The Man of Fire

If you read yesterday's web log, you will have the tool at your disposal to do a study of the Hebrew word for fire--esh. It is where we derive our English word "ash," which is the result of fire.

The Hebrew word esh is spelled with two Hebrew letters, alef (an ox, strength) and shin (teeth, to devour or consume). Hence, esh literally refers to the strong devourer or strong consumer. For this reason, our God is said to be a consuming Fire. Likewise, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is said to be a baptism of fire, for it consumes the flesh.

The Hebrew word for man (in the sense of a male) is ish, which is spelled alef, yood, shin. It is the word esh with a yood in the middle. A yood is a work or deed, and being the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it also represents the law (as in the Ten Commandments). In fact, the common New Testament statements about "the works of the law" are simply an expression of this Hebrew letter, yood. Thus, when Jesus said in Matt. 5:18 that not one jot (yood) or tittle (ornament on each letter) would pass away until all was fulfilled in the law, He was underscoring the fact that the law itself would not pass away until everything was fulfilled.

With this in mind, it is not difficult to see why a man was called ish in Hebrew. He was created to do all his works (yood) within the fire (esh) or character of God.

When Moses went up the mount into the fire of God, where the Ten Commandments were written on his heart in the midst of the fire, this was an act that illustrated the purpose for man's creation. The True Man was created to do all of his works as an expression of the fiery character of the glory of God.

And when he emerged from the fire to return to the people at the base of the mount, he was acting the part of the True Woman. The Hebrew word for "woman" is ishah, spelled alef, shin, and hey. The first two letters spell esh ("fire"). The hey at the end of a Hebrew word means "what comes from." Thus, the True Woman was created to be "what comes from fire."

Israel was then invited to draw near to God in order that the law might be written in their hearts, so that the Bride might manifest the purpose for her creation. But Israel was afraid and ran away from God (Ex. 20:18-21). They told Moses to hear the rest of the law and to tell them what God said (which he did); but this did not have the same result. The Bride cannot be the True Woman without overcoming fear of Him. She cannot be the expression of His character, nor can she receive the law written in her heart (Heb. 8:10), without having the faith to step into the fire of God.

Only by going into the fire can she emerge as the True Woman, ishah, that which comes from fire.

The Old Covenant at Sinai gave them the "fiery law" (Deut. 33:2), which they received only as an external law, written on tables of stone. It would take a New Covenant to transfer the law from the external to the internal and write the law upon their hearts. The external law could only regulate behavior from the outside. The internal law was written by the finger of God from the inside by means of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire. It has the power to change one's nature.

The New Covenant was sealed by the blood of Jesus upon a place called Calvary. The Greek word for Calvary, the "place of the skull," is kranion, from which we derive our word cranium, or skull. In the Greek language, the numeric value of kranion is 301. It is the same as the Hebrew word esh, 301, for alef is 1 and shin is 300.

Likewise, Jesus was crucified as the Passover Lamb. The numeric value of "lambs" in Hebrew is also 301.

And because God also uses all of nature to teach us His Word, we find that at precisely 3:01 p.m. on the day of His crucifixion, an eclipse of the moon began in Europe. The blood-red moon was already eclipsed when it arose over Jerusalem at 5:10 p.m., about the time that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were burying Jesus' body. The Greek word for moon is selene, which also has a numeric value of 301.

I believe that all of these things tell us that Jesus died precisely at 3:01 p.m. as well, just as the lunar eclipse was beginning. Keep in mind that this was not the supernatural darkness that blotted out the sun over Jerusalem from noon until 3:00 p.m. Both types of darkness were prophetic fulfillments of the prophecy in Joel 2:31,

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come."

All of this came to pass on April 3, 33 A.D. when Jesus was crucified at the moment when all the people were killing their Passover lambs. Anyone who had eyes to see and ears to hear would thus know by signs and wonders that this was the prophesied day preceding the Day of the Lord. Yet because the law prophesied two comings of Christ, first through Judah and second through Joseph, there is no doubt to be a secondary fulfillment of this as well. Whether or not this next fulfillment is manifested in the same way as the first time cannot be known apart from divine revelation.

In Romans 12:20 the Apostle Paul instructs us to feed our enemies and to do good to them in order to overcome evil with good. He says, "for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Paul was referring to the Hebrew word asher, which means "bless." It is spelled in Hebrew, alef, shin, and resh. The alef and shin form the word esh, or "fire." Resh means "head." To bless literally means to put fire on the head.

In those days, if one's fire went out, they would go to their neighbor and borrow a few coals with which to start a new fire. If the neighbor were stingy, they would get only a few coals. A generous neighbor would give them a heap of coals and put these in an earthen jar, which was then carried on the head. Thus, the generous neighbor would heap coals of fire on her head.

That is the literal meaning of "bless." Paul told us to do this for our enemies and thus overcome evil with good.

Finally, the Hebrew word asham is where we derive our English word "ashamed."Its root is esh, or "fire," with a mem at the end. Mem is "water." In 1 Thess. 5:19 Paul tells us "Quench not the Spirit." The Holy Spirit baptizes us with fire (Matt. 3:11). Thus, Paul was giving us the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew word asham, saying that it is a shame to quench the Spirit by throwing water on the fire.

These are all instructions to us, so that we understand the nature of the New Creation Man that is coming forth as Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you is coming to birth and will be manifested as the True Man, but in coming forth from fire, the collective body being born is the Bride of Christ, having the law written in her heart, cleansed and purified by fire. She is in agreement with her Husband, doing all her works, speaking and doing only what He speaks and does. She is an Amen company.