Exodus Ch. 11 - Ch. 17

And so as we look through these passages of scripture, we will discover, and you'll see quickly without me even commenting, little things that apply to your daily life.

And we were talking before some of you came, and it's not only the complaining, but they're just typical people.

They griped and complained and moaned and groaned about their situation. They griped about their spiritual leaders.

They griped about everything. But they weren't always this way. They had some highs as well as the lows. And so this is what we want to look at.

And so let's begin with chapter 11. And if you want to make sure you get room to take your notes and also open the scripture to chapter 11 of the book of Exodus, this great book by the man

Moses. And we'll talk about the Passover. Now there are a lot of things I'd like to say about the

Passover. In fact, we could take probably two or three hours and discuss the Passover. The only thing that I can tell you to do if you're interested in a little more study of the

Passover, you might write us and get our tape on what day was Christ crucified on, studying the crucifixion of Christ, which day it was, because we do go into an in -depth study of the

Passover, because it is necessary to understand the Passover in order to understand what day he was crucified on and all the things that went on in it.

Now the key to this entire section of chapter 11 through 13 is the Lamb, L -A -M -B.

The Lamb is the key. Now the Passover marked the birth of the nation of Israel. This was the birth of the nation of Israel.

It actually had its birth at Passover. Before that, it was just a group of people.

They were Israelites, but they were just down in Egypt. They were in disarray.

They had no organization. They really had no purpose. They had no goal, no direction, but the Passover gave them a purpose and it gave them a direction in which they were to move.

And all of these are pictures of Christ and his cross, pictures of Jesus Christ and the cross, all of these things.

Now I'll give you just two or three verses of scripture that you might read at your leisure in the New Testament to kind of correlate, and we'll make points of these.

So I'll just mention them to you, and we'll go over them again as we come through. John 1 29, John 1 29, and 1

Corinthians 5, 7 through 8. 1 Corinthians, John 1 29, and 1

Corinthians 5, 7 through 8, and in 1 Peter 1, 18 through 20.

We'll make mention of those again in a few moments, 1 Peter 1, 18 through 20. All right, Roman numeral one, then in our outline, and we try to break these down so that we can see them clearer.

Chapter 11 is the lamb needed. The lamb needed. There was a lamb that was needed.

God said one plague more. God, we covered last time the ten plagues that God sent, nine of them we covered.

We did mention the tenth one. And Pharaoh still would not let the people of Israel out, and so God said, all right, there's one more plague that we've got to send, and that was of the firstborn.

Evidently God's patience had run out with Pharaoh. God's patience does run out.

A lot of people presume upon God's patience and think just because God is a God of love,

He is automatically obligated to tolerate their rebellion, tolerate their presumptuousness, and tolerate their own wickedness or their own disobedience, that God's obligated to do that.

But my friend, whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, God nowhere is obligated to keep His patience where it is.

God's patience does run out from time to time. He's long -suffering, and He's not willing that any should perish, but His patience does run out, and it did with Pharaoh.

God spent basically five chapters in the Bible dealing with that one man and his people. But then

His patience ran out, and His final judgment was to be the death to the firstborn, and so this was to fall quickly.

Now notice in chapter 11, verses 5 and 6, you'll see that death was to come to all,

A -L -L. This is an important word. In verse 5, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.

You see the last phrase, and all the firstborn of the beast. And in verse 6, there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

There has never been the devastation in the land of Egypt, in that part of the world, like it was at that time, the death of the firstborn.

So the word, all. Now we know that the Bible says what? All have sinned.

And the wages of sin is what? Death. That's why all the firstborn had to die.

Now, listen to me carefully. God specifies that the firstborn will die, and that is a perfect, perfect picture of God's rejection of your first birth, and my first birth.

Just because you've been born into the world will not automatically make you right with God, will it? God rejects the first birth, and God says that all men firstborn are firstborn who've never been twice born.

All men who've not been twice born are firstborn. And God rejects that firstborn, and He says that which is flesh is flesh, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and you must be born, what?

Again. You have to be twice born. You have to be twice born in order to see the kingdom of God.

And so man cannot save himself from the penalty of death. They must have Christ who is the Lamb of God.

Now, from a human point of view, we look at the people of Israel, and we start comparing them with the people of Egypt, and someone asked me a question about that, and I'll answer it.

Let me make this statement before I answer that particular question about did God think more of the Jews than He did the

Arabs, because it's so prevalent today in the news. God doesn't love Jews any more than He loves Arabs, but there's a difference.

God has a different purpose for them, and God does what He desires to do. But now the Jews had been enslaved in Egypt for a long period of time and had no pay for it.

They were forced to labor and received no pay. Now, God permits them to ask, not borrow, to ask for their just wages.

You might see Genesis 15, verse 14. In Genesis 15, 14, God predicted that they would not leave the land empty -handed.

He predicted it over in Genesis. He said you will not leave the land empty -handed even though you have been subjected to these people.

Now, in Exodus 3, 21, and we're in Exodus, and we can look at that very quickly.

In Exodus 3, verse 21, we read the following, and I will give this people favor in the sight of the

Egyptians. It shall come to pass that when you go, you shall not go empty. You will not go empty.

And so we come to chapter 12, 35. We have basically the same thing, and the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they asked of the

Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And so the people did give them.

So they asked for that, which was a very wealthy thing, and they got a lot of wealth in that way.

Now, from a human point of view, there was no difference whatsoever between the first born of Israel and the first born of the

Egyptians. From human point of view, humanly speaking, there was no difference in them whatsoever.

The difference was the application of verse 7 in chapter 11. This was the difference, that against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that you may know how that the

Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. There was no difference, humanly speaking, but God made a difference between them.

And what was the difference? The application of blood. One group had blood, and the other group didn't have blood.

And this was the basic difference. All men are sinners, but those who trusted Christ are under the blood of Christ, and they are saved.

This is the most important difference in the world. It is not that God chooses you and me and says that you are better than the man who's not a

Christian. It's not a matter of God saying we are better than the other men and women in the world, but the basic difference is that you as a

Christian have had the blood of Christ applied to your life, and that's the greatest difference in the world. It determines whether you're going to heaven or hell.

And you may be here tonight, and you may be a wonderful fine man or woman. You may be just a tremendous guy and a great young lady, but if you haven't had the blood of Christ applied to your life, my friend, you yourself have separated yourself from God because that's the difference.

And it was the difference in Egypt. And God said, I'll make a difference between these two people, and He did so. Now, the way

He did it was He chose a lamb, and we find that in chapter 12, verses 1 -5. Now the

Jews have two calendars, don't they? They have a religious calendar, and they have a civil calendar. They have two years within one year, and they run months.

Months overlap, days overlap, and all of this. Now the Passover occurs in the month of Nisan, which actually is about March and April.

It covers two. March, April of our calendar. We use the Julian calendar, which basically comes out of Rome. The Roman calendar is the one that we use.

And so the Passover was the beginning of the religious year. The Passover was the beginning of the religious year.

The death of the lamb makes a new beginning, just as the death of Christ makes a new beginning.

The death of that lamb was a new beginning. It was the beginning of a new year. It was the beginning of a new nation. It was the beginning of a new people.

It was the beginning of a new direction, a new goal, a new purpose, new desire, new dreams, new hopes.

It was a new beginning in everything in the people of Israel. Just like Jesus Christ is the new beginning of life, it's the new beginning of goals, new beginning of dreams, new beginning of desires, and God just gives us new.

And so it is a new beginning. Now, let's notice three things about this lamb.

About this lamb. First of all, it was chosen before it was slain. It was chosen before it was slain.

It was selected on the tenth day of the month. And you go and you study it quickly, and you'll see in this passage of Scripture tells them exactly how to do it.

On the tenth day of the month of Nisan, N -I -S -A -N, on the tenth day of the month, they took this lamb.

They selected it between, and they were going to kill it, on the fourteenth day of the month.

It was between the evenings, the Scripture says, a little phrase, between the evenings, and we don't have time to go through every little detail.

And as I say, if you're interested, you get this tape on it, and we go into just very much detail in it. But it was between the evenings on the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the month.

Now, the lamb was set aside for death for five days to make sure that it wasn't sickly, to make sure that it was well and whole and healthy and could be offered.

Five is the number of grace in Scripture. And so it was kept for these days, and then it was killed.

Christ was the lamb, and he was foreordained to death from the foundations of the world.

Before the world was ever created, it was foreordained. It was decided and determined that Christ would die on the cross.

You might read 1 Peter 1, verse 20 at your leisure, and it plainly says that. Before the foundations of the world,

Christ was chosen to die. Just like the lamb was chosen to die, alright, before it was killed.

Secondly, the lamb had to be spotless. It had to be a male, it could not be a female.

It had to be a male, and he had to be completely without blemish. No bruise, no marks, no scars, no cutting in the wool.

It had to be a spotless lamb of the male species. And that is a perfect picture of the

Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, in whom there was no spot or stain. You might read 1 Peter 1, verse 19 now.

1 Peter 1, verse 19 at your leisure. A third thing we noticed about him, and it had to be tested.

As I said, from the 10th to the 14th day, it was tested. They watched it, they looked over it, they observed it to make sure it was satisfactory.

So Christ was tested and watched during his earthly ministry, especially during the last week, and more specifically,

Aaron was right there with Moses, was he not? Aaron, his brother, was with him. Aaron became the first high priest of the nation of Israel.

When Jesus Christ walked into Jerusalem, what day was it to die? It was the 10th day of the month of Disaad.

It was the 10th day of the month when he walked into Jerusalem, or rode into Jerusalem on that little donkey, to die.

What day was he crucified on? The 14th day of the month, because it was the time of the Passover, and we are told explicitly that in Scripture.

We don't even have to worry about it. He was crucified on the 14th day of the month. Well, that was five days later. Well, when they captured him in the garden, who did they take him to?

The first person he confronted was the high priest of Israel. Well, isn't that a perfect picture?

Sure, a perfect picture. Why, and he said what? He said, well, I can't find anything wrong with him. I better do something with him.

Took him up to another man. The other man said, what? I cannot find anything wrong with him. As far as I'm concerned, he's spotless.

The Jews say he crucified him, but the Romans said, I can't find anything wrong with him. Well, he was the perfect lamb of God, and that's the same way it was in the

Old Testament. Now, I put these little words up here. Notice the progression of it with me.

Notice, in verse 3, it says, in verse 3 of chapter 12, it says, you'll notice down in the middle, they shall take to them every man a lamb.

All right, look at verse 4. And if the household be too little for the lamb, it goes from a lamb to the lamb.

Verse 5, it says, your lamb. It goes from a lamb, sort of a general talking, then it goes to the lamb, a little more specific, and then it goes to what?

Your lamb, and that is a perfect progress. As you read in the New Testament, let me give you the scripture.

Luke 2 -11, Luke 2 -11, it says, a Savior. And then

John 4 -42, it says, the Savior. And then in Luke 1 -47, it speaks of my

Savior. It is not enough to talk about Jesus Christ as a Savior. It is not enough to talk about him as the

Savior. He must be my Savior. He has to be your Savior.

And so it's a beautiful analogy there, and the scriptures just fit right together, the Old Testament and the

New Testament. All right, now quickly, we move to the third section. The lamb is slain, chapter 12, verses 6 and 7.

Now, a living lamb is a lovely thing. Now, I know very little about sheep. As I shared with you that evening,

I've been on sheep farms, and I've talked to men who've raised them, and I've learned so much, so much, that it has helped me understand the

Bible to talk to men and women who raise sheep. Now, you take a little lamb, and it's such a lovely little thing, but my dear friend, a live lamb could not save anyone.

Now, listen to me carefully. If you don't get anything else I say, get it tonight. Get this statement right here.

You are not saved by Christ's example, and you are not saved by his life.

You are saved by his death. Many people think they are saved by the life that he lived, and they're saved by his perfect example.

If Jesus Christ had come and lived a perfect life, which he would do, and lived a spotless life, if he had never died, you and I would never be saved.

It is his death that saves, and so it was with that beautiful little lamb.

You might read Hebrews 9, 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.

Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11 says, the life of the flesh is in the blood.

Do you know that they just found that out in recent years? It hasn't been too many years ago that they discovered that the life of the flesh was in the blood.

Do you know that some Russian scientist took a dog and drained all of its blood out, and the dog died?

They pumped all the blood back in and started the dog's heart up, and that dog went on off. Now, it's very interesting when you start playing with things like that, but the life of the flesh is in the blood.

Now, the blood of the lamb, it's very interesting here, had to be applied to the door of the house. Now, could you imagine killing lambs and putting blood on the linen of the doorposts?

What foolishness to Egyptians. I mean, anybody would walk out at night and see somebody putting blood up on his door. They'd go, what a barbarian thing to do.

That's gross. You know, how crude can you be? Talk about uncouth. You know, somebody knock on your door and see blood dripping all over your door.

Out here in Stevenson, Alabama, they'd think you weird, you know, if it were the same situation. But isn't that what the

Scripture tells us? In 1 Corinthians 1, 18 to 23, the preaching of the cross is what?

Foolishness to them that perish. To people who don't know the Lord, it's utter foolishness. But to us who believe, it is the power of God unto salvation.

It's the power of God unto salvation. Now, it was applied to the door of the house, chapter 12, verses 21 to 28.

We're in verse 6 and 7, but that's where you find it being applied. Now, listen to me carefully. It is most possible that the word in verse 22 of chapter 12, look at it, it says in the middle, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin.

That is the Hebrew word for threshold. Threshold. My friends, those people coming out of Egypt, and not every family had a basin.

Where'd they get the basin from? They don't have basins. They didn't have hardly anything. They'd been slaves.

And they had to ask from the Egyptians. Now, being as that is so, and many believe it is, and there's evidence in the

Hebrew language that it is, that the blood of the lamb was caught in the hollow place between where the door was put together, and there'd be a little hollow place there, just like on your porch, and the blood would fall into that.

Why? They didn't kill the lamb in the house. Even in Jerusalem at the Passover meal, whenever the high priest would kill the lamb, at the time that Christ died on the cross, these people would be out in their homes, and the high priest would give the signal for the killing of the lamb, and each father had to kill a lamb at his house.

That's Jewish law. That's the way it was, and the blood would spill into that little hollow place that would make the threshold there, that little hollow place where it would come together, and so it's very plain, and you should take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and then they'd strike it on the lintel in the two side posts.

They'd do it on the cross, and you know as well as I do, that makes the sound of the cross. You make it on the horizontal, on the lintel, and then you do it on the vertical, on the side post, and so you have that sign of the cross, but then it says something else.

After he did that, if you'll notice, and none of you, in verse 22, shall go out of the door of the house until the morning.

Why would that be so? Because anyone who walked out would have to walk on the blood. They'd have to walk on the blood to get out, and that was a picture of the blood of Christ who was going to die in the future.

The lamb was a picture of the lamb of God, and anybody walks on the blood, my friend, being our now, is lost, and the wrath of God falls.

Be very careful what you say about the blood of Christ. It is to be honored and to be cherished because it's very sacred in the eyes of God, and it's very precious to the

Father. Very precious to the Father, and it's precious to we who are Christians, of course.

All right, you might read Hebrews 10, 29 when you find some time. Now, Christ was slain on the 14th day of the month, just the time when the

Passover lambs were being offered. Now, God speaks of Israel killing it, not for them, but to God, to God.

There's one lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Isaac, when he was on the mountain, asked, where is the lamb?

You might read Genesis 22, verse 7. You know the story of when Isaac was offered up. He said, where is the lamb?

John the Baptist said, behold the lamb, and all of heaven says in Revelation 5, 12, worthy is the lamb.

Where is the lamb? The man said in the Old Testament. There wasn't time. Then John the Baptist, right on God's time, said, behold the lamb, and there's coming a time when we'll be singing together, perhaps worthy is the lamb that was slain from the foundations of the world.

All right, quickly, let's move to the lamb eaten. Chapter 12, verses 8 to 20, 8 to 20.

Now, we usually neglect this part of the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, unleavened bread.

Leaven is a yeast. Leaven in the Scripture always is a picture of sin.

I hear preachers say, you need to go out in the community and be a leaven. Well, that's partially true, but in the Bible, leaven is sin.

Leaven always represents evil in the Bible. There are no exceptions to that. Now, if you want to go out and act like leaven, in one sense of the word, you might, but I'd rather you be salt than white because salt preserves and white helps to show the way.

If you're going to go out and be leaven, according to the Bible, you're going to go out and be sinful. But most preachers don't study that, and so sometimes they don't understand it.

Now, leaven works silently. You don't see the yeast working when you mix it in your dough, but it does work, doesn't it?

It does work. Now, just as it works through, so it does.

It corrupts and it puffs up. It corrupts and it can only be treated with fire.

And the Jews had to put all the leaven out of their home, and they do it even now in Passover. And we could go and explain that to you, how they go through with a little quill in the broom and all the stuff and the little shovel.

And they were not allowed to eat unleavened, I mean, eat leavened bread for seven days. For seven days, they were not allowed to eat that.

Now, Paul applies this. Read this chapter very carefully, 1 Corinthians 5. 1

Corinthians 5. Paul applies exactly that to the Christian, to the Christian. We don't have time to go through it, but he does, and you'll see it quickly.

Now, the blood of the lamb was sufficient to save from death, but the people were going to travel, weren't they?

So, they had to be fed. They had to have strength. And so, feeding on the lamb gave them strength for their pilgrim journey.

Salvation is just the beginning for the Christian. You have to feed on the word of God every day, which is a picture of the living word.

How do we live our daily life? By feeding on Christ. How do you do that? The word of God. Because it reveals to us the living word.

And so, we must feed on him every day if we're going to have strength to follow him. Christians are a pilgrim people.

We are journeying through this world. This is not your home. Your home is elsewhere.

And we must always be ready for the Lord's orders when he says, move. There's not a one of you here that God couldn't tonight say,

I want you to get up out of Stevenson, Alabama, and I want you to move somewhere else. And I talk to men all the time that God, for some reason unknown to that man, says, move, move.

Most of us think, well, he can move everybody else, but he can't move me because this is where my home is. Well, that's what

Abraham said. But God moved him, and he didn't know where he's going to. So we must always be ready to move at God's command and to do the things that God says for us to do.

Now, the lamb was to be roast with fire, which speaks of the sufferings of Christ on the cross.

It's a picture of that. It had to be roasted with fire. It had to have the heat put to it. It had to be almost consumed.

Now, to eat the lamb raw or sodden with water was prohibited. And that speaks of trying to feed on the

Christ of the Gospels, his earthly life, or his good examples, and bypassing the cross.

Many people call that watering down of the word of God. Make it sodden. Make it sodden.

You can't live with Christ's life and can't work towards his example until you first come by the way of the cross.

Now, nothing was to remain to be eaten later. It had to be totally consumed because leftovers cannot satisfy the believer.

We need all of Christ and we need all the word of God, all the word of God. We need a completed work on the cross.

And furthermore, if you have leftovers, they will corrupt. You leave leftover food and it will corrupt.

And this would ruin the type or the picture because this lamb was a perfect picture of Christ and he did not see corruption.

You might read Psalm 16, God did not allow him to see corruption.

It would ruin the whole picture. There are too many people who call themselves Christians. They receive the lamb as their salvation from death, but they don't feed on the lamb daily.

They don't get into the word of God daily. Now, in verses 43 through 51, 43 through 51 of this chapter 12, they are given some further instructions concerning the feast.

And I wrote them here, number 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let me just give them to you. No stranger could participate.

So you just put no stranger. Secondly, nor could a hired servant. No stranger, no hired servant.

No one who had not gone through the rite of circumcision. No one who had not gone through the rite of circumcision could partake of that.

They were considered to be unclean. Now, these regulations remind you and me of the salvation or that salvation is a birth into God's family and there are no strangers there.

It is by grace. You can't earn it. It's through the cross. Circumcision points to Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.

Colossians 2, 11 and 12, where our true spiritual circumcision comes in Jesus Christ.

And the fourth thing that we mentioned is that the feast could not be eaten outside the house. It had to be eaten inside the house.

That's in verse 46. Verse 46 of chapter 12.

In one house shall it be eaten. Thou shall not carry forth any of the flesh abroad out of the house. Neither shall you break a bone of it.

You might read Psalm 22 and it tells us that no bones in his body were broken whenever Christ died on the cross.

All right. Now, you cannot separate the feast from the shed blood. Let's move quickly to the lamb trusted.

That's still in chapter 12, 21 through 42. It took faith to be delivered that night.

The Egyptians thought all of these things to be foolish, but God's word had been spoken and that was enough for Moses and his people.

Now, the people were saved by the blood and they were assured by the word of God in verse 12.

In verse 12, we have the following. God said, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night which smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt.

Now, we talked about the gods and the plagues. There's the phrase we use. All the gods of Egypt. We said the death of the firstborn would attack all the gods.

When you notice number 10, we put all the gods together and when we discuss the 10 plagues and God says,

I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. They had the word of God and they knew. Now, no doubt many of the

Jews were safe under the blood of Christ, under the blood of that lamb, which is the picture of Christ.

They were safe under it, but perhaps they didn't feel safe. I'm sure as they sat there, they may have been wondering, what if the death angel does come through that door?

Well, what if we didn't put enough blood on it? What if we didn't cover all of it? There are a lot of people who've really been saved and they sit around thinking they lost and they lose their peace and joy and there are a lot of people who want to think that you, my friends, how much of the blood of Christ would it take to get you saved forever?

One drop. One drop. And my Bible says that every

Christian has come to the sprinkling of the conscience. My Bible says that every Christian has been purged with the blood of Christ.

You couldn't get lost if you wanted to, if you've been saved. A lot of people sitting around wondering if they lost or saved, just like these people sitting there, well, what if the death angel's gonna get us?

If you're saved, you're saved. You didn't do anything to earn it, you can't get anything to unearn it.

You didn't get anything to merit it, you can't get anything to demerit it. It's given by the grace of God through faith and that's the way it is.

That's the way it is. So stop worrying about losing your peace and joy, worrying about whether you'll save the lost. If you're saved, go on and live it.

If you're not saved, get saved. Stop sitting around doubting whether or not God can keep you saved or not. God can keep you saved just like He can keep these people.

Now, if He kept these people and they're dealing with bulls and goats, what's He gonna do for you when you put your faith in His precious

Son? Uh -uh. He has to deny His Son.

Now, the lamb was trusted. They trusted it. Just as we today do not doubt God's word and we don't worry about losing our salvation.

Now, the sixth thing is, the lamb is honored in chapter 13. The lamb had died for the firstborn and now the firstborn belong to God.

They've been purchased by the blood. The Jews were a purchased people just like you and I are a purchased people, 1

Corinthians 6, 18 through 20. 1 Corinthians 6, 18 through 20.

And the nation would forever honor the lamb by giving their firstborn their best to the

Lord. They dedicated the first of everything they had to the Lord. The first of the field, the first of the animals, the first of their children.

They dedicated it all to God. The hands, eyes, mouth, all of them would be given to God in their service.

You might look at chapter 13, verse 9, And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand for memorial between thine eyes that the

Lord's law might be in thy mouth. For with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.

God said everything you do with your body is going to be a memorial to this thing that we have done. Now, God led his people and he didn't lead them on the nearest way, did he?

From Egypt to the promised land was 11 days journey. 11 days.

And it took them 40 years, 40 years to go 11 days. Why? They're just like you and me.

They're just like you and me, gripe, grumble, moan, groan, disobedient, rebellious, self -centered, and all of those things.

Now, but the way that was best for them is the way God took them.

It worked out for best. Chapters 13, verses 17 and 18.

17 and 18. You might just read that and he does the same thing today. Now, it was the pillar, was a cloud by day, and it was a fire by night.

Doesn't mean he had two different things. It was just a cloud by day and it was a fire by night. And God always guides those who are willing to follow him.

Now, we move on quickly to chapter 14 and 15.

And here we're going to get to the crossing of the Red Sea. Now, the crossing of the Red Sea is a different picture of the

Christian life than the Passover. It is a different picture. And you go back, of course, and study these things on your own.

But it is a perfect picture of the Christian life. It illustrates the Christian salvation through the blood of the lamb.

And yet we say that there is more to Christianity than just being saved. There's the victorious, abundant Christian life.

Israel's experiences in their journey from Egypt to Canaan are perfect pictures of the battles, the strifes, the tensions, and the difficulties, the troubles, and the tribulations of the

Christian life. God wanted Israel not in the wilderness, but in Canaan. And Canaan is a picture of not heaven.

It is a picture of the victorious Christian life. It is the life of our claiming our inheritance in Jesus Christ and living it down here.

Living it down here. Canaan is not a picture of heaven because in heaven, there'll be no strifes, there'll be no problems, there'll be no difficulties, there'll be none of those things.

And yet in Canaan, there were giants, there were all sorts of wars and battles to be fought. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus in Ephesians 1 through 3.

That is your spiritual position and it never changes. If you're saved, I don't care if you've been saved for two days or 22 years, if you've been in church for a little while or a long period of time, if you are saved, your spiritual position is that you have been seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

In Christ Jesus. We are to live that kind of life down here. The same attitude that we are victorious in Christ.

Too many Christians just like these Jews are delivered from Egypt but they get lost in the wilderness of unbelief.

They are saved by the blood of Christ but they fail to claim their rich spiritual inheritance by faith.

Now in these two chapters, 14 and 15, there are four different experiences with the people of Israel and you can apply them to Christian life.

Four different experiences. The first one, Israel crying out in fear. I've tried to make fear a little larger there for you and that's chapter 14 verses 1 through 12.

God specifically directed Israel to their place of encampment by the Red Sea and he told

Moses that the Egyptians would pursue them. It wasn't a shock to Moses. He knew they were coming. God had told him.

Now God has explained the Christian life to you and me in his word and you and I can know what to expect in our

Christian life. God doesn't just get you saved and let you wander through the world. My friend, the things that happen in your

Christian life ought not to be a shock to you and the things that are going on in this world ought not to alarm you because the

Bible teaches us what to expect in our Christian life. The problem is we don't go in there to find out. We don't go in there to find out.

God told Moses what to expect. Now, sad to say the

Jews were walking by sight and not by faith. For when they saw the army coming, they gave up in despair and they cried out in fear.

Now listen, fear and faith cannot live in the same heart. Fear and faith cannot live in the same heart.

If you've got fear in your heart, you're not walking by faith. You just can't have the same two.

They will not dwell together. If we trust God, we need not be afraid. And they began to criticize their spiritual leader and that's what most

Christians do. You find a church that has a little difficulty and the first person that gets the criticism is the pastor.

Christians never look at their own heart. Oh, it could never be the deacon's problem. It could never be the WMU or the

RAs. It always has to be the pastor's fault. Spiritual leaders in the church, it has to be the

Sunday school teacher's fault if there's a problem in the Sunday school class. It always has to be her fault or his fault.

It always is some individual who's trying to lead where God wants him to lead. The people never blame themselves for the problem.

You show me a church that's in problem and I'll show you people that want it so. The moment people want a spiritual church, they can have a spiritual church.

So brother, don't start criticizing your pastor. Don't criticize a deacon. Don't criticize a Sunday school teacher. Look in the mirror and 99 times out of 100, you'll find your problem just like I do.

That's the guy you gotta worry about, that guy that you look at or that lady that you see every day.

Now, they began to criticize him instead of praying for him and encouraging him.

They were actually complaining to God, were they not? Because God had told

Moses and had led Moses to the very place that God had appointed him to be. Moses just followed where God led him and it was the place

God appointed. So when they criticized Moses, they were actually criticizing God because God put him there and God is the one that led him to that particular place.

Now, instead of looking up to God in faith, they look back to Egypt and they said, well, we were better off in bondage under Pharaoh.

We should have stayed there. They had poor memories. Poor memories and that's the way we are sometimes.

God had smitten Egypt with His judgments, delivered them with a great power, yet they did not believe that He could see them through.

Now, you'll notice in verse 38 of chapter 12, it talks about a mixed multitude.

It's very interesting when you look at that. It talks about this mixed multitude. And a mixed multitude went up also with them, they were griping and complaining, this great mixture of people.

Now, in Numbers the 11th chapter, verse 4, you might read that at your leisure, you find the same group, another, this mixed multitude.

Now, they were the ones who were leading out in this course of complaint. And years later, in Numbers 11, 4, they did the same thing.

And what that pictures is, the unsaved are the worldly people that are members of a church.

Amongst God's people, there are the worldly Christians, the carnal Christians, and many people on our church rolls who are lost.

And they're the mixed multitude that stir up most of the problems. Most of the problems that come up in Christian life, most of the problems that come up in your daily

Christian living in the church or wherever you come together in fellowship will be because of some carnal Christian. Wherever there's contention, it'll always be because of pride in one person's life.

Pride bringeth forth contention. You'll never have an argument in the church without somebody being filled with pride. Always endeavor.

In honor serving one another, in honor preferring one another, my friend, that solves all the problems. Just let somebody else have the honor.

Say, wonderful, you got the honor. That's good. Praise the Lord. I'll pray for you. Oh, let me serve you. No, we want everybody to serve us.

And that's what causes the problem. Now, they were the ones doing this and they were crying out in fear. They were afraid.

The Egyptian army was on the way. All right? Now, in the second part, we see

Israel walking in faith. And we pick that up at verse 13 through 31. Walking in faith.

So they changed from fear to faith. Now, Moses knew that the way to victory was through trusting the Lord. That wasn't anything new to him.

Now, he gave three commands and I wrote them there for you. He gave three commands to them in this passage of scripture, chapter 14, verses 13 to 31.

He gave them these commands. He says, fear not. Fear not, as he spoke to them.

And then he said, stand still. And then he said, see the salvation of the Lord as he began to speak to the people, as he began to deal with them.

And so we find them walking in faith and he gives them these three commands. And what he's basically saying is, fear not for God is on your side.

And then he said, stand still for you can't win this battle in your own strength. And then see the salvation of the

Lord for he will fight for you. Now, it's important that we stand still before we go forward, before we take off and start moving forward.

In verse 15 of chapter 14, and the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me?

Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. But before you can ever move forward, you got to know where you're going and why you're going there.

Why are you going there? And so these people had to see this thing. And then Moses lifted his rod and God began to work.

And it's important to stand by faith or you can never walk by faith. Now, God protected them.

I just put A, God protected and B, God opened the way. So God's protection was upon them.

Now in verses 19 to 20 of chapter 14, you see it. He came between Israel and the

Egyptian armies, did he not? God came between them. The workings of the Lord. Now it's very interesting when you just pick that up and we're not going to read all of them, but look at verse 19.

And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

And he came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness to them, but he gave light by night to these.

Now, anytime anybody writes in the Bible and refers to them, it is usually referring to unbelievers.

Anytime it's talking about believers, it'll say we, us, these, and it'll use other words and it makes a great distinction.

Now, the same cloud that was darkness to Egypt was light to Israel. And that's the way it is everywhere you go in the workings of God.

The word of God and the leadership of God is darkness to people who don't know Christ and don't live for him.

But the same word is light to God's people. Now, God kept the Egyptian army at a distance the whole night because it was dark and they couldn't travel at night.

And so it was just dark to them. But can you imagine, here's a big cloud of darkness and they think it's night, they think it's a total darkness.

On the other side of that cloud is like total day. Like total day. And that's why we say

Christianity and being lost and saved is just between night and day. Between night and day.

And it's the same analogy that goes on. Now, God opened the way by sending a strong wind. Now, I don't know what kind of wind it was.

It was a strong wind and I can imagine many of those Jews became very fearful when they heard that wind begin to blow.

And they sensed that wind began to move in and start churning up that water ever how it did it. But they did stand and I'm confident there some of them were frightened.

But the entire nation of Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry land. And that's what the scripture tells us.

They went through on dry land. Yet the same sea that was salvation to Israel was condemnation to Egypt.

For God used the waters to drown the Egyptians and to separate Israel from Egypt permanently.

Permanently. Now, Pharaoh reaped what he sowed, didn't he? He drowned the

Jewish boys in water and so God drowned his army. God drowned his army. Now, the spiritual meaning of this is this.

If you want to apply it to Christianity. The crossing of the Red Sea is a picture of the

Christians or the believers' union with Christ in resurrection. Israel, the words used, baptized unto

Moses means they were identified with Moses as they went through the waters. As we are identified with Christ and are separated from the world of which

Egypt is a picture. It's always a picture of the world. Now, the Egyptians could not pass through the Red Sea because they had never been sheltered by blood.

They had never been sheltered by blood. Therefore, they were not under the protection of God. Now, I wrote a contrast between the

Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea. Now, let me give it to you quickly. The Passover. The death of the

Lamb is a picture of Calvary. The death of the Lamb is a picture of Christ dying on Calvary.

All right. At Calvary, when you and I believe in the cross, we are delivered from the what?

We are delivered from the penalty of sin. God pardons us. That's why

Romans 8, 1 says what? There is therefore... Now, listen. If you think you can lose your salvation, listen to this. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation. No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You are delivered from the penalty of sin.

The third part of the Passover, Christ died for me. That Lamb was sacrificed for the people.

It was a substitute for the people. The wages of sin is death. So, all the way God could forgive them was to take a perfect, spotless, pure substitute.

And Jesus Christ was a pure, perfect, spotless substitute. So, that's the doctrine of substitution. Now, you can explain this if you read

Romans 3 through 5. Romans chapter 3 through 5 and explains that. Now, salvation, because we are saved, we do not have to fear death.

No death. Grave. We have no fear of the grave. We have no fear of death. Because it only does for us the very best service.

God's removed the sting and He's removed the victory of it. Now, we come to the crossing of the Red Sea. It is a picture of the resurrection of Christ and the

Christian life. It's a picture of the resurrection because God had already redeemed them by blood.

They get to the Red Sea. It's they're about to move into the victorious life. They're about to get into their promised land.

And it says, flowing as it were with milk and honey. It's the movement, the place of rest where they could be confident in the place that God wanted them to be.

And that is like being delivered from the power of sin. From the power of sin. Sin has no dominion over a

Christian. You and I sin because we want to sin. We sin because we like to sin and nobody makes you sin and nobody makes me sin.

We sin because we want to sin. There's not a human in the world can make you and me sin. Nobody can.

He made me do it. Brother Rocky, she did. My wife screamed at me and I screamed back.

I didn't want to. What if you didn't want to? Why'd you do it? Now don't ask me because I can't explain it either.

I can't explain it either. But we do those things because it's a part of our nature to do them. But we need to nurture our spiritual nature so it becomes predominant in our life and we move over and cross over the

Red Sea and get into the place where God wants us and we begin walking in the peace and the confidence and the rest and we can have the abundant victorious

Christian life that he speaks about. Now instead of Christ died for us in substitution, then

I died with Christ. Your old nature spiritual principle is that it was crucified with Christ some 2 ,000 years ago.

But that is not a once and for all thing. You have to recognize it so every day.

You have to recognize each day that your life is not your own. That that life you live today belongs to Jesus Christ.

Your life belongs to God because you're not your own. You've been bought with a price and that's our biggest problem. And the reason we don't walk in the light and have the abundant victorious

Christian life is because we live the self life every day instead of living the Christ life every day.

And there's a big difference. You might read Romans 6 through 8 and that'll explain that to you. Romans 6 through 8.

Now salvation came from the dying of the lamb. So through the resurrection, sanctification,

I overcome the enemy. I overcome the enemy by God setting me apart and getting me into the place.

Now the crossing of Israel through Jordan into Canaan in Joshua chapters 3 through 4 is a type of the believer, the

Christian, entering into all of his spiritual inheritance that God has prepared for us by faith and claiming it for our own.

But in each one of these cases, faith is the way to the victory. Faith is the way to the victory.

You take that, and I gave you this when I was with you in our Bible, you take that which is not so and you believe it to be so and act as if it is so and it becomes so.

And that's just faith. That's why we live by faith. Take that which is not so and believe it to be so because God says so and live as if it is so and it becomes so in your daily life.

You take the fact that Christ died on the cross and you were crucified with him. You take that and believe it to be so because God's word said so and you accept it as so in your life that you do not live today, that your own nature is crucified and you live accordingly in your attitude and it becomes a living reality in your life day by day.

And that brings the spiritual anointing of God's power in your life. All right. Now our next section is chapter 15.

It looks like that excited you. Chapter 15, the first 21 verses. We find Israel praising in triumph.

Israel crying in fear, then they were walking in faith and then they began praising in triumph.

You might make a note. This is the first recorded song in the Bible. The first recorded song and it is beautiful.

The first recorded song in the Bible and it occurs after redemption from bondage. Only the believer has the right to really sing the praises of the

Lord. Now Exodus began in chapter 2, verse 23. What was it? It says they were sighing.

They were groaning. They were crying out and because of the sacrificed lamb, we now have that nation that were groaning and crying.

Now they're singing. Now they're singing. Now this song exalts God. So the

Lord is referred to, listen, 45 times in 18 verses. The Lord is referred to 45 times in 18 verses.

Most songs today exalt man and self and what we feel and what we think that the

Psalms and the songs extol God. They talk about the majesty and the glory and the praise of the

Lord. Now the key refrain is in verse 2 of chapter 15. The Lord is my strength and song and He has become my salvation.

He is my God and I will prepare Him and habitation. My Father's God and I will exalt

Him. This is the key refrain in it. It is repeated in Psalm 118, 14.

Psalm 118, 14 it's repeated when the Jews returned from captivity unto

Ezra and rebuilt the temple. It occurs again in Isaiah chapter 12, verse 2 and refers to the day in the future when

God will restore the nation again. You might read Isaiah 11. Now listen carefully.

Ezra sang this song when delivered from Egypt. Right? That's number one.

Led by Moses as a prophet. Watch it carefully. They sang the song here in this passage of Scripture when they were led from Egypt with Moses as a prophet.

They sang it in Psalm 118, verse 14 which occurred after Ezra led them out of the deliverance from Babylon.

Ezra was a priest. So we've got a prophet and a priest. And the third one,

Isaiah 12, 2 refers to the time when they'll be delivered from the Gentile nations and they'll turn to Christ as their king.

And so you have the picture of these three singings as the prophet, priest, and king out of these three passages of Scripture.

A perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we don't want to linger in the details of this Psalm but notice quickly.

In the first 10 verses, they praise God for His redemption. In the first 10 verses.

Verses 11 through 13, they praise Him for His guidance. For His guidance.

And in 14 through 17, they praise Him for the victory. And then the song ends on a note of glory in verse 18, looking ahead to His eternal reign.

The Lord shall reign forever and ever, it says. So it closes on a beautiful note of glory.

Now, if you'll notice something in here in verse 20. Ladies, look at it. And Miriam the prophetess, she was the sister of Moses and Aaron, took a timbrel in her hands and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

And Miriam answered them, singing to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath

He thrown into the sea. You will notice that Miriam led the women, not the men. There is no such thing in the

Bible as a woman pastor. There's no such thing as a woman preacher in the word of God, but you've got them today.

Miriam took the women. Women are to teach women and women can lead women, but women cannot lead men in the church of Jesus Christ.

It is impossible. It's not in scripture. And there's no biblical example. It gets

God's authoritative chain and the way God works out, He gets it all out of whack.

That's why a woman is not to run her home. Tragically, most women have to because we men are too lazy to do it.

But she's not supposed to. Women are not to teach the children. The women are not to teach the children. It's the man's job.

But tragically, the women have to because we men are too lazy to do it. The man, you say, well, I got to work. All right, well, you work.

The wife does it. When you come home, you do. And that's the man's responsibility. And he gets

God's order all out of whack. And that's why the church and the homes and Christianity has such a problem in the world today because we've got

God's perspective warped. And these people had to learn this thing. Now, Miriam led these in a separate choir.

Now, women have the reason and the right to praise the Lord for the redemption that they've been given. They have places of leadership, but it must be according to God's plan.

All right, quickly. Now, we have, and then we'll take our break. Israel complaining in unbelief again.

Here they are praising the Lord for victory. Now, we find them unbelieving again. Isn't that human nature? One Sunday, you and I praise

God for what He does. And next Sunday, why, we don't even come to church. I ain't going over there. I don't feel like going. Hadn't had a good week.

Hadn't had a good week. And this is what we do. Now, chapter 15, verses 22 to 27. I suppose it'd be wonderful to linger at the seaside where they were, just praising the

Lord. But the believers are pilgrim and they had some places to go and they had to follow God's leading.

And it's strange that God would lead them to a place without water. I mean, surely God knows they've got to have something to drink.

But that's where He led them. Yet God had to discipline them that they might discover their own hearts.

Now, there is no water in this world that can satisfy the believer. The water of the world does not satisfy you and me in the

Lord. Nor could it these. When the Jews did see the water, they discovered that it was bitter.

Did they not? It says in verse 23, and when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter.

Therefore, the name of it was called Marah, which means bitter, bitter. And they couldn't drink it.

And immediately what they do? They complain to Moses and to God. Look at verse 24. And the people murmured against Moses, and he cried unto the

Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. I'm working a message up right now, a series of studies on the two trees.

It's amazing how many trees in the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, there were two trees. Here, you got a comparison of trees.

You got trees all through the Bible. And it's a very beautiful, interesting study. But I want you to notice what happened here.

Now, they complained to God and to Moses. Shows us the wickedness of the human heart. But we can thank

God for His glorious experience that He gave them. And when you find bitter waters, He can make them sweet.

Now, this taught them three basic lessons. First of all, it taught them about life. It taught them about life.

Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet, my friend. And just because you're a

Christian doesn't mean you're not gonna have some bitter waters in your life. Your heart will break and you'll weep and shed many tears for many different reasons.

Some of your children will break your heart. Some of your young people will tear your heart out. Your wife may just collapse your faith in human nature.

Your husband may almost destroy your thinking about the possibility of God ever reaching anyone.

And your heart will ache in many ways, ladies and gentlemen. There is bitterness in this world.

There'll be triumphs and there'll be trials. But if you are following God, you never have to fear what comes your way.

And after every trial, look at verse 27. And after all their problems, and they came to Elam where were 12 wells of water and three score and 10 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters.

There's always a spiritual Elam after every trial. There's always an oasis. There's always peace, rest, and supply, and plenty after we come through where God is able to refresh us.

We must accept the bitter waters with a sweet knowing that God knows what is best for us.

And so in verse 25, he showed him a tree which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

Now he taught them about life and then he taught them about themselves. Life is a great laboratory, is it not?

Each experience really x -rays your heart and reveals what we really are deep inside.

The waters of Myra revealed that the Jews were worldly. They thought only about their bodily satisfaction, only about what would satisfy their bodily appetites, what they wanted, what they desired, what they thought was right.

They were walking by sight. They were not walking by faith, expecting to be satisfied by the things in the world.

They were ungrateful. They were complaining to God every time a trial came their way. They got bitter at God.

They didn't want to worship God. They just complained, and griped, and moaned because they didn't think that God had any right causing them to have any problems in their life.

So God taught them about themselves and then he taught them about himself, about the Lord, about life, about themselves, and about the

Lord. He knows the need because he planned the way. He knew what they needed because he was leading them along.

He planned the trip. And if God plans your trip in life, don't worry about it. He knows what you need and when you get there,

He'll let you know about it. He'll let you know about it. Now, God is able to use the tree, isn't

He? He took a tree and said, Here, look at that tree. Verse 25, He said, Which when

He had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. God changed the bitter to the sweet through a tree.

And my friend, if you keep coming back to the cross of Jesus Christ, He'll use that tree. Because the

Bible says, Curse it as everyone hangs on the tree. The cross is called a tree in Scripture. If you keep coming back to it, God will make the bitter things of your life sweet if you keep coming back to your

Lord. Don't come to me. That's all right. And I want to be of whatever help. You want to go to Sunday school teacher, that's fine.

They would be of whatever help they could. Your pastor would be whatever kind of help. Your Christian friends would be whatever. But you basically got to keep coming back to the

Lord because He's the one that won't make a mistake. I might advise you wrong. I wouldn't want to, but I might.

And there's not a one of you here that has the perfect advice for anybody else, although you might think so. Your advice would be perfect, wouldn't it?

Be infallible almost. Speak like the Pope. When you speak, that's it. Well, you might tell somebody wrong and never mean to.

But if you keep coming back to the Lord, you get perfect advice there. Perfect advice. The Word of God has no limit.

Now, this is why God is called Jehovah Rapha. R -A -P -H -A.

R -A -P -H -A. The Lord who heals. You can trust Him in every difficult situation in life.

All right? Now, in conjunction, we call this the bread of life, bread of heaven. Read it in conjunction with John 6.

John chapter 6. It's what you want to read this in conjunction with. For the manna from heaven is a picture of the

Lord Jesus Christ. The manna from heaven is a picture of the bread of life. And it also illustrates the written

Word of God on which God's pilgrim people, people of God feed from day to day.

All right? First of all, the manna explains to us who Jesus is.

It explains to us who Jesus Christ really is. Now, the name manna comes from two

Hebrew words which are translated into the English, what is it? What is it?

You find that in verse 15 of chapter 16. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they knew not what it was.

And the Hebrew translation of the word manna is from two words, which means what is it? Because they couldn't explain it.

They didn't know what it was. And so this is what they called it. Now, great is the mystery of godliness,

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3, 16. God was manifest in the flesh. Christ came in the flesh.

Man can't explain it. Man doesn't know what about it, how God could come in the flesh. And big question about how could

God become like a little baby? What happened when his mother was raising him? What if she raised him wrong? How could he still be

God and let a woman raise him? No man can explain that. So we say, how could it be?

What is it? How did it come about? And so manna is a perfect picture. All right, let's look at it. First of all, the manna was small.

It was small. Look at verse 14. It says, And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing.

Now it was small. This speaks of the humility of Christ, the bread of life. His humility.

He became a baby and even became a servant. He said, I did not come to minister. I mean, to be ministered to,

I came to minister. I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. It was small. Also, it says small round.

It was round. Roundness. You know, we have in my wedding ceremony, we have a very different wedding ceremony that we use.

We ask couples that come to us to marry them that we are familiar with and talk to them and send them through all of our counseling sessions.

And we have basically five sessions that we go through. And if they can't go through five, then we just don't marry them.

And they're very extensive sessions that we go to together with parents and in -laws. And we bring the wife in and talk to her because she's usually more honest than the man.

So we talk to her first. Then we get the husband in and talk with him. Then we get the husband and wife together and talk to both of them.

Then we get the wife and her family and talk to them. And then we get the wife, her family, and the husband and his family.

And we get them all together. And we solve a lot of problems before that marriage ever starts. Now they got to go through all of that.

And then one of the things we have in here, and a lot of preachers use this, this, and this, and they hold the ring and they said, here's a ring.

It's a never -ending circle. It means never -ending love. But a circle is also a sign of eternity. It never ends.

It never ends. So the man of being round speaks of the eternity of Christ. For he is eternal

God. John 8, 53 through 59. 53 through 59.

Before Abraham was, I am, Jesus said. Now also, you'll notice that it was white.

That it was white. In verse 31, And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like coriander seed, is the word here.

And it's a little plant that grows in Palestine. And it produces a small gray -white seed that's very tart.

Very tart to the tongue. Very spicy, so to speak. And notice it says white. It was white.

This speaks of the purity and the sinlessness of the Lord. The sinlessness, the holiness of the

Son of God. And then verse 31 also it says, And the taste of it was like waters made with honey.

Very sweet. Very sweet. This speaks of the character of Jesus Christ. The Bible says,

O taste and see that the Lord is good. O taste and see that the

Lord is good. Christ was sweet in his character. Very sweet to take. Now, in Numbers the 11th chapter, verses 4 through 8 that we referred to a while ago, the mixed multitude of the believers that went with the

Jews did not appreciate the taste of the manna. When you read that passage of Scripture, they cried out,

Let's go back down. We had the leeks and the onions and the garlic of Egypt. We had a good diet.

What do we want to eat this stuff for? Let's go back to Egypt. But they didn't even think about the slavery. All they thought about was the food.

They were not satisfied with simple manna. They ground it. They beat it.

And they baked it. But then it tasted like oil and not like honey. Now, you cannot improve upon the simple

Word of God. Just take it. Don't try to wash it down. Don't try to boil it out. Don't try to take the

Bible and make it fit into your own prejudice and your own bias and the way you want things to do.

Just let the Bible say what it says. And it'll work in your life. It'll work in your life. And it's a picture.

All right? Now, also, it was satisfying. It was satisfying.

For the nation lived on manna for how long? 38 years. Now, they didn't believe they could.

Why? Who can live on this little small round thing for 38 years? But they did. Haven't you and I said the same thing?

How in the world can I live on the finances that God gives me? Well, I can't live on what I got.

If you're in the will of God, God will make your money elastic and He'll make it work. If you honor

God, He'll honor you. And you may make a million dollars a month or you may make $200 a month, but if you walk with God, I can't explain it to you, but God will take care of you.

The Bible says, I have never seen the faithful in need of bread. And you haven't either.

You think you have. Now, we might not have what we want, but my friends, God will always supply what

He wants you to have. I didn't say need. You notice I chose my words very carefully. I didn't say

God will give you what you need because you see, you and I don't know what we need. We know what we want and we know what we like, but God will give you what

He wants you to have if you walk with Him. If you walk with Him. Now, let's look at it.

The manna illustrates who He was, but it also illustrates how He came.

How Jesus came. Very beautiful. First of all, He came from heaven. Manna was not imported from Egypt and they didn't make it.

They didn't have it shipped in and they didn't go to the factory and get it made. No, sir.

It was given from heaven. It was a gift of God's grace. They didn't do anything to get it.

They didn't do anything to get it to come down. They didn't pray through. They didn't do anything else.

It was just the gift of God. God gave it in His sovereign grace. God gave it because He wanted to give it, because He loved people.

For God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Nobody made Him do it.

He just did it because He wanted to do it. Just because He wanted to do it. Now, Jesus Christ came down from heaven.

Deuteronomy 6 .33 and other passages of Scripture. As the Father's gift to hungry sinners. We are hungry, starving spiritually.

Now, to say that Christ is just another man is to deny the entire teaching of the whole

Bible that He is God's Son sent from heaven. Also, it came at night. The manna came at night time.

It fell at night. Which suggests the darkness of sin in the world.

The world was in darkness, night time. Night time. And it was night time when Jesus was born.

It was night time when He was born. Yes, wasn't it? For He came to be what?

The light of the world. He came to bring light into darkness. And it is still night in the hearts of those who have rejected

Him. You might read 2 Corinthians 4 verses 1 through 4. 2 Corinthians 4, 1 through 4.

It's still darkness in the hearts of those who don't believe in Him. But He brings light into the life of the person who would receive

Him. Also, it came on the dew in verse 13. And it came to pass that at evening the quails came up and covered the camp.

And in the morning the dew lay round about the host. Now, when you turn over to Numbers 11 chapter verse 9.

Numbers 11 verse 9. And I'll go ahead and read that to you. You mark it down and I'll read it to you and check it out later.

Then I'm reading it correctly to you. In Numbers 11 verse 9. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

Why is that important that the manna fell upon the dew? Because this is a type of the

Holy Spirit. For when Jesus came to earth, it was through the ministry of the

Spirit. Luke 1 verse 34 through 35. Because the Bible plainly said that the

Holy Spirit would overshadow the virgin. And she would conceive. And this thing that she would bring forth would be a holy thing.

It would be the matchless Son of God. Had Jesus not been born of a virgin, He could not be called that holy thing.

And the dew kept the manna from being defiled by the earth. Because the manna rested on the dew.

And the Holy Spirit. The dew is a picture of the Holy Spirit that kept the defilement of Christ clear.

He was born of a virgin. Pure. He wasn't born like you and me. He wasn't born with a sinful nature.

He was born of a purity in the virgin birth. In a virgin's womb. And so this is a picture of it in the dew.

Now, also, the manna came in the wilderness, didn't it? In the wilderness.

The world is not a paradise, it's a wilderness. This world isn't a paradise. One man has said, you don't see the love of God in the world.

You look at this world, you can't see the love of God. You don't see the love of God in the tidal waves. In the earthquakes.

In the robberies and the murders. The thorns on the flowers. The weeds in the field.

The snakes. And the carnivorous animals. Survival of the fittest in the jungles.

Man against man. Woman against woman. Young people against parents. Parents against young people. You don't see the love of God. The only place you see the love of God is at Calvary.

That's where you've got to see the love of God. Now, in this world is a wilderness. To the unsaved man, to a person who's not a

Christian, the world is a beautiful, wonderful place. Well, it's just gorgeous to live down here. Well, this is a utopia.

But to the Christian who's on a pilgrim journey to the glory land, so to speak, as the old gospel singers say, this world is but a wilderness.

And eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ever been recorded what God has stored up for you as a

Christian. This world is nothing compared to what God's got stored up for you just because you're saved.

I don't care what you've done or haven't done, how much work you're doing, just because you're a Christian, because you believed in His Son. God has all sorts of things stored up for you, my friend.

Beautiful. In the wilderness. This is the grace of God. Christ came into the world in love to give man life.

All right? Also, the manna was given to a rebellious people. They weren't right when they got it. They were griping and groaning, complaining.

They were rebellious. Now, they didn't have very good memories. That's in verses 1 through 3 if you want to look at it.

Verse 2. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

And look what it said in verse 3. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, for you brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger, which we'd stayed in Egypt and died down there.

At least we'd died with a full stomach. You brought us out here to die. They were griping. They were rebellious.

And God sent it to rebellious people. Now, they had been away from the bondage of Egypt for six weeks.

That's all. They'd only been out six weeks out of Egypt. Yet they'd already forgotten God's many mercies to them.

They murmured against Moses and against God. And they longed for the fleshly diet of the old life.

Have not you and I as Christians, sometimes if you're honest with yourself, as we stand before one another tonight,

I'll guarantee you in my life, I've often wondered, well, if I went back to living like a boy, I could have so much.

I had it all in my grasp. Well, I can't do that because I'm a Christian.

And I know, you know, if God would say, well, you can do whatever you want to and I'll still take care of you.

Would I do it then? One of the things that keeps me from it, because I'm afraid God's zapped me if I go back and do it.

I'll be honest. Have you ever thought what it'd be like? Couldn't you really live it up if you hadn't known the Lord? Well, if we could really be saved and have all of God's blessing, just do what we want to anyway.

Now, that'd be the great life, wouldn't it? Just live it up on Saturday night, do whatever you want, and still have all the blessings of God.

Well, it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Now, in verse 4, look at it.

Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain amount every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

That verse of scripture could just as well have read, I will rain fire and brimstone upon these ungrateful people.

It could have been just as well, but he didn't. God's grace and God's love.

God proved His love toward them by raining bread upon them. You might read Romans 5, verses 6 through 8 sometime.

Now, listen to me carefully. How much was it? How much was it that they were going to get?

All right. Now, let's just look at it and see what it says to us as we try to figure out and just how much it was.

And look at verse 16. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it. Now, watch carefully.

Gather of it every man according to his eating an omer. O -M -E -R. Omer for every man according to the number of your persons.

Take ye every man for those who are in his tents. Now, each man was going to get an omer. O -M -E -R.

All right. Now, an omer was six pints. Six pints.

All right. Now, they had two million people at that time. The best records we have, the best manuscripts say there were about two million

Jews. Now, in order for them to have six pints a man, a mathematician has calculated that this would have required, watch it, four freight trains of 60 cars each.

For two million people, for an omer each one, it would have taken four freight trains, 60 cars in each train to carry the manna that God was going to give them for all the time that they had to have it.

Now, friends, that's a lot of bread. That's a lot of bread. And yet, that just shows you

God's wonderful grace. All right. God gave it to a rebellious people. Now, something else. God gave it where they were.

God gave it to them where they were. How easily accessible the manna was to the Jews. They didn't have to climb a mountain, didn't have to cross a river.

It came right where they were. Would you sometime read Romans 10 verses 6 through 8? Romans 10 verses 6 through 8.

Now, Jesus Christ isn't very far away. You don't have to climb a river, cross a river, climb a mountain to find him.

He isn't very far away. People can come to him at any time. All right. The third part of our outline here is, and I have it up here, the manna.

A manna shows us what we must do. It's a picture of what we must do.

First of all, we must feel the need. We must feel the need. There is a spiritual hunger inside that can be satisfied only with Christ.

John 6, 35. When the prodigal son said, I perish with hunger.

It was then that he decided to go back to the father and ask for forgiveness. In Luke 15 verses 17 through 18.

Much of the unrest, the turmoil in the world and the sin in this world is the result of an unsatisfied spiritual hunger and man doesn't realize what it is.

God has placed in every person, in Romans 1 it tells us, God's placed something in every man, woman, boy and girl.

That which causes them to hunger after God, but they don't know what it is. So they go out to satisfy that animal drive that they have in all their passions of their life, whether it be for food or anything else.

And it's all perverted by Satan. And they don't understand why they can't be satisfied with it all, with whatever they have.

Now you've got to feel the need. Secondly, I mean if they weren't hungry, they wouldn't eat, wouldn't they? Even though the manna was laying there.

Secondly, they had to stoop down to get it. It didn't jump up in their hand. It didn't come floating through.

So all right, I can get you. No, they had to stoop to get it. The manna did not fall on the tables.

Nor on the trees. It fell on the ground. And man had to stoop to pick it up.

And many people are lost today. Many men are not Christians. Many women are not

Christians. And many young people are not Christians. Because they will not humble themselves. And they will not bend.

Their pride sends more people to hell, probably, than any other sin.

They're not going to bow to anybody or anything. If I've got to kneel and pray, and I've asked many a man, as I've sat before them with an open

Bible, Sir, would you not right now be willing to pray and ask Christ to come into your life?

Well, I don't want to pray out loud. I say, why not? Nobody's here in your home, just me and you. Well, I don't want to pray out loud.

You know what it is? It's his pride. It's his pride. The only person that's excluded from praying to God verbally, my friend, is a deaf mute.

Well, Brother Rocky, I don't understand. Have you ever heard this? I don't know how to pray out loud. Let me tell you that I care less if the

University of Alabama ever wins a football game, and you'll talk out loud. You let me tell you that I care less if they never win anything in basketball again, and you'll talk out loud.

You let me oppose your political candidate, and you'll talk out loud. But strangely, we've come to the Lord, we have to be silent.

We can't talk. That's pride. We don't talk because we don't want to talk.

You must bend. We must bend. We must stoop. Thirdly, we must take it for ourselves.

A man was not satisfied by looking at that manner. He wasn't satisfied by thinking about it, nor were the women admiring it or watching other people eat it.

He had to eat it himself. Christ must be received inwardly by faith if the sinner is to be saved.

And this is what is meant in John 6 verses 51 to 58 when it talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

John 6, 63 makes it perfectly clear that Christ was not speaking about literal flesh and blood like some of the musicals and the plays that come out.

John 6, 68 tells us that it was His Word that He was referring to. And when we receive the

Word, we are actually feeding on Christ who is the living Word. When we feed on the

Word of God as it's written before us. All right, in verse 21, we find that we must do it early. We got to do it early.

Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, Isaiah 55, 6 tells us. Now the manna disappeared when the sun became hot.

And this suggests that the day of judgment will arrive when it would be too late to turn to Christ. Malachi 4, you might read that chapter.

If a man did not pick up the manna, he walked on it. If he didn't pick it up, then it was there for him to walk on.

And that's a terrible way to picture something or to treat something that is a perfect picture of Jesus Christ. And many people walk on Christ spiritually because they won't receive

Him. All right, now the fifth thing that we notice is we must continue to feed on Him.

Once a man has received Christ, he's saved eternally, John 10, verses 27 to 29.

But it is important that we feed on Christ to have the strength for our pilgrim journey just as the

Jews fed on the Passover lamb to get strength. How do we feed on Him? By reading and studying and meditating on the

Word of God. Just reading the Bible will not do it. You must read the Bible, you must study it, and you must meditate upon it day and night.

The psalmist said in Psalm 1. I meditate on it day and night. It must be foremost in our thinking, what is

God saying to me? What does He want me to do in my life? And reading the Bible is not studying the

Bible is a big difference. Studying the Bible is when you start breaking down words. What does God mean with this?

What's He saying here? How does this compare with another verse of Scripture? That is studying the Word of God. And most people read the

Bible and talk about studying the Bible and they are not the same. We must study it, we must read it, and we must meditate upon it.

All right? Now, we cannot hoard God's truth for another day. Verses 16 to 21, if you want to just glance at them.

It says, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating. And it goes on down.

Take every man for those who are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less.

And when they did measure it with an armor. And then it goes on. Let no man leave of it till the morning. Verse 19.

And you go on and study those and you will find that they did it every day. They didn't gather it all up on one day and it lasted them.

My friend, you can't read the Bible one day and that'll last you for a week. You can't come to church on Sunday morning and let that last you.

It won't work. We've got to do it day by day by day by day. Now, the gathering of the manna daily was

God's test of Israel's obedience. In verse 4. It is still God's test for the people today.

Christians who begin their day with the Bible gathering spiritual food early in the morning are the ones that God can trust and use.

And you show me a Christian that doesn't get up in the morning and have a time with God and spend some time with the

Lord. I'll show you a Christian that God isn't using. And if you're not being used of God, you check it out. It's basically because we're too lazy to get up 30 minutes early to spend some time with God.

You can get up early if you want to go hunting. You can get up if you want to go fishing. You can get up if you want to make a trip and I can too.

Well, my friends, you can get up 30 minutes early to spend time with your God. If you don't, you can forget God using you. He will not.

To spend time with God during the day, you got to start it with God. You can't pick him up sometime during the day.

Well, you don't understand my situation, Brother Rocky. Yeah, I know. We're all unique.

Nobody's just like us in the world. That's true. Well, it's just the way it is if we're going to study the

Christian life. Too many Christians mark their Bible. They fill their notebooks with outlines and yet they never really feed on Christ.

They hoard their manna and it does nothing but breed worms and poisons them instead of nourishing them because they've just put it down in a book and they've just marked their

Bible and they never studied to live on it. And if you're not careful, this is exactly what will happen this week. My friends, you ought to take these notes that we've given you and go back and study it for yourself and let

God speak to you out of what you have written and not just take my words and try to live on what I'm saying to you.

God will speak to you as you study the Scripture. These are nothing but just guidelines and some truths to kind of encourage you in your thinking.

And that's all they are. And I'm just as guilty of that. Many times I write things in my Bible and I've got things written all over my

Bible. And I go back and I say, well, I didn't know I wrote that back in there. And how come I didn't go back in and study it?

Lazy. Off on something else. And it's easy to do. Now, note this, that the spiritual manner of Christ accomplishes more than did the physical manner that God sent to the

Jews. The Old Testament manner sustained physical life, but Christ sustains spiritual life.

The Old Testament manner was for Jews only, but Christ came for the whole world.

Now, it did not cost Moses anything to get the manner for Israel. It just came. But to make himself available to the world,

Christ died on the cross. It cost God something for that. How sad it is that most of the people in the world walk on Christ instead of stooping down to receive him and live, and live.

Now, the gathering of the manner daily was God's test of their obedience, as we said a few moments ago.

Now, when many Christians still hunger for the carnal diet of the world, deep down in the hearts of many

Christians, there are those who are dabbling with Christianity, but secretly, they desire to have the things of the world.

They desire to have the power, the prestige, and the position, and the approval of the people, and the community, and society.

Secretly, that's their desire, but outwardly, they act like they really are committed to the Lord. The falsity and the hypocrisy that permeates

Christianity, it is unbelievable when you sit back and look at it, as I know many of you do, and you observe it.

Now, Joshua 5, verses 10 through 12, tells us that the old manna ceased when the

Jews entered Canaan at Gilgal, G -I -L -G -A -L, Joshua 5, verses 10 through 12, and that they ate the old corn of the land, is the translation.

The manna came down and speaks of Christ in his incarnation and crucifixion. The corn grew up out of a place of burial and death, and it speaks of Christ in his resurrection and heavenly ministry.

Now, to enter Canaan means that we enter into our inheritance that Jesus Christ has provided for us, and this means laying hold on the blessings that we have in his resurrection, his ascension, and the fact that he is in heaven pleading your case.

As long as Christ is in heaven, my friends, you have a position with God, and it can never change.

And God is interested in anything that interests you, anything that's a concern for you and your life, no matter how insignificant you think it is,

God is concerned because you're his child. You belong to him, and he's concerned about you.

Now, they eating the old corn of the land, as I said to you that day, how come God didn't give them corn in the wilderness?

How come they didn't have this thing in the wilderness? The basic reason was because they weren't where God wanted them to be.

And if they'd planted anything out there, it wouldn't have grown because they were not where God wanted them to be. But once they got into the land where God wanted them to be, then whatever they did would begin to prosper.

And if you're not in the will of God, whatever you do is not going to prosper the way God wants it to until you get in the will of God.

And once you get in the will of God for your life, then God will begin to bless your life. And it's just that simple.

All right? Now, the bread from heaven, the bread from heaven.

All right? Now, let me see where we're going to go here. I don't want to leave anything out.

Okay, the water from the rock is chapter 17.

Let's move on into that real quick. And our time is gone, but I think we can cover it through here a little bit.

We've got not all gone. We've got about 12, 13 minutes. Chapter 17 through 18. You would entitle this problems in the wilderness.

Problems. Problems. They're following the Lord, aren't they? And they entered into different experiences and trials.

Now, this helped them to understand themselves better. It helped them to understand the power and the grace of God.

All right? Water from the rock. That's the first seven verses of chapter 17. Water from the rock.

Now, the congregation, they had gotten thirsty before, hadn't they? Over in chapter 15, verse 22, you find that they had been thirsty and God had met their needs.

But like today, many people forget God's mercy. If they were in the place of God's leading, it was

God's responsibility to take care of them. If you're where God wants you to be, it's God's responsibility to take care of you.

Now, the people criticized Moses. They murmured against him. A sin which we are warned about.

In 1 Corinthians 10, the first 12 verses, we are warned about murmuring and complaining.

They were actually tempting the Lord by their attitude. For they were actually saying that God did not care and that He would not help them.

That's basically what they were saying. They were trying His patience by their repeated complaints.

Now, Moses illustrates what the trusting Christian does in hours of trial.

For he turned to the Lord and he asked for guidance. He turned to God in chapter 17, the first seven verses, and he asked

God for guidance. Now, the Lord instructed him to take his rod and to smite the rock.

He said, take your rod and smite the rock. And he promised him that water would come out.

And the smiting of that rock speaks of Christ's death on the cross, where he felt the rod of the curse of the law.

Now, this is the same rod, of course, that turned to a serpent and that helped bring the plagues on Egypt.

Now, here's the order. In chapter 16, you have the manna, which was come down from heaven, and it's a picture of Christ coming to the earth.

Chapter 17, the smiting of the rock, which pictures His death on the cross. The water that comes out is a picture of the

Holy Spirit that is a result of Christ's death on the cross, who was given after Christ's death and resurrection.

So you have a wonderful picture there. Now, in Numbers, the 20th chapter, let me just insert this.

In Numbers, the 20th chapter, in verses 1 through 13, there's a second experience with the rock.

There are two experiences with this thing about the rock. Now, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock in this passage.

But in his self -will, Moses got mad, he got angry, and he smote the rock. Now, because of that sin,

God told him he could not enter the promised land. He couldn't go into Canaan. Now, why was that so?

Because he spoiled the type. He spoiled the picture. It was a picture of Christ.

Christ could only die one time. Now, in this passage, God told him to smite the rock.

And it was a picture of Christ. But when he went and smote it again, it was a picture of him smiting

Christ twice. And that can't be done. So he spoiled the picture of what

God was doing with him. The Spirit was given once. And the believer may receive and be filled with the

Spirit many times because sin stops a person from being filled with the

Spirit. It is only sin. But after you get the sin out of your life, you are filled with the Spirit of God.

And people who sit around and ask and plead for the Holy Spirit to come into their life once they are

Christian are violating the Scripture and doing exactly what Moses did. Because the Bible says,

He that hath Christ hath the Spirit in the book of Romans. And it is utter foolishness to sit around and ask

God to give you the Holy Spirit when you as a Christian have already been given Him. And that's as plain as day in Scripture.

And what you do is exactly what Moses did here. You spoil the type and you smite at the

Word of God. Because the Word of God says that every person who's a Christian is permanently indwelt with the third person of the

Trinity. And we must be extremely, extremely careful. Moses spoiled the type.

Now, the Spirit was given once to believers. You get Him when you become a Christian.

And you get all of Him because He's a person. He is a spiritual personality. Now, they commit the same sin that Moses committed.

Crucifying Christ anew. And that's the sin that kept Him out of the place of blessing.

Now, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 4 says that Israel drank of that spiritual rock which followed them.

They drank of the spiritual rock that followed them. Some people have interpreted this to mean that the smitten rock traveled with the

Jews through the wilderness. But that's not likely. The word them is not in the original

Greek. It's not in the original Greek in 1 Corinthians. What it actually reads is that they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them.

And them is not there. It just isn't in the Scripture. The sentence actually says that they drank of the water from the rock.

And it was a thing that they did. And it didn't mean that the rock just picked up and followed them as many people would call it.

If you just go over and read it in the King James, that's what you come up with. Maybe they picked that rock up and took it with them.

Which is not so. Now, this event followed the giving of the manna. Alright, the second phase that we go into quickly.

You study all this on your own. Is the warfare with the enemy. The warfare with the enemy.

And that picks up with verse 8 through verse 16 of chapter 17. Now, a new

Christian, and this is so tragic, that when a person becomes a Christian, they are not informed that they're going to have some war.

And it doesn't take very long and they get discouraged. But the new Christian is amazed that the

Christian life is one of battles as well as blessings. Now, up to now, Israel has not had to fight.

Everything's been done for them. The Lord fought for them. And now the Lord fights through them to overcome the enemy.

The Amalekites were descendants of Esau. The Amalekites came from Esau. You might read

Genesis 36 verses 12 and 16. So they illustrate the opposition of the flesh.

Of the flesh. Israel was delivered from the world, which Egypt is a picture of, once and for all by crossing the

Red Sea. But God's people will always battle the flesh until Christ returns. You're never going to have victory over that or to a point in your life where you never have to war against the flesh, where you never have to worry about your old nature.

And anybody teaches you that that old nature is just completely eradicated and you don't ever have to worry about it again, just doesn't know their

Bible. That old nature is always there and it's always plaguing. Now, make note that the

Amalekites did not appear until after the water was given. And the water out of the rock is a picture of the

Holy Spirit. The flesh lusts against the Spirit. The unsaved man has one nature and it is sinful.

So there's no conflict. There's no real battle in his life. It doesn't bother him because he sins.

He doesn't run around getting convicted because he's only got one nature. But the two natures, once he gets saved and God creates in him a spiritual creation, then that's when the battle starts.

And that's why you and I have the conflicts because now we've got something to go against that old nature. And that's the spiritual nature.

Now, Deuteronomy 25 verses 17 through 19 tells us that the

Amalekites pulled a sneak attack and they came up from the rear. You study it. In Deuteronomy 25 verses 17 to 19, we find one of their tactics was a sneak attack and they came up from the rear.

Now, that is why the Christian must watch and pray lest the enemy comes upon him unaware. Now, how did

Israel overcome this enemy? How did they become victorious? They had an intercessor on the mountain.

Moses went up on the mountain, didn't he? You look at it. It says that Moses went up on the mountain and as they were there and it says in verse 11, when

Moses held up his hand, then Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, then Amalek prevailed. They had an intercessor, someone who was pleading their case on the mountain and they had a commander in the valley,

Joshua. They had an intercessor up there and a commander down here. Now, Moses on the mountain illustrates the intercessory work of Christ and Joshua with his sword illustrates the

Spirit of God using the Word of God down here. We've got Christ up there interceding for us.

We've got the Word of God, that is the weapon the Holy Spirit uses while we battle here. And if you want another analogy, you've got

Christ up here and a pastor down here. Think about it. He's your earthly spiritual leader.

But the one who is the high leader is him. That's why a pastor is called the under -shepherd. Christ is the great shepherd but a pastor is an under -shepherd.

And even if a pastor is wrong, you be careful of your criticism because as long as he's the pastor, he's the pastor.