Genesis Ch 12 v1-2:
The incept of the word of God unto Abraham, had within it a new start & a new covenant.
Never before had God asked a man to leave his country, kindred and his fathers house to come to the land that he would show him.
God promised to make out of Abrahams obedience a great nation, through which all families of the earth could be blessed.
Right here we have the Immanuel of God. We have the Word made flesh.
We have the Word of God and human form being brought into harmony, the original purpose and ordination of man was to be blessed of God.
Gods commitment to Abraham was total. Gods calling to Abraham was not partial and it was not up to Abraham to set the distance or quality of the land.
Abraham was not called to decide the parameters of his journey.
Abraham’s calling had no diminishing of his masculinity but it had a fullness of God being the one who ‘made’ (make!), and that is again true to the original creation before man fell.
So here we have a dichotomy! God is calling a man who he knows has been corrupted by the fall and hence while we see it as a repeat of the original creation, Abraham has the advantage of knowing the disaster disobedience had brought to mankind.
Therefore, God ‘making’ Abraham a blessing necessitates something that is going to speak into Abrahams understanding of what the original blessing of God is, the essence of the very nature of God. Man was created immediately before the Sabbath day of rest.
Abrahams journey was not just the impact of the fall! Gods created blessing unto man had no conditions. It was a ordination of God from the very will and heart of God.
While the blessing had no conditions, a commandment was given not to eat of the fruit of one tree, to ensure the preservation of life.
Now the Lord allowed the temptation.
But what would have been the outworking of mans obedience had he stood upon the word of God. And that is the journey Abraham was called into, a land that God would show him, a promised land that held within it the original blessing of obedience to Gods Word.
‘And your father’s house’. This gets to the heart of it.
God was going to take Abraham further than his own father could take him.
And that is the heart of a father, to share with someone your nature, to impart to another that which you are able to impart to see them develop into who and what they are designed to be.
Therefore, for Abraham to be the Father of the faith, God himself had to father him, and reveal to him more than what Adam had lost. God had to reveal to Abraham the Son who obeyed under temptation and procured everlasting life unto those who believe. And that is the heart of the dichotomy, a fallen man being called into a bond of love that had never ‘known’ corruption. Therefore, a Cross must be at the heart of this dichotomy.
‘To the land that I will SHOW you’.
Genesis Ch 15 v 8: ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it’
Genesis Ch 22 v 12: ‘for now I know that you fear God, ‘SEEING’ you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me’.
Exodus Ch 2 v14: Then Moses was afraid, and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known’.
Exodus Ch 2 v25: God saw the people of Israel and God knew.
Hebrew Strongs 3045:
Prim root, to Know (prop. to ascertain by seeing).
God had to show Abraham the land. As God is the one showing Abraham the land, it is spiritual the land. The tabernacle and the temple would come later, but worshipping the Father in Spirit and in truth is part and parcel of the land God showed Abraham.
‘Follow me’, is the first footsteps in the journey of Spirit and truth.
Now the land is geographical, and the narrative concerns that land. So while highlighting the spiritual essence of it, we are not replacing the promises of God from the land God showed to Abraham.
The land that God would show Abraham held within it the revelation of Jesus Christ. The blessing by which all families of the earth are able to bless themselves (footnote esv Gen Ch 12 v3).
Gen Ch 12 v11: I know that you are a beautiful women in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
This knowledge of Abraham came from the fall and its first fruits, Cain murdering his brother Abel.
In Genesis Ch 15 v8 this know is a cry from Abraham for revelation in the land God is showing him. Abraham knows he has been directly impacted by the fall and he does not see how God can ‘make’ him a blessing through which every family of the earth can be blessed through. He has looked up at the stars and believed, but possessing the land with the ebbs and flow of culture and the fall, Abraham knew that no amount of his own zeal could alter this tide.
Genesis Ch 15 v18: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.
We know that the Euphrates is the last of the four named in Genesis Ch2, uniquely named without any additional description. And we know that this river is associated with the period of captivity in Babylon. And while many believe that the river of Pishon was also within Africa, we do know that the river of Egypt defined the other great chapter of Abrahams descendants whilst not in the land God had promised them.
Thus these two rivers, also incorporate two of the time frames that Gods people where on the very borders of the territory God had promised them.
Hence, we ought not to be surprised that God parted the Red Sea or that God visited a cup bearer in the courts of Babylonian captivity.
At the fringes God is faithful, during the dispersion, the stars still shined over every nation, all the people of God had to do was look up to the heavens, to be reminded of the promise made unto father Abraham. But at the very heart of the promised Land, Jeru-salem, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice and Sabbath of Gods rest.
Genesis Ch 22 v 12: ‘for now I know that you fear God, ‘SEEING’ you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me’.
Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram.
Not a star in the night, but a ram perhaps around three years old.
The Lord stretched Abraham to the point of death in his obedience.
Abraham believed that God would raise his Son from the dead to fulfill his word of promise. Abraham feared not allowing God to be the one in control. Abraham was not willing to put restrictions on the method God used to ‘make’ him ‘see’ the new covenant.
This offering of Isaac by Abraham, perfectly mirrors the nature of God. God had called Abraham as a Son and had given him to be a father to his very own son. Therefore, this seeing of God was a fission of his very own being, to impart the ‘know-ledge’ of the answer to Abraham’s deepest heart cry: the revelation of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for fallen humanity, an obedience that finished the work of God, since before the foundations of the world.
Pentecost is the fire of fusion. But the sacrifice was a dividing of the X & Y into parts.
God took the whole burden off Abraham, and showed him the deep mystery that God must provide for himself the sacrifice. Nothing less could bring mankind into the harmony of Sonship, into the original blessing procured through obedience despite the rebellion of darkness to lights reign of liberty and life abundant.
Exodus Ch 2 v14: Then Moses was afraid, and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known’.
Moses killed an Egyptian. Moses took matters into his own hands, and did not stop himself at the last moment from striking the Egyptian. Moses, looked this way and that, but he was not keenly listening for a voice from heaven to help him see before the fall of man: A ram slain before its foundations. A provision from God due to his foreknowledge of mans disobedience under the temptation. The temptation to believe that God had withheld something of himself to make man wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the revelation of Gods provided sacrifice. The thief on the Cross feared God.
Just like Abraham, Moses had an innate knowledge that he had also been impacted by the fall. Moses had killed an Egyptian and he knew that when it reached Pharaohs ears he would be hunted down.
Moses had been spared life in the cradle, despite the edict of Pharaoh that the male born sons should be drowned in the Nile. He had been spared life, as the midwives feared the Lord.
Moses had been taken into the very heart of the Egyptian centre of power, through the daughter of Pharaoh, hearing his cry upon the waters of the Nile for life.
And when fully grown and learned in all the Egyptians culture and ways, he reciprocated the compassion that hears the cry for freedom from tyranny.
Now this is a great dichotomy. The man who is going to be used as a mouthpiece for the Word of God to set the people of Israel free from tyranny, fleas Egypt in fear of the repercussions from Pharaoh for having taken matters into his own hands concerning the injustice of his own peoples bondage. It is a dichotomy as Moses killed a man, the very first fruits of the fall. Moses first ‘work’ in respect of a being a deliverer was to break the laws of God.
Now this contains the wonder of the fission and the fusion. Moses’s works didn’t prohibit God from ‘making’ him and showing him the truth concerning himself. Moses’s arm and hand of failure was not the end of the story.
God saw the people of Israel – and God knew (ascertain by seeing).
This verse contains Genesis Ch 1 v3. It contains the fission and the fusion.
Had not God showed Abraham, that he would deliver his people from Egypt after 400 years and bring them into the land of promise. Did God not know this?
Therefore, Moses’s failure is encouragement unto all men, who may have fled Pharaoh’s in fear of their lives, having dared to stand for righteousness in some small sphere of their lives.
God knew, that the deliverance is through the revelation of the new covenant, the father & the son, the passover lamb provided before the foundation of this world.
God knew that it is not by might or even power but by my Spirit says the Lord.
Now the real dichotomy, just ask any pastor, is this: All the great plaques used by God to bring his people out of Egypt, until Pharaoh finally agreed to let the people go. That despite all of them, and despite their cry for freedom having reached heaven. They themselves had hearts like Pharaoh, hearts as hard and as unable to learn under testing and trial to trust in the faithfulness of God.
Therefore, it is no surprise that Calvary just outside the walls of Jerusalem, was at the very heart of the spiritual journey to reveal the truth of God: Hear Him my beloved Son.
Hear his cry.
God knows we need to hear his cry’s upon the Cross: Father, forgive them for they have no real knowledge, they cant really see your nature and your work is conforming into the knowledge of the bond of love that has no corruption.
God knows it all. What a liberator, what a dichotomy breaker. What a sure foundation.
And he cried: It is finished – during the Passover, the hour of deliverance. The sabbath of God rest for all HIS works.
Exodus Ch 3 v3:
And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am’.
Then he said, ‘Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground’.
Here we have structure.
First Moses turns aside to see and then Moses responds to Gods call.
But immediately there is dialogue God sets boundaries to the communion.
Praise God.
Moses was not allowed to walk into Gods presence with his past or the work of his day – the dust he carried on his shoes. Moses was barred from coming to God & it being ordinary dialogue along the same line as those in his day to day.
This was not a ‘best’ or fatherly of friendships about to begin. This was communion & sharing of God himself.
God separated Moses’s past and his walk in the day from his Holiness.
God ensured Moses understood their was a boundary and condition about receiving, hearing and knowing God.
Moses had responded to the appearing of the Lord and his call, yet God set the conditions for the destination of communion – without holiness no man will see the Lord.
Now the scriptures don’t state that Moses took his shoes off. But it is a given as God would not have called Abraham up that mountain if he had not known that he would withdraw his knife at the critical moment.
Moses must have taken his shoes off as the Lord then opens up to him the communion of holy ground. The fellowship of the holy land. The land of the promises of God. The return to Eden. The communion with the living God in the cool of the day.
We can consider here how the words of God are the actual fellowship and end destination.
Yet they are the journey of revelation.
They are prophetic and therefore that which was spoken in the past according to the ministry of Jesus is referred to and its continuation and end is drawn upon. The calling of God is not individualistic as the calling is God outworking his own word, his own nature. This is the gospel truth of Ephesians Ch 4 v13.
Exodus Ch 3 v6: And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’.
Moses knew that the children of Israel had come into Egypt and that Jacob had died in Egypt. Moses knew that God had promised to Abraham that he himself would deliver Abraham’s descendants from the land of Egypt.
The character and nature of God was revealed to Moses through showing himself at the God of these men. God was showing himself as committed and faithful to these men and the promises he had made to Abraham – of blessings.
God was showing at this juncture that he is sovereign and able to say what he will do after 400 years. Gods faithfulness and commitment to his own ways (culture and tides) were being eternally revealed – not many gods or idols.
Right here we have the first commandment, a hot love keeps us from Egypt and its darkness.
God is simultaneously revealing to Moses the truth that was revealed to Abraham when he lead Isaac up the mountain: On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. God shall provide for himself a sacrifice – the promised Son Abraham knew God had provided and Abraham believed God could raise him from the alter of sacrifice to fulfill his word of promise to him. Hence becoming the Father of the faith. God will fulfill his word of promise unto you. Abraham let go of what had come from God into his own loins, back to God in worship. This is central to spiritual life & opposite to war, jealousy and strife ‘the flesh’.
So then… after Moses has taken his shoes off, God revealed to him the Holy ground of the promised land.
Yes, they are inseparable & thus is the promise of blessings and curse according to whether we have a right or wrong heart attitude to Israel.
This contains the glory of God. It contains that which Stephen saw and which touched a chosen vessel.
The holy ground is the promised land. The nature of God was being revealed through his commitment to fulfilling his new covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Genesis Ch 22 v14: Abraham called the name of the place – the nature of that place – The Lord will provide.
How will I know that I will possess it? Moses at the burning bush communion, was having his eyes opened to see that God saw the people of Israel and that God knew, that it must be HIMSELF who delivers them. Therefore as a prophet Moses understood that another man must come, the man who would be lifted up so that all men may see how the dichotomy of the fruits of the fall within humanity are Passovered and transfused into the original blessings of God
The land promised to Abraham was spiritual.
The law and Moses followed after Abraham as a necessary framework until Jesus the man of the Spirit in the flesh had come.
How do I walk in the Spirit? Obey the leading of Jesus. See the finished work of the Cross and the law and walk in newness of life.
Paul a Pharisee of Pharisees wrote about these things. He was writing about the transition between Abraham and Moses & how they came together at the Cross. The dichotomy of death (murder) for a soul that had never sinned but was a perfect obedient and provided sacrifice.
Obedience to his voice leads us into the nature of love. The worship of God (@alter) transforms us. The worship of God puts into us the nature he designed for us. There is a solid ground and rock for us in Christ. It is a sure foundation. It has dealt with the legal curse and guilt and shame. @ the Cross. The worship of God is letting go of the flesh to see God!
Notes note:
eternalrays 