Ephesians Parallels Joshua
EPHESIANS 3:8-9
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
(The greatest responsibility of preaching the riches and mysteries was given to someone who was considered less than the least of all saints – this is a paradox)
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
The purpose of Paul’s ministry was to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery that has been hid in God from the foundation of the world.
Ephesians Parallels Joshua
ADOPTION.1_ JEFF.IN AD.1 SUNDAY_ 60-0515E
28 …Now, as we study together, I'd like to say this, that this Book of Ephesians perfectly parallels the Old Testament Joshua:
This is a subject that for some reason I have personally struggled to fully grasp over the years… There are seasons in your life that God deals with you on certain subject of the word.
- Joshua by the leadership of the Holy Spirit leads the people into their inheritance of what God had promised them through the ministry of their prophet Moses. And in this day we are also to come into the possession of what God has also promised us through our prophet Branham.
- Theirs was a natural inheritance – ours is a spiritual inheritance which is even greater than the natural one.
*So we want to do a little conceptual study of this subject as a continuation from our subject of respect to the ministry and the test of respects.
*God will test us on our respect by sending the message though the most humble and lowest ranking person. But when you can receive the message of God through that humble channel that he sends, then there is a reward of a restoration and resurrection.
***Lazarus was resurrected and restored to them after Martha his sister showed respect to the word of that hour even though it looked like that word had failed her in her greatest hour of need.
***The gentle Shunammite woman’s son was resurrected and restored to her when she shown respects to Elisha under those trying conditions.
All through the bible we saw this same thing repeating.
**When Jesus called the gentile woman of Canaan a dog, under those conditions of rebuke, she showed respect to the ministry and received the restoration of her daughter.
MARK 7:28-29
28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
It was her response and respect under those conditions that God honoured.
Ephesians Parallels Joshua – we just want to get a conceptual understanding of this and how this very much applies to us in the journey that we are on in this hour.
JOSHUA 1:1-3
1 ¶ Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,
2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
In other words, the inheritance of what was promised by Moses in the message of the hour (in prophecy) form was now to be advanced to a further stage of progression by the faith of the people of God in that prophet’s message. They could not just stay at the same level of revelation of that God sent a prophet to bring them out of Egypt; it would take an advancement of the revelation in the promise for that hour within the people in order for that prophecy to be brought to pass.
*But many of those that left Egypt (the denominations) by the leadership of Moses who was a prophet that God gave him two signs to attract the attention of the people, many of those that came out under that prophet’s ministry never went on into the promise land but died in the wilderness, not because they didn’t believe that God sent a prophet, and water baptism, and the serpent seed, but because that they never went on in advancement with the message to possess the inheritance of what God had promised them for that hour.
***The message of the prophet had brought them out, but they failed to see that that same message through the channel of other vessels would bring them into the promise. People can accept an historical vessel that God used, but to receive the person that God sends to you for right now is a completely different challenge.
They believed to the point of coming out, but they couldn’t believe beyond the stage of God sent a prophet to believing in Joshua and the leadership of the Holy spirit in the least of the ones who carried the message for that hour – and this came down to the two unknown spies that actually took the message to the gentile woman Rahab the Harlot.
**So we know that the Ephesians of the New Testament Parallels Joshua of the Old Testament. Joshua sends two nobody spies with a message to a gentile woman (Rahab), as we see in parallel that the Holy Spirit sends Paul the apostle to a gentile church age people.
**Notice again - After the death of Moses comes Joshua (as I was with Moses, so will I be with you), but Joshua himself is a lesser ranking man than Moses (Joshua wasn’t a prophet like Moses was a prophet), but yet he comes with a commission that is of a greater advancement of the same revelation that Moses has to actually possess the promise of what Moses the prophet had spoken of.
**So in parallel, after the death of Jesus, we see the ministry of Paul under the leadership of the Holy Spirit regarding himself as the lowest of the low.
*So if we will notice again - The greater the message, the more humble the person and of lower degree that God will send that message through to test the respect of the people – because it would be easy for anyone to respect great big Moses, but often your local ministry is much harder to receive the message by with respect, but that is how God will test your respect.
MATTHEW 10:40
40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
II KINGS 5:1-4
1 ¶ Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
Notice how the message came to this great captain of the host of the King of Syria – the message came by a little servant girl, but he showed respects to that message – and only then can the story advance.
I KINGS 5:8-11
8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9 ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him (Notice – a messenger of low esteem carrying the message of the prophet – This was a another test of respects for this gentile man), saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He (the big man Elisha) will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
It would have been easy for Naaman to show respects under those conditions, but he was offended by the low ranking messenger who relayed the message to this gentile, but God was giving him a test of respects as Jesus also tested the woman of Canaan.
God was testing his attitude and respects over and over, first the message came by a little girl, then the message comes by a low ranking servant, then again we see as the story goes on, Naaman’s own gentile servants (which is a type the local 5 fold ministry) had to convince him of the same message and to humble himself to the message of that other servant of low degree. The message of redemption came by servants of low degree.
Opening scripture:
EPHESIANS 3:8-9
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: After the death of Jesus, we see a ministry sent out by the Holy Spirit to a gentile people, Paul was a minister to the gentiles, because the seed of the word which was Christ had to come from the Jews to the gentiles like the message came to the gentile Rahab by the Hebrews messengers.
Because we see that later on, Rahab came into union with Salmon, and through that union with Salmon came Boaz which was a type of Christ.
MATTHEW 1:1-6
1 ¶ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
So we can begin to see how that Ephesians Parallels Joshua, because after the death of Moses there were ministries sent out by Joshua (a type of the Holy Spirit) to bring a gentile woman into union with Salmon, and we see the parallel with the ministry of Paul the apostle to bring a gentile church into union with Christ and the fellowship of the mystery.
Those ministries that where sent to Rahab not only saved her from the Judgement of Jericho, but also caused her to come into an inheritance because Rahab was predestinated to be a channel for the linage of Christ to come through, so that message had to find her in order to bring her into that position of what she was ordained by God to be.
WHY.LITTLE.BETHLEHEM_ JEFF.IN V-19 N-13 SUNDAY_ 58-1228
58 And we find out they had a lovely home in Bethlehem, as Salmon had--had established it, and it would become a great place, and the fertile lands. And how beautiful it is to think of that great wheat country there, that it would be the bread place of the world. And it is true, no wonder Jesus had to be born there, because He was the Bread of Life. There's where all the nation come for their wheat, all the nations come for their corn. For it was in Bethlehem that had those fertile lands. And, you see, the little bitty thing, just saying, "Oh, it was the province of wheat," yet that meant something. And you see how the Gentile prince, or this Jewish prince taking His Gentile bride back up to Bethlehem for a settling down place, a place to live, where there was plenty of bread.
We find out, through this great romance and great obedience to faith, through the harlot Rahab, she gave birth to a son to Salmon, and his name was Boaz. And we all are acquainted with another great story tying in this link here now. And Boaz was born in Bethlehem from Salmon and the harlot Rahab.
INDIA.TRIP.REPORT_ LIMA.OH SATURDAY_ 57-0126B
E-33 But I got better hopes of you brethren here this morning, that you'll be men of God who stay with the Word of God. And let everything else fall right to left, but stay right with that Word. Don't move. No matter if you're a door mat out there, be a good door mat. Don't try to compete with someone else or do this. Just get right in the Word, and stay right there, and God will positionally place you into His Kingdom, where you can be the best.
What if my finger ever taken a notion, because it wasn't an eye, it wouldn't be a finger any more? I would hate to lose that finger. Though my eye may be more valuable, but I love that finger. It's a part of me. You understand what I mean? I'm sure you do. So whatever office, whatever it might be, be whatever you are. And where God has positionally placed you, stay there and be as loyal to that Word as you know how to be. God will bless it. If He takes a notion for something else, He will place you where He needs.
That is why you want to serve the Lord in your local church where God has placed you – that is a very powerful thing, don’t ever let the devil move you out of your position of service, because that position is an important part of the purpose of God for this hour no matter how small it may seem.
Church is a place that as individuals we can serve one another as a body of believers, it is not just coming to this building, and also then as a body of believers we can then serve other parts of the body of Christ in other places – that is why the devil wants to destroy this church, because we are making a difference by our service to the body of Christ around the world.
Did the Israelites have to fight to come into their position of inheritance in their promise land after the death of their prophet? Yes…Has it been a fight for us.
ADOPTION.3_ JEFF.IN AD.3 SUNDAY_ 60-0522M
32 Now, Wednesday night, many of you wasn't here Wednesday night, but we got into the... I believe it's the 3rd verse, or the... No, it's the 5th verse, unto the adoption, or placing of the people, how that God trying to place His people. And when God places one, then, oh, all the whole church wants to be like that one, have the same kind of things, do the same thing. We are cut out different; we're made different; we are natured different; and we are positionally placed different, each one for a different work; maybe one for just a little kind of a work, another for a large work.
***In the book of Joshua, we see how that this gentile woman (Rahab) came into her position that God had predestinated for her life, and then we see how that each tribe came into their position under the ministry of Joshua, and then even on down to every individual under their locals leaders, each person one by one came into their position and their inheritance of what God intended for them in the promise land - but if you will notice, they all came in by a process of battles, and struggles and trials and sufferings, and having to overcome the enemy one fight at a time – so it cannot be any different for us.
82-4 EPHESIAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.3
Persecution and trials are a natural, normal part of the Christian life. There is only one thing you can do about them. Commit them all to God, judge not, and leave their outworking and final judgment to Him.
118-1 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
The cloudy skies and storms of life are no signs of God's disapproval. Neither are bright skies and still waters signs of His love and approval. His approval of any of us is only IN THE BELOVED. His love is elective which He had for us before the foundation of the world. Does He love us? Ah yes. But how shall we know? We shall know because He SAID SO, and manifested that He did love us for He brought us to Himself and gave us of His Spirit, placing us as sons. And how shall I prove my love to Him? By believing what He said, and by conducting myself with joy amidst the trials that He in His wisdom allows to come to pass.
We see this same parallel and principle of Joshua and Ephesians repeat itself with each church age messenger of the seven church ages that brought the elect for their day that heard the message out of the world church system and into union with Christ just as Rahab was brought out of Jericho and came into union with Salmon.
Ephesians Parallels Joshua