The Tree, the Cross, and the 3 Gold Coins
I laid down in the afternoon for a nap and had just about fallen asleep when I dreamed of my being in a field of sorts with a clearing in front of me. I saw people were foraging around through the plants and bushes looking for food. I watched them as they harvested what they could find, and I turned and looked at the edge of the clearing and saw some trees. I thought that I would go and look at the trees to see if there was food there for the people.
I walked over to a very large and full tree. Its branches were thick and the tree was full of leaves. I looked at the trunk and I saw that there was something coming out of the bark of the tree, and it was squeezing through the gaps of the bark to the surface and was beginning to run in a thin stream down the trunk. I reached up and put my finger into the sap. It was thick and golden, like amber, and it was warm. I tasted it and it was sweet. I thought that I should go and tell the people about this tree, when I looked up into the branches of the tree, and all of a sudden I saw the Cross in the tree. Then as I looked, I saw right through the Cross into heaven.
Suddenly I was standing among a group of people. We were standing off to the side of a huge palace foyer. The palace was spacious, and made of stone. It was very beautiful, yet simple in it’s furnishings and design. I saw a man standing over by the throne and he turned and it was a man with a short beard, and brown eyes, with shoulder length hair, and he was dressed like a king. He was the king of this palace. I suddenly knew this was the Lord. But this king was a younger king, and his crown was very distinctive, but simple too. It was beautiful, yet it did not take away from him and his features. He wore a white garment, with a red outer robe that had black scroll works woven into the fabric. The edges had gold fringes, and it fell to his ankles.
The king turned and looked all around. He called out, “Where are my runners?” All of a sudden we were all ushered over to where the king stood. He smiled at us all and motioned for us to each approach him. He then began to hand out a small bag to us. When it came to my turn, I stepped forwards and he paused and looked into my eyes. His face was one of amusement, joy and seriousness all at once. He then placed a small brown bag into my hand. He nodded at me and I reached down and opened it. Inside the bag were three golden coins. I took them and put them each, one by one, in my mouth and ate them. I then woke up. I wondered why I ate the coins.
· I told the dream to Patrick and he felt it also goes along with the recurring theme also of the Lord preparing us all to move forth in these coming times and we are to speak his words to the people that he leads us to. The runners of the Lord are his messengers. But he also felt that our provision will come from the Lord and not from the normal means that men seek after for provision. Our bread is every word that proceeds from his mouth and to do his will. He will provide for us by supernatural means.
Tree/Cross:
Acts 5:3 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
Acts 10:39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"—
Runners:
1 Corinthians 9:23 And I do this for the sake of the good news (the Gospel), in order that I may become a participator in it and share in its [blessings along with you]. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours. 25 Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.
Three Gold Coins:
Job 42:11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. 72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Coin:
Before the Exile the Jews had no regularly stamped money. They made use of uncoined shekels or talents of silver, which they weighed out (Gen. 23:16; Ex. 38:24; 2 Sam. 18:12). Probably the silver ingots used in the time of Abraham may have been of a fixed weight, which was in some way indicated on them. The "pieces of silver" paid by Abimelech to Abraham (Gen. 20:16), and those also for which Joseph was sold (37:28), were proably in the form of rings. The shekel was the common standard of weight and value among the Hebrews down to the time of the Captivity. Only once is a shekel of gold mentioned (1 Chr. 21:25). The "six thousand of gold" mentioned in the transaction between Naaman and Gehazi (2 Kings 5:5) were probably so many shekels of gold. The "piece of money" mentioned in Job 42:11; Gen. 33:19 (marg., "lambs") was the Hebrew _kesitah_, probably an uncoined piece of silver of a certain weight in the form of a sheep or lamb, or perhaps having on it such an impression. The same Hebrew word is used in Josh. 24:32, which is rendered by Wickliffe "an hundred yonge scheep."
Money:
Of uncoined money the first notice we have is in the history of Abraham (Gen. 13:2; 20:16; 24:35). Next, this word is used in connection with the purchase of the cave of Machpelah (23:16), and again in connection with Jacob's purchase of a field at Shalem (Gen. 33:18, 19) for "an hundred pieces of money"=an hundred Hebrew kesitahs (q.v.), i.e., probably pieces of money, as is supposed, bearing the figure of a lamb.
The history of Joseph affords evidence of the constant use of money, silver of a fixed weight. This appears also in all the subsequent history of the Jewish people, in all their internal as well as foreign transactions. There were in common use in trade silver pieces of a definite weight, shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels. But these were not properly coins, which are pieces of metal authoritatively issued, and bearing a stamp.
Of the use of coined money we have no early notice among the Hebrews. The first mentioned is of Persian coinage, the daric (Ezra 2:69; Neh. 7:70) and the 'adarkon (Ezra 8:27). The daric (q.v.) was a gold piece current in Palestine in the time of Cyrus. As long as the Jews, after the Exile, lived under Persian rule, they used Persian coins. These gave place to Greek coins when Palestine came under the dominion of the Greeks (B.C. 331), the coins consisting of gold, silver, and copper pieces. The usual gold pieces were staters (q.v.), and the silver coins tetradrachms and drachms.
In the year B.C. 140, Antiochus VII. gave permission to Simon the Maccabee to coin Jewish money. Shekels (q.v.) were then coined bearing the figure of the almond rod and the pot of manna.
Runner:
2 Kings 5:5 And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
Context:
2 Kings 5
1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. 3She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 4So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." 5And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 7And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me." 8But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel." 9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean." 11But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. 13But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" 14So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant." 16But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused. 17Then Naaman said, "If not, please let there be given to your servant two mules’ load of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD. 18In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter." 19He said to him, "Go in peace." But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him." 21So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, "Is all well?" 22And he said, "All is well. My master has sent me to say, 'There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.'" 23And Naaman said, "Be pleased to accept two talents." And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gehazi. 24And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed. 25He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?" And he said, "Your servant went nowhere." 26But he said to him, "Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? 27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever." So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.
· Gehazi was a runner/servant for Elisha and in his greed, he asked Naaman for things, but note that he never asked for the gold coins, only the clothes and the silver. The Gold Shekel is holy.
Gold Daric:
Ezra 2:68 Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site. 69 According to their ability they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priests’ garments.
Nehemiah 7:70 Now some of the heads of fathers’ houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 darics of gold, 50 basins, 30 priests’ garments and 500 minas of silver.
Ezra 8:28 And I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers.
-Susan O’Marra
-01/04/11
Standing Steadfast In The Fires Of God
I laid down that night to go to sleep and the scripture came into my mind, James 1:4. I thought about it, but was too tired to get up and look it up. About an hour and a half later, I woke up. I then remembered the verse, so I went and looked it up…
James 1:4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
AMP -4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
TM - 2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
· Greek Set them apart (for holy service to God).
1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
· Some manuscripts chose you from the beginning
James 1:18 AMP -And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].
James 1:1 JAMES, A servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad [among the Gentiles in the dispersion]: Greetings (rejoice)! 2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. 3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. 4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting).
We are the First fruits of the Lord in this hour, emerging purified, tried, and prepared for His work. We are also Holy unto Him and are separated unto His Service, just like the Golden Coins for His House.
Ezra 8:28 And I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers.
-Susan O’Marra
-01/05/11
