Feast: Where Do We Go From Here?
#FT22-07
Mark Schindler
Given 16-Oct-22; 73 minutes
description: During the past seven days as we rehearsed the significance of the Millennial rule of Jesus Christ and His resurrected glorified saints, hopefully the "I AM" (the shared name of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ) has made a profound impact upon us as it had upon Moses as he approached the burning bush (Exodus 3:1). Previously Moses, reared as future king, but presumptuously acting as a social justice warrior on behalf of the downtrodden Israelites, forced to flee for his life upon murdering an Egyptian, and spending 40 years tending sheep, was now humbled to become a servant of Almighty God. Like Moses, we have figuratively spent the last seven days on holy ground, receiving lifesaving instructions from "I AM." And like Moses, we need to learn that God is sovereign over time and has meticulously scheduled the events in the lives of His called-out ones. Secondly, we must be aware that God has our back and will be with us regardless of the mountainous appearance of the obstacles before us. God has not called us because of our righteousness or greatness, but because He loved us and has chosen to redeem us from the bondage of sin, as the weak and the base to confound the worldly-wise. God the Father and Jesus Christ have been working together continuously from an indefinite past in absolute unity in stark contrast with the hopelessly divided religions and governments of this world. God's people have been admonished to read the book of the law (Deuteronomy) every seven years at the year of release. Almighty God, knowing the end from the beginning, knew in advance that Israel would play harlot, fornicating with the surrounding nations. The Song of Moses is a warning to those who would desire to depart from God's holy law. I AM, the surname of the God family, applies to God the Father and Son who desire to share that glory with their called-out sai
transcript:
Here we are already at the seventh and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Tomorrow is another of God’s holy days, and although attached to the Feast of Tabernacles, it is yet another part of the work of the Word who became Jesus Christ.
The Eighth Day, as I think we have come to call it more correctly over the years, does indeed picture the next incredible work of the Father and the Word, to create all men in Their image and likeness.
As meat in due season, we will hear much more about this part of their plan tomorrow, as we try to carefully hear and live God’s Word, with a more sharply developing relationship with the Word of God, who revealed Himself to Moses simply as the overwhelming I AM!
Brethren, hopefully this name—I AM—and what it represents has made a profound impact on us throughout these days of the Feast of Tabernacles. His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, and His perfect attention to every detail—purposed, planned, and executed from the smallest detail to the largest, to perfection—is so far beyond our ability to grasp that it often evokes the same reaction that God shows us in those He sent forth to do His work.
As with the opening of the sermon on the second day of the Feast, when we began with part of Christian Hunter’s reading from Deuteronomy, I want us to turn our attention to what Levi [Graham] just gave us in reading today’s verses from Deuteronomy 32:21-43. We will then be adding a few verses that should additionally be important to us as we finish this last day of God’s commanded Feast of Tabernacles and prepare to go out from here.
But first, it may be helpful if we consider the reaction of those faithful when even the smallest part of God’s glory has been revealed to those whom He has determined to send forth to do His work in accord with the will of the Father.
We are going to start by turning to God’s first direct contact with His faithful servant Moses in Exodus 3. Of course, we all know this came after God had been carefully preparing Moses for this moment for almost 80 years. A very specifically designed training that began with the rigors of learning to be a king within the very house that enslaved God’s elect, which in itself should be a clear lesson to us of how God can and will use any part of His creation as He determines necessary to accomplish His purpose.
Moses then continued through the rigors of training in humility as a simple shepherd following his own presumptuous act in killing an Egyptian, and his flight as a fugitive. All this was done, as God was working His plan out and Moses’ part in it down to the smallest detail.
Exodus 3:1-15 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people—the children of Israel—out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'
The word “memorial” in verse 15 is the Hebrew word zeker (zay'-ker), which is #2143 in Strong's; and it is variously translated as memorial; memory; remembrance. This is the first of only 23 times it is used in the Old Testament. It is the noun form of the verb zakar (zaw-kar'), #2142 in Strong's, which means: to mark; so as to be recognized, i.e. to remember.
Please notice how verses 10-15 is written in The Message Bible in Contemporary English because it clearly brings home a point that should remind us of exactly what God wants us to remember throughout all our generations forever, and how we need to think of Him, first and foremost.
Exodus 3:10-15 (CEB) It's time for you to go back: I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt." Moses answered God, "But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?" "I'll be with you," God said. "And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain."
Then Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I tell them, 'The God of your fathers sent me to you'; and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What do I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the People of Israel, 'I-AM sent me to you.'" God continued with Moses: "This is what you're to say to the Israelites: 'God, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.' This has always been my name, and this is how I always will be known.
Brethren, this translation of these 5 verses points to three things that must always be front and center in our very personal relationship with our Great God. The first two are absolutely guaranteed by the third!
The first, within verse 10, says “It’s time for you to go back.” This should help us consider that everything is being done in order and on God’s schedule as He moves all things to the end He has determined to create men perfectly in His image and likeness.
It is obvious to us that at this point in God’s 80-year preparation for the task Moses had been born to do, Moses was no longer the presumptuous deliverer of Israel from the Egyptians that He once considered himself to be. But now, as the Message Bible put it, with his pride deflated, his response to God was, "But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
How many of us are saying the same things as we sit here today among God’s elect? (We are going to follow up on this in a minute.) But it is God’s reply to the humble shepherd that is vital for us to take with us always. God’s simple reply was, "I'll be with you."
Here is another very simple statement of truth: God had told Moses, “It is time to go, on My time schedule, with everything you need. I will be with you.” Then He ends this, as the only One who could possibly guarantee the covenantal agreement that would be worked out through generations into eternity; the One who inhabits eternity, declaring the end from the beginning—“I AM!” Not only does He sign this order to Moses with His name, but He also tells us, “This has always been My name, and this is how I always will be known!”
Maybe you have considered the emphasis that I have placed over the course of the sermons leading up to and through the holy days on the name “I AM” a bit too much. But when we are told from God’s Word, “This is how I always will be known,” we really need to consider this, even though it literally borders beyond the edges of human comprehension.
It is very important for us to meditate about this, and deeply consider just exactly who it is that has selected each one of us individually to have an eternal relationship with Him right now! We all recognize that this is the One who became Christ, and incurred the wrath of the Pharisees as recorded John 8:58-59 to the extent that they sought to stone Him when He declared to them that He predated Abraham: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The Pharisees immediately understood the importance of Christ’s comments: He was claiming to be the I AM of the Old Testament. They immediately recognized He was claiming to be the “I AM” who directed Moses in Exodus 3:14-15 (Contemporary English Version): “I AM the eternal God. So tell them that the Lord, whose name is “I AM” has sent you. This is My name forever, and it is the name that people must use from now on.”
We have been given hearts and minds to see God. Though we see in a mirror darkly (just as the apostle Paul wrote), God is making clearer every day He is bringing us into His Family.
The more we hear and obey Him as He commands, the more we should be able to recognize with an overabundance of gratitude the opportunity to have a growing and flourishing family relationship with Him who has always existed beyond the time and space that He has created!
It also might be some food for thought—just as when Jesus Christ told Philip, “When you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” They both share the name “I AM.” Just as Elohim is the Family name, so also is, “I AM.”
It may be helpful to look at it this way because it is a very important indication this is a work that They determined to do together as Father and Son, with the Son always doing the will of the Father. As Mr. Armstrong always used to say, someone has to lead.
But we need to appreciate the cost of what They do to create us in Their image and likeness. Unless we can appreciate all They are doing together to bring us into the Family, expecting us to be pleasing to Them, we will never have the unity that They desire.
First of all, let us remember who we are, and what God declares to His elect in both the Old and New Testaments.
Please turn to Deuteronomy 7.
Deuteronomy 7:1-11 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.
Is says in there that God is our Redeemer. When Richard introduced the special music, that piece was not the original planned for today. The person who was supposed to perform today got sick. So, those people who came up and sang, stepped up in about 45 minutes, and performed that song about, “God our Redeemer.”
Do not you think that God puts things together? I do!
Now, let us see who we are, because the I AM guarantees these things.
Turn to Deuteronomy 9.
Deuteronomy 9:1-6 "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?' Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.
Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Let us go to the New Testament side of this. Turn to I Corinthians 1.
I Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Here we start in this verse with both members of “I AM” working together to accomplish what They have set out to do within their positions. God is faithful, by whom you were called by the Father into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is very interesting, as Paul uses this as a stark contrast to the divisions driven by the minds of men rather than the unifying work of Jesus Christ.
Now continuing in I Corinthians 1:
I Corinthians 1:10-17 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ."
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
Do you think these words of the apostle Paul are in sharp contrast to verse 9, where he showed the absolute unity in the work of the Father and the Son? I do. Let us continue in verse 18:
I Corinthians 1:18-31 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."
Brethren, although we know that all is being moved along by Jesus Christ to bring all to the glory of the Father, it very well may be here that the apostle Paul is sharply contrasting the division of men to the unified work of “I AM” as the Father and Son do Their perfect work in unity.
Just consider who it is that calls the elect. Here we see a work being done in unity. There is an enormous amount of work from both the Father and the Son!
We are the weak and base of the world, who the Father is carefully calling to the Son, who is responsible for bringing it all back to the Father for His glory. Hidden in plain view is an important lesson regarding the work we need to be doing to be just like Them.
We are going to Deuteronomy 31 with a few verses you have heard a number of times during and leading up to this year’s Feast of Tabernacles.
Deuteronomy 31:1 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:3 “The LORD your God Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the LORD has said.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."
Deuteronomy 31:9-13 So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess."
After Moses reminds Israel that “I AM” was among them, and had led them these forty years, and that His presence with them was a surety to a faithful people, we then see what God has to say about them.
Deuteronomy 31:14-22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that I may inaugurate him." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting.
Now the LORD appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle. And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?' And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods. Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.
When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them." Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
After Moses reminds Israel that the I AM was among them, and had led them these 40 years, He was also sure that they were not going to be faithful, as we just read in verses 14-22.
Over the last two days you have heard in your ears this very warning to those who forget the “I AM.” But He is always going to be there as long as His law, the very expression of His love, is kept front and center among His elect!
I would like to pick up a few of the verses that both Hunter and Levi read for us to remember, while keeping in mind what the Word told Moses from the burning bush: “So tell them that the Lord, whose name is “I AM,” has sent you. This is My name forever, and it is the name that people must use from now on.”
It is vital for us to be very conscious of the fact as we read through this, the Word, who gave up all His rights and privileges as God to become the Son, and carry out the will of the Father, is the God of the Old Testament. “I AM” represents Them both in the same way as when Jesus told Philip, when you have seen Me you have seen the Father!
This is important, because we need to understand all the work that the two of Them are doing (who inhabit eternity without beginning or ending of days), both of Them working together to accomplish Their stated purpose within Their individual responsibilities.
Before going any farther in Deuteronomy, we need to verify this. So turn to John 5.
John 5:16-17 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now [hitherto] and I have been working."
Now, John Ritenbaugh wrote about “hitherto” in a comment on these two verses.
John wrote:
We do not use "hitherto" much anymore. It means that the Father began working at some unexpressed time in the past, and He is working still. He began working and has never stopped. His audience understood this because they say that God was working on the Sabbath.
If God has never stopped working, He works seven days a week, 365 day a year, decade after decade, century after century. He is working and has never stopped for the Sabbath. Then Jesus adds, “and I work.” The Jews did not like this at all because Jesus associated Himself with God, and He was declaring, "I work on the Sabbath too," basically throwing their accusation right back at them. But the very fact He said it incensed them because they knew immediately that in order for this to be true He had to be equated with God.
The Father and the Son began working on a project in the indefinite past. Once that project began, They worked without stopping, "hitherto," even now. Remember, God is our model, and He works on the Sabbath. But the key is the type of work that He and His Son do.
Brethren, I think this is vital to appreciate the constant work that is being done by both the Father and the Son in absolute unity to bring us into Their image and likeness. They are the I AM.
Keeping Their incredible work in mind should help us to more fervently respond to Them in learning to live Their way of life with reverential awe. Then we will not do as Israel did when they failed to remember who was always with them, leading and guiding them. They refused to remember God’s law of love as expressed in His commandments.
So now, turn to Deuteronomy 32. Remember that this is a song of Moses of the things that God said that Israel would do. And He made him write this song right after He said He wanted this read to Israel every seven years. Well, it did not happen that way, and God knew that.
Deuteronomy 32:1-7 "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.
They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you."
Deuteronomy 32:15-21 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who fathered you. "
And when the LORD saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.’”
Deuteronomy 32:28-29 "For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”
Deuteronomy 32:34-40 'Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.' "For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free.
He will say: 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge. Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, "As I live forever.”’
Brethren, it was not happenchance that the choir group sang that song before this message. God is our Redeemer and He will redeem Israel.
But for us, these are part of the most feared judgements of the “I AM,” with which we ended the readings of the book of Deuteronomy this day. The things that we read throughout this chapter from verses 1 to 43, and over the last two days are a vivid look at what happens to a people without the circumcised heart and the indwelling of the Father and Son.
But as we celebrate this memorial we must remember that we have been selected by the Father to be sanctified by the words of truth to be a holy people in unity with “I AM,” just as Jesus Christ said in His prayer to His Father, recorded in John 17:21-23, as paraphrased in the Contemporary English Bible:
John 17:21-23 (CEB) The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they'll be as unified and together as we are. I in them, and you in me; then they'll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them in the same way you've loved me. (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
Brethren, we can do what physical Israel could not, but only if we have the reverential awe for the constant work of the Father and the Son, while doing what Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy 32:45-47, where we read,
Deuteronomy 32:45-47 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, and he said to them: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess."
We must always see the reality of the final blessing Moses pronounced to Israel for His holy people, as recorded in Deuteronomy 33:
Deuteronomy 33:26-29 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, 'Destroy!' Then Israel shall dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and new wine; His heavens shall also drop dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places."
Right from the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy we saw that it is the Lord our God who is always present and going before us to fight our battles.
Deuteronomy 1:29-33 "Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.' Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.”
To the Israelites, despite all the displays of His awesome power as the “I AM,” He was never a reality to them that He must be to us! He was before, behind, and over them as the Cloud. He was in their midst in the cloud that covered the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant. But to those who saw these things with their eyes He was never the reality to them that He must be to us. We must always see the constant work that is being done completing what “I AM” has started, and will finish perfectly. Just as John Ritenbaugh said regarding John 5:17, "The Father and the Son began working on a project in the indefinite past. Once that project began, They worked without stopping, "hitherto," even now!” Imagine that same pillar is with us to lead and guide us in ways that were impossible to Israel.
So now, let us turn to two scriptures that I hope will set up the remainder of this sermon. First please turn with me to Leviticus 23 and the instructions we have read many times over the last few weeks.
Leviticus 23:33-36 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.’
Leviticus 23:39-43 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.'"
Now turn to I Corinthians 10.
I Corinthians 10:1-13 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
It is clear that God has revealed within His holy days His step-by-step plan of salvation in the order the Father and the Son have determined to bring all men to salvation and these seven days clearly picture God’s millennial rest. They look toward what is just over the horizon when Jesus Christ has returned as King of kings, and the truth of God’s Word is directing is bringing the peace and abundance we celebrate this week.
However, there is something more here for you and me.
Leviticus 23:42-43 tells Israel through its various generations to dwell in temporary dwellings to know—to remember—that the “I AM” delivered. And then I Corinthians 10 tells us that all this was for our admonition to witness the faithful work of the “I AM,” who always makes the way clear, even when it looks like there is no way out.
Remember a couple of minutes ago I asked that we consider that the same Pillar that was leading physical Israel is still at work in our lives, yet in ways they never could have imagined. This same Pillar that enshrined the glorious presence of God on His throne above the ark of His covenant was always among them on their journey leading and protecting.
This same God is not just with us, but in us so that we can be assured that He will never let us stumble. And as the “I AM,” we also have all the blessings that physical Israel should have seen in God’s presence in the cloud.
Let us consider what Israel witnessed in the Cloud—what we can be assured through Jesus Christ.
1. The Cloud led them.
Exodus 13:20-22 So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
2. The Cloud did not depart from them in their foolishness and even provided light.
Nehemiah 9:16-19 "But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed Your commandments. They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves, and said, 'This is your god that brought you up out of Egypt,' and worked great provocations, yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them on the road; nor the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way they should go.”
3. The Cloud not only provided light but protection from the elements.
Psalm 105:39 He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night.
Psalm 121:1-8 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.
4. The Cloud shielded them from their enemies when He protected them from the Egyptians when they were cornered at the Red Sea. He provided for them and became their rear guard.
Exodus 14:19-20 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.
5. God spoke to Moses directly from His presence in the cloud.
Exodus 33:7-11 Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
These days are a memorial of God’s direct hand in leading physical Israel throughout the generations; we have a record of that work seeing the pitfalls, but more importantly recognizing with reverence the work that “I AM” is doing to bring us into oneness with Them and each other.
Remember that I told you after we looked at I Corinthians 1 that we were going to come back to the incredible work we need to be doing just like the Father and the Son are, who inhabit eternity, giving us an example to follow to work in unity as They do.
There were two things that happened to me this week that really put this all in perspective for me and thanks to a conversation I had with Margi Saxton, they have become an important part of this message. I think they may help us to see where we go from here.
On the first day of the Feast Sal and Carmen Perez invited Nancy and I to have lunch with them between services in the hotel’s restaurant. Well, you know the elevator over there is not working, and the restaurant is that way, and so we had to go down in this other elevator over here, because I cannot take the stairs. And, Sal went ahead to make sure we had a table.
When we got down to the bottom on the first floor, that access door was locked, so we could not get across from there. And, of course, with the canes and everything else. . . Well, Sal was standing on this end with a middle-aged gentleman on the maintenance crew, a humble man, a housekeeping man in the hotel. And, Sal grabbed him, and they came across and opened the door for us. But, when we got to the other side, we were walking towards the restaurant which brings us past the business office. Most elevators work by hydraulic fluid. and I think that what happened with this elevator is that they had problems with this one after the hurricane with its hydraulic piston. Well, you do not see it, but I did, because these rubber covers for the feet of my canes pick up anything that is slippery on the floor.
As we tried to get from just outside the business center across that open area to the restaurant, my canes were slipping. I could not move. It slipped immediately. Well, this maintenance man who came with Sal got down on his hands and knees, over the 10 to 15 feet across to the lobby. (All that area, though you probably did not feel it as you walked on it, was a slick coating of hydraulic fluid that he noticed.) That man got down on his hands and knees. And with every step I took with each cane, as I lifted it, he took a rag and wiped the hydraulic fluid off the bottom of that cane so I could place it solidly. Every time I lifted the cane, he was doing that all the way across! It was such an absolute effort in humility.
As I thought about it, this Great God who created this magnificent ocean behind me and this world—this creation—and who inhabits eternity, Jesus Christ, gets down on His hands and knees for each one of us if we are in a situation where it seems there is no getting away.
I could not move, I literally could not walk, except for that man’s help, and Sal brought him to me.
The more I thought about it, the man was acting like Jesus Christ does for us. I thought about Sal. He went and got this man. He brought him over to the door, so we could get in. Others were watching as this went on. This is what we do for each other. He, Sal, as a brother, went and called Jesus Christ. We get down on our hands and knees and pray to Jesus Christ for each other. That is what Sal did in type for me, and brought this man who represented (to me that day) what Jesus Christ should represent to all of us. This is the Great God of salvation, the great I AM. He and the Father are always working, and yet He came down as a Man to die for our sins. That is what this week is all about. We have to understand the absolute cost, not only of our salvation, but the reverential awe we should have for what they did.
Another instance happened a couple of days later. It was a similar situation. We had the opportunity to have dinner out with Bill and Sharon Onisick, Deanna Garrett, and her daughter’s family, the Schulte’s. It was a Brazilian restaurant where they go around with tall skewers with different meats on them, and they come by, and shave off some of it for you. Everything is beautiful with Brazilian design and décor. But much of the floor is ceramic tile. When we left the carpeted seating area for dinner, and headed for the door, my canes did the same thing once again. They slipped. I could not move.
Well, Bill just charged in and firmly grabbed my arm, “Here let me help you.” And of course, me being proud, and such, “No, no, I’ll get it.” It is hard to take help. If I can do it, I want to do it. But that night there was no way I could make it from there to solid ground. So Bill grabs my arm very tightly, and Derrick Schulte, this giant of a man, joins him on my other side, holding my arm very gently. but he was still holding it. And the two of them ushered me, helping me get across that area. I just could not have done it without either one of them. They are my brothers; each one of them had a different approach, but both of them were there to support and make sure that I could get across.
The point is, just like the Father and Son, we can only move forward in unity. Unlike the perfect Father and Son, we struggle because we do things that are not [perfect]. But God expects us through His power and might to grow to be just like Them.
We need to leave here with the lesson that was never learned by Israel.
The Father and the Son are working perfection in unity, and we must learn to follow Their lead in faith together.
Please turn with me to what was going to be our final scripture. But because God conspicuously rearranged the special music before this sermon, I have added that special music’s psalm to conclude after these words from God through the apostle Paul on this last service of this memorial Feast of Temporary Dwellings.
Please turn to II Corinthians 4:
II Corinthians 4:1-11 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
II Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
II Corinthians 5:1-9 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
So, where do we go from here?
Continue your walk in faith together following the example in unity with the Great “I AM,” who will complete the good work that They have started in us.
Psalm 130:1-8 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning—yes, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
MS/rwu/drm