Shalom, Shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. March 15, 2020
I do have a website ancientscrollsonline.com if some of you may be interested in my teachings, ancientscrollsonline.com. I have been posting on the website some prophetic words that I have journaled over the years as I have time to do this. Also, I receive an email or a phone call from someone who has gotten a prophetic word or a dream from the Lord, as I make time I post them. Most recently I have been putting some on audio as well.
We are just 2 months and half of the new year and it has certainly already been a stressful year with the corona virus; and now overseas, they are having to cope with locusts swarming Pakistan, the Middle East, and Africa. Some news outlets report the locusts as an apocalyptic scene from the Bible. The Chinese have shored up their border with ducks and chickens to swallow up these insects.
It is interesting that these locusts are coming from the Middle East where they are infected with the coronavirus and are said to be moving toward China. China is said to be giving Pakistan millions of dollars to spray these insects to prevent them coming across their borders. It is a race for them to now control the infestation of these insects. It has been one thing after another. It is like they recover from one calamity only to have to cope with another. Earlier this week I mentioned to my husband concerning these locusts, if they will re-introduce the virus into China since they have been reporting they now have the virus under control. Just interesting events in the world right now.
So far, this year has been anything but boring.
Alright, so the good news is Yeshua is coming back. If this becomes any worse or any better, Yeshua is coming back. He will set up His Messianic kingdom and we will all sit down and eat with Him, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and the prophets. There will be no more war, no disease, and creation will be healed and restored to feed the nations. It will be a time when people will learn to love each other again. That would be something different to see.
As I have been announcing, George Gates will be here next Sunday to discuss the history behind the statements Paul made concerning women ministers. I hope this will set some women free from the oppressive man-made traditions concerning women in leadership roles.
Anyways, today, I am going to point out some passages in I Corinthians chapters 7; we will bring in some history to explain, or at least enlighten us on what was going on in the first century that Paul would make some statements he made in his letter.
Let’s say the Shema:
Hear O Israel, the Lord God, the Lord is One.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Father YHVH,
You are the King of the universe; king over heaven and earth. We ask that you cleanse us of all unrighteousness so that our prayers will be effective against the kingdom of darkness, against plagues, and every evil machination of the enemy. We pray against witchcraft, every hex, vex, curse, tarot card, ouiji board, divination, spells, stirring cauldron, black magic, white magic, demons sent on assignment against your people.. We pray that the witch and warlock will be taken captive and their weapons removed, their tongues bound to the roofs of their mouths so they will not send curses. We pray their hands and feet will be immobile and they cannot run to perform wickedness. We pray that You would put fear and chaos in the camp of the enemy.
We pray against this coronavirus, asking You to send angelic powers to kill it. We pray that You will protect Your remnant people from pestilence such as this. We pray people will begin to repent.
We pray Your name will be great. We pray Your kingdom come, Your will to be done in earth as it is in heaven. Thank You for Your Word. We bless You and bless Your Word. In Yeshua’s name. Amen.
Ok, so let’s read I Corinthians 7:1
Paul says: “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me.”
So, this letter Paul has written is in response to a letter sent to him from the Messianic congregation in Corinth concerning some matters they questioned and clarity they needed on other issues.
The first thing he addresses in this portion of his letter is their question or their address, perhaps from his previous letter, that a man should be celibate. They are seeking clarity on something he had mentioned earlier.
Just listen to it . . .
Verse 1, “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. When this is read there is a thought he may have mentioned celibacy in his earlier letter to them.
Paul is going to expound or further explain what he had written earlier that they are questioning now.
It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5. Do not deprive one anotherexcept with consent for a time,that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6. But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.
Some teachers and scholars have viewed Paul as a rigid patriarch, where the male gender is considered the primary figure of authority central to the social structure; and because of this he has certain issues and problems with women. I would submit if this had been true, then he would have mentioned only the sexual needs of the husband.
He did not do this. Instead, he has this whole approach to equality within a marriage. The husband must submit to the needs of his wife as well as the wife submitting to his needs. Even a period of sexual abstinence had to be mutually consensual. This would be revolutionary and remarkable in the Roman patriarchal society where no such concept of mutual submission existed.
Verse 25, Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy made trustworthy. 26, I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress—that it is good for a man to remain as he is.
This is sort of vague, one may assume he is instructing those who are not married to perhaps continue being celibate. He may have good reason to give this judgment since he mentioned a present distress.
This present distress. Distress used in this verse is linked to the word for famine, the Greek word anagké (aw naw kay)
The Blue Letter Bible has defined it as calamity, distress and straits, and Vines submitted the word pressure. It appears Paul is saying there is a famine at the time of his correspondence with the Corinthians.
Allen B. West in his edited volume on Latin inscriptions in Corinth was perhaps first to suggest that Tiberius Claudius Dinippus (dee nee pos) may have been curator annonae in Corinth about AD 51. This was when Gallio served as governor of Achaea and Paul stood in Corinth on trial as described in Acts 18:12-17. I had gone over this a couple of weeks ago. Paul was dragged before Gallio by certain Jews and he was dismissive of their charges. These same Jews turned on Sosthenes and abused him before the forum or Bema in the sight of Gallio.
The curator annonae was a prestigious municipal office responsible for the acquisition, management, and distribution of the city’s grain supply. Men were appointed curator annonae in times of famine.
There are at least twenty-five inscriptions found in the vicinity of ancient Corinth that mention in part or in full the office of ‘curator of the grain supply’ or curator annonae.
Inscriptions record that Claudius Dinippus was appointed curator annonae three times. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background posits that he held this position in the 50’s, the first century, a period known to have been one of famines or food shortages. This would be at the time of Paul, and it would definitely leave a deep impression on him and others of that time.
When I read through Corinthians I am taking in consideration some of the things he says are a result of these food shortages.
Tacitus mentions a fourth famine, which took place in the eleventh year of Claudius, Annal. lib. xii. sect. 43, in which there was so great a dearth of provisions, and famine in consequence, that it was esteemed a Divine judgment. Frugrum quoque egestas, et orta ex ea fames, in prodigium accipiebatur. At this time, the same author tells us, that in all the stores of Rome there were no more than fifteen days’ provision; and, had not the winter been uncommonly mild, the utmost distress and misery must have prevailed.
Tacitus thought this particular famine was so bad it was declared divine judgment.
This may have been the famine that was prophesied in the book of Acts.
Acts 11:28, then …
27 And in these days there came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 And one of them, named Agabus, rising up, signified by the spirit, that there should be a great famine over the whole world, which came to pass under Claudius.
Most learned men think this prophecy by Agabus was the fourth plague mentioned in the writings of antiquity.
It was mentioned by Josephus, Ant. lib xx. cap. 2, sect. 5, who describes it as “a very great famine, in which many died for want of food.” – “
There is 1 Corinthians 16, and the language used may be
[1] Now concerning the collections that are made for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so do ye also. [2] On the first day of the week let every one of you put apart with himself, laying up what it shall well please him; that when I come, the collections be not then to be made. [3] And when I shall be with you, whomsoever you shall approve by letters, them will I send to carry your grace to Jerusalem.
Romans 15:25-26 may well be speaking of a famine. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor in Jerusalem.
Let’s look at the rest of the chapter (7:27)
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I am trying to spare you.
Paul is stating for the Corinthians to endure whatever life they have chosen. If they are unmarried for them to not seek a wife. He reasons that being married brings on added responsibilities that distracts them from pleasing the Lord. The world has always existed as a place of uncertainty and peril, it (creation), by nature, is unpredictable. Dangerous times affect all normal human relations. It adds stress to relationships. Not only was creation unpredictable but in antiquity emperors frequently changed because of death, sometimes by murder, or suicide and the next regime in authority sometimes would be more intolerable than the last one they experienced. He encourages those that are married to stay married and those that are not yet to consider remaining unmarried.
29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none,
Paul intends to direct the married to live a different sort of life, one that is not constrained by the more mundane affairs of marriage, but to live in anticipation of the coming kingdom of Messiah.
29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none,
30. those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those how who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.
I wonder if he is reflecting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and time to gather them, time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
32. But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord.
33. But he who is married care about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.
Anyway, I am at the end of the program.
If it is God’s will, I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith, not by sight. Ask God to cleanse you of all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spot, wrinkle and blemish. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Love God and love your neighbor.
Ricco Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.
