Greetings!

Wednesday the 23rd, the second day of Pesah was spent mostly reading and praying. Everything around me still feels very quiet and muted. Seeing no significant evidence of the revealing of the lawless one, could it be that no such event took place? I can't say it did and I can't say it didn't. I have no report for confirmation, other than to say that, perhaps, as some have expressed to me, it is for those of us watching a matter of faith. During the Feast, we watch and we abide in faith. Will the Bridegroom come like a thief to steal His Bride out of her Father's house as I have come to expect it this coming Monday, the last day of the Feast? Watch and pray, and prepare with loving submissive obedience to be found worthy. Do this, and you will have no regret, my friends. Be holy as He is holy!

Joseph Herrin sent yet another email today titled "Joseph - Preparing the Body for Burial" which, if you didn't receive, can be found on his blog; Parables - Bringing Hidden Things to Light. I want to share some impressions from the latest writing that I feel are very important, but first allow me to share a few thoughts.

Joseph Herrin and I first met by email maybe 12 years ago and we've had a love and appreciation for each other since that time. The heavenly Father has brought us down similar paths and we have had much in common. For me, I am often very humbled by this blessing to see the Lord's handiwork in him. From time to time the Lord has directed me to consider what he has written and sometimes it speaks to me loudly as a work of the Lord, and, sometimes it just doesn't speak to me at all. I very rarely think about the latter in terms of one of us being right and the other being wrong because that's seems to me too shallow a consideration. Sometimes, it is just a matter of the Lord having blinders on one or the other of us in a certain area and time. Some day, and maybe very soon, he and I will both be in full agreement because we will both have come to full agreement with and in the Lord. Until then, you'll note we have some overlap in subject matter that exhibits divergent views on some points. I often use the expression "Eat the fish and spit out the bones" to bring to our remembrance how we are each required to exercise discernment and accept personal responsibility for it. If you read what I write, or what Joseph writes, or even what your Bible version says, the same thing applies. Yes, even your version of the Bible has some bones, no matter what version you're reading. Anyhow, you may note from Joseph's writings that he doesn't believe the Bride Theft will happen when or perhaps as I think. It is not mine to say he is right or wrong. I can't say if I am right or wrong. Regardless, I can and will say without hesitation and with full confidence that as we are faithful to respond to the Lord's direction with obedience, whatever happens will be good! So, given certain differences, let me share some of my thoughts. Please give this some prayerful consideration because it is a very serious time.

Joseph and I have both observed and declared at this present time that the body of Christ is dead. I sent email April 20 about my response to receiving insight into what brother Joseph likes to call a parable, how a rooster would not crow until Peter had denied Y'shua three times. In this parable, Peter pictures the church, and, the rooster crowing, the announcement of a resurrection. As this revelation opened to me I perceived it was a present reality, that the church had now denied the Lord for the third and final time. Yes, now a rooster can crow. Yet, this insight did not come to me as joyous but rather quite grievous. I was convicted this was a death and I felt it personally. The Lord had no joy in it! This came like a coroner's report. It was official. Dead. I had been taught that, in the days of Roman occupation of Israel, three days were required to pass before a death would technically become official. Three deaths had come in sequence. The church that is the body of Christ is now officially dead.

The context is clear. Peter denied knowing the Lord, as noted in the historical fulfillment, but the denial for the church is really denying Him your life. It is the refusal to accept the shame and suffering and death of the cross. The Lord laid down his life for his friends and commanded that we do the same. If we have done so willingly, there is reward, but if not, a consequence. Unto whom much is given, much is demanded.

I'm going to share an excerpt from today's email from Joseph Herrin. He wrote of a Joseph Company, a people patterned after two Josephs. To really understand what he's saying, read the whole writing I referenced. You may also want to read The Bride and the Butterfly from The Remnant Bride.

It is time now for the Joseph Company to begin petitioning the Father that the body of Christ, full of death as it is, might be given into their hands that they might prepare it for burial. The stink of the church has already begun to offend many, and it must be quickly wrapped and hidden from sight until it has shed its fleshly form and is ready to emerge in the image of Christ.

Are you a member of this Joseph Company? Then arise with tears and weeping as you observe the death among the people of God. This was the heart of Joseph.

Genesis 50:1
Then Joseph fell on his father's face, and wept over him and kissed him.

We too should weep when we observe that the body of Christ has become so thoroughly leavened with sin, and has rejected the disciple’s cross, which alone works in it sanctification and holiness. We should desire that the church arise to be that glorious body that it was called to be, lamenting at the lifeless corpse she has become. Ask God to deliver the body to the Joseph Company that it might be prepared. Observe again the parable in the following words:

Mark 15:42-43
And when evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

There's a lot more behind this little excerpt, but, if this message is for you, you will know in your spirit. This is a crucial time, and you are needed. Rise up and fulfill your calling! Seek from the Lord all his provision for you, His heart, His mind, His life.

How does this ministry of preparing the body for burial and subsequent resurrection relate to what I've taught about the Bride Theft and judgment of the church? Good question! The Bride Theft is not an escape plan. Sure, there's the theft and the wedding and all that, :) but there's a focus of attention on the Lord's people who remain unripened in the harvest field. This is what the Bride is prepared for, isn't it? It only makes sense if she will be engaged in a vital work such as this. I believe the Joseph company is what I refer to as the Barley company. In another parable, a crop of barley is a sacrificial crop, plowed under to prepare the soil for the next crop to be planted in the field. The Lord was symbolized by barley and likewise a people of similar purpose and character. I think the Bride is the Barley people. Brother Herrin believes the Joseph Company will minister in these flesh bodies. Maybe so. I see the Bride ministering after the Bride Theft in resurrection bodies. In what kind of body will the Joseph Company minister? Are they one and the same as the Bride? Or, are they related in some way? Will they co-minister or is there a sequence to their appointed ministries? I have many questions. Watch and pray?

The number 50 was twice given to brother Joseph in that both camp sites he was recently assigned bore that number. He saw Jubilee and other relevant truths in that. It spoke to me of Pentecost, which means fiftieth. I see it as a revelation of a Pentecost work. The number 50 binds Pesah and Shavuot together. We are now in the midst of Pesah at the present time, remember. I believe the Barley harvest is for the Bride and the Wheat at Shavuot or Pentecost is for the others of the body of Y'shua, who are of those now declared dead yet will live. The linen cloth Joseph of Arimathea bought was wrapped around the body of Y'shua. This is a parable of the righteous acts of the saints at this time as they request, receive and lovingly tend to the dead body of Y'shua. Is this a reality for you that grips your heart, a heart genuinely filled with His love and compassion for his people? I believe it is His provision for his church at this time. Regardless of what kind of body any of us will have in another week.

Bob Schlenker
TheOpenScroll.com