When writing, there are always little points and truths that arise that I jot down so as to incorporate them into the writing at some appropriate place. But this writing is so intertwined and complete that to insert some of these points would either break up the flow of the writing or simply get lost in the text. Therefore, I am doing something different this time. I am placing those thoughts here at the end much like the Proverbs - somewhat unrelated items listed one after the other. Here they are.

Mercy people will take the final conclusion that mercy triumphs over judgment and want to use that to excuse and prematurely eradicate Yahweh Father law actions and requirements. But for the sake of the kingdom, either personally or in the home or in work or even in the church, they cannot prevail.

You might object that Joab rebelled against David. But he never turned on David, and everything he did was for the good of David and his kingdom. But most significantly, Joab is Yahweh Father, and his actions here in relation to David reveal Him as such.

We have been focusing on this issue of law and mercy on a personal level and even in the church, but one might consider that this entire matter is a revelation of the person of Yahweh. David himself was created after Yahweh's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), and Joab was Yahweh as Father. And it is these two together, though separate, that express Yahweh. These two aspects are equally revealed in the Father and the Son, who are one. This begins to give us some insight into the person of God, who He is, and what takes place in and through Him.

Prophetically, Yahweh is very often revealed through or by two identities or testimonies, not just one. It seems that it is true with Yahweh as well that His "cleanness" is due to being a "split hoof" or two-part being Himself, which is why He requires or expresses this in mankind. His person is a male and female, which is necessary in order for Him to be fruitful and multiply as well - the Joab/David union at Rabbah. It is certainly true that all of these expressions to, in, and through man are consistent with and are expressions of Himself, otherwise they could never take place. Nothing can exist apart from Him, so we see that everything is an expression of Him. And we will be wise and discerning to see this, seeking that double (or two-part) portion of His Spirit that is in fact a revelation of Him. In receiving that two-part portion, we begin to understand Yahweh, who He is, and what He is doing among man.

And equally by receiving that two-part portion, we obviously receive the clean work, the male/female work that produces fruitfulness. And this is indeed our hope, that the work Yahweh will do in His Remnant in these days will be fruitful. Neither the first Remnant nor Christianity were successful in bringing forth the required fruit of the kingdom - the fig tree was barren! The Son of God was not brought forth to this earth; but it is our hope that the double portion second Remnant will indeed bring forth the fruit of the Son of God in His coming. In like picture, the second Remnant is the Elijah work that prepares the way and brings forth the Son of God - the Mary fruitfulness.

David, who was created after Yahweh's heart, reveals the very heart of Yahweh, and that is to have mercy. This is certainly evidenced by Yahshua. But as we see, He must perform His Fatherly works as well. This is true with earthly fathers also. We too are two parts. We long to have mercy, but we must show that Yahweh Father quality as well.

In Romans 11:22 we find once again these two aspects of Yahweh - mercy and law. "Behold then the kindness and severity of God." Yahweh is indeed both kindness and severity, and any father will of necessity find himself fulfilling both of these aspects of Yahweh. It is amazing how such opposites go together, but clearly they do; and these are the opposites that must operate in a father - in doing what is right, showing both kindness and severity in his home.

The law, the father work, keeps mercy from going into error, even as Joab did so for David.

Do I like being a Joab? Not in the least! But, I must be such in order to do the will of Yahweh Father. So until transgression is put away, unfortunately I am a Joab. But in fact, in all regards we are to be longsuffering and slow to anger, slow to carry out judgment, even as is true with Yahweh - Psalm 103:8.

While it may be the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), insomuch that He is just and faithful to forgive us of all our sins (1 John 1:9), it is His discipline that reveals and exposes our error and leads us to the place of seeking that forgiveness, as well as pursuing righteousness.

Mercy, mercy, mercy never leads to repentance, but only to continuing rebellion and sin. Consider the outcome of children who were never disciplined nor held accountable for their actions. Consider Abner, Absalom, and Amasa as well, who first received mercy and then judgment.

When mercy is extended and then rejected, that person's state is often worse than before - 2 Peter 2:20-21. This is both sad and difficult.

Mercy is extended to the one so that he might die to himself; if that mercy is rejected, then law follows in order to bring that one's death. One can either judge oneself and die to oneself, or be judged and have the law kill you. "But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:31). As my children have learned, it is far better to judge yourself.

Another example of mercy being extended, followed by judgment, is when Moses went up on Mount Sinai the sixth time to receive the tablets of the Law. Yahweh was going to destroy all the sons of Israel in anger. Moses interceded for them and Yahweh repented of His wrath. That was His mercy. Yet when Moses went down to the people, what did he do? He broke the stone tablets of the Law, ground the golden calf into dust and threw it over the water and made them drink it, then slew 3,000 men with the sword (Exodus 32). Herein was His judgment.

Misplaced mercy is nothing more than the popular attitude of tolerance, evidenced in the church in such testimonies as Revelation 2:20 - "But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel." In 1 Timothy 2:12, we likewise read - "But I do not allow (or, tolerate - the same Greek word) a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." Misplaced mercy often leads to these types of error, inviting compromise for the sake of illegal harmonious relationships. This is true in the home as well, compromising that which is right for the sake of peace in the home. This is often shortsighted, though peace in the home is not only desirable but necessary; but that peace must come through right law.

As I was reminded by Micah, and this is a very important point, at David's death Solomon was in fact the one who put Joab to death. Equally, it is the Solomon Remnant who will put away the law, something the body of Christ could NEVER do. In fact, as long as the body of Christ is alive, their fleshly nature necessitates that the Joab work of the law always be there to correct their errant ways. In this testimony, David is the error-seeking body of Christ, the one which promotes rebellion and is deceived by Satan to its destruction (the death of 70,000), and MUST give his throne to another and die in order for the Solomon Remnant to put away the Joab law - the Bride work. This testimony is VERY clear and MOST obvious.

"'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.' It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:5-11).

Herein is the very hardest part of discipline - it is a time of difficulty and sorrow, which no one likes. This is why many will not discipline, or fall short in carrying it out; but of course the contrary is then inevitable - a lack of the peaceful fruit of righteousness in the end. But if you endure through these times, you likewise have the promise - "And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4). You can be certain, discipline is indeed a time that requires endurance, painful and sometime fearful endurance. But the hope and the promise is that in the end it will be well worth it. Endure! "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" (Hebrews 10:36).

Finally, when going through these times, always remember the words of Job to his own unbelieving wife - "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10). These times of adversity we go through are designed by God. We walk "through the valley of the shadow of death," and He is there in those times. It is encouraging to know these are His design.

Seek for ways to humble yourself; seek always to die to yourself and do the will of Yahweh.

Some people are afraid to die to themselves. Why? Because they cannot trust Yahweh to be on the other side of death. They are in fact spiritual atheists, who do not think God is on the other side of their death. But they do not know that indeed it is life that awaits one on the other side of death to self, life and freedom and rest and resurrection power. Let me give a simple example.

While this writing was being prepared, our family was to go on a short trip to British Columbia. But, because I was working on this writing, I was concerned about the timing of the trip. Also, there was something about the trip arrangements that concerned me. I put the family trip before Yahweh and gave it to Him to do as He willed. The trip was then canceled by circumstances that were beyond my control; therefore the trip died. But, a week later the circumstances changed for us to go and the cost was going to be almost half of that which it was originally. We died to going on this trip, but Yahweh restored it many fold.

This is the principle of death. When we die, when we give our will and plans to Yahweh, life on the other side of death is far better than it is on this side. So, no longer be a spiritual atheist, but realize that Yahweh is on the other side of death to self, yes even in double measure! Do not fear death to self, and do not be greedy to hold onto what you have; it is not worth holding onto. "Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done" is always the right heart, attitude, and answer.

Father, there may come a place where you get so weary that you question or even doubt whether you can continue to be a Yahweh Father. You think -Yahweh can do this, but can I? You know it is right, but the heaviness of it becomes more than you can bear. I know! This is where you have to die to yourself as well. This is where you no longer have the strength, and Yahweh Father is the only one who can bear it; He is the only one who can carry out His will and His ways. Thus, you too must die, and your trust must be wholly in Him and not in yourself.

But in this death is victory and life as well, affording you the opportunity to gain new spiritual progress in your own life and to master your own flesh. Every place of death to self affords new mastery. In the great difficulty of this moment, you release the matter to Him to be the Yahweh Father, something He can bear far greater than you and effect the results that are needed in the situation. In fact, He alone is the one who can bear this weight! By dying, this removes the situation from your hands into His, where Yahweh then becomes Yahweh Father through you. Only when you die to yourself can you get beyond the limitations of self and into His life and strength. Indeed, a Joab can be a role that only Yahweh Father can bear.

This is the way Yahweh brings forth spiritual fruit in our lives. We come to the place where we cannot do "it," whatever that "it" may be, and in order for the fruit to come forth, we die - the limb in that area of our life is cut off, pruned from the tree! But by dying, by cutting off that limb, this then allows Yahweh to bring forth fruit. Thus this constant pruning of self from our lives is designed to bring forth fruitfulness. This is the way of Yahweh, and He is always leading us to these places of inadequacy (which can be very scary), so that we might bear fruit!

When an Elijah correction work is performed, even a Joab law and correction work, the feminine response is to transfer the blame onto the Elijah, even as we graphically see Ahab seeking to do. After three years of drought declared by Elijah, that would only be ended by his word, he then sent for Ahab. Following are the words of Ahab to Elijah upon their reunion, and they could just as well be those of any feminine response today to receiving Elijah correction - "Is this you, you troubler of Israel?"

The feminine sees the correction as being the problem, even as Ahab viewed Elijah, when in fact the correction is simply a required response to the infraction. But Elijah did not accept this weak and deceived feminine response, and responded - "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of Yahweh, and you have followed the Baals (Christianity)" (1 Kings 18:17-18). Oh how difficult it is sometime to keep that focus when constantly the Elijah, or even the Joab, is viewed and reacted to in this way.

When the children were younger and I had to carry out a spanking, I would sometime have this nagging awareness that in judging them I could be condemning myself. One might wonder if one has the right to discipline our children for something that, if Yahweh were to place the light on us, we might be equally guilty? But despite these feelings, I knew that it was my responsibility as a father to seek the best for my children, and that if I judged myself by carrying out correction against them, then so be it. As parents, we have a legal obligation under Yahweh to correct our children, even if we might be equally guilty.

In 1 Kings 2:5 we read in David's instructions to Solomon regarding Joab - he "shed the blood of war in peace." This brings up a most important point that will conclude this addendum section. And once again, if you only read this writing once, you will most certainly miss a great deal of the truth Yahweh is opening to us here.

People do not recognize the uniqueness of this kingdom period man has experienced for the last 2,000 years. It is a period in which Yahweh has given His kingdom to man, provided through the sacrifice of the Son of God, yet it is in fact a breach, a perversion of that which must be - the pure John kingdom. And for this reason, it is a time in which Yahweh Father has had to shed the blood of war in what should be a time of peace - His kingdom, provided by the Prince of Peace.

All that we have addressed here regarding the actions of Yahweh Father, are a consequence of this period of the corruption of the kingdom of God by earthly man and Satan. Because kingdom man has made barren the kingdom, Yahweh Father has had to judge man, even bringing him to continual affliction and death. Even as it is written in Hosea 6:1, for "two days," or 2,000 years, Yahweh has torn and wounded man; but in so doing, He has said that on the third day He will heal and bandage man and lift him up. Because of this problem of the kingdom being given to earthly man, Yahweh has had to afflict man.

In practice, death and affliction take place because Yahweh Father must put blood on His belt and on His sandals in order to bring forth His word and the fruits of the kingdom. This means then that the death of Yahshua, the death of the first Remnant, and even the death of the body of Christ, all take place in fulfillment of this requirement of blood. This affliction and death is something that is required by Yahweh's laws and even His ways, but the death of Yahshua is performed to put away this necessity. The problem though is that earthly man has not been able to handle the kingdom, and like Uzzah who stretched out his hand to stabilize the upset ark, touching the kingdom of God has cost man his life. Earthly man cannot handle the holiness of Yahweh and live.

Ever since man has had the kingdom, he has experienced war in what should have been a time of peace. But our hope is that for the sake of the elect, Yahweh will now cut this Mark period short to 2,000 years, lest "no life would have been saved" (Mark 13:20), and bring a remnant into the final fulfillment of that which Yahshua purchased for man.

This analysis helps us to understand that which has been taking place in the kingdom for 2,000 years, and provides us much needed hope for that which will be - the restoration of the kingdom of God, and the establishment of the Remnant in immortal, born from above, incorruptible bodies. Come Lord Yahshua!