552 - Part 4
ANTI-CHRIST IN A MAN
(Pastor Manning, More...)

PASTOR MANNING: Praise the Lord. Jesus is Lord. I want to continue to tell you and to encourage you to trust in Him, and many of you as you graduate in trusting in the Lord, you have learned more about Him through the process of trusting in His word, His word put into action, words that you did not know for yourself.

What you will discover I am sure, as many others have done so, is that Jesus is faithful and He will never fail you. I wish to state, by way of encouraging you to trust in the Lord, that you ought to trust Him even when you disagree with Him. Disagreeing with the Lord is not uncommon. In fact it might be considered highly spiritual and reverent to disagree with the Lord, as long as you do not continue to do your own thing, you can disagree with Him.

One of the reasons why I would reference it as being spiritual is, if you disagree with Him, He is going to show you what is right, and you will come away with the truth, knowing that your way is not the way, and continue to trust Him.

One of the things that causes us to disagree with the Lord, or caused you to do so over the last couple of weeks, is you have been impatient with God answering you. Therefore you have disagreed with His time, you have disagreed with His way, you have disagreed with His will, because of your impatience.

We often disagree with the Lord because of our pride. Many people are very, very prideful. They are stuck on themselves and their way, and the limitedness of their understanding, and the Lord hates a proud look. Therefore people find themselves in disagreement with the Lord.

Then, there is the pain and suffering that we incur. We discover that we should not have to suffer any longer, not one more day, not one more pain should have to go through our bodies or our minds spiritually. This causes us to disagree, but I say to you, continue to trust Him even when you disagree. It will cause you to draw closer to the Lord.

I want you to open your Bibles to John's gospel Chapter 4. I want to read something to you from the event of Jesus going into Samaria. John Chapter 4, just any of those verses will do. The Bible says in verse 1 of the 4th Chapter of John's gospel:

                                      JOHN 4:1- 9

1.       When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John;

2.       (Though Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples.)

3.       He left Judea and departed again into Galilee.

4.       And He must needs go through Samaria,

5.       Then cometh He to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6.       Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with His journey sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.

7.       Then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8.       (For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.)

9.       Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. KJV

          Three years have gone by and Jesus had not gone into the region of Samaria. Of course we know that Mount Carmel is in the region of Samaria, just outside the capital city. All of the time that Jesus had been doing ministry in Judea and in Galilee, and the regions there about, He had never bothered to go into Samaria, but was careful to avoid going into the region of Mount Carmel, and also of Samaria.

Eight hundred years earlier, Elijah the prophet of God, the mighty prophet of God, had been there in Samaria. We know about the contest that Elijah had with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel there in Samaria. This was 800 years earlier. Seven hundred and fifty years earlier, Jesus had sent the Assyrians into Samaria to destroy the nation.

I need to say 800 years before the birth of Christ, because we count backwards the years when we are counting before Christ, and then we count forward after the birth of Christ. So when I mention 800 years, I mean 800 years before the birth of Christ, and then 750 years before the birth of Christ, Jesus had sent the Assyrian nation into Samaria to destroy the whole nation.

There are several historical texts, including the Bible, Kings and Chronicles that tell us about the Assyrian empire, which was a mighty empire in the world during those days. The Assyrian kings came into Samaria and captured the city by war and burned it with fire and led the leaders of the city with hooks in their noses.

They would put a fish hook in the nose of the leaders, of the priests, of the prophets, and all of those in the king's assembly, those of the leadership class. They put hooks in their noses and before doing that, the historians tell us, that they stripped their skin off of them, bit by bit with razor blades. Then they put the hooks in their noses and led them back east into the Assyrian empire, in Samaria, Israel, the Mount Carmel area, after Elijah had been there some 50 years previously.

PASTOR VITALE: I want to put a comment on this message, that I do not agree with Pastor Manning. I have not read anything about anyone having their skin stripped off with razor blades and as far as having hooks put in the noses of the captives, I do not believe that, that happened. I believe that Pastor Manning is referring to a couple of Scriptures that talk about putting hooks in the noses of Leviathan.

Leviathan is the big fish that is swimming in the spiritual sea of our world, and there is a smaller Leviathan in each one of us. Jesus said, You shall be fishers of men. For years I could not understand why He would relate human beings to fish. The answer is that Jesus is not looking for our physical bodies, He is looking for our spiritual beings.

In this hour, we are all the descendants of Adam who fell, and we are formed in the image of the Serpent, which image is Leviathan (pride). The foundational attribute of the Serpent is pride. Jesus is looking for the pride of man. He is talking about our spiritual essence which today is formed as pride, the fish that swims in Satan's sea. I do not have any reason to believe from my understanding of the Scripture that anyone put hooks in the noses of captives of war.  Is everybody okay with that, that is my opinion.

PASTOR MANNING: The land of Samaria was a goodly land, it was a prosperous land, a bountiful land, a fruitful land, and so the Assyrian people sowed salt into the land so that the remaining Jews that stayed behind would not be able to prosper, They dug up the ground and put salt in the trenches and in the rows, and in the groves, and in the vineyards, where the olives grew, and where the pomegranates grew, and the figs. They sowed salt into the land so that the land would produce no yield from thereafter. They were a vicious people, but it needs to be explained that they came at the order of Jesus who sat on the throne, and who watched the wickedness of Samaria, the wickedness of the people of that day, and decided the best way to deal with those people was to take them away into captivity. So it was in the year 721 B.C.

Years before the event there in Samaria, Mount Carmel, even with Elijah there at Mount Carmel, Jesus had cursed Solomon, the son of David, the son of Jesse. Jesus, who is God, cursed Solomon. You will be reminded, some of you, and I want you to be aware of this, that Solomon in the list of all of the kings of Israel both Judah and Israel, that Solomon is listed among the wicked kings.

PASTOR VITALE: I have to disagree with that. First of all, let me clarify something, Jesus did not exist, prior to His birth approximately 2,000 years ago. Jesus is the name of a personality, Jesus of Nazareth, born of the woman Mary, the human child born of the woman Mary. Jesus Himself was an incarnation of Elijah, and He overcame His sin nature. Jesus overcame His sin nature by the power of the anointing within Him (which emanated forth from Elijah) and He ascended, He overcame death, and today Jesus is the personality through which Jehovah is revealing Himself to all of humanity. Jehovah is God, and the man Jesus did not exist; that personality Jesus did not exist at the time period that Pastor Manning is talking about.

Secondly, I disagree that Jesus or God cursed Solomon. It all depends on your definition of curse. Yes, a judgment was rendered against Solomon, but the Lord showed me something very interesting in the Scripture about that. I was not planning on preaching it today, we will see if we have any time left after this message is over. I may show it to you, I may put it on this message.

Solomon was not a wicked king; I do not see how anyone could say Solomon was a wicked king. Solomon was a great king, he had a great heart. The Lord asked him, What can I do for you?  Solomon said, I do not want riches, I do not want money, I do not want vengeance on my enemies, I want a heart that will righteously judge the people. Then Jehovah said to him, Because you have asked for these righteous things, in addition to that I will give you great wealth, and great prosperity.

There is no way that you could say that Solomon was a wicked king, because wickedness refers to one's heart. Wickedness refers to a state of being just as holiness refers to a state of being. Solomon had a beautiful heart, but he was seduced to the worship of pagan gods.

I have a very interesting revelation on how and where that seduction emanated from and how it came to pass. If we do not do it today, we will do it another day, perhaps next week. I just have to establish that because Pastor Manning will go on in this message, calling Solomon a wicked king, and I do not see how any honest reader of the Bible can call King Solomon a wicked king.

He was a king who had a beautiful heart after the heart of God, but he was seduced and he was turned away in his worship of pagan gods; he fell.  That is not what we call a wicked king. The term wicked refers to someone whose heart is evil from the beginning. Does anyone not understand what I am saying? Is everybody okay with this? Let us go on.

PASTOR MANNING: In Ecclesiastes and other verses that Solomon has been quoted and from prophesies that have been given, he was eventually judged a wicked king, and because of that God cursed him. Jesus cursed him, and the curse that Jesus put upon Solomon was this, that the kingdom would be taken away from him, and would be given to his enemy.

I am going to read some verses about that in just a second, that the kingdom would be divided, and 10 tribes will be taken from Solomon after his death. Up until his death the Lord let him remain as king because of his father David's sake, but not because of Solomon. God cursed him, God was wroth with Solomon.

In fact why do we not do this? Let us go to 1 Kings Chapter 11, and read a little bit about that because I want to nail down in your heart and in your mind who Solomon was as we continue to understand what went on in Samaria at Mount Carmel, and what is going to happen here in New York City at Mount Carmel as well.  Turn to 1 Kings 11.

1 KINGS 11:1-2

1.       But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.

2.       Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods, Solomon clave unto these in love.

The Bible talks about all of the strange women that he had, but look at verse 9. The Bible says:

1 KINGS 11:9

9. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared unto him twice.

Verse 14;

14. AND THE LORD STIRRED UP AN ADVERSARY UNTO SOLOMON....

Verse 23;

23.  AND GOD STIRRED HIM UP ANOTHER ADVERSARY....

As we will see, as it was, Ahijah the prophet came to Solomon and told him that the kingdom had been taken away from him. We will read all of those verses at another time, but I want to also make mention that of the kings that had served the nation of Israel, Solomon is listed as one of the wicked ones.

They start with Saul, and the second king that is considered to be a wicked king, not a righteous king, and not a king that followed after the footsteps of David, was Solomon. You have Saul, Solomon, Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Ahijah, Nadab, Baasha, Eli, Zimri, Omri, and then of course Ahab who followed some years later. We can look at this in more detail as we go along.

I want to establish with you what was going on in Samaria and why Samaritans were as they were, why Jesus viewed them the way they were viewed, and why they were a disinherited mixed blood people that nobody wanted to have anything to do with.  It was because God had cursed Solomon and tore the kingdom away from him and left just two tribes, Judah and Benjamin in the south to represent the nations of Israel.

When Jesus gets here, He understands how wicked this nation had been. Solomon, the Bible tells us, had worshiped with the prophets of the grove. Under every green tree and on every high hill where his women wanted to worship their native gods, Solomon went and kissed the feet of them. God was angry with him. God was angry with him. He was angry with him, and God cursed him for kissing the feet of Baal on behalf of the women that he loved so much.

So he is considered one of the wicked kings as we understand. When the kingdom was torn away, the ten tribes to the north continued as they would. Finally all of those wicked kings, even through the preaching and prophesying of Elijah the prophet, continued in wickedness, so God sent the Assyrian armies to take them away as we have described.

PASTOR VITALE: Just one comment here concerning this emphasis of, God was angry at him. I do not believe God was angry at Solomon. As I told you, I will either show you this point, or I will make it an individual message as to what happened to Solomon.

Solomon was seduced and the Lord knew that he would be seduced. I believe at the very moment that Jehovah approached King Solomon and said, What can I do for you? Jehovah knew that Solomon would be seduced, and that the spiritual mechanism concerning King Solomon's spiritual being (his mind) was already set up for his fall. Nevertheless, Jehovah looked at the man's heart and prospered that man so that under his reign, as long as Solomon was right with God, the people of Israel prospered.

As the leader goes, that is how you go. As your leader prospers, you prosper. The Scripture is very clear, when righteous men are in charge, the people prosper. Israel had a good king, a wise king, that judged righteously for all of those years, but his rule came to an end just as all of the good rules previous, because the imputed anointing cannot sustain a fallen man forever.

That is why the whole world and the Church (although they do not know it, we know it) are standing on tiptoes waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. What does that mean? We are all waiting for the long promised help, the help that Jehovah promised Adam as he was descending, as he was descending into spiritual sleep.

That help is Christ, our vehicle, our potential for permanent enduring righteousness, a righteousness that we cannot fall down from, a righteousness that we will not die to, an internal part, our new man, the nature of Christ being engraved on our hearts so that we will never fall again.

God knew, Jehovah knew, that king Solomon would fall, but He honored him anyway. He honored him for the good in his heart, knowing that he was a fallen man without Christ, and that this was the best he could do.

We all need to know, that, that is how God looks at us. As long as we are doing our best to seek God and live a holy life, He is not focusing on those areas in which we are deceived or overcome, other than to help us. He is focusing on our right heart towards Him. He is basing the way He relates to us upon our heart's attitude towards Him. We need to know that.

God is angry at sin all of the day long. God is angry at the Serpent's nature in King Solomon. God is angry at Satan moving through King Solomon's weaknesses (and the weakness is his carnal mind), to seduce him; that is what God is angry at. He is not angry at us.

You need to know that He loves us and He is going to help us to develop or to grow into His righteous nature, but it is a long-range plan and it is taking many incarnations, but it will eventually come to pass. We will be imbued with His righteous nature and never fall again. At some time in the future it has to happen, it is the will of God and it will come to pass in due season. Are there any questions?

PASTOR MANNING: .... mindful of history here, as we look at Mount Carmel and the things that God told them to do spiritually, here. This community will speak through us. These ten tribes were never once again re-assembled back after the Assyrian army took them out, put hooks in their noses and led them back east into Samaria, into China, into Mongolia, into Russia.

Some people believe even today that the Jews that were taken captive with hooks in their noses and their skin stripped off of them by the Assyrian army who God sent in because of His anger towards them, some believe that the Native Americans, (we refer to them as Indians here in the New World as it was then known), are the 10 lost tribes of the Jews. I do not believe they were, in fact I can prove that they were not.

They were never gathered back together again. God never let them re-assemble back in the land of Samaria.The only people that were left were just a remnant of the Jews. They became so mixed with the Chinese, Mongolians, Russians, and East Indians, that nobody would have anything to do with the Samaritans. They were a mixed breed, they were no longer Jews, and even Jesus would not go through there.

Finally, the verse I just read a few moments ago (John 4:4), Jesus said, I must go through Samaria. He sat down on the well, Jacob's well, and this woman came and realized immediately that Jesus was a Jew.

I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE ANGER THAT GOD HAD AGAINST SOLOMON, AND THE PEOPLE HAD REFUSED TO HEAR WHAT ELIJAH SAID, THAT GOD DESTROYED THAT WHOLE NATION CALLED THE NORTHERN KINGDOM.

Isaiah prophesies in Isaiah 43:6 that one day, God is going to call all of the tribes of Israel back together again. If you can, while you are standing, turn to Isaiah 43, we have to have these Scriptures nailed down here today for our purposes as we conclude the statements that Almighty God, whose name is Jesus, has given unto us to state.

 Isaiah prophesies a prophecy that has not yet come to pass. Isaiah prophesies in Isaiah 43:6-7, I will say to the north, give up and to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him.

In other words, Isaiah prophesied that even though those Jews were carried away captive, the Lord is going to bring them all back together again, and we are going to see it happen in the Book of Revelation. After the deep river of blood that I call the tribulation period, the Jews will be brought back together, all 10 tribes.

When you see a Jew today, he really does not know who he is. You are probably only looking at the 2 tribes, one of Benjamin, the other of Judah, because God never let the Samaritans of the northern kingdom ever assemble again the way He did with the southern kingdom under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the returning captives from Babylon came back and rebuilt and re-established Israel as a land again. The 10 tribes were never allowed to re-assemble.

Take your seats please. When Jesus finally goes into Samaria, He is making the first visit to His people in over 800 years when He goes there. They had heard that Jesus was Lord, but they had not heard a word from their God.

The people that were of this mixed breed, the Lord finally comes to address them, and would it not be so that when He finally gets there in Samaria, He meets a woman, not a man, but a woman. The Bible says that the woman that Jesus meets after 800 years of not sending a prophet.... For 800 years, these people are estranged from the land of God, from the word of God. They are not hearing, God is not talking to them. Not one preacher, not one prophet for 800 years did God send into that land.

Then finally Jesus Himself decides to go and the first person He meets there is a woman, and the woman, the Bible says, had five husbands, and had gotten rid of all five of them, or at least she was living with a man that was not her husband. She was a loose woman; she was what we would refer to as a floozy.

Just stand one more time, just to give you a little release here. When Jesus finally gets to the land where no prophet had been, no teaching had been, God had not spoken, 800 years God had not sent a word to these people, and now finally He says, I must go.

Indeed, Jesus told the twelve, Go ye to the lost sheep of Israel, in Matthew's gospel Chapter 10, but do not go into the way of the Gentiles or into the way of the Samaritans, go ye not to that crowd, do not go teach them. They do not have my word, and do not deliver my word to them.

Finally, the Bible says, He went Himself, to meet this woman. He does not deal with any of the preachers, He does not deal with any of the princely class or the monarchy. He does not deal with any of those. In fact He does not even go into the town, He just meets this woman and she asked Him a question. Where should we worship, because we do not have a true prophet, we do not have a place to worship, where should we worship? Shall we continue to worship on the mountain and the grove, and under every high hill and under every green tree? That was the question that the woman asked Jesus.

You all go ahead and take your seats again. My teaching this is something to say to you, because I want you to understand that God allows long periods of time before He speaks to people. He will cut them off from His word, and there will be great famine of the word of God, over hundreds of years before God chooses to speak to a people again, and wIll stirringly even tell His preachers, Do not go preach to those Samaritans, do not go preach to those Gentiles, do not do it, do not bring my word to them, I do not want them to have it.

For seven hundred and fifty years, they had no prophets, and any prophets who prophesied had to be false prophets. I want you to hear that, because I want you to hear this, which is more important.

For more than 2500 years the Negro people have had no God. Just like Solomon the son of David that God cursed and took away his kingdom from him, God cursed Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. We find this cursing of course in Genesis Chapter 9, and all of you ought to know it by now, so I do not to have to stop and read it. It is there in Genesis 9:25-27.

GEN 9:24

AND NOAH AWOKE FROM HIS WINE, AND KNEW WHAT HIS YOUNGER SON HAD DONE UNTO HIM.

Gen 9:25

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Gen 9:26

And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Gen 9:27

God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. KJV

PASTOR VITALE: I do not believe that God cursed Canaan. I know that Noah cursed Canaan, and to say that God cursed Canaan is to assume that Noah was manifesting the nature and the Spirit of God towards his son.

We have a lot of teaching on that. I believe that Noah was seduced by Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, after he survived the flood. Satan appeared in him and seduced him and that imputed Christ mind was turning back to his carnal mind, which is what happened to all of the descendants of Seth on the other side of the flood. That was why Jehovah brought a flood, because their ascended Christ mind had turned to an ascended carnal mind, and they were very powerful in witchcraft. That is why they were wiped out.

Noah was the only one who maintained that imputed Christ mind, he made it all the way to the other side of the flood but seduced. His son Ham recognized that his father, Noah, had been seduced and that his mind had turned to the carnal mind, and sounded the alarm. To understand what is meant by Ham saw the nakedness of his father, we have to go back to the earlier parts of Genesis, when Adam was in the garden, naked, and Jehovah said to him, Who told you that you were naked?

Nakedness is referring to a spiritual nakedness. Ham saw that Noah was naked, meaning he had lost the cover of Jehovah. He was no longer covered. I declare to you that it was Satan, the unconscious part of his carnal mind, who rose up within Noah to curse Canaan.

Of course, it is a great mystery as to why Noah cursed Canaan and did not curse Ham, or any of Ham's first children. I believe Canaan was the 4th or the 5th offspring (I do not believe they were in human form at that time). That mystery was solved for me, not too long ago. I believe the reason that Canaan was cursed is Canaan was destined to bring forth certain nations that would honor Jehovah.

Abraham was living in the land of Canaan and he was living amongst the Ammorites, which are the descendants of Canaan. Abraham had a confederacy with Mamre the Ammorite, and his two brothers, and they were in Abraham's household. I believe that they were circumcised, and they worshiped and honored the living God. Salvation was destined to come forth through the descendants of Canaan, and that is why Canaan was the one that Satan cursed through Noah.

In any event, whether you believe that or not, I do not believe that God cursed Canaan and it is drawing a conclusion to say that God cursed Canaan. It is drawing a subjective conclusion. Noah cursed Canaan and it is up to us to ask the Lord what spirit was operating in Noah to curse his own son. Are there any questions or comments?

PASTOR MANNING: Solomon is listed among the wicked kings, he is not listed among the righteous of the kings of the nation of Israel.

King Solomon was a good king and he honored God and the Scripture says that he loved the Lord. However, towards the end he was seduced and because he was seduced, God judged him. It is not really inaccurate to say that God cursed him because a negative judgment of God can be called a curse. However, in this particular situation, I would not be inclined to say God cursed Solomon.

Solomon reaped what he sowed. He worshiped pagan gods and he lost the power and the anointing and the wisdom of Jehovah. The Scripture says, Jehovah said to Solomon, the kingdom will be removed from you. You can call that a curse if you want, but I believe that word curse is misleading. Solomon was an honorable man and a good king who was seduced in his last days.  Are there any comments or questions?

PASTOR MANNING: God also cursed Canaan. I humbly submit this to you. By humbly, I mean I do it without a sense of arrogance or pride, or even desiring that I should be able to do it. I say this, and you will let the Lord God Almighty, whose name is Jesus, tell you whether to receive this word as a seed, or whether you can reject it and go on about your business.

I humbly submit this word, that I am the first of the prophets who has come to speak to the Negro people over the last 2500 years. You must stand one more time after hearing that. Now, let me repeat. I say, I humbly submit, I do not say I desire to have such position. I certainly do not arrogantly say so, and if in any way the tone of my voice or the character of my statue indicates that there is a sense of pride or arrogance about my statements, then I visibly repent and ask that you accept my repentance.

Nonetheless I state that I, only I, am the first of the prophets to come and speak directly to the Negro people after 2500 years, just as Jesus went to Samaria after he had forbade for 800 years that you should not go into the way of the Samaritans, neither into the way of the Gentiles.

While you are still standing, I want to raise this as an issue up to you. The 1.2 billion Muslims (and there are that many Muslims on the earth today, Muslims worldwide) believe in Allah the benevolent, the merciful Allah (as they call him,) and call him God. Now, if Allah is not God, and there is no if, he is not God. Yet, my friend, 1.2 billion people on this planet believe that they are hearing from God when they hear from the preachers of Allah, when they hear from the preachers of the Prophet Mohammed, and there are many of them.

I do not know but there are many of these preachers. There are 1.2 billion Muslims on the earth, and if 5% of the populace of Muslim people are prophets, are preachers, or Imams, Ayatollahs, whatever they want to call themselves, that would make about 600,000 men who are prophets and preachers and leaders, and Imams, and Ayatollahs to the people called Muslims.

If Allah is not God, then whoever prophesies on behalf of Allah is a false prophet because there is no God, Allah.Therefore these 600,000 men and Imams and Ayatollahs are all false prophets and the 1.2 billion Muslims are not hearing from God. Can you agree with that as a statement of understanding? Take your seats, I thank you so much for your agreement.

(End of preaching by pastor Manning, continues with music and Atlah, that is what God says, that is what God says.)

PASTOR VITALE: I see that we have half an hour to go, so I would like to point out some things to you in the Scripture. When I looked at these Scriptures this morning concerning Solomon's deviation from the worship of the Lord, I thought that I would (and I still might do this if the Lord lets me) preach a whole message on it.

In order to do that, I would have to review one of my previous messages to find the circumstances under which Joab (who was frequently the General of David's armies) killed Amasa and Abner. I am just going to get my Bible out and I am going to try to convey to you what the Lord showed me about Solomon's weakness and how he inherited that weakness from his father, David.  I am starting to read in 1 Kings Chapter 2.

1 KINGS 2:1

1.       Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son saying,

2.       I go the way of the earth, be thou strong therefore and show thyself a man.

We see that David is counseling his son on how to be a king. That is good counsel,

be strong and show yourself to be a man.

3.       And keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest and whithersoever thou turnest thyself.

Good advice.

Verse 4:

4.       THAT THE LORD MAY CONTINUE HIS WORD, WHICH HE SPAKE CONCERNING ME SAYING, IF THY CHILDREN TAKE HEED TO THEIR WAY, TO WALK BEFORE ME IN TRUTH WITH ALL OF THEIR HEART AND WITH ALL OF THEIR SOUL, THERE SHALL NOT FAIL THEE (SAID HE) A MAN ON THE THRONE OF ISRAEL.

Good advice.

Verse 5:

5.       MOREOVER, (SWITCH FROM THE CHRIST MIND TO THE CARNAL MIND, MOREOVER SAYS KING DAVID), THOU KNOWEST ALSO WHAT JOAB THE SON OF ZERUIAH DID TO ME, AND WHAT HE DID TO THE TWO CAPTAINS OF THE HOSTS OF ISRAEL, UNTO ABNER THE SON OF NER, AND UNTO AMASA THE SON OF JETHER, WHOM HE SLEW AND SHED THE BLOOD OF WAR IN PEACE, AND PUT THE BLOOD OF WAR UPON HIS GIRDLE THAT WAS ABOUT HIS LIONS, AND IN HIS SHOES THAT WERE ON HIS FEET.

6.       Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head (that means grey head, let not him in his older years) go down to the grave in peace.  (i.e. punish Joab)

Then he goes on to tell him to show kindness to the sons of Barzillai, but I am not going to get into that right now. And then he goes on to say.... I guess I should get into it.

7.       BUT SHOW KINDNESS UNTO THE SONS OF  BARZILLAI THE GILEADITE AND LET THEM BE OF THOSE THAT EAT AT THY TABLE; FOR SO THEY CAME TO ME WHEN I FLED BECAUSE OF ABSALOM THY BROTHER. (BE GOOD TO THE PEOPLE WHO WERE GOOD TO ME)

8.       And behold thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjaminite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day that I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.

9.       Now therefore, hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him, but his hoar head (in his older years) bring thou down to the grave with blood. KJV

We see David giving Solomon advice concerning three categories of people. The first category is Joab, who I declare to you is an innocent man. We will find, further on in the Scripture, that when Solomon went looking for Joab to kill him, Joab went into the sanctuary and lay hold of the horns of the altar. That is a sign that he is claiming his innocence and asking for the protection of the Lord.

King Solomon sent his executioner Benaiah, and Benaiah said, Come out, because he did not want to slay anyone clinging to the horns of the altar. Joab said, I will not come out, if you are going to kill me, you have to do it here in the sanctuary. Benaiah went to King Solomon and said, What should I do, he will not come out. King Solomon said, Kill him in the sanctuary. That is the one category of vengeance, of which I believe Joab was innocent.

The second category is to show kindness to the people who were kind to David, that is good. The third category is vengeance against Shimei. Shimei did indeed curse King David. To be honest with you, I do not fully understand the way things ran those days as well as I would like to understand.

I do not really understand why David would be kind to Shimei and then have his son take vengeance on him. Of course he did the same thing with Joab also. As far as Joab is concerned, indeed Joab did kill Amasa and he did kill Abner. Now remember Joab was a very faithful captain of David's armies. He served him faithfully.

If I preach this as a full message I will have to go into a previous message that I preached where I go into how faithful Joab was. The message that I am referring to actually is a CCK message and it shows the human side of David. David was a man that was after the Lord's own heart. What does that mean? It means that he heard from God, he was responsive to God, and he was obedient. He was not a hundred percent obedient but he obeyed God and he loved the Lord, but in his humanity, he was a very wicked man.

This is what we are dealing with today; people in the Church have to understand this. If they do not understand this, there is a pharisaical spirit. Some of the most wicked people in the world are in the Church. They have the Holy Spirit and they are speaking in tongues, and they really love the Lord, but they are very wicked. They manifest that wickedness in their everyday lives when they go out of the Church, sometimes in the Church.

I had a pastor who was very wicked to me. A very anointed man of God was very wicked to me. That is our condition. We need to know that it is our condition, that we are two people. Some people are more wicked than others, but the fact that you speak in tongues, cast out demons, heal the sick, go to Church, none has anything to do with the fact that you have another side. The Scripture says, The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know what is in there. This talking about your motives.

Joab was a General. He was the leader of David's army, and he killed Abner who was the leader of the Israelite army. He was a soldier, and he killed the leader of the other side. Why would David be holding that against him? As I lay out in my CCK message (just bear with me when I grope for words, I did not really expect to do this today), David, in his humanity, was very weak. He was strong when he followed what the Lord told him to do, but in other areas he was a very weak man.

When his daughter, Tamar, was raped and cast out, he did not condemn it. He did not do what was right because it was his own son who raped her. It was his son who was in line for the throne, and David would not do anything about it.  All that he did was personally reject Absalom, but he did not punish him.

Do you know we do this? This is what we are taught in our society today, Do not paddle your children, just disapprove of them, or yell at them. No, you are supposed to paddle your children. The punishment is given, the punishment is over, and you love them again, but David could not do that. He rejected Absalom, he would not talk to him but did not punish him.

Joab, his General, said to him, You have got to do something about this. Ultimately Joab killed Absalom, it was a righteous death. Absalom rebelled against David and tried to take the Kingdom from him. You have to realize these were different days than they are today now.  Assassination was the name of the game in those days, personal vengeance. The kings came to the throne, and they wiped out the whole royal family that they replaced. That is the way it was.

It was righteous to kill Absalom, he was completely an enemy of the State and in rebellion against the king, and David did not have the guts to do what needed to be done. If David did what needed to be done, it probably would not have been necessary to kill Absalom. Maybe it would have, I do not know. The point that I am trying to make is that David was a wimp and Joab stood up and did what needed to be done. He did the dirty work, he did what needed to be done.

When it comes to Amasa, again I have to review that situation, I am not too sure about it. Basically what happened.... Now remember, the Israelites were at war with the Judeans continuously, the kingdom was divided. Israel fought against Judah and Judah fought against Israel continuously. Amasa was a General, he had a high military office in the Israelite army. As I remember this, to the degree that I remember it, he had a younger brother who was very much of a novice, who challenged Joab, this seasoned warrior.

Joab begged him, Go away, I do not want to hurt you, go away I do not want to hurt you. The young man, and again I do not remember the details, followed him and provoked Joab to the point that he could not go away and he killed the young man. I did not want to do this today because I may have it backwards. In any event, I am going to stop right here because I did not have time to review it, but it was something like that. I do not know whether it was Joab's younger brother, or Amasa's younger brother, but it was a young novice that was killed.

In those days vengeance was legitimate, vengeance was legitimate. Maybe I had it backwards, maybe it was Joab's younger brother, and I guess Amasa must have killed Joab's younger brother, and he killed him. In addition to that, David had sold out Joab. He wanted to make a truce or an agreement with the Israelites that was to his own benefit.

He removed Joab from being General and placed Amasa in his place. Not only was that unfair and unreasonable to Joab, who had been on his side consistently for years, Amasa was not qualified to lead the Judean troops who, we are told in the Scripture, were very disheartened, they did not want to follow.

We have something like that in this country. We had a young man resign the military because he was told he had to serve under a United Nations commander. He resigned. He made a big issue out of it. He was given a dishonorable discharge, and whatever the powers that be, that were trying to force our troops to serve under a foreign commander, he failed.

The young man sacrificed his whole career in the military, and he stopped it dead in his tracks. It was something like that. The Scripture says the troops were disheartened that Amasa was now their leader. He was not even as good a soldier as Joab. David did all of this for his own personal gain.

Joab, who I am sure was not perfect over the years but in the times of trouble was a faithful servant to David, did the dirty work that David could not do. I want to suggest to you that David's real gripe against Joab was that he killed Absalom. We notice that David talks about the bad things that Joab did, what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, Abner and Amasa ,but he never mentioned that Joab killed Absalom.

That is the real root of the whole thing, he could not forgive him. Even though David would not talk to Absalom, and ostracized him because of what he did, his heart was still knit to Absalom's and I suggest to you, he never forgave Joab for killing him.

Absalom's name comes up here somewhere here. He says, But show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai, for they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother. He recognizes that Absalom was making war against him, and trying to take the kingdom. However, it is like a married couple killing each other, the police come in and they both turn on the policeman. Joab killed his son. It makes no sense at all. The way the Lord showed it to me, and the way I see it today, Joab was the enforcer of the righteousness of God in a militaristic way, in a society that was living in a blood and guts time.

Towards the end we are told, before David made Solomon king, that Adonijah (the next son in line for David's throne) was claiming the throne. Apparently it was known in the palace circles that Solomon was to be king, that the Lord had told David that Solomon would be king, that Nathan the prophet had that witness that Solomon would be king, that Zadok the priest had that witness that Solomon would be king.

However, Abiathar, (there was a dual priesthood in those days) did not seem to get that witness that, that natural order was to be circumvented, so Abiathar the priest was supporting Adonijah, the next physical son in line for the throne. So we have one priest with David with Solomon, and the other priest, Abiathar with Adonijah, and Joab went with Adonijah.

I believe that what happened at that point was, Joab was a military man, there was nothing in the Scripture that says he was a spiritual man, so he could not discern that the Lord was appointing Solomon and that he was to circumvent the natural order. He was a righteous man in a carnal kind of way.

In any event, what I am trying to suggest to you is that Solomon, this young man who was now appointed king, took his father's advice. He was not alive when Joab was a faithful servant to David, he was not alive when Joab killed Amasa, he was not alive when Joab killed Absalom; he just knew what his father was telling him.

Here is the question that we really do not know the answer to. I have an opinion, but we really do not know the answer. Did David know that he was unrighteous in his attitude towards Joab? Did David know that he was misleading his son Solomon or did David just have carnal thinking in these emotional areas?

My opinion is, he was just carnal, and he had it all wrong in his head. He may not even have been.... well to what degree that he was aware, he had to be aware that he made an ungodly league with Israel, and put Amasa on the throne to take power. Again, I did not review it so I do not remember the details of it. He had to know he was doing wrong, but even though we know that we do things wrong, when years go by, we tend to convince ourselves that things were different than the way they really were.

I think by the time David was dying and advising Solomon he believed all of this nonsense that Joab was his enemy, he made Joab his enemy. At the time there had to be a moment of truth when he knew what he did to Joab by removing him as General and placing Amasa in his place, in his stead, was wrong. He had to know that, that was wrong, but by the time David was old and dying, Joab was just an enemy in his eyes. Apparently it was the way they did things, that they did not punish their enemies in their lifetime, they gave it to their children to do.

I do not really understand that; maybe the Lord will explain it to me. I would like to understand that. In any event, here is my position. Solomon sinned from the minute he took the throne. He sinned in his heart against a righteous man. Joab was a righteous man, a defender of the kingdom, a righteous and devoted servant of David. I do not remember if I ever read anything about him loving God or not, but he loved Judah. He loved his nation, and he was clinging to the horns of the altar. He was crying out for righteous judgment. Solomon was shot in the foot from the minute he took office. His own father torpedoed him from day one. Can you hear this? Do you see how important right thinking is? The way we think does not just affect us, it affects everyone that has confidence in us, everyone that looks to us as an example, or looks to us for any kind of counsel. This is how family line curses go from generation to generation, because curses manifest and exercise themselves in the way we think.

That is why acquiring the mind of Christ and then living out of it, is so important. These things that we think are right in our carnal mind bring destruction upon us and upon our families and stop us from going on. Solomon was torpedoed from day one by his father. I guess I will just take the whole thing.  I am still in Chapter 2 of 1 Kings, and these are Solomon's first acts after David died.

1 KINGS 2:10-13

10.     So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

11.     And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years, seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

12.     Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was established greatly.

13.     And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bethsheba....

That is the son of David who was rightfully, in the natural, in line for the kingship. He went to Bethsheba, that is Solomon's mother.

13B. .... AND SHE SAID, COMEST THOU PEACEABLY? AND HE SAID, PEACEABLY.  KJV

Basically what happened is, Adonijah, in his heart, although he admitted that the Lord appointed Solomon, he could not deal with it. He wanted to marry the virgin bride of King David. King David, in his last days, had married a woman who he never consummated the marriage with; she just slept in his bed and kept him warm. Adonijah asked for that woman as his wife.

I do not know whether this was right or not, but according to the Scripture, Solomon's response was, Well he might as well have asked for the kingdom. I do not understand that, but apparently marrying King David's widow would have given Adonijah some authority. In any event, Solomon killed him for that. Like I said, I really do not understand that.

Here we see Solomon establishing the kingdom. He is taking his vengeance based on his enemies, but he did not kill everybody, he waited until they did evil to him. Remember this was a day when new kings came on the throne and they just killed all of their enemies. Solomon however, did not do what other kings did, he was a good hearted king.

Based on this act by Adonijah, King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah, his General, and he executed Adonijah. Benaiah killed Adonijah for this reason. Solomon removed Abiathar the priest (that is the priest that supported Adonijah) from the priesthood.

Verse 27;

27.     SO SOLOMON THRUST OUT ABIATHAR FROM BEING PRIEST UNTO THE LORD, THAT HE MIGHT FULFILL THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPAKE CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF ELI IN SHILOH.  KJV

We see that, that was a righteous act, because the Lord said that the house of Eli would come to an end and Abiathar was the last priest of the line of Eli. We see that, that was of God. I do not know if what he did to Adonijah was righteous or not.

28.     THEN TIDINGS CAME TO JOAB, FOR JOAB HAD TURNED AFTER ADONIJAH, THOUGH HE TURNED NOT AFTER ABSALOM, AND JOAB FLED UNTO THE TABERNACLE OF THE LORD, AND CAUGHT HOLD ON THE HORNS OF THE ALTAR.

I told you about that already. Joab was killed clinging to the horns of the altar. This is what he said;

31. AND THE KING SAID UNTO HIM, DO AS HE HATH SAID AND FALL UPON HIM (SPEAKING TO HIS GENERAL) AND BURY HIM, THAT THOU MAYEST TAKE AWAY THE INNOCENT BLOOD WHICH JOAB SHED FROM ME AND FROM THE HOUSE OF MY FATHER.  KJV

That innocent blood was Amasa the General of the enemy army, and Abner, Amasa and Abner. He is saying that Joab was a traitor, and the exact opposite was the truth. I am getting to my point. I am sorry, I did not prepare for this, but I will be there in a second.

Then he wound up killing.... This is interesting, I might want to put this in just to show you that Solomon, even though his heart was right, was a carnal mind. King Solomon did not want to kill him Shimei, the man who cursed David. He said, Look, I will make a deal with you, you live in your house and you live in your little area, do not go out, the day that you go out, I am going to kill you. Shimei said, That is a good deal, thank you for my life, and he went to live in his little area. Several years later, two of his servants ran away. Shimei went out of that area to retrieve his servants and then he came right back, and Solomon had him killed. It is true that Solomon kept to his word, but to me that is a situation which comes under the category of guilty with an explanation. We see that Solomon was under the law, he kept to his word, even though there was a legitimate explanation for what he did.

Now, this is my point about king Solomon. At the end of Chapter 2, it says;

45.     AND KING SOLOMON SHALL BE BLESSED AND THE THRONE OF DAVID SHALL BE ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE LORD FOREVER.

46.     So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, which went out and fell upon him and he died, and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.  KJV

The very next verse (it is a new chapter, but remember the King James translators put the chapter headings in), the very next verse says,

1 KINGS 3:1

1. And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt...

There is no personal name of Pharaoh here. I want to suggest to you that Solomon killed a righteous man, and by doing so made affinity in his mind with Pharaoh which is a high manifestation of the Serpent in the form of mind. His great crime, was not following foreign women, but taking his father's word for it, and not going before the Lord, and saying, Lord do you agree with my father's evaluation? What do you want me to do? when Joab is clinging to the horns of the altar,

He took the wisdom of a human being, even though it was his father, killed a righteous man, and, the next verse says, Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He could not have done that in his Christ mind. There was an imputed Christ mind. He agreed with his carnal mind and that was the beginning of the end. Jehovah knew he was finished.

1 KINGS 3:1

1.       And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter, (no personal name, it is Pharaoh's daughter, Cain probably, someone in the Serpent's household) and brought her into the city of David....

What is the City of David? Spiritual Jerusalem. He took the carnal mind or the thoughts of the carnal mind right into his Christ mind.

.... UNTIL HE HAD MADE AN END OF BUILDING HIS HOUSE....

That was the end of his own house, that was the end of the mind of Christ, and the new man that was being built in him.

.... AND THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.

Listen, he made an affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He agreed with his carnal mind, he took Pharaoh's daughter, he brought Cain into the house instead of Abel, and brought her into the City of David, into his own spiritual Jerusalem, his new man, until he made an end of building his own house, his own Christ person, and the house of the Lord. He put an end to building his personality in Christ, and the mind of Christ, and the wall of Jerusalem..

.... AND THE WALL OF JERUSALEM ROUND ABOUT.  KJV

He killed Joab, and tore down all of his defenses in Christ. Even more than that, listen to this.... well the next verse says;

2.       ONLY THE PEOPLE SACRIFICED IN HIGH PLACES, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO HOUSE BUILT UNTO THE NAME OF THE LORD UNTIL THOSE DAYS.  KJV

Those words are very common in the Scripture. I want to suggest to you that the high places are the high energy centers. Who do the people sacrifice? Either they sacrifice Leviathan or they sacrifice Christ, they sacrifice in the high places. These people were very spiritual in those days. There was no house built unto the Lord. The mind of Christ was not there. A lot of spiritual sacrifices went on in the high places, the higher centers of the carnal mind, a lot of sin took place there. They sacrificed Christ all of the time. Solomon sacrificed Christ, that is what it says.

1.       Then Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David, his new spiritual city in Christ, until he had made an end of building his own house in Christ and the house of the Lord, that is the mind of Christ, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, all of his defenses in Christ.

2.       Only the people, and I did not look up the word to see if it was really there, the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house of the Lord.  KJV

Solomon killed whatever there was of Christ, and he killed it not only for himself, he killed it for all of the people. There was now no house built unto the name of the Lord in those days. In the very next verse, next verse, and Solomon loved the Lord. He did not even know he did anything wrong, he just obeyed his father. He just did what his dad told him.  He did not have a clue that he did anything wrong.

3.       AND SOLOMON LOVED THE LORD, WALKING IN THE STATUTES OF DAVID HIS FATHER, ONLY HE SACRIFICED AND BURNT INCENSE IN HIGH PLACES.  KJV

In his mind, he loved the Lord on the highest level that he was able to love Him on. However, he burnt incense in the way he reasoned and the reasoning of his carnal mind, he sacrificed Christ.

4.       AND THE KING WENT TO GIBEON TO SACRIFICE THERE, FOR THAT WAS THE GREAT HIGH PLACE, A THOUSAND BURNT OFFERINGS DID SOLOMON OFFER UPON THAT ALTAR.

That number, thousand, refers to wisdom.  Did Solomon offer a thousand goats? I do not know, but to me he sacrificed his wisdom. How did he sacrifice his wisdom? He did not invite the Lord into his decision-making process. The Lord wants us to ask Him the simplest little things and then we get into the practice of inviting Him into our decision- making process.

After all of this - he kills Joab, he makes an affinity with Pharaoh, he is sacrificing in the high places of his mind, he is still serving the Serpent - the Lord appeared to Solomon. In the midst of all of this, Jehovah appears to him in a dream at night and says, Tell me what you want and I will give it to you.

I want to tell that this was a test. I do not know what would have happened if he asked for the wrong things. I do not know exactly what would have happened, but the Lord has come to me like that. It has not happened in a long time, but He came to me a long time ago, concerning someone that was really out to hurt me, and He said, What would you have me do to them?  I said, If I have a choice, I would like to see them come to the Lord.

He wants us to invite Him into the decision-making process. Some of us do not even invite Him into the major decision-making process, let alone the little things. I said, Lord if I had my choice, I would like to see them saved, what is the point of hurting them if there is a possibility to save them?

In the case of Solomon (and also in my case, and anyone else that the Lord puts this question to), I do not think the Lord would have punished him if his answer was wrong. I do not think I would have been punished if my answer was wrong. It is a test as to whether or not you are qualified to go on for more responsibility in the kingdom. Then of course we are told right here that Solomon answered....

AND SOLOMON SAID, THOU HAST SHEWED UNTO THY SERVANT DAVID MY FATHER GREAT MERCY, ACCORDING AS HE WALKED BEFORE THEE IN TRUTH AND IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND IN UPRIGHTNESS OF HEART WITH THEE, AND THOU HAST KEPT HIM FOR THIS GREAT KINDNESS, AND THOU HAST GIVEN HIM A SON TO SIT ON HIS THRONE AS IT IS THIS DAY.

6.       And now O Lord thy God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

7.       And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

8.       Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

9.       And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

10.     And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

11.     Behold I have done according to thy words: Lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

Does that sound like a wicked king? I mean that is an abomination that Pastor Manning said that.

 AND I HAVE ALSO GIVEN THEE THAT WHICH THOU HAST NOT ASKED, BOTH RICHES AND HONOR: SO THAT THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY AMONG THE KINGS LIKE UNTO THEE ALL THY DAYS.

There are no conditions attached to all that the Lord said He is going to give him, no condition. Now he is going to give him more things on condition.

IF THOU WILT WALK IN MY WAYS, TO KEEP MY STATUTES AND MY COMMANDMENTS, AS THY FATHER DAVID DID WALK, THEN I WILL LENGTHEN THY DAYS.  KJV

I do not know if Solomon died young or not, I just know that he lost the kingdom. That would be interesting to find out. Does anyone know how long king Solomon lived?

COMMENT: I do not know.

PASTOR VITALE: King Solomon was a walking disaster, as so many of us are, we are just walking disasters because of the way that we think, the way we were taught. The key to every problem that we have, brethren, is get the mind of Christ. Get Christ and His wisdom; pursue His righteousness. Let Him teach you. Anything that you hear from any teacher that He has witnessed to you as legitimate, if it sounds crazy to you, ask Him if it is true, and do not expect an answer the next day.