Moses

RV124-02

John hears these tribulation saints, who are now in heaven, calling out to the Father for the execution of divine justice upon those who rejected their testimony to the truth, and who murdered them. The question posed by these saints is, "How long is Satan's crowd going to get away with its human viewpoint delusions and its sinful ways. These martyrs are people who will have been willing to confront that evil society with God's viewpoint, and with the moral demands of the Word of God. These believers will have been laughed at. They will have been treated with contempt. They will have been labeled as benighted bigots, trying to keep people from being free to enjoy life. It will be what is known today as the New Age movement in its full blossomed expression. These martyrs will be people who have been faithful unto death, and now, understandably, look forward to their vindication before their tormentors.

The U. S. Constitution

So, these men sat in Philadelphia deeply conscious of the fact that they had to put together a government. They had to literally invent a government which would restrain that natural evil of man, so that they could hope to preserve maximum freedom within a society without chaos resulting from that freedom. Of course, because they were under the guidance of God, they achieved something that had never been seen in the history of the human race before. It seemed to stem from the day when the bickering went back and forth: the big states against the little states; the centers of prestige against those who were less popular; and, those who had great resources in their states against those who did not, until it looked like it was all going to come apart that summer.

Benjamin Franklin

They actually never did appoint somebody to do that every day, but the whole spirit change because, individually, they began to do that. And suddenly, all of the bottlenecks began to be untangled, and that document was produced under God's hands to prepare us to be His current client nation, as Israel once was, and as England was before us, and other nations through history – the primary channel of the communication of divine viewpoint.

So, they formed a government to restrain the evil of the sin nature, and yet to give maximum freedom to the individual citizen without creating chaos in society. They produced an amazing document. Today, that Constitution has, in certain serious areas, been ignored, and has been twisted beyond recognition from its original meaning. That is the problem that we face today.

It is not just political, it is because we began from a spiritual frame of reference that we need to confront what is happening in the nation on the political scene, and to call it back to the principles that has made it a unique feature in the history of mankind; has made it prosperous above anything that people have ever dreamed; and, has given individual freedom beyond anything that people have ever imagined before.

I talked with some people this summer who had visited Europe. They were in Austria. Since they were so close to Czechoslovakia, they thought that they'd go across to a communist country. One man who returned on that trip said, "I can summarize any advice that anybody wants about visiting a communist country in two words: don't go." He said that they drove through Western Europe, and they drove in Mercedes Benz-powered luxurious buses with big windows; air-conditioning; roomy aisles; cushioned seats; and, music coming through. Then they came to the border of communist Czechoslovakia – a nation which, before it became communist, was one of the most prosperous in Eastern Europe, and one that had a heritage of enormous personal freedom.

He said, "When we got out of the bus now to transfer to the bus that we would be riding in communist Czechoslovakia, we were appalled. We looked at it," and in trying to fish for a word to describe it, they said, "It looked like your school buses." What they meant was that they were just simple little buses that you ride around in. It's not something that's comfortable. He said, "They bounced and they jogged. They had no air conditioning. If you got too hot, you opened the window, and then it became freezing cold and you had to close it. Every time you wanted to take a picture of a hobble out here or some poor old women up there, in the field, digging away, grubbing away at the crops that they were growing, I swear that that bus driver hit the accelerator every time to jog my camera to keep me from getting a picture. The tubs were dirty. The soap was the soap that was left over from the last person that had been at the hotel. It was just awful. You can't believe."

He said, "We learned what it is not to have freedom. People walked around guardedly. You couldn't carry on a conversation. They feared who was going to hear something, and who is going to say something, and who was going to report something." He said, "Even we were warned how we must be careful in what we say while we are in that country."

Socialism

So, people who have a chance to travel in the workers' paradise soon learn what a contrast that is between the order in society, which our constitutional fathers put together with freedom and making a base for prosperity and peace, and what happens in the country where the government must exercise those firm controls. During the last 60 years, sadly enough, in our country, Americans have cut themselves loose from the binding principles of the Bible, and social chaos has resulted. We now have social chaos morally in the country. We now have social chaos economically. We have social chaos within the family. We have chaos within marriage relationships. We have chaos in the field of education. I need not explain that to you. And we have chaos religiously. It is very hard, even for Christians, to get their minds on a divine viewpoint track, and it's even harder to keep it there. About the time that you think that you've got some people on a divine viewpoint track, you get the shock of your life to see that they jump the track, and they're as benighted as the unbelievers around them. That's because the Bible is not respected as the primary factor in the life of a human being.

The number one thing to know is to know the Word of God, and to understand that God is going to hold you responsible for what is in the Bible. They are going to be a lot of sad Christians in heaven when they discover how responsible God holds us for the contents of the Scripture. And we're not going to be able to plead ignorance. During the last 60 years, that is what has happened in our country.

So, today, Americans have declared themselves independent of God, and they have abandoned His biblical regulations. So, morality has become relative. Law is arbitrary. Compassion has been replaced by self-centeredness. Women kill their babies. Sexual perversion has no shame. People steal; people lie; and, people cheat, and social relationships are, consequently, disintegrating.

Into such a chaotic vacuum has now come the increasing usurpation of authority by the federal government in order to stabilize the nation. Ruler's law always replaces the abandonment of God's law. The battle we face is basically a battle over spiritual principles and spiritual realities in every area of human culture. The Bible is being ignored. When we who know the Word of God, and who know that these are the realities, stand and insist that this is how we must function as a society, then we become the garbage and the object of contempt of a society which, over the last 60 years, has cut loose from the Bible. So, indeed, down deep within our hearts rises the cry, "How long, O Lord, how long?"

This past week, I had it again brought to my attention that even among people who are solid Christians, there is that weakness of knowing what the Word of God has said, and consequently, that undercutting of the effectiveness of the impact of what we should be saying to a disoriented, godless society. Gary North, many of you know, publishes "The Remnant Review." He is a Christian man, and he is an excellent financial adviser. He knows his stuff. He has recently visited Israel. He picked up the newspaper, he said, and was amazed to read the headline of one of the articles in the Jerusalem paper which read, "Banks Raise Interest Rates to a high of 1,760%. If you want to go out and make a loan, fine. Interest rates are 1,760% a year. He pointed out that he spoke to one woman who said that her husband earns $600 per month, and he brings home $350. The rest is taken in taxation, because Israel functions on a basis of socialism, even though it's called democratic socialism. The people decide about socialism. But they've made the same old mistake that you can have a little socialism without the consequences of losing freedom economically in every other way.

So, Gary North sums it up with this paragraph, which really was amazing to me to read. I should preface this with the fact that he has put his finger upon a very important factor here related to the Word of God, but his own background is from the Reformation, which did not resolve the prophetic issues. When Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, which were the primary Reformers, restored to the Bible as the book from which we learn things about God, and turned back the Middle Ages of spiritual darkness imposed upon humanity by the Roman Catholic Church, they were not able to deal with all of the issues. One of the things they did not deal with was where history was moving prophetically. They never were able to distinguish between Israel, as a separate program under God's guidance, and the church.

So, Mr. North, in his Presbyterian background, has inherited that blind spot that keeps him from going through like he usually does. The guy has tremendous ability to ram home a point, especially a biblical point, and he doesn't know how close he has come to illustrating exactly where the issues lie today, and why what is happening economically is so serious. Israel is an example.

He sums it up by saying, "It is obvious to everyone that the Israeli economy is on the pavement. No one wants to commit himself either to analysis, least of all the bureaucrat, or to a solution. The bureaucrat has read enough economics to know that once a nation begins an inflation-produced boom, there are no really soft landings. If they stop inflating the currency, there will be a recession. People will wind up unemployed. The welfare expenses, already as high as military expenses in a besieged nation, will go up while income will fall. The deficit, already out of control, will get larger. Any politician who were to admit this would endanger his career and his party's chances at the polls. So, they say as little as possible. They are trapped, and they don't know how to get out. The bureaucrat said (the man that North was speaking to), 'They probably needed emergency controls, including price controls, in order to change peoples' psychology.' This is the same tired answer. Every bureaucrat who has ever tried to govern in a nation which has debauched its currency unit has called for controls.

"When I asked him if he thought that the crisis would increase pressures for a man on a white horse, he replied affirmatively. He said he dearly hoped so, for that was what his country needed. But he hastened to add: 'Only in the economic area – not the political or social.' Sure: economic dictatorship with a human face; human rights without property rights; and, Hitler and Stalin without slave labor camps." This is from the August 17th, 1984 issue of "Remnant Review."

Now North doesn't realize that with that expression, "The man on the white horse," he is talking about the antichrist of Scripture, and that that is exactly what is wrong here. Here is a bureaucrat in the government of Israel that says, "What we need is a man on a white horse. We need somebody who will come along and say, "Now, I'm going to protect you. I'm going to settle your economy. I'm going to lead you out." And they are going to rally to him.

He could have followed that line of thought and made a tremendous impact in that article. But again, he has a blind spot in the understanding of the doctrines of Scripture. So, that is the battle we Christians fight today – of Americans against the Word of God. And the contempt for those who are seeking to restrain evil and promote godliness causes the believers among us to call for vindication. Preachers, churches, and denominations have readily accommodated themselves to the anti-biblical demands of the unbelievers. Non-confrontation is the order of the day, so that we can gain the support of Satan's world system.

But the Word of God says that the Lord Jesus said, "No. I have been called to confrontation with evil. I've been called to expose it, and to declare what it is on the authority of the Word of God. So, in Luke 12:51, we read where the Lord Jesus is saying, "Do you suppose that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, 'Nay, but rather division.' For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son; the son against the father; the mother against the daughter; the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law; and, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." The Lord Jesus, says, "I have come for confrontation against evil – not to bring peace.

In Matthew 10:24, we have this same concept reiterated again: "The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he should be like his teacher, and the servant like his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub (which is a name for Satan, which they called Jesus), how much more shall they call them of his household. Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hidden that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear, that proclaim upon the housetops." The Lord said, "I got it in the neck, and you will get it. But what I have told you privately in teaching you doctrine, you stand on the housetop and you proclaim it to all the world."

Verse 28 says, "Fear not them who kill the body (you are going to get the suffering) but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hades. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Whoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven." This is in reference to Christian life – not to salvation. "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword."

So, it is very clear from the instruction of the Lord that He came to confront evil; to come to grips with it; and, not to be popular. Those who stand for God's Word, and who proclaim it, are going to be rejected by the arrogant carnal Christians, and by the snobbish unbelievers. They're all in the same boat.

There was a time in our country when people who did not believe that the Bible was God's infallible Word would not dare to have called themselves Christian. But people do it all the time now, and we do not confront them and call them down on it. We let them say that the Bible is not God's Word, and we still let them call themselves Christian. With Christianity rejected in practice by Americans, there is no force to hold back social chaos in our country. Part of the presidential election which is coming up is to settle whether the chaos will continue, or whether it will be stopped and reversed. Without the restraints on man which are described in Scripture, there will be no national survival in freedom, peace, and prosperity.

So, we to call out, "How long, O, lord, are we going to be ignored?

Moses

In Exodus 3:9, we read, "'Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you unto Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people and the children of Israel out of Egypt.' Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.'"

Now, this is an understandable response on the part of Moses: "Who am I to go and confront the ruler of one of the most magnificent empires the world has ever seen? The Egyptian empire is at a peak of its glory. Who am I to go and speak to this person?" But that's the difference when you have a divine view point person. Pharaoh was an ignorant intellectual such as those who are in power in our country today, and therefore he was as ignorant as could be of the realities of life. Moses was the smart one. Moses was the one who had the capacity and character. Moses was the one who had something on the ball. From God's point of view, Moses was the man fully capable and fully qualified to confront the ruler of this empire.

However, from Moses's point of view, it seemed awesome. He argued that the enslaved Jews would not believe that he was sent to them by God. He said, "If I go to them, they won't believe me." Exodus 4:1: "Moses answered and said, 'But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared unto you." Now, that's an understandable factor also: "What's going to make them believe me?"

Miracles

Then, after the era of Moses, the miracle ceased. An iron curtain dropped. And you went for centuries, and not another miracle popped up until Elijah came on the scene. Then the miracles burst out again. His follower Elisha (his student) performed twice as many. God anointed him twice the power of Elijah.

Then another iron curtain drops. Centuries go by without a whisper of a miracle. In Elijah's time and in Elisha's time, it was necessary again to confirm in the era of the degeneracy of Ahab and Jezebel that God was speaking through this man. The phallic cults of the Baal worship had now come to such a point of acceptance among the people of Israel (the sex worship) that it took a dramatic demonstration that God was speaking through Elijah. So, he had the confrontation with the prophets of Baal and so on.

After Elisha, there were no more miracles until Jesus Christ comes on the scene. Suddenly there's another outburst of miracles in the era of the early church. And following the completion of the New Testament Scripture, again, the iron curtain falls, and there were no more miracles. This is one of the great evidences that the charismatic movement is enormously delusional (self-deluded and satanically deluded) over claiming miracles as if they were some kind of a constant pattern of God's work.

I heard a girl come on the radio the other day and said, "I'm evangelist Sarah So-and-So, and I'm inviting you down to the meeting at so-and-so place, and I'm looking for you to come because God has a miracle for you." I grabbed my pencil and paper immediately and I jotted down the address because if there's anything I want, it's a miracle. I can think of several miracles, mostly in relation to you people, in a variety of ways, that I'd like to see. I said, "This is wonderful – miracles. That's what we need."

But boy, that appeals to people, and they rush in there, and they fork over their money, and their efforts, and their lives down a rat hole, chasing rabbits that do not exist. The con men are out there pumping the miracle routine. When you bring this to the attention of a charismatic, that God has performed miracles only in certain cycles to establish the authority of God at a certain point in human history, they go blank. They have nothing to say.

Then you tell them that the next dramatic expression of miracles has already been predicted for us. It's going to be right here in the tribulation era with the antichrist and Satan and the forces of evil performing those miracles. What are you going to get from those miracles? Confirmation that God has spoken? Satan has watched this thing three times. God did it with Moses; God did it with Elijah and Elijah; and, God did it with the Lord Jesus and the early apostles. Satan says, "That's the way to do it. These suckers will eat this stuff up if I come up with miracles." So, the next miracle is going to be so dramatic, the Scripture says, that almost the believers themselves (the very elect) will be deceived if they don't watch closely, and if they don't operate on biblical principles.

So, God said, "I'll give you something, Moses. It'll be dramatic. It's brand new. I'm going to let you (a human being) perform miracles. Now, God can perform miracles, but a human being? Yes." And Moses says, "Well, they'll sit up and watch that. Let's try it."

So, he was almost ready, but then he had another problem. He said, "I don't talk very well. I'm really a mush mouth. How can I stand up and talk before people? That just scares me." Exodus 4:14: "Moses said unto the Lord, 'O, my Lord, I am not eloquent. Neither heretofore nor since have You spoken unto Your servant. But I am slow of speech, and slow of tongue." And he was also slow of brains at this point. When he had miracles, he should have realized that he pretty well had it made.

So, God says, "That's all right. I'll give you Aaron. Aaron's a silver-tongued boy. He'll go with you. He'll be your spokesman." So, Moses confronted Pharaoh with God's demands to release the Jews. In Exodus 5:1-9, we had the record of Pharaoh's contempt for the demand: "Who is this God? Who do you think you're talking to? Do you know who it is that you're talking to?" And he rejected the demand. Instead, he added to the burden of the slaves. He said, "I know why you're talking like this. You don't have enough work to do. We've been giving you the straw to bind the clay with which to make the bricks. From now on, you go out and get your own straw out of the fields, and yet you better produce the same number of bricks each day."

Well, when the Jews heard that, Moses, who had performed exactly what God had told them to do; had delivered the message; and, Pharaoh's rebuttal has been to increase their burdens, the Jews rebuked Moses for having added to their suffering. So, in Exodus 5:20, we read, "And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto them, 'The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made us offensive in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us." This is the biggest bunch of crazy ingrates the world probably has ever seen. Here is a man putting his own life on the line to confront the pharaoh of the Egyptian empire. Instead of saying that this man is so evil that he will not listen to God, they accuse Moses of being the one who is at fault.

Have you ever noticed that? When it is the evil that is in man that is at fault, they blame the messenger of the truth. So, we had this first outburst on the part of Moses: "O, Lord, how long?"

Exodus 5:22: "And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, 'Lord, wherefore have You so badly treated this people? Why is it that You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.'" Moses is thoroughly discouraged. But God comes through and comforts Moses, and promises him success with Pharaoh, which Moses should have known.

Exodus 6:1: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand, he shall let them go, and with a strong hand, he shall we drive them out of his land?" Moses did not understand the principle that God never judges until he has given opportunity. God never disciplines you and me until He has exercised the grace of opportunity for us to change our ways. If we change our ways, the discipline does not come. If we insist on not changing our way, and if we insist on going against the viewpoint of the Word of God and all divine viewpoint judgment, then He brings down the hatchet on our neck. God was saying to Moses, "I'm giving him the opportunity to do right. If he will not do right, then I will come down with judgment.

In Exodus 6:6-7, we read, "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, "I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and will rid you out of their bondage, and will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you to out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Now that's direct communication from the living Creator God. What greater statement could you have? What more did they need than that? From that moment on, you would have thought that they would have said, "OK, now we understand. We know what's going on, and we will wait upon the Lord.

Well, Moses goes enthusiastically to deliver this message to them. And in Exodus 6:9, the response is again discouraging: "Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, but they did not hearken unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. And Moses wondered why the pagan pharaoh should believe that he had spoken for God when the Jews did not believe." You can see that agony of expression in verses 10-12: "Why should he listen to me?"

So, the confrontation with Pharaoh reaches a high point. Moses, through Aaron, delivers God's demands to free the Jews and let them go. Pharaoh rejects the demands, and God punishes the Egyptian empire with the ten plagues. Finally, Pharaoh yields to the demands of Moses; sets the Jews free; and, in Exodus 12:31-36, we have the happy record of their being practically thrown out of the land of Egypt just to get rid of them, and stop the pain and the agony that has come upon them. None of the gods of Egypt were able to turn the tide back. There was a dramatic demonstration that whoever the God of the Jews was, He was the one who was the real one. He was the one who was really in charge. The animal gods of Egypt had all been made to look like the fools that they were.

So, Pharaoh finally yield to the demands, and tells them to go; take their flocks; take their children; and, get out. Furthermore, the Lord had told the Israelites that just before they left, they were to ask all of the Egyptians to lend them gold, silver, and precious gems, which they did. The Egyptians were so eager to get these people out of their land that they gave them anything that they asked for. So, when they left, they left with an enormous amount of wealth. It was a wealth that was a recompense for all the years of enslavement that they had not been paid for. And it was the basis of their national society now.

However, Pharaoh soon changed his mind; pursued the departing Jews; and, trapped them up against the Red Sea. That is the same Red Sea where you're hearing about all the mines being planted and the ships being damaged. Exodus 14:8-9 tell us about that decision. Pharaoh pursues the children of Israel, and he puts them now in an impossible position. The Jews panic. What do they do? They do what they always do. They go to Moses, and they start berating him. Exodus 14:11: "They said unto Moses, 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore have you dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt. Is not this the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness?''" They said, "You dummy, Moses. Better red than dead. You're leading us out here. Weren't there enough graves in Egypt? Do you want to have to fill this wilderness with graves? We told you so."

Boy, that's a wonderful congregation. And you can just hear Moses, in verse 13 saying, "O, Lord, how long?" "Moses said unto the people, 'Fear not; stand still; and, see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more." What a kind answer that was to these idiots." He said, "I know why you're upset. I know why you're panicked. But just stand by. Take your last look at these people. This is the last you're going to see of the Egyptian troops," for, of course, they were all lost in the waters of the Red Sea as it's closed upon them, as they tried to chase across to capture the Jews on the other side.

God comforted Moses again, even in this moment. He held back the water so that the people of Israel passed over on dry land, and then closed the waters upon the Egyptian troops as they charged in with their chariots, which was an awesome infantry to face. The amazing thing is that the Bible tells us the Jews walk through dry shod. Nobody had any wet sandals. But the moment the chariots got in there, they got bogged down in the mud. This was a miracle under their feet.

Well, with that behind them, they were off to the Promised Land. Certainly, things were going to be settled down and better now. They leave the Red Sea. They go into the wilderness. They come to a place called Marah, and they found there, Exodus 15:23 tells us, that the water was bitter to the taste. What do they do? They grumble again against Moses. Exodus 15:24-25: "And the people murmured against Moses saying, "What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them."

Here again, God was putting them under a little pressure. They should have known by now that God was going to take care of them. When they ran into a problem, they shouldn't have turned into a panicky, wild-eyed, crazy lot that were again striking out against the leadership. They should have said, "OK, now we have another problem, Moses. What's the solution?" And Moses would have said, "Just a minute. Stand by. I want to go talk to the Lord." He would have come back, and they would have had the solution with dignity, and they would have enjoyed it so much more. Instead, they always had the solution with the humiliation of their mental attitude sins.

God reassured the Jews that if they would obey His commandments, here on this occasion, that all would be well with them physically. In Exodus 15:26, we read, "And said, 'If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments (the doctrines of Scripture), and keep all His statues, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that heals you."

That was very important – for a group of people out in the wilderness with their family and their children, and with limited medical facilities available, for God to say, "If you will obey My commandments: you don't eat pig meat; and, you hang your clothes out in the sunshine to dry so that the ultraviolet light of the sun will kill the germs in your clothing; and, all these other regulations" (these sanitary laws that were laid out for them) – "If you will do that, I will protect you from the diseases you've seen in Egypt. And if you will obey My moral commandments, the venereal diseases that were running rampant in Egypt will not be suffered by you with all their terrible consequences in that era."

So, this was a dramatic statement: "If you obey My commandments, you will be in physical well-being. You will enjoy physical well-being. You will have a physical capacity so that you'll be able to serve me and enjoy life at the same time.

Well, they were six or eight weeks out of Egypt when they found themselves in need of food again. And they were the same old crowd, still slaves in their thinking. So, again, they attacked Moses. Exodus 16:2-3: "The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The children of Israel said to them, 'Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full, for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'"

"O, Lord, how long?" He had brought these people out to kill them with hunger in the wilderness? "You ding-a-lings, we brought you out here for freedom, not to kill you. We brought you out here for freedom, and to preserve that freedom. They were on the verge of getting the most dramatic statement that any human beings had ever been given. They were going to be given the codification of the Mosaic Laws, at the heart of which was the Ten Commandments – the document to preserve freedom. I don't care whether you are a group of God's people like the Jews were, or if you are some grossly pagan nation, as has been demonstrated many times historically, if you obey these moral principles of the Word of God, such as enunciated in the Ten Commandments, you will enjoy freedom. That's why they were given. But here they want to know: "Why did you lead us?"

So, God patiently comes through again. In verse 8, tells them that he will send them the quail: "And Moses said, 'This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, for the Lord hears your murmurings which you murmur against Him." Now was that true? Were they murmuring against Moses? No, they weren't. They were murmuring against God. So, be careful what you want to sound off against the human agent of communication. You just better be sure, first of all, that he's out of line and out of touch with the realities of spiritual things, and that he is not a true communicator of what God thinks, before you start swinging at him, because God says, "When you swing at him, you've clenched your fist against Me:

"Which you murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Moses knew that, and he put it point blank. He says, "You better be careful. Every time you sound off like this, this is not against me and Aaron. It is against God, because you are striking against the principles of the Word of God. The communicator is a nobody. The communicator is always a nobody. It doesn't matter who the communicator is. It's what is communicated that is God's truth. That's what's important. The communicator can be the most slovenly nobody on the face of the earth. He may not even live up to the standards of his own communication. That does not undercut the reality of God's truth. The communicator will have his own problem; his own discipline; and, his own dealings with God. But the communication is separated from the communicator. Moses says, "You're not speaking against us. You're speaking against the Lord. Even if we have some shortcomings, we have spoken God's mind to you, and you must accept it as such." It's easy to forget that in the heat of the angelic warfare.

When they got to Rephidim, in chapter 17, they had no water: "Wherefore the people did strive with Moses and said, 'Give us water that we may drink.' Moses said to them, 'Why do you strive with me? Wherefore do you put the Lord to the test?' And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?'"

You start reading the Scripture, and we all know these stories about Moses and the Exodus generation. But you start reading the Scriptures, and you see how repeatedly they said, "Why have you brought us out here to kill us?" Then you begin to get the feel of what this man suffered, and why indeed he could sympathize. He'd had empathy with the tribulation saints who cry out, "O, lord, how long?" And, in time, it was more than Moses could take. As we shall see when we complete this at our next session, he made a very terrible mistake that finally cost him a great deal, because he got a belly-full, and a stomach-full, and he let his eyes get off the Lord and onto the people. And he responded in a way that they deserved, but which violated God's guidance of him.

The Rock in Horeb

This rock, of course, was very important. It was a symbol. It was not just the fact that God performed another miracle here through Moses, which He did. It was that this rock symbolized the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, as He later proclaimed, would be the source of living waters. Here, as in the Old Testament, everything was in symbols. God had Moses walk up to that rock; strike it with his rod; and, out of that rock poured the living waters that they needed to survive, symbolizing how Jesus Christ, in the future, would become the source as the Savior of the world for the waters of eternal life. The next dramatic event was finally receiving the basis to preserve their freedom. They arrived at Mount Sinai, and the basis of freedom for that people forever was to be established – not just for a while, but freedom forever, and for every people on the face of the earth who would follow these same principles.

God said to Moses, "Come on up here, Moses, I'm going to give you now directly in written form, so there will be no mistakes and no misunderstandings, what no people have ever had before. When he walked up that mountain and spent those 40 days and 40 nights being briefed and educated, the Jews were up to their old tricks back in the campground. Only this time, it was horribly, horribly, much worse. Next time we will pick it up at that point.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

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