“Who is this … with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendor …?
(Isa. 63:1, NIV)
The previous teaching concluded by pointing out that the manna in the desert signified the Bride’s rhema words of identity in Christ. We also learnt that the path through the desert was predetermined by God to provide in all things. There thus lies a riches of exploration in the rhema words of the rest of the Body, and partaking thereof (also symbolised by the communion bread), which can provide for all things, and for all needs.
The only verse in the Old Testament that contains the word need, is in the section that concerns the manna! Ex. 16:16 notes: “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need.’” In addition, the only section in the New Testament that contains the word need, is the following verse, which centres around Christ: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)! [Remember that the emphasis here falls on Christ].
The previous teaching concluded with the exciting refrain from the book of Song of Songs (3:6): “Who is this coming out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the merchant’s fragrant powders?” We then promised that via this verse we will get to examples of exemplary rhema identities that manifest as wondrous signs, and discuss how this can help us to provide in all needs. Remember what Col. 3:1-4 spells out: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
The word thing in Ex. 16:16 above is, interestingly enough, the word dabar in the original Hebrew! In the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible a wide range of meanings are attributed to this root word of Scripture:
- A linking of the words order and word, “an arrangement or placement of something creating order”
- To speak, “A careful arrangement of words or commands.”
- “An arrangement of words.”
- “As something that is arranged. In Hebrew thought words contain substance just as physical objects do.”
- Plague
- “Sanctuary,” “A place of order”
- Wilderness/ “desert,” “An arrangement of words.
This assortment of meanings should take your breath away! For quite a while we have been studying the words dabar in Hebrew and its equivalent logos in Greek, but here, for the first time, it is absolutely clear that Logos has a further inherent capacity to bring an order of words into being, a focused composition of words which, as a cohesive whole, is communicated through its members. These members, or words-in-the-collective, each have their own unique substance, or a unique aura of meaning, and they all interact with one another. These words form a sanctuary, in which each has its specific, chosen spot, as it has been spoken by God. What is however the most surprising, is that logos also means wilderness or desert! Refresh your memory regarding last week’s masthead Scripture: “We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.” (Ps. 92:10, ACV). The wilderness or desert is thus the place where God prepares each rhema word so that he can learn to withstand the plague in his heart!
One of the most remarkable Scriptures is part of the prayer of Solomon, with the inauguration of the temple (“sanctuary”): “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.” (1 Kings 8:37-40).
Your highest calling is being hidden by your deepest wound. The plague of your heart must be searched out so that your rhema identity can be made manifest.
When the Apostolic Bible Polyglot transliterates the term thing in Ex. 16:16 above, it is strangely enough translated as rhema! If we replace it thus, it reads: “This is the rhema words which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need’” Here we now find an undeniable link between manna and rhema words, and also that rhema words can fulfil all needs. Paul actually stated it beautifully in this often-misunderstood verse: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13).
Remember that in Day 1642-1644, we mentioned that the term wilderness means “among the wild beasts”. Realise that the person who has accepted Jesus as Saviour, has symbolically been called out of Egypt, and is thus called out of the kingdom of the world. After becoming born again the believer thus necessarily enters the desert or the wilderness. Seen in this way it becomes very clear why we have such a struggle in the desert.
In the story of Jesus on the mountain of temptation, we read in Matt. 4:1: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Take note – the Spirit of God leads you into the wilderness! This wilderness is thus also the Logos-terrain where you wrestle with wild animals of the spirit. As you are still learning how to walk in the Spirit during this period, you often wage this war in the flesh, and actually this cannot be done, as 2 Cor. 10:4 makes it clear: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal …” If you try to make your way forward in the flesh, your enemy, the snake, is fed on your flesh (Gen. 3:14), and over time the snake becomes a dragon: “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.” (Isa. 14:29).
From Hos. 2:14-17 we know that God brings us into the desert or wilderness, because He wants to speak to your heart. The desert experience that believers undergo is meant to loosen you from things that allow you to function in idolatrous practices. In this process, “wild animals”, which is to say demonic works, are, amongst other things, used by God. Your obedience determines how long you remain in the wilderness. God intended for the Israelites to spend eleven days traveling through the desert (Deut. 1:2); it eventually took forty years.
Readers will remember that a few weeks ago we wrote that that specific teaching was important for me personally, because that week’s edition coincided with the fortieth anniversary of my becoming born again. We placed great emphasis on God’s synchronicity of times and events, and that He often makes Himself manifest in these remarkable ways, if we look for Him in the detail. Since then we have been, in overarching terms, engaged with the recurring question that arises so urgently in Song of Songs, which is paradigmatically related to the question that we reached in Isa. 63:1: “Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this One who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?”
A clue – what figure in Scripture is linked to emergence from the desert? Yes, of course – John the Baptist! “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’” (Matt. 3:1-3).
The corresponding text in Luke 3 adds another two important verses: “Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (verses 5-6). By now we know this ministry of John the Baptist is the establishment of the spirit of Elijah. But John the Baptist also becomes a wondrous sign of this new dispensation of God. Of him Jesus says in Matt. 11:11: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist …” In the entire dispensation of the Old Testament, where great heroes of faith like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Daniel and various others appear as markers throughout the ages, Jesus says of this man – he is greater than them all! The entire Old Testament is thus embodied in the wondrous sign of this watershed figure. He is isolated in the desert, and speaking the words of God, he triumphantly exits the desert.
Who is this? This man also pertinently wears a special garment, but this one is not dyed red, but woven from camel hair.
And again, the detail and planning of God surprises me! The previous time I reached a personal highlight that coincided with the teachings, it was while writing the thousandth edition. Perhaps you can remember that I wasn’t sure what the theme would be when we finally reached the teaching of Day 1000, and that I was very surprised when the researched clearly pointed to John the Baptist. After almost seven years’ worth of weekly study pieces that I dutifully (and often painfully) produced, one doesn’t always remember the detail of all the topics that have indeed already been covered. Yet I was constantly experiencing the Holy Spirit placing emphasis on the spirit of Elijah, as well as John the Baptist’s prototypical role as manifestation of that anointing, but I thought that topic has been covered long ago.
That was not the case. At that point, I had not written a single word about Elijah, John the Baptist, and what Luke 1:17 calls “the spirit and power of Elijah”, and the implications of this for the Bride! It is as if God had purposefully obscured ElijahAfrica’s main focus for one thousand of these teachings, and only revealed it with number thousand-and-one! This coincided with a new spiritual name (Rev. 2:17; Isa. 65:15) that I received from God, namely camel paw. And without again rehashing the story, when I embraced this deepest camel paw wound, knowing that your deepest wound conceals your highest calling, God whispered, as if smiling: “Actually, your new name is Gamaliel.” The name Gamaliel means “reward of God”, but the root of the word derives from gimel (meaning camel)! Camel paw wondrously becomes “at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). We know that Gamaliel is Paul’s spiritual father! If the spirit of Elijah is thus, at its core, concerned with the restoration and reconciliation of the hearts of the fathers with the sons, and the camel becomes the vehicle with which one moves, in the spirit, through the desert or wilderness, to the land of promise (or the third dimension, or Canaan, or Eden, or the third heaven), then this holy space – into which we are jerked like Paul’s friend – becomes a sacred space of “inexpressible words”. We are there now. And we have not been this way before.
- Selah: Why would John the Baptist’s garment be presented as red if it is actually made from camel hair?
- Read: 10-18
- Memorise: 10:10
For a more in-depth understanding: Listen to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-u7RhqVHw
