Exodus 17: 6
"Behold I will stand before you there on the Rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the Rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of all the elders.
I Corinthians 10:4 tells us that it was a spiritual Rock that followed them in the Desert, and that Rock was Christ.
Moses was told to strike the Rock, as Jesus was struck down once for all in Crucifixion (Hebrews 10:10-14 & I Peter 3:18), and so much water poured out of it that all those people (millions!) had enough to drink, and water all their animals, as much and more than they all needed.
But when they came back to the Desert of Sin and needed water again, God told Moses to speak to the Rock, because He had already struck it before. But in his anger at the people, he struck it again, twice, and the water still flowed. But Moses had damaged the picture of what Christ would do, and was forbidden to enter the Promised Land with the people (Numbers 20:1-13 & Deuteronomy 34:1-4.) God is serious about our understanding of Who He is and what He does for us.
Jesus is our Source of Life, the life-giving water that we all need. He is sufficient to meet all my needs, even when He uses improbable and impossible sources. Even when I cannot see at all how my needs can be met, He will always come through for me.
Thank You so much, my dear Father, for sending Your only Son to be my Savior, to be my Lamb of God to take my place in death and cleanse me of all my stains, past, present and future. Thank You so much for loving me even though I know I will never be worthy of You, yet You deem me worth it. You have put such great value on me! And I trust You to keep all Your promises in Your Word, as You will always be true to Yourself.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Hebrews 9: 22
...All things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
This verse is key to salvation. From the very beginning God taught that something or someone needed to die to cleanse from sin, killing the animals to provide Adam's and Eve's clothing.
Then when Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, Abel brought a firstling lamb (a blood sacrifice), while Cain offered some of his vegetables (the work of his hands). Abel knew he deserved death, but Cain thought he could work his own way to God, and God did not accept his offering.
Then God gave the Law to codify this concept of a blood sacrifice.
This was God's plan from before the beginning, to send the Second Person of the Godhead to be the Sacrifice to redeem this race of Man. He was the Lord God Who always dealt with Mankind, then He broke into our World by being born as a Man, so He could die for us as the Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice, that would not just cover, but actually wash away every stain of sin, making us pure enough to withstand the very presence of our very God, without burning up.
Our God is more than we can stand. His being is so intense, a human person would be destroyed in His full presence. "There shall no man see Me, and live" (Genesis 33:20).
When Moses was on the mountain, requesting to see Him, but only seeing His backside, he came back down that mountain with his face glowing. He didn't feel any different, he didn't even know he glowed, until they made him wear a veil.
When Jesus came the first time, it was to fulfill all the Law, and to be the Final, Perfect Sacrifice for sin. When He died on the Cross, He fulfilled all the sacrificial laws, beginning with the first one, in Leviticus 1.
This is the first sacrifice every person was required to offer, the personal sacrifice. The individual would bring his own animal to the priest, put his hand on its head (identifying with it), and it would then be slaughtered, offered on the altar, and its blood would be splashed on the sides of the altar. Jesus fulfilled this, His Precious Blood splashed on the sides of His altar, the Cross. He died individually for each one of us, for salvation. We all deserve death, and He took our place, one by one, to pay for our sins.
He also fulfilled the corporate sacrifice, for the Nation, when He bought the whole World; He is now our Owner by Creation and by purchase, our rightful Judge.
Jesus fulfilled over 400 Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah. He will fulfill the rest of them when He returns again, to set up His Kingdom on this Earth, and rule justly for 1000 years.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Hebrews 11: 24-26
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.
Moses had been raised in the palace of Pharaoh, being educated with the best and most cutting-edge knowledge, living in the luxury of royalty, being groomed to be the next Pharaoh, the king over the most advanced super-power of the day.
So what did he do instead? Take off to the back-side of the desert. That's where God found him, to commission him to lead His people out of the slavery they found themselves in, into the land flowing with milk and honey.
This was no easy path. Why did Moses decide to give up all that "good life" and endure "the reproach of Christ" instead? Because his eyes were on the prize. His mother had taught him who he was, as a small child, a toddler. And he remembered what she taught him so early in his life. He may have found "all the treasures of Egypt" to be empty, compared to the glory of the God of his people.
I would like to know how his mother taught him, that stayed with him and persuaded him of his worth to God and the value of following Him, even through all the hardship, disappointment and sorrow it would entail.
Do I consider "the reproach of Christ" to be worth more than the "treasures of Egypt (the World)"? Would I forego some easy road to embark on the path to righteousness? Would you?
Do I value the Blood of Christ, which was shed for me, to wash away the stain that God sees no more, even though no one else even saw it at all?
O that I would, like Moses, refuse to indulge myself in the pleasures of this life in order to suffer the trials of taking up my cross following Christ in His path to Calvary!
That I may set my eyes on the prize of what I cannot see, trusting Who I've not met in the flesh, to do what He has told His prophets to write, trusting what I read there, even when there is no physical evidence!
But there is historical evidence and archaeological evidence that what God says is true, what He says will happen actually did happen. There is more and more evidence all the time.
But the evidence isn't what convinced me--it was that God found me, showed me Jesus on His Cross, and I knew He took my place in death. I deserved it, He didn't. That's how much God loved me, even though I was living my life against what I knew to be His standards.
Even when I was His enemy, God loved me anyway. And He made me His own daughter that day. Since then, I've learned so much, gained so much knowledge and wisdom from studying His Word, and I love Him so much I sometimes think my heart will burst.
His love is deeper, higher, larger, warmer, truer, more longer-lasting and unconditional than I can ever think or imagine. He is God! My Lord God Almighty, Who is and was and is to come, unchangeable.
Dear reader, do you know this Love? Can you depend on this Lord to hold you in His hand? Have you ever curled up in His lap? Have you been cuddled in His arms?
He loves you as He loves me; as passionately as a newlywed groom is enamored with his new bride on their wedding night.
Come to Him, let Him take your death on His Cross, and be cleansed, saved from the power of sin in your life, and redeemed to be wedded to Him and rule with Him in His Kingdom when He returns to this Earth, soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Exodus 14: 31
And 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.
God had shown His great power not only against the Egyptians, but also for Israel, in parting the Sea, giving them dry ground to walk on with the water standing as a wall on both sides of them as they passed through. In one night the sea-bed dried out.
But when the Egyptian army came into that path, it got so soggy for them that their chariot wheels were mired in it. Then the Sea came back over them, as it had been before; the walls of water collapsed! What a dramatic picture!
I think it was even grander than Cecil B. DeMille showed it in his old movie. The best stories have always come from God's Word.
And the people gained a great reverential respect (fear) for the Lord and His power and authority, and all their doubts left as their faith grew. And they trusted Moses as God's spokesman.
God did everything He could for His people, and won them over. But how temporary their faith turned out to be.
God has always gone to extraordinary lengths on our behalf. His love for us has to be so far beyond anything we can imagine, to have taken such wonderful care to show Himself to His people over and over again throughout all of human history on this Earth.
From walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden, to all the miracles and prophesies in the past, culminating in sending His only Son to be with us where we are, in order to complete the work necessary to cleanse us and make us fit and suitable and able to be with Him where He is with the Father. And giving us His own Spirit of Truth to live in our spirits, making them alive, to keep us faithful to Him, so we have no excuse for backsliding.
Now all the glory, all the credit for everything that is done, and all the praise and honor and riches belong only to Him, our Lord God Almighty, Creator and Maker and owner of everything that exists. And having purchased for Himself all that is under the curse, to judge and remake it all finally perfect for all eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Exodus 12: 12
... Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--I am the LORD.
God is our Almighty God (El Shaddai), and the I AM (Yahweh, Jehovah), and the LORD God, Boss over all other gods, everything else that can be worshiped. Over all of the whole Universe, as its Creator.
He is the only One Who deserves our worship and adoration. And our love.
V. 49
The same Law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.
God is no respecter of persons when it comes to how we live our lives in relationship with Him. He did choose one Nation, Israel, which began as just one family, to give His Law to. But He wants every Nation, every family, every person to follow His ways. When we know and follow His ways, the ways He designed this World to work, then we can enjoy the benefits this World gives. So it is for our own good to obey His precepts.
The "mystery" that was only revealed in the New Testament times is that all peoples, Nations, and languages will be included in that "one flock under one Shepherd."
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Exodus 10: 12
And that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians, and how I performed My signs among them; that you may know that I am the Lord.
God mocked all the deities the Egyptians worshiped by showing Himself to be the Conqueror and Vanquisher of all their gods. God was showing that His power was enormously greater than any other god that was worshiped, He is Lord (Boss) over all. And we are to teach this to our children and grandchildren so they can in turn pass it on, too, how great our God is and how worthy He alone is to be worshiped and adored.
God wants us to know Him. To know Him is to respect His authority and power over all. And to know Him is to realize how much He loves us, then we will love Him back, and we will also love who He loves. This is the basis for all the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament) as well as the teachings of the New Testament.
At this point in the time we are reading about, God had not yet given the Law to Moses. But this Law will only codify the principles God has been teaching mankind since Adam and Eve--that He loves us, but our sins deserve death, and only a blood sacrifice can atone for our sin; someone must die.
The blood of animals could only cover sins, but even that enabled God to forgive. Animals had to die to give Adam and Eve their coverings (their fig leaves, their own works, wouldn't do, and they knew this, so they hid). So mankind has known from the beginning that we deserve to die.
Soon God will give Moses the Law, and lay out the whole process of what is necessary to make mankind clean and pure to be able to withstand being in God's presence.
Then Jesus would come, and accomplish all the parameters of the Law, fulfilling all the requirements for us.
We must love our children and grandchildren enough to teach them these things, so that they, in turn, will also teach their children and grandchildren, and so on. And maybe some of them will even go out to teach others in the World, too.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Exodus 8 & 9
V. 8:15 The Second Plague. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his [own] heart...
8:19 The Third Plague. Pharaoh's heart was hardened...
8:32 The Fourth Plague. Pharaoh hardened his heart...
9:7 The Fifth Plague. The heart of Pharaoh was hardened...
9:12 The Sixth Plague. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart...
9:34-35 When Pharaoh saw relief, he sinned again and hardened his [own] heart [repeatedly] ... And Pharaoh's heart was hardened ... just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.
So we see Pharaoh's clear path to addiction right here. He is deciding to harden his own heart to the plight of the Hebrews, over and over again, until he's in the habit of hanging on to them; he's not able to release them, he's too dependent on them.
Since they don't seem to be getting any work done during these Plagues, this dependence Pharaoh has on them is now only in his mind; but nonetheless real. This is addiction, as anyone who has ever been addicted can testify.
Addiction is a self-imposed prison from which one cannot release himself. It takes an outside force to break out of those chains.
This Pharaoh never did decide to recognize the Israelites' God, so he was destroyed in the end. All the power he had among the Nations evaporated at that time, and Egypt has never again been a super-power in the World.
God wants to be the "outside power" that can release every addict, break every chain. That's why He sent His Son into the World, to be the Lamb of God, the blood sacrifice that will wash away all our sins.
When God came to me that day, and showed me Jesus on the Cross, I knew that He took my place there, that I deserved death, and He died for me. That's when His precious Blood washed away all my sins, all my foolish choices that left me in "chains." He was that "outside force" that overcame my addiction, and set me free.
And He wants to set you free, too, dear reader. His Blood is God's own Blood, with enough power to cleanse every sin, every stain, every fault, from every person who decides to seek Truth, the Way to God.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
