Unleavened Bread - Day 7

Fred R. Coulter - April 23, 2003

This is the seventh and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the year 2003. And each feast day has its own particular meaning, and gives us understanding. Now here is a very important principle that we are taught in the book of Hebrews. It says in Hebrews 10:1, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,...” So the law tells us the good things to come. So buried within the law is the foundation that then is expanded throughout the rest of the Word of God. And when we come to the New Testament it gives us a spiritual understanding of the meaning of those things which the law foreshadows. So it’s very important for us to understand that, lest people think that what we do in keeping the feast are Old Testament Jewish things. And as we covered on the first holy day, the apostle Paul commanded Gentiles, saying, “Therefore, let us keep the feast,…” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

So let’s come back here to Leviticus 23, where we always go when we begin a holy day, and let’s look at some of these things again. And let’s understand that this is the time that we really look into these things and build on the lessons that we have learned in the past and give us strength and understanding to go forward in the future. So here, Leviticus 23, and this is quite an interesting one beginning in verse 4, which we’ve covered many, many times. But somehow people just don’t seem to get it. And that’s why God gives repeats. “These are the feasts of the LORD,...” They belong to Him. They’re not the Jewish feasts, they’re not the Israel feasts, they are the feasts of the Lord which He gave to the children of Israel, which He also gave to His church. “...Even holy convocations [or, appointed assemblies], which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” And that is the key. Proclaim in their seasons. Now many of you have already noticed that since the Passover was later this year, and Unleavened Bread was later this year, guess what? Winter was later this year, wasn’t it? So it is in season. God’s way, with the calculated Hebrew calendar, is always on time. It is never early, it is never late. And it’s precisely on time and is, with the rules of calculation, is self adjusting to any peculiarities that are noted in the universe or the solar system.

Now we’ve already covered it, verse 5, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even [between the two evens, between sunset and dark] is the LORD’S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread [which we began with on the first holy day] unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” And I’ll have to tell everyone, thank you, that for the last four or five years no one asked me, “Must we eat unleavened bread for seven days?” The answer is yes. So at least we’re learning. “In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation [which we did]: ye shall do no servile work therein.” That is, work for hire, or pay. It says there in Exodus 12 that whatever is necessary for the preparation of food, etceteras, those things we can do; it’s perfectly legal and lawful to do that. “But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” (vs. 5-8).

Now we find in Numbers 28 that also on the - we won’t turn there - but also on the last day of the Feast Unleavened Bread there is an offering to be taken up. And we find here in Leviticus 23:37, its says “These are the feast of the LORD,...” Now it started out the same way. “These are the feast of the LORD,” verse 4. Now verse 37 summarizes it again after we’ve pretty well gone through all of it except for repetition of the 15th day and the Last Great Day for the Feast of Tabernacles. “These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,...” In other words, even the ministers do not have a choice as to what they should or should not do. “You shall…” It’s just like concerning the commandments: “You shall not have any other gods before Me…” Here we have, “You shall proclaim to be holy convocations...” “...To offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:…”

Now here in Deuteronomy 16:16 we find the same thing. “Three times in a year...”, and that means three seasons. So we have the spring season, and we have the Pentecost, which is just before the beginning of summer season; and then we have the fall season, where we have Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. “…Three times [seasons]…shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose;...” And of course, we have seen that if we worship God in spirit and in truth, wherever those are who are assembled in the name of God, and God’s Spirit is there, then God has chosen to be there because He has put His Spirit there. Used to be Jerusalem, as Jesus said. But not any longer. “...In the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks [which is Pentecost], and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which He hath given thee” (Deut. 16:16-17).

And so, one of the greatest blessings that we have under the New Covenant is that we have received the Holy Spirit of God, which is for eternal life. And so that is the greatest blessing, not just looking to the physical blessings. But they’re the blessings of God’s Holy Spirit, the blessings of God’s protection, the blessings of understanding the Word of God. All of those are tremendous blessings that we need to consider when we come before God to bring an offering. So at this time we will go ahead and pause, and we’ll take up the offering.

(Pause)

Now let’s begin in 2 Timothy 4. And let’s understand something that is very profound and which people seem to miss, or misunderstand, or don’t comprehend. And I think one of the reasons why so much of Protestantism has gone away from God is because they don’t know or study the Old Testament. And they think that the Old Testament is that which has been done away - “We don’t have to follow it.” Well that’s not so. As we saw on the first holy day, the apostle Paul commanded the Gentiles in Corinth to keep the feast. Now likewise, notice this charge that the apostle Paul gives to Timothy just before the time that the apostle Paul was martyred. And he wrote this most urgent letter. And he said to him, beginning in 2 Timothy 4:1, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick [or that is, the living] and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word;...” And that’s what is to be taught, the Word of God. But when the Word of God is taught, which was inspired by Christ to be written, so this is the inspired Word of God. And with God’s Spirit, when we assemble together on the Sabbath and the holy days, then God’s Spirit inspires us and He teaches us. And as we have seen, it’s really God the Father Who is teaching us, and Jesus Christ Who is teaching us through the power of the Holy Spirit to give us understanding.

Now notice, “...be instant in season, [and] out of season;...” Now what does this tell us? Well, this tells us that they were doing what? Keeping the feasts. Because, you see, we just read in Leviticus 23, didn’t we, “…These are the feast of the LORD which you shall proclaim in their seasons.” Now if you don’t have the tape I did some years ago, “Which Came First - the Ritual or the Day?” And the truth is, the day came first. The Sabbath was created before any ritual or sacrifice. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread occurred before there were any animal sacrifices, save the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. So this shows in season, out of season. And then the word of God is for this, to “...Reprove [that is, to give right ways], rebuke [when there is sin], exhort [which is to encourage] with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:1-2). So doctrine is profoundly important. There is sound doctrine, there is unsound doctrine; there’s true doctrine, there’s false doctrine. And the true doctrine comes from the Word of God. So this is what Timothy was to do. And this charge is given to all of those, subsequently, who are elders, who are teachers, or those who are leading God’s people. Preach the word. If they are to know about salvation they need to know about the Word of God. And they need to know the reasons why we have the holy days and why to preach in season and out of season. So here’s another proof in the New Testament that they were preaching during the feast days.

Now verse 3. Now here’s the reason why this was done. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;...” And we have seen that so many times over and over and over and over again through the years of experience that we’ve had. And part of the reason that the sound doctrines are rejected is because of lust. Now notice, “...But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,...” because they have itching ears, and they will want to hear what they want to hear. And there are also teachers that have lust that want to teach the things that sound important to make themselves important, rather than to realize it’s God the Father and Jesus Christ that are the key and the importance and the Word of God to be preached. Not the self, and not to placate people’s human natures. But to show them the truth of God that they may change, that they may repent, that they may grow, that they may overcome.

But he says here, verse 5, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” So everyone who is a teacher or an elder has to make full proof of his ministry. In other words, it is to be proved and tested by the Word of God whether these things are so or not.

Now let’s look at something that’s really important for us to realize here. Let’s come back to Exodus 12, and let’s see what happened, beginning the first holy day. And then we will come to Exodus 14, and then we will see what happened on the last holy day. Now while we’re turning back to Exodus 12, I just want to mention something that a lot of people have come across. Now I came across this over 15 years ago by a man named Ron Wyatt. Now he did locate the place where Noah’s Ark finally settled on the mountains of Ararat, and he did locate the place where Sodom and Gomorrah was. And actually we were able to see some of the sulfur balls that you can just pick up on the ground down around where Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.

He has two false doctrines. One, a lying deception which we covered on the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that the blood of Christ was dripped upon the Ark of the Covenant that was buried in the subterranean caves below the temple. Well, the truth is, as we saw, that never happened, because Jesus Christ was not crucified anywhere near the place that it is alleged today that He was crucified. And the thing that is very important, that I forgot to mention, was that instead of the blood being sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, what happened was, Judas Iscariot (who was undoubtedly a priest, otherwise he would not be able to come into the temple area as he did), when he came in with the thirty pieces of silver, which was blood money, he cast them down into the temple - right toward the temple. So what was sprinkled at the temple was not the blood of Christ, because God was rejecting that system. And as a matter of fact, the very reason the veil was rent in two was to show that God was opening the way to the true Holy of Holies in heaven above, and that He was rejecting the whole temple system. So the truth of the matter is, when Judas Iscariot cast that blood money down, that was the sprinkling of money, which was blood money, instead of the blood of Christ.

Now let’s go on. Come back here to Exodus 12. Now we’ve already covered concerning the night much to be remembered. But let’s just review it here, beginning in verse 40. “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD...” (Ex. 12:40-42). And that’s the beginning of the 15th. Well now, we are going to see - just turn the page over here to Exodus 14 - and we are going to see that, likewise, as the children of Israel left Egypt by night, they also crossed the Red Sea at night.

Now let’s come here to Exodus 14, and let’s learn some of the lessons that God wants us to have in this season of the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And there are many tremendous lessons for us to learn, which we will learn from here and from the New Testament. And we will understand the Word of God even more. Now beginning in verse 10. You know the story. The children of Israel went out - oh, I need to finish the second heresy that this Ron Wyatt had. And it was that, where the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea was not where it is understood - where we understand that it was. But they traveled all the way down to the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula, and there was a little narrow bridge going across the Gulf of Aqaba over into Saudi Arabia. And that’s where Mount Sinai was, in Saudi Arabia. Well, the truth is, the distance is so far that in seven days for them to go that distance, they would have to travel with all of the animals and everything somewhere around seven and a half miles an hour, twenty-four hours a day to get there. So you see, once you do the math on that and figure out the distance, then we’re talking about another impossibility.

Now let’s look at what the scripture says concerning the children of Israel. And they were camped alongside the Red Sea. And sure enough, God brought them into a position that looked absolutely intractable. They had the mountains behind them, the mountains below in front of them, and then they had the Egyptians pursuing behind. And apparently they were all camped out along the side of the Red Sea. Because, as we’re going to learn, they crossed the Red Sea in a very short order. It was not along the, you know, very narrow single tract thing as Ron Wyatt wanted to think from the tip of the Sinai Peninsula across the Gulf of Aqaba. Nor as it is pictured in the movie, “The Ten Commandments”, where, you know, it’s just a little narrow ravine in the water. In order for them to get across with the million and a half people, to get across in that short of time, it had to be like a whole long column camped alongside the sea. And then they had to do what would be called a flanking movement to all walk across en masse in a long narrow column. But they went across the length of the column rather than the width of the column. So therefore, inopening the Red Sea, it was a tremendous opening. Not some just little cleavage of the water.

So here are the children of Israel. They are encamped right alongside the Red Sea. Pharaoh has decided, “Man. We let all these slaves go. Now what are we going to do?” You know. They weren’t accustomed to working. So it would be like us today, with totally without any of our appliances or electricity. You wouldn’t know what to do. Well Pharaoh and all the Egyptians didn’t know what to do. All of their servants and slaves were gone. So they said, “Boy. We still have chariots, we still have an army. Let’s go get them.” So they started out. Pharaoh and the Egyptians pursued after them.

Now let’s come to Exodus 14:10. “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid:...” Now many times, we’re going to see, God will put us into positions to see what we’re going to do. Or He will bring a trial upon us to see what we are going to do, to see how we’re going to handle it. And so we’re going to see that the whole meaning of the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is wrapped up in how God delivers us from Satan. Because Pharaoh would be likened unto Satan. And the armies of Pharaoh would be likened unto the demons that followed Satan. And the children of Israel, as we will see, be likened unto the church, because the church is spiritual Israel. But what happened with the children of Israel? Now look at the things that they said.

“And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt,...” In other words, “Hey, there were plenty enough places in Egypt for graves to be built for us to be put in, in case we died.” “...Hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?” (vs. 11). Now, you know some people have even said, “Well, I wonder why God called me? I’ve just had all this trouble since God called me.” It started out nice, just like on the first day of Unleavened Bread with the night much to be remembered, they left with a high hand. People are called, they find the truth, they understand it, they enjoy it, they taste it, it is good, it’s wonderful, it’s fine, it’s marvelous. And then somewhere down the road, just like with the children of Israel here, they were down the road on the way to the promised land, behold, a trial comes. And it’s a severe trial. And this is a difficult trial. So God has an answer here. And this is the answer for us.

Now notice, first thing they did was blame God and blame Moses. Now you would think that after seeing all the plagues and all the signs and wonders and the killing of the firstborn, both man and beast in Egypt, and how God brought them out of Egypt with a high hand, that they would have had a little more faith and say, “Oh, God, You’ve brought us this far; now if you took care of Pharaoh back there, and he’s coming now, we know You can take care of him here.” No, they didn’t. They complained to God. So whenever you come to a point in your life that you’re ready to complain to God, that you’re ready to gripe to God, that you’re ready to accuse God of doing something, remember verse 13 and 14. This is so important, and this is so powerful, and this is the meaning of the feast, the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not,...” Now we’re going to see God doesn’t want us to fear anything. God does not want us sitting around worrying, brooding, stewing, just being unable to take any action spiritually or physically.

“Fear ye not, stand still,...” Don’t go walking back to Egypt. Don’t be going back into the world. Stand in the grace that God has called you in, “...and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew unto you to day:...” And God will deliver you from your difficulties. God will deliver you from your problems. God will help you in every circumstance. “...For the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you,...” Now have you ever asked God to fight your battles for you? Now there are some battles that we have to do ourselves. But there are other battles that only God can fight. And there are other things that in praying about concerning trials and difficulties that we go through, we lay it before God and we claim His promise. Because this is a promise. This is a statement that if you belong to God, He will fight for you. “...And ye shall hold your peace” (vs. 13-14). In other words, stop your complaining. God will fight for you.

Now He demonstrated it right away. And what happened? He told Moses, “Now you go out and hold up your rod over the Red Sea.” And God caused the wind to blow all that night and spread back the Red Sea to where it was on dry land. And this happened at night. And there was the pillar of darkness toward the Egyptians, but the light of God to show the way in darkness and to show the way through difficult times and trials. God’s light was there. So this whole column of Israelites, then, as we will see, went across the Red Sea.

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 21. “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.” Howbeit, spread quite a distance apart. “And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them...” Now you see, when you trust in God, sometimes the problems don’t go away until the last minute. And sometimes it looks like the problem’s going to come and overtake you again. But you see, have no fear. Stand still and see the salvation of God. And all the Egyptians, yes - they went after them, “...to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud,...” (vs. 21-24).

Now then, what is the morning watch? Now there are three watches. You have the evening watch, which begins at six in the evening, or sunset. At this time of year the days are almost equally divided between light and dark, so the evening watch begins at six, when the sun goes down, till about ten o’clock. Then you have the night watch, which is from ten to two. And then you have the morning watch, which is from two till six. If any of you have been in the army, you know that’s to this day how they run the guards. They run them in shifts almost like that. Sometimes they’ll add an extra shift in and it will be three hours instead of four hours. So the morning watch is from two until six. So what happened, probably about one o’clock at night, or early in the morning, it was dry enough for the children of Israel to go across. Because they went across at night. And they went across in a very short time, so that by time we come to the morning watch God was looking down on the Egyptians. Now let’s read the rest of the account.

“...And troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. Now you see, isn’t that some great, powerful weapon? You see, God doesn’t need great weapons to put in your hands to rescue you. God needs you to have faith and obedience. So He said, “Moses, stretch forth your hand,” so he stretched forth his hand. So he had faith and obedience and did it. “...And the sea returned to his strength...” (vs. 24-27). Now that must have been a tremendous noise when all the waters came crashing back together and drowned all of the Egyptians.

Now let’s look at the time frame that we have here as we’re continuing. Verse 28, “And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day [the last day of the feast of Unleavened Bread] out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.” And of course, it was in the morning when that took place. “And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and His servant Moses” (vs. 28-31).

Now let’s look at some of the parallels that we have in the New Testament. Let’s come to Acts 26, and let’s see why God has called us. And there is going to be a reaction just like there was with Pharaoh. God called us for a tremendous purpose, to give us eternal life, to promise us a life, that when we are resurrected we will sin no more. Now that’s going to be something, to have a nature and a mind as God is. Now that’s something. We need to just sit and grasp how absolutely fantastic that is. Because at that time there will be no more human nature to overcome. There will be no more sin to fight. There will be no more Satan around to fight. But in this life we have to fight. In this life we have to trust God. In this life we have to have faith.

Now here, let’s pick it up here in verse 18. And here’s what Paul was saying in his defense, the reason why he preached, the reason why he did the things he did. “To open their eyes [that is, to the truth of God], and to turn them from darkness to light,...” Just like at the Red Sea. Darkness was with the enemy, light was with the people of God. “...And from the power of Satan unto God,...” And that’s exactly what God did with the children of Israel, and that’s exactly what God is doing with us, to deliver us from the power of Satan. And as we covered before, Satan cannot touch us, that is, to take us away from God. So we are delivered from the power of Satan. “...That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:18). So that’s a tremendous statement. And God has done that. God has given that. God has called us to that, you see.

Now let’s look at a parallel and how these lessons from the Old Testament we are to apply today. Let’s come to 1 Corinthians 10, and let’s see, perhaps maybe the lesson of the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that Paul gave, as we find here in 1 Corinthians 10. It talks about the very thing that we just read about there in Exodus 14. See, when you put the Bible together, just like we started, the law is a shadow of good things to come, or the coming good things. And so the Feast of Unleavened Bread is. Now 1 Corinthians 10:1, “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses...” Now you talk about a baptism ceremony, because they had the sea on each side of them and the cloud over the top of them. So that was a symbolic baptism, as it were. “...In the cloud and in the sea; and all did eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:1-4).

Now then, here is the lesson for us today for the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse 5, “But with many of them God was not well pleased:...” Why? Because they complained, they rebelled, they disobeyed, they took things into their own hands contrary to the Word of God, over and over and over again. So much so that God had to punish them instead of blessing them like He wanted to, with forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Now you talk about a frustrating, vain, empty, hollow, difficult, horrible time. Wandering forty years in the wilderness, and all of their dead bodies were strewn in the desert. God wants us to learn this. If you don’t have faith in God, you’re going to have a greater and more difficult time, than if you have faith in God. But here’s the key. See, they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now verse 6, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” Because, you see, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to put out sin, isn’t it? And the ultimate of putting out sin is, as we saw on the first holy day, is to overcome the lust, to bring it down, bring every thought into captivity to God. So here we have the lesson for the last holy day, you see. We’re not to lust after it, evil things, as they did.

“Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication,...” Now there are two kinds of fornication to commit. Physical, sexual fornication, and spiritual fornication. And Paul talks about the spiritual fornication here. He talks about the physical fornication back in 1 Corinthians 5. So we need not get involved in all of those things. “...As some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” And that was after Moses had to come down off Mount Sinai after God had given him the Ten Commandments. “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of [the destroyer] serpents.” And you tempt God how? By not believing in Him, by not obeying Him. By, as we’ll see here in just a bit, by complaining and murmuring and griping and criticizing God. Verse 10, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (vs. 7-11).

So there are lessons for us with this. So we need to ask the question, do we believe God? Do we trust Him in all circumstances, regardless of how difficult they are? Do we look to Him to fight our battles for us that are too big for us? When you have a trial or difficulty that comes, which is too much for you, do you go to God and say, “Oh, God, this is more than I can handle. Help me. Strengthen me. Give me wisdom. Give me understanding. Help me to walk in Your way, fight the battle for me. And I know that the ultimate fight is not just against flesh and blood...”, but as we’ll see, against wicked spirits in high places. And brethren, the day is coming when that is going to be a living reality in our lives, even much more so than the trials that we go through today.

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (vs. 12). Now you see, here’s a key. When you get so spiritually smug and self-satisfied that you think that you have it made, look out. Trouble’s going to come, and you need to be careful that you don’t fall. Now verse 13. Here’s the comfort. Now regardless of how difficult that it is, the trials that you have gone through…now I’ve been recently been reading the…I’ve got the three big volumes of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, sent to me by, as a gift, from a couple in Australia, which was really a tremendous thing. They’re about that thick and they’re about seventeen inches long, and about like that. And you go through, and you just turn the pages and you read about what all of those who were the martyrs for Christ and the martyrs of the saints have gone through. And how they looked upon it with great, in some cases, great anticipation because they knew that in giving their lives as a martyr, that Christ would receive them at the resurrection. And story after story, and I think in those three volumes there are thousands and thousands of accounts of perhaps the millions that were killed during those times. So if you think you have a problem, if you think you have a difficulty, if you think that your situation is so bad, maybe you even are at death’s door, and you know there are going to be a lot that are going to die. And that’s going to be your trial. But you’re not the first one to die. You won’t be the last one to die. Whether you die of natural causes or whether you are martyred, you have to trust in God to the end. Because those who endure to the end, they shall be saved.

Now here’s a promise. Whenever you have an extreme trial and difficulty, which you’re going to have…I’ve had them; others have had them. I have gone through many of them, brethren. So we can trust this. You open up the Scriptures and claim this promise. And you go to God and say, “God, I don’t really understand what I’m really going through, and this is a great difficulty for me. But You have promised.” And you read this verse, verse 13: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,...” God is faithful. You see, the children of Israel, in accusing God, were accusing Him of not being faithful, of not having the ability. But God has the ability. God has the power, and God is faithful, you see. “...Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, they ye may be able to bear it.”

So that’s a tremendous thing to understand. This is the promise of God. This ties right in exactly. See how this parallels with what we learned there in Exodus 14. That wasn’t such a big trial that God couldn’t deliver them. Even though they were right by the Red Sea. Even though they looked out and saw all the water. And of course they knew it was deep. But God showed them His salvation. God delivered them. And God destroyed the enemy because He fought for them.