Are We There Yet?

Post 236

I think we have all been on a long drive when heard from the back seat is the regular query; “Are we there yet?”  I find this question very applicable within the church today from those who have not studied the roadmap of the faith. We all know salvation is the beginning but what lies ahead is for anyone to guess… or is it? (Matthew 13:11,35).

I Corinthians 10:6&11 reveal to us how we are to read the historical record of the Hebrews in the Old Testament scriptures as Paul’s short narrative ends with verse 5 before going on to expound on his point. So we find verses 6 and 11 are pivotal between the instructional events of the past and our application of them here in the End Times;

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples (*1): and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” I Corinthians 10:11.

We need to know “what things” Paul speaks of, so lets review his first four verses;

“Moreover, brethren…” I Corinthians 10:1

Again we see the nature of scripture to be such an integrated message system that it is very difficult to break out just a portion without loosing something. Yet for now I simply must over shoot the concept of chapter 9 that leads into chapter 10 except to say that with receipt of anything of value there is payment that is reasonably obligatory (Romans 12:1). Some recognize the justification of the obligation and give it in gratitude of what was received while others stumble at the “obligation” forgetting they received something of worth.

In I Corinthians 9:16-17 Paul shows that even those providing the service also have their own obligation to this principle in their service; having themselves received from elsewhere what they offer. Without wishing to limit the meaning, we see that Paul is actually teaching an attitude rather than a rule; i.e. the law of liberty. Attitudes are very hard to teach from paper and ink. This attitude of gratefulness for service is shown in the principle of tithe and offering (Genesis 14:20, Leviticus 27:30-33, Numbers 18:24, Deuteronomy 26:12), but that is an entire study of its own so lets move forward having established that the attitude of recompense for something valuable received should be given with joy and gratefulness and is therefore no longer payment but a gift of love. With this perspective of importance for a grateful heart moving us to action, we move into Chapter 10 with “moreover, brethren”:

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them (came later): and that Rock was Christ”

I Corinthians 10:1-4.

Without an intimate familiarity with the Old Testament history of the Hebrew’s journey from slavery in Egypt - through the wilderness - to the Promised Land, the previous verses are just so much poetry and not a specific list of something very valuable received for which recompense of gratitude is needfully obligatory. We need to know this history of services provided, which is why it was written in scripture (Exodus chapters 3-24,32-34).

I anticipate perhaps writing a whole book on Abraham and Moses as their lives acted out in type-and-shadow the representations of God the Father and the Son of God respectively. With the huge volume of scriptural documentation revealing this I am surprised I have not seen such a book already written and surely there must be.

Likewise, the Hebrew people making that journey were acting out the representation of all believers in Christ as we follow Christ through the wilderness of this life making our way to the true Promised Land we now know as the Kingdom of Heaven that will literally come down from heaven and remain among men (Revelation 3:12, Daniel 7:27). In the prophetic pattern of onion layers they also represented their last days direct descendent Jews as Christ himself finally gathers them to the true Promised Land at his second coming (Genesis 49:1, Deuteronomy 4:30) But I get ahead of myself (Deuteronomy 31:29) we’re not there yet.

As you read the interesting Exodus “story” and find some very strange Out Of Place events documented there (OOP  Google it!), you will find yourself asking; “Why in the world would THAT be written in scripture?”(example: Exodus 4:24-26 explained in later posts). This is the same question the Jewish children of later generations asked regarding the pile of 12 stones taken from the Jordan River; “What mean ye by these stones?” (Joshua 4:3-7). Therefore I have coined these strange passages of scripture and similar temporal landmarks; “Jordan Stones” because they are there precisely to make us ask the question and search out the forgotten but important educational point that alters our perception. The name Horse Latitude is just such a Jordan Stone of our own age as I have shown in post 175 The Four Winds 3-21-11

(http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/03/four-winds.html).

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The Meaning Of Life?

Now getting back to our first four verses of I Corinthians 10; Do you suppose these people who endured the hardships of the long journey through the desert wilderness had any idea they were living out a representation of the deeper spiritual reality common to the timeless redeemed of Christ and were a message of spiritual instruction to all believers thereafter, as well as a prophecy of a deep level journey for the Jewish people still to come? Of course not; They simply lived their lives one day at a time in the hardship of wilderness living where they found themselves, (though albeit with some very unusual events). Will you be surprised to learn that you too are a similar instructional message to an age and dimension not your own? “…which things the angels desire to look into” I Peter 1:5-12. Such knowledge should inspire you to be the best ensample *1 possible, for your life really isn’t about you.

But while the Exodus narrative gives far more detail of those experiences and their reactions for our education, Paul’s I Corinthians 10 passage focuses on the highlights of God’s miraculous provision at that time for a specific instruction to us.

What was Paul driving at?

All those Hebrew people (described as the forefathers in faith of the modern generation of Greek believers he was addressing; [I Corinthians 1:2]) experienced the same events and the same provisions individually and collectively:

1)     Every one of them dwelled in the shadow of the guiding pillar cloud of God (Exodus 13:21) representing the leading of the Holy Spirit.

2)     Every one of them actually and personally walked across the dry sea floor with the walls of the seawater on either side as they followed Moses (Exodus 14:21-22) representing our baptism unto Christ our Savior.

In so doing we are told here that all these people by these experiences were baptized unto Moses, a type of Christ, who led them through it representing salvation protection and guidance from the Pagan control of their former Egyptian life of slavery that represents our bondage to sin. All they had to do was follow Moses wherever God told him to lead and judge them as a representation of Christ (John 5:19-23,30, 8:28).

Now having permanently passed over in salvation from Egypt, evidenced by the physical and public baptism through the sea and by the cloud, these people were forever free from the bondage to Egypt (Mark 16:16) and were now the servants (followers) of God through their redeemer Moses the image of Christ. Could they go back the way they came even if they wanted to? No! and in fact most of them actually came to want to do just that because the way seemed hard to them (Exodus 16:3) and God foresaw that problem and made special arrangements to help them (Exodus 13:17)! But I get ahead of myself again *5.

Although these forefathers received the miracle of salvation from Egypt and were baptized unto Moses, they had not yet entered the Promised Land rest and we see by Paul’s narrative that these all experienced even more miraculous provision through that continuing difficult journey:

·       Every one of them ate the angel’s food that God provided in the wilderness, the type of the daily Word of God instruction so necessary to our lives (John 6:31-35).

·       Every one of them drank of the water that flowed from the Rock in the desert where there was no water. And just so we don’t miss this very important point, Paul simply declares that Rock was Jesus Christ who would come later; And so he came and so we drink unto spiritual life while existing in an environment (culture) where there is no life giving water *2. Such a drinker is Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who thrives on Jesus Christ while in prison awaiting the probable execution for his faith. Please pray (right now) that God would release him to continue his service for our Lord, if God wills.

Paul is showing that ALL these people as a type of believers after salvation had been given the same miraculous provision through the events of their same life experience in the difficult journey DESIGNED BY GOD for a purpose. Today we call this the Christian life after salvation on our wilderness journey to the Kingdom of Heaven. All of them had reached this point while the non-believing (Egyptians) were left behind in destruction of the plagues and of the sea. The events after the Red Sea are only for and about the believers we now call Christians in one onion layer of instruction that Paul addresses here.

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Wilderness of Sin (*3):

For brevity sake I need to quickly skip over the somewhat topically irrelevant murmuring of the whole congregation only 30 days after their freedom from Slavery (Exodus 16:1-3+Numbers 33:3), as well as God’s provision of bread for them in the wilderness and its true purpose beyond feeding them (Exodus 16:4b). It is evident by scripture that God did not rebuke them with punishment for this murmuring and we can reason that he was longsuffering with their getting used to this new life of following God after so long complaining in choice-less bondage; of course there will be some mental, physical, emotional and spiritual gymnastics at first. Just note that this first “training” was made regarding the Sabbath and how they would obey the commanded observation of it in their practical lives as they acquired their sustenance to live (Exodus 16:4-31+ 20:9-10) “…that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no”.

Paul leaves this out of his Corinthians 10 narrative because learning this lesson is not what offended God even when they failed (Exodus 16:20, 27); it was simply a thing of education to instruct them to obey in trust (faith) (Exodus 16:28-31). But that instructional period in the Wilderness of Sin came to an end though the journey did not (Exodus 16:35-17:1). By the beginning of Chapter 17 these representational people should have learned by now to trust God, as they left behind the Jr. training ground of the Wilderness of Sin. God now expects more from them than he did at the beginning because they have experienced his provision and care and guidance in real life circumstances (Hebrews 6:1-3) that He himself brought on for that purpose. In fact they should now be finding themselves rejoicing in and anticipating God’s miraculous care (James 1:2-4), Yet again we see that God had mercy on their complaint of being thirsty in a desolate land and here is where the representation of Jesus the Rock was struck (crucified) and the living water (blood of sacrifice) flowed for the people (Exodus 17:1-6) which Paul referenced in our I Corinthians 10:1-4 passage of discussion declaring that ALL were given these things (*4) but their implementation of them was less than glorious;

“But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown (2693) in the wilderness” I Corinthians 10:5.

Overthrown 2693 katastronnumi; from 2596 and 4766; to strew down, i.e. (by implication) to prostrate (slay):- overthrow.

(This is the root of our present word catastrophe!)

This wording makes it seem as if they simply did not have the ability to overcome bad circumstances and were destroyed by something far more powerful as a catastrophe. How can God blame them for that? Paul tells us by his narrative it was because not everyone was overthrown though all had the same provision. In only a few more verses Paul makes it clear that God had given all of them the provision they needed to succeed (I Corinthians 10:13) but some were nonetheless overthrown and God was not real happy (well pleased) with them.

So what was the catastrophe that brought them down? We read in Exodus 32:1 that it was Moses’ absence while he was on the mountain of God, representing Christ’s temporary return to the Father in heaven. They felt that Moses (the image of Christ) had neglected them to themselves, and so in the waiting they made other gods from their Pagan days to add to the faith they now had while they waited with diminishing expectation (Exodus 32:5-6). It was Moses who stepped in as a type of Christ and appeased God’s wrath against them (Exodus 32:10-11) but lest you imagine this gave them liberty to continue in sin under Moses protection, we see that Moses as the type of Christ went down from the mountain of God and divided the people into two groups and himself commanded the immediate slaying of some of the wicked and reserving the rest for later (Exodus 32:26-35 / Matthew 25:31-34,41, Luke 18:8).

Now I don’t want you to miss the whole point that ALL THESE WERE SAVED AND BAPTISED BELIVERS as it were, on their way to the Promised Land, yet many were nonetheless overthrown. But I shouldn’t worry that you might miss this point as Paul jumps right in to make it;

“Now these things were our ensamples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (the idolatry of self indulgent boundless pleasure). Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. (Do not generalize all these into one sin, they are different with different types of destruction though the end result of all is the same failure to enter in.)

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples (*1): and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” I Corinthians 10:6-12.

Wow, and we’ve been wrongly taught that salvation was the end game with nothing left but the waiting! You thought the Old Testament was irrelevant obsolete history! What else does the Old Testament tell us about our Christian journey? We need to consider;

“Why the long wilderness between salvation and the Promised Land?” (*5).

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*1 Ensample 5179 tupos; from 5180; a die (as struck), …specifically, a sampler (“type”), i.e. a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning)…

*2 America’s Spiritual Water of Life:

I suggested that we are in a desolate culture dry of the spiritual water of life. Well frankly though the drought has now hit, America still has some remnants of that spiritual water in our remaining righteous laws and customs based on Christ’s commandments. Yet unlike many nations, our nation is not yet destitute of righteousness, but the drought is relatively new and the effects still becoming evident as the 7 years of plenty were eventually completely consumed by the 7 years of famine in the days of Joseph (Genesis 41:30-31). America’s remaining wells of living water are being filled in just as the wells dug by Abraham in the Promised Land while under control of godless men (Genesis 26:15).

The potential recovery of life giving water to the spiritually dry soil of America is found in the representational actions of Isaac who came along after Abraham and re-dug them (Genesis 26:18). But while this universal principle remains accurate and true for any and all that would follow it, this representation is actually and specifically provided for the nation of Israel as it is prophesied that they will return to their former days when they dig again the spiritual wells that once made them great, just as is the case in their physical world with water today; The desert land is again in bloom, but the spiritual land is still desolate because they do not remember where those spiritual wells were.

Regarding America’s application of spiritual water:

In the severity of the drought of Joseph’s Egypt (Genesis 49:30) and in the pattern of the conquest of Belshazzar’s Babylon (Daniel 5:1), I have shown in posts like 148 America in Scripture

(http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/01/america-in-scripture.html),

and 149 America in Prophecy

(http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/01/america-in-prophecy.html),

that for America we did not have just wells; we were given an entire river of flowing spiritual water (the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ), and in prophetic pattern of Belshazzar, the wicked have diverted our river and our soil is quickly drying up.

While Christians in desperate hope point out every little patch of spiritually green life as evidence of recovery, I remember not long ago when the entire nation was alive in spiritual vegetation with only patches of barren soil here and there. I am labeled a defeatist by pointing out this reality in observation of a persistent drying trend and a few strands of green grass on the edge of the Dust Bowl does not impress me much though I rejoice in their life.

See Wallbuilder’s: America’s most biblically hostile administration (http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=106938)

*3 Wilderness of Sin:

“And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and (Mt.) Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt” Exodus 16:1.

Are you serious!? It is almost comical, No; it is actually comical how God arranged temporal reality to represent the true reality in such a way; The wilderness of Sin was actually named this. Along with Elim and Mount Sinai it is located in Northern Saudi Arabia East of the Gulf of Aqaba on the way after the Hebrews crossed. This is not analogy. And it was in this Wilderness of Sin that the entire congregation of people fell into murmuring (sin). Yet the real lives of these real people living in this real place, plays out like a Pilgrims Progress allegory! This is going to be hard for many to accept but the truth is that our “real life” IS an allegory of a reality more real than what we perceive we are experiencing.

The whole of the written scripture reveals this truth, and finally the best of modern science is just now catching up to this understanding in the field of Quantum Mechanics and others, but that is a whole other topic for another day. Just note here that this history of these people shows that the entire population of believers after salvation and baptism also experience the Wilderness of Sin as they find themselves in new and unfamiliar circumstance in the faith; I am not saying Christians spend time living in sin, but that the environment where they find themselves is where sin is natural and they must learn to overcome. This is training ground. How obvious does God have to make it beyond sending his representational people actually through a place called the Wilderness of Sin!? These are the sins of learning, which we can be readily forgiven for as shown in I John 1:9 and rejoice that God will not hold them against us as we learn how to trust him (Romans 8:1+).

*4 Where is the Lord?

Don’t miss the revealing comment at the end of Exodus 17:7 regarding the actual cause of their striving against thirst; “…they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?”

We must understand that they really were thirsty. They honestly could not survive long without water and yet the LORD actually led them to this desolate place and let things go until they knew they were seriously in trouble (Exodus 17:4). “What was the point?”

Knowing this Rock in the desert struck to provide flowing water was the image of Christ, we see that God also later answered their descendant’s thirsty cry by sending Jesus the Living Water; the Word-of-God-in-the-flesh actually among them as requested! (John 1:1-2,9-11). This was, as yet another foreshadowing of the thirsty cry of desperation he is still waiting to hear which will result in his second coming! (Luke 13:35). Affliction promotes a cry to God (Hosea 5:15) and as his children, God will arrange our circumstances to eliminate virtually all our other options until we have no choice but to cry out to him for our very existence. This he does for those saved from the bondage of sin and baptized unto Christ! You belong to him now and he is going to help you figure that out through the wilderness journey… if you do not fail the grace of God and be overthrown in that wilderness (Hebrews 12:12-17 vs. Matthew 11:28-30).

It was not this thirsty complaint of desperation that offended God as we see in the historical passage and we see yet another type and shadow of this onion layered desperate cry in the modern history of the holocaust that again caused them to cry out in suffering as before (Exodus 3:7, Nehemiah 9:7-15), and as before, God heard their cry and delivered them to their promised land in 1948 as a “test run” of the real deal yet to come (Jeremiah 31:33-34) from yet another period of bondage again due to rebellion (Psalm 106:43-45, Nehemiah 9:28-37. How many times of bondage and deliverance can you find in Nehemiah 9? What are the specific differences?).

“…But (unlike those people of history) ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn (Jesus), which (members) are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel (who was killed for Cain’s rejected sacrifice as the first shadow of Christ)… for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth (Moses), much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven (the risen Christ; John 5:46-47)…wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved (that thing of great value), let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably (reasonable recompense) with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” Hebrews 12:22-29.

*5 “Are we there yet?”

God himself answered the question of why it is taking so long to get to the true Kingdom of Heaven; “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea…”  Exodus 13:17-18.

And of course God was right because they still seriously considered returning to Egypt before the sea (Exodus 14:11-12), and also shortly after crossing through the sea (Exodus 16:3). Even after the long journey they found themselves in fear of war when told to take the Promised Land (Numbers 13:30-14:4) and in fear they would not go in (Numbers 14:10), in spite of all that God had carefully taught them about his power while in the wilderness of training (Numbers 14:11). And so God rejected that generation (Numbers 14:20-23), but yet saved the next Hebrew generation, by sending them away for 40 more years of training their children, beginning with the memorial of the Red Sea baptism (Numbers 14:25); a year for every day they failed God in the final exam (Hebrews 3:8, Numbers 14:34), “and ye shall know my breach of promise…So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it”

Hebrews 3:19-4:1. (The promise is NOT an unconditional guarantee!)

Today in law we have a phrase “Breach of Contract” which voids all obligation to the contract of the non-offending party because the other party has not kept up his part. God has indeed made a promise that we should (could) enter in. But he has shown with great detail the dangers of presuming upon that promise. It is greatly worth the time to search out the point of Hebrews chapter 4 in this light. And all this before they even got into the Promised Land!

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