God longs to rescue His chosen people from every form of usurpation and preoccupation so that they may have nothing besides God Himself. (Life-Study of Exodus msg. 16, by Witness Lee)
In the New Testament we are clearly told that the whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19), and that we should not love the world or the things in the world (1 John 2:15-17).
But the clear picture of what the world is can be seen in Exodus 5-7, where God sent ten plagues over Egypt in order to first punish the Egyptians to let the Israelites go out, and second to show God’s people what life in Egypt really is like.
Today we are born in the world, we grow up in the world, and we live in the world; to us, living in the world is normal and there’s nothing evil about it. But in God’s eyes the world is an evil system designed by Satan to usurp and distract God’s people from enjoying Him, and the world is also full of all kinds of problems, nuisance, darkness, and death.
God’s original intention when He created man is to come into man as life and be everything to man so that man can become His corporate expression and representation on the earth (Gen. 1:26). Due to the fall of man, he was damaged by Satan to not only have sin in his flesh and the self in his soul but also be usurped by the world system created by Satan to distract man from God.
Therefore, the real condition of many of God’s people today is the same as the condition of the people of Israel in Exodus 5: they live in the world and are under the bondage of the world.
However, God wants to rescue His chosen people from every form of usurpation and preoccupation in the world so that they may have nothing else besides God Himself. God Himself is enough to us: He is our rest, our satisfaction, our joy, our amusement and entertainment, our protection and shelter, our food and life-supply, our sustenance, and everything we ever need.
God wants to rescue us out of the present evil age and from every kind of usurpation of Satan so that we may “hold a feast unto Him in the desert” (Exo. 5:1). He wants to take us to a place and a condition where we have nothing else but God and we are for nothing else but for the building of God’s dwelling place on earth.
God Desires to Rescue us from Every Form of Usurpation in the World to Be for Him and His Dwelling Place
Exo. 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.
In human terms and according to logic, when Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked him to let Israel go to hold a feast in the wilderness for God – this sounds logical, could be done, and since they’re coming back, Pharaoh could have let them.
However, the real situation here is much different from this: God’s people were under the usurpation of Pharaoh in Egypt and he would not let them go! Today God’s people are under the usurpation of the world: they don’t see it, they don’t know it, but Satan would not let them go not even for a few days to enjoy the Lord!
Many of God’s people still feel OK in the world, juggling their Christian life with their worldly life and somehow “wedging in” some meetings in their busy schedule in the world.
Therefore, as in the case of the people of Israel in Egypt, God needs to come in and send some plagues that would expose what the life in the world is like, and by this He would cause His people to loathe and hate the world, desiring to come out of the world and be for God and the building of His dwelling place.
God wants to rescue His chosen people from every form of usurpation of Satan and preoccupation in the world so that they would have nothing besides God Himself and would be occupied with nothing but God.
He wants to bring His people to His mountain where He would open His heart to them and give them an engagement ring (the law and ordinances), and show them and make them His dwelling place on earth (the tabernacle).
In the wilderness the people of Israel were detoxified from anything of Egypt and they had nothing except God Himself. God wants us to bring us out of the enjoyment of the world and to a place where He becomes everything to us: He is our center, our purpose, our business, and our very life.
This is what it means to be saved. To be saved is to be brought to a place where there is nothing but God Himself.
We don’t know we’re under Satan’s usurpation and control through the world; we need to be rescued by God out of the world by seeing a clear vision of what the world really is, and we need to be brought to a place where there’s nothing but God; there, we will be His people, build up His dwelling place, and express Him corporately.
We need to See the Nature and Meaning of the Life in the World
Rom. 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.
The ten plagues God sent over Egypt were, on the one hand, a warning and a punishment to the Egyptians and to Pharaoh to let the people of God go, and on the other hand, they were a revelation to God’s people of what life in Egypt really is like.
When the people of Israel saw these plagues they must have realized what the actual situation of the Egyptian living is, and they must have hated it and desired to flee from it. We need the Lord to show us what life in the world really is like, and for this we need some vivid pictures of the nature and meaning of the life in the world as portrayed through the ten plagues in Exodus 5-12.
Unless the Lord shows us the real nature of the world and of living in the world, we cannot be for His dwelling place. When we see the true nature, living, and meaning of life in the world, we will hate the world, be disgusted with the world, and we will desire to leave the world and be separated unto God for His dwelling place (see Exo. 5:1; 40:34).
We should not be fashioned according to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:1-2)! If we are not separated from the world we can never be for God’s dwelling place. Positively, the Lord unveils to us His dwelling place, and negatively, He shows us what the world is so that we may hate it and be separated from it.
After the first two conflicts with Pharaoh, God used ten plagues to punish the Egyptians so that they might release His people, and to educate both the Egyptians and His people concerning the nature of the life in the world that they might be willing to forsake the worldly life. The ten plagues can be grouped into four categories. The first group includes the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice (7:15 — 8:19); the second group, the plagues of flies, pestilence, and boils (8:20 — 9:12); the third group, the plagues of hail, locusts, and darkness (9:13 — 10:29); and the fourth group, the plague of the killing of the firstborn (11:1-10; 12:29-30). The plagues in the first group were troublesome but not injurious; the plagues in the second group caused harm both to beasts and to men; the plagues in the third group destroyed the environment; and the last plague terminated the worldly life. By means of the ten plagues God was able to accomplish the exodus of His chosen people from Egypt and fully expose the nature and result of the life in the world (cf. Rev. 16:1-21). [Exodus 7:15, footnote 1 on, Pharaoh, in Holy Bible Recovery Version]
May the Lord grant us an understanding of the actual situation of life in the world. May we be detoxified and be awakened from any drugging effect the world has on us, so that we may see God’s dwelling place and a vision of the world. Life in the world is full of nuisance, troublesome, full of problems in the environment, full of issues within, and full of darkness and death.
People walk about doing their own things and enjoying the world as much as they can, and they don’t know they’re being drugged by Satan and kept in his evil system so that they would be usurped from enjoying God.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see the real meaning and life in the world, and may we be separated from the world to build up His dwelling place on earth, the church!
Lord Jesus, show us a clear vision of the meaning and life in the world. Expose the nature and the result of life in the world to us. Grant us a revelation of the true meaning of life in the world so that we may hate it and become disgusted with it. Lord, may we see the life in the world as it really is, and may we separate ourselves unto You for the building up of Your dwelling place. Bring us to a place where we have only You as our everything. Lord, You are all we need. You are our life, our center, our business, and our home.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Albert Lim’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (msgs. 16-17), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 5 / msg 5, The Vision of the World.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Rescue me, Lord, from this dark world—it’s just display. / Shine in me, and show me, Lord, You are the way. / Nothing matches me but You. / Only Your life will do. (Song on Being Rescued from the World)
# We were held in bondage, toiling down / in Egypt land, / Glory to God, Hallelujah! / But the God of Hebrews rescued us / from Pharaoh’s hand, / Glory to God, Hallelujah! (Hymns #1128)
# Oh, let my life be given, / My years for Thee be spent; / World-fetters all be riven, / And joy with suff’ring blent; / Thou gav’st Thyself for me, for me, / I give myself to Thee. (Hymns #436)
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