Genesis 1:26
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
1 John 3:1-3
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He (Messiah Yeshua) appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (Emphasis added.)
Ponder the highlighted parts of the above text. What do they tell you? Are they not announcing that God intends to transform us until we too share in the glory of His incarnate Word’s perfect, eternal Resurrection Humanity? Yes, that is hard for us to imagine, given our current, often dismal conditions and circumstances. Nevertheless, there it is: God’s Word assures that although there is, at this time, an infinite difference between God’s nature and our very limited, Sin-corrupted nature, we learn from Genesis and other parts of Scripture that our awesome, totally transcendent, living God is the Creator of all things – free to do as he pleases. He is easily able and ready to create what He wishes; and He has chosen to connect and interact with us on such a personal, intimate level, that He can, and will, actually transform us…from the fallen mortal beings we are at birth, to the perfect glorified Humanity His beloved Son, the living Word, now enjoys for all eternity!
1 Corinthians 15:19-20
“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man (the first Adam) came death, by a man (the last Adam) also came the resurrection of the dead.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The ‘Bridge’ or ‘Connecting Link’ that bonds us to Almighty God and makes this miracle possible is – His living creative Word, who became one of us and took on our human flesh. He proceeds from the Father and is His Perfect Image and Likeness. The Father and His Word and Spirit are one in every way. And so God can reveal Himself, just as He is, and bond with us forever, through the Authority of His infinitely authoritative Word and infinite Power of His Holy Spirit. Thus, to know the Word, is to know God and be filled, led and taught by His Spirit. And to know Yeshua as He now is, in His risen glorified state, is to know ourselves and how we will one day be, in Him and because of Him. Thus, to believe, embrace and submit to the Word, is to believe, embrace and submit to Almighty God Himself, who is intent on fully restoring us to what He originally intended us to be!
Luke 10:21-23
“At that very time He (God’s living Word made flesh) rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.’
“Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see…”
1 John 2:18-24
“Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the Truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning (Genesis) abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” (Emphasis added.)
True Humanity
So in God’s eternally Perfect (and therefore changeless) mind and will, every human being He creates has the same image and likeness of God ‘name’ or identity and purpose. This is true Humanity, our true God-given ‘self.’ Each of us is destined and created to become a ‘son of God,’ His image and likeness, and a co-heir and co-administrator in God’s eternal Kingdom.
John 1:9-13
“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God!” (Emphasis added.)
Romans 8:18-20
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the Creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope…” (Emphasis added.)
Galatians 4:6-7
“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father! (Daddy!)” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God’s Changeless Agenda
To restore us to this exalted level, purpose and function is the changeless agenda of our awesome Creator. It is His heart’s desire for each and every human He creates. So, despite the fall of the human race into Sin and mortality, and regardless of what happens to us in this broken fallen world or what we may do or fail to do in our mortal Sin-corrupted state, nothing can change the way God in His eternal Perfection, views us. Because He sees us according to His changeless plan and purpose for us, what He is doing with us is always the same – working to restore us on every level of our existence!
That is why, right from the beginning of our fall into Sin and the damage and mortality our rebellion against Him inflicted on us, God sent His Word after our first parents…to restore them and all of their unborn descendants, including us…to the perfection of His original plan and purpose for Humanity:
Genesis 3:21
“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife (who were now spiritually naked and bankrupt), and clothed them (with the Perfect Righteousness of His living Word).” (Amplification added.)
Genesis 3:22-24
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ –therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” (Emphasis added.)
To prepare for that total Restoration and make time for His Word to completely bring us into the fulfillment of our perfect pristine destiny, God kept Adam and Eve away from the Tree of Life, lest they eat of it and have to spend eternity separated from Him in their Sin-corrupted, spiritually dead state. Thus God is revealing that, after our fall into Sin, everything He does with us or with what concerns us, is done with our complete and total Restoration in mind. God sent His Word to cover the entire human race. That is why He accepted Abel’s sacrificial Word-obedient offering, but rejected Cain’s alternate, alien self-devised offering.
So God’s ‘covering’ of Israel during the Passover of the Angel of Death, was a further revelation of the Eternal Blood Covering provided by His ‘Eternal Lamb.’ That eternal perfect Covering was revealed by the substitution deaths of the Sin-less Passover lambs. This was nothing new. It was progressive revelation of the eternal reality and significance of the Word (or Son) of God and the Perfect ‘Coverer’ that He is to us.
As we said earlier, the children of Adam who were also descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were not spared on that Passover Night because they were better or more righteous, worthy or special, than the other children of Adam that came from different family trees. The ones who were spared received that blessing only because they believed, obeyed and trusted in God’s living Word, as given through Moses. God sent His Word into their space and time to be the Covering, Redemption and Salvation that only comes from the Word of the one true God. God’s living Word made flesh is the ‘Sacrifice that God provides’ (see Genesis 22:7-8). He is the eternal Sacrifice that is given in humanity’s place, as our all-sufficient, pure, spotless Blood Atonement. So the living Word is the one that God’s written Word is meant to reveal and highlight from beginning to end.
John 5:46-47
“…If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
God wanted everyone in Egypt to be covered and delivered from His Judgment against Sin, Death and the powers of Darkness. But only those who heeded His Word availed themselves of that Deliverance. So, because the children of Israel believed, received, and acted upon His revelation, the living Word was free to apply His awesome Deliverance to them and thus they were spared. This lets the rest of the world know that what God did for Israel, is what He intends to do for all the others, in exactly the same way…by applying to us, the covering of His Son’s atoning, sacrificial Blood that comes to us through our obedience to Him.
Our Blood Covenant Covering
So, we’re not saved by anything that we are, or can initiate. Nothing we decide to do can free us from the coils of the Serpent and the eternal doom that awaits the idolatrous, demon-possessed world system and all the Sin-corrupted fallen flesh that the Serpent deceives and manipulates by his lies. It is only by obediently believing and receiving the Covering provided by the infinite, all-sufficient Blood of God’s Lamb, the Eternal Word who entered our space and time dimension and became flesh, like us, except for Sin, that any of us can be saved. Exodus brings this out in vivid, graphic and unmistakable detail:
Exodus 12:21-32
“Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.
“For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter the land, which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’ And the people bowed low and worshiped. Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
“Now it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, ‘Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.’” (Emphasis added.)
The covering provided by God’s Word for Adam and Eve in the Garden was further revealed through Abel’s obedient faith. He offered a sinless sacrificial substitute that stood for him and his sinful flesh before God. And now that spiritual Reality was extended and revealed further, centuries later, through those who would hear and obey God’s Word in Egypt. A mixed company of Jews and non-Jews heard, obeyed and were saved. If the pharaoh had obeyed God’s Word, he and his household would have also been spared, for God loves and desires to restore us so that He can be one with us all. This awesome Blood Covering was not only for just a few people for that one night. It is meant to shelter, protect and provide for the entire human race, of all times, in all places and in all things! Israel was chosen and taught to come under that covering first…so they could demonstrate and teach and share this awesome Truth and level of faith and understanding, with every other nation, family and person in existence!
2 Chronicles 20:17
“You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the Salvation (Yeshua) of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Jeremiah 29:11-14
“For I know the (eternal, changeless) plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then (when you know Me and realize how much you can trust Me) you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and (of course) I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart (that is, with complete ‘airtight’ trust in Me alone and in the all-sufficient Perfection of what I and I alone am, and what I have done for you). (Then) I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations (pagan idolatrous gentiles) and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
John 10:9-11
“I (God’s eternal living Word) am The Door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief (Serpent) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have Life, and have it abundantly. I am the (eternal) Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His (human) life for the sheep!” (Amplification and emphasis added. See also Ezekiel 34.)
Whatever we, as individuals, or as the corporate human family of Adam and Eve, have to face, experience and deal with in this fallen, broken, demon-oppressed time and space world, God’s revelation requires and urges us to always keep in mind – the difference between what the Serpent and the powers of Darkness are doing to try to destroy us, and what Almighty God has already done to Perfection, to cover, redeem and restore us to our originally perfect image and likeness specifications.
God’s Word is our Perfect Eternal Human Blood Covenant Representative. Whatever happened to Him, happens to all those who come under His representation! What He accomplished in their name, they accomplish in and through Him, because the Covenant has made them to be one. The Serpent and his forces are out to destroy any chance we have of salvation. They intend to kill us – spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. But God sent His Word to be our Shield, Fortress and our providing, restoring, protecting Shepherd and High Priest! God’s Word made flesh is always here with us and for us. He is ready to begin to live in us and reveal Himself through us. In all things, He IS whatever we need Him to be. And whether or not we will believe, receive and become one with Him is always the issue between Almighty God and the human race that He has created. This Truth will never change! And that is why the Word says to us:
Revelation 3:19-22
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Zeroing in on God’s Ultimate Purpose
Do you see God’s ultimate purpose in all of this? His Word is here to put us back where we have always belonged…back with Him and His Father, on the Throne of Almighty God…as God’s beloved sons, heirs and co-administrators of Creation! From Genesis to Revelation, it is always the same issue – Full Restoration for God’s Creation!
This was God’s intent in leading Israel out into the wilderness. He had to strip away the false names, identities and ‘orphan’ status levels that slavery to this fallen world always imposes on us. The wilderness serves as an enormous ‘Weaning Pen’ for God’s chosen ones. He uses the wilderness to sweat the Serpent’s lying rebellious ways out of us. And that will progressively transform anyone, even a rabble of whipped Egyptian slaves into full-fledged ‘sons of God!’ First He covered Israel in their original helpless, Sinful state. But then He intended to progressively transform them by working His Word’s Perfect righteousness and Image and Likeness of God Purity into them. The Exodus was meant to transform them completely…from within…until they were reconfigured and equipped to become full-fledged sons of God!
The story of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt is our story too. We all start out to be slaves to this fallen, Serpent-dominated world system. So God must use the rigors and pressures of the Wilderness of Transition to change us too…into His own glorious Family as regenerated Heavenly sons, and co-heirs and co-administrators with His living Word, over all of His Creation! If we believe and obey God’s Word, it will happen. He will take us all the way Home!
What a difference there is between the identity, name, purpose, inheritance and destiny we receive from this fallen world, and all that Almighty God has in store for us! He never intends for any of us to be debased and disgraced and branded with the wretchedness, debasement, poverty and bitter tribulation that the Serpent always tries to impose on us! The name, purpose and identity that the Serpent and the powers of Darkness brand us with are miserable cheap counterfeit substitutes for what God really intends for us to be and do and have! This is why we suffer so much abuse in this world. The powers of Darkness furiously try to keep us trapped within the Serpent’s coils. They do whatever they can to blind and deafen us to the Life-giving, restorative, redemptive influence of God’s living and written Word. And the more they succeed in keeping us decapitated from our Head, the more easily they can continue to deceive and delude us into blaming God for what they, in reality, are doing to us. And when we fall for their lies, we accept and own the miserable false names, orphan identities and Sin-corrupted reputations that our fallen, Serpent-deceived families, neighborhoods, schools, work places and even so-called places of ‘worship’ brand into our souls and brains. But none of that comes from God; it comes from the lies of the Serpent!
Perfect Restoration and Rest
Notice the perfect alignment and consistency between what God reveals in Genesis…and the rest of Scripture…and how perfectly He fulfills His promises in the prophetic book of Revelation! This helps us see that throughout all of Scripture, God’s agenda is to send His Word after us to cover us and atone for us and bring our Perfect Restoration to completion! And at the end of our story with God, we are assured that we will enjoy that Perfect Restoration and Rest that God was already enjoying and had waiting for us to share with Him by the beginning of chapter 2 of Genesis!
And we will have it, IF we heed embrace, obey and become one with God’s living Word! God and His Word and His Work of Creation are Perfect. And His plan and purpose for what His Word has created will never change! The Serpent and his powers of Darkness may inflict tremendous damage on what God created; but that is only temporary. God has spoken! When the living God speaks…His Word goes forth to perform and complete to Perfection, whatever His Father sent Him to do. The Word and His Perfection never change, nor can He be stopped or deterred from fulfilling His commission. What God has already given to us, stands! Nothing in all of Creation can take it from us…unless we ourselves, through our unbelief, mistrust and disobedience, decide to relinquish and forsake our God-given eternal identity, purpose, inheritance and destiny.
Isaiah 55:10-11
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Emphasis added.)
So, now we know how God views every human being, and to what a mind-boggling extent He values and cherishes each of us…regardless of what the Serpent’s lies and Sin-corruption manipulate us into doing, or failing to do, and regardless of our inherited, earthly racial genetic traits, genders, cultures, backgrounds, religions, localities or historical eras. The world obsesses over and over-estimates the importance of earthly, Sin-damaged racial genetic traits, genders, cultures, religions, personal histories and experiences. It teaches us to identify with those mortally wounded, broken things instead of identifying with the Perfect Fullness of God that abides within and flows from, the Word of God. All of that worldly, Sin-corrupted baggage is only temporary. None of that is really what God made us to be! So demonic lies and broken humanity’s temporary circumstances can’t stop or deter God’s Perfect Restoration Agenda from being fulfilled. The ultimate takeover of His Eternal Perfection is inevitable! Truth will win out and set us free if we embrace and follow His beloved Son, the Word!
When we understand this, we can see the significance of Israel, being chosen to be God’s instrument of revelation, redemption, cleansing and restoration for the rest of the world. God and His chosen people are here for the sake of all of Creation, including the entire human race! Israel is meant to reveal and introduce the rest of the world to the living, creative, redemptive, restorative Word of God in all of His Eternal Glory. To know Him as we allow Him to live and work from within us is to know our God-intended Destiny! And so God’s chosen Jewish and non-Jewish people must come to know Him first. And conversely, it is incumbent on the rest of the human race to hear, understand, acknowledge and respond to God as He reveals Himself through the faith-filled, obedient, trustworthy Remnant of Israel.
Philippians 3:7-11
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead!” (Emphasis added.)
Hopefully this will help us gain a clearer understanding of what takes place in Exodus and all other portions of the Bible and in the world around us. And hopefully it will help us see how much the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all of the other families of the Earth, can afford to love and trust and rest in the Goodness and Faithfulness of the one and only Living God. Then we will all have much cause to rejoice and celebrate with God in His Perfect Sabbath Rest. Ponder what Father says to His beloved Son, the Word:
Isaiah 49:5-6
“And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And My God is My strength), He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations (Gentiles) so that My Salvation (Yeshua) may reach to the end of the earth!’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Every human and every family, starting with Abraham’s family, can rest and ‘marinate’ in this eternal assurance of God’s tender Mercy and fierce Blood Covenant Love and Loyalty that will never leave us or forsake us:
Isaiah 49:15-17
“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; your destroyers and devastators will depart from you.”
God’s Word is Perfect and Changeless
God has promised! And His Word is Perfect, changeless and invincible. The era we’re part of doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what the powers of Darkness and the fallen humans they manage to deceive and manipulate may try to do. Temporary earthly circumstances and situations do not count! Nothing created will ever thwart or overcome or stop the infinite Love-initiatives of God and His Word and Holy Spirit. What God has said and promised is inevitable…it will all come to pass, in God’s good time:
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on Earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from Heaven. And His Voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
“This expression, ‘Yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming Fire!” (Hebrews 12:25-29 Emphasis added.)
“Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” (Galatians 3:6-9 Emphasis added.)
So with this in mind, consider Israel’s Exodus from Egypt…and how God’s Perfect Presence and omnipotent Power and Authority permeated everything that took place. Consider also the Jewish and non-Jewish ‘sons of disobedience’ in the story, and their consistently negative attitude and reaction to God’s Word as it was revealed to them through Moses and what He had sent His living Word to do on behalf of those who would hear and obey Him:
“When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, ‘What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?’ So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him; and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly. Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
“As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, ‘Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 14:5-12)
The pharaoh’s heart was already set like stone. God knew he would not change. So He used that weak stubborn man as an object lesson for the rest of the world. But He also uses the remarks and the panic-ridden reactions of the unbelieving Israelites recorded above because they contain a wealth of information for every human being to ponder. What the pharaoh said, in reaction to what God had said and done, was a pack of lies. But so also was the reaction of the unbelieving, terrified Israelites, a pack of lies. Neither group was in line with God and His revelation. Neither realized that God’s Perfect infinitely Authoritative living Word and infinitely Powerful Holy Spirit were real and active and operating in their midst! Only a small company of true disciples of God’s Word (the Remnant of Israel) has been able, throughout Israel’s history, to believe and rest, rejoice and obey…in the absolute eternal assurance of their God’s omnipotent Perfection.
And that’s the way it is in our day too. Many claim to believe, but few prove it by doing what God says. Therefore, many are called, but few are chosen. As long as the damage Sin has done to us and our nature and faculties, is accepted and considered to be properly ‘human’ and ‘normal’, men will remain prone to ignore God’s Word and believe any demonic lie that is set before them. Instead of coming under the Perfect Covering of God’s Word, they will remain naked and exposed in their twisted and disfigured earthly situations. Circumstances will continue to overwhelm and force them to see their situations with God entirely out of the picture! What they think they see will terrify and fill them with despair and soul-murdering hopelessness and dread. They will think and feel like orphans and remain trapped in the slavery of victimhood. That is because of the power of repetition. If humans hear something, even if it’s an outrageous lie, often enough, the repetition will hypnotize and program them to believe and absorb it…as Truth!
That is how the Serpent and his powers of Darkness continually prevent us from coming to know God as he really is. The demonic lies they drum into our heads deceive, manipulate and destroy God’s beloved human beings, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. In that state of spiritual blindness, they run away from the saving arms of God, and flee into the ‘mine fields’ laid for them by the powers of Darkness…for their eventual eternal destruction.
Deception ‘Detox’ Clears the Way for Revelation
And this is why God has to take us all ‘out of Egypt!’ He has to take us out of that noxious, false, insane atmosphere and environment…and into the safety and solitude of the Wilderness of Transition where we can come to know Him without all of that worldly overwhelming deceptive interference. The starkness and solitude of the wilderness detoxifies us of our Egyptian addictions and forces us to sweat them out of our systems. Then we can experience the Truth that is so vitally necessary for our redemptive re-education process. The wilderness, and the dangers, setbacks and painful circumstances it imposes, serves to expose and discredit the non-existent, bankrupt, man-devised false gods. And that awesome realization drives us to cry out to and seek the embrace of the real God…the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! And the knowledge of Him reconfigures our minds and brains and reprograms us and aligns us with the authentic Reality of His True Salvation.
It is a painful and shocking when our delusions are exposed and demolished; but it is utterly necessary for it to happen. We must be delivered from our innate, fallen Adamic insanity. Then God can lead us into full Redemption and Restoration. But He must save us from the lies and grotesque deceptions of the Serpent. He must expose the bankruptcy and impotence of the world and its system that the Serpent controls and uses to control and blind and destroy so many people. In that process, God’s Word disintegrates and exposes the absurd lies of the Serpent and proves, by His invincible Authority and the Holy Spirit’s Power…that nothing can prevent God and His redemptive, restorative initiatives from succeeding:
“But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.’
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.’
The angel (living revealed Word) of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between (separated) the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the Cloud along with the Darkness, yet it gave Light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. At the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the Pillar of Fire and Cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.’
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.’
“So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained.
“But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:13-31 Emphasis added.)
What God did for Israel while they were still in Egypt and what He did out in that barren, desolate wilderness…was the application of His awesome eternal Blood Covering. And He is ready to apply it to each one that will believe, trust and obey Him, just as Moses, Joshua, Caleb and the rest of the Remnant of Israel did, and continues to do.
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an Everlasting Covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to (My living Word, the Son of) David. Behold, I have made Him a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander for the peoples.” (Isaiah 55:2-4. Amplification added.)
“When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’ (Matthew 9:28-29 Emphasis added.)
Our Perfect God
Beloved ones, ponder this: ever since the days of Cain, Nimrod and the contemporaries of Noah, the builders of the Tower of Babel, and those who opposed and plotted against Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses…the Serpent and his powers of Darkness have been waging a deadly attack against God and His Word. But they rage to no avail. God is Perfect. And Perfection never changes; only what is imperfect has to change. So the rebellion of the powers of Darkness is pure futility. God is GOD! Nothing can change or deter Him. Every rebel, tyrant, saboteur and contradicting ‘expert’ that dares to deny, contradict and oppose God’s Word will rise and disappear. They will be like waves on an ocean that emerge, rise to power, wane, weaken and disappear. And after they sink into oblivion, they are forgotten.
But He who creates oceans, solar systems, galaxies and angels and humans and maintains and provides for them all by His omnipotent Word…ABIDES FOREVER! And the faithful obedient disciples of His Word…abide with Him in His Eternal Perfection!
“Do not fret because of evildoers; be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will whither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.” (Psalm 37:1-3)