The Rod of God

Before we have prayer. In our message of the morning, I'd like to

say that the topic that I'll be presenting is heavily influenced by the study of

a man that I consider perhaps the greatest expert on the Holy Spirit in the

Aventist Church. He's a doctor, a physician in Kettering universe, kettering medical

Sinner's name is doctor Daniel Buxton. And I've been heavily influenced by interacting with

doctor Buxton and John Doaum in a three way study. And then we have

a study group on Thursday nights and elements of this is the product of collaborative

Bible study. Is that a good thing? So I want to make sure

I recognize these people. And you know that pastors don't always get things on

their own. We grow together. Let's pray, Father God. There are

times in life where we feel helpless, We don't think we can achieve anything.

We feel the enemy is whacking away at us, and there's no rod

big enough to whack him back. And know and yes, Lord, we

need to know that there's the rod of God. It's a good thing.

So help us as we get into the scripture. This is a Bible study

sermon this morning, help us to glean and to grow and to know you

in Jesus' name, Amen, Tile. The message is the Rod of God,

dear heart, The gift of the Holy Spirit in the sincere prayer of

a true believer is nothing less than the almighty power of the Rod of God

in your hands. When you believe, When you believe? Did you hear

me when you Believe? Years ago, an animated film The Prince of Egypt

was produced in nineteen eighty eight. How man of you saw that film The

Prince of Egypt? And number of you have because on Moses' life and how

God used Moses leave the children of Israel out of Egypt of freedom, How

he transformed a generation didn't believe they could do anything, and to a generation

that didn't just didn't just believe, they knew they could do great things with

God. Whitney Houston Mariah Carey teamed up vocally to sing a beautiful song written

by Stephen Schwartz that has been described as a work of pure spiritual genius.

The song is called when you Believe. Here's the lyrics. Many nights we

prayed with no proof anyone could hear in our hearts. A hopeful song.

We barely understood. Now we're not afraid, although we know there's so much

to fear. We were moving mountains long before we knew we could. Yes,

there can be miracles when you believe. The hope is frail. It's

hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe?

Some how you will you will when you believe in this time of fear,

when prayer so often proves in vain. Now they could sing and take it

right into the stratosphere in this song in the movie, In this time of

fear, when prayer so often proves in vain, hope seems like the summer

birds who's swiftly flown away. Yet now I'm standing here. My heart's so

full. I can't explain seeking faith and speaking words. I never thought I'd

say, there can be miracles when you believe, When you believe. The

harmony set into the song, though hope is frail, it's hard to kill.

Who knows what miracles you can achieve? You can't achieve when you believe

somehow you will you will when you believe. That's a beautiful song right there

in the middle of that animated story of the life of Moses friend. According

to Jesus, a sincere prayer is an extension of our sincere faith in God.

How do we know we have faith in our life? We know when

we pray, and we believe. When we pray sincerely and fervently, we're

exercising saving faith in God, the and our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with

me in your bibles look eighteen verse seven and eight and says, and shall

not God avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to him?

Though he bears along with them. I tell you that He will avenge them

speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find

faith on the earth? Now? Based on this verse, how will God

know that you have a faith relationship with him when Jesus Christ comes at the

end of the age. It's not rocket science here. You will know because

you are praying to him. You have a sincere faith, prayerful, interactive

life with God in Christ, and He will recognize you as his child of

the last Day. So prayer matters. It is impossible to speak of faith

in our lives without directing our attention to prayer. When you give up praying,

that is the very moment you give up your faith in God, and

you are lost. As Christians, we are to never give up praying to

our kind Father God, So don't give up. When Moses came to the

Burning Bush, he had spent about almost forty years in the desert of Sinai.

It was eighty years old, tending sheep. Because he killed a man,

he took the power of God. He thought in his own mind.

He acted out and he killed an Egyptian. He became a murderer. That's

how he started his ministerial career. He killed an Egyptian to force God's hand

to save an Israelite, and that Israelite turned on him and then blabbed and

God him in trouble. He had to flee from Pharaoh for his life.

When Moses fled for his life, he came to the wilderness of Sinai,

seeking water, food, friends, and a new beginning in the wilderness.

Now, maybe you are in a wilderness in your life and you're wondering if

God can do anything with you. Friend, there are times we run from

the enemy and God leaves us into a wilderness so we can grow and come

to know God and see the vision of God. That's where Moses was at

and right from the start, the Medians of midian at a Well assumed that

Moses was an Egyptian. In time, the patriarch jath Throw accepted Moses into

his family, and Moses married his beautiful daughter Zaporah. Now, why do

I say beautiful? It doesn't say she's beautiful in the Bible. But can

we assume that all daughters of God are beautiful? Okay? The Bible calls

them the lilies of the field, So God desires that a sweet Christian girl

will be called beautiful. Dads, you need to hug your little daughters and

tell them they're beautiful. For some frog or toad comes in through their life

when they hit thirteens, and then you're fighting him back off the porch.

So you do that work now and watch it work then. Now. Moses

wife's name means to leap or to pierce. Her name also calls to mind

a Hebrew word for bird. Moses's wife helped him to grow in faith,

and the leap of her obstacles he might not otherwise have surmounted and to fly

into singing. A godly wife gives you wings, you know, hope is

the thing with wings. That makes the soul to fly. A godly wife

will help the husband, not hinder him. Courage. Zuppora was a good

wife. In Exus three to one, Moses came to the Holy Mountain of

God at Sinai, and this is where the story shifts. It becomes very

dramatic, and he saw a sight that changed his life forever. Now,

dear heart, I believe it is possible for us to catch a vision of

God in a moment in our lives, and our lives to be changed forever

and never be the same again. Moses came to Sinai Exes three, verse

one. Let's read the verses together and see what happened. Now, Moses

was tending the flock of jeth through his father in law, the priest of

Midian, and he led the flock back to the back of the desert and

came to Horreb, the Mountain of God. The text continues, and the

Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst

of a bush. Now, if I were to ask you, just looking

at the verse verse two, who appeared to Moses? What does the text

say? It's what does the text say? The Angel of the Lord and

to just hold that in the buffer. So he looked and behold, the

bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. That's a

miracle. Verse three. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and

see this great sight. Why the bush does not burn. Most people would

run for their lives. He ran to the bush. Okay, And by

the way, the Hebrew word for bush's sona means thornbush. So the Angel

Lord is wrapped up in thorns. Where will we see that again? You

fill in the blank. For forty years Moses was a shepherd of both sheep

and goats, and the next forty years God had determined that he would be

the shepherd of his people Israel, with sheep and goats. You read the

story, he's dealing with problems. And verse two, the Angel Lord appeared

to Moses in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush, very

clearly stated now in the Old Testament, the Angel of the Lord. And

I'll just say it categorically, here is Jesus Christ preexistent in angel form.

And sometimes we as abdists don't recognize that. We would read the spirit of

prophecy more often we would be educated and that's the Reformers understood that. John

Calvin understood it, Martin Luther understood it. John Wesley Spurgeon, the greatest

people the Protestant faith. And yet we live in a post Biblical, post

Protestant era where people miss this. Whenever you see the Angel of the Lord

with the word Lord is all capital letters, and it's the Angel of the

Lord. It's always Christ in a pre existent form. Now why now,

he's still God, and we're going to see that. But he took the

form of God with us, an angel form before he took human form,

God with us as a baby. He has always been God with us from

the dawn of the creation of time. So he is the Almighty Messenger of

the Covenant. The Book of Malachi calls him friends when Jesus speaks, Jehovah

Yahweh, God speaks in Jesus a card to the Bible, because he is

called the Word of God in the book Revelation. The Word of the Lord

came to Abram in Genesis fifteen one, and the Word is God in John

one one. He is God with God, the associate of God, who

is God, who is the living and abiding Word of God. In verse

three, Moses turned aside to see this great sight. Why the bush did

not burn. The Hebrew phrase this great sight is literally this great mare.

Write that down your notes. We're doing word studies. This word maray will

be used in Isaiah fifty two. He has no former mare that we should

desire him fifty two and fifty three. His mare, his visage was so

marred beyond that of human semblance. It will become a messianic term directly pointing

due to the appearance, the vision, the great sight of Jesus and his

coming is the lamb of God will take away the sins of the world.

It's using Daniel eight and nine for the mighty Man Prince who appears in Daniel

eight fifteen, who is the subject matter as the Prince, so the Covenant

who dies at the end of the seventy weeks of Danye nine. So the

word mara is a very important word. It means appearance vision. Of course,

the New Testament will repeat that word time and time again to say that

Christ has appeared at the end of the ages for our sake. It's the

equivalent of mari. The Greek word phenera oh and feneros. So just like

a human body shrouded the person of Jesus, who is God in human flesh.

The burning bush shrouded the glory of the infinite, the almighty Angel of

the Lord. He was God in angel form. Now I recommend a chapter

in the book Desire of Ages, Chapter one. Chapter one, Desire of

Ages so clearly teaches the divinity of Christ, that he is an infinite being,

and that he came to earth, and that the infinite was shrouded in

the bush, just like it was in the Baby of Bethlehem's manger. That

we can make the connections and connects the dots. It's an excellent chapter that

interacts with the Bible. So, like a human baby shrouded the person of

God in Jesus Immanuel God with us, the same was true with the bush.

So the Angel of the Lord is God. Lets we see that in

the context. Moses noticed that the bush did not burn up. Maybe that

is why he drew near to the fire instead of running away from it.

The prophet Malachi's name means, now, what's the last book of the Old

Testament. I'm quizzing you. If you don't know, open your bible and

look. It's just before Matthew, right, what is it? Say it

loudly? Malachi. Does anybody know what the word Malachi means? Means my

messenger or literally Malachi my angel, because the Hebrew word for messengers the same

word for angel. So the Messenger of the Covenant Malachi three is the Angel

of the Covenant, same person. And when you read Malachi three, God

sends his messenger. John the Baptist later understood a New Testament to prepare the

way for the messenger Angel the Covenant, that's Christ, and he comes to

judge the sons of Levi. And then the book of Malachi ensury comes again

in fire at the end of the age. So this is Jesus language.

The Reformers were not bad Bible students in this area. They were excellent students

of the Bible. And John Calvin his institutes of the Christian religion deep Bible

study. Wouldn't hurt us to read that every now and then? Now Malachi

three to six, New King James version for I am the Lord. Now

in your Bible translation, how's the word Lord spelled? Help me? Because

I can't hear you capital L, L, loo, lil D or no

all capital letters now whenever you see that. It's Jehovah Yahweh. It is

the sacred name of God given to Moses. Am out sin, I am

who I am the Lord Jehovah. That's the word all caps, this name.

I am going to be remembered throughout all your generations. So he says,

I am Jehovah Yahweh, the Lord. I do not change. That's

why his name is. I am who I am. I don't change.

What does that mean? Therefore you not consumed. I am a merciful being

intrinsic O sons of Jacob. That's what he's getting at there. Moses drew

near to the pre existing Christ in the midst of the bush that would not

burn you, and I can also draw nearer to God through Christ Jesus.

No one comes to the Father but through Me, and God will not destroy

the persons drawn to Him through the vision of Jesus. So ask God to

give you a vision of Jesus in your life, so you can believe.

I have it here on the screen. An excerpt from the book Patriarchs and

Prophets, page two fifty one. Leading the flocks one day near horror of

the Mountain of God, Moses saw a bush in flames, branches, foliage,

and trunk, all burning, yet seeming not to be consumed. I

have put this in bold. He drew nearer to view the wonderful sight,

when a voice from out of the flame called him by name. With trembling

lipsy answer, here am I. He was warned to not approach, irreverently,

put off your shoes from off thy feet, for the place or upon

thou standest it's holy ground. And then she simply quotes the scripture, I

am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham, the God of

Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now look what she says next.

It was he, and she capitalizes the word he, who, as the

Angel of the Covenant, had revealed himself to the fathers and the ages past.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

So who is the Angel of the Covenant, Both contextually and supported here

by this writing, it's the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the

Lord is God, Almighty God, an angel form, and that is Jesus

Christ before he became a baby in Bethlehem's manger. The Reformers rightly did their

Bible study and we have to recogniz that we come to Jesus friend in our

need. We come to God Almighty when we come to Jesus. See,

we don't have a savior who can't save. The Divinity of Christ is what

we rely on so we can be saved. God didn't stick some created being

on the cross to die for your sins. The Bible says God was in

Christ on the cross dying for our sins. Nothing less would get the job

done. So we need a divine savior, not you know, some manufactured

ai angel type version created thing. And the Angel the Lord spoke to Moses.

It was the Lord God himself who was speaking to Moses through Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus is God. This is why John one one says in the

beginning was the word, the word was with God. The Word was God

clear, proclamation and scripture. Jesus is and has always been. In fact

is John will call him in first John the eternal life that was with the

Father. He is always spend the Lord God Jehovah, yeah Bbeah, God

in the form of someone we can see. No one has ever seen the

Father, but we have seen the Father through Jesus Christ. He has always

been the messenger of the Covenant. The Age of the Lord. He took

on that farm, then human form. He is God with us Exes three,

verse four. So when the Lord Jehovah saw that, he turned aside

to look. God called to him from the midst of the bush and said

Moses, Moses, he said, here am I you see when the Angel

of the Lord speaks, God is speaking. Don't read over these verses so

quickly. I mean, when Christ speaks to you from the Bible, do

you realize God is speaking to you through Jesus. That's why he's the messenger

of the Covenant for us. The Age of the Lord, the pre existing

Christ was the Lord Jehovah, God himself in angel form back then declared to

Moses that he himself is the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob. Friends, think about this and just put this simple

into your mind. When we come to Jesus Christ, we come home to

God. You hear me, When we come to Jesus Christ, we come

home to God. That's why knowing who Jesus is matters in our relationship with

God. Exes three six. Moreover, he said, 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 what God. This was the age of the Lord. Moses

was looking at the Age of the Lord. It was the pre existent Christ,

and he knew he was God. In your life, do you know

Jesus as God? You confess your sins and you pray in Jesus name,

do you know he's God? Now, Moses didn't run from the bush.

He ran to the bush, didn't he? And that's what we need to

do in our lives too. The text says he was afraid to look upon

God. Jesus back then was God. The Old Testament revealed it. Look

at Isaiah sixty three nine and all their affliction and the Angel of His presence.

What does it say next? This is the Angel of the Lord,

the Angel of His presence. That's God and angel form did what saved them?

Do you need a saving your life? He don't you raise your hand

around here? Won't hurt you? Yeah? I mean he is saving your

life. He saved them in his love and his pity. Now look what

else he does. He's not just the saving Angel of his presence. He

redeemed them. You see the word redeemed. He's the saving redeemer, and

he bore them. He carries us. He's the good shepherd, and he

carried them all the days of old. That's why Jesus I am the good

shepherd. God in Christ told you, know, David says, the Lord,

Yahwegh is my shepherd. Jesus I am the shepherd. God in Christ

told Moses that God loved them and that he cared for them, and that

he had come to take his people out of Egypt. Good thing. Look

at Ex's three seven, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the

oppression of my people are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of

their task past masters. For I know their sorrows. So I have come

down to what what does it say to deliver them? Just like Michael,

who will stand up as the great Prince who stands guards of God's people the

end of the age, to deliver God's people. He says, I'm doing

that right now. Hey, look, you don't have to wait for the

end of time for Christ to deliver you. He comes to you when you're

in your wilderness experience. And he can deliver you. He came down to

deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from

that land to a good and large land, to land flowing with milk and

honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Emirites,

the Parasites, and the Hivites and the Gebicides. You got any parasites in

your life. I turned the z into an s kind of eating at you,

whacking away. Christ can deliver you from them. You know. The

Amorites are the talkers. That's what it means in Hebrew. They yeah,

yeh jack jack jack, jack jack, anyone talking about you, running you

down. He can deliver you from the talkers. The Amorites that could go

on. The Canaanites are those who buy and sell a lot. They're the

people who run over you to get money. That's Kanah means to buy or

create in that sense. The Lord with all capital letters is the translation again.

And I'm gonna ask you what does it mean. I've just told you.

I'm quizzing you now. What does the Lord all capital letters mean?

Yahweh Jehovah God every time? So is the translation of the name Jehovah Ayahweh,

the divine name of God Almighty, and that was Jesus Christ at the

Burning Bush. I'm sorry, you can't get anything out of Ex's three than

that. So clear three actions on God's part mattered in Moses' life and in

our lives. God says, number one I have seen, Number two I

have heard, and number three I know. I know. Friends, slow

down and let that sink into your life. God sees you, God hears

you, God knows you. What does that mean? I was in the

children's sabbat school this morning. Kids. You had these right right around little

ones, and I took it away from Jamie because they were showing this eye

see the eye there, see the eye and says God sees me. And

they didn't know what I was going to preach about. And says God hears

me. And there's an ear right. But I'll tell you what it says.

Just before that, it says God loves me. And that's what it

means when God knows you, he loves you. So I asked him if

I could use this. I thought it was very helpful. I'm glad we're

teaching our children that kind of thing. And why does Christ as God come

into our lives? Ask ourselves that question first, they says, he comes

to deliver us and to take us out of bondage to a good place in

our lives. Have you ever been in a bad place in your life and

you need God to put you in a good place in your life? Have

you? Well, that's why it comes. And so he came to Moses

in the wilderness. He comes to you and me in our wilderness. Friend,

when God shows up in your life in Jesus, he shows up to

pull you out of fear and bondage and to bring you to a better place

in life. Moses asked for a lot in that meeting with God, who

was the pre exist in Christ and Angel form. He asked to know God's

name. God told him in verse fourteen and fifteen that his name is the

Lord Jehovah Yahweh, and that it means I am who I am, or

I am what I am. My name is my character, my nature.

I don't change. Moses was learning that God really cares and that God can

be dependable and that he doesn't shift around. He'll be the same, and

that's his name. Then God told Moses that Pharaoh would not give in easy.

See, God knows what's going on in your life. He told him

that he would resist letting his people go. He's gonna give you our dime

Exus three nineteen. But I am sure. He says that the king of

Egypt will not let you go. No, not even by a mighty hand.

So I will stretch out my hand and strike each with all my wonders,

which I will do, and it's mist and after that he will let

you go. So it's getting dramatic in the story line. Friend, when

your hand fails, God's hand is strong. Say when your hand fails god

hand, God's hand is strong. What the angel of the Lord is God?

If he's not, he doesn't have the strong hand. You need God's

little pinky. Now hear me. His little finger is more powerful than all

the kingdoms of the earth, with all their armies and might. He can

flick them away with his little pinky. Take your get your hand out.

Come on the little pinky. You put the thumb there and you want to

flick something away. Pop, His little pinky can bring down kingdoms by God's

hand. We are say from our enemies. Moses asked God how the people

would know that God had appeared to him. Look at verses one and two

of Exus four. Then Moses answered and said, but suppose they will not

believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, the Lord has

not appeared to you. So the Lord said to him, what is that

in your hand? He said to Rod. The Hebrew expression translated what is

that in the New King James version or what is this in my revised standard

version translation is a very unusual word in the Hebrew. It is the in

fact, it's used in this way only once. It's not the usual way

the Hebrew language expresses the question what is that or what is this? A

fact? To consider the word za for this and Hebrew is masculine. The

Hebrew word rod and i the Exs. Four to two, and the word

mara for site is in the phrase this great site contextually is also masculine.

So it's pointing back to the person of Christ, the person of power in

the burning bush. And we have a slide here. Leave it there.

The word what as a question Hebrew is usually ma. You see the m

ah there. I wrote it out in English see the m ah masa.

But here that h is missing. It's masa. So not masa, masa

with an H. But masa. It shouldn't be missing. That's the way

it usually is said up at the top. Now I'm gonna go to the

next well in a second, So the hey is missing here. Now.

The vowels in the Hebrew Bible appear in the eighth, the tenth centuries a

d. When did Christ come? What century? Well, the first You

know, they're a little before the first century because we got our ad thing

mixed up. But so this is like eight hundred years after Christ. The

vowels are are not ancient, they're new. So it's the consonants in the

Hebrew Bible we need to pay attention to. The Old Testament was a book

of consonants where you have to plug in the vowels for yourself to get the

full word. Meaning if I already say the word love to you and Hebrew

when it was written out without any vowels, how many letters with there B?

Come on? Help me two? What would those letters be? L

and V? And you'd have to plug in the O and the That's how

that's what they're doing, all those squiggly marks underneath. So but here a

consonant is missing. That is usually vital for the question what is this?

Okay, now there are two the consonantle texas literally mzh with no H after

M, from which equals what. So there's a small dot in the middle

of the mazerite, stuck in there, the middle of the zion, the

z the middle letter, indicating that a consonant has assimulated into there, and

you can't see what it is. So you've got to figure out what it

is. There are two options for this translation because of this fact, and

we'll go move to the next. Here it is. Here are the two

options. Number one, what is this where the consonant is the H and

number two from this, where the consonant is a noon and inn. It'ld

be either way. In the Torah, these consonants mzh with no H after

M in Exus four to two translate here what is this? In other words,

this form we see in Exus four to two always in every other place

in the Bible, those continants means from this, not what is this?

Now take note of that what I just said, I looked up every one

of them through the Torah and through the Tanak, the entire Hebrew Bible,

this phrase every other place means from this, not what is this? And

yet the context of his Exs. Four to two is crying out for a

translation of something like what is this? That's it's translated that way. A

later scribal edition in a variant manuscript puts a hay to fix the problem.

You don't have to fix the problem that God hasn't created. There's no problem

to fix. In Exus four to two, the Hebrew expression and let's go

to this slide here the Hebrew. The Hebrew expression Exus four to two should

probably be understood as from what is this in your hand? Where both are

integrated, because the text will allow both. It's not either are here.

It's an integration where both possible meetings combined together. Which is the emphasis is

what is this in your hand? And from this it's in your hand?

So Moses gets that rod the indication it's received. It's not his rod.

Ever after, this rod will be called the rod of God, not his

rod. There's no ordinary rod in Moses' hands. In the context, God

tells Moses to cast his rod to the ground as it becomes a serpent.

That terrifies Moses so that he runs from the rod. Moses never saw a

rod like that before, and then God tells Moses to pick up the rod

in his hand by the tail as the serpent becomes the rod again. God

also gives Moses another sign to perform with his hand. After that, Moses

began to say he didn't think he was eloquent enough to speak for God.

He says, look, I got into deep trouble here. Now I have

a rod turns into a snake. You're sending me to Pharaoh. Well,

I stutter a lot. God. Consequently, God says, who made man's

mouth? I did you go? God promises to be with Moses' mouth to

teach him, but Moses persisted, suggesting he's not the man. And then

God told Moses to seek out his brother Aaron, who was on his way

to meet him at that great time. He'd help him say what he had

to say. So God told Moses he would help both of them, and

that they were to be a team of two working together with the rod of

God as the symbol of the power of God and one rod here okay Exs.

Four sixteen. So he shall be your spokesman to the people, and

he himself shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him

as God. So in this sense, Moses is standing the place of God,

and Aaron would then be staying in the place of the Angel of the

Lord Christ, their representation in their interaction with Pharaoh. In verse seventeen,

God made it clear that these signs would free God's people and bring Pharaoh to

his knees, and it would be performed by the rod in Moses's hand,

nor the rods Exes four seventeen. And you shall take this rod in your

hand. The word take there in Hebrew means this gift, that which is

given to you. You shall take it in your hand, which you shall

do the signs in the Ten Plagues at times Moses uses the rod, but

if you read the storyline very carefully, at other times Aaron uses the rod.

It's the same rod. It's being shared back and forth. In this

context, it's always the same rod, and so the narrative matters why Because

this rod given to Moses is the only rod that God has invested with the

power to perform the signs and wonders to free his people. That's he owns

it as the rod of God. In the Torah, the Five Books of

Moesus. Moses rod in Aaron's rod is the same rod, and that is

that can be borne out through the interaction of the plagues. They share it

when they obey God to use the rod. The evidence in Exos four indicates

that this rod came from God inside the bush, and that God puts the

rod in Moses' hand at the bush as a gift needed for his mission.

That means moses rod came from God, and that means that this rod is

the rod of God and not just moses rod or Aaron's rod or some stick

they picked up in the desert. Look at Exus four twenty. Then Moses

took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he

returned to the land of Egypt. And what does the text say, and

Moses, what took the rod of God in his hand? The God to

verse twenty one, and the Lord said to Moses, when you go back

to Egypt, see that you do all these wonders before which I have put

in your hands. So that rod is not just something he had. The

key is very clear. I put in your hand the wonders through the rod,

but I will harden his heart. So that he will not let his

people go. God put it in his hand. So what did this supernatural,

spiritual rod represent that God had put into his hand, which it had

all of the promises of power to freedom. The ancient Jewish students of the

Bible, the rabbi is, and I don't believe that they're authority, but

look, good, Bible students, look what other Bible students have said in

the past. They believe that this rod given to Moses was taken from the

sapphire throne of glory. Did you know that they do? They had reasons

for that they no doubt. We're observant of these verses in Exous three and

four and others in Exus seventeen twenty four. And I don't have time to

go into all the evidence of why they'd arrived at the conclusion. Some of

the rabbis thought Jethro had saved the rod, had been given to Adam,

given to Jacob, and then to Jethro gave it to Moses. The Bible

does not support this tradition, as I can see evidence in the Bible.

But nonetheless they had it. I'm quoting from a Jewish targum Pseudo Jonathan Shimote

Exodus four twenty to give evidence of this. And Mosha took his wife and

his sons and made them right on the ass and returned to the land of

Mitzerati, which is Egypt, and Mosha, which is Moses took the rod

which he had brought away from the chamber of his father in law, and

it was from the sapphire throne of Glory in wait forty sign and upon it

was engraved and set forth a great and glorious name, that's Yahweh, by

which the signs should be wrought before Hashem by his hand. I mean they

saw something special in that rod. The rabbis made many right connections and a

few creative ones that are incorrect. But I'm showing you that they interacted with

the text in the way that I am interacting with it. The book Patriarchs

and Prophets tells us plainly that there was no magical power in moses rod.

In and of itself, it represented something. The rod of God was a

symbol that represented the power of God Almighty given to Moses to perform God's will

for his people. How many of you liked to have the power of God

Almighty to perform God's will for his people in your life. I mean,

don't sit down anymore. Stand up, Come on, stand up, reach

high for that power in your life. Now you maybe see all right?

The Rod of God was a symbol of God's power. Moses is not Merlin

the magician, which is probably where they got this picture from waving his wand

there's no magic in his hand to wave and perform signs and wonders. However,

the rod was nonetheless a gift from God, a gift that God had

put into his hand to teach us something about God. And then I'm going

to add something the Holy Spirit. Turn to Exos seven, verse ten,

and read this verse with me. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh,

and they did so just as God had commanded. See they're doing what he

said in Exos four. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before

his serpents, and it became a serpent. Now God didn't tell Aaron to

get another rod. God said this is the rod that you'll do. This

is with. So Aaron's right is Moses ride You gotta follow that. Now

look at verse five. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, say to Aaron,

stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers,

and over the ponds, and caused frogs to come up with the land

of each. God didn't tell Aaron to get another rod to do that.

He said, this is the rod who used to do it. So Moses,

rod is Aaron's rod. Look at verse six. So Aaron stretched out

his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up frobs to

represent demons in the book Revelation, chapter sixteen, and they cover the land

of Egypt. So the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch

out your rod. See they're working together with the rod that God had given

him. At Sinai, verse seventeen, Aaron stretched out his hand with his

rod and struck the dust of the earth. And so I go down to

verse eighteen. Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice,

but they could not. So there was there were lights on the man

and beast. They couldn't do everything that rod could. They could mimic a

little of it and on everything. And then they go back to Pharaoh and

they figured it out. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, what what does

it say in the Bible, this is the finger of God. Now fingers

a long thing sticking out right. The rod symbolizes the finger of God's.

But Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them, just as the

Lord had said. Here's the magicians. Here the magicians confess that the power

of Moses rod represents the finger of God. God wrote the Ten Commandments with

the finger of God, didn't he, according to Dex's thirty one eighteen in

Deuteronomy ninety ten. The only other reference to the finger of God is in

the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus claimed to cast out demons by the finger

of God, termin with me Luke eleven, nineteen twenty. Jesus is saying,

if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, just Satan's name, lord of

the flies, by whom do you cast them out? Therefore they will be

your judge. And look at verse twenty. But if I cast out demons

with what with the finger of God? Surely the King of God has come

upon you. So what is Christ cast out demons with him? Luke levin

verse twenty, you see it in green. What does he use the finger

of God's Now Christ will say the exact same thing in Matthew twelve, but

he'll substitute the expression the finger of God for something else. And if I

cast out demons by beelzebeb, by whom do your sons cast them out?

This is Matthew twelve, twenty seven, twenty eight. Therefore they shall be

your judges. But if I cast out demons by the what by the Spirit

of God? Sure the King of God has come upon you. So not

what is the thing of God? Who is the finger of God? The

Spirit of God? The Holy Spirit is the finger of God. God wrote

the Law with the Spirit New Covenant. God puts his law in our hearts

and Hebrews a through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is

the finger of God. God's little pinky can destroy kingdoms. And so when

he stretched out that rod, it represented the magician's God. It is the

finger of God. We cannot overcome this. Moses rod represented the allmighty power

of the Finger of God, that is the person of the Holy Spirit,

who is the power of God to cast out demons and devils. That is

authority in the world. Both Moses and Aaron are type of God, the

Father Moses is like Aaron is like Moses, like God. To err In

the text says, he's a type of God here to Pharaoh and Aaron would

be a type of Christ in this context. Notice that they both wield the

rod that represents the Holy Spirit by Jesus's own words, who is also God.

The person of the Holy Spirit Friend in this context is both the Spirit

of the Father as we read in the verses the children read, and the

Spirit of Christ. So the Spirit is shared because he is in relationship to

both of these figures within the Holy Trio. As Sister White calls the Godhead,

the Holy Spirit is their representative as a person. And Sister White and

desive ages in fact, long before she died, and she never corrected this,

this idea that Ellen White didn't write this, and it's all scandalous.

She had plenty of years to get it right. She left it there.

She calls the Holy Spirit the third person of the Godhead. She aligns with

the Reformation, and she redirects the early Aventist church that had confusion toward a

view of Christ that works with righteousness by faith. E. G. Wagner

in eighteen eighty eight said, our view of Jesus is too small to fit

the Gospel, and so those early evidences had to grow to know Christ as

God. In Christ, the rod sprouted almond blossoms that represent the seven eyes

of God, and it was put in the Ark of the Covenant before the

testimony. You can't put something like this in the ark unless it represents God

in some capacity. Zacharaith three and four. And now I'm not looking this

up. I'm showing you a picture. Joshua, the high priest to stay

at the door of Satan, is at his right hand to accused. The

Angel of the Lord is there, and the Angel the Lord is there to

forgive, to put a new robe on him, to give him a new

life. And Satan is accusing him and thus accusing the oh Nation. And

Zacharaith three and four show us that the seven eyes of God in the Hebrew

are on the rock that is before Joshua. Yet when you read the context,

it's the Angel the Lord that's before Joshua. Now we sing a song

rock of come on, help me ages cleft for me. We recognize when

Moses struck the raw represented Christ right. So standing there before before Joshua was

the rock, the Angel of the Lord with seven eyes, and he says,

I will open its opening this rock, and I will remove the iniquitous

land in a single day. Of course, Zacharai thirteen one says when that

happens, a fountain will be opened for the House of David in Israel to

cleanse them from sin. That's when Jesus died. That's when the Romans spear

went inside. This is messianic stuff we're interacting with. Also in Revelation five,

how many you have you read the book Revelation? You read book Relation.

Remember Relation five is a lamb before the throne. And what is on

the lamb? He has seven horns, right, and seven eyes, just

like here down Zachariah. The seven eyes are the seven spirits of God that

roamed throughout the earth. So the rock and Zacharai three and the seven eyes

in Zachari four are found in the lamb in Zachariah. In Revelation five.

That makes it the Spirit of Christ. The seven spirits are the one spirit.

In a way, I'll show you what I mean by that. Seven

means the complete spirit of God. And Revelation one, the Holy Spirit is

the seventh spirits that are before God's throne. Why because the focus is not

on number but what the number means. It means complete spirit of God.

I have some slides here. Let's just go to the next one. Now,

I say, eleven one and two is a key verse. I'm not

going to read it, but you go home and look up that verse.

Would you do that? Because the seven eyes are indicated here in this Old

Testament verse, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of counsel, the spirit

of wisdom, the spirit of Yahweh, the spirit of understanding, the spirit

of strength, the spirit of the fear of Yahweh. Those themes in Revelation

five, they match the eyes of the Almah. Now it's interesting, I'm

a Nooris stick. Moses found the Age of the Lord in a burning bush

right in the sanctuary. What looked like a burning bush? Help me what

you're looking at it? What is it? The candlestick? It was made

to look like an almond bush. And my good friend Daniel Buxton has informed

me that there's a thorny variety of almonds right there at Sinai. This represented

the Holy Spirit Christ Is with the spirit speaking to Moses, not independent of

him. And let's go the next slide. So pure light Jesus is the

light of the world. Right when you put it through a prism and you

divide it up, you get the seven essential colors. I'm using this as

an illustration. Go the next slide. Now, the seven Eyes of God

roamed throughout the earth in Zachariah for and it says this in Revelation. So

their omni direction. Let's do this. First four directions? What are they?

Northeast, southwest. I'm moving in the circle. But there are two

more, aren't there? Up and down? Now those are six directions?

Can the Holy Spirit see more than that? The Holy Spirit sees the seventh

direction inside of us. So the seven Eyes of God as the Holy Spirit,

we need the complete spirit of God to be led in life and to

know what we're doing. That means now here, the Holy Spirit as seven

spirits, is with the Father, and the book Revelation says he's before the

throne. Yet a relation five, he's on the lamb, which means he

belongs to both God the Father and God the Son. Just like Moses symbolizing

God held the rod and Aaron did two. That means that both the Father

and the Son and the same Holy Spirit, just like Moses and Aaron used

the same rod of God that Jehovah's witnesses believe. There's a different spirit,

one for the son and one for the Father. But that doesn't match Roman's

eight and other evidence in the Bible, nor the spirit of prophecy. The

greeting from the three persons of the God had in Revelation. One comes from

God the Father. It calls him the one who was his and is coming,

quoting Isaiah forty four to six, from God the Holy Spirit, who

is identified, it says as the seventh spirits before his throne. You can't

greet someone if you're not a person. Have you ever been greeted by a

computer? Hello, It's good to see you. And it means zero,

doesn't it? I mean, if your computer greets you, doesn't it mean

zero? But if a wise's warm person greets you, does it meaningful?

See the greeting the book Revelation is not just from God the Father. It's

from the seventh spirits before his throne. You have to be a person to

be able to greet somebody. That is common sense. And then what's the

next thing that it says? And from Jesus Christ, the true witness the

rule of the kings of the earth, who has loosed us or washed us

from our sins by his blood. That's the trait, that's the Holy tri

on God greeting us. In the book Revelation, Holy Spirit is then second

person there who greets. Just as Aaron was Moses prophet, Jesus was God's

prophet, the new Moses, but in a more perfect way, the prophet

of God, who is God friends, Jesus is the ultimate prophet because Jesus

is the Word of God as a person. Sister White would call him as

God's associate, who is divine, who is God with God has stated plainly

in John one to one from in the Bible, the Holy Spirit comes both

from God the Father, as we've said, and from his son Jesus Christ,

because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and the spirit of Son.

Eyes connect to a brain. Let may you have eyes? We'll do

you have eyes? Now? The second question is more difficult. How many

of you have a brain. You shouldn't leave any hand down. If you

have eyes, you have a brain. Your eyes don't work if you don't

have a brain. Right, the Bible says the eye is the lamp of

the body, and Jesus means the mind. If the darkness within you,

your mind is dark, the whole body is dark. Eyes represent a brain.

They aren't just eyes. They're a well that looks into someone's brain.

You're look into their eyes. You're looking too their brain. Well, you

have to be a person to have that. And the impersonal presence has no

eyes, no mind, no right to speak, no ability to grieve.

The Bible says, the Holy Spirit grieves, no mind and heart and mouth.

To intercede, the Bible says, romans Ay, he intercedes, He

himself intercedes, he says, and in romans Ay, or to speak to

the seven churches, as he does in Revelation in two and three, the

Spirit says. The Spirit says, you can't do that unless you're a person.

But don't forget this fact. The Holy Spirit is the finger of God.

We've learned. But he is also the seven eyes of God, because

he's God who sees, who speaks to the seven churches, because he sees

the person of the Holy Spirit, dear Heart sees Us, and the person

the Holy Spirit has power to perform God's will in our lives. As the

rod of God has the finger of God, just like in Moses' day.

Next is fourteen sixteen. Moses stretched out into the Rod of God over the

waters of the sea, and miracle happened. It opened up just like a

creation when the Holy Spirit, however, like a bird, and the dry

land appears and the world comes into existence. Moses struck the rod in Exodus

seventeen with the rod of God that opened up the rock that God was standing

on, the rock that represented Jesus Christ, who was offered up the spirit

that pierced Christ's side, who was offered up in the eternal Spirit. In

Hebrews nine fourteen at the Cross of Calvary, just like Moses rod, the

Rod of God struck the rock. Christ was stricken by the Holy Spirit as

he was offered up in the eternal Spirit at the cross. Don't let someone

tell you that God does not judge evil. The Holy Spirit is fire.

He will judge evil. He did. At the cross. Christ had every

thought, every sin running through his mind because the Holy Spirit was exposing him

to our evil as judgment. Guess simony means the oil press and aramaic.

The oil of the Holy Spirit was being pushed out of his body. The

old the Holy Spirit was pressed out of Jesus in the garden when he sweated

great drops of blood in agony, you realize that Christ gave up the Holy

Spirit to die for us. He said, my God, my God,

why have you forsaken me? God, the Father God, The spirit gone.

When Jesus was offered up in the eternal Spirit, the rod of God

struck the shepherd. Turn to Matthew fourteen twenty seven. Then Jesus said to

them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night,

for it is ridden. I will strike this shepherd, and the sheep

will be scattered. Friend. The word matta for rod, used from Moses.

Rod is the word that means a rod of support. The Holy Spirit

is represented the Exodus story by the rod that is the finger of God.

But God is there to support us in the Holy Spirit, to help us

in life, to get us through the hard times, to defeat our enemies.

That's a supporting role. But if we turn against God, if we

grieve his Holy Spirit, God says he's jealous us for his spirit, what

will he do? It becomes an element of judgment. The Holy Spirit Minister's

judgment. When the Amalekites attacked the Chilen of Israel on their way to mount

Side, and Moses took that rod in his hand, he started to pray,

and as he got tired, the rod fell and they lost. So

they held his hands up because you don't want the rod of God going down

and your life you diminished the Holy Spirit in your life. You put him

down, You treat him as something less than he is, and you can

forget having Holy Spirit power in your prayers. They had to hold that rod

up. And when Moses's arms grew tired and the rod of God dipped down,

Joshua and his army lost the battle without the rod. But when they

held his hands high and he prayed, the power of God flowed through that

rod. Same with us. Now, if we're not praying, holding up

the rod in the spirit, appealing to God and praying for each other,

holding each other up, we will lose in life. Friends, there will

be miracles when you believe, because the Holy Spirit is the finger of God.

If you're not a praying Christian, you are most definitely a losing Christian,

a dying Christian in your life. Take the rod of God, raise

your hand, take the rot of God, the gift of the Holy Spirit

in your hand and heart, pray in the Holy Spirit. Ask God to

work wonders in your life like you did from Moses and Aaron and all the

people. Dear heart, pray in the Holy Spirit and believe the song when

you believe. In the movie The Prince of Egypt ends this way. They

don't always happen when you ask, and it's easy to give end to your

fears. But when you're blinded by your pain, can't see the way get

through the rain, A small but still revelian voice says, help is very

near. There can be miracles when you believe. The hope is frail.

It's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe.

Somehow you will. Now you will will when you believe, you will.

You believe, Just believe, Just believe you will when you believe.

It's beautiful friend. The gift of the Holy Spirit in the sincere prayer of

a true believer is nothing less than the rod of God in your life.

Authority for you to overcome evil, Authority for you to know God through Jesus

Christ, to know that God sees, he hears, He loves you,

and there can be miracles, dear Heart, in your life when you believe,

when you believe in the rod of God. Dear Father God, thank

you for Jesus. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, the wrot of God,

that is the spirit of the Father, and the spirit of the Son,

that his eyes and a brain in our way of thinking, so that

he can grieve, he can cry, but he's powerful in our lives.

Thank you that there's no contradiction between God the Father, God the Son,

and God the Spirit in the Godhead, the Holy Trio. That Father,

we don't have to figure out the physics of this. We just got to

let it work in our lives. Thank you that you're loving in all three

elements. That you greet us as Father, you greet us as the Holy

Spirit. In the book Revelation, you greet us as the Son of God.

And therefore you're personal. You're not impersonal. Father. May the devils

lie that somehow you are impersonal be stripped from our lives and hearts. When

we look to the Cross of Christ, may we recognize that God was in

Christ dying for me on that cross. It may recognize the Holy Spirit is

God with us without a body, but he's here as the wind blows through

the trees. Bless your people. May they go home with peace. Lord,

love your people to the Kingdom of God. Forgive them of their sins,

and keep them in the Christ who died for them in Jesus' name.

And Lord, keep the eyes of the Rod on them for their good in

Jesus name. Amen.