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Awesome Hands – part 58

“The Lord of the north”
June 11, 2014

As we start this study today, we have been gathered together by the work of the Lord in our lives for whatever purposes He has gathered us together.

When we think about that, we can compare those thoughts to what it might have been like for the Israelites as the Lord worked it in their lives to be where we find them in Exodus 14, the focus of this study.

Where we find the Israelites is firmly in the palm of the hands of our mighty Lord.  The Hebrew word “yad” is mentioned six different times in this chapter alone in verses Exodus 14:8, 14:16, 14:21, 14:26, 14:27 and 14:30.

What we can know from this simple observation is that the Lord wants to show us the power that He possesses to control the reins and the bridle of our mouths i.e. our hearts.

Mat 15:11  Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

Mat 15:18  But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

Psa 32:9  Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

Psa 39:1  To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

Isa 30:27  Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

Isa 30:28  And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

Jas 3:2  For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

Indeed, the Lord is causing all things to work after the counsel of His own will and we can glean a little bit more about His will as we examine what He causes the Israelites to experience and do in Exodus 14 and throughout the scripture.
“Pihahiroth”

Exo 14:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
Exo 14:3  For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
Exo 14:4  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

There are many revealing things contained within these four verses but I am only going to be able to cover them briefly due to time constraints. I encourage you to study these things to see if they be so as you are able to find time.

First, we are told that the Lord tells Moses to speak to the children of Israel to encamp at the third and final location before finally crossing the Red Sea.

At the end of chapter 13 we are told the 1^st and second locations together.

Exo 13:20  And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

Succoth is interesting because this is the first stop the Israelites made when the left Egypt. This is also where Jacob made booths for his cattle and built a house for himself.

Gen 33:17  And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

Yes, isn’t it interesting that the first place we find refuge as Israelites is where Jacob first builds his house after he had “seen the face of Esau as though he had seen the face of God”.

Gen 33:10  And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.

Jacob then journeys on to buy a piece of a field and erects an altar to God. The Israelites encamp in Etham which means “with them: their plowshare”.

The likeness in what Jacob and his sons do in Shalem in Gen 33/34 and the Israelites now finding themselves in the same place is that their second stopping point in Etham is that they are given God’s commandments while being in relative peace.

“Shalem” means “complete, safe, peaceful, perfect, whole, full, at peace”. Of course the sons of Jacob slew a whole town there due to Dinah being defiled, but God leads them from there to journey on to Bethel all the while protecting them. Jacob his house bury their false idols under an oak and they make their journey.

Gen 35:3  And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

Now, in Etham God leads His people day and night through the wilderness to their third place of rest in Pihahiroth.

Exo 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

I covered those points to bring us to where we now can see that God has undoubtedly led the Israelites to where we find them.

Where we find them is in the land of judgment, and for us today, this is a type of where our old man is brought directly to the judgment seat of God.

I named this study “The Lord of the north” but our God is the One True God, and among other things,  He is a God of judgment and biblically speaking, judgment comes from the north.

Where does judgment begin? It begins at house of God. What does Bethel mean? It means “house of God”, which is this third stop for Jacob and his house that we are comparing today.

In this type and shadow of where we find the Israelites, they are now “over against Baalzephon” in Pihahiroth.

Baalzephon means “the master or Lord of the north” and is actually another name given to Zeus by the Greek Hellenes, but this is where we find the Israelites? So, what can we glean from this?

Just look at what the Lord has caused in that He is going to bring final judgment on the King of Egypt i.e. our old man.

He brings the Israelites “over against the Lord of the north” and He does so as to:

Exo 14:3  For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

Pharaoh will think that Israel has been brought to the base of this mountain and on the shore of the sea to be destroyed by him. The Truth however for the “god” on the throne of God (a type and shadow) is that the Pharaoh is being brought to “the Lord of the north” to be destroyed!

Exo 14:4  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured (H3513) upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

After all that has happened with the plagues and the death of the first born to cap it off, the Lord is once again going to harden the Pharaoh’s heart to follow after the tribes of Israel.

I find it quite revealing that Jacob was pursued by his twin brother Esau in what looked like a certain peril to Jacob and his entire house with him. Now, fast forward many hundreds of years and you find the tribes of Israel facing the SAME situation of being pursued to their apparent destruction.

Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t change. He is Faithful.

These stories were played out to show us, the Jews which are one inwardly, that no matter the amount of time that passes, no matter the circumstances, the Lord has proven to us that He will deliver us.

In fact, the Lord BRINGS us to place of deliverance to DELIVER US. He literally causes us to be where we NEED to call out to Him in our distresses so that He “will be honoured upon Pharaoh”. So what does that mean?

H3513

kâbad  /  kâbêd

BDB Definition:

1) to be heavy, be weighty, be grievous, be hard, be rich, be honourable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honoured

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to be heavy

1a2) to be heavy, be insensible, be dull

1a3) to be honoured

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be made heavy, be honoured, enjoy honour, be made abundant

1b2) to get oneself glory or honour, gain glory

1c) (Piel)

1c1) to make heavy, make dull, make insensible

1c2) to make honourable, honour, glorify

1d) (Pual) to be made honourable, be honoured

1e) (Hiphil)

1e1) to make heavy

1e2) to make heavy, make dull, make unresponsive

1e3) to cause to be honoured

1f) (Hithpael)

1f1) to make oneself heavy, make oneself dense, make oneself numerous

1f2) to honour oneself

Part of Speech: verb

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root

Look at the times it is used other places:

H3513

kâbad  /  kâbêd

Total KJV Occurrences: 115

honour, 23

Exo_14:17-18 (2), Exo_20:12, Num_22:17, Num_22:37, Num_24:11, Deu_5:16, Jdg_9:9, Jdg_13:17, 1Sa_15:30 (3), 2Sa_6:22, 2Sa_10:3, 1Ch_19:3, Job_14:21, Pro_3:9, Pro_4:8, Isa_29:13, Isa_43:20, Isa_58:13, Dan_11:38 (2)

heavy, 16

1Sa_4:18, 1Sa_5:6, 1Sa_5:11, 2Sa_14:26, 1Ki_12:10, 1Ki_12:14, 2Ch_10:10, 2Ch_10:14, Neh_5:18, Job_33:7, Psa_38:4 (2), Isa_6:10, Isa_24:20, Isa_59:1, Lam_3:7

honourable, 13

Gen_34:19, Num_22:15, 1Sa_9:6, 1Sa_22:14, 2Sa_23:19, 2Sa_23:23, 1Ch_4:9, 1Ch_11:21, 1Ch_11:25, Isa_23:9, Isa_43:4, Isa_58:13, Nah_3:10

glorify, 7

Psa_22:23, Psa_50:15, Psa_86:9, Psa_86:12, Isa_24:15, Isa_25:3, Jer_30:19

glorified, 6

Lev_10:3, Isa_26:15, Isa_66:5, Eze_28:22, Eze_39:13, Hag_1:8

glorious, 5

Deu_28:58, 2Sa_6:20, Psa_87:3, Isa_49:5, Isa_60:13

hardened, 5

Exo_8:15, Exo_8:32, Exo_9:34, Exo_10:1, 1Sa_6:6

honoured, 5

Exo_14:4, Pro_27:18 (2), Isa_43:23, Lam_1:8

honoureth, 4

Psa_15:4, Pro_12:9, Pro_14:31, Mal_1:6

heavier, 3

Job_6:3, Pro_27:2-3 (2)

promote, 3

Num_22:17, Num_22:37, Num_24:11

sore, 3

Jdg_20:34, 1Ch_10:3 (2)

chargeable, 2

2Sa_13:25, Neh_5:15

many, 2

Nah_3:15 (3)

abounding, 1

Pro_8:24

afflict, 1

Isa_9:1

boast, 1

2Ch_25:19

bring, 1

Pro_4:8

dim, 1

Gen_48:10

get, 1

Exo_14:17

glorifieth, 1

Psa_50:23

glory, 1

2Ki_14:10

grievous, 1

Gen_18:20

grievously, 1

Isa_9:1

harden, 1

1Sa_6:6

heavily, 1

Isa_47:6 (2)

honourest, 1

1Sa_2:29

more, 1

Gen_34:19

nobles, 1

Psa_149:8

prevailed, 1

Jdg_1:35

rich, 1

Gen_13:2

stopped, 1

Zec_7:11

I want to focus in on a few key verses which deal directly with the topic we are discussing today. Those verses are:

hardened, 5

Exo_8:15, Exo_8:32, Exo_9:34, Exo_10:1, 1Sa_6:6

Exo 8:14  And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.
Exo 8:15  But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

Exo 8:32  And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

Exo 10:1  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:

The Hebrew word used here as hardened is the same Hebrew word used to “be honoured upon Pharaoh”.

Exo 14:4  And I will harden(H2388) Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured (H3513) upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so
The Hebrew word used as “harden”, which is found in the same verse is a DIFFERENT Hebrew word and means to “fasten upon, to seize, to be strong”.

In other words, the Lord is going to strengthen the Pharaoh’s heart so that the Lord can make known the abundant power He has over all the nations of the  world. This is the honour, the glory and the richness that this process brings out to everyone.

As a perfect example of that, we will finish up this part of the study with the last example found which is listed as “hardened” but many other times as “honoured” or “glorified”.

The verses is 1 Sam 6:6, but I want to read it in context to give as a grasp of what the Lord is working in Exodus 14, and by extension, in us to this very day.

1Sa 5:9  And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
1Sa 5:10  Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
1Sa 5:11  So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
1Sa 5:12  And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Continuing in chapter 6:

1Sa 6:1  And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
1Sa 6:2  And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.
1Sa 6:3  And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
1Sa 6:4  Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
1Sa 6:5  Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
1Sa 6:6  Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
1Sa 6:7  Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:
1Sa 6:8  And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.
1Sa 6:9  And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.

And the confirmation verse that proves this was a work of the Lord:

1Sa 6:12  And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.

The point of this story is to bring about the end result of the people of God turning or “preparing” their hearts towards God. That is accomplished ONLY BECAUSE the Lord put them in the situations that they were in which required supernatural intervention.

1Sa 7:3  And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

Indeed, the Lord is going to need a sacrifice to bring about freedom as a result. In the case of this story in Samuel, the Philistines were going to be healed of the emerods by providing a sacrifice.

There is also the number 5 mentioned, twice which witnesses to the grave of God but ALSO to the fact that this whole lesson is about the “completeness of the flesh” i.e. the work the Lord is working in us all to bring about the ushering in of the new man as the old man is slain.

Jacob stopped in Succoth, then Shalem, then on to Bethel to show us this process. The tribes of Jacob go to Succoth, Etham and then Pihahiroth to show us the Lord doesn’t change and He takes His people through this same process.

What this process concludes with is that the old man pursues us to what appears to be utter destruction only to be the one who is destroyed.

Before that happens though, we have the old man who is given a puffed up and glorified “honorable” heart that what he is doing is what needs to be done. Only problem is, that this link of logic and reasoning leads to his destruction.

What happens as a result is that the new man is brought to live by having a “new heart” in that the Lord provides deliverance as we prepare our hearts unto the Lord.

In the next study, we are going to continue in the 14^th chapter of Exodus and come to the climax of the work the Lord does for us in the “first baptism” of the Red Sea.