Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about captivity and, for the most part, looking at Babylon. We have made some mention of Egypt and some other areas.
Actually, when we look at the Bible and we look at this theme of Egyptian bondage or Babylonian captivity, this covers just enormous amounts of Scripture. For example, we know that the book of Exodus has to do with the Egyptian bondage. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were written by Moses as he led Israel out of that bondage. We could go through many books of the Bible and see how Egypt or Babylon and the captivity of Israel, either as bondmen in Babylon or as salves in Egypt, play a big role.
Even during the book of Judges, again and again, God would bring His people under submission to an enemy nation because of their unfaithfulness, and then He would raise up a deliverer. And so we see this same theme throughout the book of Judges. We see bondage and then deliverance, and this is found throughout the whole Bible.
I was told by a couple of friends that when we look at a concordance, Egypt itself is referenced 564 times, just this word “Egypt.” It helps to have an electronic concordance that can add things like this up for us. When I was looking at the Strong’s Concordance, I was adding up the number in one column and then multiplying the columns. This is why I said last time that we saw this word about 500 times. When counting this up the way I do it, it is easy to skip some; but with the technology today, there is a great use for quickly counting these things up for us.
So for 564 times, we just find the word “Egypt.” This is not counting the words “Egyptian,” “Egyptians,” “Pharaoh,” and the many references to these things or to the many references to these nations where these exact words are not used.
I also looked quickly at a concordance for the word “Babylon.” No one has told me the exact number yet, but it is found about 200 times. Maybe someone can tell me exactly how many times “Babylon” is used, and then there is also “Babylonian,” and so forth.
When we put these two together, we are coming to about a thousand instances at least where God is referring to Egypt or He is referring to Babylon. Sometimes, we find whole chapters or whole books on these themes, like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or Daniel. And where was Daniel? He was in Babylon.
Someone just said that there are 260 references for “Babylon.” And so there are 260 references for “Babylon” and 564 references for “Egypt.” What does this give us? This is over 800 just for those two words and for those two nations.
It really helps us to see this layout of the Old Testament. As God helps us with a sprinkling of verses, these help us to understand that these things point to spiritual bondage to sin and to Satan. This then brings in a lot more Scripture. The New Testament also has much to say about this, and then we see this huge theme. We see that the whole Bible, of course, has to do with salvation. It has to do with deliverance and freedom.
What did Jesus say? He said, “The truth shall make you free” and “Ye shall be free indeed.” But when Christ said this, the Jews did not understand. They said, “We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man.” They did not understand that, spiritually, we and every other human being have been in captivity and in bondage to sin and to Satan.
Let us look at just a few of these references to Egypt. Turn to Deuteronomy 5:6. I am just going to go to a series of verses. You will see that they are very similar. We read in Deuteronomy 5:6:
I am JEHOVAH thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
We read in Deuteronomy 6:12:
Then beware lest thou forget JEHOVAH, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Let us look at Exodus 20 to see how the Ten Commandments are framed and how and what God says before He even talks about the Ten Commandments. We read in Exodus 20:2-3:
I am JEHOVAH thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Then He goes into the Ten Commandments. And so, right here, we see this major emphasis and major focus.
Down through history, how many churches have repeated the Ten Commandments? This has even been part of the preamble of many, many churches and congregations. They would read this section of Scripture again and again and again every week. And so would Israel. So would the Jews. They would often read this, too.
Look at Joshua. I would like to go to all of the verses, but I cannot, so I will just give a sprinkling of verses. We read in Joshua 24:16-17:
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake JEHOVAH, to serve other gods; For JEHOVAH our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
So this is again in Joshua. This is in many books.
The next book over is Judges. We read in Judges 6:7-10:
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto JEHOVAH because of the Midianites, That JEHOVAH sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am JEHOVAH your God…
I think that I made mention before that before delivering the Jews from Egypt, He had not previously been known by His name “Jehovah.”
We read this in Exodus 6:1-2:
Then JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am JEHOVAH:
This is the word “LORD” in all capitals in our English Bible, which is the way in which the King James translators translated this most of the time. Occasionally, they would use “GOD” in all capitals. This was done consistently to let us know that this was the word “Jehovah.” But this is one way in which God actually hid this.
We were just talking about Egypt and how often this word was used. But how many times was “Jehovah” used? It was used thousands of times in the Old Testament. But how many times was this actually translated as “Jehovah”? This was done only a handful or only a couple of times.
One of these times is what we read here in verse 3, Exodus 6:3:
And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
This is one verse in which the translators spelled this out as “Jehovah.”
But was this the first place in which God used the word “Jehovah”? No; it is found in the book of Genesis. One account is when the “three men” went to visit Abraham, where we read, “And the LORD said unto Abraham.” We can also find this earlier in the book of Genesis.
Why is God saying:
…but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
This is because now the name “Jehovah” is recognized by what we read, for example, in Isaiah 43:11, “I, even I, am the LORD/Jehovah; and beside me there is no saviour.”
So God is now coming to save and to deliver His people, to set them free, and He wants Israel to know and He wants Pharaoh to know that He is Jehovah and that He was not known by this name before: but now, He is making the point that they are to know this. As Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, it is pointed out later that Jehovah is saving His people and that Jehovah is setting them free.
This is interesting, but how does this relate to us today? Well, the King James Bible is the best and most used English Bible throughout the last 400 years. By the way, this is the 400th year since its publication in 1611. For these 400 years, this Bible has been a tremendous blessing but this has also served to hide the name “Jehovah.” It is almost like God did not want to be known by this name.
Why do we say this? After all, it was the translators who translated this word “Jehovah” as “LORD” or “GOD.” This is true, but who is in control of all things? It is interesting that God often used the translators to hide things.
When we read about the end of the Sabbaths in Matthew 28:1, we do not see this translated correctly in the King James or in any other Bible that I know of, even though this is in the Greek. This is because God did not want this to be known until our day.
God often used the translator’s lack of understanding. After all, the Bible is very difficult and complex and they did not understand why God would have done certain things. But whatever their thinking was regarding Jehovah, God used this. He used this to hide that name in a very particular way.
I know that most of my life I was saying, “Lord.” Every time I would see this word, I would say “Lord.” Most of the others I heard would also say “Lord.” The preacher or the teacher would say “Lord.” Family Radio also said “Lord” over the last 40 plus years, until maybe three or four years ago, maybe even five. I do not remember how far back this goes; but then, suddenly, Mr. Camping began to say “Jehovah.”
I remember this because I was at a Bible conference when I first heard him say this. This made me start thinking about this and I wondered why he was doing this. I wondered if we had to do this or if we should be doing this. Well, now I think that it is a great thing if we did do this, and that, yes, we should do this. This is because by His name “Jehovah” He was not known.
So now, what has happened? During the “latter rain,” during those 6100 days, suddenly this name began to be declared by Mr. Camping and by Family Radio. And we know that Family Radio is not like some congregational church with only 50 or so members. Family Radio is a worldwide ministry that is translated into 60 or 70 languages. I do not know how many exactly. But this started going all over the earth. Suddenly, this name “Jehovah” was being declared all over the world and leading up to the great day of deliverance, the great day of judgment, the great day of salvation. On May 21, God made Himself known by this name “Jehovah.” This is something to take note of.
Going back to the bondage in Egypt, let us go to the New Testament and look at Acts 7. We read in Acts 7:6:
And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
We know that they were actually in Egypt for 430 years, not for 400 years. This has led to some confusion for some people.
So how is this true? Well, the key here is that it says “entreat them evil.” They did not “entreat them evil” for 430 years, because Joseph had been second in command for a period of time.
Would they have entreated Joseph’s people evil when Joseph was the number two man right under Pharaoh? No. Plus, the Pharaoh that Joseph was under was a good Pharaoh. As far as we know, he probably was not saved; but, apparently, he was a good man, as far as men go. He liked and trusted Joseph; and under Joseph’s hand, Egypt was incredibly strengthened to be the mightiest nation in the world. Under Joseph, Pharaoh’s kingdom was strengthened to where, finally, everything was owned by Pharaoh except that which belonged to the priests.
Why? It was because this Pharaoh had dreams that this man, Joseph, interpreted. It was obvious to Pharaoh immediately that the Spirit of God was in Joseph, and so he lifted Joseph up on that same day. But we do not know how long Joseph held command. We know that he was 39 when Jacob went into Egypt, and we know that Joseph died at the age of 110. And so Joseph was 39 years old when the 430 years would have begun.
How long did this Pharaoh live? How long did Joseph stay in this position? We do not know, but we can be sure that the cruel bondage did not start until after Joseph died. This is because Joseph would have been such a powerful and respected figure.
So why does this say “four hundred years”? Well, just 30 years after Joseph was 39, he would have been 69; then this would have been 400 years until 1447 B.C. and the deliverance. And this says again:
…entreat them evil four hundred years.
Have you ever been entreated evil by the world? Of course. The world is adept at doing this. When the world is dealing with a child of God, they can begin to let it be known that this individual is someone that they would not want to be with. It is like when one group gathers over here, and then the believers gather over there. Well, this is entreating someone evil. It really is.
So this was not a good thing at all, but this was not something to where someone could run to Joseph and say, “Joseph, they are ignoring me,” or, “Joseph, because I am a Jew, I am not getting the best job.” Most likely, these types of things were going on, which might have been mild in respect; but then this would have increased and developed.
We do not know exactly when, but after Joseph’s death, this would have progressed to the point where they were actually feared because of their multitude. Then they became servants and then cruel taskmasters were appointed over them as this just continued to develop.
Then we read in verse 7, Acts 7:7:
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
This is the Biblical pattern that goes on repeatedly.
So on one hand, we have the bondage. Then we have God who takes note of this bondage. Finally, He sends Moses and Aaron.
Let us turn to Exodus 5. I am going to read a series of verses here that I know many of you are familiar with. Many of you will recognize this as soon as I read this. We read in Exodus 5:1-2:
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is JEHOVAH…
You see. Here is the name “Jehovah,” because God wants Pharaoh to know this. It continues:
Who is JEHOVAH, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not JEHOVAH, neither will I let Israel go.
Pharaoh probably thinks that Moses and Aaron must be kidding. Would Pharaoh really even consider letting them go? They were addressing the leader of that great Egypt. They were talking to that great Pharaoh. Were they unfamiliar with his military record? Did they not know the number of nations that Egypt had conquered? After all, who were Moses and Aaron to come before Pharaoh and demand that he let the people go? What a joke this must have appeared to him; and this is exactly how Pharaoh treats this as he asks, “Who is Jehovah?” Of course, spiritually, we know that there is a lot else going on. There is a lot else going on, and we will try to look at this maybe a little later.
For now, let us look at some more verses. We read in Exodus 7:14:
And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
God would tell Moses and Aaron to go into Pharaoh. In this case, the rod was to turn into a serpent.
When you read this, do you think like I do? What did God expect by this? I mean, this is kind of a minor thing, especially in comparison with what God does later. But should Pharaoh had stopped right there and humbled himself? Yes; he should have.
To have His serpent swallow up a couple of the Egyptian’s serpents or to bring a plague of lice or of flies or of frogs or to part the Red Sea, these things are all really the same thing to God. Does He expend any more energy or any more strength doing one thing over the other? Not at all; this is just the action of His Word. But God intentionally began at a level that He knew Pharaoh would not listen to, which is one of the constant themes here, as we read in verse 13, Exodus 7:13:
And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them…
So God did harden Pharaoh’s heart, but how did He do this? All that God had to do was to let Pharaoh be Pharaoh. He just lets man be man, because all of us have hearts of stone. Naturally, the sinner has a heart of stone.
All throughout the history of this world except for these last 20 years or so, God has restrained, for the most part, those stony hearts of mankind; but now, during this time at the end, we are seeing the depths of evil that man is capable of in the world and in the church and everywhere else. This is because God has lifted His hand of restraint to a great degree, but He is still holding this back in many, many ways or there would just be utter chaos.
So God uses a man like Pharaoh who is desperately wicked and who, naturally, has a heart of stone. God suppresses a lot of the sinfulness of this individual’s life so that he is not completely ruthless; but then God determines at a certain point to remove His hand of restraint to the extent where Pharaoh is not left completely foolish. This is what God did at this particular point. He removed His hand of restraint from Pharaoh and then Pharaoh was just being who he was; he was being exactly who he was.
This is how any man is. We just will not listen to God. We will not hearken. We will not obey Him. We will not keep His commandments. We will not repent. We will not do things His way. It is only when God does that supernatural act and takes out our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh that we can obey Him, and this is what He has done for His people already.
Look at Exodus 8:1. It says:
And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Then we read in Exodus 8:20:
And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
And then we read in Exodus 8:32:
And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.
Of course, I am skipping a lot, as there are other instances where God makes this kind of statement. Actually, these are some of the most exciting chapters in the Bible to read. I mean, really, this account is spellbinding. We hear about stories that are spellbinding. Well, there is nothing like this true historical story that God has given us here.
Go to Exodus 9:1. This says:
Then JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
This will be the last passage that I read in Exodus. We read in Exodus 9:12-13:
And JEHOVAH hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as JEHOVAH had spoken unto Moses. And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Again and again and again, repeatedly, Pharaoh is told that God will bring a judgment and that the judgment will be severe.
These judgments were destroying Egypt, and so we would think that any rational person or any normal man would say early on, “Hey, this is a power that is way above me. If this were about another king in another nation, we would never let them go; but this is a supernatural power, because there are all kinds of evidence of this. Here comes Moses and Aaron and they tell me that a plague is coming; and the next thing I know, that plague is happening. Nobody has this kind of control. The magicians cannot do anything near to this.”
So Pharaoh gets to the point where he wants to make a deal with God. He thinks about letting just the men go or just the animals go, but he does not want to let everyone go. He does not want to just be broken completely before God and to release them all. Why not?
Well, the mighty strength of Egypt, a lot of that strength, relied on slave labor. This was his power. They had built the treasure cities, which meant that Pharaoh’s people did not have to do this type of labor. They could concentrate on military campaigns and do other things. But more than this, to have a nation of slaves and to have them in captivity just demonstrated the great authority and power of Egypt and, therefore, the great authority and power of the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh; and so he would not let the people go. Could he have? Well, of course, but God did not want him to.
In Romans 9, God makes reference to this. We read in Romans 9:17:
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Then God goes on to speak about His salvation plan. But He raised Pharaoh up for a purpose, which was to be evil. He was raised up to be a ruthless king and to be someone who would not let the people go, and this was all according to God’s plan.
Why did God have 13,023 years of history? He could have done all of this a lot quicker. Some people are questioning why we are here for five months, but why have we been here for 13,023 years? Could He not have finished this a long time ago?
Well, it is not a good thing to question the wisdom of God and the purposes of God. We just know that, okay, this is God’s plan and we are here; and it is definitely the Lord’s will that we are still here. We are here like the Egyptians.
Why were they to come out of Egypt? They came out so that they could serve God. They were to serve Him. This is what we are to be doing, really. We are to feed the sheep. This is service to God.
God said this three times after that great catch of fish, after that great multitude. Those of us who are familiar with these things know that this has to do with the great multitude that God saved during the latter rain, those who came out of great tribulation on May 21. These are brought in safely, the whole great catch of fish. Three times Jesus says to Peter right after this, “Lovest thou me?” Peter responds each time, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.” Then what does Jesus say after each exchange? He says, “Feed my lambs.” Then He says, “Feed my sheep.” Then after the third time, He says again, “Feed my sheep.” Christ was saying to Peter that this was his job, that this was his task, that this was how he was to serve Christ.
Unfortunately, and this includes me, we have a mindset that service to God means that we will sacrifice by giving our money or by giving our time, and some will even give their lives. All of this is wonderful. Of course, God is the One who worked these things out in the lives of His people, and He has because all of this is past.
Many people would do all of these things to find the sheep, to find the lost sheep, to bring the lost sheep in. They would travel to the other side of the earth. They would go to places that were dangerous. For example, look at Family Radio’s Project Jonah and the places that they went to. They risked their lives to find however many sheep there might have been in a city. They would hope that there might be even one or maybe there would even be a thousand, but they had no idea. They did not even know if there were any sheep in that city, and yet they would give up their time, their money, and their very lives to find one sheep.
All of the sheep are brought in now. They are all found. There are no more lost sheep. And so God says, “Feed my sheep,” but then our reaction is like this is not important, like this is not even something that we should be concerned about. After all, we are not sending out the Gospel anymore. Why do we even support Family Radio? They are not finding sheep anymore.
You know, this is a dangerous attitude for us to have. Who are we? We have made a transition into another stage; and sometimes when God transitions from stage to stage, some people get left behind. They get stuck in an old mindset.
When we went from the church age to the end of the church age, people just would not have this. They said things like, “The church age is not over. God would never do this.” God used the church for 1,955 years, and they think that this is still going on. They refuse to humble themselves to the will of God.
We have just gone through a major transition. The transition from the church age to the end of the church age was nothing in comparison to the Day of Salvation transitioning to the Day of Judgment.
Even if you were not in a church or even if you had nothing to do with Christianity, all of us throughout all of our lives lived in a world where it was possible, potentially from our perspective, for any human being to be saved. This has been ingrained in us that this is the Gospel. The Gospel is to save the lost, to get the Word out, to give of our time and our money and our effort to get people saved. But now, we are saying that they are all saved; and so people think that they do not have to give their time or put any effort forward and they do not bother to give any money.
Well, God hates idleness. He does. He gives many laws about this. We are not to be idle. Since we no longer go to hand out tracts, this is not the time to go to the ballgame on Sunday. This is not the time to go out and catch up on all of the movies, since we were so busy over the last couple of years. This is not the time for any of this. This is the time to feed sheep, to serve God.
But how do we serve God today? This is a good question. You might want to pray about this. One big way is to support Family Radio, because there are 200 million sheep who have just been freed from spiritual captivity all over the earth.
We would have to say that God’s people, by God’s doing and by His grace, did an incredible and excellent work in getting the Gospel out. We cannot take any credit or glory for this because God moves in His people “to will and to do of his good pleasure,” and He moved them like never before to get the Word out to, I would say, every nation. And so this is done; it is done; and now there are sheep all over.
Take a look at Isaiah 60. You may remember this because Mr. Camping has gone over this. This is concerning the sons of Ishmael. He pointed out that the language here indicates that God had a plan to bring in many of the sons of Ishmael, many of whom are found in the Muslim nations I would suppose. For instance, it says in Isaiah 60:5-7:
Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of JEHOVAH. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee…
Is it a coincidence that God is calling them the “flocks of Kedar” and the “rams of Nebaioth”? Kedar or Nebaioth are the sons of Ishmael. Plus, He is using this type of language of gathering the flocks. Is this a coincidence when this is exactly what He is doing?
Do you remember the billboards and the balloons that went up in the Middle East in the Arab lands? They were exciting and incredible things, because we know how dark it is there. We all know how it is when we are in a very dark place and we just light a little light.
This is also like the prison that we read of in Acts 16 where it was dark and dank. It was full of misery, and yet there were Paul and Silas at midnight singing hymns and praising God. What a bright light!
Then we look at these lands where the true Gospel has been shut out and where someone cannot freely even bring the Gospel. But then there was a balloon. And so how did this happen? There was a balloon floating in many, many areas where we could never imagine that this advertising would be going on. And so these people heard; they heard.
In one case, in Dubai, they had billboards up. They had to be taken down in something like two days; but this then made it into the newspapers because they were upset that this had been allowed to be put up in their city. This information then went across to several Arab nations through the newspapers; and so they heard that God would save His people, and as it said in the previous verse, this was “the abundance.”
We read again in Isaiah 60:5:
…the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
Then in verse 7, Isaiah 60:7:
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee…
They would be gathered unto the Lord Jesus Christ, unto God. They are out there. There are 200 million sheep.
So now what do we do? God says that we are to serve Him. For those of us who have known the Gospel for sometime, this is the whole point from our perspective. We are not a newborn sheep, but God said to Moses that he was to keep telling Pharaoh and those in Egypt, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” So if we have been released, there should be evidence of this and a desire to serve Him in these last few days.
One other thing to think about is that Pharaoh typifies Satan. We will show abundant evidence for this later, and yet let us just think about this point. When God said to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh, as a man, could have issued this order. He could have said, “Go and release the slaves.” He could have done this, and we can understand this. Finally, he does do this at the very last, at the death of the firstborn when he commands the Israelites to get out, “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel…also take your flocks and your herds.” And so he did have this power, but God had to force him to his knees basically. Also, remember after this that Pharaoh said, “And bless me also.”
So the first command to Pharaoh was, “Let my people go,” which was like a laughing matter to Pharaoh who then says, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” Then Pharaoh’s last command was basically, “Please go! Please! And don’t forget to bless me!” The Israelites also spoiled the Egyptians because the Egyptians gave them gold and silver, which indicated that this was a great victory that God and His people had won.
So we know that the man Pharaoh could have let them go, but what about the type that we see in this spiritual picture? The spiritual picture is that Pharaoh equals Satan, or a better name would be “the dragon.”
If we go to Ezekiel 29, it says in Ezekiel 29:3:
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
So here Pharaoh is called “the great dragon.”
We will just look at one verse for right now in relation to this. Turn to Revelation 20 where Christ is going to bind Satan. It says in Revelation 20:2:
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
We read four names here for the same being. God has many names and Satan, himself, has many names, but it is God who has given him these names. Even the word “dragon” in Ezekiel 29 is translated as “serpent” in a few occasions; and back in Exodus 7 where we read of the rods that turn into serpents, that is the same word as “dragon.”
So here is Pharaoh and God says that he is “the great dragon.” There is much more to show this, but he is clearly representing Satan, and his kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. God says, “Let my people go,” so the captives are God’s elect people.
First of all, did God ever say to Satan, “Let my people go”? Yes; repeatedly. That is the Gospel going out.
Jesus said in John 8:32-36:
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
This is the picture of all mankind. We are in bondage to sin and Satan, and it is the truth that makes God’s elect people free.
So how could Satan, therefore, obey God’s command to let the people go? All that he would really have to do is to stop from lying, to cease all of the false gospels, to stop hindering the work of the truth, the work of the true Word of God, to stop assaulting it, to stop trying to confuse things.
Look at the world. We have the truth. But how many ministries are proclaiming the truth? Well, you will not need a calculator. There is Family Radio and a few scattered other ministries; but, mainly, God has raised up Family Radio to bring a proclamation of the truth to all the world.
How many ministries are there out there that are not proclaiming the truth? This is a nice way of putting this. But how many churches? How many denominations? Even this number is staggering. There are two billion or more professing Christians in the world of our day. One-third of the world’s population is in churches and congregations, and they are not teaching the truth. And on top of this, there are all of those other religions. There are the Buddhists, the Hindu, the Muslims, and on this goes; and so there are all of these ways in which Satan is trying to hinder the truth.
Religion is a huge mess. It is. Can you blame people for being agnostic or atheistic? Yes, of course, they should believe. God commands them to believe, so no one can ever get away from this. But looking at this from our vantage point and looking at those who take this kind of look at the church world, it is no wonder that they respond like Pilate who asked, “What is truth?”
What is truth? Is it the Baptist version? Is it the Presbyterian version? Is it the Episcopalian version? Is it the Catholic version? Is it the Independent version? What is truth?
Then we have those who compete in religion by saying, “The Muslim religion says this, but the Buddhist’s religion says that, and the Hindu religion says another thing, as well as the Shinto.” On and on this goes to the point where looking at this could cause you to develop such a severe migraine. This is such a big mess.
But through it all, there is this little radio signal that is going out there. What Satan tried to do was to misdirect people, to point them somewhere else. When all of this did not work, he tried to ignore Family Radio. Then when Family Radio was advertising on billboards, he just came at them with a full assault claiming that the people at Family Radio were date setters, that they were heretics, that they were this or that or the other thing.
This is ironic for the church of our day to say these things. This is not the church of our fathers. This is not the church of the Reformation. This is not the church that has been, to some degree, faithful down through history. This is the church that is at the end of the world that has been given over into the hands of Satan, and the Bible actually identifies them with the false prophet that we read about in the book of Revelation. It is ironic that the churches that are identified with “the beast” and with “the false prophet” are the ones who are pointing the finger at the faithful servant of God and saying that Mr. Camping is the false prophet.
No; but I understand why people might say this. It is because they are just lost in a sea of confusion. They are lost in all of Satan’s ways, that whole flood that he has sent after the woman. If you remember, the Bible tells us in Revelation 12 that Satan sends a flood and this is a flood of false gospels that really have covered the earth. But more than this, God’s Word, of course, has covered the earth wonderfully “as the waters cover the sea” during that period of the “latter rain.”
So Satan should have ceased and desisted. He should not have raised up people to say, “No man knows the day or hour” constantly. He should not have done this. He should have held them back and humbled himself before God and let the people go. But he refused and he refused, and so God brought plague upon plague upon plague on the churches that were under his control. We can read about this in Revelation 8 as it talks about “the third part” over and over again.
Yet, finally, it took the death of the firstborn for Pharaoh to decry, “That is enough! That is enough!” And at midnight on May 21, God set His people free, but He also slew one-third of the world. He slew those in the churches and in the congregations. This was almost simultaneous. And so, in a way, the death of the firstborn points to this. It was then that Satan let them go and it was then that God’s people were free.
We will have to continue this next time. But let us stop here with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for these days. Thank You that You have not abandoned us, that You have actually planned this perfectly in order to bring Your people, Your sheep, together to be fed. Sheep are very vulnerable. It is easy for an enemy to look at a flock of sheep that seems unprotected and then to come after them. Father, we saw this with Pharaoh in Egypt. Father, we just pray that we would look to You for all things as the Great Shepherd. May we just wait on You as time is passing. We know that not only will You feed us for the remaining few days of our time here, but You are going to feed us into eternity future. Father, we are very thankful for this great expectation, which You assure us will not be cut off. We just ask for Your blessing upon Your Word on each one here and for those listening and we pray for our families as well. We pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.