JESUS SEEN IN JOSEPH

   Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured. (Gen 39:6). God calls that a “chosen and peculiar” person. [i] Why was that so important? Because the next passage provides the reason: “His master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, ‘Lie with me’” (Gen 39:7). And this was after “all these things” theretofore: “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man” in the house of his master, and even his master prospered because the Lord was with Joseph and the master was as well.

 Joseph found grace, and because the Lord gave Joseph grace, so did the master (Gen 39:3). Joseph did no wrong with the master’s wife, but he was imprisoned even though he was innocent. Throughout the Bible the innocent men suffers persecution just because of their fidelity to God.

  Why do you suppose that the master’s wife tempted Joseph? God could have struck her dead, but he allowed her to live to torment Joseph. Because Joseph was a goodly person and favored by God, God would allow Satan to test his faithful person just as he did with Job. All of God’s favored are tested by temptation; even Jesus himself had much the same temptations as Adam.

  Temptations are milieus staged by Satan and his Watchers to make the righteous fall. If man could not fall, then Satan, with his knowledge of good and evil, would not set up the stage to make God’s favored people fail.

  Why do Satan’s demons tempt Christians? To provide the stimuli to make them fall, and for men, that is specific, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

  What did the master’s wife present to Joseph? He could have already been proud because he was the overseer of his master’s estate. Satan was setting him up: You can have the master’s wife as well! You can be her master because she is a willing servant in your world. Joseph excused himself from her when he explained, “There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9).

 She belonged to the master. Joseph was not privileged to have her. Certainly, the master withheld his wife; that goes without saying. Joseph knew what “wife” meant — that she and his master were one flesh, and that trespassing on her flesh was as if trespassing on the master himself who had so much good will for Joseph.

  Many preachers have struggled with the explanation of a Godly-type of love; agape in the Greek. Agape is not an emotional state nor touchy-feely. It is simply “goodwill” toward God and others.

  The master loved Joseph differently than his wife. He had emotions toward his wife, but goodwill toward Joseph, and because the master saw that Joseph and himself had prospered because of the Lord God, “Joseph found grace in his (the master’s sight” (Gen 39:4).

  Deitrich Bonnhoeffer wrote of “cheap grace”. It is essentially thinking that grace comes with only minimum cost. The grace of Christians came with a great price — God gave up his own Flesh to be crucified so that sinners would not perish. The payment was high for sinners to be redeemed. “Cheap grace” is withholding agape love… withholding good will toward God from God. God does expect something from Christians in return for grace, and that is good will toward him for having Good Will toward men.

  The angels in heaven praised God, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” when Jesus was born to be the sacrifice. Glory to God is good will toward God (agape love) and good will toward men is God’s Good Will for mankind. The entire Bible is “The Last Will and Testament of God” and it was finished [ii] on the Cross when God “probated” His Will, as Jesus gave up the Ghost.

  Now back to Joseph and his master. The master is an antitype of God the Father. He had good will toward Joseph, so much so that Joseph became the overseer for the master, as the Chuch is today for The Master. As such, Joseph is the antitype of Jesus, the Son of the Father in that the master treated Joseph as an adopted son. Joseph was the living heir to all that he had except for his wife.

  The wife, in this case, was the antitype of Lucifer in that she was beautiful, the temptress, and was cunning with her temptation. She knew that Joseph’s spirit was with God but that the fleshes of all men are weak, as the Jesus reminded His disciples: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41)

  Why would Jesus say that? Because sin is from the world and the “antennae” for lust is the fleshes of men. Satan is not omnipresent. He must broadcast his will to Christians. As “Prince of the Power of the Air” [iii] the power of Satan is broadcast across the world to be intercepted by “receivers”. The flesh does the reception and the mind and body acts upon the messages.

  Satan is stationary, or at best, with one person at a time. He was in Judas, but he broadcast his messages to those who crucified Jesus. Thus, sinners and unsuspecting Christians can be used to transmit temptation to even solid Christians.

  Those who killed Jesus knew not what they were doing [iv] because they were oblivious to just who was their master. I suggest that Satan in Judas was orchestrating the mob that killed Jesus. I also suggest that Satan was directing Potiphar’s wife to tempt Joseph, and that she was acting on spiritual messages from Satan, using her beautiful flesh to weaken the flesh of Joseph. She was not trying to undermine God but to encourage the flesh of Joseph to be her flesh, so to speak.

  However, the flesh of Joseph belonged to God; because he had found grace, and the body of Joseph was the Temple of the Holy Spirit; to wit: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Cor 6:19)? Joseph knew that and fled.

  It was not an easy thing to do because he knew that he would suffer persecution from her. He would become her slave if he submitted. The same goes with the Temptations of Christ. He could have been the prince’s (Satan’s) overseer in the world if he had fallen for the temptations of the Devil, but he chose persecution, imprisonment, and even death.

  Joseph was the “bride” of Christ, the Bridegroom. He could never fornicate with another god, and if he had had the carnal knowledge of Potiphar’s wife, his new god would have been Lucifer. That is always the way of Satan — to steal away the “brides” of Christ and cause them to become “wives” of his own. (Pay little attention to Joseph’s gender as a “bride” because it is metaphorical. It comes from the Church as the “Bride’ of Christ, the “Bridegroom” [v]).

  The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is a foreshadowing of the Devil’s Temptations of Christ. Likewise, the grace that Joseph had for his brothers who sought to kill him, foreshadow Jesus forgiving those who would crucify Him.

  Joseph even had grace on the wife of Potiphar. Joseph could have blamed his lord’s wife, but he remained silent about his temptations from her. He was not sent to condemn his master’s wife [vi] but to save the Egyptians from perishing with the drought and subsequent famine. Potiphar and his wife, Zuleikha (‘brilliant beauty”), would be saved from death as well, although she tempted Joseph and Potiphar imprisoned him. Joseph desired that none should perish.

  Like Jesus, Joseph was accused by Zuleikha, but made no defense on his own behalf. He paid the consequences for her sin, and that is what Jesus did for sinners of all eras, even those who mocked him as she mocked Joseph.

  She accused Joseph of raping her: “She called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, ‘See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice’” (Gen 39:14). She accused Joseph of being the mocker but all the while she was! They had their own #metoo movement even back then; they believed the woman without question, in the same manner that white women were always believed when they accused their master’s slaves of rape!

  Joseph, as with Jesus, endured severe persecution. And like Jesus will do when the persecution is over in The Great Tribulation”, He will return and rule, to oversee all that belongs to His Father as Joseph finally did with Pharaoh and saved the sinners of Egypt from perishing!

  Joseph had little to do with establishing the Kingdom of Israel. His sons became the sons of his Father. That is the same with Christians. Sons of Christ become Sons of the Father by adoption. [vii] Although Joseph died in Egypt, his body was carried to the Promised Land, and so it was with Jesus! The Ghost of Jesus remains on Earth to Comfort Christians and the ghost of Joseph has no other purpose than to comfort the Jews and now the Christians who see “Jesus” in Joseph. He was there, keeping Joseph safe from perishing all along!

  Joseph could have perished. Satan had that knowledge! That is why Satan tried to destroy him. Like Job before him, Satan’s goal is the perish Christians as well. Why Christians? Because the unsaved will perish by their own hand as Judas did. Satan did not kill Judas, Judas did! We too can kill ourselves, and that is how Satan operates.

 (picture credit:: Medium; "Sacred Prostitute")

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[i] Deut 14:2

[ii] John 19:30

[iii] Ephes 2:2

[iv] Luke 23:34

[v] Mark 2:20

[vi] John 3:17

[vii] Ephes 1:5

THE MARK OF THE SCARLET THREAD - Part 2 of 2

 I have been on a short vacation, so part 2 comes a little late. You may want to review part 1 before reading this.

PART 2

  In the case of Judah and his daughter-in-law, Tamar, was intended for Judah’s son, Onan, because his wicked brother, Er, had died, leaving Tamar a widow looking for a husband. She was looking for herself, not according to the custom of the Jews who were obligated to marry those intended for their brother. Tamar had a mind of her own and dressed the harlot to entice Judah to engage in fornication (zana) with her — “to play the harlot” with Judah (Strong’s Dictionary). Later, that is what Israel would do with the Canaanites and Egyptians. Jerusalem played the harlot of Babylon, the harlot.

  Judah sinned. He played with the harlot, but even worse, he committed adultery (naap), “a man playing the harlot with the wife of another man” (ibid). Tamar was intended for Onan but went elsewhere to Judah. He broke the Seventh Commandment before it was ever written on stone. He was guilty of fornication because, like the Serpent, Tamar had deceived Judah with her wiliness.

  The Greek name “Judas” is a transliteration from the Hebrew name that in English is “Judah”. (Abarim Publications). It is more than irony that Jesus is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” [i] but the Antichrist, “Judas” was named “Judah”. He was “the best of the tribe of Judah.”

  Jesus was the “leon” of the tribe – “a brave and mighty hero” (ibid). On the other hand, Judah/Judas means “let him be praised” (ibid). Of course, that applied to Judah son of Israel but not Judah Iscariot.

  Judas (in the Greek) had Satan in him. He was the true “Beast of Judea”. Judas was the “man of qiryah” (the city). A related name from which qiryah is derived is Quran. (ibid). Judas was perhaps “the man of the Koran” and the Islamic Koran’s number is “666” — the mark of the Beast.

  The question is, What has Judas to do with the twins of Judah other than the name? All the other apostles were from Galilee. A related names is galal from which Golgotha comes (Ibid). Galileans were thence of “the place of the cranium.”

  The number of God is in the mind, and the number of the Beast on the forehand or cranium. Perhaps rather than a symbol on the forehead, it is a symbol on the mind. In that case, the mark of the Beast would not be an actual mark but persuasion to be violent like beasts, [ii] just as the mark of a Christian is persuasion. [iii] “Born again” is persuaded to trust Jesus rather than anyone else.[iv]

  The “scarlet thread” was properly “a dried body” as in the crimson locust. (ibid). The word “thread” is not in the Hebrew but is implied that the child was bound. That raises the question: Was it a scarlet thread, or did the midwife do something to the child; perhaps insert something in his blood that failed to abort him? But although it may not be an exact translation, let us assume that it is because Solomon used a thread of scarlet as a metaphor for his loved one’s lips. [v]

  But Solomon also used “silver cord” as a metaphor for life. That raises the question, Was the scarlet thread and metaphor for death? Was the midwife marking the firstborn to die or was it truly for primogeniture of the first born? She tied the hand of Zerah. Zerah means “to break out” (Abarim Publications) whereas Phares (Perez) means “break through” and “to breach”. (ibid).

  Phares was named that because Perez means “breached”. As such Phares was a type of Jacob in that Jacob endeavored the breach from womb to be the first. Jacob wrestled with God in the womb to come out first, but God’s law is not for the first born but the subsequent born. However, for whatever reason, Zerah was marked.

  Specifically, Zerah was not the forebearer of Jesus, Phares was… the unmarked child [vi] but Zarah was marked. The red string in some early Jewish writings represents the receiving side of the spiritual body. (Wikipedia; “red string”). It does turn out that the only significant thing that Zerah was noted for was the progenitor of Achan who was stoned to death for humiliating the Hebrews when they were defeated in battle at Ai because of Achan’s sins. [vii] It turned out that Zerah took the mark of death just as I proposed. Contrast that to Phares who bore no mark but did bare the seed of Jesus!

  Two “houses” were planted in Tamar: Phares was a Levitical priest, and Zerah a sinful “Judas” from whom two tribes would come. Zerah was an antitype of Judas and Phares an antitype of Jesus. The contest did not begin on Good Friday, 33 AD but in the womb of Judah. The house, or tribe, of Judah is Judea, and its people are called “Jews”, or as German Nazis labeled them, “Jude”. The house of Judah stands to this day, not through Zerah, but Phares.

  Likewise, Israel is a nation of Jacob through Phares. Can you not see it? The scarlet thread represented blood and DNA. The spiritual DNA of Zerah died out with Achan, but the “silver cord” of life remains alive to this day through Phares. Jesus has his DNA and Zerah the bloody DNA of the Wicked One.  How so?

  Tamar played the harlot! She deceived Judah just as Satan played the harlot and deceived Eve. How did that turn out? Just as Judah had two sons, one whose DNA lives on, and one whose DNA diminished in the DNA of cursed Canaanites; the same thing happened with Eve and Satan playing the harlot. Both Eve and Tamar “pimped” themselves as a harlot. They both, in a Faustian manner, sold their existences for pleasure, pride, and beautiful things.

  Cain was of the Wicked One and was marked as a “beast” would be. Zerah was of the wicked one, Tamar, and he wore the mark of that sin. It turned out that Zerah’s DNA died with Achan, but Cain lived. On the other hand, righteous Abel’s scarlet blood cries out from the grave. This time, with Zerah and Phares, God would not allow that to happen. The first time the right brother died, and this time the right brother lived.

  Tamar “played the whore” with Judah, and Jerusalem was the harlot of Judah, the nation: “How is the faithful city (Jerusalem) become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers” (Isa 1:21). Jerusalem, not Rome, is the “harlot daughter of Babylon, in the Revelation of John. [viii] Babylon was “the mother of harlots” and Jerusalem was her “daughter”.

  This came to Ezekiel from the Lord: “Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite... But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was” (Ezek 16:3,15). The Amorites were cursed Canaanites and Hittites, from Heth, the son of Canaan. The harlot Jerusalem had Canaan in her “blood”. She would turn back to her origins and fornicate against the LORD GOD.

  Tamar played the harlot to produce heirs in the bloodline of Judah. After both her husbands, sons of Judah, died, Tamar was pledged to Judah’s third son who was but a youth. She could not wait to produce heirs for Judah. She deceived him by playing the harlot, but she was both incestuous and a fornicator. Neither of her sons would be kings in Israel. Peres, the ancestor of Jesus, was said to have become king of Persia, and Zerah went off into oblivion. Her ploy did not work as planned but did provide for Jesus a progenitor. But Tamar was after the estate, not the bloodline, in that Judah was the “lion” that defeated the tribes of Canaan.

  Judah defeated many kings and nations, but Tamar defeated Judah. She did so by lust. She played the harlot and Judah fell for the ploy. Again, a pure bloodline had been contaminated by deceptive practices.

  People still play the harlot. Of course, people still prostitute themselves for many reasons, even to reproduce their genes. A man I know had a child by a friend. When asked why Charlie said, “She always wanted to have my baby. She did not always want Charlie but thought that he was a fit specimen for her child. She played the harlot to get Charlie. Charlie did not have coitus because he wanted to provide for her a child but to fulfill lust.

  Jerusalem played the harlot by having “intercourse” with Canaanites whose gods were Baals. Jerusalem was meant to be the “bride” of Christ but that city missed the wedding: “Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate” (John 7:34).

  The Lord cleaned up Judah; he had no further relations with Tamar, and Judah became Judea, the “father” of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem has yet to be cleaned of her fornication, but she will be the “Bride” of Jesus; to wit: “And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2).

  The “Bride” was cleansed from her sin before she was presentable to Jerusalem as a new “person” and she was renamed “New Jerusalem” because she will be born again from the ashes of the modern city of Jerusalem. Finally, there will be peace on “the foundation of Peace” because after Jerusalem is destroyed, only the foundation of the “harlot” will remain.

  The scarlet thread was more than the right to primogeniture but wait your turn. The best bet is that the progeny of Zerah, through intermarriage with the Canaanites, became one of them. Since Muhammad was converted by some evil impersonator, perhaps the spirit of Tamar herself, Jerusalem has belonged to the Canaanite Muslims until 1948.

  Now it is mandated that Jerusalem belongs to all. It is a bastard city whose “father” is rightfully Judah, but the children Ishmael and Esau have their share. In the end, Christians of all races will inherit the City of God, not because of primogeniture nor their blood, but because of the blood of Jesus. Then New Jerusalem will come back to her foundation as the “Bride” of Jesus for him to dwell in forever.

 (picture credit: TheLifeInstitute.net)

 

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[i] Rev 5:5

[ii] Acts 14:19

[iii] Acts 18:4

[iv] John 3

[v] Song 4:3

[vi] Mat 1:3

[vii] Joshua 6 & 7

[viii] Rev 17:5

THE MARK OF THE SCARLET THREAD - Part 1 of 2

  Genealogy is important in scripture for tracing the bloodline (or DNA) of the ancestors of Jesus. Why so? Because the Abrahamic Covenant promised Abraham that his seed (bloodline) would provide the promised Messiah.

  The word “genealogy” is from the Greek genealogia of which genea means “generations” and logia, meaning “sluggish” (Online Etymology Dictionary). Implied is that generations (genes over time) are slow to change.

  Matthew defined the time element for generating:

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. (Mat 1:17)

    In other words, the time it took for the Promise to be fulfilled is 3 x 14 = 42 generations.

    Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas (Judah) and his brethren; (Mat 1:2). The death of Abraham is ca 1975 BC. Abraham was 175 when he died; hence he was born ca 2150 BC. Abraham found grace at age 99 [i]when his name was changed from Abram to Abraham. As such, he was “born again” ca 2051 BC.

  It is calculated that Jesus was born in 6 BC and that he was crucified in 33 AD, so he would have been 39 years of age. That was when the Abrahamic Covenant was finished when Jesus gave up the Ghost. [ii] The seed of Abraham had died for Abraham and his numerous seeds. Perhaps then is when Abraham’s bosom became safe space. Then, 2051 + 33 = 2084 years from the rebirth of Abram to the death of Jesus when the promised grace was provided.

  The death of Jesus probated God’s Will for Abraham and his kind. It was then that God willed the Promise Land to Abraham, and it remained securely his but now it belongs to whosoever believes in the blood of Jesus. [iii]

  Indeed, Lazarus was in Abraham’s Bosom because the Will of God was legalized. Abraham had signed it in blood with circumcision 2084 years earlier, and in 33 AD God attested to the Will by spilling the blood of Jesus on Abraham’s kind — those who have “the faith of Abraham”. [iv]

  2084/42 = 49.62, or approximately 50 years for each generation. Fourteen generations seem to be the cycle between crucial events. The gospels account for the time up until 33 AD… (14 x 50 = 700 years).

  Well, 700 AD was the peak of the Islamic Umayyad dynasty in what was then Syria. Around 700 AD non-Arabs were accepted on the same footing as Arabs in Islam. (Encyclopedia Britannica). The blood of “whosoever” became acceptable to Allah. No longer was Islam Arabic or even Syrian but the worldwide nation of Islam.

  Muslims were initially Arabs, an admixture of Canaanites and Egyptians. Around 700 AD, the blood of Jews became acceptable to Muslims, as well as those descended from Japheth. At that point, the Noahic Covenant was fulfilled: “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

  Muhammadans enlarged the tent… what is called an “umbrella” in modern times. Islam is a syncretism of Christianity (Japthethites), Judaism (Semites), and paganism (Canaanites). Muhammad built the spiritual tent for Jews and Christians to play the harlot with Canaanites! (Now retain that information until later in the commentary.)

  Well, in 1400 the Muslims began to grow without bounds. There was a power shift from migrating peoples to those who remained stationary (Islamic World). In other words, Islam began nation building and the global aspect of Islam that is seen today accelerated beginning in 1400 AD!

  “So what?” you ask. God had promised to Abraham: “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation” (Gen 17:20). The twelve princes came from Ishmael and are named: Nebajoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah” (Gen 25:13-15).

  God created the State of Israel and the Deep State of Ishmael at the same time. Both are of the Abrahamic Covenant, so you must see that what happens in Islam is as certain as what happens in Christianity and Judaism!

  In 1400 AD that promise to Abraham began to blossom. It is still bearing fruit — evil fruit — to this day.

  That accounts for the second stage of the three stages of the time from Jesus. Note that for Christians, Jesus is the Savior of Israel’s kind which means those who are “spiritual Jews” (i.e, Christians). [v]

  My thesis is that the ontology of Canaan’s seed is as important as Israel’s (Jacob’s) seed. They began together and they must end together. Now consider 3 x 700 years. That will be about 2100 AD. At about that time Christ will return for those in Abraham’s Bosom as well as those who have the faith of Abraham who live. [vi]

  What else will happen when Jesus returns? The Antichrist emerges! That is the Islamic “Jesus” who is “Isa” in Arabic. The Qu’ran indicates that he will come for vengeance? Against whom? The “devil” Christians.

  From the birth of Christ to December 20, 2020 is the Age of Pisces — the Christian era. During that time, Islam grew as fast as Christianity. Their “Jesus” (Judas Greek; Judah English) died the same day that Jesus was crucified. He committed suicide for his vengeance against the True Christ. Judas had Satan in him, but for many Muslims, Judas is their Isa — their “Jesus”.

  It is true that one named “Jesus” (English) is a prophet in Islam. That is because Judas was an apostle. They do not believe that the true Jesus died and ascended to Heaven, but that the apostle of Allah, Muhammad, did.

  Muhammad, if he ascended unto the part of the heaven where Hell is, then he is an antichrist. That is why Islam is so important in Christian ontology. In the end, Isa (their “Jesus”) with Satan in him, will tempt Christians, just as Satan did Jesus.

  John “saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus” (Rev 20:4). It turns out that those were 144,000 souls who were tempted with a choice: to freely buy and sell — to engage in commerce — or to lose their heads… “That no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev 13:7). They will be “Jews” at heart (i.e., the seed of Judah).

  The mark of the Beast is the mark that Cain took and the mark that Canaan had placed on him. It may also be the mark put on the son of Judah’s son by the midwife of the harlot Canaanite wife of his named, “Tamar” who bared him two sons: Phares and Zarah.

  In the genealogy of Joseph it is recorded, “And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram” (Mat 1:3).

  Zarah was marked with a scarlet thread. He was to be the heir of Israel by the law of primogeniture, but heirs and heredity is not the firstborn in Christology but those born subsequent. Zarah was marked to be the real property heir of Judah but Phares was chosen by God to be spiritual heir. It was no accident that Zarah withdrew his hand back into the womb because in the Will of God, the harlot does not determine the heir, but God Himself!

To be continued.

(picture credit: Christianity Today; "Forgotten Twins") 

 

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[i] Gen 17:1

[ii] John 19:30

[iii] John 3:16

[iv] Rom 4:16

[v] Rom 2:29

[vi] 1 Thes 4:15-17