Out of Egypt

"All around us are the remnants of Egypt."

GOD SENT Abram from Ur, a city far to the east, to a land He would give him and his seed. He sent them, a barren couple, to a place heavily occupied by other cultures with the promise they would own it one day. Isaac, Abraham’s miracle child, and Jacob, Isaac’s son, all lived there basically as nomads. Hebrews 11 says they had faith without receiving the fulfillment of the promise.

Then Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph, was sold into Egyptian slavery and prophesied the nation’s freedom by ordering his bones be taken to the Promised Land, the same spot which God had said was theirs. Not to gloss over a lot of miracles, at this point, but stay with me here. Then Moses, who’d fled Egypt in fear, was sent back to Egypt to lead Israel out in great victory, and the nation of Israel, which we are told far outnumbered the Egyptians, carried out all they owned and most of what the Egyptians had left.

If we, once more, gloss over the story of the Red Sea and put Israel up against the Promised Land, here, they faltered, seeing the inhabitants which God had promised they would conquer, as unconquerable. Instead, they feared and begged to return to Egypt. God, instead, rebuked them, and they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years, until their children, the next generation returned to it. Now, we have the crossing of the Jordan and the conquering of the land. To go into such fantastic detail would require far too much space. But in essence, what God had promised to Abram (Abraham) and had promised to Isaac and Jacob, what Joseph had prophesied (need I point out, they carried his bones around in the wilderness for forty years?) finally came to pass.

Except … they grew more and more sinful there until every good prophet for miles was spouting warnings about Babylon. You know, at some point, you need to wake up. The Old Testament books of prophecy pretty much warned them what would happen, what was happening, and what had just happened. We even have warnings to the people who conquered them. On every page, God pours out His heart for Israel, His covenant people. From so many prophets, He warns of the consequences of their sins then promises them mercy. He begs them to turn around, repent, and see Him as faithful, as blessing.

“Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.” (Hosea 10:12 BSB)

God’s heart for them was not Egypt. Jacob moved to Egypt to be with his son, Joseph, and was blessed there. His family became millions. But the time came when God wanted them to be where He’d promised they would be, in their own land, a fruitful land He’d prepared for them. Standing on its borders, they mourned for Egypt. Their children conquering it, forty years later, they acted like Egypt. Even in the temple, built for God’s worship, they placed altars for false gods with disgusting rituals which wearied the Lord. “I’m tired of your sacrifices,” He said. What was meant for their cleansing became, instead, their destruction.

Yet, not an end of them because there amidst the prophet’s words is a thread which binds them to the altar He’d erected and the Messiah He would send to carry away the sins of the entire world. Hosea 11:1 says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son (BSB).” It all circles back to there. Jesus literally came out of Egypt, after his parents fled there to escape Herod’s rampage against children. But He spiritually came out of Egypt, being a child of Israel who’d spent the majority of their existence laboring for gods who did not exist.

The miracles that had set them free of Egypt as a people under Moses were all against Egyptian gods, including the crossing of the Red Sea. So the idea Egypt could save them from those giants who lived in the Promised Land, which the Lord had promised they would conquer, was deception, as was the worship of the golden calf, and their cry for meat when God daily sent them heaven’s manna. The prophet Hosea says years later, they didn’t even recognize themselves. They looked like Egypt yet lived in Eden. King Solomon predicted it when he married Pharaoh’s daughter then asked for wisdom. One does not mix with the other.

“Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.” (Hosea 7:9 BSB)

Jesus gave us a great commission, to GO YE into all the world. The writer of Hebrews tells us God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. Yet, again in the prophets, we hear them predict the shaking of the heavens and the earth. All around us are the remnants of Egypt. Not just in false gods, idols created with men’s hands, which we are told to bow and worship, but in the thinking of the church. We should be unshakeable. Yet, we bow in our anxieties, in our fears for the nation, in our negative-self-talk, in our hatred for each other and our vapid criticism of people. We fear Egypt when our being unshakeable is a positive thing, a God-thing. It means because of who we are, as God’s children, we are strong and well-able. It means we are on His side. He may shake the heavens, but what is resident there? If our kingdom is not shaken, then the devil’s kingdom is. Egypt is built on sand. We stand firm on the Rock. And there’s the difference.

From Israel came the Son of God, the Word made flesh. Out of Egypt, from spiritual bondage, came a nation made for Him. Out of persecution came strength which stands exactly where God promised it would be. On a tiny slip of land, between Egypt and Ur and Ishmael, sprinkled with Esau and the history of the prophets, came redemption, and across the ocean, sprawled from shore-to-shore is the land of freedom, dedicated to the premise that all men are created equal. Not in our self-effort. We prove this day-in and day-out. But it is God who holds us together, and the church made up of people in love with Him that goes out to heal all those that Egypt would slaughter.

We are not pews. We are not a building of electronics. We are not there to increase our foothold, nor to increase our population and hold more services. We are there for people. We are there to save and heal and deliver lives, in Jesus’ name, because He loves them. We are there to be the ones whose prayers shake the heavens and cause all that must be shaken to crumble.

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:6-7)

“This shaking we interpret with anxiety and panic attacks as the last days, the antichrist, and we hope we’re getting outta here, in fact, God says, ‘I promise I’m going to shake everything because the unshakeable kingdom is going to increase in its manifestation as a result of everything I shake.’ So that means God is the one doing the shaking, not Satan. You’re looking on this side of the equation, and you’re seeing the darkness getting darker. What you’re not seeing – the reason it’s getting darker is because the heavens are shaking, and Satan is being pushed out of his position. And because he’s being pushed out of his position, you’re seeing more and more manifestation of darkness upon the earth. But it’s not an increase of darkness because the devil’s getting stronger, it’s because he’s getting weaker.” | Lance Wallnau

Images by Jozef Mikulcik from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com