Psalms 8:1, and 16:2; I’ll add Psalm 31:1-4

My Shepherd called me into His green pastures and laid me down in Ezekiel 38. Verse 27 is where the Mind of the Spirit engaged the spirit of my mind:

Ezekiel 23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

Based on 1 Kings 6:1, the Exodus occurred 480 years before Solomon’s Temple. Solomon reigned  c970 BC. That dates the Exodus at 1446 BC. Ezekiel ministered to his generation and wrote his prophecy in c591 BC. That would be about 379 years after Solomon dedicated the Temple, or about 850 years after God called His people out of Egypt.

Israel (Jacob) entered Egypt c1706, and Moses led them out in c1491 BC*, which has Israel dwelling in Egypt for about 215 years. The hard bondage began after the king, who knew not Joseph, came to the throne. The hard bondage continued for at least 80 years, and at most 144 years.

Here’s the point: Israel was in Egypt 215 years before God led them out by the hand of Moses. 80-144 of those years, they were living in Goshen, outside the main Egyptian population centers, with customs that made them odious to the Egyptians, and yet, somehow, the “whoredomes” of Egypt were carried with the people of the Exodus, and for all that GOD did for them, and the chastisements that came on them during the 850 year span from their Exodus to Ezekiel’s rebuke, what they brought out of Egypt remained in them.

It was easier for GOD to bring His people out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the hearts of His people. 850 years later, and the Spirit of God is declaring the latest Divine plan to get the memory of Egypt out of the hearts of His people.

Every New Testament believer is delivered from “Egypt”—the world! Yet the world remains in the hearts of His people today (1 Peter 2:19).

Along the still waters, I thought of the Spirit’s exhortation to the New Testament believer, who is instructed to go “into the world” to preach, but warned not to “love the world,” neither the “things that are in the world”:

1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The Spirit expresses His sentiment toward the believer who loves the world:

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Jesus told us, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).

In the valley, kneeling in the shadow of His Cross, I heard my Shepherd call: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). There it is, this is the key to shaking off the world, and digging it out of our hearts. Remember, if we judge ourselves, we need not be judged (“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31)).

At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. We arose from the table and hastened off into the harvest. I instinctively looked over my shoulder, and there were goodness and mercy faithfully following.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v77rb24-shepherds-pasture.html

[*According to Jones’ Chronology of the OLD TESTAMENT, CHRT-3(430 Years).]