Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
From Planned Extinction to the Passover
(Exodus – Chapters One To Twelve)
Chapter Three (part two)
September 2 – 4, 2005
Moses hid his face from God, for he was afraid to look upon Him. At this point, he was brought into the knowledge of the fear of God, which was the beginning of wisdom for him. He was a man who would meet in a face-to-face relationship with his Maker, and all pride of position needed to be purged from him. How different his response was to that of Solomon who thought he could have wisdom without the fear of God! Such lack of fear will lead us straight into satanic idolatry in the same manner that Solomon was led by Satan.
God began to speak to Moses, explaining why He had appeared to him. He had seen the oppression of Egypt upon His people, Israel. Today, He might say to the bride that He sees the oppression of the world and how heavily it weighs upon her. God told Moses He had come down to man for one purpose only, and that was to deliver Israel by His hand out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them to a land, a good and large land, flowing with milk and honey. Milk points to the feeding that nurtures the child; the word honey points not only to sweetness, but also to the first fruits brought into the temple for the use of priests and Levites (see 2 Chronicles 31:5).
It was a land inhabited by pagan nations. One has to see the similarity of Canada in name and type to that of Canaan, both having the name of the wedding feast of Cana within them. Pagans inhabited this land, which, like Israel, stretches from the great river on the east to the sea on the west. But there is a truth spoken here, which is difficult to imagine applying to Israel. It was described as a good and large land. Israel has always been one of the smallest countries in the world, and it seems that throughout her history, she was a rebellious nation to God. Could the Lord be pointing to the future when the true Jew would dwell in another land?
It was a cry, or prayer, that caught the ear of God. If we do not raise up our voices to Him, then, as He said long ago to Noah, He will fail to remember us. It is the love of Jesus and the remembrance, when looking upon the broken light of the rainbow, which keep us within hearing distance of God. Please, no multicultural prayers or minutes of silent prayer, which allow us to pray to the god of our choice, for they are useless prayers. He wants to hear our voices, our cries of supplication with tears. He knows the oppression in our lives, even before we lift our voices up to Him.
The command to Moses was “Come!” He was calling Moses to Himself in order to prepare him to deliver His people Israel from their captivity to the Egyptians. There is no plan we can concoct ourselves, which will bring about our deliverance. Only God can open doors to allow our voices to be heard by the ruling powers. He declared to Moses that such a meeting would take place so that he would be free to lead the people out of Egypt. God was not speaking prophetically about Moses leading a multicultural group of people; He was speaking about the exodus of only His people who, in the crossover to the new covenant, became the believers in Jesus – the true Jews of the true apostolic church.
Moses was very aware that he was a man with no worldly credentials. Well might the bride feel that she is missing the same worldly credentials for her job, which Moses was missing. In what way is it possible for her to become a leader anymore than it appeared to be for Moses, who possessed none of the qualifications for which men search in leaders? But the answer was one, which today’s religious body would be well advised to heed. The Lord God gives the only credentials, of which Moses or the bride will have need. He, Himself, was and will be with both of them, just as David was able to declare that the God of Israel was with him, before going out to meet the giant, Goliath, in battle. God literally told Moses that all he would need to know was that God’s Word is truth, and he could be assured that he could stand firmly upon it. Liberty in Him speaks of victory before it ever happens. He said that the outcome would speak for itself, for coming out of Egypt would mean new ruler-ship in the nation. Whereas Satan presently rules over the world, God has definite plans for Himself to rule again over the nations of men.
Real victory is seen in the changed life of the born-again believer who no longer will serve his/her father, Satan, but rather will serve the Lord under the guidance of the Spirit. The sign of victory given to Moses would be known by the results, whereby he would serve God on the very mountain where he was meeting with the Angel of the Lord. Moses would receive the Law on this same mountain, a Law, which could bring liberty not only to Israel, but ultimately to all mankind. Under the ruler-ship of God and His Law Israel was called to serve Him, as opposed to serving the empires of men.
The bride will know what it means to literally have this mountaintop experience, which will never be experienced in the pews of men’s religious institutions. Knowing God in intimacy means knowing Him in a very close and personal relationship, which takes us up that ladder of heaven as far as we are willing to go, with angelic guidance all the way. This is the continuation of the same way, which was closed off in the Garden to the tree of life. It raises man up again from the depths beneath as he ascends on the body of Jesus, the Ladder and only Way to the Father. This is the dream given to Jacob to signify a spiritual heritage in God for His spiritual people, Israel, long before the nation was ever in existence.
Moses missed the significance of what God was saying, which brought almost a rebuke from Him, as He identified for Moses just what his problem was. God said in clear, strong words exactly the one thing, which Moses had missed and needed to hear. It was about the mighty power of Who this God is in relationship to who men are. Moses was desperately trying to get it into his head why he had been chosen for this job and what he could say to the other Israelites that would cause them to believe him. His next question was asked so that he might determine the name he could use for this God, the God of their fathers. His answer was pretty straightforward; in identifying God, it would be both complex and simple at the same time. The response ‘I AM WHO I AM’, completely leaves men out of the equation. There is nothing we can do that is of any significance in identifying Who He is, for He exists independently of our existence, yet our existence is dependent upon Him.
He then describes Himself as the God of the fathers of the children of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God told Moses that this would be His name forever, and that this was His memorial to all generations. Now here we have the means by which God limits Himself only to His people, allowing no others to claim Him as their God. He confirms Israel as being those of the crossover blessing from first son to second Son, and from nation to believer. It makes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the fathers of an inheritance, which will cross over from a natural nation to a spiritual one. For we must note that Moses was talking to one God on this occasion, yet, He was known both as the Angel of the Lord and as God. He was the same Lord and God of the nation as was the incarnate Jesus of the spiritual nation. The pre-incarnate Jesus was directing the exodus with Moses, every bit as much as He will be directing the exodus from religion with the bride. He has assured us in this passage that this is a memorial for all generations, which makes the Lord of our salvation, the same Lord Who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, forever.
Though we are in a new covenant for believers, who will come from the peoples of all nations, our inheritance is still found only within the house of Israel. Though the nation was scattered in judgment, the spiritual nation has gone out to the world in victory. The land of Israel lost her bounty, becoming rugged and bare, with no milk or honey, but the spiritual nation was given a New World and a land of a greater bounty than had ever been seen or recorded before in the history of the world. The New World Order, in separation from the old, was from God. Satan’s counterfeit is the coming One World Order.
God was prophetically speaking to Moses, letting him know that His people would only become His people by way of the cross, as opposed to being His people by a special bloodline. The cross becomes the demarcation point for the spiritual nation opening up to all people of the one bloodline of Adam, but of many different nations. The New World would belong to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The plan for God’s people was one that can only be discovered by going back to the promise of the rainbow, the Light broken for all people descending from those who came out of Noah’s ark. That meant it was a promise for the entire world as far back as Noah. The blessing of Jacob upon his sons was intended for the entire world of believers, and was not limited to the Israelites of the nation, as found in the Old Testament. They were two companies that crossed over the Jordan, not just the first family of Leah, but also the second family of Rachel, the bride who possessed the love of Jacob.
When Moses was told to say that ‘I AM’ sent him to the Israelites, the answer was given by God that refutes all silly talk of evolution. When we describe God by the words, ‘I AM’, we also say words that speak of our own existence. Apart from His being, we would have no being. We were created not living creatures, but rather living beings, with the only knowledge we have about ourselves being evident at birth. The first thing we know and will ever know for sure comes with the realization that ‘I exist, so therefore, I am’. We can be blind, deaf and crippled, yet we must acknowledge that we are, or ‘I am because I AM’. Our own first basic thoughts about who we are force us to acknowledge the name of God.
Animals are creatures without understanding, having only instincts by which to live. They cannot attain the status of humanity, but we can be reduced, by lack of understanding, to the status of an animal that serves little more purpose than to eat to fulfill its bodily needs. Animals have a sense of pain and well-being, but cannot come to know God. The name ‘I AM’ speaks of the breath of God, which gives life and understanding to all mankind. When a baby’s voice is first heard to cry, it makes the statement, ‘I am’ a kind of worshipful statement of God. Instead of fostering that understanding in the child, we have taught it to deny the ‘I AM’ and to become like an animal as a son or daughter of the beast.
So Moses was commanded to acknowledge his own humanity, while acknowledging the divinity of God at the same time. Prophetically, he points to the future crossover of a spiritual nation of Israel into a kingdom, a plan that was from the beginning, for nothing comes as a surprise to God. As the inheritor of the crossover blessing in truth only, the bride will call the church out of religion, and out of its captivity to the beast. It will be incumbent upon the bride to declare that God has come down and visited her with a message for the church.
God is aware today, as He was in the days of Moses, of the burden, which religion has put upon His people. God promises by the prophetic Word in this passage of Exodus that He will bring Israel out from under the affliction of the gentile world, to which the institutional church has been joined in compromise. It is the voice of God, which promises that the Pharaoh of our day will heed the words of the bride. It will only happen after the apostolic church has heeded her words to come out of religion and into the truth. Her voice will bring about the only gathering of the church that there will be at the present time. It is established in the prophecy found here in Exodus that the bride will be the messenger of God to the others who will become part of the corporate bride. The Lord’s move to revive the apostolic church, separate and apart from religious institutions, will be a move of absolute purity, in which He will accept nothing short of a pure and spotless bride.
Moses was required to ask Pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites to make a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that they might sacrifice to the Lord God. Here Moses is as Jesus preparing the way for His church, which will move out into the world for two millennia in its own wilderness experience. But on the dawn of the third day, His sacrifice for the salvation of men will give way to His judgment, for their refusal to accept the gift of life, which He offered to them. It will then become time for these men to take their own judgment, which Jesus had been so willing to take for them.
All of the church is called to make their lives a sacrifice unto the Lord, so that His purposes might be accomplished before the judgment falls. Will Satan willingly release the bride from religion anymore than Pharaoh was willing to allow the exodus of the Hebrew children from Egypt? With great signs and wonders and the outstretched hand of the Lord, He will bring forth His bride from her tomb-like captivity to religion. It is the same hand that the servant of Elijah saw rising out of the sea as a small cloud, the size of a man’s hand, on the seventh time of looking toward the sea from Mount Carmel, before the heavy rains came down.
What God is saying is that in the same way He gave favor to the Hebrew people, He is going to give favor to His bride, whom He loves, and who loves Him in return with a passion. There is a promised transferal of the gold, silver and clothing of Egypt going from the Egyptian women to the Hebrew women. It distinctly appears to be the time of the woman birthing, which is being spoken of here, prophetically, as opposed to being the time of the apostles going out to the world with the gospel of truth for the first time. She shall ask, she shall receive, and she shall plunder, for the Lord will be her Provider. Nothing shall be gained by works, tax exemptions, or any sort of charitable deductions, which could be used to silence her voice or to take the glory away from the Lord. God will be her Provider all the way, just as He was for the Israelites during their wilderness trek. Yes, she will live on the wealth and food of the world, but only as God delivers it to her in order to serve His purposes and not man’s agendas.