Spiritual Hierarchy & Authority, Part 23
March 23, 2018
We left off last week after starting a comparative list of the striking parallels between Adam and Jesus, and the events that unfolded. Jesus literally had to reverse every step that occurred when Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam
and Eve's son, Abel, found acceptance in the
eyes of the Lord because of
the sacrifice of his firstborn lambs as an offering to Him. He was killed by his jealous brother.
Jesus' brethren killed Him, making Him The Lamb who was offered up as an atoning sacrifice,
an offering acceptable in the eyes of God the Father -- and
under the Law!
The Serpent had subdued Adam and Eve under him and his
power, along with all of their descendants, making
them subservient to his wishes and commands.
Jesus subdued the Serpent, and crushed his
power under His heel, making Satan and all his hordes of spirits subservient to
those descendants of Adam and Eve who would become One with Him.
Though
He went to the Cross as a meek and mild Lamb, offered up in order to redeem His
intended Bride, the Lamb of God took — and now possesses, once and for all —
the Crown and the Throne!
Let’s
shift gears now and take a look at the Throne of God the Father.
A
pattern of the Throne was laid out for that chosen people called as a pattern
of the Bride, Israel. It began with
God's promise to Abraham (see Genesis 15:18-21) to give to him and to his
descendants, the lands of the Hittites, the Hivites (referred to in Genesis 15
as "the Rephaim"), the Perizzites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the
Girgashites and the Jebusites. Three
other nations -- the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites -- were also
mentioned as being a part of Abraham's inheritance, but the other seven are the
object of particular interest in this study, since God commanded the
destruction and removal of these seven nations.
The
Land of Inheritance, which was referred to in an overall sense as Canaan, was a
picture -- a metaphor, if you please -- of Eden, the Garden of God. Under the premise that Adam and Eve would
become "gods" if they would eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil, the Serpent, Satan, robbed them of the land of their inheritance.
There
was a unique significance to the naming of each of the seven nations which
occupied Canaan. Each name represented
an onoma. Each onoma was a part of the
overall makeup of Satan, and characterized one of the seven dominant spirits of
Satan(**see note). The collective total
of the seven represented the makeup, the character, the identity, the very
essence of Satan.
(**Note:
Some have questioned the idea that there are seven dominant spirits which make
up the totality of Satan, but one must remember that he was created by God
originally as Lucifer. Ezekiel was
instructed by the Lord to take up a prophecy against him. Part of that prophecy incorporates the
following statements:
Ezekiel 28:12-14: "You
had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; ......On the
day that you were created, they [every precious stone] were
prepared. You were the anointed cherub
who covers, and I placed you there."
The number, seven, representative of God, is
the number of perfection. Ezekiel also
states in his prophecy that "You were internally filled
with violence, and you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane from the
mountain of God." (verse
16) Therefore, although Lucifer was
created as the "seal of perfection," he "profaned" that
perfection, changing and perverting the onoma of each spirit within his
makeup.)
Just
as a curse had been pronounced on the Serpent for his deception, lies, and
theft of Adam and Eve's inheritance, so had a curse also been pronounced upon
Canaan. If you will recall an event
which took place following the abatement of the Flood when Noah and his sons
had established vineyards in the region of Ararat, Ham went into his father's
tent after Noah became drunk.
We
are told (Genesis 8:22) that Ham "saw the
nakedness of his father, and [nagad] told
his two brothers outside."
The
particular usage of this word, nagad, in this instance
is in the sense of: bragging; showing a thing openly; making a public
exhibition of something.
The
usage of the phrase, "[he] saw
the nakedness of (his father...") occurs numerous times throughout the Old
Testament with a specific significance.
It is a Hebrew metaphor which means: to take advantage of; to uncover
for the purpose of intercourse; to benefit from seeing one's weaknesses and
profit therefrom.
In
this instance we are given a picture of Ham taking advantage of his father's
drunken state in order to have homosexual intercourse. That picture is further clarified in the
statement in verse 24, "When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest
son had done to him."
Canaan
was Ham's firstborn son. He represented
Ham's future, his inheritance in the land.
He also carried the aberrant seed of his father. Noah therefore pronounced God's curse upon
that seed, and all who would come forth from Canaan.
Each
of the seven nations, upon whom God's judgment fell, descended from
Canaan. The Hittites were the sons of
Heth, Canaan's second born son. The
Jebusites were descended from Jerus, the son of Canaan, whose name was changed
to Jebus by his children because of his propensity for "crushing"
everything in his path -- even his wheat and grains. The Amorites were the sons of Emor.
The
Canaanites were
descended from Sidon, Canaan's firstborn son, and became an amalgamation of the
descendants of several sons. And so it
went.
Each
nation represented one of the seven dominant spirits of Satan. Without getting into a study of each of them,
I will simply identify each nation with its presiding spirit. Each of these spirits, incidentally, is
identified otherwise in Scripture, and Paul refers to them in Ephesians 6 as kosmokrator: world rulers of
darkness. (We’ve talked about this at
length already.)
Each
nation/presiding spirit is listed below:
(1) The Fear of Evil
(2) The Fear of Man, (3) The Fear of Death, (4) Rebellion/Witchcraft*, (5) Pride/
Threshing**, (6) Democracy***,
(7) Greed/Merchandising****
* * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes:* The presiding spirit of the Amorites, which
we have identified as Rebellion and/or Witchcraft, was clearly exhibited in the
characteristics of Jezebel, whose father was an Amorite king. The Amorites sought to control others through
witchcraft, and were the undisputed masters of hierarchical government. The spirit of Jezebel was responsible for
blurring the lines between male and female, and perverting sexual relationships
to the extreme.
** The Jebusites were a proud, arrogant people
who were noted for "threshing," a technique by which wheat and other
grains were winnowed and beaten. The end
product was good for nothing but preparation in breads and pastries, it was
lacking in real nutrition. Because of
the way in which the grains were threshed, the seeds could not be planted, and
no new harvest could come forth.
*** The spirit of Democracy prevailed among the
Perizzites. Their national motto was
"Openness with All." Their
version of "love" was what we have come to call "sloppy
agape." They had no qualms about counterfeiting
fellowship and open relationships with people of other nations and tribes for
the purpose of gaining control over them.
****
The Canaanites were noted for greed.
They engaged in all manner of business and trade. There was nothing they would not sell for a
price -- including their friends and relatives.
All
of the seed of Canaan, no matter what nation or tribe, carried the genesis of
Ham's sexual perversion, and it became part and parcel of their existence, and
their cultic religious rites.
* * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
All
of the things described above were intolerable in God's people, and the Lord
warned them against intermarriage and intermingling of any kind with any of the
above nations. Prior to Moses' death,
and Joshua's taking command, Moses stood before the people to deliver the
following word of the Lord,
Deuteronomy 7:1-11, NASB: When the Lord your God shall
bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear
away many nations before you -- the Hittites and the Girgashites and the
Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the
Jebusites -- seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord
your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then
you shall utterly destroy them. You
shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you
shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their
daughters for your sons. For they will
turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of
the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.
But thus shall you do to them: you shall tear down their altars,
and smash their sacred pillars and hew down their Asherim
(idols to Ashtaroth), and burn their graven images
with fire. For you are a holy people to
the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own
possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
In
spite of the very specific command of the Lord concerning these seven nations,
and the fact that He clearly identified them as a chosen and holy people set
apart unto Him, they did exactly as they were commanded not to do. They intermarried with the nations. They began to worship their idols and other
gods. They made covenants with them to
keep them alive.
They
began to engage in the idolatrous and licentious practices which perverted
their relationship with the Lord. And
the Lord did exactly what He said He would do if they did not follow His very
specific commands: He allowed Israel to ultimately be taken captive by these
very peoples and spread abroad throughout the earth.
Israel
was given the opportunity to overcome the Serpent. She was given a chance to regain the throne
which was her promised inheritance. Just
as Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden because they compromised with, and
succumbed to, the wiles of the Serpent, Israel was driven from the land of its
inheritance because it compromised with, and intermingled with the seven
accursed nations.
What
Israel failed to accomplish in the natural realm as a pattern for the
Bride-to-be of the Lord God, the Holy Spirit identified once again as His intention
for the Bride of Christ to accomplish.
It became a mandate for the first-century Ekklesias. These seven presiding spirits did not just
disappear when their nations were conquered, killed or dispersed. They simply took on a new camouflage.
In
writing to the seven Ekklesias in Asia Minor, John the Beloved wrote a graphic
description of how these same spirits had infected the Body of Christ. While the seven letters were written to seven
different Ekklesias, they collectively represented a picture of the Bride, and
therefore became a single letter. Each
Ekklesia was struggling with a particular spirit.
Each
letter became an address to overcome one of those seven spirits. Each Ekklesia represented both a segment of
the Bride, and an area of overcoming.
The
seven letters -- in succession -- draw a progressive picture of the return path
to the Throne of God, The Lamb and His Bride.
This
is territory we have covered in some detail in the past years, and it isn’t my
intention to rehash the same studies, but I need to draw some parallels for you
that I believe will help in understanding the progression that is laid out for
us in the Revelation that John wrote — a progression of our return to total
authority.
The
levels of authority that God has for us do not come automatically. There is a cost associated with each level,
and that cost is manifested in our overcoming the Enemy, his lies, his
subterfuge, his deception and his corruption of the Word of God. That’s where we will go next week.
For those of you
who’ve participated during the past three years in our Monday night Healing
Prayer Conference Call, this is just a reminder that the calls have resumed on
a once-a-month basis, the first Monday of each month. If you have a need for healing, or you have
friends in need of healing, here is the number to call: (712) 775-7035.
The Access Code is: 323859#. For Canadians who have
difficulty getting in to this number, you can call (559) 546-1400. If
someone answers and asks what your original call-in number was, you can give
them the 712 number and access code.
At the same time, in
case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our
Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about
10:45AM Pacific. That conference number
is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#. We are now making these
gatherings available by Skype. If you
wish to participate by video on Skype, my Skype ID is regner.capener. If you miss the live voice call, you can dial
(712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in
later. The video call, of course, is not
recorded – not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
Email Contact:
CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com
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