Bible-3, Pentateuch 3, Exodus: Part 1

LESSON 3

PENTATEUCH 3 

EXODUS

Part One:

By Rev. G. Evan Newmyer

INTRODUCTION TO LESSON 3

We enter Exodus, which means Departure, referring to the leaving of Egypt, when we leave our Egypt we will be in the land of exposure, the place called The Wilderness. Matthew called it the “kingdom of heaven”, or the place just for the called out ones, It’s no longer Egypt, but neither is it the Promised Land. The Wilderness is the place where God’s people were free of the oppressive elements of darkness, the place to learn how to be a king, or a priest, the introduction to the Law and understanding of the Commandments. Our wilderness is no different, we are trained to be kings and priests, to learn how to keep our kingly and priestly positions by the Spirit. We also learn we are never going to impress or surprise God. For some reason we impress ourselves, thinking we have impressed God as well. Not so, neither do we surprise Him with our mistakes or blunders. The wilderness is the place to become the victor over the old man (self nature), it’s the place to hone our belief so we can prefect our faith, the place to find what Crucified with Christ really means.

When we left Egypt there was a time of Joy based on the “parting of the Sea”, then came the wilderness, where we felt lost. Where did the joy go? What happened? Is it all lost? No, God is doing His best work. This is the area of true discipleship, the place where we can learn, or we can allow our emotions to run wild. Emotions are good when saved, a mess when they are not; unsaved emotions refuse to see Correction, rather it calls it “Rebuke”, reacting rather than responding. The Children made the mistake of thinking they were being rebuked, when they were being trained, a mistake we don’t want to make.

The Wilderness was the place for them to be free of the slavery mentality, but rather than be free of it, they used it against the called of God. Along with the mentality came the “fear of rejection”, a most horrid and hindering element causing us to do all sorts of destructive things. When we fear rejection we will either compromise to make people happy, or set up a wall to shut people out; or worse use our anger against anyone who even suggests they are going to reject us. The children confused discipleship with being attacked; correction with belittling, they ended attacking the very source of their freedom. Yet, God called them “holy”, how can this be? When God deals with us as His children, we are holy by association. There are three types of holiness defined in the Tabernacle, if there is the “holiest of all”, there must be lesser holies. The holy place was holy, but not as holy as the holiest of all; the courtyard held a lesser holiness than the holy place. We are called the sons of God, by being taught of the Holy Ghost as He compares spiritual with spiritual. If we remain carnal, we won’t have a clue when God is dealing with us, rather we will attack the Lord of Glory thinking we are attacking the devil. Shall we enter the Wilderness.

LESSON 3 

PENTATEUCH 3

EXODUS

THE BEGINNING

When Joseph was still alive the Pharaoh in charge was friendly to the children of Israel, but things changed. Did God know it? Yes, He told Abraham there would be a  captivity, but He also told Abraham there would be a deliverance. Jesus told us in the world we would have tribulation, but He also told us He has overcome the world (Jn 16:33). It behooves us to stay out of the world to avoid the tribulation. Not only did God tell Abraham there would be a deliverance, but He also gave him a time element. God told Abraham the children would be afflicted 400 years, afterward they will come out with great substance (Gen 15:13-14). Not only would they be delivered, not only did God say when they would be delivered, but He said they would come out with great substance. What example did Abraham have? He came out of Egypt with great substance as well, yet in our case it’s leaving Egypt behind becomes the benefit, the substance comes when we seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt 6:33).

Was God guessing, or did it just happen to come out right? God saw the end, then told Abraham what He saw, thus it was not a guess. Prophecy is not something we make come to pass, rather Paul showed us faith in God gets outs us into the good prophecy, or delivers around or through the difficult prophecy. When God told Abraham there would be a captivity and a deliverance, both were future tense to Abraham, which is prophecy. Prophecy coming to pass proves God was with us all the time, God spoke in one time about a time yet to come. When the timing came the word God spoke came to be, proving itself. The test of prophecy is the prophecy itself, but no prophecy will be against Scripture. Paul asked, “What says the Scripture?” (Rom 4:3); it has to be our first question, when we forget we will form traditions, or attempt to use carnal means to accomplish spiritual tasks. Prophecy is not something we force to come to pass, it’s something given us so we know God has this well in hand. Unless we use the check and balance of Scripture regarding Prophecy, or the Proceeding Word we will follow personalities, ending following some whacko, or self-appointed nut case.

The Scriptures were used by Paul and others over and over as a check and balance, we should follow suit. The problem is of course the doubters, they come with all the carnal excuses questioning the Bible, it’s their carnal nature making a feeble attempt to get us to doubt the Bible. Once we doubt the Bible, the enemy moves in with other doubts, then we become lost in mass of natural intellectual wanderings. If we are Born Again, the Holy Ghost will guide us into all truth, as the New Man guides us on the path of Grace. The doubter looks at two verses seeing “error”, the Born Again saint sees the same two verses as opportunity to discover a mystery. Moses will write many Scriptures, if we suppose Moses was the Author, rather than the Scribe, we will form doubts. From the faulty premise of making man the Author we will move to making scholars our idols, then we will hold their words above the Bible. After all we have more intellectually sound people than Moses could hope to be, thus those who tell us it’s “doubtful” must be right. Wrong, the Holy Ghost is right, stick with Him, far better to find the mystery, than go about doubting the very basis God gave us for our belief. Proverbs 25:2 tells us it’s the Glory of God conceal a thing, but the honor of the king to search it out. Parables, metaphors and verses which seem in error are provided to the Believers to search out the truth, but the doubters and pouters still see error.

This is the same idea behind, “we are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul” (Heb 10:38-39). The saving of the soul does have a faith position, but it also has a very important belief position. Each day we must believe in what Jesus promised us, “with God all things are possible”, the saving of our souls is not a mind game, it’s based on the New Testament Promise, with the added faith reaching to our Hope. Our Belief is based in what Jesus said, yet if we begin to doubt the Bible, we will begin to doubt the words of Jesus. Faith is a doubt not performance, yet there is a falling away from the Faith, guess where it begins? The doubters and pouters, who claim errors, when in truth the error is in their own minds. Our present Confidence is based on what Jesus told us to Believe, giving us a “God Is” foundation, then our faith is projected to the point where God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6). Without Belief, our Faith has no platform. We will run into some hard Scriptures, some may even appear to conflict, but we are a people of belief and faith, knowing the Holy Ghost will clear the issue, giving us more knowledge upon which to believe.

The issue to prove the point was seen in the last lesson, how many of Jacob’s people entered Egypt? We had three different numbers, yet we found all were correct. The doubters would see different numbers, then say, “we have error”, whereas the child of faith sees those same numbers knowing God has given us a mystery to assist us in our belief  of how the Scriptures are God breathed. How? Easy, if man was in control, he would make sure all the numbers were the same, or the verses matched completely, yet with God we find mysteries. The mysteries show us how much God has this well in hand. Those who think they found error are really saying they are more intellectual than the Holy Ghost, not real smart.

God promised Abraham a son, but proved there would come a nation from the son when He said the nation would be in captivity. Therefore, He didn’t speak of the “son”, but the nation, giving Abraham a prophetic word regarding the promise, yet at the same time affirming the Promise of a son. We could have a promise of a ministry, when the Holy Ghost tells us “when you preach to them”, it’s the affirmation of the hope. Therefore, we see without a son there could be no nation, yet God was speaking of a nation. Did Abraham run to Egypt and attempt to make a captivity happen so he could force the deliverance? No, did the children take off for the Red Sea in some attempt to force the prophecy of the deliverer to come to pass? No, Time and Timing, faith keeps us on the prophetic path, presumption attempts to force God to do what we want.

What did Abraham do wrong to cause this bondage of his heritage? What did Isaac do? Or Jacob? Or Joseph? Or the children? Nothing, it was in the plan. It was a training process, not punishment. An area we tend to forget, “Oh Lord surely You have forsaken me”, not so, it should be, “Thank You Lord for training me”.

One thing was for sure, the children had the word of deliverance, but they couldn’t deliver themselves. Yet, they believed a deliverer would come, because God said so. The Book of Hebrews shows they had the faith to cross the Red Sea, but it also appears they left their faith on the shore of the sea. What happened? They didn’t like the way God was perfecting them, in their anger they grasped a false definition of holiness. They failed to see their holiness was not in what they were wearing, or what they were doing, but in God dealing with them as children. If God was dealing with them, there was something which needed to be dwelt with.

They faced many situations, many appeared terrible on the surface, yet it was their personal observation based on their opinion of the event. God had a plan in each event, in each case God proved Himself. However, Jude would have us know, although at times we forget, how the Lord having saved the children out of Egypt, He destroyed those who believed not (Jude 5). Jesus would remind us how being in the Body (baptized) is great, but in order for the words “shall be saved” to apply we must continue to believe (Mark 16:16-18). Belief is the foundation for our faith, wreck our belief, destroy our faith. Although Belief and Faith are in the Now, they are different, but like Mercy and Grace they support one another.

The children knew Deliverance would come, as time moved on they started looking for their Deliverer. They didn’t make him come to pass, they waited for the prophetic word to develop. When we force the word to come to pass, it doesn’t show us a thing about God, but it does show we doubt God is able. When the Word does come to pass it proves God was not only with us, but He saw the future from a first hand prospective. They had a word from God to their father Abraham, their hope looked for the 400 years to end. Daniel saw how Jeremiah the prophet said the captivity in Babylon would be 70 years, so at the end of the 70 years did Daniel pack his bags? No, he prayed for God to have mercy on him and his people to open the deliverance, then he waited with bags packed. If we really want to do something regarding the “words” spoken in our lives, then follow “what does the Scripture say?”; remember the sister of Faith is Patience.

While in Egypt the children had a future hope of deliverance, their faith reached to the hope. We know they had faith, since they crossed the Red Sea by faith, thus the same faith should have been with them in the wilderness. What changed? They allowed their own unbelief to rule, missing the greatness of God in their lives. All of us were given the Measure of Faith, but belief is a choice we make. Any of us can misconstrue the event, or what God is doing in our lives causing us to enter unbelief. Paul used the events in the wilderness were teaching aids for the Corinthians (I Cor 10:1-11). What the children did, they did, but the lessons remain for all of us. Some of us excuse the warnings by saying, “well you have to understand who these people were writing to”, they were writing to saints. Let us take heed, lest a root of bitterness spring up in us to defile us, as Esau who sold his birthright for a morsel of meat (Heb 12:15-16).

The wilderness is the training area so we can hold the Kingdom of God as good kings. Face it, enter it, enjoy it. The children being captive in Egypt was hope, it did show the word given to Abraham was coming to pass. Their faith didn’t drown in the Red Sea, they allowed their unbelief to block the effectiveness of faith. What caused them to fail? Was it their captivity in Egypt corrupting their belief? Was it being a slave for all those years? Or was it simply the self-based mind of man wanting deliverance, but not willing to follow God’s plan? God showed them His power of deliverance before they entered the Wilderness, thus they had more then enough evidence in which to believe. Ahh, the nature of fallen man demands for all things to fit the desires of man, yet faith centers on pleasing God, whether we’re pleased or not.

Faith must entail the knowledge of God’s vision, not our self-based vision of some self-importance, rather it’s God’s vision of His greatness through us. The carnal mind seems to think it’s their greatness God is using, rather than seeing it’s God greatness being used through us. Discerning prophecy is vital, we need someone who is well seasoned in the Office of Prophet to look at the words given us, after all “let the other judge” (I Cor 14:29). If we don’t want them to judge the words given us, then we know we have twisted them, misinterpreted them, or come up with our own. For the most part we forget prophecy is in part, God told Abraham there would be a captivity, a deliverance and the time of the deliverance, it was more than enough to establish Hope. God didn’t tell them how they would be delivered, or about the signs and wonders, nonetheless the word came to pass, then came the training for the people so they could possess the Promised Land. These people become a study guide as well as a lesson book on the do’s and don’ts of discipleship.

The Family Tree of Adam to David is a miracle, much less from David to Jesus. The odds were stacked against the plan, yet God knew “odds” mean nothing in face of His Power. Look at some of the members of this family, Adam who had two commandments, the one he was suppose to do, he didn’t, the one he was not suppose to do, he did. Adam lost his relationship with God and his wife, ending with a relationship with his career (toiling the ground). Next, Eve lost her relationship with her husband, rather than a help meet she became a slave. The result of the Fall was corruptness, yet from it would come Enoch, who walked with God. Along the path we find Terah, the father of Abram who was an idol worshiper, it is also reported how he was an idol maker by some of the Jewish historians. It’s seems bad enough to worship idols, but have our own family making them? Not counting others like Laban, Balaam, Korah, who were all “family”, yet corrupt. The conclusion we can draw is one of faith, remember Faith will win this, not any Faith, but the great and wonderful Faith of Jesus. Our faith in God is vital, the New Man operates off our faith to keep us on the path the Faith of Jesus blazed for us. Jesus defeated death, hell, evil, and corruptness by His faith, not the Law of Moses; it takes faith to follow faith; therefore the Law of the Spirit based on the victory of Jesus. The Law of Moses came as a result of the children failing to keep the Ten Commandments. The Law of Moses is based on failure, the Law of the Spirit is based on Victory.

If we trust in the “family line”, we will fail, yet if we fail to trust in Jesus we are a failure. The words spoken to these people are more important than the people, at times we tend to hold the people higher than the Word spoken. Look at the people, the mess in the marriages of Jacob, yet God used it to bring the “tribes”. Jacob couldn’t get within six blocks of some of the stiff-necked churches today, yet from his loins came the 12 tribes of Israel, the one nation out of all the nations of the earth called of God (Amos 3:2). God already laid out the premise of one man and one woman, yet He was able to take the mistakes and failures of man to bring about a plan for our redemption. Did God cause the mistakes? No, but He did use them (I Cor 10:13).

God had a purpose for the Patriarchal Family, the Purpose would be to complete the plan regardless of any faults those in the family may have had. Metaphorically we can see why we must “change families”, our soul was once adopted into the family of the darkness, the “token” was the old man. We are now adopted into the perfect family of God, the token of the adoption is the New Man, also known as the Seal of the Holy Spirit of Promise.

The Patriarchal Family Tree shows how convoluted all these relationships were, only God could bring Good from it. How can God use this messed up family? God knew they were not perfect; wherein we find our lesson of lessons. It’s true “God knows our heart”, but He is not trying to save our hearts, He is out to save our souls by giving us a New heart. We make mistakes, miss it, yet say, “oh well God knows my heart”, He sure does, it’s we who keep ignoring it. Our old heart was wicked above all things, thus Jesus said from the heart comes no good thing, yet Paul said we must believe in our heart, but he also said our “circumcision” was a cutting away of the old heart, in order to gain a New Heart by the New Birth (Ps 51:10 & Rom 2:26-29). Of course God knows our heart, the old one was rotten, the New One is His seed. Never trust in “well God knows my heart”, it’s not the point, it was our own lusts causing us to chase after those self-designed golden calves. However, we are also in the Kingdom, the place of instant restoration based on instant repentance. We fall, but we can gain, we see the exposure, we admit it, we repent, the New Man begins the cleaning procedure based on the Justification process.

On the other hand we know we’re not perfect, but we can’t allow it to hold us back. There are those who think they are the perfect of the perfect, who go about holding others back. Either case lacks Godly knowledge and wisdom. Our imperfections tell us we’re human, God’s perfection makes Him God. Our imperfections show us this is a Process, from time to time the Golden Plow of God will roll over a rotten root from a past tree, it needs to be dwelt with. “Man, I thought it was under the Blood, now what?”. It still is, it’s time to be free, not a time to fall back to natural reasoning. The Blood of Jesus is cleaning us from unrighteousness, the washing of the Water by the Word is removing spots and wrinkles, yet the Cross made the old man, the wiles of the devil, sin and the sin nature ineffective. “’All I know is it’s the same thing over and over, I can’t get free”; wrong, it’s not the “same thing”, it’s being set free of the same thing, each time is a step closer to complete freedom, each step a gain. Let’s face it, years ago it was the same thing, yet we didn’t care, progress in the process brings us to a place of caring.

There are many ways one can think they are Justified, there are those who think they are justified before the Law of Moses, but it doesn’t mean they are Justified before God. There are those who are self-justified, they presume by using “faith” they are justified on their own, yet the Scriptures say we are justified by the Faith of Christ (Gal 2:16). Our Justification and our Righteousness are related, but not the same (Gal 2:16 & Ph’l 3:9). Our goal is not simply to be justified, but to be Justified by God before God (Rom 8:33). The Report says we are Justified, but it’s the Declaration, the Witness is carrying out the Declaration on earth, thus we are being Justified, but God says we are (Rom 3:24-28, 5:1 & Titus 3:7). Over confidence is based in pride, it makes us think we have completed the process, before it began. If the old nature can convince us this is not a process, we will still use the spirit of man in a false religious in nature, hardly the goal.

The Law of Moses was Good, it provided man a means to balance the scale, but it also proclaimed one to be a sinner void of faith. It doesn’t mean God is sitting in heaven wondering if His food is Kosher, it would remove Him from being Alpha and Omega, rather it’s not from whom the Law came, but to whom it was directed. God doesn’t stop heaven every seven days, or put the universe on hold, He finished His work on the Sixth Day then Rested, because the Work was done for the Night. It tells us the Night will happen, it also tells us this is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. The Word still watches over the works to see them complete. If God rested on the Seventh Day, why then have the sign of circumcision done on the eighth day? Making no sense whatsoever, unless we see the concept of Rest means the work is finished, there is nothing left except for the work to be carried out. The Genesis creation was from evening to morning, which shows the “works” for the Night are complete, but we are of the Day, meaning there is a Creation for the Day. From the Cross the works of the Day began, they will continue until the Night begins when no man can work; then there will be silence in heaven for the last half of the Hour ( Jn 9:4 & Rev 8:1).

The contrast between these people and some of us is amazing, it’s as if God looked at us then had these people play out our lives. We came to the Cross based on the Holy Ghost drawing our measure of faith, but once we entered we hit “formula trail”, make this happen, force this, or promote that, yet we know we didn’t make the Cross happen. Well, maybe these people just didn’t have faith. Not so, the Book of Hebrews tell us they crossed the Sea by faith (Heb 11:29); therefore, if they had the faith to cross the Sea, they had enough to cross the Wilderness, the same is true for us. We had the faith to receive Jesus, we need to maintain the same faith in God to get us through this.

The evidence shows how God not only told them to believe, but placed signs and wonders before them proving He was far greater than anything Egypt had to offer. God will not ask us to do anything He hasn’t already given us the ability to do, yet we know there are things He will not do for us. Our example will be the deliverance of the children, God brought the signs and wonders, but He didn’t force them to leave Egypt. God parted the Red Sea, but they had to cross it. God brought them into the wilderness, but they had to believe in God to sustain the training.

Jesus also tells us it’s mandatory for us to continue to believe after we enter the Body; therefore He will give us more then enough evidence for us to believe, but He won’t believe for us. He will give us the Ability, but He won’t apply the Ability, we have to. What is the one requirement for water baptism (other than water)? Social importance? Theology? No, it’s “belief”, when the eunuch from Ethiopian heard Philip speak about Jesus he asked, “what does hinder me to be baptized” (Acts 8:36). Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” (Acts 8:37). The eunuch was a Gentile, although Cornelius will be the first Gentile to be Born Again (Acts 10:45-46), this eunuch will be the first Gentile baptized under New Testament authority granted by Jesus. All it took was a belief in Jesus, no fancy footwork, no great miracle power, not even faith. Faith is vital, but without belief it has no direction.

The one doing the baptizing must be a member of the Body, operating under the Authority of Jesus, but the one being baptized need only believe and submit. Water baptism as we know is our Token of accepting the Body, identifying us with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul saw some of the Corinthians failed to believe in the Resurrection, his question was why were they baptized unto death, if they didn’t believe in the Resurrection? (I Cor 15:3-6 & 15:12).

The Book of Jude is only one chapter long, the name “Jude” is short for the name “Judas”. “Oh wow, you mean Judas the one who betrayed Jesus wrote the Letter?”. No, the name Judas was a popular name back then, although it’s not now (wonder why? Even the heathen avoids it). The Jude who wrote the Book of Jude was the brother of James, and the half brother of Jesus (Jude 1 & Luke 6:16). We found how Jude 5 told us to remember how the Lord having saved the children, destroyed those who believed not. They gave God no choice, God delivered them from Egypt, placed a protection over them, separated them from Pharaoh as well as the danger of Egypt, but they believed Him not (Deut 9:23). Just as we are saved from the world by God’s mercies to enter a place of Process to be saved by Grace through faith unto the salvation of our souls. We will read over and over how the same people God separated from the world were seen under the “Green Tree” worshiping idols. They were not worshiping the Green Tree, they were hiding under it. Jesus said the fowls of the air pick at the fruit of the Tree, they are not branches, they are not the fruit, they invade to attack the fruit. When clarity came to Ephraim, he said he would no longer worship idols, but would become a Fir Tree before the Lord (Hosea 14:8-9). The metaphor Green points to Mercy or Life, in the case of the children the Green Tree was the protection of God’s Mercy over the nation. The children would hide under God’s Mercy, yet worship idols, thinking the Green Tree (Mercy) would protect them. Jeremiah found the children under those Green Trees, although they worshipped idols and sacrificed their children, they would also say, “the temple, the temple, God will not allow the temple to be destroyed”. Wrong, we can be covered by a Green Tree, but we better be producing Godly fruit, rather than idols of the self. Exposure brings those “treasures of Pharaoh” to the surface, so we can reject them, then allow God to remove them. Everyone is drawn away by their own lust, no lust, no drawing (James 1:14). If we are enticed, then there is a lust in us, but if there is no lust, it becomes a test. If we approach God with a lust, it doesn’t mean God is tempted, it means God is not, but He will send a test back to us to expose the lust in us. We will see with these children, they tempted God, yet He tested them.

Jude’s words, or those of James are not to scare us, but to keep us from fables, or to keep our Salvation thinking in a serious mode. This goes right back to work out your own Salvation by fear and trembling. Did these children have the ability in hand? Yes, God brought them into a place to train them. The building of the Tabernacle proved they held God given talents, thus they had the ability, they simply refused to apply it unless they had to. Those who are spiritual in nature have tons of God given abilities, the Manifestation of the Spirit is just one area, the Nature of Grace another, there are more benefits, yet we can have all of them, yet never apply them.

Do we have the ability to win this? Yes, Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, because He was anointed, thus the anointing was first, then the Spirit. We also know the Yoke is destroyed Because of the anointing, thus the Yoke was destroyed to grant us the anointing (Isa 10:27). The Process is seen here, the Yoke of Egypt was broken, then the children were anointed, although they didn’t have the Spirit, they nonetheless had the fire by night and the cloud by day. In the midst of their unbelief what did God do? Care for them, give them more signs. In the midst of their lack of faith what did God do? Sent them quail, gave them the Law of Moses, gave them manna. Their unbelief didn’t stop God from blessing them, but it did stop them from entering the Promised Land, yet entrance into the Promised Land was the goal. Blessings prove God loves us, but does it prove we love Him? Although the first generation had many blessings in hand, it would be the second who would enter the Promised Land.

For these children there would be two areas of being saved, one from Egypt and one from their Egypt thinking. The Old Testament being the shadow also shows we have two areas, Saved and Salvation, first we are saved from the world, which is akin to these people crossing the Red Sea. Next comes the Process of faith unto the salvation of our souls, which is akin to getting to the Promised land. Between the two is the wilderness; being delivered from the world isn’t the end of this, it’s the beginning.

These children not only had to believe they were God’s chosen, they had to accept the position with all it entailed in order to posses the Promised Land. In their case it was a change in mindset, from slavery, to being free, from being under the hand of the ungodly, to being in the hand of God. For us it’s a matter of believing God is working with us unto the Promise. This shows why God allowed Egypt, they knew first hand the torment of someone lording over them. The lesson of course was not to make slaves out of the people they would be over. In our case we have a Nature change, but we too are told to “feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” (I Pet 5:2-3). They were salves, treated harshly, but unless those hurts, pains and bondage attitudes were addressed and healed, they would become taskmasters. Therefore, God took them to a place separated from Egypt (world) in order to get Egypt out of them.

However, there is an opposite to the slavery mentality, one of control. The children were to experience Freedom, but they engaged in control, the wanted to control their actions, Moses, even God. Control is not faith, faith must be centered in pleasing God, control is based in self-pleasure. We find we can enter the illusion of “being pleasing”; thereby thinking if we’re pleased, God must be. It was the error these children will make, if they are displeased, they think God is, if they are pleased they think God is. Yet, we find God was not pleased with many of them (I Cor 10:5).  When God began to deal with them, they didn’t like the manner, they allowed anger to rule their minds, causing them to enter unbelief. When we presume we are pleased by something we do, it also means God is automatically pleased, we are living an illusion. Trusting in God is an element of faith keeping pride out of the picture, there is no way we can Trust fully in God, yet demand control, or think our acts are impressing Him. When God did something the children wanted, they danced, when God asked them to do something, they got mad, murmured or complained ending attacking the man of God.

Were all of them bad? Not hardly, they were a special people, they had courage, but they placed their courage on the self-nature. Since they crossed the water what other metaphoric content do we see? The Net, the Net was cast into Egypt then pulled through the water to the Wilderness. In the Wilderness there was the good fish and bad. God knew the first generation wouldn’t make it, but like Paul says, these things are written for our sakes (I Cor 10:11).

If God knew these people wouldn’t believe, why even deliver them? “Oh, because He told Abraham, then when He saw how bad they were, He still couldn’t go back on His word”. No, it would mean God wasn’t omnipresence, or omnipotent, thus before God spoke to Abraham, He had the end in hand. We have to accept God saw their actions in Egypt, and in the Wilderness long before the foundation of the world. So why pick them? A lesson for us? Partly, but in truth none of them could ever say they didn’t have the opportunity. Everyone who enters the kingdom of heaven has the potential and opportunity to make it to heaven, not one who has received Jesus has a reason to fail. Jesus not only takes us in, but gives us the power to succeed.

When they were in Egypt death was the focus of attention, the entire process of burial, or the constant thought of the “after life” was the center of the religious mind of the Egyptians. These children are going to hear about “life”, a concept strange to their thinking,  thus the wilderness is place to change mindsets. In their case they allowed the fear of death to choke out the hope of life. Jesus would face this same “death mentality” in the religious minded, He answered with, “God is the God of the living not the dead” (Mark 12:27). One the items prized by the Egyptians was the “book of death”, a sacred document telling them how to prepare the dead. For us it’s preparation for the Gospel of peace unto life, yet the spirit of man is still centered on death; so much so there is a fear of death (Heb 2:15). The ancient secrets of embalming and preserving the corpse have been the subject of folklore for years, yet they still center on death.

The children may have made idols, but being forced to make idols, still doesn’t mean one has to worship them. They had the opportunity to see how foolish idol worship was, it’s also evident, from the hands of slaves came the gods of Pharaoh. These same gods had to be defeated in order for the children to be free indeed. The same is true with us, the New Man will destroy the idols in our minds, so we can be free indeed.

Although these children didn’t worship the idols, they were the ones who failed to believe while in the wilderness, which produced the famed golden calf. Their failure to believe caused them to miss the Rest of God, yet they were also the ones who refused to worship idols while in Egypt. When they entered the wilderness they were suppose to leave their Egypt thinking behind, but as we will find, it was easier for God to remove the children from Egypt, then it was to remove Egypt from the children. Their murmuring and complaining were signs of their displeasure, their displeasure came from their unbelief.

YOUNG MOSES

The word Exodus means Departure, but Exodus is not the Hebrew name of this book, rather Exodus is a compound Greek word made up from Ex (out) and Hodos (way). At first it would seem the meaning was saying, “out of the way”, or “get out of the way”, but it refers to leaving a way, not “the Way”; in this case it’s departing from the ways of Egypt to a place to learn of the Ways of God. It’s important, since it shows one can depart a place, but not the mental attitudes of the place. If one retains the mentality of the old, they really haven’t made an Exodus at all. The children made a physical departure from Egypt, but failed to make a mental Exodus.

Didn’t they take things with them? Yes, thus it doesn’t mean leaving things, they were suppose to leave the hurts, pains, bad thoughts, bad experiences, nature and habits behind in order to begin anew. Here God purposed the Exodus from Egypt, but the children brought Egypt in their hearts. Metaphorically we can see how their attitude relates to a “falling away from the Faith”. How? The failure to make a true Exodus from the world; there are some, like these children, who leave the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but return to the things of the world (II Pet 2:18-22). It doesn’t mean they left the world completely to pick it up again, it means they retained something of the world, John called it the “he who is in the world”, simply showing they are in the Body, but their interests and minds are still worldly (I Jn 4:1-4).  They are also known as the Wicked, they are not in the world, they are those who leave the world, yet retain the authority of the world. The phrase, “Greater is He in you, than he in the world” is our hope, showing the New Man is the Greater He, but the “he in the world” pertains to the spirit of the world. Paul said the spirit of man knows the things of man, but is completely ignorant of the Spiritual things of God (I Cor 2:11). However, the spirit of the world is opposed to the Spirit that is of God (I Cor 2:12). The spirit of the world did not become a problem until the Holy Ghost began to reprove the world, as He gave us the Spirit that is of God. Our growth has many rewards, as children we know our sins are forgiven, but as youngmen we have overcome the Wicked, thus the path of Salvation is a Process. The more we know Jesus, the more we love Him, our desire coupled with our belief and faith firms our hope. The desire of the Wicked is much different, they love power, position, or the feeling of being religious (morally correct in their eyes), but they only love God as far as the love can benefit them. This shows us the spirit of the world is the “he in the world”, it’s opposed to the Spirit which is of God, thus the Spirit which is of God is the Greater He in us (I Cor 2:12 & I Jn 4:1-4). The Greater He wants us to study so we gain knowledge and confidence in God: the spirit of man wants us to study so we are can exalt ourselves, or feel superior over the rest of the Body. Cult systems stem from the spirit of man unto the spirit of the world, they desire to be the greater than the Body of Christ, to have something setting them apart from everyone else, a special book, an ordinance, a rite, something they fell makes them superior, or better than the rest of the Body. They have the “only truth”, the “real Gospel”, the “secret rite”, yet it’s all flesh. The Hope for us is the Spirit of Truth in us, the Greater He, Another Comforter, the New Man, Christ in us the Hope of glory.

Paul used the children in the wilderness to show holding to carnal thinking can hinder our walk, thus there is a division between the Wicked and the carnal minded. The carnal minded still use the natural mind, as do the Wicked, but the carnal are ignorant, the Wicked are not. The Wicked have become deceived by their own deceptive ways, but they also feel what they do is a service to God, the carnal have no idea what they are doing.  To the carnal mind spiritual matters are foolishness, to the Wicked spiritual things are a danger to them.

“Well, none of these people were Born Again or in the Kingdom”. True, but these things are written for our knowledge, II Peter 2:18-22, Jude 5 and other Scriptures given to us regarding these people show how any of us can fail to leave the world behind. It need not be so, opportunity coupled with ability are given unto us, we can win.

The term “Iniquity” is the key to all this, sin is the transgression, or the trespass into an area we should not be, but Iniquity means Unequal, or out of balance, it can only be accomplished by those who have the call and ability to do something, yet work at not doing what they should. Iniquity being an unbalanced condition surely shows the person has the ability, they simply refuse to do what they are told to do, making themselves without a Law. There are times when God wants us to do something, but we do all sorts of things just to avoid doing what we are suppose to do, because we simply don’t want to do it. It’s iniquity, but the workers of iniquity make it part of their nature, it’s not one event, rather they work at it. The main element of their iniquity is taking the Mercy of God, yet refusing to give it. Jesus defined it best by showing a group who did acts, but failed at the will of the Father (Mercy – Matt 7:21-23). Iniquity will lead to sin, it always does, just as the failure for these children to believe in God, led them to making the golden calf.

Before they crossed the sea Pharaoh was visibly right behind them, in front of them stood the parted Sea, but for how long? In front of them, behind them, on both sides  appeared potential for death, yet they had faith to reach the other side. Although we can see their faith was based in desperation, they nonetheless followed their leader. However, from there to the walls of Jericho there isn’t another recorded element of faith attributed to them. When they made the choice to enter unbelief, they lost the foundation for the measure of faith to exist. The potential of faith is based in our belief of “God Is”, without it we will cast our faith in all sorts of things, at times we will place our faith in people to deliver us, or save us, which is always failure in the making.

The world has elements used by the spirit of man, those elements are the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. The phrase, “pride of life” in the Greek means “self-confidence”, or a trust in ones self abilities. “Wow, I thought we were suppose to have good self-esteem and self-confidence”. Self-esteem has two sides, on one side it means having an awareness of ones self, based on what God says, no less than what He says, or no more. If Less, then self-pity becomes a false sense of unworthiness, if we go the other way we enter a realm of self-confidence allowing pride to rule. Once we enter self-confidence we will begin to think our gift, talent or ability is of our doing. False self-esteem is as dangerous as trusting in our self-righteousness, wherein one takes pride in what they perceive are good works, or social endeavors. We are to have a full awareness of who we are, but taking pride in our self abilities is hardly the goal. If we wear fifty masks attempting to convince people of who we are, we will also use fifty religious masks attempting to convince people we are religious. The Word in us will divide, separate, destroy facades by removing masks, bringing us to a place to be open and naked before God (Heb 4:12-13). In all this we must also see there is a division between the “soul” and the “self”, we are told to deny the self, we are not told to deny the soul. The goal is the saving of our soul, we must lose our soul to Jesus, in order to find it. When we find it, we will know who we are, who we were, more important who we can be in Christ (Matt 16:25 et al). Naturally minded people tend to confuse the self with the soul, but the self is a product of the Fall, the soul a creation from God. Until the Power came from on High no one had the ability to separate the self from the soul, but even these children had the ability to believe in God.

These people were subject to Pharaoh, an evil man, yet if they gain power over Pharaoh, will they treat Pharaoh as they were treated? Eye for an eye; however, the phrase means keep it equal, it was never two eyes for one eye, or six teeth for one. The propensity of man is over kill, take five dollars from me, I will take sixty from you. Unequal in any regard leads one into iniquity. Turning the other cheek, is not, “Okay, I’m a child of God, go ahead hit the other one”, rather it means we don’t use the same means used against us. Jesus told us it was said of Old, “an eye for an eye”, then He told us to turn the other cheek (Matt 5:38-39). These children will be given a Law conducive to their nature, if ones nature fits the Law of Moses, they should do the Law of Moses, but if their nature fits the Spirit, they should do the Law of the Spirit.

The Ability for us to walk in the Mercy of God was granted when we accepted the Cross, for these people the ability to learn of God without the interference of Egypt was granted the second they entered the wilderness. The Cross granted us the ability to be free of the prince of the power of the air, as it is written regarding Jesus, “forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; through death He might destroy (make ineffective) him who had the power of death,  the devil” (Heb 2:14). Once these people cross over the water Pharaoh became ineffective in their lives, the same is true with us, once we enter the kingdom of heaven the devil becomes ineffective in our lives. it’s great, but nothing we should boast in, surely nothing to take pride in; rather it means we can be trained without the interference of the darkness.

Young Moses will have a training program, one making him a leader. He would have abilities, but without Godly training he will make his abilities gods; without Godly training we would do the same. We have an intellect, but without the Godly guidance the same intellect will become a god. Moses was first discipled by Egypt, thus he used his talents in the manner of Egypt, but when he faces the burning bush, he will begin a Godly discipleship program. Moses will face his own battle of unbelief, he would have to conquer his unbelief by making the choice to believe, then his measure of faith could be productive;  because he was able, it also shows the children had the same opportunity.

God was going to give them evidence for belief, God would show His power to deliver is far greater than Pharaoh’s power to keep them in bondage. He did the same for us, by the Cross God showed us His power to deliver us from darkness in order to forgive us was far greater then the devil’s power to keep us in darkness. The Power of God to forgive sins, shows the Power of forgiveness is greater than the power of sin. In order for one to be greater than the other, they have to have a greater power. All things are under the feet of Jesus; we are His Body, thus we have authority over all things. The iniquity of the Wicked is remaining the footstool, they make the choice to use the spirit lusting to envy. When we were in the world we were under the spirit lusting to envy, now we have authority over it, it’s what makes the Wicked the enemies of Jesus, they find they can use the spirit lusting to envy to their advantage, they work at their iniquity by refusing to submit to the Seed of God, they become the beasts of the field (Gen 3:15).

There is a battle, when the things of this world call out, we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God to resist the call of darkness. The world will challenge us to reenter its worldly ways, or come back to the darkness. The world uses all the reasoning of natural man, but the lusts of the world are still lusts. The world will “toss its own net” of natural reasoning, worldly concerns, compromise and fear. The world has concerns, concerns they tell us are legitimate, they are to them. We were all part of the world, but the time came when we left it behind. One element of the undefiled religion is to remain unspotted by the world (James 1:27). We can feed every poor person in the world, pray five times a day, yet if we use the spots of the world as our ability, we are none the better.

The devil uses Godly principles in reverse, we toss the net to pull people out of the world, the devil tosses the net of the world into the kingdom to draw us back. Our measure of faith drew us to the Cross, the devils measure of social fear is sent to draw us back into using the ways of the world: Paul called it “warfare”, yet we have the advantage, nothing of the enemy has authority or power over us, suggestions is all he has, words without force.

Healing and removing the old roots, or busting stones of abuse take time, the power and authority of the “works of Pharaoh” don’t. It simply takes a firm decision not to use those things anymore, no more manipulation, no more deception, no more mind games, no more using the ways of darkness to get our way, no more attempting to impress people, or change who we are to satisfy the whims of people, no more doing things just to get a feeling the flesh desires. It’s only half the chore, we must have something to replace those endeavors. The New Nature, man uses one evil to replace another, it’s not our goal. The New Man brings all the elements contained in the Holiness of the Father with the Righteousness of the Son to drive out the old. If we retain the old, the New has no place to rest. The goal is not to appear as if a change has taken place, it’s just another facade, the goal is to be Changed into the Image of God’s Son (Rom 8:29).

God was pulling these people to the Promised Land, but their stubbornness and rebellion resisted God. The devil wasn’t the problem, the stinking thinking of the children was. These children had the evidence of God to bring them into a Promise, a Great Promise, but they didn’t like the way God was doing it. They rebelled against the man of God, they attacked the words spoken to them, they lost what little they thought they had (Jude 5). It’s one thing to think its a demonic attack, then find out it was God, another to know it’s God, yet fight against Him.

These people were self-deceived into thinking Moses brought them into the wilderness to kill them, yet Moses couldn’t take them to the movies without the power of God. They knew better than to blame God, but in blaming Moses, they were blaming God. “What?, Are you saying Moses was God?”. Not hardly, but Moses was the man sent by God, Moses was doing what God told him to do, thus to attack what Moses was doing, was the same as attacking God. The anointing on the man was granted by God, thus they were in effect attacking the anointing, or being “anti-anointing”. God sends us an anointed preacher with the truth, we don’t like it, so we attack the man, yet we are really attacking God who sent them. We will find the sin against God under the Old or the New is when anyone slanders, attacks, or comes against the children of God. When brother attacks brother it’s still wrong: sin at the door means the thinking is there to attack, yet at the door and in the house are different.

These children came into Egypt as a free people, but they were taken bondage, yet they were also delivered by the Hand of God. Who brought them into Egypt? God, who delivered them? God. We entered the world as children, having done neither good or evil, but we were born into a nature more prone to yield to the flesh than it was to resist the flesh. The first time we used the fallen nature to get our own way it began to teach us  how to use it the more: the more we used it, the more it used us, until it held us in bondage. The world talks about Jesus being a “crutch”, in truth, He is more than a crutch, for without Jesus we would surely fall (Heb 10:38-39).

When we were in the world, we used manipulation because it worked, but simply because something works doesn’t mean it’s of God. We used anger to get our way, or self-pity to get our way, they worked, but witchcraft works, it’s why witches use it (Acts 16:16). Just because something seems to work, doesn’t mean it’s of God. Then came the day when those elements began to use us, anger became a controlling ruling element, it governed how we spoke, or treated others. The rulers of darkness begin as servants, but their intent is to become master. All this points to Authority, the devil has authority based in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Authority is the granted permission to carry out a task Limited to the Authority. If one goes beyond the authority, they are either usurping authority, or in rebellion. Leaders have authority to Perfect the saints, do the work of the ministry and edify the Body (Eph 4:11-12). They do not have authority to take the oversight of the flock by constraint, nor do they have authority to seek after filthy lucre, nor do they have authority to invoke the Law of Moses on New Covenant people (I Pet 5:1-4).

Some of the ways of the old man are based in feelings, thus the lost do the deed to gain the feeling. Judging people gives one a feeling of superiority, but it’s an illusion, when we judge, we are being judged. One would think if Jesus told the Pharisees “you are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do”, He was judging (Jn 8:44). Yet, He also said if we Judge, it will come back on us shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). Paul said, “oh man, who are you who judges another, and you yourself do the same, and have condemned yourself?” (Rom 2:1). It seems as if Paul is judging those who judged. Wow, now what? Judging, clarity and responding by Discerning are all different, when we Judge someone we do it to feel superior over them. The best example is the Pharisee who saw the publican praying then said, “I thank you oh God, I am not like this sinner” (Luke 18:10-13). The Pharisee judged the Publican so the Pharisee could gain the feeling of being superior, yet he thanked God. The Pharisee was using God to make himself feel superior over the publican. On the other hand Jesus responded to questions and events, not to feel superior, but to warm and expose to bring correction.

Someone can judge us to the bone, yet when we tell them, “it’s not right”, they jump up and shout “are you judging me?”. Hello? They did it for thirty minutes; however, we were not judging, we were responding to their ways. Different intents, different sources. Those who are spiritual are judged by no man, but they judge things (I Cor 2:15). So, was Paul judged of man? More than once, but did he accept man’s judgment? No, did he judge man? No, he judged “things”, usually words, thus we as spiritual people do not judge people, we discern things and respond. A thin line? Perhaps, but nonetheless one separating the carnal minded judge from the spiritually minded saint.

Many of the events the Jews have faced over the last years were allowed by God, although the Jew sees the events as anything but God based, we can see they tasted of oppression to prepare them for a time when the Mountain of the Lord will sit on the mountains of the world (Isa 2:2, 11:1-6, & Micah 4:1-2). God is training them for the Night, the time when they will sit In the high places of the world, but we also know when they say Peace and Safety, sudden destruction will be upon them (I Thess 5:3 & 5:9). The Book of Revelation shows the Woman in the wilderness, thus she is still in the place of training (Rev 12:14 & 17:3). Jesus entered the wilderness to defeat the devil’s temptations, we enter the wilderness to defeat the wiles of the devil. Jesus didn’t remain in the wilderness, neither should we. Our warfare is not against an enemy who is equal in power and authority, it’s against an enemy who is defeated, made ineffective, but refuses to admit it.

Having laid the foundation the first thing we find in the Book of Exodus appears to be a theological problem; in Genesis 46:26 we found 66 people came with Jacob, but in Exodus 1:5 the number changes to 70 people. In Acts 7:14 Stephen said  the number of people were 75; three different numbers, yet all are correct. This area becomes the evidence of the Gospel accounts, all four are correct, it depends on what stage of growth one is talking about. In Genesis it’s the number of people who came with Jacob, less the living wives of the sons, and less Joseph’s family who were in Egypt. We must recall the wives of both Judah and Simeon were dead at the time, thus Stephen takes the 66, adds the wives of the living sons, but it still doesn’t tell us why we find 70 in Exodus. Ahh, in Exodus we find the addition of Joseph and his family, thus the 66 plus the 4 from Joseph’s family give us the number 70 found in Exodus 1:5. Genesis and Stephen are talking about those who came into Egypt with Jacob, here in Exodus we’re looking at the house of Jacob in Egypt, which would include Joseph’s family. This shows all three numbers are correct, it depends on the prospective one is using. This little mystery is like many provided in the Bible; we can either claim Fault in the Bible, or search for the Truth. When we study the Bible, or view events, we never do so to prove we’re right, or to prove someone else wrong, or to find something to exalt ourselves, rather we seek Truth.

New converts are told to read John’s account, but John is speaking to the Full Corn in the Ear, what gives? Because the word Faith never appears in John’s account, we find it’s a foundation for “belief”, the very element every new convert needs (Jn 20:31). Belief is a foundation, one so vital we find the meaning of “disobedience” is unbelief.

In Exodus 1:8 we read, “now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph”. The phrase “knew not Joseph” points to the promise made to Joseph by the old king regarding the land given to the Hebrews. This “new king”, with the phrase “arose over Egypt” tells us much. This new king didn’t honor any promise made to Joseph, or the Hebrews, but why? The law of Pharaoh demanded for the words of Pharaoh be honored; however, remove the political power, and the promise means nothing. The phrase “arose over Egypt” could also read “arose against Egypt”, this probably connects to the Hyksos nation. The Hyksos were a people related to the Hebrews, who later conquered Egypt, giving us another people to take over the seat of Pharaoh. This new order of government didn’t honor or recognize any of the prior laws made by the old Pharaoh. Even today if one government falls, yet another takes its place, the “old order” is as if it never happened. However, the Kingdom of God is steadfast, never changing, yet continual in growth.

Although the Hyksos were related to the Hebrews, it was very distant. The Hyksos didn’t come from Ishmael, rather they came from the third family of Abraham, thus they were not subject to the Promise. The Hyksos were lower on the scale than Ishmael, they didn’t even come close to the meaning of the title, Hebrew. The Hyksos invaded Egypt killing the old Pharaoh who knew Joseph. The Hyksos were idol worshipers, but we also find Egypt was split by their invasion. The Hyksos were afraid of the Hebrews, they felt if the Hebrews gained in number, they would overthrow the Hyksos, in like manner as the Hyksos conquered the old regime. This brought about slavery, with the assumption, “if we keep them slaves, they can’t gain numbers or come against us”. However, Exodus begins by telling us Israel grew until it out numbered the Egyptians, which caused more fear to enter the hearts of these new Egyptians. Even under slavery the Hebrews Multiplied, this accounts for the number of people, the land was being filled with Hebrews, yet the Hyksos knew if some army invaded the land, the Hebrews would join them, thus overpower the Hyksos, so they used manipulation and denomination, the two elements giving the minority power over the majority.

Another element coupling itself with bondage is the fear of rejection, the Hyksos used fear to control the children, thus God gave them signs showing He would not leave them, nor forsake them. When they entered the wilderness they failed to face their fear, causing their anger to raise up to protect their egos. The fear of rejection will cause us to join majority groups, just to feel like we belong. Rather than go to the little body down the street, we will travel miles to be in the biggest congregation in the state. Not because the teaching is any better, but because we validate ourselves by being in the majority. The same is true with carnal acceptance of denominationalism, we join a denomination because it’s popular, or has masses, just to validate our position; some even think their denomination will be the only one in heaven. Validation by man is a sure sign we lack faith, or trust in God. We are of the Kingdom of God, we not only belong, but we have the Seal of the Holy Spirit to prove it. We are a nation in a nation, individuals in a Body made up of individuals. God deals with us as individuals, evidenced by the New Man, but it doesn’t mean we gain “special treatment”, nor does it mean God will elevate us above the rest of the Body. It simple means God deals with us as children on an equal basis, no one better than another, no one less than another. If we want to be in a denomination because we agree with them, it’s not the same as allowing the denomination to control us. Our validation is in Christ, not social religious endeavors.

The Hyksos like the prior Egyptians were vegetarians, thus when Jacob came into Egypt the thought of being a sheep herder was an abomination. No one under Pharaoh touched red meat, thus the children took many animals into the wilderness, yet called out for food. The “food” they called for was veggies, fish, or fowl, the animals they brought with them were for sacrifices, or to carry burden, not for food. Like many of us we wonder why they had all those animals, yet cried for food. Therefore, when the Law of Moses came into existence allowing them to eat certain red meat it was seen as a blessing, not bondage. It was easy for them to see there could be “unclean meat”, after all in Egypt all red meat was unclean.

The thinking of the Hyksos to keep the Hebrews busy, was the basis for Pharaoh rejecting the idea of letting the people go, even for a few days. What if they tasted of freedom? What if they planned to come back to overthrow Pharaoh? Pharaoh thought of himself as the “god of the gods”, thus he could see no reason for anyone to desire to worship any other god. When God said, “let My people go”, Pharaoh responded with, “who is this God?”. Pharaoh took the words as a challenge, “Your people? we’ll see”. In the eyes of Pharaoh the people were his property, they did as he said, when he said it. However, in truth Pharaoh was only serving a purpose. The Bible tells us God raised Pharaoh as a vessel of dishonor for this very purpose. What purpose? To show the children God’s Power of deliverance (Rom 9:17-22). How did God raise him? Can God raise evil? No, but God allowed the man to exist, then allowed him to take Egypt so God could show His power to His children, so they could believe Him in the wilderness.

Pharaoh was fitted for destruction (perdition), thus God formed the man according to the man’s own heart. Pharaoh was a human, but he thought he was a god. He was the leader yet exalted by those around him. Like others with his type of thinking, he fell for the deception of mentor worship. This would be a direct violation of “have no other gods before Me”. However, we can’t forget God made Moses a god before Pharaoh, the difference? Pharaoh attempted to make himself a “god”, God made a Moses a “god”, or better God made Moses to be over Pharaoh as a representative of God toward Pharaoh.  The phrase also means Pharaoh had no authority over Moses, which turned out to be the confidence for Moses to say, “Let the people go”. In truth we are kings over the things of the world, but not over the people of the world, thus we tread on the works of the enemy, not on the people in the world.

For Moses to go back to Egypt would take a promise from God to show Moses was in a position where Pharaoh could do him no harm. Moses believed what God told him, then he was able to act in faith (Heb 11:25-26). Pharaoh entered this with a hard heart, thus we will find God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, but the method and means explains the how. God provided signs to show His people He was more powerful than the gods in Egypt, in order to build the belief of His people. However, Pharaoh took it personally, considering each sign a challenge, thus causing his heart to be hardened the more. Since God provided the signs, God says He hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God’s intent was not to harden Pharaoh’s heart, but He knew the signs would. The same sign setting one free, can harden the heart of another. Is it the sign? Or the heart of the person? It has to be the heart, since Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, yet the children left Egypt.

Here we find the meaning of the title Hebrew means a Sojourner, or one who is yet to hold the Promised land. The children were not residents of Egypt, we were not residents of the world, we were captives. Jesus never prayed for the world, but He did pray for us while we were captive in the world (Jn 17:9), knowing the Cross would free us. The Exodus example shows even if we were treated as slaves, God is still able to bring us into the Promised Land. Before Jacob’s people entered Egypt they were in land of Jacob, the same land Abraham was given, thus before they could rule, they had to trained.

When the Sea swallowed Pharaoh the people danced, sang and had a good old camp meeting, the wicked Pharaoh was dead, but ding dong three days into the wilderness, they thought they were dead. “Good time faith” is not the answer, faith remaining Steadfast regardless of the event is the answer.

Skill without the ability to produce labor is still bondage and failure, just as labor without skill is slavery. Labor and skill are different, the children had Skills, the Egyptians did not. The Egyptians could produce laborers, but without skill their efforts would be useless. The Egyptians made the mistake of allowing the children to hold both the skill and labor, the Egyptians couldn’t make an idol, they couldn’t make a thing. When it appeared as if the children were truly leaving, Pharaoh found even his “god” position was nothing without “helps”. God produces Skilled children, those who have manifested abilities, in our case the Spirit in us can train us to do many things, including working with machines.

We know the Hebrews were the center of the work force, if not all of the work force (Ex 1:14). The word for “service” in Exodus 1:14 in the phase “service in the field” is used for farm work as well as for those who had talents in other areas, such as making brass items, or the such, it was also used to describe the workmanship for the Tabernacle. We find they made bricks, as well as many other things. Today we find many graves near the old Pyramids, one could mistake the remains for Egyptian workers, but there were certain Hebrews given higher ranks, who were more skilled than the others. When it came to building the Tabernacle, God increased the skills of some, but He also used the skills of others which were already honed, nonetheless the ability still came from God (Ex 26 et al).

The labor made the children strong, so much so they brought forth more children, but the Egyptians afflicted them the more (Ex 1:11-13). The Egyptians thought they controlled the children, but in truth they didn’t. It was the actions of the children causing the Egyptians to react, not the other way around. In order to decrease the Hebrew population, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives saying, “if it be a son of a Hebrew, kill him, if it be a daughter, let her live” (Ex 1:15-16). It may sound strange, but Pharaoh didn’t want to wipe them out, only control the number. This alone shows the number of Hebrews was growing considerably, so much so the Egyptians were outnumbered greatly.

The midwives feared God, they knew killing the young was an abomination in the eyes of God; therefore, they didn’t do as the king asked (Ex 1:17). This is akin to Joseph refusing the advances of Potiphar’s wife, the midwives rejected the evil suggestion to use their positions to cause death, when their authority was to assist in bringing life. It would appear they were in rebellion to the rulers of the land, but we find Pharaoh never gave them the “if” clause, nor was there any punishment involved (Ex 1:16). Since there was no threat of punishment, there could be none, thus this is not rebellion, but rejection of the suggestion. If it was a law, there would be an “if clause” giving one the defined punishment for failure to obey. Every law of man, in order to be a law must have a clause defining the punishment for failure to obey; if no punishment, there is no violation, without a violation it isn’t a law, only a suggestion.

How about the Law of Moses? Yes, the curse would fall on the one who failed to do all the Law. “Wait, I think I see it, a Law relating to carnal man must have a punishment, for man, but a Law given to the spiritually minded is based on their willing obedience”. Right, oh so right, the “punishment” in the case of the Spirit is refusing to be Spiritual in nature, which becomes spiritual wickedness. Those who are subject to the laws of man, or laws given to carnal man obey the laws based on one of two reasons. The punishment for not obeying, or the reward for doing. Whereas, the Law of the Spirit is based on a willingness to obey.

Exodus 1:15 names the midwives as Shiphrah and Puah, we might think, “gee only two?”, but don’t forget the children had been in Egypt nearly 350 years before the birth of Moses, so these are not the only midwives who entered the land; nonetheless we find some interesting things. Their services weren’t always needed (Ex 1:19), since the Hebrew women were termed “lively”, which is the Hebrew Chayeh meaning the Vigor of life, it only occurs here in Exodus 1:15; it’s often seen is the very reason there were only two midwives, they were rarely needed. Nonetheless, because of the faithfulness of the midwives God blessed the people, the Hebrews multiplied and waxed mighty (Ex 1:19).

Pharaoh then went to his own people saying, “every son born of the Hebrews shall be tossed into the river” (Ex 1:21-22). During the captivity the act of circumcision ceased, the habits of the children moved to coincide with the habits of the Egyptians. In all, we will find it was easier for God to remove the children from Egypt, than to remove Egypt from the children. Did God know? Yes, we will see where Moses will tell God, “you knew these people”, thus God knew about the people, it was the people who failed to really know God.

Moses didn’t face Pharaoh after killing the Egyptian, but the Bible (not the movies) shows Moses ran thinking Pharaoh would kill him. From then until Moses faces Pharaoh with “Let My people Go”, changes had to take place in Moses. Yet it all begins for the child when others made a decision for the child to live, because they saw he was a special child (Ex 2:1-2 & Heb 11:23). Therefore, rather than the “Moses, Moses, Moses” theatrical approach, we find the events are very plausible. The calling, the removal, the training, the anointing, building confidence in God, then the man could say, “Let my people go” as a representative of God.

According to the Book of Hebrews Moses would be about three months old when he was placed in the river (Heb 11:23). Moses the baby is placed in a basket, then placed in the river, thus his placement was not in violation of Pharaoh’s orders, but in compliance.  The command to toss the children into the river left much to the hand of the one doing the tossing. Should the child be tossed to the middle of the river? To the side? In a basket? Or could the child be removed after being tossed? Really if you toss a baby in the river, yet the baby is in a basket, you still did your duty.

The sister of Moses followed the basket to see where it would end, in the meantime Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to wash herself. She saw the “ark” with Moses in it among the “flags” (reeds – Ex 2:3-5). She sent one of her maids to fetch the basket, therein she found the baby Moses weeping, then she had “compassion” on him. The fear of the father didn’t stop the compassion of the daughter, yet she also knew he was one of the Hebrew children. There was no command from Pharaoh regarding once a child was tossed into the river, they had to stay there, thus all things are still in order.

The sister of Moses was still following the basket, she asked the daughter of Pharaoh, “should I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child?”, Pharaoh’s daughter said “go” (Ex 2:7-8). Pharaoh’s daughter paid the real mother of Moses to nurse the child, the child grew and Pharaoh’s daughter claimed him as her son (Ex 2:9-10). The name Moses can be traced to the Egyptian language to a compound word showing his name to mean “a child from the river gods”, thus even Pharaoh would accept the child as “the river god had given birth to him”, from the Egyptian “Hapimos”. Later it appears Moses dropped the river god part, but remained with the Hebrew Mosheh. It also stands the daughter of Pharaoh isn’t about to give her son a Hebrew name whether he is Hebrew or not.

The new Pharaoh was naming cities after himself, thus Moses knew cities which were not known to Jacob or Joseph. Nonetheless Moses grew up in the house of Pharaoh, yet he knew he was a Hebrew, one day he went among his brethren, he not only saw their burdens, but on one of those visits he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew (Ex 2:11). Moses looked one way, then the other, when he thought no one saw him, he killed the Egyptian (Ex 2:12). The next day, Moses went out where he saw two Hebrew men arguing, when one hit the other Moses said, “Why do you hit your brother?” (Ex 2:13). The Hebrew said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? do you intend to kill me, as you did the Egyptian?” (Ex 2:14). Fear hit Moses motivating his feet, he made tracks in the sand before Pharaoh could hear of the killing (Ex 2:15).

Moses ran to Midian where he saw seven daughters of a Midian priest being abused by some shepherds, accordingly Moses drove the shepherds away (Ex 2:16-17). What happened? First he runs in fear, now he’s ready to fight a bunch of strangers. Moses didn’t kill these shepherds, he drove them away; they were shepherds, not Egyptians, or soldiers. Nonetheless, the man is already learning to apply his lessons. Instead of murdering the oppressor, he is making them flee.

The situation also gives Moses a view of what was in his future, but like us he didn’t see it. The “daughters of a priest” were being abused by “shepherds”, the man was moved to save the daughters from the bad shepherds. Later God will call on him to save the children from the false priests of Egypt. Some of us have been called to save the lambs from the false shepherds as well, if so, preach the Truth in Love.

Moses couldn’t help saving the seven daughters he was born to be the deliverer; however, without the guidance of God, his calling was going astray. The calling is found in our measure of faith, was it there before we were called, it’s why we are called. However, the ability comes when God gives us the Gift to guide us. Assuming our God given gift or talent is enhanced by worldly methods is error, the world uses talents for the sake of the world, God desires for us to use them for the sake of the Kingdom. The calling applied through the old man still ends in destruction, yet the same calling through the New Man ends in Salvation. However, Moses was not Born Again, thus his ability would still be applied through his flesh, ours through the spiritual nature. If a man like Moses could do as God desired, yet was not Born Again, surely we can stand in the Faith by the Spirit.

Between the Desire and the Ability there are tares, hurts, misconceptions which must be removed, or cleaned, for us it’s the washing of the water by the Word, with the cleaning of the Blood: in the case of Moses it was God training him, yet Moses still held some of the old Moses of fear, as we will see.

God meets us where we’re at, but He never intends to leave us in the same condition. God takes Moses the fearful one, bringing forth the Deliverer of courage. In the meantime, the king of Egypt died, the children of Israel cried out the more for deliverance, and God heard their cries (Ex 2:20-25). Why? If the king is dead, pack a bag, right? Wrong the son of Pharaoh would now reign, he was worse and more arrogant than his father.

In the meantime Moses married Zipporah, one of the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midian priest. The Midians will play a major role in the Wilderness, but for here we simply want to identify the father of Zipporah as a priest of the Medians. Going back to Genesis 25 we find Midian is from the third family of Abraham (Gen 25:2), thus there was a connection between Jethro and Moses, although distant.

Moses at this time was still uncircumcised, he didn’t have the Token for the Abrahamic Covenant, since the token stopped with the captivity. They would again enter the Covenant by taking the token, but only after deliverance began. This type and shadow shows no one is going to have the Spirit until deliverance happens, it’s the very issue in Acts 10 when Peter saw the Holy Ghost fall on Cornelius. Peter knew Jesus had accepted Cornelius, thus Peter rushed to get some water in order to water baptize Cornelius as acceptance of the man into the Body. If Jesus accepted the Gentile, who was Peter to deny him?

However, as far as Zipporah knew Moses was an Egyptian, but when Moses is told by God to become circumcised, then to circumcise his sons in order to enter the covenant, Zipporah will see who this supposed Egyptian really is, and have a fit. Why not? She was deceived, but Moses couldn’t enter the calling with deception hanging over his head. Clarity comes in many ways, for Moses it was taking away his “Egyptian mask”.

There were other cultures who used circumcision as a tribal rite, but not in the same manner as the Hebrews. The offspring of Ishmael circumcised at the age of 13, since Ishmael was circumcised at 13, but it still didn’t grant them the Covenant. Tribal rites are one thing, entering a Covenant with God another. Unless one is Baptized in water for the specific purpose of entering the Body of Christ, it’s not “baptism”, a bath maybe, or a back stroke. The Body of Christ is the only organization granted the Godly authority to baptize others in water (Matt 28:18-20).

Two thoughts surround Zipporah, one is she died then Moses married an Ethiopian  woman (Numb 12:1); however, where would Moses get an Ethiopian woman? Ethiopia was south of Egypt, the wilderness north, they were in the wilderness when Jethro brought Zipporah to Moses, thus she was still alive then (Ex 18:5). In order to understand what Aaron and Miriam meant by the term “Ethiopian woman” one must go back to Cush. The Ethiopians came from Cush, to the Jew calling someone an “Ethiopian” was the same as calling them “Nimrod” (Gen 10:7). It’s a slang term, thus Zipporah didn’t stand by her man, in fact she sent her man packing. She also rejected the act of circumcision for her two sons, yet circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, the Covenant of the Law of Moses was yet future tense at this point.

Moses having his wife with him would be wise if one considers the murmuring, complaining, doom seeking children. If they jumped all over Moses, guess what they would do to his wife? If they do things in a Green Tree, what will the do in a Dry? (Luke 22:31). In Numbers when Aaron and Miriam confront Moses their precept will be correct, but their approach in error; it becomes an important issue when Moses misrepresents God at the Rock. It simply doesn’t make sense for God to keep Moses from the Promised Land for hitting a Rock. For us it’s a sign not to crucify Christ twice, but what else was there?  Moses took out his anger on the Rock, it was like inflicting justice on the Rock, but Paul says the Rock is Christ (anointing), thus when Moses stuck the Rock it was like hitting the anointing over the people. The first time he struck the rock it was akin to Jesus being smitten on the Cross, afterward any “blows” would be to the Body. Moses was mad at the people, he took out his anger on the Rock, something none of us should ever do.

However, Moses just hit a plain old rock, how could it keep him out of the Promised Land? What came from the Rock? Water, from our bellies comes living water (Jn 7:38-39). The Rock represented something to the people, but it represented more to God. Paul used the example when talking to the Corinthians, let’s face it the Corinthians needed help. Paul wasn’t going to strike them with stones of theological abuse, or anger, he was going to apply correction through love. Paul understood the concept of hitting the Rock, Paul was a piece of the Rock, be careful Corinthians, you may be striking the Rock, yet banishing your own selves from the Promised Land (I Cor 10:4).

We can see how Moses’ misrepresentation was a gross error, if God punished Miriam for her misrepresentation, surely the warning was there. It takes care of the metaphor usage of the term “Ethiopian woman”, it has nothing to do with the nation, it had to do with the connection to Cush through Nimrod, coupled with the rejection of the Token to the Abrahamic Covenant by Zipporah.

This also brings up the question regarding the two sons of Moses, Gershom and Eliezer. Did they make it to the Promised Land? Were they of the order of Levi? Let’s see, if a male is considered Jewish, it means their mother must also be Jewish, if a male is connected to the kingly order, it means their father must be connected to the blood line of David, so where does it leave Gershom and Eliezer? David wasn’t even in the picture, so any “king” connection isn’t considered, but what about the Jewish aspect? Their mother wasn’t Jewish, but wait, who was at this time? The term doesn’t become a factor until the children enter the Promised Land, thus the term “Hebrew” is at issue, meaning the requirements to be “Jewish” weren’t a consideration. The sign regarding a Hebrew then was circumcision of the flesh plus the connection to Isaac (Gen 17:10-12). If we jump to First Chronicles 23:15-23 we find Gershom and Eliezer remained with Moses in the wilderness after Jethro brought them and Zipporah to Moses. The line from Aaron produced the priestly order, but from Moses came the “chiefs”, the chiefs were in charge of keeping the tabernacle in order, caring for the courtyard, as well as seeing the outer camps were set up in order. The requirement for being a priest or chief was to be a Levi, Jewish or not, Hebrew or not,.

From Gershom would come Shebuel, who was a chief (I Chron 23:16); from Eliezer would come Rehabiah who was also a chief (I Chron 23:16). From this we find the sons of Moses were circumcised before Moses faced Pharaoh, then after the children left Egypt and entered the wilderness Jethro the father-in-law of Moses brought the wife of Moses with the two sons of Moses into the wilderness for the sake of reuniting the family. From the evidence in Chronicles we find it worked, helping us define this “Ethiopian” woman as the wife of Moses, and why the rebellion of Aaron and Miriam was such an issue, don’t forget Aaron died in the wilderness (Numb 20:28).

Hitting the Rock was an outburst of anger, but there were other issues, how could Moses “judge” the people if he held unforgiveness toward his own wife? Without saying it, or perhaps without knowing it Aaron and Miriam were about to turn the entire system upside down by their misplaced accusation. If Moses failed to forgive his own, how could the people expect mercy from God? The man of God represented God, although Aaron’s garments protected him at the time, we find Miriam had no such protection, she was immediately taken by leprosy. Later when the “garment” of Aaron was removed, so was his protection; the mercy he failed to grant came back as his own condemnation, he died in the wilderness.

Moses and Aaron were brothers, Miriam their sister, they were direct descendents of Levi. When Levi was still around he had no idea his line would be the priestly order, rather all he heard was, “Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in their habitations”, with “cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Gen 49:5-7). Was Israel a physical land then? No, but it was a Nation. Levi was to be Divided, so it was, the priestly order from the political body. Moses’ line is interesting, before Abraham knew there was a “priestly order”, God had it all figured out.

By the time Abraham married Katurah Isaac was well grown, the Covenant was well known among the various families. There is no mention of the children of Abraham and Katurah being circumcised, even Josephus who mentions Katurah doesn’t mention if they were circumcised. Which would add to the concerns of Zipporah, she had to know the descendents of Isaac and Ishmael were the only ones who honored circumcision, as well as how it connected the descendents of Isaac to the Covenant. All this helps explain why Zipporah regarded circumcision a “bloody rite”.

From this we find both Moses and Zipporah come from Abraham, but were divided by cultures. Moses who came from Isaac, who was subject to the promise, Zipporah coming from Midian, who was not, causing a conflict; however, the only requirement on the sons of Moses was circumcision, then later keeping the sabbath, thus anyone from Isaac who was circumcised had a “right to the covenant”, anyone who kept the “sabbath day” who was of Israel had a right to the Law, which allowed both the sons of Moses rights to the order through Moses, but it still didn’t mean they were Jewish, at this point in time it didn’t matter.

It’s also clear it was God who told Moses to circumcise his sons, meaning God extended the covenant to the sons of Moses through Moses, only God could. All this shows the complexity of the system, in order for a male to be considered a “Hebrew subject to the Promise” they must be circumcised of the flesh, in order to be a “Jew subject to the Promise, they must be circumcised of the flesh when they are eight days old as well as their mother being Jewish”, thus Luke uses the phrase “as was supposed”, then lists the males in the line of Mary, following Mary’s father to Nathan the son of David, who was not a king. Luke uses the term “as was supposed” in two avenues, first he shows Joseph was not the real father of Jesus, rather it’s “as was supposed”, but the term was also used to list the father’s of the women, thus the father of Mary was Heli (Luke 3:23). In Matthew we find the father’s listed relating to the kingly line, thus the father of Joseph is listed as “Jacob” (Matt 1:16). Following both lines back to David we find Matthew lists Solomon, the son of David, but Luke lists Nathan another son of David (Matt 1:6 & Luke 3:31). All very interesting, so complex it would be a complete violation for any person who held the office of priest to make their self a king. Which we know happened in the Maccabees family, it not only ended the reign, but Herod killed all the remaining members, including his own wife and her two sons. One of the major divisions between the Old and New is the issue of priest and king, we are circumcised of heart, Jesus has made both kings and priests unto God; we didn’t make ourselves kings or priests (Rom 2:29 & Rev 1:6).

Zipporah’s father was first known as Reuel, then Jethro (Ex 2:18 & 3:1). Reuel is a Midian name meaning, A friend of God; whereas, Jethro is the Midian translation of the Hebrew Jether, meaning His excellence, we find the man’s name was “Reuel”, his title was “Jethro”. The names also reflect how Moses felt about his father-in-law, as he associated him more to the Hebrews, than the Midians. Later when Jethro comes into the wilderness Moses will treat him with respect, listening to the “elder”. It’s important, for some reason we want everyone to listen to our “prophetic words”, but we reject the words spoken by others. Give and it shall be given is a principle, not a suggestion.

There will be another connection to the Midians, a man named “Balaam”. Balaam was known as a prophet, the man never gave a false prophecy, it was his character and teachings becoming his error. We use the phrase, “God is not a man that He should lie”, and rightfully so, but the prophet who said it was Balaam. Balaam lived among the Midians, since they came from Abraham, we can see how the “prophet Abraham” had offspring who were priests and prophets as well. Prophet or not, being in the Covenant was the goal.

The inter-religion marriage of Moses would almost seem at conflict with the man’s calling, but it fit right in. Jethro was able to look at the event from the outside, yet one would think Moses who talked to God, would be able to hear the suggestions of God. Ahh, there are times when we can’t see the trees for the forest, nor can we hear the Voice of the Lord because of the confusion of the event. God used the priest of Midian to assist Moses, it would be Jethro who will suggest the “judging system” to Moses.

Although Moses gained a family with Jethro, he was still a Hebrew, called as a deliverer of God’s children. This process shows how God allowed Moses to be removed to train him, in order to send him back. God didn’t leave Moses with Jethro, rather it was just another step in the training process for his calling. Jesus told us He is the Door to the sheepfold, we enter, are trained, then we leave and return. This entrance time is not ten or fifteen seconds, it’s a time of  discipleship.

Moses ran from Egypt based in fear, so what good would he have been as a deliverer? None, thus God allowed events to take place in order for Moses to run, in order to get the man alone on a mountain, in order to instill courage in the man so he could become a deliverer. Don’t curse our wildernesses, neither reject the caves or mountains, they are places of great benefit.

One day while Moses was tending Jethro’s flock on the backside of the mountain of the Lord, an angel of the Lord appeared in the midst of a burning bush, yet the bush was not consumed (Ex 3:1-2). Moses wasn’t on the right side of God’s mountain, but on the backside, the burning bush is a symbol of God’s fire of affliction. The fire of God burns, yet it doesn’t destroy us, it builds us. The fires in the world destroy, but consider this, a fire in a forest may appear to destroy, but as time passes we find life comes forth from the charred ground. The fire of God is to remove wood, hay and stubble, so the Wheat can grow without hindrance. This entire experience shows how close Moses was to Egypt in locale, Mount Sinai is still around today, as are other mountains (they do that, you know). Sinai is located near the very place where the children will cross the Red Sea in their Exodus, thus the route they left by, was considerably close to the route Moses entered by.

God talked to Moses from the midst of the bush telling him, “Draw near, take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground” (Ex 2:4-5). The shoes of Moses were still signs of bondage; we are given a different type of shoe for the preparation of the Gospel; preparation always begins with repentance and belief. Godly repentance is based on turning from darkness, then turning toward the Light to become the Light. Anyone can turn from danger then travel another direction, yet never travel toward the Light. Repentance to avoid the danger or exposure without the fruit of desiring a change is useless. There are degrees of steps in the Process, although we are declared Justified and Righteous, we find those elements are in the New Man, the New Man is bringing them to pass in our lives.

God predestinated Moses, but then comes the calling, then the beginning of the process (Rom 8:29-30). This shows we can be Predestinated, but it doesn’t mean God is going to force us to enter the plan, rather He Calls, we answer. Of course when the Voice of the Lord “calls” it’s hard to resist, but we still have the choice to resist, or accept.

When faced with the calling Moses said, “Who am I, that I should go” (Ex 3:6-11). In this phrase, as well as some to follow, Moses is asking God, “why not send the man who is suppose to go?”. Moses, like many of us entered the “I’m not worthy” stage, he was right, as are we. If we think we’re worthy of the calling, we’ll abuse it. God isn’t looking for power horses, there are more than enough of those. God is looking for the one who knows without God, they are nothing, absolutely nothing. In this case we can see how God had more confidence in Moses, than Moses had in Moses, which is really a good sign. If we have more confidence in ourselves than God has, we will end using the Pride of Life, not the Power of His Christ.

All of us have felt we’re not the one God wanted, just someone down the list of the Called. If God knows all things, if God picked fifty before us, yet they all rejected the call but we became the one who said, “Here I am, send me”, then in God’s eyes we are the first. If God knew the others would reject the call, yet knew we wouldn’t, doesn’t it fit God would present the calling to them first, knowing they would reject it, knowing we wouldn’t? We were really First Choice, the others may have asked, but they didn’t have the desire, yet God gave them opportunity. They can never say, “I would have done it, if You would’ve asked me”. If we are doing the calling, then we were God’s first choice.

God not only has a plan, but He gives us the skill to carry out the plan. Moses could chase away a few shepherds, but face Pharaoh? Ha! There had to be something from God on the man to give him the ability to bring forth what was in the man. It may sound strange, but when Moses builds the Tabernacle he will recognize what God did for him; there comes a time when we recognize what God has done in our lives.

God answered Moses saying, “Certainly I will be with you” (Ex 3:12). God never sends us anywhere without giving us the ability, He will never ask us to do anything without giving us the skill to perform the task, but He will ask us to have faith beyond our limits. Moses will try a different approach by asking God, “Who shall I say has sent me?” (Ex 3:13). God said, “I Am That I Am, You shall say I Am has sent me to you” (Ex 3:14). God didn’t say, “I was that I was”, or “I will be that I will be”, or “I have been”; the former would be past tense, the latter future. God is Alpha and Omega, not Alpha or Omega. This would be the first time God would reveal His Omnipresence to man, yet part of Abraham’s faith entailed the knowledge of God being Omnipresent. Abraham didn’t need God to tell him “I Am”, rather the man believed without having to hear each detail of God’s greatness. Abraham summed it up with “Almighty God”, knowing God was fully able.

There are some who think the “Name of God” is some form of identification, much like God walking into a room showing His Passport to prove who He is, but the Name refers to a point of authority. The old question, “well wouldn’t you like to be known by your name? Well so would God” falls apart when we find the Name of God refers to His Authority, not His birth certificate. Why should God identify Himself? He Is, which is the same as “I Am”, thus by God using the “I Am” we find Him telling Moses, “Whatever you need I Am, whatever it takes I Am”. The same is true with the Name of Jesus, it too is a point of Authority, thus the various Names of God used in the Old Testament point to the authority He is using at any given moment. The proof of this is Matthew 28:18-20; as the Son of man Jesus had power and authority to forgive sins on earth (Mark 2:10 et al), but after the Resurrection it changed to “heaven and earth” when Jesus stood as the Son of God. Then we find the Name, not “names” of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost became centered in the Name (Authority) of Jesus. If we confuse the Name with identification, we will miss the Authority. Clearly when we see “the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost” two things are obvious, first it’s Name not Names, next the Son is included in the phrase. Since it’s the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost then Jesus is the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9). It’s not an Only condition, rather it’s an inclusive position, thus we are in the Body of Christ, not the Body of Elohiym. Whatever Name God used in the Old Testament is wrapped up into the granted Authority of the Son, thus God did talk to man by the prophets, now it’s by His Son. Without Authority we have no basis for Power, thus Jesus first granted the Authority, then said Tarry for Power from on high.

Moses operated under a specific Authority from God, Abraham didn’t know the Authority Moses would use, because Abraham didn’t need deliverance from slavery. When God said, “I Am” it was present tense, it wasn’t future, or past. Moses was called from the foundation of the world, but Moses didn’t know it. The false concept of predestination removes choice, or denies it. However, the Bible is full of people who made choices. God didn’t tell Abraham, “I have a covenant and you are going to enter it, or die”. Neither did He tell these people, “You will leave Egypt, or die”. The plan is there, but it doesn’t mean the Plan will control us, dominate us, or place us in bondage to it. God knows everything, we don’t; He knows if we will accept the plan or not. God didn’t tell Abraham, “perhaps they will leave in 400 years, give a decade or two”, God knew the exact second they would leave, since He saw it before man did. If we are in the Body then God called us, if God called us, He is willing to Justify us, if He prepared the Justification then He also has planned for us to be Glorified. However, it’s not God’s salvation at stake, ours is. God knew everything before the foundation, it’s we who don’t know. Our faith and trust in God places us on the path of Righteousness, the New Man is our Righteousness, and fully able to bring us into the fullness of the Justification. When we add Mercy (Water) and the Blood (Grace) to the equation we have the Witness in full force and effect. However, Moses didn’t have the witness, he had the burning bush coupled with the Voice from the bush.

Belief is based in past information or experiences, Moses was gaining a foundation of belief, thus his faith would have a solid platform to lead him forward. We are told to believe in our heart God raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus said He would raise Himself, Romans says it was the Spirit, Galatians says it was the Father, One God all in all. But why raised? Why not the Cross? The Resurrection is our hope, many people have died, but only Jesus has been Resurrected. Lazarus was not resurrected, he was resuscitated. Paul said why even baptize toward death, if the dead raise not? What possible advantage is it to be dead, or imputed dead if there is no Resurrection?

God is not bound, limited by, or subject to time, thus He is always Now. Time is only an element associated with death, since God is not subject to death, time is relative. When God was talking to Moses, He was also talking to Jacob, Abraham, you and I. God is everywhere at all times, at anytime, at the same time. While God was telling Moses what Moses would do, it was Now in God’s eyes. When God was telling Abraham about the captivity, it was not something future tense to God, it was Now, thus God is “I Am”. The very meaning of Eternity coupled with Immortal means a constant Now, thus in heaven we will not be bound to time. When God was talking to Moses, God was calling things as a were not to Moses, but a were to God; all Moses had to do was believe the words by agreeing with God’s vision in order to enter the faith to complete the calling (Ex 3:15-22). After hearing, Moses said, “they won’t believe me” (Ex 4:1). Moses didn’t say, “I don’t believe You”; rather his fear of rejection was clouding his judgment: instead of saying, “God is my strength”, he said, “I am slow of speech”.

Some of us know what God can do with others, it’s our trust in Him working with us causing our bouts with doubts. Moses was given a sign, by the sign he would know God would provide signs to convince the people (Ex 4:2-9). However, the first purpose for signs and wonders was to convince Moses. It’s true Moses will speak, but it won’t be his words to convince the people, it will be the signs and wonders. In this case it had to be the signs and wonders to convince him, they are not the same produced by the Christian, but nonetheless signs and wonders. How much more of a benefit do we have? Rather than frogs, plagues and the such, God has given us healings, miracles and the Power of His Christ to bring forth the Word of Truth.

Moses had a speech impediment, thus he told the Lord, “I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since you have spoken unto Your servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Ex 4:10). “Ah gee Moses, I didn’t know, go back and send in the next person in line”. Moses had the problem going up the mountain, he still had it, thus he felt God had to heal his speech to make him a leader, he was looking at the wrong foundation. Moses has yet to learn who God is; God knew he had a speech impediment, so what? He isn’t asking Moses to star in a movie; Moses was under the false impression he had to Impress Pharaoh with fancy speech, God was looking for the “bus”, there were tons of “bus drivers” out there.

Moses wanted to see and feel, but God told Moses, “Who made man’s mouth? or who makes the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind? have not I the Lord?” (Ex 4:11). If Moses had a speech problem, it was God who did it. Moses discovered God makes the blind for a purpose, it’s not based on some sin the fetus committed, rather it’s to provide for the evidence to show God’s power (Jn 9:3-4).

When Jesus sent the disciples out to proclaim the Gospel, He said, “Preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils..” (Matt 10:7-8). During the earthly ministry the kingdom was at hand, we have it in hand. Paul said, “the Gospel doesn’t come in Word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance” (I Thess 1:5). Signs and wonders follow the Believer, if we want to find a Believer we look for the trail of signs, but the Believer doesn’t look for signs, they bring them (Mark 16:16-18). Of course one must know what signs and wonders entail, or they might limit the phrase.

The evidence of Mark 16:16-18 is found in Acts, the signs did follow. Signs and wonders include a change in life, as well as producing something to assist a person to secure them in their belief. The evidence of the signs in Egypt show the very premise, God was building their belief, so they would have faith in the wilderness. What would happen if we preached yet no one needed a physical healing, or no one needed a devil cast out? Would we say there were no “signs and wonders”, even if all came to the Lord? Of course not, the people coming to the Lord is a sign and a wonder: from death to life based on faith in Jesus is always a sign and wonder.

Three times God tells Moses, he is the one God has picked, however, Moses just came to see the bush, he didn’t come to be called. Moses kept coming up with excuses to avoid the call then, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses” (Ex 4:14). The second time we find the word Prophet in the Bible it has to do with Aaron, but verse 14 tells us the calling came from the “anger of the Lord”, this is very important when we get to the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses came as a result of God’s Mercy to avoid His Wrath, the Law of the Spirit as a result of God’s Love secured by His Spirit.

Moses was a Hebrew, he knew the mark of the covenant was circumcision; however, he was not circumcised. This takes us to the deception Moses used at the well, thus God will clear up issues by bringing tares to the surface. How do we know? Exodus 12 talks about “them” being circumcised, yet the act again stopped in the wilderness, in Joshua 5:5 we find the next generation had to be circumcised before they left the wilderness. The point remains the sons of Moses were not circumcised, showing he hid his Hebrew heritage from this wife. Now God has commanded for Moses and his sons to be circumcised. Other than “remove your shoes”, this would be the next step of obedience. The wife of Moses was so mad, she circumcised the children, then called Moses a bloody man, a common phrase used against the Hebrews (Ex 4:24-26 & 2:19). The wife of Moses didn’t go with him into Egypt, Paul tells us, if the unbelieving don’t want to walk our path and they go, let them, we are not under bondage in such cases (I Cor 7:15). Here the evidence also shows if the Lord tells us to go, yet the unbelieving mate says “No, I will stay”, we still go, but we’re not under bondage in such cases. However, it’s not the same as tossing them out, then saying, “they left, I’m not under bondage”.

The wife of Moses knew God was in the mountain, yet when it came to the token of circumcision she held to her traditions. Her traditional thinking produced her anger, leading to bitterness, then the slanderous words against her husband. This same attitude will produce the phrase “Ethiopian woman”.

The circumcision at this point is also important, Moses was entering the Covenant God made with Abraham, which had to take place before Moses faced Pharaoh on behalf of the Hebrews. The deliverer was connected to the Abrahamic Covenant, since God promised Abraham there would be one; how would it look if God sent a man who was not marked with a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant?

The Lord then sends Aaron, the older brother of Moses to meet Moses (Ex 4:27-28). God called Moses alone, but God never pushes us beyond our own capabilities, thus Aaron was called as the prophet to Moses, but Moses was like a god to Aaron and Pharaoh (Ex 7:1). We found this doesn’t mean Moses was God, nor does it mean he was an independent little god. However it also shows God gave the Law to Moses, then Moses gave the Law to the people, but Moses is not subject to the Law named after him. Although we read how God appointed Moses as a god over Pharaoh, we also recall the promise of the serpent to Eve to be as “gods”, so what is the difference? Who has the authority to grant the position? God alone, the serpent not only lacked the authority, but his promise was deceptive. The devil was promising Adam they could be independent of God, not dependent on God. Moses will still be dependent on God, but not subject to Aaron, or Pharaoh.

With all this we find the many families of Abraham involved, but only one of them was privy to the Promise. The Hyskos came from Abraham’s third family, Moses’ father-in-law also came from Abraham’s third family, so did Balaam, thus any of them could say, “we are Abraham’s seed”, but would it be Truth? No, the Seed of Abraham comes from one line, the line must include Isaac. The family tree of Moses shows how he came from Levi, through Gershon, Libni, then Arman. Moses was the fourth generation of the third son, but more important is the ranking order. Moses came from the first son of Levi, thus he had standing, but Moses was not the first son of Arman, rather Aaron was. This would be strange, except we find God picked Aaron to be a priest and prophet to Moses. This also shows how God knew the Law of Moses was not going to be the First Law in ranking, the First Law in ranking came Second (Law of the Spirit). Later in Numbers we will read about a man named Korah, who was also a third generation from Levi. Since Korah was third, with Moses as the fourth, Korah felt he had standing, but soon found a ground shaking experience rebuking his self-imposed thoughts.

Moses was not required to keep the Law of Moses, since God gave the Law to Moses for the people, thus Moses stood face to face with God or better, became God’s friend. The term, “face to face” doesn’t mean Moses saw God, it means they talked without something between them. The Law of Moses stands as Moses (it’s why they call it the Law of Moses), thus the doer is hidden behind the Law, meaning they can’t be seen by God. Therefore, we find God instilled an authority and power into the Law of Moses, the person does a deed, the Law of Moses rewards the person. Thereby showing the difference between who does the deeds in the Law of Moses and the Cheerful Giver who is loved of God.

The sabbath day is the Token for the Law of Moses, once someone takes the token of the Law of Moses, they are bound to it until they die, or receive the Cross, where they impute death (Col 2:14-20). Although the doer of the Law thinks they are honoring God, we find the Law of Moses is against them, it points out their sin, convicts them by finding them guilty of death (Rom 7:8-14). However the Law of the Spirit is different, it’s not designed to separate us from God, but join us to God, it is never against us, it’s always for us, it does not send a blessing to us, it makes us a blessing. The token for the Law of the Spirit is the Seal of the Holy Spirit, which is the circumcision of the heart (Eph 1:13). The Spirit in us is the Token to show we are “sons of God”, the position also includes being a representative, but in our case we have the added ability of the Water (Mercy), Blood (Grace) with the Spirit (Born Again), elements Moses never had, yet Moses was able to stand toe to toe with Pharaoh, yet Pharaoh could do him no harm. What then is our excuse?

Clearly Moses was going to represent God to Pharaoh; therefore, the only connection Pharaoh would have to God, would be what he sees in Moses. There are many who judge God by what they see the people of God do, so the enemy sends in tares to slander the reputation of God, but the wheat enhance the reputation of God.

The first time Moses and Aaron speak to the people, the people believed, but belief without knowledge is soon lost (Ex 4:30-31). Their belief lasted until Pharaoh placed some burden on them. This relates to the Ground receiving the Seed with gladness, then when affliction comes for the Word’s sake. The foundation must be established, in the case of the Seed the ground must hold the believe of God Is. Belief is based on past information or experiences, but it’s nonetheless a Now confidence. Faith is also a Now confidence, based on the unseen, but projected to a future hope. Some of us read Hebrews 11:1 as, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, producing the unseen”, but it’s not what the verse says. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”, which shows Faith is the Substance (confidence) of something not seen, thus James shows our faith can be seen (James 2:18). Therefore belief is not the unseen element from which faith comes, but it is the foundation directing our faith. The unseen is the Hope, yet from the manner in which one uses their faith, we can detect their source. If they have faith in man, their measure of faith is motivated by the spirit of man. If they have faith in the world, their measure of faith is motivated by the spirit lusting to envy; thus the spirit of man knows the things of man, but is completely ignorant of the Spiritual things of God (I Cor 2:11). The spirit of the world is the source behind the he in the world, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:12). If our faith is in God, the source is the New Man. If one is double-minded, they have some faith in the world, some in man, some in their abilities, talent or gift, what is left over they put in God. When the event sets itself against them, they send their faith in all sorts of directions, but have limited it so much, they panic, falling into despair. Moses had to learn to trust in God, the people will make the mistake of putting their trust in Moses, later the religious rulers will trust in the Law, rather than in God.

These people had to be trained in faith before they could leave Egypt, the training began with signs and wonders to build their belief. Why would it be important? They were about to cross the Wilderness, surely if God could deliver them from Pharaoh’s hand, He could deliver them through the Wilderness. They will cross the Red Sea by faith (Heb 11:29), then dance up a storm on the shore, three days later the test will prove them. Their experience is vital to us, God provided all the material for training, yet they rejected it. A Believer has to be ready to receive truth, but they also have to be aware there are some who are not delivering truth, rather they are attempting to involve us in the cares of this world. Pharaoh will deliver a few signs of his own, but there will be a cut off point, a time when Pharaoh will seal his fate, yet at the same time the children’s freedom will be in hand.

Without a firm trust in the Lord, faith becomes self-confidence, or good time faith, looking to benefit the self. It will move mountains, sometimes right on top of other people. A Faith working by Love will also move mountains, but never on top of people. Faith is tested in the valleys, not on the mountain tops. Faith cements our joy in the times of trouble, pointing our hearts to God. Faith doesn’t need to understand the event, it knows the result will be based in the will of God, whether we understand the purpose or not. Faith doesn’t have to like the circumstance, it holds to God through it. Faith pleases God, it doesn’t have to be pleasing to us. Faith begins when we believe God Is, then reaches to He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, but faith doesn’t dictate the reward (Heb 11:6). Faith doesn’t look at pending destruction, it looks for God’s deliverance (Heb 11:7). Faith doesn’t see God as the Almighty Taskmaster, but as the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The works of faith are obedience through love to please God and benefit others (Heb 11:8); the attitude of faith is joy, trust, obedience, confidence in God, with an assurance in God’s ability (Heb 11:11& Rom 4:3-22).

Obedience without love lacks joy, often producing the root of bitterness, thus it becomes Reluctant Obedience, rather than Willing Obedience. Faith which pleases God works by love, thus we can have great faith, but without love it doesn’t seek to please God, it seeks to be pleased (Gal 5:6). Godly faith looks to please God, even if we chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Heb 11:25). Moses will keep the Passover by faith, trusting in God’s promise to be protected, even when the evidence outside the door shows the firstborn of Egypt were dying (Heb 11:27-28). Faith doesn’t escape the event through fear, faith obeys as we are delivered through, or around the event. Faith never attempts to save itself, it follows the deliverance God has established. By faith some escaped the violence of fire, the edge of the sword, yet by faith some were stoned, cut asunder, slain with the sword, some wandered about in sheepskins, being destitute, subject to affliction and tormented, but they nonetheless had faith (Heb 11:33-38). Faith is not a means to enhance the self, it’s a means to maintain confidence in God in all events, good, bad or indifferent. Faith trusts the Lord in good times, or bad times, whether the event pleases us or not.

Moses held little confidence in the burning bush, but his faith in God grew through his experiences with God, until there came a time when Moses wanted to be a friend of God, then he wanted to know God’s Way (Heb 11:25-28). Trust leads to love, love leads to trust, we can trust people to do what they should, but we never put our trust in people. Putting our trust in people means we trust them for our deliverance, safety, need, salvation, security, or protection, if our trust is in man, yet man fails, we fall further than they.

The burning bush was a sign, but the voice of God is where Moses found his confidence. Moses will face the wilderness with his measure of faith in the Lord, although Moses will be faced with a bunch of unbelieving people, he won’t allow the unbelief of others to disrupt his love for the Lord. However, they will get “his goat” from time to time, yet even when they are attacking him, he will stand before God begging for Mercy on their behalf, becoming “faith at work”. Pharaoh is a type of the a vessel of dishonor, Moses a vessel of honor, when things looked bad Moses was motivated by Mercy, but Pharaoh attacked through his hard heart of bitterness.

Moses won’t run when faced with the threats from Pharaoh, as he did when he murdered the Egyptian. Moses will still have the same natural nature, but a man with an experience always out weighs one with an opinion. There is something about God talking through a burning bush to make one change their thinking.

MOSES BEFORE PHARAOH

After Moses and Aaron saw the belief of the people, they marched into Pharaoh saying, The God of the Hebrews was with them, but instead of telling Pharaoh to free the people from bondage, the first request was to allow the children to go for three days and sacrifice unto the Lord (Ex 5:1-3). Did God change His mind? No, the mercy of God is reaching, God knew Pharaoh would say no, but opportunity is the issue. Also this is the first sign, we will find three days into the wilderness the children will be tested, they can give their sacrifice of praise, or murmur.

This is another example of God’s knowledge, we would think, “gee, what will happen if Pharaoh says Okay?”. We know the Egyptians, including this new order, considered the shepherds an abomination, thus God figured the false premise into the plan. God is merciful, He wanted to take His people away from the eyes of the Egyptians, so the Egyptians would not be offended. All this is within God’s mercy, but it will also harden the heart of Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn’t see the mercy, he saw the children out of his control. The voice of mercy was present, but the mind of Pharaoh resisted it, so did Mercy harden his heart? Who has ever heard of such a thing? Right here, when Mercy is applied to one who has none, it will have a reverse effect by hardening their heart the more. Is it the fault of the Mercy? No, it’s the fault of the one who has the hard heart of unbelief.

Another aspect of the “three days” for the Sacrifice is a type and shadow of the joy found in the Resurrection of Jesus, telling us why we seek the Power of His Resurrection, whether we understand the fullness of the Power or not. Paul said he was instructed to abound and be abased, these children loved the abounding, hating the abasing. After three days in the wilderness the children find “bitter water”, Moses puts a tree (wood) in the water, changing it from bitter to sweet. Types and shadows, yet we also see something about ourselves. There are times when we are full of joy, God did something we liked, we are abounding, yet when it comes time for instruction, we rebel, murmur, or kick the family cat, yet the instruction is to teach us to Trust God in all things, as it gives us a foundation to have the Rest of God in the sufficiency of Christ (Ph’l 4:12-17). For these people it was trust in God through the wilderness, the evidence is before them, will they?

The wildernesses of God are all purposed for something, the first wilderness is not for us to tempt the Lord, rather it’s to prove our love for God, thus in the proving, our love  becomes stronger. Experience builds confidence, but opinions build strongholds. God will prove His love for these people while they are yet in Egypt, then it becomes their turn to prove their love for God. God knew the hindering nature of Pharaoh would never allow the people freedom to express their love, or make a free will decision. On the other hand using the hindrance of Pharaoh as an excuse not to love the Lord would be rebellion. The second we accepted the Cross the devil with his wiles became ineffective in our lives, whether we believe it or not is a different story. The second these children crossed the Sea, Pharaoh became ineffective in their lives, whether they believe it or not, is a different story, actually it is the story isn’t it?

One could make the mistake of thinking Moses allowed fear to enter, then changed the plan from “Let My people go”, to “a couple of days is all we need kind sir”. Not so, as noted, this is an expression of God’s mercy. The connection is found in Romans, Paul by the Holy Ghost saw this then used it to show God’s Mercy. “Has not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: so He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of Mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom 9:21-23). In the same area we also read, “For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, so I might show My power in you, and My Name might be declared throughout the earth. Therefore has He (God) Mercy on whom He will have Mercy, and whom He will He will harden” (Rom 9:17-18). What Name? Jehovah? El? I Am? Or God’s Authority? The Authority of course, the day when God delivered these people, it proved God can deliver His own.

Since the test in the wilderness is to determine if the people love the Lord or not, as well as determine if they were willing to serve Him, this “sacrifice” mentioned by Moses goes much further than animals, it included the people giving of themselves unto the Lord. These people asked God to deliver them, thus their request displayed how only God could deliver them, if so, then God is God. The token of our Water Baptism included our vow to continue to Believe in God regardless of the event, we also vowed to serve Him from within the Body in appreciation for our deliverance. Our testings not only determine how willing we are to keep the vow, but each testing affirms the vow in us.

Pharaoh not only rejected God’s Mercy, he rejected the man sent by God, then attacked the position of Moses. Why didn’t Pharaoh say, “wait a second Moses, aren’t you wanted for murder?”. One could say it was a long time ago, but we find is Pharaoh never found out it was Moses who killed the Egyptian. It was a Hebrew who saw Moses kill the Egyptian, thus the information was never given to the Egyptians. Wow, Moses ran for nothing. Not so, if Moses had not run, he would never have found the burning bush. God allowed him to believe something, a strong delusion, so is God deceptive? Not at all, it shows God can allow us to believe something, knowing the test is in our favor.

Instead of Pharaoh taking his anger out on Moses, he took the straw from the children forcing them continue to meet the same quota of bricks, yet gather stubble on their own time (Ex 5:6-12). Who were the subjects in the deliverance? The children, thus when God said, “Let My people go”, Pharaoh inserted his control to show God the people belonged to Pharaoh, not God. The straw was the binding element keeping the bricks from falling apart under pressure. Without straw the bricks would crumble, meaning their quota couldn’t be reached, yet they could not stop work until the quota was reached. This form of manipulation indicates if the quota couldn’t be reached, the people couldn’t leave, not even for one day, much less three.

Moses is also faced with a problem, this wasn’t on his ticket when the boarded the “train of deliverance”. We’ve been there, we assumed God would do one thing, then He does something else. Now what, Moses wasn’t told Pharaoh would pull this stunt, if God is all knowing, He knew it. So, did God fool Moses? No, how many of us knew what God had for us when we said, “Here am I, send me”?. Training unto faith means we don’t know the details, but our belief and faith are honed to accept them. Therefore, this was an area building faith in Moses, how he reacted would be seen by the children, they had their example, if they receive it. The days of facing Pharaoh, or dealing with the children was forming the leader for the wilderness.

The children have yet to see a “sign” of God, what they see is the wrath of Pharaoh. True, before the children saw the signs they were not privy to the knowledge of what happens when one comes against the anointed of God. However, all the signs and various plagues should have been enough of a warning to show what happens when one becomes Anti the Anointing. Whether they remember this when they murmur against Moses is yet to be seen. It’s interesting how man views things, the children saw Pharaoh attack Moses, then the result. However, when they are in the wilderness what do they do? Attack Moses.

This is one of those times when we see the nature of God at work, did God know Pharaoh would say “no”? Yes, so why not form a sixty-five foot snake and have it kill the man? It’s not God’s nature, God is giving the man opportunity. We can see God is only giving to Pharaoh, what Pharaoh is giving to God’s children; “give and it shall be given”.

Their lesson is for us as well, there are times when we see the Power of God protecting us, then we assume the same Power gives us the right to attack others. Not so, when we attack others, we become the thing we hate the most. The children would see both God’s love and His wrath, the choice of which one they accepted was theirs, the result, God’s. This also proves how God will repay, vengeance is still His.

The taskmasters used the slavery mentality of the Hebrew children against them by applying more work in an attempt to control them (Ex 5:13-14). The slavery mentality runs to seeking the taskmaster for mercy, before it runs to the deliverer for wisdom. When the event doesn’t please us, we often rebuke the devil, but we should be running to our Deliverer to ascertain the purpose of the event. The weapons of our Warfare are mighty through God, not mighty through strife, envy, division, or the self-nature. When we blame the devil for events when they don’t please us, it’s a sign we are still under a slavery mentality, or worldly minded. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the devil, it got both of them nowhere with God.

The Egyptians did appoint officers from among the Hebrews, not as taskmasters, but as overseers. It was the officers with the children of Israel who went to Pharaoh seeking mercy before they went to God, or to the man of God (Ex 5:15-19). These were not Egyptians, but Hebrews, yet running to gain mercy from Pharaoh, before going to God is always a mistake. This shows us there was a division between the “officers”, and the “taskmasters”. The Taskmasters were Egyptian, the Officers were appointed Hebrews. When Pharaoh denied the officers, they ran to Moses. Who did they fear the most? When they faced Pharaoh, they begged, yet when they faced Moses they complained and demanded (Ex 5:20-23). “Good work, now we’re in for it, we were better before you came here”. The test was on, the tares were flying around like flies.

The slavery mentality had everything backward, but God still said He would deliver them with a “strong hand” (Ex 6:1). God was excusing their slavery mentality while they were in Egypt, but will He after they are delivered? No, deliverance calls for respect toward God, thus they will be expected to act as a free people. The same is true with us, after we are taken from under the hand of the devil, we are suppose to act Godly, rather than devilish.

Moses would be the first to know God as Jehovah, thus Abraham knew God as Almighty God, as his Shield and Promise Bearer. Abraham didn’t know God as Jehovah, rather he named places “Jehovah”. Abraham didn’t need a Deliverer, the titles “Almighty God”, and “Jehovah” both mean Self-Existent One, but Jehovah is the title used in reference to Deliverance, but it was also the Name used by the Jews in reference to God’s Covenant (Ex 6:3 & Gen 17:1). If so, why didn’t Abraham call God “Jehovah”? Ahh, Jehovah brings a Law. The name Jesus means “Jehovah’s Salvation”, or “Salvation of Jehovah”, Jesus brought us a Law as well, the New Covenant is far better than the one God gave.

It’s important to remember Abraham didn’t call God Jehovah-Jireh, he called the various places Jehovah, this is evident when we recall how he named the place of sacrifice Jehovah-Jireh, in reference to God’s provision (Gen 22:14). God based His deliverance on the promise to Abraham, but Abraham didn’t need deliverance; therefore, the extension of Almighty God as Deliverer became Jehovah to Moses, the Authority changed position from Provider to the position of the Deliverer Who Provided A Way From Egypt, yet it’s still One God. In our case the Name of Jesus is fully sufficient, we don’t cast out devils in the Name of Jehovah, neither do we lay hands on people in the Name of Almighty God, the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are granted in the Name of Jesus for the Body of Christ, the only organization on earth with the authority of God.

It’s the same problem we can run into with “Another Comforter, New Man, Greater He, Spirit, Spirit of Christ, Word In Us, Holy Spirit, Christ In Us”, all speak of the Spirit in us, but each relates to some function the Spirit is doing at the moment. As Another Comforter He is our Armor Bearer, as the Word He is dividing and separating, as the New Man he is bringing the Holiness and Righteousness of God, each with a position of authority or power for the moment. If we get mixed up we will assume we have a “meeting” going on inside, when really it’s the activity of the Spirit as a result of being Born Again.

God will show Pharaoh Signs and Wonders, with the Plagues being the Wonders, but does it mean the Signs and Wonders follow the Believer are Plagues? Hardly, the type is predicated by the purpose, we’re under a different set of circumstances. Here the signs and wonders point to Judgment, the signs and wonders for the Believer point to Salvation.

The rod of Aaron turning into a serpent will be the first Sign, but it’s not a Wonder. The water being turned into blood will be the second sign; yet the first wonder will be the first Plague; thus we will see more signs than wonders in the deliverance. These signs and wonders have two purposes, first is to give the children confidence in the delivering power of God, second is to give Pharaoh a chance to see the power of God.

After the children enter the wilderness, they began to rebel based on their unbelief. God will then make another Covenant with them to get them into the Promise Land, but He will also make a contract with them based on the Covenant. When they break (breach) the contract they will remain in the wilderness forty years, but the breaking of the contract did not break the Covenant. The next generation did enter the Promised Land, along with two men from the original group, thus the Covenant was not broken, although the contract was. The Wicked break the contract of Mercy, but it doesn’t stop us from entering the Covenant.

The Law of Moses came to pass in the wilderness, but it came as a result of the people demanding for a man to stand between them and God. It may not sound fair, but the entire nation was present, as a nation they were delivered based on the promise to Abraham, thus they represented the people of the nation. The Law of Moses did not come from the Covenant made with Abraham, it’s different, showing why Abraham didn’t keep the sabbath day. The Law of Moses was based on the Ten Commandments, Abraham didn’t need to be told the same things these children did. We know God told Abraham to leave the house of his father, yet we find a Commandment telling these people to honor their mother and father. Neither do we find circumcision in the Ten Commandments, thus God presented two Covenants, in so doing He was showing He has Covenants for people based on their position. We have the New Covenant based in the Blood of Jesus, our Covenant is so New, it was never before. However, we find like terms, but with different meanings, those who receive the Abrahamic Covenant must be circumcised of the flesh, or they are thieves. Those of the New must be circumcised at heart, or they are rebels. There are many other terms found in both the Old and New Covenants, but with different meanings. The New Covenant is not an extension of the Old, the Old Covenant was inclusive, as we know the “token” or sign for the Covenant made with Abraham was circumcision of the flesh, but the token (sign) for the Law of Moses was keeping the sabbath day. Does it mean if one keeps the sabbath day, they have completed the Law of Moses? No, not at all, it means if they keep the sabbath day, they have taken on the Law of Moses as their judge and guide, thus they must keep all the deeds of the Law. The sabbath day is the Fifth Commandment, it also links the Law of Moses to the Ten Commandments. The Law of Moses came from a spiritual source, but to a people who lacked the Spirit; it’s not from Whom the Law came, but to whom it was directed.

For someone who is seeking self-righteousness the deeds under the Law of Moses fit them, but the Law of Moses never promised anyone heaven, or life after death, it did promise a way of life on the earth until death. The Law of the Spirit promises us Life, so we may have it More abundantly, here on earth and in heaven.

The Law of Moses comes into play when one violates anyone of the Ten Commandments, but we will find since it’s for the people who came from Abraham, it will also speak of circumcision (Lev 12:3). The Law of Moses defines the law of sin and death, thus it has both blessing and cursing, yet we will find there is more emphasis on the cursing than the blessing, thus the Law of Moses has an incentive, do or die. None of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shall try”, or, “Thou shall give it thy best shot”, they do say, “Thou shall”, there is no second chance. If one breaks one of the Commandments, they have broken them all for all time. Paul made this clear in Romans 7, although when he as Saul he wanted to do good for God, he found the Commandment “Thou shall not covet” falling against him. Why? He wanted to be as righteous as God, Moses will be a friend, but even Moses didn’t hold the Righteousness of God. The deed was an act of self-righteousness, which in the mind was fine, but it had to be conducted through the fall nature of the flesh, making it an act to Covet the Righteousness of God. By using the flesh they also end using the fall nature, which ends in covetousness. The only solution is death,  but in our case we can impute the flesh dead on the Cross of Jesus, to gain the Spirit. The only problem is no one can have the Spirit until they are dead, but they must have a like righteousness of God to obtain the Spirit which is of God. What to do? Jesus did it for us, the Spirit of Holiness declared Jesus the Son of God by the Power of the Resurrection. We in turn obtain the same Spirit by the efforts of Jesus, making the Faith of Jesus an important issue. By the Cross and Resurrection we can proclaim we live, the life we now live we live is by the Faith of the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us (Gal 2:20). By the foundation we can enter the Resurrection by obtaining the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. The Process brings us from the Cross of death to the Glorified state of the Resurrection. Self-righteousness is an outward act, the Righteousness of Christ in us is an inward act. The flesh is not a consideration for us, it’s there, we see it, we know it, we battle it, but that Born of the Spirit is still Spirit, meaning our souls are formed by the Spirit to become Spiritual in nature.

Man has a propensity to honor the works of his hands, the wonders of man, are still based on man. The Seven Wonders of the World comprise what man terms, “the greatest feats of ancient technology, architecture and art as seen by Greek and Roman authors”. The list has changed slightly since it first appeared in a poem by Antipater of Sidon in the Greek Anthology (130 BC). He praises the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the  Colossus of Rhodes, and Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, all forms of idols by the hands of man.

The engineer Philo of Byzantium (146 BC) is said to have written the work entitled Peri ton hepta theamaton (Concerning the Seven Wonders of the World), although it may actually date from the Roman Empire. In his enumeration he listed the Walls of Babylon, which various later writers have listed as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Other authors who described the seven wonders were Herodotus (5th century BC), Diodorus, Strabo and Pliny the Elder (all 1st century AD).

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Greek legends tell two stories of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; one says they were built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis (Sammuramat, 810-805 BC). The other, which is supported by the Bible, which most agree to, shows how Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens to remind his wife, a Mede, of her mountainous homeland. Robert Koldewey, the excavator identified the arched substructure of what may have been a terraced garden as a reproduction of the area of Mede. Set in a corner of the palace were fortifications  towering over the famous Ishtar Gate (decorated with blue-enameled reliefs of bulls and dragons) was a 7 meter high (23 ft) wall on which trees had presumably been planted, creating what would have been a majestic view visible to anyone entering on the Processional Way, a view similar to what the wife of Nebuchadnezzar would see in her mountainous homeland.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in Ionia, has given its name to all subsequent tomb monuments. Mausolus, satrap of Caria, was honored with this tomb by his queen, Artemisia (350 BC). The architects Satyros and Pythios designed a temple-like marble tomb with an Ionic colonnade on a high base surrounded by lions; the roof was a 24-step pyramid on the peak of which stood a chariot. The culptors created the frieze, depicting Amazons battling heroes, which is now in the British Museum. The site on which the mausoleum stood was excavated in 1857; the medieval castle at Bodrum, Turkey, contains many fragments from it.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The next “wonder” is the idol Zeus found in the temple at Olympia. Amazing how man will wonder at his own wonders. The idol of Zeus was chryselephantine; made of gold and ivory. Athenian sculptor Phidias (who also designed the statue of Athena in the Parthenon) made the seated figure (436-432 BC) in a special workshop behind the temple. Clearly it was the product of the hand of man, not the mind of God. The figure sat on an elaborate throne covered with ebony, glass, and gemstone inlays as well as sculptures and paintings of Greek myths and legends. It held a scepter with an eagle in its left hand and a Nike (victory goddess) in its right. The lost statue is known from coins and archaeological evidence.

The Colossus of Rhodes

After defeating Demetrius Poliorcetes in 305 BC, the citizens of Rhodes used the booty to erect a thank offering to their divine patron Helios. Chares of Lindos, a pupil of Lysippus, built (292-280 BC) a bronze statue of the nude young god wearing a sun-ray crown and looking out to sea. Many stories exaggerate the size of the statue; it must, however, have been approximately 100 feet high on a base of white marble, thus larger than any other statue. It stood beside, not over, the harbor. Although reinforced with stone and iron, the Colossus broke at the knees, falling in an earthquake 60 years later. It remained a wonder until the Arab invasion (AD 653), when it was broken up and sold for scrap metal. Nothing of it remains except very dubious copies. Although these things were not in Egypt, we find the same natural mind of man moves on in time, as lost man still seeks some idol, whether wood, paper, or flesh and blood.

The Pyramids of Egypt

The pyramids of Egypt are located in the deserts of Giza and Saqqara outside Cairo, they were already rather old before when the other six wonders were built. The Pyramids have been a mystery to modern man, only because modern man must make up his own mysteries. The Pyramids were man’s attempt to make gods out of men. The tradition of such monumental tombs for the pharaohs began with the step pyramid of Zoser, like most things the building itself wasn’t evil, it was the lustful intent and prideful motivation making it  evil. The pyramid of Zoser was supposedly designed by the engineer Imhotep, this pyramid gave the impression of a stone hill 60 meters (197 ft) high. Imhotep made a mark in the “gods” of Egypt as well, he was found to be a priest in some of the later diggings. Successive pharaohs copied and enlarged the form, adding limestone facings. The largest is the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), which is about 147 meters (482 ft) high). Khafre (Chephren), Menkaure (Mykerinos) and others built less impressive pyramids; all by the hand of man. All of us have heard, or read about the Great Pyramid, the fables have impressed man to the point where man has formed all sorts of tales, including the one about the Pyramids being the product of visitors from space, but history shows the workmanship was done by the hand of slaves.

The Pharos of Alexandria

The Pharos of Alexandria became the prototype for ancient lighthouses. Situated on Pharos island at the end of the harbor of the new city, the structure was planned by Ptolemy I of Egypt (284 BC) and completed by his successor in about 280 BC. It’s architect Sostratus of Cnidus dedicated it to the “savior gods” on behalf of navigators. Models show a rectangular, tiered tower 122 meters (400 ft) high, in which fires of resinous wood or oil were kept burning. They were reflected by metal mirrors supposedly designed by Archimedes, thus making them visible for nearly 50 kilometers (about 30 miles), a considerable distance for antiquity. The 15th-century fort of Qait Bay now stands in the ruins of the Pharos.

The Temple Of Artemis (Diana)

This temple was the same one from which Alexander the coppersmith made his fame, he was the same man who caused Paul much trouble. The Artemision, or Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus has a base measuring 377 x 180 feet, the roofless colonnaded interior housed a primitive statue of Artemis. The columns of the porch carried reliefs of mythical characters and inscriptions recording donations by King Croesus (560-546 BC) of Lydia. The original Artemision was burned in the rebellion of 356 BC, then rebuilt on a higher base and decorated by Scopas and Apelles. The temple was finally destroyed by the Goths in AD 263. Roman copies of the bizarre, mummylike statue survive.

There we have man’s seven wonders, look at how many are dictated to idols, as well as how many have either fallen apart, or are falling apart. The remaining Pyramids are in such bad shape, they have to keep people from touching them. God has Wonders, one of those is the New Man, the wonder of Wonders. God’s Wonders set man free, man’s wonders place man in bondage to the fall nature. Moses knew who built the pyramids and cities, yet he wasn’t impressed by the “wonders of Pharaoh”, but he was impressed by the “wonders of God”.

In order for the Hebrews to partake of the Passover they had to be circumcised (Ex 12:44-48), but the act of circumcision didn’t happen again until the children were ready to leave the wilderness to enter the Promised Land (Joshua 5:5). According to Exodus 12:44-48 the circumcision pertained to “the ordinance of the Passover” (Ex 12:43). Later in Leviticus 12:3 the requirement of a male being circumcised on the eighth day links the Law to the Abrahamic Covenant. This proves the act of circumcision didn’t bring Belief, it was the token for the Covenant with Abraham, the token or sign of a Covenant merely means one has a right to enter the Covenant, it doesn’t mean they have entered the Covenant. The token for the Law of Moses was keeping the sabbath day, which means they had to keep the sabbath day in order to enter the Law for the next week, thus the token could not produce the result. In our case we are “sealed” by the Holy Spirit, but we can also grieve the Holy Spirit by Whom we are sealed, the New Birth moves the Seal to Residence.

The Ten Commandments come after the people displayed their unbelief; their murmuring, complaining, challenging the people of God, plus tempting God are all fruits of their unbelief. The result was the Ten Commandments, which they admitted they violated, which produced the Law of Moses as a barrier between them and God. God will give them signs so they can believe, but God will not believe for them, or force them to believe. Their signs of unbelief were obvious to everyone, but them. Therefore, the Ten Commandments were a list of all the things the people violated, as matters keeping God from them. God wanted them to see the exposure, so they could repent, allowing Him to be among them. When they saw the exposure they demanded for a man to stand between them and God, but why? So they could continue doing what they were doing. God wasn’t asking for a change in natures, but a change in attitude, they had the ability to repent, they could make the choice to believe, since belief is based on choice.

The Ten Commandments are a written conscience, the finger of God writing on the stone hard hearts of mankind. Well maybe stone is all they had to write on? Not hardly, Moses also wrote the five books of the Pentateuch. The stones were reflective, their hearts became hard, a hard heart is void of belief, meaning they lacked a foundation for faith.

One keeps the Law of Moses because they have broken one or more of the Ten Commandments, yet the keeping of the Law becomes an admission of breaking the Ten Commandments. These are “commandments”, not “suggestions”: no where do we read of “God’s Ten Suggestions”, but to whom are they directed? Why doesn’t Paul, or the other writers of the New Testament tell us to keep them? Ahh, Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:19). What are the “least commandments”? Why not say “the commandments”, or “the ten commandments”? Jesus went on to say, “You have heard it said of them of old time, Thou shall not kill” (Matt 5:21). Of them of old time? Wasn’t it God who told Moses? Did Jesus forget, or what? Jesus didn’t go over the Ten again, rather He pointed to the Old, but introduced the Commandments of Mercy. They are not “least” as inferior, but the very least we can do as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Paul tells us the Ten Commandments are against us, then he tells us they are nailed to the Cross (Col 2:13-16); thus we have the Spirit as our conscience.

God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, Moses gave them to the people, thus Jesus doesn’t say, “The Father”, but “of them of old time”, a very interesting statement. It shows to whom they were given and why. Jesus began the Commandment teaching with “blessed”, then continued with the same theme some nine times (Matt 5:3-11). These lease Commandments also involved the teaching on the “workers of Iniquity” (Matt 7:21-23), a subject we are beginning to understand completely. Later God will define the term Iniquity for us as having the ability to do something, but not doing it, it is often defined as Unjust, Unrighteous, or Failing to do a law. Jesus will define it as unequal, as did the Father in Ezekiel 18:24-29. Sin is a transgression, or doing something we’re not suppose to, although Iniquity leads to sin, it begins by being unequal. One can do all sorts of Acts, yet fail to do the Will of the Father, which is Mercy. One does not need to be Born Again to apply Mercy, or believe, they do need the Spirit to produce Living Water. The first step is the Cross, we ask God to forgive us, which is predicated on us forgiving. If someone received God’s Mercy forgiving them, they are mandated to apply the same Mercy toward others. It’s the point Jesus makes in Matthew 7:21-23, the “Lord, Lord” people did many things in the Name of Jesus, showing they had Authority, but they also failed at the Will of the Father. The “man of sin” moves from the Iniquities to sin, thus iniquity will lead to sin. This is clearer when Paul says the iniquity was at work now, but will manifest as a sin later (II Thess 2:7 & 2:3). Iniquity is not the failure to do something we can’t do, it’s when we work at not something we are suppose to do, which is equally important as what we are doing. We come boldly to the throne of Grace to Obtain Mercy and Find Grace in the time of need (Heb 4:16), thus in order to Find Grace we must Obtain Mercy; this is a procedure and principle.

Since the Commandments came from God, they have a power built in, just as the Law of Moses does. Since they are of the Nation, but not the Nation they are a Principality, or within a nation (Col 1:16 & 2:15). Both the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments came from God, but it doesn’t mean God is subject to them, it’s not so much from whom the Law came, but to whom it was directed. The Law of Moses was not directed to Moses, it was directed to come from Moses.

God already told Abraham how the children would be delivered, but the motivation came from the groanings of the children, thus the action came from the request of the children, the means by the promise. It’s evident the children had to ask, although God knew they would. Jesus said our Father already knows what we have need of before we ask, thus the asking couples us to the knowledge of God, promoting an action on our part.

God came to Abraham with the Covenant, but the cries of the children invoked the contract, which became the Covenant God will make with these people through Moses. In our case, the Father and Holy Ghost moved for us based on the promise to Jesus, but the Spirit in us is motivated by the faith of Jesus based on the Resurrection, thus the New Covenant is based on the Blood of Jesus. We accept it, we didn’t create it.

There is much said about the word Confession, some Godly, some not. To make a Godly confession one must have the attitude of what they confess, or walk in what they Confess, thus it becomes word and action combined. It is not “speak it, and you will believe it”, it’s “as I believe, so have I spoken” (Ps 116:10 & II Cor 4:13). One can talk about many things, yet walk in none, thus the mere speaking of something is not a Confession, rather the words Confession and Profession are the same, showing one walks in what they Believe. The word Confess means to agree with the Word, the word Agree means to walk together as One. Confession is not God agreeing with us, nor is it God agreeing with our words, rather it’s when our words and actions agree with God. Moses didn’t have the Word in him, he carried the Ten Commandments in his hands. Moses heard from God, but walked in his Profession as a deliverer, thus he agreed with the Word spoken to him. Elijah walked in the office of prophet, but it doesn’t mean he had the Word in him. Elevating people higher than God has, is very dangerous, we honor the people of God, we don’t worship them.

In the beginning the words of Moses were not in line with his calling; God said “you will”, and Moses said, “I don’t know”. Moses fought the calling, made excuses attempting to avoid the call, but God gave Moses a sign of what happens when we reject the calling. When Moses put his hand under his coat, it became leprous. A sign of the rejection in his heart, but when he saw the plague he knew his calling went further than him alone. He placed his hand back under his coat and it was healed, thus God brought the plague but He also removed it, a sign to Moses of the purpose of the deliverance of God. God allowed the children to enter bondage (leprous), but God was going to deliver them (healed). Moses had his sign, although we don’t serve a multiple God, we find God has multiple purposes. The sign to Moses was how God would finish what He started, it was also a sign of what happens when God says, “you can”, and we say, “no I can’t”.

Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not, for they carried a spirit (attitude) of anguish because of their bondage (slavery mentality – Ex 6:9). God didn’t give up, rather we see the leprous condition was the “spirit of anguish”, which needed to be removed; anguish also means Impatience, they were getting impatience, or desired a “fast food type of deliverance”. Some of us are the same, we need to recall the sister of faith is patience. The word “spirit” doesn’t mean they had a devil, it points to their attitude as a result of their condition. This one area shows the term “spirit” has various meanings, if can mean the Spirit of God, an unclean spirit, or the attitude of the person. Here it reflects to their slavery mentality, coupled with their fear of rejection producing an attitude of failure and disappointment, which manifested in anger; causing impatient behavior, just as Moses needed to be healed at the bush, the children need to be healed before they can leave.

Our wilderness is the same way, we can fall into the “spirit of anguish”, or walk with the Spirit of Christ. Did God provide the balm to heal them? Yes, they saw the delivering Power of God, but did they receive the healing? We will find God will complete His goal by bringing the people out of Egypt, but it will take something on their part to get them out of the Wilderness.

Knowing how they will act, one must wonder Why would God still deliver them? The same question could be asked of any of us. God delivered these people based on the promise to Abraham, we are delivered based on the actions and prayers of Jesus.

Some might ask, “If Jesus is God the Son, why did He pray?”. Jesus prayed for us from His position as the Son of man, He brought power to those prayers as the Son of God, enforced them as God the Son, three positions none of us, or any human has ever been capable of holding on their own, thus the command, “Ye must be Born Again”. We can’t form our own path, then demand for God to follow us. We are told to Follow Jesus yet we can’t Follow Jesus, until we Pick Up Our cross. We can’t Pick Up Our cross, until we Deny the Self. Yet, denying the self isn’t the finish of the race, it’s the beginning.

Moses is now told to speak to Pharaoh on behalf of the children, thus Moses stood as God’s representative; therefore, in the position he was truly a “god to Pharaoh” (Ex 6:11). When we speak to the Pharaohs, the children of Pharaoh, or the children of God, we must always remember we are speaking on behalf of God, not in place of God. Moses didn’t think he was God, he knew he represented God. It is important, we don’t mean to be redundant, but we can see how someone might become paranoid over the term “I shall make you a god”, when we have those words being used at the Fall by the serpent. It was not the making of a “god”, but who had the authority, coupled with purpose. When we seek a position in the Body we have to ask ourselves, “why?”, is it because the position holds “honor and glory” before men? Or is it because we are driven inside to serve God?

How Pharaoh viewed God was based on how Moses presented Him; we find this in the world today, how people view God is based on the representation of the people of God. Most of us have no idea the damage we can do when we speak from our own self-based mindset, then call it “of God”, nor do we know the great help we can be when we speak for God as an oracle. Don’t forget, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (I Cor 14:32). Adding, we find some religious orders who claim “God”, yet kill, rob, lie and destroy, the enemy using people to slander God is nothing new. In some cases the enemy uses religion to slander God, but in the case of the Body the enemy planted Tares to stop, hinder, or divide the Body to make it less effective. Nonetheless God has seen it all before the foundation of the world, the Record (Plan) still has our success in Jesus.

We can tell Moses was not seeking the “god” position, since he continues to look at  his limitations, again he uses the “uncircumcised lips” excuse (Ex 6:12). God reminds Moses, it’s not for the sake of Moses, but for the people’s sake, based on the promise. Moses had to reach beyond his limitations, by putting his trust in God (Ex 6:14-27). Moses again falls back to his uncircumcised lips excuse one more time (Ex 6:30). God then tells Moses, “See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet” (Ex 7:1).

The “uncircumcised lips” excuse can fall on any of us, we want a position, or a ministry, one day God calls us, yet we get scared. We know there is a responsibility to the ministry, but we tell God, “I’m not worthy”. It may seem like humbleness, but in truth it’s a lack of faith in God; we are saying, “God you don’t know me, I’m not ready, I can’t do it”. The truth is we don’t know ourselves, or what God can do with us; do we think God is so dumb He doesn’t know whom He called? When we are completely unworthy God picked us for the Kingdom, He also has called, if He has called, He will equip. In many cases we have a problem with ourselves, or in believing in God. God is not making up the plans for the position or the ministry when He calls us, the plans were complete from the foundation of the world waiting for our acceptance. God knows whom He calls, and why He calls them. Moses is yet wondering, “why the other person didn’t take the job?”. Moses was being prepared for the position from the second he broke the womb of his mother; some of us forget our past was known by God before the foundation of the world, it doesn’t mean we minister through our past, it means we understand the world is the world, one has to leave it to be free of it.

Although the Father said He would bring another prophet like Moses, it doesn’t mean Jesus came as Moses, it means Moses spoke a Law which was not before, thus Jesus will speak of one which was not before. Since Moses was carnal, his words invoking his Law became carnal for the doer who was also carnal. On the other hand, Jesus who is heavenly spoke the Law based in the Rhema, for those who would receive and walk in the Spirit (Jn 6:63). It’s different from the Office of Prophet, some of us give a word then think we’re a Prophet, but a Prophet in the office delivers doctrine and direction (Acts 15:32). Therefore, we find both Jesus and Moses did bring Doctrine and Direction, but they also brought Laws.

The Office of Prophet and prophecy in the realm of edification, comfort and exhortation are different. Paul says he wishes we all would prophesy, then he tells us not all are Prophets, go figure? Two different things, in the realm of the Manifestation of the Spirit is for those one on one endeavors, or small groups, but it’s not the same as the Office of Prophet. The person in the Office is called, appointed and anointed by the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:1-3), giving a word here and there does not make one a Prophet, going about calling our self one isn’t going to make it happen either.

Moses’ anointing gave him authority, he saw how Pharaoh made threats, but could do nothing to him. God also said Aaron would be a prophet unto Moses, which means Aaron would speak for Moses. This evidence of God being involved in this matter should have been all Moses needed to complete the task. We will see where Aaron speaks, as well as where Moses speaks, but when Moses spoke, it was mainly through Aaron.

Moses mixed the seeing with the hearing, then faith came in the knowledge of the power behind the calling. God wasn’t counting on Moses to produce the power, rather God wanted a man to speak on God’s behalf, God is fully able to take uncircumcised lips, change their purpose to bring words of deliverance. Moses made his commitment, the commitment will open the door for the ability, allowing him to stand in the responsibility.

The ability and position will remain with Moses into the wilderness, thus the calling started at the Mount, manifested in Egypt, but it didn’t end there. In essence, God tells Moses “look”, Moses tells God, “Oh yea, You look”. This is the same element of doubt we can run into, we see, we yell “Oh God look”, but God tells us “No, you look, I’m here”, then we say, “Give me a sign”, God says, “look in your heart”.

The Law of Moses didn’t come until the children rebelled by refusing to believe God, the same is true with the sabbath day; therefore, the Law was given to those who have a propensity to fall into one or more of the following categories: lawless, disobedient, ungodly, sinners, unholy, profane, murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, man slayers, whoremongers, defilers of the self (being defiled by the self), defilers of mankind, menstealers, liars, perjured persons and the like (I Tim 1:9-10). If we fall into one of the above listed categories, or have a nature more prone to do those things, thus we do the Law of Moses, if we do the Law we are saying we still retain the fallen nature, sounds simple enough. “Well I never did any of those things”, it’s not the doing, but the propensity to do, making one eligible for the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was designed for those called of God, yet were under the natural fallen nature of man. Once we impute the nature dead, we have completed the purpose of the Law, allowing us to engage in another Law for those who have passed the first death. How did we do it? By imputing the old nature and flesh dead on the Cross of Jesus. When Paul said he was a new man in Christ, it’s exactly what he meant, anything in the past was dead on the Cross. We must take on the same posture, or we will allow the past to haunt us continually.

The Law of Moses came into being based on the Mercy of God, not because of the goodness of man. God allowing man to hold a type of self-righteousness enabled man to maintain within the confines of the Law, but it was still in reference to a right standing in face of the Commandments. From Genesis we know God finished the works on the Sixth Day, then the earth was ready to be destroyed (Gen 2:1). To keep the sabbath day means we understand we are one step from destruction, hardly “the rest of God”. On the other hand, the Law of the Spirit demands a humbleness of mind, removing us from the wrath of God by keeping us in Life, Jesus gave us rest for our souls (I Thess 1:10 & Matt 11:29).

The self-righteousness obtained through the Law of Moses had nothing to do with right standing before God, rather it gave them standing before the Law. Being Justified before the Law is different than being Justified by God. The Law of Moses became a mediator between man and the Commandments, it also stood between God and man; therefore, in Romans chapter 7 Paul talks about the condition of natural man. Even when natural man wants to serve God, there stands the law of sin and death in the flesh preventing it. The Law was Good, those doing it were not. The Law of Moses was not based on Blessing, rather it was based on the Violation; thus there is more emphasis on cursing, than on blessing. This is clear when we read, “if a man breaks the sabbath day, he shall die”. True, if a man kept the Law they were blessed, but the incentive was the other side of the coin, break it and die. The premise was still, “in dying you shall die”, but in the New it’s in Living you shall have Abundant Life. Two completely different premises, based in two completely different laws.

The Law of Moses could not grant man a Life above the cursed soul life man held on the earth, it couldn’t grant man eternal life, since it wasn’t designed to. One of the strongholds the Pharisees had was reading about Life, then assuming they had it. Some people think by reading about Grace, they have it (Jn 5:39). Because you can define it, doesn’t mean you have it. The Sign of Grace is the Seal of the Holy Spirit, not intellect. The Pharisees also equated righteousness to their own, problems common to Pharisees. The Law of Moses depends on will power, which is the use of the mind over the flesh to preserve the flesh, remaining one step from destruction. The Law of the Spirit allows us to put off the old man, not merely control him, then we obtain a new nature prone to do good.

Understanding why God rested on the Seventh Day should tell us why the sabbath day was to remain holy, also as the token in the Law of Moses. The work was done, why fret, why worry, why fall into unbelief. The reason they had to keep the sabbath day was the result of their unbelief, thus they kept the day, but never entered the Rest of God (Heb 4:6). The sabbath day ended one week, but began another, thus the keeping started the process all over again, never ending, never gaining. The use of self-righteousness was temporal, the second it was applied, it’s became usefulness, or complete in the area applied. Therefore, we find the keeping of the Law of Moses is not of faith, it never reached beyond the Now.

The Law of Moses became known as “the books”, referring to the first five books of the Bible, thus in the end all those subject to the Law of Moses, are judged by the Law, meaning the Judgment is based on Mercy, not Grace (Dan 7:10 & Rev 20:12). We judge ourselves lest we be judged, our faith and hope lay in the Rapture (I Cor 11:31). This division between laws was so important Paul told us if anyone comes to us teaching us to do any deed of the Law of Moses to gain God’s favor, let the person be accursed. When the Galatians were about to engage in keeping days (Law of Moses) and circumcision of the flesh to gain the Abrahamic Covenant, Paul warned them they were also about to fall from Grace (Gal 5:4). The Law of Moses was of Moses, it’s why it’s called the “Law of Moses”, it is not of Christ, nor does it involve the Spirit. Christ allows us to claim death, yet live, the Law of Moses is unto death. If we keep the Law of Moses we do so by self-righteousness, making Christ of no effect for us (Gal 5:4). The Righteousness of Jesus is proven, it’s the very scepter to the Kingdom. The faith of Jesus is proven, He sits at the right hand side of Majesty on High.

How can Paul say some had “bewitched” the Galatians by teaching them to do the Law of Moses? Does Paul mean the Law of Moses is for witches? Hardly, if one is natural, yet they attempt to do the Law of the Spirit, it would be witchcraft, since they lack the basis. However, if one is spiritual in nature, or has the Spirit then attempts to do a Law provided for the carnal minded, it’s witchcraft, since it pertains to a different realm. The Law of the Spirit cannot be applied to the world, the Law of Moses cannot not be applied beyond the Cross. In essence Paul was showing the Galatians how the Law was the schoolmaster, but it’s nailed to the Cross, it didn’t pass through the Cross. To go back to the Law, would be saying the Cross is ineffective, not real wise. Therefore, attempting to keep the old nature, yet claim the spiritual Life in Christ negates, “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the Cross” (Col 2:14).

Some want to avoid the phrase “fall from Grace”, presuming Paul isn’t talking to those who have Grace, but how can one fall, if they don’t have what they are falling from? Paul also said, “Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified before you” (Gal 3:1), with, “having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh” (Gal 3:3), adding, “Christ is become of no effect for you, whosoever of you (who) are justified by the Law, ye are fallen from Grace” (Gal 5:4), with, “you did run well, who did hinder you, wherein you should not obey the truth” (Gal 5:7). Clearly he is talking to people who have the Spirit, but were about to turn and walk in a direction the Spirit was not going. We also have, “looking diligently lest any man fail (fall) of the Grace of God” (Heb 12:15). We have to get real and honest about Grace, or we will twist it into something it’s not, over confidence will produce a fable, removing our confidence in God (Jude 4).

The Jews demanded for one follow the Law of Moses before they could enter the temple, or the various synagogues. Which was correct under the Law, so was Paul a “man pleaser”? No, to the Jew he became a Jew, to the Gentile he became a Gentile, but he was not a sinner to the sinner. The first call of the Gospel was to the Jews, then the Gentiles (Acts 1:8). No Jew would accept another Jew with a doctrine, if they refused to keep the Law. Paul shows the Jew came out of the Law by faith, the Gentile came around the Law through faith. Paul and the other Jews who were converted kept certain points of the Law to gain entry into synagogues to preach Jesus, they didn’t keep the points to impress God, or seek favor from God. The Judaizers said, “you see Paul keeps points of the Law before the Jews, so he is saying we must all keep the Law before God”. Traditions and false doctrine run hand in hand, we begin a tradition just between us, we don’t consider it doctrine, it’s just something we want to do, yet we have no verse to back it up. The next generation picks it up as a “tradition of the elders”, they will twist a couple of verses to give it some validity, but usually the verses are against the tradition, not for it. The next generation takes the same tradition, but calls it Doctrine, saying if we don’t do it, we’re not holy. The traditions of man still make the Word to no effect.

The Law of Moses has traditions as well, but the Pharisees and others changed them into traditions of men. There was no Scripture allowing Corban, or “it is a gift” (Matt 15:3-5), rather it was a tradition of men, but the tradition transgressed the Commandment, “honor your father and mother” (Matt 15:4). What danger is there? “In vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt 15:9). If we teach the traditions of men as doctrine, me might as well bark at moon, since our worship will be in vain. It’s substantially dangerous, we can begin with a great worship service, but then make the entire thing vain by teaching the traditions of men as doctrine. Far better, yea necessary to have “what does the Scripture say”.

We must keep the Law of Moses in its proper place, as we must also keep in mind how the Law of Moses is not evil in any sense of the word. The Law of Moses is Good, it has to be, it came from God. “Man, now I’m messed up, if it’s good, why not do it?”. It’s not from whom it came, but to whom it was directed. Murderers don’t make laws governing murder, they are the subject to the laws. God doesn’t rest on the Sabbath day as man does, it’s evident from the activity in the tabernacle on the Sabbath, rather God’s rest is found in His foreknowledge of the plan. We are told to enter the Rest of God, so what does it mean? We know the end is in the plan, our belief and faith is in God to bring about what He promised us, sparing us from the wrath to come.

The children questioned the plan of God, as they questioned the ability of God, thus the sabbath day was a required time for reflection on God. God had to tell them to take one day out of seven to think on Him, while considering their ways. On the same note, the cloud by day and the fire by night didn’t take the Sabbath day off. The manna did cease, not because the manna honored the sabbath, but to keep the children from violating the sabbath. We know if the children took too much manna, it would turn rotten, or become wormy, but why? Their greed, the fallen nature of man, but the nature was not the source of the Law, it was the purpose, a formulated conscience for man. Let’s face it if the Law was based on the righteousness of the people, then Abraham would have been the first to have it. Abraham never kept the sabbath, neither did Jacob, Israel, Joseph, or the children during the entire 400 years of bondage.

It’s never from whom the Law came, regardless of the Law, but to whom it was directed telling the story. If we are flesh minded, then by all means do the Law of Moses, but know this, you will also be judged according to the Law. If we are Spirit minded, then we do the Law of the Spirit, there is no wrath of God in the Law of the Spirit. We judge ourselves, so we won’t be condemned with the world (I Cor 11:31-32). The lesson in the Law of Moses is not how the children were blessed, rather it was showing God’s Mercy, as God extended it to the children based on His Covenant with Abraham. The lesson shows the children were not deserving of Mercy, but God gave it based on the pleas of Moses. This preview for us shows once God’s Mercy is loosed from heaven on us, we can also apply Mercy to the unmerciful. God’s Mercy endures forever, but this is the Season of Grace. During our Season God’s efforts center on one thing, for all to come to the saving knowledge of the Gospel, so none be lost. One can be a unbeliever today, but a repentant saint tomorrow. However, Grace is for a Season, it’s the point. When Grace reaches it’s end at the Rapture, then comes the Night for the Judgment of God. It’s so apparent, God still blessed the children, they had the manna, the fire by night, the cloud by day, the tabernacle, bitter water turned sweet, yet Jude tells us God destroyed those who believed not (Jude 5). Being blessed wasn’t the point, rather it was believing in God.

God was ready to destroy all the children, except for Moses, thus the Law of Moses was good considering the alternative. It was provided by God, but based on the request of Moses, thus it was given to Moses, then Moses gave it to the children to preserve them. The Law of Moses was then provided instead of God’s justice; therefore, the Jew today, like the Jews during the earthly ministry, see no difference between God’s Mercy and God’s Justice. The Law of the Spirit was not provided as an alternative to destruction, rather it was granted to Bless us with the Grace of God, not only removing us from the wrath of God, but giving us an element wherein we are Born of the Spirit in us, making us Spirit by nature. God is Spirit, everything produces after its own kind. Therefore, we who are under the Law of the Spirit, are the product of God’s Love, which makes us among other things cheerful givers.

Paul told us before Esau or Jacob had done either good or evil, God hated one and loved the other. What? God hate! How can this be? For those who fall under “God so loved the world” it is hard to conceive, because God is dealing with us through His Love and Grace. However, there is another side of God directed to those who reject His love, or fail to receive the purpose of why they accepted the Cross to begin with. Proverbs tells us there are six things God hates, yea the seventh is an abomination (Prov 6:16-19). God hates lying lips, so do lips lie? Or the person connected to them? God hates a proud look, so does the face produce the look? Or the person connected to the face? If we’re under God’s Love, it does seem difficult to conceive of God hating, but God hates the ways of the Wicked day and night, if one connects to those ways, then God is not pleased with them. According to their ways God will form them, some into vessels of honor, some into the footstool of Jesus, who will become the ones who “bruise” the Heel of the Lord.

Jesus is the Word, but He began the earthly ministry as the Son of man to bring the Mercy of the Father, as the Son of God He brought Grace through the Resurrection. So, was the Resurrection before the Cross or after? After, thus the Spirit is based on being raised from the dead, something the Law of Moses could never produce. The Law of Moses was not designed to grant us life after death, the Resurrection is so designed. At the judgment we find some must pass the Books, but it still doesn’t grant them Life, they still must find their names in the Book of Life (Rev 20:12 & 20:15).

Before there can be a Resurrection, there must be a death. We are granted the Spirit based on principle. We accept the death of Jesus in our place, then God gives us His token when we are Sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Beginning the Justification, thus we are justified by faith, but is it the measure of faith? Or the Faith of Christ? We are Justified by the Blood of Jesus (Rom 5:9), by the faith of Christ (Gal 2:16), by Christ (Gal 2:17), by the Grace of God (Titus 3:7), it is God who Justifies (Rom 8:3). We are Being Justified as we are being Washed, so we can be glorified with Jesus. The Report says so, the Witness is bringing it to pass. There is the Plan, but there is also the Report for those in the Kingdom, the Report has made the declaration, the Witness is bringing it to pass.

Jesus went to the Cross as the Son of man, thus when He returns for the Judgment it’s as the Son of man; meaning the judgment is based on Mercy. Therefore, the Parable shows some operated in mercy, they visited those in prison, gave water, along with other attributes of mercy (Matt 25:31-46), if you have done it to the least, you are considered brethren of Jesus (Matt 25:40).

The Son of God is connected to the Resurrection and Grace, those who are raised by the same Spirit are free of the Judgment, because they are sons of God. The New Birth has many attributes and rewards, it is far better than the Law of Moses. Being preserved, and being saved are much different.

Mercy and Justice are not the same, they have different results, thus we rightly divide the Word. God’s Justice is separating the Precious from the Vile. John saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration all dressed in White, yet the same John saw Jesus in his  Revelation, with a much different presentation, so what happened? Rightly divide the Word (Jesus), the Jesus we associate with is the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus, the Judgment Jesus is the one seen in the Book of Revelation (Rev 1:12-16): same Word, but rightly divided.

Jesus on the Mount was seen as Jesus the Son of God, which was declared by the Father, “This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him” (Matt 17:5). Standing with Jesus on the mount was Moses representing the Law, and Elijah representing the Prophets, the Law and Prophets testify of Jesus, they are not Jesus. The Father didn’t say, “hear ye them”, or “hear ye Him, or them, or whatever”, it was clearly “hear ye Him”. For Pharaoh it was hear ye Moses, but Pharaoh refused, suffering the result.

Jesus as the Son of man went to the Cross, yet is seen as the Son of man among the seven golden candlesticks. Jesus is not one of the seven bowls, He is the Light keeping the other lights shinning. The Spirit of Holiness declared Jesus the Son of God by the Resurrection (Rom 1:3-4), it doesn’t mean Jesus wasn’t the Son of God prior, it points to positional authority. The earthly ministry established the Father’s Mercy on earth, the Resurrection linked heaven and earth, producing the means for us to be sons of God by the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. We must be sons of men by granting mercy, but it takes a death and Resurrection power by the Spirit in us to become a “son of God”  (Born Again – Rom 8).

The children will keep the sabbath day, but failed to find the rest of God (Heb 3:16). Keeping the day doesn’t give one Rest, the saving of the Soul gives us Rest for our Souls (Jere 6:16 & Matt 11:29). They couldn’t enter in because of their unbelief, not because they failed to keep the Law (Heb 3:18-19). Their unbelief produced the Law, yet the Law is holy, but it defines sin, it’s the doer of the Law who is not holy (Rom 7:7). It’s not from Whom it came, but to whom it was given (did we say it already?). It doesn’t matter what comes from God, it’s nonetheless holy; God’s wrath is holy, we simply are not assigned to face it, thus one can presume since God’s wrath is holy, why not partake of it? Not something we consider, simply because it’s holy, doesn’t mean it holds the True Holiness of God (Eph 4:24). The Tabernacle will show us three types of holiness, connecting to the saying, “holy, holy, holy” (Isa 6:3 & Rev 4:8). The New Man is created after God’s True Holiness and Righteousness (Eph 4:24), thus by the New Man we have God’s True Holiness unto Salvation. The phrase, “holy of holies” denotes more than one type of holy, the holy of holies was holier than the holy place, the holy place was holier than the courtyard, yet all three were holy.

In order to understand the importance of the plagues, we have to travel back to the Fall of man. Neither Adam or Eve were cursed before the fall, neither were they cursed by God, rather their punishment came as a result of their actions, God merely told them what they caused. God doesn’t curse us, we curse ourselves; Proverbs tells us “the curse causeless does not come” (Prov 26:2), thus the curse just doesn’t fall, it’s drawn to the “cause”, yet we find the Law of Moses shows the “Lord” will bring this or that in reference to the curse, but the Cause is the person bringing the curse on their self, the Lord allowing it by the Law. This defines the curse, the person sets their own self to be cursed, then the Law applies it. The Lord brought the Law based on the people, thus the power in the Law is given by the Lord. It doesn’t mean the Lord personally walks around putting the curse on people, it means since He inserted the Authority and Power into the Law, it’s based on Him. How can this be? The Law has two powers, blessing and cursing, if it can’t apply the blessing, it applies the opposite. Darkness and light are the same principle, in God there is no darkness at all (I Jn 1:5), thus for God to bring complete darkness, He must remove Himself. The same with the Law, remove the blessing the curse comes.

We will also find the first mention of sickness is based on these plagues in Egypt, the only other element before this time was a weakness of eyes. We can’t assume sickness was part of the curse of the fall, simply because we have no basis for the assumption, but we do have a basis to see sickness is found in the curse of the Law, yet the Law came after these plagues. Therefore, the plagues will be the first time man will experience these ills on the masses. We can’t comprehend how they felt, we see sickness day in and day out, we see plagues all over the world, but until these plagues surfaced the masses had not seen anything like them. Does it mean God brought evil? Not at all, it means God brought signs, once those signs manifested we find the devil took them, then twisted their purpose attacking man with sickness and disease. What was the basis? The gods of Egypt, each plague is a result of some god Pharaoh established over the children.

In the curse of the Law we read, “moreover He will bring upon thee the diseases of Egypt, which thou was afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee” (Deut 28:60). The local was Egypt, representative of the world, yet it also shows the first time these diseases occurred was at this time/ therefore, it doesn’t say the diseases of the Fall. If there were plagues of sickness and disease prior, they would have mentioned them, but they didn’t, because there were none.

God never intended for us to be subject to these “ills”, whether we like it or not, the truth remains By His stripes you were healed (I Pet 2:24).  So, does it merely pertain to the physical body? No, it goes much further, finding the cause and purpose of something is far more Godly, then attacking someone because they are sick. So, if we believe in the healing stripes, does it mean we will no longer be sick? Not hardly, but even if we’re not healed, we still believe it. What if God said, “go to a doctor”? Do we tell Him, “not so Lord, I’m a person of faith”? Obedience is still obedience, belief is belief, faith must please God. Looking for the evidence to see if we believe, is not the same as believing regardless of the evidence. For the most part we end stuck between two things, what God said, and what we see. It’s not easy to take the Word spoken, over the evidence we are facing, but believing is not easy, faith harder, but both are rewarding.

God through Moses added by saying, “also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law” (Deut 28:61). Clearly sickness and disease were spelled out for the first time in the Law of Moses under the Curse, proven by the plagues on Egypt. Once the plagues came, then sickness and disease had a foothold on Egypt. No where in the Blessing of the Law, or any Blessing do we find, “you shall be sick and full of disease, this is a blessing of the Lord”. It sounds foolish, but some of us carry close thoughts, imaginations coming against the knowledge of God must be cast down. Again it doesn’t mean we never get sick, after all the “prayer of faith” is based on one being sick, yet the just live by faith. If we were never to get sick, then the Scripture would read, “by His stripes you can’t get sick”, but it doesn’t. For some reason when we get sick we feel guilty, then we attempt to hide it. Or, worse we play it, attempting to get all the mileage we can from our self-pity. Both of those seem to put our mind on the problem, not the solution. We never exalt the pollution, we seek the solution.

The point of course is seeing how sickness defined becomes an issue for the first time in the Bible in reference to the Law of Moses. We can’t run to the “maybe it was before, just not written about”, since it remove the importance God is making here. If we are under an authority advocating any point of the Law of Moses, we are subject to the ills defined in the Law as well. We know there are two tithes, one under the Law of Moses, and one not. What happens if we pick the one under the Law? We are under the Law, whether we know it or not, we have placed ourselves right in the path of “the plagues of Egypt”. If we hold the Ten Commandments over people, we connected ourselves to the Law as well, since one is incorporated into the other. The Ten Commandments are Good, the Law of Moses is Good, the people they were sent to are not.

The Law of Moses was not the character of either Moses or God, it was the symbol of the disobedience of the people, thus the Law called for obedience through mind power, not faith. Since the Law of Moses was not of faith, it held no future hope, rather it was based in the now. It shows self-righteousness is a constant effort, one cannot let up for one second. This is found in the Tithe under the Law of Moses, as well as the sabbath day, miss one sabbath day, and it’s all for naught, give nine percent rather than ten, all your tithing under the Law ends in a curse.

We recall how the works of Abraham’s faith were obedience motivated, thus the children refused to obey without the threat of destruction. They had faith, they simply refused to use it, they had opportunity to believe, but they refused to belief, the result was their unbelief. They wanted to be pleased, far different from wanting to please the Lord. For some in the kingdom the mere joy of pleasing the Lord is incentive, but others are like the children in the wilderness, they obey for the self-benefit alone.

Since the Law of Moses was based in obedience without the call of faith, the doer could never be of faith in the doing. Did it call for belief? Yes, what was written became the past example, they did believe if they didn’t do the points of the Law, they would be cursed. James tells us even the devils believe there is One God (James 2:19), but it doesn’t mean they are of Faith. Don’t forget Jesus called Judas a devil, thus the term goes much further than the fallen winged cherubs (Jn 6:70).

The mechanics of the Law were designed for those who were not of faith, thus anyone who did the Law fell into the defined mechanics. We know anything not done in faith is sin (Rom 14:23), thus the doer of the Law was proclaiming their sin, rather than proclaiming the forgiveness of sin. In all this we know Moses had to believe in God, but the power of his faith to endure the wilderness came from desiring to know the Ways of God.

The Cross began the Day, making us a New Creature in Christ, known as the New Man in us, who is created (or formed same Greek word) after God’s true holiness and righteousness (Eph 4:24). There are two different creation Seasons, one for the Night, one for the Day. Although God brought the Day with the Greater Light, neither had effect until Jesus came. When Jesus came the Creation of the Day began, both the Greater Light and Lesser Light are based in Jesus. The Greater Light for the Day in the Name of the Lord unto Mercy, Grace, with Forgiveness of all sin, transgression and iniquity, the blessing of the Day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Then comes the Night as the Lesser Light finishes the remaining aspect (Remnant) of the Cross, the time where by no means shall God clear the guilty of their iniquity (Ex 34:6-7).

With the Cross came Salvation and Judgment, but not at the same time, nor in the same Season. We are of the Day, the Night comes when no man can work. The “work” then becomes the proclaiming of Salvation, not Judgment. When we finally get the Seasons right, the fears and cares of this world will not effect us again, we will be Free and able to walk in the Joy of the Lord with an honest holy fear of God keeping us Equal.

When the Faith of Jesus was manifested, the Street to heaven was open. Man’s measure of faith is sufficient for earthly things, but it couldn’t bring the Promise, or get us into heaven (Heb 11:39). Moses had faith in God regarding earthly things, we know the children had faith to cross the Red Sea, but it was the last time we find “faith” recorded until the next generation take Jericho (Heb 11:29-30). The door to the wilderness started with the Passover, interestingly enough it was by faith, since the destroyer was all around them. They had their first concept of the blood being a barrier between them and death, the words spoken became the foundation for their belief, giving them the foundation for faith, although short timed it was nonetheless knowing the blood was a barrier between them and death (Heb 11:28). Our Passover is Jesus, His Blood is the barrier between us and the Second Death. The Passover Moses kept was a type and shadow of the Cross, but it couldn’t provide the same benefit as the Cross.

In all this, one thing is very evident; God knew these children would be ungrateful, demanding and unbelieving, yet He delivered them from Egypt as He said. Why then, do we who have the Spirit, think God is not able to deliver us? Listening to the wrong voice? Could be, faith comes from hearing, but the hearing must be based in Spirit and Life (Jn 6:63).

The purpose of the wilderness is to rid us of Egypt, the slavery mentality, by instilling in us the mind of Christ. The wilderness for us exposes the things not conducive to our walk, we then tell them to Go, trusting in God to remove them. At the same time God is instilling Mercy, Faith and Hope. However, in the wilderness we also find what God exposes will often retaliate to defend itself. When the children’s unbelief was exposed, their anger rose up to defend them, one ruler of darkness defending another is not victory, it’s proof of the exposure.

We can’t just say the things these children did are history, or not applicable now, for surely they do apply to our walk. Paul said, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted” (I Cor 10:6). The nature of man has been the nature of man since the fall, man is more intellectual now, but he is also more deceptive and cunning.

These children needed to be rid of the past, more important they had to be free of their slavery mentality. The slavery mentality attempts to get around the law, while not violating the letter of the law. Two groups of rebellious minds hold to the slavery mentality, the first group sets out to violate the law, knowing it’s a violation, yet they still hold a slavery mentality, others look for some loophole or some method to work around the law, while not violating the letter of the law. Laban was a type and shadow of one who hears from God (in the dream), yet works to find the loophole, as he did when he came after Jacob. Saul will be another, only in his case he was given specific orders, then he changed them to fit his own determination to appease the people, yet claimed he had done all the Lord told him to do. The prophet Samuel equated Saul’s false obedience to rebellion and iniquity (I Sam 15:20-26). The sabbath law proves the point; God told the people their cows were not allowed to violate the sabbath. Who ever saw a cow resting on the sabbath, or looking to see if the sun was setting? Who ever saw a cow eat pork? The slavery mentality uses the cow to plow the ground, then claims, “I’m not violating the sabbath, I’m just following this cow”. The same was true with the “stranger” in the land, the stranger was not allowed to violate the sabbath either. The Jew would hire the stranger to plow, then say, “I’m not plowing, the Gentile is”. Other aspects of the Law show us to whom it was sent, “You shall not curse a deaf man behind his back, or place a stumbling stone in the path of a blind man”. If one does these things, or has the propensity to do them the Law of Moses is designed for them, since the Law of Moses defines how natural fallen man is subject to the spirit lusting to envy. The envy wants the Blessing, but wants it solely for self-based reasons in order to consume it on the lust (James 4:1-4).

The children carried a slavery mentality, for the most part so did we when we came out of the world (Egypt). Whether we were directly under the hand of some taskmaster, or under the hand of the spirit lusting to envy, the master of all taskmasters, our rebellious mentality marked our character. Jesus provided the Spirit of Truth to change our character and nature into Christ, so we could have the mind of Christ; thereby knowing the Spirit is changing our nature as we become Spiritual (Jn 3:6 & I Jn 4:1-4).

The Character of Jesus is not the personality of Jesus, or the physical appearance of Jesus, but what made Jesus. The title “Christ”, shows Jesus is The Christ, Christ was not His last name, but His Character. The Spirit of Christ in us will change our personality to fit the character, then the true personality can surface without the masks of falseness, or pride. We were all under the hand of the spirit of disobedience (unbelief), but our repentance was a Vow to enter Continual Belief, yet if we really study our confession we will find many areas where our mouths produced “I don’t believe it”. “Well, I just don’t think it could have happened”, or we will use the unbelief of others to justify our unbelief, yet the unbelief of others, even scholars never negates our unbelief. Using the words of an unbeliever to justify our unbelief ends with us “hung by the tongue”, not something we desire.

All Things are of God, we believe All Things, thus if it’s not a Thing, it’s not of God, or not worthy of being considered. What would be something not a Thing? A fable. We judge the saying, if it’s worthy of belief, we accept it; however accepting it as truth, and joining to it are different. We believe there is a devil, but we don’t invite him to lunch. If the saying lacks consideration, it becomes moot, not worth considering, cast away as another lacking fable. This is a difficult area, one defining the difference between “confessing Jesus is come in the flesh” or not confessing Him. We Confess Jesus by having the Greater He in us, proving it by a display of Christ in us, thus we Walk in what we Believe. We never speak to make ourselves believe, rather as we believe, so have we spoken. There is a vast difference between speaking from belief, and speaking based on habit.

Man’s fears often turn into gods, whether those gods are mental, or physical. A person can fear a thought, just as much as they can fear a train running over them. In order to appease his fears, man will make gods of the fears, making him the god of his gods. When man worships his gods, he is in fact worshipping himself, since he made the gods; giving the cause for the curse. Pharaoh is about to get the result of his workings, but Praise ye the Lord, when we came to Jesus all things became New, even the concept of reaping what we sowed in the world is nailed to the Cross. However, we can’t hold to the old gods, then claim a newness in Christ. The process of making us Innocent removes tares, obstacles, strongholds and barriers keeping us from enjoying the fullness of the Spirit. Guess where it’s done? The Wilderness.

God isn’t out to punish us, He is out to save us. Something in us is exposed, then we attempt to hide it again. It keeps coming up, we keep pushing it down, since it seems to remain, we tend to think we’re evil, nasty people, then we punish ourselves. God will keep exposing the lusts in these people so the lust can be dealt with, but they kept blaming Moses and God, while denying the lusts. God can’t deal with it, until we recognize it for what it is, a lust in us. No one put it there, we retained it. The children hid under the illusion of denial by using deception, which soon ruled their minds.

As long as the children of Israel were under bondage in Egypt they couldn’t represent God; therefore, we find two bodies of water, they crossed one to get into the wilderness, another to enter the Promised Land, the place between was their place of training and discipleship. The deliverance from Egypt was the beginning, not the finish. With this in mind, it becomes easier to see why God was so precise with the wording in the Law of Moses. If God is omnipresent, if the Law of Moses is a blessing, if God knew about the Law of Moses from the foundation of the world, as He knew the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, why didn’t He give the Law to Abraham? Because Abraham believed God. Well, why not give it to Jacob? Because even fearful Jacob believed God more than these children. The slavery mentality from Egypt was not at issue until this point in time, the children had to know Egypt is not good, it’s not a blessing, it’s not a place of peace, it’s not the benefactor, it’s ways, are not God’s ways. The saving of our souls is the primary purpose for our faith (I Pet 1:9), but without discernment, we will call Ego the anointing, or we will call the Greed the need.

The first Commandment was not make gods out of people, God made Moses a god before Pharaoh, but Moses didn’t make himself a god, nor did he make Aaron one. Mentor worship is an excuse not to be used; we place a human above us assuming they were so holy, we could never reach their place of holiness, allowing us to deny the calling. On the same note we find the Whacko places their self as a god over the people of God. Pharaoh assumed he was the god of gods, his statement of, “Who is the Lord, who I should obey” (Ex 5:2), makes more sense when we consider the mindset of the man. Pharaoh felt the gods would do as he commanded, thus he also thought the God of Moses would obey him. When things turned on him, he went into battle based on his presumption of being the god who could defeat the God of Moses. Each plague on Egypt proved the ineffectiveness of the gods of Egypt by proving the effectiveness of God.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAGUES ON THE GODS OF PHARAOH

NILE TURNED TO BLOOD – EX 7:14-25:
KHUM – GUARDIAN OF THE NILE
HAPI – SPIRIT OF THE NILE
OSIRIS – BLOOD STREAM OF THE  NILE.

FROGS – EX 8:1-15:
HEQT- FORM OF A FROG AND THE GOD OF RESURRECTION.

GNATS (MOSQUITOES) – EX 8:16-19:
TAMMUZ- HEALING OR LIFE.

FLIES – EX 8:20-32:
TAMMUZ OR BAAL.

PLAGUE ON CATTLE  – EX 9:1-7:
HATHOR – MOTHER-GODDESS; FORM A  COW.
APIS – OR THE BULL OF THE PAGAN GOD PATH; SYMBOL OF FERTILITY.
MNEVIS – SACRED BULL OF  HELIOPOLIS.

BOILS – EX 9:8-12:
IMHOTEP – GOD OF MEDICINE.

HAIL – EX 9:13-35:
NUT – SKY GODDESS
ISIS – GODDESS OF LIFE.
SETH – PROTECTOR OF CROPS.

LOCUSTS – EX 10:1-20:
ISIS – GODDESS OF LIFE
SETH – PROTECTOR OF CROPS; PRIESTHOOD OF PHARAOH; (LOCUSTS REPRESENT RELIGIOUS CONCEIT AND PRIDE).

DARKNESS EX 10:21-29:
RE, ATEN, ATUM, HORUS – SUN GODS OF SORTS.

DEATH OF FIRSTBORN – EX 11:1-12:36:
THE DEITY OF PHARAOH – ORIRIS, GIVER OF LIFE.

Paul understood he still had weaknesses, thus they didn’t go away because of the Cross, but they did become known to Paul as ineffective by the nature of Christ. He didn’t attempt to elevate them, hide them, or use them as a supposed strength. Rather he took authority over them by keeping them weak, thereby allowing the strength of Christ to be his strength. The biggest weakness of all is the flesh, the flesh has feelings, it governs us by seeking the feeling. Man uses pride because he likes the feeling which pride produces, just as man likes the feeling of being superior, so he dominates, manipulates, or uses statements to belittle others, just to exalt himself. Man likes the praises of man, so he does things to get the feeling, just as he likes the praises he heaps on himself. Man also makes his gods so he can control them. Those are areas where the weak flesh becomes the god of the soul, thus the Cross is the place to impute the flesh dead, so we can live in Christ. These children did not have our advantage, but they did have one like unto us. Pharaoh couldn’t cross the Sea, there was no place in the wilderness for Pharaoh, just as there is no place in our wilderness for the devil. Jesus destroyed (made ineffective) the devil by the Cross, thus the Cross is a doorway, one wherein we enter, but the devil cannot. The only way the devil can activate himself in our lives, is when we give him place (opportunity).

The children faced themselves in the wilderness, not Pharaoh. We must be able to see our wilderness experiences are for us, not against us. God is doing a great and wonderful work, but the flesh considers it horrid. It’s suppose to, it is becoming completely ineffective in our walk of faith.

We can see how each plague, sign or wonder exposed the ineffectiveness of the gods of Egypt. On the same note, Pharaoh was never allowed to speak to God, he spoke to Moses, who spoke to God. Moses will be rejected by Pharaoh more than once, but he will not stop the course on seeing the children set free. Our job is to speak as the Oracles of God, thus we speak with the expectation of someone believing, but it doesn’t mean we can make them believe, nor does it mean we hit the “pit of self-pity” if they don’t believe. Our job is to preach, not believe for them, if they reject us, we “shake the dust off our feet”. The metaphoric phrase “shake the dust off” holds two meanings, we don’t hold any ill-feelings, we don’t allow anger, rejection, self-pity, or any other emotion to enter in because of the rejection. Second is the metaphor Dust means flesh, shake the flesh off our feet, keep going in the Spirit. Discern, don’t burn.

The fear of rejection will cause us to bend the rules to get man’s approval, or discard the purpose of our calling to gain approval, either of which makes us compromise our position with the flesh, very dangerous. Moses never compromised with Pharaoh, it was God’s way, or no way. Moses found the purpose was to provide Pharaoh enough of God to make a decision. Moses was not required to tell Pharaoh how the water turned to blood, or where the boils came from. Isaiah was also told, “Go and tell this people, Hear you indeed but understand not; and see you indeed but perceive not” (Isa 6:9). Jeremiah was told, “be not dismayed at their faces” (Jere 1:17). These are warnings to the prophets; they were to speak, but they weren’t to expect the voices of praise to come from the people. They heard the voices of rejection, yet they were not to allow those voices to interfere with their course. However, Jeremiah almost slipped into the trap, thus God told him to seek the Precious (Jere 15:19). There are many events where we have to search for the Precious.

When Moses and Aaron started the deliverance, Moses was 80 years old, Aaron was 83 years old; it’s never too late to begin, nor is it too late to enter the work of the Lord (Ex 7:7). This little side note is interesting, the two men lead different lives, yet they were related. Moses spent 40 years as an Egyptian, 40 more in training in Midian, then 40 in the wilderness. He served God, yet he never got to see the Promised Land. He knew about it, since he mentions names of places in the Promised Land, but his ministry didn’t lead him there. Aaron would be the first priest under the Law of Moses, he spent most of his life as a captive, no special priestly training, no time in the Pharaoh’s place of educational refinement, no degree in religion, no doctoral work to prove him worthy of the office, just a call from God. How dare he take on such an important task? The man must be crazy, or anointed, you pick which.

The first sign will also show us the children of Israel were not free of all the plagues, yet it was not God who produced the plagues on the children. The plagues God brought were on the Egyptians, the magicians of Pharaoh then cast plagues on the children, but there came a time when God would place a separation between the children of God and the house of Pharaoh. Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh, it became a serpent, but Pharaoh had his sorcerers (magicians) cast their rods down, their rods became serpents (Ex 7:8-11). Pharaoh had his New Age, the only thing new about the New Age is our fear of it. In fact, the only power the New Age has, is what we gave it through our fear of it.

Moses will experience some mighty things, all of which are Supernatural, or things regarding the natural. Supernatural is still natural, limiting it to the natural realm. The supernatural has limits to its power, the deeds of Pharaoh’s sorcerers will show there comes a place for the limit of evil, while God’s supernatural power continues on. A counterfeit is a rough, unauthorized copy, lacking the power and authority of the original. We are always in a better position when we know we’re in the Name of Jesus; we are a people who have the supernatural ability in God, plus the spiritual ability of God.

Why did Pharaoh even try? He presumed he was the god of gods, if the Lord God of Moses wanted a fight, well bless God, Pharaoh was ready, or was he? God fought this battle on the turf of Pharaoh, with weapons Pharaoh could understand; however, not with Pharaoh’s weapons. Pharaoh was about as spiritual as a bagel, yet God is Spirit, He is fully able to make His point in a way the natural mind of Pharaoh could grasp; showing the plagues were all supernatural, not spiritual. The same is true with us, we war in a natural war zone, but we fight with spiritual weapons, we never fight flesh and blood, either do we fight with the natural weapons of man. These plagues also show us judgment is real, God is fully able to bring plagues to prove His might. Some might say “it doesn’t sound like a Good God to me”, but if we rightly divide the Word we can see the Love of God in the Day, yet the Wrath of God in the Night, is God equal? God will do what God will do, a good servant doesn’t question the Master, they obey. Paul made this clear in Romans by showing God will have mercy, on whom He will have mercy and compassion on whom He will have compassion (Rom 9:15). For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, so I might show My power in thee, and My Name might be declared throughout the earth” (Rom 9:17). Was God’s Name declared: Certainly, Rahab heard of the Acts of God, she rejected her people for the people of God. There are those who Hear of our Acts, even if we don’t know they have heard. Our actions have force and effect in people we don’t even know.

After Moses hears, “speak to Pharaoh”, he then hears, “Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you” (Ex 7:4). This wasn’t to discourage Moses, but to encourage him. Jesus knew those in His own home town would reject Him, but He nonetheless preached with the expectation of them receiving. Did He know they wouldn’t receive? Yes, but God’s desire and God’s reality are often different. In any case none of those who rejected Jesus could ever say, “well gee, we were never given the opportunity”. There are times when God will send us to carnal junction, or the place of rejection. Before we get there we tend to insert our own expectations, as did Jonah, presuming things God never told us. In Jonah’s case it was “they’re going to kill me”, in some of us it’s, “they will believe, and fall on their face I just know it”; when we get there they attack, yell, call us everything but a preacher. We get frustrated, yet it happened to Jesus, but He knew the purpose was Opportunity for the hearer. He shook the dust off, going on to the next place, as we should.

Aaron’s rod swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh, this is a type and shadow of how we tread on serpents. The word Serpent means Malicious, we overcome malicious words by rendering good for evil. The word Malicious means an intent to do harm, it’s the basis for the word Slander. The title Satan means The Slanderer, slander is not always a lie, rather it’s seldom based on a lie. Libel is an outright lie, but Slander can be based on a fact, but presented to do someone harm, or presented with the specific intent to harm their reputation. It may contain some information, but leaves out enough to cause the hearer to draw the wrong conclusion. In some legal circles Libel is printed, slander spoken, but the meaning of Slander found in the Bible refers to the character of Satan. Whether it’s a fact or not doesn’t matter, if it’s said with the intent to do harm to the person or their reputation it’s slander. Discernment desires to know how to deal with a person or situation, slander could care less, as long as it hurts someone. A classic example of slander is when Peter told the Lord, “be it far from You, Lord: this shall not be” (Matt 16:22). This was in response to Jesus telling the disciples about the Cross and Resurrection which was to come. The words of Peter were based on Jewish idioms meaning, “have pity on Yourself, make God stop it”. In response Jesus said, “get you behind Me Satan”, or “Get you behind Me, Slanderer”, so how was it slander? Who would be harmed, certainly not Jesus, Peter assumed why go through it? Things were just fine they way they were, yet the entire purpose was based on the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. To “natural Peter” it seemed like the right thing to say at the moment, but he slandered God’s Plan, in so doing he slandered God. In the Hebrew the word Satan is actually a title of a position, according to the Hebrews, Satan is an adversary of humans, not God, thus Satan is more akin to the spirit of man, with an intent to destroy mankind. Another way to view this struggle between Pharaoh and Moses is the intent, Pharaoh was attempting to promote, or hold to his ideology by using the children of God against God; whereas God through Moses was using His Power to free the children. Two completely different intents, with two completely different results.

God will harden Pharaoh’s heart, but it started with Pharaoh having a hard heart, as the man rejected the obvious signs, his heart grew harder (Ex 7:14). The first plague of the Water being turned into Blood should have warned Pharaoh, but his own pride blinded him. Later at a wedding Jesus will turn water into wine, later yet He will proclaim how His Blood is the New Testament. We take Wine or Grape Juice as a symbol of the Blood of Jesus, but here in the first plague we find some interesting elements. Water represents Mercy, the Blood represents a sacrifice, the first plague pointed to Pharaoh’s complete lack of Mercy in reference to the children being able to sacrifice unto God. Pharaoh is bringing all these things on himself; this will be evident in the last plague, when the first born of Egypt are slain.

This is an area helping define metaphors, the Water couldn’t mean the Spirit, since it’s not an issue here, neither is Grace, but we know there is no remission without the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22 & Lev 17:11). The Covenant called for the sprinkling of blood, they wanted to sacrifice animals, meaning they knew the blood stood for the Covenant. This of course was based on Abraham’s sacrifice, which had the animals cut in half, wit the blood between the halves. However, they had no idea what Born Again meant, at this point in time it was still the Abrahamic Covenant.

Although Pharaoh didn’t know it, he was building the faith of Moses. Pharaoh is a prime example of how a vessel of dishonor can hone the vessels of honor. Moses worked harder as his faith grew with each experience; yet Moses could have said, “Aaron, look, he has more power than we, let’s get out of here”, or “Aaron, New Age, find the door”; but Moses knew for Whom he worked, he also knew he had to do battle in the manner God desired. Each time Pharaoh said, “No”, Moses saw another miracle, yet while the faith of Moses grew, the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart also grew. The difference? Moses was looking for God, Pharaoh was looking to stop God. Moses could have joined in Pharaoh’s attack, or seek God, he did the latter, winning the battle.

Pharaoh was raised for a purpose, on the surface it appeared anything but good, but nonetheless Pharaoh did acts to complete the will of God, although his acts were evil, the result was still good for the people of God. The people saw how the kings of the world are overcome by the power of God, at times it’s something we forget (Rom 9:17-19).

Pharaoh’s character is representative of the spirit of disobedience, as it uses force and manipulation to control. The Egypt (worldly) mindset crossed the water with the children giving us a type of the Wiles of the devil; although Pharaoh was destroyed as a result of the Water. The Wiles of the devil are the methods of his operation, it is not the devil, but how he operates through the spirit of man. We war against using the wiles of the devil, as we war against being overcome by them, as we war against reacting to them in a natural manner, or using them as our form of warfare. At times it’s seems just as easy to attack anger with anger, but it’s still using a wile of the enemy against the enemy.

The spirit of man can enter the kingdom, it may become the spirit of antichrist, setting itself against the Spirit of Truth. It will turn into the he in the world hindering us from reaching the Christ Character. James tells us, “do you think the Scripture says in vain, The spirit  dwelling in us lust to envy?”. We studied this phrase and found it to mean the old man, the same spirit of man producing deception. Although James shows the spirit is ineffective, we also know the ineffective spirit remains with the flesh. The Wicked make the choice to use the spirit lusting to envy to their advantage, thus when we were in the world we were subject to it, but the Wicked use it, much different. The spirit of man was the problem in Corinth, they had the Spirit, but remained carnal, allowing strive and envy to guide them (I Cor 3:3). Since they had the Spirit, they were without excuse, yet they produced the signs of carnal thinking, by their strife, division and envy. They set Gates in the way, yet gates are not offensive weapons, they are defensive; unless of course you take it off the hinges and beat someone half to death. However, the gates of hell Jesus referred to were like unto the gates in the wall around the city of Jerusalem (Matt 16:18). Although we know the gates of hell hold death, they also Separate, Divide, or Hinder. There is a Godly division, but there is also an ungodly one. Paul asked the Corinthians “Is Christ divided?” (I Cor 1:13). Ungodly division brings contentions and strife, usually leading to heresy (I Cor 1:11, I Cor 11:18-19, II Cor 12:20 & James 3:14). Two Godly elements remove the gates of hell, Unity of the Faith with the Unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3 & 4:13). There is of course a Godly separation (James 1:21 & Heb 4:12), here we see examples of both, God is separating His children from Egypt, but Pharaoh is attempting to separate the people from God; guess who wins?

God was giving the children opportunity to see how ineffective the bondage was, as well as defining why they didn’t need to suffer under the slavery mentality. God knew the slavery mentality of the oppressed can turn during the moment of freedom to become the  mentality of the oppressor. Therefore, we can leave Egypt, yet turn and become the oppressor. Peter told us to not to use constraint when feeding the flock of God (I Pet 5:1-2), thus one can, or why warn us not to? We are also told not to use our Freedom as a covering of maliciousness (I Pet 2:16), which would associate us with those who have a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28-29), which means it’s possible, although not very probable.

There are the Acts of God, there are the Ways of God, the Acts will happen, but the Ways only come when we are Born Again, as the Holy Ghost teaches us by comparing spiritual to spiritual (I Cor 2:13). The Acts are Good, the Ways are Good, the two should be one in order to maintain with God. We can do the Acts, yet never enter the Ways, or we can put so much study on the Ways we reject the Acts, never obtaining the Ways. God is Equal, He expects us to balance the Ways with the Acts, do the things of God by walking in the Spirit.

The time element between the first encounter between Moses and Pharaoh, until the departure from Egypt would take forty days. The chain of events are as follows: day one, Moses talks to the people, the next day he talks to Pharaoh; on the 3rd day the rod of Aaron turns into a serpent; the 4th day the water is turned into blood for seven days (Ex 7:25); the 12th day brings the frogs, the 13th day the lice; the 14th day brings the flies; the 15th day the flies stop; on the 16th day the promise for the hail: the 17th day the hail falls; on the 18th day the boils break out; on the 20th day the locusts come for two days; on the 22nd day darkness falls for three days: on the 25th day the darkness ends: on the 26th day Pharaoh makes his final statement, which will also be the first day of the Hebrew New Year; on the 35th day they pick a lamb for the Passover; on the 39th day they have Passover; on the 40th day they leave. God is Equal, they saw the miracles during the forty days in Egypt, they had the evidence of God delivering them from Egypt, then God asked them to believe Him through the forty days of the wilderness in order for them to possess the Promised Land. However, their unbelief led to iniquity, as they failed to believe God, making the forty days turn into forty years (Ex 34:9 & Numb 14:33).

Not only were they to travel the wilderness, but they were to sacrifice and praise the Lord for His deliverance. The premise was to go three days into the wilderness then sacrifice, did they? Exodus 15:22-24 shows they were three days into the wilderness when they began to complain about the water. Answer the question? The longer we complain and murmur, the longer we remain in the wilderness of God.

The wilderness was the place for an attitude change, from oppression to gladness of heart, from slavery mentality to being free; however, the children made the choice to murmur and complain. They failed to mix the Word given with Faith, but wait, we may have hit on something here. They crossed the Red Sea by faith, so what was their attitude then? Singing and Dancing; faith must entail an attitude conducive to being a blessing. What was the motivation for crossing? The death of Pharaoh, it was a faith based in desperation, a type of faith avoiding the immediately danger, “Oh God forgive me this time, same me, I won’t do it again”, next day, “Oh God forgive me this time, save me, I won’t do it again”. This type of faith is nonetheless faith, but it fails to mix with the Word, in the case of the children they failed to mix the Word with faith. We can hear, yet not apply the words to our faith, in some cases it’s because the foundation of faith is missing.

Lusts are deceptive, they rarely appear as they are, the lust of pride may surface as self-pity, just to get attention. The Spirit (Word) in us “discerns spirits” so we can minister to the real problem becomes what is behind the masks (I Cor 12:7-11). Since the New Man is the Word in us (James 1:27), it stands if we mix our faith with the New Man we win.

They failed to praise God for His benefits; because of their unbelief, they ended with the Law of Moses. The curse came because they failed to serve the Lord with joy and gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things (Deut 28:47). The phrase All Things means All Things, good, bad or indifferent.

On the other side the symbol of Aaron’s rod (serpent) devouring the serpents of Pharaoh, which should have told Pharaoh this is a “no win situation”; but a hard heart can’t see beyond the hardness, really, a hard heart only sees what it wants to see while it only hears what it wants to hear.

The day after the serpent scene, God tells Moses and Aaron, Go back and meet Pharaoh at the water’s edge. It will be at the water’s edge where Aaron’s rod will turn the water to blood (Ex 7:15-21). First came the Word, then the serpent, now Water and Blood. Turning the Water to Wine will be the first miracle Jesus will do, the Wine being an example of the New Covenant pointing to the Blood of Jesus. However, here it’s water to blood, not water to wine, connect this to the bitter water three days into the wilderness. Here we find the water into blood, in the wilderness it will be bitter water, but for two different purposes. Here it was to show Pharaoh how he turned the Mercy God into wickedness; however, in the wilderness we find two things taking place. First the children held to the old ways feeling the plagues had returned, yet they were delivered. Sound familiar? Yes, some of us see a bug then run off yelling, “the curse, the curse”. The water remained as blood until Pharaoh admitted the Power was of God, in the wilderness it took a Tree to make the water sweet. The children’s minds were on the past, not the future.

Pharaoh’s magicians copied God with their enchantments, causing the water to turn to blood throughout all of Egypt, which included the places where the Hebrews were living (Ex 7:22-24). The magicians of Pharaoh wouldn’t curse Pharaoh, thus the evidence shows the plagues were placed on Pharaoh’s house, then Pharaoh had his magicians place the plagues on the Hebrews; however, the magicians of Pharaoh would shortly find the limit to their evil supernatural power, while God’s power keeps going.

Next Aaron is told to Stretch forth his hand to bring the plague of the frogs (Ex 8:5). Here it gets interesting, in Exodus 8:6 it says only the hand of Aaron was stretched forth. In Exodus 8:16 it’s, “stretch out your rod”, but in Exodus 8:17 we find Aaron stretched forth his hand and rod. So, was Aaron being rebellious? After all it was “hand and rod”, but Aaron only stretched forth his hand, then it was “rod”, then he stretched forth his hand and rod. No he wasn’t being rebellious, if he stretched forth the rod, he would have to do so with his hand. God never said, “stretch forth your rod with your feet”.

The magicians of Pharaoh think they can twist the judgment of God by putting it back on God’s people, they used their enchantments causing the entire land of Egypt to be covered with frogs (Ex 8:7). Up to this time their attitude is, “So what, here’s back at you”; however, in all the copycat maneuvers the magicians of Pharaoh could never stop one plague, or produce their own, rather they merely copied what God produced.

Next Aaron will stretch out his rod as the dust became lice, but when the magicians attempted it, they failed, saying, “It’s the finger of God” (Ex 8:16-19). When they copied the plagues it was “Aaron”, but when their power reached a limit, they gave God the credit, only because they could no longer copy the sign. This is not only a sign of their defeat, but shows the power of God enduring well past the time when witchcraft reaches its limit. For us this is a great sign, there are times when it looks like the devil is just copying us, but if we endure he will reach his limit, yet we’ll just be getting started.

God will now put the division between His people and the house of Pharaoh (Ex 8:24). It was time to show Pharaoh as well as the children there is a division between Egypt and God. Although there were copies, Pharaoh reached the height of their power, yet the power of God was just beginning. When they knew it was the “finger of God”, it should have been enough evidence to yield, but will they? We know Pharaoh won’t, but what about the children? Will they now firm up their belief unto faith?

The children would “see” many things before, and during the wilderness, each one the Lord is allowing or providing as a means to build their belief and faith. Joshua and Caleb are symbols of those who endure bringing forth fruit, but the first time we hear of Joshua will be in Exodus 17:9 after the departure, the first time we read about Caleb is in Numbers 13:6 (Ex 17:9, Numb 13:6 & Mark 4:20). What importance is this? Both Joshua and Caleb remained silent in the Egypt testing, they become examples of those who submit; on the other hand we find the other children complaining with the attitude of “it’s to hard, we can’t do it”, the same attitude will carry over into the wilderness. In our case, when the root is coming forth we will face all those golden calves we brought with us from Egypt, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts for other things. If we endure, the blade will come forth as we become little children, knowing our sins are forgiven, then onto young men where we have victory over the Wicked (Mark 4:18-20  & I Jn 4:1-5). The Blade stage begins to produce the fruit, not the seed or root (Mark 4:28). It’s when the Blade comes up when we see the Tares from Egypt in ourselves and others. We can go crazy assuming we are some evil creature, or we can rejoice knowing the tares are being destroyed by the Spirit of Truth: the latter is better, more productive and beneficial to both the Lord and us.

Pharaoh knew his gods were failing him, but as most ego infested kings, he also felt he was higher than his own gods, or at least felt he was equal to God. However, Pharaoh reached a point where he knew only the God of Moses could stop the plagues. Pharaoh knew his magicians could only copy the plagues, neither could they stop them, or bring them. Like all New Age workers, they copy something to a point, but they can’t stop it. Only after Pharaoh’s magicians failed to copy the later plagues, did Pharaoh think he had sinned. Would he limit the sin to the immediate plague? Yes, showing his repentance was to escape the danger, not to atone for his sin. He gives us a look at “self-repentance”, he was remorseful, but only because it wasn’t going his way. Repenting to avoid danger, or repenting because things are not going the way we want is not true repentance, self-repentance is short lived, usually soon forgotten.

Pharaoh now says, Moses can make a sacrifice, but like all Pharaohs, he will limit the sacrifice and place rules and regulations on the method and time, thus Pharaoh is still wanting to control the event in some manner. Policy and rules are different, Policy is something we live to, rules are something we make others live to.

Pharaoh knew the Hebrews wanted to sacrifice sheep, but killing sheep was an abomination to Egypt. Pharaoh tells Moses to leave the flocks but go and sacrifice, sacrifice what? Daisies? (Ex 8:25-26). Pharaoh gave in for the moment, but removed the elements for the sacrifice. Moses entreated the Lord and the flies stopped, but as soon as the flies stopped, so did the promise from Pharaoh (Ex 8:28-32). Clearly the evidence of Self-repentance, as soon as the danger passes, so does the repentance.

The entire premise is for Pharaoh to “let God’s people go”, so they can serve the Lord, but Pharaoh didn’t want to lose his control over God’s people, neither did he want to lose control over his control. Who were they serving at this time? Pharaoh, thus Pharaoh refused to give up what he felt was his, yet in truth God will show Pharaoh owns nothing. Could Pharaoh stop the Exodus? Not at all, the devil couldn’t stop us from coming to Jesus either. Pharaoh not being able to enter the Wilderness shows us the devil cannot cross the “Cross barrier” of the kingdom, thus he planted Tares when we were in his realm. The problem isn’t the devil, it’s the flesh with those wiles and tares of the devil.

The children couldn’t sacrifice while in Egypt, as a sign to us, no one can truly give God the Glory while they remain in Egypt. If God is “all powerful” why not hit Pharaoh with a bolt of lightning and get it over with? God’s plan, our self-determinations of what God should, or shouldn’t do are much different from what God is doing. God was showing His people His power, giving them incentive to believe when their discipleship begins in the wilderness. God never takes us into a wilderness unless He first shows us His power. Unfortunately some of us confuse the source of the power and say, “look at the power I have”. Do those statements mean we are fitted for destruction? Not at all, it means there is yet a cleaning to take place; God desires for us to become vessels of Mercy (honor). How do we know? We enter places of cleaning like the wilderness; if God didn’t care, He wouldn’t bring us to a place to clean us.

The vessels of dishonor are “fitted” for destruction, the word Fitted in Romans 9:22 is the Greek Katartizo meaning To adjust, or To put something in its appropriate position, or to Arrange as a Potter would form clay for its use. It doesn’t mean to “create”, rather it means to form, it holds the concept of forming based on what the product allows. If the clay is hard by refusing water, it is limited for use, leaving the Potter no choice but to form it by it’s own hardness. It seems strange for Paul would equate the vessels of dishonor to those within the Body, yet use Pharaoh as example, since Pharaoh was not called of God, or was he? This evil man was sitting as Pharaoh simply because God allowed him the position, thus God was still in control, He still had a plan going beyond the man. Did God make Pharaoh evil? No, Pharaoh did, but God used the wickedness of Pharaoh to show the children the delivering power of God. Pharaoh was still related to Abraham, it may be Paul’s point.

We can see God doing something benevolent for the children, yet at the same time the unbelief of Pharaoh is turning to rage, as he challenges God, yet in the challenge Pharaoh’s heart became harder, thus the children had a living example of what happens when you challenge God. We also have the example, it’s good to know these things as we keep them in mind when we find ourselves in an event we don’t like.

Pharaoh became an example of what not to do when confronted by God, it’s an example we can’t ignore. If we take this back to the time Joseph we find many things, first God could have stopped the drought which caused Jacob to enter Egypt in the first place, but He didn’t. God could have warned Jacob about the drought many years prior, but He didn’t. Perhaps Jacob’s faith wasn’t strong enough? No, it had nothing to do with Jacob’s faith, it had to do with the plan of God. God could have warned Joseph in a dream to keep his mouth closed regarding the dreams, but He didn’t. God could have caused Joseph to be saved by Reuben, but He didn’t. God did save Egypt through Joseph, only to destroy it through Moses. Wow, sounds like a waste of time. Not at all, the purpose became apparent in the wilderness. Joseph kept the Lord in his heart, thus God was with him. Pharaoh kept Pharaoh in his heart, God was against him. Both Joseph and Pharaoh were leaders, both were raised by God, yet for different purposes.

God gives Choice to the heathen as well as His called, the plague of the hail mixed with fire proves it. The Egyptians who feared the Lord could remove their cattle and servants from the field, but as we will see those who looked to Pharaoh as their god, left their cattle in the open, causing their cattle to die (Ex 9:1-3 & 9:6). These cattle provided milk and cheese, staples to the Egyptian diet. The cattle belonging to the children of Israel were spared from the plague, as the Division and Separation was still in place and becoming obvious (Ex 9:6). This example shows how God can operate with His called while they are yet in Egypt. This fits with Romans 8:28, where we read, “And we know all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose”. When we were in the world, we were nonetheless Called according to God’s purpose, thus those whom God has predestinated, He also called; the purpose of the Predestination is for us to be Conformed (not created) into the Image of His Son (Rom 8:29-30). The Predestination is the Record, the Witness on earth is bringing the Record into our lives, thus It’s the Conforming process we call Justification, the Just still live by Faith (Heb 10:38-39).

Before the hail falls, the house of Pharaoh will suffer the plague of boils (Ex 9:9-12). The hail will come from heaven, but the boils from within the flesh. God exposes the evil within before He is forced to bring hail on our heads from above. The boils are a type and shadow of the tares the enemy planted while we were in the world. Those hurts, pains, ego based concepts, seeds of control, or unbelief must be removed from the inside out. It’s when we see them as unwanted boils we gain the incentive to be free of them, prior we assumed they were treasures, or talents.

God will warn Pharaoh through Moses, by saying, “for this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you My power; and My Name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Ex 9:16 & Rom 9:17). We reviewed this prior, seeing Pharaoh was a sign of God’s Power as a vessel of dishonor, but here we find the man was told, thus he rejected the warning. This man who considered himself the god of gods is told he was nothing, God raised him to show God’s power over the Pharaoh’s of the world. For most of us considering the evidence we would fall on our face, begging for mercy, but not Pharaoh, his pride enforced his stiff neck rebellion, causing him to refuse to submit.

The flies, lice and frogs were all signs of things to come, disease is purposed to remain in the world (Rev 6:8-9). Having a few boils in our time really doesn’t seem like such a “big deal”, but to Pharaoh’s house this was something unheard of. The combination of the boils with the hail would cause Pharaoh to say, “I have sinned this time”; which means he didn’t think he had sinned prior (Ex 9:27). This is another example of self-repentance, the pride of Pharaoh refused to bow to God. Although Pharaoh knew the combination of boils and hail proved his people were wicked, while also proving the Lord is righteous (Ex 9:27), yet Pharaoh still failed to bring the “fruit of repentance” (Ex 9:28-29). Pharaoh only admitted his sin to stop the plague, not to turn from his wicked nature.

Both Judas and Peter repented, the difference between the two is great. Judas was remorseful because the event didn’t turn out the way he wanted, Peter was deeply remorseful because he failed the Lord. Judas wanted to use the Lord to get what he wanted, Peter wanted to protect the Lord, but was unaware of his weakness. As far as Peter was concerned he had no weakness, but when his weakness was exposed, he discovered he was not who he thought he was, yet after the discovery he almost went the other way, by giving up. Judas set out to accomplish something, and did, except it didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Peter on the other hand set out to do something, and couldn’t, because he was weak. Most of our wilderness experiences are to destroy over confidence, or in some cases to gain Godly confidence. Pharaoh is a classic example of someone who will not admit their weakness, rather they are delusional about their strength. The Pharaoh mindset will admit failure, but only to gain an upper hand. They are deceptive, cunning and manipulative; when Pharaoh voiced his sin, he assumed he would be free of any further plagues, yet he sinned the more (Ex 9:34-35). Pharaoh’s self-repentance shows us the danger in simply mouthing the words to avoid the danger of the moment, while never making the decision to turn from the source of the sin. This example goes all the back to the fall, we are drawn away by our own lust, yet saying, “it was the serpent” isn’t going to remove the lust, it will enforce it. We must face it, admit it, allow the New Man to bring up the root, then we can rejoice in the freedom.

God sends Moses to bring the locusts, we also find the connection between the hand and rod as the difference between being in the hand of God, and having Him bring the rod of correction. Moses is told to stretch out his hand, but Moses stretched forth the rod (Ex 10:12-13). It’s not the hand or the rod, but to whom they are connected, and to whom they are pointed makes the difference. When we humble ourselves under God’s hand we won’t face the Rod of Correction in His hand. Before the locusts devour the land, God will send Moses and Aaron again to Pharaoh asking, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me” (Ex 10:1-3). At the time Pharaoh is told the locusts will appear the next day (Ex 10:4), the servants of Pharaoh begin to see the handwriting, as they tell Pharaoh to let the people go, but Pharaoh’s heart is hardened the more (Ex 10:7). The next day the locusts came devouring the land; locusts are a symbol of religious pride, or religious conceit, Pharaoh had a religion, with him as his own god (Ex 10:8-15). John the Baptist came eating Locusts, does it mean he kept getting those little legs stuck in his teeth? Or does it mean he came to expose religiously conceit? He also came eating Honey (a metaphor for prophecy), thus John the Baptist was known as a Prophet. Pharaoh rejected the words of the prophet losing the prophet’s reward. The Pharisees rejected John’s words, but knew the people considered John a prophet (Mark 11:32). When the righteous person or the prophet tells us to repent, we better listen or we will miss the reward.

The locusts devoured everything the hail missed, there wasn’t one green thing left, again Pharaoh tells Moses, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you” (Ex 10:15-16). Pharaoh is still rejecting the truth of the Lord being God over all, as he assumes Moses has control over God. Simply admitting there is One God is not enough, we must reject the old gods of Egypt as well, then receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Here Pharaoh says, “your God”, thus he refuses to receive God. Pharaoh’s repentance is based in his displeasure of the events, yet he admitted sin, but admitting sin is not all repentance calls for, one must humble their self, then set themselves against the cause of sin, as they continue to repent toward the Kingdom before their repentance has fruit.

Let’s go to part 2…

By Rev. G. E. Newmyer – Les3rev9/© 2003