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Awesome Hands – part 63

“The fowls in the earth

August 13, 2014

We left off in Exodus 16 with the Israelites being told their hunger would be met with manna raining from heaven.

The Israelites were also told a great secret that they themselves did not know was being told to them.

This is where we will pick up in this story with the Israelites and where we should see ourselves being worked with in this endless story of the condition all of mankind find themselves in.

Exo 16:8  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 that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
Exo 16:9  And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.

The secret given to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear is that the Lord created the fowls of the air on the fifth day, and this is what we partake of while we are “in the night, in death”.

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Gen 1:23  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

It is before the day breaks on the day of man, the 6^th day, that the fowls are created “to multiply in the earth.”

This is how God has designed His creation, but do not distress. It is “in the morning” that the Lord comes.

Exo 16:10  And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Rev 14:14  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

As we just read, the Lord hears our murmurings and sets these things in motion. In other words, the Lord knows exactly where the Israelites are and what their needs are.

It is the Lord who has led them into the wilderness to be tempted with these situations, and before He leads them into temptation, He has also prepared a way of escape.

The way of escape is in Him. How then does this have practical application for us today?

We will read a little more and “let” the scripture answer for themselves.

Exo 16:11  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 16:12  I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
Exo 16:13  And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
Exo 16:14  And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
Exo 16:15  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

I haven’t heard many sermons point out or emphasize that this appearing of manna was also brought after the quails, the fowl of the air, where brought to cover the camp of the Israelites.

It is BEFORE we eat the “bread from heaven” that we must eat the flesh that “covers the camp”.

Since we are to take this physical story and learn the spiritual realities which apply to us today, I will point out that the true bread is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is His body. He and we are bread from heaven.

The bread that comes to us cometh riding on a cloud of great witnesses. So, it is incumbent upon us to realize our role and place in this multi membered body of Christ.

When we witness to anything the Lord has done in our lives, to someone who is still “eating flesh”, we are witnessing to that person why the bread from heaven is BETTER to eat. It fills us. This is how we, and they, will know that “I am the Lord”.

Ayo wrote in an email recently a comment that is a great parallel on this concept and I just read his email before this study. I thought it was appropriate, so I added it to these notes.

Ayo wrote, “God has also given us a measure of His holy Spirit that enables His Servants/disciples/Elect, that is, the Heavens, to discern between the vain letters – unclean spirit- that is purposed to be part of the veil that blinds many and fixate their eyes upon the earthy, AND the new and living skilful way of discernment -the Spirit – that brings us behind/through the veil.”

Truly, the difference of the night and day is that once the morning star comes on His cloud of great witnesses and embeds Himself in His people, we are able to discern with the Spirit what it is the Lord is saying to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

That is why we do these studies. It is through the church that God uses the foolishness of preaching to purge and clean what the fowls of the air “leave behind” when they are flying around in our heavens.

The fowl of the air fly in the heavens, where the clouds are, and that is to say where the mindset of God is.

The fowls of the air multiply and FILL the earth (the church) and it is WATER that cleanses and WASHES away those very things.

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

It is the washing of the water by the WORD (coming on a cloud) that does away with what the fowls have been sent to do, concentrate on FLESH.

Here then is the difference of being filtering through water (of which clouds are made of) versus not.

Num 19:19  And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
Num 19:20  But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean.

 

“The Work of His body”

Continuing in Exodus we read:

Exo 16:16  This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
Exo 16:17  And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Exo 16:18  And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
Exo 16:19  And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Exo 16:20  Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
Exo 16:21  And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

The progression of us taking what the Lord has given us with the feeling of our bellies with His bread, is that when we realize that the work of the Lord is doing what He tells us to do, we will have nothing to do tomorrow.

We will start off the next day picking up more of the work of the Lord and doing whatever is needed for that day.

The Israelites were told to go out and gather each day what was needed for those in your tent. When we obey the commandments of the Lord, we will never lack and never have anything left over. We will never be adding to or taking away from the Word of God.

In this type and shadow it is a direct correlation to the bread that is being given to us.

As a body collectively, we should all endeavor to do our part to fulfill our role in the body of Christ.

The Lord will make manifest to us what our gifts are for His glory, and when those gifts are made manifest, it is then that we put them to work.

Once we put these works into action, we will realize that we can do the works of the Lord in a wrong way or the right way.

If we do it in our way, it is not keeping the commandments of the Lord. If we do it exactly as instructed, we will be keeping the commandments of the Lord and keeping obedience and not sacrifice.

Exo 16:22  And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Exo 16:23  And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 16:24  And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Exo 16:25  And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26  Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
Exo 16:27  And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

This is the second time recently that we have read the “there were some” that did not do as they were instructed.

It was given to Moses to tell the people what the commandments of the Lord were. The first time, some folks decided to leave the manna till the morning and it rotted.

This is telling us that when there is work of the Lord to do, do it and you won’t have any left over. If you have a call to make, make it. If you have an email to respond to, respond to it, but do it as soon as you are able. The Lord knows the intentions of your heart and also knows the situation you are in. Be faithful in a little and you will be rewarded to be faithful in a lot.

Likewise, don’t assume there will be “tomorrow” to do the work of the Lord. Don’t assume you will be able to go on out on the seventh day and gather manna when the Lord has clearly stated this will be a day of rest.

The Lord does not change, and there will be a certain way He reacts to disobeying His directives.

Exo 16:28  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

We may not be good at keeping track of the times we disobey the Lord in how we decide to keep His commandments but there certainly is a tally being kept of the Lord.

This isn’t being said to cause anyone to stress or worry about what the Lord is doing with you, but it is being mentioned simply to point out that the Lord tells us in scripture that we will all give an account.

Exo 16:29  See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo 16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day.
Exo 16:31  And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
Exo 16:32  And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
Exo 16:33  And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.
Exo 16:34  As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
Exo 16:35  And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Exo 16:36  Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

We are told to take the miracle of the manna that the Lord has given to us and store it and lay it up before the testimony.

This hearkens back to us remembering where our witness lies and being able to call upon that testimony for others.

It is in the wilderness of Sin that we are given the Bread of Life, but we are not expected to stay in this wilderness indefinitely.