Footsteps of Messiah...
and the Sorcerer's Tail
Part Two
In last week's issue of Footsteps, we explored how “sorcerers” can produce signs and wonders that imitate the Heavenly wonders. As the Footsteps of Messiah approach, even the elect must guard themselves from a particular hazard: sorcery (Re 9:21; 18:23). The Beast will be given the power to produce signs and wonders, even the ability to call down fire from Heaven like the two witnesses (Re 11:5). But is it real, or is it a sorcerer’s illusion catering to what rebellious humankind WANTS to see?
Review these couplets/equivalencies:
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“He makes the winds (ruachot) His messengers,
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Flaming fire (lahat) His ministers.” (Ps 104:4)
These flaming ministers of fire can consume, for they are “serving” the fire of Elohim’s judgment...
We looked at a midrash commentary to Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel. At the conclusion of the night, the angel corrected Jacob’s thinking that he was dealing with a “man” all night. In fact, he was dealing with a ministering angel, a fiery minister, some believe Esau’s angel. He sought to impress Jacob, says the Midrash 3§6: “He placed his finger on a piece of flint and the flint began seething with fire. Whereupon Jacob said to him, ‘With this fire you seek to frighten me? I am entirely from fire, as it states, ‘”The house of Jacob will be fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for straw; and they will ignite them and devour them.’” (Obadiah 1:18)
The prophecy in Obadiah describes a time when the true sheep of Yeshua, the House of Israel, will not be fooled by a sorcerer’s fire. Instead, they will be full of the fire of the Ruach HaKodesh, and they will devour the house of Esau, the house of the Red Beast.
But what of the sorcerers who serve the Beast and those who are duped by their own rebellion to follow his signs and wonders?
- “And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.” (Re 12:4)
Even some of the children of Abraham, symbolized by the stars, can be swept away with the dragon's tail. Let the Holy Spirit breath the true fire of the Word into you each day, and you will not be one of those ministers of fire who flames out with Esau’s sheep out in the evil day.
Don’t be deceived by miraculous signs. False prophets and apostles can use sorcery to deceive, and they specialize in the sensational and spectacular. Yeshua could do miracles, but he didn’t heal everyone or calm every storm! He emphasized the truth of the Word and its works, evidence of a shepherd who heard the Father’s voice walking, which should be evidence to Jacob’s sheep. Israel is who comes up from the wilderness of the peoples, undeceived by sorcerer’s fire. Instead, they have been transformed by the Word and are ready to judge and burn the straw of the house of Esau.
Don’t be impressed by “spiritual fire.” A spiritual fire that does not reflect a desire for obedience to the Word is not holy spiritual fire. Be the fire of Jacob and the flame of Joseph. Consume the lies of Esau’s mountain as in Obadiah 1:21: “Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the Mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be HASHEM’s.” (Artscroll)
The sons of Elohim are elohim, human judges of the works of the Word, those conforming to the image of Elohim, not making themselves Elohim. Who is this coming up from the wilderness of the peoples? Those who learned to judge their salvation rightly and do justly. They separated themselves from the Korachs, Dathans, Avirams, and Zimris.
The goal of deceiving sorcerers in walking with the disciples of Yeshua, pretending to be ministers of fire, is to prevent them from crossing through the flaming swords of the cheruvim to enter the inheritance promised to them, handed down from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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“So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming (lahat) sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Ge 3:24)
There is a fine line between the Garden of Eden and sorcery. Sorcery attempts to blur those lines. The flaming Sword of the Word is an eternal reminder that it is only blurred in human minds. Deception consumes the disobedient and makes one thirsty in Sheol. There is no River of Life there. Yeshua, however, explained that he was the way into the Garden of inheritance. If we drank from his Spirit, we would never thirst again. If we never thirst again, then that means we never leave life because the water of life is in the Garden, the Rivers of Eden that flowed from the Throne above!
The flaming sword is “lahat ha-cherev,” recalling our lessons on the angels and of the tribes of Israel in the wilderness being called “ministers of fire.”
This beautiful prophecy describes Israel as flaming ministers of fire, like the sword that guarded the Garden, as they surrounded and guarded the Mishkan in the wilderness, the Tree of Life in the Ark of the Covenant...yet as prophecy, it will be again. Israel will ascend at the resurrection, ready to resume their honor guard of the Garden, prepared to guard and serve in it. Because they are not fooled by “I think, I feel, I want, I need…,” and instead they conduct their battles with the adversary based on “It is written…,” they will fulfill their intended roles in the Creation. They will rule and reign as ministers of fire, perhaps even replacing the two cheruvim who were not put into place until Adam and Eve were driven away!
As the serpent was a deceiver in the beginning, so he continues to deceiver or commit sorcery, against humankind who cling to Babylon, the first beast kingdom:
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“…and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again; for your merchants were the powerful people of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.” (Re 18:23)
The righteous who obey the Word with the power of the Ruach HaKodesh will never illuminate the way in fallen Babylon again, for they have risen into the Garden, their inheritance. The merchants’ “witchcraft” deceived the nations, and the vehicle was the “powerful people of the earth,” those who controlled the leopard-spot systems perfected by Rome. Here is the reference information on witchcraft:
Strong’s G5331
pharmakeía, from G5332; medication ("pharmacy"), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively):—sorcery, witchcraft.
Outline of Biblical Usage
- the use or the administering of drugs
- poisoning
- sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
- metaphorical of the DECEPTIONS and seductions of idolatry
Before we condemn all medicine and the entire medical system, let’s put pharmakeia in context.
The Hebrew cognate to pharmakeia is our familiar word for flaming ministers of fire: lahat.
Its root is also lahat, the flame of fire that describes the ministering angels or the consuming fire of Elohim. Oddly, the same flaming fire can describe both heavenly ministers of fire and sorcerers:
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“Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they too, the soothsayer priests of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts [בְּלַהֲטֵיהֶם].” (Ex 7:11)
Drugs can be sorcery when we misuse them to deceive into disobedience of the Word. They deceive us into engaging in immoral, deathly, hopeless, faithless behaviors that perpetuate slavery to sin and death. Poisoning, however, is an important definition because the wormwood poison of Israel is to HEAR the Word, yet in their hearts believe that Elohim would not judge them for their sin!
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“Now it is not with you alone that I am making this covenant and this oath, but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, and with those who are not with us here today (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of the nations through which you passed; moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols made of wood and stone, silver and gold, which they had with them); so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will consider himself fortunate in his heart, saying, ‘I will do well though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land along with the dry.’ The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His wrath will burn against that person, and every curse that is written in this book will lie upon him, and the LORD will wipe out his name from under heaven. Then the LORD will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant which is written in this Book of the Law." (Dt 29:14-21)
Drugs to treat a legitimate health issue are not sorcery! In most cases, they are not ideal, but they can preserve or prolong life. Drugs, however, are frequently used to transgress the boundaries of life as defined in the Word, creating "soul trafficking."
If a human being wants to be deceived or blur the lines of obedience, then drugs offer a way to tap into a realm forbidden to human beings. Drugs must be used with caution because they can be illusionists, like sorcerers, that enable belief that death is life. Perhaps this is why the Greek pharmakeia reflects the Hebrew lahat, a flaming minister of fire. This fire will destroy those who attempt to manipulate it for evil and rebellion, just like those who hear the Word and poison their hearts into determining that there will be no judgment for sin. Of course there will!
The worst drug is the one with which believers (Dt 29 wasn’t written to heathens!) poison themselves, injecting a determination to sin in spite of the Word they heard from Moses.
As a seduction to idolatry, the sorcery is that of the Beast, who causes humankind to worship the image of the beast through deception. Moses’ rod-serpent gobbles up the sorcerers’ rod-serpents, which were not real, just a deception. Magicians are sometimes call “Illusionists.” A supernatural authority and fire misused to create a [wanted] deception to the human eye in the physical realm.
A plague follows in which water turns to blood, a lesson in how the red dragon-beast promises living water, yet it is death to those who believe the deception. As Pharaoh persisted in believing his sorcerers, so the people of his kingdom continued dying.
Pharaoh’s sorcerers were powerful “merchants” of the earth who were benefiting from the trafficking in human souls, something the dragon passed to Babylon, who continued profiting from all the merchandise, especially “human souls.” (Re 18:13) Jewish souls were held in Babylonian captivity to further the economic and building goals of the first beast kingdom, just like Israel was to Pharaoh...and just as John sees in the Revelation to the last generation.
The human soul is the nefesh, not the spirit, or ruach. The soul is a bundle of life-force appetites that functions based on “I think, I feel, I want, I need,” but it must be in subjection to the spirit of the man, which is in the image of Elohim, his Creator and Judge. When the soul is enticed away from the discipline of the Spirit, it falls into the captivity of the Beast. One of the worst sorceries of humankind is that of the human soul masquerading as the spirit, forcing the spirit of human beings to be held captive in a body filling itself with poison deceptions of life when the life-force of the soul is only living when guided by the HOLY Spirit within, “It is written…”
The more we walk in the Ruach HaKodesh, the more we can differentiate between ministers of holy fire and deceivers who may appear to work wonders in fire.
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