The Demise of the King of All the Children of Pride

[Bradford] What is the source of man's problems and how did we get here? Some of the most intelligent minds and people have studied society and they've looked at society and looked at what happens and the tendencies and what they're really looking at is human nature and the tendencies of human nature. And they try to determine what are the causes of human struggles and difficulties and they attempt, based on seeing some things that they sort of you can just look at and—and then they try to propose solutions and how to minimize what you might say, you know, man's flaws or humanity's flaws.

And intellectuals have attributed the woes of this world to what they see, you know, man's ego—or I don't want to leave women out—humanity's ego, selfish and maybe a greedy nature. They kind of attribute certain things to, for example, the minds that developed the communist philosophy came up, came to that conclusion. There was some understanding in identifying man's selfish orientation as a contributor to sorrow and misery that much of the humanity had experienced or was experiencing.

And communism, as you know, kind of came out the turn of the century and took hold in certain places for different reasons and didn't take hold in different places for different reasons. And well, part of the reason why it took hold in certain places was there's such a gap, really, in the rights and the abilities of—between the working—when we say the working class person in certain areas—than there were like in Western Europe. Things had changed a bit. Well, certain things hadn't changed in certain areas, specifically what we know as Russia. And people were like, how can we make things better? And the conclusion is they came up to it. This is a high level, of course. You could take classes on this, getting degrees in it, I'm sure.

But the conclusion is that the pursuit—at least some of the conclusion that came to it—is that the pursuit of material things, if it's lessened—people don't really need to pursue material things—is lessened or become unnecessary. The self-oriented or gate way that leads to many problems would disappear. And that was sort of a thought.

And the idea wasn't new. The idea wasn't new and was influenced—and a lot of their thoughts were influenced—by the Greek philosopher Plato about 2,400 years ago, 2,500 years ago almost. And Plato, who believed—or he came up with a thought—that private ownership of goods would corrupt their owners by encouraging selfishness and then put forth a solution of common ownership of material goods. And he went beyond that. Everybody kind of just owned everything, he might say. Well, then people wouldn't pursue some of the things that he viewed as they caused the problems.

The communist philosophies, when tried, have not really resulted in a better version of humanity. I mean, the same—they may have changed the government out, or the communist form of government was put in place—but it really did not fix really the source of human selfish orientation and the things that caused humanity problems.

So let's answer some questions today. And they are—so we have four questions here. Why is the world the way it is? And what does that have to do with the Day of Atonement? Who is the king over all the children of pride? Why do we afflict our souls on the Day of Atonement? And how does this all relate to a goat taken to the wilderness?

So those are sort of the questions we're having, that's sort of the structure and the way I thought about it. I may add some things in here depending on time that I might go to as well. But those are the four main questions. And so the title of the sermon today isthe demise of the king of all the children of pride.The demise of the king of all the children of pride.

So let's go to the first answer—or the first question. Let's answer the first question I put out there: Why is the world the way it is? And what does it have to do with Atonement?

To answer this, we have to go way back, way back in time to the original sin. Now scripture provides us a window into the original sin—not what the Christian religious folks label as original sin, which they put in the Garden of Eden. That's not what we're talking about.

Let's identify the original sin in scripture. And this requires us to go way back in time before the Garden of Eden. We don't know how far back, but somewhere in time—the time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Now there's a lot of time between verse 1 and verse 2.

So let's look at this. Now we haven't covered this for a while, so I thought I'd cover it here just so everybody understands what we're talking about. But in Genesis 1, verse 1, you can go to this. We know it well. But let's read it here and read these two verses.

It says,"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1–2).

So let's review these two scriptures to see that something happened between verse 1 and verse 2. So it says,"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So let's look at the wordcreated. We have the wordcreated there. So in Hebrew, this word isbara, and it meansto bring something into existence.To bring something into existence.

And so let's look at—so God created the earth. So let's look at the next verse."And the earth was without form and void." So the word herewas, andwas without form, is the wordha'yah, and the word is translated differently in different ways. But very often, or mostly, it's translated asbecame—that's 85 times—orbecome, 221 times, orcame, 358 times. So we see maybe what, you know, it's not the best translation of this one word, which is used a ton, right? The wordwas, right?Became,become, and the translators use that. But really, a better way of looking at this isbecame.

So for example, to see this used that way, if we go to Genesis 19:26, this word that we've talked about that's translatedwas,ha'yah, is used where it says—talks about Lot's wife, Lot's wife—and it says here,"But his wife looked back behind him, and she became"—right,became—"a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26). Same word,became.

So here we have this word that we see here, andbecame, and here in Genesis, it was. So a better way of saying it—that she, you know, just like it was—shebecame the way they translated here in Genesis 19:26. Says shebecame, she was already created, she was already created, but shebecame a pillar of salt, orha'yah—became. She wasn't a pillar of salt, she was a human whobecame a pillar of salt.

So back to Genesis 1, verse 2, where we seethe earth became—that's a better way of saying,became without form or void—and in Hebrew, as you probably know,tohu andbohu, or another way of saying it,confusion oremptiness,became confusion and emptiness. So the earthbecame tohu orbohu,emptiness and confusion.

Now we have a scripture that tells us that this is not the way God initially created the earth. It's not the way it initially created it. You can go to Isaiah 45, verse 18—good reference scripture. For those who want to debate certain aspects of when the earth was created—young earth, things like that—that's not my intent today. But go to Isaiah 45, verse 18, and we say—here's something that's said to us:

"For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain"—what's the word there?Tohu, orin confusion—"Who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:18).

So here we see from scripture that God didn't create the earth in confusion, but when combined with Genesis 1:2, the earthbecame confused—confusion and empty. So God in verse 3 is really in verse—in this verse 3—is the beginning of the first day of the week by removing—really removing—the confusion and emptiness of the earth that was put in there, that He didn't put in there, but it became that way.

And how much time is between verse 1 and verse 3? We don't know. Or verse 2, but something happened throughtohu andbohu, confusion and emptiness. Well, we get a glimpse of what happened, but—I mean, go to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28—you kind of get the sense something happened, and you get a sense of that when we turn there.

So in Isaiah 14, God gives Isaiah a pronouncement on the human king of Babylon. And then in verse 12, it transfers not to the human king, but the power behind the king of Babylon. So we turn to Isaiah 14:12, and as you know, this is where we're really talking about Lucifer, the one who became Satan. And he puts this pronouncement on the king of Babylon, and it begins to shift from a human person, the king, to this being that we're going to read about here.

So Isaiah 14, verse 12, says,"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer"—or maybe that word meansshining one. Soshining one."Son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north'" (Isaiah 14:12–13).

So here we see this being, Lucifer, and he says in his heart,"I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." So he even has this idea of having something above God. Now this is an attitude of Lucifer, to lift up or raise himself above the throne of God. And in verse 12 he says,"You have now fallen from heaven." So we get that verse here,"fallen from heaven."

Alright, let's get some more of the picture. We can go to the other passage, Ezekiel 28, that talks more about this Lucifer being, and we see more of his attitude and some more of the picture. So Ezekiel 28, we see a pronouncement against—this time—the Prince of Tyre, which was a powerful city-state at the time, and they had a ruler, and it's referring to the Prince of Tyre. And then the chapter transitions to talking about the King of Tyre, who is the real influence—the real power behind the Prince.

And we see this in Ezekiel 28:12. And it goes on and says, he says,"You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created" (Ezekiel 28:12–13).

So here's a created being. And it says,"You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor" (Ezekiel 28:14–17).

So here we see in this section here another description of Lucifer, who was the seal of perfection. He was a cherub that covered the throne of God. Now you can read about different places where the throne of God is described and it has two cherubs covering it, and you can see that in different ways if you look into it. But he was perfect in his ways until iniquity—or wickedness—was found in him.

And verse 17 we see the initial wickedness:"Your heart was lifted up." Or several translations put it:"Your heart became proud."Your heart became proud. Lucifer, who became Satan and was often referred to as the serpent and the dragon, thought he had a better way. He became proud and corrupted himself.

Now we don't know how many years this takes place—I mean, this is a spirit being and they're not confined by... we measure things by day and night and days and years. And—well, so we don't know how much time this was in our term. It could have been millions of years this became the place—situation. But something happened and it goes back to pride.

And if we analyze it and we think about ourselves, you know—pride, everything sort of starts with pride to some degree. And the focus becomes—if we have pride—the focus then becomes on the self. You know, you have pride, then ultimately you're thinking about yourself. Well, how good am I? You know, I look pretty good, or I'm pretty good at this. So whatever it might be, right? Somehow all of us—this is not who we are—can find a way to be prideful about something. And this is what Satan did. He was made perfect, and every reason—you know, had all this perfection, and he was... the seal of perfection it says, you know, so that’s what it says.

And then, you know, so after this comes lust or coveting. And that’s what this being, Lucifer, wanted. He wanted something that wasn’t his. He wanted to be above God. He wanted to have his throne above God. He was lifted up.

But it starts with what we will call the original sin as being pride. It all starts with pride. Pride led Satan down a very dark path and elevated himself. He wanted to elevate himself, and he had an elevated view of himself and his ideas. He began to form different ideas of how things could really go and go, and he developed this.

So how many years—millions of years—we don’t know. But he did that, and we have this—two references there—what he did. So we see something happen, and we can put the story together that, you know, something happened to earth that was a result of Satan being cast down, and there became confusion, darkness,tohu andbohu.

Now, I'm going to go to a section that we often don't go to, but—and you may have somewhere in the past—but Satan, as we know, is referred to as serpent. And we see a creature with serpent-like features in Job 41 called Leviathan.

Now, we see this Leviathan—before we go there, but before we do—I want to show you something here that’s very interesting. You see this Leviathan creature in Isaiah 27 at the same time of the Day of the Lord. We talked about the Day of the Lord on the Trumpets. Let’s go to Isaiah 27, verse 1—and Isaiah is very helpful.

It tells exactly what time frame we're talking about here. In Isaiah 27, verse 1, it says,"In that day"—soin that day—we're talking about the Day of the Lord. We talked about that. Hopefully everybody understands what that means."In that day the Lord, with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; and He will slay the reptile that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1).

So, I don't know if that's ever struck me. That's kind of interesting. Why, in the Day of the Lord, is God sort of punishing this Leviathan serpent? Well, we see this creature called Leviathan being punished in the Day of the Lord, and it's interesting. And we will go back to the punishment aspect of Leviathan-type creatures, but I wanted to show you this because we see Leviathan showing up again in Job 41.

We see God uses a creature like—the creature like—Leviathan in Job 41 and describes a serpent-type creature. And we’ll see it’s really in many ways—it’s just like we just saw that in Isaiah and Ezekiel—it starts to transition into... it starts out with maybe a real creature, and commentaries have talked about that for a while. What is this creature? But if you read the whole section in there, there's nothing that I can see that looks like anything we've ever seen. You know, like a fire coming—if there's a fire coming out of nostrils and can turn heat up coals and fire and things like that. So, it's talking about—it's a transition to something else.

And we see this metaphor being used to describe Satan as it ties into pride and the original sin. So, in Job 41, we see God introducing a creature called Leviathan to Job. And just like we saw Ezekiel and Isaiah, who used a human leader and then it shifted to describing Lucifer—the spiritual ruler—something similar is going on here. Something similar is being done here.

So again, commentaries don’t know what this animal is. It’s kind of fun to read the commentaries of guessing what this could be—and alligators—but, you know, whatever they might guess, there’s always a reason why it can't be that animal. Because, you know—but—some creature.

But as we move through this description of this creature—the serpent-dragon type—that’s the serpent-dragon type—takes on qualities that suggest something else is spoken of here, something else is going on. And something like we saw in Isaiah 27, where on the Day of the Lord, you know, God’s going to take care of a Leviathan figure, somebody that represents Leviathan. So the Leviathan creature in the Day of the Lord will punish—the Lord will punish—Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. It’s Leviathan, the twisted serpent.

So we see why here. We see in verse 34—now in Job 41—we see that pride is being mentioned regarding this Leviathan serpent creature. So 41, verse 34—this is the very end. It’s just interesting that right after this section here—34, the last verse—and then Job, which I won’t go into—in verse—Job 42—starts to say, “Well, I see myself,” you know, right after this one statement’s made.

Job 41, verse 34 says,"He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride" (Job 41:34). So this serpent is calledthe king over all the children of pride. Pride was the original sin that transformed Lucifer into being depicted as the king over all the children of pride. So this being has been calledthe king over all the children of pride. Lucifer was the originator of pride. And here we see this creature—the serpent, this dragon—and Satan’s called the dragon, he’s called a serpent, as we’ll see—is being calledthe king of all the children of pride.

So let’s continue to examine the serpent—and that’s introduced to us in Genesis—and how we present it with pride and self-oriented philosophy in the first humans.

So if you want to turn now to Genesis 3, and verse 1 through 6, we’ll read these scriptures here. And we’re going to see a serpent mentioned here again.

Genesis 3, verse 1 says,"Now the serpent was more cunning"—or more crafty—"than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?'" (Genesis 3:1). So we begin to see the insight into the serpent character—the one we know as Satan—and how he operates. A question is presented, a doubt, a subtle accusation.

And verse 2,"And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."'" (Genesis 3:2–3).

And verse 4,"Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil'" (Genesis 3:4–5).

So here there’s—what’s going on—the promotion, the, I always say—the serpent promoting the idea that there is something better you just don’t know about. If you had it, life would be better. You see this in marketing. If you just had this, life would just be better. Well, Satan was the first marketer, I guess. And he was. Because he was like, What if you just had this? And there’s more. And there’s more. And he goes, But there’s something better. And if you just had it—boy—life would be so good. And that’s the idea being presented.

And he’s also adding and promoting the idea that God is keeping something from you.

You know, he’s just—God is—you know, all these other stuff He said you can have, but this one thing you can’t have—He’s keeping something from you. And this is the lie that Satan promotes, puts out—that the serpent was promoting this.

So verse 6:“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (Genesis 3:6–7).

So from this moment—from this very moment—mankind, humanity, went down a path that caused a rift in the relationship between God and man. The humanity of mankind chose to follow the lie of the false philosophy of Satan—the false allure to chase after things that never bring peace, purpose, fulfillment, contentment, security—but actual being subjected under and with futility, and under the influence of the prince of the power of the air, the very devil himself, the serpent—the Satan.

So Satan offered up to Eve, in a deceptive literary package with, you know, a shining bow, this idea, and she went for it. And it summarizes what society focuses on and covets today. Nothing’s changed. Here in Genesis, we see outlined three things: that it was good for the taste—so it tasted good—it was pleasant to the eyes, and the desire to be wise.

So we have these three things that this fruit all looked like—you know, it's good to taste, good to the eyes, looked good, and desire to be wise. These all in some way or another summarize what humanity chases after in their life. Everybody's in some way or another chasing after these things. Everybody has these things—has something like this—it's just going to be better. Life is going to be better.

The choice of choosing this philosophy that was offered up to Adam and Eve separated them from God, and separated mankind from a spiritual—what we call spiritual plane—relationship. They had an opportunity to have a spirit-plane relationship. The type of relationship God intends to have—He intends to have this close relationship with man and harmony with mankind.

This type of relationship is shown by the closeness—if you think about how Adam and Eve was made—Adam was made, particularly Adam—the closeness that was there from the very beginning. God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life. He gave the breath of life. This implies a pretty personal relationship. It wasn’t from afar off. God was intending to have a close relationship, and He breathed into the nostrils the breath of life.

Imagine Adam opening his eyes. If you can imagine this—Adam gets the breath of life breathed into him, and he opens his eyes—the first thing he will see would be his Creator. God intended Adam and all mankind to be close to God. We can see that by the way—just the way God chose to give life to Adam.

This was the type of relationship man could have had, but instead, there was a separation. Something happened. Something occurred, and that was—Satan offered up an alternative. Eve went for it. And that created the rift—the separation—with God. And man went down a path—from that point on—went down a path. And soon the results were obvious.

Very quickly, one son, letting his emotions get the best of him—he had coveting desires, envy, anger—and he killed his brother. Very quickly in the history of mankind, we have the problems with this philosophy—a brother would kill a brother. And we see the pattern, or the course of this world, being placed—being put—in this earth.

And it’s based on pride. It starts with self and moves to coveting and wanting something. So we know the scripture very well—and it’s a well-known scripture—but let’s go there, because it describes it so well. And this is by Paul in Ephesians 2, verses 1 and 2. Ephesians, verse 2—and verse 1 and 2.

Here Paul describes something that we’ve talked about many times, but it’s good to go over on this day because it tells us why is the world the way it is.

Ephesians 2, verse 1, he says,“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Ephesians 2:1–3).

So Satan and his way of thinking set this whole world on a course. It has a pattern now on which it operates. And it all came through Adam and Eve—and I don’t think we can blame them. I think everybody, if they were honest, would have probably done the same thing. But they set a pattern down of the way this world was going to go.

We call it the self-way, or they often have been coined the get-way. And it says that spirit—that very spirit—which is the pattern in which the way the whole world works—is in the sons of disobedience.

And the power of the air is how Satan is described. He’s described like the power of the air. It’s almost like he has radio airwaves and he can transmit attitudes. And that pride and the lust of the world is transmitted. And you can tune into it.

Now, maybe nowadays we can say it’s the, you know, you have web links, right? You can click on the web link, or HTML link, or whatever you want to call it—or any number of modern things you could talk to. But, you know, he’s broadcasting these attitudes like radio waves. And you can tune into it—you know, some a little bit more, a little less—but whatever the case, everybody’s got some things tuned into it, that they are now part of this course—this pattern—that’s been set on the earth by, really, Satan—but also through the help of Adam and Eve setting it in a direction.

So, 1 John—we see this described—the same idea described. 1 John 2:15. 1 John 2:15. We went over this in the Bible study. But 1 John 2:15—the Apostle John understood this very well. What was the world made up of? How did the world really work?

And he describes it here in very similar terms than we just read. But he says,“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17).

So we see here a very clear thing. This is not of God. What we just described—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—that’s all of the world. All of that is in the world. These are not of the Father.

And then—so who are they of? Who are they of? Where’d they come from? Well, the one who originated this way of—or this pattern, this way of thinking, this philosophy. And it was Lucifer, when he first began to have the thoughts—to elevate himself—the pride. He looked at me, and “I should be above God.” And that also set a thought pattern in motion.

We coveted—wanted—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He formed that himself. He was the originator of that. He’s the originator of the very way. He’s the author of this whole idea.

And this is how the world got to be the way it is. It is today. We look around, and many people don't... how do we get here? How do we solve the problems? Well, I don't really know what the root cause is. Just like the very bright communist philosophers—like, well, something's wrong with the way the world works. It's not quite working right. And this is the cause.

Well, they're identifying some key things, right? Well, human nature—people wanting things—it causes people to go to wars. Some get more, some get less, it creates a lot of problems. Well, they did it by some key things, but they didn't really understand what really was the problem. And the government didn’t solve any of that. Whatever government you want to put in place, that still stayed in place.

This is how the world got to be the way it is. Now, what does the original sin of pride, as we're calling it—the original sin of pride and the king of all the children of pride—have to do with Atonement and afflicting our souls? So we'd ask that question. So what does afflicting our souls on the Day of Atonement have to do with what we just talked about?

Well, let’s go back to where we're told to afflict our souls. Leviticus 23, verse 26. Here we have, as you know—we've gone over this—where all God's holy days are put in one place. All seven of the holy days are put in place. And we're in the seventh month, and now we're in the fifth annual holy day—the second of the seventh month.

So Leviticus 23 says this in verse 26:“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath’” (Leviticus 23:26–32).

So here we see some key things. It's a holy convocation at a point in time. It's a Sabbath rest, and we afflict our souls from evening—last night at sunset—to evening—tonight when the sun goes down—to celebrate this holy day.

Now let’s look at a few places where we seeafflicted our souls. Soafflicted our souls refers to a humble state. Again, that should tell you right there—humble state. Look up this word. It really means being in a humble state. When you sayafflicted souls—humble state. Well, what is that the opposite of? Pride.

So that should be a key right there. We're dealing—we're demonstrating something that is opposite of pride. When we humble ourselves and we fast.

Psalm 35, verse 13. Let me just show you some scriptures. We could probably do a whole Bible study on this, but let's just look at a few scriptures.

Psalm 35, verse 13—David wrote, and he's sort of making some points here that he was fasting for his friends, and his friends weren't really so nice to him in return. But he says in Psalm 35, verse 13:“But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting” (Psalm 35:13).

So we see here David humbling himself by fasting, and he put himself in a lower state of humbling. And that's what fasting does. Right? I mean—did I get the right scripture? All right. I had that mumbling going like, where are we? All right. I thought I was in the right place. I can look it up. Psalm 35, verse 13. Okay. All right.

So this is David talking about fasting and humbling himself with fasting. And so we see fasting and humbling very much combined. And that's what fasting does—you humble yourself.

It doesn’t take too long—and maybe you're there right now. This very moment. Everybody’s nodding. And if you're not, then just go another day or another two days. At some point, you just don’t feel so energetic.I just don't want to write this video in a minute. And whatever great things we think about ourselves starts to be like, well, you don’t feel so well. I’m human. And you can start to feel the blood sugar levels go down—just a humbled state. That’s how I feel, anyway. And that’s what fasting does.

Let’s go to Isaiah 58, verse 3. Isaiah 58, verse 3. And here we hear about fasting. And in this first section here, we’re hearing about fasting that is afflicting the soul—but not for the right reason.

But we’ll connect the dots—thatafflicting the soul,fasting—and we’ll kind of go beyond that. It is meant to humble yourself, but also doing it for the right reason.

We see this first section here that they were fasting, as is described, but they still had... they weren’t learning anything from it. They weren’t doing it for the right reasons.

Isaiah 58, verse 3 says:“Why have we fasted,” they say, “and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?” In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers” (Isaiah 58:3).

So this is almost like God talking about—going like—you fasted, but you were just doing all the things you're always doing. You weren’t—you’re taking advantage of people, exploiting people. You weren’t being humbled, and you were doing everything for the wrong reason.

“Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness” (Isaiah 58:4).

So that’s sort of a, you know, the beginning of Isaiah 58. But it connectsafflicting your souls—fasting. In that first section, it was not being done... it shows that it’s not being done for the right reason. So a fast for the—in other words, they were fasting for theself, not to behumbled. You know, they were kind of fasting—but that way—we’re doing it not the right way.

So Isaiah—Isaiah, this section we keep going—shows that theafflicted soul fast that God appreciates, in verse 6, you know, it results in a humbleness, seeing where you're wrong, seeing and getting released, you might say, from the things that were kind of, you know, the bonds of wickedness, as we see.

So Isaiah 58, verse 6 says this:“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

So this is what God’s looking for. You do a fast to be humble—to break the bonds of wickedness, heavy burdens, and work with individuals so that you're not... you’re letting them free.

In fact, it might be an interesting study—I won’t go into it—but Isaiah 58:6, in many ways, talking about fasting and what it talks about here, if you keep going—which we won’t—is really talking about the year of Jubilee in many ways. Did you know they blew a trumpet on the year of Jubilee every 50 years on Atonement? It’s an interesting study. Maybe somebody will speak on it, maybe I will. But at some point, if you go back to—I think it’s Leviticus 25—it talks about the year of Jubilee, and they blow a trumpet.

Well, we blow trumpets on Trumpets, but you would think, oh, at the beginning of the year, blow a trumpet and start the year of Jubilee, which is the 50th year where everybody is released—released from, you know, if they’re a bondservant, they owe something. It’s a wonderful system, right? Well, on that same day, they blow a trumpet on the 50th year—on Atonement, of all things. Very interesting why it’s done on Atonement—being released.

Well, if you carry—I won’t cover this in my notes—but if you think about it, you know, when is mankind going to be released from the bondage? The bondage of being under the sway of the devil. Well, on Atonement. And the Jubilee year certainly signifies this.

And here we see a fast spoken about:“to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6). And there’s things like that in this language here, if you keep going, that really have a lot of tie-ins to Leviticus 25—and releasing people to go back to their land and from their debts and things like that.

But we afflict ourselves—let’s go back to the point here—we afflict ourselves and fast and are humbled when we don’t eat food. Our energy levels drop, as I mentioned. If we have any greatness that we think of ourselves, you know, that starts to drop.Well, yeah, I’m human. I’m not going to run a marathon right now. I’m not going to run a mile. I’m not even going to run around my block right now. You know, whatever it is—we see the reality of our human condition.

And this is an attitude of humbling ourselves—afflicting our souls. And this is the thing that God was looking for, we described here. But He wants to“loose the bonds of wickedness.” Fasting and humbling ourselves is a response to not being the children of pride and under the sway of the wicked one.

It’s a fast that shows our dependence on God and our weakness. Fasting draws us closer to God. It shows the priority of being spiritually led by God—not relying on the physical—and it shows a total reliance, or should we say, a total reliance on God.

We very quickly see who God is—and who we are.

Let me just turn to another scripture, as we’re talking about this idea about being humble. Isaiah 66—great scripture here. You want to turn to it? I’m going to turn to it. I’m outside my notes now. Don’t get worried. Maybe I should be worried. But anyway.

Isaiah 66—it says here in verse 2, right? Well, let’s start in verse 1. Isaiah 66, verse 1 says,“Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?’” (Isaiah 66:1).

So pretty much, God has made everything. Whatever you can see in the telescope, you can go out. He made all that. He made—you know, think about the power, the energy that is in atoms, that if split just the right way, releases a hydrogen bomb or nuclear bomb. Who put that power in there? Who formed all this stuff? Who made everything?

And this is what God’s—He’s saying here,“Where is the house that you will build Me? Where is the place of My rest?” I mean, who can build something that God’s going to be impressed with? You know, how are you going to impress the most—the Creator of all things?

“For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2).

That wordpoor there is very—is close to the wordafflicting your soul.Afflicting your soul. And that’s what humbling does. We’re poor of spirit. And if you’re not poor in spirit right now—keep fasting. And at some point you’re going to realize and pray,“I have all that stuff.” And that’s who God looks down upon.

You can’t build anything for God to be impressed by. But what you can do is have a poor and contrite spirit and tremble at His word. What does that mean? That means you do it. You do it. Actually, God says to do something—and we don’t ignore it. Well, that’s the attitude that is the opposite of pride. And why we humble ourselves through fasting—we afflict our souls.

We can see—let me go back to my notes here—we can see that when the two great ways of life were highlighted, when Satan tempted Jesus Christ. Remember the temptation? Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights. The tempter came and said to Jesus,“If You are the Son of God…”—again, another one of these little doubts—“If You are the Son of God, then turn this stone into bread.”

If you ever noticed that—he didn’t bring bread. That’s kind of interesting. Sometimes, I think in our minds, we see things and then we rethink and say,“Oh, Satan was offering Jesus Christ bread.” He wasn’t. He said,“Turn this stone into bread.”“If You are the Son of God, then turn this stone into bread.”

And then Jesus said,“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

It’s a reliance of being fed by God and a commitment to God’s way of life. That’s why we afflict ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we realize very quickly—we cannot exist very long without food. But we can exist with the one who brings life, which is God—living on the word of God.

Interesting—God—interesting, Satan also offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world—if Jesus would only worship Satan. And Jesus responded by saying,“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve” (Matthew 4:10).

So, I mean, you see another idea—that, you know, who’s the ruler of this world?

Well, Jesus didn’t argue with him. He’s the ruler of this world. He’s the one that set the course in place. Satan’s the one that set the course in place—the way it operates—and in a sense, every kingdom operates in the same way. Some form or matter in the same way, the same way, the course or the pattern of this world, where there’s lust of the eyes and all the things that he went for.

So Jesus rejected what Satan was offering—rejected the philosophy that Adam and Eve found so appealing. We fast like Jesus to be spiritually close to God, to be spiritually fed by God. And we fast because it’s the day when we fast that we are showing we are not the children of pride—we're not the children of pride—and we’re children of humbleness.

All right, now let’s go to the next question. How does this all relate—all this relate—to the goat that’s taken into the wilderness? Well, let’s talk about that next. Let’s go to the Day of Atonement ceremony. We heard a little bit about it in the sermonette—Leviticus 16.

There’s two goats. One goat dies and his blood is sprinkled in this mercy seat by the high priest once a year for the sins of the people. And the other goat is to have the sins confessed over it and let go into the wilderness.

So first of all, let’s go to Leviticus 16. We’ll start in verse 29, and we just will see a restatement, really, of fasting on this day—afflicting our souls.

Verse 29 says,“This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the Lord commanded Moses (Leviticus 16:29–34).

So we see here in Leviticus 16 a command to observe this day. We see the high priest to make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting, for the altar, and for the priests and for the people—and this was done once a year. And we see a command to afflict our souls—to fast. We don’t eat today, as you know.

Now, let’s go on to the beginning of the chapter to review the Old Testament ceremony performed by the high priest and show how this relates to the meaning of the day.

Leviticus 16, verse 3, says this—and we’ll read quite a bit of this, just so you know.

Leviticus 16, verse 3 says,“Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house” (Leviticus 16:3–6).

So here we have Aaron, the high priest, who represents Christ—as we know later on in the ceremony—and he had to be purified with the blood of the bull.

Let’s read on—verse 7.“He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:7–10).

Now, let’s talk about this, because some people get confused about this. Some confuse the scapegoat to also represent Christ. Now, that is not correct. Make sure everybody’s got that. That is not correct.

And this goat does not represent Christ, as we’ll see. The translators didn’t know how to translatescapegoat. The word isAzazel. They didn’t know what that meant, and they said,Well, this goat escapes death.

So they called it the escape goat. But the word isAzazel. And it’s interesting—in English, this whole idea of being the “scapegoat” is totally mixed up. The scapegoat is the one who gets the blame who shouldn’t have. So it’s how crafty the serpent is—because it actually is—we don’t see—this is the goat that really does get the blame, should get the blame—not the scapegoat. It’s theAzazel goat.

And the word translated—but they translated this word “escape goat.” They didn’t know what else to do. But this is not—both goats don’t point to Jesus Christ, as some people like to say. Totally wrong. Some see the wordAzazel—that wordAzazel by itself means “one sent away.” Others see it as a word that refers to an evil spirit. Either way—it’s not a positive word, I’ll tell you that. It’s not a positive word. And neither of those—one of the meanings ofAzazel—is not positive—would not apply to Jesus Christ. He was not an evil spirit. He was not sent away into the wilderness. It just does not represent Jesus Christ.

Verse 11—let’s keep going:“And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die” (Leviticus 16:11–13).

So here we have the incense as brought into the Holy of Holies—we talked about that not too long ago—the inner chamber of the Holy of Holies where the mercy seat was located. The mercy seat had two golden cherubim over the mercy seat—we talked about that earlier—and this represents the very throne of God. And this room was a perfect cube of 10 feet—or 15 feet by 15 feet. And the incense would offer maybe a hazy veil—you know, the incense would be there, and it would sort of be a veil, you might say, of smoke, of incense. And the high priest would then not be—protected, you might say—to look directly on God. And if he did, he would die. So there was always a chance—you know—so they had to do this right. Otherwise, there’s a chance that the high priest wouldn’t come back.

Verse 14:“He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times” (Leviticus 16:14).

So the number seven represents the number of completeness and perfection.

“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness” (Leviticus 16:15–16).

So here we have Aaron is able to offer the blood of the goat that represents Christ for the sins of the people.

Verse 17 says,“There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel” (Leviticus 16:17–19).

And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar,he shall bring the live goat.

Right? We have one goat—the live goat—theAzazel goat.

“Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man” (Leviticus 16:21).

A fit man. Might be a way of saying that.

“The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:22).

So here we see, right—some other things. This goat cannot represent Christ, as some might suggest. The goat remains alive. Christ died—and the blood was shed. Christ never had hands laid on Him, and sins confessed over Him—as if though He was responsible for the sins of mankind.

The sins of man, or iniquities, are put on the head of the goat—theAzazel goat—representing, as we know, Satan. And this goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities. The goat is banished into an uninhabitable land—which actually represents the very fate of the devil—put into a bottomless pit. Put away.

When the goat—as you notice—the goat doesn’t return. Satan is cast out, you might say. What did Jesus Christ say inJohn 12:31?“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

So we have this future time where Satan will be cast out—no longer in a place—where nobody is. And Christ was never in that position. Christ was never cast out to the wilderness—never to return back.

Interestingly, the man who led the goat out was considered unclean. And so when this fit man—sometimes they put it that way—fit man, suitable man—had taken this goat out, released it where nobody else was, into the wilderness, into someplace uninhabitable—nobody was—when he came back, he had to be washed.

And that would hardly—hardly—be a way to represent the perfect life of Christ, who was never unclean or never unholy. Christ was never in that state.

In other words, Satan doesn’t die—but is cast out. That’s what happens. He doesn’t die. He’s just put in this wilderness area—and cast out.

Let’s see this depicted in Revelation as part of the milestone in God’s plan for reconciling man to Himself—and the connection to the fall Holy Days. So let’s go to Revelation 20 now.

Revelation 19 pictures the Feast of Trumpets—we went over that—and Christ’s return. Let’s see then the next Holy Day—the Day of Atonement—being shown right here.

Revelation 20:1 says this:“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1–3).

So this is what this day pictures—casting—in the plan of God—casting out the ruler of this age. After Christ returns as pictured in the Feast of Trumpets—ten days ago—on the first day of the seventh month, and before we enter the period that is about to begin in five days—the Feast of Tabernacles—it starts—it’s really four days from now, I guess—but starts picturing a time and age of peace in God’s government on earth and Christ as the King of Kings.

Between the Day of Trumpets—Christ returning—and this wonderful one-thousand-year reign,this has to happen. Satan is removed from the scene.

So Revelation 20:1–3 ties back to the goat in the wilderness, who all the iniquities are placed on this goat’s head and put out into the wilderness. At this point, Satan can no longer deceive the nations. He’s not around them. He can’t have his influence. He’s not the power of the air anymore. There’s a seal put on him. So his attitudes—whatever it is—that he can broadcast out—is no longer allowed. His influence, his attitude, his philosophy—can no longer reach mankind.

God can then begin to be one with man—to be one with man—to restore that relationship back.

So mankind will ultimately, in this one-thousand—the time period going forward, after Satan is locked up, put away—mankind will begin to see and understand the lie that Satan told back in the Garden of Eden—and see the truth. See the truth as it is.

That God is love. God’s way leads to happiness. And the total effect of Satan’s way—full of pride, arrogance, greed, selfishness, lust—resulting in unhappiness—and striving—for that being cast out. That way doesn’t work. They’ll see very clearly. That way doesnot work. They’ll have a whole six thousand years of history to show it.

So we see in verse 4, the next Feast Day—the Feast of Tabernacles—and life without the influence of Satan—pictured as an abundance and peace. Mankind will see the vast difference in outcomes of following God.

This day represents the demise of the king of the children of pride. The serpent and dragon who invented pride—who invented the self-oriented pride of life—will be removed from influencing humanity. No longer is he able to develop disciples of pride—or children of pride.

This is the demise of Satan—after the Day of the Lord and before the one-thousand-year reign of Christ begins.

This day represents humanitynot being separated by sin with God—and wrong philosophy being put in place—but an opportunity to have a relationship with the Creator.

Those who are traveling to the Feast—may God bless and protect your travels. Have the most meaningful Feast. Rejoice in the Lord for all He has done for you.

Let’s come back fully recharged. And may all of us grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,“who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15–16).