The Carpenter's Chapel (8)

[Watchman]

Exodus 3

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14)
The Lord Jesus said in John 8 the unless ye believe that I am he ye shall die in our sins. "He" here is in italics and so, it was felt by the translators that it was needed to make sense in English.. The fact remains that The Lord did not say this "He" and is clearly a reference to verse 14 here. The God that spoke to Moses here is the God who died for our sins on Calvary.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 4

And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? (Exodus 4:11)

While there is much that could be commented on in chapter 4, verse 11 sticks out for me. The so-called prosperity, health-wealth, name-it-and-claim-it, blab-it-and-grab-it crowd would have us to believe that one is only afflicted by one of these things because of a lack of faith. That is nonsense because God Himself here takes responsibility for people being deaf, dumb and blind. It is not for us to question God on His motives for anything He does. Perhaps it is to show the true power of faith. Many people see that there is a God, in spite of never seeing anything. Many hear His voice, but are deaf. Others can give great testimonies of God's grace while never saying a word. God does not need human senses to speak of His glory.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 5

And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go. (Exodus 5:2)
While it is true that God said to Moses that He would harden Pharaoh's heart, there is no reason to believe that God did anything to Pharaoh up to this point. No, Pharaoh, by his own actions and words, as we see in verse 2, is responsible for the devastation of his country that will occur in the following chapters. Those that do not want to have anything to do with God will get their wish-forever.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 7

“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. “(2Timothy 3:8)
It is believed by many that the two named here were none other than the magicians, wizards, or whatever you want to call them, that were able to seemingly reproduce what Moses and Aaron did by the power of God-up to a limit that is. All this was done by the power of Satan and his fellow fallen angels. Considering all that we see here, coupled with what we see in the book of Job, one wonders just how much power Satan can muster. The aim of Satan and his cohorts, of course is to convince all that they can is that God is not really God and, specifically, that the Lord Jesus is not the way to be saved.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 8

Can you believe verse 10? Frogs were everywhere and Moses gives the guy a choice as to when he will entreat the Lord to remove them. Wouldn't you think that he would say something like "Now would be a good time!" But nooooo, "Oh, tomorrow after you get up and around and have breakfast, if you wouldn't mind..." What? Was it because of the frog legs feast he was having that night? Incredible. He would wind up, if it was today, on one of the "World's Dummest" shows. The mind of the natural man, not only doesn't know the things of th Spirit of God, but, sometimes, doesn't even make sense.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 11

“But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” (Exodus 11:7)
It was many years ago that the pastor came up to a young man to say that in two weeks he was to deliver the Wednesday message to the church. Now, the young man had never done anything like that before. What would he speak on? What passage of Scripture would he use? Well. The latter part of this verse stuck in his mind: “…the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” We all know that Exodus is spoken of as being symbols: Egypt as the world, or sin; Pharaoh as the devil; Moses as the Lord Jesus, and, of course the Egyptians as the unsaved and the Israelis as the saved. In that sense, there is, indeed, a big difference. There is a difference in their relationship with God, their eternal future, in essence, where they are and where they are headed. There was a difference then, and there is a difference now.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 12:

"And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof." (Exodus 12:48)
Again the symbolism here: The uncircumcised were to have no part in the Passover meal. Neither today do the "uncircumcised in heart," that is, the unsaved, have any business partaking of baptism or the Lord's
Supper. Babies are born into the world little sinners, born into a fallen race. When you baptize a baby you get a wet baby, nothing more. Also, when you partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily, you risk having a shortened life. This is a very serious matter, that is not to be taken lightly.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 13

The rejection of our Lord by the Jews is a great tragedy indeed. But, in spite of this, they still believe in a Messiah, who is spoken of in the Bible. One of their views as to who the Messiah is that the Messiah is Israel itself. As to the Scripture “Out of Egypt have I called my son” they say that is exactly what is being depicted here, Israel was, indeed, called out of Egypt. Many other Scriptures, that we all would call Messianic prophesies do they try to apply to Israel itself. Maybe so, but there are too many of these prophecies that speaks of one particular man, as well as those that speak of very specific events that cannot apply to the Exodus. The other view by the Jews as to who the Messiah raises even more concern: that the Messiah is yet to come. This is tragic because they will believe, at least at first, the false Messiah, who will be no friend of anyone.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 14

“The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!” That is a great quote from our passage today. We all know by now the symbolism of Egypt/Egyptians on the one hand and Israel/Israelis on the other. The world and it's children against Gods redeemed out of the world. How many have lamented that they cannot live the Christian life; that's right folks, you can't! Galatians 2:20 tells us, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Abiding in the vine (John 15) and trusting Him is the only way.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 15

“Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” (Exodus 15:1)
God has just given a great victory to the children of Israel over a powerful enemy, Pharaoh. By his own words and abstinence that we saw back in chapter 5 verse 2, set in motion the events that led to the destruction of his nation, culminating in the great loss of his army that was depicted in the last chapter. As a result, we see Moses and all Israel joining in a great song of praise to God.
But this is not the last time we see the “Song of Moses” in the Bible. God in the future will give the tribulation saints victory over a far more sinister foe: the Antichrist.
“And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” (Revelation 15:3) God separated His people from an evil ruler to instruct and rule over them. He will again when our Lord returns to set up His kingdom.

 

[Gwyneth]

thank you Charles. :flower:

 

[following-Him]

Amen. Thank you Charles.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 16

We have just seen many great signs and wonders that God showed in His deliverance of His people from Egypt. In answer to that, skeptics have come up with all kinds of explanations as to how those wonders could be accounted for by natural means. Even the dividing of the Red Sea, they say, could have been done by wind. However, the harshest critic cannot explain how a whole nation, of anywhere from one to two million people were able to live while wondering in the wilderness for forty year. They had no time to plant and grow crops and their flocks wouldn’t last long living on them.
Well, how it was done is seen here in this chapter. God provided them manna, that is, bread from heaven. As God provided bread from heaven to sustain the Israelites in the wilderness, God provided the true bread from heaven in His Son (John 6:32.) By partaking of the Living Bread, the Lord Jesus, we have eternal life and will live with Him forever.

 

[Gwyneth]

I am truly grateful to you, Charles, for these daily lessons, and have started to read the excerpts from Torey which you posted at the start of this thread. These are a great comfort to me. Thank you, and may God bless you richly in this ministry.
Gwyneth

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 17

“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” (1Corinthians 10: 4)
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” (Ephesians 5:25-26)
Again we see another example of an event in the Old Testament speaking of the Lord Jesus. I don’t recall which one of the great preachers of the past, it may have been H.A. Ironside, but I can’t be sure. He had someone come to him who said that he has a lot of trouble understanding the Old Testament. The preacher advised him that, on every page, put the Lord Jesus there. He did and he could say that he now understood. Well, we see the Lord here as well. Christ is certainly the rock and out of His mouth comes God’s word (symbolized in Scripture as a sharp two-edged sword.) In fact, He is the Word of God incarnate. Like life-sustaining water came from the rock depicted here in this passage, the hearing and obeying the word that comes from the Lord brings life (John 4.)

 

[following-Him]

Thank you Charles.

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 18

The various commentaries on the Bible are all over the place concerning Jethro. Some say he was in fact Moses brother-in-law. This is possible; consider that the name of the man Moses dwelt with, who gave him his daughter to marry was named Reuel (chapter 2 verses 18-21.) Also, he is said to be the priest of Midian, but the word “priest” could also be “prince:” If he was a priest, one must ask: who’s priest? Was he a priest of the one true God? Or, was he another priest after the order of Melchizedek? Considering this is unlikely, “prince” is the most likely rendering here. Certainly, it is highly unlikely that Moses would marry into the family of some pagan priest.
Now, those that just love to criticize the Bible are very fond of situations like this to show that the Bible has contradictions, it is not reliable. But every one of these supposed contradictions or misstatements have simple and reasonable explanations. Here we have two possibilities. Firstly, of course, is that Jethro and Reuel are one and the same person. When I was growing up and walking down the street and someone behind me were to yell out “Charles!” I would not even turn around. That was my name, but I was never called that. The other possibility is that Jethro came as the representative of their father, Reuel.
Critics of God’s word do not want to accept any explanations for problems they find in the Bible, most likely, because they do not want it to be true, it condemns their sin and calls for holiness.

 

[Gwyneth]

thank you ,Charles.:wavey:

 

[following-Him]

Thank you Charles for that very interesting clarification.

Blessings

following-Him

 

[Watchman]

Exodus 19

“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine” “If - then,” we
understand what that means, this expression is even used in computer programs. It says that if certain conditions, events or obligations on the one hand are met; there will be certain blessings or promises fulfilled in reaction. We have seen the dispensation of direct rule or blessing, the dispensation of conscience, the dispensation of human government and the dispensation of promise. What begins now is the dispensation of the Law. It is the one dispensation where “if – then” truly applies, this is a conditional covenant. But there was a problem with the Law. Oh, the Law is holy, just and good. But we (all of us) are weak in the flesh. How sad it is that all too many of the Jews (and others who feel they want to be under the law), fail to realize that God Himself solved the problem, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:” (Romans 8:3) My prayer is that all would come to the realization that we are under the dispensation of grace, not law. You do not want to be under the law!