GOD Spoke

After three whole months had passed since the Israelites had left “the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai” (Exodus 19:1), and “camped before the mount” (Exodus 19:2). This was the very same mountain that the Great I Am – the Mighty Lord God had personally spoken to Moses earlier at the burning bush when He gave him his commission to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:1-22). So “Moses went up unto God” (Exodus 19:3) to the same spot on this mountain where he had met with God before, and “the Lord called unto him” (Exodus 19:3) and gave him a specific message to take to the children of Israel.

The Lord God began His message by declaring that “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself” (Exodus 19:4). God then told them that “if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).

You will notice that God did not force these freshly delivered Israelites back into slavery by demanding their obedience; neither did He pressure them to obey Him because of all the wonders and miracles He had performed in freeing them from Egyptian bondage; and neither did He state that they owed Him their obedience as a fair compensation for satisfying all of their daily needs for the past 3 months of wilderness living. But instead this divine message was a simple invitation for them to consider, and then to freely choose to either accept or reject it. So even though God had every right to command this people to obey Him, since they, as well as the earth they lived on, was His creation, yet He chose instead to appeal to them as the free people that He had made them.

Through all that He had done for this Israelite people, in all His dealings with them so far, the Lord God had revealed that He loved them as a Father, and had even tenderly borne them “on eagles’ wings” so that they would be protected and shielded from all harm. And He now declared that He – the Great I Am, the Lord God of all the earth – would mercifully embrace them all as His chosen people “above all people” of the earth, if they would only lovingly respond back to Him and choose of their own free will to obey Him as their God. If so, then He would continue to perform the same miracles for them and even more on their behalf, because He viewed them as a precious and “peculiar treasure unto me”, and not just as simple, lowly subjects of His kingdom.

You know, what other pagan gods ever revealed such love and compassion for their followers? Not in one recorded instance throughout all of their sacred writings did any of the pagan gods ever treat people who had not yet chosen to serve them in the same tender, fatherly way as the Lord God had done with the Israelites!

The type of character revealed and manifested by God was so vastly different than all the rest of the pagan gods, that it stood alone in comparison! This is because all the pagan gods looked upon humanity with unloving eyes. They viewed humanity as being nothing more than dumb slaves and their rightful property to command and even play with, whose duty it was to satisfy their every desire, and that humanity must earn the blessings of the gods through faithful, unquestioning obedience. While the Lord God did not look upon humanity with the same cold, dark paganistic eyes, but instead compassionately viewed them as being people who had been led astray through the errors, superstitions and false doctrines which were holding them captive to corrupt men and oppressive religious systems. He then willingly chose to expend all the Divine power necessary to free them from their abject slavery, so that they as free people could decide for themselves whether to accept Him as their God and serve and obey Him because they loved Him, or to continue to serve the other gods, or no gods at all. Thus it was the difference between forced or willing obedience; slavery or freedom; hatred or love; pagan gods or the Lord God; and God was putting all His Divine power and the resources of heaven on the line in order to make it possible that each and every human being had the right to choose their own destiny of either destruction or salvation; either eternal death or eternal life.

After the Israelites heard the message of the Lord God, “all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). When Moses told “the words of the people unto the Lord” (Exodus 19:9), the Lord God then told Moses something amazing. He declared that three days from now He would personally “come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:11) “in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee” (Exodus 19:9).

This was something unheard of in any of the paganistic religions – that a God would personally manifest Himself in the sight of all of His followers, and would also allow them all to hear His own voice speaking out loud! In all pagan religions, it was always the priests, oracles or the kings that told the people what the gods had supposedly revealed to them through signs, or in dreams or trances. Never once had any of the pagan gods ever publicly manifested themselves to all of their worshipers, or allowed them all to audibly hear them speak! So there was really no hard evidence showing that any of their pagan gods were really alive at all, and thus nothing to prove that their gods were not just being fictitiously kept alive through the teachings of the priests and other superstitious imaginations.

In order to counter this lack of hard proof, the people had to be taught to believe without question what they were told came directly from the gods, and that they had to manifest absolute faith that what their priests or kings were telling them was honestly the truth. But the Mighty Lord God wanted all of His worshipers to know for themselves that He was indeed a living God who was strikingly different from all the other gods they knew about in Egypt or elsewhere, because the people could see and hear for themselves that He really existed! Thus they could afterwards indeed implicitly trust all that Moses was telling them came from the Lord God because they had the proof and could know without a doubt that God really existed.

TIME TO MEET THE LORD GOD

After all the Israelites had spent two days preparing themselves to meet with the Lord God, “it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). This loud trumpet blast was the signal for all the people to “come up to the mount” (Exodus 19:13) in order “to meet with God”, which they did (Exodus 19:17). As all the Israelites “stood at the nether part of the mount”, again “the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder” (Exodus 19:19), thus gaining the undivided attention of all the people.

After the trumpet ceased “Moses spake” to God in the hearing of all the people, and “God answered him by a voice” (Exodus 19:19). Then the people watched in amazement as “the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount” (Exodus 19:20) enveloped in fire so that “no similitude” of His form was seen (Deuteronomy 4:12), “and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven” (Deuteronomy 4:11).

It was from “out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:12) that the Lord God began audibly speaking to all the Israelites “with a great voice” (Deuteronomy 4:13) that caused the flames to move with each word. As all the people watched and listened in amazement, the Lord God slowly and plainly declared “his covenant...even ten commandments” (Deuteronomy 4:13).

God began the first commandment of His covenant by declaring that “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2). After identifying Himself to be the very same God that performed all the miracles and wonders that had brought about their deliverance, He then continued declaring the first, then the second, until He had finished with the 10th commandment, and then “he added no more” (Deuteronomy 5:22). This signified that He had given a complete and perfect law. Afterwards “the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount” (Exodus 24:12), and it was there that these same 10 commandments were written “upon two tables of stone”, and then God “delivered them unto” Moses (Deuteronomy 5:22).

Each of these two stone “tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written” (Exodus 32:15). Thus about half of the 10 commandments were written on one stone tablet, and the remaining commandments were written on the other. Moses had not carved out these two tablets, and neither had he chiseled the words on them, but “the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Exodus 32:16) and “written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).

These events reveal that God considered His law to be of such importance that He would not allow any human being to tell it to others, but He personally spoke each one of these 10 commandments with His own voice in the hearing of all the people, and then wrote these same commandments with His own finger onto two stone tablets. Thus these 10 commandments came directly from God and not man proving that this law was not the product of the mind of men, but from God Himself. Also since they were written by God Himself with His own finger in stone instead of on cloth or paper, plainly showed that God considered His law to be permanent and unchanging. And these commandments were His covenant or agreement with the people that He would be their God, and they would be His people, if they would keep and “perform” all 10 of them (Deuteronomy 4:13).

These 10 commandments are recorded in Exodus 20:2-17 and again in Deuteronomy 5:7-21. Each commandment was very simply stated and was easy for all to understand, yet they were so broad and far reaching as to encompass all aspects of daily life.

FIRST COMMANDMENT

The first commandment of God is:

“I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3.

This first commandment of this covenant revealed who the Lord God was – the God which had delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, and further declared that “no other gods” were to be chosen or worshiped by His people “before me”. But who was this God that declared in the hearing of all the people that no other gods were to be before Him?

“And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.” John 5:37.

As this is true, then it was not the voice of God the Father that all the Israelites heard declaring each of the 10 commandments at Sinai! Then whose voice was it? Who was this Great I Am, this Mighty Lord God who performed all the miracles in delivering His people from Egyptian bondage, and who was now speaking to the people His ten commandments?

“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” John

8:58.

So Jesus declared Himself to be the Great I Am, this Mighty Lord God who had appeared to Moses, and to Abraham before him. But the name Jesus was only given to Him after He became human. So then who was Jesus known as before He became human?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made....He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” John 1:1-3, 10.

So before becoming Jesus in humanity, He was identified as the Word, who was not only with God, but was also a God Himself. He was the God who had created the world and all things in it by the Divine power of His word, and who had formed man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7). But was this particular God only known as the Word?

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks...” Daniel 9:25.

“And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” Acts 3:15.

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood...” Revelation 1:5.

“Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31.

All these verses declare that this Mighty God who became Jesus Christ the Son of God in the flesh, was also known as Messiah the Prince, the Prince of peace, the Prince of life, the Prince of the kings of the earth, or just simply a Prince. But what was this Mighty God and Prince all about?

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

So the Word, who was this Mighty God and Prince, who also became Jesus the Son of God in the flesh, was full of grace and truth. In fact, this Mighty God was Himself the truth.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6.

“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:” Romans 15:8.

“If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:” Ephesians 4:21.

So Jesus – the Word, was the truth, and He specifically came to minister the truth to the Israelites, as well as to all humanity, because the truth was in Him. And since He is the truth, then He knows everything there is about truth, and no one else knows more about truth than He does.

WHO WAS ISRAEL’S LORD GOD BEFORE HE BECAME JESUS?

But was this Mighty God and Prince who was with God in the beginning, and who was specifically working for His people, known only by the name of the Word and Jesus?

“But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.” Daniel 10:21.

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people...” Daniel 12:1.

This means that this Mighty God, this great Prince, the Word, and the truth itself, was known by the name of Michael before being born into humanity and becoming Jesus Christ the Messiah and Son of God in order to personally minister the truth to His people. Michael was this Mighty God who was with God the Father in the beginning! And it was to this Mighty God Michael that God the Father had declared “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:20)!

Then is it really true that in the beginning there was the Almighty God the Father, and the Mighty Lord God Michael, thus making two Gods and not just one?

“But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Hebrews 1:8-9.

Thus Michael, who became Jesus Christ – the Son of God, is here called by God the Father to be a God Himself! Thus there are two Gods listed in this text – the God Michael, and His God the Father. So then this Word who was a God along with God the Father in the beginning, and who then created the world through His own Divine power, was Michael – the truth, the great Prince, the future Messiah to His people when He would be born into humanity becoming Jesus Christ the Son of God. And even though God the Father is greater in authority than the God Michael, yet Michael’s power as a God is not lessened in the least degree by this fact.

It was the Mighty Lord God Michael who put down the rebellion of Lucifer or Satan and his angels in heaven. Michael signally defeated them, won the warfare, and then cast them all out of heaven.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-9.

It was the Mighty Lord God Michael who defeated Lucifer and his followers in heaven; it was the Mighty God Michael who created the world and all things in it; it was the Mighty God Michael – the Great I Am, who was the Lord God who had spoken to Moses, who had then worked all the great and marvelous signs, wonders and miracles in delivering His people out of Egyptian bondage; and it was this same Mighty Lord God Michael who was now declaring His 10 commandment law and covenant with His own divine voice to all of His people stating that they were to have no other gods before Him.

But in commanding that His people were to worship “no other gods before me”, the Mighty Lord God Michael was not including in this prohibition the Almighty Most High God and Father who is definitely to be worshiped! So then how do we understand this commandment stating there is to be no other gods worshiped but the Mighty Lord God Michael, when both Michael and the Almighty Most High God are two separate Gods?

The Hebrew word for “gods” used in this commandment is “elohiym” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, word #430), which in this sense translates and means “gods in the ordinary sense”, or in other words pagan deities. So then Michael was not declaring in this commandment that the only God who could be worshiped in this universe was Himself, and thus the Almighty Most High God is not also to be worshiped. But Michael was referring to all the pagan gods that were being worshiped on this earth. Since Michael was the real Creator God of the earth, then in this first commandment He was declaring that there were to be no other earthly gods worshiped but Him.

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

The second commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:4-6.

This second commandment of this covenant revealed how the Lord God Michael wanted to be worshiped, declaring that the people were not to make “any graven image, or likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”. This was because Michael was the great living God who had created and upheld all things, therefore was above all created things, and thus nothing which He had created could correctly represent all that He is.

To make an idol or image of something which Michael had created, and then believe that this represents or symbolizes the Great I Am, would only work to lessen and limit God’s infinite majesty and greatness. This idol or image of the created thing would be so far from the actual truth, and so far off the mark of correctly representing Him, that it would only mislead souls into error and falsehood regarding exactly who God is.

To make an image or idol “of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast...of any winged fowl...of any thing that creepeth on the ground...of any fish”, or even of “the sun, and the moon, and the stars” (Deuteronomy 4:16-19) would only work to take the eyes of the people off of the Creator God Himself and focus them instead upon the creation itself. Thus the great and Mighty Lord God would be made to appear no greater than the created thing which the idol or image depicted, and since the idol itself cannot speak, hear or answer because it is lifeless and dead, then people would be led to believe the same about God.

In regards to any pagan image or idol that had already been formed, the Lord God Michael further declared that He did not want the people to “bow down thyself to them, nor serve them”. This was because just as a husband jealously refuses to allow the affections of his covenant bound wife to be shared with another man, so Michael stated that “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” who also refuses to allow the worship and affections of His covenant bound people to be shared with another god of the pagans, and especially not with Lucifer whom all these pagan gods ultimately symbolized and represented.

So it wasn’t that God forbade all images or statues or pictures from being made, but just those which were believed to be, or were worshiped as, a sacred representation of any god – including Himself. That is why the Lord God Michael did not allow the people to see His actual form, or any “manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you” (Deuteronomy 4:15), but to only see the fire that He was in and hidden by, as well as to hear His voice. Michael knew that if the people saw His actual form then they would eventually be led to “forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image” (Deuteronomy 4:23) of what they saw the Lord look like.

God further declared in this second commandment that He was the One who either visits the iniquity or sins in punishment upon the disobedient ones who hate Him, or has mercy upon and blesses the obedient ones who love Him. This is because as God is the Creator and Author of all things, then He has the right and authority to either bless or punish all things. But instead of arbitrarily doling out these good or bad rewards irrespective of whether or not they were merited, Michael instead blesses or punishes according to the actions which people themselves choose to perform.

But in order to justly determine who is indeed worthy of reward based upon their actions, their actions must be compared to and judged by some standard. And to be completely unbiased, this standard must be openly available for all to learn about, as it would be unfair to punish those who had no way of knowing that their actions were displeasing God because they did not comply with this standard. This is one of the main reasons why the Lord God Michael was openly providing His 10 commandment law to the people, by both speaking it in their hearing and then writing it in stone, so that they could understand this law to be the standard to which all would be judged by according to their works and actions in order to justly determine whether they deserve His blessings or His curses. And it was not just the Israelites that would be held to this standard of law.

Since Michael was the Creator of mankind, then all peoples of the earth would be held to this same one standard of law. Thus any person could know what this righteous standard of God’s law was, could then compare their lives to it and see for themselves whether they were pleasing or displeasing God, irregardless of whether they were Israelite or from another race. And most importantly, if they found that their actions had been displeasing God by being against His law, would they manifest sorrow and repentance towards God for their sinful actions, and then choose to change their lives so that they could now be in harmony with His law? Would they plead for God to work in them to bring about this miraculous change of life? Or would they knowingly choose to continue breaking God’s commandments and stubbornly refuse to repent for all their sinful actions that have brought sorrow and displeasure to God and His punishment upon them?

So with God’s great standard of law within sight and knowledge of each and every human being, God could not be charged with arbitrarily doling out rewards, because each would decide for themselves whether they would receive God’s blessings or His curses, His mercies or punishments, depending on what kind of life they chose to live. And ultimately, each person would decide for themselves exactly what their own destiny would be – either eternal death or eternal life – precisely by how they chose to live their life after knowing about God’s great standard of law.

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

The third commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7.

This third commandment of this covenant revealed how the Lord God Michael wanted His people to communicate to Him or about Him, declaring that the people were not to “take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain”, and any who did would not be held guiltless. Thus God’s followers were not to use His name in a light or frivolous manner in their communications, but when speaking to, or speaking or writing about Him, they were to respect and honor His name. Yet the Mighty Lord God had never revealed His real name of Michael to any of His people in His dealings with them (see Genesis 3:8-21, 4, 6-15, 6:13-21, 7:1-4, 8:15-17, 9:1-17, 12:1-3, 7, 13:14-17, 16:7-13, 17:1-22, 18:1-33, 26:2-5, 24, 32:24-30; Exodus 3:13-15; etc). So then this commandment means something more than just not taking God’s literal name in vain.

The Hebrew word for “name” used in this commandment is “shem” (Strong’s, word #8034), and it translates and means “a mark or memorial of individuality, character”. Thus the name God did not want His people to take in vain was not His literal name, but was His character – which was a mark or memorial of His individuality from all the other so-called gods.

As this is true, that God’s name represents His character, then how could His people take His name or character in vain? The Hebrew word for “take” in this commandment is “nacah” (Strong’s, word #5375), and it translates and means “to lift, accept, advance, bear, carry, hold up, respect, wear”. And the Hebrew word for “vain” is “shav” (Strong’s, word #7723), which translates and means “deceptive, false, lying”. So instead of this third commandment only forbidding the irreverent usage of God’s name, it more importantly forbids His people from being deceptive, or false, or lying about His character.

God had separated His people from all pagan nations and brought them into a special covenant relationship with Himself. They were no longer to worship any pagan gods, nor were they to abide by pagan laws, practices, rules, rituals, etc. But now they were to worship only the Mighty Lord God Michael, and were only to abide by His laws. In doing this, no longer would they develop characters resembling what was depicted of the pagan gods, but would instead develop characters resembling the living God. And it was this character of the living God that His people were then to take or accept or wear in their own lives. By doing this they would reveal before others that they had respect for God’s name because their very lives worked to advance, bear, carry, hold and lift up a correct representation of God’s true holy character.

But if their character was different than the character of the living God whom they claimed to be followers of, then their lives would work instead to lift up or manifest a false representation of the true character of this living God to others. By giving a false representation of God’s true character, while claiming to be a follower of God, would make them guilty of lying to and deceiving others, and thus guilty of taking the name of the Lord God in vain.

So this third commandment forbade people from believing that they could live like pagans, while still claiming to be God’s followers. Without corresponding works and actions, this commandment showed that profession alone was absolutely worthless. If the lives of God’s followers were not in harmony with God’s name or character, then they showed by their own lives that they were not followers of God at all, but were really deceivers and liars. Thus by the lives, actions and characters revealed to others, precisely communicated to all exactly which God or gods were being followed.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

The fourth commandment of God is:

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.

This fourth commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to spend their time during each day of the week. The Lord God Michael plainly told them that “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God”. Michael also revealed that this Sabbath commandment was not something newly created just for the Israelites to keep, but had been first established at creation because “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day”.

So the first six days of the week were nothing more than common work days to be spent in earning a living and doing anything and everything else the people wanted or needed to get done (Ezekiel 46:1). But the seventh day of the week was different: it was not a common day like all the rest. The seventh day was set aside to be a day of rest and worship to God because “the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hollowed it” after all His labor of creation those first six days. And just so that no one would forget this fact of truth, Michael began this fourth commandment of His covenant by plainly stating and even warning: “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy”!

Thus this Sabbath day of God was a day which Michael specifically chose as His holy day for all of His people to worship Him on.

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14.

From ancient times, all the pagan worshipers had kept the day of the sun or Sunday holy as a special worship day to their deity: whether it was Marduk – the supreme god of Babylon; or Amun-Ra – the supreme god of Egypt; or Baal – the supreme god of the Canaanites; or Zeus – the supreme god of the Greeks; etc. But the day which the Lord God Michael had chosen to be His Sabbath was not Sunday the first day of the week, but was the seventh day of the week, or Saturday. And this was not an afterthought, but Michael had established His Sabbath day at creation, which was before sin had entered in and way before any of the pagan religions had first been developed. It was those who rebelled against the Lord God and refused to keep His Sabbath law who had chosen to worship on a different day of the week, and chose Sunday in honor of their supreme sun god to be their worship day. This then shows us that Sunday, the first day of the week, had no connection whatsoever with the Lord God of heaven, but was connected with honoring and worshiping the pagan gods who ultimately represented Lucifer himself.

As such, this Sabbath day of the Lord God Michael was a special day between Him and His people which distinguished them from all pagan worshipers. The Sabbath, then, was actually a sign between God and His people – designating those that kept it holy to be a worshiper of the Lord God, and designating God to be the God and protector of those who kept it.

“Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.” Exodus 31:13.

“Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them....And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.” Ezekiel 20:12, 20.

Thus the Sabbath day itself was a distinguishing sign or mark between God and the people whom He had done so many marvelous things to deliver them from Egyptian slavery. It was His special day, and He was the Lord God of it. While Sunday was itself the day which was a distinguishing sign or mark between Lucifer and His pagan followers, and it was his special day, and he was the lord god of it. So the day of worship at that time indicated exactly which people were serving the Lord God and which were not – and the same today. As the seventh day of the week today is Saturday, therefore any who are not keeping this Sabbath day of God as a holy worship day to Him are plainly showing that they really are not serving the Lord God of heaven whom they may claim to be worshiping, but are actually serving another god! Thus by the day we keep as a holy day of worship today, just like anciently, shows exactly which God or gods we are really worshiping and whose followers we really are.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

The fifth commandment of God is:

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12.

The fifth commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to respect and uphold authority by declaring that they were to “honor thy father and thy mother”, and in doing so He would bless them so they could live a long time in the promised land. Notice that God did not say to only honor your parents if they worshiped the same God you did, or if they treated you properly while growing up, or if they raised you without making any big mistakes or blunders. The Hebrew word for “honor” used here is “kabed”, which translates and means “to be heavy in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable), to be chargeable” (Strong’s, word #3513). Thus this commandment to honor our parents was not to be taken lightly, but was a very heavy or weighty responsibility.

All offspring were chargeable to honor, respect and care for their parents irregardless of whether their parents were rich and had ability to take care of themselves, or were poor and had become burdensome in their old age. They were chargeable to care for their parents whether they had been loving and numerous with their kindnesses, or had been very dull and unloving; whether they had indeed been honorable by properly and unselfishly raising their children, or had been too severe, demanding, and selfish.

By keeping this commandment and honoring, obeying and respecting their parents and their parent’s authority over them, the offspring were also learning how to honor, obey and respect God Himself and His authority – who had manifested such fatherly care over them all. Thus in following this commandment, they not only would obtain the blessings from God which would allow them to live a long life on the promised land of the earth, but also to be able to live forever in the future promised heavenly land.

Yet not only were they learning how to honor, obey and respect their parent’s and God’s authority, but also to honor, obey and respect others in positions of authority over them – whether these were religious or civil and governmental leaders, and irregardless of whether or not they felt these leaders deserved their respect. Thus this commandment worked to promote harmony and contentment, while discouraging and eliminating disorder and rebellion. It brought peace and order within the family, within the religious and civil or governmental community, and between the people and their God, while preventing unrest and chaos.

But honoring, respecting and obeying parents, religious leaders and civil or governmental leaders has its limitations in one and only one area. The only time the authority of our parents, religious leaders or civil and governmental leaders falls outside of this fifth commandment’s jurisdiction, and can therefore be safely disrespected and their commands disobeyed without displeasing God, is when their authority and commands directly disagreed with the authority and commands of God.

When either our parents, or religious leaders, or civil and governmental leaders urge or command us to do something that God commands us not to do, or not to do something that God commands us to do, then “we ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) in that issue. While we are still to respect our parents and other leaders since they are in positions of authority over us, yet when their laws or commands conflict with God’s laws and commands then we are instead to obey God first and foremost as He is the greatest authority. Whatever consequences we have to suffer, because of our polite yet firm disobedience of the commandments of men so that we can remain faithful to the commandments of God, we can safely trust God to help us bear and carry us through. This is because God promises that “them that honor me I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30).

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

The sixth commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13.

The sixth commandment of this covenant revealed how the Lord God Michael wanted His people to respect and uphold life, declaring that they were not to kill any other person. Yet this commandment does not forbid all taking of life because then God Himself would be guilty of breaking His own law in regards to the flood killing all those who chose not to enter into the ark (Genesis 6:17, 7:20-24), as well as in the killing of many of the Egyptians throughout the plagues (Exodus 9:14-15, 12:29-30).

The Hebrew word for “kill” used here is “ratsach”, which translates and means “to murder” (Strong’s, word #7523), and murder means “the unlawful and malicious or premeditated killing of one human being by another” (Webster’s New World Dictionary, under word “murder”). Thus this commandment does not forbid all killing, but it forbids all unlawful or unjustified killing or murdering of others.

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

The seventh commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14.

The seventh commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to respect and uphold moral purity, declaring that adultery was not to be committed. So instead of God permitting His followers to give loose reign to their sexual passions like the pagans around them, He desired them to be morally pure by keeping their bodies and passions under the control of reason, and to reserve any and all sexual intimacy for their own married spouse.

Yet not only does this command apply to human relations with other humans, but it also applies to human relationships with God. The Hebrew word for “adultery” is “na’aph”, and it translates and means “to commit adultery, to apostatize” (Strong’s, word #5003), and to apostatize means to “abandon one’s faith” (Webster’s New World Dictionary, under word “apostatize”). Thus all who have chosen to enter into a covenant agreement with God to keep His commandments have actually entered into a relationship between God and them – like a marriage contract between partners – with God promising to be their faithful God, and they promising to be His faithful people. If after entering into this covenant relationship with God, they should then choose not to live up to their agreement, would mean that they were no longer faithful in their relationship with God – their faithful Partner, and thus would be in apostasy or adultery against Him.

“Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.” But “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you...” Jeremiah 3:20, 14.

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

The eighth commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not steal.” Exodus 20:15.

The eighth commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to respect and uphold the property rights and possessions of others, declaring that all stealing was prohibited. Yet it was not just the stealing of the actual property or possessions of another that this commandment alone forbids. The Hebrew word for “steal” is “ganab”, and it translates and means “to thieve, to deceive” (Strong’s, word #5003). Thus any and all deception which might be utilized to gain the property or possessions of another, whether through lawsuits or other legal processes, is also prohibited.

But it is not just from fellow human beings that we can steal from.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Malachi 3:8.

A “tithe” means “a tenth” (Strong’s, Hebrew word #4643), or 10% of one’s earnings, and “offerings” are further donations from the remaining amount. The tithe was a set amount, but offerings were an undetermined amount that was left up to the freewill of the giver to determine (Exodus 25:2, 35:29; Leviticus 22:18). These amounts were to be given to those who were devoted full-time in ministry and in religious service to God and for the people (Numbers 8:17-19, 18:21; Luke 11:42; 1 Corinthians 9:3-14; 1 Timothy 5:18; John 4:36), and it was only by means of this money that they were able to accomplish their ministerial work (Nehemiah 13:10-13).

Before the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, Abraham recognized that God required a tithe of all his possessions, and he faithfully donated such to Melchezedek “the priest of the Most High God” (Genesis 14:18-20). Later, Jacob also recognized this same obligation (Genesis 28:20-22), and the Lord God Michael made sure that all His people understood this obligation and followed the same system (Numbers 18:20-24).

The Lord God Michael declares that “all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5), and that all the riches of the earth are actually His possessions (Haggai 2:8; Psalms 50:10-12). Thus it is only because He has given us life, health, strength and blessings that anyone is able to earn a living in the first place (Deuteronomy 8:18). Since the Lord God Michael is the One who gives us the ability to possess some of His riches, then it is only fair that we do not keep all of this money to ourselves, but devote a portion back to God in tithes and offerings.

This simple system cuts directly against greed and selfishness, and further allows each person to have an important part to play in helping the spreading of God’s cause in this earth through their giving. God does not miraculously rain down money upon people. Nor does He provide a never-ending bank account to His faithful ministers. The only way in which God has ordained to support His cause and advance the spreading of His truth throughout all the earth is by blessing people with property and wealth (Ecclesiastes 5:19). And how they show appreciation to God for all His blessings to them is to give back part of their earnings to Him in tithes and offerings.

To refuse to follow this simple system of giving is to show that we love our possessions more than God who gave us these possessions in the first place. Thus by selfishly withholding this money from God and His cause we are indeed robbing and stealing from Him His requested portion, and breaking this commandment.

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

The ninth commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Exodus 20:16.

The ninth commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to respect and uphold the truth, declaring that they were not to bear false witness against their neighbor. The Hebrew word for “false” is “sheqer”, and it translates and means “an untruth, a sham, falsehood, lie” (Strong’s, word #8267). The Hebrew word for “witness” is “ed”, and it translates and means “a witness, testimony, recorder” (Strong’s, word #5707). Thus God prohibited His people from lying, telling untruths or spreading falsehoods under any conditions, whether they were a witness to some event, or were giving testimony about some person or group, or were writing and recording something about another. This meant that His people were to be very careful in all that they said, spoke or wrote about their neighbors.

But this restriction against all forms of lying included more than just the people living next door to you. The Hebrew word for “neighbour” is “reya”, and it translates and means “an associate whether close or not, a brother, companion, fellow, friend, husband, lover, neighbour, or another” (Strong’s, word #7453). So this prohibition against all forms of lying and spreading falsehoods included every person that His people had any form of contact with – whether close or not. Thus God did not care whether these people were family, or relatives, lovers, companions, friends, or associates. Nor did He care whether these people were close in relationship or very distant; whether they were known or were complete strangers; whether they were an Israelite, or from a different nation. And neither did God care whether they were of the same faith, religion, race, color, cast or class distinction. This commandment prohibited all forms of lying and spreading of false information about anyone else without limitations or conditions.

Yet this commandment did not just prohibit all forms of untruths and falsehoods being personally spoken, written, or otherwise provided by you against another, but it also prohibited listening to all falsehoods being told you about others! The Hebrew word for “bear” is “anah”, and it translates and means “to heed, pay attention, to testify, announce, hear, utter” (Strong’s, word #6030). So not only did this commandment prohibit God’s people from themselves bearing or uttering false information about another, but it also prohibited them from hearing or paying attention to false information being told them about another. It also went even further by prohibiting them from giving heed to what they were falsely told, and then announcing or uttering this falsehood to others. Thus telling as well as listening to all forms of gossip, story telling, and otherwise exaggerated statements about others were prohibited by this commandment. And how quickly would character destroying gossip die for lack of eager listeners?

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

The tenth commandment of God is:

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.” Exodus 20:17.

The tenth commandment of this covenant revealed how God wanted His people to respect and uphold contentment with what He had already provided them with, declaring that they were not to covet their neighbor’s house, or his wife, servants, animals, or anything that he owned. In being content with whatever possessions you already have would eliminate envy and jealousy over the spouse, property or prosperity of others – no matter how beautiful and pleasing to eye all these things might be. Thus it would elevate the trap of overspending or borrowing in order to “keep up with the Jones”, and then having to overwork in order to pay the bills that such selfish indulgence brought. So this commandment was actually promoting economy and the need to live within one’s own means, and the contentment it brought was producing peace, rest, and health among God’s people.

LAW OF LOVE

So these are the 10 commandments that the Mighty Lord God Michael Himself spoke and wrote down to govern His people, and you can see some of the broadness and far reaching aspects that each commandment had which affected the daily lives of His followers.

Now as you examine each of these ten commandments, you will notice that they can actually be divided into two main areas. The first 4 commandments are seen to be dealing with our relationship with God. While the last 6 are seen to be dealing with our relationship with other human beings. The first 4 commandments dealt with our commitment to God: showing who He was and His supremacy in our lives, how to worship Him, how to communicate with and about Him, and how to spend our time with Him. The last 6 commandments dealt with governing our interactions with others: showing that we are to respect and uphold authority, life, moral purity, possessions and property of others, truth, and contentment.

Since these 10 commandments can be divided into two main areas, and they were written upon two tables of stone, it is easy to understand that the first 4 commandments were written upon one tablet of stone to govern our relationship with God, and the remaining 6 upon the second tablet to govern our relationship with other humans.

But there was one common principle running through each one of these commandments and binding all ten together into a perfect whole. That principle was love: the first 4 commandments dealt with love to God, and the last 6 dealt with love to our fellow human beings. And there was also one common area which all ten commandments was specifically directed against. That area was selfishness: doing our own will either against God or against other human beings. So this law of God led its followers to deny self by loving God supremely above all else, and then to deny self by loving their fellow human beings “as thyself” (Leviticus 19:34). If followed, the ten commandments would produce perfect peace, rest, happiness, contentment and prosperity, while eliminating envy, unrest, disorder, rebellion and chaos. Thus while on one hand God’s law upheld righteousness and moral purity in the daily life of His people, on the other hand it restricted and downplayed the wicked desires of their fallen, sinful nature throughout their daily life. And there was not an area in daily life that the law of God did not address.

All ten commandments were seen to be so broad and far-reaching in all its governing areas of life that one could not give in to selfishness without being found breaking one of the commandments in some way. Nor could they choose to deny self without being found keeping one of the commandments. As these commandments were seen to be so broad and far-reaching that it affected in some way every aspect of daily life, without a single aspect of life being left out, then all ten of these commandments formed a complete governing law.

In fact, so complete was this law which the Lord God Michael gave that when one closely examines it they discover that each one of these commandments are not isolated from one another, but are all very closely connected together. They are found to interweave and blend together so fully that they actually form a complete whole. So even though God’s covenant was made up of 10 distinct commandments, yet they all blended into each other thereby making up just one body of law. This meant that no one could be considered obedient to God if they neglected to keep all of these ten commandments. To ignore or refuse to obey just one of the commandments, would actually make you a breaker of the whole law or the other nine commandments as well because of this intricate relation and interconnectedness of each commandment with the other.

BREAK ONE KEPT NONE

An example of this interconnectedness is as follows: If one of God’s followers decided not to worship God on His Sabbath day – being the seventh-day of the week or Saturday, then they would have clearly broken the 4th commandment. By choosing to do their own pleasure on God’s rest day, then this follower of God would be making their own desires to be greater than following the will of God, thereby making their own desires into a god, and thus breaking the 2nd commandment. They would also be placing their own will as a supreme god before the Lord God, and thus would be breaking the 1st commandment.

As the Sabbath day itself is the day of the Lord God – His holy day, but this follower of God wanted to do their own thing upon this day, then they are actually coveting what belongs to God, and thus breaking the 10th commandment. Since they choose not to devote this day to worshiping God, then they have actually stolen time away from God that should have been given to Him, thus breaking the 8th commandment. Neither are they showing the honor and respect due to God who has manifested such fatherly love and care over them, thus breaking the 5th commandment.

By not keeping the seventh day as a holy worship day to God, yet they profess to be a follower of God, then they have broken the 9th commandment by falsely claiming to be something that they really are not. They have also taken God’s name or character in vain and broken the 3rd commandment because they are not following God’s example of resting upon this Sabbath day, and thus are not manifesting the same righteous character of God whom they profess to serve.

By choosing not to remember to keep the Sabbath day holy, thereby willing committing sin and deserving the penalty of death, then they have actually chosen death for themselves – or are committing suicide – which breaks the 6th commandment. And finally, since they voluntarily chose to be a follower of God, and entered into a covenant relationship with Him – they agreeing to remain faithful to Him as His bride, and God agreeing to remain faithful to them as their Husband, because they have now chosen to break the Sabbath, then they are no longer upholding their part of this marriage contract or covenant. As they are no longer faithful to their righteous God and loving Husband, but have committed sin, then they have actually left His side and united with another – who is the author of sin, and have thereby committed adultery and broken the 7th commandment.

So as can be seen in this example, by just breaking one commandment all the other 9 commandments are broken as well. Thus “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of [breaking] all” the commandments (James 2:10).

A PERFECT STANDARD

This wholeness and oneness of God’s law clearly reveals that it is a perfect governing law in all aspects (Psalms 19:7). As anything that is perfect could only be created by someone else who was already perfect, then this perfect law proved that God was indeed perfect in all aspects, and that there was no imperfection in Him (Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 22:31). And as this perfect law of God dealt with all aspects of action and relationships towards God and others, thus dealing with character, then this law was seen to be a perfect reflection of the perfect character of God – just like a written transcript. As this is true, then anyone who would follow all ten commandments to the letter would thereby become perfect in character as God is. While anyone who chose not to keep all ten commandments of this perfect law would thereby not become perfect in character. Thus this perfect 10 commandment law of God is clearly seen to be the standard between what actions were perfect, versus what actions were imperfect. It is seen to be the deciding factor between righteousness and unrighteousness; between what is not sin versus what is sin, because “all thy commandments are righteousness” (Psalms 119:172), and “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17).

Since this perfect 10 commandment law is the standard of righteousness, and is also a perfect reflection of God in character, then this proves that God Himself is the Author and Originator of all righteousness (Psalms 48:10, 50:6, 51:14, 65:5, 71:19; Isaiah 41:10; Zechariah 8:8; Ephesians 4:24; Philippians 1:11, 3:9; Hebrews 1:8-9). Therefore disobedience to this righteous law is a perfect reflection of the character of the one who first disobeyed God – or Lucifer, proving that he is the author and originator of all disobedience or sin (Ezekiel 28:12-15; Isaiah 14:12-15; 1 John 3:10).

So if one chooses to keep all ten commandments in every aspect, then they would become just like God in character – perfectly righteous because “it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments” (Deuteronomy 6:25). But if they should instead choose to disobey one or all of the commandments in any aspect, then they would actually become just like Lucifer in character – perfectly sinful because “the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1 John 3:8). Thus this perfect law of God is seen to be the deciding factor between those who serve God, versus those who serve Lucifer; it is seen to be the standard to judge between those who are the followers of God, versus those who are the followers of Lucifer (1 John 3:4-10).

As this is true, then no one ever needs to deceive themselves by hiding behind a empty name or profession alone, and also no one needs ever be deceived again by someone professing to be a follower of God when they are really a follower of Lucifer. This is because all that anyone need do is to examine their own life and actions, or the life and actions of another, by this perfect law of God in order to clearly see whose follower they really are (1 John 2:3-5). Any disobedience of God’s great perfect law and standard is sin, and since “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), then anyone “that committeth sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8) and is not a follower of God.

So this law was not only complete in itself; it was not only bound together into such a whole law that one part could not be violated without breaking all the rest in the same violation; it was not only the standard of judging between who was worthy of blessings or cursings; it was not only the deciding factor between what was sin versus what was righteousness; but this law was absolutely perfect in all areas! All these things showed conclusively to any thinking person – whether Israelite or pagan – that this law had to be of Divine origin and could not have been the product of any sinful human mind.

No other pagan god or sinful human being had ever before produced such a complete and perfect law as this – ever. This was because no other pagan god had been depicted, nor any sinful human being has been, perfectly righteous in their character as God is, and since their characters were less than perfect, then the only law they could produce would be one that is less than perfect. Therefore such a perfect and complete law could have only come from the Lord God Himself, and this was further substantiated and backed up by God Himself speaking it and writing it down at Mount Sinai. These facts proved beyond any doubt that all others, whether human or pagan gods, were less than perfect and thus really no gods at all, and that the Lord God of the Israelites was the one and only true God of this earth.

FEAR TEMPERED WITH AWE

As “all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking” (Exodus 20:18), and knew that God Himself had “shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice” speaking His 10 commandment law out of the “midst” of this great weighty devouring and intense fire (Deuteronomy 5:24), they became afraid. They knew that they all were guilty of breaking God’s law and had thereby committed sin. They also realized that “the Lord thy God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24) towards sin, and knew they would all be instantly destroyed if God chose to come down into their midst and visit them at that instant. So they were very fearful that “this great fire will consume us” (Deuteronomy 5:25).

Yet “Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not” (Exodus 20:20). The Hebrew word “fear” in “fear not” is “yare” which translates and means “to frighten, to be afraid” (Strong’s, word #3372). But the second word “fear” in “his fear” is “yirah” which translates and means “to reverence, dreadful, exceedingly” (Strong’s, word #3374), and “dread” or “dreadful” in this context means “fear mixed with awe, inspiring awe, awesome” (Webster’s New World Dictionary). So the Lord God Michael did not want the worship of His followers to be based solely upon fear, but wanted their worship to be founded upon reverence for Him because they recognized His exceeding awesomeness as a God.

Worship from the motive of fear alone produces those who only grudgingly give service and obedience so they can avoid being punished or destroyed. While worship from the motive of reverence produces those who give willing service and obedience out of honor and respect. The one can only produce slavery without choice. While the other produces freedom through choice. The one leads to discord, rebellion and sin. While the other leads to harmony, devotion, and righteousness. The one can only generate disrespect and hatred in the heart for the one being served and obeyed. While the other can generate respect and love in the heart – which is exactly what Michael was seeking to produce in, and receive from, His people.

Yet Michael did not want all fear to be removed from His followers, because no fear at all leads to unappreciation, disrespect and carelessness in worship and service. So while on the one hand His followers were not to worship the Lord God Michael because they were afraid of Him, on the other they were to honor and respect Him and keep His commandments. They were to worship Him with reverence and love and temper their fear with awe of Him, because they recognized that He was indeed their Mighty Lord God who had manifested so much loving-kindness upon them.

Just as children honor, respect and obey their father out of love and devotion for all that he has done for them, yet fearing to disobey his commands and cause his displeasure and receive punishment from his hand, so the same with the Lord God Michael. He was seeking the same kind of honor, respect and obedience from His followers because He was as a Father to His people, and thus deserved their love and devotion. And it was only under these motives and conditions that their worship and service to God would indeed keep them from sin and disobedience. Any other motives or conditions would utterly fail to prevent disobedience and sin.

BINDING COVENANT

Moses wrote down “all the words of the Lord” (Exodus 24:4) in a book called “the book of the covenant” (Exodus 24:7). The covenant spoken of here is the same covenant that the Lord God Michael had made with Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and now with all their offspring in the children of Israel. The Hebrew word for “covenant” in all these instances is “beriyth”, and it translates and means “a compact, or league” (Strong’s, word #1285). All these patriarchs were faithful and obedient to God and His law (Genesis 18:18-19, 26:5), and now God made it very plain to all of their Israelite offspring gathered together before Mount Sinai that if they also wanted to enter into a covenant or compact or league with Him, then they also had to be faithful and obedient to His law just as their patriarchal fathers were. Promising to keep God’s 10 commandment law was the necessary requirement for entering into this compact or league or covenant with God. That is why the Lord God Michael referred to His law as a covenant.

As God’s 10 commandment law was the focus of this covenant, and promising to keep God’s law was the terms necessary to enter into this compact or league with God to be His people and He their God, then it was very easy to determine whether or not one was remaining true to their covenant with God. If they were keeping all of God’s commandments, then they were also keeping their covenant and agreement with God, and were also showing themselves to be righteous in life. But if they were breaking one or more of these commandments, then they were also breaking their covenant and agreement with God, and were also showing themselves to be sinful in life. Thus God’s 10 commandment law was not only the distinguishing factor between those who served God versus the pagans who served Him not, but was also the distinguishing factor between all those who claimed to be His people. Those who did in fact keep all 10 of God’s commandments were indeed remaining faithful to their covenant agreement with God to be His obedient people, and their obedience proved their claim to be true. But those who were not keeping all 10 of God’s commandments were thereby showing that they were not remaining faithful to their covenant promise with God, and their disobedience proved their claim to be false.

After the Israelites had heard these 10 commandments spoken directly to them by the Lord God Michael Himself, and also had heard all the judgments and statues that God had spoken to Moses, “all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do...and be obedient” (Exodus 24:3, 7). Moses then took sacrificial blood and “sprinkled it on the people” (Exodus 24:8) signifying that their covenant promise of faithfulness and obedience to the Lord God Michael was now ratified and binding.

So by agreeing to obey and keep all the commandments and words of the Lord God Michael, the Israelites had bound and pledged themselves in a compact or league or covenant agreement with Him to be His faithful followers, and Michael in turn had bound and pledged Himself in this covenant agreement with them to be their faithful Lord God. Thus this binding covenant of pledging faithfulness to one another was just like a marriage contract between husband and wife. The Lord God Michael pledging Himself to be their faithful God/Husband, and they pledging themselves to be His faithful people/wife.

“...as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Isaiah 62:5.

“For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2.

Remember, the Mighty Lord God Michael said “I am married unto you” Jeremiah 3:14.

This shows again that the God which Israel was espoused and married to was not the Father, but was Michael who later became Jesus Christ the Son of God when born in human flesh.

Yet the big question is dear reader, will you also agree and pledge yourself to obey and keep all the commandments and words of the Lord God Michael? Will you covenant with the Lord God to love and remain faithful to Him as a bride would be to her husband? If you do, then the Lord God Himself will agree and pledge Himself to be your God, and will also remain faithful to you as a husband would be to the one that He truly loved and adored above all others!

THEY SAW GOD

Now after the Israelites had bound and pledged themselves to faithfully keep this covenant of God’s 10 commandments, did you know that the Lord God Michael then did something so completely amazing and astounding that it stands alone in recorded history? Nowhere is it recorded in any of the sacred writings from any culture that any of their pagan deities ever did what the Lord God Michael was now going to do! Immediately after their covenant contract and pledging agreement had been ratified and binding between the Lord God Michael and His people, then Michael asked Moses, his brother Aaron, Aaron’s two sons, “and seventy of the elders of Israel” to “Come up unto the Lord” apart from the rest of the camp of the Israelites (Exodus 24:1, 9). One of the main reasons for this special private meeting was because the Israelites had not seen the Lord God Michael Himself speaking to them, but had only heard His great voice coming out of the weighty devouring fire. And so to prevent them all from believing that the Lord God Himself was just fire itself and not an actual Divine Being with a form and shape, Michael was going to reveal Himself to these 74 leaders of the Israelites.

Once these leaders had come apart, then the Lord God Michael appeared unto them all “and they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10). Although most of the Lord God Michael’s form and features were not clearly revealed and distinguishable to their sight, yet they were clearly able to make out “his feet”, and also saw beneath His feet “as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone” that was clear like the blue sky of the “body of heaven” (Exodus 24:10). So even though they did not clearly see all of the personal form or divine features of the Lord God Michael, yet they knew that “they saw God”, that He was not fire itself but an actual living Being, and yet they were all still alive and able to “eat and drink” (Exodus 24:11).

But it was not only just the divine features of His feet that the Lord God Michael ever revealed to any of His servants. While still before Mount Sinai, Moses asked the Lord God Michael to reveal more of Himself to him, saying “if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee...And he [also] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:13, 18).

This was not a presumptuous request on Moses’ part, neither was he just curious what the other form and features of the Lord God Michael looked like above His feet. The Hebrew word for “way” used here is “derek”, and it translates and means “a course of life or mode of action” (Strong’s, word #1870). The Hebrew word for “know” used here is “yada”, and in this context translates and means “to know by recognition, to comprehend, discern, discover, perceive, understand” (Strong’s, word #3045). And we already saw that the Hebrew word for “glory” means more than just weighty and splendorous devouring fire, but it also means “honor”. So Moses wanted God to shew him His way or course of life and action so that he could discover, discern, perceive, understand and comprehend what He was like in character, and thus be able to recognize the glory of the Lord God Himself.

But more than this. Moses realized that he still had all the work ahead of him in following God’s command to “Bring up this people” into the promised land (Exodus 33:12), and with at least 3 million Israelites all watching him in every move he made, Moses wanted to make sure that he gave glory and honor to the Lord God. He did not want to make any mistakes and misrepresent God in character and thus dishonor Him. So if Moses could gain this extra knowledge of the true character of the Lord God Michael Himself, then he would be able to more completely pattern his life after the divine model of character of His Lord God. In doing so, Moses would thus be able to help all the Israelites to know more about their Creator God, and would also be able, with the Lord’s continued help, to then successfully carry out his mission to completion.

As Moses was so close to the Lord God Michael in work and partnership to the point that “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11), and as Moses still had a great work ahead of him yet to accomplish and was desirous of not misrepresenting his Lord God but to successfully carry out his work, Michael graciously granted this non-presumptuous request. “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee” (Exodus 33:19). The Hebrew word for “goodness” used here is “tuwb”, and it translates and means “goodness, beauty” (Strong’s, word #2898). So Michael was going to allow Moses to see His goodness or beauty and to hear His name. But granting this request was not going to be as easy as it might seem.

The Lord God Michael informed Moses that “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). So even though Moses was so closely connected in co-partnership with the Lord God Himself that he could be directly spoken to, yet Moses was still of a fallen nature, and thus unable to physically endure the full splendor and glory of the Lord God Michael’s divine radiant face. Yet instead of using this problem as an excuse for denying Moses’ request, the Lord God Michael mercifully worked out a solution so that Moses could indeed know more about the way of the Lord, could then know Him more fully, and could see God’s glory.

MICHAEL REVEALS HIS FORM AND CHARACTER

The Lord God Michael said to Moses, “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23). Michael then told Moses that He would reveal Himself to him early the next day, and he alone was to “come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount” (Exodus 34:2).

You can only imagine what thoughts were going through the mind of Moses during that night. Mixed feelings of excitement tempered with a little apprehension thrilled through his body. Moses probably did not sleep at all as he realized that the Mighty Lord God of all the earth had mercifully condescended to grant his request to see and know more about Him.

As soon as it began to dawn the next day “Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai as the Lord commanded him” (Exodus 34:4), and as soon as he reached the top of the mount, Moses presented himself and then waited to see what the Lord would do next. The Mighty Lord God Michael then “descended in the cloud, and stood with him there” (Exodus 34:5). He then gently picked up Moses with His divine hand and placed him in the cleft of the rock and covered his sight with His hand. Then as “the Lord” (Exodus 34:6), His “glory” (Exodus 33:22), and His “goodness” or beauty (Exodus 33:19) “passed by before him” (Exodus 34:6) Moses heard the Lord God Michael proclaim “the name of the Lord” (Exodus 34:5) stating “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). The Lord God Michael then removed His hand so that Moses could see the divine features and form of His head, shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet as He continued walking by.

So you can see that even though Moses was only able to see the back of the Lord God Michael as He passed by him, yet the name that He heard Him proclaim, and the glory that He saw pass by, were all inseparably connected with the goodness or beauty of His character.

But what exactly was the name which Moses heard Michael proclaim? “The Lord, the Lord God”. The Hebrew word for “Lord” used in both cases is “Yehovah”, which translates and means “the self-Existent or Eternal Lord God, the Jewish national name for God” (Strong’s, word #3068). And the word “God” in the name “the Lord God” is “el” which translates and means “mighty, but especially the Almighty” (Strong’s, word #410). So what Moses heard Michael proclaim was actually two names: “the self-Existent Eternal Lord God”, and “the self-Existent Eternal Lord God Almighty”.

Now why did the Lord God Michael proclaim two different names instead of only one, and then declare just one type of character for both names? The reason is that these two divine names represented two different Gods – the Mighty Lord God Michael, and the Lord God Almighty. Both are self-Existent and Eternal Gods, and as Michael is the representative of the Almighty God, then they each have the same type of character. So Michael was not just declaring His own Divine character, but also the Divine character of the Lord God Almighty – whom He represents! And just to make sure that all the people could understand this fact of truth, Michael used both names in His description to Moses. And exactly what was the type of the character which the Mighty Lord God Michael personally revealed about Himself to Moses? There were revealed nine different aspects of His character.

FIRST DIVINE ASPECT

#1 – The Lord God Michael is “merciful”. The Hebrew word for “merciful” used here is “rachuwm”, which translates and means “full of compassion, mercy” (Strong’s, word #7349). It is derived from the Hebrew word “racham”, which translates and means “to fondle, to love, to have pity” (Strong’s, word #7355).

So the compassion of the Lord God Michael to us is not manifested from a motive of grudgingly extending mercy towards troublesome inferiors because they don’t know any better. Nor is it manifested from a selfish motive of desiring to gain advantages over us because of our plight. Neither is it manifested devoid of any feeling at all. But the Lord God Michael manifests mercy towards us because He loves us and longs to fondle or tenderly hold and comfort us in His strong arms. His heart is touched with pity by seeing His fallen creation having to go through all of the problems and adversities of a life brought about because of sin, and having to live in a world under the control of Lucifer. So as love “seeketh not her own” (1 Corinthians 13:5), then it is only out of a heart full of tender compassion and mercy that the Lord God Michael lovingly reaches out to try and rescue all He can from remaining bound to sin, from being under the control of Lucifer, and from receiving destruction in the end.

SECOND DIVINE ASPECT

#2 – The Lord God Michael is “gracious”. The Hebrew word for “gracious” used here is “channuwn”, which translates and means “gracious” (Strong’s, word #2587). It is derived from the Hebrew word “chanan”, which translates and means “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, to bestow, to implore or move to favor by petition, to entreat, to make supplication” (Strong’s, word #2603).

As Michael is our God and Creator, He is so much greater in power and authority than any and all of His creation combined. Yet the Mighty Lord God Michael willingly bends and stoops down to favor us with His blessings, and bestow upon us His love and merciful kindness. As love “vaunteth not itself” (1 Corinthians 13:4), so the Lord God Michael does not flaunt His exalted divine dignity in our faces, or refuse to have anything to do with us since we are inferiors, but He graciously reveals His love towards us in tender kindness. As love also “is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4), then neither does Michael take the position that once He created us, then we are now all on our own and must then deal with our own choices and suffer the consequences of our evil actions all alone and without any hope of Divine help.

Even though humanity chose to disobey Him and to follow Lucifer, yet the Lord God Michael did not abandon us. This is because He knew what torture and misery humanity would have to endure under the absolute control of Lucifer, and He also knew that once sin was chosen then humanity would need His Divine help more than ever in order to obtain freedom. So instead of leaving us to the consequences of our own choice, the Mighty Lord God Michael instead humbled Himself and came even closer to us in order that we might be able to better know Him and His love for us. And with this extra knowledge, then we would be more willing to follow and obey Him, and thus obtain His help in escaping from sin and from the devil.

But the graciousness of the Lord God here means more than just personally favoring and bestowing blessings upon inferiors. Since the Lord God Michael is lower in authority and command to the Almighty Lord God of heaven, then Michael graciously implores, petitions, and makes supplication to the Almighty to also favor mankind and be gracious to them for His sake. And yet it is not like the Almighty Lord God of heaven is not interested in the welfare of mankind and has to first be petitioned before He will be gracious and grant them His favor. This is because in seeing the loving, tender and merciful character of the Lord God Michael, we actually are seeing the same exact loving, tender and merciful character of the Almighty God being revealed to us through Michael!

THIRD DIVINE ASPECT

#3 – The Lord God Michael is “longsuffering”. There is no Hebrew word for “longsuffering” as it is a combination of the words long and suffering. The Hebrew word for “long” in this context is “arak”, and it translates and means “to be long, defer, draw out, lengthen, prolong” (Strong’s, word #748). The Hebrew word for “suffering” in this context is “nacah”, which translates and means “to accept, suffer, bear, hold up, spare” (Strong’s, word #5375).

So even though humanity deserves the penalty of death for their choice to sin, yet the Lord God Michael draws out, lengthens and prolongs our time on this earth, deferring or holding up the execution of this penalty and punishment against us until a future time. And why? Because the Lord “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

It is the Lord God Michael’s earnest longing that His wayward creation find the freedom from Lucifer’s dominion that can only come by accepting Him as their Saviour and God, and thus escape from death and destruction in the end. This merciful purpose allows Him to defer punishment until everyone has had a precious chance to know more about Him and an opportunity to investigate into the plan devised for their salvation. As this realization and understanding takes various lengths of time to finally dawn upon the minds of mankind, the Mighty Lord God Michael accepts our weakness and dullness of comprehension. He patiently suffers and bears with all of our sins and unrighteous actions, sparing us until we finally wake up, because He “remembereth that we are [but] dust” (Psalms 103:14).

Yet at the same time Michael is not inactive. He is not waiting for mankind to take the initiative, but He is working through the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 16:13) and heavenly angels (Hebrews 1:7, 14) to wake us up and bring all to a knowledge of the truth so that we can obtain salvation and escape death and destruction. So while the Mighty Lord God winks at the time of our ignorance, yet He is calling all to come to repentance and find salvation.

This means that the foundation for the Mighty Lord God being longsuffering towards humanity, and patiently enduring all our faults, mistakes, sins and dullness of mind, is based upon love for us. Thus God is teaching us that love “suffereth long”; it “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 7). So the Mighty Lord God Michael patiently endures and bears all of our disobedience, faults, mistakes, and even abuse towards Him because He loves us and hopes that we will finally wake up and be saved. Why else would the Lord God Michael patiently endure all the disobedience and sin against His law? Why else would He suffer all things from those who have ignorantly chosen to serve another master and god, if it was not for the fact that He loves us and desires us to be saved? Thus “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation” (2 Peter 3:15)!

Yet the suffering that the Lord God Michael endures is more than just having to patiently wait for us to finally “awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Every sin against His law, each time one chooses to reject His ways or to manifest unappreciation for His blessings, causes Michael sorrow and sadness, and at times even great internal pain. This is because He has shown humanity over and over again exactly how much He loves them and longs for them to come to Him and be saved. When such boundless and infinite love goes unrequited or is unappreciated, it causes the Lord God Michael internal suffering, similar to, but not on the same human scale, as to what we feel in our heart when the one we truly love spurns us and does not return our love back. But when our love is finally returned, then all such internal suffering and pain is quickly replaced with beautiful feelings of peace, contentment and wonderful happiness because finally our love is appreciated and responded to! The same wondrous and joyful experience occurs with our Lord God Michael when we finally respond to His love! In fact, Michael cannot suppress His feelings of how overjoyed He really is because of you – that one precious repenting soul – coming to Him, and “He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17)!

But it is not just the Lord God Michael who is overjoyed when one of His creation finally chooses to serve, obey and to love Him as their God. But “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). And it is not just all the heavenly angels that are overjoyed either. Even the Almighty Lord God joins in the happy heavenly celebration, until all “heaven” is filled with “joy...over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7)!

FOURTH DIVINE ASPECT

#4 – The Lord God Michael is “abundant in goodness”. The Hebrew word for “abundant” used here is “rab”, which translates and means “abundant in quantity, size, number, quality, abound, exceedingly, manifold, plenteous, sufficient” (Strong’s, word #7227). And the Hebrew word for “goodness” used here is “checed”, which translates and means “kindness, goodness” (Strong’s, word #2617).

So the Lord God Michael is not just kind and good to His creation on an ordinary scale, but is so abundantly kind and good that it is beyond all computation. Through His goodness He does not just barely supply our daily needs, but His kindnesses towards us abounds in quantity, size and number, even doing exceedingly above all that we ask or think.

As it was humanity that chose to disobey and separate themselves from the Lord God Michael in the beginning, and thus only deserves punishment from the Lord, yet instead He is good and “is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4) to His wayward creation, and all of the manifold blessings He sends us are of the highest quality. All of these sufficient and plenteous blessings are showered upon us to prove over and over again exactly how much the Lord God Michael loves us and is working for our ultimate and eternal good, and thus is wooing and drawing us to return to Him as our God and faithful Husband.

FIFTH DIVINE ASPECT

#5 – The Lord God Michael is abundant in “truth”. The Hebrew word for “abundant” is the same as above, and means “abundant in quantity, size, number, quality, abound, exceedingly, manifold, plenteous, sufficient” (Strong’s, word #7227). And the Hebrew word for “truth” used here is “emeth”, which translates and means “stability, truth, trustworthiness, faithful” (Strong’s, word #571).

So the Lord God Michael is not just a little in truth, but abounds in it in both quantity, size and number. Nor is the manifold truth that Michael abounds in just of a mediocre grade, but His truth is of the highest quality. In fact, the Lord God Michael is so abundant and plenteous in truth, that truth has interwoven itself so sufficiently and exceedingly throughout His whole Divine Being, that there is nothing in Him but truth, thus making Him truth itself. This means that Michael never deviates from truth, but is fully stable in all His ways and dealings. Michael is never double-minded, nor hypocritical, and this tells us that the Lord God Michael is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Malachi 3:6).

As the Lord God Michael is “a God of truth” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and never deviates from truth, then there is no falsehood in Him at all. So whatever Michael says can be trusted to be truth and nothing but the truth because “God is not a man, that he should lie...hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). As God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2) because it is “impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18), then Michael’s trustworthiness in fulfilling His promises to His people is absolute and will indeed occur at the proper time without doubt or question because He is “the faithful God” (Deuteronomy 7:9) who keeps His word.

This also tells us that the Lord God Michael will never lead any of His followers astray, because what He tells them to do, or directs them to avoid, is exactly what is necessary and best for their welfare. So Michael is not only the truth, He does not only direct His followers in the correct way to follow, but He also leads them away from sin to find everlasting life. Thus the Lord God Michael is actually the way, the truth and the life, and therefore any and all of His followers can truly “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

As Michael is the “Lord God of truth” (Psalms 31:5), and as He indeed loves us, then He “rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Thus if any of His followers desire to make their Lord God Michael happy, then they know that in following the truth they will indeed bring joy and rejoicing to the heart of their God.

SIXTH DIVINE ASPECT

#6 – The Lord God Michael is “keeping mercy for thousands”. The Hebrew word for “keeping” used here is “natsar”, which translates and means “to guard, protect, maintain, keep, preserve” (Strong’s, word #5341). And the Hebrew word for “mercy” used here is “checed”, which translates and means “loving kindness, favor, mercy” (Strong’s, word #2617). It is derived from the word “chacad”, which translates and means “to bow the neck only in courtesy to an equal” (Strong’s, word #2616).

So the Lord God Michael does not just dole out mercy on a whim, or on a spare-of-the-moment decision to favor someone with His kindness. But His merciful kindnesses are preserved and maintained, and are kept ready to freely bestow upon those of His people who need them. His mercies are, as it were, guarded and protected so that His creation need never fear that His favors will somehow become lost or stolen away from coming to thousands of His people. This truly shows to each and every human being that His love “never faileth” (1 Corinthians 13:8). But it is not just upon His followers that Michael freely bestows His loving kindnesses.

Although the Lord God Michael showers His merciful kindnesses upon those who follow Him, yet He also sends some upon the pagans and upon those who are living in sin and wickedness in order to try and awaken them to the truth. Michael longs to have all these wayward and rebellious people awaken to the fact that they have been deceived and are being mislead by Lucifer into dark, discouraging pathways that will end in their destruction. So Michael sends His merciful kindnesses upon these precious souls in hope that they will soon choose to come to Him and find true and lasting happiness.

But why does the Mighty Lord God Michael send His favor and mercy upon His people, as well as upon those who are still rejecting Him and keeping Him out of their lives? It is because of His great love for all of His creation!

This Mighty Lord God does not see mankind as play things like the pagan gods do. Nor does He see them as worthless and undeserving of His attention, whose sole purpose in life is to eke and scratch out a living while rendering blind obedience, or suffering wrathful punishments when they fail. But Michael sees mankind as truly being His creation, and as such the offspring or the sons and daughters of God. And so this Mighty Lord God Michael courteously tilts or nods His divine majestic fatherly head towards every human being in recognition of the fact that even though He is greater than any and all of them combined, yet they are His children and thus equal with Him in dignity, worth, and importance.

Although humanity, like Esau, has sold their birthright for a mess of pottage of sin, yet Michael sees what all of humanity have lost, He sees who they really are, and also what they can become with His help. And so Michael wants to redeem them back from being slaves to Lucifer, restore their God-given birthright as His children, and reproduce the image of God in them once again so that they will not be children of God in name only, but will prove that they are children of God in character.

All this merciful and loving kindness is freely offered to all of humanity by their Mighty Lord God Michael if they will only choose of their own free-will to allow Him to accomplish such a divine change in their lives. So dear ones, if you will only choose to do so, then Michael will make you “more precious than fine gold, even...the golden wedge of Ophir” (Isaiah 13:12).

With these divine changes in your life and character, you will no longer be the children of the wicked one, the bastard offspring of rebellion and the sire of the bondwoman to be disowned of any inheritance and cast out from eternal life. But you will become “the children of promise” (Galatians 4:28), “the children of God” (Romans 8:16), His “sons and daughters” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Isaiah 43:6), and will be acknowledged as “an heir of God” (Galatians 4:7) and rightful inheritors of a life measuring with the life of God – which is “eternal life” (Titus 3:7).

SEVENTH DIVINE ASPECT

#7 – The Lord God Michael forgives “iniquity and transgression and sin”. But isn’t iniquity, transgression and sin just different words that all refer to the breaking of God’s law? Yes. Then why are they called by three different names? Because they are not all the same types of sin, but are 3 different classifications.

The Hebrew word for “iniquity” used here is “avown”, which translates and means “perversity, moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief” (Strong’s, word #5771). So iniquity in this case refers to God’s law being broken by some fault in the character, whether inherited or formed by choice, including those sins dealing with moral evil, such as sexual perversity, immorality, illicit relations, sensual mischief and otherwise uncontrolled passions.

Now the Hebrew word for “transgression” used here is “pesha”, which translates and means “rebellion, transgression, trespass” (Strong’s, word #6588). So transgression in this case refers to God’s law not being kept because of rebellion, including trespassing beyond the limits or confines of His commandments.

And the Hebrew word for “sin” used here is “chatta’ah”, which translates and means “an offense, sin” (Strong’s, word #2402). Sin in this case would refer to any other offense that happens to break God’s commandments.

So even though all 3 of these divisions are indeed sin because they all refer to the breaking of God’s Divine law, yet they are not all the same types of sin. These 3 different classifications of sin could be committed in a thoughtless or care-less manner, or even done intentionally and knowingly. These could be committed in the times when emotions and passions are allowed to gain the ascendency over reason, or committed through ignorance, a lack of understanding, or otherwise were unintentional.

But even though these sins might be unintentionally done, God’s law has still been broken and sin has been committed. And if the sinner would only realize that all who “confesseth and forsaketh [their sins] shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13) of the Lord, then they would also have hope that God will forgive all 3 of these different divisions and types of sin. And the Mighty Lord God Michael will indeed mercifully forgive all of our sins, because He understands that we are all doomed without His Divine help, and because of His great love for each one of us. As the Lord God Michael does indeed love us then He “rejoiceth not in iniquity” (1 Corinthians 13:6), but is saddened every time we sin, and longs to free us all from being in bondage and captivity to it if we would just come to Him for help.

Now for all of those who are tempted to believe that they have gone so far into sin that it is impossible for God to forgive them, the Lord God Michael tenderly invites you to “come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Thus the Lord God Michael is extending a personal invitation to each individual who is struggling against the weight of the burden of their sins, to come and meet with Him in a private One-on-one session. If you agree to meet together with the Mighty God Michael, then He promises that His whole attention and focus will be centered upon you until you come to understand that no matter how many sins you are guilty of committing, no matter how dark your past history, yet He is willing to freely forgive you of them all – just for the asking!

CHANGE IN HEART AND OUTLOOK

But what is the point of God forgiving you of all your sins, without there also being a change in heart and outlook on life? Without a change of heart then these sins that you are now cleansed from will continue to hold a power and attraction over you and you will continue breaking God’s law. But with a change of heart, then sin will no longer have the same power over you. Thus it will not be as attractive or pleasurable as before, and God’s law will more easily be kept.

Now there is no way that this change of heart can be accomplished by ourselves, because “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9). And what is the answer? No one. Or “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” And what is the answer to this question? “Not one” (Job 14:4). Just as the Ethiopian cannot change his skin color, or the leopard his spots, then we cannot also begin doing good when we are accustomed to doing evil (see Jeremiah 3:23). So just as we must look to God for His forgiveness and cleansing from all our sins, so we must also look to Him for this miraculous change to take place in our hearts and outlook on life. And the Lord God Michael will indeed also freely give you this change of heart and outlook – just for the asking.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in me.” Psalms 51:10.

And what does the Lord God Michael then promise us?

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them...and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:25-28.

So the Lord God Michael not only freely promises to completely forgive and fully cleanse you from all your past sins, wiping your sinful slate completely clean and giving you a second chance. But He also freely promises to give you a new and changed heart and a new spirit or outlook, so that sin will not be as attractive or powerful over you! And what is this new heart and spirit?

“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33.

“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people...For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 8:10, 12.

So then with God’s law and commandments written in our minds and hearts, and a new outlook on life, then sin will lose its hold upon you, and you are indeed set free from bondage to begin living a new life – even a life of faith. Thus “old things are passed away, [and] behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Yet Michael even goes further than only giving us these great blessings, because He also puts the Holy Spirit within each fully forgiven, cleansed and new hearted individual. Thus with the help of the Holy Spirit “who will reprove...[us] of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8), who will “teach you all things” (John 14:26), and who also “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13), we can then indeed overcome all our past habits of sin and live this new life of keeping all of God’s commandments. All these great and merciful blessings are given to you for free by the Lord God Michael so that you can have the precious chance to fully escape from the tenacious grasp and corruptive nature of all sin and truly find salvation.

The Lord God Michael mercifully states to each and every one of us – He states to you, dear one, that even though you may have “forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2:32), and indeed “have sold yourselves for nought” (Isaiah 52:3) in following after all kinds of wickedness and sin, yet “ye shall be redeemed without money” (Isaiah 52:3), and “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me” (Jeremiah 33:8). Then after doing all this, the Lord God Michael continues and declares, “I will save them...so shall they be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 37:23). All this is promised if you will just ask for it and believe. If you do so, then the Mighty Lord God Michael has already “cleansed you from all your iniquities” (Ezekiel 36:33); He has already “blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins” (Isaiah 44:22), and has already created in you a new heart, given you a new outlook, given you the Holy Spirit, and you are now His, and He is now your God.

This wonderful and blessed opportunity is freely offered to every individual on this earth – irregardless of their spiritual condition. So no matter if you have given loose reign to sexual passion, indulging in all kinds of immorality, whoredom, prostitution, and harlotry, or even in the unnatural affection for the same sex, or in any other types of sexual or moral evil, yet the Lord God Michael mercifully states that though “thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:1), and all your wickedness will be forgiven.

This wonderful and blessed opportunity is also freely offered to those who may have once accepted the Lord God, but who have slid back into sin, or for those who have tried many times to overcome and yet continue to fail. To you the Lord God Michael longingly declares “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jeremiah 3:22).

And this wonderful and blessed opportunity is even freely offered to all those who are involved in any idolatrous practices, including any of the various dark occultic, spiritualistic and Luciferic teachings of paganism, which all originated from Assyria or Babylon and then spread widely through Egypt and into all the world. The Lord God Michael lovingly offers full forgiveness and complete healing if you will only ask for it and then believe its yours!

“And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians [idolatrous, pagan followers] shall know the Lord in that day...and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them...the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria [Babylon] the work of my hands...” Isaiah 19:21-22, 25.

So no matter who you are, no matter how great your sins, or how deep into iniquity, transgression and sin you might have gone, yet the Lord God Michael states, “return ye now every one from his evil way” (Jeremiah 18:11), freely promising that He will “forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jeremiah 36:3). He further promises to all such returning precious souls that He will “give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jeremiah 24:7).

Yet also realize this dear ones, that as you are returning to the loving and merciful Lord God Michael, He is not just sitting down and patiently waiting for you to stumble along until you finally find your way to Him. But at the same time you are coming to Him, He is actively searching and looking for you, so that you can find Him and become completely healed that much faster!

“For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock...that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered [into sin...because] I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” Ezekiel 34:11-12, 16.

So the Mighty Lord God Michael, as a Great Shepherd of the sheep, is seeking you out so that He can shower upon you all these blessings if you will only accept His invitation to meet with Him and ask for all these blessings. Then the Mighty Lord God Michael will unhesitatingly fulfill all these promises, forgiving you, cleansing you, changing you and giving you His Spirit, and finally He will lovingly and tenderly embrace you in His strong and protecting arms because you have indeed become His beloved and prized possession, and He has become yours.

EIGHTH DIVINE ASPECT

#8 – The Lord God Michael “will by no means clear the guilty”. The Hebrew word for “clear” used here is “naqah”, which translates and means “to be clean, acquit, be blameless, be free, leave unpunished” (Strong’s, word #5352). Now we earlier discovered that the Lord God is merciful and willing to forgive all types of sin, because He is “slow to anger, and great in power...[yet He] will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3), or make blameless or cleanse any who refuses to admit or confess that they have sinned. So even though the Lord God indeed loves all of His creation, yet He will not allow any unrepentant sinner to go free and leave them unpunished for each and every one of their unconfessed sins. And what ultimate punishment will the unrepentant sinner receive?

“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.

Now the Lord God Michael does not just threaten death to all sinners who refuse to give up their evil ways, but then when it comes time to carry out the sentence He instead turns the other way and refuses to execute the guilty. Nor will the Lord God look the other way and let escape from punishment any of His followers who may have confessed and repented of their sins, but who then went back and committed the same sins over again in a never-ending cycle of sin and repent, sin and repent. All who continue to commit sin, irregardless of whether they are pagan or one of God’s closest followers, will be punished for their continued sinning.

“O wicked man, thou shalt surely die;...if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity...[and] When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.” Ezekiel 33:13.

Yet the Lord God Michael does not want to see a single one of His precious creation perish in their sins, because “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). And neither is God just waiting around until our probation closes and we are doomed, but He is doing all He can to awaken us and help us to recognize and repent of all our sins, so that we can then turn from our wicked ways and find life.

There are several ways in which the Lord God Michael helps us sinners to recognize and repent of all our sins. One way is by sending us warnings of what punishments and judgments are coming upon all disobedient and wicked souls.

“Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee...against all the nations...It may be that...[they] will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” Jeremiah 36:2-3.

So through all these warnings, the Lord God Michael is mercifully and lovingly reaching out to all sinners in all the nations of this world before these punishments fall upon them so that they can find shelter and safety by returning to the Lord and finding free forgiveness by confessing and repenting for all their sins.

Another way in which the Lord God Michael helps us sinners to recognize and repent of all our sins is by leaving us to suffer some of the punishment and afflictions now, while He patiently and eagerly waits for us to wake up and come to Him.

“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” Hosea 5:15.

Thus through these punishments and afflictions, the Lord God Michael is mercifully and lovingly reaching out to all sinners with just a slight taste of what greater afflictions and punishments are heading their way. So instead of withholding all punishment until our probation closes when it would then be too late for us to repent and find forgiveness, Michael allows us sinners to suffer through some punishments now so that we can have a precious chance to wake up and find shelter and safety by returning to the Lord and finding free forgiveness by confessing and repenting for all our sins. And the punishments and afflictions the Lord God Michael allows to come to us now, are definitely less in intensity than what we really deserve!

“And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve...Should we again break thy commandments...? Wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?” Ezra 9:12-14.

So the Lord God Michael mercifully punishes sinners less than they deserve in an effort of trying to awaken them to stop breaking His commandments. But should any refuse to awaken and repent with that particular lite level of punishment, then Michael does not give up but will mercifully continue to increase the intensity of the next round of punishments in hopes that we will then be led to repentance. And this cycle of increasing the intensity of punishments will continue on until we either humbly choose to repent and find everlasting forgiveness, or rebelliously cling to our sins until there is no way of escaping from suffering total destruction!

Therefore even though the Lord God Michael is full of goodness and forbearance and is longsuffering towards all sinners, including you dear one, yet you must also understand “that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans 2:4). Should you still refuse to repent through “thy hardness and impenitent heart”, then you must also know that God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). This plainly reveals that the punishment for every sin you have committed is not being forgotten, but is actually accumulating and treasuring “up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5). All unrepentant sinners, as well as those of God’s followers who cannot live without sinning, will suffer punishment for every one of their sins.

Now we have discovered that the Lord God Michael tremendously loves both the unrepentant sinner as well as His sinning follower, that He is longsuffering towards all their waywardness against Him and His law, and mercifully does everything He can do in trying to win them back from all their evil ways. Yet if they choose not to return to Him seeking forgiveness and the washing away of their guilt; if they do not seek His strength to remain free from sinning, and gain eternal life, then He sorrowfully accepts their decision, regretfully passes judgment upon them, and then angrily punishes them with the eternal death they chose more than enjoying everlasting life with Him (Jeremiah 5:3-9; Zephaniah 2:1-3; Romans 1:28-32; Deuteronomy 32:35-43; 2 Peter 2:9, 3:7-15; Revelation 21:8).

This then clearly shows us that the Lord God Michael does not lie by giving idle threats, but is truthful and means exactly what He says. It also proves what we learned previously that the Lord God is not an hypocrite that says one thing and then does another. But the Lord God is impartial, is no respecter of persons, and does not play favorites.

Also, as love “thinketh no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5), then the Lord God Michael does not and will not believe that we are guilty of committing all kinds of sin and wickedness just because we may be accused of doing so, but He will only attribute guilt for those actual sins we did in fact commit! The Lord God Michael promises that “every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16), and not for the sins which he may alone be accused of, but is not guilty of committing.

RECORDS KEPT FROM CONCEPTION

But this now raises the question of how are the actual sins of each and every human being ever born on this earth kept track of?

“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalms 139:16.

So this tells us that as soon as the egg becomes fertilized and conception occurs, the Lord God begins documenting this new living human being in a book – even though their body form has not yet taken shape. In this heavenly book is found recorded everything about this particular individual – from the very beginning of their life and whether they were born handicapped or perfectly normal, and continues recording all the way until the end of their life. Thus in this book is found recorded all of “their works” or actions or deeds throughout life (Revelation 20:12), including “every secret thing” (Ecclesiastes 12:14), such as the thoughts and motives which led them to act the way they did. This book further indicates whether their thoughts, motives and actions were “good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14) according to the standard of God’s “commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

But this personal book records more than just the good and bad thoughts and deeds of each individual. It records all of their travels and “wanderings” throughout life (Psalms 56:8). It records every one of the “tears” they shed or sorrows they suffered (Psalms 56:8). And “when He writeth up the people” God even records in their book “that this man was born there” (Psalms 87:6) in the city of “Babylon” (Psalms 87:4) – the most wickedest of places, or that this person was born there in the most godly of places, such as “Zion” (Psalms 87:5). This means that even the influences we grew up around and conditions we lived in, which helped to form our character in either a bad and crooked way, or in a good and solid way, are noted in this book. Thus this personal heavenly book records all the seen and unseen details that dealt with every minute and intricate aspect of the life of each human individual which led them towards developing the particular kind of character that made them who they are.

So every human being on this earth has a record book that documents their actions and life experiences, and it is kept secure in heaven beyond the tampering reach of mankind. Therefore it does not matter what your relatives, loved ones, friends, acquaintances, or even enemies may wrongly say about you. It does not matter if your motives are misjudged, or if you are falsely accused, or even if your name is cast out as evil by the entire world. This is because, just like Job in all which he endured though innocent of any wrong doing, you can know that “my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (Job 16:19). Thus you can take comfort in the fact that God is not being misled, and that the truth will eventually come out in the end.

Therefore, as each and every person ever conceived on this earth has their own book in heaven documenting everything about them, then there must be billions of different books. But why keep such a detailed and intricate written record in the first place? It is so that an honest and just sentence of either eternal life or eternal death can be passed by the Lord God Michael upon each human being that is based upon the undisputed facts of truth found documented in their record book.

THE JUDGE OVER ALL EARTH

But some may be wondering why it is the Lord God Michael who passes judgment upon the guilty, and not the Almighty Lord God of heaven Himself who is above Michael in Divine authority? It all has to do with the plan of salvation.

When Adam and Eve chose to sin in the garden of Eden and deserved the penalty of death, the loving heart of the Lord God Michael was touched to try and save them and mercifully allow them another chance to be faithful to Him and the Almighty when again tempted to break the commandments. Michael then chose to carry out a plan devised by the Almighty that amazingly would legally delay their death penalty, give them and their offspring this second chance to show their obedience, while providing them with total forgiveness and full cleansing from their sins and saving them from the death penalty.

But this plan of salvation involved the Lord God Michael becoming a human being and then living His human life in such a way that would always please God by keeping all of His commandments. If Michael proved successful in carrying out this plan, then Adam and Eve’s failure to keep the commandments would be redeemed, and all of sinful humanity could be legally saved from sin and death.

Now we have been dealing within the limited time frame of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai some 3000 years ago. “But when the fulness of the time was come” (Galatians 4:4), the Lord God Michael left heaven, was miraculously born or “brought forth” (Matthew 1:25) into the human family as the eldest or “firstborn son” (Matthew 1:25) of His human virgin mother Mary (Luke 1:27; Matthew 1:18) – thus becoming “the son of man” (Matthew 16:13). And at the very same time Michael also became “the only begotten Son” (John 3:18) of the Almighty God of heaven – who was now His literal Father. So the Lord God Michael was not only a God, but He was now also a human in one Being! The Lord God Michael “was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14): He actually became one of His own human creation – just like Adam and you and me and all mankind, and He was “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Thus He was both the Son of man and the Son of God at the same time!

Having the Almighty God as His real Father, Michael’s human nature was without the slightest taint of sin. But having Mary as His real human mother was a very different matter. Mary had inherited a fallen human nature from her ancestors that could be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve, and therefore she needed “God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46) in order to save her from her sins and death (compare Joseph’s ancestral line in Matthew 1:1-16 with the ancestral line recorded in Luke 3:23-38, notice the differences, and then realize that “Heli” in Luke 3:23 had to be Mary’s father, which then made Joseph, Heli’s son, or more correctly his son in law). So even though Mary was a virgin, yet she had a fallen sinful human nature which was then unavoidably passed on to Michael’s human nature, thus subjecting Him to the same inward desires and urges towards sin that is common to all of fallen humanity. So while Michael’s human nature was pure and spotless without any personal sin, yet He humbly took on Him our sinful nature and thereby was subject and “touched with the feeling of our infirmities...[and] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

So I hope you can see the great risk that the Lord God Michael was taking by becoming human and living in our sinful nature in order to save all of mankind. Should Michael fail in His humanity and commit the slightest sin, then all of humanity was doomed. But it would not just be humanity that was doomed for destruction, because Michael Himself would now also be a sinner and thus would have to be destroyed right along with us. And the One who would be forced to destroy Michael, along with all the rest of sinners, would be His own Father – the Almighty God – which would have devastated God and all of heaven for ever. So you can see that there was a lot at stake, and Michael was risking a tremendous amount in voluntarily choosing to carry out this amazing plan of salvation.

After Michael was born the son of man and the Son of God, His human “name was called [Joshua, (which in Greek is written and pronounced)] Jesus” (Luke 2:21), and this God/man Michael or Jesus then chose to live strictly in His human nature and not in His Godhood. In living and identifying Himself only in His human nature, Michael/Jesus successfully lived His human life in a perfect and complete way, always denying self and never giving in to the slightest temptation to commit sin and corrupt His purity. Thus Michael/Jesus was without sin at birth, and lived His entire life without sinning by keeping all of His Father’s commandments. He also chose to do His Father’s will and “not my will” (Luke 22:42), thereby becoming victorious over sin and the devil.

It was by successfully living without sinning that Michael/Jesus accomplished three stupendous things: 1) - As every aspect of each of God’s 10 commandment law had been kept perfectly by Jesus in human nature, it then proved that Adam and Eve could have also done so, that God had giving a law which was faultless because it could be kept, and thus there was no reason for sin to exist in Lucifer in the first place. 2) - The pure innocent life which Jesus lived also fulfilled every aspect of the plan of salvation, thereby legally making it possible to save all mankind from sin and death. And 3) - The righteous actions which Jesus performed on earth also fulfilled every one of some 300 or so Old Testament prophecies given about the life of the promised Anointed One. This thereby proved beyond doubt that Jesus was indeed the long looked for Messiah and “the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 11:27; Matthew 16:16).

As this was true, Michael “being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). So this God/man Michael/Jesus Christ the Messiah willingly offered His righteous and innocent human life on the cross as a substitute for the guilty life of us sinners – just like an innocent sacrificial lamb. He then shed His precious blood to freely cover up and atone for all our sins, and then died to fulfill the plan of salvation and legally make His eternal life available for all. As the Almighty God accepted His Son’s offering as a full and complete sacrifice, then this God/man Michael/Jesus Christ made this great sacrifice and salvation available as a “free gift” (Romans 5:16-18) to all sinners if they will just accept Him as their God and Saviour, confess and repent and forsake all of their sins, and then follow Him in living His life of obedience to all of God’s commandments!

BOOK OF THE LIVING

Now because the Lord God Michael or Jesus Christ the Son of the Almighty God risked so much, and successfully accomplished so much for the saving of guilty sinners, there were two special things done. 1) - There was a special book of record created in heaven called “the book of life” (Revelation 13:8, 17:8, 21:27, 22:19). This special book documents the names of all who have made the choice to accept Michael/Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour on earth in order to receive eternal life. And 2) - Since Michael/Jesus was also a human like we are, then He personally knows everything by His own inward and outward experiences of what we humans go through in this sinful world. So because “he hath himself suffered being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18), then there is no One better suited and qualified to judge and pass sentence upon other humans than He is. Therefore in recognition of this fact of truth, the Almighty Lord God “hath committed all judgment unto the Son...and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man” (John 5:22, 27).

As the Mighty Lord God Michael/Jesus Christ is the One Judge of all the earth, as well as the God who carries out the execution of the sentence of death upon those judged unworthy of eternal life, then this means that all human beings will have to “stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10). Even though the Lord God Michael/Jesus dearly loves and died for each and every human being so that they all could have everlasting life, yet only those who accept Him as their God and Saviour will have their individual names placed in this book of life that clearly documents only those who will gain eternal life. Any who refuse to accept and acknowledge that the Lord God Michael/Jesus Christ – the Son of the Almighty – is their personal God and Saviour will not have their names recorded in that book, and will not receive eternal life. This is because “he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life....This is the true God [of the earth], and eternal life” (1 John 5:12, 20).

It is during the time when “the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10) that each and every human being must “appear before the judgement seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). It is at this time that their record book is reviewed so “that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Those individuals who are judged worthy of the reward of everlasting life are those “that overcometh” their sins (Revelation 3:5), “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11), and thereby have their names written and retained in this book of life. This is only made possible because they knowingly accepted Michael or Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, confessed His name before the world, and He has forgiven and even “blotted out” (Acts 3:19) all of their sins from every page of their record book so that only their good deeds remain recorded and seen on its pages. While those individuals who are judged worthy of the reward of everlasting death are those who have not overcome all of their sins, and therefore their names are not found written in the book of life, or their names once written there have been “blotted out of the book of the living” (Psalms 69:28, see also Exodus 32:33). This is because either they knowingly did not accept Michael or Christ as their God and Saviour, but accepted other gods instead. Or that they had once accepted Him, but then gave Him up to continue in their sins. Thus both groups of lost souls ended up not confessing His name before the world, but confessing another master’s name instead. Therefore Michael or Christ could not forgive or blot out any of their sins, but all of their sins are found still remaining on the pages of their record book.

So you can see that these record books are the key to determining whether any human being is saved or lost. Thus if any questions should arise as to why this particular individual was judged worthy of gaining eternal life, but this other person received eternal death, then their record books can be closely examined to see and understand why. And ultimately who bears all responsibility for someone being lost? Is it the Lord God Michael or Jesus Christ – the Son of the Almighty God? No. Is the Almighty God and Father Himself to be blamed? No. The only person that can be blamed for being lost is the person themselves! No one forced them to make the decisions they did, and no one forced them to perform the actions they did, but they freely chose to live their life in their own selfish way separate from Jesus Christ, and their record book proves it! So they cannot blame anyone else but themselves, and in reality they themselves actually chose eternal death by refusing to accept and confess that Michael/Jesus Christ was their God and Saviour.

LOST WICKED PRAISE GOD

After all human beings have been judged and received their reward according to their works, and all questions have been forever settled as to why the decision was so, the Lord God Michael will be proven to be just, righteous and faultless in all the decisions He made. In fact, even though the wicked received the sentence of eternal death and will obviously be angry that they lost eternal life, yet before they are forever destroyed even they themselves will understand that they deserve death, and together with the righteous “every knee shall bow, every tongue shall sware” or confess (Isaiah 45:23), that “true and righteous are his judgements” (Revelation 19:2). So even though the wicked are furious when the Lord causes “judgment to be heard from heaven” (Psalms 76:8), and they see and fully realize that they are forever lost, yet even “the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain” (Psalms 76:10), as “all nations [or people] whom thou has made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name” (Psalms 86:9).

All of this plainly tells us that any who sin, whether they are pagan, or atheist, or even one of God’s followers, will be punished for each and every one of their actual sins, unless they are found to have their names retained in the book of life because they have accepted the Lord God Michael or Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, have their sins forgiven and washed away through His blood, and have afterwards remained faithful to Him to the end. And there will indeed come a time in which the sinner will finally cross over the line of God’s forbearance. Then their probation will close, the judgment will commence, the books will be opened and investigated into and discovery made that their sins have not been forgiven and blotted out of their book, and their name is “not found written in the book of life” (Revelation 20:15). Then judgement will be pronounced against them, and they are destined for everlasting destruction by being “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15), that is also “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

Now even though these unrepentant sinners are destroyed by an angry God in His full wrath, yet their destruction is amazingly still carried out in love. Yes, in love! This is because God realizes that as these sinners could not live without enjoying to break His law on earth, then they could not live without sinning in heaven either. And since sin will not be allowed to “rise up the second time” (Nahum 1:9), and thus there will be no sin committed in heaven or any where else in God’s creations, then these sinners would be most miserable being forced to live forever in a sinless environment. So God mercifully and lovingly allows the life of all determined sinners to forever end in the lake of fire so that they would not have to suffer on in misery for eternity.

Therefore the question is: Since the Lord God Michael will not at all acquit the guilty, will you awaken now and repent, or continue on in sin until your probation closes, you are judged guilty and unworthy of everlasting life, and are then finally consumed in everlasting destruction?

“And the times of this (our) ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness...” Acts 17:30-31.

NINTH DIVINE ASPECT

#9 – The Lord God Michael will be “visiting the iniquity of the fathers” upon their children and grandchildren “unto the third and to the fourth generation”. Now we have discovered that the Lord God Michael is fully and completely just and fair in all of His dealings with His creation, even declaring that “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16). As this is true, then how can the Lord God Michael not attribute sin and its punishment of death upon the children of sinful fathers, and yet at the same time be visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the 3rd and 4th generation?

The Hebrew word for “visiting” used here is “paqad”, which translates and means “to visit with hostile intent, to oversee, appoint, bestow, lay up, punish, reckon, set over” (Strong’s, word #6485). So it was not that the children would be held guilty for the iniquity which their father committed, but that their father’s own iniquity would be laid up for, reckoned and appointed to, visited upon and set over his children and their offspring for years to come. In other words, whatever iniquitous habits the father developed before his children were born would be genetically bestowed upon or inherited by all of his offspring, and thus they would be more susceptible to developing these same sinful habits in their lives. God is pictured as overseeing this genetic transference process with hostile intent, meaning that He will not intervene or work a miracle to prevent any of these sinful habits from being passed on through the father’s genes to all of his offspring down to the 3rd and 4th generation.

But just what type of iniquitous habits were sure to be passed on through the father’s genes and inherited by several generations of his offspring? The Hebrew word for “iniquity” used here is “avown”, which translates and means “perversity, moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief” (Strong’s, word #5771). So any fault in character due to the indulgence of any sinful habits, including those habits dealing with sexual perversity, immorality, sensual pervasiveness, adultery, and any other improper sexual behavior, would become so ingrained into the genetic makeup of the father that he would pass on to his children these same sinful tendencies, as well as through their genes to their children and children’s children, and especially is this the case dealing with sexual evil! This is because lack of sexual control in any area directly affects the body as no other sin can do, since “Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication (unlawful sexual actions) sinneth against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Now, when the full realization of what this genetic transference actually means begins to dawn upon each and every father, they will understand that if any of their posterity should commit the same kind of sinful faults or engage in the same kind of improper sexual behavior which they did, then that father will be held partially responsible for those sins occurring in his posterity. And this would hold true even though that father may have already died before the 3rd or 4th generation of his offspring committed those sins!

With this solemn reality being the case, it behooves all men to make sure they avoid developing any sinful faults, but especially those dealing with any kind of improper sexual behavior, or at least overcome all of these evil habits, BEFORE deciding to get married and have any children. That way the genetic legacy you give to your offspring for generations to come will be upon a much higher and holier scale, thus making it easier for them to overcome sin and become the true followers of God, and not upon a low and evil scale, thus making it much more difficult for them to overcome and be saved.

But knowing this, we fathers can also try and make the best of it. If we realize what sinful habits our fathers, or grandfathers, or even great grandfathers had and therefore passed on to us, then we have an advantage which will allow us to diligently begin guarding ourselves from being led to indulge in these same sinful areas. Or, if we see our own children developing any sinful habits, then this should also lead us to carefully examine our own lives to see if we are guilty of committing the same sins. If we finally see that we have the same sins to overcome as our children do, then this would especially lead us to be humble, gentle and loving when correcting our children for these same faults.

Now since all of us have already inherited the evil tendencies passed on to us through the genes of 3-4 generations of fathers, let us not fret or become discouraged and overwhelmed by all this extra baggage. But let us remember that there are no evil tendencies, and there are no sins or evil habits however strong, that cannot be overcome through the strength and grace freely given us by our Lord God. In our own strength we are doomed to fail, because the Lord God says “without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). But on the other hand, “with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37) to overcome, and thus together with God we have the firm assurance that “all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).

So even though we have been led into committing all kinds of sins, have also hurt the heart of God in numerous ways, and may have even gone so far away from Him as to deny He really exists, yet He still reaches out to save us all from destruction. This shows us plainly that the love of the Lord God Michael for us “is not easily provoked” (1 Corinthians 13:5), nor does it “behave itself unseemly” (1 Corinthians 13:5), and truly it “envieth not” (1 Corinthians 13:4) by not holding grudges or hot feelings of anger towards or against us. But the infinite love of the Lord God Michael is freely manifested to lead us to understand that if we choose to give up our sins and unite ourselves with Him, then through His Divine power working in us there will be no sins or character defects that together we could not overcome!

FULL PICTURE OF GOD’S CHARACTER

We have now examined all 9 of these different aspects, and exactly what was the way or character of the Lord God Michael that was revealed to Moses? He is merciful and full of tender compassion because He loves us and longs to fondle or tenderly hold and comfort us in His strong arms. That even though Michael is our Mighty God and Creator, yet He willingly and graciously bends and stoops down to favor us with His blessings, and bestow upon us His love and merciful kindness. The Lord God Michael is longsuffering towards sinful humanity, patiently enduring all our faults, mistakes, sins and dullness of mind, in the loving hope that soon we will wake up and be saved. Michael is abundant in goodness and provides His creation with sufficient and plenteous blessings to prove over and over again exactly how much He loves us and is actively working for our ultimate and eternal good, and thus is wooing us to return to Him as our God. Michael is abundant in truth and never deviates from truth; He is not double-minded, nor hypocritical, but whatever He says can be trusted as being necessary and best, since He will never lead any of His followers astray. The Lord God keeps mercy for thousands because He sees mankind as truly being His creation made in His likeness and image, and thus He courteously tilts or nods His divine majestic fatherly head towards every human being in recognition of the fact that they are His children and thus equal with Him in dignity, worth, and importance. He willingly forgives all iniquity, transgression and sin, no matter how evil and heinous its character, if the sinner would only confess, repent and forsake them all, because God understands that we are doomed to destruction without His Divine help. But even though the Mighty Lord God Michael is willing to forgive all types of sin, yet He will not acquit, make blameless, or clear the guilty wicked should they refuse to admit or confess that they have indeed sinned. Although He will warn and even allow some punishment to come to sinners in hope of awakening them to return to Him and repent, yet in the end He will not allow any determined and unrepentant sinner to go free without being destroyed by fully punishing them for each of their unconfessed sins found recorded in the record books of heaven. And finally, Michael will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the 3rd and 4th generation, meaning that He will not work a miracle to prevent any of the sinful habits of fathers from being passed on through their genes to all of their offspring. Yet God does not forsake any of these offspring in having to deal with this extra burden alone, but lovingly and gently leads us to understand that all things are possible to overcome through faith in Him and through His Divine strength being freely given to us.

Thus the character of the Mighty Lord God Michael is clearly seen to be something that is truly beautiful and lovely to behold. His character is seen to be only and truly righteous without the slightest bit of evil mixed in (Psalms 5:4; Deuteronomy 32:4; James 1:13; 3 John 1:11). His character also did not reveal any hatred towards those who had broken His law and committed sin, but instead revealed a longing and patient hope that they would accept Him as their Saviour and God and thus escape from sin and death.

CHARACTER OF LOVE

But there is one common principle seen to interweave itself throughout all 9 of these glorious characteristics of the Lord God Michael. That principle was love: pure, tender, kind and compassionate love. And since the character of the Lord God Michael did not reveal any hatred, then it clearly showed to all that He was, and is, only and truly love.

In fact, if you examine all that the Lord God Michael has personally done for mankind since creation, you will find that it was all done from love! It was the Lord God Michael’s love that prevented Adam and Eve from instantly being destroyed when they chose to sin (Genesis 3:15-19); it was His love that led Him to become the Substitute and Sacrifice in making the plan of Salvation possible for all mankind (Genesis 3:15; Habakkuk 3:13); it was His love that allowed 120 years of warning messages of a coming flood to be given so all had plenty of time to make their own decisions to be saved or lost (Genesis 6:3, 5-8, 11-22; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5); it was His love that chose, watched over, protected, blessed, prospered and guided Abraham (Genesis 22:17-18, 24:1; Isaiah 51:2), Isaac (Genesis 26:3-4, 24), Jacob (Genesis 48:15-16), and all his posterity while among the heathen and wicked nations; and it was the Lord God Michael’s love for His people that led Him to work all of His wonders and miracles in delivering and redeeming every one of them all from their bondage and captivity to the Egyptians! And all this was done because of the great love which the Lord God Michael had for His people!

“The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 7:7-8.

All that the Lord God Michael had done for His people and followers, and all the many miracles and wonders He performed in delivering them all from their bondage and captivity to Egypt, in defeating their enemies, feeding and protecting them in the wilderness, was all because of His great love for them. Even though many of the Israelites did not even know if He really existed and thus did not love Him in the beginning of their deliverance, yet the Lord God Michael still showered upon them all these miraculous blessings in order to prove that He really did love them. And even further beyond this, as true “Love covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12), then because the Lord God Michael truly loves His followers, then He would mercifully and freely forgive every sin of all who would come to Him in repentance, thus sparing and delivering them from the penalty of sin which is death!

This love which the Lord God Michael possesses and revealed is a love that is absolutely true and not false or pretending in any fashion. Michael showed a love which is willing to suffer long and is kind; a love that envied not; a love that did not vaunt or puff itself up, and neither sought its own wishes; a love that did not behave unseemly or mistreat others, and was not easily provoked. The Lord God Michael revealed a love that thought no evil against others, rejoiced not in iniquity, but rejoiced instead in the truth; and a love that truly beared, believed, hoped and endured all things. Michael plainly showed to all that His love would not fail or allow Him to become discouraged in seeking the ultimate welfare and eternal good of others.

But exactly what kind of specific love does the Mighty Lord God Michael manifest towards each and every human being? His love for humanity is expressed at least 21 different times in the Old Testament scriptures through 4 different Hebrew words: “ahab”, “ahabah”, “chaba” and “chashaq”. Now “ahab” translates and means “to have affection for, to love” (Strong’s, word #157); “ahabah” translates and means the feminine form of “to have affection for, to love” (Strong’s, word #160); “chaba” translates and means “to hide in the bosom, to cherish with affection and love” (Strong’s, word #2245); and “chashaq” translates and means “to cling to or join, to love, to delight in, to deliver” (Strong’s, word #2836).

So the type of love that the Mighty Lord God Michael manifests towards each and every human being is a love that is full of affection; a love that moves Him to cling to or join with or embrace us in His strong arms and hide us in His bosom because He delights in us, He cherishes us, and He longs to deliver us from sin and destruction! And this marvelous, cherishing and affectionate love of the Lord God Michael for each human being is not lacking or failing in any area, because His love for us is in both the masculine and feminine form. In other words, it is not that the Lord God Michael is both a male and female in one Being as the pagans believe, but since the masculine form of love is more of a tough, firm love, and the feminine form is more of a tender, soft love, then the type of love that the Mighty Lord God Michael manifests is one that embraces both forms, thus making His love for us rich, full, perfect and wonderfully complete.

Yet not only this, but because the Lord God Michael is no respecter of persons, is impartial and treats everyone the same irregardless of position, rank, cast, wealth or poverty, then His rich, full, perfect and complete love towards us is unpretending and is unreserved. And further, because the Lord God Michael is the same yesterday, today and forever, then His rich, full, perfect, complete, unpretending and unreserved love towards us is not something that is here today and then gone tomorrow, but it is permanent, unchanging and never ending.

“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love...” Jeremiah 31:3.

NO ONE LEFT UNLOVED

But is this great everlasting and affectionate love of the Lord God Michael just kept for and manifested towards His people alone? No, because in Deuteronomy 10:17-18 it plainly tells us that even though the Lord God Michael is a “God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:...[who] doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow”, yet He also “loveth the stranger”.

So this great and Mighty Lord God Michael, this God of gods and Lord of lords, does not just manifest and keep His amazing and great love only for His followers alone, but also freely manifests it towards all strangers, or foreigners or sojourners, irregardless of whether they are His followers or are heathen and pagans. But even more than this, because this great Lord God further commanded all of His followers to also “Love ye therefore the stranger” (Deuteronomy 10:19). So His people were not just to be the recipients of God’s love without also sharing this love with others, including with those who did not love and serve their God.

Yet why would this great and Mighty Lord God Michael manifest love towards all strangers and those who do not love or follow Him, and then further command all of His followers to also manifest love towards them as well? Because it was not just for the salvation and deliverance of His followers from everlasting destruction that the Lord God Michael was working, but also for the salvation and deliverance of each and every human being, and one way of manifesting this love to them was through those who professed to be His followers.

As the Lord God Michael’s love for humanity already existed, and before any human manifested love to Him (1 John 4:19), He chose to freely manifest His love in actions towards all. This was done in the hope that His unreserved love would awaken in each of humanity a desire to learn more about such a loving God, hoping that by observing “these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalms 107:43), and in turn begin to fall in love with Him.

As their continued searching would finally lead them to the realization that in this loving God alone was their salvation to be found, their growing love for Him would lead them to choose to enter into a covenant relationship with Him by accepting Him as their God and Saviour, and they His followers. Thus their choice to serve God would be done out of love, and not out of fear or from force. And it would be this very love itself that would keep both them and Michael faithful to each another. Michael’s love for them would keep Him true to His covenant promise to be their God and save them from everlasting death, and it would be their love for Him as their God and Saviour that would keep them true to their covenant promise to keep His commandments and live in them.

Obviously this saving knowledge of the truth that only the Lord God Michael could save anyone from everlasting destruction was not to be kept hidden away for the benefit of His followers alone, but was to be given out to all who would listen and believe. It was for this purpose that the Lord God Michael had chosen Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all their Israelite posterity above all other peoples of the earth so that they could be His witnesses to all other nations. By blessing His people above all other peoples (Genesis 26:13-16, 28-29; Isaiah 61:9), in miraculously defending them from all their enemies and working mighty wonders in their behalf (Joshua 2:9-11), and in manifesting such great and infinite love for them (Ezekiel 16:3-14), all other nations could not help but take notice that this Lord God of Israel was vastly different from all other known deities. Thus all other peoples would become curious to want to know more about this different God. And as they would ask questions and take the time to search out more about this Lord God of Israel, they would be led to understand that the Lord God Michael was earnestly reaching out to them personally with the knowledge of the truth that He alone could save them from everlasting destruction, and that He was willing to freely save them simply because He really and truly loved them.

As this was true, then what kind of flag or banner was the Lord God Michael showing to all the world by all the mighty blessings, miracles and tender dealings with His people? “His banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4). And what proved this fact to be indeed true was because this Mighty Lord God Michael “hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaiah 38:17).

SEEK AND FIND

This amazing, everlasting, unpretending and unreserved love of the Lord God Michael for each and every human being was leading all who realized it to come unto Him in repentance in order to find deliverance and redemption from sin and death. And once such deliverance and redemption from sin and death was so freely provided without cost, how could the recipients of such a free gift possibly avoid also falling in love with such a merciful Giver? It was exactly this kind of responding love, which was pure and unpretending, and was willingly and freely given from a heart full of gratitude, that the Lord God Michael was seeking from His people, because “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love” in return (Proverbs 17:9).

Thus the Mighty Lord God Michael was freely showering His great love and affection upon all of His followers; freely forgiving and covering all of their transgressions, iniquities and sins; freely delivering and redeeming them from death, because He truly loved them and was also seeking their willing love and affection in return. So the Lord God Michael was actually drawing the people to Him through manifesting His great love for them. The Lord God Michael “drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love” (Hosea 11:3), and admits that “with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” to Me (Jeremiah 31:3).

Therefore the big question which all the people of the earth was faced with then, and will continue to be faced with until the end, was and is: How will you personally respond to such amazing love which the Mighty Lord God Michael/Jesus Christ has already manifested for you? Will you choose to spurn this amazing love, resist its drawing power and remain hard-hearted and unfeeling towards the Lord God Michael? Or will you choose instead to accept His love, and in turn fall in love with Him and become connected with Him?

Many at that time chose to accept the great love of the Lord God Michael into their lives, and indeed fell in love with Him. They lived the experience listed in Song of Solomon 3:2, 4, and decided that they “will rise now, and go...seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.” Yet they did not give up their search, but continued on, and “It was but a little...[while later that] I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go...” This plainly declares that each person must individually “seek ye the Lord while he may be found” (Isaiah 55:6), and you are not to quit searching until you find him. Once you find him whom your soul loveth you are to hold onto Him and not let Him go, thus becoming fully His, and He yours, in a mutual loving bond and covenant agreement that will keep you both faithful to each other forever!

“And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity (or free and save you from all of your sins and death), and I will gather you from all the nations (or separate you away from all groups who have given their affections to Lucifer)...and I will bring you again into the place [of the promised land].” Jeremiah 29:13-14.

NO MIXTURE OF GOOD AND EVIL

This picture of character of the Lord God being love was indeed something beautiful and glorious to behold. And as the Lord God Michael is a representative to mankind of the Almighty Lord God of heaven, then the character that Michael manifested to mankind is exactly the same character which the Almighty God has! So as we have clearly and plainly seen the true loving, tender and merciful character of the Lord God Michael, then we have actually clearly and plainly seen the very character of the Almighty God being marvelously revealed to us! In fact Their characters stand alone in comparison with the represented characters of any of the pagan gods, goddesses or deities of any nation – especially the character of Lucifer.

All the characteristics of the pagan deities were represented as being a mixture of good and bad, sometimes doing righteous actions and other times committing evil. Thus the pagan followers came to believe that as long as they mixed some good deeds into their lives then they could be as evil as they wanted to be the rest of the time. They also came to believe that there would really be no dire consequences for any of their evil actions, because after all they were just imitating the character of their supreme deity.

But the character which the Mighty Lord God Michael revealed was strikingly different. He revealed a character that was good, righteous and truly lovely at all times and not evil at all or in any way (Psalms 5:4; Deuteronomy 32:4; James 1:13; 3 John 1:11). He revealed a character that frowned upon evil and punished bad deeds as sinful actions that had broken His righteous law. And even though He punishes sinful actions – especially in the lives of those who have chosen to serve and follow Him as their God, yet the punishment is not done in a hateful manner or from a heart filled with revenge. But is done in a tender, loving manner designed to correct, and from a heart yearning for all to do better and come up to a higher level of character. Thus the Lord God Michael was seeking to lead all of His followers to live a better life that would bring true and lasting happiness; a life that was in perfect harmony with His written holy law, and to help them accomplish this He had already revealed in His own actions towards them all such a holy life as a living example which they could all look up to and imitate.

GOD’S NAME IS HIS CHARACTER

So we have seen that the Mighty Lord God Michael did in fact “make all my goodness pass before” Moses (Exodus 33:19); He did in fact “proclaim the name of the Lord before thee” (Exodus 33:19); He did in fact make all “my glory” to pass by (Exodus 33:22), and Moses was indeed clearly shown the “way” of the Lord God (Exodus 33:13) so that he might “know thee” (Exodus 33:13) and fall in love with Him. All these things were revealed first hand to Moses, and he clearly saw that this goodness, glory, the way and the name of the Mighty Lord God Michael, as well as the name of the Almighty Lord God, all pertained to Their glorious, loving character.

After seeing this amazing and lovely image of the Mighty Lord God Michael, Moses realized as never before that to know the Lord and be able to proclaim His name to others, was not to know a literal Hebrew or Aramaic name to call Him, but it was to know His beautiful character! Thus to see the way or course of action of the Lord God Michael, to be able to know His name and understand Him and His glory, was to discover and understand His character. And God’s character was pure love, pure righteousness, and pure holiness without the slightest bit of evil or wickedness.

Thus it was God’s righteous character that was His glory – it was His honor, and the reason God’s glory was depicted as devouring fire was because since sin is not a part of His character at all, then it cannot remain in His holy and divine presence without being completely consumed and utterly destroyed.

So what would have happened if the Lord God Michael had appeared in all His glorious splendor from the clouds of heaven that were shielding Him from the view of all these sinful people gathered below Mount Sinai? They would be instantly destroyed by the fiery brightness and sin-consuming splendor of His glory! And so what will happen to all sinners at the end of time who have refused to allow His love to draw them to Him and accept the Lord God Michael as their God and Saviour from all their sin, who became Jesus Christ when born in human form, died, was resurrected and received up into glory (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Timothy 3:16)? They will be destroyed by the fiery brightness and sin consuming splendor of His glory when He comes again (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12)!

CONCLUSION

In this booklet, we have discovered that the Mighty Lord God Michael was the God of hosts who defeated Lucifer and his rebellious angels in heaven, and then cast them all out. The Lord God Michael, in connection with the Almighty God, was the Creator of all the earth. After Adam and Eve chose to sin in following Lucifer’s rebellion, it was the Lord God Michael who chose to become human, and to then substitute His life in order to save mankind from destruction. Since Michael had chosen to become so intimately connected with the human family, then He was the One God of this earth that has personally dealt with mankind ever since the fall.

The Lord God Michael was the Great I Am who delivered His people from Egyptian bondage through manifesting all His mighty wonders. Michael was the Mighty God who revealed Himself in both bodily form and in voice at Sinai, and who gave them a perfect standard of law that was an exact transcript of His own character. Michael was the Mighty God who then tenderly guided, protected and defended His people as a Father and Shepherd through all their wilderness wanderings until He brought them safely into the promised land. Thus the One Lord God of all the earth, and the One Lord God of Israel, was not the Almighty Lord God, but it was the Mighty Lord God Michael. Thus on this earth, His people were to have and worship no other gods but the Lord God Michael.

When the fullness of time had come, the Mighty Lord God Michael was miraculously born a human being named Jesus – the anointed Christ and Messiah – who would save His people from all their sins. Having succeeded in fully carrying out the plan of salvation for all who accept Him, Michael/Jesus offered up His human life as a sacrifice, died on the cross, was buried and then resurrected to life. He then ascended to heaven where He now works to purify and prepare His obedient people for eternal life when He returns. Because He successfully carried out the plan of salvation in all aspects, His Father – God Almighty – has given all judgment of who is saved and who is lost into Michael/Jesus’ righteous hands. And thus at the name of Jesus every tongue will confess that He is the Lord God over all the earth.

Dear one, with this glorious and yet solemn picture of truth plainly staring you in the face, will you choose a loving God to be your Saviour and Redeemer from all sin and death, and cling to Him regardless of the cost? Or will you reject Him and spurn His great love, and instead choose to cling to your sins, allowing the author of all sin – or Lucifer – to continue to be your god, as well as your savior and redeemer from all righteousness and eternal life?

When the Lord God Michael or Jesus Christ comes again will you be heard declaring “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation”? (Isaiah 25:9). Or will you be found vainly trying to escape from being destroyed “with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8) by running “into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty” (Isaiah 2:19), and be heard calling “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17).

Dear precious soul, What is your decision going to be?