Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Egypt's Help Is Worthless

" 'Ah, stubborn children,' declares the LORD, 'who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation... Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her 'Rahab who sits still.' " - Isaiah 30:1-3, 7 ESV

Grace is an alliance with God's Spirit. To live in grace is to live in God's reality.

But people just return to Egypt and forget that it was a place of pain and contradiction. People are laughing and eating well in Egypt. They had things there that we don't have here. Maybe that is a better way? Maybe it isn't so bad there? It might be different this time then it was before.

For some it isn't that kind of identification. The wounds they received in Egypt ache and plague their thinking. Their identity becomes an identity based on what happened in past bondage.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." - Psalm 1:1-3 ESV

The word for law here is Torah (Strong's H8451) which references God's written instruction.

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." - 1 Peter 1:18-23 NASB

Yes. Instead of going back we can move forward. The Torah came as a flesh and blood man and came as the living word. The Torah is testifying of Him.

Let's acknowledge the slavery of the past but go forward to freedom. There is no quickening in Egypt. Quickening comes far away from the neon lights. Quickening comes when the historical resurrection becomes a present day reality to us and we live in a agreement with the Holy Spirit about the nature and character of the living word and what He has already accomplished on our behalf.

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