Month 11:10, Week 2:2 (Shanee/Matzah), Year 5935:297 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Thursday 2 February 2012
The Spirits of Egypt
I. An Introduction & Warning
Dieting, as many of you know, takes a long time and requires much self-discipline. The first and biggest step is starting and the second is sticking with it. Many never get further than buying dieting magazines or programs and have in truth given up before they've even started. Others start, experience great discomfort (especially when it comes to regular and sufficient exercise), moan that they can't possibly do it, and give up, having lost all faith that they can ever do it. Other give up during different stages of the diet régime, sadly, sometimes very close to the end
Over the last few days I have been having some very long and deep dreams about ancient Egypt. This is not the first time. I have had many dreams, visions, revelations and experiences about it. I have written a lot about this country and the Israelite experience of it. Wherever you turn in the pages of the Bible, from the 12th chapter of Genesis to the 11th chapter of Revelation, you will find references to Egypt.
Not only was Egypt a dangerous neighbour throughout Israel's history, but Israel experienced a long captivity there that marked it indellibly forever thereafter. And though Israel miraculously escaped slavery from that powerful kingdom, they never fully left it in their hearts. Like a virus that comes back again and again to infect the blood, the spirit of Egypt returns relentlessly to pursue, hound and oppress those who have been touched by it. Indeed, Jerusalem - the place where Yah'shua (Jesus) was crucified - is given the spiritual designation "Sodom and Egypt" (Rev.11:8, NKJV). And yet it is the object of fantastic adoration by Jews and Christian Zionists alike who fail to understand that spiritually its day has passed and will not return until Messiah returns. A place which in the Bible is repeatedly called 'Sodom', 'Egypt', 'Hagar' and 'bondage', and so forth (Gal.4:25) is frankly not a place I want to be associated with. Indeed, in the very last days, just before Yah'shua (Jesus) returns, it is the city that murders Yahweh's two great and last witnesses and then has a party to celebrate...exchanging gifts in the manner of Christmas celebrants:
"And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city (Jerusalem) which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Master was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth" (Rev.11:8-10, NKJV).
The same Egyptian spirit that crucified the Master 2,000 years ago is the same Egyptian spirit that has prevailed ever since, and is the same Egyptian spirit that will kill Yahweh's two prophetic witnessed representing Moses (the Torah) and the Nevi'im (Prophets), which throughout its inglorious history it has persistently renounced and sought to destroy. This same Egyptian spirit has sought revenge for its humiliation in the time of Moses - see The Ten Plagues.
Egypt is in our blood, Egypt is in our culture, Egypt is in our attitudes and behaviour, Egypt is everywhere. Now I am not speaking of the modern Arab Republic of Egypt or even ancient Egypt in its positive aspect, because whether we like it or not, every nation and culture has its good elements. We are told that in the Millennium Israel's former arch-enemies, Egypt and Assyria, will come up to a purged millennial Jerusalem to celebrate the Festivals. So I am not here to 'knock' Egypt or all Egyptians, but the dark demonic spirit that has taken possession of it throughout the ages, the same one that Israel eventually succumbed to, having made a huge effort and paid an enormous price to get away from in the time of Moses. I am, after all part, Egyptian myself...as is everyone who claims to be a descendant of Joseph of Egypt.
My thesis over the next few days, as I look more deeply into this subject, is that we are still in Egyptian captivity, especially Messianics who are so keen to point out how much Christians are in bondage to Rome (as they indeed largely are) when they themselves have so much Egyptian baggage inherited from Judaism. We can't avoid Egypt because it is everywhere around us but we can and must avoid letting it stay in us, if it is already there, and we must resist the tendency to admit it when it presses to hard to get in.
We're going to look at ancient Egyptian culture and how Yahweh dealt with the Egyptianised Israelites who escaped the land under Moses but had to spend another 40 years in the desert to get Egypt purged from the inside. I shall be suggesting, most emphatically, that Christian and Messianic discipleship is, after receiving the New Birth, a journey of purging that is not at all unlike dieting. A seven-day festival called Chag haMatzah or the Feast of Unleavaned Bread has been given to us by Yahweh to emphatically teach spiritual purging and purification, which Paul emphasises reminding us talmidim (disciples) to:
"...keep the feast [of unleavaned bread], not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and emet (truth)" (1 Cor.5:7-8, NKJV).
He knew fully well that just making a declaration for, and committment to, Messiah was not enough - that commitment, as in dieting, means a program of purging and purificatio, a diet of "sincerity" and "emet (truth)" that has to be actively incorporated into daily living - into our lifestyle. And to properly do that means, inevitably, quitting the Egyptian lifestyle of Egyptian habits, Egyptian thought-processes, Egyptian modes of emotional release, Egyptian behaviour and so forth. For dieting not only requires that we eat good food (the undiluted emet/truth of the Besorah/Gospel) but get rid of (purge out) the bad food (the Egyptian lies, habits, customs) too. In short, Yahweh demands a complete revolution in cultural committment. And that's the really hard part because that's when the real opposition starts. And it doesn't matter whether it's so-called 'Gentile' or 'Jewish' culture and customs because both have to go.
So many believers remain in bondage to Egypt because they have been taught the big lie that Christianity can adapt to any culture. That is totally unbiblical. The Bible demands separation from heathen practices - all of them. That's why Israel couldn't remain in Egypt because the result is always slavery. The cultural system will at first compromise you and then finally overwhelm you. It's exactly the same in a spiritually mixed marriage where a believer weds an unbeliever which is why Scripture forbids it.
We cannot continue in our marriage to Egypt. It's unclean, unkosher and the result is always bondage. Those who live in denial about this at length discover they not only have to make a very painful exodus but must spend wasted years being purged in the desert of affliction. And those who don't even get that far, who remain behind, wonder why life is so confusing and why Yahweh seems so distant at times.
Yahweh knows the solution. He knew the solution for Abraham which is why He told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and set off to another unknown land in emunah (faith) where blessing would await him. Every believer, without exception, faces this challenge, even within a 'Christian' and 'Messianic' environment and setting. It's hard because it inevitably means the parting of the ways with many family and friends who either won't agree to 'live and let live' or who insist on forcing you back into their unsaved ways. It means we cannot remain in their bayit or house, where before we have sought and obtained our security and comfort. That is a spiritual nest that has to be vaccated, even if it means being lovingly nudged out of it by the Divine Eagle.
You are the Bride, if you desire these things, and the Bride is being prepared. If you'd like to know more, join me tomrorow for the next installment.
Continued in Part 2
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