“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6.
“Beware of dogs.” Philippians 3:2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
It is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:31. Have you ever boasted about anything? Boasting generally means to talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one’s achievements, possessions, or abilities. But if you read the context in which that Scripture is written, I think you will understand to what I am referring, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to you wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
With no work of your own I have already made you an astounding success before Me in Christ Jesus. And I GAVE you that, John 3:16, so it is yours already. Are you boasting about all you are in Me? Are you boasting about how I made you, saved you, blessed you, healed you, prospered you, loved you, called you, made amazing, awesome plans for you that you are walking in today, and gave you all things to richly enjoy? If you are not it means you are ignorant of what is yours and are not making use of it on a daily basis.
It is not there for you just in the future beyond the grave, it is NOW. NOW faith is. I HAVE blessed you with every blessing in Christ Jesus. I HAVE forgiven you in Jesus. By His stripes you WERE healed. I HAVE given you all the attributes and possessions you need for the abundant life here and forever. Boast about what I have freely given you in Christ Jesus and who you ARE now in Him.
I have made you righteous with My own righteousness, have clothed you in Christ, given you wisdom, have redeemed you from your sins and from the curse (which includes sickness, poverty, and eternal death), sanctified you, and made you holy and blameless, beyond reproach. I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Heaven and seated you with Me in Christ. You are welcome to come to Me at My throne at anytime and in any place to receive mercy and find grace for just what you need right then.
And you can go even farther and tell people about YOUR God, lover, spouse, Father, and friend, who calls you by name and loves you and honors you, who gave His Son’s life for you so you could be reconciled with Him and live with Him now and forever in an everlasting Covenant of provision and care. You can tell them that your God is the creator of everything. He knows the whole universe and beyond and all its minute details. He numbers all the stars and calls each one by name though man cannot even number them. He is the source of life and sustains it all in one awesome continuum. All are alive for Him. He sees all, knows all, and loves all. He cares for all. He works miracles, signs and wonders beyond number. He shows you wonderful things in His Word. He knows every thought of your heart and counts every hair on your head. But He never harshly rebukes you and has sworn never to be angry with you again in Christ.
And all of this you find in My Word as true about Me. And beyond all this I AM Love and Light. And I have made many Covenant promises that are signed in My Name. Such as the LORD your Healer, the LORD your provider, the LORD your peace, the LORD your Shepherd and the LORD your righteousness. And there are many more and there is MUCH MORE I do for you.
And that is just starting to know who I am to you and who you are to Me. It will take eternity for you to be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know My love as manifested to you in Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all My fullness, the fullness of the Godhead, in you.
I am more than able to do far more abundantly beyond all that you ask or think, according to the power I have put in you by pouring My love into your heart by the gift of My Holy Spirit that is working in you to will and to do even now. You have only to know and walk it out.
You cannot know these things with your mind set only on the flesh, these must be spiritually discerned. I am Spirit and you must seek Me in spirit and truth. Because when you were born again in Christ by My Word and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, I put My Spirit in your heart. I enlightened the eyes of your heart which Satan had blinded by his lies and the deceitfulness of sin. He took Adam and Eve and their descendants out of the spiritual arena into the flesh arena. The wages of sin is death.
But now for you who seek Me with your heart, I have given you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus so that your heart may be enlightened to know the hope of My calling, what great riches of glory are your inheritance in Christ from Me as a joint heir with Him, and the surpassing greatness of My power in you who believe in accordance with the working of the strength of My might which I brought about in Christ when I raised Him from the dead and seated Him at My right hand in the heavenly places. And seated you there with Him above all the works of My hands and above the devil and all his demonic hierarchy. In Christ I gave you back the dominion authority in full that Adam gave up to the devil. It is a new day.
But those who are of the world, having their mind set only on the flesh and human reasoning, cannot see this, it is foolishness to them. “An unspiritual natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14. And that is today’s Life Lesson from the teachings of Jesus set forth in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6.
Do not give what is holy to dogs. In the literal sense that is obvious. Your dog, no matter how fond you are of him, does not have a spirit. He has a soul (mind, will, and emotions) and a body but he does not know Me in the sense you can. I feed the birds and care for all the animals I have made to give them food in due time and not one perishes without My consent, but they are NOT in My image and likeness and it is not murder if you smash a bug, have a dog put to sleep, or kill a chicken to eat it. Jesus permitted the demons to enter the pigs and this caused all the pigs to drown but there was no fault in that. In fact, it was a correction on that generation in the Gadarenes stemming back to the time of the Maccabees and Greek occupation of that area. It had to do with openly defying My law to obtain favor with the unbelievers, but that is a teaching for another time. Each animal I made after its own kind but you are of My kind.
But here Jesus is giving a teaching on the thoughts and motives of the heart. Jesus told the Syrophoenician Canaanite woman who came to Him for healing for her daughter, “It is not proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Matthew 15:26. You see here He is talking in terms of Covenant and faith. This woman worshipped idols, and had been raised in demonic rituals. Her daughter had been raised in such culture and was open to demonic possession. Her spirit was dead to Me and alive to sin. She lived only at the soul and body level, and, like a dog, she had no comprehension of who I was. But seeing and hearing of Jesus had opened something in her heart that came alive, the dying wick started to smolder that day in His presence, and kneeling down in worship she said simply, “Lord, please help me.” And then she went on even further by recognizing her distance from the understanding of My Word that My covenant people had, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. Matthew 15:25-28. She, by faith, had entered the Covenant of Abraham. Abraham believed Me and I credited it to him as righteousness. She was no longer like a dog, she believed and had faith in My power to heal. But before she made that step Jesus would not give her holy things.
And on the Cross Jesus was surrounded by “dogs,” unbelievers who only saw with eyes of flesh and did not understand the tremendous battle with darkness and sin that was going on, breaking the devil’s hold on you. If Satan had known he NEVER would have crucified your Lord of glory by working through the “dogs” whom he took captive to do his will.
“For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.” Psalm 22:16. And this the pagan Romans did. But there was one, the centurion in charge at the crucifixion, who after all he saw that day declared, “This man was truly the Son of God!” Another dog transferred to a child of the Covenant. The lamp of his spirit was being lit.
This Satan wants to stop. He wants to keep dogs as dogs and swine as swine lest they turn and see the light of the gospel on the face of Christ and I can shine in their hearts and light the lamp of their spirit with the anointing—the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed One, who enlightens every man who will open his heart to the light of life.
What do you see at the very end of time when the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, comes down and joins Heaven with earth and the curse is no more? “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” Revelation 22:14-15.
“Arouse Yourself to help me, and see! You, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the nations; do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity. They return at evening, they howl like a dog, and go around the city. Behold, they belch forth with their mouth; swords are in their lips, for, they say, “Who hears?” But You, O LORD, laugh at them.” Psalm 59:4-8.
The unbelieving “dogs” do not enter the heavenly city, they never found the door (Jesus) and are consigned to the outer darkness, to the lake of fire, to be forever with their master, for the devil is the master of all such unbelieving “dogs,” and they have followed their master’s voice. Like Herod who rejected and mocked Jesus when He stood before him. And if you recall, Jesus would do no miracle, sign, or wonder before Herod as he demanded Him to perform. You do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before swine. They just do not see any value in them and trample them under foot. Never sit in the seat with scoffers. Psalm 1:1.
A mind set on the flesh is hostile to Me, for it does not subject itself to My Word, for it is not even able to do so, it is foolishness to such a person to give, forgive, and love your enemies. Those who are in the flesh cannot please Me, for they are without faith. And I need your faith combined with My power to save you. However, you who believe in Jesus and have received Him as Lord are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, for now My Spirit dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Romans 8:7-9.
Dogs, who cannot grasp the holy or live holy, and swine, whose god is their belly (flesh) and live devoid of My Word, not because it is not available to them but because they give it no value and scorn it, cannot handle the Holy. You cannot give your dog or your pig holy communion, they would spit it out as no value. They defile holy things.
You cannot give pearls to swine, they will try to chew them to feed their bellies and when they cannot chew it they will spit it out, trample it in the mud, and then go after you for not giving them what they want. Both dogs and wild boars have torn people apart. The dogs devoured Jezebel’s body and licked up her blood.
My faith and Spirit-filled Stephen of the first Christian community, spoke holy truths to the dogs and gave his pearls out to the swine, and they responded by trampling him under foot and tearing him to shreds with a cruel stoning.
Under the Old Covenant, and it is even a higher standard under the New Covenant, the priests who were to handle My holy things in the tabernacle had to be cleansed, purified, consecrated and set apart before they could perform the sacrifices or handle the holy things. They were clothed in holy garments of beauty and majesty, sprinkled with blood, and cleansed with pure water before they could minister holy things.
They could not be ritually unclean and enter My courts. There was to be nothing unclean in My house. If something did come in that was, the tabernacle had to be cleansed and atonement had to be made with the blood of unblemished clean animals. Never the blood of swine, which was unclean.
And remember the parable My Son told of the prodigal son? Where did the prodigal son end up, where was he serving, when he totally rejected his father and wasted his inheritance? With the pigs and he longed to eat their slop. But then he turned and returned to the father. And the father clothed him in the garments of a son and sacrificed the fattened calf for him. The calf was the sacrifice under the Old Covenant for the sins of the priest.
Do not give what is holy to dogs or cast your pearls before swine. Jacob’s son Joseph told his brothers his holy dreams from Me and they trampled them underfoot and tore him to shreds. But as David wrote, I had the last laugh. Psalm 59:8. And at did at My Son’s resurrection to, “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed (Messiah, Christ), saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’ He who is enthroned in the heavens laughs, the Lord (Adonai) scoffs at them.” Psalm 2:2-4; Acts 4:26-28.
“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:2-3.
Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11. And those who have heard the truth of the gospel and began to walk in but then turned back and rejected it, it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:22.
How do you recognize a “dog” and a “swine?” You will know them by the fruit they produce. But let My apostle Peter, under the inspiration of My Spirit set it out for you, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” And he goes on, “Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties . . . They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. . . These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” 2 Peter 2:1-19.
So, what do you do with dogs and swine? You try to open their eyes to the truth but if they will not, you shake the dust from your feet, entrust them to Me, and go on. Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5, But do not give up too fast. Pray for them and feed them My Word as much as you can. My Son gave you a teaching on this, “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9. Do you understand? Jesus gave three years to cultivating the fig tree. Selah.
I love you. I let the weeds grow with the wheat, but do not ever give your heart to the weeds. Stay with the wheat, it is gathered into My barn. “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6. Jonathan stayed with his father, Saul, though he knew he was behaving like a dog and a swine, but he stayed loyal to him and did not go with David. It ended in death for Saul, but also for Jonathan. Be careful about giving your allegiance to dogs and swine, they will trample you underfoot and perhaps even tear you to shreds. It will cut your life short. There is a reason you see signs in yards that read, “Beware of dogs.” Philippians 3:2.