barley

When learning about this little band of sheep representing the firstfruits barley company, the Lord took me to the journey of the king who was once a shepherd, as he left the palace and fled from the hatred of his son. That journey was not an easy one, just as your journey in the last 3&1/2 years has been.

2Sa 16:13  So David and his men went by the road, and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite David and cursed as he went and threw stones and dust at him.

 2Sa 16:6  And he cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

Remember the green pastures you have been led through are actually stony hillsides and some of those stones will have been thrown at you, but I want to show you how it is for the purpose of gathering a heap of blessing to be rewarded you later.

 2Co 4:17  For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory

Shimei comes from the root word meaning ‘something heard, a sound, rumor, announcement’. In essence, the attack of Shimei is instigated by the accuser of the brethren and consists of a barrage of disparaging words, intended to ruin the credibility or reputation of the person being bombarded. The Word tells us the tongue is a fire, so the words and curses thrown at you by the Shimei’s set in motion a fire intended to destroy your standing in the Body and the community.

Jas 3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!

 Those who are of the house of David and are faithfully following the Good Shepherd wherever He leads will have had stones cast at them during the 3&1/2 years of traversing the ‘green pastures’ since April 2015. David understood how God’s accounting system worked:

2Sa 16:12  It may be that the Lord will look on the iniquity done me and will recompense me with good for his cursing this day.

 So David and his company pressed on, with a rain of dust and stones showering down upon them and finally, they came to the Jordan river, totally exhausted from the continual barrage they had encountered.

2Sa 16:14  And the king and all the people who were with him came [to the Jordan] weary, and he refreshed himself there.

How did they refresh themselves? Well, remember I shared how the Lord said that some of the promises, judgments or decrees which had been received in 2015 had been ‘deferred’ or postponed. In other words, they were to be experienced at a later time. King David also received supplies on his journey away from what was going on in Jerusalem and these were carried with the fleeing company until they reached the Jordan:

2Sa 16:1  WHEN DAVID was a little past the top [of Olivet], behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, and upon them 200 loaves of bread, 100 bunches of raisins, 100 summer fruits, and a skin of wine. 2Sa 16:2  The king said to Ziba, What do you mean by these? Ziba said, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine is for those to drink who become faint in the wilderness.

Now I want to show you how amazingly faithful our Good Shepherd is. Before David began the dreadful journey in which he was cursed and stoned continuously, he received supplies from the household of Mephibosheth. This name which is difficult to pronounce means ‘dispeller of shame’. Beloved, the continual spiritual attack you have been under, the curses and the accusation has left you with a mantle of shame BUT God supplied you with a vast picnic basket of nourishment to dispel or remove that cloak of shame that the enemy threw over you with his vile words AND it was supplied BEFORE you encountered ‘Shimei’. In other words, you have it with you, in your own backpack. You received it at the beginning of the journey in the ‘green pastures’, 3&1/2 years ago, round Passover 2015. The Lord would never let you go through anything in the way of attack, without providing you with the necessary supplies to counteract it.

The thing about being under constant attack is that you are unable to focus upon much else as you try to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The enemy wants to keep you distracted so that you cannot find time to be nourished by the sweet promises of God over your life, even though the words He breathed to you are right there written on your heart and in your journal. David ‘refreshed’ himself at the Jordan with the food Mephibosheth provided for the journey. Take the time to go back in your journals and refresh yourself with the words God spoke to you at that time. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance His purposes and promises breathed at that time – or even earlier. In those baskets from Mephibosheth there were loaves of bread and a skin of wine – the wonderful communion meal declaring that the redemption price, the bridal price, has been paid for us. Beloved, pay no heed to the vile words of Shimei. Forget the dust rained upon you by the fleshly acts of ungodly men. Remind yourself of God’s purposes and plans for you. Rehearse them and see how your spirit is refreshed! Arise and decree what God has said over you and let those sound waves begin to create (bara) the manifestation of your future. Father counseled me to take the 14 chapters of Zechariah and decree from them day by day for 14 days. I discovered that this would be complete by the end of Tabernacles. Let the principalities in the spiritual realm be still and hear what the Sovereign Lord says about His intentions for His people!

You were not intended to wear a mantle of shame. Recompense is what we have been promised in Isaiah 61:

Isa 61:7  Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs. Isa 61:8  For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong with violence or a burnt offering. And I will faithfully give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with them.

The word Jordan means ‘descender’, so crossing the Jordan is equivalent to descending to the place of receiving your anointing for rule. Remember I mentioned in part 1 that Solomon descended to the Gihon spring in order to be anointed. The descending, the quick crossing over the Jordan is to take you to the place of receiving your anointing to rule, and the Lord will send all the necessary instruction to get you there.

2Sa 17:16  Now send quickly and tell David, Lodge not this night at the fords [at the Jordan] of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king be swallowed up and all the people with him... 2Sa 17:21  After they had departed, the boys came up out of the well and went and told King David, and said, Arise and pass quickly over the river Jordan; for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you... 2Sa 17:22  David arose and all the people with him and passed over the Jordan. By daybreak, not one was left who had not crossed.

So, according to the pattern we see in David’s life, the crossers of the Jordan, the little band of sheep descending to the place of safety, must not lodge where they are as the darkness progresses, but they must arise and transition quickly to the place prepared for them. Remember the urgency with which my Companion and I slid down that tar road to safety to get away from the stony hillside fire in my dream? The enemy had released counsel for David’s destruction, but the Lord was faithful to protect him and release understanding of the times and what to do, so that he escaped the enemy’s clutches.

Understanding of the times is what we desperately need in these days. By the end of the morning watch when the sun has risen, all of David’s company had crossed over the Jordan. Now I don’t know exactly how long that morning watch is in months, weeks or days, but one thing I do know - Beloved, by the time the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings over us, we will have completed the time of transition and be walking in new territory. We must keep in step with the Spirit in order to be brought to the safe place prepared for us. All light we need is found in the Word of God, in the things that have been written for examples for us.

As the Lord had given me the dream of traveling on a strip of tar to safety and Noah’s ark was covered with tar, there may be some clues as to the season of the descending or crossing over hidden in his story. In Genesis 7:11, we read that Noah and family entered the ark in the second month, Cheshvan, on the 17th day. Then the flood began and the rains fell for 40 days and 40 nights covering the earth. Amazingly, Cheshvan is the time of year when the barley was sown in order to be ready for the firstfruits offering at Passover. So God’s barley remnant seed is sent into the place of being positioned, hidden and covered by His redemption price and lifted above the coming flood of judgments round the same period when Noah and his family was separated from those appointed judgment. The months of October and November will bring significant repositioning in order to bring the firstfruits barley company to the place of protection from the coming hour of trial upon the earth.

While the angel of death was wreaking havoc in Egypt, the Israelites were feasting upon the lamb that had been slain. While the flood was wiping out all the wicked, Noah and his little family were eating the stored up provision in the ark and being carried above the judgments. While Absolom and his counselors were searching for David’s company to kill them all, David was also feasting at a prepared banquet table:

2Sa 17:27  When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash of Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim 2Sa 17:28  Brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, parched [pulse--seeds of peas and beans], 2Sa 17:29  Honey, curds, sheep, and cheese of cows for David and the people with him to eat; for they said, The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.

 

This sounds to me like provision in the wilderness for the time of trouble – a place where they are fed and kept safe like the woman in Revelation 12 who fled from the dragon’s flood. It also sounds like lavish recompense which was promised. It sounds like psalm 36’s description of those who have sheltered under His wing feasting on the abundance of His house and drinking of the stream of His pleasures. So, after a hasty crossing which was complete by the end of the morning watch, the firstfruits barley company, led by the Shepherd from the house of David, are brought to a place of lavish provision and rest. He prepares a table for you, He anoints your head with oil. Your cup runs over. You need fear no evil. Goodness and mercy follow you.

Selah