Matthew 03: the branched candlestick's place

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The place of the branch or the branching forth

MATTHEW 2:23   And he [Jesus] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

The hidden mystery of the Old Testament candlestick is that it was a central stem that had six branches moving out of it.

This is a difficult prophecy to understand as it does not appear in the Old Testament. To find out what is meant, we must look at the meanings that are hidden in the words.

"Netzer" means "branch" in Hebrew.

"Netzeret" in Hebrew means "the place of the branch" or "the branching forth".

We pronounce that as "Nazareth" in the Greek language of the New Testament.

The town of Nazareth was never mentioned in the Old Testament. Thus we do not have a Hebrew name for it. The word Nazareth is a Greek name.

Nazareth was an obscure town close to the main road that came up from Egypt. You had to take a branch or fork in the road to get to Nazareth. You had to choose to change direction and head for a small town that was next-to-nothing in terms of what it offered and rather a bad place anyway. But out of this branch or fork in the road will come the Man Who is the greatest direction-changer this world will ever see.

“He shall be called a Nazoræus (in Greek).” We translate that as Nazarene.

Jesus is the Man causing the fork or branch in the road.

Jesus is the Branch that supports the branching forth (the changing direction) that had to be followed by the church during the seven church ages.

He is the Man Who forces you to choose and make a decision. You can walk on by and ignore Him and perish in your sins. Or you can change direction and take that small branch in the road until you meet your Saviour and repent of your sins.

JEREMIAH 23:5   Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

ISAIAH 11:1   And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

ZECHARIAH 3:8   Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold,

I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

The place of the Branch is Netzeret in Hebrew, Nazareth in Greek.

MATTHEW 2:23   And he [Jesus] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

A "Nazarene" means Jesus of Nazareth. "Nazareth" links His name to the place of the Branch. That means that His birth, Life, death, and resurrection will cause seven new paths to branch forth as God moved to combat the changing tactics of the Devil. As such, Jesus fulfilled the many prophecies of the future Messiah which makes Him the Saviour of the church.

From there will come the real High Priest, Jesus Christ, of the order of Melchizedek.
ZECHARIAH 3:9   For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes:

REVELATION 5:6   And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and

seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

God does not have 7 Spirits. God is a Spirit.

But the Spirit of God manifested different attributes in each of the seven church ages to counter the different circumstances and errors that appeared in each church age.

Another branch or branching forth as the Life of Christ branches out into 7 Gentile church ages.

The seven-branched candlestick where each branch has a special messenger or eye who could see how to bring that age to Christ.

Church ages 2, 3, and 4 took the wrong fork and walked away from the first church age that was set up by the apostles. That was EVIL. But God's Plan was to turn EVIL around and make the church LIVE by moving back to the beliefs of the apostles.

Then the brave Martin Luther turned things around in the 5th church age and since then people have struggled to get back to the first church age but were hindered by their ignorance of the mysteries of Scripture.

In our 7th age we have to choose carefully so that we allow the quotes of William Branham to reveal the mysteries of Scripture in such a way that we are directed back to the original apostolic beliefs of the first church age that are written in the New Testament.

The end-time prophet of the eagle-age who told the Bride to move or branch away from the church systems in the third Exodus, back to the beliefs of the lion-age apostles.

The wrong branch or fork in the road today is to try to replace Scripture with brother Branham's quotes.

The "place of the crossing" where things changed

But 2000 years ago another prophet, John the Baptist, came to tell the Jews of those days to turn to Jesus as their Messiah.

"Bethabara" the "place of the crossing".

They had to cross-over from the Jewish beliefs to the beliefs of Jesus and the apostles in the second Exodus.

MATTHEW 3:1   In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

Bethabara is called the “Place of the Crossing” where Joshua made his dramatic and supernatural crossing over of the Jordan River on dry land. The first city that Joshua came to was Jericho. Its great walls would collapse supernaturally.

The Jordan river types dying to self.

Bethabara was beyond Jordan as measured from Jerusalem. The city was on the other side of the Jordan River.

Joshua was a symbol of the Holy Spirit that indwells us when we die to ourselves.

Jesus came from Nazareth, the place of the Branch, to get baptized near Bethabara.

Jesus, because He is God, was crossing over from the heavenly to the earthly realm so that He could start His ministry and fulfill the prophecies in order to pay the price for sin.

He would then go on and die for our sins in Jerusalem.

That way His Holy Spirit could cross over from the earthly realm and go down into Hell and tear down all the strongholds of sin and demonology. These were far stronger walls than those of Jericho. But Jesus was a far more formidable Fighter than the great Joshua had been. Jesus defeated Satan in his infernal stronghold.

Salvation had been for the Jews in the Old Testament, outside the Gentile kingdoms, but now Jesus was going to make salvation cross over to the Gentiles during the seven church ages.

Nebuchadnezzar's Gentile image represented the Gentile kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome that knew nothing of God's salvation unless they accepted the Jewish faith as proselytes.

The feet of Daniel’s Gentile image represent the 2000 years of the 7 church ages. The church was to spread salvation amongst the Gentile nations.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was His crowning glory that made the Devil realize that he, the Devil, was defeated. Satan is like a beast that was wounded to death with his back broken but he still has a savage bite and a murderous rage to destroy, until he ends in the Lake of Fire. Satan is defeated but dangerous and very deceptive. We still need God’s help if we are to oppose the Devil.

JOHN 1:28   These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The last week of Daniel's 70 weeks began

MATTHEW 3:2   And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

If the Jews accepted Jesus, then they would be set up to rule the world in the Millennium or 1000 years of peace that would start in seven years’ time. Daniel had promised the Jews that they would have 490 Bible years (of 360 days) left, after the commandment was given to Nehemiah to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. When Jesus came on the scene to be baptized it was almost the end of AD 29, as He was about 30. Then there were only 7 years left for the Jews.

Tiberius became emperor in AD 14.

His 15th year was the year AD 29 when John the Baptist began his six-month ministry. Towards the end of that year, he baptized Jesus Who was about 30 years old.

LUKE 3:1    Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,

LUKE 3:23    And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age,

MATTHEW 3:3   For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

The “wilderness” is a scary word. The Jews were supposed to be God’s people who were all waiting for Messiah.

But a wilderness is a deserted and desolate area.

Thus, Isaiah was telling the Jews that they were in a spiritual wasteland. Spiritually they were dried up and their elevated religious leadership had succumbed to greed and corruption.

A lot needed changing if they were to be ready for the Coming of Messiah.

The coronavirus plague of 2020 was a similar wake-up call to the modern church. God sees our church world as only being fit to be closed down. Churches are not capable of showing the people what the end-time revelations of the Scripture are. Thus church-goers will never learn the Bible truths that will prepare them for the Coming of the Lord. Their minds will remain cluttered in a lukewarm condition with a mixture of Bible truths, like getting saved and doing charitable works, as well as their church leader’s many unscriptural errors.

Wild honey is not touched by man

We must just believe the written King James Version of the Bible only. Not the alternative translations as there are over one hundred other different versions of the English Bible, all different in places, and all claiming that there is no perfect Bible. Faith is built on Scripture. If your Bible is flawed then so is your faith and so is your understanding of Scripture.

Wild honey is food that has undergone no human processing. No man must change the written Scripture in any way. Not leave anything out nor add anything.

DEUTERONOMY 4:2   Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Thus John the Baptist was strictly Scriptural.

MATTHEW 3:4   And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Camel’s hair and leather are tough materials. This indicated that John was a tough fighter, taking on the whole Jewish religious system that had all become corrupted. There was no compromise in him, no desire for luxury. He was never polite to the religious leaders. He called them snakes. He saw through their nice-guy pretense and knew they would be nasty as soon as someone proved them wrong on a point.

John’s simple clothes and diet contradicted the impressive prosperity of the religious leaders like the Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees. They supposed that gain was godliness (1 Timothy 6:5). Times have not changed. It is the same today as we await the Second Coming of Christ.

Wild honey means honey that is untouched by any man-made process. No human opinions. No man-made traditions. Just believe the Bible the way it is written in the King James Version.

No apologies. Just say it the way it is written.

Locusts are identified with a plague.

Crowned locusts in Revelation Chapter 9 are corona-demons. Deadly.

Just like the coronavirus or crowned-virus of 2020.

REVELATION 9:7   And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Faces of men. Demonology spreads by men’s preaching of unscriptural ideas.

Locusts travel in swarms that represent the majority opinion, doctrine, or idea. These influences are spread like a plague. Why are they so infectious? It propagates since it appeals to the lust of the majority.

This swarm of man-made errors flew down to the Jordan river and bounced off the granite-like chin of John the Baptist. He ripped them to shreds. John did not know how to retreat. Like a modern-day American marine, he responded to an ambush by attacking rather than ducking for cover.

His needs were few and simple. He sought no money and thus had no weak point that Satan could trip him on. He was so honestly focused on presenting God’s Word, with no desire for personal gain, that he fascinated all the province of Judea that is the region around Jerusalem, as well as the people around Jordan.

He lived a much simpler lifestyle than the Jews.

He had far less than them. Yet he asked them for nothing.

His ruggedness and blunt attack on sin swept all before him. The people listened in awe; their religious leaders led a rapid retreat. Imagine if they had to give up their money and their prestige. No way.

MATTHEW 3:5   Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

John struck the Jews like a hurricane. He shattered their false opinions and destroyed their complacency. He stripped their self-righteousness to the bone and fearlessly denounced their sins and unbelief.

MATTHEW 3:6   And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

All the Jews could do was repent. They had been struck by a blast of righteous indignation. Suddenly they knew that a man like Moses or Elijah had risen up. God had indeed raised up a prophet to the Jews.

God does not raise up a prophet to tell us that we are right. He raises up a prophet to blast us for being wrong.

MATTHEW 3:7   But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Look at the scorn and contempt with which he spoke to the religious leaders. They were so elevated above the people that self-importance and arrogance had made them mini-dictators.

Snakes have poison in their mouths. The unscriptural doctrines that preachers preach.

The gates of hell are the open mouths and throats of those people who preach unscriptural doctrines.

The coronavirus of 2020 symbolized that, as God used it as a means to close down the churches. Showing exactly what God’s opinion of modern-day church leaders and their self-opinionated unscriptural beliefs is.

We have not repented unless we show fruits of repentance

MATTHEW 3:8   Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

If you claim you have repented, show suitable fruits.

A truly repentant person will recognize a prophet when he arrives in their day.

MATTHEW 21:26   But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

John condemned the religious leaders of his day, but the people saw beyond that and realized that he was a prophet.

A truly repentant soul today should also recognize that William Branham was a prophet. What they have to fight against is the brainwashing of their churches and church pastors.

Repentance means finding Jesus.

But Jesus is outside the church of the Laodiceans, which is the last church age.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:20     Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

He is looking for individuals, not groups.

So, the only way for individuals to find Jesus was for God to close down the churches at the beginning of 2020 (which used to mean perfect vision) so that people sitting isolated at home in lockdown could search the internet and find the truth. Free from the infectious, unscriptural errors that they keep hearing at church.

MATTHEW 3:9   And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Church-goers today are smugly complacent that they are saved and therefore will go up in the rapture.

Thus, they cluster in a holy huddle in their churches as the foolish or fooled virgins (clean women, saved) and ignore the revelations of the end-time Bible mysteries. Consequently, they have little understanding of Scripture, especially the Books of Revelation, Daniel, and Genesis.

But there are rough and stony-hearted sinners on the outside that have no time for the complacent churches. God will raise up and save these controversial ruffians because they alone will have the courage to stand up for Bible truth. They alone will love the truth of God’s Word when it is revealed to them.

To stand for the truth you have to have enough courage to oppose all the churches as John did.

ISAIAH 9:2   The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Church-going stooges will be rejected and replaced by zealous-for-Bible-truth people who are ready to criticize the churches.

If you know you are wrong and thus in darkness then you can see the light of Scripture.

But if you feel you are right then you never look for Scriptural correction and cannot see the light.

No compromise with sin. John the Baptist chopped sin down

MATTHEW 3:10   And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

John the Baptist was ruthless. He knew not the word compromise. When you chop down a tree then wood chips scatter in all directions. He offended many. He stood on many toes. But he burned a fiery path deep down into the souls of his listeners. He gave them a choice: Shape up or burn.

MATTHEW 3:11   I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

John baptized with water. This was a new religious shock for the Jews. Being baptized.

That was how the First Coming of Jesus was presented to the Jews.

The Second Coming of Jesus is presented to the churches by the water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

This is a great religious shock to the Trinity-dominated modern church-goers, who think they know it all.

Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit which is a far more significant baptism.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

The Holy Spirit will reveal to each church age what essential Bible truths they need to know, despite the overspreading cloud of Roman Catholic errors.

But the last church age of the Laodiceans will have to understand the mysteries of the written Scripture. They will have to have the same beliefs as the first church age that was established by the apostles.

The seed that is harvested is identical to the seed that was planted at the beginning.

Feet are a type of the 7 church ages

John refers to the shoes of Jesus.

Shoes cover and hide the feet. That is why today's churches know hardly anything about the seven church ages. They always talk about the "church age" as if there has only been one age.

Shoes are tied up with laces that hide the feet from view. Thus John knew his ministry was not involved with the seven church ages.

In Daniel’s Gentile image, the feet represented the seven church ages.

In the Old Testament, salvation was of the Jews and was thus outside the Gentile kingdoms.

John knew that a big change was coming.

But he never understood the implications of salvation leaving the Jews and crossing over to the Gentiles.

That was too big a change-over for the Jews to understand.

The iron legs were pagan Rome. The bits of iron in the feet were Roman Catholicism. The miry or wet clay represented the Bride as the only part of the Gentile image that could support life is clay. Seeds can grow in wet clay.

Laces seal up the shoes like the 7 Seals seal up Bible mysteries

John knew nothing about the future seven church ages. Thus he said that he could not carry the shoes of Jesus, just before His First Coming. He knew his ministry and never tried to go beyond his personal calling. Unlike today's pastors who want a pastoral ministry to help people with their problems and also covet being Bible teachers where they are out of their depth. That is why today's churches are growing increasingly Bible-illiterate. Worse still is when the pastors reject the Bible teachers who oppose all their unscriptural ideas.

63 0724  GOD DOESN'T CALL MAN TO JUDGMENT WITHOUT FIRST WARNING HIM

The teacher is a special man. He sits back under the anointing of the Spirit and is able to take the Words and put them together by the Holy Spirit, that, the pastor or evangelist either one could not compare with him.

The laces that tied up or sealed up the shoes of Jesus were the 7 Seals mysteries that could not be revealed in John the Baptist's day.

In 1906 Pentecostal power was restored at Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The Pentecostals tried to look through the 7-Sealed laces of the shoes of Jesus but all they could see under the laces were the tongues of the shoes. They could see nothing else as it was hidden and unknown to them. So, they majored in speaking with unknown tongues.

But William Branham, just before the Second Coming of Jesus, would receive the commission to reveal the seven Seals. The 7th Seal deals with the Coming of the Lord and is a total mystery. Thus brother Branham had the ministry to remove those shoes and show how the feet revealed the history of the seven church ages in the Bible.

This helps to explain the foot-washing. The seven Gentile church ages being washed in the water of the Word.

Peter never understood it at the time because the Jews despised the Gentiles. But later when the Gentiles got saved in the house of Cornelius, Peter began to comprehend that the Gospel was moving to the Gentiles.

This was a big fork or branch in the road that the Jews had never previously expected would happen.

Most of the Jews would not be able to choose to go in that direction.

They became side-lined outside the Gentile church and it will take the shock and horror of great Tribulation to forcibly turn them into the right branch in the path that leads to Christ.

Paul cleverly introduced the idea of the seven church ages by referring to the ages that were to come. By placing this sentence in verse 7, he gives a hint that there would be seven church ages.

EPHESIANS 2:7   That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

John the Baptist had a harsh warning. We will either be collected as wheat or burned like chaff. Believe only what is written in the Bible or perish. In the end, there will be no compromise between the written Scripture and man-made traditions.

MATTHEW 3:12   Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

God has to separate the wheat grains that believe in Scripture from the chaff that believes unscriptural things. This takes a thorough purging as it is very hard to get the wrong ideas out of a person’s head. But those who are too brainwashed into ideas that are not written in the Bible, such as Trinity, God the Son, and Christmas will end up in the fire of great Tribulation. Those who never repented and accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour will end up in the Lake of Fire.

But each church age will go through a rough time in order to separate the wheat from the chaff.

ACTS 14:22   Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Christianity is not for sissies. Each age would have different tribulations that they would have to go through.

The last church age of the Laodiceans will finally reject the end-time revelation of the mysteries. Then they will be thrown into the 3.5 years of great Tribulation at the end of the age.

Jesus, as High Priest and Sacrifice, was washed in the water

MATTHEW 3:13   Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.

Jesus had to walk the length of Israel from Galilee (the region to the left of the Sea of Galilee) in the north to get to Bethabara, just above the Dead Sea.

So Jesus took the baptism seriously.

We should also take the water baptism seriously.

When Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we should demand to know what that name is.

MATTHEW 3:14   But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

John knew this was Emanuel, God in the flesh. John knew he was inferior to Jesus and thus felt totally inadequate to baptize Him. Jesus had never sinned. John’s baptism was based on repentance.

MATTHEW 3:15   And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Righteousness is God’s Word. The Lamb of God had to be washed before being killed.

II CHRONICLES 4:6   He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them;

Aaron, the first High Priest, had to be washed by Moses the prophet.

EXODUS 40:12   And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.

Jesus, as the High Priest, had to be washed by the prophet John the Baptist.

Jesus, as King and High Priest, had to be anointed

MATTHEW 3:16   And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

The Holy Ghost did not go into Him but rested on Him as a visible anointing.

This event was when God anointed Jesus.

ACTS 10:38   How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost

That is why oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, because oil was used to anoint people.

Aaron, the first High Priest, had to be washed, and then anointed, by Moses the prophet.

EXODUS 40:12   And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.

:13     And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him

Jesus, the last and final High Priest, had to be washed in Jordan by John the Baptist and then anointed by the Holy Spirit when He stood on the river bank.

David was anointed king by Samuel the prophet but only became king when his enemy Saul died.

Jesus was anointed King on the river bank but will only become King on earth when the enemy, the beast, is destroyed at Armageddon.

The Holy Ghost is God the Father

MATTHEW 3:17   And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

A voice from Heaven. God the Father speaking of His Son.

MATTHEW 1:20   … Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

The man who places the seed of life in a woman’s womb is the father of that child.

Thus, the Holy Ghost Who conceived life in Mary’s womb is the Father of Jesus, the Man.

Point 1.  The Holy Ghost and God the Father are the same Person. The Man Jesus cannot have two Fathers.

God is only pleased with the Man Jesus because He was fully submissive to the will of God.

There is no mention of "God the Father" in the Old Testament.

The Bible never refers to “God the Son” or “God the Holy Ghost”. These are man-made inventions.

Jesus as a Man cannot be God because God is not a Man. God is a Spirit.

JOHN 4:24  God is a Spirit

NUMBERS 23:19   God is not a man,

Thus, the Man Jesus is the “Son of God”.

What does Son of God mean?

A Man Who the fulness of the Godhead can live in and act through.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily.

If all of "God the Father" dwells in Jesus, then Jesus is the human name of "God the Father", Who is the Holy Ghost.

Thus the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is Jesus Christ.

This was confirmed by Peter in Acts 2:38.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The remission of sins is not due to the baptism of the sinner. It is due to the repentance of the sinner.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The repentance must come before the baptism. So, you cannot baptize babies.

The fulness of the Godhead dwelled in Jesus, making Jesus the Son of God.

We only become sons or daughters of God when a portion of God’s Spirit dwells in us and controls us.

Jesus is God, not because of His flesh, but because the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him.