Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

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Part Twelve: The 12 Tribal Gates — The Deployment of
Authority (cont.)

Gate of Levi — Thomas's Beryl Foundation
Strategic Focus: The Sealed Guardianship of Truth. Levi means 'Joined' or 'Attached.'
The Levites stood against the Golden Calf to guard God's boundaries.
Deployment: Use this gate to wage war against false doctrines, religious deceptions,
witchcraft, and double-mindedness.
The Decree: "I stand guard at the Gate of Levi, joined to the Lord in perfect covenant.
Presenting the Beryl receipt of Thomas, I completely dismantle all spirits of witchcraft,
mental confusion, and religious deception trying to cloud my vision!"
The Tutor: The doctrinal confusion and spiritual deception that press against your
discernment are training you to know the truth with a precision that cannot be deceived
even by sophisticated religious counterfeiting.

Gate of Issachar — James the Less's Topaz Foundation
Strategic Focus: Discerning Times and Seasons. The sons of Issachar understood the
times and knew what Israel ought to do (1 Chronicles 12:32).
Deployment: Use this gate to pray for structural alignment in your life and household,
and for the timing of your breakthroughs.
The Decree: "I activate the Gate of Issachar to rightly discern my spiritual season. I
apply the Topaz receipt to heal all broken family structures and marital divisions,
aligning my household perfectly with God's prophetic calendar!"

The Tutor: The misalignments in timing and the fractured structures that resist your
order are training you in calendrical and covenantal authority — the ability to read the
times on behalf of a people who do not know what season they are in.

The Western Gates: Harvest, Rest, and Final Victory
The West face looks toward the sea and the setting sun, representing the final collection
of the global harvest and the ultimate entrance into the rest of the Kingdom.

Gate of Zebulun — Thaddaeus's Chrysoprase Foundation
Strategic Focus: The Safe Haven of the Harvest. Zebulun means 'Dwelling' — a safe
harbor for ships.
Deployment: Use this gate to protect your spiritual harvest, businesses, and ministries
from mockers who try to stop your progress.
The Decree: "I anchor my life at the Gate of Zebulun, my safe haven of rest. I enforce
the Chrysoprase receipt to silence every mocking voice trying to scuttle my progress,
and I claim the secure harvest of my labor!"
The Tutor: The mockers who surround your harbor are training you to hold your ground
with a peace that the storm cannot dislodge — the same peace you will carry as an
anchor for others.

Gate of Joseph (Ephraim) — Simon the Zealot's Jacinth Foundation
Strategic Focus: Double Fruitfulness Over Hostility. Joseph means 'May He Add' —
fruitful even in affliction, despite being hated by archers (Genesis 49:22-24).
Deployment: Use this gate to overcome toxic environments, converting enemy
persecution into double fruitfulness.
The Decree: "I march through the Gate of Joseph into double fruitfulness! I present the
Jacinth receipt to disarm all workplace hostility, toxic envy, and targeted rage. What the
enemy meant for evil, God turns into my promotion!"
The Tutor: The archers who target you from every side are the very trainers building
the fruitfulness that cannot be produced in an environment of ease. Joseph needed the
pit, the false accusation, and the dungeon to become the ruler Egypt needed.

Gate of Benjamin — Matthias/Paul's Amethyst Foundation
Strategic Focus: The Son of the Right Hand. Benjamin represents the ultimate
execution of kingly authority and close proximity to the Father.
Deployment: Use this gate to close old cycles of lack, step out of orphan identity, and
claim your seat of victory next to Christ.

The Decree: "I close the warfare at the Gate of Benjamin, the Son of the Right Hand. I
apply the royal Amethyst receipt to fill every empty void in my life. I decree that the
battle is over, the victory is won, and I step into my final, kingly inheritance!"
The Tutor: The voids and abandonments that have marked your life are the precise
experiences that qualify you to sit at the right hand — not in spite of the suffering but
because of what it produced. Paul finished his race in a dungeon. The dungeon was his
throne room preparation.
 
Part Thirteen: The High Priestly Breastplate

The High Priest's breastplate, known in Hebrew as the Choshen Mishpat — the
Breastplate of Judgment (Exodus 28:15) — acts as the mobile, miniature blueprint of
the New Jerusalem. Like the city, the breastplate is a perfect square when folded, set
with exactly twelve gemstones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel,
and mounted in pure gold.
When the High Priest carried this breastplate over his heart into the Holy of Holies, he
was physically anticipating the day when the ultimate High Priest, Jesus Christ, would
carry the entire redeemed remnant into the three-dimensional cube of the New
Jerusalem.

1. Mapping the Breastplate to the 12 Warfare Gates
The breastplate organizes its twelve stones into a matrix of four rows of three —
matching the geometric footprint of the New Jerusalem with four walls and three gates
each. According to the classical layout traced through the Talmud, reading right to left,
top to bottom in Hebrew alignment:

Inside the pocket of this breastplate sat the Urim and Thummim — the supernatural
lights that illuminated specific engraved letters to spell out God's answers to the priest.
When you issue a warfare decree from one of the twelve Gates, you are effectively
standing at that gate on the breastplate, causing the light of the Urim and Thummim —
the Holy Spirit — to illuminate your legal right to victory, flashing the receipt in the face
of the enemy.

2. Why the Foundations Are Ordered Differently from the Gates
The order of the twelve Gates (the Tribes) is completely different from the order of the
twelve Foundations (the Apostles). This divergence is one of the most brilliant legal and
prophetic mechanics in Scripture.
Earthly Generation vs. Eternal Redemption: The tribes are organized by earthly birth
order or military encampment layout — human lineage navigating time under the curse.
The foundations are ordered to align with the reversal of the Zodiac and the systematic
undoing of the Noahic curse month by month. Christ took the earthly messy birth order
of the tribes and re-sorted them through the cross, forging them into a perfect
backward-marching cosmic sequence that undoes history's decay.
The Spatial Transition from 2D to 3D: Gates exist on a horizontal plane. Foundations
are horizontal layers stacked vertically. By reordering the stones in the foundation, God
is demonstrating a legal change in priesthood. The Old Covenant structure provides the
outer access points, but the New Covenant structure carries the vertical weight of the
Holy of Holies.
 
Part Fourteen: Twelve Scriptural Case Studies

The following twelve case studies demonstrate how the Breastplate (the high priestly
inquiry and verdict), the Gates (the point of territorial deployment and authority), and the
Foundations (the rock-hard apostolic receipts reversing the curse) manifest together as
a unified courtroom protocol in biblical history. Each case study also reveals the Stage
Two dynamic — how the opposition functioned as a tutor producing greater authority in
the one being tested.

The East Face: Light, Beginnings, and Authority

1. David Subduing the Amalekite Raid (1 Samuel 30)
The Situation: Ziklag is burned; the enemy has stolen everything. David faces
overwhelming grief and the threat of being stoned by his own men.
The Breastplate (Verdict): David commands Abiathar: 'Bring me the ephod' (1 Samuel
30:7). The breastplate flashes: 'Pursue, for you shall overtake and rescue.'
The Gate (Deployment): David deploys through the Gate of Judah —
Praise/Leadership — refusing to succumb to the chaos.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 1st Foundation (Jasper / Peter's
Receipt) — subduing the chaotic waters. He pursues with 400 men and recovers
everything.
The Tutor: The total loss at Ziklag was not merely an attack — it was the training event
that revealed David's capacity to lead under the threat of mutiny while simultaneously
pressing into God. No Ziklag, no Hebron. The raiding troop was David's tutor for
kingship.

2. Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3)
The Situation: A man lame from birth begs for money, trapped in lifelong dependency
and physical limitation.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Peter looks intently at the man. The Holy Spirit flashes the
verdict: this man is a son of Abraham, legally entitled to wholeness.

The Gate (Deployment): This occurs precisely at the Gate called Beautiful — the
eastern entrance to the Temple courtyard.
The Foundation Weight: Peter drops the weight of the 2nd Foundation (Sapphire /
Andrew's Receipt) — ripping open a closed heaven. He decrees: 'In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!'
The Tutor: Peter had himself once been so bound by fear that he denied Christ three
times at a gate. His own experience of shame and restoration had trained him to see
past the lame man's limitation to his legal standing. His tutor had been his own failure.

3. Elisha Leading the Syrian Army Blind (2 Kings 6)
The Situation: The King of Syria sends a massive host to surround Elisha's city with
horses and chariots.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Elisha's servant panics. Elisha looks with the inner light of
the Urim and Thummim and sees the mountain filled with horses and chariots of fire.
The Gate (Deployment): Elisha marches out through the Gate of Gad — overcoming
the raiding troop — directly into the face of the Syrian army.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 3rd Foundation (Chalcedony /
James's Receipt) — neutralizing sudden death. He strikes them with spiritual blindness
and leads the entire enemy army captive without a single drop of blood spilled.
The Tutor: The Syrian army was Elisha's tutor in the authority of the open heaven. Only
a man trained to see the invisible could respond to visible overwhelming force with calm
authority. The surrounding army was the training exercise.

The North Face: Sanctuary, Cleansing, and Supply

4. The Healing of the Leper (Mark 1)
The Situation: A man with advanced leprosy kneels before Jesus. Leprosy is the
ultimate biological expression of living rot and decay under the Levitical curse.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Moved with compassion, Jesus operates from the ultimate
High Priestly verdict: 'I am willing; be cleansed' (Mark 1:41).
The Gate (Deployment): The man is sent to the priest to offer what Moses commanded
— passing through the Gate of Asher, the gate of rich blessing and vital health.
The Foundation Weight: Jesus drops the weight of the 4th Foundation (Emerald /
John's Receipt) — overturning biological rot. The leprosy instantly vanishes.
The Tutor: The leper's disease had made him the most socially isolated man in Israel
— which meant that the moment of his healing would have maximum public witness.
His suffering had positioned him for maximum testimony. The disease was his tutor in
the ministry of demonstrated grace.

5. Joshua and the Gibeonite Deception (Joshua 9-10)
The Situation: The Gibeonites trick Israel into a covenant, causing public humiliation.
Five kings then assemble to destroy Gibeon.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Joshua realizes they failed to consult the Lord's breastplate.
He holds up Israel's covenant obligation before God as High Priestly leader.
The Gate (Deployment): Israel marches all night from Gilgal, deploying through the
Gate of Naphtali — the doe let loose, breaking out with swift deliverance.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 5th Foundation (Sardonyx /
Philip's Receipt) — covering shame and turning vulnerability into victory. Joshua
commands the sun to stand still over Gibeon.
The Tutor: The shameful deception that left Israel in a covenant they did not choose
was the training event that produced the most spectacular military miracle in Scripture.
The covering of shame became the occasion for the stopping of time. Their
embarrassment was their tutor in supernatural intervention.

6. Elijah Cleansing the Land at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18)
The Situation: The land has been defiled by 3.5 years of drought, blood sacrifices to
Baal, and systemic spiritual trauma.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Elijah rebuilds the altar using twelve stones representing
the twelve tribes — mirroring the breastplate grid — and makes a legal plea for God to
turn the hearts of the people back.
The Gate (Deployment): He operates under the authority of the Gate of Manasseh —
making the land forget past trauma and cleansing the ground.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 6th Foundation (Sardius /
Bartholomew's Receipt) — the blood-red fire that cleanses defiled ground. Fire falls
from heaven and immediately breaks the 3.5-year curse of drought.
The Tutor: The 3.5 years of drought and isolation that drove Elijah to the wilderness, to
the widow, and to the solitude of Horeb were the precise training events that produced a
man capable of standing alone against 850 false prophets. The wilderness was his tutor
in fire.
 
Part Fourteen: Twelve Scriptural Case Studies (cont.)

The South Face: Fire, Discernment, and Realignment

7. Ananias and Sapphira Exposed (Acts 5)

The Situation: A husband and wife conspire to lie about a land sale, bringing the pre-
Flood spirit of greed and lawlessness into the early Church.

The Breastplate (Verdict): The Holy Spirit flashes the verdict directly into Peter's inner
discernment. Peter asks: 'Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?' (Acts
5:3).
The Gate (Deployment): This judgment takes place at the leadership portal of
Solomon's Colonnade — the Gate of Simeon: hearing and uprooting self-will.
The Foundation Weight: Peter drops the weight of the 7th Foundation (Chrysolite /
Matthew's Receipt) — purging the greed of the flesh. Both fall dead, cleansing the early
Church ecosystem of material corruption.
The Tutor: The deception of Ananias and Sapphira was the training event that
established the boundaries of the apostolic authority in the early Church. Peter had to
learn, through his own denial and restoration, that the boundaries of the Kingdom are
absolute. His past failure was his tutor in the apostolic judgment he would now exercise.

8. Paul Striking Elymas Blind (Acts 13)
The Situation: Elymas the sorcerer actively opposes the Gospel, trying to turn the
Roman proconsul away from the faith.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looks intently at Elymas. The
inner priestly verdict flashes: 'You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness...'
(Acts 13:10).
The Gate (Deployment): Paul deploys through the Gate of Levi — the sealed guardian
of truth, standing against idolatry.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 8th Foundation (Beryl / Thomas's
Receipt) — the sharp illumination of mind that exposes darkness. Paul decrees
blindness upon Elymas, and a mist and darkness instantly fall on the sorcerer.
The Tutor: Paul himself had once been Elymas — a man using religious authority to
oppose the true Gospel. His own blindness on the Damascus road was his tutor in the
authority to impose blindness on the enemy's agent. The tutor trains his student to
become the teacher.

9. The Jerusalem Council Fixing Church Division (Acts 15)
The Situation: A massive doctrinal rift occurs between Jewish and Gentile believers
over circumcision, threatening to fracture the entire covenant family.
The Breastplate (Verdict): James stands up and interprets the prophetic times and
seasons, quoting Amos: 'I will rebuild the ruined tent of David' (Acts 15:16).
The Gate (Deployment): They issue a decree through the Gate of Issachar —
discerning times, seasons, and structural alignment.
The Foundation Weight: They drop the weight of the 9th Foundation (Topaz / James
the Less's Receipt) — the unyielding cement that mends broken covenants. The letter
sent to the churches restores total peace and unity.

The Tutor: The doctrinal fracture that threatened to destroy the early Church in its first
generation was the training event that produced the conciliar authority of the apostolic
body. Without the crisis, there would be no Jerusalem Council. Without the Council,
there would be no unified theology for the expanding Church. The division was the tutor
in unity.

The West Face: Harvest, Rest, and Inheritance

10. Jesus Calming the Demonic Storm (Mark 4)
The Situation: A furious squall beats against the boat; the disciples are terrified of
drowning.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Jesus wakes from a deep rest. His high priestly heart is
completely unbothered by the atmospheric assault.
The Gate (Deployment): He stands at the bow of the ship, operating from the Gate of
Zebulun — the safe harbor and haven of rest.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 10th Foundation (Chrysoprase /
Thaddaeus's Receipt) — silencing the mouth of the mocker and the roaring wind. He
decrees: 'Peace, be still!' A great flat calm covers the water.
The Tutor: The storm was the disciples' tutor in the question that matters most: 'Who
then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?' (Mark 4:41). The storm did not
reveal Christ's weakness — it revealed His identity. The disciples' terror was their tutor
in the knowledge of who was in the boat with them.

11. Joseph Exalted Over His Hostile Brothers (Genesis 45)
The Situation: Famine ravages the earth. Joseph stands before the very brothers who
envied him, hated him, and threw him into a pit.
The Breastplate (Verdict): Instead of executing vengeance, Joseph weeps aloud. His
heart processes the divine verdict: 'God sent me before you to preserve life' (Genesis
45:5).
The Gate (Deployment): He acts through the Gate of Joseph — double fruitfulness in
the land of affliction.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 11th Foundation (Jacinth / Simon
the Zealot's Receipt) — disarming human rage and envy. He completely neutralizes
their terror and provisions his entire family line with the fat of Egypt.
The Tutor: The pit, the false accusation, Potiphar's prison, the forgotten promise of the
cupbearer — every single injustice was a tutor specifically training Joseph in the
administrative, emotional, and spiritual capacities required to govern Egypt and
preserve the covenant seed. Not one of the tutors was wasted. The brothers thought
they were ridding themselves of a dreamer. They were sending him to school.

12. Paul's Final Courtroom Declaration (2 Timothy 4)
The Situation: Paul is sitting in a cold Roman dungeon, abandoned by men, facing
imminent beheading by Nero.
The Breastplate (Verdict): The High Priest flashes the final verdict over Paul's heart:
'The Lord stood by me and strengthened me... I will be rescued from every evil deed' (2
Timothy 4:17-18).
The Gate (Deployment): He speaks from the Gate of Benjamin — the Son of the Right
Hand, closing out the warfare.
The Foundation Weight: He drops the weight of the 12th Foundation (Amethyst /
Matthias and Paul's Receipt) — the royal purple crown of completion. He decrees: 'I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in
store for me the crown of righteousness.'
The Tutor: The Roman dungeon was the final tutor. Every shipwreck, every beating,
every stoning, every false accusation, every desertion by former colleagues — all of it
had been the training curriculum for a man who would need to declare final victory from
a position of total earthly defeat. Paul turned his execution into an eternal coronation.
The dungeon was his throne room. His final tutor was death itself — and he outran it.

When you face an enemy assault, follow this scriptural grid: Consult the
Breastplate (ask the Holy Spirit for the judicial verdict). Locate your Gate (step
into the specific tribal sector of authority). Drop the Foundation (enforce the
apostolic receipt). And recognize your Tutor (understand what this opposition is
training you to become).
 
Part Fifteen: David and Job — The Historical Books
Learn to Pray

The prophetic and legal architecture assembled in the preceding sections requires a
human face before it can become the basis for genuine prayer. That human face is
found in two men whose stories span the entire arc of the Old Testament canon: Job,
who stands at the threshold of the devotional literature, and David, whose Psalms are
the historical books learning to speak to God in their own voice.
The correspondences between David's prayers in the Psalms and Job's speeches are
extensive enough that several scholars have argued for direct literary dependence in
one direction or the other. Whether or not one accepts that argument, the thematic and
linguistic parallels are unmistakable and theologically significant. Both men are

righteous sufferers. Both face overwhelming opposition from those who should have
been allies. Both press through divine silence rather than accepting the verdict of their
accusers. Both arrive, through suffering and wrestling, at intercession rather than
vengeance. And in arriving there, both of them model precisely what the ministry of
reconciliation looks like before the Cross has made it fully available.

1. The Cry of Abandonment
'I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.' — Job
30:20
'I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.' — Psalm
22:2
This is the structurally most important parallel. Both men are righteous sufferers crying
into what feels like divine silence — not because of sin, but because the God they know
intimately has apparently withdrawn. The ministry of condemnation, as embodied by
Job's three friends and David's enemies throughout the Psalms, interprets that silence
as evidence of guilt. Both Job and David refuse that interpretation. They press through
the silence rather than accepting the framework of condemnation — and in doing so
they model the posture that the ministry of reconciliation requires: not abandoning God
when God appears to have abandoned you.

2. The Worm and the Reproach
'How much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!' —
Job 25:6 (Bildad)
'But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the
people.' — Psalm 22:6
The worm imagery appears in both cases in the context of being publicly humiliated by
those who should have been allies. Job's friends apply it as a prosecutorial weapon.
David applies it to himself as an honest description of how his enemies see him — and
more importantly as the low point from which God alone can lift him. The willingness to
occupy the position of the worm without being destroyed by it is the Melchizedekian
posture in embryo. You cannot pray for your accusers from a throne. You can only do it
from the ash heap — or from the place where you have honestly said 'I am a worm.'

3. The Watching Enemies
'And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them... they do not hesitate
to spit in my face.' — Job 30:9-11
'I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about
me.' — Psalm 69:12

Both men have become objects of public ridicule — mocked by people beneath them in
station, turned into entertainment at the very gates that are supposed to be seats of
justice. In the framework of this document, the gate is the place of legal authority and
judgment. When David and Job become the subject of mockery at the gate, they are
experiencing the ministry of condemnation in its most socially humiliating form: a public
verdict rendered by those with no standing to render it. And both men refuse to be
defined by it.

4. The Physical Symptoms of Suffering
'My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.' — Job
30:30
'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast.' — Psalm 22:14
'For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.' — Psalm
102:3
The physical specificity of these descriptions in both Job and the Psalms is striking.
Bones, skin, dryness, heat, dissolution — the body becoming the site of spiritual
suffering. This is precisely what the conclusion of this study argues: the road to the
ministry of reconciliation runs through the body, through actual loss, through the flesh
experiencing the full weight of the curse before the resurrection dynamic can operate.
Job's suffering body is the prototype. The Psalms of suffering are David walking the
same road in his own generation.
 
Part Fifteen: David and Job — The Historical Books
Learn to Pray (cont.)

5. The Terror of God
'For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors
of God are arrayed against me.' — Job 6:4
'I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful
assaults destroy me.' — Psalm 88:15-16
Both Job and David describe an experience of God that feels like assault — arrows,
terror, wrath directed at the one praying. This is not the experience of a sinner being
justly punished. Both men know they are not being punished for specific sins. What they
are experiencing is the weight of divine holiness pressing against finite humanity in the
absence of the mediating comfort of answered prayer. The ministry of condemnation
cannot explain this and cannot survive it. Job's friends have no category for it. The
Levitical system has no ritual for it. Only the Melchizedekian priest — the one who
operates after the power of an endless life — can pass through the terror of God and
come out the other side with intercession rather than accusation.

6. The Protest of Innocence
'Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity
from me.' — Job 27:5
'Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the
Lord without wavering.' — Psalm 26:1
'You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and
you will find nothing.' — Psalm 17:3
Both men appeal directly to God over the heads of their human accusers. Both insist on
their integrity not as self-righteousness but as the basis for their legal standing before
God when the human court has rendered a false verdict. In the courtroom language of
this document, this is the moment when the breastplate is consulted directly — when
the human tribunal has failed and the accused appeals to the divine verdict. The
ministry of condemnation requires confession of guilt as the price of restoration. Both
Job and David refuse to offer false confession. They bring their case to God instead,
which is itself an act of faith in a higher court.

7. The Cry for a Mediator
'There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.' — Job 9:33
'For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.'
— Job 19:25
'God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.' —
Psalm 49:15
'You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will
receive me to glory.' — Psalm 73:23-24
This is the most christologically charged parallel. Job's cry for an arbiter, a mediator, a
heavenly witness who can lay his hand on both God and man, is the most explicit Old
Testament anticipation of the Melchizedekian high priesthood in its fully realized form.
Hebrews 7 answers Job 9:33 directly: there is now an arbiter, one who is both fully God
and fully man, who has laid His hand on both parties and effected the reconciliation Job
could only cry out for. David's psalms reach toward the same figure from a slightly
different angle — the Redeemer who ransoms from Sheol, the God who receives to
glory.
Both men are praying their way toward a mediator that their own era cannot yet fully
provide. And in doing so they are themselves exercising a proto-Melchizedekian
ministry: interceding across the gap between human suffering and divine holiness,
modeling the posture that the true Mediator will one day occupy fully.

8. Vindication After Darkness
'I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.' — Job
42:5
'As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be
satisfied with your likeness.' — Psalm 17:15
'Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.' — Psalm 30:5
Both men arrive at direct vision of God after the darkness — not theological knowledge
about God but experiential encounter with God. Both frame that arrival in terms of
morning after night, sight after blindness, joy after tears. In the context of this
document's 50-day rhythms and the dawn language of Ezekiel's single morning sacrifice
replacing the evening sacrifice, this is significant: both Job and David are anticipating in
their prayer lives the eternal morning that Ezekiel's millennial temple encodes in stone.

Michal and Job's Wife: The Contemptuous Wife at the Threshold
The parallels between David and Job extend beyond their prayers into the most intimate
dimension of their lives — the response of their wives to the moment of their deepest
devotion. This comparison has been almost entirely overlooked in the literature, yet it is
theologically precise and directly relevant to the transition from the ministry of
condemnation to the ministry of reconciliation.

'Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and
die."' — Job 2:9
'And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How the
king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of
his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers
himself!"' — 2 Samuel 6:20

In both cases, the wife addresses her husband at the precise moment when he is most
fully expressing his devotion to God. Job is holding fast his integrity in suffering. David is
worshipping before the ark with abandon, having stripped himself of royal dignity. In
both cases the wife's response is contempt — and in both cases the contempt is framed
as a comment on the husband's dignity and self-respect.
Job's wife is a Levitical thinker: the curse is active, confession is required, death would
be more dignified than this prolonged humiliation. She cannot conceive of a man
maintaining integrity through suffering as anything other than stubbornness. Michal is a
royal thinker: dignity, decorum, and the proper maintenance of kingly status are the
highest values. She cannot conceive of a king prostrating himself in worship before
servants as anything other than self-abasement.

Both women are, in their own frameworks, entirely reasonable. What neither woman
can see is that their husband is operating in a completely different register — one in
which suffering integrity and abandoned worship are not weaknesses but the precise
form that the Melchizedekian ministry takes in a fallen world.

The Responses and Their Consequences
Job's Response: Job rebukes his wife: 'You speak as one of the foolish women would
speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?' The text then
adds: 'In all this Job did not sin with his lips.' Job's wife spoke foolishly but did not
persist in contempt for the covenant itself. Job 42:13-14 records that Job had seven
sons and three daughters after his restoration — implying his wife bore them. She was
wrong, but recoverable.
David's Response: David rebukes Michal: 'It was before the Lord, who chose me
above your father and above all his house... and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will
make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.' The
text then adds: 'And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.'
The barrenness of Michal is the more severe consequence. In biblical typology,
barrenness is the closing of the womb — the reversal of the Abrahamic blessing of
fruitfulness. Michal's contempt was directed specifically at the act of worship before the
ark of God's presence — the very presence toward which this entire document has
been building. The consequence was permanent covenant barrenness.
Michal is at the window. David is at the ark. The window is the distance of the ministry
of condemnation — observing the worship of God from behind glass, evaluating it by
the standards of earthly dignity, finding it wanting. The ark is the immediacy of the
ministry of reconciliation — the presence of God encountered directly, at the cost of all
dignity, in the place where the veil has been removed.
This image — the worshipper at the ark and the critic at the window — is the entire
theological argument of this document compressed into a single domestic scene. The
ministry of condemnation watches from a distance and renders judgment. The ministry
of reconciliation dances before the presence at the cost of its reputation, and it is from
that posture, and only from that posture, that the road to prayer truly begins.
 
Conclusion: The Ministry of Reconciliation and the
Road to Prayer

The prophetic framework assembled in this study — tracing the systematic reversal of
the curse from Noah's flood through Daniel's timelines, Ezekiel's temple, and the
foundations of the New Jerusalem — finds its deepest theological roots not in the
Levitical system but in a ministry far older and far greater. A compelling theory rooted in
rabbinic tradition identifies Noah's son Shem as both Melchizedek, the priest-king of
Salem who blessed Abraham, and Job, the righteous sufferer whose story stands at the
threshold of Scripture's great literature of prayer. If this identification holds, it reshapes
how we read the entire movement of the Hebrew canon — and it reveals that what Paul
calls the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 3 through 5 was not an innovation of
the New Covenant but a priesthood already ancient when Moses received the law.

The Formation of the Ministry in Genesis
When Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14, he arrives without genealogy, without
priestly lineage, and without any of the legal machinery that would define the Aaronic
priesthood centuries later. He brings bread and wine, blesses Abraham, and receives
tithes — and in that single transaction Genesis establishes something of enormous
structural importance. Abraham, the father of the faithful, gave a tenth of everything to
this priest. The author of Hebrews draws the full implication: Levi himself, still in the
loins of his ancestor, paid tithes to Melchizedek that day (Hebrews 7:9-10). The Aaronic
priesthood — the entire Levitical system with its ministry of condemnation, its boundary
enforcement, and its execution of strangers — was present at that moment in an inferior
position. It gave tithes. It did not receive them.
Genesis therefore does not present Melchizedek as a curiosity preceding the real
priesthood. It presents him as the standard by which all subsequent priesthoods are
measured and found to be lesser. His ministry operates, as Hebrews 7:16 describes,
after the power of an endless life rather than after the law of a fleshly commandment. It
is the ministry Paul will later identify in 2 Corinthians as the ministry of reconciliation —
the surpassing glory that makes the ministry of condemnation, glorious as it was,
appear to have no glory at all by comparison (2 Corinthians 3:10). The bread and wine
Melchizedek offered to a weary Abraham prefigures with stunning precision the
sacramental currency traced throughout this study — the broken body and poured-out
blood that purchased every apostolic receipt embedded in the foundations of the New
Jerusalem.

But Genesis only forms this ministry. It does not yet show us what it costs to exercise it,
or what road a human soul must travel before it arrives at the place where reconciliation
becomes possible.

The Historical Books: Setting the Stage for Prayer
The books of history that follow Genesis do not advance the Melchizedekian ministry
directly. What they do is far more important for the purposes of this framework. They
demonstrate exhaustively that the ministry of condemnation — through judges, kings,
and priests — cannot produce reconciliation. The law can identify the problem. The
Levites can guard the threshold. The judges can deliver temporarily. The kings can unify
and then fracture. But nothing in the historical books resolves the fundamental tension
between human sin and divine holiness — and more specifically, nothing in them
produces a man willing to pray for his executioners rather than prosecuting them.
Everything in the historical books is moving toward something. The closer the canon
draws toward the devotional literature, the closer it draws toward the only adequate
human response to everything the historical books have revealed — which is prayer.
This movement is not accidental. The canonical sequence is pedagogical. History
teaches us what we are and what we cannot do. It strips away every confidence in
human systems, human lineage, human kingship, and human religious machinery. And
having done that work thoroughly, it delivers the reader to the threshold of the literature
of prayer — where the only thing left is the cry of a soul that has run out of every other
option.
David is the hinge figure of this movement. His prayers in the Psalms are the historical
books learning to speak to God in their own voice — carrying the full weight of
conquest, betrayal, civil war, and exile, and pressing all of it into direct address to the
God who sometimes answers and sometimes does not. The Psalmic parallels with Job
traced in the preceding section are not literary coincidences. They are the evidence that
David walked the same road Job walked, that the historical books produced the same
kind of man the devotional literature begins with, and that the road from the Levitical
ministry of condemnation to the Melchizedekian ministry of reconciliation runs directly
through the experience of a righteous man who refuses to stop praying when God goes
silent.
 
Conclusion: The Ministry of Reconciliation and the
Road to Prayer (cont.)

Job: The Summary of Human Experience on the Road to
Reconciliation
Job stands precisely at the threshold of the devotional literature. According to the
rabbinic identification — present in the Targum of Job and in several midrashic
traditions — the man who suffered the loss of all things is the same man who once
stood before Abraham as the greatest priest on earth, offering bread and wine and
blessing in the name of God Most High. He had exercised the Melchizedekian ministry
of reconciliation at the height of his priestly authority. Now he sits in ashes, scraped with
a potsherd, while three friends prosecute him with the full logic of the ministry of
condemnation.

According to Hebrews, Jesus is made a priest after the order of Melchizedek after He
has gone through the cross and come out in victory through resurrection. It is only after
passing through death that the full power of the endless life — the power that defines
Melchizedek's priesthood — becomes operative. Now in the New Testament we have
this ministry of reconciliation, and we have the true Priest after the order of
Melchizedek. And Job sitting in ashes, scraped with a potsherd, while three friends
prosecute him with the full logic of the ministry of condemnation — that is the path one
must take to receive this ministry. You must be crucified with Christ and abide in that
death before you can enter into the new creation with this ministry.
This is not incidental. It is the point. Job's suffering is the summary of what the historical
books have been accumulating — the full weight of human experience under the
conditions of the curse, pressed down onto a single righteous man. His three friends
represent every theology that tries to make sense of that suffering within the framework
of legal condemnation: you suffer because you sinned, the curse is active because the
law demands it, the solution is confession and legal compliance. They are not wrong
about the law. They are catastrophically wrong about Job, and they are catastrophically
wrong about what ministry the moment actually requires.
What the moment requires is not more condemnation. It is reconciliation. And the
instrument of that reconciliation turns out to be Job himself — the very man who has
absorbed the full force of the prosecution. God's resolution is not to vindicate Job
through argument. It is to require Job to pray for his accusers, to bring burnt offerings on
their behalf, and to intercede for the men who condemned him (Job 42:8). The accused
becomes the priest. The sufferer becomes the reconciler. And Job 42:10 records that
God restored his fortunes not at the moment of his personal vindication but at the
moment of his intercession — when the Melchizedekian ministry of reconciliation
reasserted itself through a man who had been reduced to nothing and had chosen, from
that place of nothing, to pray for those who had wronged him.
This is the road to prayer the canon has been building toward. Not the formal prayer of
the Levitical liturgy, which is the prayer of condemnation managed by law. Not the
political prayer of the kings, which is the prayer of human strategy. Not even the warrior
prayer of the gates and foundations, which is the prayer of legal authority enforced. But
the prayer of a man who has lost everything, who has been unjustly prosecuted, who
has wrestled with God in the darkness, and who emerges from that wrestling not with
vengeance but with intercession. Job's prayer for his friends is the purest expression of
the ministry of reconciliation in the entire Old Testament — and it is offered by the man
who, according to rabbinic tradition, was already its greatest practitioner.

The Conclusion of the Framework
The prophetic architecture traced in this study — from the rainbow of Noah's covenant
through the Levitical guardianship, the Danielic tribulation, Ezekiel's temple
measurements, the cubic New Jerusalem, the apostolic foundations, the tribal gates,
the High Priestly breastplate, and the twelve case studies of biblical history — has
always been moving toward a single destination. Not a legal settlement. Not a military
victory. Not even a mathematical resolution of the curse, satisfying as those alignments
are. It has been moving toward a wedding. And a wedding is, by definition, an act of
reconciliation — the permanent union of two parties who could not remain apart.
The ministry that makes that wedding possible is not the Levitical ministry of
condemnation, which guarded the threshold of holiness at the cost of death. It is the
Melchizedekian ministry of reconciliation, which absorbed the cost of condemnation and
responded with bread, wine, blessing, and prayer. It is the ministry Paul identifies as the
surpassing glory — the ministry of the Spirit that makes all faces shine with unveiled
light (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is the ministry Jesus exercised as the ultimate High Priest
after the order of Melchizedek, becoming sin so that the condemned might become the
righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
And it is the ministry Job demonstrated for us in the only way it can truly be
demonstrated — not from a position of power and priestly authority, but from the ash
heap, stripped of everything, having passed through the full weight of human suffering
and the full force of the ministry of condemnation, and choosing from that place to pray.
That is the road the canon walks us down. That is what the historical books are
preparing us for. That is why Michal stands at the window while David dances at the ark
— because the ministry of reconciliation cannot be observed from a distance. It can only
be entered from the inside, at the cost of dignity, in the presence of the One who is
there.

And that is why the New Jerusalem — built on apostolic foundations purchased by
bread and wine, sealed with the blood of the Lamb who was slain, measured by the
same Jubilee mathematics that Melchizedek first embodied before Abraham's tent —
stands at the end of this framework as the eternal city of those who learned, through
everything the historical books could teach and everything Job could suffer, to pray the
prayer of reconciliation.
The 224th day brought the rainbow. The ash heap brought the prayer. The prayer
brought the restoration. And the restoration, in God's economy, was always the
wedding.
 
From Post 16,345 to 16,368 I have copied most of this document into the posts. There are a few useful charts used for comparison that were not copied in as the format didn't copy and it would have been more confusing than anything else. However, you can also download the complete Pdf right here:

Reversing_the_Curse_Updated.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com

I view this as a crucial summary. This blog promised to provide a summary of Bible verses on the rapture, and this is the seed of that summary. So even though it is about 40 pages long it should be seen as a summary of this blog. Granted, when you look at it this way it will seem incomplete. I get that this is not done. But it does put some of the most important prophecies into this framework, the days of Noah, the gospel in the stars, and the books of Daniel and Ezekiel. There will be more but prior to this I was simply looking at relevant Bible verses and trying to squeeze something out of them. This is the beginning of the end, the summary that this blog promises to produce.
 
The rapture described by four men

The just shall live by faith, OK, so then, what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

If you are doing a work that God called you to do then you will certainly be under attack. A great example is the book of Nehemiah where they are building the wall of the great city. It is a work of God, and they are under multiple attacks throughout that book to get them to stop. This chapter is filled with examples from the Bible of what faith is.

2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.

One way they will attack you is with a bad report. Think about Tom Brady, he had a "bad report" which is why no one drafted him. However, those that did draft him based on faith now obtain a good report, everyone realizes today that drafting Brady is one of the things that gives Belichick a good report.

3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

You have to speak things into existence. When Michael Jordan came to the Chicago Bulls they were a losing franchise with the reputation of being losers. He began speaking from the first year that he wanted to make them a franchise that could stand next to the great teams like the Lakers and the Celtics. He had to speak it into existence.

4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

This is what you learn, life is a competition. Both Cain and Abel were offering God sacrifices. The issue is not whether or not you offered God a sacrifice, the issue is whether or not it was a more excellent sacrifice. To do that you need faith.

5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Enoch is the seventh from Adam and seven is a number used for the church. Enoch's testimony was that he walked with God every day. Enoch being translated is a picture of the rapture. His testimony was not that he pleased man, but that he pleased God. On the one hand we are told that the just shall live by faith and apart from faith it is impossible to please God. On the other hand we see this man Enoch who walked with God every day, he was raptured, and that was a testimony that he pleased God. Therefore we can conclude he walked by faith. Paul said faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So every day Enoch is talking with God and hearing the word of God. That is how he walked by faith.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

When you are in a competition everyone has an opinion over what will help. The only reason Belichick would choose Brady is that he must have believed that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. That is the truth, the only thing that Brady had going for him was that he was diligent in seeking to be better. Michael Jordan was told that if he wanted to be better than everyone else he had to work harder than everyone else. You have to be diligent and you have to believe that you reap what you sow.

7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Genesis has three examples of the rapture. You have Enoch who walked with God and was not, then you have Noah who was warned and moved by fear, and finally you have Lot, Lot's wife and his two daughters. These are three different examples, just like we have three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. What most people think of the rapture is what happened to Enoch. Meanwhile, Noah builds an ark that will go through the tribulation. It was a rough trip, similar to being in a washing machine. But they were able to make it through the flood. This is the Lord's salvation for the church (the seven members in the ark with Noah) and it includes going through the tribulation. Then you have Lot, he is not in Hebrews 11. With both Enoch and Noah there was a sanctification that came with their salvation, a separation from the world. With Lot he was in Sodom. The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness and that Lot was a righteous man. When you believe in Jesus, confess your sins, and receive His redemptive sacrifice for your salvation, Jesus becomes your righteousness. Lot represents someone saved by grace. But when you abide in the word of God, that word will sanctify you.

So then we begin this chapter on faith with four men: Abel represents all those who were martyred for their faith, the dead in Christ who rise first. Enoch represents those who are raptured prior to the tribulation. Noah represents Jesus during the tribulation bringing the seven churches through the tribulation to the millennial reign. Interestingly the four women in Noah's ark are not named, and the three men are named, but Ham is exposed to be shameful, and his grandson is cursed. Consider the seven churches in Revelation, only two are given a good report, the other five all have issues, and one of them, Laodicea, is without Christ. Then you have Lot who isn't named at all here. Abel, Enoch and Noah all pleased God, they had faith. You can argue that Lot was saved by faith, but he didn't offer a more excellent sacrifice by faith, he didn't walk with God by faith, and he wasn't moved by fear to prepare for God's judgment by faith.
 
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Think how confusing it must have been for Abraham. Based on the book of Jasher he had spent 39 years with Noah, came back on fire, destroyed some idols and thought he was going to spark a revival. Instead Nimrod threw him into a furnace of fire. He isn't killed but is then excommunicated and 200 men go with him. At that time Abraham did not know that God wanted to give the good land to him, he thought God would do a work in Babel. He didn't know he would have a son by faith and become Abraham, the father of faith. At that time he was Abram. We don't know God's plan, what we do know is that we need to follow Him and obey Him. Just like his mom said, whatever He tells you to do, do it.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

There is a blessing to being in a tent, it separates you from the pretenders, the manipulators, the scammers, etc. Lot was living in a house in Sodom. There was no separation and bad company corrupts good morals. We see that Lot's neighbors were horrendous people while Abraham is dwelling with the heirs of the same promise.

10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

This is key. The people living in the Penthouse suite in a skyscraper on fifth avenue are not looking for some other city. As far as they are concerned they have arrived. However, you go to the country, you live in a tent, and you separate yourself from all those who are looking to live in the world. This is the father of faith, step one you must obey the Lord, do what He says whether or not you understand. Step 2 you are looking for a better city, this is not your home, you are just passing through.

11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Compare Sara with Lot's wife. One woman had her heart in Sodom, the other woman received strength through faith. One woman is a monument to all those who would have one foot in the world, the other is a testament to the power of the resurrection life.

12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

For most of their lives Abraham and Sara didn't have any children. Ultimately they had one son. But that one son has grown in multitude and in glory. That is what faith is, the smallest seed can grow into the biggest orchard.
 
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

These are those who are the dead in Christ who are raised first. In their experience they saw things from afar, compare that to today where we see prophecies being fulfilled every day. They were not silent, like Noah they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. They declared plainly that they seek a country. And like Lot's wife they had an opportunity to return but they desired a better country than Sodom so God is not ashamed to be called their God. Imagine being a Christian that God is ashamed of, imagine God being ashamed to be called your God! That was the case with Sodom and even with Lot's wife.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

This was a more excellent sacrifice.

18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

Isaac represented Abrahams ministry

19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

This takes faith in the resurrection life.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

Noah saw the things that were coming and was moved by fear. Isaac also saw the things that were coming and blessed Jacob and Esau. Both Noah and Isaac were preparing their descendants for the things that were coming.

21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

It's not over until the final buzzer sounds. This reminds me of Larry Bird stealing the ball as he is falling out of bounds and then hitting DJ with a pass to score a walk off goal and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

One by one we are seeing all the various ones who died in Christ and what it meant for them to "live by faith".
 
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.

Sometimes faith requires that you ignore the laws of the land. In England it is illegal to pray near an abortion clinic. That is the kind of law you need to ignore.

24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Again, just like Lot's wife Moses had a choice and he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God in contrast to Lot's wife. God knows what is in your heart, you can't love two masters, you need to make a choice.

27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Again, you have a choice, live in a tent like Abraham or live in a house in Sodom like Lot. One is a path that you will take if you live by faith and the other is the path you will take if you love the world and the things in the world.

28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

The Lord's table is our Passover feast, it is a a declaration of the covenant we have with God. That covenant includes God's hand of protection.

29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.

When you look back on your walk by faith there are times when it is a miracle that you are still alive.
 
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.

31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.

34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38 (Of whom the world was not worthy) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

There is a very stupid doctrine that some teach about the rapture, it is truly evidence that many who claim to be Christians have no idea what that actually means. Anyway the doctrine is based on a verse that says all believers must go through tribulation. They use that to teach that there is no rapture and that all the Christians must go through the seven year period called "the tribulation". Read this chapter about people who walked by faith and every one of them went through tribulation and yet none of them lived during the seven year tribulation. If you obey the Lord to do what He says you will go through tribulation, those who have waffled on doing what the Lord told them to do will have to go through the seven year tribulation where you don't get a choice. Either you obey the Lord or you obey the Antichrist. There is no grey area.
 
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

This wherefore refers to the entire preceding 11 chapters. We have a calling, it is not simply to be forgiven, but rather we are like a field that has been redeemed and now our calling is to bring forth fruit worthy of the master. Now we also have a high priest, a coach, a mentor, a teacher who will help us every step of the way.

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Tribulation is not an excuse to quit, we were told every Christian must go through tribulation. Michael Jordan went through tribulation, Tom Brady went through tribulation and Mike Tyson went through tribulation and that was to receive an earthly crown. Therefore we should not be surprised that we also must go through tribulation.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

We are striving against sin so we should not be surprised that the one who introduced sin into the world and the one who wants to destroy man with sin will fight against you.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Think of a coach, they will chasten and rebuke you when you make a mistake. Don't despise that, learn from it.

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Think about Moses, he was rebuked and chastened. David was rebuked and chastened. Every single one of us must be rebuked and chastened from time to time.
 
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

This is why I use examples like MJ, Brady and Tyson, the Bible uses these same examples.

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Those men all had great coaches, but those coaches cannot compare to our Father in heaven.

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

I remember all the hurdles I had to jump over to become a teacher. I had a master's degree in special Ed, I had much more credits in Geology than I needed, but even so there was an art credit I needed and a history credit I needed, and two tests I had to take, and three seminars I had to attend, and fingerprints. But after you do all that then I looked on those hurdles differently, before you have done them all they are a hassle preventing you from becoming a teacher, but after you have done them all they are a wall separating you from someone who might want your job. I realized that all the various requirements they had, even after you become a teacher you have to fulfill a certain number of hours of professional development each year, that besides helping you in your career also separated you from all those who had not done this. In the same way all the things the Lord commands us to do to be sanctified in the truth, that also adds up and results in peaceable fruit.

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Sometimes we are so focused on how beat up and tired we are that we don't pay attention to how beat up and tired the enemy is. I have been a Christian for 50 years, it hasn't been a straight line, but if you look at how far I have come, that is also how much Satan has lost. Those fifty years reveal the work that the Lord has done in my life and they also reveal how badly Satan has been defeated and is being defeated.
 
Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

This should be the motto of Christian forums. It amazes me how commands like this go out the window when people are debating about things that are not items of the faith.

15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

We must take everything that happens to us to the Lord. Why did the Lord allow this? Perhaps we need to learn something, perhaps we need to confess and repent of something. Maybe the Lord wants you to see this attack from the enemy so you can learn how to deal with it or perhaps you have gotten arrogant and the Lord needs to shine a light on that. Regardless, we should always assume that whatever happens to us happened because the Lord allowed it, and that if you will take it to the Lord it will turn out for good. Some will cry out, no, you don't understand, I was abused, I was wronged, a terrible sin was perpetrated against me and I was just an innocent child. OK, I never said that it is always because of sin or always because the Lord is trying to teach you something. Sometimes the things that happen to us, the really painful, deep things that have become part of who we are, those things were crimes, they were abuse, you were innocent, but those crimes are not unique to you. Go to the Lord, seek the grace to overcome that and then you will have a ministry to help others who have gone through the same thing to help them to be delivered. I can't tell you why some thing happened to you, that is something you must go to the Lord about. But I can tell you that we must eliminate any root of bitterness because that will defile you.

16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

I always wondered why people would tell jokes and laugh about adultery. This reveals that many people became bitter over some offense done to them, and one natural response is "misery loves company". They were wronged, perhaps their spouse cheated on them, so now a root of bitterness has grown up and through it they have become defiled thinking that the way they will respond to having been cheated on is to cheat on others. They tell jokes to justify their actions. Anyone who laughs at that joke has made an agreement with Satan and been defiled.

17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Someone was wronged, a root of bitterness grew up, they said in their heart "I'll show them, two can play at this game" and then they learn that yes indeed, if you commit adultery you are an adulterer and will be judged as an adulterer. Now all of a sudden they are like "no, I don't want to suffer for my sins, I just wanted to make the other person suffer". The problem with that is you have already judged in your heart that someone who commits this sin should suffer rather than be forgiven. So your repentance is hypocrisy. Rather than seeking a place of repentance, instead forgive those who have wronged you and root out the bitterness. The Bible promises that if you forgive others their trespasses against you then your heavenly father will forgive you your trespasses.
 
Hebrews 12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

That is, Mount Sinai, where the law was given.

19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

That is the voice of condemnation. The voice that says you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake)

When you come to that mountain you must go to the cross. Jesus' trial, scourging, mocking, and crucifixion were all required by that law.

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Mount Zion is where the Lord's table was, that is our covenant. Jesus is a priest according to the priesthood of Melchizedek, He ministers the bread and wine to strengthen us in our fight with the flesh. His ministry is not the ministry of condemnation but the ministry of reconciliation.

23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Forgiveness is being sprinkled in this assembly, the life supply is being sprinkled. Jesus was wronged, just as Abel was, but His blood is not asking for someone to pay for the crime, rather His blood is paying for the crimes we have committed.
 
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