THE WAYS OF WORSHIP

Hello Doves!!

I would like to share this interesting study that I did on the ways of worship revealed in the Book of Genesis.  It speaks a great deal of how man has worshipped God, down through the ages, and how there is a major division between the TRUTH AND RELIGION.

 

The Birth Order of Noah’s Three Sons

 

This is one big onion to peel!  There are so many layers to this part of the Bible story.  Layers, that when peeled back reveal so much about God’s plan of redemption, and the birth of the religions of man.  This birth order and what it represents, has a major impact on both the understanding of the truth; and origins of mankind’s religions.

The message God has for us, by establishing this birth order and then changing it twice, is this: there is an order, a sequence, for our dealings with God, and we must respond in that progression if we are to reap the full harvest of the Lord’s desires.  This order is demonstrated repeatedly throughout the rest of the Bible, and most markedly in the life of Jesus.  There is also a very clear message about worship; what we worship, and how we worship, will determine our eternal destiny.

Each of the sons of Noah represents a part of the human entity.  Shem, the eldest, represents the “spirit” of man.  His faculty is “revelation”.  When God speaks, it is always to the spirit part of mankind.  Hearing God is the first step in relationship with Him.  The second son, Japheth, represents the “intellect” or “soul’ of man.  His faculty is to understand what God says and be illuminated by it.  In his mind he understands what God wants him to do.

The third son, Ham, represents the “body”, and the material concerns of life; what we do with what we hear and know.  His faculty is obedience, to “obey” what the spirit hears, and the mind understands and brings that into action.  In this way, and in this order, man worships God in Spirit and in Truth.  That was the order in which Adam and Eve worshiped God, they had a personal relationship with Him, they heard His voice, understood what He said, and would then obey.

Noah was the last of the pure seed line of Seth; he was the last person on the earth, before the Flood, to have a personal relationship with God.  Thus, he was the last to worship God in the right order; spirit, mind and body. God never lists the sons of Noah in this true birth order of Shem, Japheth, and Ham.  Yet, He gives us this true order in various places, in the chapters devoted to Noah and his sons.  We are told in Genesis 9:24 that Ham is Noah’s youngest son.  But when the Lord lists the sons, first in Genesis 9:18, and then again in Genesis 10:1, it appears that Ham is the middle son, and not the youngest.  In both instances God lists the birth order as; Shem, Ham and Japheth.  Why does this happen and what is God trying to tell us by doing this?

The reason the true birth order of Noah’s sons is never listed by God, is that Noah’s sons will never have a personal relationship with Him, as Noah did.  After the flood, the whole earth would be populated by the bloodline of these three sons, and that bloodline was tainted by Noah’s wife.  So, in changing the birth order of the three sons, and what they represent, the Lord establishes a new way that man will have to worship Him.

This new way is reflected in this birth order.  Shem, the spiritual aspect of man, remains the first and most important; to hear God.  Ham, the youngest is listed as the middle son, and thus the body becomes more important than the mind and soul, and to obey more important than to understand.  Japheth then becomes the youngest son, as he represents the mind and understanding the will of God.  This new breed of man, which comes from Noah’s offspring, will now have to worship the Lord in this new way.  Instead of hearing, understanding and obeying; man would now have to hear and obey, before they would understand.  This is the birth of Faith; man must have faith in a God he can no longer understand. 

God tells us, through His Holy Word, that Satan is the Prince of the Air and the realm in which he operates is the mind, as he pursues our souls.  When Eve, then Adam, ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, the first thing that was corrupted was their minds.  They understood what the Serpent said with their minds.  When they acted on what he said, and obeyed him, they then corrupted both their bodies, to shame and death, and their spirits to live within the realm of time.  If there had been no curse, no Fall in the garden, we would still have the original order in which to worship God.  We would first receive revelation in our spirits, understand with our minds, and obey with our bodies.

This is what the Creator originally planned when he created man, in His image.  It is why Christ is considered the First and the Last.  He was the first Adam, the perfect creation of God; and He will be the last Adam, the Savior of all mankind.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is telling us that God, Himself, came to inhabit corrupt human flesh, and die, so that we, who believe in Him, and hear and obey Him, could once again return to a state of Grace, where we can have a personal relationship with Him.

AWESOME!!!!

But, there was a fall, man’s intellect was darkened and our ability to obey was greatly impaired.  So God’s original sequence of hear, understand, obey is no longer God’s choice for us.  He chooses for us to hear, obey, and then understand.  He changes the birth order of Noah’s sons to help us comprehend this.  Even better than that, He writes the Gospels to correspond to this new way of worship.

  

    

The Synoptic Gospels:

This new sequence of worship; hear, obey and then understand, is emphasized in the order of the first three New Testament Gospels.  Synoptic means “accounts told from the same point of view”.  Each of the Gospels depicts Jesus a little differently; the first three, the Synoptic Gospels, depict Him in a way that follows our pattern.  The Book of Matthew was written by a Jew, for the Jews, and Jews, of course, are the sons of Shem.  Jesus is depicted, in this book, as the King of the Jews, the Promised Messiah, divine, the fulfiller of Jewish prophecy, and the Lion of Judah.  This book especially presents Jesus as a consequence of spiritual revelation. (Shem).

The Gospel of Mark was written for the Gentiles.  They are the outsiders and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel.  In this Gospel, Jesus is primarily shown in His deeds, His actions.  In this He represents the body of man, the part of man that obeys the Lord through action.  Thus, as the body is the servant of man, so Jesus presents Himself as the Servant of Man. (Ham).

Luke’s Gospel is written by a Greek, for the Greeks, who are the sons of Japheth.  In this Gospel, Jesus is a man, and is referred to as the Son of Man.  This Gospel appeals to the mind of man, as it has the most logic and poetry of all the Gospels.  It is also the most historically and geographically accurate.  Jesus is shown as a man, this appeals to the human element in all of us, the soul realm, and the mind of man. (Japheth)

 

A New Way of Worshiping in Truth

This new way, for fallen man to worship God, is firmly established, in the very beginning of the Bible and is carried through to the very end.  We are to hear God and obey what He says, even when we do not understand with our minds.  Even as born again Christians, we are to follow this order.  God does not require that we understand Him, but obedience is essential.  Christ, Himself, asked the Father “why?” on the cross.  Jesus did not understand the separation from God that had to take place, in order that He dies for all of mankind’s sin.  He obeyed without fully understanding, and the result was the most glorious event in the history of the world!!!!

Because Christ died for us, and if we are born again, we can begin to lift the veil, which has been placed on our minds, and understand much better. Even though we will not have complete understanding until we are once again with the Creator, this vague (“through a glass darkly” I Cor. 13) understanding, enables us to develop and have more faith.

 

Another Birth Order Change

(The birth of religion)

Through the birth order of Noah sons, the Lord has given us the correct and spiritual way in which he wants man to worship Him.  This way, continues throughout the whole of the Bible.  We can trace this new way of worship all the way from Shem to Christ.  So, when He changes this birth order again, what is He trying to tell us?  What happened between the listing of the birth order in Genesis 9:18 and 10:1, and the actual listing of the genealogy of Noah’s sons, that begins in Genesis 10:2?

We know that Ham had sex with his own mother, and the product of that union was Ham’s youngest son named Canaan.  Before this act of incest occurs, the birth order is Shem, Ham and Japheth; thus showing man the new way of worship now required by God. 

After this act of incest occurs, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan and blesses Shem and Japheth.  Although the birth order stays the same in Genesis 10:1, thus reinforcing the new way the Lord wants His people to worship Him, it is totally reversed when the actual genealogies are listed beginning in Gen. 10:2.  Could it be that the Lord is telling us, that a great majority of mankind will choose this reverse order, due to the further corruption of the seed line of Noah?

In Gen, 10:2 the Lord, through Moses, lists Japheth’s genealogy first, Ham’s second and Shem’s third.  When we consider the implications of this, in regards to what each son represents; we see that man will choose to worship God first with his mind/soul; (Japheth), second, with his body; (Ham), and last with his spirit; (Shem).  In this way, the Lord shows us the birth of religion, and how religion equals the worship of man, and not the worship of God.

Religion was created by the mind/soul of man, not the Will of God.  God is showing us that the great majority of mankind will worship the mind/soul, and body over the spirit.  Man wants to understand God, first, with their mind and body, before they hear from God in their “spirits”.  The fact that they have no “spirit”, unless they are “born again” leaves them in a dire situation.

The conclusion is this, one must have a “spirit” in order to receive revelation from God, and that “spirit’ is the Holy Spirit, and the only way to the Holy Spirit is Christ.  Therefore, if man has no “spirit” of God, the Holy Spirit, then what kind of “spirit” is he worshiping in his religious practices?  There is only one answer.  The order that God established for worshiping Him will be perverted by man, and this perversion will become the religion of the Anti-Christ.

Man will make understanding, with his mind, (illumination) his top priority.  He will then obey this illumination of mind, before he considers the revelation of his spirit.  The exact same thing that Eve did in the Garden, she chose illumination over revelation.  She listened to and obeyed the Prince of the Mind, (Satan, and the Serpent) without revelation (hearing), from God.  This order shows that man will put himself above God, just like Satan did.  They will choose illumination (an understanding based on religion, and called enlightenment) over the revelation of the Truth of God.

 

Review/Recap

Garden of Eden:  Walked with God; revelation, illumination, obedience; hear, understand, obey

Shem, Japheth, Ham; Spirit, mind, body

Pre-Fall, Adam and Eve had a personal relationship with God; they worshipped Him in Spirit and Truth.  They heard the Lord, understood what He said and then obeyed.  Even after the Fall, there are some very special men of God that still walked with Him, thus having this pure relationship and worshiping in this order. We now know these men are the “sons of God’ of which Noah was the last.

 

After the Flood; New Order of Worship for God’s people; revelation, obedience, illumination; hear, obey, understand

Shem, Ham, Japheth; Spirit, body and mind

Because Noah’s seed line is corrupted by him marrying a Cainite, God establishes a new order in which fallen man must worship Him.  He must hear and obey without understanding, because his mind has been darkened by sin.  This way of worship will be observed and practiced by God’s people throughout the rest of human history.  Even Jesus, whom is God, must follow this order, while human.

 

Birth of the False Gospel; Man-made worship; the Spirit of the Anti-Christ

Illumination (enlightenment), obedience, revelation; Understand, obey, hear

Japheth, Ham, Shem; Mind, body, spirit

Upon reflecting on what happened in the Garden, we can see that this spirit of the Anti-Christ was the spirit that Eve obeyed, when she ate of the Tree of Knowledge.  The Serpent tempted Eve to put her mind, and body before her spirit.  Eve understood the Serpent and obeyed the Serpent before she heard the voice of God.  When Adam did the same thing, God had to throw them both out of the Garden before they ate of the Tree of Life; or His new creation would be bound to worship Satan, eternally.

This spirit of the Anti-Christ caused the Fall.  Because Adam and Eve chose their minds and bodies over their spirits when they obeyed the Serpent, their minds were darkened, and their bodies would, now, grow old and die.  This spirit of the Anti-Christ is carried down through Cain’s seed line, and then through Noah’s seed line, via his wife, to his three sons.  These three sons populate the whole earth after the Flood.

 

This spirit of the Anti-Christ is alive and well to this very day.  Mankind no longer desires to hear God, obey God, and then understand God.  They seek, instead, to understand themselves, by using their minds, souls, and bodies to connect with their own spirit.  Unfortunately this spirit they are hoping to connect with is not the Spirit of God; it is the spirit of Satan.  In fact, in these end-times, this spirit, this false gospel, has taken over every religion on the planet, including Christianity.

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I pray that we will all still have access to this site after the 8^th…..it would be like a day without sunshine not to be able to read all of your letters.  You have become such an encouragement and inspiration to me.

Many Blessings to you all!!

Patti C.