The Origins of Babylonian Rebellion: Part 2

This past week end we met to discuss and discern the roots of the Babylonian rebellion and to root them out as God revealed them to us. The revelation itself provides the authority to deal with it, because that is the purpose of revelation and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We were first led to deal with Ham, who was cut off from his family after he stole Noah's garments and usurped the authority that rightfully was to go to Shem. We were led by the Spirit to reinstate Ham as the younger son--the position that he was called to occupy from the beginning. In this way the nations who descend from him (Gen. 10) may receive their inheritances in the Kingdom of God as God begins to restore all things back to Himself.

Next, we dealt with Canaan, who received the primary curse from Noah in Gen. 9:25. Noah's rights were violated, and so he had the right to put the curse of the law upon Canaan. But under the New Covenant, we know that Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sin of the world. Further, we were given James 3:9-18, where verse 10 reads, "out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."

This was a reference to the fact that the Hebrew word, barak, has a double meaning. In Gen. 12:3 it is translated "bless." But in Job 1:11, 2:5, and 2:9 it is translated "curse." Thus, by the same "mouth" (word) we can either bless or curse. Insofar as the word itself is concerned, the meaning depends upon the application of the word.

As Noah's heirs, we do not have the right to overrule our father per se, but we do have the right to re-apply his "curse" and make it a blessing. We know that this is according to the mind of Christ who will have all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). So we decreed that the curse upon Canaan would be corrective in nature, turning it into a blessing for him and the nations descended from him. This is the only way that the word of the prophets can be fulfilled concerning the restoration of all things.

Next we turned to Noah himself and found a deeper bitter root that needed to be rooted out to prepare the field for planting a new vineyard of God's Kingdom.

Judicially speaking, the flood wiped the slate clean, for it brought judgment to the earth to satisfy the law. But, as I showed in Part 1, this did not really solve the problem, because the eight survivors were still mortal and imperfect. Thus, we see problems developing soon after the flood.

The problems with Ham and Canaan were not the first problems to emerge. The first problem was with Noah himself. It was not wrong of him to plant a vineyard, but there is no record that he offered to God the first fruits of the vineyard before drinking of it himself. He must have been aware of the law of first fruits, because even Cain and Abel knew this law (Gen. 4:3, 4). Yet we read the simple statement in Gen. 9:20,

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and was drunken."

The Hebrew word for "began to be" has a double meaning. It also means "to pollute." Thus, we are given a subtle hint that Noah polluted the office (or name) of the husbandman [ish-awdawm]. In John 15:1 Jesus said, "I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman." James 5:7 speaks of God as the Husbandman also, saying,

"Behold, the Husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain."

The problem which I detailed in my February series (and now the booklet), "The Debt Note in Prophecy," is that God has a vineyard but has to this day been unable to eat of it. The first fruits have always been denied Him. James portrays God as the example of patience, for it will take both "the early and latter rain" to bring it to fruition. This speaks of the two outpourings of the Holy Spirit--Pentecost and Tabernacles. The one we received in Acts 2; the second is soon to come.

In that booklet I focused upon the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5 and the parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 21. In Isaiah, the Husbandman received only sour grapes; in Matthew 21 the true Husbandman was denied any fruit at all.

But we now see that the problem really goes back to Noah, who was the first husbandman who planted a vineyard and then did not give God the first fruits. He was the pattern-setter for the rest of the biblical story. Perhaps we could say that he drank God's portion of wine as well as his own, and therefore, he had too much wine and became drunk.

Because of the brevity of the story in Genesis 9, we can only fill in the details by discernment and revelation. And yet the wording provides us a vital clue: Noah polluted the Husbandman's office, and this set the pattern for his descendants. It also was the root which caused Ham and Canaan to despise their father as a common alcoholic. It was the motivation by which Ham and Canaan felt justified in stealing his garments (from Adam) and thus usurping the Dominion Mandate.

This root grew into a plant with Nimrod, who built Babylon as a rival kingdom based upon rebellion against God. Shem left the area, moved to Canaan, and built Jerusalem, where he was known by the rightful title of King of Righteousness (Melchizedek). From that point on, we see two kingdoms in the earth. These were eventually destroyed, but they continued in a greater form known as Mystery Babylon and the New Jerusalem.

And so we see this problem today at the time of the end, the consummation of the age, the time of the harvest. As Judges under the New Covenant, we were led to decree forgiveness to Noah for polluting the office of the Husbandman and ultimately for profaning the name of Yahweh (or Jehovah), who is the true Husbandman.

In removing this major root, we not only undermine the entire basis of the Babylonian Kingdom, we also do our part to prepare the way for Christ's coming, which is the most important aspect of the Elijah ministry itself. The violence by which the Babylonian kingdom was established contrasts directly with the "fruit of righteousness" being "sown in peace" (James 3:18). Jerusalem means "peace." The fruits of the true Vineyard are sown by those who are of the Melchizedek Order, for their High Priest is Jesus Christ, the King of Righteousness (Heb. 7:2) and the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Noah died in the year 2006 from Adam. This current year is thus a type of the "Year of Noah." We saw this last March. So it is not altogether surprising that we would be called to deal with Noah this year. But it also suggests that a new Flood is coming--the flood of the Holy Spirit--and that our work and ministry is to prepare the earth for this great event.

That is also why God has raised up a New Gideon's Army this month. It is an army of prayer warriors that are sowing the fruits of righteousness in peace, rather than by violence and force. Many in the past and present have tried to use Babylonian methods to establish God's Kingdom, but they will not succeed. Only those who understand the mind of Christ and minister in a New Covenant manner will be rewarded for their efforts.