Awesome Hands – part 47: “To know thy enemy”

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Awesome Hands – Part 47

“To know thy enemy

To know one’s enemy is to love one’s enemy. If we can love our enemy as we are commanded, then we will truly understand the commandments of Jesus, but how is this accomplished?

Mar 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
Mar 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Mar 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Mar 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Are your listening ears on? Does the Lord have your attention? The Lord our God is one Lord.

Therefore, we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.

The second is like the first. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Who, then, is my neighbor? Is it possible that my neighbor is my enemy?

In the study today, we will be looking at Exodus 7 to see if we can glean any answers from the admonitions we have been given in the story of Moses and his being sent to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

The Pharaoh loves Egypt

Exo 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

We are going to see the start of the plagues being delivered to Pharaoh and Egypt. The very land over which Pharaoh is king and loves is the same land he is willing to destroy in order to make sure his will is accomplished.

This is all very revealing because it shows us what we are up against when the Lords brings His judgment into our lives. Indeed, things will be set right.

Just like Moses being made a god to Pharaoh and Joseph having all power except the throne itself, we are sent with the judgments of the Lord. That is what God does, and that is what His prophets do.

They have His testimony.

Exo 23:20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Exo 23:21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
Exo 23:22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
Exo 23:23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
Exo 23:24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
Exo 23:25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Moses and Aaron are undertaking a task the Lord has sent them to do, and it is one they themselves have been judged to be worthy to undertake.

All messengers of God come in the name of the Lord, and that testimony is one which will always prophecy the judgments of the Lord.

We speak of things we know because the Lord works the same in us. We speak that which we have seen, but it is the Lord speaking through us.

Here’s is what Moses and Aaron are commanded to speak:

Exo 7:2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.
Exo 7:3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
Exo 7:4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

If we look closely, we will see that we are told to speak all that is commanded of THEE, of US.

If we look even closer, we will see that the Lord does all that He does in blinding the blind and making the deaf, deaf so that He can BRING HIS PEOPLE out of the land of Egypt with GREAT JUDGMENTS.

The Egyptians, and all that happens to them due to their king’s hardened heart, is done for God’s PEOPLE, so that they may know the Lord, but this only comes through great judgments.

The enemies of Israel are their very own neighbors. Indeed, these same neighbors used to be their friends, their loved ones, their peers in labor, etc. They lived among one another and prospered one another.

It was not until the Lord chose to will it that the Pharaoh would notice the growth and accomplishments of the Israelites, that these two peoples became utter enemies.

This is all due to what the Pharaoh ordered be done to the Israelites, resulting in their relationships changing.

At some point in all of our lives, this same event has happened to us.

All of this is done by the Lord so He can BRING FORTH HIS ARMIES. His armies? The Israelites are going to make a beeline straight out of Egypt moving just ahead of the Egyptians who will soon be pursuing them.

Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
Exo 7:6 And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them, so did they.

When the Lord works the great miracle in our lives of calling us to Him, it will NOT be missed by those who are around us. In fact, they will KNOW that something and someone other than the Israelites have worked this work.

For Jesus Christ, they saw a carpenter’s son. They knew this carpenter’s son. For Steven Crook, my family knows MY works and deeds before God was in my life. They have a comparison to make against what is now happening in my life.

So, the Egyptians who are among us will know the Lord is the Lord because they will WITNESS the WORKS of Him in us. Of course, they will expect perfection instantly because we claim to know the Lord of whom we are witnessing.

It is because of their unbelief, the “hardening of their hearts”, that we are given to BELIEVE and follow the angel of the Lord which He sends to us.

Will they, too, believe one day? Here is what Romans 11 has to say (in the American Standard version)

Rom 11:21 for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee.
Rom 11:22 Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Rom 11:23 And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
Rom 11:24 For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;
Rom 11:26 and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of.
Rom 11:30 For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
Rom 11:31 even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.

The Deliverer

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are our enemies, but as for the election, so that it may stand and be accomplished, they ARE BELOVED.

Because God has hardened their hearts into unbelief, they become disobedient. However, it is in their very disobedience that He BRINGS FORTH His children in this age to show them mercy.

He is able to bring in those that come after them due to their unbelief. Said another way, the Egyptians are established first as a nation so that God can find them disobedient by judgment and bring out of that disobedience His people.

For us, God has established spiritual Egypt with the king of Pharaoh on the throne so that He can supplant Him with “Jacob”.

Rom 11:26 and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Isn’t Moses a deliverer? Aren’t we deliverers? How is that accomplished? It is due to the Head controlling the body. It is due to:

Exo 23:22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

The Lord witnesses to us in the very ages of Moses and Aaron, that there is a whole process to the Lord’s will and plan. He never changes, and this is the same for us.

Exo 7:7 And Moses was fourscore years old (2 x 10 x 4), and Aaron fourscore (2 x 10 x 4 + 3) and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
Exo 7:8 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

Notice, it is Jehovah who instructs Moses and Aaron, and as we covered last study, this is the “second name” they learn the Lord is called. The fathers of Moses knew the Lord as “God almighty” but Moses, Aaron and the Israelites will know Him by “JEHOVAH”.

Exo 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Exo 6:5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
Exo 6:6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

We are redeemed completely with an outstretched arm of the Lord. The reaction of those who are around us will be quite different though, since the Lord Himself works the hardening of their hearts.

We simply are incapable of changing their hearts because it is the Lord Who has ordained it to be so.

Exo 7:9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
Exo 7:10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Exo 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Exo 7:12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
Exo 7:13 And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

This is another moment we can easily miss. Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. What, I ask, is the source of their power? Has God Himself not caused the power they have be there so that this moment could happen?

The Pharaoh looks on this event and doesn’t see anything special about what Moses and Aaron do because his wise men, sorcerers and magicians can make their rods into serpents too.

Are the enchantments which are there to DECEIVE the Pharaoh there due to what the Lord has caused?

Let it be the Word which tells us yay or nay.

Exo 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments (H3858).

There are only two times that these enchantments are mentioned as such in the Old Testament. One is where we are reading, and the other is used here:

Gen 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The very things that have caused us all to be deceived are the same things that KEEP the Way of the Tree of Life. This has been so from the beginning!

“La- hat” comes from H3857.

As with all Words in scripture, JEHOVAH gives even Babylonian ministers the ability to “call fire down from heaven” to DECEIVE the masses of humanity who are not called and chosen in this age to remain Faithful until the end.

However, the true Fire of the Word is only given to those who are His flaming ministers!

Deu 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Deu 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Psa 57:4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Psa 83:1 A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
Psa 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Psa 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Psa 83:4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

Which leads up to…

Psa 83:14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;

…and…

Isa 42:24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
Isa 42:25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

One more example:

Psa 104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out (H5186) the heavens like a curtain:
Psa 104:3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
Psa 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

What else is “stretched out?”

Exo 6:6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out(H5186) arm, and with great judgments:

Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch(H5186) forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

Here is our neighbor and our enemy.

Exo 7:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

Our neighbor and our enemy is no different. They are one and the same, just as the Lord our God is ONE.

Mar 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

The reason we are to love God first is because when we put Him first, we will realize that God Himself causes all things to be the way they are. ALL THINGS!!

The reason we are to love our neighbor as ourselves is because we are them, but they don’t KNOW it.

Because of the Gospel we carry, we are ENEMIES. Because of the ELECTION, they are BELOVED.

Mar 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Luk 6:27 But I say unto you WHICH HEAR, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Luk 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

The fire they carry is given to them by the Lord, but the ROD WE CARRY is given to us by JEHOVAH.

We come bearing His Name, His Glory and His marks in OUR BODY, and that is why when we FIRST come to them. We show them the POWER of the ROD placed in our hands from the Hand of the Lord.

Next week, Lord willing, we will finish up chapter 7 of Exodus and continue to see the admonishments we are given to bring the great judgments of God to Egypt and the Israelites alike.

1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

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