CARMEL

 

CONT., page 2

 

NABAL AND ABIGAIL

Are you familiar with the account of Nabal and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25? The events surrounding their lives took place during the time of David, and involved David. We read that Nabal "was harsh and evil in his dealings," and his wife, Abigail, "was of good understanding and beautiful."

Once again we cannot digress on this account to a great degree, but will certainly address those things that would benefit us most at this point in our study and understanding.

Five times in this account, we are told that the events occurring herein took place at Carmel. So, what we have before us, as we have already learned, is an account bearing testimony to the kingdom of God. And this is precisely and quite dramatically what we find here.

This account will afford us an excellent opportunity to learn and confirm matters which relate to the kingdom. We will digress on some of these points, learning even better what lies ahead of us in this kingdom, and why these events must take place. One thing you can be assured of - what you will learn here is not what others are saying. Now, today, is the time for Yahweh to bring forth His light on His word; and that is what He is doing in these writings. You are going to learn some things here you have never been told before; but that is the nature of Yahweh - to bring forth new things. And equally, this light reveals the grave state of Christianity - it is old, corrupt, and filled with error.

Again, what we are seeing here in this account in 1 Samuel 25 is a prophetic representation of the kingdom of God, evidenced by these events occurring specifically in Carmel, the kingdom of God. It is hoped that the reader has examined some of the other writings on this web site. If so, you are aware that the kingdom of God is more than what everyone else falsely assumes it to be. Everyone up to now has viewed the kingdom as being Christianity, or at least a pure part of Christianity. Either way, they assume that the kingdom is one sole work.

But this is not the case. In fact, the kingdom is a two-part work. It has already been stated here that the garden of Eden is a prophetic picture of the kingdom of God. Therefore, let us ask an important question - How many people were in that garden kingdom? Two. Similarly, how many trees were in that garden kingdom? Again, two. Thus we find that the higher and true kingdom of God is a two-part kingdom. Even as there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil AND the tree of life; and even as there was Adam AND Eve; so there is Christianity AND the Remnant in the higher kingdom of God, the body AND the bride.

SO, how many parts do we find in the "garden" here at Carmel in 1 Samuel 25? Two! Who are they? What are they? There was a man named Nabal, and his wife, Abigail. These two are the two parts of the kingdom of God; the masculine and the feminine. Nabal is representative of the masculine body of Yahshua, Christianity; and Abigail, his bride, is representative of the Remnant bride of Yahshua.

What does Nabal mean? What does Abigail mean? By knowing the meaning of the names of these two parts in the garden kingdom, we will learn something most revealing regarding Yahweh's view and assessment of these two kingdom works.

Nabal, who is prophetic of Christianity, means - empty, worthless, vain, ignorant. Abigail forthrightly declared to David concerning him - "Please do not let my lord pay attention to this man of Belial (worthlessness, wickedness, evil), Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him." This is Yahweh's own characterization of corrupt, deceived, and shortfall Christianity. (And it is equally the characterization that this now-forming Abigail bride assesses concerning its present husband, Christianity.)

In clear contrast, Abigail means - father of joy, source of exaltation, or cause of delight. This is Yahweh's feelings regarding the Remnant bride, particularly the latter days second Remnant.

So here we have the two works in the kingdom - the Nabal body of Yahshua, or Christianity, and the Abigail bride of Yahshua Remnant. The former is empty, worthless, vain, and most certainly ignorant; the latter is the Father's joy, source of exaltation, and cause of delight! This is not this writer's assessment of these two works, but Yahweh's own assessment, given and revealed to us even as the bride at the time of this writing is being formed - a cloud the size of a man's palm (1 Kings 18:44), a rib that is destined to become an entire body with an identity and function all its own. With this noted, let us continue.

If you are familiar with this account, you will recall that David had sent his men to Nabal while Nabal was "shearing his sheep," Christians. You can read the account yourself and maybe gain insight on your own; but essentially, David asked Nabal for help for himself and his men in return for the protection he afforded them, to which Nabal declined and spurned David. This greatly angered David, so he took 400 of his men to kill Nabal and every male in his household.

One of the young men in Nabal's house went to Abigail and told her all that had happened, adding - Nabal "is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him." (Remnant, have you noticed this when trying to talk to most Christians. They are a Nabal, and there is no way you can speak to them.) So, what did the bride of Nabal do that could save her husband? She knew there was no convincing him (and there is no convincing Christianity), so the only solution was for her to perform a work before David for the sake of her husband that would turn away David's wrath.

Abigail then hurried (the bride work is a quick, very brief work) and took bread, wine, sheep, roasted grain, raisins, and figs to intercept David on his march to destroy Nabal. All of this happened without Nabal's knowledge. Equally, Christianity, like Nabal or even Balaam, has no knowledge concerning Yahweh's planned wrath against them, or Yahweh's plan to satisfy that wrath through the bride. Recall that Abigail was described as being one "of good understanding," while the body has no knowledge of the wrath Yahweh has planned against them. The bride, on the other hand, is "of good understanding" and knows the peril the body is in, and what Yahweh is preparing to do. And that is what these writings are all about.

All of these gifts and provisions that Abigail gathered were loaded onto donkeys, and quickly sent before her to David. She then mounted her donkey and followed behind.

We cannot go into the following to any great degree, but as Steve Jones has ably pointed out, the donkey is clearly prophetic of Pentecost. Do you remember Saul, who was established as king during Pentecost and received two loaves of bread and prophesied under the power of the Spirit of Yahweh? Again, Saul was Christianity. Do you recall what Saul was doing that brought him before the prophet who told him that he would be king? This Pentecost man was searching for his father's donkeys (1 Samuel 9:3, 5, 20; 10:2, 14, 16)!

And do you remember that Yahshua rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey, and at the next Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out? Any time you read of the donkey, whether it be the talking donkey that saved an unseeing Balaam, or the jawbone of a donkey that was used to save Samson as he slew with it a thousand Philistines, or the donkeys on which Abigail bore her gifts and she herself rode which saved an unseeing Nabal, or any other occasion in which the donkey is mentioned, Pentecost is clearly at issue there.

So when we see Abigail coming to David to deter his planned wrath, riding on a donkey and bearing gifts and provisions equally on donkeys, the message being presented is a Pentecost related message. What specifically does this mean?

It has been noted in the writing, Passover, that it seems the most likely time for the outpouring of the latter rain is during Passover. Passover is the feast of unleavened bread, and is identified with the second Remnant, versus Pentecost where two loaves of leavened bread were waved before Yahweh and represent the first Remnant and Christianity that followed. Thus, any manifestation of the latter rain should be related now to Passover, and really more specifically to a delayed Passover, even a delayed double Passover. (Read Passover in order to understand this.)

Here we see that the offering that allayed David's wrath, was bore to him on the backs of Pentecost donkeys. Why is this the case? Because it is the bride that satisfies the wrath of Yahshua, here more specifically seen in the testimony of the first Remnant. More on this shortly.

Around Passover in the year of this writing, 2000, a spark of belief was ignited in one and then two individuals. Coming up to the delayed Passover on May 19, those numbers began to grow. During the delayed double Passover, that number slowly increased and evidenced very solid prophetic structure. A rib was being taken out of the body, a small cloud the size of a man's palm was forming. One thing is apparent though - a Remnant work has at least begun, and it will be exciting to watch what does happen. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and He will accomplish a work that is His. As promised to the second Remnant:

"He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David (we have already seen the witness of that key of David evidenced in the Remnant beginning), who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power (we are a little Remnant), and have kept My word, and have not denied My name'" (Revelation 3:7-8).

Thus we see why Abigail made her journey with donkeys - she was under the power of a first Remnant Pentecost!

As David rode toward Carmel, the kingdom, to destroy Nabal, Christianity, he pondered:

"Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness (Christianity is "the church in the wilderness"), so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good" (vs. 21).

As we have seen before, Christianity is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, evidenced here once again by David's lament that this man in Carmel/the garden returned him "evil for good."

When Abigail saw David, she dismounted her donkey, fell on her face before his feet, and pled for her worthless husband. (Can we point out here that this is the same position that Remnant bride Ruth took before Boaz. Naomi instructed her to go to the threshing floor where they were threshing Passover barley, and when Boaz laid down, she was to "uncover his feet and lie down; then he will tell you what you shall do," Ruth 3:4. And this she did, and became the bride of Boaz, her kinsman redeemer. More on this later.)

David was moved by Abigail's intercession. Because she did "come quickly" to him (the quick work of the Remnant), the wrath of David was changed. David thus instructed her - "Go up to your house in peace." Oh what a promise that means a great deal to a first Remnant bride who had to die and waits for the second Remnant!

Reading on in the account, Abigail went to Nabal and found him in the midst of a feast, "like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk." Is this not precisely the state of Christianity? They are drunk with the wine of this world, and make merry as though they already reign. As written by Paul - "You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you" (1 Corinthians 4:8).

On the next morning when the wine had worn off Nabal, Abigail "told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as stone." Ten days later Yahweh struck Nabal, and he died.

Hearing that Nabal was dead, "David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife." Upon hearing this, Abigail "arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, 'Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord's servants.'" This is the cry of the second Remnant. The first Remnant, having refused to serve the tables, failed to have the Abigail attitude toward the Remnant servants of Yahweh. We will wash the feet of Yahweh's servants, preparing them to receive the heavenly kingdom.

Continuing: "Then Abigail (once again) quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who attended her (the five wise virgins who had the oil to go the entire way); and she followed the messengers of David (the "messenger" is the Elijah), and became his wife." At this point with Abigail's departure, we now begin to see her picture as the second Remnant that comes out of the old house of the dead body of Christ to be joined with the first Remnant. Thus, it is quite revealing as to who is already there in David's house before Abigail arrives - a first Remnant bride representative, a Leah.

Even as the first Remnant precedes the second Remnant to be with Yahshua, so there was already a bride in David's house that had preceded Abigail. This was Ahinoam. So, with the arrival of Abigail, David now had his two-part bride, making the two-part Remnant picture complete.

Thus we see in Abigail a unique picture of both Remnant bride works. Though she went to David originally as the first Remnant bride figure, remaining joined to her husband insomuch that he was still living, when he died she was then free to come out of his house to be joined to the one who was to be king. Equally, the second Remnant bride could not be joined to Yahshua until the body of Christ was determined to be legally dead, which is now the case. With the death of the body, the spear has pierced its side in order to bring out the Abigail bride.

Thus we conclude and point out here that the first Remnant former rain is a Pentecost work, whereas the second Remnant latter rain is a Passover work. And, this latter rain has obviously already begun per the events which have taken place during this Passover, 2000!

Now let us add one final noteworthy point to this. Someone might ask - Is the bride of Yahshua the bride of the body of Yahshua, or the bride of Yahshua Himself? Keep in mind that that question is relative to spiritual matters dealing with heavenly issues, and that marriage and the bearing of offspring while in these bodies is an earthly foreshadowing picture. Also, keep in mind that when you read - "Yahshua's body" - which body would it mean? On the one hand, we could be referring to His body that He possesses, the body that is now "born from above" and is not of this earth, yet was before created from the dust of this earth and offered as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Or, we could be referring to His spiritual body in the kingdom of God, most generally referred to as "the spiritual body of Christ."

The point concerning this is that the spiritual body of Christ is His body, even as the vessel that He possesses is equally His body; so that when Yahshua raises up a bride, she is as much the bride of "the body of Yahshua," as she is the bride for Yahshua Himself. The bride comes out of the body of Yahshua, and is joined to Yahshua Himself. But equally, she is just as much the bride to the body. Being Yahshua's bride, equally makes her the bride of His body. This is a spiritual matter that does not have the natural limitations of the first three dimensions of space. It is a spiritual issue, and the natural is simply used to foreshadow and represent that which will take place in the higher spiritual, where the natural bounds do not exist. Even as when Yahshua came back to this earth in a body that looked like the former, but did not have its constraints, so the higher fulfillments concerning the marriage of Yahshua to His bride, which equally joins her to His body, does not have natural constraints.

The case of these seemingly two husbands is seen here most vividly in this picture with Nabal, Abigail, and David. Abigail interceded for Nabal, which saved his life. This is the intercession that the bride provides for the body. But although she is the bride of a worthless man, and faithfully performs her intercessoral role for him, thus averting the wrath of David, this picture, even with its natural constraints, gives way to the equal truth that that bride ascends to the higher place of marriage to the One who will reign. So, Yahweh takes the life of Nabal (the body of Christ is put to sleep), and Abigail is then joined to the one who will become King - David/Yahshua.

Thus, even with the constraints of the dimensions of space, Yahweh still testified to what would take place concerning the bride of Yahshua in her relationship with the body of Yahshua and Yahshua Himself. The bride comes out of the body that is put to sleep by Yahweh, and she is joined to the One who is to reign as King of Kings. And of course, as has been pointed out before, she enters into that house as the second part of a two-part bride, even as Abigail was the second and much desirable bride - she "was of good understanding (the second Remnant sees all things clearly) and beautiful (the second Remnant is MOST desirable to Yahshua)."

Is this not a most complete and revealing picture here regarding the kingdom of Yahweh? This is Carmel. This is the garden that is the foundation of the people, the people that enter into the kingdom. Yahweh has provided us explicit evidence here of many of the things that are being seen by His Remnant bride and reported in these writings on this web site. These are the truths of Yahweh that have been hidden from man, even from the original garden of Eden, but are being revealed to His Remnant bride today - and you are beholding these wonders!

There is one final important point here that needs to be elaborated on, and this has to do with the role of Abigail as an intercessor or even covering for her husband - the bride as the covering and intercessor for the body. In order to address this, it is too extensive and important to address in this section. Thus, let us now advance to the next section and see what we can learn concerning this most important and never before seen work of the bride.

 

Continue to page 3 of Carmel for THE INTERCEDING BRIDE

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