See Also My Other Blog: Paths of Progress in Time

See Also My Other Blog: Paths of Progress in Time

http://antsofgod.blogspot.com/

- Pete Van Breemen

"Exodus" a book by Deoram Bolan, Chapter 1: Exodus and the Road Out

EXODUS - A teaching by brother Deoram Bolan,
Edited by Jon R. Welker
Published by Shepherdsfield Publishers, Fulton, MO

CHAPTER 1: SEPARATION AND "THE ROAD OUT"

The Book of Exodus, the second book in the Bible, is very deep in spiritual meaning. It falls into two distinct sections, the historical and legislative. Chapters 1 through 19 are connected with the history of a people in bondage and with the birth of a leader who would deliver them. It is also connected with that people's emancipation from the land of Egypt and their journeys in the wilderness until they came to Mount Sinai. Following their arrival at Mount Sinai, God outlines for His people His way of life for them. He enters into covenant relation with them and gives them the Law. The Law is seen in its threefold category - the moral, the civil, and the ceremonial Law. The moral Law was for the individual, the civil Law was for the life of the nation, and the ceremonial Law was for the religious life of the people. Associated with the Law were the priesthood and the Tabernacle. All of these details are full of instructions for us who are God's people.

The word Exodus comes from two Greek words - Ek, which means 'out of or from,' and odus, which means 'a road or traveling way.' The word Exodus, therefore, means the 'road out' or 'departure.' The Book of Exodus deals with the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt. This word can be seen in Exodus 19:1:
"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the and of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai."

Notice "gone forth" - that's the word for Exodus. Thus, this word, Exodus, is used in the New Testament in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ when Moses and Elijah appeared to Him on the Mount of Transfiguration and spoke of His decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem (Lk. 9:30-31). The word "decease" is the same as the word "departure" or "Exodus." It spoke of His sacrifice on the cross, when He would leave this world temporarily and go to the unseen world, Hades, and then come back again from that realm and be reunited in His physical body - this time a resurrected and glorified body.

Exodus is the second book in the Bible. The first book is Genesis, which is the book of beginnings, and speaks to us of the elect or chosen of God. When you study the Book of Genesis, you see God choosing certain individuals and bypassing others. For example, God chose Abel over Cain, and He chose Shem, of the three sons of Noah, to father the race-line through which the Messiah would come. Shem was blessed above the other two sons. We also see God singling out a man after the Flood whose name was Abraham, who was to be a father of a nation. God sovereignly chose him out of all the men in that day. We also find that God passed by Ishmael and chose Isaac. Ishmael was the firstborn; yet Isaac was the chosen son, and God chose him to be the promised heir. Then God passed by Esau, the firstborn, and chose Jacob. Then God saw fit to choose Joseph and bypass Reuben, the firstborn of the twelve sons of Jacob. God chose Joseph to be the instrument to His people, as well as Egypt and the surrounding nations. He promoted him to be second only to Pharaoh in the Throne of Egypt. Reuben, who was entitled to the blessings of the firstborn, was passed by as God chose Joseph. Similarly, when we consider Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, we see that God set aside the first born, Manasseh. He was blessed by his father; but Ephraim, the second-born, came in for greater blessings (Gen. 48:19).

So we see God bypassing the first and choosing the second. Why? A truth of God was illustrated in these examples - that which is of the first is earthly, and the second is greater than the first. If you search the Scriptures, you will see that all of God's seconds are greater than God's firsts. We read of the first man, Adam, in 1 Corinthians 15:22 , 45, and then we read of the second man, the Lord Jesus. Of the two, who is greater? We read of two priesthoods - the Levitical and the Melchizedek priesthoods. The Melchizedek priesthood was greater. We read of two veils that were in the Tabernacle. The second veil brought the High Priest into the Holy of Holies; yet through the first veil, the priests were only brought into the Holy Place. Here we see God illustrating His sovereign grace and His choice of the ones who would be instrumental in doing His Will.

So, in the "book of beginnings," we see God choosing different ones for salvation. But in the Book of Exodus, we see Israel's deliverance from Egypt. Viewed with the perspective of teaching, we see that it deals with the matter of redemption. In Genesis, God chose those who would come into redemption, but in Exodus, we are shown how God saves. Leviticus is the third book in the Bible; it shows for what we are redeemed. Redeemed people will be a people who will worship God. Leviticus speaks of the walk of the Christian and the walk in the wilderness, how to worship God, and how to be kept from the pollution of sin. That is why there were laws given in the Book of Leviticus - laws concerning worship, God's provisions, and His holiness. Then the Book of Numbers speaks of the walk and the warfare of the child of God. It is connected with numbering, for every Hebrew male son who had attained the age of twenty years was conscripted into the army (Num. 1:3). He became of age for warfare at twenty years of age. We are numbered in Numbers to fight! God is telling us that He wants His Church to come of age; He wants us to enter redemption, to worship Him, and to be occupied in warfare. For the Bible says,
"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12
We need to be taught how to fight as soldiers of the Cross. We need to know how to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). The Bible says we are to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6: 11 , 13).
By breaking down the various chapters of Exodus, certain themes can be easier for us to remember. There are five divisions of the book:
Chapters 1-6 speak of the need for redemption, because the people were enslaved. Redemption means 'buying back' or 'to loose.' It involved property and persons. Redemption involved land that was sold by the owner which he did not have the means to recover. When he could recover the land, a blood brother had to pay the money to bring it back to the one who lost it. Then, if an individual was a slave (the Israelites were slaves in the land of Egypt), he needed a "kinsman redeemer," one who was related to him by blood, to bring him out of bondage. The "Redeemer" word means that this relative had the money or price to pay for his brother to be loosed from slavery. Redemption is prominent in the Book of Exodus. The need for redemption is seen in these chapters because the Israelites were slaves in the land of Egypt.
Chapters 7-11 speak of the power and the might of the Redeemer. You can't have redemption without a Redeemer.

Nor can you have salvation without a Savior. You can't have creation without a Creator and you can't have effect without a cause. Having seen the need for redemption, God shows us the one who can redeem and that is He Himself. He shows us His power and might to redeem in the evidence of the ten plagues that came on the land of Egypt.

Chapters 12-18 speak of the character of redemption and how this redemption came about - by blood and by power! We see how they celebrated this redemption after they had been brought out of Egypt.

Chapters 19-24 show the duty of the redeemed. Those who have been redeemed have a responsibility to obey the laws of the Lord, Who was the Redeemer.

Chapters 25-40 speak to us of the provisions made for us for the failures of the redeemed. God knew that His people were weak and would not be able to obey all that He said. But God was not a hard taskmaster. God, in love, gave them the solution to their failures. He gave them the Tabernacle and its provisions for the sins of the peoples when and if they failed Him.

The key verse in Exodus is Exodus 15:13.
"Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation."

So we see how all the thoughts here about redemption are brought together and how God in mercy reached down to redeem them and to bring them to His holy habitation which was symbolized by the Tabernacle in their very midst.

Exodus is the second book in the Bible and there is a reason for that order. In Genesis, we see beginnings of the movements of God, and all of the major truths of the word of God are hidden in Genesis in seed form. All of the other books in the Bible amplify these truths that are hidden in Genesis.

Exodus is the second book, and the number two is an important number in the Bible. For example, two is the number of division or difference. We don't have to look outside the Bible to discover this. Notice in Genesis 1 that on the second day, God divided the waters from the waters. He put the firmament in the heavens to separate the waters above. In the days of Noah, the water from the heavens was released to join the waters on earth. So, two is the number of division. Division can lead to estrangement, or it can cause reconciliation. It depends on how we view it.

Two is also the number of "witness" in the Bible. It is the witness of a testimony. If two people agree on a certain matter then they become a witness about that matter. Two, however, can be opposed. Two can agree and that is witness, but two can also oppose each other - that's opposition. All of these things are illustrated in the Book of Exodus.

Two is also the number of contrast. Isn't Cain a different character than Abel? Another contrast is Jacob and Esau. On the other hand, two can work together as did Moses and Aaron and Ephraim and Manasseh.

An example of two being the number of division is found in the very first chapter of Exodus where it is shown that Pharaoh sought to bring division among the Israelites. The plan he had in mind was to cause all the male children of the Israelites to be killed. If that had come to pass, the people of Israel would have been divided. They would have been weakened. So this division is seen in the first chapter of the second book. Then, in the plagues which came upon Egypt, God said He would put a division between His peoples and the Egyptians.

"And I will sever in that day, the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies
shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I AM the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between My people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be." Exodus 8:22-23

Isn't it wonderful that God put a division between His people and the Egyptians? This was seen in the manifestation of the plagues. Then God divided between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt.

"And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel." Exodus 9:4
So God even divided the cattle of the Israelites and the Egyptians.

"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Exodus 14:21

"And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony and the vail shall divide unto you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy." Exodus 26:33

Do you see how the word of God interprets itself? Exodus is the second book and two is the number of division. We see these divisions throughout the Book of Exodus.

Now let us consider the number two as a number of witness. The sufferings and groanings of the Hebrews witnessed to their need for deliverance. Then we see the ten plagues that bore witness to the might and power of God. God also used two men to be witnesses to Pharaoh - Moses and Aaron, who were brothers. The Passover witnessed to the protecting power of the blood of the lamb and to the value of that blood. So we see how God was manifesting His grace toward His people, but for the Egyptians, the plagues of God brought judgment. In the wilderness, God manifested His grace toward His people in providing manna for them. God gave them water to drink, met their needs, and kept them from becoming sick - they witnessed His provision.

The giving of the Law was the witness to the righteous government of God, and the Tabernacle was a typical witness of the perfection of Jesus Christ. All of these things also witness to God.

There were also two magicians who came against Moses and Aaron. As Moses and Aaron were witnesses, so there two from the other camp who came against them. Their names are not given in Exodus, but in the New Testament (2 Tim. 3:8), they are called Jannes and Jambres. These two magicians witnessed against Moses and Aaron by performing the same miracles. The only difference was that Moses' rod, or the rod that Aaron handled for Moses, swallowed up the serpents of the magicians!
In the Book of Revelation, we also read of two witnesses. God says in Revelation 11:3, "I will send two witnesses and I will give them power." Then we read of these two witnesses coming on the scene to do a great work.

As already mentioned, two is also the number of opposition. This was seen in Pharaoh's opposing the Israelites by trying to increase their burdens and forbidding them to leave the land. The children were oppressed by their taskmasters by having to make bricks without being given material to make them - opposition. We also see opposition from the magicians of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's opposing Israel's departure up until the very last. Then we read of the Amalakites, who were the first nation to oppose Israel after they went into the wilderness.

As stated previously, two is also the number of contrast. For example, in Genesis we have the history of a family. The family tree begins with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob's twelve sons. There were "about seventy souls" that left Canaan to go down into Egypt. So here we are shown a family. But in Exodus, we see a nation - seventy souls became almost two million in Exodus! So we see a contrast between Genesis and Exodus. In Genesis we read of Abraham's descendants being welcomed and honored in Egypt. Pharaoh welcomed Jacob into Egypt and gave him part of the land to dwell in. In Exodus, instead of being honored, they are opposed; so again we see contrast. In Genesis they are accepted; in Exodus they are rejected.

Genesis 22:8 says that God will provide Himself a lamb. In other words, God Himself would become that lamb. Jesus was God made manifest in the flesh. The people could not see that because He was veiled in that flesh; but He was God's Spirit Who laid aside His divine function to come among us to function as a man. So we see the lamb promised in Genesis: whereas the lamb is slain in Exodus to become the Passover lamb. Notice the contrast here. In Genesis we see Israel's entry into Egypt; whereas in Exodus we see Israel's departure from Egypt. In Genesis we see the patriarchs in the Promised Land; in Exodus we see their descendants in the wilderness. Do you know how the Book of Genesis ends? It speaks of Joseph in a coffin. There are many things in the Bible we read but do not always understand. Exodus ends -
"For the cloud of the Lord was upon the Tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys."
Exodus 40:38

So you see the contrast – Exodus closes with the glory of God filling the Tabernacle and leading the people; whereas Genesis ends with Joseph in a coffin in Egypt.

Typically speaking, the Book of Exodus is historically true, but behind the history, there are types and shadows of spiritual truth. Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a picture of how the Christian is delivered from bondage from the Egypt of the world, which is under the rule of Pharaoh, who is a picture of Satan.

Prophetically speaking, this book has a meaning. Behind the history is prophecy. The prophecy is that just as a Pharaoh arose in those days to persecute Israel, likewise, in this end time, another Pharaoh, who is called the Anti-Christ, will arise against Israel and against the true church of the Living God. Because natural Israel was a type of the church, we already see this Anti-Christ system coming against God’s people, trying to substitute false signs for the true Word of God. Doing away with prayer in our schools is the working of the Anti-Christ system that is to be headed up by a man in this end time.

Just as the Israelites were made to groan by the pressure and burdens of that Pharaoh, likewise, this rebel individual is going to see them crying out as they have never cried out before. And God, in His grace, will cause the Messiah to return to them when their condition is hopeless, just as it was when the Israelites were in complete bondage and God arose on the scene to bring them deliverance. Likewise, we will see a repeat of this in the modern nation of Israel. Therefore, the Book of Exodus speaks prophetically. And just as God judged Egypt with the plagues, He will like wise cause judgment to come upon this Anti-Christ system and upon those who come against His church and His nation, Israel.

And just as God had two witnesses in that day to help Israel leave Egypt, God will also have two witnesses in this end time to help His children and Israel. From one perspective, God’s two witnesses today are the Church and Israel. No, Israel is not a true witness in the full sense, but the fact that she is back in the land is one of the greatest witnesses that god has given in order to reveal that the end time is upon us! And the true Church was meant to be His witness. “You shall be My witnesses when the Holy Spirit is come upon you” (Acts 1:8)

There are to be two witnesses in this end time that will
help the Church and help Israel. Many people believe that Moses and Elijah will come back to earth, and many Bible teachers teach this, but that does not necessarily make it right. We have to have an open heart to what God is saying. Why should God send Moses and Elijah into this dispensation when they served God in their day and were faithful in their time? We are not living in a dispensation that is in failure; it is better. In the Book of Hebrews, there are twelve better things mentioned. We are under a better covenant and better promises (Heb. 8:6). So why would God take two men from the Old Covenant to bring them in the end time, and what would they do then? If someone is going to be a witness, then he must be one who is seen and heard. There is much about the two witnesses that God will unveil to us. There will be two men, but not Moses and Elijah. If you don’t see this, just “put it on the shelf for future reference.” To be witnesses in this Dispensation of Grace, they must be witnesses of Jesus; those who walked and talked with Jesus and can say “He has preserved me and kept me.” Could it be that God has preserved two men from the days of the apostles who will come on the scene at the right time and who have not gone by the way of death? Think on that. Remember what Jesus told John? Peter said, “…what shall this man (John) do?” and Jesus said, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? (Jn. 21:22-23). Jesus did not just use words casually. Some people think that John died an ordinary death, but that’s just tradition. Put your faith in what Jesus said instead of tradition. We do not know all about John, but he could very well be one of the those two who is still living on the earth and will come forth at the appointed time. When these two come on the scene, people will know who these two witnesses are. They will have the credentials of God just as Moses and Aaron did.

Now let us deal with the typical meaning of Exodus. Jesus is represented to us in this book in many patterns. For example, Jesus is seen in the burning bush. For example, Jesus is seen in the burning bush. The Passover lamb is a type of the Lord. The manna that came from Heaven is a type of the Lord. The rock that was smitten was a type of the Lord. The Tabernacle – its furniture, its design – is also a type of the Lord. The priesthood speaks of His priesthood, and the offerings are all a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. See how Jesus is seen in the Book of Exodus by these many incidents!

In Exodus 1, we find that the Israelites were in the land of Goshen. This is how it begins:

“Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.” - Verse 1
Now they lived in Egypt, but they lived in a special part of Egypt. Pharaoh told Joseph,
“The Land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.”
Genesis 47:6
Goshen means ‘rained upon.’ So the Israelites were given the best part of the land and were treated well by the Pharaoh.
The word “Pharaoh” means the ‘great house.’ But the situation is different in Exodus. After a number of years, a spirit of enmity began to manifest itself to the Israelites. And one of the reasons why the Egyptians were opposed to the Israelites was because the Israelites were shepherds. There is a meaning to this, as we will see. Egypt, in the Scriptures, is a type of this world.
Thy servant’s trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” - Genesis 46:34

That is mentioned also in the Book of Exodus. When the plagues came, the Israelites were separated from the Egyptians, for they were a cattle-rearing people.

The question is, “Why did God allow the Israelites to spend such a long time in the land of Egypt?” According to the Scriptures, their sojourn was four hundred and thirty years (Ex. 12:40). And why did He suffer them to be treated so harshly? Couldn’t God have brought them out at an earlier time? Many times we go through a trial or a test in our Christian life and ask, “Why do I have to go through this situation? Many times we go through a trial or a test in our Christian life and ask, “Why do I have to go through this situation?” “Why do I have to wait so long?” “Why does God have to let me face all these opposing things?” But we know the times and the seasons are in His hands. Instead of fighting against god, we must learn to work with God. The quicker we learn that, the better it is for us. The Psalmist says, “My times are in Thy hands…” (Ps. 31:15), “…teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps. 90:12). If god does not bring you out in a day or in a year or in ten years, fear not; your times are in His hands. There is coming a time when God will deliver you - "who hath delivered us, who doth deliver us, and will deliver us," Paul says in II Corinthians 1:10.
Now the Israelites waited four hundred and thirty years in Egypt. They were exposed to much suffering. One reason for this is that God had to develop their spiritual muscle in Egypt so they would have greater appreciation for the land of Canaan. You cannot really love righteousness unless you hate iniquity. God has to work on us so that we can hate our ways and our rebellion and love Him. Oppositions tend to break us down and cause us to humble ourselves before God. The Psalmist says,
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept Thy word."
Psalm 119:67

We learn through our affliction. If God does not immediately deliver you out of it, don't give up hope. The Psalmist says,
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all."
Psalm 34:19

In the meantime, wait on Him and trust Him; He will work it out unto good. The hardest part is waiting!

God controls history - that is what we see in the Book of Exodus. God's people were enslaved, but He had plans 10 bring them out and did so in His time. The land of Canaan was too large for one family and so, in one sense, God had to let them grow into a big nation, so that when they came out of Egypt, they could take possession of the land of Canaan.

Why did they have to spend so long a time in Egypt? Because the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

That's a very important point.
"And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years."
Genesis 15:13-16

(Which seems to say, after they had spent thirty years in the land, four hundred years of opposition came against them and intensified.)
"And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shall go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
Genesis 16:14-16

The iniquity of the nations is symbolized by a cup that overflows, and God told Abram that the Amorites would not be judged until their iniquity had come to the full. That is a very important principle in God's dealing with nations. The same holds true for this nation, America. America is going to be judged by God. Before judgment comes, however, God always shows mercy. Not only America, but all the nations of the world are coming into judgment. And the reason is that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are being repeated in this nation on a nauseating scale. If God would not spare Sodom and Gomorrah for these same sins, neither will He spare this land. We see the "mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind surely." And there is coming a day of reckoning for those who continue in their ways of sin. Yet for those who cry against this and are faithful, Abraham tells God, "Surely, Lord, you are the judge of the earth, you will do right" (Gen. 18:25). God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked; yet He is going to hold this nation accountable at the appropriate time.

Already America is being scourged. The Israelite males were twenty years of age when they were eligible to go to war. When we talk about an individual, it is twenty; when we speak of a nation, we multiply by ten. God told Israel in Leviticus 26:18, "When you sin, I will punish you seven times." But when God punished the nation, it was for seventy years. As a nation, a "time" is a year, so seven times ten years is seventy. America has already passed her two hundredth birthday. She has come of age. For the world we multiply by another ten, which gives us two thousand. It's been two thousand years since Jesus first came. So not only has America come in for her judgment and will enter into war, but the nations of the world also will be involved in Armageddon. It's all there in God's mathematics.

The Israelites had to stay in the land of Egypt until God prepared them, so that when they left Egypt and entered the land of Canaan, they would be His instrument to judge the wicked Amorites. The same pattern is being repeated today. When iniquity comes to fullness, God has a rod of anger to use. He has an instrument to carry out His wrath. For example, God prepared Israel to wipe out the Amorites. In this end time, God is repeating the same pattern by causing terrorism to flourish, not because it glorifies God but it will be His instrument to scourge the Western nations. But we don't fight with the weapons of man. The greatest weapon that God wants to bring back to us is the weapon of prayer. We need the strength and grace of God and the wisdom of God

The cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. God said He would visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate Him but would show mercy to them that love Him (Ex. 20:5-6). Why did Israel suffer so long? Because the sons of Jacob betrayed Joseph; they sold him into slavery. When you sow evil, you don't reap good. "As ye shall sow, so shall ye also reap" (Gal. 6:7). So by selling Joseph into Egypt, they became involved in Egypt and they too went into slavery. What they did to Joseph came back on their own heads. That is a matter of cause and effect. God settles the score, that's His Law. "Oh, but His grace!" you say. God is still a God of grace, but His grace does not annul that Law. This was the fourth generation of Israelites as God had prophesied in Genesis which would come out of Egypt. So what their fathers had sown, the children were reaping. America is going to reap what her fathers have sown. There were those who were good and they will come into good, but those who have sown evil, evil will come upon them, because God is holding this nation to an accounting. There are vital principles here that God would speak unto us if we would look unto Him for guidance and grace.

We need to see the experience of the Israelites in Egypt as a picture of Israel when they sold Jesus Christ to be crucified. They said, "...His blood be on us, and on our children" Matt. 25:27). So they have been sold into the hands of the Gentiles. Hitler killed six million of them, and they are still being persecuted. Yet God in mercy will have a remnant in the land. Remember, the blood of Jesus Christ speaks of mercy, and were it not for Jesus' blood covering in mercy, the nation of Israel would have been wiped out altogether. Thus we see the judgment and the mercy of God in preserving them as a people. The Lord was cut off from the land of the living when He died, as Israel was cut off from the Promised Land and wandered away into other lands. Many of them are still there; but. thank God for those who have come back into the Promised Land.

The land of Egypt is "Mizraim" in the Hebrew. Egypt is •hemmed in' by the desert on both sides and there is a river, the Nile, that flows through Egypt and waters the land. The river washes the desert and causes the soil to be replenished. The word, Mizraim, means 'double straightness in confine¬ment.' It can also mean 'red mud.' Pharaoh means ‘'the great house.' The word Egypt can be translated as the land that is 'hemmed in' or 'confined.' See how God speaks to us through geography. Every name in the Bible has a meaning. This land that is fenced in, this land that is 'red mud,' is a picture of the earth that is in bondage to the 'great house,' Satan.
Egypt hardly has rainfall, and when it does rain, it falls away from the land and goes into the Nile River. Therefore, the Egyptians do not look to heaven for their inspiration; they keep their eyes on the River. Egypt is contrasted with Canaan in the Bible because Canaan is the land that drinks in the waters of heaven. The Promised Land depends on God in the heavens to send the rain in its season. So, those who live in the "promised land" have their eyes on God, and those in Egypt have their eyes on their own water system. Egypt is renowned for its architecture, its art, and its sciences, and yet the Egyptians could not conquer death, so they embalmed the dead bodies. They deified the past. This is a picture of the world -death is still an enemy of man. In spite of man's knowledge and civilization, he still has not devised a cure for death. There is only one answer to death, and that is Jesus Christ.

"Oh, death where is thy sting? Oh, grave where is thy victory?" I Corinthians 15:55
Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Death has been conquered by Christ, but "Egypt" has not conquered death in spite of its advances in civilization. The Egyptians had a memorial - a book that is called The Book of the Dead. Isn't that strange? They call their literary masterpiece The Book of the Dead! But Christians know that the Scriptures are Life. The Word of God that we have is not a book of death, but a word that ministers Life to whosoever believes. The Egyptians have beasts and birds as their gods. This takes us back to the Book of Romans, which states,
“…And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” Romans 1:23, 28
And today, man “worships” his own intellect. Rather than worshipping God, the Creator, he worships the creature.
Death has been conquered by Christ, but “Egypt” has not conquered death in spite of its advances in civilization. The Egyptians had a memorial – a book that is called The Book of the Dead. Isn’t that strange? They call their literary masterpiece The Book of the Dead! But Christians know that the Scriptures are Life. The Word of God that we have is not a book of death, but a word that ministers Life to whosoever believes. The Egyptians have beasts and birds as their gods. This takes us back to the Book of Romans, which states,
"...And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." Romans 1:23, 28
And today, man "worships" his own intellect. Rather than worshipping God, the Creator, he worships the creature.

How did Israel get into Egypt? The first verse of Exodus tells us - Jacob brought them there. How did we get into this world of sin? Through one man, Adam, our father. You notice it doesn't say they came with Israel; they came with Jacob. Jacob is his natural name; it means 'a supplanter, a heel-holder, a replacer.' God had to change his name from Jacob to Israel, which means 'prince with God' (Gen. 32:28). So the children came with Jacob as he was, not with Israel. Adam in the beginning was good, yet he fell into sin; and in Adam, all die (2 Cor. 15:22). So also do we see death working in Egypt - "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Death is working in this world.

There was another king who arose on the scene who hated the Israelites. The word "another" means another of a different kind. There are two words for "another" in the Bible. One means the same kind; the other means another kind. This is found in Acts in Stephen's speech:
"Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph." Acts 7:18

So we see enmity here in Exodus 1 between the Pharaoh and the Israelites. Pharaoh's main opposition was to wipe out the seed of the male children of Israel. If he had succeeded there would have been no David and there would have been no Christ coming after the flesh from the seed of David. This conflict began in Genesis 3:15:
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
God was showing us that enmity was developing in the time of Exodus with Satan, through Pharaoh, seeking to wipe out the males of the Israelites. He was coming against the chosen seed. But can Satan succeed? He can go so far, but no further. God causes the very wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He shall restrain. Do you see the controlling hand of God in this drama?
"But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel" Exodus 1:12
The more afflictions that come your way, the more God wants you to grow richer. God wants to enlarge you! The Psalmist says,
"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress...." Psalm 4:1
God wants you to learn in your affliction. He wants to turn your affliction into good. The serpent may try to wipe out the chosen seed, but, as stated, he can go so far and no further.
"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." Daniel 8:23
"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done." Daniel 11:36
The cup of the iniquity of the nations is now reaching that overflowing mark, but on the other hand there is another cup – the one of righteousness. The tares are growing to their fullness; the harvest time is upon us. The tares are ripening but the wheat is also ripening. God is also about to gather His wheat and He will bring judgment upon the tares. When things have reached their fullness, God steps in to bring judgment or to bring blessing – judgment on the wicked and blessing on the faithful. That is God's way -judgment on Egypt, but blessing on Israel, because they came under the shelter of the blood of the lamb.

Judgment in the end time is on those who bow to the ways of Egypt, which is a type of this world. God says,

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt, that trust in horses and trust not in Me, for the Egyptians are men and their horses are flesh." Isaiah 31:32

God wants to bring us out of Egypt, out of bondage to this world system, and bring us into His kingdom, under His Lordship.

The number four hundred and thirty is connected with bondage. Ezekiel was to lie down on his sides for four hundred and thirty days.

"Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shall lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee for the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year." Ezekiel 4:4-6
Therefore, 390 + 40 = 430. The Israelites were in bondage in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years - a day for a year. After that time they came out in the fourth generation. Here is another beautiful picture showing us that God is about to bring His people out of bondage in this end time. Ezekiel's lying on his side for that time shows that we have been bound and not fully free. When Martin Luther came on the scene and preached that "the just shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4), that was when the bondage began to be broken. From Luther until now we have still been partially bound, and yet it has been over four hundred and thirty years since Luther died. God is showing us that He is about to set us free to enter into the full blessings of Calvary! And He set Israel free and brought them back into the land though the nations of the world were against them.

Let us

We have been introduced to the person of the Deliverer, Moses. Exodus 1:11~14 tens us of the bitter persecution of this Pharaoh in Egypt, and how he came against the people of God and sought to kill them by giving them hard labor. But when he saw that they were not killed by the hard labor, he proposed to use the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew males when they were born. The names of the two midwives given in chapter 1 are Shiphrah and Puah; but the name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned. Pharaoh was just a title for the ruler. How significant that God preserved the names of these two midwives who spared the Hebrew males, because they feared God. They preferred to obey God rather than man. They told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were so healthy that they did not need their help when they gave birth. Shiphrah means 'beauty' and Puah means 'splendor.' Those who fear and obey God will shine with the splendor and the glory of God, and have the beauty of God in their lives.

"Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. "

Exodus 1:20

27

 

So we see Pharaoh's design to come against the chosen seed. But he ended up a miserable failure.

In Exodus 2, we are shown a Levite family. A man marries a woman in the tribe of Levi, but his name is not mentioned. Moses' mother and father's name are not mentioned in the first few chapters of Exodus, but we will see their names in chapter 6:20. The father's name was Amram and the mother's name was Jochebed. When Moses was born, the edict was passed from the king that all the Hebrew males should be killed. The king urged others in Egypt to kill the Hebrew children. Moses had a brother by the name of Aaron and a sister, Miriam. When they were born, that edict was evidently not established, but when Moses was born, Pharaoh was determined to wipe out the male children. The parents knew that Moses was a child of destiny.

"And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months."

Exodus 2:2

Then she made an ark of bulrushes that grew along the Nile River, and hid Moses in it and put it among the bulrushes. Pharaoh's daughter went to take a bath and saw the baby in the basket and beheld that he was beautiful, so she adopted him. Moses' sister was standing nearby and asked if Pharaoh's daughter wanted a nurse for the child, then called the child's mother. Moses was reared by his own mother, though he was adopted into the family of Pharaoh. Ironically, the deliverer was brought up in Pharaoh's palace at Pharaoh's expense! No doubt, Pharaoh did not take much liking to Moses, but he seems to have indulged his daughter.

Moses was forty years old when he stepped in to deliver the Israelites. No doubt his parents informed him about the fact that he would be the deliverer. But he thought that he

28

1. 

could deliver them in his own might and using the education he had received in Egypt. So we read of his killing of the Egyptian and burying him in the sand (Ex. 2."12). He thought no one had seen him. How much like Moses we are; we look around us with our natural eyes and not with the eyes of faith. No wonder we end in failure, because we judge things according to the natural appearance. He did not move in faith; he went out on his own. It was not the right time, but he saw how oppressed the Hebrews were and went in his own strength to deliver them, and failed. Then he sought to make peace between two of his own people. And they said, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us 7" Pharaoh heard of the slaying and Moses fled for his life. For slaying the Egyptian, he was punished by being removed from his family for forty years. God does not justify wrongdoing, so he had to be separated from the nation of Israel for forty years.

When Moses flea, he went to the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15), There he saw seven daughters of a priest whose name was Jethro, Jethro. father.

29

"And the name of the other was Eliezer, for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. J5

Moses' wife and sons stayed with her father when Moses went back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites.

Chapter 2 Moses - the Deliverer
from "Exodus" by Deoram Bolan
From a sermon delivered in 1978.
Edited by Jon R. Welker

We have been introduced to the person of the Deliverer, Moses.  Exodus 1:11-14 tells us of the bitter persecution of this Pharaoh in Egypt, and how he came against the people of God and sought to kill them by giving them hard labor. But when he saw that they were not killed by the hard labor, he proposed to use the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew males when they were born. The names of the two midwives given in chapter 1 are Shiphrah and Puah; but the name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned. Pharaoh was just a title for the ruler. How significant that God preserved the names of these two midwives who spared the Hebrew males, because they feared God. They preferred to obey God rather than man. They told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were so healthy that they did not need their help when they gave birth. Shiphrah means 'beauty' and Puah means 'splendor.' Those who fear and obey God will shine with the splendor and the glory of God, and have the beauty of God in their lives.

"Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. "

Exodus 1:20

 

p.22

So we see Pharaoh's design to come against the chosen seed. But he ended up a miserable failure.

In Exodus 2, we are shown a Levite family. A man marries a woman in the tribe of Levi, but his name is not mentioned. Moses' mother and father's name are not mentioned in the first few chapters of Exodus, but we will see their names in chapter 6:20. The father's name was Amram and the mother's name was Jochebed. When Moses was born, the edict was passed from the king that all the Hebrew males should be killed. The king urged others in Egypt to kill the Hebrew children. Moses had a brother by the name of Aaron and a sister, Miriam. When they were born, that edict was evidently not established, but when Moses was born, Pharaoh was determined to wipe out the male children. The parents knew that Moses was a child of destiny.

"And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months."

Exodus 2:2

Then she made an ark of bulrushes that grew along the Nile River, and hid Moses in it and put it among the bulrushes. Pharaoh's daughter went to take a bath and saw the baby in the basket and beheld that he was beautiful, so she adopted him. Moses' sister was standing nearby and asked if Pharaoh's daughter wanted a nurse for the child, then called the child's mother. Moses was reared by his own mother, though he was adopted into the family of Pharaoh. Ironically, the deliverer was brought up in Pharaoh's palace at Pharaoh's expense! No doubt, Pharaoh did not take much liking to Moses, but he seems to have indulged his daughter.

Moses was forty years old when he stepped in to deliver the Israelites. No doubt his parents informed him about the fact that he would be the deliverer. But he thought that he

28

1. 

could deliver them in his own might and using the education he had received in Egypt. So we read of his killing of the Egyptian and burying him in the sand (Ex. 2."12). He thought no one had seen him. How much like Moses we are; we look around us with our natural eyes and not with the eyes of faith. No wonder we end in failure, because we judge things according to the natural appearance. He did not move in faith; he went out on his own. It was not the right time, but he saw how oppressed the Hebrews were and went in his own strength to deliver them, and failed. Then he sought to make peace between two of his own people. And they said, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us ?" Pharaoh heard of the slaying and Moses fled for his life. For slaying the Egyptian, he was punished by being removed from his family for forty years. God does not justify wrongdoing, so he had to be separated from the nation of Israel for forty years.

When Moses flea, he went to the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15), There he saw seven daughters of a priest whose name was Jethro, Jethro. father.

 

"And the name of the other was Eliezer, for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. J5

Moses' wife and sons stayed with her father when Moses went back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites.

could deliver them in his own might and using the education he had received in Egypt. So we read of his killing of the Egyptian and burying him in the sand (Ex. 2:12). He thought no one had seen him. How much like Moses we are; we look around us with our natural eyes and not with the eyes of faith. No wonder we end in failure, because we judge things according to the natural appearance. He did not move in faith; he went out on his own. It was not the right time, but he saw how oppressed the Hebrews were and went in his own strength to deliver them, and failed. Then he sought to make peace between two of his own people. And they said, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" Pharaoh heard of the slaying and Moses fled for his life. For slaying the Egyptian, he was punished by being removed from his family for forty years. God does not justify wrongdoing, so he had to be separated from the nation of Israel for forty years.

When Moses fled, he went to the land of Midian (Ex. 2:15).

There he saw seven daughters of a priest whose name was Jethro. They had come to water the flocks of their father. The shepherds would drive them away because the water was scarce, but Moses withstood those shepherds and helped the daughters of Jethro so they went home earlier that day than usual. Their father asked them why they had come back so soon, and they said, "An Egyptian helped us to water the flocks." Jethro had Moses brought into the house. Note that they thought Moses was an Egyptian because of his outward appearance and garments. So even in Midian, Moses is not discovered as having a Hebrew identity. But he had a concern for the oppressed (daughters of Jethro), just as he had a concern for his brethren in Egypt. Eventually, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro. Zipporah means 'a bird.' Out of this marriage came two sons; the first one was named Gershom, for he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land." His second son was named Eliezer, which means 'my God is my help.' His name is mentioned in Exodus 18:4:

 

"And the name of the other was Eliezer, for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."

Moses' wife and sons stayed with her father when Moses went back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites.

So Moses spent forty years in the backside of the desert tending flocks (Ex. 7:7, Acts 7:23, 30). Now the Egyptians did not like the Hebrews because they were shepherds. Egypt was a type of the world under the control of Satan. Let us remember that the world does not always symbolize people; it also means the system that is opposed to God. The Scriptures state that the things that are in the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," are contrary to God (1 Jn. 2:16). The world's ways are different from God's ways. Egypt speaks of the ways of man under the control of Satan. Why did the Egyptians hate shepherds? From tending the flock, you are exposed to the lambs as well as the sheep. Jesus is called The Lamb of God. The people of this world do not love the people of God because they have taken their stand for the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

There is only one way to come to God and that is through the Passover Lamb. It is a straight way and a narrow way. The people of the world do not want to hear that, or hear of redemption by blood or the way of the Cross. To us that are saved it is the power of God's salvation. Any teaching that does away with the blood or the atonement of Christ is of the devil, and those who come preaching any other gospel except Christ and Him crucified come from the enemy, Satan, who is opposed to God (Gal. 1:8-9). How many who claim to be God's chosen do away with the Atonement? You will know them by their fruits. Just ask them if they know Jesus Christ as their Savior - are they washed in His blood, do they accept His sacrifice on the Cross? For us who know Him, we know that in Him is truth. He is the truth, there is no lie in

Him (Jn. 14:6).

In the land of Midian (meaning 'strife'), Moses had to un- learn the ways of Egypt. God intended for the Israelites to go to Canaan (meaning 'lowland'). Blessed are the poor in spirit; theirs is the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5:3). If you humble yourselves in the sight of God, he will lift you up (Jam. 4:10). The people of Egypt were proud because of their architecture and sciences; the Midianites were a wandering people. So Moses marries Zipporah (meaning 'a bird') which symbolizes the Holy Spirit dealing with us. God isn't through with Moses. Moses doesn't know Him for himself. He is aware of his destiny, but he hasn't come into his role of deliverer until he learns of God for himself. He first has to come to Midian, which speaks of strife, and there he is dealt with in the desert by God.

When Moses was eighty, the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush in the backside of the desert. When you get to the backside of the desert you are free from the din and clamor of the world system; there you have the privilege to be still and know God.

The number eight is a number of a new beginning. Details in the Word of God have much spiritual meaning. It was not by accident that God appeared to Moses when Moses was eighty and commissioned him. Jesus arose from the dead on the eighth day. On the eighth day, a Hebrew male was circumcised, entering a new phase of existence. David was the eighth son of Jesse. Trace the number eight and bear this out.

So Moses was to come into a new beginning at the age of eighty. He was educated in the ways of Egypt, but he could not deliver Israel by the ways of Egypt. That is a lesson for all of us. We are not able to help people because we have had the best schooling and education in the world. It does not necessarily mean we should be ignorant, but education should be seated in its proper place. Moses had relied on his education rather than on God. Education should be in the hands of God, but Moses was dealing without God. At the age of forty, he knew he was the deliverer and wanted the people to take note of him. But you cannot deliver God's people when you are full of "ego-itis." Moses had to die to his own ego and pride. God has to bring us low and show us we are nothing apart from His grace.

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Proverbs 16:18

Moses had to go through schooling in Midian where he was a stranger. So God appeared to him in a burning bush.

God spoke to Moses in the Horeb area. Horeb was a mountain range and Sinai was a peak in that range. The word, Horeb, means a 'desolate place.' He was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, and then God appeared to him. This was the same place God appeared to Elijah (1 Ki. 19:4-11) to recommission him after he had fled from Jezebel.

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of'the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am 1."

Exodus 3:1-4

Have you noticed that when God calls to someone, He calls them two times - "Moses, Moses"; "Samuel, Samuel" (I Sam. 3:10); "Saul, Saul" (Acts 9,'4). There comes a time when God must reach down and help us and call us. Moses saw and heard. He saw a burning bush and heard the Voice of God. First, the wording says an "angel of the Lord," and then it says "God." Many times the angels mentioned in Scripture could have been God's special angels, but other times the word angel could refer to the form God took to appear to man. The word angel means 'a messenger.' This could have been a temporary manifestation of God in the burning bush as He called out to Moses. Moses was startled to see a thorny bush burning with fire and not being consumed. He did not know what this all meant.

"And He (God) said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet.for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

Exodus 3:5

Shoes protect our feet from the mud and the dust of the earth. To "take off your shoes" means to leave your old walk and your old ways - to come on a new ground to begin a new walk with God. In other words, God was saying, "Moses, you have walked long enough in your way and your thoughts; now I want you to walk in My ways and My thoughts."

Incidentally, with regard to the priesthood, we find how God gave the laws for the priests regarding what garments to wear, and how he gave provision for them. When they came into the presence of God to minister to Him, no mention is made that God ever gave any provision for the feet of the priests (Ex. 28). Priests must not have worn shoes on their feet! They must have ministered barefoot. Why? Because the shoes speak of the old walk and to be barefoot means to stand before God on holy ground, like Moses did. It was when the priests' feet touched the waters of the Jordan that the waters were parted (Josh. 3:13, 15). The description of Jesus Christ in His glorified body in Revelation 1:13-16, de- scribes His head, His face, and parts of His body; but when it mentions His feet, there is no mention of shoes. "His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace to show that His feet - His walk - is pure. There was/is nothing of sin to defile Him. Moses still had to wear shoes, but God was saying, "I want you to begin a new walk with Me."

God had to reveal Himself and this new revelation brought a change - a new beginning.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

II Corinthians 5:17

That is the New Testament experience. Now, we may not see a visible manifestation of God like Moses did. Some people do, but not all of us see in the spiritual realm. God has many ways to reveal Himself to us. And when He does re- veal Himself to you and you have a revelation of the Lord, it transforms you and causes the old to vanish, and you become a new creation in the sight of God. Paul said, "When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Peter confessed, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" He had a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. To have a revelation of the Lord means to have the revelation that He is your Savior and you are a sinner. By submitting our lives to Him, He can cleanse us and make us new creations. We must all come to this point as Moses had come. How beautifully the truths of God are veiled the Old Testament!

God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. The burning bush represents the physical body of Jesus Christ. The fire on the bush is a picture of the Holy Spirit. God spoke through the bush. Jesus said, "The words which I speak are not Mine own, they are the Father's Who sent Me." Jesus Christ was that burning bush, because he became flesh and was endued with the Holy Spirit at the age of thirty, and the bush did not bum itself out. There was no sin in the body of Jesus Christ for the Holy Spirit fire to consume, He was one with the fire of God. The Bible says, "Our God is a consuming fire."

This was a thorny bush. Thorns are a symbol of the curse.

In Genesis, God said, "Cursed is the ground for your sake and it will bring forth thorns." Why? Jesus, though He had no sin, had to become sin for us. He had to become a "thorny bush" for us. He faced the fire of the wrath of God and yet He was not devoured by it. He laid down His life for us and He rose again from the dead. So the thorny bush here represents Him Who wore a crown of thorns on His head, bearing the curse for you and me.

In a secondary sense, the burning bush is a symbol of Israel. God said He took them from the furnace of affliction.

"But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day."

Deuteronomy 4:20

The fire of Egypt did not wipe them out; God caused them to live. God showed us that Israel would be fruitless by the symbology of the thorns. They rebelled against the ways of God, but God was with them, as He still is this day. One day God is going to take away their unbelief. Hitler could not wipe out the Jews. He tried to divide the Jewish people, but you don't come against Abraham's seed and get off lightly. God said, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee " (Gen. 12:3). How true are the ways of God! God was in that bush (Israel) and the bush did not burn. God has been with Israel, and still is; and one day their unbelief will be healed.

"In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them: and He bare them; and carried them all the days of old."

Isaiah 63:9

It is His grace that keeps us from falling.

Then God commissioned Moses from the bush to go and help deliver His people. God said four things about Himself:

He had seen; He had heard; He knew their sorrows; and He had come down to deliver them. In Exodus 3:7-8, God said He would bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk and honey are symbolic of fertility and abundance. Moses, not willing to accept the commission of God, makes four excuses: "I am unable to do the work"; "I do not know Your (God's) Name"; "The people will not believe"; and "I cannot speak eloquently." God showed him that these excuses were feeble. When he protested that he could not speak, God said he would give him Aaron to be his spokesman. God was patient with Moses, because Moses at the age of eighty was not the same man as at the age of forty. At forty - "Look who I am." At eighty - "Who am I?” The self in him had been brought to naught, and he felt useless. But God, in mercy, raised him up, even as God raised up others who were feeble such as Gideon, Samson, and Jonah. Moses was a vessel prepared of God to be used. God gets more glory by filling us with Him than just by using us. God wants us first to be a vessel, then an instrument. And He will bring us to our Midian so He can prepare us for the work that needs to be done when we respond to Him.

God was merciful to Moses even though he protested. He gave him three supernatural signs, so that Pharaoh would know that this was the hand of God. What were the three signs?

Moses had his shepherd's rod. God said, "Take the

"In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: ill His love and in His pity He redeemed them: and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old."

Isaiah 63:9

It is His grace that keeps us from falling.

Then God commissioned Moses from the bush to go and help deliver His people. God said four things about Himself:

He had seen; He had heard; He knew their sorrows; and He had come down to deliver them. In Exodus 3:7-8, God said He would bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk and honey are symbolic of fertility and abundance. Moses, not willing to accept the commission of God, makes four excuses: "I am unable to do the work"; "I do not know Your (God's) Name"; "The people will not believe"; and "I cannot speak eloquently." God showed him that these excuses were feeble. When he protested that he could not speak, God said he would give him Aaron to be his spokesman. God was patient with Moses, because Moses at the age of eighty was not the same man as at the age of forty. At forty - "Look who I am." At eighty - "Who am IT' The self in him had been brought to naught, and he felt useless. But God, in mercy, raised him up, even as God raised up others who were feeble such as Gideon, Samson, and Jonah. Moses was a vessel prepared of God to be used. God gets more glory by filling us with Him than just by using us. God wants us first to be a vessel, then an instrument. And He will bring us to our Midian so He can prepare us for the work that needs to be done when we respond to Him.

God was merciful to Moses even though he protested. He gave him three supernatural signs, so that Pharaoh would know that this was the hand of God. What were the three signs?

Moses had his shepherd's rod. God said, "Take the

rod and cast it to the ground." When he did it became a serpent. Moses fled from it. God said, "Pick it up by the tail." So Moses picked it up by the tail and when he did, it became a rod again. There is a spiritual meaning to this. A sign must have a meaning. This act was a miracle but also a sign with a meaning behind it. What is the meaning of this rod's becoming a snake and the snake's becoming a rod? The rod was a stick - what Moses leaned on when he became weary. It speaks of the power and grace of God to sustain us. When we don't rely on the grace of God and the strength of God, when we throw the rod on the ground, we try to live apart from the grace and power of God and then we are faced with the serpent. Satan begins to take hold of our life and we have to flee from the enemy. Man is powerless to resist the devil, but when Moses leans on the rod, he has strength again. But before he can lean on the rod, he has to face that serpent. Man cannot face the serpent, but the Greater Than Moses came, and He dealt with the serpent. All man has to do is accept Him and then man will be raised up from the realm of fear and death and come into Life, and rejoice in the Lord, his God. The serpent is connected with sin and Satan. The rod is connected with the power of God, and is a symbol of Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 11, He is called "the rod of the stem of Jesse."

He will smite the earth with the rod of His mouth. So the rod of His mouth speaks of His Word. Jesus, the Rod, the Living Word, was cast down to the earth, laid down His Life for us, and became, as it were, a serpent. When He died on the cross, He did not die as a righteous man; He died as a sinful man. He took your sins and my sins upon himself. He had no sin, He knew no sin, He committed no sin, but He was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21). Praise the Lord!

"And as Moses lifted' up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

John 3:14

This Scripture refers to the serpent of brass on the pole.

This is a picture of Jesus becoming sin for us. Man must do the same thing Moses had to do, reach out and take the ser- pent by the tail. Why the tail? The head speaks of the beginning, the tail of the ending. Jesus Christ bruised the serpent's head on Calvary. His victory is our victory! He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil.

The rod of Moses also speaks of authority. Kings carried rods or scepters as the symbol of their authority. The Bible speaks of the "rod of His mouth" and the "rod of iron." The rod that was cast to the ground was also a type of Israel that God wanted to be the leading nation. In the time of Joseph, they were prominent in Egypt, because Joseph was on the throne, but in the time of the Exodus, they lost this power. Another came to contest their authority. And the rod which became a serpent becoming a rod again is a picture that though they were cast down, God was going to lift them up out of bondage and make them the rod in His hand. As long as God was with them, the rod was in His hand, but in Egypt they did not rely on God, but copied the ways of the Egyptians and so they were cast down. But now, they cried unto God, and He told them He would lift them up from their bondage and make them a rod in his hand. He said he would make them the head and not the tail.

"And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them."

Deuteronomy 28:13

Incidentally, they rejected the rod, Jesus Christ, and by rejecting the rod, had to face the wrath of the serpent. Israel has been doing so for a long time. But the day is coming when our heavenly "Moses" will appear to them, and their unbelief will be healed. Many of them are awakening to the need for the Messiah and are turning to Him; and the time is coming when they will become the rod in the hands of God and He will make them the leader of the nations. The Bible says in Zechariah that all nations will flow to Jerusalem to receive their instructions from God in the Kingdom Age.

The second sign was the leprous hand. Moses was told to put his hand in his bosom. When he did, the hand became leprous. God told him to put it back in his bosom, and when he brought it out again it became whole. What is the meaning of this? God wants us to see that leprosy is connected with sin and with the works of man. God cannot use man for His service until man's hands are cleansed. Man's problem is not in his hand; it is in his heart. "The heart of man is desperately wicked above all things" (Jer.17:9). The leprous hand is only an outward manifestation of the leprous heart. It isn't the hand that makes the heart sick; it's the heart that makes the hand sick. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh."

So God has to cleanse man's heart before he can use man's hand. Man's heart speaks of what man is in himself, and his hand speaks of his work. The only way God could use Moses was to clean him up inside. Now Moses, remember, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, Moses is one of the greatest figures in the Bible and his hand is a picture of the hand of the Lord. When Jesus was here on earth, He came in contact with lepers and touched them. A leper said to Him one day, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Jesus said, "I will, be thou clean." He had no sin and He touched the leper with His hand and He did not receive the leprosy. But He had to be- come leprous for us. Jesus bore the leprosy of sin upon Himself.

So the serpent is a type of Satan and leprosy a type of sin.

Satan and sin are closely allied one with the other. "The devil sinneth from the beginning" (I In. 3:8). The first two signs are to show us that God had made provision for man to be delivered from the serpent, Satan, and to be cleansed from sin. By Adam's nature we are in bondage to Satan and in bondage to sin. Jesus Christ came to deliver us, as Moses came to deliver the Israelites from Egypt.

God gave Moses a third sign: "If they will not listen to you, take some water out of Egypt and pour it on the land and the water will become blood." God is telling man, "If you do not accept the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, if you do not lay hold on Him by faith, you will be in bondage to Satan. If you do not lay hold of the cleansing power of the blood, you will be in bondage to the leprosy of sin. If you neglect His work on Calvary which dealt with freedom from the power of Sa- tan and sin, then this third sign will happen, water will turn into blood." That speaks of life - "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Lev. 17:11).

Those who reject the first two signs will have to face the aftermath of the third; that is, those who neglect the sacrifice of Christ in freeing us from Satan and sin are going to pay the price of their own life. "For what should it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mk. 8:36). "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek: 18:4,20). The water becoming blood is a picture of death coming on man for rejecting the plan and purposes of God. It is not God's will that man should perish, but that man should have everlasting life. It is His will that all should come to repentance.

Isn't it beautiful how God put the gospel back there in Exodus? Think of how rich the Old Testament is. We have read these things, but barely understood them. There are surely even deeper depths of meaning than this. But we can understand a measure of these things

God gave Jesus Christ, our heavenly "Moses," had to do signs and wonders. Did He? The signs that Moses did represent the signs and wonders that Jesus did. There are at least one hundred similarities between Moses and Jesus. Moses was, of course, not perfect, but he was one of the meekest men that walked on the face of the earth (Num. 12:3).

Later on in chapter 4 Moses is going to deliver Israel. He asked permission of his father-in-law to leave. He did not tell Jethro that God had met with him. He took his wife and two sons. There is a mystery part here - when Moses was going on his way and came to an inn, God sought to kill him (Ex. 4:24). Maybe an angel of the Lord came to afflict Moses because he did not circumcise his son. Perhaps the reason for this is that Zipporah refused to submit to the rite of circumcision. The sign that God gave Abraham that he was in covenant relation with him depicted the circumcision of the heart Moses could not deliver Israel if he was not obeying the covenant law. Perhaps Zipporah was not willing for him to use the knife. But then she had to perform the rite of circumcision on one of her sons and she called Moses a bloody husband. No doubt, Moses, after this, sent her back with the two sons to stay with Jethro.

Later on, they were joined to him after the exodus. But the wife had to come to the point of submitting to the knife and to apply it on both sons. There is a deep spiritual meaning involved here. Moses must be faithful to the covenant of circumcision of the sons. God wants us to understand that physical circumcision as circumcision of the heart. A man's wife represents his soul, the man represents the spirit and the children represent those good virtues in him. For us to be used of God, our wife (soul) has to submit to the knife (the word of God). We cannot be used of God in our natural good- ness; we have to submit to the word of God, so God can cut

away the bad things in our life and bring forth fruit within us .. Many times God leads us to do His will, but we are kicking against "circumcision." We have to submit to the knife, the Word of God which exposes and cuts out the areas in our life that need to be severed, so we can be pure in heart and pure in motives.

Moses, at the age of eighty, had now been brought into full obedience to the Lord by submitting to the circumcision of his sons. That shows that our house must be set in order. God did not hold Zipporah accountable, but Moses. The man was made to be the head of the house. When the man is not doing what the Lord wants him to do, then he will have to face the discipline of God. He was made whole after his wife obeyed this law of circumcision.

Now Moses went to meet his brother, Aaron, and they had a joyful reconciliation. God gave Moses favor with Israel and they accepted his leadership. In chapter 5, we read how Moses confronted Pharaoh and Pharaoh scorned Moses' appeal. The people's work was increased and they blamed Moses and Aaron. Moses then complained to God and God assured him of the victory that He had planned.

As Moses complains to God when the things become harder, he gives God two more complaints. He tells God he is not able to face up to the situation. He makes five com- plaints in Midian and two more in Egypt – seven in all and seven is the number of completeness. So Moses, in one sense, was completely weak and a failure. He could not deliver Israel in himself, but God wanted him to know that his ness was indication that the strength of God would be manifested. Paul said, "When I am weak, then am I strong." When you say, "I have done all that I can," then rest in Him. God wants you to know that your extremity is His opportunity to intervene. Psalms 107:27-28 says,

 

"They are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. "

When you come to your wit's end, God is on the other end waiting to help you. When Moses came to the end of him- self, God said, "I will make you a god to Pharaoh and make Aaron your spokesman, your prophet, and give you authority to function before this man." God said, "Go tell Pharaoh to let you go into the wilderness," but they said, "I pray thee, let us go," wanting to soften the words. No wonder Pharaoh got after them! You have to deal with Pharaoh with the authority of the Word of God. Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness with, "It is written; it is written; it is written." Use this sword against the enemy. We need to get back into the Word of God and believe His promises.

God told Moses in chapter 4 that He was going to harden Pharaoh's heart. Eighteen times a hardening of heart is mentioned. Sometimes it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart; sometimes that his heart was hardened; and sometimes that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Eighteen is a product of three and six. What is the number of the Antichrist? 666 i That is the number of man's rebellion against God. Why three sixes? To show us that this is man's rebellion in three categories. Man is a threefold being - spirit, soul, and body (I Thess. 5:23). The three sixes shows opposition in three realms. Eighteen is three sixes (6+6+6= 18). " .. .In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established" (II Cor. 13:1). The Scriptures also state that a threefold cord is not easily broken (Eccles. 4:12). The eighteen references are as follows: "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" - Exodus 4:21; 7:3,13; 9:12; 10:1,20,27; 11:10; 14:4,8; "Pharaoh hardened his (own) heart" - Exodus 8:15,32; 9:34; "Pharaoh's heart was hardened" Exodus 7:14,22; 8:19; 9:7,35. There are three words for hardened. One means to be 'strong or stubborn'; one means to be 'heavy, dull, or unresponsive'; and the third means to be 'hard, severe, or obstinate.'

Many people use the hardening of Pharaoh's heart by God to say that God is not fair, i.e., God already hardened Pharaoh's heart, so Pharaoh had no choice in the matter. But is that really true? Remember that in Romans 9:13, God said, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have 1 hated." Did God say that arbitrarily or did He say it because of His foreknowledge? God being God foreknows what is going to happen, but God does not infringe on the human will. On the basis of His foreknowledge, He saw what Jacob would be and what Esau would be. God did not arbitrarily hate Esau; He hated him because Esau despised the birthright. But Jacob loved the birthright; he appreciated the things of God.

There are some basic principles in God's dealing with men.

The same fire that can melt rocks can harden clay. The same word of God that can bring blessing to some brings judgment to others. It is true that it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but when you look into the actual narrative, it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

In the Bible, the human heart is likened unto soil (Lk. 8:15).

In the parable, there are four kinds of soil that the seed fell into. The soil represents the human heart in the interpretation that Jesus gave. There are the hard soil, wayside ground, thorny ground, rocky ground, and good ground. The good ground would speak of the good soil of the heart that has been plowed up. It is only those in good ground that bear fruit. Man's problem is in the heart. Does God harden it or does man?

There is one difference between soil and the human heart.

The ground cannot decide to change itself; it depends on man to cultivate it. The soil has no will, but man has a will. In Hebrews 3 and 4, there are three Scriptures which say one

thing - "stop, look, listen." "To day if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb. 3:15). We harden our own hearts by refusing to hear the Voice of God. The Psalmist said, "A broken and a contrite heart, Oil God, Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17). A hardened heart is destined for judgment, but a heart that is broken and will face the convicting work of the Spirit, the plowing up of the soil by the Spirit and the Word of God, will receive good from God. That is the kind of heart God wants us to have. Pharaoh was an instrument in the hand of God. God used Pharaoh to bring glory to the nations, but He used Moses to bring greater glory, because Moses was a vessel and instrument, whereas Pharaoh was just an instrument.

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. It is not of him that willetb or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."

Romans 9:14~16

Again you come back to the grace of God.

"For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have [ raised thee up, that [ might show My power in thee, and that My Name might be declared throughout all the earth."

Verse 17

That is the judgment of God. The governmental workings of God are seen in the fact that those who will humble them- selves will receive mercy. Those who harden their hearts, God hardens only in the sense that He delivers them to the fruit of their choice. Pharaoh was an instrument that caused the fame of God's power to be made known. But he was an evil instrument because he was not a vessel unto honor.

"What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long- suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. ,.

Romans 9:22

God endured Pharaoh's stubbornness for a long time, but there came a time when God held him to an accounting and he became a vessel of wrath.

"And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory."

Verse 23

Moses was a vessel of mercy.