God’s deliverance of His people Israel from Egypt was through the Passover, the exodus, and the crossing the Red Sea. The Passover is foundational, basic, and critical for the sake of our exiting the world (typified by the exodus from Egypt) and going through baptism (typified by crossing the Red Sea), making it clear that we are absolute for the Lord and for His building.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, and we need to eat Him day by day so that we may be inwardly supplied to have an exodus from the world. The only way we can live a sinless life is by daily eating Christ, the sinless One.
The only way we can make an absolute exodus from the world is by daily eating and enjoying Christ. The only way we can have a proper baptism where we are brought into identification with the Lord in His judgement over Satan is by daily eating Him and enjoying Him.
Our entire Christian life should be a feast, an enjoyment of Christ as our banquet, our rich supply of life. Yes, Jesus is our feast – we have tasted and we testify that Jesus is our feast! Eating Jesus as our true Passover is the foundational aspect of the first stage of God’s complete salvation for our breaking away from the world and for our absolute oneness with Him through baptism.
On the one hand, we need to have a point in time where we have a definite exodus from Egypt (the world) and a definite crossing of the Red Sea by experiencing the baptism in its reality; on the other hand, we need to be brought into such a living every day.
We daily need to feast on Christ as our Passover so that we may be inwardly strengthened to have an absolute exodus from the world, and God is operating in our environment with His mighty hand to deliver us from the world.
Christ is the One who absolutely and perfectly broke away from the world and crossed the Red Sea to destroy Satan and his armies. Let us continually enjoy Christ as our feast so that we may be constantly and fully delivered from the world and be released to unceasingly praise the Lord for His building!
Being Delivered from the World Requires the Manifestation of the Power of our Saving God
The exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt was not a simple matter; in order for us to be deeply impressed with the significance of the exodus from Egypt, we need to see both the picture in the Old Testament and the words in the New Testament.
Sometimes we look at the picture and we understand much more than the words, but when you put the picture together with the words, you get a complete view.
In the New Testament, we see the words and the spiritual reality, and in the Old Testament, we see the picture with many details. Without the picture in the book of Exodus it is difficult to say how can we get out of the world, and without the explanation, in the New Testament we don’t adequately understand what it means to exit the world.
The first thing we see in Exo. 12:29-42 is that the children of Israel did not make their exodus from Egypt out of their own accord, decision, or desire; rather, the exodus was accomplished by the saving God with His mighty hand. The people of Israel didn’t even think about getting out of Egypt, and they didn’t have the power or the skills to get out.
Delivering a large number of people (2 million or so) from under the usurpation of the strongest nation on earth at that time required the manifestation of God’s power. First, the people of Israel were delivered from the judgement of God coming over the land of Egypt by eating the Passover lamb, and second, they were delivered from Egypt by the manifestation of God’s power.
The saving God accomplished the exodus by subduing Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and all the things in their environment that God’s people would be released to go and serve God in the wilderness.
In our Christian experience, we can testify that first we eat Christ as the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who was roasted by the fire of God’s judgement, and this strengthens us to cooperate with the Lord’s saving and deliverance. Second, God operates in us and around us to subdue Satan, the environment, and all kinds of people that we may be released and exit the world to serve God for His purpose and build up the church as the house of God!
When we preach the gospel we need to cooperate with the Lord and let Him operate in man that He may save them and deliver them from Satan’s usurpation through the world.
We need to feast on Christ throughout our Christian life so that we may be inwardly empowered to make the exodus and so that He may be able to release His power even in an outward way. The more we eat Christ and feast on Him, the more we are inwardly strengthened and the more God can operate around us to release us so that we may break away from the world!
The Saving God is Operating to Subdue Satan and our Environment for us to Exit the World
The exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt is not merely a story in the Bible as part of the history of the people of Israel but it is also a principle that applies to our Christian experience today. In our experience, God is operating constantly to subdue Satan and our environment so that we may break free from the usurpation of the world and serve God for His purpose.
In the case of the children of Israel it took quite a while until they were released from Egypt; God had to come in through Moses and Aaron and have twelve negotiations with Pharaoh and send ten plagues over Egypt. It was not easy for God to deliver His people from Pharaoh’s usurpation.
Today it is not easy for God to deliver us from under the usurpation of Satan and the world, and His mighty hand is operating in us and around us to subdue Satan and anything in the environment so that we may get out of the world for His purpose.
The blood of Christ saves us from God’s judgement, and God’s hand saves us from Satan and the world.
Jehovah’s mighty hand operated on Pharaoh and on Egypt to such an extent that they didn’t just let God’s people go but they drove them out and even gave them precious things just to go (see Exo. 12:33, 39; 11:1). Our exodus from the world is not a simple thing; God first subdues Satan, the one who usurps us, and then he subdues the environment and people in our environment that don’t let us go.
Eventually, by the strength of the Lord’s mighty hand, the world will let us go and even send us out because we do not belong to the world and they are not happy to have us among them. Sooner or later, our environment and the people around us will encourage us and even compel us to get out from among them, because they have no more peace.
Hallelujah! On the one hand, we eat Christ day by day and are inwardly supplied and empowered to break away from the world, and outwardly the Saving God is operating with His mighty hand to subdue Satan and our environment that we may be released to go and build up the church!
After God delivers us from the world we cannot go back anymore: the world doesn’t accept us, we do not belong there, and neither we nor the world has any peace when we’re together! As a result of the Lord’s strong hand operating in our environment, we are delivered from the world to serve God and build up His house.
We need to be feasting on Christ, the One who has already absolutely broke away from the world, and He will release His power to outwardly release us from the world for His purpose!
Lord Jesus, keep us feasting on You as the Passover Lamb and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread so that we may be inwardly strengthened to exit the world. Oh saving God, operate with Your mighty hand around us to subdue Satan, the one who usurps us, and the environment, so that we may break away from the world! We want to cooperate with You by enjoying You, feasting on You, and daily eating You as the Lamb of God and the unleavened bread. Lord, make us one with You to be delivered from the world that we may serve You for Your purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (pp. 289-291), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 6 / msg 6, The Exodus from Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Rescue me, Lord, from this dark world—it’s just display. / Shine in me, and show me, Lord, You are the way. / Nothing matches me but You. / Only Your life will do. (Song on being Rescued from the World)
# He’ll enlighten your darkened heart with light, / Forgive your sins and rescue you with might; / He will cleanse you from all stains with His blood, / And give to you the life of God, / So you need Jesus! (Hymns #1024)
# God has saved me from the world; / I’ll never go back anymore. / God has saved me from the world; / I’ll never go back anymore. (Hymns #1127)
About aGodMan
This is not only a story in the Bible, but a principle that applies to our Christian experience. Sooner or later, our environment will encourage us, even compel us, to make our exodus from the world….If we are not willing to go, the world will drive us away. As long as we remain in the world, those in the world have no peace. Eventually they realize that only when we leave the world will they have peace and will we have joy. I can testify that this has been my experience. If I were to try to go back to the world, the world would beg me not to return. As far as the world is concerned, the farther away I am, the better it is. It is the result of the Lord’s strong hand that the world wants us to leave. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 291)
Praise the Lord for this living bread. Jesus is our feast!
Praise the Lord Amen.