“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42.
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 54:17.
“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.” Exodus 23:20.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
As we continue our Life Lessons on seeing with the heart, we reach a teaching today from the Sermon on the Mount that requires seeing with the heart or you will never understand it. To live it you must be aware of the spiritual realm.
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was actually a way to stop people from retaliating beyond the injury received. If you recall, Lamech, a descendant of Cain, bragged that he had killed a man for wounding him and a boy for striking him and was set on avenging himself seventy-sevenfold. Genesis 4:23-24. And Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, massacred an entire city and looted it, taking all their herds and flocks and killing every male, because of the leader’s son had taken advantage of Dinah and then requested her hand in marriage. Genesis 34:1-31.
Under the age of grace I take you to a higher standard. I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
When you have everything, which you do in Christ, I have given you the Kingdom and every spiritual blessing in Heaven into your account, and the hundredfold as well, you are not concerned at people taking things from you or taking advantage of you. There is always more.
And if you have the entire heavenly host at your side when you call for them, you are not concerned about evil people who try to harm you. Remember Hezekiah? The enemy army taunted Judah and demanded surrender to their abuse, but Hezekiah went to prayer and that night I sent one warrior angel of My heavenly host and he took down 184,000 of the enemy, which was about all of them, and the rest went home. This really does make you undefeatable.
If Jesus had not been determined to die for your sins, He told you what He would have done the night they came by force to arrest Him and take Him captive to kill Him: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” Matthew 26:53-54. And He said this in the very context of living out this teaching of not resisting an evil person but doing good to them, He had just cured the cut off ear of one of the ones who came out with swords and clubs to arrest Him when He spoke these words. He not only turned the other cheek but healed the ear of the one taking Him captive.
Jesus exemplified His teachings. Stephen followed them and forgave and did not resist his enemies but he asked Me to receive his spirit and take him to heaven, which I did. And all the apostles and early community of believers lived this teaching of Jesus as well. They never sought revenge; they were seeking souls. The first time I delivered the apostles out of prison by an angel, the angel told them to go to the temple and preach all about this new life. Which they did with joy. So when Peter was in prison for preaching the Word and about to die unjustly under Herod’s hand, they knew what to do. The church prayed to Me on his behalf. And I sent an angel that delivered him out of prison. You will notice under the New Covenant the angel did not kill all Peter’s enemies; the angel led him out so he could keep offering them salvation. The same with Paul and Silas in the prison of Philippi, they were not cursing their enemies, they had let them beat them with rods with no anger against them, instead chained in the prison they sang and praised Me and My angel threw down the censor from the golden altar of incense where your prayers rise up before Me and caused the selective earthquake that opened all the gates and took off all their chains so that they could preach the good news of Jesus. And instead of striking the jailer dead, I saved him by the preaching of Paul. A whole new kind of deliverance now that Jesus died once for all.
In every situation, know that when I am with you no one and nothing can come against you and have the victory. I am the LORD of hosts and vengeance is Mine, not yours. I will vindicate you.
When things come against you, you cannot have a victory just by your own physical force. You may for a time, but the enemy will keep trying to take back the territory he lost with new tactics. You have to have spiritual force with you to have peace on every side. Like Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 20:30. For when I fight for you, the battle is Mine but the victory is yours. The Israelites never took on Pharaoh’s army in combat. They had no weapons and no way to physically win. So I took over and drown the enemy army in the Red Sea as they stubbornly pursued My people to enslave them again, even after they should have repented and known better after ten supernatural plagues. Those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Matthew 26:52.
If you are willing to forgive and to not take vengeance, I will even make your enemies be at peace with you. Proverbs 16:7.
Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for I resist the proud, but give grace to the humble. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:6-10. Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,. He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Me who judges righteously. He Himself bore your sins in His body on the cross, so that you might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:20-25.
Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that the hour of Him receiving all your sins into Himself as if He had done them could pass Him by, but it could not and you be saved. There was no other way to fulfill the law, a life for a life. In Adam you murdered the eternal life in you, his immortal body became subject to the corruption of sin, the wages of which is death. Jesus had an eternal indestructible human life to give for He was conceived by the incorruptible seed of My Word, as Adam had been but corrupted by sin. Jesus gave His eternal life in the flesh for your murder of it. An eternal life for an eternal life.
“I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord LORD (Adonai Yahweh) helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates Me is near; who will contend with Me?” Isaiah 50:6-8.
But I am not asking you to do that. There is no need. Jesus has done it all for you. He has made perfect for all time you who are being sanctified from glory to glory. And I have made the angels to serve those who are heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1:14.
Jesus taught you every morning of His life in the flesh and in the garden of Gethsemane, that your first response to all things is prayer. That is where all battles are actually fought and won. Both in the Old Testament and New Testament this has always been the way to victory.
Elisha never lifted up a physical weapon but he won over an entire army that came to take him captive to die. How did he do that? A man of prayer he could see into the spirit realm as I opened it to him and when the enemy army encircled his home he had no fear, he could see past them to My heavenly host on the mountains all about them and far outnumbering them on fiery chariots. But he did not even require the death of his enemies, he merely prayed to Me to strike everyone in the army blind, which I did, then he led them to Samaria and told Me to give them back their sight and I did. He then sent them on their way home after giving them a good dinner. And they did not return to take him captive again. 2 Kings 6:13-23.
And Hezekiah prayed and I sent the angel to rout the enemy army. And the early church prayed and I sent the angel to deliver Peter out of prison. No mob of the early Christians went to tear down the prison and get him out, it was not needed, one angel was enough. And when Herod paraded around after murdering a number of people, My angel simply struck him dead. Enough was enough, he was going from bad to worse, it was best to stop him before his place in hell was more severe.
And about Daniel in the lions’ den? He never retaliated or resisted his enemies but went right into the pit. But as He prayed I sent an angel that held the lions’ mouths shut all the time he was in there. And I did the same for his three Hebrew friends when they got thrown in the fiery furnace, they praised and I sent an angel to walk them through the fire unharmed.
And that is they way Joshua conquered the promised land. I told Moses I would send My angel before them to take down all their enemies. And I did. And Joshua knew this for as he entered the land near Jericho the Prince of the Hosts appeared to him and let him know the angelic host was there. And down went the wall at Jericho with a shout. Angels work with praises being sung. Like for Jehoshaphat.
And how do you think the Red Sea parted? I told you that the Host left Egypt that night with the Israelites.
How did David take down Goliath? You will note he called upon Me in that battle as the LORD of Hosts. He knew. And that is how the little stone he slung was guided right into the spot on Goliath’s forehead where there was no armor and with such force that it knocked him out completely. Angels.
And the Prince of the Heavenly Host when Joshua asked Him whose side He was on, He merely replied that He was on My side. And that is where you must be to have the Heavenly Host fighting for you. Call on Me and I send angels. Never forget that you are covered, surrounded, and delivered by angels. Sing songs of deliverance.
You don’t slap at opposition; you speak My Words to it. “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment YOU WILL PROVE FALSE. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. Death and life are in the power of your tongue. Be careful what you say.
Do not get bogged down in petty fights and court battles, abusing and being abused. There is something coming beyond all you can ask or comprehend. Days of glory are coming. Golden GLORY DAYS are on the way. Sing out O heavens and earth. It starts in Heaven and is descending to the earth even now. Arise and shine for the glory is on you! Welcome it, love it, and live it. Preach it and teach it.
The angels are again opening Heaven over the earth as they did the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem and singing peace with Me and among men. Be ambassadors of peace, not contentious, retaliating, accusing, rebelling people. Lift up your eyes and see. A delightful land is yours. Write down the vision I am opening and run with it. It will not disappoint. There is still time for your dreams. Choose the best part, there is still time. And I will run on the fast track with you if you are willing to join Me in seeking out and saving the lost—no matter how much they resist you.
And to save souls, always be willing to go the extra mile. Jesus did. He walked all the way to Samaria to save one lost woman by a well. But she brought Him a whole town that wanted salvation like she had found.
I love you. It is time to take the high road of walking in the beauty of love and holiness. And love is not rude and love does not take offense. When you know everything is already yours there is no reason to get upset if someone takes your things. You have enough to give it to them, and several times over. In Me there is no lack. And you are in Me. Never forget that and come with confidence to My throne of grace to receive it.