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#7 Tabernacle: Escape from Bondage

In the last study we saw how God’s purpose was fulfilled in bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt into God’s promises that He made to Abraham. These are pictures for us of how God will bring us out of our bondage so we can serve the Living God and experience His promises to us in Christ Jesus.

2PE 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

For years we have used the Old Testament as a type, a shadow and a picture for us of our spiritual walk out of Egypt( the world) into Canaan (the Kingdom of God). Pharaoh is a type of the devil, Moses is a type of Christ, Israel is a type of the church. The Red Sea is a type of water baptism, the manna is a type of the word of God, the water out of the Rock is a picture of drinking of the Holy Spirit and Mt. Sinai is a picture of Pentecost.

Many other types and shadows can be seen along the way. Each is a picture of our spiritual walk, experientially, into the purpose of God. Each one helps us understand our struggle on the way.

After Israel crossed the Red Sea the waters collapsed over Pharaoh’s army and destroyed them all. This has led some to believe the Passover lamb and the Red Sea experience has totally released us from Satan’s control permanently.

Legally of course it does. Experientially we find many other enemies with great armies along the way. Each one contests our escape. These also are a type of the Devil and his armies.

Even though God has given us the land and it is legally ours, we still have to put our feet in it. We still have to drive out those who are in the land and possess the land ourselves.

This is where Israel failed on it’s first attempt. This is also where the church has failed. However all this is about to change, as we attempted to show in the previous studies.

In this study we want to look again at Israel’s release from Egypt. Since they became greater and mightier than Egypt, how did Egypt hold them? How did God take one nation from the midst of another nation?

We know the Lord Jesus Christ delivered us and how we escaped. The problems that faced Israel are the same problems that face each generation. Each new generation is a new group held in slavery by Satan. Each new generation must be released from Pharaoh’s bondage.

All of us have family or friends who are under Satan’s control and need to be set free. When Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord delivered them. When our family and friends cry out to the Lord, the Lord will also deliver them. The problem is every generation is in the same darkness and don’t know they need delivered or how to cry out.

The Lord Jesus has therefore commissioned the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, to inform them of their release. Not just that they CAN be released, but that Christ has already released them. Satan has already been defeated and they are already released from the kingdom of darkness and become accepted into the Kingdom of Light. When they ask, they are free to go.

2CO 5:18 Now all {these} things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2CO 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

At Calvary, God reconciled the whole world to Himself through Jesus Christ. The reconciliation is complete. God told Moses, at the burning bush, that He had given Canaan to Israel.

EXO 3:8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.10 “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” 17 “So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ‘

One of the problems is Pharaoh doesn’t want them to go and he has a great army to enforce his wishes. This is exactly the same problem we have with Satan. He has decided to keep all who are in darkness uninformed about their release and reconciliation. He has set a great army over his kingdom of darkness to make sure no one comes to preach release to the captives.

This was one of the messages Jesus was commissioned to preach. LUK 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

One translation says “ To announce to the prisoners, ‘You are free’”. To tell the downtrodden” You can go.” Now He has given this same ministry of reconciliation to us. We can tell the prisoners “you can go.” However, the Devil has put up “NO TRESPASSING” signs and he has set his army in position to make sure no one can speak to the prisoners. He has both a spiritual army and an earthly army. The A.C.L.U., the People of the American Way, and various feminists groups, and many new groups every year rise up to demand that no Christian has a right to speak to the captives and the downtrodden. They must not take part in politics or influence public opinion. The church must function behind closed doors and not in public places. We must have total freedom to preach our message of bondage and perversion, because the constitution guarantees that right, but the constitution forbids Christians the right to speak to our prisoners.

Well, at least, we would like to go to the prisoners and tell them they are free to go but the devil won’t let us. So what are we to do? Moses figured that out also. He ask “who am I that Pharaoh will pay any attention to me?” I can’t even talk right.

Just take your rod and throw it down. The rod is a type of God’s authority. But the magicians also have rods, which represent Pharaoh’s authority. That’s true, but God’s authority eats up Pharaoh’s authority. If you listen to the conversation between Moses and God you will see how so much of the church views itself.

It is crystal clear that it is GOD’S WILL for Israel to leave Egypt and possess Canaan. Well, if it is God’s will , then it will happen automatically. No! God needs a man to go to Pharaoh and say “Let my people go”. Why doesn’t God just tell him? Because God has given man dominion upon this earth to rule over it for God. Redeemed Man is God’s delegated authority to carry out God’s wishes. God wishes none to perish but for all men to come to repentance. That is God’s will. Man is supposed to carry out God’s will upon the earth. But how can we preach to the captives if the Devil won’t permit us?

The church has developed a doctrine which says, I have prayed about it , God has heard me, now it is all in his hands. I have done my part now it is up to God to do His part.

The purpose of this study is to uncover some of these deceptions and learn how we can rescue our family and friends. Some who are held captive are faithful members of a church.

First we should look at the situation from Pharaoh’s viewpoint which is accurate. EXO 1:9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 “Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and in the event of war, they also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us, and depart from the land.”

Pharaoh recognized this was a volatile situation. These people were so powerful, if they decided to join together and fight there is nothing we can do to stop them from leaving.

But these people were slaves! Were they really slaves? No! When Joseph was top man in Egypt, Israel was assigned the land of Goshen as their land. They had a sovereign right to that land. This was an unusual situation because here was a nation that lived within the borders of another nation. Israel was actually more in number and mightier than Egypt.

DEU 4:34 “Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within { another} nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

EXO 1:8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. This king was uninformed about this whole arrangement with Israel. He thought they were his slaves and he could do with them anything he wished. The problem was, Israel also thought they were slaves. They developed a slave mentality and when Pharaoh put taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor, they thought that was normal.

EXO 1:11 So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13 And the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all {kinds} of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.

This is the testimony of so many in the church today. They are a separate nation but have submitted to the slavery of Satan. How does Satan keep the church suppressed and ignorant so they don’t rise up and depart from his dominion?

EXO 1:10 “Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and in the event of war, they also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us, and depart from the land.”

This means to deal deceptively, to deal craftily, to put a covering over them lest they see the advantage they have and walk out of here. Pharaoh used oppression and hard labor and affliction and turning their lives bitter as a covering over them.

This is exactly the situation in the church today. If the church is under oppression and hard labor and affliction and with bitter lives they are going to be so busy they won’t even understand their strength or have time to escape.

Pharaoh even got Israel to build him storehouses. He gets God’s people to work for him. The church ,in so many ways, have worked for Satan, turning whole cities into storehouses for his garbage. The church has actually participated in Satan’s program and helped him with his plan.

God’s people kept multiplying but they were still in bondage. They were bearing children who were also slaves. This is the sad commentary on the situation today. Fathers and mothers are in bondage and then bear children who are also in bondage. Still, Pharaoh is not satisfied. We better start killing the babies. If all the male babies are killed at birth, they won’t have a potential army to resist. But they still got born. The devil’s plan of abortion is the same today.

So now after they are born, just throw them in the river and drown them. Satan has not been very successful in keeping people from being born again. Today many are being born again. So let us destroy the “ Children of God.” One of his names is the destroyer. Satan has been more successful at this tactic. If somehow they get born, send in the troops to drown them in passions and desires.

It should be evident Pharaoh was not functioning from a position of strength but of weakness. What he was doing was defensive. He recognized a dangerous situation and he was trying to save himself and his kingdom. God’s action is offensive. God is not operating from a defensive position. He is already God and is in control of the situation. His problem is to get man to cooperate and set these poor deceived people free. A complete change of mind is essential.

From this account in Exodus, it is clear that signs and wonders and miracles are not what delivers God’s people. It is only the Passover lamb that delivers. It is the blood upon the lintels and door posts and by eating the lamb itself, the unleavened bread and all the rest of the feast that is the final and complete release.

Some get the impression that God was trying one thing and if that didn’t work He tried something else. That God was trying to counter the work of the magicians. God told Moses from the very beginning what the result would be. EXO 4:22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord,” Israel is My son, My first-born. 23 “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go, that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your first-born.”

God revealed at the burning bush that He was going to kill the firstborn in Egypt. God was always in control and on the offensive and established His plan and purpose.

Moses is first pictured to us as a man who is full of fear and doubt, with no confidence in his ability to accomplish this great commission. He could hardly speak. How could he stand before the great Pharaoh and demand the release of God’s people?

This is a great problem in the church today when it comes to spiritual warfare. You mean I am supposed to stand before Satan and tell him to release all my family and friends? Tell him that Christ has died for each one and has reconciled each one to God. He has purchased their freedom and I demand you turn them loose. God has extended grace to everyone and forgiveness of sins therefore you cannot hold them. Our response is “Who am I that he will pay any attention to me? God’s answer is “ Has Christ put a rod in your hand? Yes! But let me throw it down. I don’t want it. However, if we cast it before Satan in Christ’s name it works.

Second , Moses is pictured to us as a type of Christ our great deliverer. Moses was just a servant over his house but Christ has come as the Son of God, over His own household. By the power of His cross, by the shedding of His own blood, and the sacrifice of His own body, He has set us free. Christ is also the Lord of hosts. The Captain of our salvation. He not only sets us free, he leads us out as our deliverer, with an outstretched hand, and a mighty arm.

This is all tremendous for us and our deliverance but now He has given us the commission to deliver others. Our adversary is the Devil and this then is a spiritual battle. Deliverance is by spiritual warfare. Christ has already provided for the worlds release. Satan has no authority to detain them but we are sent to inform Satan and his forces that they must let the captives go .

Now we know that, but does Satan know that? Yes! Satan has been totally defeated. Jesus Christ completely humiliated him in public and made a spectacle of him at the cross. COL 2:15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross. Christ has already reconciled all men to God and God is not counting their trespasses against them. All are free to go.

Total deliverance is much more sure in the church age than it was for Israel. Whom the Son has set free is free indeed! COL 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. But when did all that take place? At the cross. But how many are included in Christ’s victory at Calvary? All who believe. Then why don’t all believe?

2CO 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Then how are we to open their eyes? ACT 26:17 delivering you from the {Jewish} people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, ACT 26:18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. ‘

Then how are we to open their eyes so they can see? By binding the spiritual forces of darkness that have blinded them, And loosing the light of God , and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to them. EPH 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light. Our lives can also project light or they can project darkness.

In this next restoration, God will bring the church into a new dimension of binding and loosing. A new dimension of salvation and deliverance. A new dimension of the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. First in our lives personally, subjectively, and then objectively to the unsaved. The evangelism outreach of the church, in general, has been feeble, or non existent. Various evangelistic ministries have been hard at work, but the church has been content to sleep. The church has more zeal to minister to itself than it does to minister to the unsaved.

This is God’s heart; LUK 15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?

We get so caught up in ministering to the 99 that are grazing with the flock that we ignore the ones who are lost. Some wonder why there seems to be lack of anointing in ministering to the 99. It is because the anointing has shifted to the 1 who is lost, or to the ones who have not yet heard of God’s purpose for their lives.

The anointing oil must not be poured on anyone’s flesh, neither will God continue to anoint the same word to the same people year after year if that word falls to the ground.

If you long to feel the anointing and flowing grace, then begin evangelizing or sharing with those for whom nothing has been prepared.

NEH 8:10 Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

It is fitting and proper to eat of the fat and drink of the sweet but don’t neglect him who has nothing prepared. We must recognize the day in which we are living and our responsibility before God for the lost and the captives. FOR THIS DAY IS HOLY TO THE LORD.