Video first posted: September 26, 2026
Below is a machine-generated transcript of the Song of songs 3 v6-11 (Part 91) BitChute video, with a few minor manual edits. At the bottom, after the transcript, is a machine-generated summary of the transcript.
| Hello. In this video, we're going to continue meditating on the spirit of Solomon and how it was contaminating the apostle Paul, even though, as we've said before, he was amongst the apostles, the one who was least affected by it, but even he became contaminated by the spirit of Solomon that we've been describing in this entire series of videos. | |
| So we've been in Acts chapter 20 and we had left off around verse 16, if I remember correctly. So we'll continue from verse 17 onwards to see what happened with Paul as described by the Lord here in Acts 20. But before we do that, we just wanted to mention something very quickly. | |
| uh and i don't recall if it was mentioned at all but um it's regarding uh trogillium uh the place that is mentioned here in acts 2015 and as you may recall um well let's just go there very quickly to see the the meaning of the name uh trogillium um and trogillium means a a cache | |
| and and we talked about how this seems to refer to you could say a like a cave of refuge somewhere where you stash away something valuable and because there's trouble in the environment you know let's say that | |
| homes are being raided by criminals or by an oppressive government and you have some valuable items and you want to protect them from these criminals, these intruders coming into your home. So you stash them away in a special place. And we talked about how that had the connotation of how God is keeping the remnant in a cave of refuge | |
| as the persecution of the matriarchal system is out and about, like Saul with David aiming to destroy him. And the thing that we wanted to mention was how that is spiritually connected to the cave of Adullam. I'm not sure how people pronounce it, but I think that is how I pronounce it. I apologize if that's not a standard pronunciation, but | |
| Adullam, A-D-U-L-L-A-M. That's a cave that is mentioned as we can see here in 1 Samuel 22. So David was fleeing from Saul who was trying to kill him. And in verse 1 here of 1 Samuel 22, it says, David therefore departed then and escaped to the cave Adullam. And | |
| When his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. So it was a place of refuge where he went to to escape the persecution. And then verse two says, and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over them. | |
| And there were with him about 400 men. So this place became a gathering place of the ones who were being oppressed by the system and trying to escape from it. And so this is the cash, the trogillium, you could say, that is being referred to spiritually in Acts 20. | |
| and you see these 400 men being gathered here. And I know that each of these things that are mentioned here in verse 2, each characteristic of the people who gathered there is significant. I don't have the full meaning of it, but for example, it says that there were people there in distress, people who were in debt, and those who were discontented, they were not happy with the situation. | |
| So there's three types of people. I would say the debt is, I would say, is connected to the old covenant. And it's in the sense of these things that are demanded of people under the old covenant that don't apply when you're in the new covenant. | |
| the imposition of Jebusite rules and regulations and religious things that are not of the spirit. That's what I get in my heart. It represents the people who are being told, you owe the system because you're not abiding by the system in this, that or the other. And the this, the that and the other | |
| are things that God is not imposing or demanding of his people. It's religious things. Like, for example, the idea that you have to go to church every Sunday because if you don't, then you're violating the commandments of God. So it puts people in this state of debt that they have this debt that they have to keep paying off. | |
| things like that. So I would dare say this is connected to Jebusite oppression, Jebusite legalism, Jebusite judgments, legalistic judgments that are being imposed on people, giving them a sense of spiritual debt that they owe God something, that God is not demanding of them or requiring of them. And then the distress part, | |
| Let's see, now that I'm curious, I wasn't, we weren't planning to look at this in more detail, but now that we're here, the word distress is matzok, that's what it sounds like. Yeah, matzok, and it means straightness, straight, distress, stress, anguish. And I get the sense, as I was looking at the word distress, | |
| The thought that came to my heart was Hittite. And now that I see the word anguish, that is even more directly pointing at the Hittite spirit. Because when you experience deep anguish in your soul, it's usually when it's not of God, it's an oppression or an attack of the Hittite spirit. The Hittite spirit is the one that presses you down emotionally. | |
| Where you feel this internal anguish because it's the Hittite spirit as we've shared on the Shamayalam website Is the spirit of of depression? It's the spirit of fear the spirit of phobia the spirit of terror so it creates this psychological Anguish, so I think that that's so the the distress that is being referred to here is the people who are in | |
| Figure of the people who are in in the church system who are oppressed by the Hittite spirits that the matriarchal system allows into the church system All that Hittite spirit of purposelessness of emptiness that that that the matriarchal system opens a door for and then causes this Oppression of distress on God's people so the debt is | |
| from the Jebusite spirit, distresses from the Hittite spirit, and then by, what's the word? By extrapolation, you could say, the discontent it would have to do with the Amorites. So let's just write that down. We weren't going to talk about that, but now that we're here, very quickly, 1 Samuel 22 talks about the distressed | |
| And we just mentioned that it's connected to the Hittite spirit that causes anguish, depression, emptiness. And we just saw that those who are in debt, that represents the oppression of the Jebusite spirit of legalistic judgments. | |
| demanding things that God is not demanding. So you're in constant debt, spiritual debt. And then this contented would have to be by extrapolation the Amorite spirit. And you'd say why the Amorite | |
| spirit, well, what happens is the Hittite spirit is the prophetic gone bad, as we've shared so many times on the Shammai Elam website. The prophetic endowment, when it's not cultivated in the spirit, degrades into the Hittite spirit. And then the Jebusite spirit is the apostle gone bad. When the apostolic endowment is not cultivated in the spirit, | |
| then it degrades into Jebusite behavior. And then the Amorite spirit is the evangelist gone bad. And that's why we were saying that by kind of extrapolation, the spirit that would go with this contented is the Amorite spirit. And why? Because the prophet and the apostle are male ministries. | |
| as we have shared so many times. And then the other male ministry, the third one that completes the list of three male ministries is the evangelist. And then pastor and teacher are the two female ministries. So that's why since this one distress pointed to prophet and in debt pointed to apostle and discontented, then would have to point to the other male ministry evangelist, but obviously evangelist gone bad. | |
| So the Amorite spirit. And as we've said so many times, when the pastoral matriarchy, which is fostered and strengthened by the spirit of Solomon, when it's in place, it undermines the three male ministries. And it kind of shuts them down, preventing them operating in the spirit under the spirit of God and the will of God. | |
| And because, as we've said so many times, nature abhors a vacuum, then somehow there has to be a replacement of what the pastors and teachers are holding out of the church or keeping out of the church. So because they keep out the true apostolic, then that empty spot in the spiritual realm, you could say, in the church becomes filled with the Jebusite spirit. | |
| Jevisite spirits come in. And because they distort the prophetic, sometimes they don't let it in at all, but sometimes they let it in under certain conditions as long as it's under the covering of the pastoral endowment. Because the prophetic is distorted, not flowing as it should in the Lord, then Hittite spirits take its place. And then because the evangelistic is not allowed in the true sense of the spirit, | |
| Yes, they allow evangelists, but only as people who go get more fish to put in the bucket of the pastor. And it's always under the supervision and control, ultimately, of the pastors. So the evangelistic ministry is not flowing as it should. Because if it were flowing correctly, then it would be concrete, people would | |
| start rising up as evangelists who manifest the conquest and head authority of God. And that's not what's happening. And then the kingdom of God would be expanded instead of the kingdom of the pastor. So the evangelistic ministry is not allowed to flow as it should in that male warrior nature of God. And therefore the Amorite spirit then comes in to take its place. And so now the question is what | |
| how would this be connected um in other words discontented with amorite so let's look at the word discontented um mar i think that's bitter that's what i'm getting um yeah bitter yeah because uh uh we've uh i've seen that word before uh when i see bitter it's mar um uh | |
| uh, Mara, you know, that's, that sort of word, um, has to do with bitterness. Um, and, uh, yeah, so, uh, and I'll be very frank at this point, I don't know exactly how it would be connected to the evangelistic, um, endowment or the Amorite spirit, uh, because bitterness is usually connected with, um, | |
| in a negative sense with the canine spirit bitterness is, as we've shared before on the website, is the reaction to judgments that you don't agree with. So if you are bitter, let's say, if let's say Jebusite judgments come against you, then the natural reaction, if you're aware that these judgments are not right, then | |
| the natural reaction in you will be bitterness towards those judgments. You will be bitter that these things are being imposed on you. And in this case, because the judgments are not of God, then that bitterness is of God. I hope that makes sense because we tend to say, oh, you can't be bitter. That's not a good thing. That's of the flesh. No, well, if you're reacting to judgments that are not right, | |
| and that produces a bitterness in you, then that's a bitterness of the spirit. Now, if God is the one judging you, and you resent those judgments, then the bitterness that you have will now obviously not be of God, that will be of the flesh, and it's usually from the Canaanite spirit, because the Canaanite spirit is the one that hates God's judgments. | |
| It is totally opposed to it. It is vitriolically opposed to the judgments of God. So when the judgments come, then it produces this bitterness and resentment against the apostolic judgments of the Lord. And that is not of God. But obviously, in the case of these discontented people, the ones who were in the cave of Adullam with David, these were | |
| in a state of discontent because of what was happening in Israel with Saul as the king oh I think that's where the Amorite thing comes in okay thank you Lord I think yeah I think that answers the question yeah so these were discontented but discontented with what you could say and we'll put it in parentheses because it's not explicitly said in the verse but it's obviously you know from the context it | |
| It is kind of implicitly there that they were discontented with the state of things under, and I'll say in quotes, King Saul. And I put it in quotes because Saul stopped being king of Israel at the end of 1 Samuel 15. In 1 Samuel 16, we see Samuel anointing David as the king of Israel. Then he became the king of Israel. | |
| Saul lost the kingdom at the end of chapter 15 of 1 Samuel. And Samuel said, God has stripped the kingdom away from you. I mean, I think that's, I could be misquoting, but that's more or less what Samuel said to Saul. So that's why we put it in quotes here. So the people who are, who have an evangelistic anointing are the ones who are connected to, | |
| to kingship. The evangelistic endowment is the one most directly connected to kingship and head authority. So here comes a king who is unrighteous, trying to establish a kingdom. And a king who is of God, an evangelist, or a king of God, will be the one who will be the least inclined to | |
| will be the one who will feel challenged by this unrighteous kingdom trying to impose itself on him. And they will fight back. It's like they're warriors by nature. They're competitive. So there's this king that's really not a king trying to act as a king over them. And they go, who is this king to tell me what to do? I am. I am in the kingship of God. So this is not a righteous kingdom. | |
| kingship being imposed on me and that will create a state of discontent they're the ones who will say no I will I challenge you and I know prophets do that too prophets defy kings but I get the sense in this case it's a competition thing but it's a righteous competition because it's not a righteous king and we say that in quotes king because Saul was really not a king in God's eyes but humanly speaking he was | |
| at least the people in the natural realm. So this king, quote unquote, was coming to impose his kingship on them. And they would say in their hearts, who is this so-called king to tell me what is and isn't because I come to establish the kingdom of God. So people who have an evangelistic endowment will stand up to the challenge and fight back as a | |
| warriors uh because it's like this king is invading their space or their their their territory i hope i'm making sense and that's the state of discontent that was in these people like oh i don't agree with saul i i believe saul is is not the real king because he is opposed to the kingship of god uh that sort of thing that was like in in words um like a | |
| Essence of the discontent. That was in these people. They were bitter. About the imposition. Of judgment. And laws by a king. That had no legitimacy. In their eyes. And they were the ones. Promoting the real kingship of God. And that's why they went to David. Because David was the one anointed by God. As king of Israel. So they were bent on expanding. The kingship of God in their hearts. | |
| So that's why they were in a state of discontent or bitterness against Saul. So I hope that makes sense. So the three types of people are the people who are kind of, how shall we say, protecting the male endowments in their hearts, protecting their apostolic endowments. | |
| protecting their prophetic endowments and protecting their evangelistic endowments. And by the way, you know, prophets are the ones who are most sensitive to Hittite attacks. It's not like a rule that if you're subjected to Hittite attacks, then you're mostly prophetic. But the thing is that | |
| Of all the people of all the endowments the one that is most sensitive to hit type Oppression are the prophets because they're very very emotionally sensitive So when the Hittite spirits come they are they react to them much more strongly than in other people by definition and also Apostles in a sense They react they feel indebted more quickly than other people | |
| because apostles are always trying to do what is right. Their nature is of law and judgments. So when there's this Jebusite spirit coming and telling them, you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to do the other, then they feel more quickly obligated than other people to fulfill those requirements, those bills, | |
| They're getting bills like you owe this, you owe that, you owe the other. And they feel very quickly compelled to pay those bills. And that's why they get into debt. I hope that's making sense. So they feel I have to do this. I have to go to church every Sunday or every service. And I have to do participate in all the groups and do this and do that. | |
| And they feel this sense of. Of indebtedness. Of constant indebtedness. Because they are very sensitive. To judgments. They are judgment people. So when the Jebusite spirit comes. And starts imposing these things. They quickly get into debt. So the three groups of people. In Adulam. Were people. Who had an apostolic. And a prophetic. And an evangelistic calling. And they were. | |
| And they were escaping to Adulam because they wanted to preserve the male endowment that was in them. And they were preventing it being swallowed up, if that makes sense. I hope all of this is making some sense. So that's what Trogillium is referring to. That cave is the cave of Adulam. And we'll read this very quickly. I really thought we were just going to mention this in like two minutes. But... | |
| I just wanted to mention something very interesting here with David that I noticed. I hadn't really noticed this until a few minutes before this video, actually. So here in verse 3 of 1 Samuel 22, it says, And David went thence to Mizpah of Moab, and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be with you till I know... | |
| what God will do for me. So, as you can see in verse 1, it said that his brethren and all his father's house, when they found out that he was in the cave of Adullam, went down there to be with him. And when I read that, and I'll be very frank, I didn't remember that little detail. I did remember the cave and that there were some discontented people there. | |
| people in distress and in debt and all that. But I didn't remember that his family was there too. His brothers and his father, all of his father's house, they went down there with him. And I said, wow, that sounds like they really supported David. And it could be that they were there to support their family member who was being persecuted by Saul. And I feel a little hesitant in saying this because I don't want to accuse them. | |
| of something they didn't do. But in my cynical mind, my first thought was, oh, I'm sure they went down there to Adulam because they were concerned that Saul was going to murder them and massacre the whole household. Because, you know, as a very jealous and angry king, Saul wanted to wipe out anyone who would challenge his kingship, in this case, David. | |
| and then by extension, David's family. So the natural thing to expect from a savage king like Saul, and especially in those times, it was very common for a king to exterminate his enemies. And usually that involved also killing his family members to kind of avoid anyone trying to get revenge for the death of their loved one and so forth. | |
| The thing is that I think they went to Adilam out of fear that they would get killed by Saul, murdered by Saul, massacred by him. Because as you may recall, the brethren were not really that enthusiastic about David. You may recall Eliab, I think his name was, the older brother who angrily, as a Jebusite, criticized David very harshly for being by the battle | |
| and talking nonsense about taking on Goliath and all that. So they really didn't believe much in him. And even his father was a little bit kind of, I would say, hesitant about David because, as you may recall, when Samuel went down to the house of Jesse, Jesse was the father of David, went down there to anoint David, | |
| Jesse showed him all his kids. And Samuel said, oh, it's none of these. Do you have one extra lying around somewhere? And then he said, oh, yeah, there's another. I have another kid. He's out there in the field with the sheep or whatever. I forget the exact words. But then they went and brought him. And then Samuel saw this is the one. But that incident shows how little David, how little his father Jesse really valued | |
| David so it's kind of interesting that he his whole household and all the brothers who were very hesitant about giving David his proper place all of them went to take refuge but I think in great take refuge in support of David and Adulam but I think that more than to support him they were there to to kind of like hey David help us because | |
| Because of you, Saul might want to kill us, so we have to hide somewhere. And that's why I think in part God doesn't mention the father's name. He just says his father's house here in verse 1, 1 Samuel 22. Because I think that if God wanted to honor Jesse for supporting David, the Lord would have mentioned Jesse by name here. And the brethren too. | |
| have been mentioned by name but but God doesn't even bother to mention them and and it's interesting he puts his father he mentioned David's father second after the brethren and so that that's all very very peculiar but we wanted to read here | |
| So in verse three, we read that David then took his family because he was concerned about protecting them and he took them to Moab, to Mizpah of Moab, it says here in verse three. And then he asked the king of Moab, you know, can my family, my father, my mother, it says here, interesting, the mother is mentioned here for the first time. Hmm, very interesting. My father and my mother. This is very, very frank for the first time in my life. | |
| That's the first time I see | |
| david referring to his mother i know that that he mentions his mother in a psalm when he says i was cursed or i forget the wording but like things were not right with me from my mother's womb or something like that that something was uh amiss or i forget the exact details um but uh but in uh this is the first time i i i have ever noticed that david actually mentioned his mother in a | |
| non psalm context and in fact other than that psalm if it is psalm 51 indeed i think that's the only time i've ever seen any mention of his mother um but here she is so let my mother my father i pray thee come forth and be with you till i know what god will do for me but it's interesting that he went to to the king of moab to seek refuge um and | |
| I don't know what to make of that. I don't know if that introduced a spirit there. I don't know. And then in verse 4, it says, And he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold. And the first time I read it, I thought it said in the hold, H-O-L-E, but it's in the hold, H-O-L-D. | |
| Um, and I think the word in, in, in Hebrew has the connotation of stronghold or fortress or, um, and, and I said, okay, so did David go back to, that's the first impression I got. David dropped off his, his family in Moab and then went back to Agilom. And that, and then the hold that is mentioned here in verse four would be Agilom. But, uh, then verse five says, um, | |
| of 1 Samuel 22, and the prophet Gad said unto David, abide not in the hold, depart and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed and came into the forest of Hared. So if we go here, I did a search before this video here, as you can see in Bin Co-Pilot. I just wrote, where was Adulam compared to Mizpah? I should have said relative to Mizpah, but I just said compared to Mizpah | |
| Same difference. So the answer from Copilot was Agilom lay in the Shephelah or lowland of Judah, southwest of Jerusalem. And for some reason, I had always thought of Agilom to the north of Jerusalem, but turns out it was to the southwest of Jerusalem. While Mizpah of Moab was in the Moabite territory to the east in the biblical record, | |
| Adilam is in the western foothills of Judah, and Mizpah is a separate city in Moab, so they were not in the same immediate vicinity. And I believe, I don't know where I read it, but somewhere I read that Mizpah of Moab was, here it is, Mizpah of Moab is east of the Jordan River. | |
| So you have to cross the Jordan, you could say, to be on the other side, on the eastern side. And that's where Moab was. So it was a completely different place. And it says here, far from Shephelah of Judah. The distance between them would have been several dozen kilometers with the Jordan River and Moabite territory in between. So that prompted me to say, well, why would | |
| Gad tell David go back to the land of Judah if he was already in the land of Judah obviously that doesn't make any sense so that means the hold was not in the land of Judah because Gad is saying to David don't stay in the hold go back go to go to Judah but as it turns out Adulam is in Judah so that means that David went to | |
| hide in Moab with his family. And he kind of took up some spot and used it as a stronghold to kind of like stay put and not do anything or kind of stay put until he got a better or clearer view of things. But God said, don't stay here. | |
| go into the land of Judah. And then it says, then David departed here in verse five and came into the forest of Hared. And I felt, I could be wrong, but I felt the Lord say, look up Hared. I was not going to, but let me just look it up. Hared means forest. Okay, so it's the forest of forest. I guess that's what it says in Hebrew. | |
| um is the word forest uh the for the word forest was translated from yar yar means wood or thicket or wooded height forest but so it's two words for forest here not sure what that means um okay um i have no understanding but i felt we had to to mention it so he came into a forest area um | |
| Forest makes me think obviously of trees. Trees make me think of trees of righteousness and God's people standing as tall trees of righteousness. There are certain passages in scripture where God prophetically describes his people like that as trees. That means we start small and we grow into huge trees like the mustard seed. We start small and we grow into huge trees, dominant trees. | |
| But other than I have no understanding of what's going on here. But the thing I wanted to highlight is this curious detail about David going and hiding his family in Moab. And he actually, when he did that, he stayed there. And so he left Adulam to go to Moab. And then God had to send the prophet Gad to tell him, hey, don't stay here. | |
| going to go back into judah um so i i don't get much understanding beyond that but i felt that we had to mention it so that all uh stemmed from trogillium as we go back here trogillium uh means a cache uh and it pointed spiritually to a cave with a hidden treasure and that pointed to the cave um uh of agilem um | |
| And, okay, so now that we've mentioned that, that's to kind of emphasize what Trogilium represented here. I think these were places from Acts 20:15. That's where we had read Trogilium. Yes, here, Acts 20:15. So now we shall move on. So we'll start with verse 17. So... | |
| And from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. So as you may recall, as verse 16 of Acts 20 describes, Paul wanted, he was on his way down. If we look at the map again, Paul was on his way down towards Jerusalem south. And he was in a hurry. He wanted to get there by the feast of Pentecost. | |
| And he was at Samos and then he went to Miletus eventually. But he deliberately skipped Ephesus because he wanted to get to Jerusalem quickly. But when he was in Miletus, he called for the elders of Ephesus, like saying, I'm not going to be there in Ephesus. But, you know, I do have some final words to say to you all. | |
| to all y'all. So he sent for the elders of Ephesus who came down, came south from Ephesus to talk to Paul here in Miletus or Miletus, however you want to pronounce it. So that's what's being described here. And the word elders, it's kind of a peculiar word. And looking at how the word is used in the Greek text sets the tone, I believe, | |
| For the words that are going to be said later in this chapter. So let's quickly look at the word elders here. So he called for the elders of the church, of the ecclesia. It says here church is ecclesia of Ephesus. So the word elders is presbiteros. And that's the word for we get Presbyterian and words like that. So let's do a | |
| quick look a search for that word presbyteros and as you can see here it is used 67 times in 67 verses so it's used a whole bunch of times and interesting the number 67 as you may recall there was an audio where we shared some time ago where we talked about this connection the connection between the six number 666 and 67 | |
| you may recall that, and how that represents adding something to God's full testimony. God's full testimony is the Bible, which has 66 books, and 67 represents when you add one extra book, like you add something to God's testimony, and by doing so, and you equate it | |
| give it the same value as the other 66 books. And we're talking spiritually, we're not talking about somebody trying to add another book to the Bible literally, even though we shared in that audio word how in a certain sense it was literal in America because of all the people who have elevated the constitution to the level of almost like another book in the Bible. It's as holy and to the point that some Bible versions | |
| have the constitution added at the end, literally as the 67th book. But the 67 here is a spiritual concept where people establish rules and principles that God did not establish and give those principles the same sacred reverence that is only to be given to God's word, to the words coming from the spirit of God. So it's interesting that the word elders appear 67 times | |
| I know it's not a coincidence. So we'll go very quickly through the first few appearances. And I know it's going to be a little tedious, but the intent is to get the sense of how is the word elders being used? In what context? Is it positive or is it negative, for example? So let's start here in Matthew 15 to the first appearance of elders or presbyteros. | |
| It says, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, the presbyteros? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. So obviously talking about traditions of the presbyteros, and these are traditions of men. And we don't have to go read the surrounding context. You may recall, if you've come across this passage, that clearly this was... | |
| not a tradition of God. This thing about washing of hands and stuff was traditions of men. So elders is being used in a negative sense. Talk about people imposing traditions of men and making them pass up, passing them off as traditions coming from God or teachings coming from God. So then Matthew 16:21, the second appearance of elders or presbyteros | |
| From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again third day. Obviously very negative elders trying to kill the son of God. And then Matthew 21:23. And when he was coming to the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said, by what authority does thou these things? | |
| Or doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? So obviously, again, elders being used in a negative context of people opposing the kingdom of God. And because at Matthew 21, Jesus had had the so-called, what people call the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So he was coming in like a kingly anointing. And there were these people defying that authority that was in him. | |
| and the elders were a part of that group. So again, negative. So, so far, three appearances of elders, all negative. Matthew 26:3, the fourth appearance. Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people unto the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas. So obviously, negative context. People wanted to kill Jesus, kill the son of God, and stop the spread of the kingdom of God. | |
| Matthew 26:47, the next appearance of Presbyteros. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders, Presbyteros, of the people. Again, people coming to kill the Son of God. Matthew 26:57, next appearance of Presbyteros. And they that laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders, the Presbyteros, were assembled. | |
| Again, people trying to kill, want hell-bent on killing Jesus. Matthew 26:59, same thing. Now the chief priests and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death. So let's look at the next appearance of Presbyterians. Matthew 27:1. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. Again, people trying to kill Jesus. Elders trying to kill Jesus. Matthew 27:3. | |
| Let's talk about Judas who went back and returned the 30 pieces of silver. It says to the chief priests and elders, people who paid him off to betray Jesus. Elders betraying Jesus. Matthew 27:12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. People accusing the son of God unfairly. Matthew 27:20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude they should ask Barabbas, | |
| and destroy jesus again presbyteros trying to kill have jesus killed and plotting and working uh night and day uh to um to to kill jesus to kill the son of god to to oppose the kingship of god matthew 27 41 next appearance of elders likewise also the chief priests mocking him but describes and elders people mocking the son of god and the kingdom of god | |
| Matthew 28:12, and when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers. I think this was after Jesus resurrected, and they wanted to keep it hush-hush that the tomb was empty so that people wouldn't realize that he had resurrected. So they tried to pay off the soldiers to kind of prevent them spreading the news that the tomb was empty and that Jesus was not there anymore. | |
| So, again, negative context. Mark 7:3, I talk about the traditions of the elders, about the washing of hands. Again, negative. Teaching traditions of men as if they were from God. Mark 7:5, tradition of the elders. Same context, negative. | |
| Mark 8:31, and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed after three days rise again. Again, elders trying to kill the Son of God. Mark 11:27, he was walking in the temple and then came the chief priests and the scribes and the elders to oppose him. So again, negative context. Mark 14:43, they were coming with Judas. | |
| To take to arrest Jesus, the elders. Negative again, Mark 14:53. And they led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. Again, the elders plotting, gathering, conniving to kill Jesus. | |
| Mark 15:1, and straight away in the morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate. Negative. So this is the first time this verse, I was about to sigh because it's like exhausting to read all these verses and it's just negative, negative, negative, negative. You get depressed just reading all the negativity associated with elders. | |
| that God is associating with elders. This is God using the word Presbyterian to talk about all this negative stuff. And then Mark 15, sorry, Luke 7:3 is the first time that it's not used in a completely negative context. It says, and when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And I think, let's just go there very quickly. | |
| I think this is the centurion who was asking Jesus to heal his servant. And he tried, he called on the elders of the Jews so that they would talk to Jesus to get him to come because, you know, the centurion was Roman. He was a Gentile. And he was, by appealing to the elders of the Jews, he was saying, I recognize that I'm a Gentile. | |
| but I'm asking you Jews to please help me. You have a man there who is one of you who can heal my servant. And I'm asking you to please speak on my behalf. So that's the first time elders is not used in a negative sense. And Luke 7:4 says, and when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this. So he was saying like, he's been good to the Jews. He's not a filled | |
| Filthy Gentile like the rest of the filthy Gentiles. Please help it. And then verse 5. For he loveth our nation. And he hath built us a synagogue. So. So it's like. The centurion was trying to. Show I'm not. A Gentile who is. Opposed or. In contradiction with your Jewishness. | |
| I honor it. And he honored it to the point that he built them a synagogue. And I didn't remember that until now. So, okay. So that's the first time that elders is not used in the negative context. They actually went and asked Jesus to help this man. First time. Positive thing. Luke 9:22. I'm not going to read it here. You can see it if you're watching the video. That, again, elders trying to kill Jesus. Luke 15:25. | |
| um this is again the i guess the second time um well actually it's a negative connotation luke 15 25 is about the prodigal son it says here now his elder presbyteros son was in the field and as he came in came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing because they were celebrating that the prodigal son had returned the younger son so again um elder | |
| And notice how God connects it to an elder brother. And that just immediately made me think of Cain. Cain who resented God's attention towards his younger brother, Abel. And what did Cain do? He was jealous of his younger brother, Abel, and murdered him. And it kind of correlates with the elders here all trying to kill and murder, trying to murder Jesus. Like Cain trying to murder Abel. | |
| Um, so, um, negative context again, Luke 21, uh, uh, I don't have to read, I'm not going to read it, but as you can see here, if you look at the, at the verse, it's again, negative. The chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders as he was teaching in the temple. So coming to oppose him. Luke 22:52, the next appearance of, uh, presbyteros, uh, | |
| Oh, you elders are coming against me with swords and staves. So again, negative. John 8:9, next appearance of elders. And they which heard it being convicted by their unconscious went out one by one and beginning at the eldest. Oh, that's the story of the adulterous woman. That's not in scripture. So that's very interesting. Hmm. | |
| That makes a lot of sense. Because if you take out this verse, the number of verses goes down to 66. So it was 67, as we saw at the top. And if you take out this verse, because it's not in scripture, this was added later. And we've talked about that. There's a posting on the Shemaylam website specifically talking about this. But we're not going to go there. But the thing is that this is the 67th verse. | |
| You could say that this verse is what makes the count 67. It was something extra that was added and given the credibility as if it was like all the other verses of Scripture. So that makes perfect sense. Then Acts 2:17 is the next time that | |
| Presbyteros appears, and it says, and it shall come to pass in the last day, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. So, I guess the second time, elders is not used in a negative context. Now it's God saying, through the elders, the elders shall dream dreams. | |
| from god but notice a little detail who is mentioned first um if you have young people and older people you would think that out of respect for the older people the older people would be mentioned first but god mentions the young men first like like notice how even when when god uses elders in a positive sense in an outright positive sense he puts them in second place | |
| and puts the young men first. The young men have the visions, and then the old men dream the dreams. And visions are more intense, you could say, than a dream. A dream is, you know, you're sleeping and the dream comes to you as you're sleeping. A vision is much more dramatic. You know, you're awake. You're seeing your conscious realm, this natural realm, and then a vision, | |
| from the the invisible realm hits you so it's much more intense than a dream but the ones having the more intense thing are the young men not the older men i hope that's that's making sense and by the way i don't think it says men in the greek it just says all presbyteros elders so they should have said elders here and your elders shall dream dreams um and then um | |
| And I apologize for the tedium of having to read all these verses, because it's just to get the flavor of elder so that we can then put it in context in Acts 20. And I pray you will see later why we went through this exercise. So next appearance of Presbyteros, Acts 4:5, and it came to pass on the morrow that the rulers and elders and scribes | |
| And we're not going to read it there. But clearly, from what I recall, this is when the rulers, the elders and the scribes were all opposed to the apostles preaching. They were trying to shut them up. And that's what was going on. So again, negative. The elders opposing God. The presbyteros opposing God. Acts 4:8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel. | |
| Presbyteros of Israel. So again, Peter challenging the men who are opposing God here. Again, Presbyteros in a negative context. Acts 4:23, next appearance of Presbyteros. And being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. Again, referring to these people who were trying to oppose Peter and the rest of the apostles preaching. | |
| preventing them preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And Acts 6:12 is the next appearance of Prince Mitteros. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council. And I'll be frank, I don't recall who this is. | |
| And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came unto him and caught him and brought him to the council. I bet a nickel it's Stephen, brother Stephen, but I'm not sure. Yeah, and verse 8 here, Acts 6:8. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs. I think it does say in Greek, and signs, not miracles, among the people. | |
| And then there's arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. So people rising up to dispute with him. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. | |
| then verse 12 the one the verse we were reading and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council so again a long story short elders opposing god opposing someone rising up in the anointing and stephen was speaking in the apostolic anointing of wisdom and and very male that's why he challenged them with such such a maleness um | |
| And that's what angered them even more. So elders opposing the male nature of God. And it's in verse 23. 23 is a pastoral number, so that kind of reinforces all of that. The pastor is a female ministry that has taken over and opposes the male nature of God. So Acts 6:12 says, that's the next appearance of elders. | |
| or presbyteros in greek it says and they stirred up the people oh that's what we just read uh okay sorry i apologize we just read that now let's go to the next one this is the first time where it becomes kind of ambiguous how to take elders uh it's acts 11 30 which also they did and sent in two | |
| Sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So what are they talking about? I think it's. Let's just go there very quickly. Verse 27. And these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there. Notice how it says. I'm sorry. Let's continue. And there stood up one of them named Agabus. And signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth. | |
| throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Verse 29, then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea. Verse 30, which also they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So they were sending relief, obviously, you know, food, you know, clothes or who knows what else, but it was material stuff. | |
| It was an act of of ministering material goods to the people because there was this kind of hunger that hit the area because of some drought or something. And OK, so. And notice that this side note. | |
| Agabus is mentioned by name here, and it's clear from verse 27 that he's a prophet. So, and as we've shared before, I think I always say the same thing about how in the so-called New Testament, God names apostles, God names prophets, God names evangelists. For example, Philip is called an evangelist, and I think we'll run into him later. | |
| In Acts. But God never mentions by name. Pastors. Never. There's not a single pastor. Named. Explicitly. In the so called New Testament. I challenge anyone to find one. And pardon my French. But how the hell can it be. That the pastoral ministry. The dominant one in the church now. How can that be. | |
| And God doesn't bother to mention a single pastor in the so-called New Testament. A single one. And then the teacher. Teachers are mentioned, but you have to kind of extrapolate a little bit. There's never a verse that I found that says, teacher so-and-so. Teacher so-and-so. Like that. | |
| Like, for example, something like Apostle Paul, teacher so-and-so. But people are called teachers. But you have to kind of read the whole passage and go, oh, yeah. So when God says teachers here, he's referring to so-and-so mentioned a couple of verses earlier and so forth. And I think Paul refers to himself as a teacher and so forth. So teachers are mentioned, but it's more ambiguous, you could say. | |
| Instead, I don't remember a single passage where God says, and teacher so-and-so, with the others, the three male ministries, God manages individuals by name. But with teachers, it's always like one of many. It's always this kind of like, yeah, it's not focusing on a single one by name. | |
| Here you can say, oh, this Agabus is one of many. Yeah, one of many prophets, yes. But see, verse 28 goes out of its way to say, and there stood up one of them named Agabus. So God highlights one of them. That's what we mean. But I digress. This was just to emphasize how God calls the pastoral ministry to be one of anonymous service. | |
| But the pastoral ministry said, no, no, no, no. We want all the glory. We want the highlight, the spotlight to be on us. And that's what they've been doing all this time. And see, notice a prophet is mentioned here, but none of the elders are mentioned by name. And I find that peculiar. But it is a positive thing. But what were the elders for? | |
| for the distribution of relief aid. That's what it was. Food, medicine, who knows, clothes. I don't know what they were sending back in those days, the type of relief supplies that people would send in those situations. But obviously it involved food, and I would imagine it involved clothing or something else to that effect. Utensils, who knows. | |
| But the elders were not there to administer spiritual stuff. It's just material stuff. And that's very important. And this, yes, it is a positive use of elders, but it's not highlighting them as these men who were teaching deep principles of scripture and things like that. And that's very important to keep in mind. Okay. | |
| So now, and the other thing is, it's interesting, elders here is mentioned in the context of Barnabas and Saul. So Paul hasn't even been renamed yet. And Saul or Paul is in second place here. He's not mentioned ahead of Barnabas. But okay, so now let's go back to the usages of Pinesbiteros. So let's go to Acts 14:23, the next appearance. And when they had ordained them | |
| elders in every church and had prayed with fasting. They commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. And this is the first time I've seen in scripture or that we can see here because we've gone through all the appearances of elders in the Greek text. This is the first time clearly that where God says that someone ordained someone else as elder because the | |
| It's like, where did the elders come from? Of Acts 11:30, for example. But this is the first time that someone is being appointed as an elder in some way. So Acts 14:23, let's look at the word ordained. Ordained is keiro toneo. I've never seen that word in my life. Keiro toneo. | |
| Interesting, keiro, I'm pretty sure keiro keir, this part here, the first few letters, C-H-E-I-R, keir, that has to do with the hand. And here, if you see the tool tip under keir, it says hand. And teino means stretch. So it's literally outstretched hand. That's what keiro toneo means. | |
| um but literally combined they uh keto and toenail uh mean to vote by stretching out the hand oh okay oh i see like when you raise your hand kind of thing like how many uh say yay and they raise their hands how many say nay they raise their hands so it's oh interesting isn't that | |
| This is what's angering about the King James the the spirit of Solomon was in them because the spirit of Solomon as we said so many times a song of songs chapter 3 verses 6 and 11 showed it's a spirit of elitism. You know, it's the spirit that says we'll take people and use them for my services just like Solomon used 60 warriors for to carry him around on that stupid palanquin thingy. | |
| so the spirit of elitism uh is the and that's the one that that says oh you you have to we have to ordain you to make you one of us otherwise you are you belong to the lower caste so ordained go they they get um like an emotional thrill when they hear the word ordained those who have the spirit of solomon that spirit of elitism because it | |
| It just reinforces that system of, you know, some are up higher than the rest of all y'all. So that's why they use the word ordain. It sounds like Paul, you know, like knighting someone, you know, I declare, you know, with a sword, you know, on both shoulders, tapping both shoulders, kind of knighthood style and say, I ordain you elder of the church of Antioch or something like that. And that's not what was going on. | |
| It's not ordained. I was expecting to see the word hypotaso. And that's the word I've seen for ordaining. When you assign someone to a post, like in the military, you know, you're the sergeant and you're going to be guarding this fort and you're going to be over these men. That's hypotaso, hypotaso. But and that's not what happened. So I was surprised. I'll be very frank. When I saw this word right just now, I was not expecting this word. And this word has a completely different meaning. | |
| It's vote by stretching out the hand. | |
| well, they say here to create or appoint by vote, one to have charge of some officer duty to elect, create, appoint. But it has the connotation of people voting. It's like Saul and Barnabas organized the voting. That's what they did. It's like they said, okay, who amongst all y'all would be good elders? Because they know each other. | |
| So some people said, oh, you know, I think brother Jimmy John is pretty good. And the other one said, yeah, brother Billy Bob is very kind as well. So they said, OK, so Billy Bob and Jimmy John are the new elders or they are appointed as elders. And what do elders do? What do elders do? And that's the question. What do elders do? | |
| in the church, in the primitive church, what did elders do? And the first time that we saw them doing something was in Acts 11, and it was to distribute food, material resources, relief, relief aid. That's what they were distributing. They're not shown preaching or deciding on spiritual affairs | |
| no, just administrative or administrative work. That's what they were doing. Okay. So, and they were not ordained. It was like a vote, like, you know, all y'all, who do y'all think would be a good elder? And that's how they came up. And to do what? It seems like it's administrative. And we'll get to that later. And we've, | |
| taken a long time just to get here, but there were so many things we wanted to say. We thought we'd be there by now, but it is what it is, so we'll keep going. Hopefully we're doing it as the Lord leads, I pray. So Acts 14:23, when they had voted by stretching out of hands, | |
| elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. Okay. And then, but it doesn't say what they were appointed for. Okay, so now let's go back to the usages of Presbyteros. So the next appearance is Acts 15:2. | |
| And again, so we got into a little bit of a stretch where elders were beginning to be mentioned in a positive light. So we had Luke 7 was the first time that we saw elders being used in a positive sense. Kind of the elders who spoke on behalf of the centurion to get to persuade Jesus, the Lord Jesus, to heal the centurion's servant. | |
| Then after that it was just negative, negative, negative, negative. And then we get to Acts 2:17. For the first time some positive stuff. That God was going to change things. But he mentions elders second. Second to the young men. So he relegates them to second place. And he mentions of them things that are of a less impact. | |
| than what he gives to the young men. To the young men, he gives visions. And to the older men, he gives dreams. And then again, we go in Acts 4:5 here into a negative stretch of elders being used negatively. As I said that a fly just flew in from the outside and flew through across the screen that I'm looking at. | |
| so interesting um so uh that must be an elder um spirit um okay um so then acts for uh yeah so then again we go into this negative stretch so x48 negative 423 negative uh and then 612 negative and then we get back to something more or less positive so this is the third verse where we can't say outright | |
| Elders is negative. Acts 1130. And this is when they sent relief aid to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And then 1423. Another, I guess, neutral, you could say. Verse when it comes to elders, they were loaded in in the church. | |
| And they prayed with fasting. So it was not just like a regular vote. Like, you know, all y'all, you know, how many vote for Billy Bob or Jimmy John? It was so they voted, but they were, you know, also praying with fasting. So it was like they took it very seriously. Whatever these elders did, they took it very seriously. And then Acts 15:2, we go back into a negative connotation. | |
| Because as we've studied a long time ago in this video series on Song of Songs, Acts 15 is a very negative chapter. That was the so-called Council of Jerusalem where the apostles who were stuck in Jerusalem under the spirit of Solomon were kind of deciding what to do with these Gentiles. Do we make them full Jews? Do we force Jewishness on them or what? Do we impose this debt? | |
| you know, just like the indebted ones in the cave of Adullam, who imposed a Jebusite, through a Jebusite spirit, Jewishness on the Gentiles. And so these apostles and elders that are mentioned here, I'll read here, Acts 15:2. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas | |
| And certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. The question of whether the Gentiles should follow the law of Moses and become Judaized. But it's going up to Jerusalem. And that thing that I mentioned before, I think this thing where going to Jerusalem is always going up to Jerusalem. It's interesting. | |
| So they should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. So the elders, the presbyteros are bundled with the spirit of Solomon. Apostles were holed up in Jerusalem, refusing to preach to the Gentiles because the Gentiles were just one tiny level beneath them and the rest of the Jews. | |
| And yes, eventually in Acts 15, it sounds like, yeah, these apostles and elders were gracious in letting Gentiles not have to follow the law of Moses. But we impose on these people four things. And I forget, not eating strangled meat and fornication and a couple of other things that I don't recall that in my book, | |
| according to my understanding, as we shared before, I get the strong sense now, the more I meditate on it, that those four things were not of God. That's why they're never mentioned again. You don't hear Paul emphasizing them, Peter emphasizing them in any epistles or in Revelation or anywhere. Nowhere is there any mention of those four things. | |
| Those are things that James came up with on his own. That was his only idea. So the thing is, the apostles and elders here, negative. Again, we'll go back to something very negative. Acts 15:4 mentions apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Again, negative, so we're not going to read it. Acts 15:6, and the apostles and elders came together to consider the matter. So again, negative. | |
| Acts 15:22, and then it pleased the apostles and elders. So God keeps connecting elders here to the spirit of Solomon apostles. It's like God saying, elder, this elder thing is strongly representative of the spirit of Solomon. So if the elders are not chosen right, they will bring in the spirit of Solomon. That's what God is saying spiritually here. | |
| If the elders are not chosen right, if you don't understand what an elder is, that's a door, an entry point for the spirit of Solomon into the church. That's what God is saying here. So then Acts 15:23, again, apostles and elders. Notice it's always that couple, apostles and elders. But these are the apostles and elders of Jerusalem, the ones who got holed up there by the spirit of Solomon. And so now... | |
| Acts 16 for we still can't get away from the apostles and elders of Jerusalem And as they went through the cities they delivered them to decrease for to keep and that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem so God emphasizing the water | |
| or too stubborn to get out of there want to stay in Jerusalem forever because Jews go first okay so then so now after so we got into this very negative stretch after just a little bit of positive relief in Acts 1130 for the elders that would provide relief aid | |
| to the people during that drought or whatever that they were going through in that in the in the middle east at that time uh and after that just uh well actually acts 14 23 is not that negative and when they had ordained or voted elders in every church and and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the lord on whom they believed um | |
| After that, then you start seeing negative, negative, negative, negative. And then we finally get to the verse where we started, Acts 20:17. And from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the presbyteros, the elders of the church. So I hope that, I know this was very tedious, but I hope that from all of this, you will get that, | |
| God, when God uses the word elders, it's not like, oh, what a wonderful thing. Because we saw elders just used over and over and over again in a negative sense. And the only time it was used in a positive sense is when the elders went against the tide of elitism and supported a Gentile, the centurion, as you may recall, in Luke 7. | |
| So let's just very quickly here, just do the verse count. In 13 verses of Matthew, elders, all negative. In seven verses in Mark, all negative. So 20 verses, the first 20 verses, all bad news for the elders. And then in Luke, Luke has, it says here, five verses with elders. And out of those five, | |
| only one is positive. And I'm just curious now. It was just, yeah, it's actually the very first one. So we have to go through 20 negative verses of elders until we get to the first positive one. And I can hear some matriarchal say, oh, you are distorting things because the elders here that are being talked about are the elders of the Jews that were opposed to Jesus, not the elders of the Christian era. Duh. | |
| That's the point. The elders, the Jewish elders of the religious system of the spirit of Solomon who were opposed to the kingdom of God. It's the same thing as with the elders of the matriarchal system were opposed, who are opposed to the remnant of God. It's those who promote the spirit of elites and that's why God associates the word elders with Jews who were recalcitrant and who were | |
| just hell-bent on stopping God. It's the spirit of Solomon, the Jewish, that spirit of elitism that manifests itself in so many ways. And one of them, a literal manifestation is when the Christians of the primitive church, the Jews, the Christian Jews thought that the Gentiles were inferior. So, | |
| So 20 times elders is used negatively. And then for the first time we find one, one positive one in Luke, and then the next four are all negative in Luke. So 13 plus seven plus five. So in the first three gospels, it's 25 verses, 24 out of 25 are bad. And we have to go through 20 bad ones first before we get to the first good one. And then in John, again, it's a negative verse. | |
| negative verse for the elders so it's 26 out of 26 verses in the gospels 25 negative against elders and the only one is when the elders went against the spirit of solomon and actually helped the gentile and then in acts we saw a mixture here so in acts kind of 217 the one about the | |
| Elders dreaming dreams. Yeah, positive, but positive with an asterisk, as we said, because the elders are mentioned second, second to the young men and are given something that is not as spiritually impacting as what is given to the young men, you know, dreams as opposed to visions. And then Acts 4:5, negative. So if we keep scores, like one kind of semi-positive, | |
| then one negative X45, two negative X48, three negative X423, four negative X612, and then one semi-positive X1130. So it's two, I just lost count, sorry. One, two, three, four. Four negative, two positives so far up until like X1130. And then X1423, kind of neutral. It's not, | |
| Yeah, it's not bad, but let's say, let's call it positive kind of, but neutral. As you can see so far, it's only been one verse where the elders are shown like in a good light, like really, really good light. Like they are doing something good. In Acts 11:30, the elders received the relief. We don't know what they did with it, but it's not a negative connotation given to the elders here necessarily. It's just, it's neutral. In Acts 14:23, | |
| you know, elders were voted in, but we don't know how they did. Notice that. In all the other words, it's very clear the elders are doing something wrong, something evil against God. And so far, we've really not seen one where the elders are actively doing something good, except for Luke 7, 7:3. But okay, so the count here in Acts was one neutral, kind of positive. | |
| then one, two, three, four, four negative, then two, two to four, then three to four. So kind of three non-negative and four negative. And then a whole bunch of negatives here in Acts 15 and 16. One, two, three, four, five, six. So now the score is 10 to three. | |
| uh so 13 times elders is used before we get to act 2017 where we started 10 times negative and only three you could call neutral yeah neutral the elders are not shown in a negative light but they're but we don't know what they did um so um so the total score up until acts i'm about to | |
| You know, before Acts 20:17, for the elders is, let's see, 20. I'm sorry for the, my mind doesn't do the numbers as well anymore. 13 plus 7, 20, 25, 26, 25 to 1 was the score up through the first four Gospels. And in Acts, it was 10 to 3 up until Acts 20:17. | |
| Um, so that would be 35 to four. So if it was American football, it would be 35 to four, five touchdowns against two safeties. Um, so it's kind of a, not a very positive score. So 35 to four, that's 39. So Acts 2017 is the 40th verse that mentions elders. Um, | |
| find that interesting. So in the 40th verse, then we see see elders being used by Paul, you know, when he called the elders of the church. Okay, so Acts 21:18 and the day following Paul, I'm sorry, so let's not go past Acts 20:17, so let's stay there. So let's go back to Acts 20 and keep reading. | |
| We've got a sense, I hope, of elders, of what it is. Very negative. And we learned that they were not ordained by Paul and Barnabas as the King James liars wrote. Yeah, and I have to call that monk who did that verse a liar because he was thinking from the spirit of Solomon. The King James translation is a strong contamination of the spirit of Solomon. | |
| And the spirit of Solomon got into him and made him lie and say, call this ordained. So it sounds like it was appointed from above. The higher ups appointed the elders. The higher ups in this | |
| case Barnabas and Saul but in truth it was a vote it was more democratic if you could say it was like all y'all you know what do you think it was like you all are have the Spirit of God in you let's pray let's see what do you think should be elders and the other thing we saw so far is that elders do little more than | |
| material administrative work. They do something a little bit higher than that, and we'll see it later, but it's not, but at least elders per se are tied to something very mundane. And I don't mean to belittle people who do manual administrative work, | |
| that's what they were doing um so those are the things we learned as we look through the word elders it's okay so so he called the elders of of the church of ephesus over to miletus to talk to him and acts 20 18 and when they were come to him he said unto them you know from the first day that i came into asia after what manner i have been with you at all seasons uh now just a side this might be a | |
| that may it might sound like a minor thing and maybe it is but I just wanted to mention here the word seasons was mistranslated from chronos chronos literally means time that's where we get chronology or yeah chronological and all that stuff so chronos means time and it means time in the natural realm as opposed to kairos which is time in the spirit prophetic sense so | |
| So that's what it should have said at all times. And the word all is their past. So, okay. So that is correct. So let's read it again. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, you know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I've been with you at all seasons, at all times, chronos times. Okay. | |
| Acts 20:19 says, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. So I believe there, I don't know if you can call them mistranslations, but I would say they're subtle, like maybe less than perfect translations of a couple of words here. The first one I would mention is this one, temptations. | |
| which as you can see highlighted here in the Greek. If you look down below, the Blue Letter Bible website highlights the corresponding Greek word, and it's peirasmon. And let's go down here to see it here. Peirasmon or peirasmos. | |
| The root word is perasmos and that literally means if we go look at it very quickly, it means experiment attempt trial or proving For example When the Lord in the Lord's in the so-called Lord's Prayer Matthew 6 13 it says and lead us not into temptation perasmos But deliver us from evil so obviously God is not going to lead us into temptation of sin | |
| So in a sense, temptation is, this is the word for trial. But yeah, obviously, trial can be like in a situation where you may or may not sin, so it applies there. But the more general sense of the word is trial, something that tests you, where you're put to the test, you're put | |
| in a situation of stress, and you're kind of forced to step up in a sense. I just felt this strong thing in my spirit as I said that when you're in a situation of trial, you're in a situation where you're called to step up and meet the challenge of the trial. It's very interesting. | |
| I had never thought of it that way, but I think that's what the Lord is saying. I think he's saying it to me. And I pray he's saying it to all of us here in the sense that it's not just for me. But I feel like, yeah, when you're in a situation of trial, God says it's time for you to step up. If you don't step up, the trial is going to overtake you. If you say in a status quo situation, it will overtake you. | |
| You have to step up. I don't have a biblical passage to kind of ratify that, certify it, but I believe there's some truth to it if it's not completely true. Okay. And let's see. For example, Luke 8:13 says, they on the rock | |
| are they which when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root which for a while believe and in time of temptation paid asmos fall away yeah so they they have a trial they receive the word with joy but it doesn't take root and when the trial comes they fall away because they didn't step up uh i just feel like it correlates with that in some some strange way um | |
| Oh, and here in Luke 22:28, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. This is the Lord Jesus talking to the disciples. So obviously my temptations is my trials, my difficulties. So I know it's a minor thing, but so I would say that better translation would say that Paul is saying that he was serving with many tears and trials. And then the befell me. | |
| uh, that befell me, um, uh, well, yeah, I think that was properly translated, uh, simbino, um, by the, a lying in wait, that's the other one that was a little bit, I don't know, suspicious, um, a lying in wait, as you can see here was translated from epibole, epibole, and epibole, um, | |
| It says, a plan formed against one, a plot. So yeah, you could say it's lying in wait, but it's plotted by the plotting of the Jews. That's what it really says, a plotting of the Jews. But the peculiar thing about this word, when I was looking at it earlier, is that it's made up of two words, epi, epi, which means above, like episinagoge, and we've talked about that word before. | |
| Epi means above or on, uh, or upon. Uh, and, and then, uh, the second part of epi-boulé comes from bolomai, which means, uh, will, uh, I've seen that word before. Uh, like this is where you get, for example, in French, uh, voulez-vous, uh, means do you want, uh, voulez, um, | |
| is it comes from this word in Greek where the V, the beta kind of gains a V sound. So V, if you change the beta to a V, RV, V-O-U and lambda here is the letter L. So V-O-U-L is, and you can see like the word, the verb to want, | |
| in in the the infinitive in greek in french i think it's uh so you can see so it's um in other words uh when you want something um it's part of your will like i i want this i will i have in my will i um my will is to go to some place so you want to go to that place you decide to go to that place um | |
| So coming back to epibole, it means it's like you want it above something. And when you have a will or determination that is above what is normal, it's like, how can I say it? It's when you say, I'm going to get this done no matter what. | |
| because this is my will i i declare that this is what must be done must happen so you go out of your way and that's where the epi comes from you go above and beyond to make it happen i hope i hope that makes sense um and um so so uh | |
| A quick way of translating it would have been plotting more than lying in wait. Lying in wait sounds like ambush. And yes, the Jews were trying to ambush Paul and all that in different circumstances. But the word there is not ambush. It is the word plotting. When you are so determined that something will happen that you will plot it into existence, if that makes sense. | |
| It's like, I don't care if God wants it or doesn't want it. I will make it happen. That is epiboli. And that's what the Jews were doing. They were going against God. So they were going against Paul. So notice, Paul is confessing outright here that the Jews were the ones in his way. It's so interesting. Yet he was always inviting them to attack him. | |
| by going into the synagogue, like, hey, I'm here. When he would go to a city, hey, hey, I know all you all are constantly plotting against me, so I am announcing my presence in the city so that you can plot against me. I'm giving you heads up. And so it was just this foolishness. But it was the spirit of Solomon in him that kept thinking, I need to preach to the Jews first so that they will | |
| So that if the city comes under the dominion of God, I can say it was through the Jews that the kingdom of God came. So the Jews share in the glory of the conquest of the city. That's what he kept doing. And he said, I can't go directly to the Gentiles because if I go directly to the Gentiles, I'll just go in directly to the filth. I have to kind of sanitize. | |
| This by going through the Jews first. And then I can go to the Gentiles. And that's not what God was saying. God had rejected the Jews. And said you go preach to the Gentiles directly. But Paul never wanted to do that. Because the spirit of Solomon kept saying the Jews come first. That slight spirit of elitism. Okay. We should fail me by the lying weight of the Jews. Okay. So. | |
| Oh, and the other thing we wanted to mention quickly here, serving. Notice the word serving here is dolewo. And this is the word dolos. That comes from dolos, which means like slave, like bond servant. It's not just a waiter bringing you, you know, the lunch you ordered. It's not that type of serving. It's when you are a slave to the person that you're serving. It's a stronger bond of servanthood. | |
| So the better translation is slaving, you know, slaving for the Lord. Okay. So, and that, and that will become more important. I would dare say later on, as we continue here, quite the emphasis that this is a word of slave slavery, not a word of, of waiter type service. | |
| Okay, Acts 20:20, the next verse says, And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house. And when I read this, it hit me for the first time. It's like you read so many things that you just assume things in your mind. Sometimes you put them there. Sometimes the matriarchal church has put things in your mind. And sometimes it takes a long time to get these things out of you. | |
| all these assumptions that you start making. And this is the first time I realized, oh my goodness, they didn't have the church system that we have now because he went from house to house. So there was no church building. They didn't rent a little place for people to go gather when they went to, quote, church. | |
| They were going, he was teaching from house to house. But you say, oh, but he said publicly as well here. He taught publicly. And what I get in my heart about publicly is literally publicly, you know, out in the streets, in the plazas, you know, and Paul is shown a few times preaching in public places, like, for example, the Areopagus in Athens. | |
| That was an example. So he would go to the marketplace. And there's another verse that we ran across. If I remember correctly, at least one verse where it talks about Paul going to the Agora, to the marketplace where people gathered to preach. So that's what publicly means. It doesn't mean I taught at your church building and then I did house calls, preaching from house to house. No, it was... | |
| There was no church system as we have it now. They didn't have a church building where they concentrated to gather. It was at people's homes. Okay. And the other thing here that draws my attention is he speaks of teaching. I'm not sure if that is worth going into, but the word in Greek is didasko, which is teaching. | |
| That's where we get the word didactic, you know, in English. So it is teaching. So he did, he says he taught publicly and from house to house. So these elders, whoever they were, were in the houses. So this is what I'm getting in my heart. The elders were people who took care of like | |
| administrative stuff when the brothers gathered like um you know like making sure that everybody that there was enough fruit punch for everybody that there were enough sandwiches that the chair that there were enough chairs i don't know if they used chairs in those days but um let's just let's just pretend that they did uh so you know getting enough chairs for all the brothers to sit down and um and um and and | |
| how you know kind of to help organize the the reunion what would they do would they sing songs what you know um that sort of thing it's it's very administrative and it feels like um someone who's doing cert um the work of a waiter you know preparing food and um preparing the tables and and and then maybe helping to | |
| put together some sort of, there's no, see the thing in scripture, there's nothing you can go to, to really give you a sense of what elders did. But the few, the one time that we've seen that we saw elders doing something, it was to, or to distribute food. So I think that's the core of it. They must've done a little bit of extra organizing in the sense of, you know, when the brothers come, you know, let's sing a couple of Psalms and, | |
| or hymns, and then let's, you know, split into, let's eat, and then let's just mingle and talk about the Lord, and if Brother John or Billy Ray or whoever has something to say to share with the rest of us, you know, maybe we can get them to talk or something like that, but it was very, | |
| very um administrative very very menial very waiter like they were waiters and i and i feel um but you say well uh then who cares you know who they are but see in god it is important because if you're the one organizing the food and distributing it you are touching that food | |
| you are and it's like if you have a bad heart and you're in the middle of the place distributing food with the food you're distributing the evil spirit in you because this was more than just a literal earthly natural gathering of people this was a spiritual reunion when they would come together in these houses so they had because they were touching the food | |
| They were touching the Kool-Aid and everything else. There was a ministering of their hands on everything that they touched. And if there was something evil in them, they would, I'm sure, circulate in the place, just handing out sandwiches, doing stuff. And because of that, if they had something | |
| contamination in them, an unrighteousness in them, they would be spreading that throughout the room because they were getting in contact with so many people. I hope that's making sense. That's why it was important because otherwise | |
| let's just hire a what's the name of a catering service you know to bring the sandwiches and stuff you know they're just external people come and just do the job and then you know skedaddle out of there when they're done and after they get paid but these elders were like the catering service but it was internal and therefore they had to be they couldn't just be anybody I hope that's making sense um | |
| It was very, very menial. And it was not like, oh, I, they were not making like big time decisions about stuff. They were the servants. They were the waiters. They were handing out the sandwiches. That's what I'm getting in my heart. Or they helped distribute it. You know, they organized, you know, all, you know, Sister Jane has to go buy, you know, | |
| 10 pounds of hamburger meat and stuff to cook the hamburgers, things like that. It was very organizational and very menial, but it was menial to serve God's people and that made it holy and precious in God's eyes. And therefore they had to be people of a certain character. Okay. | |
| So then verse 21 of Acts 20, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I find it interesting that Paul just said a couple of verses earlier that he went through a whole bunch of tears and trials because of the Jews who were hell-bent on imposing their will on him and on God. | |
| And then he, two verses later, admits that despite that, I always put the Jews first. That's why he mentions them first, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. And if I look in the Greek, the word both apparently is there. It's te. I'm not sure if that's both, but kind of sounds like it. | |
| Yeah, not only or but also. So maybe you could say not only to the Jews. And also and the word and also was translated from which is just and. So the thing is that he's he mentioned he testifies. He mentions that he testifies to the Jews and and the Greeks. But but notice he puts the Jews first. | |
| And this is God showing what was in his heart. He still had the Jews first, despite his awareness that the Jews were the ones blocking God. You might say that's a minor point, but no. See, the thing is, you could say, well, it was always meant to be to the Jews first, and that's true. Yes, the message was always to the Jews first, but then they rejected it. | |
| And on the moment they rejected it, and when Paul became aware of it in Acts 13:46, we saw there that in Antioch, he realized that Jews were not receiving God. So he said, I will leave you all, y'all, and I'm going to go preach to the Gentiles. But I already gave you a chance. You didn't consider yourselves worthy of eternal life. Therefore, I will preach to the Gentiles. So yes, he went to the Jews first, but then he was supposed to, from then on, focus on the Greeks. | |
| And that's why see the thing is he didn't say testify in both of the Jews and also to the Greeks. He didn't say I testify to the Jews first and then I give up on them and then I focus on the Greeks. He is saying present tense. I kept going to both kept going to both and always to the Jews first and Greek second. That's what there's a present tense kind of quality to this to this verse to this phrase. | |
| testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks so I keep doing it when God said yeah you had to go to the Jews first once they rejected forget about them focus on the Greeks and he never did that so he's confessing his sin you could say here without realizing it he was not aware of it because he had sold himself to this commitment and he never | |
| I don't know. Maybe he did break out of it towards the end. I don't know. In Acts 28, I don't know. But the thing is, okay, so testify both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then verse 22, and now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. And we only have a few minutes left. We're running out of time. | |
| But we wanted to say a whole bunch of things here. Maybe we can summarize it. But this thing is very interesting. Because it sounds very much like contradicting everything we're saying. Because we're saying Paul was hell-bent on going to Jerusalem. Because he was being drawn to Jewishness. And we keep saying it was Paul's decision. Paul wanted to do it. Paul wanted to do it. | |
| But it sounds here, it says, I go bound in the spirit. And you would think, well, obviously, if he's speaking in the spirit right now, because he could be speaking in the soul. But let's assume for a second he is speaking in the spirit. Then the spirit of God, it says here, that would imply that the spirit of God is the one that bound him to go to Jerusalem. So then he was doing God's will. But, but. | |
| this is where it gets the nuance here it's very important um i don't know if i we can explain this in the short time we have left but uh if not we'll go into the next video but uh so if you go to acts uh let's see acts 19 21 um it says after these things were ended paul | |
| purposed in the spirit whom he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying after I have been there I must also see Rome notice he said it doesn't God doesn't say and I put in Paul's heart to go he says God says Paul purpose it was Paul's decision it kind of reminds me of the epibolo my word that we were looking at a moment ago it be something | |
| That is where the Jews were plotting like saying I will impose my will I'll go above and beyond to impose my will and And it's almost like like that like Paul say I will I'm gonna do this And the word purpose is to them II like he established in his in the spirit Okay, so this still makes it sound like it was I | |
| because he was doing it in the spirit that it was of God. But it's interesting that God doesn't say, I put it in his heart. It was Paul who put it in his heart, but he was in the spirit. So that means that he must have been in the right. So now we have very short time left. So let me see if I can find it very quickly in Acts 21. And we'll get to this chapter later as well. But this is like a preview of something we were going to say here. | |
| Acts 21:4, and finding disciples, we tarried there seven days who said to Paul through the spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. So what is it? So Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. And then he says, I was bound in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. Yet in Acts 21:4, God says that the disciples said to Paul through the spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. Well, that means that God's perfect will was for him not to go to Jerusalem. | |
| Well, then why was he bound in the spirit of Jerusalem? Because God put Paul under the uncomfortable situation where he was determined, I'm going to preach to the Jews all the time. And God says, that changes everything I can do with you. And therefore, under your current situation where you are stubbornly determined, purposing in your heart to preach to the Jews first, I have no choice but to send you to Jerusalem. | |
| And that's why Paul felt bound to go to Jerusalem by the Spirit. I hope that's making sense. It was not God's will for him to go there. And the disciples that were showing up and telling Paul this stuff is like trying to get him out of that obstinate attitude that he had taken to show him God's perfect will is for you not to go to Jerusalem. But he just wouldn't let it be. He just would not accept it. And therefore... | |
| That changed the whole course of his life. And for God to complete what he could complete through Paul, he had to send him to that torment in Jerusalem that he went through. And it was hell on earth, and he didn't need to go through it, but he went through it because he wanted to. |
The series continues its meditation on the "spirit of Solomon" and its capacity to contaminate even those among the apostles. While the Apostle Paul was arguably the least affected by this spirit, he was not immune. This study focuses on Acts chapter 20, specifically from verse 17 onwards, to observe how this contamination manifested in Paul’s ministry and life.
Before diving into Acts, it is necessary to understand the term trogillium, mentioned in Acts 20:15. The word refers to a "cache"—a place of refuge where valuables are stashed to protect them from intruders, such as criminals or oppressive governments. Spiritually, this correlates to how God keeps a remnant in a "cave of refuge" during periods of persecution.
This concept connects directly to the Cave of Adullam in 1 Samuel 22. When David fled from the persecuting King Saul, he escaped to Adullam. This cave became a gathering place for those in distress, in debt, and discontented. These three groups represent specific spiritual states and corrupt spirits:
These corruptions are the result of the degradation of the three male ministries:
In a matriarchal system fostered by the spirit of Solomon, these three male ministries are undermined. Because the true apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic flows are suppressed, they are replaced by these corruptive spirits. For example, evangelists are often permitted only as tools to expand the "kingdom of the pastor" rather than to manifest the warrior nature of God.
The "discontented" in Adullam were those reacting to the unrighteous kingship of Saul. While the term "discontented" can be linked to bitterness (mar), in this context, it was a righteous bitterness—a reaction to the imposition of illegitimate, Jebusite judgments. These men were warriors by nature, possessing an evangelistic/kingly anointing, and they refused to submit to a king who was not of God.
David’s actions in 1 Samuel 22 further illustrate this. He sought refuge for his family in Moab, demonstrating a protective instinct. This period of hiding and the subsequent instructions from the prophet Gad highlight the tension between human planning and divine direction.
Transitioning to Acts 20, Paul calls the elders (presbyteros) of the church in Ephesus to Miletus. An exhaustive study of the word presbyteros in the Greek text reveals a predominantly negative connotation.
Out of the many instances of presbyteros in the Gospels and Acts, the vast majority are associated with:
The rare positive or neutral uses of "elder" are exceptions. For instance, the elders in Luke 7 acted positively by appealing to Jesus on behalf of a centurion. However, in Acts, even when they appear neutral (such as distributing relief aid in Acts 11), they are often depicted as performing menial, administrative tasks rather than spiritual leadership.
The term "ordained" (keiro toneo) used in Acts 14:23 is also significant. Rather than a high priestly appointment, it literally means "to vote by stretching out the hand." This suggests a democratic or administrative selection rather than a spiritual endowment from above. This distinction is crucial because the "spirit of Solomon" thrives on elitism—the idea of a "higher caste" created through formal ordination.
In Acts 20, Paul reflects on his service. He describes his ministry as "slaving" (dolewo) for the Lord, emphasizing a deep, bond-servant relationship rather than mere service. He also notes that he taught "publicly and from house to house," highlighting that the early church lacked the centralized building systems of the modern matriarchal church.
A critical observation arises in Paul's testimony: he continues to prioritize the Jews, even though he is aware of their opposition to God. While he preaches to both Jews and Greeks, his persistent "Jews first" approach suggests a lingering attachment to the Jewish system.
This brings us to the tension in Paul’s "bond" to Jerusalem. In Acts 20:22, Paul says he is "bound in the spirit" to go to Jerusalem. However, Acts 21:4 shows that the disciples, speaking through the Spirit, warned him not to go.
This suggests a profound nuance: Paul’s "purpose in the spirit" was actually his own stubborn determination to prioritize the Jews—a residue of the spirit of Solomon and religious elitism. God did not necessarily "put it in his heart" to go to Jerusalem; rather, God allowed Paul to follow his own obstinate spiritual trajectory, which ultimately led to his torment in Jerusalem. Paul was "bound" not by God's perfect will, but by his own unyielding commitment to a system that God had already moved past.