Category: Egyptian bondage

The Converted Nation and The Translated Word #4

Thursday, February 4, 2016

“He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 147:19,20 KJV).

Herein do we see God’s head of the nations—Israel!

God proved to Abraham that he in his own strength could never produce the nation He wanted for His glory. The Abrahamic Covenant was God’s gift to Abraham and the seed that God would give him. Abraham was to do nothing to get it because he could do nothing to get it. God in His grace would do for Abraham what he (a sinner) could never do—produce a son that God would accept. Isaac was Abraham’s miracle son (Genesis chapter 17). The nation descending from Abraham would be God’s doing, not man’s doing.

Some 500 years after the Abrahamic Covenant, Israel is enslaved in Egypt. JEHOVAH God, by Moses, rescues them from Egypt. They will learn His Word and dwell in His land. In Exodus chapters 14-18, as Israel journeyed to the Promised Land, God provided for her every need. In chapter 19, however, Israel fell into the trap of religion. Rather than relying on God’s grace, they wanted to work their way into fellowship with Him. They would attempt to be His nation in their own strength. Note: “[5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: [6] And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Verse 8: “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.”

Israel failed to learn they would be God’s special people only because He would redeem them from sin. Instead, they accepted His Covenant of Law—now, they could only be His people if they obeyed Him. God, willing to show them their inability, obliged. Israel would have to learn she needed to be “converted!”

Rise Up, LORD! #4

Monday, November 16, 2015

“And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10:35,36 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture mean?

Jude, in his tiny Bible book, described a little-known ministry that occurred 2,000 years before Moses: “[14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, [15] To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Over 2,500 years before King David wrote Psalm 68:1 and Psalm 110:1, and 2,000-plus years before Moses spoke today’s Scripture, God’s people already understood Jesus Christ’s Second Coming in wrath. Enoch, who lived merely 500 years after the Creation, and just before the Great Flood, was led by God’s Spirit to speak of a day when the Lord would come with tens of thousands of angelic soldiers. He was coming to judge this world of sinners, this world of people who hated Him and spoke against Him. Obviously, Moses and David received further revelation.

The Spirit of God had also moved David to write in Psalm 2: “[1] Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? [2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, [3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. [4] He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. [5] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.”

Psalm 2 set a date for that wrath. It would occur shortly after Calvary (cf. Acts 4:25-28). Hence, Peter preached what he did on Pentecost. Much of Israel ignored the apostles’ preaching, and, in Acts chapter 7, a year after Calvary, Jesus Christ stood up! Israel no doubt knew what was just moments away!

Rise Up, LORD! #2

Saturday, November 14, 2015

“And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10:35,36 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture mean?

The Bible always interprets itself. Whenever we find a mysterious verse or passage, we should always consider the context first. Then, we should look for other verses that are worded similarly. Today’s Scripture is about God bringing His nation Israel into His Holy Land, that He make her His kingdom of priests to evangelize the Gentiles (Genesis 12:1-3; Exodus 19:3-6). As the Song of Moses said of Israel just after she crossed the Red Sea: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever” (Exodus 15:17,18).

As the Ark of the Covenant was carried forward, “Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” When the Ark was set down, “he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel.” In these simple little phrases, God was actually providing highlights of Israel’s future. Every time the camp of the Israelites moved and traveled toward the Promised Land, it was a “dress rehearsal.” That is, there is not only historical significance, but prophetic significance as well.

Today’s Scripture brings Psalm 68 to mind. Echoing Moses centuries earlier, King David wrote in its opening verses: “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.” If you read that psalm in its entirety, you will learn it is Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. He will ride through the heavens and stand on the Earth, just before He establishes His kingdom on the Earth. He has come, that He might utterly destroy His enemies!

Rise Up, LORD! #1

Friday, November 13, 2015

“And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10:35,36 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture mean?

Throughout the “Old Testament” Scriptures, the Berean Bible student notices various hints, previews, of things that would occur centuries or millennia later in the “New Testament” Scriptures. Some prophecies are spelled out clearly in words. Others are historical events that typify (mirror) the future. It is thus apparent that one Master Author wrote all 66 Bible books—a mind neither bound by space nor limited by time. He could see the beginning and the end alike. What Revelation would say in culmination many centuries later, Genesis had already laid in foundation many centuries earlier.

Think about today’s Scripture. Moses and Israel are just over one year removed from Egyptian bondage. They are slowly making their way to the Promised Land. Things are about to fall apart, however. We pause in the Bible narrative before things get worse. Picture in your mind over two million individuals and all of their animals making their way northward on the Sinai Peninsula. Leading that massive crowd, we see Jewish priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders. Manifesting Himself in the form of “Shekinah Glory”—a glowing orb of light—JEHOVAH hovers above the lid, the Mercy Seat. Every time the priests pick up that Ark and move northward, the Israelites move camp. JEHOVAH God is leading His people to His land, a glorious land! Abounding with wealth and prosperity, they will dwell in it safely, and become His kingdom of priests. What a hope!

When the priests lifted up the Ark of the Covenant and moved forward, Moses said, “Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” Why? When the priests put down the Ark, Moses said, “Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel.” Why? With the background delineated, now we proceed to delving into the meaning. (Hint: Think prophecy.)

Satan and Dispensationalism #9

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is one of the six key areas that Satan has found to be advantageous regarding confusing God’s people in this Dispensation of Grace, the Church the Body of Christ!

Satan wants ignorant Christians. After all, he can only rule over people who are unaware of what really matters. As one dear brother often says, “Ignorant brethren are the world’s largest denomination!” To add insult to injury, the exact six instances where Paul says not to be ignorant of some doctrine, they are the very doctrines of which Christendom is totally ignorant today! Awful! Shameful! Awful!

The third exhortation not to be ignorant is in today’s Scripture. Paul reminded the Corinthians to learn a tragic lesson from Israel’s history. God delivered her from Egyptian bondage (sin, Satan, and the world) to enjoy a new life in a new land, His Promised Land. Paul continued after today’s Scripture: “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them…. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed…. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them did…. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured…. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples….”

There is still a satanic agenda today to distract us from our new life in Christ. Friends, let us ever be mindful of it. Israel abandoned Moses, God’s spokesman to her; Christendom forsook Paul, God’s spokesman to us. Like the Corinthians, they overlook Paul’s apostleship (2 Corinthians chapters 10-13), preferring pagan philosophy (1 Corinthians chapters 1-3) and devil worship (chapters 8-11). Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, are largely ignored… thus, Christendom is largely ignorant!

The LORD’S Sanctuary

Friday, October 2, 2015

“Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever” (Exodus 15:17,18 KJV).

Where is the Lord’s “Sanctuary?”

You have undoubtedly heard people call a church building or its auditorium “the sanctuary.” Maybe you yourself have done so. However, this is erroneous and unscriptural. Just where did this mistake originate? A failure to understand the Bible dispensationally!

Someone once said, “Christendom is a bastardized form of Judaism.” What God intended to be pure Christianity, organized religion turned it into a hideous monstrosity. They grabbed Pauline verses and snatched Old Testament concepts (Temple, priesthood, sacrifices, candles, holy bread, et cetera) and combined them with countless pagan (unbiblical) teachings.

“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). We should not steal Israel’s “sanctuary” verses concerning her Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple (cf. Hebrews 9:1). From the creation of the Earth, there has always been one and will always be one “Sanctuary” of JEHOVAH God. It is not a church building in North or South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica. The Apostle Paul could not be clearer when he said that God does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 17:24). God did dwell in Israel’s Temple in time past but that is not true today. There is no house of God today made of brick, stone, mortar, steel, glass, and so on. The Bible says that Christians are the temple of God the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).

When God brought Israel out of Egypt, today’s Scripture says He did so to bring them into His Sanctuary, where He wanted to dwell with them. Where? The land of Palestine, the Promised Land! Furthermore, He gave them a scale model of the Promised Land—the Tabernacle—to remind them of His ultimate purpose. Psalm 132:13,14: “For the LORD hath chosen Zion [Jerusalem]; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Yes, Jesus Christ will return to Zion to reign forever! 🙂

Moses the Learned

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

“In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:20-22 KJV).

Was Moses some “backwards hick?” Oh, certainly not!

Bible critics have a great hatred for anything and everything in the Scriptures. That includes doubters within the ranks of Christendom’s “scholarship!” One of their many attacks on the Old Testament is to deny Moses as writer of Genesis through Deuteronomy. They claim Moses was nothing more than an unlearned, illiterate buffoon who herded sheep, so he could not have penned one sentence, let alone five books! On the contrary, the New Testament (today’s Scripture) reminds us of what the Old Testament already said about Moses.

Moses’ birth and childhood are briefly described in Exodus 2:1-10. Moses was born of Hebrew parents enslaved in Egypt. His mother hid him three months, before placing him in a basket in the river. When Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to wash herself, she noticed the basket and sent a maid to fetch it. She opened the basket to see three-month-old Moses inside! Moses’ older sister Miriam watched nearby, and asked if she could return the child to his mother for nursing. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed.

When Moses was weaned, perhaps as old as four or five years old, he was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter. For the first few years of his life, his mother Jochebed had instructed him in Jewish culture and the Hebrew language. Pharaoh’s daughter later adopted him, and he grew up as an Egyptian prince. As a member of the royal family, Moses was trained in history, literature, grammar, music, geography, philosophy, and particularly Egyptian hieroglyphics (word pictures). See today’s Scripture.

JEHOVAH God used Moses’ education to enable him to write down His words, Genesis through Deuteronomy, on papyrus, a rough paper used in Egypt. Using God’s wisdom, Moses was able to lead his people Israel into fulfilling God’s plan for them. And as they say, “the rest is history!” 🙂

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When the LORD Turns Israel’s Captivity #11

Monday, April 27, 2015

“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee” (Deuteronomy 30:3 KJV).

In today’s Scripture, Moses prophesies Israel’s glorious future restoration!

Earlier in these studies, we looked at Exodus 19:5,6, God’s Word to Israel just out of Egyptian bondage. We will look at these verses once more: “[5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: [6] And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

Israel failed to be God’s people. They had religion, but not righteousness. Israel had just escaped Egyptian slavery, and now they set themselves up for more captivity. By agreeing to do everything the LORD commanded them, and entering into the Covenant of Law, they ended up breaking that covenant and not becoming His people! Like all us sinners, they failed miserably. They never came close to God’s righteousness (Romans 2:17–3:20).

We read of Israel’s sin dilemma in Isaiah chapter 49: “[24] Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? [25] But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. [26] And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

Israel, even to this day, is not only scattered amongst the Gentiles, but she is also in Satan’s captivity. The Messiah is coming to not only redeem Israel from the nations, but from the very depths of sin and hell (Romans 11:26-29)!

We can now summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….

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When the LORD Turns Israel’s Captivity #3

Sunday, April 19, 2015

“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee” (Deuteronomy 30:3 KJV).

In today’s Scripture, Moses prophesies Israel’s glorious future restoration!

When God offered to enter into the Law Covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, He said, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:5,6). Israel replied, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (verse 8). According to the rest of the Bible, and history, did Israel break her word? Yes! Yes! Yes!

Like many church members today, Israel failed to learn that she could never be God’s people in her own strength. Had the Jews truly learned the lesson of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac (Genesis chapters 12 through 17), they would not have ignored God’s grace and preferred works-religion with Moses (see Galatians 4:19-31). Had they actually believed that it had to be God’s work to bring about a people for His name—divine efforts rather than human works, not Abraham’s efforts or their efforts but God’s efforts—they would have never entered into the Covenant of Law with the LORD at Sinai. Their deceitful sin nature (Jeremiah 17:9) caused them to believe they could keep God’s laws perfectly. God simply gave them the Law, what they wanted, proving to them and all the world that no one can be perfect (see Romans 3:19,20).

The Covenant of Law was a failure from the start. The Israelites danced naked around a golden calf idol after God wrote on the stones tablets that they were to not embrace idolatry (Exodus chapter 32)! The Law was a strict system—all or nothing. Because Israel broke the Law, she came under the curses, and automatically could not be God’s people. She came under Satan’s control (just as in Egypt). Today’s Scripture is part of God’s solution to Israel’s dilemma….

What a Relief to Have Them Go!

Monday, February 16, 2015

“Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them” (Psalm 105:38 KJV).

We can only wonder just how relieved the Egyptians were when Israel left “the land of the Nile!”

By the time the Jews left Egypt, JEHOVAH had smitten the Egyptians with ten separate plagues—bodies of water turned to blood, plus frogs, murrain (cattle disease), lice, flies, boils, hail and fire, locusts, darkness, and the deaths of all the firstborn (Exodus chapters 7-12).

The Psalmist wrote about it in the context of today’s Scripture, providing more detail than what Moses did in the book of Exodus: “[28] He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. [29] He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. [30] Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. [31] He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. [32] He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. [33] He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. [34] He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, [35] And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. [36] He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. [37] He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.”

Pharaoh had messed with the wrong nation, and now his nation was in shambles! “And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men” (Exodus 12:33). We can almost hear the Egyptians urging the Israelites, “Oh, please go away quickly! Go! Go! Go!” You can be sure that this world will be just as eager to get rid of us Christians. They are getting tired of us too, and just as God delivered His people from Egypt, so He will deliver them from Earth one day. Keep looking up! 🙂

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