6. The God Who Demands the Impossible
“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 14:10-12 Emphasis added.)
This was just one of many seemingly impossible situations into which God led His chosen people. And it is always this way with those who are called to be disciples of God’s Word. The dust-level bankrupt helplessness that disciples share with all other humans must always be evident to all observers. It must be clear that what is happening to and through them is coming from God and not from them. This makes disciples into instruments of divine revelation. The Reality, Truth and Authority of our invisible God are made visible and tangible to decapitated unbelievers through the disciples of His Word. And once the unbelievers become aware of how awesome the living God of these disciples really is, they too become aware of Him and of how ‘electrically’ real He is and so they begin to fear and hold Him in high esteem:
“Now before they lay down, she (Rahab) came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.’” (Joshua 2:8-11 Amplification added.)
“At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed!” (Acts 5:12-16)
God’s living Word, working through His disciples, can pierce, penetrate and impregnate worldly people with His eternal Truth and Life. So God doesn’t lead disciples into impossible situations to harm or torture them; He does it to set them and the decapitated unbelievers around them free, from satanic delusions, and to include as many as possible in the Salvation He is here to be for those who still do not know Him. God’s Glory amid human impossibility is what God’s Word is here to reveal through those who are truly His. And this is what He intended to teach all of Israel, so that His chosen ones could cooperate with His living Word and give this revelation with Him…right from the beginning of Exodus. And the apostle Paul expressed this truth to the Corinthian congregation with these words:
“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, THEN I am strong!” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Emphasis added.)
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus (God’s living Word) also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-11 Emphasis added.)
Leaving Egypt
God saw to it that the ex-slaves would have to follow Moses out of Egypt, even as he was learning to follow God’s living Word. And the Word led them all into an apparently inescapable trap. So again they were placed in an impossible situation. There was no human way or device available to save them. Just as God had promised seemingly impossible things to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their unborn descendants, now the descendants were put in the same position. Death surrounded them! Their senses and intellects told them: ‘This is impossible; we’re trapped. We can do nothing to save ourselves and our children. We’ve allowed this clown to lead us into a trap and all is lost!’
That response level tells us how little that Israelite generation really knew their God. And that is why their Boot Camp training had to begin in earnest. They had to be trained and taught to abide in and remain focused on – God’s Perfect Presence – at all times! Only then would they be equipped to stare down the Serpent…and rejoice continually and valiantly protect and hold their Eternal Blood Covenant Ground, regardless of what circumstances or situations they would ever have to face. Israel had to be trained to embrace and honor God’s Word and abide with Him in the revelation of His All-Sufficient and Eternal Sabbath Rest! In light of God’s Eternal Rest, temporary earthly conditions in space and time do not matter! This is what God intended to show them. And now that their backs were against the sea and the Egyptian chariots were coming at them from all directions, it was obvious that they were unable to do anything to save their hides. Again they had to admit their constant reality: that they, like us, and even like the Egyptians that were after them, we are all as helpless and dead as dust!
If those Israelites had only known the infinite eternal Perfection of God, they would have realized that even then, they could afford to rejoice and rest, rely on, and draw from the abundance of God’s Eternal, Changeless, Authoritative, living Word. They could have confidently expected Him to be for them whatever they needed. They could have drawn from the Perfect Treasury of His already-finished Eternal Work of Creation. He was with them, as always, for Abraham’s sake, to be the all-sufficient ‘daily bread’ that their Covenant with Him always makes available to them. But that provision can only descend to us from God’s Eternal Heavenly Realm! It is futile to seek such things from this fallen, living dead, Serpent-crushed world.
God’s Holy Spirit is always ready to transmit to God’s Covenant People everything they need to thrive, prosper and overcome…no matter what the powers of Darkness and the world system they control may be plotting and scheming to do against them. Regardless of what happens around them or how dire things may seem or what their flesh may feel or think at any given time, the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is with them to be everything their circumstances require Him to be for them.
If, from eternity past, God has already anticipated and provided everything all of His Creation will ever need, how much more is that true for His Blood Covenant friends? This is what Israel, above all others, had to learn. God’s Word was ready to be released to them according to their need, by the Holy Spirit. This is the Glory of God and of His Eternal Covenant and the living Word and Holy Spirit by which He fulfills His Covenant promises for His beloved Chosen People. Whatever comes against them, will first have to defeat and get past the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Only then can they get their coils around the people that are walking before their living God…blamelessly.
Moses was the first to receive the necessary disciple boot camp training that was in store for God’s chosen people. He received it during the forty years prior to this event. He had to leave the splendor of his former life in Egypt and be reduced to zero by comparison. After losing his exalted lifestyle in Pharaoh’s court, he had to settle for the menial, monotonous, insignificant life of a sheep herder in the danger-filled wilderness of Midian. During that time God disciplined and pruned Moses and melted away his former worldly arrogance and self-reliance. During that time Moses was learning to rest and to see aspects of human life that differed greatly from the perspectives he acquired within Egypt’s arrogant, hyper-controlling, inner circle. So his reliance on his own fallen, radically independent, Egyptian-trained flesh, grew fainter and much weaker and moved closer and closer to the zero point.
Discipleship Boot Camp Lessons are to be Passed on through the Generations
It was time for the training of the other children of Israel to begin. They too had to become aware of God’s infinite, eternal Treasury of Grace that was always theirs in Heaven. They had to learn to abide in God and to interact with Him by faith in His awesome Perfection. God’s Holy Spirit was there with them…ready to transmit into their time and space dimension, the Fullness of what the Word had already provided for them in eternity. All that was needed was for God’s Spirit to transmit, through their obedient faith, what was already theirs in Heaven. Thus what they needed here, could pass into this dimension from eternity…to supply everything they needed, even amid apparently impossible and hopeless earthly situations. God leads them into these situations…so that He might reveal Himself to them in the midst of them. And in so doing, He reveals Himself through them, to rest of the fallen world:
“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 14:28-31)
Regardless of how it looked or what anyone said or how the circumstances made them feel…every Israelite saw and experienced the awesome, supernatural, miraculous power and faithfulness of their living God. They were ‘baptized’ into the Reality of what God’s living Word was to them and the Perfection of all that He had provided for them in eternity past. And throughout the forty year wilderness period that was ahead of them, they would receive many more manifestations and proofs of God’s Glory and invincible Faithfulness than any generation received before or since! They had the benefit of the ultimate in first class disciple training. They had everything necessary to learn the absolute Perfection of their God and the infinite Authority of His Word and the invincible Power of His Spirit. They received what they needed to be able to stand and hold their precious God-given Eternal Blood Covenant Ground! This was meant to teach them and all the rest of us, to rely at all times on the Perfect, impeccable, changeless Nature of God and His Eternal Airtight Blood Covenant Faithfulness to all of His Covenant friends.
The present and future well being of God’s Covenant friends never depends on their own devices or activities, or those of anything else in this fallen world or its system. God creates all of these things. And those things all, equally, depend on Him for their existence. Never should we look to anything created, as some kind of god or true source…for anything! God alone, the Uncreated One, is our Source and only God. Because of the utter, eternal Perfection of His Nature, Character and Covenant Love for His Blood Covenant Friends, we need no other Source for Salvation, Protection or Provision!
There is no better place on Earth to learn this than in the wilderness (See our Genesis Meditation No. 18: “The Portal in the Wilderness”). In the wilderness it’s easy to realize that the Perfect Living Word and Holy Spirit of our God must provide everything, or we die! So there is where we realize that He can and does protect us at all times and that it is He that is seeing us through anything and everything, regardless of our temporary situations and circumstances! God’s Word has already done everything on our behalf. And the Treasury of His Finished Work is what we must learn to draw from exclusively…at all times! This is what the Holy Spirit is always here to transmit to us!
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
“Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do (deal with and thrive within) all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13 Amplification and emphasis added.)
If we learn this bedrock foundational lesson during our basic training, we will always be able to rest in God’s Eternal Joy, Peace and Sabbath Rest with Him and resist and overcome no matter what the enemy tries to do against us. Through our obedient faith we can continue to receive and enjoy the benefits of our Master’s Perfect Finished Work. This is the testimony for which disciples of these Last Days must be rigorously and thoroughly trained. What the first Exodus generation failed to learn in the wilderness, the Last Days Exodus generation must be ready and able to demonstrate and teach to perfection! We must know God so well – that His Reality and abiding Presence will always be free to appear and equip us to stare down the impossible and overcome every onslaught the Serpent and his powers of Darkness may launch against us. We must be trained to do it without flinching and grow to be disciples of God’s Word that can operate at the same level that Abraham, Isaac, Israel (Jacob), Joseph and Moses did.
And that is why God must begin to teach and train our generation of chosen disciples to know what the Perfection of His Finished Work of Creation really means…so that He can continue to reveal His Reality and the Truth of His Covenant marvels to our generations. Thus we will be ready to usher in the climactic finale of human history. What was revealed in the very beginning will have to become our infinite, rock-solid foundation from which the very last generations of disciples can hold their Ground and overcome, to God’s eternal, everlasting Glory:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Genesis 2:1-3)
God’s Commandments Are Impossible for Fallen Humans to Fulfill!
The commandments God gives to the children of Adam are impossible for their dead, Sin-blasted fallen flesh to obey and fulfill. We all fall far, far short of God’s changeless levels and standards of Perfection. This is amply revealed in Scripture. Just as it was impossible for Adam’s dust to create itself into a living being that was made to be the image and likeness of God, so is it impossible for our dead, Sin-corrupted dust to be radically independent and self-sufficient in anything. We can’t create ourselves, or maintain ourselves, or save ourselves; nor do we have what it takes to change ourselves essentially so that we can become righteous. Even the most rabid God-denying atheists receive every breath, heartbeat and brainwave they will ever use…from Almighty God’s creative Word…whom they continue to defy, reject, blaspheme and offend. Nevertheless, despite their denial and rejection of Him, God’s Word continues to hold their molecules together and maintains their existence and enables them to do whatever it is they may choose to do! What is true for us is true for atheists as well: without God’s living Word who became flesh to represent us in God’s Eternal Covenant, none of us can be, do, or have anything!
The Torah (the Law or Pentateuch of Moses) and all the other Scriptures are a revelation of God’s living Word. And they reveal that He is the one and only Creator, Shepherd and Sustainer of all the things He has created. The Torah also reveals what God intends to do to and in and through any human being His Word creates. The Word faithfully continues to maintain us in existence and He gives us our essence, nature, purpose, faculties, abilities, daily life and eternal destiny, so that we might be a reflective revelation of Him. If He would ever stop sustaining us as He actually does, we would instantly blink off and disappear! This is our perpetual condition! Apart from Him, we are nothing! So when anyone sees a human being in existence…that human is a revelation of the Presence and dynamic Reality of Almighty God!
So as soon as we can see through the Serpent-induced delusion of radical independence, into which we are all born, and as soon as we repent of that Sinful state of separation from God, God can impart His Holy Spirit to us. And the Spirit begins to make God’s living Word real to us and dynamically active within us. Then the Word is able to fulfill from within our obedient faith, whatever God requires His human image and likeness to be and do. It is in God’s Word, our Messiah Yeshua that we can and must learn to rest, and enjoy the glory of having Him abide and work within us to be and to do what is impossible for us to be and do without Him. Thus we can abide peacefully in Him and witness the awesome glory of God as His Word moves us from within to fulfill God’s commandments and meet the perfect standards that He sets before us. God lives in us after we receive, embrace and abide in His Word; and God Himself fulfills what He requires of us. He does it perfectly, in our name and thus, by His Word and Holy Spirit, He covers our nakedness completely.
God’s Word fulfills the Eternal Covenant perfectly, on God’s part, and also on Man’s part. And He does this wonderful supernatural work before the eyes of the powers of Darkness and the servant angels that minister to God around His Heavenly Throne. He also does it before the eyes of the still-unbelieving world. The world and its system are decapitated and alienated from God. So they are not equipped to know Him as we disciples are equipped to do. To the unbelieving world, it appears as if we must do all the work. But when they see that we are just as weak and helpless as they are, and yet astounding supernatural things appear in our lives, it becomes obvious even to them, that God is present and active among us. By the supernatural Fruit that appears in us and through us, God proves that He is real and that His Word is true, and that He is here with us, to back up what He said and make it good. He chooses to do all of this in and through His chosen disciples:
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.” (Matthew 10:7-10)
“When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, ‘Look at us!’ And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!’ And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” (Acts 3:3-10)
Scripture reveals God’s living Word, who became flesh and appeared among us as Yeshua, the miracle working Lamb of God and Death-conquering Messiah-King of Israel. Everything God does with humans and all that He requires of us is going to be done perfectly…by the Authority of God’s living Word made flesh, and the Power of His Holy Spirit. God does it to perfection…in our name. The Word supplies our every breath and heartbeat and brainwave. Every gift and talent and ability we will exhibit actually comes to us from Him. If He does not first give it to us, we can’t be or have or do anything! God is the one and only Source. Everything comes from Him and returns to Him. And anything anyone says to the contrary is a Serpent-induced lie. So the basic underlying Truth that sustains all of Creation is this: Whatever God requires any of His creatures to be and to do – is a requirement that our Creator puts upon Himself! He must supply everything:
“The Lord said (to Moses), ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.’
“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’ And He said, ‘Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.’” (Exodus 3:7-8; 10-12 Emphasis added.)
“…beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matthew 10:17-20 Emphasis added.)
Our Covenant Representative
Through the eternal Covenant, in order to insure its perfect fulfillment, God’s Word identifies with us fallen, Sin-corrupted people so much, that God can legally deal with Him as if He were all the rest of the entire Sinful human race, and vice versa! So by our Master’s perfect Sin-less, Law-Fulfilling Life, and His perfect Atoning Death and Sin-Destroying Resurrection, He, as our Blood Covenant Representative, has redeemed us all…the Eternal Covenant has bonded us to Him forever. So in God’s Covenant eyes, whatever impossible thing His Word does in our name…we do it too…IN HIM! What our Head accomplishes; we, His Body, also accomplish. Everything humanity is required to be and do as God’s image and likeness, the Word of God, our Head, has been and has done it to perfection…in our name! Thus we’re set free from obsessing over what we will do and how it must be done apart from Him. Thanks to Yeshua, everything is already done! And God is perfectly satisfied with us, as long as we abide by faith…IN HIM!
So as long as God’s Word remained as Head over Adam and Eve, they were like members of His Body. The Head lived and revealed Himself through them, with their full, wholehearted cooperation. Thus they were His image and likeness. Our Head (God’s living Word) is His Father’s True, Perfect Image and Likeness. And when God makes humans to be His Word’s image and likeness that means we are made to reflect and embody His living Word. The Word is to be our Head, revealing Himself in and through our thoughts, choices, actions, reactions and interactions. God’s true perfect image and likeness, the Word, can abide in humans, to be and do everything God requires humanity to do. The Word will do it in and through those who abide in and obey Him on God’s terms
This is the awesome wisdom and creativity that God exercises on our behalf through His Word and His eternal Covenant. So our Boot Camp training is meant to teach, train, drill and discipline us to maintain that identification with our Master, God’s living Word, no matter what happens, no matter what we may ever have to face, and regardless of what the Serpent, or his lackeys may say or do or try to get us to believe otherwise. We must remain faithful and stand on and hold our Covenant Ground…regardless of the cost. If we do, there’s nothing Satan can do to harm us or steal our Inheritance or stop Our Master. He went first through the ‘death gauntlet’ that Satan and the powers of Darkness inflicted on Him. Now He goes through their ‘gauntlet’ and its temptations, attacks, afflictions and testing repeatedly…in and with us. He does it…as us! Whatever God requires of us, our Master, His Word, is. He fulfills it through the Holy Spirit’s Power. He takes our yielded, crucified flesh through the gauntlet He has already conquered:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
“But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18)
Restored!
This unified interaction is what God’s Word was sent to restore to us all, as soon as Adam and Eve fell into the Serpent’s trap. This is also what He came to impart to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the nation of Israel after He delivered them from Egypt and attempted to remove the residue of Egypt from their hearts, minds and wills.
The Serpent’s lies deceived Eve and Adam into severing themselves from their Head, God’s living Word. In that sense he ‘decapitated’ the human race and ‘dismembered’ their Head. So God’s Word comes after them to ‘cover their spiritual nakedness’ and to reunite with them and restore them to their former, true ‘image and likeness of God’ humanity. To fulfill God’s Covenant, the Word brought forward the perfection of the perfect, Original Creation and perfect Original Blessing to restore them to the human race. And He continues to do it for each Serpent-deceived, captive generation. Thus He crushes the head of the Serpent through our willing obedience and trusting faith.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
God’s Word has come for each one of us – to regenerate us spiritually and reunite us to Himself, Spirit to spirit. That reunion of spirits gives us the down payment, the promised guarantee of the total Fulfillment that is yet to come. Even though the human bodies we inhabit are mortal and must still pass away, our Covenant with God guarantees our ultimate final, total restoration and full participation in our risen Master’s eternal, glorified resurrection Life. And just as He already has His perfect, glorified new human Body, so too will all those who are one with Him, receive their new glorified human bodies. It will all be done to perfection in the fullness of time; and even now, God guarantees this by the Gift of His own indwelling Holy Spirit who makes us one with God even while we continue to wait for the Last Days Fulfillment to come.
So, before we enter the fullness of our Final Fulfillment, every command God gives to us fallen human beings, can only be fulfilled if we become reconnected to our rightful Head, God’s living Word. All the requirements God places on our fallen flesh can only be obeyed and fulfilled by His Word. So as long as we remain united to God’s Word by His gift of faith, repentance and the salvation that comes through our spiritual regeneration, the Word can impart His Spirit and His Perfection into those of us who are members of His spiritual Body. The Holy Spirit makes our Master and His Perfection real and present and active within us. And so He does what, to us apart from Him, would be totally impossible. He obeys His Father’s commands, in and through and for His disciples. When He is free to do that, they are equipped to live and speak in this world and pray before the Father’s Throne…in His Name.
“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. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.” (Isaiah 55:11-13)
“(…at that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day. Therefore Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him.) (Deuteronomy 10:8-9)
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:9-12)
Yeshua, our Head
So the seemingly impossible promises and commands God’s Word gave to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 and 15 and 17:1-9, are fulfilled in Abraham and His Blood Covenant Family by God’s living Word. The Word will fulfill all of the promises and obey all of God’s commands from within our fallen flesh. The Life of the Word will be in each one, as soon as He becomes their Head, in spirit and in truth. And His Life is infinitely different in nature from the original living death we all inherit from Adam. So when the supernatural, Heavenly Fruit that only the Word of God can produce appears within the daily experiences, situations and interactions of the disciples, the living Word and Holy Spirit of God are obviously supernaturally present and active…doing what, to the poor flesh of the disciples, would be utterly impossible. So our bankrupt helplessness is not a handicap and liability; it is the necessary backdrop that displays the Reality of God’s Living Presence within us. And therefore, it is our glory and the guarantee that just as God was with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses…He is also with us!
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:16-25)
Notice what the Scripture says: ‘If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.’ Head-less people are the ones ‘under the Law.’ In other words, the Law condemns their radically independent, Sin-loving fallen flesh. The Law contains God’s standards of ‘image and likeness of God’ righteousness. And Head-less people are exposed and condemned by the Law because they cannot observe and fulfill it.
So it’s not the Law that is bad. The Law is holy and righteous. The hearts of Sinful, Head-less people are what is shown to be wicked and evil. They can never operate at the God-satisfying level expressed in the Law because they do not have it in themselves to ‘be as God.’ We have already seen that for radically independent people to try to keep the image and likeness of God Law by their own fallen wits, faculties and devices, is utterly, metaphysically impossible. Thus the Law that describes the nature and activity of God’s human image and likeness immediately exposes fallen independent flesh and reveals the real truth about humanity’s true spiritually dead state. And that is why the Law condemns them. In that sense, decapitated sinners remain ‘under the Law.’
“The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…” (Romans 5:20)
Reconnected to our Head
But disciples of God’s living Word are united to their Head. His Righteousness abides in and operates through them. Certainly the Law does not condemn Him! He is the Law Giver! The Law God’s Word pronounced over the fallen world is a description in human words of the Eternal Life and Righteousness that is in Him! The Torah is a revelation of God’s living Word! So when we’re one with Him, the Law doesn’t condemn us…it describes us! Disciples that now live in and from Him…and no longer rely on themselves, no longer live at the level of the original Adamic life into which they were conceived and born. They have forsaken that life and joined it to our Master’s Death on the Cross. Their original radically independent life is crucified daily. They defer to the Lord so that He can share His utterly Righteous Life with them and live it, through them!
So the Glory of the Word’s Resurrection Presence and Eternal Life can be continually transmitted by the Holy Spirit into what is left of the crucified disciples. And the nature of their Master’s Life is free to abide and work within them. This is the Fulfillment of the New Covenant. Yeshua is the Goal or Destination of the Torah and the Exodus to which we are all summoned. God’s living Word is our Perfect Fulfillment. The writings of Moses reveal all that He is, and what He accomplishes by His eternal perfect uncreated nature.
“…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?” (John 5:46-47 Emphasis added.)
The living Word’s holy righteous Life can now live and work from within His disciples. That makes them to be His image and likeness! God’s living Word is Himself, the Living Law (Living Torah). Scripture calls this ‘the Law of the Spirit’ (Romans 7:6; 8:2, 4). And so the Living Torah is written on, or abides in, the innermost spiritual part of His disciples. Thus they are not condemned…not ‘under the Law.’ The Law Giver Himself is now their Eternal Life that fulfills the Law in their name. All that He is and does abides within them by the Holy Spirit. So the Perfection of God’s Word covers us with His Eternal Life and Perfect Righteousness…perfectly! And the Law no longer condemns us as it once did when we were still sinners. Why is that? It is because…if we truly are believers…the supernatural Law-fulfilling, Obedience of our Master’s Holy, Pure, God-pleasing Righteousness, should be truly, evidently, at work within us.
The living Word fulfills all the requirements God places on the lives of disciples like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Their lives were a revelation of Yeshua even before His incarnation took place! So in a real sense, God’s Eternal, living Word is incarnated each time a human being submits to His summons and repents of his or her radical independence and exchanges lives with Him. This is what is revealed and required, throughout the writings of Moses. And our Master continues to be revealed through the lives and writings of the prophets and the apostles. Yeshua is the living Word…that fulfills the written words that Moses and the prophets and the apostles have written about Him. He is the one that is operating…as God and also as Man…throughout all of Scripture. And in His eternal Perfection, He makes sure that all of God’s requirements and commandments and perfect standards are met and obeyed and fulfilled in our name.
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
“For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” (Romans 11:32)
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)
When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:28 Emphases added.)
This is how much Yeshua our Head, has become identified with each human being He has ever created. And so this is how much each human being is required to identify with Him in return, regardless of what era or century they live in. Then He can truly be our Head, and we can truly be His Body. Then He can reveal Himself to us and we can know and respond and interact with Him, as one. What He is, can now abide in and work through, His disciples…forever.
So the Covenant and the Word that fulfills it were abiding in the fathers of our Faith, just as He also now abides in us. We are all sons of the Eternal Covenant of God, bonded to God and to each other. What belongs to the Word belongs to all of us who are one with Him. What He does…we also do; and what is His is ours as well. This is God’s True Israel! So there is no future in remaining decapitated. If you’re decapitated, you’re dead. And death is condemned and never accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Most of that first generation of Exodus Israelites and many of God’s people who are chronicled in what is called ‘The Old Covenant’ failed to learn this truth enough to be able to actually live it out before the eyes of the unbelieving world. The written Law had been etched onto tablets of stone, but they created resistance to having the living Word ‘written’ or enthroned and embraced on the tablets of their minds, wills and hearts. And unfortunately, even today, many people that claim to live under the Covenant of Moses, and even many that claim to live under the New Covenant of Yeshua, still fail to learn this truth. The one they claim as their Lord and Master is still waiting for them to repent of their radical independence and allow Him to pierce, penetrate and impregnate them with His Eternal Resurrection Life, so that He can be and live out, His Law’s Fulfillment, in their name.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39)
We Must Learn to Identify with Our Head
In this New Covenant era, the challenge for today’s disciples is to learn to identify themselves with their Head…to the same degree that He has already identified Himself with all of us! God considers His living Word to be our Head. Now it is up to us to learn to consider Him to be our Life! His Spirit fills His disciples with His Life. Thus they can serve as actual living members of His Body!
When we learn and absorb this truth as God intends for it to be lived out…everything will stop being about us, as if we had independent lives of our own. Instead everything will be about our Head. He will be our Life. He will be pre-eminent over all of us, in all things. And we will be His living expression…His embodiment. As soon as we identify with Him to that extent, we are actually one with Him and He actually is one with us. This marvelous Blood Covenant union creates an identification and oneness that unites the Representative and those He represents. He became our Sin; and made full atonement for it by dying our death. And that makes it possible for us to become His Righteousness. You don’t have to seek after what you already are…you just have to learn to…be what you really are…IN your Messiah!
God sent His Word after Adam and Eve to fulfill His promises and to empower us all to obey His standards and commandments. As long as we try to fulfill all this in our original radically independent, decapitated state through mere religious effort, we fall far short of God’s perfect standards and remain ‘under the Law.’ But as soon as Yeshua begins to act as our Head and we become His living members, the Law Giver Himself does everything in our name…through our believing, submitted, bankrupt, crucified flesh! What must be done can only be done by Him, in our name. Keep this in mind as you ponder Scripture texts such as: Isaiah 40:1-12; Matthew 6:9-10; Acts 3:1-10; 1 Corinthians 13; 2 Corinthians 4; Ephesians 1:3:14; 3:1-21; Colossians 3:1-4; and James 2-4.
It is our responsibility to believe and receive and identify with our Master as the Holy Spirit makes His Presence, Life, Love and Perfect Obedience to the Father real, alive, active and visible from within us. It’s not enough for us to merely say that our Master lives within us…we must be able to prove it by the way His Presence, Nature, Character, Disposition and loving Obedience to His Father can be seen operating in our flesh! Whatever God requires us to do is impossible for us to do. That’s why the Holy Spirit transmits the Obedience of our Master into us to make sure it is done properly in a way that glorifies God and meets His standards. But it’s not enough for it to be done theoretically and theologically and conceptually. It must be done in real life…in Spirit and in Truth:
“…Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ And looking at them Jesus said to them, ‘With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible!’ (Matthew 19:23-26 Emphasis added.)
God never changes; neither do the requirements contained in His Gospel summons:
“I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” (Genesis 17:2 Emphasis added.)
“From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the (King of the) Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17 Amplification added.)