Ephesians Lesson 20 of 39 part 7

All the way though the Old Testament we have two parallel lines of thoughts, they’re just like two railroad tracks, especially from Genesis chapter 12 where we find. "One of them is the coming of a suffering Savior, and the other one is the coming of a ruling King."Then scattered throughout the Old Testament there are verses that allude either to the first one or the second of these two phrases or most variation of them. I remember reading many many years ago where some of the ancient Rabbi’s were all hung up on the situation around Rachel and the birth of Benjamin. And those of you who know your Old Testament know that as Rachel was dying she named Benjamin.

Genesis 35:18
"And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin."
Benoni was "the son of my suffering." But Benjamin was "the son of my strength." Well the Rabbi’s could deduct that this was either the name of a suffering Savior, which would be Benoni. Or Benjamin the son of my strength which depicted a ruling King, so for centuries they were hung up about this. How could this be unless they would have two Messiahs. That was also in their thoughts, "Maybe there are two Messiahs instead of one." So when the Messiah came He had to be first the suffering Savior, we know that. He couldn’t be the King until He’d redeemed the Nation of Israel. This is just simple nationism and who could fault them for that school of thought I mean after all come on. So for most Jewish people then and now, bless their hearts, they still can’t reconcile the fact that He has already fulfilled the "Benoni" part. So they're waiting for the soon return of His Second Coming, NO! For them He has never come the first time to be the ruling King, “Benjamin”. They don't see, It’s the same Person, but fulfilling both roles for almost 2000 years now. This is exactly what Peter is talking about, read it again.

1Peter 1:11
"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them (as they wrote by inspiration) did signify, when it (He the Spirit or even the scripture) testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, (the Benoni) and the glory that should follow (which is the Benjamin Kingdom Age, where He will rule and reign as King)."
But did they ever figure it out? No! Was it their fault? No! Because they weren’t supposed to, because it was hid, all kept secret in the mind and heart of God. We need to keep in mind that God had given them a spirit of confusion and slumber because of their iniquity, unbelief. They're stopping of the ear and the murdering of His prophets. Not to mention they're selling out to the nations around about them with the mixing of false gods and open idolatry. Then there's the priest's who perpetrated a crime against God by establishing the Saturday only Sabbath which still hangs around the necks. Oh, and yes there's the 613 added rules or Laws of even more of sins weight that no one could carry. It's no wonder that both John the Baptist and Jesus were hostile toward the priesthood of the times. Sadly they haven't changed all that much still. This is why in Romans 11:25, Paul says that it took only a partial blindness to happen.

Now after reading Romans 16:25 a earlier where Paul says "it’s the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mysteries," let’s go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and look at another one. Remember Paul writes here to the Gentiles at Corinth so in effect he’s writing more or less to us.

1 Corinthians 4:1
"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God."
A while back we said that a part of the administration of the Grace of God, or a part of the dispensation of God was that there had to be an administrator. Abraham spoke of it way back when he was promised a son, and said, "Lord all I have is this Eliezer of Damascus who is the steward of my property." Eliezer was the administrator, so that’s a perfect analogy. Now let’s come back to what we used earlier. 

Remember that we said, we have a corporation, and we have a gentlemen at the very top, he’s the chief executive officer. This gentlemen has received his education, he’s probably received his degree or degrees in business administration, then he goes and gets a masters degree from say Harvard, and he works his way up through the ranks, and all of a sudden he’s the chief executive officer of this great corporation. Now he’s worked hard to get to that position, and he’s being paid well for it. What is expected of him? To be a good administrator. That’s his job description. Now that’s exactly what Paul is telling every one of us, that as soon as we get a good grasp on these mysteries, on these Revelations that have been given to the Apostle Paul, what are we to do with it? Pass them on! Administrate them, dispense them, do you see that?  We're obligated to God and our fellow man kind to reveal these Truths. It's God who holds us accountable to man and to Him for we then allow Him to work through Christ in us to reveal Christ not only functioning in the world but first and foremost within each individual who be will receive the Truth and allow Him in into their heart of hearts, NOT our brain but hearts.

But oh! Christendom is so very slow to react, and we keep thinking all the time of some of the great Bible teachers of generations gone by who saw the apostasy that was coming. They were almost pleading back then already that the average Christian would get skilled in the Word of God so that when the apostasy would come that we could by person to person pass these things on. So this is what this Apostle is saying, in verse 1, "that we are to be stewards of these secrets of God that are now revealed " Now reading verse 2.