What the Lord Is Saying on Covid-19: Your Birthright
All thanks belong to Jehovah for continued protection, and continual insight. Today’s episode comes on the heels of See Again (08 Jan 2021). It is to my shame that I admit, secular agitations have distracted me this far, Parts VII and VIII are still unwritten and God forbid I go home suddenly.
So, what is the Lord saying on Covid-19? As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man… by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. – Matthew 24: 37, NIV; 2 Peter 3: 5-7.
From Genesis 6 we learn that in the days of Noah there was
• population explosion (verse 1)
• vast immorality: debauchery, hybridization (verse 2)
• sharp drop in life expectancy (verse 3)
• visible giants (verse 4)
• great wickedness (verse 5)
• the Lord’s grief (verse 6)
• widespread destruction (verse 7) and
• limited grace (verse 8).
Rather than speculate, I will invite the discerning reader to draw their own parallels to what obtains today. To be sure, we find ample confirmation of our time in 2 Timothy 3: 1-7; This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy… For a long time, we understood the italicized phrase to mean that people will become greedy, selfish, self-focused (see AMP, GNT, GWT); and I am humbled to say we were wrong and must be more careful with our interpretation of prophecy going forward. The word here used – φίλαυτος philautos – does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament and clearly means a lover of oneself! Sologamy is a modern concept that literally fulfills the scriptural prediction that a person will fall in love with herself and marry himself! Brethren, please do your own research; there can be no reasonable doubt that we are in these times! But I digress…
In Noah’s time, salvation came in a ship. Interestingly (there are no coincidences with God), we learnt in Parts II (18 Apr 2020), V (01 May 2020) and VI (10 May 2020) the significance of “a ship” to the Covid-19 crisis! I cannot possibly be making these things up more than one year in advance! Anyway, the ship has come with healing in its sails and now we are forewarned to what happens next. We also learnt that there will be a storm and a falling-away – a lot of believers will lose their birthright – before the Lord comes! And so the Lord is today directing us into biblical stories on the tragic loss of birthright.
The first is that of Adam whom the Lord gave dominion over the Earth as we read in Genesis 1: 28-30. By Genesis 3, however, we see him (and his wife) losing their birthright. The loss occurred in the following steps and the discerning reader will do well to again draw parallels:
• invasion of privacy (verse 1)
• information gathering (verses 2-3)
• provocation to rebellion (verse 4)
• offer of immortality (verse 5)
• offer of free tryout (verse 6)
• irreversible damage (verse 7).
Can you see the parallels to this Covid-19 era? Invasion of private lives, ancestral lands, and national borders all over the world? powerful countries annexing their neighbours? subjugation? cries for self-determination across the globe? rebellion? People looking to live forever? technological preservation of consciousness? cryogenics? What is it they are offering everybody to take so as not to die in this Pandemic? Have they not said your God can protect you from side effects after you have tried it first? Was it immediately Adam and Eve tried “it” out that they were driven out of God’s Habitation?
Before you accuse me of incitement against Government policies, please note that you, not I, draw all your inferences!
The second story is that of Esau. Follow me please to Genesis 25:
verse 27: And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents…
verses 29-34: And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage ; for I am faint… And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
We may want to wonder what pottage had to do with birthright. Brethren, the sons of this world may be plain, nomadic, agnostic; they are indeed sleek, “wandering about for whom to devour”, and “wise in their generations”! They already know there will be falling-away, they search Scriptures diligently for knowledge of the times, and they will ask you to trade your birthright for pottage; after all, exchange is no robbery. They champion the cause of ‘it doesn’t matter… everyone else is taking it… can’t your God protect you?’ The unassuming Christian is quick to rise up to the defence of his God, like Uzzah: When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD’S anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. But such a Christian will be cut off, and Jehovah will have none of the blame! – 2 Samuel 6: 6, 7, NIV.
From the non-canonical Book of Jasher 27: 1-12, we learn that Esau was faint after fighting Nimrod (King of Babel) and his two guards, killing them, and running away from their vengeful compatriots. We already know from Part V that the coming storm of “new-world, one-world, Tower-of-Babel” will make believers faint to the point of death, that the boat will begin to sink so much that they ask the Lord, carest thou not if we perish? (The Book of Jasher is mentioned in Joshua 10: 13 and 2 Samuel 1: 18; but I do not go into the interesting parallels of its account of Esau’s life so I do not digress.)
Esau was faint after fighting valiantly for the Lord, not for himself, yet he fell away from Promise. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption [read: hybridization] that is in the world through lust… “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. Esau’s good intentions did not prevent, several years later, the inevitable execution of the contractual exchange he had subjected his birthright to! – 2 Peter 1: 4; 1 Corinthians 10: 23, NIV.
We must therefore look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who refused to trade his birthright: And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. – Luke 4: 9-14.
Note that Jesus could have jumped, but he didn’t. He did not say God was powerful enough to protect him. He did not say he will prove God’s omnipotence and jump! Note the mention of Jerusalem and the Temple. Note that the Devil had earlier offered Jesus riches, comfort, fame and immortality: And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world [and the glory of them] in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. — Luke 4: 5-8 [Matthew 4: 8].
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Remember what we said in Part III (22 Apr 2020) about mountains and those who live on them, their sanctimonious comfort, their enticing economy, how many will run there, and how they will be afflicted? Now we see that mountains are in fact a good place to lose your birthright! I cannot possibly be making these things up! Brethren, we must be able to rebuke the Devil and reject his pottage as Jesus did; we must be able to discern what is on offer in this era; we must See Again lest we end up in Jericho! Make up your mind now to die for Jesus, we will not bow to the coming giants, we are not afraid of dying; “to die is gain”!
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Samson exchanged his birthright. He refuted all warnings. He mistook divine guidance for conspiracy theories. He was certain that giving the enemy access to the DNA on his head (let the reader discern) meant nothing. He did not fall immediately, but when the Lord came calling he was no longer “pure in his generation”; unlike Noah, his DNA had been hybridized. He therefore did not qualify for free restoration in the Lord’s ship and bought his redemption with his own blood without ever regaining his sight! Have you traded your birthright already? Did you do it for a better life in the mountain, or so you can travel the world, or to secure your employment, or because you would otherwise be mocked as a believer in conspiracies? Look! Noah was a conspiracy theorist: It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before… things in the future that he could not see… Why else d’you think nobody paid him any serious attention? Because he was unhybridized? — Judges 14: 1-3; Genesis 6: 9; Hebrews 11: 7, NLT, GNT.
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…Friend, call on Jehovah Elohim today through Jesus Christ, the restorer of sight! Bartimaeus, as we learnt in See Again, was not born blind; no, he lost his sight along the way, and when he met #Jesus he saw again! Perhaps you never even had Jesus, you are like the man born blind in Part IV (26 Apr 2020); you too can receive sight today. The blood of Jesus is yet available to repurchase you now… Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, [nor repentance] in the grave, whither thou goest. – Ecclesiastes 9: 10.
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Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell… But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved… And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. – Matthew 18: 7-9; 24: 13; Luke 12: 47.
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My prayer remains that we #qualify. Matthew 24: 13; Acts 20: 24.
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Whereas most scripture quotations are from the Authorized Version, heavy reliance has again been placed on The New Testament in the Original Greek 1881 by BF Westcott and FJA Hort as reproduced in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures 1985 by the New World Bible Translation Committee.
AMP, Amplified Bible
GNT, Good News Translation
GWT, GOD’S WORD® Translation
NIV, New International Version
NLT, New Living Translation
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©Ayk • 09 Jul 2021
Again, this work may only be shared “`whole“`.
#haveJesus
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Further Readings on Genesis 10: 8-10:
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
Cush begat Nimrod. — This does not mean that Nimrod was the son of Cush, but only that Cush was his ancestor. In the days of Nimrod population had become numerous, and whereas each tribe and family had hitherto lived in independence, subject only to the authority of the natural head, he was able, by his personal vigour, to reduce several tribes to obedience, to prevail upon them to build and inhabit cities, and to consolidate them into one body politic… [in which many different clans or tribes recognize the sway of one who is not their natural head, but has acquired his ascendancy and dominion by conquest. – Pulpit Commentary.]
From such a beginning, it is likely, that Nimrod began to rule, and to force others to submit. He invaded his neighbours’ rights and properties, and persecuted innocent men; endeavouring to make all his own by force and violence. – Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary.
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Links:
Part I
Part IIa
Part IIb
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
See Again
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