Angelic Conflict part 128: Human history – Exo 2; 3; Psa 40:1-5; 84:5-7; 1Ti 4:1-5; 2:3-4.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 128: Human history - Exo 2; 3; PSA 40:1-5; 84:5-7; 1TI 4:1-5; 2:3-4.

 

 

Conflict amongst a group of people: Moses and the Exodus. Moses will be used by God to make a people (Hebrew) into a nation (Israel).

 

Thutmose III was a minor when he came to power in 1504 and thus was younger than Moses. If, indeed, Moses had been reared as the foster son of Hatshepsut, there is every likelihood that he posed a real threat to the younger Thutmose since Hatshepsut had no natural sons. That is, Moses may have been a candidate for pharaoh, only his Sem­itic origins standing in the way. Yet since Moses is an absolute genius in almost everything, it is without a doubt that he could have become the Pharaoh if he chose to.

 

HEB 11:24-27 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. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.

 

There appears in any case to have been genuine animosity between Moses and the pharaoh. This is evi­dent in the fact that Moses, having slain an Egyptian, was forced to flee Egypt for his life.

 

EXO 2:11 Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

 

EXO 2:12 So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

 

EXO 2:13 And he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, "Why are you striking your companion?"

 

EXO 2:14 But he said, "Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely the matter has become known."

 

EXO 2:15 When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

 

That the pharaoh himself took note of what would otherwise have been a relatively minor issue suggests that this particular pharaoh had more than casual interest in ridding himself of Moses. Moses’ self-imposed exile took place in 1486, when he was forty years old (Acts 7:23). Thutmose III had been in power for eighteen years; and the aged Hatshepsut, who died three years later, was no doubt no longer able to interdict the will of her son-in-law/nephew.

 

Moses will spend 40 years in exile - wilderness experience.

 

Wilderness experience: a period of dryness where God “seems” to be silent and we “seem” to be in a period of spiritual drought.  

 

Moses went through it here, David experienced it during the Absolom revolution, and in fact every positive believer experiences it more than once in his spiritual life. It is not caused by sin, this is not divine discipline, for in divine discipline the Lord is not silent. Our Lord experienced it for 40 days in the wilderness, near enough to the place that Moses experienced it, and therefore it is not a result of sin.

 

In the wilderness experience God is forcing you to know yourself, how inadequate you are to do anything alone, that emotion is not spirituality, and how much you need God’s powerful hand in all things.

 

PSA 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry.

 

PSA 40:2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

 

PSA 40:3 And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, And will trust in the Lord.

 

PSA 40:4 How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

 

PSA 40:5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which Thou hast done, And Thy thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with Thee; If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.

 

The wilderness experience teaches perseverance. You are forced to survive by walking or perish by quitting.

 

The wilderness experience is over when God says it’s over. If you’ve persevered and found contentment in a wilderness experience it may go on.

 

PSA 84:5 How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; In whose heart are the highways to Zion!

 

PSA 84:6 Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring, The early rain also covers it with blessings.

 

“Baca” - balsam tree. Sap oozes like tears. Therefore, a dry valley that is difficult and painful, where everything “seems” hopeless.

 

Because of their trust they make a dry, painful place into a quenching abundant spring full of blessing. This amazing transformation comes from a little word - trust.

 

PSA 84:7 They go from strength [God’s] to strength [theirs], Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

 

Zion, Jerusalem, likely during a feast, means that they are to pass through the valley and come to the place of celebration. They do not remain in the valley forever, but in the timing of God pass through.

 

When the wilderness is over, Moses is ready, though he doesn’t think so.

 

We’re ready to be used by God when He says so, not when we say so, and we don’t actually have to agree with Him.

 

EXO 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

 

EXO 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

 

The bush represents Israel, not lofty as a tree, but lowly as slaves. The fire represents their oppression in the furnace of Egypt. The bush is not consumed and neither will Israel be.

 

It is not my intention to complete the entire history of Moses. Most know that Moses told God that He should send someone else because he was not a good speaker. God reaffirmed him with 3 miracles: (staff to serpent; leprous to healthy; water of Nile to blood) and then when Moses still resisted, God became angry, but then in grace joined Aaron his brother to him who spoke well.

 

Three signs given to Hebrews:

1. Staff turns to serpent, grabbed by tail, returns to staff: Satan attempted the throne, defeated by Christ, Christ takes scepter.
2. Arm turned leprous restored to healthy flesh: The corruption of the flesh by the fall will be restored by Christ.

3. Water of the Nile (corrupt ways of the world) turned to blood (Christ’s cross will cover sin and bring knowledge of God).

 

God assured Moses that he would take the people out but that Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened. When Moses went to Egypt the people were convinced by the miracles and so they believed that Moses had seen God in the bush and received these instructions. But when Pharaoh refused to let them go into the wilderness to worship, he also bitterly replied that if they had enough time to go worship then they would have enough time to obtain the straw needed for the bricks and still make the same quota of bricks. By this Moses fell out of popularity with the people.

 

People love the excitement of looming prosperity and with that in mind will follow Moses, but when affliction increases, they distrust, miracles or no miracles. This pattern will be repeated in the wilderness, so that most of the adult generation will die there and never see the land promised by God. This reveals that God doesn’t need any of us. As God replaced one generation with another who followed Him so He can replace any of us if we reject His word and the plan and promises of God will go on. But, before that opposition, we have the opposition of the pagan, religious Pharaoh.

 

One area of opposition to the people of God is from people who are enveloped in false religions.

 

The Egyptians are polytheistic pagans who worship many hundreds of gods, each of which is said to be responsible for a particular aspect of the earth, animals, and men.

 

These false deities are demons who work under the guidance of satan in order to gain the trust of mankind.

 

This is not just an ancient world phenomenon. There is nothing new under the sun. The names have changed and this paganism has been refined to suit a more technological and modern world, but the scripture says that this is a NT phenomenon as well.

 

1TI 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

 

1TI 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

 

“conscience” - knowledge of self. Seared conscience refers to no sensitivity to the knowledge of self in the light of Christ.

 

This means instead of humility there is arrogance and hardness of heart, as Pharaoh Amenhotep II is the poster child for in the Scripture. This means no sensitivity to others, no fairness, no justice, no grace, no mercy, no love, but self-serving people who have lost any sensitivity to the things of God, even divine establishment. Unfortunately, in my estimation, these later times are upon our nation.

 

1TI 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods (asceticism), which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

 

The asceticism of the past has become the progressivism of the present: political correctness, no absolute truth, no right or wrong, carbon footprint, suffocating environmentalism, etc.

 

By these we are told that we must abstain from the first amendment, freedom of speech, expression, right to assemble, freedom of the press and religion. This satanically motivated doctrines of demons is designed to make people abstain from the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness under divinely established freedom. Abstain from owning a gun or the right to protect yourself, abstain from the right to use your finances the way that you wish, from educating your children the way that you wish, etc. Abstain from worshipping the God of the Bible and stating all other doctrines to be false under the stupidity that this is a hate crime. Abstain from stating that this is God’s client nation and therefore the greatest nation in the world under the stupidity of multiculturalism. Abstain from supporting and protecting Israel under the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant under the stupidity that Palestinians are actually a covenant people who have rights to certain lands, which history shows to be completely false. Abstain from stating that Islam is a religion that has borrowed and twisted passages of the Bible under the stupidity of militant, Islamic, terrorism. Abstain from openly stating that marriage is between a man and a woman and that stable families can only arise from mature men and women in marriage.

 

This is simply the new face of the monastic asceticism that dominated the early church.

 

Politicians promise hope and change and sheepish people are fooled into thinking that the change promised will change their lack of happiness.

 

Because a fast growing segment of the population cannot define their needs in terms of values, like you can, they are looking for a man to solve their problems. They are looking for government to do something for them. They are looking at people to wave a magic wand, as it were, and to give them what they want to make them happy. Satan promises all this as do his ministers, but none but God can fill the eternal chasm in man’s heart.

 

JER 17:5 Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength,

And whose heart turns away from the Lord.

 

Clarence Manion, the dean of the Notre Dame law school from 1941-1952:

 

Man begins his existence in bondage,

and rises from bondage through spiritual faith,

from spiritual faith to courage,

from courage to liberty,

from liberty to abundance,

from abundance to selfishness,

from selfishness to complacency,

from complacency to apathy,

from apathy to dependency,

from dependency back into bondage.

 

This is the cycle of civilization. The only hope of breaking this cycle is the believer who gives his attention to the Word of God.

 

1TI 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;

 

1TI 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

 

Everything created by God is to be set apart [sanctification] in the heart of the believer through doctrine and searching in prayer to be enjoyed by those who know true freedom.

 

Religion was not created by God, nor was sin, evil, selfish ambition, greed, arrogance, etc.

 

Satan cast religions in order to replace the need of man to fulfill his desire for the eternal, ECC 3:11.

 

ECC 3:11; He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man [alone; without revelation] will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

 

Satan accomplished part of his goal in getting man to separate from God at the fall, but he failed in the remainder of his goal to get man to join to himself. His solution to this unfortunate reality of man choosing his own independence was religion. Religion attaches man to falsehood and therefore doctrines of demons without man actually knowing that satan is the author and therefore the recipient of their worship.