Yesterday I found myself singing the song “All Over The World The Spirit is Moving” - a song which always puts us in mind of our late inspirational friend John Whitefield - and, not for the first time, thought of the expression “as the waters cover the sea”.

These words are yet another example of The Bible’s curious usage, which often seems to make no sense to the rational mind, but which speaks to the poetic and spirit-filled.

There are only 2 uses of this particular expression and these are quoted above and both say that the idea of knowing God is relevant. We can have knowledge of Him as the waters cover the sea.

The sea is often a metaphor for unredeemed humanity, and ‘to cover‘ means ‘to hide or overwhelm’ here; so what do we understand by ‘waters’? The first mention is at the beginning of the book ...

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
[Genesis 1:2,6 KJV]

What then does Scripture mean by ‘the waters’? It seems to mean ‘life’ as God would see it. His Spirit moved on the face of the waters’ and He divided them above and below The Firmament. Dividing is part of our God’s creative process, and that always produces life. Yesterday we saw that Jesus is ‘the moving of the waters’. We can only believe that ‘the waters’ represent the spirit in us, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let us therefore rejoice as the life of our God in us - through our knowing Him - overwhelms the unredeemed spirit in us! A thousand hallelujahs are not enough to give thanks to our Lord. Let’s sing ...

Sometimes The Lord shows you an aspect of scripture that you have failed to notice before. The story of Jesus healing the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda is a familiar one, but somehow I have failed to notice - over many readings - that an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. This was the time to effect healing.

There is a time for everything in the Spirit and the living healing waters have to be stirred up. Without the stirring, without the movement in the water, it would stagnate, algae would grow and the pool would be impure - so it is in the Spirit. If I allow the water of the Spirit to cloud with impurities I cannot be refreshed; there is a barrier between me and God.

Jesus asked the man “Do you want to be made well?”, which might be thought a strange question, and could have received a curt reply; but Jesus knew what was in man, and understood that many of us - after living with a condition for a long time - do not want to be healed.

There is a scene in a comedy film, where a leper complains that, being healed of his leprosy, he has lost his means of income. No one has any sympathy for a beggar who was healthy enough to go out to work.

At the pool of Bethesda ["house of mercy" or "flowing water”] Jesus recognised that the infirmity was spiritual not natural; the man was too lazy to make the effort to enter the healing waters. In the Bible we see a principle, “first the natural, then the spiritual”; but for Jesus the spiritual came first - heal that, and the natural follows.

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. [John 5:8-9 NKJV]

All it took was a word from Jesus to change the situation. The man had been washed by the water of the word and been made complete. Jesus cut through the excuse. Jesus went straight from “Do you want to be made well?” to “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” The only thing in between was the man’s excuse. For “take up your bed” read “do not lie down or submit to this spirit”. The difference is in this one thing - it is not man who speaks, but Jesus. As we have seen when Jesus spoke to the woman of Samaria ...

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
[John 4:13-14 NKJV]

Jesus is the moving of the water.

OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY’S RACE
Wednesday 24th June 2020
Are we detached enough from our own spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told. These are phases of His ways we rarely recognise.

I love those words - Him declare I unto you. I make no apology for maintaining my preference for the King James Version; it is what I grew up with, and for me, it has a poetry and a majesty that other versions lack, good though they may be.

I always wondered about these verses and have spoken of them before, but never come to a firm understanding - and ‘a firm understanding’ is essentially what we are being urged to find.

When the Athenians are described as being ‘superstitious’, what is meant is that they are too religious; falling into tradition and form, which is more akin to superstition than to faithful worship and an understanding of the nature of God. To the Athenians He is “the Unknown God”; He has no name, and thus no nature that they know.

So Paul speaks to the Athenians the truth of God. He shares his understanding and love of Father God in a way that reveals the intimate relationship our Father has with each of us through Jesus. He brings the good news of the Gospel to them, encouraging them to accept - not just Jesus’ teachings - but Jesus himself into their lives. I feel sure Paul would have shown them how to pray and build on that joining, assuring them that God answers prayer according to His will and purpose, just as He did with the young Solomon:-

Then God said to him: "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honour, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.
[1 Kings 3:11-13 NKJV]

Paul’s declaration was not only to the Athenians, but to us today, speaking Solomon’s words from Proverbs, Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. [Proverbs 3:5-6]

... alternatively, you could listen to this slightly more upbeat version?
“Trust In The Lord” - The Rizers

Is your faith saving face or have you found saving faith? Today’s scripture reveals what happens when we have found Saving Faith.

There have been times when my faith has been leaning more towards 'saving face' before the gathering, thinking maybe that if I appear holier than I feel then God will cover my deception before the world and at the same time give me more faith than I have.

As a teenager and beginning to find my feet in the world, my best friend and I would discuss 'religion', 'religions' and whether or not there was a God. Our discussions were often greatly skewed towards Christian religion, as we knew little of any other. I remember that on one occasion we decided that Jesus existed, because He was historically documented; but that the case for God - in good Scots Law fashion - was 'not proven'. We also concluded that to have faith you needed to have faith ... but how to find it, as it was not readily available in the shops. We therefore destroyed all notion of faith through the application of deductive reasoning.

And yet, at the back of the mind, was the constant prodding of the seed of faith that God had planted before the beginning of time. (God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. [1 Timothy 1:9 NKJV])

What then is faith? Hebrews 11:1 above gives us the writer of Hebrews answer, and another definition I heard lately was "Faith is the indefinable certainty of God behind every thing." This is something I now know, but it took many years and many false avenues before I came to the depth of faith I have today. Until recently, I used to regret the many years when I languished in a casual belief in God. That in a sense, is faith that has faith in faith, and is worth little or nothing at all.

The only faith, is faith that is sure of God, and so I prayed about those wasted years. The Lord did not seem troubled. The reassurance was not of the 'that is OK, better late than never' dismissal, but of an amazing, revelatory, passionate embracing reassurance.

He said "Even if you were not always with Me; I am always with you." That is Faith with a capital F.

We read this in “Devotions For A Deeper Life” by Oswald Chambers:

“The Christian life is a holy life. Do not substitute the word happy; happiness is a consequence of holiness.
“So many good people are caught up in what we may call “the gospel of temperament.” In other words, they subscribe to the belief that they must be happy and bright. But these moods are consequences, and not causes, of the Christian’s relationship with God.
“Our Lord insists that we keep our eyes fixed on “the strait gate and the narrow way” which, in essence, is pure love and holy living in every area of our lives. Happiness is not to be our primary aim. Our aim is to please the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve Him in the beauty of holiness, in love, and in humility. Is this your aim?

“It Is A Good Thing To Give Thanks Unto The Lord” - The New Creation Singers

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

The Jebusites are those who 'tread down'; kick out; reject. Those who are not governed, who will trample on and reject anything that comes along, and there are - like all these nations - two ways to look at this. Either we reject or are rejected. The outworking of being rejected (or feeling rejected, whether in actuality or imagined) is that we in turn reject.

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
[Matthew 7:6 NKJV]

The rejection spirit is one that tramples you down and tears you in pieces. You are left alone. Everything has been kicked out, because you walked and continue to walk in fear. You have given what is holy to the dogs; given away your inheritance. But The Lord says that He has cast these nations out, He has delivered them over to us* (through His Holy Spirit we have His strength to overcome), so that we can conquer them and utterly destroy them. Show them no mercy.

"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
[Deuteronomy 7:6-8 NKJV]

God is saying to us clearly and unequivocally to reject these many nations that swarm around us intent on our destruction. He has given us the power - by calling on His name - to wage war on the enemy and have full and final victory.

________________________

• * But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.[Deuteronomy 20:16-18 NKJV]

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

The Hivites - their name means 'village dwellers' from a word meaning to tell; make known; declare; show. They were people who are governed by a need to gossip, tell lies and whose tongues are always wagging – keen to expose instead of covering and protecting. Doesn’t seem like much really – but a strong and mighty nation nonetheless, for it is the complete opposite of all we need to be in Jesus. He was truth, and these spirits are anything but.

As a ‘village dweller’, in that I live in a beautiful village in the west of Scotland, I appreciate what is meant here. It is not that all villagers lie and tell tales, though doubtless that happens here as in any community, but that in small gatherings there can develop an insularity a separating from the way the truth and the life, which comes down to a very introverted behaviour, complete selfishness, which finds its outlet in condemning others - and obviously it keeps us apart from God.

James summed it up in these verses ...

Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry. For man’s anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].
So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].
For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; for he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.
But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).
If anyone thinks himself to be religious (piously observant of the external duties of his faith) and does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person’s religious service is worthless (futile, barren).
External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world.
[James 1:19-27 AMPC]


I had not thought of it this way until I read James’ words, but anger is a form of the Hivite spirit. It is making known, telling out a complete self-centredness against another or others. It is the opposite of the peace we know when The Lord is with us, even in the midst of the trial.

Speak to Him, talk to Jesus. In that moment, His peace will fill you and anger, lies and self will flee ...

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

I feel I need to stress at this point the first words of our text, which are When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, which is to say that our Heavenly Father has already done the work. He has brought us to the right place and has thrown out these enemies, these nations or spirits which are out to beguile us away from Him. We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Despite this, we must be aware that this work is the end of the matter - the omega in the alphabet - and in our timeline we are still on the journey under our Lord’s watchful eye. We are still between alpha and omega; still in the battleground and we must always be on our guard, turning to The Lord for His loving arms of protection.

If we remain in the place of subjugation as we saw in the previous meditation, whether under subjugation or perpetrating subjugation of others, we are consumed by that humiliating spirit, that nation which slowly devours us, enslaved by the enemy.

The Perizzites - 'unwalled village dwellers' - are unprotected from wild animals, reptiles and beasts of every shape and form, all of whom are not good for anyone. So beaten down are those of the Perizzite nature, that any passing spirit hops in to the mix and they are powerless to resist.

So we are looking at those people who are governed by whatever comes along – open to any passing influence, good or bad, easily led and therefore easily led away from all righteousness. In a way, this is unbelief or at least a step in that direction.

There are a myriad demonic spirits around and about us, and individually they may be merely vexing, but once we are reduced to the unprotected Perizzite way, we cannot resist even the weakest of invaders. Our prayer is that we never reach this debilitated state.

Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.
[Psalm 28:10 KJV]

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[Isaiah 53:6 KJV]

However, we have the assurance that we have a Great Shepherd, who looks after even the one that goes astray.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

It is said that pride comes before a fall, and the next nation to rise and bring us down (if you see what I mean) are The Canaanites, 'lowlanders'; traffickers; bringing slavery; humiliation; subjugation. What we might be tempted to call 'low-lifes', who subject others to humiliation, and are therefore governed by contemptuousness. What else can we be if our lives are filled to overflowing with pride.

But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
[Jeremiah 34:11 KJV]

Giving in to fear and not trusting in our Heavenly Father seems to lead to a slide further and further away from The Lord and deeper into the yawning chasm of self. Pride gives us the false confidence that “we can do it, all by ourselves”! We are in deception; subjugated and humiliated by the way we have become. Once you let the enemy in, he turns your self against yourself, and you are enslaved. Before you know it you’ll be a Perizzite.

However, no matter how deceived or disillusioned we have become, our Lord is more than able to to lift us out of it. He lives within us and He is more than able to strengthen our resolve to show no mercy to these diabolical nations.

Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, “At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.
[Jeremiah 34:12-14 NKJV]

Our Lord will set us free from the house of bondage if we will but incline [our] ears.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

The Amorites - self-elevating and boasting Is their place as evidenced by the meaning of their name. What I believe this comes down to is those who walk in vanity, pride and arrogance. These things are present in all of us, and we often do not realise it, or if we do, we can only suppress it Ineffectively – it is a basic drive in all of us to protect the self from harm – and we do that in part by telling ourselves 'I am better than him'; ... ‘of course, such things come naturally to someone like me' and so on.

We can see a progression forming in these nations. They are all things of the self; part of our nature that have great power over us.

The spirit of fear inspires in us a desire for a settled untroubled existence and we become complacent in that cosy existence. We settle into a ‘religious’ existence instead of life in the spirit and see no need for change - maybe believing that we are spirit-filled too - which will inevitably lead to a pridefulness in how awfully well we are doing! Good for me. Well, I ask you! Satan begins to have a field day in us.

And that spirit of pride is inextricably linked with so many other spirits that fill us. It is like Japanese knotweed, or ground elder, it creeps along under the surface and before you know it, it's everywhere – choking the good stuff you are trying to cultivate. (I should know for I’ve just spent 3 weeks battling the stuff in our garden and still pull out more daily! )

Our verses make it plain that these things are part of our fallen nature and not something we can deal with under our own steam. Thankfully we know a strong and mighty gardener who, if we ask Him, can pluck this stuff up by the roots and consign it where it rightfully belongs - and at the same time create in us a genuine humility. Then we can genuinely express pride, and so boast in knowing a great almighty Saviour.

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” says the LORD.
[Obadiah 1:3-4 NKJV]

As always there are many aspects to any verse in Scripture. Each word is laden with meaning, but today is a day to savour His word. He will baptise us with the Holy Spirit.

The river is the river of life, and the Holy Spirit flows like a river through our lives if we believe. As the song says, the river refreshes wherever it goes. Feel the refreshing water of the river of life today.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
[Revelation 22:1-5 NKJV]

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
[Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NKJV]

I must admit that I struggled with this. By that I mean finding the words to express it. ‘Complacency’ is only a part of this ‘nation’ that is stronger than we are and we need a close relationship with The Lord to help us overcome it, for all these ‘nations’ have no intention of releasing us; but The Lord wants to set us free.

Girgashite means 'clay dwellers'. Those who are governed by the things of the earth – who look down to the dust and dirt and see nothing of the heavenly realms, or even if they do know Him, prefer to look down at the ground instead of up to the heavenlies. It begins with compromise - one eye on heaven, the other on earth (double-minded) - until it grows and becomes those of us who are indeed complacent, stuck in our own old ways. Stuck in the clay, and quite happy where we are. No need to ‘come up higher’ or ‘know Him more dearly’.

We know the expression to be a ‘stick-in-the mud’. ‘Stubborn’; ‘unyielding’. In a sense it is unbelief, but more than that, a profession of belief but without the desire to do anything about it. Instead we must sing with the Psalmist ...

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings..
[Psalm 40:2 KJV]

He takes this clay of ours and fashions it as He would. Our LORD wants us to know Him; be like Him; to know Him as He really is; to be in close relationship with Him, but we cannot be in that place if we persist in our ‘iniquity’; a word that the Bible uses it a lot and means to ‘go our own way’. And if God is going His way, and we are on a different track, neither of us are going to meet up at any time. So He wants to turn us around to follow in His way... but we must let Him.

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
[Isaiah 64:8 KJV]

In Deuteronomy, we are told that there are seven nations greater and mightier than you. These ‘nations’ are spirits that seek to dominate and control us. God will allow us to meet them for He knows that they are in the world and we must learn to overcome them.

This, God knows, is something we cannot ever do in our own strength; we need His power to find our way through to the other side of the difficulty.

In verse 9, we read Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

I know from our recent healing retreat how easy it is to be overtaken by these powerful forces, and ‘Praise God’, He can deliver us from even the worst of them.

As always with scripture, the ‘nations’ are set in order; in this case with the greatest antagonist appearing first, and that is the spirit of fear. The Bible names it as the Hittites, for that word means ‘terror’.

I know from bitter experience how a spirit of fear can debilitate and crush you, even when you think you are in control of your circumstances and have ‘done all the right things’.

These things can be ingrained in us at an early age, or can be handed down to us through our parents. Believe me, I know it to be true.

I am so thankful to God for answering deliverance prayers, releasing me to walk in freedom from fear.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
“Behold, all those who were incensed against you
shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish.
You shall seek them and not find them--Those who contended with you.
Those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing.
For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
[Isaiah 41:10-13 NKJV]

Why is praise a sacrifice? Sacrifice is a giving up of something precious, it is a surrendering of a most intimate part of oneself. In praise, by putting ourselves aside, we realise ourselves in God.

That realisation comes with three elements which are the essence of truly meeting with The Lord; praise, word and worship. Praise is the catalyst to bring us in tune with the Holy Spirit, without whom the Word from The Lord can be diluted, missed or misunderstood. And without praise and the Word, worship ceases to be the deep connection with God that it was created to be.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
[1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV]

“The Lord inhabits the praises of His people” is often said. It comes from Psalm 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. [KJV]. The New King James Version says enthroned in place of inhabitest. What is certain is that praising The Lord quickly raises us into the heavenly realms. Praise is the fruit of our lips and a joyful noise unto The Lord.

I was reading a piece by David Wilkerson entitled Knowing God which quoted Exodus 6:7 and afterward decided to read the whole of Exodus 6. At the end and into the beginning of chapter 7, I found the verses quoted above.

I was intrigued by the way that God dealt with Moses’ complaint that Pharaoh would not hear him because of his speech difficulties. Surely God could remedy that? And given that this would be possible there must be a reason for God choosing Moses’ elder brother Aaron (whose name, incidentally, means ‘light bringer’).

Although God always has His man (or woman) for the times, they are fallible; there is always a flaw that must be overcome. The apostle Paul immediately springs to mind.


These people struggle with an infirmity of some sort, something which could compromise all that God seems to be doing. (God appears to enjoy making things difficult for Himself.) He also encourages corporateness, His people working and growing together, no one person taking on the whole burden.

As a part of the God’s plan, we know that the priest/king idea was only fully realised in Jesus (Melchizedek order), and you will recall that King Saul fell when he tried to take both roles to himself. Thus here, Moses represents kingship, while Aaron reveals the priesthood. Both were needed to carry the authority of God in dealing with Pharaoh.

But for us in this time, we can see that Moses needed a friend to help him through. So God says your brother shall be your prophet. Use of the word ‘prophet’ seems to confirm the spiritual element in the choice and the reality for us all is that we need our Holy Spirit brother to help us through life.

Jesus is that brother for me, for you, for every one. He shall be our prophet, our friend, our brother through the dark times however insignificant or overwhelming those times may be, but also as a faithful intimate amid the joys and laughter. He does what any true prophet does - He reveals truth, life in the kingdom and the way ahead.

The song today is Robin Mark’s version of As the Deer Pants for the Water, largely because it has the line ‘You are my friend and You are my brother, even though You are a king’ ...