By Don Hollifield
Selected Verse: 1 Peter 1v19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
This is a very important verse. We know Jesus had to be without sin, but notice it mentions the precious blood of the Lamb. Does His blood also have to be pure? I believe so. In today's message I'll be using excerpts from the Books of Genesis, Ezekiel, Luke, John, Romans, 1 John, 1 Peter, Jude and Revelation. I will also be going deep into the symbolism of the Bible. I will try to connect the dots in explaining God's Word and some of His actions.
Today's message is called; "Protecting the Blood." Or Part Two of the Parable of the Fig Tree. Who's blood? Jesus', of course. Who's protecting His blood? God of course. Why? He's protecting it for us, for us.
Let's begin in the beginning in the Book of Genesis. It begins with the first 7 days with God. The first 5 days, God creates heaven and earth, the stars, the moon, all the vegetation, and fish. Then on the 6th day, God created man and woman. Not Adam and Eve, but man and woman, and tells them to refurbish the earth.
Genesis 1v26-27: And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." V27: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.
Please notice that God and His angels created man and woman in their image, to have dominion over all the fish, animals, foul, and all creeping things. He did not create them to have them to have care for the land.
And on the 7th day, God rested. Then immediately following the 7th day, God formed Adam from dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and Adam became a living soul, which would be the beginning of the 8th day. Then God took a rib from Adam and formed Eve.
Then God planted The Garden of Eden, and in the garden God planted both The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. As we know the Tree of Life Is symbolic for the Smyrna Fig Tree which represents God with the branch being the Israelites, and since Jesus is the Son of God, He is also a Branch.
Jesus is the Branch of both mankind and the Almighty. He is our link with God, and when He died on the cross, He opened the door to eternity, through the Tree of Life, His Father. The Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil is symbolic for the Capri Fig Tree which represents the devil. The devil knows right from wrong, but chooses evil.
Genesis 2v16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man saying, "Of every tree of the garden, thou may eat"; V17: "But of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shall not eat of it, for if thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die."
I call this tree the Tree of death, since it only produces sin which results in death, but if a person repents and partakes of the fruit of the Tree of Life which is God through His Son, he receives salvation, And since Adam had no companion, God then created Eve as his companion.
Genesis 3v3: Again God warns Adam and Eve: God hath said, "Ye shall not eat of it ,/span> (The tree of Death). Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
God says they can not even touch the Tree of Death, but in Hebrew touch also means to lie with or sleep with. Also, Adam and Eve were probably created as young teenagers, and since God had just created them, they were like young children, having never been exposed to the sins of the devil, including the lusts of their bodies.
Almost immediate the serpent appears and charms Eve and she consumes the forbidden fruit and in turn passes it to Adam who also consumes it. And in Hebrew consume means to breath air, eat food, etc and to ingest or invite within The Holy Spirit or The Evil Spirit. God returns and is furious. He curses the serpent. He curses Eve and Adam. Why? Why is God so furious? For eating an apple? Some say because they disobeyed God. We all disobey God and he is upset with us, but not to this extent. There must be more than meets the eye.
Eve answers God: Genesis 3v6: "The tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired"
In Hebrew it means: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and sexually desirous.
Genesis 3v13: And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
And Eve did consume its fruit. In Hebrew, beguiled means: deceived, trickery of the mind and seduced. (And seduced)
2 Corinthians 11v3, Paul writes: As the serpent beguiled Eve...
In Greek, beguiled means: Completely seduced. I repeat, "Completely seduced." A snake can not seduce a woman. It can't talk either.
Revelation 12v9 and 20v2: And he laid on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil.
The Serpent is the devil. Jesus has many names: King of Kings, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God, Prince of righteousness, etc Jesus is Jesus. These are idioms or figures of speech. Likewise, the devil has many names including: Son of Tares, Son of Perdition, Lucifer, King of Persia, King of Babylon, The anti-Christ And The Tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Ezekiel 31v8-11: Nor any tree in the Garden of God was like him in his beauty. V9: I made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden (Garden of Eden) that were in the Garden of God envied him V10: Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, "Because thou hast lifted up thyself up in height," (He wanted to be above God) "...I have driven him out for his wickedness."
Look at the personal pronouns describing the tree: Him, Thyself, Thou or You and His. God is not describing a tree, but the devil. Note: "I drove him out for his wickedness."
If you want to get rid of a tree, you burn it or cut it down, you don't drive it out. And when have you ever heard of a wicked tree?
In the Parable of the Fig Tree, the Tree of Life is God and when Jesus died for our sins, we can partake of His fruit which is salvation when we repent and serve the Almighty. The Bad Tree represents the devil and if you partake of his fruit which is sin, you will surely die unless you repent.
Let's return to the Garden of Eden. Eve finds the devil attractive and desirous, and she is seduced after consuming the evil spirit. Then Adam is intimate with Eve after she passes the evil spirit to him.
Some believe that she passed the fruit of the devil to Adam which would have been a homosexual act with the devil. Regardless, they all participated in sex. Before this, Eve is described as a companion of help-mate. Except once when they are called man and wife, which should have been translated as "Woman". After this, they are called husband and wife. Sex is an act of marriage according to the Bible. Now we can understand why God was so furious.
Genesis 3v14-15: And the Lord said unto the serpent, "Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field." (God immediately passes judgment, he's top of His list) "Upon thy belly shalt thy go" (the utmost humiliation, as in Psalm 44v25) "And dust thou shalt eat all the days of thy life". (Or utter defeat, as in Psalm 72v9) V15: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. And between thy seed and her seed."
God has placed hostilities between the devil and Eve which included all of her descendents, as God protects the bloodline of Jesus. This is verified as God states that He will protect the off-springs or seed of Adam and Eve.
If Adam had not been intimate with her, I believe God would have said, your seed and his or Adam's seed. If the Devil had not seduced Eve, there would have been no need for the curse.
God continues; "It shall bruise your head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." The Devil will suffer for this act (drive him nuts) before the complete destruction of Satan and his evil works.
Why was the devil so determined in seducing Eve? In the World that Was, the devil tried to overthrow God, and as a result he was condemned to die, after the millennium when Jesus reigns. If he can prevent the birth of Jesus, he'll continue to live.
Jesus had to be pure, he could not have the devil's blood and still be pure. Throughout the Bible, you can see God protecting the blood line of Jesus, and He is doing it for us. "Bruise His heel." This is the first prophesy of the Bible, when Jesus was crucified and He was nailed to the cross, and His heels were bruised as His heels were pressed against the cross.
Genesis 3v16: Unto the woman, He said. "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring children And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."
Every woman that has ever had a child by natural birth, knows the curse of Eve. A woman must be true to her husband and likewise. Rule Over Thee. In the manuscripts it is "Strength over you." That's why the male is the stronger sex.
Then God curses Adam and the ground they live upon: Genesis 3v17-19: "Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to theein the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground."
No more gravy train, Adam will have to till the land with thistles and thorns for a living, and earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Even today, when a person joins the work force, he'll face thistles and thorns; whether he's a 50 year old woman or a 12 year old boy.
God tells Adam and Eve they will die, however; Genesis 3v22: "..And now, lest he put forth his hand (seek) and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever."
The same is true for us; we will die, but we must seek the Lord, repent our sins, and we are born again; our sins are washed away and we have salvation.
Genesis 3v23-24: Therefore the Lord God sent him (Adam) from the Garden of Eden to till the land. (important) V24: So He drove out the man and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life.
God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden, and He then drove out the man. Man in Hebrew is the low man of low esteem.
And in: Ezekiel 31v11: God drove him out of the Garden of Eden for his wickedness. No one is more lower or wicked than the devil. The devil is the Tree of Death and the serpent. The Cherubim with the flaming sword (power) in every direction to protect the way (blood line) of The Tree of Life. The Cherubim have the power to keep the devil out of the blood line of Jesus.
This is not meant for Adam and Eve, because God told them they could reach out for the Tree of Life. And God is The Tree of Life, available through the death of Jesus. And Jesus had to be pure.
1 Peter 1v19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.
Jesus could not have any tainted blood from the devil or his fallen angels and be the sacrificial lamb of God, for us.
Genesis 4v1-2: And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a man (Male) from the Lord."
Gotten in Hebrew means to purchase, and Eve purchased Cain with her sins. Then she knew Adam but she first bare Cain. V2: And she again bare his brother Abel... (Or she continued in labor)(Cain and Abel were twins)
God loved Abel, but not Cain. God refused sacrifices from Cain, even tormented him at times. Cain kills Abel and becomes the first murderer in the beginning.
Jesus identifies Cain as the Son of the Devil when the Pharisees confront Jesus and try to trick him into committing blasphemy. Jesus tolerates them for a while, then turns and says: John 8v44: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was the murderer from the beginning."
They are descendants of the Devil and the murderer from the beginning. Who was the first murderer??? Cain. Cain was the son of the Devil.
This is also stated by the Apostle John. 1 John 3 v12: Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother... Who was the wicked one??? The devil. Cain was the son of the devil, and he killed his brother.
Cain was born over 6,000 years ago and through Cain the devil contaminated the human race. Even during the flood, the devil was able to continue his contamination. Ham the second son of Noah was a very evil person. He looked upon his fathers nakedness, and he raped his mother. Genesis 9v22: And Ham the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers without.
To fully understand what happened you need to go to: Leviticus 18v6: The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover, it is thy father's nakedness. Also, Leviticus 20v11: And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness.
Noah and his wife got drunk and probably had sex, then Ham saw his mother who was probably naked and passed out, so he raped her. He even bragged about it to his two brothers. And all through the Old Testament, several of the evil tribes can be traced to Ham and his wife who I believe was a descendent of Cain. The devil even sent several of his fallen angels who seduced young women and they had Rephaim's, or giants trying to contaminate the blood line of Jesus.
It is also believed that these fallen angels introduced homosexuality. Jude V 6-7: And the angels (The fallen angels) which kept not their first estate, but left behind their own habitation; He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. V7: Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
These fallen angels left their first estate which was in heaven, and now they are reserved in chains until judgment day. Besides seducing the women, they also introduced homosexuality which prevents a person from having any descendents which would prevent Jesus from being born, if their actions had spread throughout the Jewish race.
They continued seducing young women who contaminated the human race until God flooded the world, but more fallen angels returned and continued their acts of abomination. Goliath was also the son of one of those fallen angels.
God was ever present throughout the Old Testament, protecting the bloodline of the Jewish Race. At times, God was vicious, destroying cities and tribes, man, woman and child, the seeds of Cain or the fallen angels.
God was the Tree of Life for the Israelites. Then Jesus is born, and God backs off. Jesus does His ministry, organizes the Church, then lays down his life, for us, the gentiles. Jesus even shows us the way to salvation through the Tree of Life.
What more can God and His Son do? It is now up to us. We will be judged according to our works. Do we work for the devil? Or do we work for God and Jesus? The fruit of The Tree of Knowledge, is death. The fruit of The Tree of Life, is eternity. Come to Church, God's House built on the cornerstone of Jesus. Study the Bible; God's Holy Word, written for us. Obey God's commandments and his laws. Be a shinning testament of God and Jesus, through your actions and deeds, radiating the love and compassion of the All Mighty. Plant the seeds of salvation that Jesus will reap when he returns. Do these things, and you will be worthy of God's action in protecting the blood of his son, so Jesus could willingly lay down his life and shed his precious blood for all mankind.
AMEN
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