"FROM THE RIB OF ADAM TO THE RIB OF CHRIST"

MF Blume
October 4, 1998 pm

Gene 2:21-22 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

2Sam 2:18-23 And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel [was as] light of foot as a wild roe. And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him, and said, [Art] thou Asahel? And he answered, I [am]. And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? Howbeit he refused to turn aside: wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth [rib], that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass, [that] as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.

(In the following verse, Hebron is mentioned, and it was a CITY OF REFUGE, as referred to in this morning's message)

2Sam 3:27 And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth [rib], that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

After Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, we read...

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

(God opened up in this morning's message a thought which will take several services to minister to you about. Pray for me as the Lord leads us in the understanding behind the law of the City of Refuge.)

Abner was of Saul's forces in the battle between the house of Saul and the House of David, shortly after Saul died.

Abner set up Ishbosheth to throne over Israel after Saul died.
But God was not with Saul's house since Saul disobeyed God's word.
God was raising up David as king.
David was already king over Judah.
Joab was of the house of David's forces.
He had two brothers named Asahel and Abishai.
Asahel was a runner as fast as a wild roe.
In the battling, Asahel chased Abner to kill him.
Abner warned Asahel to stop following him lest he kill Asahel.
Asahel persisted.
Abner thrust his spear behind him backwards and pierced Asahel under the fifth rib, killing him.

Joab and Abishai became the avengers of blood.

Being kin to Asahel, they sought to slay Abner for the murder.
Abner called out and told Joab to end the battle and stop bloodshed.
Joab stopped.

19 men and Asahel died from David's house.

360 men died of Saul's tribe.
Saul's house was weakening while David's house was strengthening.

David dwelt in Hebron

Hebron was a city of refuge.
Abner came to the city to tell David that he would convince Israel to turn to David.
(Ishbosheth had confronted Abner about an affair Abner had with Saul's concubine.)
(Abner turned and threatened Ishbosheth that after helping out Saul's house so much, why should Ishbosheth worry about the affair with this woman. And then Abner made up his mind he would now work against Saul's house and help David's house.)

Meanwhile Joab plotted to kill Abner.

He never forgot about the death of Asahel.
And in this city of refuge, Joab called Abner to the gate of the city, and smote him under the fifth rib, precisely where Abner killed Asahel.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and under the fifth rib for under the fifth rib.

There is the thought that Abner died as a fool.

He was in a place of refuge.
He had safety.
But he was deceived to leave the place and go to the gate.
And he died.

2Sam 3:33-34 And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands [were] not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, [so] fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him.

Adam was in a place of sanctuary.

God warned them that death awaited them if they disobeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit.
Eve was beguiled and deceived by the devil.
Being the Sanctuary, Satan in effect led her to the gate ... at the edge of her safety.
She should not have listened to him, let alone yield to his temptations.
And she in effect came to the edge of the sanctuary in that she dared even listen to the devil.
What we do when we even consider the lies and the deceits that the world is not so bad as the church speaks of it, that we come to the edge, too dangerously close for safety.

Satan deceived her and when she ate of the fruit, in effect, she came to the edge of safety.

She was killed spiritually by eating the forbidden fruit.

She was Adam's rib.

Women actually have one extra rib compared to man.
This shows that woman was taken from man as a rib was extracted from Adam to make Eve.
When Satan struck her through, he struck Adam in the rib as Joab stabbed Abner in the rib.
Abner was safe in the city of refuge.
But Joab managed to deceive him to come close to the world.
And there, in that awful place of danger, Joab stuck Abner.

Adam's name actually means MAN.

Mankind was pierced under the fifth rib.
The side.

The link of the Church to Christ is similar to Adam and Eve.

As Eve was made from a rib taken from Adam's side, and as Adam's side was opened up by God in order to remove the rib, and then closed up again, Jesus was pierced in His side on the cross that brought the church into existence.

Without the cross nobody could be saved.

Without the cross, there would be no Bride/church.
And that is why we see a beautiful picture of Christ's side being pierced immediately after Jesus died on the cross.

Adam's side was pierced under the fifth rib by Satan since Satan stabbed the soul of Eve with death of disobedience.

That is how mankind was lost in sin.
Adam was pierced, in a sense, under the fifth rib when God removed the rib to make Eve.
And then he was pierced again in this part of himself when Satan deceived Eve and slew her.

But Jesus was pierced in the same location, also.

The church is formed.
From that side came blood and water.

There is the aspect of the church being created from the removal of the rib to make it in the cross.
As far as we, as new creatures, are concerned, we were created by the piercing of Jesus' side, as Eve was made from the rib taken from Adam's side.

But we had to get in Him in order to come forth from Him.

All mankind in effect came from Adam's side, in the sense that there would have been no wife had not God removed the rib from Adam to make Eve.

And that means there would have been no children... there would have been no human race.
So we who came from Adam's rib, the means to the making of an entire human race and not just one human, -- those souls of the human race that chose to accept Jesus -- were taken out of Adam and put into Christ.

Eve was called the mother of all living.

In the face of death all around Adam, and curses and judgment, Adam heard God say that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head.
Adam caught a glimpse of recovery from death in the see do the woman.
And that inspired him to name his wife EVE, the MOTHER OF ALL LIVING.
Through her would come another ADAM.
This Adam would be not the seed of the man, but the seed of the woman, because no man would be the father of Jesus Christ.
It shows virgin birth.
And God would become a man.
And a new Adam would come forth from the woman.

Adam was in God's image, but when Cain killed Abel and Seth was born to replace Abel as the line through whom the Seed of the woman would come, the child Seth was said to be in the image of Adam.

Gene 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat [a son] in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Seth was not in God's image, but Adam's image.

And Adam's image was not a good image.
It was God's image fallen from life.

But a child would be born of the woman, not after the image of Adam, because He would be Fathered by God.

And this child would be the Son of God, not the son of Adam.
A New Adam from the woman, in a sense.
Satan struck mankind through the woman, the means to seeing mankind multiply.
So God would turn the tables on the devil and raise up the New Adam through that woman.
In the end, the woman still was to be the means of God's will.
1 Tim 2:15 says that the woman would be saved through child bearing.
Through one of her sex, by giving birth to the Son of God, would come the Saviour.

From within Mary, the Seed dwelt.

And the Lord Jesus Christ was born.
And He matured and died on a cross, with an opened side.
His own mother, Mary, from within whom came Christ, herself entered into Christ and came forth from Him as a new creature!
She was Born again in Acts 2:4

God made a way so that NEW ADAM came from OLD CREATION.

But this New Adam was not from the dust, but was the Lord from Heaven.
And all old creation, from which the New Adam came forth in virgin birth, was able to enter this New Adam.
And, in turn, this old creation that entered the New Adam in His opened side was transformed.
And that old creation, being transformed, could come forth from within the New Adam as NEW CREATURES.

WHAT A WONDERFUL PLAN OF GOD!!

Satan was spun around in a whirl of confusion upon seeing how God worked this out.

All because Satan pierced Adam in the rib.

Jesus died in our places.

For the sake of the people of Adam, Jesus died to make them people of Christ.
To take people from an old race of fallen sinners, Christ was pierced in His side to pay for their deaths being pierced in the side to show forth that the people He died for would also be transferred to become HIS PEOPLE.

We were born crucified.

We were born with all our past lives nailed to the cross.
We came from Him who died instead of us.
We were born pierced.
He took the piercing for us, by being pierced in His side.
That means all our old lives are forgotten and nailed away and buried.

And all of this is seen in that little story of a man who should not have left the safety of God's place in the sanctuary by going dangerously close in a deceptive means to kill him.

Jesus took the piercing in our place.

His side was opened up to us after Death to accept us who came from Adam's side to enter into His side.
We were baptized into His death.
We entered the Body of Christ by baptism into death.
It was as though the Romans soldier, representing all of Rome and the world at that time, since Rome was the world power, was the world crucifying Jesus.
But the cross only opened up a way for us to enter Christ and be free from Adam's race.

Like entering the bloodstained doorway in Egypt, we entered the riven side of Jesus Christ and became part of His Body, His Church.

Jesus is the door (John 10:7).
And the blood on the door for entrance to rescue from death shows that only in His death could we enter this Door, named Jesus.
Blood on the door indicated his flesh, His body, was slain.
Not until Jesus died could we enter anything that would rescue us from the land of death and sin.
The soldier did not realize it, but when He pierced Jesus' side He simply did not kill Jesus, but He was opening up a way for us to enter the Body of Christ.
In spiritual symbol.
And at that very moment the veil opened up in the temple, from top to bottom.

Hebr 10:19-20 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Jesus flesh was the veil.

And that means that the Lord Jesus was the holiest of Holies.
And when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple rent open, just as the Soldier pierced the side of His flesh and opened up His Body.
The blood stained doorway to enter and escape death.

You cannot rip a door open, but you can put blood around it to indicate the picture of Christ's opened side for all old creation to enter into and be transformed.

The veil of His flesh rent open for us to enter.

You can rip a veil open.
Inside that veil of the temple dwelt the LIFE/SPIRIT OF GOD, HIMSELF.
And inside CHrist's flesh, the veil, dwelt the same LIFE.
Within Christ is the HOLIEST OF HOLIES.
And we are baptized into CHRIST BODY.

Both pictures of the doorway in Egypt and the rent veil of the Holiest show ENTRANCE into Christ's riven side.
Out came water and blood.
Blood is life of the flesh, so living water came forth from Him.
Blood that washes us whiter than snow.
We enter the Body of Christ and are washed of all our sins.
We are no longer of Adam but have taken our place in the side of Christ to be made into the Church.

As Israel left the dreary, dry wilderness when they saw Jordan open up and walked through the opened Jordan, we entered Christ and left the wilderness of this world.

It was at Jordan where Jesus was baptized and anointed with the Spirit that fell upon Him.
And the picture of Jordan rent open hundreds of years before, combined with Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, shows us that entering Christ also means entering His anointing He received.

Jesus was baptized in the Jordan that was opened up for Israel to enter the Promised Land years before.

Jordan was the door of Egypt into the land of God's promises and blessings.
Like a Garden of Eden, Canaan was called the land flowing with milk and honey.
Jesus was baptized in that River to show that He was the Door to the Garden again.
In Him is milk and honey.
He is the Garden.
We came from Adam's side to dwell in a world of sin, but enter into Christ's side in order to return to the Garden from which we were thrust out.

As a fool Adam died!

He and Eve should have stood on God's word.
His feet were not fettered neither his hands bound.
He was KING!
He had dominion over the earth.
But they walked to the edge of sanctuary and heeded the deceit of the murderer and slayer, Satan.

No wonder the Seed of the woman is seen crushing the head of the serpent that seduced Adam and Eve to sin and be cast from the garden!

Adam had to leave due to the serpent, so if the serpents work could be undone, man could return.
And it was undone by having man, from Adam's side... man thrown into sin... put into Christ by Christ's side being opened.
The serpents scheme was foiled!
Christ reversed the accomplishment of the devil.
And we entered back into the garden.

Satan's work of hitting Adam in the rib, by hitting his wife made from his rib, was foiled by Christ who came from the woman to save mankind.

And from that very woman came the deliverer!

The serpent pierced Adam's side by causing Eve to die spiritually, as God said they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit.

So a pierced side would remove the defilement of the land (Num. 35:33-34 - law of city of refuge).
It would undo the damage.
A pierced side would be our means of entrance back into the garden.
We left the Garden due to a pierced side (Eve, Adam's rib, struck by death in disobedience).
And so a pierced side is our Gate into the Garden again!

[While ministering this message in the church, God gave me a prophecy, the essence of which I will now present on this webpage]

Thus saith your Lord, As I was pierced, and my side riven open for you to enter while on the cross, that door is still opened for you. But one day, as Adam's side was opened, the rib extracted, and Adam's side was closed up instead thereof once again, the door will be closed soon. Many will come and seek to enter in, but will not be able to. Many will say, "Lord, Lord, open unto us," and I will reply, "I never knew you. Depart from me." Come in unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Enter in at the door while it is opened for you. While I am still allowing man to enter in and become part of the material I am using to construct my Church, enter for the door is still opened. One day soon the church will be completed and I will finish my work, and the door will be shut. There will be no more who will be allowed to enter and become part of the Church I am now building. You will not be able to enter after that time. Enter now while it is still opened for you.