Under HIS Feet

As I was reading the book of Joshua, I ran across the account of Joshua defeating the five kings of the Amorites because “the Lord fought for Israel” (10:14). Then Joshua did something very interesting. He had his military leaders put their feet upon the necks of those kings as a symbol of their victory over the enemy (v 24).

David likewise uses this metaphor in one of his Psalms:

Psalms 18:38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.  39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.  40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.

I remembered the Scripture where Jesus (quoting Psalms 110:1) talks about David who “by the Holy Ghost” said that God the Father spoke these words to God the Son (the Christ), “Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thine footstool” (Matthew 22:43-44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43-43)—in other words, placing those enemies under His feet.

This in turn reminded me of Psalms 8 which is quoted in Hebrews 2:

Psalms 8:3   When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;  4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

But the writer of the book of Hebrews adds these words:

Hebrews 2:8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.  9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Because of the revelation I received which is recorded in the contemplation Powers and Principalities and Rulers of the Darkness, I understood why these words were added. Yes, man was given dominion over all the rest of creation in the beginning (Genesis 1:26-28) and we have been exercising that dominion to bring into visibility whatever we “see” and “believe,” most of which causes us untold grief and torment. But even though God “put all in subjection under [man],” “we see not yet all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:8). On the contrary, we continue to experience every imaginable evil. The evil is not subject to us; we seem to be subject to it.

Then the writer of Hebrews gives us the solution, the only solution:

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

This is precisely what Paul is saying in Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:20 . . .he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,  21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:  22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.

We had created such “gross darkness” with our carnal minds that only God Himself (in whom there is “no darkness at all”—(1John 1:5)) could bring the light that would free us:

Isaiah 60:2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

John 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

That Light couldn’t just come into our world of darkness; He had to absorb that darkness (all of it) into “his own body on the tree” (1Peter 2:24) as is so vividly described in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:8 . . . for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Isaiah 53:12 . . .he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Yes, God (in the form of Jesus) descended from that “throne” in “heaven,” taking upon Himself “the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), thereby “tasting death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). By Himself becoming a man (Jesus) and becoming “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” God

Colossians 1:13 . . . hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

That is why Paul was determined “not to know anything. . . save Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1Corinthians 2:2). And we must have that same determination if we are ever to put our feet on the neck of our “enemies” (all the “evil” that we experience in our humanity). All things were put under the feet of that Christ when God raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1:22). That was when His “enemies” (and ours) were made His “footstool” (Mark 12:36). No wonder Paul wanted to know “the power of His resurrection!” (Philippians 3:10). Would that we would know it too!

As Paul tells us in Ephesians 6, we can be strong only “in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might (v 10). It is the armor “of God” that we must put on if we are “to stand against the wiles of the devil (v 11).

And “above all” it is by “faith” that we “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (v 16).

And where does that “faith” come from?

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We must “clothe” ourselves with, or “put on” this Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14) and, like Paul, “be found in Him” (Philippians 3:9) if we are to ascend into that place “at the right hand of the throne of God” “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). This just means that we recognize that God, because of “his great love wherewith he loved us” has already “raised us up together” with Christ and “made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6). All we do is STAND still and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13; Ephesians 6:13).

We could not, on our own, experience the subjection of all things under our feet. Like the man Jesus, I discovered that “I can of mine own self do nothing” but that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) or, as Paul puts it, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Not through Buddha or any other mystic, but only through Christ, the one whom God “made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Corinthians 5:21) are we able to see our enemies become our footstool. For those “enemies” will never “bow” to our humanity (indeed, they ARE our humanity!); they will only “bow” or subject themselves to the Christ that is living me:

Romans 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth [these are the “all things” we “see not yet” put “under him [man]” of Hebrews 2:8];  11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And this will always be the case; these “all things” will only “bow” to the Christ. For God does not give His glory to another:

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another

—because there is no other:

Deuteronomy 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

It was in John 17 that Jesus prayed we would come to understand and live in this truth—that we are, like Jesus, one with our Father:

John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

When we grasp that truth, we will understand Jesus’ next words:

John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

When He gives His “glory” to us, He is not giving it to “another”—for we are all “one” in Him. the One to whom “all things” are already subjected!