THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE NEW EXODUS
This writing is based on an article by Peter Goodgame
(link below)
Quotes from Mr. Goodgame will be highlighted.
THE LORD WILL
RAISE UP A PROPHET LIKE MOSES
On Sinai, the Lord told Moses that He would bring forth a
Prophet from among the children of Israel that would be like the Lord Himself. That Prophet is Jesus Christ. Everyone was to listen to Him because He
would speak the words of God as God commanded Him. The Lord would require that all obey His
words.
The LORD thy God will raise up
unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto
him ye shall hearken;
(Deuteronomy 18:15 KJV)
I will raise them up a Prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth;
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to
pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my
name, I will require it of him.
(Deuteronomy 18:18-19 KJV)
THE WORK OF JESUS
IS EASY: Unlike the Work of Egyptian
slavery.
The children of Israel were made slaves in
Egypt; they were required to work daily with no time of rest. Jesus is the new exodus delivering people
from the sin and slavery of the world and His burden is easy and simple. He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest.
Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30 KJV)
THE LORD WILL
RETURN HIS PEOPLE: Their hearts will be
circumcised
Through Moses, the Lord told the children of Israel they
would fail the covenant and be dispersed throughout the world. He promised they would be re-gathered with a
circumcised heart (not flesh). Jesus is
the New Covenant: the complete fulfillment of the Abrahamic and
Mosaic covenants; He is the new Israel.
And the LORD thy God will bring
thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and
he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God
will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy
God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou might live. (Deuteronomy 30:5-6 KJV)
We
have to always remember that the New Covenant was made with Israel. It was
announced at the last supper by Jesus to His twelve Jewish disciples and
confirmed by His death, resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It
started with Israel but it was always intended that the new and expanded
definition of “Israel” in the New Covenant would also include Gentiles. Yes, as
this second and spiritual “New Exodus” takes place, the Lord is gathering both
Jews and Gentiles.
Fear not: for I am with thee: I
will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to
the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by
my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have
made him. (Isaiah 43:5-7 KJV)
The Centurion
displays his faith – Many gentiles will be saved and many of the children of
Israel will be cast out due to lack of faith.
The Roman Centurion asked Jesus to save the life of his
daughter. Jesus said He would come and
the Centurion stated it was not necessary that He come. He believed his daughter would be cured at
the word of Jesus.
When Jesus heard it, he marveled,
and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so
great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from
the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in
the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into
outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:10-12 KJV)
Isaiah has many passages referring to the nations
(Gentiles / non-Israelites) as being members of the Kingdom of God (or Heaven).
And now the LORD says, he who
formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that
Israel might be gathered to him– for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and
my God has become my strength–he says: “It is too light a thing that you should
be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved
of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations (Gentiles), that my salvation may reach to the end of the
earth.” Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one
deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall
see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the
LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” (Isaiah
49:5-7)
Then you will say in your heart:
‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but
who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these
come?'” Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations (Gentiles), and raise my signal
to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your
daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster
fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground
they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know
that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah
49:21-23)
The
theme of a “New Exodus” appears throughout Isaiah 40-55 because at this time
judgment was on its way for the both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the
Southern Kingdom of Judah. He looked
forward to the re-gathering through a “second exodus” as predicted in
Deuteronomy 30:3-5. It is the very next verse, 30:6, that speaks of the future
“heart circumcision” of Israel in connection with this “New Exodus.”
And the LORD thy God will
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. (Deuteronomy 30: 6 KJV)
Paul
picks up on in Romans 2:29 about the New Covenant based on spiritual “heart
circumcision” as opposed to the fleshly circumcision of the Old Covenant.
What Paul teaches is that this “New Exodus” that would involve a “heart
circumcision” of both Jews and Gentiles (equally united in one family: the
Kingdom of God) was a process that began with the coming of Jesus, His death on
the Cross, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But
he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:28-29 KJV)
Christ is the New
Exodus from the Wilderness which is Babylon
The voice of him that crieth in
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3 KJV)
We
are in the wilderness trying to make our way to the Promised Land. While in
this wilderness our only hope is Jesus Christ.
It is dark at night in the wilderness but Jesus is the Light. We get
thirsty in the wilderness but Jesus has the Living Water that we need. We get
hungry but He is the “Bread of Life” that gives eternal life
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which
cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the
living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he
shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world. (John
6:47-51 KJV)
Then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my
blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks
my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I
live by the Father: so he that eats of me, even he shall live by me. This is
that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and
are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live forever. (John 6:53-58 KJV)
The wilderness of
the Egyptian captives is called Babylon in the New Testament
Ancient Babylon (under Nimrod, Ninus, Asshur, etc.) was
the birthplace and propagation center of idolatry and false religious
systems. The implementation of multiple
languages stopped the immediate completion of a supreme false religion but the
various groups took their knowledge with them and it morphed into the various
false religions available today. The
term “Babylon” was used by Isaiah and John in the Revelation to describe the
worldwide scope this wilderness of
false beliefs.
Comparable to the wilderness journey of the children of
Israel when they received the Mosaic Law from God, the new wilderness
encompasses the entire world of idolatry and false beliefs which is referred to
as Babylon. In the Revelation, when John
is taken to view the “woman”, he is taken to the wilderness, where he sees Mystery, Babylon the Great. Currently the wilderness or Babylon is the
entire world, but during the 70th week of Daniel, Babylon’s center
of operation will be false messiah religion of Jerusalem.
So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness: and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation
17:3 KJV)
“Babylon,” is
Isaiah’s code word for the immorality and idolatry of the pagan nations.
That’s why Isaiah can tell Israel to “Come out of Babylon” in Isaiah
48:20 at a time 100 years prior to the Babylonian exile!
When
Isaiah called for Israel to “come out of Babylon” he was speaking figuratively!
Every pagan nation traces back to Babylon, and therefore Babylon
represents the nations of the world and the kingdom of darkness under bondage
to the devil as a whole.
The
first Exodus involved one nation coming out of Egypt, but the New Exodus of the
New Covenant involves all the nations coming out of Babylon!
After this I beheld, and, lo, a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all
the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four
beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying,
Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power,
and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and
whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,
These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
They have been taken from the wilderness
They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For
the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes. (Revelation 7:9-17 KJV)
The
Great Multitude of Revelation 7 is a picture of this New Exodus theme that
finally culminates in Revelation 21-22 with the description of the Promised
Land, our New Jerusalem. This glorious city is the Zion predicted by Isaiah
that is the destination of the people led by God in the New Exodus.
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