Testimony

      "And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19:10).

     The individual who had just prophesied to John in heaven above about the marriage supper of the Lamb was not an angel, nor Jesus, but a fellow believer in Christ. According to the verse above, because this unnamed believer has the testimony of Christ within him, the spirit of prophecy is resident within that testimony. Jesus and the Gospel ARE prophetic, and the prophetic cannot be separated from them nor from those who have Christ. In Christ, our faith is prophetic, our prayers are prophetic, our songs are prophetic, our messages are prophetic, our worship and giving are prophetic. I think that as we begin the Book of Exodus, and the other reading portions of this Sabbath, we will see the significance of this.

     The Book of Exodus is called Sh'mot in Hebrew , meaning "Names". It comes from the first verse of Exodus: We'elleh Shemoth, which means "Now these are the names...".  Sh'mot is also the title of this week's Sabbath reading portion. "The names" refer to Jacob, his eleven sons and their households who came to Egypt, for a total number of seventy individuals. From this seventy, the Israelites in Egypt "increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." (Ex. 1:1-7).

     As a new Pharaoh of Egypt came to power, he grew afraid of the millions of Israelites who were living in Egypt. He felt that their loyalty to himself nor Egypt could be counted upon in time of war, and it was feared that the Hebrews would join an enemy and leave the land (v. 8-10). Therefore, Pharaoh insured their service through hard slavery (v. 11-14). He also sought to control the population of male Israelites by having male Hebrew babies killed upon birth (v.15-22). When the Hebrew midwives refused to cooperate with this plan, Pharaoh ordered all of his people to throw every son into the river to drown (v. 22). It seems that the evil of child murder, like all evil, does not remain contained, but its nature and desire is to be pervasive and without limit. The blood-hunger of evil is never satisfied (Prov. 4:14-17, Rev. 17:3-6). Man cannot control evil, not even the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh, but rather, evil will control man. As the Israelites suffered terribly under the bitter and hard bondage of the Egyptians, it was time for God to send the deliverer of His people, who would be Moses.

     The prophetic promise of a Deliverer came to man as early as the occasion of man's fall in the Book of Genesis, and even earlier (Gen. 1:3-4, Gen. 3:14-15). The promise of the Christ/Messiah Deliverer continued throughout Jewish scripture. The specific prophetic promise to deliver God's people from Egypt came through Abraham (Gen. 15:13-14), and Joseph. Before his death, Joseph prophesied to his brethren: "...I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land (Egypt) to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob...God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here." (Gen. 50:24-25). Amos wrote that God does nothing without telling His prophets first (Amos 3:7), and the prophets tell God's people. We have previously discussed the testimony of Jesus Christ present in the lives of Abraham and Joseph. So we will look at the testimony of Christ, the spirit of prophecy, in this week's Sabbath reading portion.

     As Moses was called by God into the role of deliverer, the LORD spoke to him from the midst of a burning bush. As Moses led his father-in-law, Jethro's (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13) flock (son - shepherd, lamb, sheep, sheepfold, of a multitude, to migrate) into the back of the desert, and came to Horeb (horeb/harab - destroyed, dried up, wasted, decay, smite down, kill, slay), the mountain of God: "...the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush (sene - thorny, bush, to prick). So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed...God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, 'Moses, Moses!...I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." (Ex. 3:1-6).

      In a place of death, decay and destruction, and in a circumstance that should have led to consuming destruction by fire, there was no destruction and death but a "great sight" (gadol + mare - great, high, greatest, mighty, magnify, praise, powerful, grow, of honor, lift up + vision, favor, countenance, appearance, spectacle, a handsome shape) which Moses turned aside to see (Ex. 3:3). Moses saw a figure and a face in the midst of the fire that should have, but did not, consume. The next time a form is seen within a fiery furnace without harm, the King of the Chaldeans declared "the form...is like the Son of God." (see Dan. 3:19-25).

     The LORD spoke to Moses from the burning bush. The "LORD" is represented by the Hebrew letters yod, hey, vaw, hey, which have an individual meaning of "Behold the hand, behold the nail". This is the testimony of Jesus Christ, the spirit of prophecy, about which we read above: The One whom death cannot consume.

     In another reading portion from this Sabbath, the LORD calls young Jeremiah to be a prophet. The LORD said to him: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." (Jer. 1:5, see also Rom. 8:28-30).

     As the LORD called young Jeremiah, He showed him his first vision: "Moreover the word of the LORD came to me saying, 'Jeremiah, what do you see?' And I said, 'I see a branch/rod of an almond tree." This first vision is very meaningful because it is built around the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy (see above). First there is the branch or rod. This is the Hebrew word maqqel, meaning "rod, staff, a shoot (of germination)". Isaiah also prophesied concerning the Messiah who would judge: "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse (David's father), and a Branch shall grow out of its roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him..." (Isa. 11:1-2). 

     According to the vision which the LORD showed Jeremiah, however, it is a specific branch or rod of an almond tree. This is saqed/saqad in Hebrew, meaning, "almond tree, almond, the first tree to arouse and awake from the sleep of winter/watch, wake, hasten, be on the look out for, sleepless". The almond tree, according to its Hebrew meaning is a symbol of returning life from the sleep of death. There is also a reference to this meaning in Eccl. 12:5. Resurrection from the dead is the testimony of Jesus Christ, the spirit of prophecy. Eccl. 12:5. The root word for almond tree includes the idea of watching and hastening. Those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ also fulfill this role. Peter wrote concerning the believers: "Therefore...what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved...and the elements will melt...? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (2 Pet. 3:11-13). Those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ walk hand in hand with, and enact, the spirit of prophecy that accompanies that testimony, as we saw with the fellow believer in heaven (see above).

     As Jeremiah reported to the LORD that he had seen the vision of this very important branch of the almond tree, the LORD replied to Jeremiah: "You have seen (ra'a - behold, look, consider, perceive, seer, foresee, have vision) well (yatab - good, pleasing, accepted, be glad, be joyful, to make well, do rightly), for I am ready (or 'I will hasten') (saqad - see above) to perform My word." (Jer. 1:12). The LORD was joyfully glad and pleased that Jeremiah accurately saw the vision of the testimony of Jesus Christ. All of the prophets of God had a revelation of the testimony of Jesus Christ which is the spirit of prophecy.

      From another of this week's Sabbath reading portions, the prophet Isaiah wrote the Word of the LORD concerning the restoration of Israel: "Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom (sus - blossom, shine, sparkle, gleam, flourish, to gaze, make the eyes sparkle, be bright, emit splendor) and bud (parah - bud, sprout, shoot, bloom, break forth, break out, to fly), and fill the face of the world with fruit (tenuba/nub - fruit, produce, increase/germinate, bring forth, make flourish, gushing forth, make cheerful, boiling up, to utter words)." (Isa. 27:16). Before making this prophecy, the LORD gave Isaiah this Word: "Your dead shall live (haya - live, alive, save, revive from death, restore to life); Together with My dead body (nebela/nabel - corpse/to despise, to disgrace, to dishonor, to lightly esteem [see Isa. 53:3]) they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs (ora/or - herbs, light, light of joy and happiness, luminousness/light of life [see Jn. 1:1-4], to become light, shine, glorious), and the earth shall cast out its dead." (Isa. 26:19). This refers to the resurrection of the dead which is the testimony of Jesus Christ which is the spirit of prophecy.

     We who have been privileged to carry the testimony of Jesus Christ, carry the glory of God in Christ, and the prophetic promises of God, including the resurrection of the dead, which was fulfilled and assured by Jesus, Himself. It is also this testimony of Christ that we carry which overcomes Satan: "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of the brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame (nikao - conquer, carry off the victory, of Christ victorious over all His foes, of Christians holding fast to faith in Christ) him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word (logos/lego - speech, Christ as the Word of God, uttered by a living voice, declaration/to say, speak, affirm, teach, call by name) of their testimony (martirya/martys - a testifying, record, report, witness, the office committed to the prophets of testifying concerning future events/witness, martyr, record), and they did not love their lives (psyche/psycho - breath of life, the soul and its feelings, desires and affections/wax cold) to the death." (Rev. 12:10-11). This conquering testimony of Jesus Christ is an essential part of our faith and walk, as it was to all of the previous heroes of faith who served God, like Moses and the prophets. It is of more importance than this world and our desires.

     If you would like to know more about the testimony of Christ in us, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, You have revealed to me the Person and testimony of Jesus Christ, which saved me, and brought me into Your Kingdom. This testimony embodies the fulfillment of the prophetic promises of God including the resurrection of the dead. This testimony defeats the enemy of my soul and life.  This testimony looks to and hastens the return of Christ, His reign on earth, and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, and the new creature in Christ. Let this testimony come alive in me and in my life as a witness by the power of Your Holy Spirit. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."