Hi overcomer,
How true the Word of GOD is to our everyday life.
Take exhibit #1 …
“It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.”
Psalm 119: 71 ESV
Yet despite valuable lessons from our past afflictions, lessons can still hurt!
For example as I’ve written previously,
When a TV business a dear friend and I set up not long ago went…
KABOOM!
After three years of hard work everything good we’d hoped for was vaporised.
Recalling it still stings me somewhat now.
Of course…
I sought the LORD as to why we suffered such a deathly result.
“Why LORD? All was peace with You in this?
All was a green light to GO AHEAD from You.
All was good. LORD, I know…
You wanted success for us.
Not failure.
So why did everything end so bad?”
Well to answer my plea…
Recently the Holy Spirit prodded me to dig deeply into the background of this…
“And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.”
Matthew 13:3-4 ESV
So now over to Terah.
Who?
Abrahams Dad. (e.g. No Terah, no Abraham, no Israel = no Jesus).
That cleared up…
Here’s what I uncovered.
That Abrahams Dad was impoverished all his life.
Well, that I did not know before!
Did you saint?
I’d just assumed that because Abraham was incredibly wealthy, his father Terah must have been too…
And that Abraham’s wealth therefore was due to his rich family etc.
No.
I was wrong.
Terah was destitute…
Yet oddly Abraham suddenly became rich.
I wondered how though?
(Something else I’d pondered for thirty years).
For Abraham was obviously blessed of GOD with this very blessing below…
“The blessing of the Lord establishes wealth, and difficulty does not accompany it.”
Proverbs 10:22 ISV
Yet.
Where did Abrahams vast wealth (and subsequent wealth of a large portion of the Jewish people down the ages to now) come from?
How did he make his er… money? (Btw if you don’t think money is spiritual saint, well… let’s speak on that another time).
Hmmm…
I will answer that in a moment.
Yet first, this is important…
Jesus points directly to the story I am about to share with you from Second Temple Literature.*
And blessed of the LORD.
It is so MASSIVE…
That once you see it—You will never unsee it again :)
For the riddle Jesus sets us today is very clear.
Remember.
Jesus tells us He sets real riddles right here…
“For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
Matthew 13:12-13 ESV
So today…
If you see it. You see it. If not, then no.
Hopefully though you’ll find it as illuminating as I have…
“For this reason he called the name of Sêrôḫ, Serug, for every one turned to do all manner of sin and transgression.
And he grew up, and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, near to the father of his wife's mother, and he worshipped idols, and he took to himself a wife in the thirty-sixth jubilee (1744 A.M.), in the fifth week, in the first year thereof, and her name was Mêlkâ the daughter of Kâbêr, the daughter of his father's brother.
And she bare him Nahor, in the first year of this week, and he grew and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and his father taught him the researches of the Chaldees to divine and augur, according to the signs of heaven.
And in the thirty-seventh jubilee, in the sixth week (1800 A M.), in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was ’Îjâskâ, the daughter of Nêstâg of the Chaldees.
And she bare him Terah in the seventh year of this week (1806 A.M.).”
Jubilees 11: 6-9
Now the important portion.
Which parable does this remind you of overcomer? ;)
11. And the prince Mastêmâ sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours.
Before they could plough in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground.
12. And for this reason he called his name Terah, because the ravens and the birds reduced them to destitution and devoured their seed.
13. And the years began to be barren, owing to the birds, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees from the trees: it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the earth in their days.
Jubilees 11: 11-13
Spot it?
Pretty danged mind blowing saint isn’t it!
Jesus is referencing this VERY PARABLE in our Matthew thirteen parable passage above isn’t He?
“Er… Yes, it does seem so Dave! “
Yes, 100% saint. ONE HUNDRED PER CENT.
As I said overcomer…
Once you see it… you’ll never unsee it :)
Thus.
So far we see…
Serug = Father of Terah steeped in idolatry (and sorcery) (Joshua 24:2)
Mastema (Satan like figure. Name meaning ‘hatred’) sent ‘birds’ i.e. Robbers.
Terah = Idol worshiper. Massive effort. No fruit. No reward for labour. Made destitute.
BTW…
Terah’s name also means…
Wanderer. Delay. Failure.
Abrahams father was a man who wandered. A man who died, unable to cross the finish line and pass on into complete success.
He ended his days having only made it ‘half way there’ to GOD’s will for him, stalling in Haran as the Bible states.
Yet here’s the thing…
By looking at this parable that Jesus references today, we also discover why Terah failed.
Which for you and I saint is incredibly important.
Because..
In order to fix past mess ups (like my failed TV business for example )…
We need to know what caused them, so we can stop them from reoccurring in the future.
Terah never made it out of overwhelming DEMONIC onslaught which plagued his life.
For…
Reading the account above it is clear.
Spirits (ravens) were sent against him to rob all he had. Yet he never learned how to deal with them.
Time and time again…
Just as he was about to reap, he lost everything he’d toiled so hard for.
Why?
He was suffering…
From the horrific effects of ancestral sorcery and idolatry that his father Serug had enmeshed his family in.
Thus even if Terah knew the LORD, he did not know Him deep enough to fight back against the enemy devouring him. Or reverse the torrents of ancestral onslaught that plagued him.
Grim eh?
Certainly,
Yet there is STUNNING NEWS to finish on today saint.
Terah did not know the LORD.
However.
His son…
Abraham certainly did!
And his GOD showed him exactly what to do to reverse the financial destruction sent against his family forever. Then even to go on to prosper him greatly.
No more wandering. No more delay.
No more being robbed blind.
Nor working 24/7/365…
For a bowl of dust.
Nope.
Instead this happened to Abraham.
Which is so cool :)
17. And he [Abram] began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save him from the errors of the children of men, and that his portion should not fall into error after uncleanness and vileness.
18. And the seed time came for the sowing of seed upon the land, and they all went forth together to protect their seed against the ravens, and Abram went forth with those that went, and the child was a lad of fourteen years.
19. And a cloud of ravens came to devour the seed, and Abram ran to meet them before they settled on the ground, and cried to them before they settled on the ground to devour the seed, and said, "Descend not: return to the place whence ye came," and they proceeded to turn back.
20. And he caused the clouds of ravens to turn back that day seventy times, and of all the ravens throughout all the land where Abram was there settled there not so much as one.
21. And all who were with him throughout all the land saw him cry out, and all the ravens turn back, and his name became great in all the land of the Chaldees.
22. And there came to him this year all those that wished to sow, and he went with them until the time of sowing ceased: and they sowed their land, and that year they brought enough grain home and ate and were satisfied.
23. And in the first year of the fifth week Abram (1891 A.M.) taught those who made implements for oxen, the artificers in wood, and they made a vessel above the ground, facing the frame of the plough in order to put the seed thereon, and the seed fell down there from upon the share of the plough, and was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the ravens.
24. And after this manner they made (vessels) above the ground on all the frames of the ploughs, and they sowed and tilled all the land, according as Abram commanded them, and they no longer feared the birds.”
Jubilees 11: 17-24
Did you spot the divine pattern?
Now do you see why Jesus quietly pointed those with ‘eyes to see’ to Abraham via His parable?
And…
I’m sure the LORD will open this last part up to you even more deeply than He has with me.
That said,
My time has gone so to finish here are the key points…
Abraham watches over his seed FIERCELY. Drives away the ‘ravens’ (evil spirits) before they land. DEFEATS them via divine instruction (against ancestral evil no doubt too)
After he has the breakthrough. The Divine Template is proven—Goes to help others under demonic poverty, for they were being robbed mercilessly too.
People began hiring him to defeat the ravens attacking them. He now had a DIVINE system which worked every time.
He began prospering from all the above… yet His first massive leap in wealth came when he INVENTED a NEW AGRICULTURAL TOOL which HID THEIR SEED FROM RAVENS UNDER THE EARTH.
What an object lesson in how to prosper in business!
This, dear blessed of the LORD is where I believe Abrahams vast wealth began.
As for me,
I have work to do because…
My ancestors were involved in Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism (on my mother’s side of the family)… and Freemasonry on my dad’s side of the family.
So since the intervention of the Holy Spirit to me in all this…
It seems clear that certain aspects of our families past ancestral involvements are still ‘live’ when it comes to aspects of my business and financial affairs.
Work to do saint.
Indeed,
And so it is with us all. We all have work to do.
Yet it’s worth it, for as we work with Him, so He shall perfect us in the image of His Son.
And we shall be perfect.
Even the grot bits ;)
Bless you.
Dave.
PS When you plant… Ask the LORD to show you HOW TO HIDE and protect your seed as well as sow in good ground. Don’t let the wicked powers see what you plant.
Guard well by the help of heaven saint.
And prosper in all you do.
PPS This is about you…
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23 ISV
* Second Temple Literature: It is not ‘The WORD’ of GOD. It is not canonised Scripture. Yet it was widely known, read and understood by the Disciples of Jesus day.
And as you can see from above we even have the Messiah including references to it in the most famous parable of all!
This literature includes…
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha; the literature of the Greek-speaking diaspora; and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first two categories were preserved by Christians, while the third one was discovered in the 20th century in the Qumran caves.[97]