"ALREADY ABOVE THE ENEMY"
MF Blume
February 14, 1999 am
Exod 14:31-15:18 And Israel saw
that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared
the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses. Then sang Moses
and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying,
I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The LORD [is] my strength and
song, and he is become my salvation: he [is] my God, and I will prepare
him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The LORD [is]
a man of war: the LORD [is] his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath
he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy
right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD,
hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency
thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth
thy wrath, [which] consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy
nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as
an heap, [and] the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy
said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust
shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy
them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank
as lead in the mighty waters. Who [is] like unto thee, O LORD, among the
gods? who [is] like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful [in] praises, doing
wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people [which] thou hast redeemed:
thou hast guided [them] in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people
shall hear, [and] be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants
of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of
Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness
of thine arm they shall be [as] still as a stone; till thy people pass
over, O LORD, till the people pass over, [which] thou hast purchased. Thou
shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance,
[in] the place, O LORD, [which] thou hast made for thee to dwell in, [in]
the Sanctuary, O Lord, [which] thy hands have established. The LORD shall
reign for ever and ever.
Israel was freed from Egypt and Pharaoh was defeated, death was circumvented,
and the Red Sea opened up wide at the power of God's right hand.
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As Moses warned Pharaoh to let Israel go lest God's wrath fall upon Egypt,
the dynastic Kingdom of Egypt fell to its wobbling knees at the almighty
power of the one true God.
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Moses told Pharaoh to let Israel go three days' journey into the wilderness
to sacrifice.
We taught last week that the reference to three days is a very important
issue throughout the entire Bible, because every reference to that time
period pointed ahead to the great three day's experience that Jesus Christ
knew in His death, burial and resurrection.
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It was three days from His death to His resurrection.
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And as much as there was more to be accomplished for Israel after their
three days' journey, that is, their need to enter the Promised Land and
establish God's Kingdom in the earth, there is much more for the child
of God after the experience of the three days' journey of the death, burial
and resurrection with Jesus Christ.
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I say WITH Jesus Christ, because we took a three day's journey, if we obeyed
Acts 2:38.
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We were crucified with Christ, were buried with Christ and were risen into
newness of life with Christ.
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Since it took Him three days to experience all of this, and we experienced
it with Him, then we took our three days' journey.
And it may have been one day in which we took it!
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You see, it takes death, burial and resurrection with Jesus to be saved.
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Acts 2:38 and its threefold command of repentance, baptism in Jesus name
and reception of the Holy Ghost is the fulfillment of that GOSPEL in our
lives.
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And since that is salvation, and since the Bible says TODAY is the day
of salvation, we can experience the three day's journey in one day.
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Many have repented, and in the same day were baptized in water in Jesus'
name and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
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They took a three day's journey in one day!
This is possible, since the three day's journey is a spiritual journey.
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It is as real as having experienced a three day's journey as it is to say
that we died with Christ two thousand years ago.
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How could we die with Him when He died two thousand years ago?
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It is because He died as every human that would ever live.
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And we just need to recognize that and believe it is true.
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And since He died as us then we can say that we died two thousand years
ago with Him.
God has been opening this truth up to us so wonderfully in the last several
months.
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But we have gone the three day's journey.
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If you have not obeyed Acts 2:38, then you need to do it today, and be
free from Egypt!
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You need to be free from sin.
Now what?
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What else is there?
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Twiddle our thumbs until Jesus comes?
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Far from it!
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Now we must enter the PROMISED LAND!
When Israel left Egypt, crossed the great Red Sea and saw God drown Pharaoh's
armies, the people sang a song as we read in Exodus 15.
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In that song, notice the tone of victory over Egypt.
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Notice how they knew GOD is a man of war.
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God won the war for them.
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The enemies ahead shall hear and be afraid!
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Edom's dukes, Moab's mighty men, and al the inhabitants of Canaan will
melt in fear!
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They shall be still as stone.
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Petrified!
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Until God's people pass over into their land and defeat them, too, as God
defeated the Egyptians!
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GOD WILL BRING THEM IN.
We need to know of the power of God upon us since we were freed from sin
by God's power!
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Oh, the victory we felt when we were saved!
But read about the thoughts of the people when it came time to see the
Canaanites stand petrified to watch God's people cross into Canaan.
Numb 13:32-14:4 And they brought
up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, [is]
a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that
we saw in it [are] men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, [which come] of the giants: and we were in our own sight
as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And all the congregation
lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the
whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land
of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath
the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives
and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return
into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let
us return into Egypt.
WHAT HAPPENED?
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I thought they were shouting victory over Canaan before they even came
near Canaan!
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The trouble was they did not keep the memory of Egypt's defeat in
their hearts as proof that they can conquer any enemy.
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Notice the reason they felt so victorious in Exodus 15:
Exod 15:17-19 Thou shalt bring them
in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, [in] the place,
O LORD, [which] thou hast made for thee to dwell in, [in] the Sanctuary,
O Lord, [which] thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever
and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his
horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea
upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry [land] in the midst of
the sea.
The reason for their faith in conquest of Canaan was "For the horse of
Pharaoh went with his chariots into the sea."
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They saw God defeat Egypt, so they knew He would defeat Canaan.
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But they forgot all about that.
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If they would have kept that in mind, they would have saw the giants and
said, once again, "They will stand in fear as we pass over and plant the
sanctuary in the Land!"
We are so full of vim and vigour and vitality when we are newly saved.
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But the ones who grow feeble and weak and lose their composure are the
ones who did not keep in their minds the victories God gave them at the
start.
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God has not changed.
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What happened?
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They forgot!
Exod 15:22-24 So Moses brought Israel
from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they
went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came
to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they [were]
bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
They went the three days, and as soon as bitterness came up, they murmured.
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Could not God deal with that?
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He did!
Exod 15:25 And he cried unto the LORD;
and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters,
the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance,
and there he proved them,
God told them to cast a tree into the bitter waters
and it made the bitter waters sweet.
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The message is that if we apply the CROSS, the old rugged tree, to our
situation, we will see the bitter turned into the sweet!
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Apply the cross to your situations.
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Keep in mind the victory that you experienced when God saved you and defeated
all of Hell, and Satan had to stand in shame as God spoiled you from principalities
and powers!
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Apply that victorious standing you have now to your situation.
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Because of the Cross I am one with Christ and if God be for me, who or
what can be against me?
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We are dead, buried and rise with Christ.
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When trouble comes, remember who the cross made us!
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A people ONE WITH CHRIST!
Why do people not apply the cross to their bitter waters?
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Mostly because they did not know the cross' power in putting them in victory
means everyday experiences can be tackled and taken down, too.
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People think all the cross is for is salvation.
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But it is to get you out of the world, plus a lot more!
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There are truths of the cross that God is opening up to His people in these
last days that were practically unheard of before.
People say they have to be more holy than they are.
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And they never knew that our position "in Christ" is a position in the
highest form of holiness one could ever know!
People say they need to die daily to sin.
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Yet they never knew that "In Christ", since He died unto sin once, and
is alive forever more unto God, we are dead indeed unto sin and alive unto
God (Rom. 6:7-11).
The cross is so important because it was the first and only means that
God made for us to be joined in one with Christ.
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People need to go back to the cross and understand all that they missed.
People say they need to rise over all their enemies.
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But the same Bible that says we died with Him, were buried with Him, and
resurrected with Him, also says that we are ascended with Him far above
all principalities and powers and are seated at the right hand of the Father
WITH HIM! (Eph 1:20-2:6).
God told them:
Exod 15:26 And said, If thou wilt
diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which
is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep
all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I
have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.
The diseased waters being healed was a sign that if they will follow God,
none of the diseases Egypt knew would be upon them.
The problem is that if the devil knows you think you have to rise above
him, then he knows you do not know you are already over him!
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And if you do not know you are already over him, then he can make you think
you do not have a whole lot of other victories that you already have.
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He can say you are not holy enough.
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He can say you have not died to sin yet.
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He can say you are not good enough for God.
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The fact is that the cross made all of this our's the moment we obeyed
Acts 2:38 and made the three day journey from death to resurrection!
That is why Jesus used the WORD against the devil.
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Jesus did not have to roll up his sleeves and fight.
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He used the WORD.
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You do not need to fight the devil, the fight already occurred and he is
defeated.
THE ONLY BATTLE IS TO BELIEVE THE BATTLE IS ALREADY WON.
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The only fight we have is TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH.
Throw a tree into the poison waters?
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As crazy as it sounds, many think that the idea of the cross of 2,000 years
ago was the place Mike Blume died is just as ridiculous.
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BUT IT IS TRUE ANYHOW!
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But God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
When we know that we are new creatures "in CHRIST" and that we died to
the old lives we lived in sin, then we know we are united with Christ,
and God sees our faith and is able to move on our behalfs and perform wonders!
A while after their Three day's journey, Israel finally came to Canaan,
as we described earlier.
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12 spies went into check out the promised land.
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They spent 40 days there.
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This was the land where God's kingdom would be established.
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But ten of them came back and said they could not enter in.
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God said forty days would become forty years of wandering in the wilderness,
until the last of the doubting adults died.
Israel went their three days' journey, and then another 40 days came upon
them.
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The same victory that defeated Egypt would defeat Canaan.
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But they doubted.
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And after they heard about the 40 desert years, they still did not see
that it was not them who would fight, but God would fight for them, and
they tried to enter and ...
Numb 14:40-45 And they rose up early
in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo,
we [be here], and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised:
for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the
commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the LORD
[is] not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the
Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before you, and ye shall fall
by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD
will not be with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless
the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the
camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in
that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] unto Hormah.
They never got it straight that it was God with them who would defeat the
enemy.
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They thought they could not handle the enemy so they would not go in.
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Then when they heard about dying in the wilderness, they tried their best
to fight and lost.
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Both times they did not get the point that GOD WILL WIN THE BATTLE.
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You think you cannot win so you stand in unbelief.
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But then you see the danger, so you fight with all your might and then
lose.
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You are not getting it.
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You might say, "Well, you said standing in fear and being afraid to enter
in is unbelief, so I went in but still failed."
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Yes, BUT YOU FAILED TO SEE BOTH TIMES THAT YOUR FAITH IN GOD'S POWER
UPON YOUR LIFE WILL MOVE GOD TO FIGHT THE BATTLES, NAD IT MUST NOT BE YOU
WHO FIGHTS.
Jesus went for the three day's journey and was alive from the dead.
Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their
sight.
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After forty days of talking about the Kingdom, Jesus ascended.
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After forty days about walking in the kingdom, Israel doubted and
refused to face the enemy.
There is a lesson here.
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Where did Jesus ascend?
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Far above all enemies (Eph 1).
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Israel faced the enemy after forty days and "chickened out".
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The SAME BLOOD THAT FREED THEM FROM EGYPT WAS FOR THEM TO ENTER CANAAN
AS WELL.
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THEY WERE ABOVE THEIR ENEMIES FOR GOD WAS WITH THEM.
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BUT THEIR INABILITY TO REMEMBER THAT WORD FROM GOD BROUGHT THEM DEFEAT.
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We are ascended with Jesus and are above our enemies also.
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But some are so full of unbelief that they can hardly stop fighting each
other let alone enter the place of power in the Kingdom and start casting
down devils.
We are above all principalities and powers.
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We are seated in heavenly places in Christ.
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Guess where the principalities and powers are?
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In HIGH places.
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In heavenly places.
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We need to see we are over them and thrown them out!
But like the Israelites, if we look at our own weak strength, and not even
think of the blood that set us free, we will think we are not above anything.
God set Israel free from Pharaoh.
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They left the Dynastic Kingdom of Egypt.
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You would have thought it would have taken an atomic bomb to cripple the
kingdom and stifle the military prowess of the nation and let Israel run
free of any threat of military enclosure..
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Or, a clandestine espionage of a thousand Hebrews to knock out the court
guards and run and take Pharaoh hostage and demand Israel's freedom, until
they were safe from Egypt, to let Pharaoh go in the desert.
But what did God say?
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KILL A LAMB.
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That's all?
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Kill a lamb?
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GO INTO YOUR HOMES, KILL A LAMB AND STAY THERE.
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Crazy by the reasoning's standards.
But that is what did it!
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Behold the Lamb, JESUS CHRIST!
What did the Lord look for to come down and be a shield against death on
the behalf of the Hebrews' homes?
WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD.
All our imaginations about what great feats of human ingenuity and manpower
could be implemented to defeat an entire Kingdom called Egypt, and all
the overwhelming forces of the means to try and stop death, itself, from
touching Israel, do not match the power of the Blood of the Lamb!
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The blood of the lamb did what knocked out the Kingdom of Egypt with all
its chariots and armies and its world-power forces from harming God's people
who were mere slaves in the land.
Our problem is that we just do not know the power of the Blood!
There is enough power in the blood that all our enemies we will ever
face are simply no match for those united to Christ by it.
If we are trying to rise above the devil, then he knows we do not know
we are already above him.
Egypt is not only defeated, but the enemies that have not even stood
against us yet have been defeated long ago.
GO ON IN AND TAKE WHAT IS YOURS!
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You are already above the enemy!