CARMEL

 

This writing is a potpourri of issues and points that have arisen as a result of what now has all appearance and evidence of the beginning formation of the last days bride of Yahshua. Contrary to what many have thought, the complete bride has never had either the opportunity or the proper timing to be formed. Timing is, of course, highly important to Yahweh. Up to now, there have been basically two camps of belief per this matter of the bride of Yahshua. Most believe that the bride of Yahshua and the body of Yahshua (or, body of Christ) are one and the same. There is another group that believes that a bride must come out of the body, but that that bride will be Christians, the faithful and the devout from all of Christianity. Both of these are incorrect.

In this writing we will examine this issue of who is the bride of Yahshua, along with many other matters relative to the bride and the body. And may it be said that these additional matters equally affirm and support what is being presented concerning this issue of the true bride.

The problem inherent with this writing though, is that the reader will receive so much information here (in length as well), the vast majority of it being new, and assimilating this much information in one reading is impossible. The reader will read this writing once, maybe get the gist of it, but this will be an injustice to all that is here. The information here is a completely new orientation toward Yahweh, His kingdom, and our purpose and hope. To try to overcome this, it is strongly urged that this writing be read twice, or more. Also, you may not want to try to read all of this at one time. Try reading it in sections, with some break between them.

To begin, we must have a thread that will not only hold all of this together into one unit, but also carry and support everything that necessitates being presented here. This thread will actually spawn many of the important issues that need to be addressed. This thread is the issue of Carmel.

In the Bible, Carmel is both a city in the hill country of Judah, as well as a mountain, or range of hills, in Palestine. But it is not the geography per se that interests us here, but rather the prophetic significance of Carmel.

Some people are so literal and so concrete that they fail to grasp the great significance of the prophetic testimony of Yahweh's doings. For example, when the Holy Spirit wrote through Solomon the words regarding the bride of Yahshua, He was not being a literalist; but rather, the places and items represented something that spoke of a quality that was pictured in them. For example, let us read from Song of Solomon 7:1-5. This is the bridegroom, Yahshua, speaking of His fair bride.

"How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O prince's daughter!

The curves of your hips are like jewels,

The work of the hands of an artist.

Your navel is like a round goblet

Which never lacks mixed wine;

Your belly is like a heap of wheat

Fenced about with lilies.

Your two breasts are like two fawns,

Twins of a gazelle.

Your neck is like a tower of ivory,

Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon

By the gate of Bath-rabbim;

Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,

Which faces toward Damascus.

Your head crowns you like Carmel,

And the flowing locks of your head are like purple threads;

The king is captivated by your tresses."

The image and truth here is not gained by looking at the beauty of the bride as a disjointed collage of concrete pictures, but in the meaning of each representation being drawn from. This is our quest with this city, this mountain, called Carmel. Like so many other cases, some of which have already been drawn upon in these writings, we will find that Carmel has a specific and highly important prophetic representation, not only in the Bible but even to this day. When Yahweh laid out truth in the Bible, He did not cast the prophetic and even intercessoral testimony away; no, He uses it even today, if we have eyes to see.

How can we know what Carmel prophetically represents? Some subjects are easier and more widely accepted in their prophetic representation. For example, who would deny that the Passover lamb prophetically represented Yahshua? That is easy enough. Or the dove represents the Holy Spirit? Some prophetic representations are rather overtly testified to in the meaning of their names. For example, one of the towns we will reference in this writing is Zela. Zela means "rib," and what is the first thing that comes to your mind regarding a "rib" that might have prophetic significance? Yes, the rib that was taken out of Adam, from which a bride was fashioned. Or, if we learn that the two places of Nahor and Zarethan both mean "piercing," might we suspect that these places would add some insight regarding the piercing of Yahshua? And this is precisely what we find, and will briefly address latter in this writing.

Carmel likewise offers the same affirming advantage in understanding its prophetic meaning via the meaning of its name. This is not always the case with all words; but Yahweh has given us a bold, forthright, and unmistakable witness of what Carmel prophetically represents. But equally, once we see what Carmel means and understand its prophetic significance, it is the revelations that come to us from some dramatic events and occurrences specifically at Carmel, that both affirm and enlighten us as to how surely this place fits its prophetic name. When you hear the meaning of this name, you will most likely be able to figure out on your own its prophetic significance. It is that obvious. So, when you now read that Carmel means - "garden" - what do you immediately think of from the Bible? When is the first time in the Bible when "garden" is used? Obviously in the garden of Eden. Carmel is prophetic of the "garden" of Eden.

And as we have said, Yahweh has not left us alone in this witness or identity of Carmel as the garden of God simply by the meaning of its name. No, for He has given us a most clear and affirming witness in the following.

It has been said that the first usage of a word in the Bible gives great evidence as to the significance of that word. Most certainly this is the case with Carmel. We find that Carmel is first used in the Bible in Joshua 12:22, which reads:

"the king of Jokneam in Carmel."

This in context is only one listing of an entire list of all the kings which Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated. You might ask - How does this have any bearing on what we have just seen? What did we say Carmel represented, but the garden of Eden where mankind began? We already know what the meaning of Carmel is - "garden." So, what meaning does Jokneam hold? Jokneam means - "foundation of the people"! Does that sound like any particular "garden" you have heard of? Thus, when we take the first time reference in the Bible of Carmel - "Jokneam in Carmel" - and substitute the meaning of both of these places, we have the following very clear and confirming statement - "foundation of the people in the garden"! Is there any question whatsoever now what Carmel represents? Carmel clearly, as we will even further see, represents the garden of God, the garden of Eden, the foundation of the people.

Now let us take this one very important step further. For many (unless you have read other writings on this site), the garden of Eden does not have enough significance to understand the full impact and importance of a city/mountain for which its name identifies it as a representation of the garden of Eden - the foundation of the people. Let us take this most important place of the garden and elevate it one very important step higher, actually to its final fulfillment.

Everything that takes place in this earthly realm or level is actually a representation of and even an intercession for that which is effected at the higher kingdom level. So first, when we read here the testimony - "the foundation of the people in the garden," this is precisely what Yahweh accomplished in the first garden. The original garden was the beginning, the foundation of earthly-fleshed mankind. BUT, and this is a most important but, this beginning was only a NATURAL beginning that must give rise and even give way to a "beginning" that is at a higher level. This would be at the greater kingdom of God level. (Frankly, this is when this writer can hardly sit here at this keyboard because of the intense importance of and excitement surrounding this point!)

The foundation of the people that began in the original garden is a picture that will be duplicated, only at the higher kingdom of God level. This is a MOST important point for you to see. Paul affirmed that the natural precedes the spiritual; there is first the natural, and then the spiritual. So even as there was a natural "garden of Eden," there will also be a spiritual "garden of Eden." What is the spiritual garden of Eden that will equally be the "foundation of the people"? It is the spiritual "garden" of the kingdom of God.

While this kingdom began 2,000 years ago with the work of Yahshua through His taking the vow of the Nazirite and fulfilling the restoration of the "garden"/the kingdom through that vow (a most relevant and most important point!), this kingdom that man has known for 2,000 years has in no way come to complete fulfillment. The spiritual "garden of Eden" man has known for the last 2,000 years of the church is only an IN PART portion or expression of that kingdom. There is much still before us in order for that kingdom garden to be completed or matured.

More will be revealed and confirmed regarding this as we continue in this writing, but let us note a MOST important application of this name, Carmel. Not only does Carmel look back to the original "foundation of the people" at the garden of Eden; but its primary testimony is in prophetically revealing the kingdom of God, or the "foundation of the people" at the higher and ultimate fulfillment for the purpose of elevating all mankind into the realm of the heavenly. The kingdom of God is the spiritual "foundation of the people." So let us note here at this point that Carmel represents not just any garden, but more significantly the kingdom of God on earth.

Knowing this most important point then leads us to examine Yahweh's testimonies that He has given us in the accounts surrounding Carmel. In these we will see some truly amazing, revealing, and highly accurate representations of the kingdom of God!

We will begin this examination, as well as close this introductory section, with a very brief look at the first time Carmel arises in the Bible in a particular plot. This must be brief though because we cannot develop everything here in this account.

The first time Carmel arises as a part of a plot is when Saul "came to Carmel (the kingdom of God)," and "set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal" (1 Samuel 15:12). It is on this occasion that Yahweh rejects Saul for his disobedience. Now remember, this is all relative to the kingdom of God, evidenced by the testimony of these events being initiated by Saul setting up a monument to himself at Carmel.

Saul is a prophetic foreshadowing of Christianity, one part of the kingdom of God. (Read Two Trees In The Garden for a more thorough assessment of the two parts of the kingdom.) Saul was declared king on Pentecost (during the wheat harvest), his selection as king was confirmed by him being given two loaves of bread (two loaves of leavened bread were waved on Pentecost) and the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him and he prophesied (which is what took place on the day of Pentecost at the beginning of the church). Saul is likewise Christianity in that his reign was premature, before the time. This matter of timing is precisely the issue that Legion raised to Yahshua before He cast him into the 2,000 swine (the number of years of the church leading up to the more timely Millennium). "Have you come here to torment us before the time?," he asked. In other words, "Why are you here early?" The church, like Saul, was premature. The problem was that the kingdom was given to man while he still walked in earthly flesh. This, as with Saul, has been a problem with the church from its premature beginning. The ONLY ones who can accurately handle the kingdom are "born from above" individuals who have put off this earthly flesh and put on incorruptible bodies.

So briefly, this is why we see Saul setting up the monument for himself at Carmel. Saul is Christianity, and later Christianity would even more thoroughly set up monuments to itself - all of its little-horned church buildings.

With this brief introductory testimony, it is now time to go to the revealing second account regarding Carmel.

 

Continue to page 2 of Carmel for NABAL AND ABIGAIL

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