Transcript Slide 1

Amon
Moab
Canaan
Edom
Midian
21 July, 2015
J W de SILVA 2012-13
Slides to accompany study notes “Egypt to Canaan” prepared for the Senior Bible Class
Dandenong Gospel Hall
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The Challenge: Warning & Learning
“Now all these things happened unto them
[Israel] for ensamples: and they are written for
our admonition [warning], upon whom the
ends of the world are come” (1 Cor 10:11).
“For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that
we through patience and comfort of the
scriptures might have hope” (Rom 15:4).
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A Brief Chronology
•c.1925 BC:
•c.1900-1750 BC:
•c.1800-1700 BC:
•c.1750-1640 BC:
Abraham leaves Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan.
Isaac in Canaan.
Jacob in Canaan.
Joseph in Egypt.
•The Hebrews under bondage in Egypt
•Moses and Aaron
•The Exodus from Egypt
•Entry into Canaan
• c. 1 020 BC:
The first Israelite monarchy under King Saul, who established the first
Kingdom-state in the region.
•c. 1000 BC:
Jerusalem becomes the political capital of Israel under David.
• c. 960 BC:
The first Temple (Solomon). Jerusalem becomes Israel’s “holy city.”
•975 BC:
Israel divides into two kingdoms – North and South.
•722 BC:
Assyria defeats the Northern Kingdom – the Dispersion.
•586 BC:
Babylonian exile of the Southern Kingdom (Nebuchadnezzar).
•536 BC:
Exile under the Medo-Persian Empire.
•322 BC:
Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and Canaan.
•63 BC. (1st C BC):
•313-636 AD:
•636-1099 AD:
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Early Roman Empire – Canaan (Judah) came under Roman rule.
Byzantine Empire (4th C-7th C AD) – Eastern Roman Empire.
Birth of Islam. Arab conquest and rule of Canaan (7th C-11th C AD).
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The Context – Israel Nationally (12 Tribes)
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The Compass
I will bring you
OUT REDEMPTION
(Ex 6:6)
EGYPT
21 July, 2015
I will bring
you IN –
POSSESSION
(Ex 6:8)
CANAAN
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The Characters
MOSES: God’s instrument to bring the people OUT
“Christ our Deliverer”
• the faithful star in Caleb
• the moral champion in Phineas
• the lesser and unstable light of Aaron
• the good starter but poor finisher in Miriam
• the rebellious malcontent in Korah
• the shadowy figure of Balak
• the unrighteous Balaam
• the formidable Amalek
• the terrifying sons of Anak
• the awesome Angel of Jehovah
• the sober separation of the Nazarite
JOSHUA: God’s instrument to bring the people IN
“Christ our High Priest”
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The Contrasts
• Red Sea ~ Jordan
• Egypt ~ Canaan
• Moses ~ Joshua
• Marah ~ Gilgal
• the manna ~ the old corn of the Land
• the believer in the wilderness ~ the believer in Canaan
• the Passover in Egypt ~ the Passover in Canaan
• the conflict in the wilderness ~ the conflict in Canaan
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The Conflict - Three Spheres
Passover
Night
EGYPT
R
E
D
WILDERNESS
S
E
A
PERTERBING
Conflict – The
perturbing of the
people.
Pharaoh’s
pursuing armies –
Had they really
been
Emancipated?
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PROVING
Conflict –The
proving the people.
The proving of their
faith in the promises
of God
J
O
R
D
A
N
CANAAN
POSSESSING
Conflict in
possessing
the Land by the
people
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God’s Desire for the Children of Israel
The Possession of Promised Blessings upon Redemption
I will bring you
OUT REDEMPTION
(Ex 6:6)
EGYPT
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I will bring you
IN –
POSSESSION
(Ex 6:8)
R J
E O
D R
D
S A
E N
A
CANAAN
A “seamless”
progression
from
Redemption
into Blessing.
All on “dry
ground.”
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God’s Dealings with the Children of Israel
The way of the Red Sea and the wilderness
The Divine Path - the way of the Red Sea
“And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not
through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said,
Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:
But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea:
and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt” (Ex 13:1718)
The Divine Purpose in the way of the Red Sea
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty
years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in
thine heart, whether thou wouldest Keep his commandments, or no.” (Deut 8:2)
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God’s Dealings with the Children of Israel
“The Way of the Red Sea” (Part 1)
I will bring you
OUT REDEMPTION
(Ex 6:6)
EGYPT
I will bring you
IN –
POSSESSION
(Ex 6:8)
R
E
D
S
E
A
WILDERNESS
J
O
R
D
A
N
CANAAN
Proving the People
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God’s Dealings with the Children of Israel
(Part 2)
I will
bring
you OUT
PILLAR CLOUD
Mt
Sinai
I will
bring you
IN
Tabernacle
Grace
Law
EGYPT
E
L
E
C
T
I
O
N
M
U
L
T
I
P
L
I
C
A
T
I
O
N
O
P
R
E
S
S
I
O
N
WILDERNESS
R
E
D
E
M
P
T
I
O
N
50 Days
2 Years
S
E
P
A
R
A
T
I
O
N
P
R
E
S
E
R
V
A
T
I
O
N
CANAAN
H
A
B
I
T
A
T
I
O
N
Moses
P
O
S
S
E
S
S
I
O
N
Joshua
38 Years (Kadash Barnea)
40 Years Wilderness Wandering
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The three matters involved in Redemption
EMANCIPATION – the matter between God & His people
ESTIMATION – the mater between God & Himself
ELIMINATION – the matter between God and the enemy
REDEMPTION
PASSOVER
(Shed blood)
Red
Sea
DIVINE ESTIMATION
“When I see the
blood”
PRICE of
REDEMPTION
Power of
REDEMPTION
Emancipation
of the people
Elimination of
the enemy
“I will bring you out & I will bring you in”
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Rameses to Succoth – the Problems of a
Mixed Multitude (Part 1)
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1. Assurance
a. An admixture often perturbs our faith causing us to doubt our emancipation (and
even question the elimination of the enemy – sin, as we note later). The mixed
multitude was among the first to mummer against the manna and yearn for the flesh
pots of Egypt, eroding faith (Num 11:4).
b. It is vital to faith therefore that the newly emancipated cultivate fellowship among like
minded believers, which will help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ.
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but
exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb 10:25).
2. Assembly testimony
a.
Satan will try to manufacture a mixed multitude i.e., an “admixture” within an assembly.
He will do it under the subtle plea of brotherly love, a pleasant union, we are all one in
Christ, we worship the one God. If he cannot keep the Lord’s people within the world, he
will seek to bring the world – its ways and wisdom within the Lord’s people. This will lead
to a dilution In local testimony and a desire for worldly things.
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Rameses to Succoth – the Problems of a
Mixed Multitude (Part 2)
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2. Assembly testimony (cont)
b. Here the doctrine of assembly reception becomes a vital and prayerful matter. Who is to
be received and, what is of equal importance, who is to be put away (1 Cor 5).
It is better to have a small godly number than to have a goodly worldly number.
c. There is a twofold test to assess the state of soul of an assembly and the individual
believer; the latter sets the spiritual tone of the former.
• To what extent do we find the world distasteful and separate from it?
• To what extent does the world find us distasteful and separate from us?
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you” (Jn 15:18-19). “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate
you” (1 Jn 3:13).
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Rameses to Succoth – the Problems of a
Mixed Multitude (Part 3)
1
3. Doctrine
a. The local assembly is “the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15).
b. In Revelation 1 the Lord is seen as the Judge who assesses the testimony of
the local churches.
c. The local assembly is not “the light”; it is a lampstand which bears the lamp of
the testimony to the glory of Christ.
d. Observe what the Lord says in His condemnation of the church at Pergamos.
“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who
taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to
commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent;
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Rev 2:14-17).
e. Let us be alert to the subtlety of Satan. Through veiled eyes we may see little
problem with a contrary doctrinal view as long as it is not taught. But not so the
probing eyes of the Holy One who “stands in the midst of the seven lampstands whose
eyes are “as a flame of fire” (Rev 1:13-15).
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2
Succoth to Etham – the Pillar Cloud
1. The cloud and pillar foreshadow the abiding presence and intercession of the Spirit of God
unto all those who have been redeemed in Christ.
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:
but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (Jn 14:16-17, 13).
2. This gracious provision is particularly vital to a perturbed newly emancipated people in
need of divine assurance as to their redemption and of their direction in the light of it.
“All my springs are in Thee" (Ps 87:7).
3. Note that the Spirit will not only be with us (His presence and work in the OT), but also
in us, the manner of His presence and work peculiar in this dispensation. It speaks of the
permanent indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in all who are in the Body of Christ.
4. This permanent indwelling was available only after Christ had ascended and was glorified – after
the baptism by (of) the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
5. The protective aspect of the cloud would be suggestive of the Spirit’s sealing of the believer.
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13). “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30).
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“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6).
The Red Sea Crossing
The elimination of the enemy seen in the resurrection of Christ
1. In the Red Sea we have our standing in the death and resurrection of Christ
“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”
(Eph 2:6).
2. To live in the uncertainty of our redemption is to doubt what it is we have been brought into.
Satan will try to undermine our faith by turning our eyes upon self. There we will never find
cause for assurance!
3. It is vital that we own and live in the guarantee that we have indeed been brought out – out
of sin and its judgment forever by the arm of the Lord God. And so the Spirit like the cloud
leads the perturbed newly redeemed in Christ typically to the Red Sea where they come to
know of the elimination of their enemy - the defeat of sin and death.
4. Paul declares the assurance - the elimination of the enemy seen in Christ’s resurrection. It
assures us that we have been brought out.
“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17).
5. Peter who speaks of redemption through the precious blood declares the value of the
resurrection, the assured hope that we have been brought in - into an incorruptible and
undefiled inheritance that will not fade away, reserved in heaven (1 Pet 1:4).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).
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THE WILDERNESS – SEPARATION, PRESERVATION & HABITATION
1. Through His hand of providence and provision He led them away from the way of the
Philistines and along the way of the Sea and into the wilderness.
“And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of
the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and
they return to Egypt: But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the
children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt” (Ex 13:17-18).
2. In this He will prove them (Ex 16:4; Ex 20:20; Deut 8:2) at the end of which a new and faithful
remnant generation, in whom faith has conquered the flesh, will enter the Land and partake
of its blessing.
The object of proving the people – three things needed to be proved
• Their appreciation of what they had been brought out of.
• Their dependence upon God. The flesh seeks independence and self-sufficiency.
• Their appreciation of the faithfulness of God.
“To know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no” (Deut 8:2).
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CHOOSING THE LAW OVER GRACE (Part 1)
“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the
earth is mine” (Ex 19:5 ).
“And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the
LORD” (Ex 19:8 ).
GRACE ALONE
Egypt
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LAW
Sinai
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CHOOSING THE LAW OVER GRACE (Part 2)
1. Wilderness trials, the battle between faith and the flesh can be contested on one of two
mutually exclusive grounds - grace or law.
2. As believers we enter into the wilderness by experience when the flesh within rises above our faith.
3. The abiding danger is that the flesh has an insatiable appetite to seek victory on the ground of the
law; which sadly only serves to feed the flesh and perpetuate the wilderness experience.
4. Israel chose to come under the Law and spurn the pure grace of God.
5. Observe what Paul has to say by way of rebuke to the Galatians who met conflict and sought
victory over it through the law.
“I [Paul] do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal
2:21).
“Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal
5:4).
6. The positive aspect is to know of our new position as married to another, and so practically we
should bring forth fruit unto God.
“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Rom 7:4).
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THE WILDERNESS THE JOURNEY – Stage 1: Marah to Sinai
3
1. Marah – Bitter waters made sweet: Christ’s supporting ministry as the ascended High Priest.
4
2. Elim – Divine provision and providence: Christ’s provision as the ascended Head of His Body.
5
3. The wilderness of Sin - the Manna: Christ’s ministry as the once descended Man from Heaven.
6
4. Rephidim - The Smitten Rock: The indwelling and filling of the redeemed by the Spirit sent by Christ.
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5. Rephidim – War with Amalek: Christ’s dual ministry as our ascended High Priest and Advocate.
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MARAH – The Place of Bitter Water (Part 1)
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Christ’s supporting ministry as the ascended High Priest.
1. We recall the time of joy and relief of the lifted burden and bondage when we were first saved.
It is not long however before we are tested. We discover that the world is a wilderness waste
and wild and come to the point where, especially as a young believer we encounter the bitter
waters of separation. Old friendships are divorced; past associations become distant and
worldly amusements distasteful. Walking in the world becomes a bitter experience.
2. How do we respond? The flesh often rises and causes us to murmur and pine that we have to
forsake much. In fact, the world will readily inform the flesh employing all its guile and glory
that we are a deprived people – we “can’t do this or that;” can’t go here or there.”
3. Such was the bitterness experience of the newly redeemed Hebrews, aggravated by the mixed
multitude within. But there was help at hand – divine help to subdue the flesh, overcome the
bitterness and restore the joy of redemption.
3. Moses cried unto the LORD, “and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the
waters, the waters were made sweet.”
4. This is His ministry in regard to our spiritual infirmities – not our sins!
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MARAH – The Place of Bitter Water (Part 2)
3
Christ’s supporting ministry as the ascended High Priest.
5. The bitter waters were made sweet – bringing before us the priestly ministry of Christ. There
is a Man, who knew what it was to walk in the world in perfection; who encountered the
bitterness of separation, rejection and humiliation. It is our Lord, our Great High Priest.
6. This is His ministry in regard to our spiritual infirmities – not our sins!
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin [sin apart]” (Heb 4:15).
7. And so, the redeemed are exhorted to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:15).
8. The Lord’s priestly ministry is exclusively to the redeemed and it is available at the moment of
redemption. The bitter waters of the wilderness are sweetened by His sympathetic high
priestly ministry. We don’t go before Him; He is there before God on our behalf.
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Elim – divine provision and providence (Part 1)
Christ’s provision as our ascended High Priest
Application to Israel
1. The 12 wells – or more precisely, well springs which come from a single fount, correspond
to the number of Tribes and speak of the all sufficiency of the immediate divine corporate
provision full measure pressed down and running over to a thirsty people. This provision
too was intended to prove the people in the light of God’s faithfulness.
2. In regard to the palm trees, the number 70 speaks of the all sufficiency of God in regard
to His unconditional covenant provision. The number seventy reverts to Jacob, the last
of the covenant fathers to whom the unconditional promises were made.
“And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls [Manasseh and Ephraim]: all the souls of
the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten [70]: (Gen 46:27).
3. Elim then becomes a reminder and a foretaste of the everlasting divine covenant to those
who were in the loins of Jacob, even the 70 souls.
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Elim – divine provision and providence (Part 2)
4
Christ’s provision as our ascended High Priest
Application to us
The gracious portions at Elim are a needed complement to the provision at Marah – mollifying the
privations of the wilderness. Elim it would seem is a further consolation and provision of confidence
to the soul that has experienced the sweetened waters of Marah, enabling them to continue a
separated walk. And so we have the instruments that facilitate that walk – the enabling of the Spirit
through God’s Word.
a. The wells typify the source of ministry through God’s inspired Word, and enabled by the indwelling
Spirit of Christ.
b. The palm trees typify the ministerial services to the Church, the Body of Christ.
The Word of God
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).
The gifts to the Church (The BODY) by the ascended Lord
“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men…..And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors
and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ…That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”
(Eph 4:8-14).
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Red Sea Revisited
Remembrance of Calvary
1. In Numbers we read that the people encamped at the Red Sea between Elim and the
Wilderness of Sin, which is not mentioned in the historical account in Exodus.
2. Having experienced the consolations and confidences at Elim, they return and survey the
scene of their redemption – their emancipation and the elimination of the enemy
3. This is not a daily feeding on Christ as the Manna come down, which we note below
4. This brings to mind our glorious emancipation in Christ; the elimination of the enemy through
His death and resurrection and God’s estimation of it all.
5. We revisit what we have been brought out of, which brings into relief what we have been
brought into – we “survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died.”
6. This seemingly unremarkable event has a particular spiritual significance. As wilderness
pilgrims we have available the consolations and confidences of Elim (the Word of God and the
ministry of His appointed servants). They revitalise us and cause us to revisit and reflect upon
Calvary, the cross and the empty tomb, three precious landmarks of our redemption in Christ
– His death, burial and resurrection; His victory over sin and death.
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5
The wilderness of Sin & the Manna (Part 1)
Christ’s provision as the descended Man from Heaven
1. At Marra the redeemed experienced the bitterness of the wilderness.
2. Here in the wilderness of Sin they experienced its barrenness. There was nothing to satisfy their
hunger and they murmured against God.
3. Yet we know that there was ample food available even though they numbered some 2 million
souls. We recall they left Egypt with abundant flocks and herds which would be able to supply
them with meat and milk (Ex 12:38). These flocks and herds are mentioned at Sinai (Ex 34:3).
Even when they were east of the Jordan near Jazar, we read that “the children of Reuben and
the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle” (Num 32:10).
4. So then, how do we explain their hunger? It was a yearning for a particular type of food – the
food of Egypt – the world.
The quail (flesh)
1. The flesh recalls and yearns for the food garnished with leeks, onions and garlic. How quickly it
disregards the pain of the lash in favour of the lust.
2. How does God respond?
3. First He gives them what they want – quail, the delicacy of the flesh – food in the evening. Later
we read that quail was given in such abundance that it became loathsome. God sometimes
allows the flesh to have its way in judgment. “I gave thee a king [Saul] in mine anger, and took
him away in my wrath” (Hos 13:11). God may allow us to partake of the food of the world – its
ways and its wisdom, to the extent that it becomes distasteful to us.
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5
The wilderness of Sin & the Manna (Part 2)
Christ’s provision as the descended Man from Heaven
The manna
1. In His anger God gave them what they desired; but in grace He also provided what they needed –
bread from heaven (Ps 78:25) – the food of the morning.
2. This they had to gather and feed upon for their daily strength.
3. It was given in measure – daily except for the Sabbath provision, which was gathered the day
before..
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The wilderness of Sin & the Manna (Part 3)
Christ’s provision as the descended Man from Heaven
The Corinthian failure
1. The manna speaks of Christ having come down - our daily pilgrim food in the wilderness.
2. The Lord constructs the lesson and sets the type of which He is the Antitype.
“Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down
from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down
from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn 6:49:51).
3. A fresh appreciation of Christ come down is the food for our souls when passing through the
wilderness experience; when the old man and the flesh are active.
4. This was failure of state among the Corinthian believers. Though redeemed, Paul could not
speak to them “as unto spiritual” (1 Cor 3:1); “Ye are yet carnal” (1 Cor 3:3). Accordingly they
could not eat of the old corn of the land which speaks of Christ risen and gone up.
5. Rather, they had to feed on wilderness food – the manna, Christ come down. And so Paul brings
before them Christ come down as our Passover “sacrificed for us,” and exhorts them to “keep
the feast”, the feast of life with “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7, 8).
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The wilderness of Sin & the Manna (Part 4)
Christ’s provision as the descended Man from Heaven
6. They had lost sight of what Christ was – the manna, and so could not come practically into the
truth of what Christ is – the old corn of the Land. Christ, as the heavenly manna come down was
the antidote to the natural wisdom of the Greeks at Corinth, and a foil to the Jews in their
pursuit of righteousness through the law.
7. We cannot know what Christ is until we know what He was. For this reason Paul determined to
know nothing among the Corinthians “save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
8. And so we have in this epistle the feast of unleavened bread and its connection to Christ as our
Passover and all that this means as to our practical walk (leaven is a type of evil).
9. In the case of the Corinthians it was “Peace I leave with you” – Christ come down, the provision
for the wilderness; in the case of the Ephesians it was “My peace I give unto you” – the
provision of inheritance associated with the risen and exalted Man who had made peace (Jn
14:27).
10. The manna (not the flesh of the quail) was stored within the Ark of the testimony as a
generational reminder of God’s grace and providential glory. “And Moses said, This is the thing
which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may
see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the
land of Egypt” (Ex 16:32).
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The wilderness of Sin & the Manna (Part 5)
Christ’s provision as the descended Man from Heaven
Our portion
There are three practical observations here.
1. It was a personal responsibility to gather. “This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded,
Gather of it every man” (Ex 16:16). We have here a gracious provision the appropriation of which
demands personal responsibility. Every man is to gather – morning by morning (Sabbath
excepted).
2. Yet gather he must if he is to overcome the deprivation of the wilderness and defeat the flesh.
How vital for us to make time to meditate daily on the Word of God – morning by morning,
feeding on Christ and what He has done.
3. It was according to his eating (Ex 16:16). He was to gather in a measure what he needed. It may
be the milk or the meat, but “He that gathered little had no lack.”
4. It was a daily gathering. It could not be stored lest it become stale and of no nutritional value.
Such is our daily dependency from God in His provisions of grace.
Yesterday’s grace will not suffice for today.
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Rephidim - The Smitten Rock at Horeb
The Spirit of Christ sent – His indwelling and filling the redeemed
1. At Marra the redeemed typically experience the bitterness of the wilderness and separation.
We have Christ in His sweetening priestly work.
2. In the wilderness of Sin we experience the barrenness of the wilderness with its deprivation.
We feed on Christ come down as the true manna from heaven.
3. At Rephidim we experience the bereft nature of the wilderness – its destitution; poverty. There
is nothing to take in and so nothing to flow out.
4. So we have the promise and provision of the Redeemer through the Spirit.
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this
spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given;
because that Jesus was not yet glorified).”
5. The barrenness of the wilderness is answered in John 6 in the Person of Christ as the true
manna come down from heaven. It brings before us the crucifixion of Christ.
6. The bereft nature of the wilderness is answered in John 7 in the Person of the Holy Spirit
come down and permanently indwelling the believer upon the promise of Christ.
7. It brings before us the result of Christ’s crucifixion and glorification. He was smitten in
judgment in order that the Spirit could indwell and enable the testimony of the redeemed in
their journey in the arid wilderness.
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7
Rephidim – War with Amalek (Part 1)
Christ as our High Priest and Advocate
Note the typical order here – the Spirit given and then a contest between the spirit and the flesh.
Amalek typifies the arm of the flesh that seeks to strike a response within us.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye cannot do [may not do] the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17).
It is the flesh within that is exposed and exploited by the Amaleks of the world to rise
and lust against the Spirit.
“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Ex 17:8).
Notably, it is the particular weakness of the flesh that is sought out and attacked, especially
when we are off our guard – i.e., during times of physical and spiritual trial. Pride is an ever
present danger where the flesh serves self righteousness and self defense.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Cor 10:3).
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Rephidim – War with Amalek (Part 2)
7
Christ as our High Priest and Advocate
There are three things that come together to defeat Amalek.
1. The judicial rod of Moses, the Mediator:
It speaks of divine righteousness. As long as it was raised, Israel prevailed – for
“righteousness exalteth a nation” (Pr 14:34).
The arm of the flesh is opposed to all righteousness – it is a truth that we must lay
hold of in the battle against the flesh.
Paul gives us the practical exhortation.
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin [the
flesh]: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13).
2. The victorious sword of Joshua:
This speaks of the Word of God.
“The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
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Rephidim – War with Amalek (Part 3)
Christ as our High Priest and Advocate
3. The upholding arms of Aaron and Hur:
The flesh is in us! It is a fact acknowledged by God in His grace by providing His Son as our
Great High Priest and Advocate in the war with Amalek, His work typified in Aaron and Hur
respectively.
As long as they upheld the rod-bearing arms of Moses, Israel, led by the sword of Joshua
prevailed against Amalek.
As our Great High Priest Christ’s ministry is to sustain the new man through spiritual trials.
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).
“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake” (Ps
23:3).
As our Advocate He serves to restore our fellowship with the Father, should the flesh within
rise up and cause us to sin and lose that fellowship.
“If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the righteous.”
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Rephidim – War with Amalek (Part 4)
Christ as our High Priest and Advocate
Our responsibility in the light of God’s provision
We have a threefold cord foreshadowed in God’s provision to Israel to bind and defeat
Amalek, the arm of the flesh, each cord answers respectively to the rod of Moses, the
sword of Joshua and the upholding arms of Hur and Aaron. We must:
EMBRACE the PRINCIPLE of righteousness (which the flesh would have us desert). “But
thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness” (1 Tim 6:11), cf 1 Peter 2:24.
ENLIST the POWER of the Word of God (which the flesh would have us discard). “Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). Hosea lamented, “My people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6). Satan wants to keep us ignorant of the Bible, because “the
entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Ps 119:130).
ENGAGE with the Lord in His PRIESTLY and PRESERVING ministries (which the flesh
would have us disengage). “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).
Neglect any one of these practical imperatives and we will succumb to the flesh and give
Amalek the victory. We will not slip into bondage typified under Pharaoh, but we will
descend into a withering state of soul and fail in testimony.
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Mt Sinai – The Law
We noted earlier that this second part of the journey has a very different
spiritual environment to the first wherein all was met by divine grace.
Now the people have placed themselves under the law which only serves to
illuminate the worst of the flesh.
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin,
but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead” (Rom 7:7-8).
It comes as no surprise then that the people’s spirit of rebellion and disbelief
under the law take on a deeper and darker magnitude, as we now observe.
The precepts of the Law are revealed in three aspects.
•The moral law in the form of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20).
•The civil law beginning with the law of the Hebrew servant, which
sweetly figures Christ and the Church - the Hebrew servant who could
not go out free (Ex 21).
•The ceremonial law revealed on the Mount pertaining to the
architecture, appointments and arrangements for God’s house, the
Tabernacle (Ex 25-31).
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The Golden Calf
A threefold iniquity
Here in the shadow of Mount Sinai we observe a degeneration into idolatry,
apostasy and then blasphemy.
• Idolatry is the setting up of other gods and graven images as objects of worship
– the molten calf.
• Apostasy is the act of renouncing God – “these be our gods.”
• Blasphemy is ascribing the works of God to others – “these be thy gods, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (cf Matt 12:24).
Yet that is not the end of the people’s wickedness. Aaron built an altar to these
gods. The people under bondage were deprived of an altar in Egypt (as in Babylon).
But as the liberated redeemed in the wilderness they erect an altar to other gods.
Furthermore, Aaron instituted an unholy feast calling it “a feast unto Jehovah”,
using the sacred covenant name of God.
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The Golden Calf
A threefold iniquity
The reason for the iniquity
Rejected the divine THEOCRACY – they lost sight of the POWER and HOLINESS of GOD
Brought in an ecclesiastical DEMOCRACY – the people were followed – the way of Cain
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The Defiled Camp (Part 1)
“Outside the Camp”
The “Camp” refers to all that was Judaism at that time – the system of altars, offerings
and priesthood that God ordained and instituted for His earthly people.
That system was now defiled by sensuality and sacrifices that suited the flesh.
What was Moses to do? He did not seek to reform it from within. Rather he sought
separation from it and set up a place outside it where God could be worshipped in
spirit and in truth.
This too must be our course of action – separation and not reformation when faced
with a defiled camp.
“Everyone which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation,
which was without the camp.”
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving
thanks to his name” (Heb 13:12-15).
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The Defiled Camp (Part 2)
“Outside the Camp”
Today the Camp typifies the religious systems within the professing Church.
They have become defiled with the ways and wisdom of the world –
catering to the flesh of the natural man. The church at large has lost sight of
the glory of God, preferring:
• evolution over creation
• priestcraft over priesthood
• sacraments over sacred remembrance
• democracy over theocracy
• sensuality over solemnity
• social services and charities over salvation through the cross
• patronage of Christianity over pilgrimage in Christ
• the goodness of man over the glory of God in Christ
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The Conditional Covenant Affirmed (Part 1)
The second giving of the Law on Sinai
The first giving of the law was not accompanied by mercy. It was unveiled in its pure and
potent form of condemnation – accompanied by thunder and lightning (Ex 20). There is never
mercy under the law – the law knows nothing of mercy.
In this second giving of the law God presents Himself as the Law Giver and declares His people
are still under the Law.
Yet, this second giving is accompanied by God’s mercy – the reinstatement of the Law, which
caused the face of Moses to shine.
His mercy towards the people did not remove the law and its associated condemnation!
In this second giving God’s prerogative in mercy was an outflow of His grace in His ways with
His earthly people, who had brought themselves under the law.
And so we find the law thereafter shut up within the Ark.
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The Conditional Covenant Affirmed (Part 2)
The second giving of the Law on Sinai
The error of man mixing law with grace.
We need to be aware doctrinally and practically that in the gospel of Christ law and grace
are mutually exclusive.
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17).
The law will never redeem; it will always condemn – it reveals sin but cannot defeat sin!
It demands righteousness from man which he can never fulfil because of the weakness of
the flesh.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3).
“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Rom 3:20).
“A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28).
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The Conditional Covenant Affirmed (Part 2)
11
The second giving of the Law on Sinai
The lesson from the Hebrew Epistle
Under grace we have that which is made perfect (complete).
•
•
•
•
No more sacrifice for sins
No more conscience of sins.
No more offering for sins.
No more remembrance of sins. (see Heb 8:12; 10:2; 10:17-18; 10:26).
Under grace we have that which is made better.
• A better surety and testament (Heb 7:22).
• A better covenant, which was established upon better promises (Heb 8:6).
• A better sacrifice (Heb 9:23)
• A better and an enduring substance (Heb 10:34).
• A better country, that is, an heavenly one (Heb 11:16).
• A better resurrection (Heb 11:35).
• A better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect (Heb
11:40).
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The Tabernacle (Part 1)
12
God dwelling – According to the divine pattern
God’s dwelling
is more than
His presence
“And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God” (Ex 29:45).
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The Tabernacle (Part 2)
God dwelling – According to the divine pattern
Redemption is a necessary condition for God to dwell among men; but it is not a sufficient
condition for it.
“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Ex 25:8 cf Rev 3:8, the church
at Philadelphia).
“According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the
instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Ex 25:9).
God’s dwelling among His people is distinct and conditional! God must have a sanctuary, a divinely
patterned one in order to dwell among His people.
When gathered according to the proper place and pattern and with Jehovah in the midst, Israel
enjoyed a peculiar and higher fellowship with Him – such that the glory of the Lord filled the place
(Ex 40:34).
We see this again in Leviticus. It was from within the “tent of the meeting,” the divinely patterned
centre of gathering that God revealed to Moses those singular provisions of approach and
acceptance (Lev 1:1).
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The Tabernacle (Part 2)
God dwelling – According to the divine pattern – The Local Assembly
Christ is present whenever Christians “meet” and there is blessing to be had in this (See John 20
– Christ in the midst post resurrection, but no local assembly).
His dwelling is founded on the general principle of a conditional promise given by the Lord
Himself (Matt 18:20).
“For where two or three are gathered together in [unto] my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Yet there is more, because His dwelling (wherein He is in the midst) can only be associated with
His house and temple.
The local church when gathered by the Spirit is a sanctuary – a temple of God (1 Cor 3:16 cf Ezk
9:6 , 1 Pet 4:17).
It is a temple because the Spirit of Christ is in residence; (He dwells) within it. He can only dwell
among those He gathers!
The Holy Spirit can never gather the redeemed in Christ unto any other name but Christ and
Christ alone.
When resident, the Spirit brings before the saints the peculiar and precious glories of Christ,
which they are to express in worship and present in sacred testimony to the world and heaven.
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14
Departure from Sinai towards the plains of Moab
(Part 1)
Numbers 10:11-12. “And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in
the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.
And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the
cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.”
When they departed from the Sea the children of Israel celebrated with a joyful song of
salvation throbbing in their hearts.
Now they depart Sinai under the yoke of solemn statutes.
Up to this point God had dealt with them in unbridled grace even though they repeatedly
cavilled and clamoured against Him.
They had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt, but now through self-righteousness they
acquired a burden under the law.
They would have to deal with God on the ground of it and be guided by it, evidenced by the
Ark of the Covenant and the law within leading the way (along with the cloud).
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Departure from Sinai towards the plains of Moab
(Part 2)
The failure under the law – unbelief!
The children of Israel camped in the wilderness of Paran.
Paran was the dwelling place of Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman Hagar (Gen 21).
They camped in the very place that belonged to the son of bondage and it was from here that
the spies were sent.
And what did they report? The Promised Land could not be possessed because of giants and all
manner of fearful opposition.
Such is the testimony of the redeemed who place themselves under the law.
Like the Galatians they are spiritually in the wilderness of Paran and live in bondage, never
experiencing the liberty and spiritual blessings in Christ through faith.
So Paul presents two covenants to the bewitched Galatians – Law and Promise (Gal 4:31 not
law and grace).
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17
The 12 Spies sent forth (Part 1)
God commanded 12
spies to be sent to
PROVE the PEOPLE
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The 12 Spies sent forth (Part 2)
The testimony of faith
“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess
it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30).
The testimony of unbelief
“And they [the spies] brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto
the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land
that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a
great stature” (v 32).
It was a judgment made of the flesh not of faith! The promise of God “I will bring you in unto
the land” was not sufficient.
The adverse report from the spies was to be expected, because they ventured out in the spirit
of unbelief!
As a result the people spent 38 years wandering before possessing the Land (i.e., 40 years).
The blessings of the Land would never be their portion. An opportunity forever lost!
Their carcases (all over the age of 20) would provide food for the carrion of the wilderness.
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The 12 Spies sent forth (Part 3)
“But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest,
but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:17-19).
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The 12 Spies sent forth (Part 4)
Practical application:
How often we fail to take God at His word and, in effect through doubt and unbelief we
“send out our spies” to test if His promises are in fact yea and amen!
And, when our “spies” report back we accept their estimate of land – the presence of
giants, and reject the provision of grace, the grapes. We do this readily because our spies
were sent in the spirit of unbelief.
The result is that we miss out on timely blessing and live below our privileges and
possessions in Christ.
Our guiding rule in regard to blessing should be that “according to your faith; be it unto
you” (Matt 9:29). May the Spirit of God enable us to adhere to it!
Others have aptly noted these luxuriant grapes were in fact the earnest token of the
people’s inheritance – which in fleshly unbelief they chose not to acknowledge.
We have the Spirit of God, “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:14).
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The rebellion of Korah (Part 1)
Rebellion and its associate – expediency with the truth.
The sons of Reuben (having lost their priestly rights) incited rebellion and enlisted the Levite
Korah to advocate priestly rights that were confined by God to Aaron and his family.
They reasoned according to natural wisdom - the flesh - that in the light of the wearing of the
ribband of blue, everyone is holy and so all can serve as priests.
A similar distortion and expedient use of divine truth and principle is seen today in the
advocacy for women “in ministry and rule,” based on the idea that all who “are of the Lord”
can partake of the privileges and responsibilities of assembly life without proper regard to
doctrine and discipline.
It is argued that because in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:280; all have the
same “rights.”
This passage in Galatians refers to the believer’s standing in Christ and not to their service for
Him within the local churches, which is clearly defined in Scripture. A woman is not to teach or
have authority over the man, but to be in silence (1 Tim 2:12; 1 Cor 14:34).
We have here another proclivity of the flesh – the assertion of “rights.” It is inevitably
accompanied by a lessening of responsibility to God and obedience to His Word. The
progressive decline which began with the way of Cain has been widely noted yet often
unacknowledged – the defection of faith to the flesh!
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The rebellion of Korah (Part 2)
The results of rebellion
An assembly may slip into the Corinthian condition of forsaking faith in God’s word
preferring the wisdom of flesh and blood. And so division and carnality arise. This leads to a
failing in testimony to the divine order – as it did in the case of Israel.
Failure in unity: The local assembly is part of the Body of Christ and, as such Satan will seek
to mar its unity – that unity made by the Spirit (Eph 4:3). Is Christ divided? (1 Cor 1).
Failure in purity: The assembly is also of the Bride of Christ. Here Satan will seek to mar its
fidelity and morality which was Paul’s concern at Corinth. “For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2).
Failure in sanctity: There is also a warning in connection with the local assembly as the
temple of God. Here Satan seeks to mar its sanctity through idolatry.
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy [i.e, ruin or corrupt] ; for the
temple of God is holy, which ye are” (1 Cor 3:17).
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Moses – Smiting the rock in error Part (1)
23
An unscriptural act
The word of God must govern what we do.
God’s instruction to Moses was clear.
Moses thought he would do something else in view of the circumstances.
God judged Moses for his disobedience.
1 Sam 15:22: “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and
to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Doctrine governs what we do – it is there for that purpose – even if we sometimes cannot
understand that purpose and it seems we have a “Better way.”
It is unscriptural to place practice ahead of doctrine.
It is DISOBEDIENCE founded on UNBELIEF – so says God to Moses!
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Moses – Smiting the rock in error Part (2)
An unscriptural act
How do we determine if an activity is unscriptural?
Two conditions must be met.
1. The activity or practice in NOT found in Scripture (God’s word)
2.
The activity or practice is CONTRARY to Scripture (God’s word).
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Moses – Smiting the rock in error Part (3)
An unscriptural act
“And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in
the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land
which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove
with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.”
Moses was commanded to take his rod of authority from before the Lord and speak to the
rock and water would flow from it. However, he thought it better to strike the rock in
righteous anger and for this he was not permitted to enter Canaan.
Practical application:
Moses was a faithful and devout man of God – he failed!
The actions of faithful men are NOT our guide – it is solely God’s Word.
Moses was required to take “the rod” (Aaron’s priestly rod before the Lord in the Tabernacle) and
speak to the rock in an act of divine provision.
Instead he used the rod in an act of defiant prosecution – the flesh again!
Doubtless Moses thought he had good cause to rebuke the murmuring people and act in
judgment upon them; but he forgot that he was charged with executing the command of the Lord
and no more.
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Moses – Smiting the rock in error Part (4)
An unscriptural act
Moses and Aaron erred publically in their responsibility as God’s appointed leaders, failing to
sanctify God [i.e., set Him apart in His provision and providence].
Their actions ascribed the flow of water to themselves and to their prosecution. We are not to
overstep the word of the Lord and neither are we to take credit for what He has done.
With greater privilege comes greater responsibility, and failure in it means greater judgment
in the withdrawal of privilege and blessing. This is a lesson we need to bear in mind as
individuals and as an assembly.
It is sometimes asked, “Why do we see so little blessing?” Is it because we have had the
privilege of being brought into the truth but have failed to keep it?
And yet, in Moses we have brought out the remarkable grace of God, for where sin abounded
grace did much more abound. This faithful servant was denied the Land; but we see him in
greater blessing on the Mount in company with revered Elijah and the transfigured Christ!
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24
The Brazen Serpent
The people “spake against God” – this is what murmuring is. It calls into question the
providence and provisions of a faithful God. It tempts God.
The Lord used this OT landmark to illustrate His redeeming work at Calvary.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted
up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved” (Jn 3:14-17).
• The vipers were not taken away – typifying the fact that sin and death still abide.
• Salvation was by faith – the sinner is to simply “look and live.”
Idolatry once again
“He [King Hezekiah] removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves,
and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it” (2 Kings 18:4).
The people burned incense to the brazen serpent. God’s provision of salvation had become an
object of idolatry. Many today within the professing church seek to make Christ and His cross
objects of idolatry. We see it in the icons, amulets, crucifixes and graven images.
Does Christianity have a “symbol?” If so what is it – a crucifix, dove, fish (2 Cor 6:16; 2 Cor 3:2)?
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25
Mingling with the Moabites - Part (1)
“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with
the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their
gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.” “They joined
themselves also unto Baalpeor [the god Baal at Peor], and ate the sacrifices of
the dead” (Ps 106:28).
God sent a plague amongst them. But the righteous action of Phinehas stayed
the judgment.
“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath
away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them,
that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.”
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Mingling with the Moabites - Part (2)
• The first observation is that God’s earthly people continue to be under attack by those who
seek their elimination.
a.This is to be expected given the millennial purposes of God in Christ through Israel as a
nation – its coming Messiah and the display of His glories on earth. It is this that lies at
the heart of Satan’s attack on Israel. But we know that God’s purposes will not be
denied, “For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor 15:25).
b.History is replete with Satan’s attack on the believer in Christ. He is a roaring lion
“seeking whom he may devour” (Rev 12:10; 1 Pet 5:8), even seeking their physical
death. We recall all those worthies of the faith who were martyred not only by the
heathen, but also by the wicked hands of many within the professing church.
• Second, we learn that God will not allow Satan to eliminate His people. It is His
prerogative to judge and discipline them as He sees fit – to show mercy and turn curse into
blessing as and where He wills. Despite their persistent rebellion, God’s view of Israel remains
sure, such that He will turn curses into blessing.
“He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel” (Num
23:21). And “there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against
Israel” (Num 23:23).
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Mingling with the Moabites - Part (3)
• Satan as noted is the accuser of the brethren and a roaring lion; but he cannot succeed. God
sees the Church perfect in Christ; in Canaan, not in the wilderness though we may be in it
practically.
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom 8:33-34).
• However, while he cannot consume the people he can corrupt their testimony.
It happened to Israel and it can happen to us. We noted the Lord’s condemnation of the
church at Pergamos.
“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev 2:14).
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Mingling with the Moabites - Part (4)
Corruption can be viewed in three aspects and a progressive failure observed.
• It begins with a prohibited fellowship. It was God’s desire for Israel that “the people
shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Num 23:9).
• In this they failed which led to an appetite for prohibited food. They ate of the world’s
table – an act of union and communion with it. The manna was loathed; the food of
Egypt coveted.
• It led inevitably to the peoples’ fornication – their corruption by association due to
the lack of separation from the world.
How vital are men who, like Phineas are exercised before God to strike against error and
danger without compromise especially in this Laodicean age.
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Mingling with the Moabites - Part (5)
Balaam - a threefold wilderness distinction
By way of warning Scripture is careful to distinguish between the way of Balaam; the
error of Balaam and the doctrine of Balaam. Church history abounds with instances of
each, evident in the apostate church with its salaried clerics and profane sacraments!
• The way of Balaam refers to his MOTIVE - the pursuit of self-interest and wicked
reward – the wages of unrighteousness.
• The error of Balaam refers to his MISTAKE - his willingness to be used by Satan to
corrupt the people of God. There are many today who despise the true people of God,
who are readily enlisted by Satan and set their hearts upon their destruction.
• The doctrine of Balaam refers to his MINISTRY - he taught Balak to cast a stumbling
block before the people of God. Many within the professing church are ready and willing
to advise us to enter into a prohibited fellowship which leads to the partaking of
prohibited food and fornication. We are invited to participate in “Christian” activities
which unwittingly and often unknowingly lure us into spiritual fornication.[
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Joshua – The Promised Land
• The Covenant
• The Crossing
• The Circumcision
• The Commemoration
• The Consumption
• The Conquest
• The “Celebration”
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Overview
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C
GILGAL
JORDAN
O
N
F
L
I
C
EPHESIANS
COLOSSIANS
T
&
CONSUMPTION
C
O
N
Q
U
E
S
T
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COMMEMORATION CIRCUMCISION
OLD CORN OF THE LAND “And it shall come to
pass, when ye be
come to the land
“If ye then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which the LORD will
which are above, where give you, according
as he hath
Christ sitteth on the right
promised, that ye
hand of God” (Col 3:1)
shall keep this
service” (Ex 12:25)
CONDITIONAL
COVENANT
CROSSSING
“Mortify therefore your
members which are upon
the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil
concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is
idolatry” (Col 3:5).
Christ’s Resurrection
Christ’s Death & Burial
Our resurrection
Our Death & Burial
with Him
with Him
Our Personal Baptism upon our confession of
faith in Christ
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The Covenant of a promised possession
The Land of Canaan
The divine promise to bring them in is about to be fulfilled – but not to the generation of
unbelievers whose carcasses littler the wilderness.
Practical application:
•The covenant of the Promised Land and its blessings had to be possessed by faith in
action – “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you, as I said unto Moses.”
•It was not “whatever the eye could see,” but wherever “the sole of the foot” was placed.
•It was a matter of “possession” rather than “vision” – and yet, spiritually the people had
to have a vision, one that rested on the infallible covenant promises of God. “Where there
is no vision, the people perish” (Pr 29:18).
•As believers in Christ we are blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ” (Eph 1:3). Our present blessings subsist in an “exalted” Christ at the right hand of
God; the earnest (seal) our inheritance being the Spirit of God, come down.
•An inheritance has to be appropriated by faith with the help of the Spirit of God.
•The successful Christian life is never a closeted or a passive one. Blessings are not
“optional extras.” They have been made available at an infinite cost and we are
responsible to appropriate them through the Spirit and in fellowship one with another,
service for the Lord, in prayer and communion with God.
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The Crossing – Part 1
The Ark going before
Practical and typical application:
•It is it not here the judicial rod of Moses that parted the Red Sea and “brought the people
out” in redemption.
•It is the Ark of the Covenant that parts the overflowing waters of the Jordan under the
oversight of Joshua, which “brings the redeemed people in” - to the place of blessing.
•It prefigures Christ gone up and the believer’s position in Him, raised and seated in Him in
heavenly places.
•Every believer in Christ has typically crossed the Jordan and has clear title to spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ – Ephesians 1 and 2 tells us this. This is a positional
truth – relating to our standing.
•There is however an associated practical truth relating to our state. Not every believer is
living in the conflict and blessing of their position in Christ. They are not feeding on the “old
corn of the land” as we note again later. They know little of the spiritual conflict associated
with possessing the blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
•Reading the Word of God gives us the “vision”; putting on the “whole armour of God gives
us the “possession.”
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The Crossing – Part 2
The 12 Stones – under and over the Jordan
Practical and typical application:
•The believer is seen here as having died in Christ, buried and raised in Him.
•We have these positional truths presented in Colossians 2 and 3 respectively.
•The first truth is prefigured by the 12 stones placed under the waters of Jordan; the latter by the
12 stones placed on the other side of it - in the place of promise and blessing.
•All this is an instructive foreshadowing of believers baptism in that through it we identify with the
death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
•Our individual baptism is a personal memorial to our faith in Christ and that we are “dead to sin” –
Egypt has no claim on us; but Christ has – He is LORD!
•Our personal baptism brings into view the LORDSHIP of Christ – by it we own His rule and reign in
and over our lives. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46)
•Lordship is divine OWNERSHIP and SUBJECTION; Headship is divine ORDER and ADMINISTRATION.
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The Crossing – Part 3
The 12 Stones – under and over the Jordan
•Our baptism is the point of reference employed by Paul in his practical exhortation in
Romans 6.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:1-4).
•Romans 6 has no practical value to an unbaptised believer in walk or ministry, simply
because he/she cannot identify with the personal decision of being obedient to
baptism.
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The Circumcision – Part 1
Sharp Knives at Gilgal
Practical and typical application:
•The first thing to observe is that circumcision is not a type or a foreshadowing of NT believers
baptism.
•The former is a rite associated with Israel, an earthly people with whom covenants were
made by God. It was also a sign of nationality. Our baptism is neither covenantal nor national.
•As NT believers we comprise the one new man in Christ wherein there is neither Jew nor
Gentile.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature” (Gal 6:15). “In whom [Christ] also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made
without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ”
(Col 2:11).
•We are a new creation in Christ and this position is vitally coupled with our profession
(baptism) and the practical exhortation to walk in the newness of life associated with it (Rom
6). This is what circumcision and Gilgal typify – putting off the old man practically in line with
as the new man positionally.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).
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The Circumcision – Part 2
Sharp Knives at Gilgal
•Observe the order:
baptism – circumcision – commemoration - conquest.
•The Jordan crossing was before Gilgal – giving us in figure the vital practical perquisite of NT
baptism before circumcision (i.e., the cutting away of the flesh and walking in the newness of
life). Again we have cause to assert that Romans 6 and like passages have no practical value
unless a believer is baptised.
•(Refusal to be obedient to baptism is of the flesh!)
•Circumcision was before conquest and possession. Spiritual battles cannot be fought in the
flesh and so the flesh must be cut off.
•This is why we never get circumcision in the wilderness – the place of the flesh. It was not a
position for conquest and possession. The flesh must be cut off; that is, we must be seized of
our profession and position in Christ as dead in Him, buried in Him and raised in Him before
we can have practical victory.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
right hand of God” (Col 3:1).
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The Circumcision – Part 3
Sharp Knives at Gilgal
•To enable spiritual conquest and partake of the blessings a sharp knife must
be applied in self judgment to the soul before God.
It is a painful spiritual process!
“Mortify (put to death) therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).
Then God will remove the reproach of the world and the flesh. It is I (God and
not Israel) have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.
So we have our moral responsibility associated with God’s effectual working
in our sanctification and personal holiness.
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The Commemoration – Part 1
Christ Our Passover
Joshua: 5:10: “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on
the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.”
•Before conflict and conquest begins there is another vital matter to be
acknowledged. It is found in the celebration of the Passover and the associated feast
of unleavened bread.
•The Passover – the slain lamb in Canaan, kept on the appointed day took the new
generation back to emancipation and its PRICE – the slain lamb in Egypt.
•Their presence in the Promised Land and its blessings was entirely due to the
righteousness of God – their deliverance on the ground of shed blood and God’s grace
– both of which are embodied in the Passover.
•Its celebration fulfilled its object. “And it shall come to pass, when your children
shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of
the LORD'S Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt,
when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses” (Ex 12:26-27).
• This Passover feast was conducted according to Exodus 13 – the omission of the
applied blood, the bitter herbs and pilgrim garb, because it celebrated victory and
deliverance.
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The Commemoration – Part 2
Christ Our Passover
Practical application:
•As believers we are seated in heavenly places in Christ and blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Him – typified by CANAAN, Ephesians 1.
•But note the ground – the PRICE: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Typified by the PASSOVER.
•As such we are called to corporately celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the appointed day
(the first day of the week).
•We remember Christ as our Passover sacrificed for us, now risen and glorified and show
forth His death until He comes.
•We do it as heavenly people, those who have been redeemed and emancipated from
the bondage of sin and its judgment on the ground of the death and shed blood of the
Pascal Lamb.
•We keep it on new ground – heavenly ground as a heavenly people, neither in Egypt nor
in the wilderness.
Specifically, we keep it typically as those who have:
•
•
Crossed the Jordan (our baptism)
Cut off the flesh (Gilgal)
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The Consumption – Part 1
The Old Corn of the land - Christ Risen & Glorified
We can be in the wilderness by experience and in Canaan through inheritance.
For us the manna never ceases while on earth. We are earthly pilgrims but we
also have a heavenly possession.
So we need the manna and the old corn of the land.
The practical value of this is brought out when we compare the spiritual
condition between the church at Corinth and Ephesus.
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The Consumption – Part 1
The Old Corn of the land - Christ Risen & Glorified
Practical application:
•Paul writes to the believers at Ephesus as those who are risen in Christ and seated in Him in
heaven (not with Him – yet).
•They had not lost sight of their standing (position in Christ), which he affirms in chapter 1 of
his epistle to them. He speaks of their acceptance and inheritance in the Beloved; of their
spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly places; of the grand truth of the Church as the Bride of
Christ; of the one new man in Christ.
•They, like the children of Israel under Joshua were redeemed. They had in type passed over
the Red Sea and were secured by the death and resurrection of Christ.
•We do not see them wandering in the wilderness, but as those who had crossed the Jordan
and, in type, identified with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
•Because they had not lost sight of this blessed position - their standing in Christ, they were
of a proper spiritual state; the reproach of Egypt was experimentally rolled away, and on the
morrow they ate of the old corn of the land – the food grown in Canaan.
•The old corn is the food for spiritual warfare and the practical counsel for conquest is to put
on the whole armour of God.
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The Consumption – Part 2
The Old Corn of the land - Christ Risen & Glorified
•Not so the carnal Corinthians as we observed earlier. They were redeemed but
spiritually they were in the wilderness; their conflict was with the flesh. They could not
eat of the old corn of the land which speaks of Christ risen and gone up. They had to
feed on wilderness food – the manna, Christ come down.
•We observe too that the old corn was not available until Christ ascended and glorified.
After the Lord’s resurrection Mary Magdalene (and His disciples) wanted to continue to
know Him after the flesh – as He was on earth, the Messiah. This is Jewish ground.
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more” (2 Cor 5:16).
•How then are we to know Him? As the unseen, absent yet exalted Man in heaven, the
Head of the Body. This is where we are to know Christ now. In so doing we eat of the
old corn of the land.
When the Lord spoke with Mary He did it on resurrection ground. He was still the
manna that had come down from heaven – but then foreshadowed as the manna hid
within the Ark – the Man in the sanctuary!
Mary typifies the Church which was not to have any dealings with Him until He was
exalted (“touch me not for Have not yet ascended”)
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The Conquest
“I will bring you in”
Joshua 1: 1-3: “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the
LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead;
now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give
to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon,
that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. “
God steps in and lays bare his power and faithfulness in order to fulfil His promise,
“I will bring you in.”
“See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.”
And yet, there was a work for them to do as a people. Israel has now reached the Promised
Land and it is theirs for the taking. Divine promises must be appropriated.
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The Conquest
“Possession and its obligation”
“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in
years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” (Josh 13:1)
There must be the right place and then only can we have possession – “In Christ” and “in
heavenly places” in Him – a glorified Man in heaven – Heb 2 cf Ps 1).
Possession is through battle and conquest – whole armour of God our battle – God’s strength.
Possession is continual – even in old age.
“And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they
committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit
their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the
LORD your God, which have separated you from other people” (Lev 20:23-24).
Possession for us is not of “their Land” of the earth for n earthly people, but of a heavenly land for
a heavenly people.
We must give God the glory for every spiritual victory.
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The Celebration
Flowing with milk & honey – “rest” but no wine (joy)?
Wine speaks of Joy
The covenant
Ex 3:17 : “And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” (No wine).
The contempt
Num 16:13: “ Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with
milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince
over us?” (No wine – no joy in Egypt even contemptuously ).
The consummation
Luke 22:18: “ For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall
come.” (see (Gen 49:11)
The Millennial Kingdom – here there is wine (Feast of Tabernacles) – no rejection of the grapes of Eschol!
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