Isa 14:12-4 How you are fallen from heaven (Lk 10:18; Jn 12:31; Rev 20:1,10), O Lucifer (Day Star; cp. Rev 22:16; Num 24:17; 2Pet 1:19), son of the morning (dawn). How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened (laid low) the nations. 13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God (cp. Job 38:7; Dan 8:10-2; Gen 15:5; 22:17; Heb 11:12) I will also sit on the Mount of the Congregation (Ps 89:5-7; 86:8; 97:7,9; 96:4; 138:1; 82:6; 29:1) on the farthest sides of the North (in Hebrew, Zaphon, the sacred mountain of the Canaanites where El, the father of the elohim, presided over the assembly of the gods, like Zeus on Mt Olympus; Ps 48:2; 82:1,6; Heb 12:22-4; see NIV fn.). 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

Ezek 28:12-8 (RSV; NRSV; similarly LXX; TEV; also the Theological Wordbook of the OT [Editors: Harris, Archer, Waltke; (Moody Press: Chicago; 1980)]; Item 2252, p 875 ): "Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You (the former Lucifer) were in Eden, the Garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, {carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold were your settings and your engravings}. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you (which probably means: one who is near God, who ministers to God, who is admitted into God's presence [cf. Gensenius]; the Akkadian cognate verb means: to bless, praise, adore [cf. TWOT, Item 1036]; (Who is this cherub?); you were on the Holy Mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the Mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire (similarly Moffatt & Amplified). 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty (an idolatrous preoccupation of modern culture); you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour (Pride breeds contention and folly [Prov 13:10]). I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you (To be fulfilled in the future). 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries (Does this imply many religions, churches founded by Satan?); so I brought forth fire from the midst of you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you (Col 2:15; Heb 2:14; Rev 20:10; Rom 16:20; Mal 4:3).

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity (Rom 8:7) between you (Satan) and the woman (the Church; Rev 12; Ezek 16), and between your seed ("the sons of disobedience" and the children of the world) and her Seed (firstly, the promised Messiah, of the seed of Abraham and David; secondly, the sons of God; brothers of Jesus Christ [Rom 8:29; Matt 12:49,50]). He shall bruise (crush) your head (i.e., annihilate Satan; Rom 16:20), and you shall bruise His heel (i.e., the Son of God would 'fall' in death, but arise in resurrection").

In Gen 3:21 we read that the LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) made 'tunics' (Heb kuttonet) of animal skin and clothed them. The Hebrew word refers to a long shirt-like garment, usually linen, and especially worn by the priests (see Ex 28:4; 29:5; 39:27). So we have the suggestion that since the proto-parents were given fur tunics to wear, animals had to be sacrificed, just as the Lamb of God was sacrificed so that the saints might wear the garments of righteousness (Rev 3:5; 19:8).

Abel's sacrifice (in Gen 4:4) was of the firstlings of his flock, rather than offerings of the harvest of the field as Cain offered in honour to the same God and at the same time. How strange that both men, apparently knowing the same God, each apparently believing he is right, were so different in their religion. Faith without the works and will of God is dead. Abel's was a more excellent sacrifice as Heb 11:4 says. And since Cain is accused of having sin knocking at his door (v 7), and responded to being corrected with: Am I my brother's keeper? (v 9), we should recognize negative Passover elements. Sin is overcome by recognition of the right kind of sacrifice, i.e., the Lamb of God, and with the Passover one must well recognize that one's march out of the house of bondage as a pilgrim into the Land of Promise, one goes with brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to whom one gives godly love. 'Love without godly works is dead.' Are we not all members of the Church in the Wilderness going toward the same goal with the same purpose (Acts 7:38; Rev 12:6,14; Jer 2:2; Matt 3:3)? More than 22,000 variations on the Gospel surely can't be wrong, especially since there are so many noble religious leaders leading? (See the paper, Shepherds in the Last Days).

Let's look at Passover themes in Abraham's Day.

In Gen 17:1-8 we read: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." 3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you (see Ex 19:4-6; 1Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6; 3:21; 5:10). 7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your (spiritual) descendants (Rom 4:16-8; Gal 3:22; Acts 2:39; 1Pet 2:9,10) after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God" (This has not as yet happened).


In Gen 17:15-21 God (i.e., the pre-incarnate Son of God (Ex 23:21) speaking the will of His Father) said to Abraham, "As for Sarai (Possibly 'my princes' [cf. Gensenius]; the Heb root sar means ruler, prince, master) your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah ["princess-royal lady"; cp. Gal 4:21-31; 1Pet 3;6]) shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her." 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed (at the seeming absurdity of this situation), and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 So Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael ('God hears') might live before You!" 19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac ('laughter'); I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 and as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes (as did Jacob), and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My Covenant (of Promise) I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year" (Consider Gal 4:22-30).

Gen 18:14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Gen 21:2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

In Genesis 22 we read of a three day journey to Mt Moriah by Abraham, Isaac, and some servants. Abraham tells the servants he will go with his son to worship and make the burnt offering, and they will come back. In v 7 Isaac asked: "Where is the Lamb?" Abraham replies that 'God will provide the Lamb' (v 8). Then in v 12 the Angel (Messenger; as in Mal 3:1b) of the LORD said: "Now I know that you fear God for you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me!" In v 18 the covenantal promise, the salvational starting promise of God, is given: "In your Seed (Jesus Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." i.e., "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (Jn 3:16). There were other created sons, the entire angelic realm (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7), but only the Anointed One (Ps 2:7-12; 8:4-8; 45:6-10) was sent as a humanly begotten Son (as Jn 1:14,18; 1Jn 4:9; Rev 3:15 indicate).

Heb 11:17-9 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son (in parabolic parallel to the experience of God and the Son of God), 18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," (Compare the notion: In the Name of Jesus Christ all who are God's are called).19 [So Abraham] concluded that God was able to raise Isaac up (in resurrection if it came to that), even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense (Gk. parabole).

Let's consider Joshua's Day - Israel was 40 years out of Egypt.

Josh 5:10-2 tells us that the children of Israel camped in Gilgal (which means 'rolled back'; referring to circumcision; uncovered, exposed, raw because the shame of Egypt is rolled away, v 9) and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight (late afternoon they killed the lambs and ate them roasted that night) on the plains of Jericho (the word probably means, moon). 11 They ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. 12 Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

There may be an irony here. When Israel entered the Land they started to eat of the fruit of the Land because the bread from heaven, the manna ("What is it?" [Ex 16:15]), stopped. True Christians, must eat the Bread of Life the whole time of their sojourning until they enter the Promised Land in resurrection at the Coming of Jesus Christ.

THE EXODUS PASSOVER
"Let My People Go" is a major theme in the Exodus story. Let's consider why.
Incidentally, the Hebrew word for Passover is pesach. It has connotations of to stop, consider, protect; also of lameness, physically or spiritually, i.e., someone who is halting, perhaps indecisive (see Mal 1:7,8). In Greek pascha means to suffer.

Ex 3:2-10 The Angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed (Does this symbolize the tree of life and eternal life, as opposed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which takes one to the lake of fire?). 3 Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush doesn't burn." 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." 6 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 God. 7 The LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 "So I have come 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 a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; 17 and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.' 18 Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel (the shepherds of Israel have a remarkable capacity of failing [Jer 23:1-4,20; Ezek 34:1-13; Mal 2:1-9]), to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.' 19 But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand (despite heavy pressures to urge him to let Israel go). 20 So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed. 22 But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians."

Ex 5:1-3 Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'" 2 Pharaoh replied, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go." 3 So they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."


Ex 6:7-12 'I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.' 9 This is how Moses spoke to the children of Israel; but they did not heed (listen to) him, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

10 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 11 "Go in (to the palace in Rameses [Num 33:3]), tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land." 12 Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, "The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?"

Ex 7:1-2 The LORD said to Moses: "See, I have made you as God (Elohim) to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you. Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land."


Ex 7:16 Moses, you shall say to Pharaoh, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness"; but indeed, until now you, Pharaoh, would not hear!'


Ex 8:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me."'
Ex 8:20 The LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water (catch him naked in the bath, as he tries to clean himself from the plague of 'lice'). Then say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.'"


Ex 9:1 The LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, 'Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.'"


Ex 9:13 The LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.'"


Ex 10:3 So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.'"


Ex 11:1 The LORD said to Moses, "I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether."

THE EXODUS PASSOVER - WHAT ARE ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR US?

Ex 12:2-15 This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you (Not as Judaism says, that Tishri 1, the seventh month, is first determined, and with some traditional preconditions not in Scripture. Having done that, Abib 1 is determined as 177 days earlier, and again observing certain traditional postponement rules. Most churches that observe the Festivals abide by these rabbinical traditions. See the paper, Aspects of God's Time). 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. (It takes on average about 20-30 people to eat a roasted lamb). 4 If the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month (fasting it so that all fecal matter is drained, since the entire, ungutted, animal will be roasted). Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it (Jn 10:7,9,11). 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it (e.g., horseradish, mustard, rosemary, dill, coriander, and perhaps the tiniest bit of hyssop, or wormwood). 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire; its head with its legs and its entrails (Typifying the wholeness of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ). 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist ("having girded your waist with Truth" [Eph 6:14]), your sandals on your feet ("having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel" [Eph 6:15]), and your (shepherd's) staff in your hand ("Your rod and Your staff encourage me" [Ps 23:4; cp. Zech 11:7,10; Isa 14:5; Num 24:17; Heb 1:8]). So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods (elohim) of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day (before the Holy Day; Matt 26:17; Mk 14:12; Lk 22:7) you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.


Ex 12:26-7 It shall be, when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' 27 that you shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.' So the people bowed their heads and worshipped (in expressing gratitude and awe over God's deliverance).


Ex 12:31-3 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night (after the death of the firstborn in all of Egypt - struck down by the Angel of the LORD [Ex 11:4,5; 12:12,23,29; Num 8:17; 33:4; Ps 78:51-2; 135:8; 136:10; 1Cor 10:10; Heb 11:28]), and said, "Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also." 33 And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead."

Now we come to the Exodus 12 text used to endorse the observance of "the night to be much observed" - a name adopted from the KJV. Let's examine this more carefully.

Ex 12:40-2 (NKJV) Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years; on that very same day; it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD (Israel and the angelic hosts of the LORD) went out from the land of Egypt on the night, after midnight, and after they had eaten the passover lambs. 42 It is a night of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
This is that night of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

The NJPS, NJB, LXX use the wording "The LORD's night of vigil". The NRSV has: "The same night is a vigil to be kept for the LORD by all the Israelites throughout their generations." However, the Hebrew words translated as a night of vigil, are leil shimmurim, which is plural and probably should be rendered as a night of vigils. The NIV has: "Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come." The more accurate meaning would therefore be: The entire people were alert and on watch that memorable night when their deliverance was very manifest, as was the One (the Rock) who took them out of Egypt watching all that was happening (1Cor 10:4; Ps 78:15-6,20,51-2,67-72; 95:1-3; 105:41-3; Deut 32:4,15; Isa 48:21; 51:1-4).

THE NIGHT OF 15 ABIB - THE FIRST NIGHT OF THE FEAST
The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan: 1985) gives in its Introduction (p 84) the date of the Exodus as c. 1446 on the basis that the Exodus was 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon's reign (c. 966; cf. 1Ki 6:1). Many scholars however support the date c.1290 (e.g., the NRSV Study Bible) which the NIV mentions. The NJB (Standard Edition: 1985) prefers 1250 BC (p 12). The NIV chronology is probably adopted from Edwin R. Thiele's work A Chronology of the HEBREW KINGS. Dating given there has Rehoboam's reign as 930-913. With the 40-year reigns of David and Solomon we would have the respective approximations of rule as: 1010-970BC, and 970-930BC (1Chron 29:26; 2Chron 9:30). On the basis of personal study, and not as yet adequately documented for presentation, I would give the dates: David (1008-968BC), Solomon (968-928/7BC), so Solomon's 4th year would be 964/3BC. This would make the Exodus (430 years earlier) in the spring of 1443BC. 1Kings 6:1 tells us that 480 years before Solomon's 4th year the Exodus took place (see NIV footnote).

Far more important is the significance of the night of the 15th Abib.

If we accept 1443BC (or a year reasonably close to this) as the year of the Exodus then v 41 of Exodus 12 gives us a year 430 years earlier, i.e., c. 1873BC. The NT has something to say about this.

Gal 3:16-8 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made (Isaac is an antitype of Jesus Christ [cp. 1Pet 3:18-22]). He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of One, "And to your Seed," who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the Law, which was four hundred and thirty years later (at Mt Sinai), cannot annul the Covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the Promise of no effect (The Law defines sin and the wages of sin is death. Since all have sinned then the Promise could not be possible. But the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is our means of redemption from sin and death). 18 For if the inheritance is of the Law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE
Scripture is conclusively powerful in revealing that "the whole world (all civilizations) lies under the power of the Evil One (Satan)" (1Jn 5:19). The basis of that rulership and control is deceit for "Satan deceives the whole world" (Rev 12:9). Since this devilish government is what we experience more than anything else, and since the Garden of Eden experience (Gen 3:1ff), then it is no wonder that the Exodus experience is referred to so often as "the house of bondage." In fact the Hebrew is ma'bayit ebedim, i.e., the house of slaveries, or the house of enslavements (Ex 13:3,14; 20:2; Deut 5:6; 6:12; 7:8; 8:14; 13:5,10; Josh 24:17; Jgs 6:8,9; Jer 34:13; Mic 6:4). However, nearly all translations render this in the singular. Ex 13:3 Moses said to the people: "Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten."
Deut 5:6,15 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. It should be evident that the world is full of entrapments, varieties of captivities and enslavements. These are the results of deceits, delusions, and illusions seen in political, economic, social ideologies, in religions (e.g., Catholicism with its polytheism [worship of saints], Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah, Sufism, New Age movements advocating "wisdom" as long as its it anti-biblical), in Western culture (e.g., the baseness and falsity of Michael Jackson and the like, including "institutions" such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola; video, TV, and movie amoralities, immoralities, and rampant violence -- murderous, sexual, pornographic) .

In the last sentences of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, the author, Samuel Huntington, a professor at Harvard University; probably America's greatest university, says:

"The futures of both peace and Civilization depend upon understanding and cooperation among the political, spiritual, and intellectual leaders of the world's major civilizations (Western [Western European, North American], Slavic, Asiatic [especially Chinese and Japanese], Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Latin, African). In the clash of civilizations [especially Muslim and Western], Europe and America will hang together or hang separately. In the greater clash, the global "real clash," between Civilization and barbarism (Western culture "is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous" [ibid. p 310]), the world's great civilizations, with their rich accomplishments in religion, art, literature, philosophy, science, technology, morality, and compassion, will also hang together or hang separately. In the emerging era, clashes of civilization are the greatest threat to world peace, and the international order based on civilization is the surest safeguard against world war." (Simon & Schuster: 1997; p 321).

More and more people in our degenerating anti-biblical Western anti-culture "choose" to live in relationships which allow for "freedom" to leave relationships at will. This occurs when the need to negotiate resolution of problems is "too difficult" and the level of emotional maturity required is apparently too high for people. A result is that more and more people are disassociated from reality, but maintain their own "bubbles of reality." Do they imagine that the causes are outside themselves - blame is somewhere else? The inherent proclivity to refuse to examine, to search one's own inner being; this rejection of addressing one's won illusions and deceits is so very characteristic of the universal human condition (Jer 17:9,5; Rom 8:7; 7:14; Mk 7:20-3; Ps 19:12-4; 51:5-10). Jer 9:3-9 is a very graphic piece of poetry describing the very nature of denial and its consequences (See also Jer 8:4-11)..

What are the ways of exposing these "hidden" enslavements that are integral to our environments (Rev 18:4; Jer 51:7)? Where there is fear and a lack of free and intimate, open relationships - relationships that are resilient to trials and tribulations (Rom 8:35-9) - then quite evidently there are hidden darknesses held in the rooms of the mind and kept out of sight to self and to others. Denial is the root of emotional and intellectual immaturity (Gen 3:9-13; 4:4-9). Realistic admission, confession, true repentance are prerequisites to Christian growth, godly maturity, and the love God defines (1Jn 4:18,21,8,11; 1Cor 13:1-8).

Jack Dominian, author of Capacity to Love (DLT: 1985), says that

"Some people have been made to feel so bad and their guilt is so excessive that they cannot believe they are ever going to be forgiven and enter into a state of despair. Such excessive guilt may lead to endless and excessive reparation" (p 78).

Dominian goes on:

"Forgiveness too may have been associated with humiliating punishment which had left such a mark that a person finds it impossible to apologise later in his life. One hears again and again in marital difficulties of the spouse who never apologises and always expects their partner to make the first sign of reconciliation. Such people are judged severely but, when one looks at their background, one finds that they are so terrified of contrition, so terrified of being in the wrong that they cannot take the necessary steps. They are afraid that saying sorry means becoming small, helpless children and their freedom to accept responsibility for their deeds is severely restricted. Then there are those who find it very difficult to forgive" (p 78). ... "Without feelings of guilt, humanity is brutalised; without forgiveness and compassion, the consequences can be lethal" (p 79).

The true God, through His Son offers this:

1Jn 2:5 Whoever keeps His word (Lives by every word of God), truly the love of God is perfected in him.
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.
1Jn 4:11-2 Beloved (Gk. agapetoi; i.e., my darlings), if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (What is your definition of love for the brethren?) If we love one another, God [by His Spirit] abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
1Jn 4:17-8 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out fear, because fear involves torment (in the mind). But he who fears has not been made (cannot be made) perfect in love.
1Jn 4:21 He who loves God must love his brother also.
2Jn 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love (Is your definition of love based on what Scripture says or what you feel comfortable with as it is your own definition?)
3Jn 5,6 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church.

The Exodus experience is also the experience of living by every word of God, seeing God's mercy and forgiveness, feeling His love and interventions, walking in the power of His might and not our own strength, and more and more being exhilarated in His generous love that brings us closer and closer to Him and all those who similarly love God.