is when I get to the part that is anti-Christ, He gives me the key.

 

In order for it to be anti-Christ, the writer had to have a misunderstanding. If the Spirit that brought forth this great work, which I believe is a great work, the Zohar was truly the Spirit of Jehovah, how can it be an anti-Christ book? Because the mind that received the revelation was a carnal mind. The carnal mind sometimes understands the revelation in the right way and sometimes gets it completely backwards, 180 degrees backwards.  

 

This is one of the things the Lord is doing in this ministry. What does not line up with what the Lord shows me to be the truth, usually is a misunderstanding. I do not know whether it is a misunderstanding on the part of the translator or a misunderstanding on the part of the Rabbi who wrote it down. I am not sure, but my guess would be that the misunderstanding is on the part of the Rabbi that wrote it down, because the book was written at least 1000 if not 1500 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so this Rabbi was not receiving Jesus as Messiah.  

 

The Spirit that gave him the revelation was true, and the Lord has given me the ability to look into what I perceive to be the error and see what the Spirit of Revelation was saying to that Rabbi at that time that that Rabbi did not understand.  

 

What is the Lord doing here? He is doing two very exciting things. He is giving an opportunity to the Christians who have the call to go forward with the spiritual understanding of the Scripture, and He has me rewriting areas of the Zohar for the Jew who cannot receive Christ.  

 

When these Jewish people are led to our website by the Lord Jesus, if He quickens what I am writing to them, they are now receiving the Spirit of Christ. It is a double thing that He is doing here. It is really very exciting.

 

The Zohar is a very large book. It comes in four volumes, I think XXX has a set. It is an exposition from a spiritual point of view of the Old Testament, very, very fascinating and interesting. Some of it clearer than other parts of it, some of it more mysterious than others.

 

What has been my practice of doing is that if I am looking for an Old Testament reference, I not only look in the Bible, I look in the Zohar commentary, and I find the most interesting information there. As always, I put it before the Lord and bring it together in His Spirit.

 

We do have some excerpts this morning concerning Simon. One of the things I have learned from my years of study is that no name is present by accident. The fact that the Pharisee that invited Jesus to his home is named Simon is no accident. Was there really a Simon? I do not know, maybe there was, maybe there was not.

 

I did find out in the case of Malchus that, do you know who Malchus was? He was the guy that had his ear cut off by Peter. The name Malchus is just (at the moment, I cannot remember the name of the language, let us say Latin, it could be the wrong language) the Latin expression of Malkhut which is the lowest sefirot. It simply means the "carnal man."

 

Was there a man named or was this account referring to what is happening for all these carnal men who dwell in this physical world called Malkhut that when they hear the voice of the Son of God, something appears in the spirit to a spiritual leader like Peter who can recognize that that person’s spirit was responding to the word?  

 

Peter took out the sword of the spirit, his spiritual mind, the Christ mind, and circumcised the carnal mind off of Malchus so that Malchus could understand fully.  

 

Jesus spoke, Malchus’ spirit responded. Peter saw that Malchus’ spirit responded and circumcised the carnal mind off of Malchus so that Christ could come forth. Was Malchus a man like you and me? I do not know but does it matter? Does it matter whether he really was a man, and this principle is true for the rest of the Church and the world or he was not a man, or was he a fictitious character to present a particular principle?  

 

It does not matter to me. I do not have to waste my time worrying about that. If anyone wants to argue, I usually say that both are probably true.  

 

Finding this about Malchus, now when I see a name in the Scripture, I pursue it. I pursued the name Simon. As you will see when we go on with the notes, we found out that the tribe of Simeon was a very violent tribe. Not only violent, but hard. They executed judgment without mercy. They were a merciless, cruel people.  

 

Whenever the Scripture describes a people, there are always exceptions to the rule, but specific races have general characteristics. They just do. We are called to know each man as his own self, but as we go out into the world and meet new people it is wise, if you meet somebody (I do not know what you say about Americans here in this country, I do not care what you say about Americans), if you want to apply what people say about Americans to me that is okay, but then get to know me personally and see what qualities apply to me and which do not. This is what we have to do.  

 

The tribe of Simeon, the overriding characteristic that the Bible tells us is that they were very cruel in their judgment and merciless to people who were weaker than them. We will pursue this in the notes. I took some notes, some Scriptures from the book of Genesis and some excerpts from the Zohar. The other thing I want to mention is the term, YKVK. They are four Hebrew letters and they are pronounced Yud Kay Vav Kay. Collectively, the four letters are called the Tetragrammaton.  

 

The Jews believe that it is wrong to pronounce the name of God. I am told that Jehovah is not the correct pronunciation of the God of Israel. I pursued this. I have had people write to me from the Internet telling me that I should stop saying "Jehovah," and I should do this and I should do that about the pronunciation of His name. This is very important to Jewish people.  

 

I prayed it through, and I feel that this is not something I want to focus on. I do not intend to hurt anybody’s feeling or insult the way anybody perceives God, but I was having a lot of trouble saying YKVK and to not say "Jehovah" and to be aware of it. I felt that I was coming into a bondage.  

 

I just heard the name Jehovah in all the years I had been in the Church, and I could not seem to stop saying it.  

 

I came to a conclusion that the Lord Jesus is not really all that interested in the pronunciation of the name at this time. Who knows, maybe 10 years from now, He will change my mind. I cannot be putting myself in any bondage, because people are writing to me from the Internet.  

 

This was several years ago. I am, however, trying now to say YKVK because of the Jewish people that may be hearing this message. These translations will go into two places. They will go into the Alternate Translation that appears on the Living Epistles web page, and they will also go onto the Christ-Centered Kabbalah web page.  

 

On the Christ-Centered Kabbalah web page, it will say YKVK. On the Living Epistles web page, it will say Jehovah. We are reaching out to 2 different groups of people.

 

That is my introduction. Let us take a look at our notes. The first verse we are dealing with is Matthew 26:6 (KJV).

 

Verse 6: "Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper..." Leprosy means "scaly," which we know that Leviathan is filled with scales. The suggestion is that in the collective Leviathan, which is the collective carnal mind on the same spiritual level as the mind of Christ…it is a spiritual mind, it is not down here in the physical world. We are talking about the... Hebrew say "Yetzirah," some people say the "astral plane." Those are the only two names that I have for it. The spiritual plane that is right next to this physical plane, there is a collective mind that exists there. The mind of Christ exists there, and the carnal mind exists there.  

 

Each one of us has a spiritual stream rising up from us into the next plane which is really inside of us, but I am just raising my hand up because it seems to be easier that way. Right here in this meeting, we all have a stream of our spirit that is emanating out of us and joining together right in this room.  

 

We are a manifestation of the body of Christ right here. A specific manifestation of the body of Christ that is joined together in one manifestation of the energy of the Lord to bring forth this message in a preached form and, ultimately, in a written form for whoever the Lord deems to bring it to.

 

In the same manner, everybody in whom Christ Jesus truly resides has a stream of energy of the life of God that emanates from them and appears in the astral plane also called Yetzirah. There is a collective mass of energy in the astral plane that consists of a stream of spiritual energy from every human being that manifests Christ Jesus. The same is true of the carnal mind.  

 

Right now, there are many more people manifesting the carnal mind than Christ. However, we have the Glorified Jesus Christ joining with the body of Christ and, therefore, the body of Christ is powerful enough to proceed with the plan of Jesus for the salvation of mankind, despite all of the efforts of the carnal mind which is ruled over by Satan.  

 

We have the double portion, Christ Jesus in the people and the Glorified Jesus Christ. It is that double portion that is going to overthrow the powers and principalities of this world and bring to pass the Kingdom of God in the earth. That is what we are waiting for. Praise God.

 

Verse 6: "Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper...," (Leprosy means scaly, not that we did not know this from our previous studies, but here it is in black and white that Simon had a problem with pride.) How do we know that? Because the Scripture says that he had leprosy. Did he really have physical leprosy? I do not know. I did my research, I looked it up in all the Bible dictionaries.  

 

Some Bible dictionary authors say, "He must have been healed from leprosy because, according to the law of Moses, if you had leprosy you could not fellowship with other people." One author says, "He must have been healed of leprosy." I am saying, did he really have leprosy or is this the Scripture’s way of saying he was prideful? I do not know, but my guess is as good as the King James translator. We do not know. Maybe he was healed of physical leprosy.  

 

Does it make any difference? I guess it would make a difference to our study if we were to find out that he really was healed of physical leprosy, because that would make his pride even more serious. If he had experienced a physical healing, and he was one of those lepers who did not turn back and say, "thank you," but it is just an added piece of information. At the very least, we know that Simon was a prideful man.

 

In addition to that, the significance of pride is that it covers over our Christ mind and stops us from understanding. Those are those scales that fell off of Paul’s eyes after he had hands laid on him by Ananias. It was the scales of pride, it was the carnal mind that fell away. We are told in this verse that Simon still had the scales on his eyes. Was he a leper? I do not know, but his eyes of understanding were still covered over by the carnal mind.  

 

Bethany means "date house," and it also means a place in Palestine. If we are translating this verse on a carnal level, we would say, "He came to a place in Palestine." That is fine, but today we are being spiritual. What does this mean? A date is a sweet, edible fruit with a single long woody seed. That to me says, "a place of unity."  

 

The one seed as opposed to the many seeds of the fig means, "a place of unity." The seed is woody, and wood signifies the carnal nature or the natural man. We are going to be translating that, "unity on a fellowship level."  

 

We did learn from our study in Luke that Jesus was joined already to Simon. When we did Luke, I thought it was a spiritual union, and it may be. We have to do the other 2 translations, but Matthew tells us that they had a friendship, a human union.  

 

It is possible to have a spiritual union with someone and not really have a human union with them. I have known people who our spirits really touched, but I could not fellowship with them because in their humanity they were so irresponsible or hurtful that it was not possible to fellowship with them.  

 

We are being told Jesus had a spiritual tie, a spiritual connection with Simon, but He also had a friendship with him, or at least felt friendly towards him or had a phileo love, the human love towards him. I just put down the definition of fig for you to point out the difference, because we know about Jesus supposedly cursing the fig tree. I think I mentioned it to you on one of my messages, He matured the fig tree.  

 

The Greek word translated “withered” in the phrase “the fig tree withered” can also be translated “matured.” We can choose, did Jesus mature the fig tree or did He curse it? Before you answer, you have to ask yourself what kind of a Spirit Jesus, the Christ, was of? Was it a spirit of death or a spirit of life? If you believe that He carried a spirit of life, then I believe that it behoves you to choose to believe that He matured that fig tree. If you do not want to, that is okay too. It is just my suggestion.

 

The name Simon is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Shimon which means, "hearing or obedience." In the Scripture, the word “hearing” signifies understanding. We see that, that refers to “to hear, to understand, to obey.” This refers to Shimon, the son of Jacob and the Israelite tribe that succeeded him.  

 

We now know that despite the tribe of Simeon being cruel and hard hearted and a tribe that executed judgment without mercy, we hear that they also understood and obeyed. This means that they do hear from God.  

 

Sometimes God sends forth harsh judgment, and this is a problem with Simeon. He sent them forth, their characteristic is harsh judgment, but there are times that we go over the line.  

 

Harsh judgment is okay when the Spirit of God is sending us forth as in the case in Bible times against the Moabites, or the Medianites, or the Philistines that were really destroying the Hebrews. God sent Israel forth with harsh judgment. He said, "Kill every man, woman, child and animal."  

 

The reason for that which people in the Unites States cannot fathom, you can probably fathom it here, is that these Philistines were in a full stature of evil. They were like super powerful witch doctors, every one of them. The people in the United States, they just cannot get it. We have all of these do-gooders coming forward saying, “What kind of a God is that, killing all those people, men, women, children and animals?”  

 

It is because they were so completely imbued with demonic spirits, the only hope to have a surviving civilization was to wipe them all out.  

 

The date signifies a sweet, edible fruit. Of course, for any symbol to be symbolising someone that is in Christ, we have to be edible because Jesus is eating us. What do you mean? He said, "If you are lukewarm or cold, I am going to spew you out of my mouth. I want you to be hot, boiling." That word means boiling. What does that mean? It means, "I want your spirit moving very rapidly so that we could come into a union."  

 

Jesus wants to join with us. In the Scripture, the concept of union can be applied to consumption of food. He is eating us just like we eat animal flesh, and it gets on our body and becomes our flesh. The chicken that I ate yesterday is now on my bones. He is consuming us, and we are becoming His flesh. He does not have a flesh body anymore other than for us. We are becoming His flesh body.  

 

Our flesh body and our personality, which is flesh, have to start manifesting His nature for us to have a union. The fact that we manifest ungodly attitudes at times means that the union is not complete, which it is not as far as I know. I do not know anybody in whom the union is complete except in Jesus, of course.

 

A fig is a fleshly sweet, pear shaped yellowish or purple multiple fruit. That signifies Israel. The fig signifies Israel with one fruit with multiple seeds. Also the pomegranate. Do you know that word here? I know you have the fruit here, it must be another name. It is a fruit, almost looks like the size of a mango but when you open it, it is all seeds, little seeds covered with red flesh.  

 

I know they have it in Persia and Iran, but maybe you do not have it here. I know it is a tropical fruit. It is one large fruit with many seeds in it. You just bite into it, and then you have to spit out all the seeds because the seeds are bigger than the flesh that is on them. That is Israel, one fruit, many seeds. The date is one big seed, like a mango seed, actually.  

 

We are back with Simon again, the son of Jacob and the tribe that succeeded him. Simeon was the second of Jacob’s 12 sons, and his mother was Leah.  

 

Genesis 49:5-7. This is Jacob prophesying over his 12 sons.  

 

Verse 5: "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations."

 

Verse 6: "O my soul, come not thou into their secret;"

 

That means, do not be intimate with them. In the book of Proverbs it says, “Do not become intimate with an angry man.” Do not become emotionally close with people you know that have ungodly qualities, anger, or cruelty, because these qualities jump. The Scripture clearly tells us that our kindness, or that part of us that is in Christ is not going to modify the anger, or the cruelty, or the harshness of the unregenerate man, but that those qualities of the unregenerate man will modify Christ in us.  

 

That does not sound right, but the reality is that we are all fallen, that this world is Satan’s formation of the holy substance. We are in the likeness of God, we are made from His substance, but we are not in His image at this time. We are in the image of the one who took the holy substance and formed it which is the serpent.  

 

When Adam was deceived, the serpent laid whole of the holy substance and formed it in her image. That is why we are redeemable, because we are made out of a substance that was created from God’s Spirit, but we are malformed. Just like if you break your leg, and it is set wrong, we have to be broken all over again and put back together in the right image.

 

The Scripture warns us not to hang out with people who are a bad influence, because we would be moulded, they will not be. This is Satan’s world, she is the prince of the power of the air, and Christ that is coming forth within her formation of the holy substance is subject to all of the powers of this world.  

 

It would be like any nation that you can think of that is a criminal nation. Let us take one from the past, let us say Hitler’s Germany. It is as if, let us say that Christ is going to be born into Hitler’s Germany, or in Herod’s time, I guess that is the best example.  

 

Christ was born in Herod’s day, and Herod sent out that order that all of the young boys 2 years and under should be killed, because he was trying to wipe out Christ and he was not fooling. That is us, Christ coming forth in us. We can live in a nation that is very politically liberal or free but, spiritually speaking, Christ coming forth in us is subject to all of the powers that existed in Herod’s day, doing everything they can to destroy Christ in us, our hope of glorification. Our hope of an existence and a formation without this physical body. That is what glorification means.  

 

Jesus was glorified. He is no longer subject to this body. Christ in you, in me, is our hope of glorification, our hope of escape from the physical body. The only way we will escape from the physical body is to be circumcised, cut away from the Satanic principalities that formed the holy substance of which we are made.

 

The physical body is in the image of the serpent. The life of the flesh is in the blood. The physical blood of the physical body is a physical manifestation of Satan. She flows. She is the main source of our life, she flows through our arteries, she flows through our veins, and she is in every cell. If you prick your skin you bleed.  

 

In the spiritual plane, when the holy substance is formed by Christ Jesus, the Glorified Jesus Christ will be the spiritual blood that flows through our body. I do not know exactly what we are going to look like. My understanding right now is that we will have an image that is now similar to this physical body, but I could be wrong. That is my understanding.  

 

I know that Jesus, when He appeared, said that He was flesh and bone. He did not mention blood, but that does not mean that He did not have spiritual blood. The emphasis was to say, "The blood, the life of the flesh of the physical world has been completely expunged from me, and the image that you see here, the reality of my existence that you see here has nothing to do with the serpent’s formation of the holy substance."  

 

We do not know what Jesus looks like if He has any form at all, because the forms that He took when He appeared after His resurrection were forms that were specifically designed to communicate with human beings. He is now a shape shifter, He can take any form that He wants to. We do not know what we are going to look like when we escape from the physical body, but it has to be a lot better than this. We will be without sin at that point.  

 

I have not finished that verse.  

 

Verse 6: "O my soul, come not thou into their secret;... ...Do not be intimate with them.

 

(Verse 6 continued) unto their assembly... ...Do not hang out with them.

 

(Verse 6 continued) ...mine honour, be not thou united...

 

When he says, "my honour..., ...He is talking about his spirit, the honourable part of himself, his spirit, his human spirit.  

 

(Verse 6 continued) for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall."

 

I have to tell you this study excited me so much. I just love to do these studies and when I preach it, I learn even more. For years, I have been asking the Lord, concerning the account of the abduction of Dinah. Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter who was kidnapped by Shechem. At the moment, I do not remember what nation he was from.  

 

The Scripture says that his soul clave unto her, he fell in love with her, and he wanted to marry her. Jacob would do nothing about getting her back but the brothers went and made a deal with the…I am sorry, I do not remember the name of the nation, but the men over which Shechem was king.  

 

They said, "All right we will accept you as brothers, because that was what Shechem wanted. According to his law, he married Dinah, and he wanted to be friends with his in-laws. He wanted the men of Shechem to do business with the men of Israel.  

 

This was an abomination for the men of Israel to deal with the heathen like this. The brothers went to Shechem and said, “We will accept your offer. We will accept you as brother on one condition. You have to be circumcised. We cannot have uncircumcised men in the family. The whole nation or tribe (whatever the right word is), all of the males of the tribe submitted to physical circumcision which is very painful in an adult male and physically weakens the adult male for a week or two.  

 

While the men were recovering, the brothers, the sons of Jacob went, they got their sister, and they robbed all of the possessions of the Shechemites. They left them while the men could not fight, and they ran away.  

 

For years I have been asking the Lord, "I do not know who was right. Was Jacob right or were his sons right?" Jacob’s reaction to what his sons did was, “Look at what you did. These people are going to recover from their operation, and they are going to come, and they are going to kill me.”  

 

For years I was saying, "Was Jacob a coward?" I could not get a straight answer, but now I have got my straight answer.  

 

The answer is, especially Simeon and Levi who, apparently, were at the forefront of this, they lied to these men. Jacob sons are supposed to be representing the Living God. They used the holy covenant, circumcision, the sign of the holy covenant, they hung it out like a carrot in front of these men who probably in their mind did not even realize that they did it. (Inaudible)…In their honesty, they tried to rectify the situation, but the sons of Jacob came and lied to them and used the holy covenant, the circumcision of the male, as the point of contact. They lied to them to make them weak.  

 

They used the holy covenant to make them weak so they could rob them. That was a disgrace, it was not acceptable to God. I finally have my answer. Whether or not it was the Spirit of Christ in Jacob saying, “Now they are going to run after me and kill me,” I do not know about that either. Probably both the father and the son were not in the right spirit.  

 

The question I have for the Lord now is, “What should have been done? If both Jacob and the sons had literally sought Jehovah and found out what was the right thing to do on behalf of their sister, what would you have told them?” I hope I do not have to wait six years to get that answer either.

 

Verse 7: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

 

I never knew that this verse referred to what Simeon and Levi did to the Shechemites. I really have learned something today from the Zohar which I am very excited about. “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” That means in the natural, Levi and Simeon will be divided. We have a commentary on that from the Zohar.

 

They were divided in the natural and to be scattered spiritually means that their spiritual substance was scattered when they were lost and became two of the lost tribes of Israel. Let us take a look at some of these commentaries.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #1:  

 

These are Simeon and Levi who are truly brothers in all respects, both being descended from the side of rigorous judgment.

 

What the Zohar is talking about here are the sefirah. You may recall that I drew it on the board for you the other night, three on one side, three on the other side, and four down the middle.  

 

On the left, the sefirah that are on the left, they are the side of rigorous judgment. It is the job of the sefirah on the right to interact with them and restrain their cruelty to bring a balanced judgment with mercy, and that is what the middle column is. We see that Simeon and Levi are from the side of rigorous judgment.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #1 (continued):  

 

Hence it was that their anger was the anger that caused death in the world as it says “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.” For there are two species of anger.  

 

The two kinds of anger are righteous anger and wrath. The righteous anger is what rises up out of the mind of Christ. The righteous anger of God is anger against sin. It is anger that restrains, rebukes sin and the result of it is some person is delivered from whatever sin was afflicting them.  

 

That was not what was coming forth from Simeon and Levi. What was coming out of them was the anger that arises out of pride. The anger that arises out of pride. That anger destroys. We have to ask the question, "How mad were they that their sister was taken or were they mad because Shechem made a fool out of Jacob and his sons?"

 

If you read about the account in the King James, that is exactly what they answer to their father. When Jacob says, “Now they are going to come after us and kill us.” That was their answer. “Should we let them treat our sister that way?” I want to tell you that I have known men like that, they will defend their wife just because it is their pride. It is not their wife, not that they cared about what happened to their wife but no one can treat their wife like that.  

 

When that kind of pride rises up in somebody, you are not impressing God. That person might be impressing the people around him, he might be impressing his fellow men, he might be impressing his wife, his wife might benefit, but you do not get any brownie points with God, because it is just a manifestation of pride.

 

That is what Jesus means. This is a real deep mystery when He says, “Be at peace with all men.” That does not mean that you let people abuse you. It means that we should all do everything possible to be at peace with everybody.

 

If somebody is wronging us, and we are living under this law of peace, Christ will rise up in us and judge righteous judgment. That righteous judgment will come right out of our own mouth. We will have something to say to that person that will break the yoke.

 

It is a completely different spirit. When you fight with somebody or you oppose somebody out of your pride, then you run the risk of them coming back at you and winning. You know they are going to come back at you if you oppose somebody in pride. Of course, they are going to come back at you. Maybe you will lose, maybe you will win. 50% you will lose, 50% chance you will win.  

 

If you do not fight with anybody and Christ rises in you, and you have something to say to them out of Christ, you will shut the mouth of the lion in that person. There is not a chance, not a 50% chance, not a 5% chance, not a 1% chance that they will overshadow you. You will defeat them or whatever that issue is, you will defeat them and righteousness will be done.  

 

The anger of pride does not glorify God at all. That means that no matter what is happening in our life, it behoves us to seek the Lord and to ask Him what He wants us to do. Also, I have to ask Him to help me restrain my pride that I should not act out of pride, that I should not respond out of pride.  

 

Sometimes, I get some very offensive emails over the Internet. People do not like what I say mostly, because they do not understand it. I have to pray before I answer the person. I sit at my computer and I pray, “Lord please let Christ respond to this person. Whatever this response is, please let it help them. They can only be saying this to me because they simply do not understand what I am saying. ” He is so faithful, He gives me an answer.  

 

If I do not perceive that answer coming up, I will not respond to anybody so long as I have the power to do it out of my carnal mind. I have done it in the past, and it has just been disastrous. I hope it never happens again. Lord willing, I will never respond to anybody over the Internet or in person out of my emotional, personal, prideful reactions.  

 

This is what Paul means when he says “Suffer the loss.” I used to think that he meant, "Let people trample all over you." No, he does not mean that at all. He means that your carnal mind and your pride suffer the loss. Do what is right, and you will be victorious in every aspect of your life. That is what he is talking about.

 

We see that there are two species of anger, righteous anger and prideful anger, and that Simeon and Levi rescued their sister out of prideful anger. They hurt these men of Shechem in a manner that did not please God.  

 

Second reference from the Zohar, this is talking about the 12 brothers or the 11 brothers casting Joseph into the pit.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #2:

 

"And they cast him into the pit." There is a hint here that they cast him ultimately among the Egyptians, a place where there was no sign of true faith, Rabbi Isaac said. Seeing that the pit contained scorpions and serpents, how could Reuben have advised that Joseph be cast into it in order that he might deliver him out of their hands to restore him to the father?

 

We see that Reuben spoke to his other 10 brothers and said, “No, do not kill him, put him in the pit.” It was Reuben’s intention to go back and get Joseph out of the pit and return him to his father.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #2 (continued):

 

Did Reuben not have any fear of the scorpions and serpents attacking Joseph? If they did, how could Reuben deliver Joseph out of the hands of the serpents and scorpions to restore him to the father?  

 

The truth is that Reuben perceived the intense enmity of the brethren towards Joseph and how intent they were on killing him. He, therefore, thought that it was better for him to fall into the pit of serpents and scorpions than to be delivered into the hands of enemies who would have no mercy on him. Hence the saying, "Rather should a man throw himself into a fire or a pit full of serpents and scorpions than be delivered into the hands of enemies."

 

In other words, no matter what happens to you in life, God can always deliver you. We see that, ultimately, Joseph was delivered after being thrown in that pit, but if the brethren had killed him, there would have been no way out. Reuben thought it was a much better idea to put Joseph in that pit.  

 

I never read anywhere that there were serpents and scorpions in that pit. What I think is happening here in this passage of the Zohar is that there is a mixture of the spiritual and the natural occurrence.  

 

I believe that Joseph was sold into slavery, I believe that he wound up in Egypt, because the Israelites wound up in Egypt so I have to believe that, that happened in the natural. I do not know that he was put in a pit with serpents and scorpions. Let us say he was put in a physical pit, but he was also put in a spiritual pit. The serpents and scorpions were the elements of the minds of his brothers.  

 

I know I went through an experience once, several years ago, so I do not really remember the details as clearly as I would like to. Something was really wrong in my life. I know that after much prayer, I realized it was a vision that I was in this deep pit, and something was just covering me over. As I continued to pray, the Lord told me that, I do not even remember who it was, brethren or strangers, but some people with strong minds had cast me down into that pit.  

 

What does that mean? Not so much now, but certainly when I first started, I had some very strong minds in the ministry telling me that this message was not of God, telling me that this ministry was not of God. They did not want me to pursue it. I almost died in 1990, I was in the hospital for three months. I had my brethren, mature Christians, coming into the hospital and telling me, “Sister Sheila, are you sure you are not in sin. What did you do to be in this hospital for three months? Are you sure you have repented?”  

 

I had somebody else come in with his wife, they came in on a day I was really discouraged, and they refused to pray for me. They said, “You are in God’s hands.” I was dying, and they refused to pray for me. Another friend in the Lord said, “What makes you think God put you in the ministry?” I had all of Job’s friends visiting me in the hospital.  

 

I am talking about two different events. There was another time I was down in a spiritual pit, and I actually had a perception of myself being in the pit. It was because people were thinking towards me in this manner. They not only were not supporting me with the ministry, but they did not want me to go forward with it.  

 

My whole family was involved, my mother, my father. My family. My parents are dead now, none of my family are in the Lord. They did not want me doing this because I gave up a career, I was living from hand-to-mouth with very little money. My mother was extremely displeased. My father never said anything, but I think he was very displeased to.  

 

I had two sisters, one died, nobody was happy with what I was doing. Nobody was proud of me. They just wanted me to stop doing what I was doing. Maybe it was my own family, I do not know. I was in a pit, and there was a cover on the pit. All of my prayers for deliverance, because I did not know what was wrong, were answered in that vision that I saw myself in that spiritual pit. When I saw myself in that spiritual pit, then I could start asking the Lord to get me out.

 

We have to get the spiritual understanding of what is afflicting us. We heard the most exciting testimony from Pastor Steve in Jalingo state how he came into the ministry. He was into the ministry a little, he had a call from God, but it was not going well and he stopped. Suddenly his mother’s business was failing. His mother got before God and said, “Lord, I want to know why business is failing. I have been serving you faithfully all of these years, why am I losing money instead of making money?” The Lord actually answered her and said, “Your son is being unfaithful in this ministry.” She got a hold of her son, who obeyed his mother and went back into the ministry, and her business started to prosper again.

 

Listen, in every negative thing that happens to us, everything that is not prosperous that happens to us, we need to get before God and ask Him, “Why? Is there anything I did? Whether I did something or not, what do I have to do now to change the situation? Why am I not prospering? I love you Lord, I serve you Lord, I am doing everything I know how to do (but that does not mean I know everything I am supposed to be doing), why am I not prospering in this area? Please tell me so that I can make a change.”  

 

I am completely convinced of this. I have been on my knees begging God, “Tell me what I did wrong, just tell me please. And if you told me and I did not hear you, please tell me again because I really want to know, but sometimes my carnal mind gets in the way.” Some people tell God that they want to know, but they really do not want to know. They say the words, but they really do not want to know. Inaudible…

 

If you know that there is something wrong and you love Him, you have something in your life that is not the way it should be, you have asked Him to tell you what your part in it is, this is not to condemn you or to hurt you or to make you feel bad, it is to get you out of trouble. If you have said to the Lord, “Tell me what I did wrong,” and you did not hear anything, maybe your subconscious mind was blocking you.  

 

I get down on the floor, I bang on walls, I bang on all kinds of things. “Lord I have to know why I am not prospering in this area, Lord you have to tell me, because I have read your book, and I think I am doing everything that I am supposed to do. I am no longer subject to the laws of this world.”  

 

You are not subject to the conditions in Nigeria. I am not subject to the conditions of my physical body which have been trying to kill me for a long time. I am not subject to any of this, you are not subject to any of this. We are not subject to astrology, we are not subject to the gods of this world. We are only subject to Jesus Christ.  

 

If we are not at least going forward in an area which we would like to see ourselves doing better in, if there is not at least a sign of improvement, I want to know why. I do not believe that God will not answer me. I never say, “Lord you did not tell me.” I always say, “Lord if you told me, I did not hear you.” God is perfectly righteous, and any lack is in me. Praise the Lord.  

 

My life is going forward at a snail’s pace but moving forward. Healthier, more prosperous, happier, everything is just getting better and better, and no one can ask for more than that.  

 

We talked about the two kinds of anger, we are talking about him being cast into the pit. I do not think that there were physical serpents and scorpions in this pit that Joseph was cast into. I think he was cast into a physical pit very possibly, and he was cast into a spiritual pit. He may not have been cast into a physical pit, maybe they tied him up and he was bound to a tree when the slavers came along. I do not know about that, it could be either way, but he was definitely cast into a spiritual pit, and the serpents and the scorpions were the minds of his brothers that hated him.

 

David showed that principle when the Lord asked him, “What kind of judgment do you want?” He said, “Lord, I will take any judgment you give me, just do not give me over to the hands of my enemies.” What does that mean, “Just do not give me over to the hands of my enemies?” Give you over to sickness, it all depends on what your circumstances are.  

 

Like where I live in the United States, it would be, give me over to sickness, give me over to a cruel boss that will exercise cruel judgment over me. “Anything you say Lord, I will take your judgment over the judgment even of a Christian,” Christians are the worst any time. Christians that will put you under the law and extract every last drop (inaudible) of blood out of you. Praise the Lord. We will go on.

 

Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Section 1, Page 185b

 

The reason is that in a place infested with serpents and scorpions, if the man be righteous, God may possibly perform a miracle for him, or it may happen that the merits of his ancestors may stand him in good stead and he will be delivered, but of those who are delivered into the hands of their enemies, few indeed are able to escape, hence the expression, “that He may deliver him out of their hand.” As much as to say, "Let him be delivered, at any rate, out of their hand and, if he is to die in the pit, then he cannot be helped.

 

In other words, Reuben did the best he could. He stopped the immediate death. If Joseph would have died in the pit that he was cast into, then at that point it was in God’s hands, Reuben did all that he could.  

 

Zohar (continued)  

 

Observe the great piety of Reuben. He knew well the ruthlessness of Simeon and Levi when acting and planning in conjunction as witnessed by the treatment of Shechem where they not only slew all the males, but took all their little ones and their wives, all their silver and the gold, all their cattle and precious vessels and everything else they found in the city.  

 

Even everything which was in the field as we read, “and that which was in the city and that which was in the field they took.” (Genesis 34: 28).

 

Frequently, when I take quotes of the Scripture from the Zohar, it is off a verse or two so if you want to look this up, if I was looking this up in the Scripture, I would look under Genesis 34 between verses 24 to 30 to find that particular verse. What we just read now is probably a paraphrase of the verse.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #3:

 

(We see Joseph is now prospering in Egypt. His brothers, the Hebrew children, are coming to him for help.)

 

Joseph knew his brethren. When they fell into his hands, he had compassion on them since he was completely virtuous.

 

“Joseph was completely virtuous.” I have a problem with statements like this in the Zohar. I have come to a place where I do not criticize the Zohar. I think this is a tremendous, tremendous commentary on the Scripture and of God. Just about every time, something that I read, I could not receive, I submitted myself to God, and I eventually understood it. I am not criticizing the book, but I am telling you that at this time, the Lord has not given me any understanding yet that could make this sound right to me, that Joseph was completely righteous, because no man is completely righteous. Jesus said, “No one is good, no one except God.”

 

I do perceive somewhat of a spirit of idolatry in the Jewish writings for their respected people. At this time, the Lord has not explained it to me in a manner that it would be acceptable to me. That is one of the things that I cannot go along with which is, as far as I am concerned, a minor compared to the really wonderful nuggets in this book.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #3:

 

Joseph knew his brethren. When they fell into his hands, he had compassion on them since he was completely virtuous. But they knew him not. These were Simeon and Levi...,

 

This means that the word “these” is not referring to the 11 brothers, to the 10 brothers, Benjamin was not there. The writer of the Zohar claims that the word “these” is only referring to Simeon and Levi.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #3 (continued):

 

…who came from the side of severity…

 

That is interesting. This is something I stand neutral on. We will see if God will talk to me, it does not matter to me either way. Was it the nine brothers (because Benjamin was not there and Reuben was not really in agreement), was it the whole nine brothers who agreed to murder or put him in the pit? According to the Zohar, it was mostly Simeon and Levi. Is that true? I do not know.  

 

The position I take with something like this is that I will go along with it unless the Lord tells me otherwise. It is obvious to me that the writer of this book has such a knowledge of the scripture that I would have to live for a whole lifetime, even then if I would acquire this kind of a knowledge.

 

I will take it seriously, trusting the Lord to correct me if it is wrong. I do not see it being a major issue. The writer of the Zohar is saying that it was mostly Simeon and Levi that wanted to destroy Joseph.  

 

The writer of the Zohar says, “The word ‘these’ is talking about Simeon and Levi.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #3 (continued):

 

…who came from the side of severity and hence had no pity on him inasmuch as all those imbued with severity take no pity on men when they fall into their hands.

 

I would call it a spirit of tyranny. People, that when they get power, want to crush the people under them. God does not appreciate that.  

 

Again, these are the qualities of Simeon. These are the qualities of Simon that befriended Jesus. I have known people like that. In Christ, that severity which is signified by the left column, most human beings are born just with the left column, and in Christ the right column is added.  

 

As that fruit of the Spirit starts to influence that hard and cruel left column, the middle column comes forth in the person, which is Christ in you. Christ is the middle column, He is the balanced column. He is the balanced personality, the perfect balance.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4:

 

He put them all together into ward three days, said Rabbi Eleazar. These 3 days correspond to the 3 days during which the men of Shechem were sick. (Genesis 24:25)

 

Joseph was in ward for 3 days and “these 3 days,” says the writer of the Zohar, “correspond to the 3 days during which the men of Shechem were sick.”  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

Observe that it is written here, and "Joseph said unto them the third day…"

 

This is Joseph, the ruler over Egypt, said to his brothers who are now needy on the third day, he said “this” the Hebrew word for “this” is Zoth,  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

“This (zoth) do and live.” By which he showed them that he was not going to act towards them in the way they acted towards Shechem.  

 

Simeon and Levi had power over Shechem, and they cruelly, cruelly, treated them very badly. Joseph had power over Simeon and Levi, because they were reaping what they sowed, but Joseph was ministering the White Throne Judgment of mercy and not the sowing and reaping judgment of Jehovah which is enforced by Satan.  

 

This is a sign of Christ, a type of Christ. Instead of giving an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, we see the mercy of God coming forth in Joseph who completely forgave his brothers for what they did.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

Joseph said to them, “Do this and live.” By which he showed them that he was not going to act towards them in the way they acted towards Shechem. For whereas they had first made the people of Shechem take upon them the sacred right of the covenant, which is symbolised by the word “Zoth” meaning “this” (that is referring to male circumcision) and then had slain them to the last man, Joseph on his part said, “This, do and live.”  

 

Simeon and Levi had said, “Do this, be circumcised and you will live,” but they were lying. Joseph said “Do this and live,” and he was not lying.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

Why? (Why did Joseph treat them fairly when they did not deserve to be treated fairly?) Joseph said, “Because I fear God, and I am guarding the sacredness of the covenant.” All this procedure was only for the sake of Benjamin, and they said one to another, “We are very guilty concerning our brother.”

 

“One to another” literally translates as “a man to his brother.” The writer of the Zohar says, “This specifically refers to Simeon and Levi, the same reference being contained in the words, ‘And they said one to another,’ literal translation, ‘a man to his brother,’ ‘behold the dreamer cometh." We read that in Genesis 37:19.

 

They hated him, “Behold the dreamer cometh.”  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

Which is “man” and which is “brother”? “Man” must refer to Simeon, as in the passage: “And, behold, a man of the children of Israel came” (Quoting Numbers 25: 6). Simeon repented of his action and wept and felt remorse and said: “We are verily guilty." 

 

The principle here, before we go on, is that, Simeon, of the two, Simeon repented but Levi did not.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

And it was through his repentance that his emblem became the ox, (I am not going to deal with that today) the same as that of Joseph, of whom it is written: “His firstling bullock, majesty is his." (Deuteronomy 33:17)  

 

I am not going to deal with that today, but you have the reference if you want to look at it.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

And it was for that reason that we read, “and he took Simeon from among them,” (Simeon was the brother that Joseph kept as a hostage) for Joseph wished to separate him from the influence of Levi.

 

Is that not interesting? We read in Jacob’s prophecy over Simeon and Levi that he will separate them, he will separate them in Jacob. We see in Simeon that he had a potential to be kind and to repent, but Levi’s cruelty had pulled out the cruel potential in him and was locking that in his personality. He had to be separated from Levi in order for the repentance and softness of Christ to come forth in him.

 

Sometimes, God has to break us up from friends that we have, sometimes He has to break up friendships, because that person is no good for us, because they are drawing out an ungodly quality in us, and we cannot break away from them. Christ will never influence the ungodly man. Not in the early stages. We know that when Christ Jesus is fully mature, I have even mentioned that in the meetings here, that He is going to be ripping the veil off of people’s eyes, and He is going to come like a thief in the night.  

 

We are talking about the average person like you or me, who Christ is just beginning to be formed in us. We will never influence the ungodly person that we are friends with, they will influence us in a negative way. Sometimes, when God tells you, you really have to break the tie.  

 

That was the purpose. Do you think that Joseph devised this all by himself? No. The Lord must have told him. “These were the two brothers that were largely responsible for the evil that was done to you. Simeon has a potential to repent and Levi does not. Get Simeon away from Levi." The Lord told him. Joseph was a prophet, he did not do anything that God did not tell him to do.  

 

People stumble over me all the time. I rarely do things that God does not tell me to do. I cannot say, "never." I rarely do things that God does not tell me to do. People stumble over me all the time. XXX right? XXX stumbles over me sometimes.

 

I think there is something more the Lord wants to say about that. We also mentioned this in the earlier meetings. There are some people in the Church that will never go on. God knows that they will never go on. There is something spiritually lacking in them, they will not go on. God is after the person whose heart He looks at and sees a potential for repentance.  

 

We talked about this, about the woman with the alabaster statue. Why did Jesus do that for her? He looked into the heart of this woman that came to curse him. He saw that if she was not influenced by this evil spirit, that she would not be doing that. He gave that grace. He relieved her from the influence of the evil spirit and she repented.

 

That is what it means when it says, "Jesus looked at them and saw that they had the faith to be healed." Everybody does not have the same potential, unfortunately.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

For Joseph wished to separate him from the influence of Levi, as when the two were together they might find matter of charge against him. “And bound him before their eyes.”  

 

Joseph had Simeon bound before their eyes. The one that has potential for repentance is the one that goes under judgment. Did you ever see two friends or two brothers, one goes under judgment, the other does not. You say “Lord, what is going on here, why me and not my brother?” It is the mercy of God, because He will not chasten you if you are a bastard.  

 

Judgment is the sign that God is dealing with you. Out of that judgment has to come life. You have to find out what lesson you are supposed to learn. You have to find out what you have to do to rush the judgment through as rapidly as possible. Usually, you have to go through, it is not going to be one day.  

 

It is a process of judgment that changes our nature into the image of Christ. We can go a faster way or a slower way depending on how much we cooperate with the Lord, and how much we are willing to hear what He has to say about what He is trying to change in us.  

 

The Lord is always after the people whose heart has the potential to change. Do not ever look at your brother. God is not a respecter of persons. Maybe one person needs a harder judgment than the other to bring forth the Christ in them. Just trust God and make sure you stay in constant communication with Him, willing to hear what He has to say, willing to confess your sins, asking Him what you must do and do not look at anybody else. Trust God that He is giving you what you need to manifest His life.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #4 (continued):

 

It has already been explained that only before their eyes (the eyes of the other brothers) did he have him bound, but after they departed he regaled him with food and drink. (He regaled Simeon with food and drink.) It must not be supposed that Joseph acted in the spirit of the verse, “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink, for thou wilt heap coals of fire upon his head” (Proverbs 25:21).  

 

Joseph was too righteous a man for this. Far be it then, for Joseph to have acted in that spirit. Indeed, he acted as a man to his brother, in true brotherly love without any other motive. (Or any ungodly motive.) And not only towards Simeon, but towards all his brethren he acted so, as it is written: “Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with corn, and to give them provision for the way; and thus it was done unto them.” All this he did in a spirit of brotherhood.  

 

He held no grudge against them. Apparently, they were all influenced by Simeon and Levi who were the culprits. Did you know that? I did not know that.

 

Simon – Zohar Reference #5

 

The secret of the Lord is for them that fear him. “The secret of the Lord,” he said, “is the recondite doctrine (that means hidden, that means mystery) is the recondite doctrine of the Torah which God only gives to those who fear sin.”  

 

That is us brethren, that is sort of frightening when you see our numbers. If we have this message because we are the ones that fear sin, it means not many people in the Church today fear sin, sadly.

 

Simon - Zohar reference #5 (continued):

 

“And it is the sign of the holy covenant.”

 

In this dispensation, it is our heart that is being circumcised, not our physical body. The sign of the holy covenant for the Church today is that your heart is circumcised. That means that the nature of Christ is starting to appear in your personality. The softness, the kindness, the mercy is starting to appear in your personality. Spiritual circumcision is a process that could take years, it could take your whole lifetime. It is the cutting away of the carnal mind from the Christ mind.  

 

Simon - Zohar reference #5 (continued):

 

Simeon and Levi insisted that the men of Shechem should circumcise themselves and accept this secret, and the Scripture tells us that it was “‘with guile.”  

 

They offered them a relationship with God to hurt them. They used God, and that is taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We do not want to go around cursing and using vile language, but that is not what the commandment means. This is taking the name of the Lord in vain. To justify your ungodly behaviour by saying that you are doing it for the Lord, when you misuse His name.  

 

I have seen people rob people. Someone was trying to sell me something once. When he found out I was a Christian he sat at that table and must have said the words, “the Lord” 5-10 times in his sentence. That is taking the name of the Lord in vain, to use it to attain your evil goals.  

 

Simon - Zohar Reference #6

 

And he took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes. (Genesis 42:24) Why did Joseph take Simeon rather than any other one of the brothers? The reason was that Joseph said to himself: "Simeon and Levi everywhere open the door to judgement. So it was with me and so it was with Shechem."

 

They judged Joseph, and they judged Shechem. What does that mean? Do you think that maybe Jospeh was open to that judgment at all? Maybe there was a little pride in Joseph as he walked in front of his brothers with that coat. He did not use discretion and flashed it in their eyes a little bit. Maybe he had a little pride there, and judgment fell on him for it, but God worked it for his good. "All things work for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes."

 

Simon - Zohar reference #6 (continued):

 

It is therefore meet that I should take this one (take Simeon) so that he should not rouse contention among all the tribes. The question has also been asked why Simeon associated himself with Levi rather than say, with Reuben, who was also his full brother. The reason was that he saw that Levi came from the side of judgement, and he himself was attached to the side of stern judgement. He, therefore, thought that if Levi joined him they would be able to conquer the world. (Look at these evil motives.) What then did God do? He took Levi for his portion, and made Simeon isolated.

 

That is interesting, if the Lord lets me, I would like to pursue that, I would like to understand that a little better. Levi came from the side of judgement, because the priests judged the people. Simeon was attached to stern judgment which to me, up the top of my head, sounds like a more serious form of judgment. Yet Simeon was the one that repented and Levi did not. Very interesting, but I do not have any more revelation on that right now so we will go on. It is not really our message so we will go on.  

 

We know that Simeon was isolated and Simeon repented, and he came from the side of stern judgment. Did we not see him judging Jesus in the account of the alabaster statue in Luke which we did last week? He was judging Jesus, which he did sternly, harshly, and incorrectly. I do not know about you, but I never really understood it the way I understand it today, why Jesus was a stumbling stone. I know they stumbled over Him. They did not see the anointing on Him, they did not recognize that He was the Son of God.  

 

As a result of this study today I see, more specifically, what they stumbled over was that they could not comprehend the thought process and the motives of the Christ mind. They could not comprehend how the Christ mind thought and that it was righteous. When Jesus thought in a manner that was different than how the Pharisees thought, not comprehending that He had the mind of God, they judged Him at fault.  

 

They stumbled over Him because they did not comprehend that there are 2 minds, and that Jesus had the Christ mind, and they had the mind of fallen man. That was the stumbling - the thought process and the motives of Jesus.

 

When He plucked the corn on the Sabbath day, they judged Him to be a rebel. They did not just judge Him as coming to liberate them. That is the problem that we have today. The carnal mind judges the Christ mind and pronounces it guilty rather than receive the benefits from it.  

 

We wait for the Lord to sow the seed of Christ, to come as a thief in the night and sow the seed of Christ, because the people in the Church will never ever comprehend this unless the mind of God appears in them. They are not going to accept the mind of God from the human mortal people that are preaching the message.  

 

Therefore, Jesus must come as a thief in the night. When that mind sprouts in the rest of the Church, they will begin to understand the motives and the reasoning of God. Is that not interesting? That really blessed me. Matthew 26:6  

 

Verse 6: "Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, (KJV)."  

 

Alternate Translation: "Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon's personality…."

 

Remember, we are translating “Bethany,” “unified.” The way I get “personality” is that “Bethany” means a "date house," a place in Palestine and it is a fruit that has one long woody seed. “They were together at Bethany” means they were together as one in their humanity, they were together or joined together in their humanity.

 

“Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon's personality. . .” They had a soul tie as opposed to a spirit tie. Maybe they had a spirit tie also, but they had a soul tie as well as the spirit tie that we read about in Luke.

 

Remember that these studies in each of the four gospels will modify each other. I may wind up going back to Luke and coming to the conclusion that it was not talking about a spirit tie but a soul tie. I do not know. In Matthew 26:6, it is clear that Jesus had a soul tie with Simon’s personality. Maybe we will even put that in the Alternate Translation.  

 

Verse 7: "There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as He sat at meat." (KJV) The Greek word translated “having” means "to hold" or "to possess." Here is my question. As I study, I ask questions: "Did the woman possess the alabaster statue or did the alabaster statue possess the woman? Or was the alabaster statue possessed by an unclean spirit? Or was the woman possessed by the unclean spirit who communicated to her through the alabaster statue?" This is how we hear from God, we have to ask questions.  

 

My conclusion is that the woman was possessed by the spirit that dwelt in the alabaster statue. That is my conclusion. Not that the woman owned, or possessed, or had in her hand the statue. She did not possess the statue, the spirit that was in the statue possessed her. All of this is merely interpretation. The Greek works are just Greek words, “statue,” “possess.”  

 

Every translation, brethren, is a subjective translation according to the understanding of the translator. It does not make anybody wrong. The Scripture is supernatural, it is infinite. It can only be understood in direct relation to the understanding, and the ability, and the spiritual maturity of the person translating it. There is no wrong translation unless you go way off.  

 

What I am trying to say is that in the Spirit of revelation, there could many different translations depending on the level of understanding of the translator. Of course, it is possible to look at the Scripture and translate it incorrectly when the translator is under the influence of an unclean spirit of the carnal mind.  

 

We have spiritual philosophy. Especially here, you have it much more here in Nigeria than we have in the United States, all kinds of spiritual philosophies: The Holy Grail, XXX was telling me about the Holy Grail the other day.  

 

All these spiritual philosophies that have been rendered from the Scripture by the spirit of the carnal mind are wrong, because the spirit that brought them forth is not the Spirit of Christ. We can have many interpretations and translations of the Scripture by the Spirit of Revelation in Jesus Christ depending on the perception and maturity of the translator. We are looking at the spirit, brethren. We are not looking at the words and saying it is wrong.  

 

Take the Hebrew prophets, there are prophecies that have still not come to pass by the Hebrew prophets. The test of the prophet cannot be whether or not the prophecy comes to pass, because there are unfulfilled prophecies. Yet the Old Testament says, "If that prophet says something and it is not true, stone him to death." How did the people of Israel determine whether or not a prophet was truly a prophet or not? They tried the spirit on the prophet at the time. They tried the spirit. They did not try the words, they tried the spirit.  

 

It is the spirit on the interpretation, it is the spirit on the prophecy, it is the spirit on the translation that makes it acceptable to God or unacceptable to God. There really is no right or wrong. There is either acceptable to God or unacceptable to God. We can have 3 translations that can all be by the right spirit of God and acceptable to God, but 1 person might think the other two interpretations are wrong because the first person cannot understand where the other person is.  

 

We are trying the spirit, we are not trying the words. If we are trying the words, we will be deceived. Words can fool us. The words of men’s wisdom can fool us. We have to find out the spirit that we are dealing with.  

 

“Alabaster box,” we are translating "alabaster statue." “Very precious” means "high esteem." “Ointment” we have already established means "to burn incense."  

 

Here is our alternate translation:

 

This is Verse 7. I brought forth an alternate translation of the first half of verse 7.

 

“. . . a woman who was possessed by an unclean spirit [that communicated with her through] an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem and burned incense to . . . ”

 

I put it together with Verse 6, it sounds like this:

 

“Now, when Jesus was unified [or when Jesus developed a soul tie with Simon’s personality], a woman who was possessed by an unclean spirit [that communicated with her through] an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem and burned incense to…”

 

The word “poured” means that, "poured out." The word “it” is not really in the Greek, but it is referring to the woman. The words “on his head,” the Greek word “head” means "the part that is readily taken hold of." That means the human spirit. In spiritual events, it is the human spirit that is laid hold of.  

 

“As He sat,” the verb “to sit” is a Hebraism. It is like an idiom in the Hebrew. It refers to marriage. Whenever that word “sit” frequently is implied that way, it implies marriage or union. I usually translate it that way or at least look to see if that is an appropriate translation, physical or spiritual marriage.

 

The words “at meat” are not in the Greek, brethren. The words “at meat” are not in the Greek. The phrase is “…and He sat at meat…” which makes you think Jesus was eating. The words “at meat” are not in the Greek. The King James translators added it in, translator’s license. They thought this Greek word meant that Jesus was eating. I do not think it meant that Jesus was eating, but I think it meant that He was joining Himself to somebody.  

 

This is what we have for that phrase now. It is the whole of Verse 7.

 

Alternate Translation:  

 

Verses 6-7. "Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon’s personality [or after He formed a soul tie with Him], a woman who was possessed by an unclean spirit [that communicated with her through] an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem and burned incense to, poured out of the human spirit of [the woman] that it was joined to in (spiritual) marriage."

 

The spirit in the alabaster statue had laid hold of the woman’s spirit and was married to her. What does that mean? It means that this woman belonged to this spirit, and it could manifest through her at will. Some people in the Church, in order to get a revelation from God, this is just fact, I am knocking anybody, it is a level of maturity in the Church, in order to get revelation from God or have Him use you in a particular way, they will fast for days, they will pray, they will be on their knees, they will be seeking God.

 

I do not have to do that. I could just be walking down the street, and He will manifest in me like that. Why? Am I a special person? No, but He owns me. I am special from that extent. He owns me. He is so intertwined with my personality that He can rise up in me like that, say anything to anybody at a moment’s notice. He does not have to prepare me. He does not have to say, “seek me.” I do not have to fast for 5 days or 5 hours.  

 

It is just a level of maturity in Christ. I am not saying I am better than anybody else. I am saying this is what you look forward to if you are not already experiencing it when he intertwines His spirit with your spirit, and we become His house, and He lives here. He is up the whole time. What does that mean? He is on top of my carnal mind the whole time, as I walk down the street or I ride in my car.

 

I carry Him wherever He wants me to go. He does not give me instructions and say, “Go here,” sometimes I go to places and I do not even know why I am going there. There is somebody on the street that He wants me to talk to, He is "right up," fully manifested in me. That is what I mean by “right up,” fully manifested in me. He just speaks out of me, He does not ask my permission.

 

It is called a spiritual marriage, because in order for the Lord or any spirit, to speak through anybody and manifest through somebody, there has to be an interaction that is likened to sexual intercourse, but it is spiritual sexual intercourse. He literally has to penetrate through the person to come to the surface of them and speak through their mouth.  

 

That is what it means when the Scripture says “God owns you.” You become a bondservant. He is married to you so He can penetrate you anytime that He wants, and He has the right to do it without your permission. That is the principle behind...I should not say without your permission, because your permission is already established. Let us say it that way. Your permission is already established, the relationship is there. Praise the Lord.

 

I will read you the whole Alternate Translation of Matthew 26:7:

 

“Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon’s personality [after they had formed a soul tie], an unclean spirit that possessed a woman who was burning incense to an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem, poured out of the human spirit of [the woman] that it [was joined to in spiritual] marriage.”

 

That spirit owned her. It did not need her permission, it did not require any special preparation, just stuck its head out of its house and did what it wanted to do.  

 

Matthew 26:8 (KJV)

 

Verse 8. "But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?” KJV

 

At this point, I have come to the conclusion that the 2 disciples are Simon. I think Simon is already His disciple, and we are told in one of the other gospels that Judas Iscariot was present. I have not quite decided if all the other disciples were present at this dinner, or the fact that the word “disciples” is in the plural is talking about Simon and Judas Iscariot.  

 

What is interesting is, in one of the two gospels where this account appears that we have not looked at yet, it says that Judas was Simon’s son. We have to look into that. We do not know if that was his natural son or whether the scripture calls him his son because he had the Simeon mentality. I do not know, but we will find out as we pursue the other translations.

 

We are doing Verse 8 now:

 

“But when the disciples saw,” when they saw, when they perceived, when they understood." When they understood what? Going back to our translation of Luke that Jesus actually forgave this woman’s sins. He did what Joseph did. He did not do, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." He did not curse her, because she tried to curse Him. When they saw that this woman who tried to curse Him actually had her sins forgiven by Jesus, they were all upset.  

 

These were the same disciples that said, “Lord, should we not call down fire from heaven like Eljiah did?” Jesus said, “You know not what spirit you are of.”  

 

We know that Simon was a Pharisee, and we know that Judas had some problems. At the very least they were in their carnal mind, and they could not comprehend the mercy of God. They could not comprehend that Jesus had a mentality, thought process, a reasoning that was beyond anything that they could comprehend and, therefore, they condemned Him.  

 

“But when the disciples saw it, (the word “it” is not in the Greek, we just talked about what they saw), they had indignation.” This Greek word means "to be grieved." It is from a root that means, "to curve." Over the years of my studying in the Interlinear Text, I developed a knowledge of some basic spiritual principles. One of these principles is the word, “to curve.”

 

Jesus is straight. He is the straight path, the straight way. The crooked way is the serpent’s way. This concept of being curved signifies going back to your carnal mind. We are all crooked. When we are born we are crooked. Just like the babies all folded up in the womb. Spiritually speaking, fallen man, born as an infant is crooked. We have to be straightened out. We are all bent over.

 

The woman who was a hunchback, it is a curse to have a hunchback. It is a sign of spiritual darkness. In other words, if you are straight, you are looking up towards God and you mind is open to other concepts or ideas. When you are curved down or hunchbacked, you are looking at yourself, and you are narcissistic. This is the Kabbalistic definition of evil.

 

Let me put it to you in another way. Self-consciousness is the Kabbalistic concept of evil. God-consciousness is righteousness. When you look to God and you see God, you become what you see. If you are only thinking of yourself, of your own needs, and you are the only person that you can see, you have a need and you cannot see that, that person has a need, and that person has a need, but you want everybody to cater to your need. That is selfishness and self-consciousness. The Kabbalistic concept of evil – self.

 

I read in the Zohar, probably when I was doing this study that this was Adam’s crime. When he responded to the serpent, and he actually entertained the serpent’s suggestion, he became aware of himself. Up until that point, he only knew God. He did not see the reflection of himself. Now he knew, because he became aware of himself. That was the division right there.

 

As we acquire the ability to think with God’s mind, with God’s reasoning, our carnal mind shrinks, and our Christ mind enlarges. As we think more and more with God’s thoughts, we will leave our self-awareness, and our self- consciousness, and our selfishness behind, and all of our needs will be met.  

 

Everything is a sowing and a reaping, not just of your behaviour but of your thought process. When you think only with the thoughts of God, only good things can happen to you. If you see everything that is wrong in this world the way God sees it, how can you go wrong? You can only reap good things in your life.  

 

This, therefore, is one of my constant prayers no matter what my problem is. Especially if someone is trying to hurt me, my prayer is always, “Lord, please, let me have Christ’s reaction. How will you respond in this circumstance?” Sometimes, I simply do not even have a clue, so I will say, “Lord, let me think with the mind of Christ, because I do not know what the answer is to this.”

 

That is the answer to all of our problems. I do not care what country you are living in. I do not care what your material situation is. I do not care. We are not subject to the laws of this world. We are promised prosperity by our Lord and Saviour. If we do not have it, it is because we do not understand something. If we are doing everything we can, and we are not prospering, we are missing it. What we need is that information from Him as to what we do not understand, what we have to do to turn that corner.

 

I had that experience a few years ago, and I was shocked at what the Lord told me my wrong thinking was, but I submitted to Him, and I confessed it, and I followed His instruction. In that area, my whole life has changed today for the better. Praise the Lord.

 

We are doing Verse 8. We said the word “indignation,” they were "grieved." Whatever they had of Christ, they curved back, they looked down selfishly to their own motives. They inputted their motives to Christ. They looked into their own heart to understand what Jesus was doing. This is a good example. If ever we cannot understand what somebody is doing, do not go to your own experience.  

 

I know people that do that. Everything that I teach, they filter through their own experience, and they just do not understand what I am saying. Maybe their experience is limited. You have to see it through Christ’s experience.  

 

The Greek word translated “to” we are translating it “against.” It is a legitimate translation. The Greek translated “what” is an interrogative pronoun which means “why” or “what.” I have already explained to you that these two words are idioms, Kabbalistic idioms. “Why” means Jehovah and “What” means Elohim. I also explained to you why I am saying YKVK at the beginning of this message.  

 

I had my choice with this Greek word to either translate it “What” – Elohim or “Why” – Jehovah. The reason I chose Jehovah or YKVK is because the context of the verse is talking about judgment. We will see as we go on.  

 

There is no Greek word rendered “purpose.” The King James translators just added the word. The English word “is,” is not in the Greek. The Greek word translated “this” means "this one." The word translated “waste” really means "ruined, lost or damned." It really does not mean waste, that is an expansion of the word.  

 

Let us see what have we got here.

 

“But when [Jesus'] disciple(s)…” at this point I put the (s) in parenthesis, because I was not sure whether it was one or two disciples, but as I told you I decided on two. We are translating the word “saw,” "understood." Let me just remind you that the words in round parenthesis are in the King James. The words that are in square brackets are amplifications, they are words that I added in so that you can understand the verse.

 

“When they saw,” when they saw what? “When they understood (saw) that [Jesus forgave the women's sins and restored her to right standing with Jehovah, Satan, the unconscious part of their carnal mind]” that is all an amplification, “curved them [back into their carnal thinking, and] they stumbled [over the stumbling stone of Jesus' righteous motives and reasoning].”  

 

Where did I get that word “stumbling” from? It must be a second translation for one of these words that I did not write down. Maybe it is a translation of the Greek word translated “waste.” Let me read you the whole thing.

 

Alternate Translation Matthew 26:8

 

"But when [Simon and Judas Iscariot, Jesus'] disciples, understood that [Jesus had forgiven the women's sins and restored her to right standing with YKVK, Satan, the unconscious part of their carnal mind], curved them [back into the unrighteous motives and reasoning of the carnal mind, and] they stumbled [over the stumbling stone of Jesus' righteous motives].

 

They stumbled over His mercy. I guess I have to change that.

 

Verse 8 (continued):

 

They stumbled [over the stumbling stone of Jesus' mercy], saying, YKVK is against this [woman, which the Law of Moses] condemns.

 

I amplified “the Law of Moses,” because to the Jew all condemnation is from the Law of Moses. That is why when the Pharisees said to Jesus, “We have Moses,” Jesus said “Yes and Moses judges you.” Moses typifies the law, the sowing and reaping judgment that is on to destruction, the rigid law that kills everybody. That is why we all die, because we are all sinners. It is the mercy of God that has come to intervene with the righteous sowing and reaping judgment, to make a way of escape. Not to take it away, not do away with the law but to make a way of escape from the law.  

 

What is the way of escape? That Jesus gave us His righteousness, that is the way of escape; otherwise, we will never get out of here. What Simon and Judas said to Jesus is, “What do you mean you forgive this woman’s sins? The law, Jehovah’s law, condemned that woman. Who do you think you are to forgive her sins?”

 

You may remember when we translated this account in the gospel of Luke, Simon the Pharisee said in his mind, “Who does this man think He is that He forgives sins?” That is in the King James. “Who does He think He is that He forgives sins?” That is what he said in his heart, but what he says outward is, Simon did not admit that he condemned the woman, he said Moses condemned the woman. He did not make it a contest between Simon and Jesus, he made it a contest between Jesus and Moses.  

 

Do you know people who do things like that? I know people who do things like that. They do not have the spiritual strength to meet you on an intellectual level so they will say, “We do not agree with you.” This invisible “we,” all the help that they have that is supposed to make the other person shrink and say “Ah, they are all against me.” It is really just one person saying, “we.”

 

Simon said, “Moses is against you, who do you think you are, forgiving this woman’s sins?” Is that not interesting? I love it.

 

We will do the whole thing. This is the account of the woman with the alabaster box in Matthew 26:6-9.

 

Alternate Translation:

 

"Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon's personality [or after He had formed a soul tie with Simon], an unclean spirit that possessed a woman who was burning incense to an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem, poured out of the human spirit of [the woman] that it [was joined to in spiritual] marriage, but when [Simon and Judas Iscariot, Jesus'] disciples, understood that [Jesus had forgiven the women's sins and restored her to right standing with YKVK, Satan, the unconscious part of Simon and Judas' carnal mind], curved them [back into the unrighteous motives and reasoning of the carnal mind, and] they stumbled over [the stumbling stone of Jesus’ righteous motives or the stumbling stone of His mercy], saying, YKVK is against this [woman, which the Law of Moses] condemns. Who do you think you are forgiving her sins?"

 

They could not conceptualize the mercy of God. Their mind could not contain it. We have one more verse.  

 

Verse 9. "For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor." KJV

 

The Greek word translated “for” can be translated “why.” The Greek word translated “this” means “this one.” The word “ointment” is not in the Greek. The King James translators added it in, because this was their understanding of the translation. They just added it in, it is not there. The Greek word translated “might” means “is it possible” or “it is possible.”

 

The word “to sell” or “have been sold” really means “to be sold into slavery.” The Greek word translated “for much” means “so long.” The Greek word translated “given” can be translated “to grant.” This word “poor,” this is the reason I printed out our Alternate Translation of Lazarus and the rich man because that is the same word used in the account of Lazarus and the rich man. It really means “a beggar, cringing, frightened person who begs, privately or publicly, to survive." In other words, a cursed person. Someone who is at the wrong end of the law of Moses.  

 

Alternate translation Matthew 26:9:

 

"Why would you, [Jesus], possibly grant [the forgiveness of sins] to this cursed [woman], who was sold into slavery a long time ago?"

 

“Why would you even do that?” The concept of mercy was completely beyond their ability, they could not conceive of it.

 

Alternate translation Matthew 26:6-9. This is the whole thing now:

 

"Now, when Jesus was unified with Simon's personality [when they formed a soul tie], an unclean spirit that possessed a woman who was burning incense to an alabaster statue that she held in high esteem, poured out of the human spirit of [the woman] that it [was joined to in spiritual] marriage, but when [Simon and Judas Iscariot, Jesus'] disciples, understood that [Jesus had forgiven the women's sins and restored her to right standing with YKVK, Satan, the unconscious part of Simon and Judas' carnal mind], curved them [back into the unrighteous motives and reasoning of the carnal mind, and] they stumbled over [the stumbling stone of Jesus’ mercy], saying, YKVK is against this [woman, which the Law of Moses] condemns. Why would you, [Jesus], possibly grant [the forgiveness of sins] to this cursed [woman], who was sold into slavery a long time ago?"

 

Glory to God. I think we are going to stop here. I am not sure what to do. If we have another session, I will expound on Lazarus. I think everybody has had enough for now, you need a break.

 

Earlier on, I was wondering where I got the word “stumbling” from.

 

That word “stumbling” came out of the word “indignation,” that the disciples were indignant, they were grieved over what Jesus did. I amplified that to fit the context of the verse saying that they stumbled, they were grieved, and they stumbled over the concept of mercy.  

 

As I told you earlier, I never quite understood that principle to the extent that I understand it now. I know that the Pharisees stumbled over Jesus not keeping the law, but I never understood that they stumbled over this concept of mercy. They could not comprehend it. That is all that they knew, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

 

05/24/06 Transcribed by LML
05/26/06 1^st Edit AB