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Awesome Hands – part 41

“ The children of Israel were fruitful”

At the end of the book of Genesis, we looked into the meaning of the experience of forty days and forty nights and applied that to our “beginnings” with Christ.

We learned that this process is not exclusive to the children of God, but is inclusive to all of mankind in the Lord’s timing. Judgment simply starts at the house of God.

In this study, we are going to start in the book of Exodus, and Lord willing, we are going to learn much about the process that the Lord is working in all of mankind in His own timing as we leave behind our beginnings and move towards our Exodus from our slave masters.

“The children of Israel were fruitful”

As we left we last study we saw that the Pharaoh, typifying God the Father, gave permission to Joseph to keep his oath to his father Jacob to go and bury Jacob among his father’s.

Of course prior to all of this the same Pharaoh had given Joseph the power of the pharaoh aside form the throne itself.

Gen 41:40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
Gen 41:41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
Gen 41:43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

Additionally, Joseph was promised that no man in all the land of Egypt would be given the power to so much as lift his hand or foot up outside of Joseph.

Given that we have covered that Joseph is a type of Christ, then we know that Israel was redeemed and given salvation via what the Father had caused to happen in Joseph’s life.

By extension, all of Israel was given life because even as they did evil in the sight of the Lord, the Lord caused these things to happen because he “meant them for good”.

We actually saw this pattern happen in Genesis, and Exodus is simply going to expound and express this same process as we progress through the book.

Lord willing, we are going to see the workings of the awesome hands of the Lord in our lives. While the word “yad” or hand will nto specifically be mentioned in the first chapter, we will read this chapter today so that we can have the stage set for everything else that follows.

Notice, Joseph i. ee Christ, us told that “only in the throne will the Pharaoh be greater than Joseph”.

With Christ’s ministry, He reflected the same thought in the Spirit.

Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Joh 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Joh 14:29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

Just like Noah building the arc, we too are being built up with the Words that are spoken in the Word of God, and God is building up His spiritual temple so that He can sit on the throne of our hearts.

The arc represents the salvation that is going to be brought to God’s people, a generation that is being separated from those of the rest of the world and is no different than Joseph being used to “save much people alive” except in the quantity of the people being given salvation.

Bringing this thought back into focus as it pertains to Israel, notice what the Lord causes to happen with the children of Israel as they are living in Egypt under the Pharaoh’s rule.

Exo 1:5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
Exo 1:6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
Exo 1:7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Exo 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Likewise, what was Adam before him told?

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

What did God tell Noah?

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Gen 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Finally, we see a similar command given to Israel (the Father and the people).

Gen 35:10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
Gen 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
Gen 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

We are reading a progression in how the Lord is dealing with all of mankind. It first starts with the Head and then moves to the body.

What starts at the Head can be seen in type in the first Adam, in that first God grows us up spiritually speaking, as babes in Christ. We start with the milk of the Word and progress to being able to digest more of the “afflictions of the Christ”.

The first Adam (and Eve) is told to be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and the green herb shall be meat for you. Also, have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth.

Then, this type progress’ to Noah in that Noah and his sons are blessed with the same blessing and are told to multiply and replenish the earth, and also the FEAR and DREAD of you shall be upon the beasts, the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea and in our HAND they are delivered.

Notice, we are given every moving thing that liveth to be meat for us. This includes the BEASTS of the field because in type, the things that happen to seem not so good for our flesh is actually NOURISHMENT for the spiritual new man.

Lastly, Jacob is renamed to Israel and is given the same blessing. Only this time, nations shall be among the fruit and the entire Land will be given to Israel AND those who are “of Israel’s seed”.

With all that in mind, who is Israel and why am I bringing this all up on context of this study on Exodus?

Mat 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Luk 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Act 5:31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Act 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

“Let us deal wisely with them”

When we are first truly dragged to God the Father in the Spirit, we are first nourished up as babes in Christ, who are given the sincere milk of the Word, but then as we mature we are given to eat herbs and then meat.

After milk, we are only given herbs because it takes a little while to learn to digest things which we are not accustomed to. Then, we are given meat and herbs together. The very beasts we eat also eat the herbs we are allowed to eat.

The “third type of consumption,” however, is going to be the very land itself but there must first come a very grievous Exodus from what we have known prior to this land being given to us.

Joh 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Joh 6:48 I am that bread of life.
Joh 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Joh 6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Joh 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

There is going to be a time come in all of mankind’s walk with God (whether in this age or the next), and it starts at the house of God, where God will take the situation and the circumstances He has caused in our lives, so that He will use them to the flip our worlds upside down.

When this happens, it will be the same experience which is befalling God’s called out people who have been CALLED into Egypt. With Egypt, we know that spiritually speaking it is equivalent to Babylon. With Babylon, we are called out of her.

So, when you connect the spiritual concept that Israel is called out of Egypt to make an Exodus, you will see that this is the SAME as God’s chosen people being called out of her so that they can go onto perfection and possess the land.

However, what must happen first?

We are Christ’s flesh and we are washed with His blood and in order to to have LIFE in us, we must eat of this flesh and drink of His blood. In other words, we must partake of the cup He drinks out of.

Joh 6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
Joh 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Joh 6:58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

Before you think I need to be shipped off to the looney bin like they Pharisees thought of Christ, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Joh 6:52), let’s see how this ties into how God actually makes this come about.

Exo 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
Exo 1:9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Exo 1:10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Exo 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

Hearkening back to how God has orchestrated this whole scenario, let us look at what He first told Adam.

Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Now we see another king of Egypt, one who doesn’t know Joseph i. e. Christ, who sets taskmasters over the children of Israel to afflict them but as they are afflicted they are more increased and grown up into the people of God.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Act 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

The Lord is building up His people because the Lord knows what is ahead as they are about to be called up and out of Egyptinto the wilderness and the wilderness will not be an easy experience for them.

However, in the “here and now” of what they are experiencing in Egypt at this time, they are made to serve with rigour of which it is easy to conclude that they did not ENJOY it.

This is not different than Joseph having to go through his man trials to get to the thrown. Now, in a different way of expressing this truth, we are shown that God’s people will go through this Exodus process from Egypt to eventually having their Savior placed on the throne of their hearts and minds.

This is the True Bread from Heaven, but it requires drinking of the cup of the wrath of God which is upon all flesh initially.

“The midwives feared God”

Once this union is made between the True bread from heaven and the children of God, there is only one thing that is left to attack by those who are “of the world” or of those who are not of God’s people.

When Christ is on the throne, there will be sons of God born. Not on that, but as those sons fo God grow, there will be fruit which comes about because of this union.

In the letter and on the surface, we are starting to talk about God’s people in Exodus chapter 1 as God works with them while they are being prepared to migrate from Egypt.

In the Spirit and within the kingdom of God, we know that these circumstances are admonishments for us in what God is doing with each and every one of His people.

What He is doing is uniting the bride of Christ with the Groom, and this produces much fruit despite what the world can throw at those who are in Christ and Christ in them.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Eph 5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

We haven’t arrived at the law of Moses being instituted, but we are building up to it and you’ll notice that the law is setup as a schoolmaster for us initially just like taskmasters are initially setup over us to PRODUCE growth.

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

After we are built up and multiply “in the Spirit”, the Fruit which is produced is the only thing that can possibly be attacked, but even that is futile for the flesh and carnal mind.

Exo 1:15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
Exo 1:16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
Exo 1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
Exo 1:18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?
Exo 1:19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
Exo 1:20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
Exo 1:21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

The Pharaoh ordered that Shiphrah, which means “fair” or “glisten” and Puah, which means “glitter” or “splendid” to kill the sons of the Hebrews.

However, if you recognize who these midwives are in Spirit, then you will understand why God orchestrated this whole event I order to admonish us by it.

Psa 56:3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Psa 56:4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

Isa 41:13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isa 41:14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

2Co 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

Exo 1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

It is through this very process, that a redeemer is sent to Israel, the people of God. God uses His “midwives” to bring forth the Truth of the Word of God as the pillars in His temple. As such, God BLESSES them with “houses,”…. Houses which are not built with a man’s hands! Amen

Exo 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

There is a King coming to us through this process, just as was told to us by one of those sons “cast into the river” and in type, baptized by the same, a river of water of LIFE and salvation.

Deu 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Next study, we will continue to see how a child is born up despite “the ruler of the time” trying to kill him at a young age. This happens to Moses as he was born and this happens to Christ from king Herod as he is born.

However, God has blessed His elect to be able to know that their redeemer lives in His prophets and prophetesses and there is nothing we have to fear of what flesh can do to us.

We should all take great joy in knowing that we are used as “spiritual midwives” in this glorious plan of our Father in Heaven!