Daily Devotional, Year 2 – June 5 (Cease Ye From Man! Part 4: “A Heath in the Desert!” (Continued))
By admin On January 26th, 2021.
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Daily Devotional, Year 2 – June 5
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Cease Ye From Man!
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Part 4:
“A Heath in the Desert!”
(Continued)
To read Part 1, click here… “August 21st (Cease Ye From Man!)”
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“Moab is destroyed;
her little ones have caused a cry to be heard…
Flee, save your lives,
and be like the “heath” in the wilderness.” (The NKJV says “juniper”)
Jeremiah 48:6
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Joshua tree – cropped – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
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If a person has ever been in the deserts of the western United States, they can appreciate the Joshua Tree. These hardy types of vegetation are among the few plants that can survive in such barren and arid regions.
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The name, “Joshua Tree” came about during the 1800’s, when Mormon settlers proclaimed that the Joshua Tree reminded them of the biblical Joshua when he raised his hands up in prayer to God.
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
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DOUBLE-ENTENDRE
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You see, there are many parabolic symbols in the Bible which can be looked at from two vantage-points.
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And the “heath” can be seen from two entirely different perspectives.
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
Joshua Tree under stars – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
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HEATH = MEAGER SPIRITUALITY
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In yesterday’s devotional (click here), the heath symbolized something bad: it symbolized the dried up, bleak and meager spiritual life of those who place their affections and trust in this world of selfish pursuits and faithless ways.
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
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FLEEING FROM MOAB (APOSTATE CHRISTIANITY)
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But today, the focus will be on the juniper, as it symbolizes a somewhat different aspect of the life of a Christian…
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Listen again to Jeremiah…
“Moab (the worldly churches) is destroyed;
her little ones have caused a cry to be heard…
Flee, save your lives,
and be like the heath in the wilderness.”
Jeremiah 46:4, 6
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Now the Bible is telling us to become like a juniper or Joshua Tree! How odd!
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Jesus in Jeans by Peter Royle – cropped image – WIKIMEDIA SHARE-ALIKE LICENSE
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“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”
1st Corinthians 2:14
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The Bible has many similar passages which can be confusing. But through careful/prayerful study, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, every seemingly erroneous and contradicting passage can be rightly discerned, thus confirming that the Bible faithful and true!
(Click here to read 1st Corinthians 2:12-16 for entire context)
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS!
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So why in the world would we want to become like a juniper or Joshua Tree!?
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On one hand, God doesn’t wish for us to become like a lonely Joshua Tree. But when it comes to fleeing out of the world-loving churches, God wants us to become like a lonely tree!
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PICTURE – Constellation- Woman of Revelation 12 flees to the mountains Mark 13:14 This is not a star-chart, but merely a concept picture
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MOAB = BABYLON
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You see, God could not come right out and openly tell us to vacate the apostate churches. That would have caused the Church too much confusion and anarchy in decades past, prior to the God-appointed hour of this end-time exodus.
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But a plain call for exodus from the apostate churches of these last days would also have caused even the “make-believers” to vacate the fallen, apostate churches. And then there would have been no clear line of demarcation between the true Believers and those “make-believers”, causing even more confusion!
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And so, He had to speak in veiled, allegorical language. And God decided to present this, “Flee out of Babylon” command in allegorical language…
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Listen… “Flee out of the midst of Babylon,
and deliver every man his soul:
be not cut off in her iniquity;
for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance;
He will render unto her a recompense.”
Jeremiah 51:6
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And whether God calls the apostate churches, “Babylon”, or whether he refers to it as, “Moab”, it is all speaking of the apostate church-world.
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
James Tissot – The Flight of the Prisoners – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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NEW TESTAMENT AGREES
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Even in the New Testament, God refers to Sodom…
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Listen… “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop,
and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away:
and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it;
and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”
Matthew 17:29-33
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So here again the Lord is foretelling of that day in which God’s people must flee. And this takes us full-circle back to Jeremiah 17:6, in which God tells us to, “Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.” Jeremiah 46:6
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
Picture – Lot Escapes Sodom – www.thebiblerevival.com offers free Bible clipart – Public Domain.
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SEPARATION NOT OPTIONAL
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And so now it becomes evident that we must become, “like the heath in the wilderness”, in the sense of separating ourselves from our past ungodly associations in the apostate churches.
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Listen…
“Wherefore come out from among them (unbelievers),
and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you,
and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
2nd Corinthians 6:17, 18
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Our relationship with the Lord must be a very personal, one-on-one relationship, apart from the corruption and prosperity gospels being preached in the local congregations (and the various radio and television ministries.)
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Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
Evangelist Preaching – Church – Audience hands – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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SPIRITUAL BREAD & WATERS SUPPLIED
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And so, God’s people are commanded to “flee to the mountains”. (Matthew 24:16, Mark 13:14, Luke 21:21)
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The very Good News is, that God can indeed “spread a table in the wilderness”. Psalm 78:19
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And upon every high mountain of our refuge, God’s people will find an abundance of heavenly Manna, and “rivers and streams of living waters, in the day when the towers (the churches) fall”. (See Isaiah 30:25)
(parenthetical comment by website editor)
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TO READ PART 5, CLICK HERE…
June 7 (Cease Ye From Man! Part 5: A Heath in the Desert! Who is Moab? Continued)
Joshua tree – cropped – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
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TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Help me to come out from among the apostate churches and take my refuge in Thy secret pavilion. Help me become as a heath in the wilderness, lifting up my hands to Thee, even as these Joshua Trees seem to do…
Joshua Tree – cropped – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “February 10 How To Be Hidden in the Day of Wrath”, or you can also read… “May 12th (Come Out of Her, My People?)”
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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THE END
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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
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Revelation 12 Woman Constellation,
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Well, as just stated, the Lord has created a constellation which shows a woman fleeing. It is called the Revelation 12 Woman Constellation, also known as Ursa Major or The Big Dipper.
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So if we explore this constellation in the light of the Bible, there can be a wealth of information discovered on this very topic.
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Picture to right: Ursa Major, also known as The Big Dipper
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Woman of Revelation 12 (Flees to the Wilderness)”
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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TOMORROW…
“JUNE 6 (Cease Ye From Man! Part 4: A Heath in the Desert! Who is Moab?)”
Joshua tree – cropped – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
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20+ MINUTE AUDIO STUDY IN JEREMIAH
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ALL ‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.
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THIS STUDY #521 IS PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING…
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above picture: Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.org – Public Domain
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