God’s Sons/Daughters and Going on to Perfection – Chapter 6, Part 2

​This week we continue with chapter 6 in Isaiah Decoded – God’s Sons/Servants, Proxy Deliverers. Last week we saw that ascending from Zion/Jerusalem to God’s Sons/Servants is the process of transformation to become a new creation of the Son of God – Yehovah-Yeshua. This process to become like Yehovah-Yeshua is comprised of three primary stages the first of which is to become perfected – Hebrews 6:1. For God’s Sons/Servants to be suitable proxy deliverers, they must reach a level of personal perfection.

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​God Sons/Daughters and being Recreated
When we look at the scriptures in relation to becoming God's Servants three primary aspects immerge – Becoming Perfected, Reaching the Full Stature of Messiah and Seeing God the Son – Yehovah-Yeshua - in the Flesh.

​Recreated (Into a New Creation of the Son)

​Zion/Jerusalem

​Becoming Perfected >

​Reaching the Full Stature of the Son >

Sees God the Son in the Flesh ​>

​God’s Sons/Daughters Servants

​Perfection Foundations
In the scriptures, we can identify the concept of perfection as it relates to Zion/Jerusalem and to God’s Sons/Daughters. The Sermon on the Mount and Yeshua’s three temptations provide the concepts of perfections that we see for Zion/Jerusalem. Yeshua’s teachings boil down to having a pure heart as we live God’s law and word. A pure heart is to have pure motives, desires, and attitudes. This is expressed in the Torah and New Testament as having a “circumcised heart”. It’s doing the right things – the Law – for the right reasons. Moreover, we see this concept of having a pure heart in the Messiah’s three temptations that included overcoming pride, passions, and power.
 
When we get to those who are God’s Sons/Daughters, the scriptures specifically identify four men who had reached a level of perfection - Job, Noah, Abraham, and Hezekiah have been called “perfect” - Job 1:1, Gen 6:9, Gen 17:1, 2 Kings 20:3. Moreover, we saw these men obtain “favor” with God who intervened in their lives in personal and powerful ways. We also see Yeshua called perfect – Ephesians 4:13. Isaiah defines perfection in terms of overcoming all categories of sin, having a fullness of knowledge, and cultivating the seven attributes of Yehovah-Yeshua.

Perfection

​Zion/Jerusalem	​God’s Sons/Daughters
​Pure Hearts and Clean Hands	Pure Hearts and Clean Hands Overcoming All Categories of Sin A Fullness of Knowledge Seven Attributes of Yehovah-Yeshua

Overcoming Sins and Iniquities
An essential aspect of perfection is to overcome both sins and iniquities. On the Zion/Jerusalem level, we saw Zion/Jerusalem overcome universal sin or the sin of Adam and Eve by accepting Yeshua(Yehovah) as humanity’s redeemer. Moreover, we saw Zion/Jerusalem overcome personal sin by living God’s law and word with a pure heart.
 
For God’s Sons/Daughters, they additionally overcome iniquity or inherited sin. Inherited sins are sins committed by others, which in effect pollute our character. These sins are the iniquity that gets passed onto our posterity to the third and fourth generations. By and large we are not responsible for these types of sin but must overcome their dysfunctional effects.  Dr. Gileadi –
 
“Those who reach this second level of blessedness are freed from iniquity as well as sin. While we often lump “sins and iniquities” together as though they were the same thing, there is a significant difference between the two. Those on the Zion/Jerusalem level, for example, receive God’s forgiveness of their sins but must still overcome their iniquities (see Figure 73)”. – P. 173
 
Figure 73   Different Degrees of Forgiveness​

Sons/Servants—Forgiveness of Sins and Iniquities
Zion/Jerusalem—Forgiveness of Sins
Jacob/Israel—No Forgiveness [personal sin]

​“…Ezekiel spoke of wrongs a person does—for which he alone is responsible. But Moses spoke of the consequences of wrongdoing on succeeding generations— residual effects children may inherit from their parents.” – P. 174
 
“I would now say that covenant curses follow breaking God’s law, perhaps long after we have repented and gained forgiveness for personal wrongs. Such curses continue down the generations until finally reversed through righteous living”. – P. 174
 
Purifying a Lineage of Sin
We can see a correlation in the scriptures when God grants the blessings of posterity with reaching this level of perfection by not passing on the residual effects of sin.
 
“God’s endtime sons/servants resemble Israel’s ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by going a long way toward reversing covenant curses for others, notably their descendants.” – P. 175
 
“Each generation of Israel’s righteous ancestors thus added to God’s blessings on their descendants. Instead of being cursed to the third and fourth generation, as were Abraham’s immediate ancestors, from Abraham and on they were blessed (see Figure 74). That was because Abraham dealt in a proper way with the curses afflicting his generation. In so doing, he “paid off” the debt of iniquity he had inherited from his fathers. In modern terms, we might say that Abraham overcame the dysfunctional patterns passed on to him by his progenitors, passing none to his own posterity. Abraham took ownership of them in his life by replacing inappropriate with appropriate behavior through living God’s law.” – P, 175, 176

Figure 74   Abraham as a Transitional Figure 

Abraham
 |
     Generational Curses  |  Generational Blessings
​>>>>>>>>>>>>

​“Just as Isaiah equates cleansing from sin with healing, so he does cleansing from iniquity. This secondary healing, of a person’s whole soul, involves turning curses into blessings not just for oneself but also for others. Covenant curses are the cumulative, generational effects of sin, the result of transgressing God’s law and word, on both the offender and his offspring. Through a process similar to “repenting” of wrongdoing and “returning” to God, individuals come to terms with their iniquities—with inherited dysfunctional patterns—and clean up their lives. Then, having progressed that far in overcoming evil, they inspire others to do the same. By such means they ascend to the son/servant level.” – P. 176

​Zion/Jerusalem	God’s Sons/Daughters
​Overcomes Universal Sin Overcomes Personal Sin	Overcomes Universal Sin Overcomes Personal Sin Overcomes Inherited Sin

Receiving a Fullness of Knowledge
Another aspect of perfection is having a fullness of knowledge. As a believer becomes more like God, their knowledge expands so they are more effective in bringing others to Messiah. A biblical principle associated with the concept of fullness is the number seven. The number seven appears in the bible over 700 times and is more frequent in the Bible than any other number. The number seven represents a state of completeness, fullness, and perfection.
 
We see the number seven evident in the Book of Isaiah. Dr. Gileadi discovered in his analysis of Isaiah a seven-part structure that repeats itself twice organizing the Book of Isaiah into two parts.
 
“Isaiah’s Seven-Part Structure divides the Book of Isaiah into two halves of thirty-three chapters each. Seven pairs of antithetical themes in the first half parallel seven pairs of the same antithetical themes in the second half. Within that structural arrangement, Isaiah establishes prophetic and theological concepts that deeply impact the book’s message, particularly as it relates to the end-time (see Avraham Gileadi, The Literary Message of Isaiah, Hebraeus Press, 2nd ed., 2012).

Ruin & Rebirth (Isaiah 1–5; 34–35)
          Rebellion & Compliance (Isaiah 6–8; 36–40)
                    Punishment & Deliverance (Isaiah 9–12; 41–46)
                              Humiliation & Exaltation (Isaiah 13–23; 47)
                    Suffering & Salvation (Isaiah 24–27; 48–54)
          Disloyalty & Loyalty (Isaiah 28–31; 55–59)​
Disinheritance & Inheritance (Isaiah 32–33; 60–66)

​The above seven pairs of antithetical themes reveal a divine pattern in which ruin precedes rebirth, punishment precedes deliverance, humiliation precedes exaltation, suffering precedes salvation, and disinheritance precedes inheritance. This shows that to ascend to higher spiritual levels a person or nation of God’s people must descend through trials, prove loyal to God under all conditions, and comply with his law and word while resisting the temptation to be disloyal or rebel.” – Gileadi, https://www.isaiahexplained.com/resources/isaiahs-layered-literary-structures/
 
A second set of seven that Dr. Gileadi sees in his analysis are the seven spiritual categories of humanity.
 
“By organizing his writings into this arrangement [seven-part structure], Isaiah initiates us, step by step, into many prophetic and theological truths—into the higher law of God. A ladder to heaven appears if we recognize these categories of people as an ascending order, from the lowest or farthest from God to the highest or most like him. The different rungs on the ladder represent spiritual levels on which persons operate. Isaiah identifies seven of these, including God’s level at the top. Isaiah’s themes express the conditions God has prescribed under which people ascend or descend from one level to the next.” – P. 19

Figure 9 Isaiah’s Ladder to Heaven

Jehovah—God of Israel
Seraphim—Angelic Emissaries
Sons and Daughters—Servants of God
Zion/Jerusalem—God’s Covenant People
Jacob/Israel—Believers in a Creator-God
Babylon—the Wicked of the World
The King of Assyria/Babylon—Perdition - P. 24

 
So we can say from a biblical standpoint that Dr. Gileadi has developed a complete and perfect system since it bears the rule/perfection of seven or a fullness of gospel truth.  
 
Moreover, the more sevens that we see in our theology the fuller it becomes. Other sevens –
 
The Seven Days of Creation
The Seven Thousand Years of the Earths Time Existence
The Seven Covenants of Yehovah
The Seven Stages of Transformation
The Seven Levels of Heaven
The Seven Feasts/Sabbaths of Yehovah
The Seven Basic Laws for All Humanity.
Etc.


Cultivating the Seven Attributes/Spirits of Yehovah-Yeshua
Our last aspect of perfection is to cultivate the seven traits or spirits of Yehovah-Yeshua that we can see in the temple menorah. Again, we can turn to the Book of Isaiah to identify these seven traits/spirits. First, we see at Revelations 4:5 that there are seven lamps burning before the throne of God and that these seven lamps represent the seven spirits of God.
 
“And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”
 
Here we can see a direct connection with the seven-lamp menorah and the seven spirits of Yehovah-Yeshua. Now, we can go to Isaiah 11:2 and 42:1 to  define what this spirits represent.

"The Spirit of Jehovah will rest upon him—the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of valor, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah."
 
"My servant whom I sustain, chosen one in whom I delight, him I have endowed with my Spirit; he will dispense justice to the nations."

So we can see from these scriptures that the seven attributes or spirits of Yehovah that we need to cultivate  include - Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Valor, Knowledge, Fear (Respect) and Justice.

The Apostle Peter enhanced these seven divine attributes by sequencing seven aspects to cultivate charity or the pure love of the Messiah that we find in the first chapter of second Peter. 

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." - 2 Peter 1:5-7

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." - 1 Corinthians 13"4-7

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​I balanced Dr. Gileadi's seven spiritual categories by adding two additional categories – Sodom/Gomorrah and Mahan.

Spiritual Categories Expanded

​Babylon	Jacob/Israel	Jehovah
Sodom/Gomorrah		Angels
Mahan		Servants
Perdition		Zion/Jerusalem

​* We can reduce this down to seven permanent human categories by removing Jacob/Israel and Jehovah.