The Philadelphia Church

The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is Moses typifies Christ.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

The person conducting the service should now read or assign to be read Joshua chapters 1 through 4.

Commentary: Of the generation counted in the census of the second year (Num 1:1-2), only Joshua and Caleb remained when Israel crossed the Jordan. Of the twelve spies Moses had sent to spy out the Promised Land, only these two remained alive. Only Joshua and Caleb had walked in “God’s rest” (Ps 95:10-11) prior to Joshua sending two additional men from Shittim as spies (Josh 2:1). So the significance of the Lord [YHWH] saying to Joshua, “‘Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel’” (1:2) places importance on Israel’s continuance after Moses, but with the admonishment that Joshua and Israel were to be “‘careful to do according to all the law that Moses my [YHWH’s] servant commanded you’” (v. 7).

God does not say that He gave the law to Israel even though He had. Rather, He says that Israel is to be careful to keep the law that Moses, His servant, gave to Israel.

God told Moses what to say; so why doesn’t God take credit for giving Israel His law? Better, why does God say to Moses in the golden calf incident, “‘Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves’” (Ex 32:7 emphasis added) … did Moses bring Israel up out of Egypt, or did God? No, he hadn’t. God had. Yet God gives His credit to Moses, and says that He intends to make of Moses a great nation.

Moses was to be as God to Aaron (Ex 4:16), and by extension, to all of Israel. He was to be as God to Joshua, who was commanded to be careful to keep the law Moses gave to Israel. Moses wrote of Jesus (John 5:46-47), saying, “‘The Lord your God [YHWH your Elohim] will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you [Israel] desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly’” (Deut 18:15-16). Jesus was this prophet. Thus, Moses is a type of Jesus as the first Adam was a type of Jesus (Rom 5:14).

As Moses parted the Sea of Reeds [if God gives Moses credit for bringing Israel out of Egypt and for giving Israel the law then Moses also gets credit for parting the water] through his obedience by faith, and as Jesus walks on the water because of His righteousness [lack of sin] — with neither Moses nor Jesus getting their feet wet — and as the wickedness of man grieved God and caused Him to send a flood of water over the earth to blot out humankind (Gen 6:5-7), certain juxtapositions can be accepted as fact: water equates to death. Through obedience by faith to the law Moses gave to Israel, a saint passes through death dry-shod. He or she does not drown, or spiritually lose one’s breath.

The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Since water equates to death, then water must also equate to the means of death: sin, or lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Therefore, water that has fallen as rain in a far land equates to sin and death.

To receive a circumcised heart (Deut 30:6), an Israelite in a far land must by faith turn to God and love God with his [or her] heart and mind (nephesh), with this love manifested through the saint keeping the commandments of God (vv. 1-2), who will now bring this Israelite back to Judea. When this Israelite returns to keeping the commandments Moses gave, the saint no longer sins and is no longer subject to death. Thus death reigned from Adam to Moses (Rom 5:14); for through obedience to the commandments Moses gave, death parts as did the Sea of Reeds, and the saint crosses the water dry-shod, not by walking on top of the water for this saint has sinned, but by walking on dry ground that will bring forth seed and fruit, especially the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).

Only rain, the early and the latter, in Judea represents God’s Spirit or divine Breath. This rain brings forth the twin harvests of God before it runs off parched hillsides. Thus, it can be said with certainty that rain in a far land, rain that gullied hillsides and flooded fields is part of the broadcast of the prince of disobedience who reigns over every son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3). [The similarity of sound between /rain/ and /reign/ in English might well be only coincidental, but this similarity serves to illustrate that presently God reigns over Judea, and only over Judea until the single kingdom of this world is delivered to the Son of Man – cf. Rev 11:15-18; Dan 7:9-14.]

Since every human being was once a son of disobedience, meaning that all have sinned (1 John 1:8), no other human being can walk on water as Jesus did. Even Peter couldn’t although Jesus, at Peter’s urging, had commanded Peter to come to Him (Matt 14:29-30). Rather, every person in this era must cry out to Jesus to save the person, for the sinful nature of the flesh causes the flesh to be weak in faith, and will cause the person to sink and drown if the waters are not parted through obedience to Moses.

The spirit [i.e., the inner new creature], born free from condemnation (Rom 8:1-2) and hence set free from sin and death, will walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), and will walk on the water; but the flesh, born consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32), walks on land and must tread water if the flesh is not to drown because of its sinfulness. Only when the flesh is obedient to the laws of God, thereby eliminating sin from its members, can the flesh cross through the waters of sin and death dry-shod, for obedience to Moses figuratively causes the waters to part. Obedience by faith to the laws of God is the antidote to sin and death; however, obedience without faith is not obedience at all for the flesh remains imprisoned in sin, and will so remain until the second Passover liberation of Israel.

Much has been made within the history of visible Christendom about the sinfulness of the flesh—and elements within visible Christendom have periodically demonstrated the sinfulness of the flesh (the Roman Church will pay out billions to settle sexual molestation lawsuits, and the number of televangelists publicly exposed for sexual immorality continues to grow). Yet the Lord told Joshua not to turn to the right or to the left when it came to keeping the law Moses gave Israel (again, Josh 1:7), that “‘This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it’” (v. 8) … what Book of the Law if not the one Moses commanded to be placed beside the ark of the covenant? Only days before, Moses had told Israel, “‘Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death!’” (Deut 31:26-27).

After Jesus healed the man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, Jews sought to kill Jesus for not only breaking their Sabbath regulations but also for making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). And in the exchange that followed, Jesus told these Jews, “‘Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you had believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words’” (vv. 45-47). Therefore, the following juxtaposition holds: the written words of Moses are visible representations of the invisibly uttered words of Jesus.

The Book of the Law that accused Israel of sin for a millennium and a half before Calvary remains with Israel, now a nation circumcised of heart, to this day: for three and a half millennia, Moses has been the sole witness against Israel; yet Moses was merely a type of Jesus, to whom all judgment has been given (John 5:22-23). Moses accuses through the Book of the Law. Jesus judges by what standard? The Book of the Law? Yes, by the Book of the Law, with faith comparable to the faith that Abraham possessed while still uncircumcised being counted to the person as righteousness as Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:1-6). So it isn’t the works of the hands in sacrificing much livestock that is counted as righteousness, but believing God that is counted as righteousness, with what is to be believed being delivered to Israel through Moses’ written words and through the man Jesus’ spoken words … Jesus did not need to add to Moses additional condemnation of Israel, for Moses was a reliable witness, one who faithfully delivered that with which he was charged.

Over the past two millennia, the visible Church has drifted far from Moses. Yet Moses remains the witness against all who would not perish in sin and death, but who would walk on dry land, on land that brings forth seed and harvest. The person who sows on flooded fields does not cast bread upon the waters (Eccl 11:1) but throws away his or her seed—and every ministry that teaches lawlessness is a flooded field that can only be drained through hearing Jesus’ uttered words in the written words of Moses. It is from obedience to Moses that dry land appears on the third day of the spiritual creation week.

God has delivered His rest, typologically represented by the Promised Land of Judea (Ps 95:10-11), into the possession of Joshua and the possession of the mixed nation of physically circumcised and uncircumcised Israelites whom He has warned not to turn to the right or to the left of the law Moses delivered to the nation. Two witnesses crossed over the Jordan to spy out this land that physically represents God’s rest before Joshua leads the nation across the flooding river on dry land, and unlike the ten witnesses that had blasphemed God forty years earlier, these two witnesses report, “‘Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us’” (John 2:24).

Today, it can be reported that God will deliver His rest to those who keep the Sabbaths of God and all that is written in the Book of Deuteronomy, the book Moses caused to be placed beside the Ark of the Covenant. Today, born of Spirit disciples of Christ Jesus are many arks of the covenant that individually and collectively form the temple of God. And tomorrow [i.e., the day after the second Passover liberation of Israel from bondage], the two witnesses that give life to the written words of Moses and to the spoken words of Jesus through having the power to shut the skies so that no rain falls during the days of their ministry and to strike the earth with every kind of plague (Rev 11:6) will report that all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13), for the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh thereby giving life to the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) prior to demonstrated obedience. They will be as Peter was when he stepped out of the boat to walk on the turbulent sea. By staying focused on Christ, they shall walk over sin and death and cross into life.

But to stay focused on Christ requires that the person by faith keep the precepts of the law (Rom 2:26); for Jesus’ words, heard by the inner new creature, are the same words that Moses delivered in writing to Israel.

What has not been understood by visible Christendom is hearing Jesus’ words—what is necessary to pass from death to life (John 5:24)—equates to reading the words of Moses. Now to believe the One who sent Jesus is to believe the Him who gave His words to Moses. So the person who spurns Moses is no disciple of Christ Jesus, but rather, His adversary.

The first plague that Moses brought upon both Egyptians and Israel was to turn the waters of the Nile into blood, even the waters in vessels of wood and stone (Ex 7:19). The two endtime witnesses, who will be like Moses and Aaron, shall have the power to turn the waters into blood (again, Rev 11:6), with blood typologically representing “life,” especially the life of humankind taken from them by sin and death. So while humankind can sort of “live with sin” in this present era, there was no living with sin when Moses crossed the Sea of Reeds nor will there be any living with sin during the days of the two witnesses’ ministry.

·  Pharaoh and his army, representatives of sin and death, drowned in the waters parted by Moses.

·  After the ministry of the two witnesses, the earth swallows the flood sent by Satan to kill the woman who brought forth the Christ (Rev 12:5, 15-16), with this “woman” being Israel.

·  The “beast rising out of the sea” (Rev 13:1)—this beast consists of the surviving four horns that arose on the head of the king of Greece—like each of the beasts Daniel saw coming from “the great sea” (Dan 7:2) arises from sin and death to recapture Israel, a nation liberated from sin and death at the second Passover.

Thus, death that reigned from Adam to Moses loses its sting through obedience to the Law (1 Co 15:56), for sin is the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4). The power to defeat death comes from obedience to the Law, with Christ Jesus’ obedience now covering the saints … when the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant (with the two stone tablets within the Ark and the Book of the Law that Moses wrote beside the Ark) dipped into the flowing waters of the Jordan, the waters coming down from above stood and rose in a heap while the waters downstream flowed away, leaving dry land on which the priests stood firmly in the middle of the Jordan until all of the nation of Israel passed over on the dry land and entered into God’s rest (Josh 3:14-16). The glorified Jesus is Israel’s high priest, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and it is He who presently stays the waters of the figurative Jordan so that Israel can enter into His rest on dry ground. And it is Christ Jesus who commanded disciples to wash one another’s feet (John 13:14-15) so that they would be clean (v. 10), for it is the feet of those who today bear and are arks of the covenant that are soiled by sin and contact with this world.

The stones taken from the midst of the Jordan from the place where the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant stood can be likened to Jesus’ twelve disciples, each a living stone (1 Pet 2:4-5). These stones taken under Joshua’s command were to be a memorial forever to how Israel crossed the Jordan on the 10^th day of the first month to become the selected lamb of God, penned in His rest until sacrificed on the 14^th at even, three and a half days later[1], with each of these days being as a thousand years. These physical stones became living stones, however, when Jesus came to His own people and was rejected by them (John 1:11); thus, it is the living stones of the first Disciples that now stand as a memorial forever to Israel, today the Body of Christ, being sacrificed as Jesus was sacrificed; for the disciple is not greater than his teacher nor a servant greater than his master (Matt 10:24-25). It is enough for the disciple and servant to be sacrificed as was his [or her] teacher and master.

Today, the lives of the first Apostles stand as an inscribed memorial to Israel entering into God’s rest. This memorial will stand forever for those first Apostles have everlasting life, received when their judgments are revealed … their judgments are not yet revealed; nevertheless, they live while they now sleep, a contradiction only in this world where the passage of time conceals visible Christendom’s inability to walk on water as well as its failure to bring forth seed and harvest. Visible Christendom neither walks on water nor on dry land, but flounders in sin as it drowns. By choice, it will not turn to Moses and to obedience to God. Rather, its hope of salvation rests on its ability to evolve gills while desperately holding onto its breath, received from God as His divine Breath [pneuma hagion].

Joshua turned neither to the right nor to the left. A long time after crossing the Jordan, Joshua charged the elders of Israel, “‘Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day’” (Josh 23:6-8). Unfortunately, the heart of Israel was never pure, but always polluted by idolatry (Ezek 20:18-26).

God gave to Israel statutes that were not good and rules by which Israel could not have life (Ezek 20:25). He defiled a nation that had first defiled itself (v. 26); He commanded Israel to burn its firstborns … Israel was the firstborn natural son of God (Ex 4:22). The Church is God’s firstborn spiritual Son, with Christ Jesus being the First of the firstfruits. And as God intends to cast His firstborn son into the lake of fire for this nation’s lawlessness, He commanded ancient Israel to cast its firstborns into fire as a typological representation of what He intends to do when judgments are revealed.

No one born of Spirit has to die. All have life and all will live forever if the sinfulness of the flesh doesn’t overwhelm the new creature born of Spirit. But for sin not to overwhelm the son of God presently domiciled in a tent of flesh, this son of God must force upon the flesh obedience to the law of God as Moses delivered this law in the Book of Deuteronomy. This son of God will only be partially successful, with greater success coming as this son matures in faith … the son who will not contend with the flesh, but who proclaims that Grace is sufficient for salvation is a bastard, the seed of Satan concealed in the skirt of the Woman. This son is a spy who has entered the fellowship of Christ to sow destruction among spiritual infants, and many such sons today form the synagogue of Satan.

The endtime high priest of Israel is named Joshua (Zech 3:1). Some disciples have mistaken this high priest for Christ Jesus, but this Joshua has on filthy attire (v. 3)—Christ Jesus was without sin, without filth—so this endtime Joshua is not Christ, but the one who follows Christ after the second Passover liberation of Israel … at the second Passover liberation of Israel, the Son of Man will be revealed (Luke 17:30). The garment of Grace will be stripped from the Body of Christ for it will no longer be needed. The Body, liberated from indwelling sin and death, will be covered by its own obedience to God—or it will perish in the lake of fire as a firstborn in ancient Israel was tossed into fire as an offering to a god who was no god. Thus, when Jesus no longer bears the sins of Israel, He will begin (or shortly begin) His reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, and another Joshua shall be Israel’s high priest, this latter Joshua to be a human being that must put off the filthy rags of sin and be clothed by God with righteousness. In a single day, God will remove iniquity from Israel (v. 9)—this single day is the day when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation. This is the day when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the Son of Man. This is the day when all the world will fear the Lord, Israel’s God (Josh 4:24).

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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