Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 161 (Corruption) for week of 10 August, 2025

Corruption   This week we continue the thread of study in the Song of Songs that prophesies of the call to Messiah to possess the earth, the awakening of Gog and Magog, as well as the awakening and ingathering of the Bride of Messiah into the Garden:   “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.” (Song of Songs 5:1)   As with the sending of pomegranates in Chapter Four symbolized the giving of the commandments to Israel, so this expression:   “I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam [oil…]”   ...can allude to a “good name.”   Those who bear the good Name have a reputation that is aromatic in the earth already. They do not wait for Messiah Yeshua to return, but they work hard “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles which know not God:” (1 Th 4:4-5)   Because we must show hospitality to the stranger, alien, orphan, and widow, we must be a miniature “house of prayer for all nations” like the Temple. For those seeking healing, comfort, salvation, and the many things for which humans rely on their Creator to supply, we are the Father’s outstretched arms. And because He is holy, we must be holy.   Like the greeter at the door of Walmart represents our first impression of the store, so believers are the first impression the nations have of their Creator’s holy nature.   Like the holy incense was pounded and compounded for the holy Temple, believers will be pounded and compounded to release the pleasing aromas to the world. The discipline of our evil inclination, or yetzer hara, is like a daily death which turns into a fragrant Temple spice. Likewise, myrrh is a death spice, yet it is compounded with other spices like healing balsam oil to create a compounded fragrance.    “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.” (Ecc 7:1)   The first statement sounds agreeable, but does the second?   If the gathering of myrrh and balsam is the gathering of the righteous to the Garden who have received the Good Name and who have returned their gifts and sacrifices for the sake of His Good Name to the Bridegroom, then how is their “gathering” related to the day of their death and a better day?   Death must occur before there can be a resurrection. What was sown in corruption must be raised incorruptible. Isn’t this what every righteous soul longs for?   So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable G5356 body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1Co 15:42-44)   For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable [G5349] will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. (1 Co 15:53-54)   “Perishable” is G5349, phthartós, from G5351; decayed, i.e. corruptible, perishable, i. e. mortal, that which is liable to corruption   It is from: Strong's G5351 – phtheirō to shrivel or wither, i.e. to spoil (by any process) or (generally) to ruin (especially figuratively, by moral influences, to deprave):—corrupt (self), defile, destroy.   Sin and death go together. As long as we are susceptible to death, we are susceptible to sin. Remove the strength of death, and the strength of sin is removed as well. The aromatic righteous will no longer be subject to the corruptibility of sin that destroys the Temple.   Outline of Biblical Usage G5351:   to corrupt, to destroy in the opinion of the