>Waiting on Deliverance

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So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage. Exodus 6:9
Moses cried out to God and God answered him. God declared, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh…” God then reminds Moses who it is that he is speaking to as He says, “I am the LORD;”
God expounds to Moses that when He appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He appeared as God Almighty, El Shaddia, but to Moses He has appeared as LORD. As far as we know Moses is the first Israelite to know this memorial name of God.
God is giving Moses a pep talk. God is building the confidence of Moses. In other words, God is saying ‘Moses, you can do this! You know Me now as no other in the flesh does. I have allowed you and you alone this privilege. You will have victory!’
In the first eight verses of Exodus chapter six, God tells Moses four times “I am the LORD”, at least nine times God tells Moses “I will”, and twice God speaks of the Abrahamic Covenant.
I can just see God taking Moses by the shoulders and looking him deep in the eyes baring directly into his heart and soul and speaking these words as a coach would his boxer in the corner awaiting the second round.
Moses is pumped and he returns to his brethren to share God’s words of deliverance with them, but they would not hear. The Scripture tells us that they would not listen because their “despondency and cruel bondage.”
The word despondency is qotser in Hebrew and it means shortness of spirit or impatience. God sent word by Moses that He would redeem them with an outstretched arm and with great judgments (Exodus 6:6). Israel did not want to wait for “great judgments” they wanted their freedom now.
Sometimes we have to wait for our deliverance.
In Acts 1:6-7, after the resurrection of Christ, we read “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;'”
Then also in Revelation 6:9-10, we read “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Waiting is not easy for us, but with God waiting is required. Waiting is a lesson in trust. It is a lesson in faith. It is a lesson in endurance. The Israelites were in despondency, but they were also under cruel bondage. I believe it was because of this cruel bondage that God looked over their impatience.
God never condemns the children of Israel for their lack of faith while they are slaves in Egypt. He looks over it as though it was never said. He doesn’t even address it with Moses when Moses brings it up to Him. God just reiterates what it is that Moses has been called to do and sends him to do it.
Our God knows the depravity of our situation. He is a compassionate God and just in all His ways. God sees the weight of our chains. He knows we are blind, deaf, and naked. He knows we are poor, wretched, and despised. He knows we are bitter, confused, and fickle. Yet He comes to us anyway, with “outstretched arms and great judgments”.
Oh precious one, do you see the foreshadowing of the cross in this word from God to Moses. Yes, He is speaking of deliverance from the Egyptians, but also He is pointing to the greater redemption. Our redemption from slavery to sin and the prince of this world who holds our chains. Great judgments fell on the shoulders of our Savior as He, with outstretched arms, hung on that cross. Yet, it was by these outstretched arms and through these great judgments that our freedom was found.
My friend, I would almost bet that you too once would not hear the Word of your God, because of your despondency and cruel bondage. Possibly you did not even believe that God was there because you had not been immediately delivered out of your bondage. Perhaps you are struggling with listening as you read this now.
Maybe you are one who, like Moses, have friends and family who will not hear. Believe me, I understand, but more importantly God understands. Trust Him. Keep doing what you know you are to be doing, and trust Him. He will deliver those who cry out to Him. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19)
Oh Father,
I love You. Waiting is not easy. Afflictions and struggles are not fun, but they come with the territory of a fallen world. Yet, I can still rejoice because I am no longer a slave. There was a time when my cruel bondage kept me from hearing Your words of deliverance, but You were so patient with me. Even now I can catch myself in despondency. I find myself impatient with You, expecting You to deliver me immediately, but as I grow in faith and in my walk with You, I learn that I have much to learn. Mostly I learn that I need to be as patient with others as You have been with me.   
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Names of God: Jehovah-mekoddishkem

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It’s time for another post in the Names of God series. We have done a little study on the names Elohim, El Elyon, El Roi, El ShaddaiEl OlamAdoniaJehovahJehovah-jirehJehovah-rapha, and Jehovah-nissi.

Today we will discover what we can learn about the character of our God as we look at His name, Jehovah-mekoddishkem.

We are introduced to this beautiful name of God in the book of Exodus.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”
When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
~ Exodus 31:12-18

Jehovah-mekoddishkem is God’s name for Himself that means the LORD who sanctifies you. So what exactly does that mean to us. When we look at the context of this passage of Scripture in which God reveals this name we discover that this is the time when Moses is on the mountain top alone with God. This is when God is giving the children of Israel the Law, the Ten Commandments.

The children of Israel have spent the last four hundred years as slaves in Egypt living under the bondage of slavery and under the rules of a godless Pharaoh. Now they have been redeemed by their God. Now they are free, but they are not free to live to themselves. They have been set free to serve the I AM.

Then the LORD said to Moses,
“Go to Pharaoh and say to him,
‘Thus says the LORD,
“Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Exodus 8:1

The children of Israel were no longer to look, talk, or act like slaves of Egypt. They were redeemed to be set apart. That is what sanctified means. They were being set apart and prepared and dedicated to represent and serve the One True Living God. They were going to be consecrated and taught by God how to be holy, and majestic, and to be a people of honor. They were no longer to be slaves, they were now sons. They were to be sons whose greatest desire was to honor their Father.

Does this sound familiar child of God through Christ Jesus His Son?

But you are A CHOSEN RACE,
A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION,
A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION,
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him
who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 
for you once were NOT A PEOPLE,
but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD;
you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY,
but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
1 Peter 2:9-10

The children of Israel did not do a thing to earn their sanctification. They were slaves who had nothing. They did not buy their freedom. They could not purchase their own redemption. If you read the preceding chapters of the book of Exodus you also see that the children of Israel grumbled and complained the whole way into their freedom and even still as they were walking in it. So they did not even become good out of the appreciation of their new freedom. They did nothing to sanctify themselves. They had no ability within themselves to make themselves holy. God had to do it all. Thus He is Jehovah-mekkodishkem, the LORD who sanctifies you.

I didn’t earn my sanctification either. I didn’t earn my salvation. I was a slave to sin in bondage to my flesh and Satan held the cords of control. I was bankrupt and broken. I could not set myself free. I could not pay my way out. I had to be redeemed. It would be my Jehovah-mekkodishkem that came to my rescue.

By this will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
Hebrews 10:10

I was not sanctified by my ability to keep the Law. I was not sanctified by my ability to be good enough. The children of Israel were not sanctified by their ability to keep God’s Law either. Go back and look at the context.

The LORD who sanctifies you reveals this name of Himself as He teaches us of the sabbath.

‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths;
for this is a sign between Me and you
throughout your generations,
that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 
Therefore you are to observe the sabbath,
for it is holy to you.
Exodus 31:13-14

Now why did God say that observing the sabbath would be the sign?

Why not, you shall not commit adultery and this is the sign that you are sanctified? Why not, you shall obey your parents and this will be the sign that you are sanctified? Why not, you shall never take my name in vain and this will be sign? Why not you shall not make an idol and this will be sign?

Why on earth would the sign be the sabbath?

Oh precious one, God is trying to get a very huge point across to us today just as He was to the children of Israel then. That point being that He alone can sanctify.

The sign that we belong to Him is our ability to rest in Him.

To trust in Him.

To depend on Him.

To believe in Him.

Our sanctification does not come as a result of our work… it is a gift received only by the grace and mercy of God.

For by grace you have been saved
through faith;
and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God; 
not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast. 
Ephesians 2:8-9

Oh how thankful I am that God did not make the sign of my sanctification my ability to keep to perfection the rest of the Law. I fail often. I fall often. I miss the mark. But when I do I know that I am His because His Spirit calls me to repentance and to rest in His forgiveness and calls me to remember to trust and to love and not to fear and to start over because I have received mercy.

This is what makes my God, Jehovah-mekkodishkem, different from all other gods, His mercy for no reason other than that He loves me. Then out of my overwhelmed relief of His poured-out-without-measure grace, I willingly desire and choose to honor my Father by obeying the rest of His commands. So that through my obedience, my set apart life might display His majesty and be used by Him as a testimony to His glorious gospel to bring the rest of our Kingdom family home.

My freedom did not come through my ability to work, it did not come from ability to get it all right. My freedom game from resting in Him.

Precious one are you tired?

Are you tired from working to get it right?

Are you ready to rest in Him?

In Him alone will you find freedom.