Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

We live in a world that’s rather hostile to God’s word. Many men are so full of pride, right in their own eyes, and so filled with the vain philosophies of men (statism, socialism, etc) that they avoid the word of God, almost subconsciously knowing it would indict them of their worldly errors. They fight against it and refuse to soften their hearts and consider the divine counsel of the Lord. They want to remain in their ignorance. And they get upset when someone challenges their secular and statist understanding of the world. They are more content believing in lies. They say, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions” (Isaiah 30:10). They want to believe they know how the world works without ever having consulted God’s holy word. So they inevitably run into overt sinners like John Maynard Keynes or Karl Marx and believe their false ideas explain the world. And “by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive” (Romans 16:18). We are dealing with men who “turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:4).

Our largely ungodly or “secular” world abounds with the notion that God’s word is ancient, archaic, irrelevant, or something of the like, and that “science” or “philosophy” has replaced this relic of religious history with a “correct” or “modern” understanding of our world. So it is no easy job of telling people these truths in a world of state-worshipers, socialists, atheists, and people who in general neglect to understand the world in terms of God; these people are all the subjects of numerous prophetic ministries in the scriptures and are indicted as guilty. They don’t want to hear the verdict that God has for their ungodly ways. As one king of Israel said of God’s prophets, “I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad” (1 Kings 22:8). Men don’t like to hear that their reliance on the political means of protection is to abandon God. And they will often punish them for it. “[King] Asa was angry with the [prophet] and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison” (2 Chronicles 16:10).

The prevailing ideas of men make it hard for us to reach them. They are convinced of their own rightness, that they have discovered the truth in some philosophy of men. According to all these lost souls, their ideas—statism, socialism, patriotism, republicanism, constitutionalism, violent intervention, political plunder in general, paganism, new age, etc—are right and ours are worthy of ridicule. Anyone ready to minister God’s radical word in a world of idolaters must know what they’re getting themselves into. As the prophet Jeremiah said, “I am a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me” (Jeremiah 20:7; cf. Lam. 3:14). As a similar Psalm says, “All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads” (Psalm 22:7). 

The risks of ministering God’s word

We should expect that we will not be received well in a world filled with people who are deceived by the Satanic philosophy of statism and all its varieties (e.g., socialism, communism, fascism, democracy, republicanism). We should expect to be “scorned by men and despised by the people” (Psalm 22:6). We should expect to endure “much scorn from the arrogant [and] much contempt from the proud” (Psalm 123:4). We should expect, in a surveillance state society, that men might even come against us and say, “report him; let us report him!” (Jeremiah 20:10). We should expect that “all my trusted friends watch for my fall” (Jeremiah 20:10). 

When we confront the world with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is a natural enemy to the false kingdoms of the world, we should expect that these rulers and their “religious” cronies will come out against us. This is what happened to the prophet Jeremiah, who preached judgment upon the statist order of the day, against a ruling elite who, of course, wanted to maintain the narrative that everything was going just fine in their statist societies, which we know eventually go belly-up.

“Now the priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD, and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, ‘You must surely die! How dare you prophesy in the name of the LORD that this house will become like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted!’ And all the people assembled against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they went up from the king’s palace to the house of the LORD and sat there at the entrance of the New Gate. Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, ‘This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears!’”

Prophesying and persecution

The nature of God’s prophets, both the Biblical prophets and those of us today who carry on His word to the people, is necessarily to prophesy against the City of Man — to preach to the people and the rulers that they are on the wide path of destruction and headed to hell, and need to seek the Kingdom of God to avert the utter disaster that is assured of their artificial, statist societies. One reason for the danger in prophesying—this means to express God’s will just as much as the common understanding of foreseeing into the future—is that they were all called to preach judgment upon the kingdoms of men (i.e., States) that, like ours today, are systems of ungodly plunder. God sends His prophets to men (who usually don’t want to hear it) to tell them of the consequences for their idolatry (e.g., state-worshiping), to tell them that statism leads to destruction. Here’s one example from Jeremiah. 

“Proclaim there the words I speak to you, saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind. So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’ Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you, and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them. This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods. Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people, This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words'” (Jeremiah 19:2-15).

This was, naturally, a dangerous job — one that many people in our day avoid in order to not disrupt their friendships as well as to remain friends with the world that they should be criticizing (shamefully, this is true even those who consider themselves servants of the Lord). They would rather keep quiet in Egypt so they can stay safe, earn good money, save for a retirement, and not be harassed by Pharaoh, rather than be as Moses and lead their people out of Egypt and put an army on their trail. It’s easier for most to sit around eating ice cream, watching football, and succumbing to the Romans’ entertainment programs than to make a move for the kingdom of God. Because speaking out—sharing God’s radically anti-statist word with people who largely worship the beast system—risks persecution. 

“When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks” (Jeremiah 20:1-2).

But this didn’t cause Jeremiah to stop preaching the truth—that God brings harsh judgment upon evil societies based in violence—to the false prophets, the lost sheep statists, and the kings themselves. He was right back at it again. 

“The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies'” (Jeremiah 20:3-6).

Men of God say, “so be it” if the worldly statists laugh at us; we have to preach the truth anyway, and maybe one day they will come to see it. “So be it” if the statists are preying upon us; maybe they will come to repent themselves. 

Our calling to minister God’s word

No matter what may come upon us, the scriptures call us to preach God’s word and to bless His name everywhere we go, in hopes that men may come to the word of God and return to the Lord.

“Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence” (Isaiah 62:6).

And I repeat

“Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence” (Isaiah 62:6).

Amen. Heard, Lord. We won’t shut up nor stop pursuing You.

Anyone who becomes acquainted with God’s word has to make the decision on whether they are going to keep quiet and safely go about their lives, which may help them avoid persecution but won’t keep the prison society from advancing; or whether they are going to let everyone know what God thinks about statism and risk whatever they must in doing so, and maybe help turn back the evils that have come upon us in the process.

For those who know God and want to serve Him, for those who know that we live in an Egyptian plunder society and that God wants us to teach others of the captivity, there is really no other choice: We have to speak up. We cannot neglect to warn others of the statist plunder that we live under. As Jeremiah said, “Whenever I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and plunder” (Jeremiah 20:8). Amen. Praise God.

Keeping silent isn’t an option for men who see what’s going on in God’s word, e.g., that men keep bringing their societies into statist bondage by worshiping human rulers as “gods.”

Jeremiah weighed this option and had to write it off. 

“If I say, ‘I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name,’  His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail” (Jeremiah 20:9). 

Amen. God’s word ought to be an uncontainable fire in our bones! Praise God for giving us this fire!

God’s protection

While we should understand God’s word and the dangers of ministering it, at the same time we should operate with the conviction that God is with us and fear not what men may do to us. God will take care of our enemies for us. As the prophet said, 

“The LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame, with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten. O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous, who sees the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause” (Jeremiah 20:11-12).

Amen. God is so good to us. Let us share His word even in adversity — even in the middle of an Egyptian occupation force. 

Prayer

Lord God, we pray for Your protection as we minister Your word to people. We know there are great risks involved in doing so. But God forbid we should forsake You and allow the lies of the false prophets to spread. You have given us a beautiful example in the courage of Your prophets. Anything You want of us, we will do. Tell us what You want us to tell others, and we will hear and speak. But we do ask for Your protection. We will need it. We realize there are many men who fight against these truths, and many others who see them as a threat to their political control societies. Please, Lord Jesus Christ, our King, watch over us as we move throughout the world down below and try to awaken the sheep and bring them back to You. Put the armor of God on us and be our shield as we teach others Your ways. Furthermore, Lord, help spread this word that we are writing in Your name, so that it is not in vain that we risk persecution. You will exalt it if You desire. See to it that at least a few men are brought to the light before our enemies attack us. Amen.