I hope your week was wonderful! I find it interesting how Luke 8:17 continues to play out publicly in this season. In fact, it ties nicely into this week's topic because it's essentially a warning about keeping secrets and hiding the truth. There are quite a few instances you can find in the world, but one in particular I'd like to point out is the recent publication of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Pfizer document. I don't want to make this into a divisive issue, you can read the document and draw your own conclusions. I just bring it up because there was an attempt by the FDA to conceal these documents from the public for 55 years, until 2076, and a judge ruled that they must publish them more quickly than that. So what was hidden, and attempting to be hidden for a longer period of time, was made known.
This verse is just one of the many warnings we can see in scripture. Some of them are general warnings about being disobedient or unrighteous, like in Proverbs. Others are more specific. We'll get to some of those, but first let's talk about real-time warnings.
What do I mean by real-time warnings? When you read scripture, there may be something the Holy Spirit leads you to that gives a warning for you personally. This may be something that you're doing in your life that the Holy Spirit is trying to get you to stop by bringing you to a passage that warns you of what will happen if you continue. The Holy Spirit may also give you certain feelings in situations to warn you not to continue, or to warn you about an individual's intentions. He may also give you feelings to let you know you're on the right track, too. Just so you don't think He's just about warnings!
But there's also another pattern of Yehovah that we must be aware of. It's not just scripture and feelings He uses to warn us. He also uses others, and even angels...but we'll get to that one later! These other individuals are tasked with quite a serious responsibility.
If we take a look at Ezekiel, we see what that responsibility entails. Let's start with chapter 3, verses 17 to 19. Here, Ezekiel is assigned by Yehovah to be Israel's watchman, with some pretty intense consequences if he doesn't pass along God's warnings. Essentially, if Ezekiel doesn't tell someone the warning, their blood is on his hands. He is responsible for their death. So, if He calls you to be a prophet warning others, you better warn the individual or group of people!
Is there a similar warning to prophets on the flip side? Namely, if a prophet is worried about missing a warning, is he or she better off just saying whatever comes to their mind whether or not it's from Yehovah? Absolutely not! If they are speaking to others and saying it is from Him, when in actuality it's their own words or maybe the words of evil spirits, they are warned of death (Deuteronomy 18:20).
Well, we want to make sure we're heeding God's warnings, and with consequences such as those you'd think no one would dare speak unless the message was from Yehovah. Unfortunately, since the beginning, there have been false prophets and now is no exception (1 John 4:1). In fact, there will be many more as we get closer to Jesus' return. But we want to make sure we're testing the spirits proclaiming to be prophets (1 John 4:2-3).
As a side note, verse 2 in that passage has some interesting wording. You'll find the KJV says confessing that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is the indication that the spirit is of God. However, when you take a look at the Greek, it gives a different translation. After "Every spirit that confesses," it states "in the flesh came" ek Theou estin. These words mean, "from out of, God, exists," respectively. And when you combine it with the beginning of that verse, it makes more sense that John (namely, the Holy Spirit inspiring John) didn't repeat himself saying, "The test of a Spirit of God:" ... "means it's a Spirit of God." Rather, it was intended to say, "The test of a Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ that came in the flesh from out of God exists." Meaning, if a spirit, or a person, states that Jesus Christ not only was here in the flesh, and not only came from God, but also that He continues to live, is of God. Now, that's quite a different story! Especially when you see many people essentially admitting that Jesus was a person, since there's so much evidence He was, but not that He came from God or that He was resurrected and lives!
Now, back to the main road! We talked about getting warnings from prophets, and how we need to be careful, and we see that Yehovah does not command anything unless He first reveals it to His prophets (Amos 3:7). But, we can also get warnings from angels and the heavens as we see in Revelation.
Before we get to the tribulation written of in Revelation, and even during, we will see many warning signs in the sky. We'll see stars fall from the sky, a blood colored moon, a dark sun, locusts, and a large meteor hitting earth (Revelation 6, 8, 9). We'll also hear warnings from angels (Revelation 14). Interestingly, this warning is given by an angel directly to the people on earth. It makes you wonder exactly what condition the world will be in and what events will have taken place for us to be able to actually hear/see angels. It also makes you wonder, if we're able to hear and/or see the angels, why in the end are there still people that refuse to believe in God and repent (Revelation 16). Perhaps some deceit that occurred beforehand has convinced those people not to trust the angels? Maybe a claim of an alien invasion? We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open and pray for discernment! We do not want to be those in the days of Noah that were blind to what was happening and what was to come (Matthew 24:37-39).
The last thing I want to touch on is a very serious warning we need to pay attention to. It come directly from Jesus to us, and we know He was a prophet speaking from God so we better heed it! He warns us that if we are to deny Him, He will deny us before Yehovah (Matthew 10:32-33). Now this is an interesting thing to think about, because what situation is Jesus in if He is before Yehovah and denying people? I can think of two possible situations: God is consulting with Jesus before resurrecting the elect that are to rule with Him during His Millenial Reign, and/or the person is standing in front of the white throne during the last judgment and Jesus is there to be an advocate. Either way, this is not a good position to be in! We miss out on being resurrected and being with Jesus and we have a high likelihood of missing out on eternity.
So make sure you're looking for the warnings from Yehovah and discerning them. It will be more and more important as we get closer to the end!
Have a wonderful week! Yehovah bless you and Shabbat Shalom!
-Rob and Sara Gene
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