14. The Family Becomes a Nation

Centuries after Joseph died, God’s living Word, our Master, was sent again to begin to teach God’s Blood Covenant pattern to Abraham’s very large Family. By that time, according to some scholars, they had grown to, approximately, two to three million in number! This is how Moses introduced and described them in Exodus:

“Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.’

“So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.” (Exodus 1:6-14 Emphasis added.)

God’s Covenant protection for His people, and His Plan of world salvation through them, were at work. And when God first began to deal with them as a national corporate body, this is what God’s living Word said:

“Moses went up to God, and the Lord (the living Word) called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘ You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, THEN you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.’” (Exodus 19:3-6)

Here we see God continuing to use the ‘Light from Darkness separation pattern’ He began to use in the very beginning:

“God saw that the light was good; and God separated the Light from the Darkness.” (Genesis 1:4)

Depending on how each person responds to God’s Word, their responses separate those who obey and follow Him, from those that disobey and reject Him. Abel’s response separated him from Cain, and Enoch’s and Noah’s responses separated them from the decapitated world around them. Then the responses of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and all the rest of the Word’s disciples from the past, separated them from those that insisted on remaining ‘Head-less’. By this the world can see the huge difference between those that remain ‘decapitated,’ from those that become one with God through His living Word and Holy Spirit. The decapitated world has nothing to teach God’s people about Eternal Life. The world has to learn about it from the living disciples of God’s Word, just as the Egyptians and surrounding peoples had to learn from Joseph, Moses and Joshua. God wants the world to realize who the real God is, and how much danger they are in and what they are missing by not joining the disciples who abide under the absolute Authority of His living and written Word and share in the Word’s eternal Life:

“…Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And IN you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 Emphasis added.)

Let’s take a closer look at the word IN and the way Scripture continually uses it. God reveals specifically what it will take for any fallen child of Adam to transform into the image and likeness of His Word. If we are ever truly going to stop being ‘Headless,’ we must completely forsake our original radically independent lifestyle and come out from among those that insist on following and embodying the Serpent and his ways. God’s Word must become our Lord in all things, and our only Source for all things. In other words, we must allow God to place us IN His Word in a Blood Covenant representational sense. The Word must become our new and eternal Life and our ‘Head’ or Lord, just as He was in the beginning, before the fall of Adam. Then the all-inclusive Original Blessing God gave to Adam and Eve, through His Word, can also be ours.

The Word contains the Fullness of all that God is, has, and gives, to His beloved humans. He comes to restore everything the Serpent destroyed in the Garden. He covers our Sin-corrupted nakedness with His Righteousness and transmits Father’s forgiveness and redemption to us and cleanses us of Sin. And by sharing His Life and Fruit-producing nature, with us, His obedience becomes ours…and we transform into His image and likeness.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and IN Him all things hold together. He is also Head of the Body, the Church; and He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the Fullness to dwell IN Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the Blood of His Cross; through Him, I say, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven.

“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all Creation under Heaven…” (Colossians 1:15-23 Emphasis added.)

Come Away With Me, My Beloved…

This is what God began to reveal to the entire nation of Israel as He took them out of Egypt – to establish them in the land He had promised Abraham that He would give to them. Every disciple of every generation must learn and follow this exodus pattern. So notice the significance and importance of that little word, ‘IF’… ‘If you…obey My Voice (Word) and keep (abide in) My Covenant (with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) THEN you shall be My own possession among all the peoples…’

God’s awesome world-changing purpose for establishing this Covenant relationship with Israel begins with a ‘marriage proposal’…an invitation to live and…‘dance and rejoice with God, as one.’ The Word of God has already done all of the necessary work to perfection and Father is eternally satisfied with Him and with what He has done to make all of this possible for us. It is Perfect! But the awesome living ENJOYMENT of the Fruit of His Word’s Finished Work separates those who enjoy it with God from those who choose to remain separate and bereft of the fruit of the Word’s Atonement and Reconciliation. God wants to demonstrate and display His Son’s Resurrection Reality and Truth in and through New Covenant disciples, so the fallen world can see what it lacks and where it is headed! God wants to live, dance, sing and rejoice with all of His beloved humans…not just some.

So God’s Word selects His disciples. Their commission is to receive and demonstrate His Love and Salvation as He leads them into the World Arena. He teaches them His ‘dance steps’ (commandments) until they know them so well that His Spirit is able to empower them to allow God’s Word to fulfill His Father’s commandments from within their flesh. This is what God did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Now He intends to do the same with Moses and his generation and beyond.

We know that, by nature, our God is Perfection. So He never changes. And His original Creation was perfect (in His words, ‘very good’ Genesis 1:31: 2:1-3). So we fallen, Sin-blasted, imperfect humans are the ones that are going to have to change! And God has done all the Work to make it possible. In eternity that perfect, finished work is waiting to be applied to us in time and space. It has been paid for in full and is freely offered to anyone that believes and obeys God’s Word. For the disciples, God’s Word becomes ‘The Good Shepherd’ that leads His ‘Flock’ (See Ezekiel 34; John10). As they follow Him, their obedience separates them from the Head-less world and He can lead them into the perfection of God’s Eternal Pasture – the Kingdom of Heaven. There, they abide…safe, content and fulfilled. They are able to recognize and distinguish His voice from any other alien voice. Thus they remain very close to Him, under His constant protection and provision…abiding in their God-assigned and protected, ‘Pastureland.’

Because God’s Work of Creation is complete and perfect, it includes perfect Redemption and Restoration. All of that is in God’s Word and so it pre-existed the creation of the time and space universe. This reveals how constant and unwavering our Perfect God is. He never changes! He abides in His perfect eternal ‘Shabbat Shalom’ (Perfect Eternal Sabbath Rest and Peace). His perfect nature and perfect finished work are utterly complete. In eternity, God is our Perfect covering and provision. He is everything we will ever need throughout our existence. God’s Perfection provides everything required for us to enjoy God’s reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness and restoration of His Sin-wounded Creation. All of that was waiting for us in eternity…from the beginning…in each moment of our earthly existence, our complete Salvation is in His Word:

“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. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.” (Genesis 2:1-4 Emphasis added.)

So God sent His Word to bring and apply the reality of this revelation to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And the response of those that believed and responded, set them apart from all the rest. They had only one God, the real one; and the others worshipped a variety of false, non-existent gods that were actually a facade behind which the Serpent was able to hide and by which he controlled them. So God reserved the ones that believed and obeyed His Word…for His own personal service. And in Exodus, the Word begins to do again, what he did with Abraham. He brings the Covenant proposal forward to Israel, through Moses. He continues to separate those that will believe and obey Him from those that reject and disobey His Word:

“…and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and IN YOU all the families of the Earth will be blessed!” (Genesis 12:1-3 Emphasis added.)

‘IN’ is a very Important Word

Notice the Lord did not say ‘by you’ or ‘through you’ or ‘like you’ to Abraham. He said IN you. In Scripture, when God talks about people being IN someone else, He’s using a technical Blood Covenant term. When you’re IN someone, it means that person represents you personally, in a blood covenant and you are joined to that person. Abraham was brought INTO God’s living Word. And his union with the Word brought Him and his spiritual descendants INTO God’s Eternal Covenant. Thus Abraham became one with God Himself! And God’s Word represents him, and the rest of us, before God. The Word of God (who is God) also took on our human nature so that He could stand in our place and in our name in that Covenant. So whatever happens to Him (our Covenant Representative) also happens to us. Whatever our Representative has coming to Him, we also have coming to us.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Daddy!) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:15-17)

The First Adam was the original earthly covenant representative for his descendants. So when he sinned and incurred the death penalty that comes when you violate your covenant, we were included in what happened to him:

“For I delight in (obedient) loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of (Covenant oneness with) God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they have transgressed the Covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me.” (Hosea 6:6-7 Emphasis added.

God’s Covenant with Adam included all of us. We were all, IN Adam. So we too are liable to the death penalty he incurred in our name. This is how blood covenants work. And this is why God must use the Exodus pattern to save Adam’s fallen children. He must lead them on an Exodus out of their ties to Adam’s Covenant …and into the Eternal Covenant He has with His living Word (Son). So it’s an Exodus from sharing in the Serpent’s living death and eternal doom…to sharing in the Word’s Eternal Life and infinite Inheritance in God’s Kingdom. So God sends His Word to be our ‘Last Adam’…to call us out of that original Covenant and into His Eternal Covenant with His Father who sent Him to us. And that is what Abraham and his family were brought into…through God’s living Word, whose human name is ‘Yeshua’ (Salvation).

When our Master Yeshua says, “Follow Me!” He plans to bring us into His eternal Heavenly Covenant. This goes much deeper and further than merely gaining a lot of theoretical ‘head knowledge’ and giving our mental assent (lip service) to some dogmatic and theological truths and becoming part of some man-made organized religious organization. Nothing created can save us. Only the living Word of God, the Creator Himself, can redeem, forgive, cleanse and restore us. This requires a real life-transforming, interactive relationship with God’s Word. This is real and profound; it is to come out of our state of living death and into His Resurrection! This Covenant relationship requires actual life-transforming obedience to and alignment with, God’s Word, our Master whom we are summoned by God to follow.

“IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, THEN you shall be My own possession among all the peoples…”

This Exodus brings us into a brand new lifestyle in which we really do begin to follow where God’s Word leads, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically! We must forsake our original state of ‘Head-less’ disobedience and leave our original place and priorities and ties in the fallen, radically independent world system. So the exodus and separation are not merely a matter of talk and a changing of mental labels. It is not a ‘virtual’ or ‘theological’, or ‘theoretical’ Exodus. It is a real, observable life-transformation, from Darkness to Light that involves observable radical changes in a person’s thoughts, words, choices, deeds and results!

We must repent of remaining separated from our true Head and trying to live as radically independent agents. Therefore we must forsake and distance ourselves from anything that remains separated from and at odds with, our God. We come into our rightful places…under our Lord’s ‘Headship’…wearing His uniform and doing everything at His command. As soon as we decide to obey Him, He says: “Follow Me…Forward, March!” Then He leads us out of the doomed Kingdom of Darkness and into a monumental transition…the transition that takes us from the first Adam’s fallen humanity…and into the Eternal Righteousness and Perfect Humanity of the Last Adam…Yeshua…the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.

“So also it is written, ‘The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.’ The last Adam (Yeshua) became a Life-giving Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45)

We die to our original, inherited connection with the Serpent’s state of ‘living death.’ We stop abiding IN the First Adam so we can be free to move and live only to God IN our Messiah, the Last Adam. Abraham’s immediate family, his natural descendants have the natural privilege of sharing the DNA of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But that genetic, ethnic connection is not enough to save anyone.

All children of Adam, regardless of race, color, nationality or previous religion, must be regenerated spiritually and reconstituted IN the Last Adam, the living Word of God, whom we know today to be Messiah Yeshua. The children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not made righteous and perfect in the sight of God because of who and what they are by nature, or because of what they do, religiously speaking, by their own striving. They are made righteous because they submit to and obey God’s living Word in their hearts and embrace Him as their New Covenant Representative and allow Him to change and make them one with Him as He represents them in this Blood Covenant sense.

Participation in the Eternal Covenant made Abraham a son of God…one with God. And the renewal of that Covenant made Yeshua, God’s living Word made flesh, ‘The Seed of Abraham.’ Our spiritual forefathers were made righteous because they completed the Exodus that placed them IN the living Word of God in spirit and in truth! And because they were IN Him…He also was IN them…and that is why He could later appear on Earth as ‘The Seed of Abraham’. (See Psalm 105:5-7; John 4:20-26; Acts 3:24-26)

And so the natural Jewish descendants of those fathers of the Faith will share in their God-given righteousness and salvation IF and when they too, like Abraham, obey God’s living Word and become one with Him in His eternal obedience to His Father…just as God has chosen to reveal Him to them. Then they too will be IN God’s Word, and therefore, IN Abraham…and IN GOD!

This is how God has made salvation possible even for pagan Gentiles that are ‘strangers’ and ‘outsiders’ to Israel and not genetically born into Abraham’s Family. They too can become part of Abraham’s spiritual legacy and be grafted into his Family by this Covenant relationship with God’s living Word. So Salvation is not an ethnic, genetic or cultural matter; it’s a Covenant relationship with God, through His living Word, matter. Whoever becomes one with God’s living Word…and is truly IN Him, becomes ‘grafted into’ the Covenant Family God started with and through Abraham. Becoming one with God’s Word automatically places people IN Abraham, through Yeshua, God’s living Word, who is one with Abraham. Those that become the Word’s true disciples, regardless of ethnicity or culture or former religion, become true, legitimate members of God’s Eternal Blood Covenant Family.

Abraham was included into God’s Family first. He became one with God because he submitted to and lived IN, the Word of God. God commissioned and set him apart to demonstrate that Covenant Life to his Family. And His Family was, therefore, also commissioned to demonstrate and teach this lifestyle to their descendants and to the rest of the world. This is how God’s living Word can include all those who repent of their decapitation and separation from Him. If they do what Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did and live with God’s Word and from God’s Word as the fathers of the Faith did, they too will be saved and blessed by being IN the living Word of God. The living Word was and is, the Blood Covenant Representative for each new person or persons that God includes in His Eternal Covenant. And being one with Him makes the rest of us…one with one another as well.

“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord (the living Word of God) appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘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.’

Abram fell on his face, and God (the living Word of God) talked with him, saying, ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations (Gentiles). No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations (Gentiles).” (Genesis 17:1-5 Emphasis added.)

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My (Messiah Yeshua’s) day, and he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56 Emphasis added.)

In Genesis 12, 15 and 17, we see that Abraham became the Blood Covenant friend of God because he believed and obeyed His Word. At that time, Jewishness and the Torah and Judaism did not exist. So the Word included him and his household in the Covenant relationship that exists between Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit, by God’s grace and through Abraham’s obedient faith to God’s Word. Just as God is bonded to and always one with His Word and Spirit – so has He included Abraham and his spiritual Covenant descendants, into this awesome union. To be one with God’s Word is to be one with His Father and Spirit…therefore, one with God. So through this union, Abraham and His Covenant Family became the instrument of demonstration, the Witness Nation commissioned to testify to the world that God’s Word who is Salvation, has come to reclaim the entire human race.

Restoration of the Original Blessing

The Original Blessing Adam lost for us in the beginning can be restored when the state of Sin and the curses that come with it are removed from us by the Last Adam. God brings the Blessing forward to each generation. And as soon as anyone repents of their disobedience and submits to God’s Word, the exchange takes place. God’s Word became one with Abraham. He became one with Abraham and his ‘seed.’ The Word entered into Abraham in the beginning and became one with him. Then, centuries later, He came out of Abraham’s lineage, emerging as ‘The True, Ultimate Seed of Abraham.’ And by becoming one with this Seed from God, who has made perfect Atonement for all men, we can become His Covenant friends and be restored IN Him. We can connect with and take possession of, what God originally gave to Adam and Eve. And because God’s Word has done all the necessary work, if people of the world believe and accept what He has done, and come under His absolute Dominion and Provision, they become one with God…and one with Abraham who is also one with God:

“For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.” (Romans 4:13 Emphasis added.)

The ‘Seed of the Woman’ revealed in Genesis, is the Messiah…Yeshua of Israel. He is the foremost, ultimate ‘Member’ of Abraham’s Covenant Family. He is the most famous, most world-impacting Jew in all of human history. The nations that were born from Noah through Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), can all be included and blessed through this same union with God’s living Word. This is the Salvation that the Word of God was sent to bring forward to Abram. This is why He transformed Abram into ‘Abraham, God’s Covenant Friend.’ Through this Covenant Family, the Word intends to bring everything forward to each succeeding generation, so it can be restored to all the fallen children of Adam.

God saved and set Abraham and ‘the sons of Abraham’ apart…so that through those who truly are IN His Word, all the families of the earth can be blessed and become one with God…IN and through His living Word. So even within Israel herself, there is this separation. There is the nation of Israel…but within that corporate whole, there are two groups: those that obey the Word of God, and those that continue to reject Him. The obedient ones are His Jewish and non-Jewish disciples. They are God’s True Israel. Scripture calls them ‘The Remnant’:

“Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.” (Isaiah 10:20-22)

“It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:17-18)

So we see the complete Gospel of Redemption and Salvation already revealed in Genesis and further explained in Exodus and amplified throughout the rest of the Bible. This original Gospel is the one our Master and His apostles lived and preached to their dying day.

“That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, ‘see this, it is new’? Already it has existed for ages which were before us.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

“But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you; surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.…’” (Isaiah 41:8-11)

What’s in a Name?

We know that God changed Jacob’s name to ‘Israel.’ But throughout Scripture, in dealing with Jacob’s descendants, God gives them the collective name of ‘Israel’ at times, yet at other times, He goes back to calling them ‘Jacob.’ Before the self-life of this son of Isaac was crucified and broken, his name was ‘Jacob’…which means ‘Usurper’ or ‘Conniver.’ But after the ‘Jacob’ in him died and the Word of God emerged supreme over the rest of his existence on Earth, God changed his name to ‘Israel,’ ‘God’s Fighter’ or ‘The one that contended with God and prevailed.’ Jacob prevailed when God was finally able to break and finish his radically independent self-life. Then the ‘wrestling’ ceased and oneness and harmony prevailed. As soon as Jacob became bankrupt in his own right and was able to depend on God and His Word’s Perfect, Finished Work, He won! By becoming one with God – all that God is, and all He has done, becomes the Inheritance and eternal possession of any former Jacob who through obedience to God’s living Word finally transforms into…Israel!

So notice how God continues the separation of the two human races, even among His chosen people! Each one’s response to His living Word separates them into the same two human races. So, when the descendants of Jacob cling to their original radically independent self-life, God calls them, ‘Jacob.’ But when they submit to His living Word, they transform into God’s obedient, priestly Abrahamic remnant. These He calls, ‘Israel.’

“‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness (My living Word) will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts.

“Remember the law (Torah) of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him (through My living Word) in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the (ancient Word-obeying) fathers to their (modern) children and the hearts of the (modern) children to their (ancient Word-obeying) fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4 Amplification and emphasis added. See also Deuteronomy 28, 29)

This unique, God-ordained Covenant Family line includes the family line of Abraham through Isaac (not Ishmael), through Jacob (Israel) but (not Esau), through Judah, but not the other patriarchs, through King David, but not Saul. This is the Messianic bloodline…leading to the Ultimate Covenant Representative of all representatives…the Seed of Abraham, and the Son of David…the Messiah King of Israel…The Son of Man…Yeshua. He was, is, and always will be, the Original, Eternal Blood Covenant Friend of the Father and the Lord of all Creation (See Matthew 1:1-17). He is the Father’s own eternal, living, creative Word through whom God began to reveal Himself from the very beginning of time and space…starting with…Genesis 1:1!

“In the beginning God (through His living Word) created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said (through His living Word), “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God (by His Word) separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Genesis 1:1-5 Amplification added.)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5)

God sent His living Word to Abraham (and through him, to his natural and spiritual descendants) so that He could ‘graft’ them all into Himself. That is how God includes people into His chosen Covenant family line. The Covenant exists in God…in His mind, will, purpose, Word and Spirit. It predates Creation and its time and space dimension. And it was put into everlasting effect for us… IN, by and through His eternal, living, creative WORD! The Word is the eternal Fulfillment of this Covenant…both on the part of God (working as ‘The Son of God’), and also on the part of Man (working as ‘The Son of Man’). God began to reveal this in Genesis. He included Abram and his Covenant descendants through the typical Mid Eastern blood covenant ceremony revealed in Genesis 12 and 15…and further explained in chapter 17.

Genesis reveals how God sent His living Word to bring this Covenant forward…to Abraham…Isaac…and Jacob. And after Jacob, God gives deeper, more explicit revelation of His Word and the Word’s Blood Covenant supremacy and significance through the life of Joseph. So through all of this, we are learning the meaning and significance of the word, ‘disciple.’ We’re learning about men and women through whom the Word continues to be revealed. And through their world-impacting obedience, He is forming and developing a world-wide human ‘Covenant Body’ for Himself. It is through this Covenant Body that His work on the Earth continues to travel toward the eventual Ultimate Fulfillment of His Father’s original redemptive, restorative, perfectly fulfilling Purpose.

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you (through His Word and Spirit), both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13 Amplification and emphasis added.)

In subsequent meditations we’ll see God continue to work out His purpose through His Covenant Family in an ever-expanding world outreach. He brings obedient individuals into the Covenant Family…and teaches and trains them to do their awesome priestly jobs. He sees to it that, for Abraham’s sake, his family survives. They thrive and grow in number. And from those that obey His Word, He forms His Covenant Nation, ‘Israel.’ So throughout the centuries, some respond to what God has done…and they obey (Israel)…and others reject God’s living and written Word (Jacob). But there is always an ‘Obedient Remnant’ within Israel. They are the disciples of the Word. They are one with God and together God and His people constitute the spiritual ‘Covenant Root’ into which God continues to engraft every decapitated, radically independent fallen child of Adam that will repent. Any Jew or Gentile that hears and heeds the summons of God’s Word and depends on Him alone for salvation, redemption and total restoration, will be accepted and included.

“But what does it say? (Deuteronomy 30) ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’—that is, the Word of Faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus (God’s living Word made flesh) as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ (Isaiah 28:16) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Joel 2:32)’” (Romans 10:8-13)

“Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘ You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice (Word) and keep My covenant (in which He will represent you) then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 19:3-6 Amplification and emphasis added.)

God’s Heart for All of His Beloved Humans

God selects His chosen ones not only for their sake. He intends to do something ‘through them’, for the sake of all the others. So disciples should never become ‘puffed up,’ arrogant and self-absorbed. The lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses are excellent ‘disciple-training’ examples and patterns for us. God commissioned them for His service…after their arrogant, self-centered radical independent wills were crucified and executed. Then…He commissioned them to serve as His ‘Israel’. And they became His personal chosen, priestly nation. So regardless of whether we consider individual disciples, or a nation of disciples, their purpose is always to live with God’s Word, follow, obey and serve Him…on God’s terms…so God can change the world around them.

Disciples are to learn to worship and depend upon God’s Word alone, amid the surrounding idolatries and false religions that keep cropping up within the pagan Gentile world. They are to be God’s ‘Israel,’ bringing His Word’s Light into the Darkness of the Serpent-dominated world. They are to serve as the Word’s ‘living womb,’ throughout each generation…from which the living Word of God can continually emerge and reveal Himself and fulfill His God-given commission.

God called Israel to serve as the disciple nation of His living Word, before the written Word came to be. She is to be the example to all the other nations. She is to ‘live out’ the Salvation Lesson…that God summons all men to repent of Sin and ‘Head-lessness’ (Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 6:4-9). All true disciples allow their True Head, God’s living Word, to connect them to Himself and they learn to share in and draw from His Life, as He dwells within them. That’s how people become part of God’s True Israel, His ‘Light to the Gentiles’. This process is reproduced and multiplied from person to person, through the personal example of His true disciples…‘The Remnant’ made up of Jews and Gentiles that obey and serve God’s Word so that the rest of mankind may also be saved.

Once God’s Word is enthroned in each disciple’s heart, He can reveal Himself from within them, in every situation, event and circumstance they experience. And this is what God’s beloved ‘Israel,’ the True Remnant of chosen disciples, is to be and do and signify to the ‘Jacob’ element within Israel, as well as to the ‘Jacob’ that makes up the rest of the fallen world:

“From the standpoint of the gospel they (Jacob) are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient (as Jacob) to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” (Romans 11:28-32)

In these meditations we can only skim very lightly over the surface of the enormous depths of revelation concerning our Messiah as contained in the books of Genesis and Exodus. Our hope is that the little we can help you to consider, will be enough to draw you further and deeper into your own ongoing, personal study of God’s precious Word. As you learn to abide with your indwelling Lord and Master for yourself…you can continue to ask Him, the living Word, to teach and explain the mysteries of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven to you…in Person! And He will continue to explain to you what God is doing so that you can carry on from there…with Him and from Him…and ponder and pray over all the other books of the Bible that you will consider…as you sit at your Master’s feet. He Himself will continue to teach and instruct you. And hopefully these meditations will help to guide you to Him so that He can be the one that feeds and waters and protects you and trains you in the ongoing lifestyle of one of His true disciples.

Now that you can see that everything in Scripture is a revelation, in one way or another, of our Master, you can continue to look for Him throughout each book…for the rest of your life.

“…But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ “for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Isaiah 31:33-34 Emphasis added.)

Thanks to our Master’s Perfect Finished Work, all that remains is for those who remain decapitated and disconnected from Him, to repent and come under His authority and learn His ways. He will take it from there because He is the only hope of the fallen, living dead human race. Without Him to be their true Eternal Life, they remain ‘the living dead’.

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I Am The Way, and The Truth, and The Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.’” (John 14:5-7 Emphasis added.)

Revelation of God’s Living Word

Remember that Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Noah and his family and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and their families knew nothing about the Bible that was to come. For them, the Scriptures did not exist. So they had no idea that God was going to inspire Moses, a future descendant of theirs, to include them all in the awesome written revelation of His living Word who, centuries after their deaths, would appear in human form as Messiah Yeshua. Nevertheless, in a real sense, their lives were like living Bibles placed on Earth by God’s Hand. They too were a revelation of God’s living Word, as He worked on them and also from within them, long before the written Word came to be!

They didn’t realize, in their own lifetimes, the enormous meaning and significance God was putting into each of their moments, events, daily routines and circumstances. They had no clue that God was redeeming their own negative experiences and perspectives and dismal feelings and seemingly hopeless situations, in ways that went far beyond anything they could have imagined or hoped for! So once you the truth of this in their lives, you will be able to see that His living Word is here doing the very same thing to you, in you, for you and through you! He wants you to embrace His living Word so that He can reveal Him through you, just as He did through those chosen ones in Genesis, Exodus and the rest of the Bible! You have the advantage of further revelation and hindsight. You know that the living Word of God that was interacting with them later became flesh and appeared among men as Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth…the Messiah of Israel and the whole world! They didn’t know Him in that way. But they did know Him and they embraced and obeyed Him. But now that you know Him…you too can embrace and follow Him into the fulfillment of your God-given task and commission and destiny in your generation!

There were, no doubt, many times when those fathers of the Faith grew weary and discouraged. From their limited viewpoints, they no doubt often regarded themselves as total losers and failures. As all the painful things we read about were happening to them, they felt powerless and terribly isolated, totally unimportant and hopelessly insignificant. They could have never imagined how important and prominent they actually were in God’s Plan or how monumentally important their example would be for all time, for the rest of the world. They could not have known that God would immortalize them through His written revelation. They couldn’t have known that when God called them to live as disciples of His living Word, He was giving them a mind-boggling Heavenly identity that had always been in His eternal Plan. Nevertheless, they are a major part of the eternal purpose and destiny God Almighty imparts to all who will serve as living revelations of His beloved Son. They will all be forever linked to God’s living Word and the awesome infinite Inheritance and glorious Destiny that is His for all eternity! And so can you be linked to the same awesome Eternal Reality!

It didn’t matter whether they could imagine or know this, or not. Everything was up to God. He had eternally given them this significance and purpose. It was present and active throughout every second of their little, apparently dreary, monotonous lives. God was revealing His Son through their flesh, even though they were totally unaware of His enormous, incomprehensible Fullness. At a much later time, God would one day reveal His Word through Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth and his New Covenant disciples and all the others throughout history that have led up to us! But there is much more revelation God is going to give of His beloved Son that is yet to come. Much of it is destined to be given through this generation…through you and me and all of us…if we too will embrace Him and learn to obey and follow wherever He may lead us.

Even our Master, in His sacrificial Humanity, went through the same agonizing moments that the fathers of the Faith had to endure. How many times did He feel weary and discouraged during His earthly life? How many times did it appear as if all His efforts to get through to His hostile, belligerent Chosen People were a total failure?

“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:45-46)

That’s how it seemed and felt to His agonizing flesh. But was it true? Was He forsaken? Was He a failure? Is He not the most important reality that God’s Creation has ever known? None of what God has in mind for us depended on Yeshua’s limited human perceptions, opinions, feelings and circumstances. It depended on Almighty God and His Eternal Word and Spirit…and what He has eternally decreed to include in His plans. Together, starting with Adam, and all the Word-obeying saints that came after the first Adam, we will all see the Fullness of this awesome Revelation of the Eternal Word. And instinctively, as one man, we will one day realize that that Eternal Word actually did become one of us. And He is not The Eternal Glorified Man…seated at the Father’s right hand. And we will fall before our risen Messiah’s feet…and gladly, lovingly worship Him and the Father who sent Him and the Spirit who made Him real to and within our spirits…despite the temporary limitations of our poor fallen human faculties. Then we, along with all of God’s Restored Creation, will all sing to God…with endless Psalms of eternal awe, praise, worship and thanksgiving. We will thank God forever…for including us in all of this…IN HIM!

Embracing God’s Revelation

As God’s Word made Himself known to the people of Genesis and Exodus (regardless of how He did it), their job was to take His initiatives to heart…to embrace and believe what He revealed…and obey what He commanded. The humans who rejected or ignored Him remained stuck in the coils of the Serpent. But those who believed and obeyed became His ‘Israel,’ His ‘saved’ disciples – just as we are all called to be. After God revealed His Word to them, the Word became their true Head and began to live and work in and through them. And they transformed into His image and likeness! And now the Word is here to do the same for, with and through – us!

As disciples of each generation are united to the Word by coming under His Authority, they become ‘echad’ (as one) with God’s Word. And through Him, they become ‘echad’ with the Father who sent Him…and ‘echad’ with God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes the Word real and alive to us and in us. And as men and women respond, He makes them all one with His Word and one, or ‘echad,’ with each other and those who went before and those who are yet to come! Through this entire, awesome, Blood Covenant corporate family union, God reveals His Son to the world – through each moment of His disciples’ lives, past, present and future! So the disciples of every generation are part of an enormous, ever-growing Covenant Family Revelation that brings the past and the future together and makes them one with the disciples that are serving God and obeying His Word in the present.

When disciples become one with the Word of God, He incorporates and weaves their lives into His entire Plan. He weaves together all the lives of all those who follow our Master. All those lives merge and become one everlasting awesome Body…and a cosmic, symphonic never-ending chorus of worship and praise IN Him. They become the eternal Human Embodiment of their eternal HEAD. That’s how Father includes us all in the revelation of His Life-giving Son.

“Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision,’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ (Messiah), excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now IN Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our Peace, who made both groups (Jews and non-Jews) into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in man-made ordinances, so that IN Himself He might make the two into One New Man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in One Body to God through the Cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:11-16 Emphasis added.)

You who are called to be disciples in this generation, learn this well! You have the advantage of hindsight. You know more of what God is doing than those awesome disciples whose lives are recorded in the Torah. When the nakedness of Adam and Eve was being covered by God’s living Word, and Abel was giving the proper offering to God by faith and obedience to His Word, and as Noah and his family waited, day after day, week after week, wondering if the flood waters would ever subside, the living Word (that the written Word is meant to reveal) was right there with them. They had no idea of all the wonders He was performing in them, for them and through them; but He was doing it nevertheless. But you know it. So now, we must take that revelation to heart and realize, even better than they did, that our God is eminently infinitely trustworthy, no matter what may be happening or what we may be thinking and feeling, or what may or may not be happening all around us!

Adam and Eve no doubt felt as if God was ‘sick to His stomach’ at the thought of them as they fell into the fatal Darkness of Sin and its Destruction. Noah and his family must have wondered how long the flood, not to mention their food and water, were going to last. How would they survive the inconceivable disaster that surrounded them? Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Joseph all must have wondered if their monotonous nomadic lives would ever amount to anything in God’s Kingdom. Their perspectives were, like ours, for the most part extremely dim and limited, and self-centered, and now-oriented. They had no real, accurate idea of the enormous significance their lives were actually having for all future human history. This was true, especially when they were enduring their darkest, most painful and shameful and discouraging moments.

The Greatness of Our God

Thanks to the hindsight provided by God’s further revelation, you can base your future upon realities that the early saints had no way of knowing. You can realize that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts and perspectives are not at all our thoughts and perspectives. None of God’s outcomes depend on us or on how well we see and figure things or how we feel or what circumstances we are experiencing at any given moment. The outcomes depend on the greatness of our God…and the eternal Perfection and Authority of His Word, and the eternal, infinite Wisdom and Power of His Holy Spirit. God has already done all of the necessary work! It’s His enormous cosmic Plan that matters, not our poor dim little temporal flickers of limited perception. And so our Master’s faithful, believing, obedient little disciples, whether they realize it or not, are nevertheless already included in His astounding, mind-blowing ISRAEL…and all of the Enormity and Glory that come with it!

You can see in Scripture what God’s Word was doing with the people who embraced and obeyed Him. You can see how He redeemed and raised them up and worked in them and through them in ways of which they had no way of being aware. (See Psalms 18, 73 & 91). You can see how He made their lives count despite their personal limitations and sinful lapses and personal inadequacies. You know, by God-given hindsight, what their lives were leading to and the Glory into which God was including them. Even though they couldn’t know that, you can know it! They lived by faith in God and in the Truth and Authority of His living Word that had led them into their situations (see Hebrews 11). Faith is all they had. But God did more through their faith and obedience than they could have ever dreamed or hoped for. And you can realize that He is with you at this very moment and every moment, to carry out more of the Story…from within you, through your enduring faith.

This is a great part of what He wants to teach you through Genesis and Exodus. Remember this revelation, especially in the darkest, scariest, most seemingly hopeless moments of your life. Just as He wanted the people before you to know and trust Him, He wants you to do the same…no matter what happens or how it looks and feels! The eternal Word of God is here with you and in you, to do the very same kinds of things with you… and through you…that He did with and through them. He is most certainly doing it…but we can only connect with it through our Spirit-given faith! It will never be done by our minds, wills, desires or control-measures. Most of the time, we won’t even be aware that He is doing with us, the same thing He was doing with them!

“For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,

‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’

“For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:6-15 Emphasis added.)

Beloved, you have a tremendous advantage…you have much more information to go by than the saints mentioned in Genesis and Exodus had. The Torah revealed them and their significance to us, but they themselves did not have the Torah to instruct, guide and reassure them. You have Genesis and Exodus and the rest of the Bible to help you learn the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven! You have the advantage of multiple millennia of ‘Covenant Family of God Experience and History.’ You know that you can ponder and interact with your Lord because you know that He lives within you! You know He abides with you to teach and explain the Wisdom and Lovingkindness of God that He embedded within the Scriptures for you…for your ongoing benefit, education, training and correction! So learn from the saints who went before you about how deeply and intimately and everlastingly God’s awesome living Word is working within every aspect of every speck of everything and everyone that God has ever created or ever will create!

Know with certainty…that God is Eternally Perfect and Changeless! The way He was for His Word’s disciples in the past, is exactly the way He is here for you in the present and future! You…your children…and their children…can know that you are all included in His awesome Plan and that His Word is here with you, making you part of the entire, awesome love story about God…and His beloved ‘image and likeness.’

The saints recorded in Genesis and Exodus did what the Scriptures try to teach all the rest of us to do…abide in and with and from…God’s living Word. God sent the one that we, with our hindsight, can now know as ‘Messiah Yeshua.’ He is the living Word that created, sustained and accompanied Adam and Eve through the entire course of their lives. He was with Cain and Abel and with Noah and his family. He was at the Tower of Babel. And Father sent Him to Abram, to reveal Himself to him. The living Word pierced and penetrated and impregnated Abram with His own Life and Love Nature. He shared His Character, Disposition, Salvation Purpose and Eternal Inheritance and Destiny with Abraham – His Covenant friend and devoted disciple. And God’s living Word, Yeshua, is with you in the same way…to live in you and through you, the same way He did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and all the other saints before you.

When He spoke to Abram, Abram was already very advanced in years. And just like you, he was simply living life…moment by moment, day by day and situation by situation. He could have never imagined all that would happen to him and his enormous Covenant family, by the Hand of God. At his age there was no humanly possible way he could even sire one child, much less a Heavenly Dynasty! But he and Sarai had the same living Word of God that had been with Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Noah as they lived out the monotonous, seemingly insignificant and failure-prone days of their lives. And like them, Abram had a decision to make. He had to choose how to respond amid all the questions that naturally arose in his heart: ‘Is this really God? Are You really so alive and real and close, that You would bother with the likes of me? Would the living God who created the universe actually notice me and care about what I’m going through and what I have to deal with? And would You actually take time to reveal Yourself and interact with me…or am I just a doddering, senile old man…hallucinating in the heat of the day?

Abram had to choose how he would respond. So did Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Eleazar. So did Isaac and Rebecca and Esau and Jacob. They had no Bibles to consult. They only had His living Presence to perceive and trust. So what do you think Jacob was thinking and feeling about himself and his future prospects as he was running for his life across the wilderness to get away from his enraged murderous brother or for all the years that his uncle kept cheating and robbing from him? And what did Joseph think as he sat in the dark pit into which his brothers had lowered and abandoned him. Imagine what went through his mind after his own flesh and blood sold him to the Ishmaelites! What did he feel and think about the grandiose dreams he had received now that he was bound and being dragged to the nearest Egyptian slave trading center? What must he have felt and imagined when his master Potiphar reacted to his wife’s false accusations and sent him to a brutal prison? A fine reward from God this was! After he had believed and obeyed the God of his fathers and resisted that overwhelmingly appealing temptation to fall into Sin, look at what it got him! And what did Moses think as he tended sheep and recalled the days of splendor he once enjoyed when he lived in the pharaoh’s palace?

Seeing with Eyes of Faith

All of these people struggled to believe and obey the ‘Follow Me!’ summons of God’s Word. But for years, it appeared as if they had all made a tragic mistake. No doubt the Serpent did everything possible to rub their noses in their circumstances and feelings and tried to convince them they were nothing but stupid naïve fools. But they didn’t listen to that. They clung to God’s Reality and Perfect Presence enough to remain faithful throughout their long ordeals. They were just like you. And God was doing with them, what He is doing with us! No doubt the same feelings and imaginations cross your mind as you trudge through the fears, hurts, doubts, failures and low points of your daily existence. From your perspective, you and your life and your cares, concerns and needs may seem just as unimportant and insignificant to God and the world around you as the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses seemed to them in their darkest moments. You too may feel like a failure, a loser, and an abandoned rejected orphan. It may seem to you that God has abandoned you…or worse still…that He doesn’t even exist! At such times, you too may even be tempted to despair and give up. But if you do, you’ll be making a tragically foolish, myopic mistake.

When you are tempted to despair and lose hope…remember the Truth and the Reality as God has revealed it. He is the God that brings the dead to Life! He is the God that sets captives free. He is the God that heals and forgives even His bitterest, most wicked enemies and gives them in return, awesome honor and purpose and destiny in His Eternal Kingdom. He is the God that seeks out what is lost, abandoned and naked and filled with shame and restores it all to Perfection. He is the God of the Resurrection that sent His living Word, His beloved Son…to look for you…and to remain with you at all times and to pour Himself out to the last drop of His life’s Blood…so that He could crush the Serpent’s head and destroy all of his works and make you His own. And now, the risen Lord abides within you …to share His Resurrection Glory with you and bond you to all that He is and has so that together we can all rejoice in Him, with His Father and Holy Spirit…for all Eternity.

As you continue to look for our Master as He is revealed in the Book of Exodus, I ask you to remember the meaning contained in the revelation of the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness! What was that Fire? Where did it come from? Do you remember who spoke to Moses from within it? It was the One who created that bush and was sustaining it moment by moment that spoke through it. God’s living Word revealed Himself to Moses from within that bush. Our God is a consuming Fire. But His Word does not consume us; He consumes and destroys the works of the Serpent. He destroys Sin and its lethal effects. He is a Fire that has come to make us one with Himself so that He can be our Eternal Life and to sustain and protect us throughout every moment of our days on Earth and beyond…into the eternal Fulfillment of God’s Creation.

The bush in which the fire abided was nothing special in itself. It was like everything else that God has created. God’s living creative Word is within every speck of every created thing in the universe! He is in all those things, just like He was in that one bush! That’s what makes everything so important and sacred…including you and your daily existence. We were all made to be ‘burning bushes!’ But Sin-corrupted people have great difficulty sensing and being aware of the Fire of God’s Presence. That’s why He sent His Word and Spirit to put it right in front of Moses’ face so that even when he and you and I are at the blindest, most obtuse periods of our lives, God can still get through to us all and help us to understand. He is here to snap us out of our delusionary trances and to beckon us to follow Him into His Eternal Reality and Truth.

The One who created you and me and the rest of us is always with us to sustain, protect and accompany us…step by step and moment by moment…to lift us up…to cleanse us…to wash us and put us back into Father’s arms. He is the One who claims you as His own and says to you: “Follow Me!” And if you follow, He will lead you into the eternal fulfillment of your REAL, God-given identity, and purpose and destiny.

Thanks to the Scriptures and our Israelite Family Track Record, you can know that He is with you for sure by the very fact that you exist! If you are still here…existing, operating and breathing…then your Creator and Sustainer, the living Word of God, is surely with you…permeating every molecule of your makeup, imparting every heartbeat, breath and brain wave to you to keep you going. Just as He was with and in, naked Adam and Eve…and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph…just as He was with and in that burning bush…so is He always with Jacob and Israel…and with you and me. If He were not with us, sustaining, supplying and protecting and being our Shepherd and Sustainer and Provider…we would all blink off and disappear and nothing at all would matter. We would be aware of nothing because there would be nothing of which to be aware!

But He is here…to make a willing, fully aware ‘burning bush’ out of you…for the benefit of many others that He loves and has come to save. But you must believe, trust and cling to Him always and be faithful to persevere. Remember that the living Word of God is always within you, no matter what may be happening to you, in you or around you. No matter how it looks, no matter how you feel…He is real and He never changes so He is with you always! And remember why He is here. Father sent Him to cover the spiritually naked state you didn’t even know you were in! He came to forgive, accept, restore and impart and protect and include you in the God-given identity, purpose and destiny that are His. He will always accompany and sustain you all the way through your life in this world…to take you all the way across God’s appointed ‘Finish Line’ and into His Father’s eternal arms.

He called you to be His disciple…a disciple for your generation. He made you part of this tremendous story that began in the Garden of Eden, by the Tree of Life…He is ready to weave every detail of your past and present and future moment-by-moment life – into the Eternal Perfection of all that He is and all that He has done. He is here to bring us all, full circle…back to the Tree of Eternal Life!

And now that you have begun to realize all of this…how will you respond to Him?