Paying Attention To the Blood of the Lamb – the Authority … & Power … of God’s Word The Antidote Against the Work of the Voice of Unbelief
“You have come to … THE SPRINKLED BLOOD THAT SPEAKS … “ Heb. 12:22a, 24b (NASB)
“But against all of the sons of Israel A DOG will not [even] bark, ” Exodus 11:7a
“Then Caleb QUIETED (lit. also “HUSHED” {like the sudden Bark of a dog}) the people before Moses and SAID, “WE SHOULD BY ALL MEANS GO UP AND TAKE POSSESSION … . IF THE LORD IS PLEASED WITH US, THEN HE WILL BRING US INTO THIS LAND AND GIVE IT TO US unbracketed excerpt frm. Numbers 13:30, 14:7b-8 (NASB)
“See to it that you DO NOT REFUSE THE [ONE] SPEAKING” Hebrews 12:25
It is of a truth that the voice to whom we give “captured heart” swaying influence is that voice to whom we are giving weighty authority, to whatever degree, over our lives, over our heart’s believing. For this reason there is the exhortation from Father to guard, above ALL that is to be guarded, our hearts! (Pro.4:23). Because this guarding is literally a protecting from robbery of Divine promises for this life. The promises of God all are “Yes“ to us from Him, with absolutely NO shifting or turning away from this oath, (II Cor. 1:20; James 1:17). If, then, we let this Promise, His Word of “YES” to us to all that His Son’s sacrificed blood purchased for us, take deep root, we will emphatically declare “Amen“ from that tap root out of our very lips … and let nothing of this age – no bad news of giants, no gasps of unbelief – steal our Heavenly Father’s promise from out of our hearts.
I cannot get away from the mandate of Holy Spirit for this year: “See to it that you DO NOT REFUSE the (One) speaking“! There is, in the historical context of Hebrews 12, from which this quote is taken, a refusal request, to not hear. But when you see the contrast, that is, exactly what the people of God did not want to hear, and then understand the Voice we’re told not refuse, your heart will take hold of this exhortation to us from the Scriptures. Accordingly, you will see why there was an authority in Caleb, which, I believe, IS the authority of Holy Spirit’s word to us from Hebrews 12:25.
There is a link in the Scriptures between the voice of the sprinkled blood of the Lamb and Caleb’s sudden bark some months later, which, for a moment, shut up raging fire unbelief sweeping through the people … and ALSO captured the very ears of God! Seeing the link to Caleb put me in awe of God. Follow the scriptures carefully to understand the context.
“And the LORD spoke … saying, “Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘… they shall take to them every man a lamb, … the fourteenth day of the same month… the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.” For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, … I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token [אֹת] 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 smite the land of Egypt.’ ” ” excerpt frm. Ex. 12:1-13 (AKJV)
“And Moses said, ‘Thus says the LORD, “About midnight will I go out into the middle of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not A DOG move his tongue, against man or beast: that you may know how that the LORD does put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” ‘ ” excerpt frm. Ex 11:4-7 (AKJV)
Does it not seem a bit odd that the LORD would refer, of all things, to a dog not barking in the context of a sacrificed lamb’s blood having been sprinkled on the doorposts of His own people’s dwellings in order to show upon whom judgment is NOT being carried out? It is apparent, then, that where judgment was indeed going to touch the homes which did not have the sprinkled blood of the Lamb, the dogs of those households would actually KNOW something strange was going on, and show it so by their barking.
When I saw Exodus 11:7 in the Hebrew text, I was stunned because I was seeing Caleb’s name. This is the very first use of the word in all of scripture. I do not believe this is haphazard chance. The Hebrew word for “dog” is “keleb” – כֶּלֶב . Caleb’s name, “Kaleb” – כָּלֵב – is derived from this. Its root refers to the “bark” of a dog. Would the Israelites hear, from the midnight hour on, the sudden barking of dogs in the distance, where the Egyptians were living … and realize their own dogs weren’t barking, to realize that it was that barking in the distance that noted the judgement commencing, and spreading, … and not touching their area?
If one person paid attention to that night, and the following morning in seeing the multitude of Egyptians out burying their first born sons, if there was one man who let be scarred upon his heart that it was the Lamb’s blood that had been sprinkled on their doorposts, the very Word of Promise by YHVH, the only True and Living God, that was actually finally setting his people free from centuries of hard slavery, I believe that man was Caleb. Somehow this man let the impact of the sprinkled blood of the lamb, on their dwellings specifically, be so planted into him, that it, from that night on, became the seed, root, and oak tree he would become, a new birth transformation seeded from YHVH’s own character unto them. Caleb saw something of the authority and power of God’s word in the Blood of the Lamb that became a backbone of steel into the integrity of YHVH, from which Caleb would never back down. It was a knowing that such incredible, unprecedented favor was being opened up from heaven and poured out upon his entire nation. If YHVH did this, then such awesome goodness was only the beginning of the MORE He had in store for them. God would never go to such great lengths to show such a deliverance to his people, and then shift or turn from such character.
YHVH, their God, was intent on keeping a promise, a covenant cut in blood, that HE HIMSELF made to their forefather, Abraham ( see Gen. 15, Gen. 22. / “God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham …” ” God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham …say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD … and I will bring you out from under the burdens … and I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham … I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.’ ” ” Excrpts frm Ex.2:24 & 6:2-8). Why was He so Adamant to keep His Word to them? Because THAT blood … carried HIS Voice, GOD‘s Own covenant oath … through every single generation of Abraham’s seed all the way to Caleb’s day, to Caleb’s lifetime, TO CALEB’S PEOPLE! The blood of the ram, a male sheep, which sacrifice the LORD God provided for Abraham up on Mt. Moriah, carried an eternal weightiness of God’s very own character. That weightiness of such unprecedented authority bore witness thru this seed of Abraham who’d sprinkled lamb’s blood to both protect them from the destroying angel judging Pharaoh and Egypt AND to set them free from several centuries of slavery …. IN ORDER TO GET THEM INTO THAT BLOOD VOICED DECREED INHERITANCE!!
It is what was to take place at Mt. Sinai, in the LORD’s first giving of the Law, the 10 commandments, that would bring such fear in the hearts of the people that they would beg Moses to tell the LORD not to speak (directly) to them, but rather for Moses to go hear for them.
“So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, SO THAT ALL THE PEOPLE who were in the camp TREMBLED. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; … and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder .” frm Exodus 19:16-19 (NASB)
At this point the people hear the Ten Commandments, from Exodus chapter 20:2 -17, being literally thundered at them. And v18 continues,
“And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.’ And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.’ So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.” frm Exodus 20:18-21 (NASB)
“These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick gloom, with a great voice. … And it came about when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, … and you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives. Now then why should we die? … Go near and hear all that the LORD our God says; then speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, AND WE WILL HEAR‘ … And the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, ‘… Oh that they had such a heart…‘” excrpt frm Deuteronomy 5 22-29 (NASB)
God was ALWAYS after their hearing HIM! … and knew this was NOT in their heart. Yes, the terror of His Voice, in the view and sounds of the giving of the Law, was way more than they could bear. I believe the Law is exactly this, that it yells at you. But the voice of Grace, the Shalom peace, felt even by their own dogs that Passover night back in Egypt, was a rested calm in the midst of pouring-out judgement.
Even so, it was already not on this people’s heart to hear YHVH, such Awesome God of them, save Caleb and Joshua, and Moses. The people had not paid attention, had not let their hearts take hold of that passover night, the authority and power of God’s word, YHVH’s Living Voice, through that sacrificed lamb’s blood sprinkled, by they themselves, on their doorposts, which had kept their own dogs in a silent peace, even in the midst of the barking of the Egyptians’ dogs in the distance.
By the time the people had journeyed north from Sinai towards the promised land (Num. 10-12), they’d been grumbling and murmuring continually about a number of issues that annoyed them; they were doing nothing to set their hearts to grow from faith to faith in readying themselves to go into the land to possess the inheritance destined for them by promise while they’d still been slaves in Egypt (Ex. 6). Thus, with the return of the spies from having seen just how amazing their inheritance really was, the yelling voices, as it were, of 10 of the 12 spies became the gasps of unbelief in the hearts and minds of the people who were giving them their undivided heart’s attention, thus making bigger than their slavery delivering God the giants being meticulously described … which giants had not even moved Caleb’s heart one smidge from out of bold believing when his own eyes laid on them … those giants he himself would annihilate some forty-five years later … when he was … 85! (Josh. 14:6-15)
Caleb’s sudden bark, to shut-up the voices of unbelief from robbing the truth of the LORD’s unmerited favor, in Numbers 13:30, so as to Grace His people to indeed be able to go and possess, IS the voice of the blood of the Lamb! That generation did not realize that their dogs that didn’t bark in Egypt, and this Caleb, who was now barking at them in order to bring them back under that Passover night’s Shalom-barkless peace, was all meant to capture their hearts that God their LORD’s intention towards them WAS NOT JUDGEMENT!!! Yet that generation choose to believe evil about God, refusing to give hearts’ ear to the ONE SPEAKING … and consequently died NEVER getting to enter into the rest of the awesome GOODNESS of God, a destiny of REALITY for this life for them to possess.
YHVH sustained, literally, the youth of Caleb, along with Joshua, because they believed in, let fill their hearts to the full, the eternal integrity of the LORD towards them, God’s very own voice decree, in the sprinkled blood of the lamb.
—Oh, Beloved, we have been so intimidated by this life’s giants, this age’s voices, that tell us that “REALITY” is truth, as if our LORD Jesus’s blood sacrifice is only a Sunday morning Bible story instead of every day Kingdom power for us, towards us, through us, to affect, to literally, in reality, see manifest, the broken chains of this age’s “REALITY”. In the face of the real giants, that actually did exist, Caleb remembered, and thus recalled to everyone else’s remembrance, the favor of God upon them because of the power of the sacrificed lamb’s blood sprinkled that had set them free from an iron chain of slavery, from which they themselves had never been able to break. What God their LORD began for them, He was able, and more than bursting at the heart willing, to complete! (Phil. 1:6). Caleb’s bark was and is the “AMEN” to this Grace-Truth REALITY!
—Let the living-inside-you Holy Spirit of our LORD Jesus Christ set this as a backbone of steel into your believing.
—And watch God so glorify Jesus, His Speaking blood, through your lips, because of your captivated heart to His Voice Alone, to a world hungry to taste and see that God’s crazy awesome goodness IS a greater reality for this life!
You are greatly Loved. Mark Dingemans
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** – Beloved, take the time to go through these scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit write them and bear witness to them in your hearts and minds. Let the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you wash through you and renew your mind. These blogs are meant to be Bible studies, so you are free to print up any newsletter of this blog site for your own study. Feel free to copy and reset these Newsletter with lines in them for notes.
For those of you who have believed into Jesus; take communion often (I Cor. 11:23-26; Lk. 24:30-31a). Let communion be a refreshing of the Blood and the Spirit (Heb. 9:14) to cleanse your conscious from sin consciousness to righteousness consciousness, that you are indeed clean, as a gift of His grace. You are no more, Dearly Beloved, under condemnation; rather, you are under justification – eternally! (Rom. 4:25b, 5:21;b; Heb. 9:11-12). You will find the Holy Spirit of Jesus unveiling Jesus to you from the scriptures like you’ve never seen Him before.
If you have never believed into Jesus Christ, you can do so now, from your own heart and words. If you wish to help to pray, pray, “LORD Jesus, I believe You died for me and as me because You love me. I receive Your Forgiveness for my sin. Thank You for shedding Your blood to cleanse me, for making me clean, for breaking the power of sin in my life, for transforming me as a gift of Your Grace to me. I ask You to live inside of me. I thank You, Jesus, for giving me eternal life, that I might know You and Your Father, as my God, forever. In Your Name, LORD Jesus. Amen!”
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877 Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”. Some definitions given to Hebrew words are also referenced from this website, as well as from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Baker Book House Company, (C) 1979
Several Translations and study guides to which this author refers are taken from biblehub.com website
REB – Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible – 1902