The book of Exodus opens with an account of the children of Israel who went into Egypt, every man and his household came with Jacob. The meaning of Exodus is going out, departure, and this book tells the story of God intervening in behalf of His people to free them from the bondage of slavery and oppression. However, there are many amazing discoveries to be made, when we look at the meaning of names.
Israel: He will rule as God; to prevail, have power; strength, Almighty God, goodly, great, mighty one, power, strong – all of which reveals Israel as one of God’s anointed ones, but this name also paints a beautiful portrait of the Anointed One, the Messiah, Christ Jesus, the Savior God knew we would need from the beginning.
Egypt represents the darkness of our world for its meaning: Besieged places, to lay siege to, attack, assault, isolate, cut off… – a great depiction of what God’s enemy the prince of the power of the air accomplishes on earth.
Jacob: A name of a man chosen by God that reveals our heavenly Father not only calls the unqualified, He qualifies those He calls. The meaning of the name Jacob: To swell out or up; to seize by the heel; to circumvent; to restrain; to supplant (usurp, cutout, displace, preempt).
Not just the name but the life of Jacob reveals how necessary it is for us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Then, in due time He may also exalt us. By clothing ourselves with humility as an apron – the garb of a servant, a covering that can’t easily be stripped from us – as we join the Lord for the cause of truth, humility and righteousness, and be guided to tremendous things (Psalm 45:4).
1 Samuel 12:24 tells us to trust the Lord and sincerely worship Him. Think of all the tremendous things He has done for you. But, remember if you continue to sin God sets Himself against the proud – the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful. He opposes, frustrates and defeats the prideful, but gives grace and favor, honor and blessing to the humble (1 Peter 5:5-6 AMP).
We are told to love the Lord with all our heart, and to keep His commandments upon our heart, which is more than just an organ; it’s a metaphor for the seat of human life, the source of one’s entire being. Where our inner self resides and encompasses both spiritual and emotional aspects of our being.
We are told to love the Lord with all our soul. The soul represents the complete living being, not just a separate, immortal entity. It encompasses the body, the mind and the life-giving breath (spirit) from God, making the soul the essence of our existence. The soul is the seat of emotions, desires and affections, and is considered the character or substance of a person.
We are told to love the Lord our God with all our strength, which encompasses more than just physical power. It involves relying on God’s power to overcome challenges, endure hardships and maintain perseverance. Biblical strength is rooted in faith, trust and a relationship with God, and is seen as s key component of spiritual growth.
Love the Lord with all our heart and soul and strength, we are told to talk about His commandments, His Word, when we sit at home, when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. A home is a physical dwelling, but it also is a representation of family, lineage and even spiritual states. A house can signify God’s provision, protection and His covenantal promises.
Deuteronomy 6:4 continues, Tie God’s commandments on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. The hands symbolize power, authority, blessing and service. They can represent divine intervention, human agency and even the transfer of spiritual blessings. Specifically, the right hand signifies honor and power, while clean hands represent innocence.
Interestingly, the forehead has symbolic meaning far beyond its literal meaning:
- Strength and Perseverance – a hard, steadfast and resolute character even in the face of adversity
- Divine Protection and Ownership – a mark on the forehead can indicate allegiance to God or to the beast
- Mind and Thought – reflecting one’s beliefs and thoughts, which influence actions
- God’s Love – Divine love, particularly in the context of Jesus our High Priest
- Judgment and Spiritual State – Under God’s protection or will judgment be faced
Write God’s commandments on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. A doorframe represents a threshold between different realms or aspects of life, including the intersection of the earthly and spiritual worlds. A place of remembrance, covenant and a reminder of God’s presence and authority. Doorframes are also associated with the concept of entering into new opportunities and choices.
A ”Gate” often represents access, authority, judgment and even the city itself. Gates in ancient cities were not just entrances, but also centers of civic life, where justice was administered and public affairs were discussed. Spiritual interpretations include the entrance to heaven, the narrow path and Christ Himself as the Door to God’s presence.
Jesus told us, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” John 14:6. The meaning of Jacob to usurp, displace, preempt and cutout brought-to-mind the war that continues in the heavenlies, and which has plagued the earth because Lucifer swelled up with pride on account of his beauty. He was filled with violence and sinned. A murderer from the beginning, not holding to the Truth, not holding to God’s commands. As Jesus said, “There’s no truth in him (John 8:44). Because of his splendor he corrupted his wisdom. He was driven out and expelled in disgrace from the Mount of God (Ezekiel 28:16-18).
Yes, there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But God’s enemy was not strong enough, and he lost his place in heaven. That great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and with him his angels (Revelation 12:7-9).
The enemy whose soul, his very nature corrupted by evil could not win this war against God in heaven. However, he was able to unleash his warfare on the earth through deceptively manipulative means. As a result, God shared the first prophecy about heaven’s Champion, when He said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all animals. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. HE will crush your head, and you will strike HIS heel (Genesis 3:13-15).
God’s Word tells us, “Pride, the arrogant one, shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are round about him,” Jeremiah 50:32 AMP, who relish the fruit of deception. Yes, when the Lord has executed and completed all His work of chastisement and purification among God’s people, it shall be He will inflict punishment on the fruit – the thoughts, words and deeds – of the stout and arrogant heart of the king of darkness and the haughtiness of his pride (Isaiah 10:12 AMP).
Duped by the king of darkness, peace of heart and mind was displaced by the foreboding of fear, for when that desire to be like God was acted upon the heart of man swelled up in a god-like stance. Yes, we have all gone astray, each has turned to our own way (Isaiah 53:6a) as enemies, when enmity, hatred and hostility was able to separate us far away from God. Like a shot of Novocain, sin deadened feeling to our spiritual being, causing our heart to harden.
As a result, we became natural, nonspiritual beings unable to accept or welcome or admit into our heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God. Sin preempted God’s purpose for time and opportunity to be enjoyed in paradise walking in His presence. Yes, sin caused us to be incapable of progressively recognizing, understanding and becoming better acquainted with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – because this requires spiritual discernment to estimate and appreciate what our heavenly Father bestows (1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP).
Yes, God placed enmity between that slithering serpent and the woman; however, the dominion of sin – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – caused enmity to develop between man and God. The love of the things that are of the world and not of God usurps love for the Father (1 John 2:15-17 AMP). We became spiritually adulterous! Rendered enemies of God, since friendship with the world is hostility toward God (James 4:4). Yet amazingly, the heart of Love held faithfully this desire to extend what we don’t deserve amity, to those the Lord calls friends (Colossians 1:21 TLB).
Yes, praise God, for though we were His enemies, He sent a strong Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His name (Jeremiah 50:34 AMP), that He might withdraw mankind from their purpose and cut off pride from them, disgusting us with our own disappointing self-sufficiency (Job 33:17 AMP).
Yes, God reconciled the world to Himself through the death of His Son (Romans 5:10a AMP), Who is surely and thoroughly pleading the case and defending the cause of God’s people. That He may give rest and contentment to the land of Israel and all the confused and enslaved nations of the earth, but unrest to those inhabitants of the domain of sin and fear and unbelief (Jeremiah 50:34 AMP).
Now that faith has come, the desire of God’s heart is to make our spiritual being alive by the righteousness His Son imputes to us. Though our natural bodies are dead due to sin (Romans 8:10 AMP), with faith in God, with His Word as an anchor of hope for our soul, and with the power of Holy Spirit, we will be saved, daily delivered from sin’s dominion of fear, oppression and addiction, through Christ’s resurrection life (Romans 5:10 AMP).
Yes, when we were dead (slain) by our trespasses and those sins we habitually walked in, and sadly, many who profess to be Christian continue to follow the course and fashion of this world, heeding the prince of the power of the air; but God, He continues to send His Word.
How awesome God is! How magnificent heaven must be! We can only imagine, but Lucifer knew and coveted and lost his place among the family of God. How many made in the image of God have lost their place among God’s family. How many continue to live in the darkness of deception? What have they adopted but the prideful, violent and treacherous ways of enmity toward God refusing to acknowledge their rightful heritage – a child of God.
But those who proclaim to be a child of God, who treat the name of Jesus as a “Get out of Hell” token instead of being a faithful friend, will they hear Jesus say, “You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, that look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of wickedness and everything unclean,” Matthew 23:27.
Satan tried to usurp (confiscate, seize, wrench) from God the key to the heavenly kingdom he so desired. However, when Truth was ignored and Faith neglected, unattended, forgotten by the one with dominion, the Kingdom of Earth fell into the hands of a cruel and fierce enemy of God and His creations. A perfect world, absent of Death’s presence no longer existed on the earth, all because the enemy’s desire to be god-like was sparked within a human heart (Genesis 3:5).
We may not know the length of time it took for those words meant to deceive and tantalize and delude were mulled over and thought about, chewed upon and digested before evil was able to ignite a hellish fire within the human soul that would burn and spread throughout time and eternity because of the deeds of human hands. People who are obedient to and under the control of the demon spirit that constantly works in the sons of disobedience – the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God (Ephesians 2:1-2 AMP), whose loving-kindness is overflowing, because God is Love! (1 John 4:16).
When faith in God and His Word was cutout by deception, when the distress and distraction of fear increased worry, dismay and anxiety, evil touched the core of man altering our very nature. Our soul bowed to the dust, our body to the earth (Psalm 44:25) for the spirit of prostitution unleashed the deadliest of sins: Pride, Greed, and Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth. Sadly, the evil one continues to further his purpose to steal, to destroy, and to kill with human hands.
Satan wanted to be like God, but he too was deceived by his pridefulness and forgot who the Creator was and who was the creature (Romand 1:25). Satan was not made in the image of God, mankind was. However, Truth continues to be exchanged for deception, as is the peace and contentment of experiencing a resurrected life, living in the likeness of God.
Instead of reflecting the glory of the Sovereign Lord, many remain duped, scathed, made sick and ashen by that spirit of impurity. Instead of being filled and overflowing with the joy of Holy Spirit, many continue to be grieved by that spirit of perverseness, error and confusion. Instead of being eulogized (applauded, congratulated, commended) for praising, worshiping, glorifying our Creator, many are being admonished and ridiculed, belittled, abused and depressed by the spirit of despair.
God’s Word always rises up before us to help, for the Lord has redeemed us because the loving-kindness of God is so very, very great (Psalm 44:26). Our heavenly Father takes from our hand the cup that makes us stagger; from that cup, the goblet of His wrath, those with faith in Jesus will never drink again., Our heavenly Father will put that goblet into the hands of our tormentors who said, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.” Evil touched us to the very core and fear made our back like the ground, like a street to be walked over (Isaiah 51:22-23).
Our heavenly Father never wanted us to experience the upheaval of fear and anguish, all that vanity produces, hatred and hostility. The desire to be god-like made the knowledge of evil personal. When we are no longer dependent on God and His Word and His Spirit of Revelation, co-dependent tendencies, behaviors and attitudes are adopted that are harmful and self-destructive because we lean on and trust in self and others. Flesh! Flesh that wavers with the over-powering influence of emotion. Flesh that has been weakened and contaminated by an infectious mixture of evil, that harms us in more ways than we can imagine.
Our very lives are endangered by thoughts and feelings and beliefs that are not facts and when given credence they prevent us from fully knowing through experience God and His Word of Truth. The job of judging a human heart is that of the Lord’s. There are many reasons a child of God continues to miss the mark and appear hypocritical, but when love of God reaches to our very core we can stop inflicting upon ourselves what the world inflicts upon us – unkindness, anger, self-hatred, belittling, shaming…Instead of humbling those prideful tendencies to demean and criticize, judge and condemn self and others and even God a knee can be bowed:
We can admit God exists and we matter to Him
Believing our heavenly Father could and would if He were only sought
We can admit we are powerless to control our harmful, prideful tendencies
If God is your Co-Pilot, switch seats
We can admit in certain areas our life becomes unmanageable
Sorrow shared is halved. Joy shared is doubled
We can whole-heartedly believe God will help us stay committed to the
decision to put ALL of who we are into His possession and safekeeping
There is no magic in this process of renewal, restoration and recovery,
only miracles
God’s Word says, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of hostility that hems you in by besieging and distressing you. I will rid you of the bondage and strong holds of enmity. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments (deliverances, godly wisdom and teachings). I will take you to Me as My own people, and I will be your God, Who brings you out from under the burdens of the adversary,” Exodus 6:6-7.
“Did any other god ever try to go and take for themself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all the Lord your God did before your eyes against the adversary?
To you it was shown so you might know the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, His Word, that He might instruct you. On the earth He showed you His great fire, His passion, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 4:34-36 NKJV), that will consume His foes on every side,” Psalm 97:3.
So, be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One Who is speaking. For if those who refused to listen to Moses did not escape, we certainly will not escape if we reject the One Who speaks to us from heaven (Hebrews 12:25 NLT). We are receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us please God by serving Him with thankful hearts and with holy fear and awe and reverence. For our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:28-29 TLB).
God – the Spirit of Fairness, the Spirit of Judgment, the Spirit of Fire (Isaiah 4:4) – sent plagues against Egypt, against its officials and its people, so they may know there is no one like the God of Israel in all the earth (Exodus 9:14). Before the darkness of fear and greed, captivity and cruel servitude heeded God and relinquished its hold over God’s people, Death swept across Egypt.
But God has given us His Word to thwart the evil one who celebrates enslavement and violence and death, “When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for Myself,” Numbers 8:17. Though God’s Word continues to be shunned, avoided and shirked throughout our many nations, Holy Spirit continues hovering patiently waiting to transform a hardened heart into one of flesh by changing the way we think so warnings such as this one the Lord gave can be heeded: Keep yourselves from idols (false gods) – from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God. Yes, keep yourself from any sort of substitute for God that would take first place in your life (1 John 5:21 AMP).
God is waiting for the prodigals who turned their backs, and the prodigals who proclaim to know Him but can’t find a way to contentment and rest safely secured with faith and trust relying on His Word!
Lord, consider their threats
And enable Your servants to speak Your Word
With great boldness.
Stretch out Your hand to heal
And perform miraculous signs and wonders
Through the name of Your holy and precious Servant Jesus
Acts 4:29-30