This word is based upon a number of Scriptures that will build a picture in your mind, which you will carry from this Feast of Passover on as a way of life.
And God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions. And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. (The Shekinah glory came down upon the sacrifices.) Genesis 15:13–17.
On that day God made a covenant with Abraham. He told him, “Abraham, all of this land you are in will belong to you and to your descendants. But there will be a little delay. That delay is involved with the Amorites who have not yet sinned enough to fill the cup of iniquity to the full, so that I can give the word to destroy them.”
Whatever you say about the Lord, He is altogether righteous. No matter how rebellious you may have been in His dealings with you, He is righteous. In His foreknowledge, God knew that it would take four hundred years before the Amorites had reached the level of iniquity that would require their total and absolute annihilation through the wars under Joshua. That was the judgment of God upon them, which eventually came to pass.
In Joseph’s time, when they were but a few souls, Jacob and his family went down into Egypt. The book of Exodus tells of the oppressions which had already begun. Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. Exodus 2:23–25. He heard all of their prayers, all of their cries. Then He brought the deliverance.
Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. Right to the very day God delivered them. It is a night to be observed for the Lord for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations. Exodus 12:40–42.
If the story ended here, we would say, “Hallelujah for the Passover.” The Passover brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, but that was not the purpose. The promises that God had given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, were held in abeyance, while down in Egypt the Israelites suffered in bondage for four hundred and thirty years. Then God delivered them. But why did He deliver them? He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers. Deuteronomy 6:23.
Right here is the problem which most of the groups who have come out of the denominations and have something from the Lord fail to see. “Oh, thank God, He brought us out of the denominational churches.” Many preachers are saying, “I received the Holy Spirit; I spoke with tongues. How wonderful it is now.”
“Then what happened to you?”
“Oh, I left the old denomination,” or “They thrust me out.”
“Where are you going now?”
“Oh, we’re building a little church here. We call it ‘Glorified Baptist.’ ”
I do not believe God is bringing us out of any bondage just to wander perpetually in a no-man’s land, in a wilderness of spiritual anarchy, saying, “Praise God, I’m not going to be a part of that old Babylon anymore. I’m not going to have any pope or general superintendent or any archbishop telling me what to do.”
“Who is telling you what to do?”
“Nobody is telling me what to do anymore.”
“Why, you anarchist, you would be better off back under Babylon than to be guilty of spiritual anarchy.”
“Well, we have a little group in our home now.”
“Is it growing?”
“No, we disagree. Nobody is left now but just me and Matilda, my wife. We don’t see eye to eye, so we sit in separate rooms when we read the Word.” That is about the picture, isn’t it? A spiritual anarchist—and no one is going to tell him what to do.
God did not bring you out to let you “sit on top of a telephone pole”; He brought you out that He might bring you into the land He promised. There He will be the King, He will be the Lord, and His rule will be a little tougher than that under Babylon. The Captain of our salvation runs a pretty tight ship, matey. And you will step lightly, boys, when you get into that ship, or you will get keelhauled. He brought us out that He might bring us in. He had something in mind for us, and it was divine order!
We must sense the purpose of this Passover. I have been impressed so forcibly with the fact that people can really misunderstand what is happening. We may have come out of a great deal and come through a great deal; but Passover should end with every one of us, personally, and as a church, soberly asking God as we thank Him for what He has brought us through, “Lord, what do You have for us now? Where do we go from here? What is Your will for us now?”
This is deliverance with a purpose, and God can reveal that purpose to our hearts. Church after church will be set in order because we have heard a word from the Lord. The bondage we have been under, even if it is just in our own thinking, will go. The confusion in our lives will go. We are leaving Egypt behind. But God’s purpose in Passover is not just to liberate a few slaves; it is to bring forth a Kingdom unto Himself as He promised in generations past.
That is what God is doing now. He is delivering you in order that you may be brought into what He is doing in the earth, what He wants to bring forth. We are beginning to grasp it. We say, “Good-by Pharaoh, good-by Egypt, good-by fleshpots.” We are saying good-by to the restrictions of the flesh, the confusion we have been under, the bondages and the deep assault. More people have been delivered from things of the old nature in this feast than I have ever seen in a corresponding time. I have watched a number of people go through a whole transformation. Some do not feel as if they have changed, but still they know they have. Sometimes it is not even felt; you have to take it by faith.
The Passover experience in these days means an end to bondage and its problems. And as Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked (they had just come out of Egypt), and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone that we may serve The Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.” Exodus 14:10–15.
You may be asking, “Doesn’t the Passover end all my problems?” Only the problems you had in Egypt. You will not see any more Egyptians, but just over the hill you will find some Amalekites. That is the trouble—we never finish with one problem before we have another. Sometimes it is hard to aim at the problem because there are so many problems. It is like the experience of the man who went duck hunting and came back without a duck. Someone asked, “Didn’t you see any ducks?”
“Yes, I saw a lot of ducks.”
“Why didn’t you shoot any of them?”
“Well, just as I drew a bead on one of them, another one would fly in the way.” Isn’t that the way it is with your problems? Just about the time one gets solved, another one comes in the way.
Very well, we shall see no more Egyptians. That is fine.
But what do we see? Miriam had not put her tambourine away before the people were murmuring because they were thirsty. When they came to the bitter waters, they really set up a howl.
Thank God we are rid of the haunting fear of Pharaoh. Recently I had a thought that things which had happened in the past would reoccur, but the Lord has spoken a word to my heart saying, “Do not have any fear of Pharaoh. You will never see those things again.” The problems I have been through do not seem to recur. After you meet them and the Lord solves them, they do not come back again. The prophet assures us, …affliction shall not rise up the second time. Nahum 1:9. The oppression shall not rise against you a second time. It will not recur. Whatever has happened to you is finished. Thank God for that.
Now throw back your shoulders and get ready, for you are through fighting pygmies. Now you will take on a giant. Regardless of what bothered you in the past, you must get ready now for some real problems. You might think we ought to continue these Passover services every day of the year because they would cause us to grow. That is voicing Peter’s sentiments, “We don’t want to come down from the mountain. We want to stay up here and build three tabernacles—one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus.”
When they did come down, what did they find? A crowd and confusion as the disciples were trying to cast an epileptic demon out of a boy. When Peter, James, and John tried, they could not do it, either. Finally Jesus cast out the demon. Why couldn’t they do it? That is what you are going to find out now.
When you leave a mountain-top experience, the first sign that God has met you is that you tackle something you cannot quite handle. Why? Just so that you can flex your muscles and grow a little more and move into a greater place in God; that is the reason you have been blessed. Leave the bondage behind and now fulfill the purpose of that deliverance, the reason for which He brought you out. If there were no purpose or reason for it, you might as well have stayed in Egypt and made bricks, but if there is a purpose in it, let us find it. Let us send the gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Now let us do the will of the Lord that which He raised us up to accomplish.
And Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar, and named it (Jehovah-nissi) The Lord is My Banner; and he said, “The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation. Exodus 17:10–16.
Do you see what happened? Do not think that just because the Lord has delivered you, from now on it will be easy, not if you have come into a walk with God. Every battle will be difficult, and it is only as we hold up one another’s hands in prayer and as you hold up the hands of the leader, that you will find the little margin of victory is there.
How much intelligence does it take for one man to outsmart another? Five percent is enough. It does not take much. But this is how the balance works. All things being even, you are just about that much short of winning the battle. The Lord has planned it so. Wasn’t that sneaky of Him? It means that every time you get into battle, you lack just that much of making it; so you have to call upon the Lord to make up the difference. No flesh will glory in His presence. There must be a continual dependence upon the Lord. Some will say, “Thank God I have been delivered. Deep things were delivered from my life.” Yes, and when you come to the next battle, will you be victorious? If you put your confidence in the Lord and draw upon Him, you will. Otherwise, you will go right back to the old ruts.
Whatever you say about Amalek, God says, “I shall take care of him also.” This means that from this Feast of Passover on, we are dedicated to a new course. We are dedicated to some new problems and to some new battles. I am determined to leave this phase of bondage and limitation behind. There is something about a walk with God that no matter how difficult the future may be, we are impelled to get into it one way or the other. This does not sound very encouraging.
We are in the great resolution of the conflict of the ages. Satan is raging. The book of Daniel prophesies that for a while the satanic prince prevails over the people of God, until judgment is given to the saints of the Most High and they possess the Kingdom (Daniel 7:21, 22). Again and again, it will seem as though we are overwhelmed; but as we look to God, we will prevail in the thing He has for us. There is only one thing that impels us, and that is a determination to get on into the thing that is going to happen.
I have tried to paint a picture for you of what the Passover means and what will happen after the Passover. Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days. (Imagine all those people wandering around a mountain many days.) And the Lord spoke to me, saying, “You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, and command the people, saying, ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau.…’ ” Deuteronomy 2:1–4.
It is easy to go in circles. God brought them out of the bondage and oppression of Egypt, and the next thing, they found themselves wandering around the mountain. There was good camping, good water, good food, so they decided to wander around the mountain.
After a few days, the Lord said to Moses, “You have been circling this mountain long enough. Now turn north.” One thing is certain: If we tarry in circles, God will prod us and say, “You have been circling around this long enough. Move forward.” Our walk with God constantly moves forward, and if it does not, the dealings of the Lord intensify. A walk with God leads to a destination, being filled with all the fullness of God, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Until we grow up in all things into Him.
In the Bible times the ox was a beast of burden used to pull an oxcart. Sometimes the ox would stop or slow down, so they had a long stick, sharpened on one end, to prod him. If the ox did not like it and kicked against it, you would hear a loud bellow because he had kicked against the prick. When Saul of Tarsus was brought up short, the Lord said, “Saul, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks.”
We better start pulling the load and keep moving; if we stop and become balky and kick, we will only kick against that prick. God is ready to prod us, and we are ready to move on—not to circle some mountain or hang-up, but to move on into the thing God has for us. Let us be the people He called us to be. Let us have a mind to work, ready for every good work the Lord sets before us. Let us be a people led by the Spirit of God in everything we do.
A responsibility comes with freedom. A slave in Egypt did not have to worry much. He checked in at curfew and got up when they rang the bell. They passed him his beans at noon, and he just kept working. His only concern was, “Will they give me a drink of water when the heat of the day is beating down upon me?” A slave does not face many problems, but a free man does. He has to open his heart and enter into new situations and responsibilities, new experiences and frontiers that God will set before him.
A man may sit by the side of the road with his tin cup and some pencils. He does not have to learn any skills or enter into competition in the world. He does not worry about the stock market or about real estate taxes because he is busy selling pencils—he is a blind man. But if the Master passes by and says, “Let these eyes be open,” and that blind man suddenly sees, he has to throw away his tin cup and earn a living like anyone else.
Now he has the responsibilities that come with sight, the responsibilities that come with liberation. You are out of Egypt—the Passover has brought you out—now what will you do with your freedom?
About ten or twelve years ago a black woman was chosen as the woman of the year. She could not read or write, but her sons had all made their way in the world and become prominent men: statesmen, attorneys, doctors, dentists, etc. Here was a woman, one generation away from slavery, who became woman of the year in the United States because she instilled into her children this marvelous truth, “I gave you life, but what you do with it is up to you.” That took a lot of courage.
You are free! Now what are you going to do with your freedom? Passover has loosed us. Thank God for these words, thank God for these truths, thank God for the heart-searching that has cut so deeply in our lives. Now what do we do with it? We move ahead in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We take the responsibility of being freed in God. We become His bondservants to serve Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength.