Outline of The Principle, Level 4

by Rev. C. H. Kwak

 

Chapter 12
Moses in the Dispensation for Restoration

I. God Uses A Model Course In His Dispensation

The Reason for Establishing the Model Course

The purpose of the Dispensation for Restoration is ultimately accomplished when man fulfills his responsibility and thus obtains Satan's voluntary submission and has dominion over him. However, Satan did not obey or submit to God, and later he would not obey or submit to Jesus, who would come as a First Ancestor and a True parent. Certainly he would not submit to anyone else. Being man's creator, God therefore assumed the responsibility to make Satan submit.

God established Jacob as the representative through whom he would show the model course for subjugating Satan. This sheds light on the meaning of Amos 3:7, which says, "'Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.'" There is far more to the entire course by which Jacob led Esau to submit than Jacob's individual efforts. It is the model course worked by God, through Jacob, to show the way to gain the voluntary submission of Satan, working through Esau. Jacob's course for subjugating Satan is the pattern that Moses followed on the national level, And Jesus, the Messiah, came to teach all of mankind how to elicit Satan's voluntary submission. As man's True Father, or First Ancestor, the Messiah has to pioneer the course that will be the pattern for all mankind to follow in substantially subjugating Satan. Jesus himself substantially subjugated Satan by following the model course that God had already shown through Jacob and Moses. In the same manner, any person can make Satan submit by following the course of Jesus. Acts 3:22 tells us that Moses said, "'..."The Load God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in Whatever he tells you. "'" This is a reference to the coming Messiah (Jesus), who was to follow Moses' course. In John 5:19 Jesus said that he was following the pattern that God had shown through Moses' model course: "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the son does likewise. '"Moses was the model that Jesus followed.

From an external viewpoint, it may seem that Jacob was merely the head of a family in a tribal age, whereas Moses was the leader of the Israelite nation, and Jesus was the Messiah. Yet, these three men did follow similar patterns in their life courses, because God had set up a model course in his dispensation.

II. Moses' And Jesus' Courses Followed The Pattern Of Jacob's Course

As already stated, Jacob's course was a course to elicit Satan's submission. Any course for subjugating Satan must follow the path which is the reverse of the one by which Satan gained his wrongful dominion. Let us compare the courses that Moses and Jesus took with the model course of Jacob.

A. When Adam and Eve did not keep God's commandment and did not overcome the trials of temptation from the archangel, they fell. At the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob fought an angel at the risk of his life and gained the victory over him-then receiving the name of Israel (Gen 32:25-28). God tested Jacob by placing the angel in the position of Satan, and consequently the victory in that struggle indemnified the trials which Adam and Eve had failed to pass. The purpose of the trial was not to drive Jacob into misery but to establish Jacob as the person who could complete restoration on the family level by having him restore dominion over the angel. In order for Moses to become the person who could complete the national restoration of Canaan, he also had to overcome a trial at the risk of his life, a trial in which God tried to have him killed (Ex 4:24-26). And in order for Jesus to become the person who could complete the world-wide restoration of Canaan and lead all mankind to the Kingdom of Heaven, he also had to win a fight against Satan at the risk of his life. He did this through his forty days in the wilderness (Mt 4:1-11).

B. The Fallen Nature was formed because of the spiritual and physical falls. Jacob and Moses had to meet certain conditions in order to eliminate symbolically the Fallen Nature. In buying the birthright from Esau, Jacob used bread and lentil pottage (Gen 25:34) to initiate the course of indemnity for the Foundation of Substance, the bread and pottage symbolizing the fresh and the spirit. In order to initiate the course for the Foundation of Substance in his course, Moses gave the Israelites manna and quail, the manna and quail again symbolizing the fresh and the spirit. John 6:49-53 shows that Jesus followed this model course: "'Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died....unless you eat the fresh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you....'" In the world-wide course of restoration, fallen man can meet the Indemnity Condition to Remove the Fallen Nature only by believing absolutely in Jesus and living as he instructed (Jn 3:16, Mt 28:19,20).

C. Because of the Fall, even man's dead body belongs to Satan. However, because Jacob was already blessed and sanctified, when his body was embalmed for forty days and he was mourned (Gen 50:2,3), the condition for his dead body to be separated from Satan was also met. Since Moses followed Jacob's model course, on the foundation of his merits, he also met the condition for his body to be separated from Satan. Thus, the archangel fought with Satan for Moses' body (Jude 1:9). And, accordingly, after Jesus' death there were also unusual phenomena that occurred concerning his body (Mt 28:12,13).

D. Because of the fall of the first human ancestors (during their growing period), Satan gained wrongful dominion over man. To indemnify this, God designed conditions based on the numbers that represent the length of the invaded period. Thus, in the process of restoration through indemnity, God has worked his dispensation by having man meet the numerical conditions that represent that period.

For example, when Jacob returned from Haran to Canaan, there was a three-day period of separation from Satan (Gen 31:22), that period being the period necessary to initiate a new dispensation. There was a three-day period of the same kind when Moses initiated the course to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan (Ex 5:3). Also, Jesus spent three days in the tomb (Lk 18:33) to separate from Satan before beginning his world-wide course of the spiritual restoration of Canaan.

Jacob had twelve sons in order to restore in his lifetime (horizontally) the vertical indemnity conditions of the twelve generations from Noah to his time, which had ended up being claimed by Satan. For the same reason, there were twelve tribes under Moses (Ex 24:4), and Jesus had twelve apostles (Mt 10:1).

Satan's wrongful control of the seven-day period of creation was indemnified by Jacob's having seventy family members (Gen 46:27), by Moses' having seventy elders (Ex 24:1), and by Jesus' having seventy disciples (Lk 10:1), each group taking the central role in its respective course of restoration.

E. The staff, which is capable of smiting injustice, pointing out the way, and providing support, is a symbol of God's Word, and thus, a symbol of the Messiah to come. Jacob entered the land of Canaan leaning on his staff as he crossed the Jordan (Gen 32:10), and Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea with his staff (Ex 14:16), This foreshadows fallen mankind's crossing from the sinful world into the ideal world, led by the Messiah and depending on the Messiah, who smites injustice. Jesus, who smites injustice as the "rod of iron" (Rev 2:27; 12:5), had to lead all mankind from the world of suffering, across the troubled sea of this world, into the ideal world.

F. Eve's sin was the root of sin, which bore fruit when Cain killed Abel. Thus, Satan invaded man and produced the fruit of sin through a mother and son. According to the principle of restoration through indemnity, a mother and son should reverse this course, by mutually cooperating to bring about separation from Satan. Thus, it was by his mother's initiative and through her cooperation that Jacob received the blessing and was able to meet the condition for separating from Satan (Gen 27:43). And through the cooperation of his mother, Moses came to be in a position to fulfill God's will (Ex 2:2). Jesus also was helped by his mother in fulfilling his mission (Mt 2:13).

G. The central person in the Dispensation for Restoration must follow a course of restoration that leads from the satanic world to the heavenly world. Jacob walked the course of restoration from Haran to Canaan (Gen 31-33), and Moses walked the course from Egypt to Canaan (Ex 3:8). Jesus also offered his whole life to transform the satanic world into the ideal world.

H. The final goal of the Dispensation for Restoration is to completely demolish Satan. Therefore, Jacob buried idols representing Satan under an oak tree (Gen, 35:4), Moses destroyed the idol of the golden calf (Ex 32:20), and Jesus, through his words and power, was to annihilate the sinful world and gain Satan's surrender.

III. The Dispensation For Restoration Centered On Moses

A. Overview of the Dispensation

The principle of the Dispensation for Restoration was the same in Moses' time as in the previous dispensation, in that he had to restore the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance in order to establish the Foundation for the Messiah. However, in the Dispensation for Restoration centered on Moses, we discover that there are two differences from the previous dispensations. First, Moses stood on the successful Foundation for the Messiah which had already been established by Isaac's family, and the merit of this completed work applied toward Moses' meeting his own indemnity conditions. Second, the level of the dispensation had expanded from the family level to the national level. God chose Moses to lead the Israelites from the satanic world of Egypt into Canaan, which represented the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, God worked his dispensation to restore the Kingdom of Heaven (Canaan) on a national level.

1. The Foundation of Faith

a. The central person for restoring the Foundation of Faith

Moses was the central person who had to restore the Foundation of Faith. However, God appointed Moses to a dispensational position somewhat different from that held by the previous central persons, Adam, Noah, and Abraham. First of all, Moses stood in a position representing God, even "be[ing] as" God (Ex 4:16; 7:1); secondly, Moses was the model for Jesus. That is, since God's spirit would dwell in Jesus, then God's establishing Moses as his representative means establishing Moses as the model for Jesus.

b. The Required Offering for the Foundation of Faith

Because of his special dispensational position, Moses did not have to make a symbolic offering of things as Abel, Noah, and Abraham did. He was able to restore the Foundation of Faith by fulfilling a forty-based indemnity period of separation from Satan. There are two reasons for this.

First, Moses stood on the foundation of the three successful symbolic material offerings by Abel, Noah, and Isaac. Second, with the establishing of the victorious Foundation for the Messiah by Isaac's family, the age had passed in which a sacrifice was the offering required in place of the Word, and Moses had entered the age in which God's Word was to be received directly. In other words, the Dispensational Age of the Foundation for Restoration had ended and the Dispensational Age of Restoration had begun.

Since the Dispensation had been delayed so long--even from the time of Adam--an indemnity condition was necessary to restore this long span of Satan's invasion, It had to be a condition based on the number forty, which is the number that symbolizes separation from Satan. In the Dispensational Age of Restoration, the Foundation of Faith could be restored through indemnity by man's remaining united with God's Word during a period of separation from Satan, a period based on the number forty, instead of by his making a material offering.

2. The Foundation of Substance

The central person for the dispensation to establish the national Foundation of Substance was Moses himself. As was already explained, Moses was the central person responsible for establishing the Foundation of Faith, which is the vertical relationship with God. In doing so, he was in the position of Jesus, because he was standing as God to the people (Ex 4:16; 7:1). For that reason, Moses was in the position of a parent to the Israelite nation. Yet, as a prophet with the mission of pioneering the way for Jesus, Moses was also in the position of a child to Jesus. Therefore, he was also able to be the central person, or stand in the Abel position, for the national Foundation of Substance. This is the same principle that applied when Abel, in the parent position, successfully made the offering and established the Foundation of Faith which originally should have been established by Adam.

If the Israelites, in the Cain position, had loved Moses and had obeyed him absolutely after he established the Abel position for the Foundation of Substance, then the Indemnity Condition for Removing the Fallen Nature on the level of the nation would have been met, Moses' vertical relationship with God would have been established in the horizontal order among Moses and the people, and the national Foundation of Substance would have been established.

3. The Foundation for the Messiah

If Moses had passed through a forty-period for separation from Satan centered on God's Word, then The indemnity condition to restore the national Foundation of Faith would have been met. If the Israelites, centered on the victorious Moses, had restored the Foundation of Substance, then the national Foundation for the Messiah would have been established. On this foundation, the Israelites were to receive the Messiah and be reborn and cleansed of the Original Sin. Then they Would have realized the Original Nature and would have become perfect persons. However, the Israelites did not trust Moses, and the national course of the restoration of Canaan ended up being prolonged two times.

B. The First Course of the National Restoration of Canaan

In order for Moses to become the central person representing the Israelites for the course of indemnity that would restore the national Foundation of Faith, Moses spent forty years in the Pharaoh's palace, the center of the satanic world. Although to the world he was a prince because he was raised as the son of Pharaohs daughter (Ex 2:10), Moses was actually raised by his own mother, who lived in the palace as his nurse, and she instilled in him a deep awareness of the God of Israel and of his heritage as one of the chosen people. Finally, he left the palace, preferring to suffer with God's people rather than to enjoy the sinful, ephemeral pleasures of pharaoh's palace (Heb 11:24). Through his forty years in the palace, Moses fulfilled the forty-period of separation from Satan and restored the Foundation of Faith.

In establishing the Foundation of Faith, Moses at the same time qualified himself for the Abel position in the Foundation of substance. The Israelites, who were in the Cain position, had to faithfully submit to and obey Moses, who was in the Abel position. They would have become one with Moses and they would have inherited God's Will. This would have restored the national Foundation of Substance. If this had been done, the Foundation of Substance would have been established during the period of the Israelites' return to Canaan under the leadership of Moses.

With this purpose in mind, Moses fulfilled the condition for starting the dispensation. Moses confirmed his determination before God and the Israelites when he killed an Egyptian that he saw beating a Hebrew (Ex 2:12).1 After seeing Moses act in such a way, the Israelites should have trusted and united with Moses. Then, through Moses, they would have been told by God to travel to the promised land of Canaan by the direct route through the territory of the Philistines, and they would not have had to go the longer way across the Red Sea and through the wilderness of Sinai. By their uniting with Moses during a twenty-one-day journey to Canaan, the Foundation of Substance would have been successfully established, and this course would have indemnified Jacob's twenty-one-year course in Haran, Exodus 13:17 says, "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land or the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, 'Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt.'" This passage shows that God's original plan was to have them take the route through the land of the Philistines, which was a faster, more direct route.

However, instead of trusting Moses, the Israelites exposed Moses' killing, and Moses had to escape from Pharaoh, as recorded in Exodus 2:15, "When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses." Moses went to hide in the wilderness of Midian, and thus the first course of the national restoration of Canaan could not even begin.

C. The Second Course of the National Restoration of Canaan

1. The Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance

Because the first course of the national restoration of Canaan could not even begin, the forty-year period of indemnity which Moses had established for the Foundation of Faith while he was in Pharaoh's palace was invaded by Satan. Therefore, Moses had to establish a second forty-year period of separation from Satan. He did so through his life in exile in the wilderness of Midian. through this he was able to restore the Foundation of Faith for the second national course.

At the end of this period, God appeared to Moses and said,

...I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites....And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the son of Israel, out of Egypt. (Ex 3:7-10)

Through his forty years in the wilderness of Midian, Moses restored the Foundation of Faith and at the same time established his position as the central person for the Foundation of substance. God's dispensation began with Moses' establishing the foundation to start the course of national restoration by striking the Egyptians with three miracles and ten disasters (Ex 4, 7-11). The Israelites witnessed these and came to realize that Moses was the true leader sent by God. on this basis, the second course of the national restoration of Canaan was finally able to begin. However, the fact that the Israelites were at last following Moses did not mean that the Indemnity Condition for Removing the Fallen Nature was an accomplished fact. Satan was able to invade during this dispensational course and caused this long period to be handed over to him. To restore this lost indemnity period on a national basis, the Israelites, in Cain's position, had to submit to Moses, obey him, and remain one with him throughout the entire period, until their arrival in the land of Canaan. consequently, the Israelites had to enter Canaan having been obedient to Moses during their entire course in the wilderness. Only then could the national Foundation of Substance have been established.

God already knew that, although the Israelites trusted Moses enough to begin the journey to the land of Canaan, they did not have complete faith in him. God was afraid that if they went via the direct route, their fear of battle (Ex 13:17) would revive their faithlessness, and they might easily return to Egypt and leave his dispensation unaccomplished. For this reason, God instead led them across the Red Sea and through the Sinai wilderness, even though it would take more time. God continually showed them his grace by performing miracles. He was trying to make it difficult for them to fall into disbelief and go back to Egypt. As a result, Moses started the Israelites on what should have been a twenty-one month course through the wilderness.

2. The Tabernacle in the Dispensation for Restoration

At the beginning of the third month after the Israelites had left Egypt, they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai. There, God gave Moses special directions. God told him to consecrate the people (Ex 19:10) and reinforce their faith. Then Moses went up Mount Sinai with seventy elders and met God (Ex 24:9,10). There, God showed his glory to his people, as we find expressed in Exodus 24:15-17:

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and....the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

This was also to show them that God was personally working with them. God took these measures so that the people of Israel could have absolute trust in him.

God called Moses to the mountaintop and asked him to fast for forty days so that he could receive the two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments (Ex 24:18). During the time that Moses fasted on the mountain, he received instruction from God concerning the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle (Ex 25-31). When the forty-day fast was over, he received two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments engraved on them (Ex 31:18). When Moses came down from the mountain, he found that the Israelites had already lost their faith in God and were worshipping a golden calf as their god (Ex 32:2-4). During the forty days that their leader was away from them, the Israelites had lost their faith and rebelled against the very God who had guided them with so many miracles. When Moses say this, he was greatly angered, and at the foot of the mountain, he threw the tablets to the ground, breaking them (Ex 32:19).

God appeared to Moses again and gave him instructions to cut out of stone two tablets like the first (Ex 34:1). After Moses finished his second forty-day fast, he gain received the Ten Commandments, written on the two tablets. The Israelites then built the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle, with the tablets as the core.

a. The significance of the tablets and the arch of the covenant

(i) The significance of the tablets

Adam and Eve were created by the Word. If they had perfected themselves, they would have become perfect incarnations of the Word. However, because of the Fall, they lost the Word.

The tablets inscribed with God's Commandments, which Moses received after the forty-period of separation from Satan, have a special meaning. They are the substantial representation of the Word, symbolically representing the restoration of Adam and Eve from the satanic world. Thus, the two tablets, as symbols of Adam and Eve, also symbolize Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who would come as the substantial incarnations of the Word. This is the reason that Jesus is symbolized as the "white stone" (Rev 2:17) and the "Rock" (1 Cor 10:4).

Moses' receiving the tablets with God's Words also demonstrates that the Dispensational Age of the Foundation of Restoration had passed. In other words, the age during which man could relate to God only through material offerings had passed, and fallen mankind had entered the Dispensational Age of Restoration, in which man could relate to God through the Word.

(ii) The significance of the tabernacle

Jesus compared the temple in Jerusalem to his body (Jn 2:21), and Paul state that Christians are the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16). The temple is the image-representation of Jesus. However, during their course through the wilderness, the Israelites could not build a temple, and so they built the tabernacle instead. Thus, the tabernacle, which was a miniature type of the temple, was also a symbolic representation of Jesus. For this reason, when God ordered Moses to build the tabernacle, he said, "'...let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst'" (Ex 25:8). Accordingly, the tabernacle is the symbolic messiah which the Israelites where to attend during their course in the wilderness.

(iii) The structure of the tabernacle

The tabernacle was composed of the Most Holy Place2 and the Holy Place (Ex 26:33,34). Only the chief priests could visit the Most Holy Place, and that but once a year, for the offering of sacrifices. Within the Most Holy Place was the ark of the covenant, within which were the two tablets of stone, symbolizing Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and heaven and earth. We can consider the ark, then, in a narrow sense, a microcosm of the cosmos, and also, a microcosm of the tabernacle. The Most Holy Place symbolizes Jesus' spirit self and the invisible substantial world, and the Holy Place, which was the ordinary place for the offering of sacrifices, symbolizes Jesus' body and the visible substantial world.

b. The purpose of the dispensation with the tablets of stone and the tabernacle

From God's viewpoint, once the Israelites had left Egypt it was imperative that they make it to Canaan without turning back; it was necessary to enter Canaan at all cost. To this end, God sought to inspire the Israelites to have faith in him by continually performing miracles, beginning right at the start of the dispensation.

After they had set out for Canaan, God guided and cared for the Israelites throughout their course in the wilderness by means of many miracles: guiding them by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire (Ex 13:21); dividing the waters of the Red Sea (Ex 14:21); providing manna and quail (Ex 16:12,13,35); having Moses produce water from a rock for the people to drink (Ex 17:6); and defeating the Amalekites with his power (Ex 17:10-13). Despite all of these, the Israelites lost faith in Moses and God numerous times, and in the end there was the danger that even Moses might act faithlessly.

For this reason, God found it necessary to create an object of faith which would never change, even though man might change. If there were even one person among the Israelites who would believe absolutely in this object of faith, the God would be able to carry out his Will by having that person's faith be representative of the Israelites and then passing it from person to person like a baton. That object of faith was the tabernacle, which enshrined the ark and the tablets and symbolized the Messiah. Thus the Israelites' construction of the tabernacle meant that symbolically the Messiah had come.

Consequently, if, until they entered the blessed land of Canaan, the Israelites had continued to follow Moses and attend the tabernacle with the loyalty due to the Messiah, then they would have established the national Foundation of Substance.

c. The Foundation for the Tabernacle

Since the Messiah's coming must be preceded by the Foundation for the Messiah and the tabernacle was the symbolic Messiah, then receiving it had to be preceded by the Foundation for the Tabernacle. Accordingly, a Foundation of Faith and a Foundation of Substance were necessary for the Foundation for the Tabernacle.

(i) The first Foundation for the Tabernacle

Through Moses' forty-day fast on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:18), God had him establish the forty-period of separation from Satan, thus establishing the Foundation of Faith for the tabernacle. Next, the Israelites were supposed to serve and obey Moses during a forty-day period of separation from Satan and until they had built the tabernacle, since this would establish the Foundation of Substance. However, the Israelites fell into faithlessness and made and worshipped a golden calf (Ex 32:2-4). Because the Indemnity Condition for Removing the Fallen Nature was not fulfilled, the Foundation of Substance was not established. When Moses saw the faithless Israelites at the foot of the Mountain, he burned with anger and threw the tablets to the ground, breaking them (Ex 32:19).

Since the two tablets symbolized Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Moses' breaking them in reaction to the people's lack of faith foreshadowed that when Jesus came he could be crucified should the Israelites fall into faithlessness.

(ii) The second Foundation for the Tabernacle

After bringing Aaron and the people to repentance, Moses fasted for forty days and nights a second time, thus reestablishing the forty- period of separation from Satan. On this foundation, God inscribed a second set of tablets and Moses received the Ideal of the Tabernacle (Ex 34:28). The Israelites not only obeyed Moses during this forty- day period, but also built the tabernacle according to the directions of God and Moses. This was the first day of the first month of the second year since the Israelites' had left Egypt. However, the Foundation of Substance could not be established simply by the Israelites' building the tabernacle; to establish it, the Israelites had to become one with Moses and obey him and had to regard God's Ideal of the Tabernacle as more precious than their own lives.

On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year since the Exodus, the Israelites, revering the tabernacle (Num 10:11,12), left the wilderness of Sinai for Canaan under the guidance of the pillar of cloud. However, they fell into faithlessness and complained to Moses; so God burned an outlying part of the camp (Num 11:1) in an attempt to awaken them. But they still did not awaken to God's Will and continued to complain against Moses and to long for the land of Egypt (Num 11:4-6). In looking back at this, we can see that the successful Foundation for the Tabernacle was invaded by Satan.

Thus, God again directed the unfaithful Israelites to establish the forty-day foundation of separation from Satan. He gave them a forty- day foundation of separation from Satan. He gave them a forty-day period of spying as the condition for accomplishing the second national course of the restoration of Canaan. God chose twelve people to spy for forty days, one person from each tribe (Num 13:1-15). However, except for Joshua and Caleb, all of them returned with faithless reports (Num 13:28-32). The Israelites, hearing these reports, angrily complained against Moses and cried out that they should choose a new leader and go back to Egypt. Then God appeared to all of the people and said to Moses, "...'How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them?'" (Num 14:11). Then God said, "'"But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure"'" (Num 14:31-34).

Thus, the faithless reports led to the failure of the forty-day period of spying, and the Israelites were not able to make the Foundation of Substance at Kadesh-Barnea. As a result, the second national course (the twenty-one-month course in the wilderness) was extended to a third course, a forty-year course, again in the wilderness.

D. The Third Course of the National Restoration of Canaan

1. The Foundation of Faith

Because of the faithlessness of the Israelites, the second course of the national restoration of Canaan ended in failure. Thus, the forty- year period in the wilderness of Midian, through which Moses had established the Foundation of Faith for this second course, was also claimed by Satan. With the failure of the forty-day mission of spying in Canaan, Moses began another period of separation from Satan in order to restore the Foundation of Faith for the third course. Thus, he led the Israelites on the forty-year course of wandering in the wilderness, which ended when they returned to Kadesh-Barnea. By exalting the tabernacle with utmost faith and loyalty during the forty years of wandering, Moses reestablished the forty-period of separation from Satan.

2. The Foundation of Substance

If, during the forty-year period of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites had surrendered to and obediently united with Moses, who had exalted and attended the tabernacle with unchanging faith, and they had thus entered the land of Canaan, the Foundation of Substance would have been established in the third course of the national restoration of Canaan. Accordingly, this forty-year period of wandering in the wilderness was the period in which to lay the Foundation of Faith for the third course and to realize the foundation for departing on the third course to Canaan. The third course for the Foundation of Substance was begun centered on Moses, but was completed centered on Joshua. It should be studied in light of these two phases.

a. The Foundation of Substance centered on Moses

Anxious that his people might again fall into faithlessness, God, in his grace, gave the Israelites the ark, the tabernacle, and the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments. If the Israelites had kept the Ideal of the Tabernacle with absolute faith after they had received this grace from God at Mount Sinai, or during the period of spying, then they would have been able to indemnify the invaded beginning of the second course. In other words, they would have been able to restore their status to that which they had held when they left Egypt, that of being united with Moses after he received the grace of the three miracles and ten calamities. Accordingly, if the Israelites who followed Moses back to Kadesh-Barnea after their forty- year indemnity period in the wilderness had exalted and attended the tablets, the ark, and the tabernacle, then the nation of Israel could have started victoriously for the land of Canaan.

Since the tablets were the microcosm of the ark, and the ark was a microcosm of the tabernacle, then the tablets were also a microcosm of the tabernacle. Thus the tabernacle or ark can be represented by the tablets, or, further, by the source of the tablets, which is the rock from which they were made. Thus, the Bible records that the beginning of the third course of the national restoration of Canaan centered on the rock at Kadesh-Barnea (Num 20:8-11).

The Israelites were murmuring in resentment against Moses because they had no water. In order to save the Israelites, who were again falling into faithlessness despite their forty years in the wilderness (Num 20:4-10), God instructed Moses to bring forth water for the people to drink (Num 20:8). Because they were complaining and blaming him for not having water, Moses was so enraged at his people that he twice struck the rock with his rod (Num 20:11). God was displeased, and said, "'Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them'" (Num 20:12).

By striking the rock twice, when he should have struck it only once (as God had had him do earlier at Rephidim (Ex 17:6) ), Moses was unable to initiate the dispensation successfully and also prevented himself from entering the blessed land of Canaan, even though it was then in sight (Num 20:24; 27:12-14; Deut 3:23-37). What was the difference between the time when Moses struck the rock at Horeb in Rephidim and this time such that God reproached Moses and prevented him from going into the land of Canaan, which Moses very much wished to enter? After working so devotedly throughout his life, leading his faithless people toward the precious goal, the blessed land, how much must Moses have wanted to enter Canaan! He begged God, "'"Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill country, and Lebanon"'" (Deut 3:25). God answered firmly, "'"...speak no more to me of this matter"'" (Deut 3:26). Though Moses had reached the Jordan, because of the problem in bringing forth the water from the rock he died on Mount Pisgah in the land of Moab without setting foot in Canaan (Josh 34:1-6).

We should learn from Moses' mistake. At both Rephidim and Kadesh, Moses brought forth water after receiving God's instruction. His demonstration of God's power to the faithless people and his use of the rod was the same in both cases. The only difference was that at Kadesh he struck the rock twice. Let us determine why the rock should have been struck only once and why striking it twice was such a sin.

In the Bible, Christ is symbolized as a white stone (Rev 2:17) and as a rock (1 Cor 10:4). Since Christ came as the Tree of Life (Rev 22:14; also see "The Fall"), the Rock also represents the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9) symbolized perfected Adam. Since this Tree of Life is also the Rock, the Rock must also symbolize perfected Adam.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan struck Adam and caused the fall of Adam, who was to have become the Rock. Since Adam did not become the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22-24), he failed to become the Rock that would forever give the water of life to his descendants.

Thus, the rock that did not yield water before Moses struck it with the rod represented fallen Adam. God, in accordance with the principle of restoration through indemnity, wanted to establish the condition of having restored Adam as the Rock capable of yielding water, by having Moses strike once the barren rock, which was the symbol of fallen Adam, and bring forth water from it.

Accordingly, God had Moses strike the rock once as the condition for restoring through indemnity the first, fallen Adam into the second, perfected Adam, or Jesus. Therefore, the rock that gave forth water after being struck once symbolized Jesus, who was to come and give the water of life to fallen people ("For they drank from the...Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4) ). Moses' angry act of striking the rock as second time represented striking Jesus who was the restored Rock that would give the water of life to all mankind. In other words, Moses' striking the rock twice (in anger at the Israelites' faithlessness) established a basis for Satan to directly confront Jesus, who was the true Rock, if the Israelites were faithless at Jesus' time. This is why Moses' act was so wrong.

Thus, the foundation for beginning the dispensation, a foundation which was to be based on the rock, was not realized. Instead of Moses, it was Joshua who, with unchanging faith and loyalty, led the new generation into Canaan. He did so on the basis of the foundation he had set for the tabernacle through the forty-day period of spying in Canaan.

b. The Foundation of Substance centered on Joshua

Because of Moses' striking the rock twice, his mission to lead the Israelites passed to Joshua.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him; cause him to stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey." (Num 27:18-20)

Joshua was one of the two Israelites who had not fallen into faithlessness during the forty-day period of spying and had stood firmly on the Foundation of Faith which Moses had established for the tabernacle. He was one of the only two who established a foundation for the tabernacle and served it with unchanging faith and loyalty to the end. Although Moses' faith wavered, the Ideal of the Tabernacle remained unchanged on the foundation established by Joshua.

Therefore, God chose Joshua to replace Moses and carried out his dispensation in such a way that in order to begin the third course, the Israelites had to repent and center themselves on the tabernacle (Num 21:6-8). It was now God's intention to establish the Foundation of Substance for the third course using Joshua as the central person by having the Israelites enter Canaan while in absolute obedience to Joshua.

There, God said to Moses,

"...'he [Joshua] shall go over [into Canaan] at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.'" (Deut 3:28)

Later God said to Joshua:

..."Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them. to the people of Israel." (Josh 1:2)

"...as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." (Josh 1:5,6)

At the same time, the second generation of Israelites, which was born in the wilderness, was determined to follow Joshua at the risk of their lives, saying,

..."All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go....Whoever rebels against you commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. (Josh 1:16-18)

They also presented their faithful reports after the spying at Jericho, saying "...Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us'" (Josh 2:24). Thus the second generation of Israel was completely united with Joshua, who stood on the Foundation for the Tabernacle in accordance with God's instruction, and they were led to the Jordan. The river was running in flood, overflowing its banks. But the priests bearing the ark waded in as they were instructed, and the waters stopped, piling up on the upstream side and draining away on the downstream side, and all of Israel passed over on dry ground to Canaan (Josh 3:16,17).

In taking Jericho according to God's instructions, forty thousand soldiers proceeded in the vanguard, followed by seven priests marching with seven trumpets, all preceding the ark of the covenant, which was carried by the Levite priests. All the people of Israel marched in the rear (Josh 6:8,9). As God commanded them. the Israelites marched around the city for six days, making one tour each day, and on the seventh day, seven tours. Then at the shout of Joshua and his people the walls crumbled (Josh 6:20). In this way, the Israelites began their conquest of Canaan, which was the home they had longed for.

Now let us summarize what we have learned concerning the Foundation of Substance of the third course of the national restoration of Canaan.

Because of the Israelites' faithlessness toward Moses, the Foundation of Substance had not been established centered on Moses, and all of the first generation Israelites, including Moses--all except Joshua and Caleb, who had a steady faith--all died in the wilderness. The second generation Israelites, born in the wilderness, entered Canaan (Num 14:29-38) centered on Joshua, establishing the Foundation of Substance.

Although the national Foundation for the Messiah was established centered on Joshua, it was necessary for the heavenly side to prepare a strong foundation in order for the Messiah to come. This is because fallen man had already built great kingdoms centered on Satan which would oppose the heavenly Dispensation for Restoration.

But, despite their responsibility to establish a heavenly foundation, the Israelites fell into faithlessness even after they came to the land of Canaan, and thus, God's dispensation was repeatedly prolonged until the time of Jesus.


1 Though Moses had killed someone, he had done so in defense of another person and knowing full well that if found out he would lose his very privileged position and his life. Thus, it was a sign of righteousness and a sign that he was willing to stand with the Israelites.

2 Also commonly known as the Holy of Holies

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