Rod of iron

Revelation 19:15 "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty."

Actual swords are not held in the mouth. So the use of this sword denotes something else other than an actual cutting sword. The word sharp which is translated from 'oxus' also appears as sharp and swift.

The word 'mouth' can reference words. We have all heard that the pen is mightier than the sword.

In Matthew 4:4, we see, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

The word 'smite' is also of interest. It is translated from 'patasso' meaning smite or strike but is defined "1) to strike gently: as a part or a member of the body." It is also defined, "2) to stroke, smite: with the sword, to afflict, to visit ..." But this is a sword that comes out of the mouth which may be the word of God that comes swiftly.

The word 'rule' is very important. But which Greek word is it that is translated into 'rule'. There are five different words that appear as rule in the New Testament.

The word 'archo' is translated "rule over, reign over". It also produces the word 'archon' meaning a "a ruler, commander, chief" and is translated "ruler, prince, chief, magistrate, chief ruler". But this is not the Greek word here.

Another word like 'kanon' is translated 'rule' and means '1) a rod or straight piece of rounded wood' and is a metaphor for 'any rule or standard, a principle or law of investigating, judging, living, acting'

And the word 'proistemi' is translated rule 5 times and means "1) to set or place before 1a) to set over... 1d) to care for, give attention to"

The word 'hegeomai' appears three times as "have rule over" or twice as "be governor" and can mean "to lead" as in "to go before" or "to rule, command, to have authority over. a prince, of regal power, governor, viceroy, chief, leading as respects influence, controlling in counsel, overseers or leaders of the churches... leader in speech, chief, spokesman" It can also mean "to consider, deem, account, think"

In Revelations we find only the word 'poimaino' which is a verb meaning "to feed, to tend a flock, keep sheep ... to cherish one's body, to serve the body."

The phrase "and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Can give us the idea of ferocious violence. The word wrath is from the word 'orge' which can merely mean the actions of a magistrate. Words like fierceness which is from 'thumos' which can denote passion and ardour. But we see these words associated in the text with the metaphor of the winepress. These words are not associated with word like furnace or 'the pit'. A wine press is used to press grapes for the making of wine which is a good thing. Wine presses are made to crush the grape without crushing the seed and is part of the process of producing a useable finished product. It is the culmination of the harvest.

Another way to say this is:

Revelation 19:15 And out of his mouth comes the swift cutting words, that with it he should touch the nations: and he shall feed them with a a strong Royal scepter: and he treadeth the winepress with passion and God's good judgment.

How does God do this. He does this through his sons and daughters and servants who rightly divide the truth because God writes His laws upon their hearts and upon their minds.

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 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. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. God. Revelation 2:25-29

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and [to] his throne.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:1-11

The Rod of the Shepherd

In order for us to follow the mission of Christ we need to be in one accord with Christ and therefore with each other . The Pharisees thought they were in accord with Moses just as many think they are in accord with Christ...

If we have Christ in us we will see Christ in others but we must decide if we love Christ more than family and friends.

True love challenges our hearts as the love of a parent challenges their own children in righteousness.

Spare the rod spoil the child comes from Proverbs 13:24 "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."

This word rod is from shebet from an unused root probably meaning to branch off;and is normally translated tribe some 140 times but also rod 34 times. So, in what since does the same word mean rod and tribe?

Another word matteh composed of different letters is also translated tribe 182 times, rod 52 times, staff 15 times, staves once. It is said to be from the word htn natah which means to stretch out or turn. Letters in Hebrew have meanings that can help us understand the full meaning of a word. See Languageland.

Proverbs 13:24 is a part of a list and is preceded by Proverbs 13:23 "Much food [is in] the tillage of the poor: but there is [that is] destroyed for want of judgment."

This is a reference to the precept that was the sin of Sodom which is mentioned in Ezekiel 16:49 "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Giving without judgment weakens and even destroys people.

If we go back to the word chasteneth in Proverbs 13:24 we see that it is normally defined instruction and correction. The word shebet has to do with the growth of a branch of a tree among many branches All growing toward the light and each one growing in its own place guided by the example and firmness of others.

The rod of a shepherd is not used to beat the sheep into submission. It is a rod of guidance and direction to encourage the straight and safe path. In fact from 3 decades of herding sheep I know that if you try to force sheep to go in one direction they will resist and try to go around you. The last thing you would want to try to do to get sheep to go down a narrow path is hit them with your staff.

It is hard to win the trust of sheep but with consistent guidance of love and patience it can be done.

It takes patience to form a congregation based on the love of Christ.

We cannot force compliance to Christ by forcing others to comply with what we believe is doctrine. We exercise faith by doing all we do in love.

I will not spare the rod of a good shepherd.

From the beginning God has wanted us to choose to follow Him, walk with Him, and did not want brother to rule over brother like Cain and Nimrod. He wants us to follow the ways of Abraham, Gideon, Moses and Jesus Christ.

We must choose to follow the narrow path He leads us on. This is not an intellectual choice but a spiritual choice. Many will not understand this because they live in the tree of knowledge and imagine they make choices by their own reason. Somewhere in our spirit our pride or humility will filter the evidence of truth, accepting and rejecting that validity and reason of God and His divine will. Our intellect is often used as a rod to steer us away from the inconvenient truths that God has laid before us.

Many who we have loved will not love Christ enough to hear His whole gospel. Anything less than the whole gospel is a lie.

The truth is there are many people who think they are Christ-loving, Bible-honoring, grace gospel-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving believers but are not. You know they are not because they do not do what Christ said to do. In fact they are doing exactly what the Pharisees did.

In truth they are not serving God but are serving the ends of the Fathers of the world and Satan.

How do they do that?

They not only fail to be the social welfare of the people according to the perfect law of liberty by providing for one another through true love and pure religion and is not a snare or a trap but they even encourage and condone the people to go pray to the men who call themselves benefactors who exercise authority one over the other who offer a welfare that is a snare and a trap which entangles them in the bondage of the world again.

In order to keep the people under a strong delusion of false salvation they will need some ministers and priests out there doing good works to keep fooling many and need to present some form of godliness but will deny the power there of.

2 Timothy 3:5 "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

They will need to keep pointing to the few quotes that talk about belief in Christ and that supposedly being all you have to do and never point to all those places where He says keep commandments to have eternal life, seek the kingdom first, strive if you want to be saved, give or you will not receive and forgive or you will not be forgiven and be doers or you are not one of mine.

If you really believed all these things would be evidence of your faith but that is not what we see in the modern Church.

Do we believe in what Jesus said or the doctrines of men gleaned from part of the gospel.

The true ministers of God know the love and patience of God and know that he has sent them to rebuke those who think they are Christ-loving, Bible-honoring, grace gospel-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving believer's but are actually allowing and promoting and condoning the same Corban of the Pharisees along with many other "damnable heresies" and delivering the people back into the yoke of bondage of the world.

Many preachers water down the gospel to keep their congregations whole. But we are not preaching our gospel but Christ's. The congregation must belong to him, not the pastors. The ministers of God are suppose to be calling all who think they are Christ-loving, Bible-honoring, grace gospel-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving believers to repentance but are going the ways of the Pharisees and sending the people to pray to the men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority.

We were not to be that way and those who believe in Jesus should easily see that it is coveting your neighbor's goods to desire those benefits. This was and is the gospel of Christ and those who will not receive it are not Christ-loving or Bible-honoring and they will not be saved until they truly repent.

They will not repent just as many Pharisees did not repent because they knew neither Moses nor Christ even though they thought they were Moses-loving, Torah-honoring, God-preaching, self-debasing, peace-loving Pharisees.

Yes!

Many ministers will say they prophesied in His name, and in His name cast out devils, and in His name have done many wonderful works outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity... because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold and they will not sustain a society by faith, hope and charity. They will not attend to the weightier matters and they will not turn away from the Corban of the modern state Church which encourage all to pray to Caesar, Pharaoh and Nimrod to feed His sheep instead of doing it as Christ said and the early Church did... nor will they lift a finger to set the table of the Lord.

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