Exodus (Program #32) – The Experience of Manna

In Exodus the Lord performed miracle after miracle in rescuing His people Israel.  Once through the Red Sea, He continue to bless them with rich experiences such as quenching their deepest thirst.  Yet despise His merciful treatment, they murmur bitterly at the first sign of difficulty.  How can we explain such pitiful behavior by the people of God?  Well, the same way we can explain much of our own shameful behavior before the Lord.  Stay with us as we get another view of our savior God on today’s life study of the Bible.

We see something very remarkable in this journey with the children of Israel in the wilderness.  They had a remarkable series of experiences with the Lord; His miraculous deliverance of them through the Passover and going through the Red Sea, and this marvelous experience of the bitter water at Marah and finally the flowing stream and the growing palm at Elim.  Yet after all of these, there is a very ugly, an ugly display of their dissatisfaction toward the Lord.  more…

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Exodus (Program #31) – Israel’s Experience at Elim

When God led the children of Israel out of Egypt in the book of Exodus, their destination was ultimately northward to Canaan, the good land and the place of fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.  But He took them first far to the south, to the shores of the Red Sea, then after crossing the Red Sea, He led them south again to a place call Marah and then to Elim.  Surely this did not match their expectations.  God’s ways are not our ways.  Is He leading you south when you thought that you should be headed north?

The background of this message today is one that most of us can relate to, at least to some extend.  The children of Israel had just come through the miraculous events related to their exit out of Egypt; the Red Sea, the Passover, all the miracles in God’s dealing with Pharaoh.  By now they must have been expecting a swift and direct journey to the promised land, the Good Land.  more…

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Exodus (Program #30) – Israel’s Experience at Marah

Exodus is surely a book of great stories.  How many Sunday school lessons have come from these wonderful stories?  We do love these stories.  But a deeper and far richer appreciation awaits the ones willing to go beyond the surface and into these pictures for what they really are; dynamic, vivid portraits of the deep and indescribably rich experience of the living and ever present Christ in resurrection.  Please set the next 30 minutes aside for your own spiritual journey with Christ, as we see Him leading us as He led the children of Israel in the book of Exodus.

We’ve seen over and over in this book of Exodus that is just one striking picture after anther, depicting our real spiritual experience of all these rich aspects of Christ.  Today this message will be very much in that same vein.  There are a lot of commentaries on the book of Exodus and the library of Christian literature.  In your years of studies, have you ever come across anything to help unveil these pictures that can remotely compare with this life study of Exodus that is being brought forth in this broadcast?

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Exodus (Program #29) – Israel’s Crossing of the Red Sea

The children of Israel had two serious problems; God’s judgment and Pharaoh’s tyranny.  Although the Passover was adequate to save them from God’s judgment, it was not effective to rescue them from the usurpation of the Egyptians, to be saved from Pharaoh’s tyranny.  For this they needed the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea.  Without the crossing of the Red Sea, there would have been no separating line.  Today we will consider the significance of crossing the Red Sea on this life study of the Bible.

Today we are going to look at a very well-known passage, the children of Israel are passing through the parted water of the Red Sea.  But we are going to see today from an angle that will likely be new to many of our listeners.  more…

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Exodus (Program #28) – Pharaoh’s Last Struggle

God’s complete salvation includes redemption, escape from the world and baptism.  These 3 elements are all vividly portrayed in the book of Exodus.  As we see ourselves again and again through the depiction of this wonderful book.  Pharaoh, representing God’s enemy plays a key role in God’s bringing His people Israel through these stages of complete salvation.  How does He use Pharaoh in our lives today?  That will be our focus on our life study of the Bible.

Today’s program brings us to a very marvelous presentation of the escape of the children of Israel from the pursuing Pharaoh and his Egyptian army.  Through the first 14 chapters of Exodus, we have seen a lot of things but there are really 3 significant events related to the Lord’s people; the Passover, their exodus or exit out of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.  As pictures of our own experience, these are really unmatched in Scripture.  What did these sections refer to in our experience?

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Exodus (Program #15) – God’s Further Training of Moses

God’s calling of Moses is the most complete call in the Bible.  Moses took God’s word, and did all that God had charged him to do.  However, things did not turned out as Moses expected.  To his surprise, he was defeated, Pharaoh was victorious and the children of Israel suffered all the more.  For this reason, he complained to the Lord in Exodus chapter 5 saying “why is it that You sent me?  Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has mistreated this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”  Have you ever brought such a charge against the Lord?

We want to continue today to look at how God further trained Moses, His called one.  This is critical to us because we have been seeing the calling of Moses very much represent our own calling by God.  Yesterday, in fact we saw that the first two items that God brought to Moses in this further training were His name and His covenant.

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Exodus (Program #12) – The Three Stations in Fulfilling God’s Purpose

As the children of Israel were called by God in Exodus 3 to make their exit or exodus from Egypt, they were directed to 3 different stations that will ultimately be a part of their journey.  First to the wilderness, then to a mountain and finally to a land flowing with milk and honey.  These stations represent 3 stages in the journey of all God’s people.  What stage are you at?

Our message today gives us an overview of the book of Exodus and a picture or series of pictures, depicting the various stages in our Christian life.  To see these stories form the Old Testament in such a way is to bring real spiritual light to us and illuminate the way more clearly for us to go on with the Lord is really the point of this whole life study.  It seems that Witness Lee has no heart just to study the Bible in the way of history or doctrine.

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Ezekiel (Program #25) – The Holy Land and the Holy City

Clearly the subject and central focus of the last section of the book of Ezekiel is the temple, the house of God. Show the house to the house, the Lord tells Ezekiel and that is exactly what he does in the final chapters. Yet, there’s a very profound postscript to Ezekiel’s vision that is found in the final chapters of the book and that is the land upon which the temple sits. In fact the land and the house are the central focus of the entire Old Testament. Recall Jehovah’s words to Joshua following the death of Moses as the children of Israel were encamped at the border of the good land in Canaan, “Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses…Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” (Joshua 1:2-3,6). Well if the temple typifies the church as the fulfillment of the house of God, what then does this land typify?

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Jeremiah (Program #19) – Jeremiah’s Genuine Prophecies

In the book of Jeremiah, we have the indelible account of God’s people forsaking Him in the most fundamental way. Listen again to Jehovah’s words though His prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, Which hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) This warning applies not only to the children of Israel in the Old Testament but to us as well. Because to forsake the Lord in this way is to depart from Him as our very source and it’s an offense to God that is far more serious than even the sins we commit as a result of taking our own way and living independently from Him.

Israel’s departure from Jehovah was connected to the worship of idols that had become so prevalent among them. Though we may not be sacrificing to idols of wood and stone, as they were we too are tempted to be drawn off to our own idols. But what we all must see is that behind every idol whether or wood and stone, or an object of pleasure or a position that may attract us, the same spiritual force is present. God’s enemy Satan who will stop at nothing to distract God’s people from knowing and enjoying God as this fountain of living water.

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Jeremiah (Program #2) – An Introductory Word

Much of the history in the Old Testament concerns the great failures and sins of the children of Israel. They were all the time disobedient to the Lord, transgressing His laws and straying far from Him in their deeds and actions. Yet in Jeremiah we get a clear window into how God interprets and evaluates the failures of His people. In chapter 2, He tells Jeremiah of the two great evils committed by Israel, His people. What would He enumerate above all the others? But the answer reveals much about God’s heart and about our own living before Him.

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