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How do we get there from here? Ask the Spirit to give you a fresh revelation of God. |
The Spirit of the Lord really impressed upon me that the great Exodus from Egypt was a showdown between the God of Israel and the gods of the current world power: Egypt.
The great magicians of Egypt were expert diviners. Balaam and his sons, Jannes and Jambres, (Jasher 79 and 2 Tim. 3:8) led the rebuttal of the shows of power between what the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt could do. They were able to replicate the first acts of power. Why? Because a man can turn water into blood or a rod into a snake? No. Because they were given power from their own gods, the gods of Egypt, just as Moses was given power from his God.
It’s really no different today; religion has just sophisticated the battle. We don’t look at it as gods against God. We’ve somehow lost the perspective of supernatural deities and relegated them strictly to an institutionalized church with neat little side comments, but no real solid teaching. We make sidebar mention of cults, but never address the spiritual reality of the truth of the matter. (Which is part of the reason the institutional church will rise up as an adversary to those who walk this out.)
It’s still a little disconcerting to me that we can look at the symbolism of modern entertainment, whether it be movies or music or even the sports arena, and not see the homage to their gods. How can we not look at things like the Olympics opening ceremonies and the ceremony for Cern and not realize they are engaged in rituals that draw on the powers of darkness and their gods? Truly the god of this world has worked overtime to blind the eyes of God’s people.
Our patriarchs were no better. When Levi and Simeon killed the city of Shechem, in order to protect the family of Israel, Jacob instructed his family to put away their foreign gods. Why in the world would Jacob’s family, the heirs of Abraham’s covenant with Yahweh, have foreign gods? And yet they did. (Genesis 35)
When God instituted the Passover, He plainly said it was to execute judgment against the gods (elohiym, deities) of Egypt. (Ex. 12:12) He didn’t say they were false gods. He didn’t say they were idols. He said they were deities. And the Supreme God posited Himself against these lesser deities as an epic showdown. Remember that in Exodus 8, Egypt’s magicians could no longer replicate the signs (plagues) of Moses and said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” (They used the term for a deity instead of the Name of the Supreme God because they did not know the name of the Supreme God.)
[Look at Jasher 79:43-47
“And when the king saw this thing [Aaron’s rod swallowed up the magicians’ rods], he ordered the book of records that related to the kings of Egypt, to be brought, and they brought the book of records, the chronicles of the kings of Egypt, in which all the idols of Egypt were inscribed, for they thought of finding therein the name of Jehovah, but they found it not. 44. And Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron, Behold I have not found the name of your God written in this book, and his name I know not. 45. And the counsellors and wise men answered the king, We have heard that the God of the Hebrews is a son of the wise, the son of ancient kings. 46. And Pharaoh turned to Moses and Aaron and said to them, I know not the Lord whom you have declared, neither will I send his people. 47. And they answered and said to the king, The Lord God of Gods is his name, and he proclaimed his name over us from the days of our ancestors…”]
No, they do not know the Name of our God. They didn’t then, and most of them don’t now.
For understanding, use a concordance and look up “gods”, then look at the passages that accompany it. Look at the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 and his historical account of the Israelites sacrificing “to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately whom your fathers did not dread.” [vs. 17]
Deborah reiterates it in Judges 5:8, “new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates.”
These are indictments for God’s chosen people aligning with the gods of the other nations, uncircumcised nations without a covenant with the Supreme God.
Consider Judges 10 when God admonishes His people to cry out to the gods they have aligned with. God does not lie. He wasn’t speaking anecdotally. Judges 10:6 is explicit in the gods they were serving.
When Samuel cried out to God for the Israelites, God expressly told Samuel (8:8) that they had rejected Him for the other gods. Study this out! Recognize that the gods of other nations didn’t cease to exist. They didn’t then and they haven’t now.
Both the problem and the solution are clearly presented in the Word of God. The problem is humanity struggles to adhere to the Creator God and is continually tempted to entertain other gods, lesser gods, but gods nonetheless. The solution is adherence to the Supreme God and it is found over and over and over again in the Scriptures.
I don’t have time to get into it, but reread the account of David and Goliath. Look at 1Sam. 17:43 where Goliath cursed David by his gods. David’s response was plainly to call upon the Name of the true God. Look at 1Sam. 26:19 where David laments that people have tried to drive him from his inheritance of the true God and cajoled him to “serve other gods”. These are not mere stories. These are practical realities both then and now.
Now look at David’s prayer in 2Sam. 7, specifically verse 23 when he acknowledges that God has redeemed His people from Egypt and their gods. As you walk through the rest of Scripture you will see a people group who struggled to walk with loyalty to the God who created and redeemed them. Various deliverers were raised at various times to once again establish the unmatched sovereignty of the true God.
From Gideon to Samson, from Deborah to Josiah, there is no shortage of people raised at different times who put aside the influence of other gods and adhered to the true God, bringing deliverance to God’s people.
Enter Christ.
Enter a better covenant, the new covenant (new testament). Now the people of Yahweh, Jehovah, the Creator God are not relegated to a boundary in the Middle East. Now the people of the Supreme God are not relegated to a bloodline or the religious tenets of Judah. Now the people who want to follow the true God have access through the sacrifice of His Son.
But you say, America is Babylon. No, America is not. (I used to think that.) America is the seed of Abraham, the people of Manasseh and Ephraim. The bloodlines have been traced; the migratory patterns of the people are documented. I can point you to resources to help your understanding, just write me.
Babylon is not a place, it’s a system. It roots back to Nimrod’s rule and the tower of Babel where the nations of the earth aligned to overthrow God, and God responded by scattering the nations and removing the Noahite Covenant with them. He abandoned the nations to the lesser gods (Deut. 32:8). [See Dr. Heiser’s expose on this here and here.]
God established His covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s seed. The people of the covenant became the benchmark for finding the true God. God has never abandoned His covenant with Abraham. Abraham’s seed were to become nations that blessed the other nations (“and in him all nations on the earth will be blessed.”) [Gen. 18:18]
Babylon, the system of the lesser gods was deeply embedded in the world, whether it be socially, economically, religiously or politically, this system has steadily grown through empire after empire, people group after people group. They have never altered from their course to corrupt mankind, to turn mankind from the Creator. This system has systematically enslaved humanity to corruption of every kind. From serving other gods, to polluting humanity’s DNA, from transgressing the commands of God, to establishing wickedness in the upper echelons of society, Mystery Babylon is the religion and system of Nimrod and the nations who serve the lesser gods. They have polluted even the Church of God with its false teachings and idol worship, its Nicolaitan hierarchy of a pyramid structure of man worship, and yes, even the sexual sins of Balaam. [Rev. 2:14-16]
America is not Babylon, but it has been compromised by it.
But you say God does not protect the wicked, and America is replete with wickedness from its murderous abortion mills, to its insidious sexual perversions, from its injustice to the weak and poor and righteous, to its underground and undercover satanic perversions and child abductions, rapes and sacrifices. America has bowed the knee to mammon and its economic structure serves the wicked while treading down the righteous.
Agreed. You couldn’t be more correct. God judges sin. God will not save a nation because it (rightfully) claims to be the seed of Abraham, anymore than he saved the wicked religious population of Christ’s day. (John 8:39-47) As John the Baptist said (Luke 3:8), God is able to raise up sons of Abraham from the stones, and the axe is at the root of the trees to cut off the unfruitful.
But you say the sons of Abraham are the believers of Christ. Agreed. Galatians 3:7 is not lost on me and is very relevant today:
Gal 3:7-9 NASU
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
And this is where our victory is, this is what I’m trying to convey. Because we are the sons of Abraham by both the Abrahamic covenant and the Messianic covenant, we can call on the covenant blessings and protections. We can save our nation by calling upon the Name of the God of our nation. We only need to “put away the foreign gods.” We only need to repent of our sin.
Do you see it yet? Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Josiah, Peter and Paul and ALL the seed of the covenant that confronted both the people and the deities they were in the midst of called upon the Name of the true God and were delivered. Were the people in their nations righteous? Were the nations themselves righteous? Nope. None of them were. Yet God is concerned with His Name.
In the epic showdown between Baal and Jehovah, the people in Israel were worshipping Baal, NOT Jehovah. There was a man willing to stand and confront the wickedness of both the King and Queen, AND the god they were endorsing. Where are our Elijahs???? When the music and entertainment industry endorse their gods, where are our Elijahs??? Who is confronting them by standing on the truth of the Supreme God?
When the political systems and unrighteous political heads oppress their people and enforce tyrannical laws, who is confronting them with the truth of the Supreme God???
When the economic system of mammon adulation and enriching the wicked lives by extorting the working and righteous, who is confronting them with the truth of the Supreme God???
When the school boards and county commissions are parading their perversions into our children’s lives and oppressing our communities with their corrupt and wicked rules, who is confronting them with the truth of the Supreme God??? What about the election boards? What about the attorney generals and judges who continue to pervert justice and reward the wicked?
We do not wring our hands in despair. We are not to be like Saul’s army where David’s brothers were quaking at the threat of the uncircumcised Philistine army and its giant(s). We are to be like David who asks who dares to defy the living God with mockery and threats. It matters not where the battle is, whether in the political realm, the judicial system, the economic constructs or even the pulpit of the institutional church. If we know our God and we understand our position in Him, we cannot fail. He desires to make His Name known that the people of the earth will come to Him and abandon their lesser gods. How will they know His greatness if we do not demonstrate it? Why would they forsake their gods of perversion and corruption when they pay so well if they cannot see the reward of serving the living God?
Whether Trump is reinstated or not does not leave Americans helpless. Yes the election fraud should be contested and rectified. Yes there’s a plan to move America and the world into a global tyranny through covid. Yes foreign actors have infiltrated our industries and even our soil.
No I don’t think political leaders are going to represent Christ and call on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We should not expect them to. They’ve been infiltrated by the gods of the nations. WE, every Christian who understands Christ’s covenant with us and God’s covenant with Abraham, must take our places on the battlegrounds before us and call upon the Name that is superior, the Name of the Creator and Supreme God to defend His covenant and His people.
When a tornado is headed for your city you don’t pause to take inventory of how righteous the city is before you address the threat. You rebuke the destruction. If the tornado is deterred, you’ve saved the city. If it skips your home and destroys your neighbors, you’ve saved your family. This is the attitude we must take, and to do so we must recognize that the gods and their followers have arrayed themselves against THE God and His. Take your places and be the true sons and daughters of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through Christ.