Hello Beloved.
Several weeks ago I was given the honor to teach at a Bible study of a precious man of God, David Holland, in a series he entitled, “Unveiled”. He suggested to me to teach from the Galatians 4:25 statement by Paul concerning Sarah and Hagar, an intentional, from the LORD, allegory out of history, speaking into the mixture of the Covenant of Grace & the Mosaic Covenant of Law, which had been creeping into the Galatian churches. The treasure unveils what was of most importance to Holy Spirit from out of what is considered one of the very first letters written of the New Testament, a literal foundation stone to the church, both the early church and now.
This teaching below, having a detailed foundation and precious nuggets from Father from the scriptures, is long. So I encourage you to print it for easier reading. It will also give you space to write your own notes from what the LORD Jesus shows you. I have set this up in underlined sections to make it easier to break (and let be soaked into your heart).
I want to thank David Holland, whom I hold dear in my heart (because of how much of Jesus he and his family have unveiled to me, in his teachings, & maybe more so, in their lives), for allowing me this opportunity. I have an increased Awe of Jesus because of the consecutive Bible study series he’s taught over the last year.
In studying and praying, in the preparation of this particular issue from this first ever letter to the church, it really sank into my heart from Father God just how adamant is He, by His Spirit through Paul’s letter, for this mixture to be utterly severed from out of the heart and mind of the Bride of Christ. I honestly believe this mixture is so prevalent in the believing of the church that it is actually hindering a breakthrough, in a very major way, for healing to take place as a “daily norm” within and through the Body of Christ. (Gal.3:5).
I will be returning to “The Speaking Blood” in the next Kairos, as LORD Jesus has laid something on my heart for several weeks.
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UNVEILED
Foundation vrs (from David Holland) for this series
“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, not was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Gal. 1:11-12 (NASB)
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Beloved ones, let me say emphatically that the gospel entrusted to me was not given to me by any man. No one taught me this revelation, for it was given to me directly by THE UNVEILING OF JESUS the Anointed One.” (The Passion Trnsltn)
Galatians is considered one of the first letters written of the New Testament to the Ekklesia. So it’s amazing to behold what is of first importance to Holy Spirit for the Bride of Christ. The impact of this word is increased by reason of the vessel through whom this letter was written, the one whom Jesus chose to proclaim & teach the Good News seen in these pages.
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The foundation by Paul, that this came by revelation of Jesus Himself, is so key to this entire book, even to Paul’s entire service as a “bond servant” (v10) of Christ Jesus. So let’s add more foundation scriptures that bear witness to what he said in vrs 11-12.
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When Paul recounts, before the Jews in the temple, his Damascus road encounter with Jesus, (Acts 22:14-15), he quotes from Ananias, the one in Damascus itself who received the word of the LORD in a vision to go to Saul (Paul) shortly after his conversion. Ananias, having just laid hands on him to receive his sight and Holy Spirit, said,
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“The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.”
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Again, in Acts 26, before King Agrippa, this time Paul telling what Jesus Himself actually said to him, when he had fallen, in that encounter on the way to Damascus back in ch. 9. Paul, quoting Jesus, says,
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” but arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only of the things which you have seen, but also the things in which I will appear to you, … to whom I am sending you; TO OPEN THEIR EYES so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” v16-18 (NASB)
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You will remember that when he, as Saul, encountered Jesus in His Resurrection glory, he went blind. This man, who’d been extremely zealous for the pure Law of Moses, had suddenly now come into view of his first true Revelation of Grace, of the “Salvation of the LORD” – of Jesus – יְהוֹשֻׁעַ – (from YHVH-
as A key to understanding Paul’s (Holy Spirit’s) jealousy, as it were, from what is this first letter written to the church, that the pure gospel, APART FROM WORKS OF THE LAW, be the sole working for true transformation in the lives of the Saints, is to look back in the Scriptures at how Law and Grace just don‘t mix. The evidence from Scriptures for this dichotomy is so glaringly obvious: one sets a yoke (of bondage/of slavery), while the other is complete freedom – Liberty – from that yoke. Paul would make this point clear to the Saints:asdf
“It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1 (NASB)
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I believe there is indication that is intentional by Holy Spirit through three different men with the same (Hebrew) name – two of them in the book of Acts, chs. 5 & 9, but the first in Jeremiah 28. These 3 men, through their respective accounts, show how completely polar opposite is the Mosaic Law from the Grace of Jesus because of the cross, and actually reveal that attempted mixture of both covenants ultimately results in death.
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The “Ananias” Revelation
The New Testament name, “Ananias”, comes from the Hebrew name, “Hananiah”, חֲנַנְיָה,
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Taking this into account we gain better understanding from what takes place with each of these 3 who have the same name.
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Jeremiah 28
Now it came about … in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, … that Hananiah, … the prophet …, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests & all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I am also going to bring back … all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ” … Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Even so I will break within two full years, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’ ”
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I won’t type the rest of the story here; you can read it in Jeremiah. The problem that we have here is that the prophet, whose name means “Grace of the LORD/Grace I Am”, is trying to prophesy a “yoke breaking Grace” under and into the Covenant of Law… an action that could not work. Because the Law does not change man’s heart. Yet even worse, Law actually keeps hard locked a yoke of slavery that just cannot be broken by the thing, itself, that thus set it to begin with! If all the exiles had been brought back, not having been held account to the Law, nothing about their nature would have changed, and they still would have worshiped false gods & committed all that sin of which they were presently guilty & consequently under judgement of exile in Babylon.
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Paul writes, in 1 Cor. 15:56b, “the strength of sin is the law”. The Greek word for “strength” is “dunamis”, which also means, “power” & “ability”. Sin’s ability, sin’s strength & power, are by reason of the Law; hence tightening the yoke. Paul writes, in Romans 7, that the Law of sin in the flesh takes advantage of the Law of Moses, and accordingly augments our sinning, our consistent missing the mark of the glory of God. Sin takes its power to rule in a man’s life through the Law.
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The Israelites in Babylon, had Hanaiah’s prophetic word come to pass, would not have been changed by the Grace of God. Why not? … because that Grace could only come through the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus, which was not available to them under the Covenant of Law. The true Law of Grace is a Law of Liberty that sets one free from sin, from sin’s power (Rom. 6:3-7 & 8:2) and sin consciousness (Heb. 10), but “Law” was ALWAYS a reminder of sin (Rom.. 3:20b). The unregenerate flesh would ALWAYS take advantage of Law to actually augment sinning. God’s people who were under the judgement of the Covenant of Law, even while in Babylon, were even there still rebellious, still sinning, … still being kept in a yoke of slavery to sin, instead of getting freed from it. The mixture, the Word of Grace trying to be instituted while yet under Law’s Covenant, just would not work!
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The prophet Jeremiah had wanted Hananiah’s word to indeed come to pass, saying, “Amen” to it (v6). But the LORD told him shortly thereafter that the word was not from Him. Jeremiah returns to the temple to prophecy the LORD’s response to this word of Grace in the time and covenant of Law.
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” And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron…” ‘ ” “.
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Hananiah tried to prophecy the blessing of YHVH’s Grace within the Mosaic covenant of Law to a people not willing to submit their hearts to the LORD even under Law. The result for Hananiah, trying to bring in this mixture, was death. He died within two months, according to Jeremiah’s prophetic word from the LORD to him for this false word that had NOT been the a true prophecy.
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The next Hananiah, translated in the N.T. as “Ananias”, is in Acts 5:1-10.
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“But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles feet. But Peter said, “Ananias why has satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all those who heard of it. And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.”
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The same fate soon also came upon Sapphira, his wife, as seen in the following verses.
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Sapphira’s name is derived from the color and type of stone called sapphire. It is a blue, transparent corundum that can be found in the basalt outpours of volcanoes. (There’s a reason this is being stated, so hang tight).
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To understand, in this Acts 5 account, the dichotomy, about which we are speaking, the mixture (of Law with Grace), we have to bring up Jewish tradition. This has to do with the name of Ananias’s wife, Sapphira, in conjunction to the very type of stone upon which the Law, as Jewish tradition believes, was engraved “by the finger of God” (Ex.31:18). Let me make it clear here that I do not believe Jewish tradition carries any weight of authority as do the scriptures, only that it give us some understanding, some clarity. In this case of Acts 5, it seems to unveil the mystery of even how adamant Holy Spirit is, as seen in the letter to the Galatian believers, that Grace and Law do not mix, rather brings about a catastrophic end, … not a “mixed blessing” whatsoever.
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So let’s look at the foundation for this Jewish tradition. In Exodus 24:1 the LORD tells Moses to come up Mount Sinai with Aaron, his two sons, & 70 of the elders of Israel.
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“Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.”
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Jewish tradition says that the LORD engraved the Law on sapphire stone. Whether it is or not, it will be noted here, from Galatians 4:25, that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia. The area in which Moses had dwelt for the forty years, after having fled Egypt the first time, was called “Midian”, (Ex. 2:15), which was thus the area to which he would lead the children of Israel after having lead them out of Egypt & then crossing the red sea. That northwestern region of Saudi Arabia is still today known as “Madyan”. The north south line of this region is a volcanic mountain range. Thus it is plausible that the Law could have been engraved on a blue colored stone that does exist in volcanic outpours of basalt.
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All that only to bring out, as we saw from end of Jeremiah 28, that, like Hananiah, this Ananias/Sapphira mixture’s end result – that of trying to combine the Grace of The LORD with Law – is death. This account cannot be simply incidental, as to this couple by their names, especially to Jewish Readers of Acts, especially in that church of virtually all Jews in Jerusalem. Hananiah had been under the covenant of Law, and Ananias & Sapphira were in the age of Grace after the cross, though, in truth were not, themselves, in the Grace of Christ, rather were still under the Law, and under its consequential rules; (Luke, by his introduction of this Ananias, “A certain man named Ananias”, instead of how he would introduce the next in ch.9, “A certain disciple named Ananias”, shows that this couple were not believers into Jesus, only just participating with fellow Jews who had believed and really were part of that ekklesia).
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This Acts 5 Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, as that Hananiah had attempted, tried to bring in to God’s people of the New Covenant a mixture, … and both accounts proved, in all intents and purpose, to rob true Divine hope, and led ultimately, even quickly, to death. This attempted Law/Grace mixture was not at all an advancement of true faith believing into any Divinely promised inheritance. I do not believe it would lead necessarily to a physical death so much for believers, rather more a cutting off of ourselves from promises of scripture, from supernatural flow (i.e. gifts of Holy Spirit) from Holy Spirit of inheritance destined for us by reason of what all the blood of Jesus so gained for us. When I had been praying, leading up to this teaching, the Monday night late, prior to Saturday, what came to me was this phrase, which I shared; “The Law is locking up healing”. Paul would write to the Galatians to bring them back into remembrance just exactly how the Spirit and continual miracles had been flowing in their midst (Gal.3:2), & then later warn them that going forward into the mixture, participating in works of the law as believers, that Christ, the Anointed One, would literally be of NO EFFECT to them, (Gal. 5:4).
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The third Ananias, from Acts 9, is my most favorite; for this one unveils pure Grace, utterly apart from Law, a revelation in the fullness of Paul’s conversion (from when he was born again, thru to his water and Holy Spirit baptism), which would actually establish within him, for the rest of his life, a backbone of steel for this unveiled truth. THIS unveiled “Chanan-Yah“, “Grace I Am” truth of the real character of their God, the only God, is one from which Paul would never back down. And though he would be vigorously persecuted for this Liberty of Christ (as the LORD Jesus had told Ananias would happen – Acts 9:7), he was, nevertheless, relentlessly & concretely single eyed to see that THIS Cornerstone be set AND maintained, WITHOUT EVEN AN OUNCE OF MIXTURE of Law, into the lives of the churches, the Bride of Christ, a purity of Grace that would betrothe her (w)holy as a pure Virgin to One Man alone! (2 Cor. 11:1-2).
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From “Zealous for the Law” Saul … to “Jealous for Pure Liberty” Paul
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Saul had been so wholly passionate for the Law and the traditions. We need to see this, because what will happen to him, to so completely transform him – his death to the old nature and his being born again into this new life, the unveiling of Christ Jesus – makes the impact of his new zeal in Christ for us that much greater, his jealousy that not one thread of Old Covenant Law be sewn into the character of the fiber of the Bride he would betrothe with every ounce of Grace given him. This passionate zeal, this obdurate insistence, will be seen, in his letter to the Galatians, in the revelation, from out of the Law, of the authority of Grace in the Words of Abraham’s wife towards Hagar, a true Ananias life apart from a sapphire stone engraved Law.
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So let’s look a moment at what he wrote & spoke concerning his life before Christ in his zeal for the law.
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Galatians 1:13 and 14
” For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”
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Philippians 3:4b-6
“If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.”
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Acts 26:9-11
“So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”
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In the midst of his persecuting zeal, towards the end of the 135 mile journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, at midday, a light brighter than the light of the sun suddenly glowed with such power that Saul and all with him fell to the ground. But it was all focused on the one intense Lover of the Law.
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“while thus engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday … I saw on the way a light from Heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? …”
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For Saul, this was his first encounter, his first Revelation, with true Grace, Jesus – יְהוֹשֻׁעַ – YeHo-shua. This lover of the Law got to view what the first receiver of the Law, Moses, never got to behold… the FACE of YHVH, but with the added “Shua”, a glory revelation that not only would never fade, but rather, even more, as the unveiling kept coming, would increase.
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Unveiling the “Name” of Jesus!
As was said towards the beginning, let’s look at the Name of Jesus for a moment from its Hebrew roots. In seeing the fullness of His Name we understand more fully Paul’s words in Galatians 5:1, “It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE; “.
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Jesus was given this Name by His Father, as we see from the angel who spoke with Joseph (Mat. 1:21), because, “He will SAVE His people from their sins.” Thus we see that His Name denotes, “the LORD’s Salvation.” I believe we’ve heard this SO OFTEN, the impact in us, in our ears & our hearts, of His Name, His Name’s power towards man, has been lessened. What Paul would get to see unveiled, in seeing Jesus in His Resurrection glory, was a revelation of the fullness of Jesus’s very Name. So let’s unpack this a bit.
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“Jesus”, in Hebrew, in its fullest form, is in the name, “Joshua” – (YeHoSHua – יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), shortened to how we’re used to seeing His Name, Yeshua. It is from a compound of two words; the LORD’s Name, as seen in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, YHVH – יהוה, and from a verb, “Yasha”- יָשַׁע We’ve already seen that YHVH, from His own statement to Moses, in Ex.3, means, “I Am That I Am.” So the abbreviated “YaH” in the first part of YeHoSHua – יְהוֹשׁוּעַ carries the first part of this definition, something Jesus, in John’s gospel, would often say of Himself, “I Am”!
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Moses, having asked the LORD, in Ex. 33, to see His glory, in Exodus 34 gets a revelation of the LORD’s glory by getting a revelation explanation of His Name, YHVH, which does unveil the Grace of God as never before known (ref. Ex.6:3 & 34:5-7). There is a reason that Moses CANNOT look on the LORD’s face, and I can only explain as I understand this. It is seen in YHVH calling out His Name and detailing it from His intense full Grace thru to His intention to deal with iniquity in the people. Jesus, more than 1500 yrs later, WILL bear the fullness of this Name … all the way to the severity of His death on the cross, the judgment – wrath – for all that iniquity, that is, YHVH’s hatred for lawlessness. This is where the 2nd part of Jesus’s Name, from the verb “Yasha,” comes to play. Moses cannot look on YHVH’s Face as Paul would in Acts 9, I believe for one reason alone.
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Moses had been on Mt Sinai primarily, through his first 40 days up there, to get the plans of the tabernacle, which were a type and shadow of what was the real tabernacle of the LORD’s dwelling in heaven, (Ex.25:40; Heb. 8:1-5). While it was so that the not yet constructed tabernacle was to have blood for atonement placed on the Mercy Seat once a year, the true ark of the Covenant, the judgment seat in heaven, did NOT have blood on it … for that 1500 plus years until Golgatha. Prior to the cross the eyes of the LORD, of YHVH, had no Blood upon which to look in order to see us in a way we could look upon His face … apart from being totally spotless, clean from sin. The true Ark of the Covenant in heaven, the Throne of God, was not a yet Mercy Seat until Golgatha received the first drops, the first sprinkling, of the Blood of the Lamb of God. Moses would know predominantly the fearful side of YHVH, not the fullness of the “Shua” addition, which Paul got to encounter.
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So let’s look at this second part of Jesus’s Name.
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The “Shua” part of “YeHoShua/YeShua” is from the verb, “Yasha”.
Gesenius (1), from his lexicon, says of this verb, “TO BE SPACIOUS, AMPLE, BROAD. The signification of ample space is in Hebrew applied to LIBERTY, deliverance from dangers and distresses, as on the other hand narrowness of space is frequently used of dangers and distresses. … To be freed, preserved.” There is even a figurative use of this verb meaning, “to be opulent.”
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The fullness of Jesus’s Name, when these two parts are joined as one, along with the pictograph definitions of the ancient Hebrew letters of YHVH, carry this. Are you ready?
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Jesus, YeSHua – from YHVH YASHA, this is what His name’s denotation carries:
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“I Am, by The Hand of Grace Nailed in Grace, Who sets (you) Into a Broad Place of LIBERTY where there is Salvation!”
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When you take into account the Old Covenant type, Joshua, how he led the people through the Jordan, into the “Promised by God” land flowing with milk and honey Liberty, no longer in slavery in Egypt, nor the slavery of endless wilderness wandering, into possessing inheritance that was so opulent compared to what they had known, then, and only then, do you get a glimpse of what Paul has seen and is proclaiming in the gospel coming to him by the “Unveiling of Jesus! “
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This initial unveiling of “Grace I Am” blinded Saul.
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” Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Behold, I, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight… And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized.” Acts 9:10-12, 17-18 (NASB)
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The last thing Saul had seen, on the road to Damascus, was what he was seeing in a vision in the three days of his blindness, and then became the first thing he saw when his eyes were opened … Ananias! Grace I Am! … WITHOUT a Sapphira law.
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THIS became the cornerstone, the foundation, the blueprints even, for Paul’s life and mission.
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It is this background, Beloved, that makes the stern exhortation of this very first book written to the Ekklesia that Jesus Himself promised to build, (ref. Mat.16:18), that much more serious a word, to which it is imperative that we give heart’s attention. Paul was willing, more than once, to give his back to the whip of current zealots of the Law in order that this truth of unmixed Grace might remain with the church … with us, we who have believed into Jesus.
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AND NOW, the purpose of THIS Unvelied teaching!
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Hagar, and the Revelation of Sarah’s Words to Freedom
Thus it was that the mixture, of Law and Grace, had been planted as a seed into the churches of Galatia. By chapter 4, Paul takes them back into the writings of the Law in order to unveil to them the mystery of pure Grace, prophesied, as it were, in the Law … that of Freedom. He writes,
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“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free. But the son of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son of the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mt. Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
… and you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
But what does THE SCRIPTURE say?
“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”
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Paul had mentioned early in his letter to the Galatians that “when God was pleased … to UNVEIL His Son” in him, instead of conversing with anyone or going back to Jerusalem to any of the 11 apostles, he’d journeyed rather to Arabia, then returned to Damascus. (Gal.1:16-17). This would have seemed a bit peculiar to the Galatians listening to this letter being written to them, as to why, in light of Paul’s purpose for addressing mixture he saw starting to creep in, he would bring up this particular point. It is, then, in ch.4, that they finally would have linked in their minds the earlier mention of Arabia. In having taken a long trip from Damascus all the way down into Arabia where Mt. Sinai was situated, and turning around to come back, Paul, this man who had been so extremely zealous for the Law, as he’d told them back in ch 1, then having died to it all, had traveled, apparently, to get a first hand glimpse of where the Law for his people had been given. For it was this place where Moses, & also the other giant in the eyes many Jews, Elijah, had gotten to hear the LORD.
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However, the revelation that came to Paul was NOT of the LORD, NOT of the cross, nothing of this New Covenant of Grace, but of what Mt Sinai really was and is … a revelation of Hagar slavery … and the root of persecution. Holy Spirit unveils understanding and wisdom to Paul from the days of Abraham, way before Moses and the giving of the Law. Paul would have seen, down there, the burnt top of the mountain, when the LORD had first spoken the Law in a terrifying spectacle Ex.19-20; Heb.12:18-21). He might have seen the platform upon which his forefathers there would have made the golden calf, while Moses had been at the top receiving the Law, or the 3000 graves of those who were put to death, right there at the foot of Mt. Sinai, because of it. (Ex.32). He would have realized that this place in Arabia is where all the requirements of the law, all the demands and particulars of each of the sacrifices just for temporary covering of sin were given. He would have remembered that every single forefather of his people, save Joshua and Caleb, the entire generation delivered out of Egypt who had come to here at Mt Sinai to receive the Law, had died out in this wilderness. Whether he saw all of this & more, Paul surely would have brought all this back to his remembrance, for he had known the Law inside and out. And it came to him that this picture was NOT the true revelation of their God, was NOT the way YHVH, the LORD, was going to use to gain them inheritance, the Kingdom of God. His people had been delivered from slavery out of Egypt…yet as supernatural as what had taken place, here, fifteen centuries before, the whole giving of the Law with all that went in to making the tabernacle, the type and shadow of the real in heaven, it all actually turned into accentuated slavery…to sin. (Ref. Rom.7:8-11; 1 Cor.15:56b). It was here, at Mt Sinai, that slavery to sin, not a knowledge of YHVH, was activated.
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Paul received understanding by Holy Spirit of what Mt Sinai truly was … Abraham’s wife’s bondservant, Hagar! … And the offspring to which she would give birth … persecutors, trying to gain an inheritance not belonging to them by reason of slavery.
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The Galatians’ 4:29-30 reference to the persecution by Hagar’s son of Isaac, Abraham’s & Sarah’s son of promise, is from the account in Genesis 21. Paul clearly states that Hagar and Sarah are allegorical for two covenants: Hagar, a slave, is the Law, Mt Sinai. Sarah, is the Covenant of Freedom, which is the Covenant of Grace through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. And there was one answer from Sarah, from “the scriptures”, as Holy Spirit has him to write, as to this problem of mixture under one roof.
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“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON,”!
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Paul’s word to the Galatian believers of what to do with this mixture in their midst that was trying to be fertilized into their soil is a quote from Sarah, Abraham’s wife. For there is precious gold behind these words, in what had taken place within Sarah that would make her words an eternal statute for the church, a Prophetic declaration as to freedom’s inheritance by this bloodline alone. This is an intensely bold, strong, command, which Paul, by Holy Spirit, is bringing into the present. Paul did not write, “But what does SARAH say?”. He wrote, “But what does the SCRIPTURE say?“.
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THIS is what I want to cover, because it is what the LORD, the God of Abraham, did, in transforming Abraham’s wife from a Sarai to a Sarah, that would lead to the raising up to this very adamant, God-Authoritative word. Paul’s zeal and jealousy are for Jesus. Because of what is the precious gem of ALL that is kingdom inheritance from the supernatural by reason of the cost of His sacrifice in crucifixion to gain for us such pure, unmixed, Grace, in order that we might walk fully in that Liberty, that supernatural flow of the Holy Spirit’s power, that His blood poured out to gain it for us (Gal.3:2 & 5). The preciousness of such sacrificial cost was personal to him, because he knew himself the transformation, the utter dichotomy of the old covenant, to which he’d been wholly given over, to this New Covenant that had captured his heart with an exceeding Life in truly actually knowing the God he’d thought he knew when living under that old.
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The scriptures say that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the [rhema/living/flowing] word of Christ/ of God” (Rom. 10:17). When Abraham, as Abram, was first hearing from the LORD, as seen thru Gen.12-16, he’d been journeying from nation to nation, Ur, Haran, Canaan, Egypt, back to Canaan. It was all a faith walk journey, even in his mistakes. Though his entire entourage, including Sarai, his wife, walked with him in all his wanderings, none of it had ever been a “faith walk” for her. All she knew was that her husband had a promise from some God he claimed to have heard; his faith had never been her faith. She knew he had the promise of a son, yet she was barren. So she leaned on her own understanding to “help” fulfill that promise that was alive in him … and gave her bondservant, Hagar, to her husband.
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We have to look at her name in the Hebrew; for there is a nugget in one of the Hebrew letters in her first name, and in the name the LORD would give to her, that unveils her fleshly nature before faith, and the transformation after faith, that led to a bold demanded request that would ring eternally, as New Covenant truth from the benefits of the Blood of the finished work of the cross of Christ.
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Sarai, in Hebrew, is spelled “SRY”, with the vowels being understood – It looks like this “שרי“. The first part of her name is שר, “Sar”. This is significant in Shemitic languages, referring to one who is Princely. It carries the weightiness of, a chief, a ruler, etc. The last letter of her name, the י , or “y”, is called “yod”, and refers to the “hand”. It is also the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and is thus the number 10, the number that we recognize as representing the Law. “Sarai”, according to Strong’s Concordance, means, “Dominative”. It is attempted rulership by self effort. She walks by carnal wisdom alone. But her torn heart is still seen in her attempt to hold some form of dignity.
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In Genesis 16:2 it says,
“so Sarai said to Abram, “Behold the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.”
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The Hebrew for, “perhaps I shall obtain children through her”, literally says, “perhaps I shall be built by her”. We know the painful outcome of this carnal wisdom. But the LORD, YHVH – יְהוָה – had not left her out of His plans and purpose with Abram.
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He, YHVH, has TWO “H’s”, ה , in His Name, the letter that signifies the breath of “Grace”. In Genesis 17 the LORD comes to Abram and unveils Himself for the first time to Him as “God – Elohiym”. (It is the 1st time in more than 400 yrs, since the days of Noah in Gen.9, that this Name is seen in scripture). In unveiling Himself this way to Abram in order to now fulfill the original promise of Gen. 12:1-3, Abram received a character change, a name change, … and a revelation that his wife is also going to receive this Grace that he is now receiving. This fresh breath from heaven brings new life and joy. It is as though God the LORD, YHVH, breathes one of the “H’s”, ה, of His Own Name into Abram to make him an AbraHam, and the other into Sarai, to transform, to elevate her, into a SaraH. But what He does in her name is remove the last letter, the Y, which is hand, her effort, a sort of works of the Law, and so breathes into her His grace … in order for her to be built by Him , by His voice … and not by Hagar.
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In Genesis 18, the LORD comes in bodily form, probably Jesus, (see John 1:18a; 8:56a) along with two angels. He comes up to Abraham, who was sitting in front of the tent door. Sarah was behind him, in the tent. And the first words out of the LORD’s mouth to Abraham, IN HER HEARING, “Where is Sarah your wife?” It is the first time she hears her new name, AND the first time she hears from her husband’s LORD. That breath of YHVH’s Grace forever lifted off of her all her striving and self effort. It is from this encounter that she is completely changed, and elevated from a barren baroness, Sarai, to a princess, Sarah…. where her words will be elevated to an authority that will affect a whole nation to come out of her … and a church that was to be set free through seed, according to the flesh, that will come through both she and her husband Abraham. (Ref Matthew 1:1-16)
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Sarah had heard from her lord’s LORD; his faith had finally become her faith. She received faith to conceive the promise, a son of promise … to eventually get to that Son of promise spoken by the LORD back at creation’s dawn in the ears of the very first woman. THAT Son of promise sacrificed His Life to give the authority to Sarah’s words, which Paul would decree to the Ekklesia as “SCRIPTURE” !
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“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON,”
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“It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1 (NASB)
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You are greatly loved, Beloved.
Mark D.
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kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877 Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”. Some definitions given to Hebrew words are also referenced from this website, as well as from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Baker Book House Company, (C) 1979
Several Translations and study guides to which this author refers are taken from biblehub.com , biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+1&version=TPT , http://www.sarshalom.us/resources/scripture/asv/bible.html
The posts are deep and encouraging. I am mostly encouraged to know that the love of Jesus Christ has set us free from the depressing bondage of sin.