"He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze" (Ps.18:34, NKJV).

At a time when all we hear on the news is war in the Middle East and given that we as Messianic Evangelicals adhere to the doctrine that believers are called to be pacifists save to defend their homes and families as a last resort, all else having failed, it might seem odd to you that I should be sharing a scripture about war, and one that apparently advocates it and with the blessings of Heaven: "He teaches my hands to make war". However, in spite of the terrible track record of many nations claiming to be 'Christian' over the last 2,000 years, the Bible nowhere mandates the execution of mercinary wars for the sake of making money, the pleasure of exerting ungodly militaristic and imperialistic power over other nations, to seize others' land, or to forcibly convert people to a religious way of life.

War in the Bible is certainly permitted, but only on two grounds:

• 1. In self-defence against an aggressor or invader; and
• 2. In carrying out Yahweh's judgment.

The latter is, of course, potentially open to abuse, and has indeed been so abused over the centuries where God's Name has been invoked where 'God' has never commanded military action. So that we are under no misunderstandings whatsoever, let us state clearly today the two instances where Yahweh has actually commanded non-defensive, aggressive war for His judgment:

• 1. By Israel, exclusively in the conquest of the Holy Land in the time of Joshua, to rid it of an irredeemably depraved people who were steeped in the basest kind of satanic wickedness that included mandated religious rape, temple prostitution, unnatural unions, and the burning of live infants on red-hot metal pans to the demon-god Molech; and
• 2. By various pagan nations against Israel (such as Assyria and Babylon) when Israel had committed the same crimes as those early Canaanite nations she was commanded to permanently remove at the time of the original settlement.

There were, when Israel was properly observing Torah, very strict rules for the conduct of war. Unless Yahweh mandated the war (Ex.15:3; Is.42:13), and is its undoubted Captain with very clear signs or evidences that He was, it was not a War of Yahweh but of man. As it's Captain, Yahweh headed the army (2 Chr.13:12) and sent out His people to battle (2 Chr.6:34). As the strategist, He Himself set ambushes (2 Chr.20:22) and taught the psalmist to fight: "Blessed be Yahweh my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle" (Ps.144:1, NKJV). Sometimes, indeed, Yahweh took over the battle Himself while the army of Israel stood still and watched (2 Chr.20:17), the kind of evidence I was referring to that a war is indeed Yahweh's war and not man's. Any war mandated by Elohim (God) was always mandated to succeed (1 Chr.5:22) for He Himself would give the enemy into the people's hands (Dt.20:13), sometimes using natural forces to do this (Jdg.5:4-5), sometimes supernatural. Only under these circumstances could war be said to be authentically qiddesh milhamâ or 'set-apart' (Jer.6:4; Joel 5:4-5) - all other forms of war were, and are, an abomination to Him. And perhaps one of the best examples of wars of self-defence and liberation from tyranny given at Yahweh's command was that waged by Gideon against a cruel and oppressive invader.

I must here emphasise the words "at Yahweh's command" because sometimes He ordains the nations to be oppressed because of their own wickedness. This was why Jeremiah commanded apostate Judah not to resist the King of Babylon and indeed not to rebel against paying tribute. Critical in determining whether war is called for or not, whether it is righteous or evil, is whether Yahweh commands it to be waged or not. The problem, as ever, is 'who determines whether to go to war or not?' How many nations do you know who have waged war "in the name of God" when Yahweh had nothing to do with it?

One of the complexities in our modern day and age is that there is a political entity in the Middle East styling itself as 'Israel' which believes it can wage legal or de jure war against its neighbours, as well as its own indigenous population, simply because it believes itself to be biblical Israel restored and therefore under the original Torah mandate to 'clear the land' and seize neibouring country's territory. "Israel's enemies are God's enemies" is one of those dangerous and murderous lies being bandied by modern Zionists. It's not nearly as extreme as the Islamic equivalent of jihad but it certainly contains elements of it.

Concerted attempts have been made to prove God's 'presence' in, and backing of, the Israeli Republic's wars in modern times based on claimed 'miracles', and there is now a mythology surrounding these to reinforce the claim that God's hand is in all the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) does, whether in Gaza or anywhere else. Several things need to be born in mind:

• 1. Combattants on all sides and in all wars who believe in 'God' and have prayed to Him for deliverance in life-threatening situations on the battlefield have experienced miracles based on personal faith - I know of many from both the World Wars and more recent ones from Korea to Iraq;
• 2. Success on the battlefield can be, and often is, the result of brilliant planning and execution - the Israeli military has, in fact, adopted many of the tactics of the highly effective Waffen SS which is part of their standard training;
• 3. No biblical-type miracle that I know of, which cannot be explained naturalistically, has been experienced by the modern Israeli army anywhere - for example, where Yahweh has supernaturally slain the enemy using malakim (angels) or destroyed cities through controlled Jericho-type earthquakes or caused the enemy to slaughter himself en masse.

So we have to be very, very careful in invoking 'God', or 'the Lord' or 'Yahweh' or 'haShem' in military successes in the deadly and often murderous business of war based on the idea that 'God is on our side' no matter how we behave. The Wehrmacht (literally 'Defence Force') motto, Gott Mit Uns - 'God With Us' - clearly did not hold up as it had for the earlier Christian and highly moral Prussian Army, which, in concert with the English and Russians, was instrumental in defeating tyrants like Napoléon, from whom the Nazis appropriated it. Who, in retrospect, can condone the blessing by Christian priests - Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox - of the antagonistic armies in the fratricidal First World War, a war deliberately fomented by the Illuminist bankers of the day both for profit and to undermine Christian influence in society? Germany, one of the most moral and Christian nations before the First World War, became the capital of immorality and perversion during the Weimar Republic. And look what happened to Orthodox Russia after the Bolsheviks seized power?

Though my main message today is not about physical warfare, there is an important key in today's passage that we must reveal if we are to properly understand that rare thing called 'holy war', which Yahweh approves and supports for righteousness' sake only. Notice the reason that Yahweh makes men like David ready for war, and it is in the nature of the weapon itself:

"He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze" (Ps.18:34, NKJV).

Why a "bow of bronze"? Why not a sword, for instance? Because of what that copper-tin alloy signifies in the Scriptures. It is no accident that Yahweh ordered the construction of the bronze serpent in the wilderness nailed to a pole to be made out of bronze (Num.21:9), nor is it an accident that an altar in the layout of the Tabernacle was ordered made of bronze (Ex.27:2), or that the two Solomonic temple pillars of Jachin and Boaz were made of bronze. Neither is it accidental that the returning Messiah's feet are likened to "bronze" in the Book of Revelation (Rev.1:15). So what does this metal symbolise?

The three metals commonly associated with sacred things in the Bible are GOLD (mentioned nearly 500 times), SILVER (mentioned over 300 times) and BRONZE (mentioned over 150 times). Gold is associated with holiness, godliness, or set-apartness, silver with redemption, salvation and purification, and bronze with JUDGMENT:

So why is bronze associated with judgment? As I have mentioned, the altar of sacrifice was made of bronze. Bronze is the place where your sacrifice meets the heat of fiery judgment and is consumed by it. Likewise, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is our sacrifice, He who carried all our sins, being burned by the wrath and fury of Elohim's (God's) holiness and righteous judgment that was originally directed at us as covenant- and commandment-breakers. But there is a difference between human sacrifices under the Old Covenant of Moses and that of the Lamb of Elohim (God) in the New Covenant: while all other sacrifices are burned to ashes, Yah'shua (Jesus) still remains intact because He is greater than our sin. As our eternal substitute, He erases or blots out our transgressions by taking our judgment upon Himself. That, and the resurrection from the dead, is the Besorah or Good News (Gospel)!

Another picture from the Tanakh (Old Testament) is of the giant Goliath, one of the Philistine nefilim, whose height was 6 cubits, who had 6 pieces of armour, and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. The relationship to the infamous number 666 (Rev.13:8) is not, one supposes, accidental.

But let us focus on his armour: his helmet was made of ungodly bronze because Goliath's mentality was one of judgment - he was one bold, audacious, angry and wicked giant who passed judgment not only on the cowering people of Israel (until David came along to defy him) but on the Elohim (God) of Israel - Yahweh - too! This was therefore angry, satanic judgment. Those who think that Yahweh is angry with them in this way are usually angry themselves. They know no chesed or mercy either in themselves, in other people, or in their picture of Elohim (God), so their judgment is completely out of balance and out of all proportion to situational reality. Many atheists are in truth mistakenly angry with Elohim (God), for whatever reason, and this spills out in their anger and judgment of those who believe in and serve Him too. As Francis Bacon once said, "Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man." If you want an example of an angry atheist, watch some of the YouTube videos by the very brilliant and insightful British libertarian comedian Pat Condell [1] and you will experience the seathing anger and judgment in his eyes, in the tone of his voice, and in his cutting words.

What people like Pat Condell don't realise is that Yahweh's ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) far outweigh His judgment, real though that judgment is. They have a disorted picture of Him, like militant, evangelistic antitheist evolutionist Richard Dawkins and the erudite late Christopher Hitchens, another brilliant man, whose anger, cynicism and sarcasm 'shine through'. Rejecting Yah's judgment, they are quick to judge believers whom they love to portray as stupid, superstitious and a threat to the well-being of society. Yet the emet (truth) is that in Yah'shua (Jesus), if we will believe Him and repent of known sins, Yahweh's judgment is deflected and we become the recipients of His overflowing ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy, loving-kindness). There is no condemnation of the redeeemed, no 'bronze judgment'. That is left behind at the cross.

Goliath also had a breastplate of bronze, signifying a lev (heart) of unrighteous judgment. And a lev (heart) of unrighteous judgment cannot love. It is not an easy thing to judge as Yahweh does but when we do we are not to judge by appearances but according to emet (truth):

"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24, NKJV).

If we are not clear or unsure, and if we are at risk of being judged and condemned ourselves - which is probably the case for most of us most of the time - then we should hestitate to pass judgment. And you will remember the Torah penalty for accusing someone falsely is to receive the punishment for the self-same crime as though you had committed it! What, then, is the best and safest policy when it comes to passing judgment on others - whether verbally or just in our lev (heart)?

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye'" (Matt.7:1-5, NKJV)

None of this means that we are not to do any kind of judging at all, as many Christians erroneously teach. You cannot get by living without passing judgments daily. This ought to be common sense, but evident emet (truth) easily gets twisted in an antinomian or lawless church environment. To give you an example, Paul teaches that fornicators, adulterers, idolaters, revilers, drunkards and extortioners are to be shunned, something that obviously can't be done unless the offenders are confronted and judged by someone:

"[Do] not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside, Elohim (God) judges. Therefore 'put away (excommunicate, expell) from yourselves the evil person'" (1 Cor.5:11-13, NKJV).

Which raises another important point, namely, that we are required to judge those of the Household of Faith, or fellow believers, when it comes to sin and immorality, in order to maintain the purity of the covenant, but those on the outside of our fellowship - non-believers - are none of our affair. Yahweh takes care of these by other means.

But really the Saviour's main point is that since our judgment is usually flawed, especially when it comes to judging people's motives, the safest bet is not to judge at all but let ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) cover a multitide of sins (1 Pet.4:8; Prov.10:12). There are, in any case - or ought to be - maturer talmidim (disciples) appointed to be judges of such things (the Pastors, Zaqenim/Elders, and heads of families - husbands/fathers) to whom we should go for judgments when necessary. Therefore our default should always be ahavah (love) - giving people the benefit of the doubt - and not judgment. I realise that our sense of justice demands an 'immediate response' but the trouble with such 'immediacy' is we tend to get it wrong and end up hurting rather than healing.

It's for this reason, as Mark Twain noted, a lie can get make a circuit of the world before the emet (truth) surfaces to become known, something that evil people unashamedly exploit, which is why emet (truth) must be long-suffering. Lies cascade from the mountaintops of judgment in showers but emet (truth) must slowly bubble up from the earth. It is why we are also called to be long-suffering:

"Ahavah (love) suffers long and is kind" (1 Cor.13:4, NKJV).

Goliath was covered in this false, hasty, intemperate judgmental 'bronze' mindset in the form of his armour. He also wore greaves or leg armour made of bronze which symbolises standing in unrighteous judgment against Yahweh and His people Israel. He also wore a coat of bronze mail so he was also surrounded by unrighteous judgment. Here you have the very epitome of the false spirit of judgment, or 'judgmentalism', the sort of person who oozes hate, who wages unjust war and is the total antithesis of the true Torah-submitted believer. You might say his bronze is 'tarnished'. Even his spear shaft was made of this ungodly bronze, for it was a weapon of false, unrighteous judgment leading to death. What is Satan's favourite weapon? It is to condemn and accuse:

"Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our Elohim (God), and the power of His Messiah have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our Elohim (God) day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the davar (word) of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Rev.12:10-11, NKJV).

This 'satanic bronze' is in operation 24/7, day and night in our world and in our very own fleshy (carnal, Adamic) nature, and when you look at it you soon come to realise that this is Satan's only weapon! It's all he can do and his only hope is that you will believe him! Now it may well be that you are guilty of some unconfessed sin, but once you repent of that, and make right with Yahweh (and your fellow man when necessary), turning to the blood of Yah'shua (Jesus) for forgiveness and cleansing, the Enemy's accusation is of no effect unless you continue believe in his lie that you are guilty after being forgiven.

So there we have the devil's armour as represented by Goliath and all those in the service of the devil. They accuse, and they accuse heartily and without let-up. Listen to the false preachers, the dishonest politicians, the war criminals, the adulterers, thieves and liars, and see how they falsely accuse. Did you know that this is where we get the expression a "brazen liar" from? The English word 'brazen' means 'of brass', brass and bronze being used interchangeably in scripture because the Hebrew nehoshet can be rendered as either 'copper' (Ezr.8:27), 'bronze' or 'brass'.

Just so that you know, bronze is an alloy of copper and tin whereas brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, but this copper-zinc 'brass' alloy only came into use at a later stage, around 1000 BC. Bronze and pure copper were used before the time of the monarchy but brass did not exist in the patriarchal era. (The Hebrew word hasmal is wrongly translated as "amber" in the KJV but correctly as "gleaming bronze" in the RSV (Ezek.1:4).) So basically copper, bronze and brass may be viewed symbolically as one and the same in the Scriptures.

Satan is a "brazen liar", that is, a 'brass', 'bronze' or 'copper' liar. Why is bronze associated with the Enemy? Because it is the devil's poor shiney counterfeit of gold (which represents holiness). The Scriptures even speak of the "brazen harlot" (Ezek.16:20), a prostitute who acts openly and without shame - she literally 'dazzles' with her harlotry. The "brazen liar" is not only someone who lies openly but does so utterly without shame or remorse, rather like our élitist Illuminati ruling classes today.

Having said this, don't forget that bronze has a positive aspect too, and specifically it represents righteous judgment. But did you know that there wasn't a single bronze item inside the Tabernacle or Temple? It was forbidden inside the House of Yahweh. That is critically important to understand because when you are IN Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus) you are not under judgment. The House of Yahweh is exclusively a House of Chesed - a House of Mercy, of Loving-Kindness.

This is also how our homes should be patterned too. They are to be places of ahavah, (love), emet (truth) and shalom (peace) where chesed (mercy, loving-kindness) overflows. But what of family discipline and judgment? That is for the 'outer court' of the home but is never to be its lev (heart) or 'temple' consisting of the 'Holy of Holies' and 'Holy Place'.

Where judgment (even righteous judgment) exceeds chesed (mercy) in abundance, you have a dysfunctional home - a non-Christian, judgmental home, no matter how 'correct' your judging may be, no matter how much you may say you are a 'believer'. If someone corrects you more than they praise you, you have the same imbalance. Righeous judgment (which, I repeat, is indispensible) cannot, in any case, have any sort of real, meaningful and lasting impact where there is not overflowing ahavah (love) to compensate, heal and make discipline constructive and appreciated. If you pride yourself first of all in being just, and put chesed (mercy) in second place - if you like correcting people more than praising them - you are not sowing happiness. You are drowning it out, squealching out or quenching ahavah (love).

That is not to say that righteous judgment should necessarily be decreased - by no means, for it must be in place as the Rule of the Family (with consequences for infractions) - but it is to say that there is a lack of ahavah (love) if it predominates and you need to turn the ahavah (love) tap/faucet on FULL to make righteous judgment work! And I am not talking abstract ahavah (love) here - that is, emet- (truth-) love, but the ahavah (love) that gushes out of the lev (heart) in the form of affection, warmth and generosity of spirit. A home that has justice before ahavah (love) is back-to-front, turning the temple into the courtyard, and the courtyard into a temple to be trampled by those who have no appreciation of it. Bronze is for public display, silver and gold are not unless you want to lay temptation before a thief. The deepest things are reserved for those to whom it rightly belongs. Yahweh's boundaries, structures and patterns are for a purpose.

Equally ahavah (love) without justice and discipline is a recipe for anarchy and is not authentic ahavah love).

But what, you may ask, of the the bronze or 'brazen' altar, the bronze water dish, and dozens of other temple items mentioned in the Torah (Ex.25ff.)? If bronze is supposedly so 'bad', why is it in the temple area? All of these bronze items are exclusively in the outer court because this is the place of Yahweh's Judgment. But inside the temple building proper, all is of gold and silver because they represent the divinity and purity of a people already judged and found worthy. If they are found unclean, they are kicked out into the Courtyard until they have repented and are worthy to enter the House of Yahweh again. Put in other words, if they lose they Messiah-focus they put themselves outside grace and into judgment again. And for those who thereafter refuse to make teshuvah, there remains a fearful judgment!

"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the emet (truth), there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' Torah (Law) dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of Elohim (God) underfoot, counted the blood of the [New] B'rit (Covenant) by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Ruach (Spirit) of grace?" (Heb.10:26-29, NKJV).

Inside the temple-proper, wooden acacia boards were covered with gold and rested upright in silver sockets (Ex.26:15-18; 36:21-22). These represent saved and qodesh (set-apart, holy) souls - us - so that we can stand upright in Yahweh's presence. Though we are ourselves plain wood, easily 'burned' and destroyed, we are 'preserved' on account of the fact that we are overlaid by the gold of being set-apart through covenant and the redemption of the blood of Messiah, and we are elevated by being 'propped up' by Yahweh into a place of honour that we do not deserve. We are given what we are given by grace alone!

This acacia wood in the temple, also known in the Bible as shittim wood, represents incorruptible humanity. The wood is hard, heavy, and cannot be destroyed by insects, and has a fine, beautiful grain. For those of you are Asian or who know Asia, acacia is the 'teak wood' of the Middle East. It was used by the Egyptians for making mummy cases because it preserved so well. This 'incorruptible humanity' is first of all our Messiah, who was made in our likeness, but was without sin. And whilst our own humanity - our physical bodies - will experience the corruption of disintegration and death like a softwood like pine (unless we're the last generation of the first resurrection to be transformed in the 'twinking of an eye'), we will be raised with Messiah of the same incorruptibility as He now is! Thus acacia wood covered in the divine and immortal gold of Messiah, represents the firstborn glorified, resurrected body of those who inherit the first resurrection. I suppose those believers who inherit the second resurrection after the glory of the moon are symbolically covered in silver, and those unbelievers who inherit the resurrection after the glory of the stars are symbolically covered in bronze. (See the series on Universal Salvation).

One thing I want you to be aware of too is that the altar of sacrifice in the Courtyard was also made of acacia (shittim) only, like everything else in the outer court, it was covered in bronze. Now obviously the altar of sacrifice is heated to a great heat and yet this altar, protected by a layer of bronze, is not consumed by the fire kindled there to burn the sacrifices. We, too, as symbolic acacia wood, if we are covered by the righteousness of Messiah, being cleansed through emunah (faith) and repentance, will not be consumed when we are brought before the Face of Yahweh in the Final Judgment, or indeed any judgment in this life or the next. We are covered by bronze in the Courtyard and when judged worthy, are covered by gold in the Temple! In two words, we are completely covered - covered with bronze at Yom Kippur when we are weighed and covered with gold when we are brought into the Tent of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb at Sukkot!

What glorious things the divinely designed Tabernacle has to teach us! There were also five bars for each side of the Tabernacle (Ex.26:26,27; 36:31,32) - the middle bar of the five (with two on either side) passed through the centre of the boards from one end to the other (Ex.26:28; 36:33). All the bars and rings were overlaid with gold (Ex.26:29; 36:34) - every inch of them, so that symbolicaly not a single patch of our sin or mortality can be seen in Yahweh's presence. We are completely covered with His holiness! Why five boards? Because five is the number of grace - of Yahweh's undeserved loving-kindness, His umerited favour.

Much more could be said of the construction of the Tabernacle but that must await another time. What is important for us to understand is that there is righteous judgment on the part of Yahweh and believers, but we had better be careful how we use it, especially when it comes to waging war because to get it wrong can have dire consequences. Judging others carries with it an enormous responsibility which is why so many are called but so few chosen (Mt.20:16; 22:14). And even fewer are called into leadership positions. No wonder Israel's true judges are called elohim in Hebrew for they are required to act like Elohim (God) Himself, even as Moses was called to:

"So Yahweh said to Moses: "See, I have made you as [2] Elohim (God) to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your navi (prophet)" (Ex.7:1, NKJV).

The serpent on the pole made by Moses on the order of Yahweh when the people were being bitten by poisonous snakes and were dying in droves because of their wickedness, represents our judgment for our serpentine sin-nature nailed to the cross viâ Yah'shua (Jesus), a nature which poisons and then kills. When Yah'shua (Jesus) came in the likeness of our flesh, taking it upon Himself, it was that Adamic sin-nature that was judged, nailed to the cross and condemned to death, and since He bore it representationally for us, He had to die with it, even though He was entirely innocent. He paid the penalty for our sin and guilt. That serpentine bronze is within us, and must be nailed to the pole in death too, because if it isn't, we cannot enter into the Heavenly Temple!

As we are in the midst of much war at the moment where there is much devilish bronze judgment going on, I thought it might be appropriate to refresh your memories about a prophecy made by Yah'shua (Jesus) in the Book of Revelation as I think you are in a better position now to understand it more deeply:

"Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the malak (angel) stood, saying, 'Rise and measure the temple of Elohim (God), the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the qodesh (holy, set-apart) city underfoot for forty-two months (3½ years)" (Rev.11:1-2, NKJV).

Again, I need to remind, you that this is not the physical City of Jerusalem, whether now or in the future when the unsaved Zionist Jews of the Republic of Israel build themselves a temple and start up the sacrifices again. Obviously Revelation cannot be literal, even with a reconstructed temple, because the gentiles would not destroy the outer court only and leave the actual Temple untouched. When the Babylonians took Jerusalem they looted the temple and burned everything else. This passage of Scripture is a description of believers in the last of the last days, during the Great Seven Year Tribulation, the outer court corresponding to unregenerated believers who will be overwhelmed because they are yet in the place of judgment, unsaved, in the place marked with bronze items. Unlike the true believers, whose acacia wood 'bodies' are covered in bronze, the false, carnal believers are entirely unprotected and are metaphorically 'burned up': there is nothing to protect them from the flames of judgment [3].

Brethren and sisters, we are at war right now - Yahweh's true talmidim (disciples) always have been. First, we must dwell in the Temple where only gold and silver of godliness and purity are to be found, devoid of fleshiness, and must therefore be covered from the fire of judgment in the bronze armour that has been provided for us for our spiritual warfare. We are able to go out into the courtyard to wage war against the enemy and remain untouched only because we have this Besorah (Gospel) armour on:

"Put on the whole armour of Elohim (God), that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts (armies) of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of Elohim (God), that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with Emet (Truth), having put on the breastplate of Tzedek (Righteousness), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Besorah (Gospel) of Shalom (Peace) [as a maggid/messenger]; above all, taking the shield of Emunah (Faith) with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of haRa (the wicked/evil one). And take the helmet of Yah'shua (Salvation), and the cherev (sword) of the Ruach (Spirit), which is the Davar Elohim (Word of God); daven (praying) always with tefillos (all prayer) and techinnah (supplication) in the Ruach (Spirit), being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones)" (Eph.6:11-18, NKJV & OJB).

Please notice the word "whole" in the "whole armour of Elohim (God)", not just parts of it, for there is no part of us that is not supposed to be guarded. Don't leave out a single part because it is viciously hot outside the Temple of Yahweh and you will burn if you are not wholly covered! And don't forget that Yahweh has called you and I to "bend the bow of bronze" in offensive, aggressive warfare in the Ruach (Spirit).

We are to dwell in shalom (peace) in the temple of our bodies and in our homes and congregations but we are to be valiant warriors in the courtyard, in the Holy City, and in the world, wherever we may be sent. All around the Temple - but not inside it - is warfare, but if there is warfare in your temple too, woe unto you! If you are at war within, get fixed with Yahweh quickly, before Yom Kippur which is a little over two weeks' away because a mighty judgment on the world is imminent - not the final one, but a major one that will change everything. Of these judgments you already know, because I have spoken often enough of them for the last few years. So keep your eyes on Yah'shua (Jesus) as never before so that you may maintain your shalom (peace) and simcha (joy). Get right with Yahweh quickly, so that He does not suddenly put you outside His Temple where you will find yourself defenseless and unprotected because you refused to do what was right.

Yesterday while I was preparing the bulk of this message I heard music within and it was the piece about Mars, pagan god of war, from the Planets' Suite by Gustav Holst. As America's civil organisations like the police become more and more militarised and as the govertment wages war on its own people - and the same is true in Europe and elsewhere - so we must become accustomed to war not only spiritually but physically too. All wars these days are civil wars as the Enemy causes division and bloodshed. Expect more and more coup d'états but remember that the Enemy's days are numbered. He may win battles but he has already lost the war and he knows it, even if he has fooled his human minions into believing that victory is assured. Stand firm, repent of all ungodliness, get that satanic bronze armour of self-defence off and get Yahweh's bronze armour on. Then go to spiritual war with the Cross of Messiah! May Yahweh bless you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Pat Condell YouTube Channel
[2] The word "as" is not in the original Hebrew. Moses is acting in the place of Elohim (God) on behalf of Elohim (God) as as far as Pharaoh is concerned he is Elohim (God).
[3] See The Fire of Yahweh - Part 1: Refinement, Hellfire and the Jubilee

Acknowledgements

[1] Spdpc J, What does "bronze" symbolize in the Bible?

Comments from Readers

[1] "I must say that the sermon on judgements has helped me to see the people that persecute me in a new light, a great joy has entered my heart, knowing that they too will be redeemed, but they just dont know it is proof of a just Elohim" (EY, Jamaica, 20 September 2013).