On Day Two we saw how Paul described the wilderness journey of Israel in I Corinthians 10:1-11 as a parallel of our journey as Christians. He concluded his insights here with: "Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (verse 11). The experiences of Israel leaving Egypt, crossing the wilderness, and then possessing their promised land, are a step-by-step prophetic map of our journey toward the fulfillment of our calling in Christ. We start by being in bondage to this world, then we go through a place of training and learning the Lord's ways in a spiritual wilderness, before we are ready to actually start possessing our promises.
In our study, we want to examine this journey in increasing depth as a way to measure our own individual progress toward spiritual maturity. These principles can relate to us as individuals, as a congregation, or even to the universal church. We can see the church following this same pattern through history. This can help us to understand where we are, where we are going, and what the next step is. It can also give us confidence and speedy victories in our trials as we understand what the Lord is seeking to accomplish in us through them.
The first principle that we must understand is that as Christians we begin our journey from a place of spiritual bondage. Moses, who came to set God's people free, was a type or biblical model of Christ, who came to set us free. We can see a number of spiritual parallels in their lives. When Moses was born, the ruling power sought to destroy him by killing all the male babies. When Jesus was born, Herod did the same thing. As the Scriptures teach that there will be a revealing of the Lord through a glorious church at the end, we again see the ruling powers today trying to destroy the infants through abortion and other diabolical strategies.
The first time that Moses revealed himself to his brothers they rejected him, just as they would Christ the first time He came. When Moses returned, it was with great power to set God's people free, and to destroy all of the gods of Egypt. When Jesus returns He will not come again as a suffering Lamb, but as the conquering King. He will set His people free and destroy all the gods of this world while doing it.
In this scenario, Egypt is a type of the present world, and Pharaoh is a type of Satan, the ruler of this present world. Pharaoh did not let Israel go without a fight, and the Lord did not want him to. The Lord hardened his heart in order to make him a more accurate type of Satan, who will do everything he can to keep God's people in bondage.
When Moses first demanded that Pharaoh let Israel go, he not only refused, but commanded his taskmasters to increase the burdens on God's people, as we see in Exodus 5:9, "Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it that they may pay no attention to false words." We see here that Satan's first strategy in getting us to believe that God's promises are "false words" is to make our burdens heavier. When this happens, do not be discouraged, but encouraged. Just before we are about to be delivered by the power of God, the enemy always heaps the burdens on trying to get us to doubt God in this same way. The Word of God is sure, and we can also stand on His promise in I Corinthians 10:13:
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;
and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but with the temptation
will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.
Since we know that He will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, we can know our deliverance is near when it gets to that point.
We may ask, if the Lord has the power to destroy Satan, why doesn't He do it and make it easier for His people? The main reason is because He does not want to make it easy for His people. He wants to make it hard, and He wants every experience to be impressed upon us enough, so that for all of eternity we will remember the evils of sin, and His glorious ways as demonstrated through our deliverance.
As He said in Exodus 6:1, "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land.'" The Lord wanted His people to know forever that they were not set free by the permission of Pharaoh (Satan), but by His power. The ruler of this world will never willingly let us go, but he will let us go. Power is coming.
When Moses began to demonstrate God's power through his staff, Pharaoh had his magicians duplicate this power, and they were able to up to a point. What is coming will be a very real power encounter. Satan can duplicate God's power up to a point, but then even the cults will begin to say like the magicians of Egypt "...This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19).
Even though God begins to demonstrate that His power is much greater than anything Satan can duplicate, this will not cause Satan to give up, just as Pharaoh remained stubborn. This will cause him to take an even more devious, and often more successful, strategy for keeping God's people under his yoke. We see him begin this in Exodus 8:25: "And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God within the land"' (of Egypt).
Once Satan knows that we are determined to serve the Lord, his next strategy will be to get us to compromise so that we try to worship the Lord while remaining in bondage to the ways of this world. Satan really doesn't mind us "having religion." What scares him is a single Christian really becoming free.
When Pharaoh saw that Moses was resolute he proposed another compromise, as we see in Exodus 8:28, "And Pharaoh said, 'I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make supplication for me.'" Almost every new believer will hear from well-meaning friends and relatives, "It is good you have religion now—just don't go too far with it," meaning, "It is good to go to church on Sundays, but you have to live in the world, so don't become too radical." We too must be resolute that we are going to follow the Lord fully, going as far as He has called us to go.
After a few more power encounters, Pharaoh proposed one last compromise, as we see in Exodus 10:24, "Then Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, 'Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you.'" Every believer will have to pass this same test.
If Satan sees that we are determined to go as far as God has called us to go, he will then try to get us to leave something behind under his domain. He knows very well that
"…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21), so if we leave anything behind that is not carried all the way to God's Promised Land, we will at some point turn in our hearts back to the world, and end up back in bondage. Therefore, we must, like Moses, declare that "…not a hoof will be left behind!" (Exodus 10:26) From the very beginning of our walk with the Lord, we must learn it is crucial to have no compromise with the devil.