NORTHERN STYLE NEWSWATCH No.22
CREDO ` They spoke about His departure . . . .'
Whilst considering the wording of Newswatch 20 we were drawn to a verse from the Gospel of Luke, but as it did not seem relevant to the subject at that time it was put aside, only to be brought back to mind over several days. It now forms the title of this Newswatch. The verse is part of verse 31 of chapter 9, which has a section heading of `The Transfiguration' where we find Jesus telling His disciples about His departure (or, as it says in the KJV, His decease). But as it was the word `departure' that constantly came to mind we turned to our trusty Strongs and our Greek Lexicon to find that the Greek word is `exodus', which has a meaning of `the close of one's career' or `a departure from life'. And so within the context of the verse of Scripture Jesus was talking with the two men, Moses and Elijah, who had appeared in `glorious splendour' to talk about `the close of His career' - the completion of His work which would result in His physical death, His exodus.

With that simple understanding, and within that context, Jesus was clearly talking about more than just His physical death. It would be a departure, an exodus, and concerning His work on this earth it would be an exodus but also a deliverance or redemption beyond that exodus which comes to all men. If He was the Messiah, His exodus, the close of His work, had to be an act of God by God concerning an act of deliverance for the people of whom He was the Messiah. (You will recall that the Gospels need to be understood from the perspective of the nation of Israel . . a watershed . . a high ridge between the Old and New Covenants.) With that in mind we therefore need to retrace our steps to the first recording in Scripture of an exodus, and in particular to the 15th chapter of the Book of Exodus. The narration of the Book of Exodus, with its rich veins of biblical typology to dig into, is very familiar not only to Bible scholars but also through countless Sunday School lessons to those who are old enough to remember such things.

We need to note that the title `Exodus' in our Christian Bibles is not used in the Hebrew Scriptures, for this Book is merely called `These are the names', a reminder to all who are concerned with the problems facing the Church and the nation of Israel that God is concerned with `the names of the sons' - a nation, a Body, which is compacted of very individual, unique people. In chapter 15 we read what is commonly known as `The Song of Moses':

" Then Moses and the Israelites sang this Song to the LORD. "
and in reading through this Song to the LORD we can see that it is not a Song about a promise of salvation, of national deliverance, but a Song of Praise about an act of God - a fact of salvation - for the `Song of Moses' was sung after the crossing of the Red Sea, which then closed over and destroyed:

" The chariots and horsemen - the entire army of Pharaoh that had
followed the Israelites into the Sea, (and) not one of them survived. "
But, as we have said in an earlier study, Moses and the Israelites, although they were delivered out of Egypt and had crossed the Red Sea, were still in the land and under the authority of Pharaoh.

We need to note that in `the Song of Moses' a new name of God appears which is easily overlooked in our modern translations. Verse 2 reveals the Author of the Israelites' deliverance to be:

" The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my Salvation. "
The English translation (from the original Scripture) of the Name is `JAH' - usually shown as capital letters - which, of course, is a compacted name of Jehovah. This is the Name which we then find recorded in Psalm 68:4, and remembering that this Psalm is placed in the Second Book of Psalms, which corresponds with the Book of Exodus, there is something here that our attention is being drawn to. Past Bible scholars have noted that this compacted Name occurs only 49 times in Scripture, which is of course a numerical combination of 7 x 7 - a total completion as an act of God! And so in the Song of Moses, and again in the Exodus `Book of Psalms', we find this foreshadowing of the fulfillment of the Law - seen in Moses, the Man of Law - leading to the Messiah who is Salvation. But tracing our footsteps back, we know that Moses, although delivered out of Egypt, was still walking in it, and he suffered in his walk in the Wilderness towards the Promised Land.

Now moving on to our title verse in Luke 9:31 we find Jesus talking about His exodus - at the completion of His redemptive work through which He had to walk in suffering to Salvation and finally through to Glory. Although in the Old Testament Scriptures we often find that Glory is mentioned without suffering, suffering is never mentioned without Glory, for the suffering God allows and often draws His people into always leads to their Glory. Here in Luke's Gospel we find Jesus, who fully understands this principle, through His knowledge of the Scriptures that reveal His Father's will and desire, confirms this understanding through what is known as `The Transfiguration' in which His Divine nature `bursts through' His human nature:

" His face changed and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. "
This holding together of two natures in one person is, in theological terms, called `the Hypostatic Union', the holding together in one body the substantial (the physical) and the unsubstantial (the spiritual) - a cold and unemotional expression to be sure, but such is man's best effort to explain the unexplainable! But here on the mountainside we find Jesus talking about His exodus with two men, Moses and Elijah. So both must be linked in "what they spoke concerning the departure of Jesus".

Moses, a type of the Law, led the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt, but walked with them in the Wilderness in suffering until his physical exodus, the close of his work. He led the people to the edge of their inheritance and was allowed to see the coming fulness of that inheritance before his departure through death. Elijah walked in suffering in the Land of Promise but was taken into Glory even as Elisha cried:

" `My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!'.
And Elisha saw him no more. "
Both men of God were greatly used for His purposes, both were unique and separate, but now they were brought together on `the Mount of Transfiguration', and as they talked about His exodus the fulness of understanding came to Him of His suffering leading to Glory that would be the final and fully redemptive work of Jesus at the close of His work. And so the two natures of the Messiah were seen, His physical person now going on through suffering to the spiritual person - which is the sure and certain hope of all who trust in the faithfulness of God to His Word in Jesus!

In the earlier Gospel of Matthew we can briefly see the suffering that was to come in chapter 26 where Jesus "went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane", and in verse 38 He says:

" `My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with
Me'. Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, `My Father, if
it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will'. "
And in the well-known passage of John 17 we find recorded the Glory which was to come through His suffering: (John 17:1-5)

" After Jesus said this, He looked towards heaven and prayed:

` Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify
You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give
eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life:
that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You
have sent. I have brought You Glory on earth by completing the work You
gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the
Glory I had with You before the world began'. "
The High Priestly prayer continues beyond His coming Glory, and Jesus continues in prayer for His disciples: (verse 24)

" Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to
see My Glory. the Glory You have given Me because You loved Me before
the creation of the world. "

The early disciples continued their work in suffering, humiliation and often physical pain, until their exodus, their work completed `at the end of their career' and on into their promised Glory!

This Exodus . . this Redemptive work of Jesus . . was not a promise! It was in fact an act of God by God, and the meeting on `the Mount of Transfiguration' with Moses and Elijah was to reveal that Truth seen in the foreshadowing of these two men of God and their unique `careers' - now brought together in the Person of Jesus. Peter, in his Second Letter, wrote very personally about the fact: (2 Peter 1:16-18)

" We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying: `This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain. "

We can now either leave this as a (hopefully) interesting Bible story, or we can take it back to the context of the time when the word exodus first `stood out' for us and continually came back to mind. We were writing on the significance of the events surrounding `September 11th'. We have read many interpretations of that terrible event - usually each one contradicting the others, and more often than not declaring God's judgement on the wickedness of man, as seen in the decadence of Western culture. Others considered it to be of no prophetic significance but were certain that it was of biblical significance in that it revealed the nature of fallen man. Some declared it to be a ` wake-up call' to the Church - with several variations on that theme. If we may we would pick up on this expression a `wake-up call', for we need to extend that expression lest it be left in the air of religious talk with no more meaning than the usual greeting of one to another.

When we wake up each day, we wake up to another day of action of one sort or another, and if indeed the event of September 11th was a `wake-up call' we need to consider what we are waking up to - we need to `enter into our daily tasks'. As we well know, if we look at what is happening in the physical nation of Israel we will be able to see what will happen in the Church - the two being linked together on a parallel journey to their respective exoduses. Israel has been `called back' into its land - an act of God in our time for those who watch Israel in prayer and with practical assistance! There has been much distress as we see the slow but sure slide into impending disaster which political acts have brought about, yet we know through Scriptural prophecy that Israel has been brought back into their land to `pass under the staff (of judgement) of God', and it seems clear that God will use the surrounding nations to be His staff of judgement. In more simple terms, Israel faces a time of great national distress, a suffering beyond that which they have endured to this time. Yet we know for certain the faithfulness of God to His Word, that this suffering will lead to a salvation . . a redemption . . as finally, through the Great Tribulation, `all Israel will be saved'. (And here we have no desire to quantify the words `all Israel'.)

The Church has been brought into the land of its inheritance, and will increasingly go through its own `suffering' until its exodus into Glory with the Coming of the Lord. But God does not see an assimilated Church in the West and a suffering Church in the East; He sees One Body redeemed through the finished work of His Son! Certainly the Church in the East experiences continual suffering, and many are called into Glory through physical death and torture, but their certain hope is the Glory that will surely come as they endure their continual persecution because of their trust in Jesus. In looking at His Body the Lord may well see members of that Body who have grown listless, fattened by indulgence through personal `blessings' and assimilated into a religious system, making it less than what He intended as a Bride for His beloved Son - and it is to correct this that the outworking of the parallel walk with Israel faces the Church in the West, to whom the `wake-up call' came on September 11th. It is a suffering leading to an exodus into Glory that faces the Body of Christ in the days left before His Coming. We cannot prepare for persecution for `the pain of the knife' can only be experienced when it cuts, but the `wake-up call' is for us to be ready, for all around us are the growing signs of persecution as the people of God in the West respond to the Holy Spirit's work and are brought out of assimilation with worldly secularism and the popular religious system in which it has been living for centuries. It will be an act by God for God, One whom is righteous and is faithful to His Word that He will present a pure virgin Bride for His Son. If indeed these are the `last days' spoken of, we need to pay heed to the `wake-up calls' that will surely come so that we can be ready for our exodus into Glory! Within the word `exodus' we have seen that there is a meaning of `completion of our career' to faithfully proclaim the Gospel of God to a world which will be increasingly hostile to God.

A faithful and true completion of our career, however, will inevitably lead to suffering, to persecution, which in turn will lead to that sure and certain exodus into our salvation - the Glory that awaits the Bride. It is for those who read this Newswatch to judge its contents, but we are sure that this is the `career' of the Church, and its time is nearly completed. A king who is coming always needs a herald to announce his coming, and a king has no other purpose in life but to reign and to rule. Our King is coming and He is waiting for His Herald to announce the finished work that His Exodus won for all who await Him. The apostle Paul saw that Glory and understood its meaning, and he went on into suffering and into his exodus and Glory. Through his knowledge of Scripture, and by personal revelaton, he understood, and we read of the intensity of that understanding in his Letters to the Churches as he outworked his `career' until his exodus into Glory.

May we finish this Newswatch (which is but a continuation of Newswatch 20) with Paul's words in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, and may we entitle it `the career of the Church': (2 Corinthians 4:7-18)

" But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: `I believed, therefore I have spoken.' With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the Glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal Glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. "

Two men on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, understood at last, and they are written into Scripture so that we who follow may also understand and be able to respond to that `wake-up call'. That most glorious exodus that awaits the Church is close at hand and we need to draw to completion our career!

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