The Weighing of the Vessels Pt.2
II TIMOTHY 2:20:21
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these (purge means to cleanse out, clean thoroughly, empty out) he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
ROMANS 9:21-24
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
The Weighing of the Vessels Pt.2
Recap and continue on from last week…
From our scripture readings we can see that Humanity in the bible is likened unto vessels – remember that the Hebrew language is very descriptive language in that it often uses picture words to convey a deeper meaning of thought.
So when we think of vessel we realise that a vessel is made for the purpose to be filled with something - you can fill a human with almost anything.
As believers, we sing the song – “fill my cup Lord”, but what do we want our spirits filled with – denominational people sing the same song and are mostly fill with the false teachings of man’s interpretation of the word of God.
PSALM 62:9
9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. (Vanity = Hebrew word hebel {heh'bel} = Air, breath, vapour – in other words, Emptiness). ***In other words, whether you are of low degree or high degree, even the smallest weight that God would put on one side of the scale of the balance, you would be lighter – it is only the word in you that will balance the scale.
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Being able to measure something by length and by weight has and is very important to the human race - you need to be able to measure and weigh in order to carry our many tasks.
JOB 38:4-5
4 ¶ Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
So from last week we found out that in the bible days (and in many bygone ages), the most common apparatus used for measuring weight was known as a balance, and it was a very accurate way of measuring as long as the weights were accurate.
PROVERBS 11:1
1 ¶ A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
JOB 31:6
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
People will often weigh you with a balance of what they have heard about you from someone else, or what they perceive upon first meeting you or some rumour about you, and that is more than often an unfair balance, because what they are weighing you against is a false weight – it’s an unjust balance.
PROVERBS 16:11
11 ¶ A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
God weighs everyone by His word of truth.
DANIEL 5:1-8
1 ¶ Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. (Notice, what was once a vessel sanctified for the purpose of God in the temple of God was now being filled and used for the purpose of a Babylonian drunken party – that is the condition of the world that we are living in today)
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone (they praised materialism and the blessing of financial prosperity instead of acknowledging the giver of all good things – it is the same condition of man today, so God must also act the same way in judgement or he was wrong when he brought judgement back then).
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom
8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
Notice how they had so quickly forgotten the prophet that God had sent among them – look at our generation, you can hardly find anyone who’s even heard the name of William Branham.
96-2 EPHESIAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.3
… See the handwriting on the wall. It is writing judgment. As the sacred vessels were desecrated and thus brought the wrath of God, now the sacred Word has been desecrated and the Spirit grieved, and judgment is here, even at the door.
DANIEL 5:13-17
13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:
16 And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.
17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
DANIEL 5:22-28
22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; (Notice - it takes humility to acknowledge and receive a prophet in the time that you are living in)
23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
24 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting (His motive and integrity was weighed against the word and came up short).
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
II KINGS 4:1-7
1 ¶ Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead (Notice that her husband while he was alive serve under the ministry of that currant day prophet, and remember that this event was at the time after Elijah had been taken off the earth by a chariot of fire – so we can also identify ourselves at this same time because this scripture is a prophecy concerning us at the end time age because we are also living after our Elijah was taken off the earth by a chariot); and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. (The scripture is qualifying this person to be a true follower and believer in the prophet that God had sent for that time, and notice that it was a time of economic hardship just like the world is in today after the visitation of the prophet with the spirit and power of Elijah in this day.
Look at the condition of hardship that she was in, her family was about to be broken up even further because not only had her husband died, but now her two boys were about to be taken from her in order to pay off her financial debt – what a terrible condition to be in – so this scripture is revealing to us something about this hour because we are also living under these same conditions of economic hardship and debt)
2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. (Oil represents the Holy Spirit, and a vessel represents human beings. In Mathew 25, the five wise and the five foolish virgins depended on whether their vessels were filled with oil or not - MATTHEW 25:4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Their vessels were filled with the spirit of the word for the age)
3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. (Notice the scene that is being acted out – the gathering of empty vessels into a house during a time of economic crisis at the time after Elijah the prophet had gone off the scene – this is exactly where we are today, remember that all scripture was written for this hour)
4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. (This is the ministry of the bride under the five fold Elisha ministry, and that is to pour oil into empty vessels, we are to place the treasure of the revelation of this hour into earthen vessels)
5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons (this was not going to be a public show), who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
**Notice a little lesson here - Financial freedom in a time of crisis comes by full obedience to the voice of God through the prophet that God has sent for that time.
II CORINTHIANS 4:6-7
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
EZRA 8:21-34
21 ¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
22 For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.
23 So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.
24 ¶ Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25 And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered:
26 I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents, and of gold an hundred talents;
27 Also twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold.
28 And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the LORD; the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the LORD God of your fathers.
29 Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD. (Notice that they are to be weighed before the ministry in the house of the Lord – that is what is going on in this day by the ministry of the word of this hour under the truth of this message)
30 So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.
31 ¶ Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way.
32 And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.
33 Now on the fourth day (Lion, Ox, Man, and then Eagle age) was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, Levites;
34 By number and by weight of every one: and all the weight was written at that time. (Notice - a judgement of the weights)
HEBREWS 9:19-21
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
**We are the vessels of the ministry of this hour that have been sprinkled by the bleeding word of this age by an Exodus prophet’s ministry.
Are we vessels that have been gathered back to the temple again at Jerusalem after the exile in Babylon for seven church ages – so now we are being weighed by the word of this hour to see if we measure up to every word. This is taking place in the house of God under this end time message.
REVELATION 2:25-29
25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. (Vessels unto honour, and Vessels unto dishonour – both are being weighed now by the word that God has sent to this generation by a vindicated prophet)
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (- that we might be filled with the spirit of truth, and measure up to the weight of what God requires of us for this hour)