Let My People Go....Back to Zion

So far,we have examined the following

Part 1: Is Religion a Tool for Control? Exploring Modern Church Enslavement 
We introduced the idea that the enslavement of Israel was a prediction of the evolution of the modern Church. 

Part 2: From Shackles to Pews: How the Modern Church Sustains Systems of Control ; We argued that the elements of slavery are all found in today’s modern church.

Part 3: The Idols of Egypt: A Warning for the Modern Church; We explained how idol worship prevented God from taking many of the Israelites to the Promised Land and how this remains a significant issue in today’s church. 
 
What Is the Point of All of This? 

Exodus 3:8 (KJV): 
"And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." 

This statement by God sums up the entire scripture, but we need to examine it more closely to fully understand its significance. 

Exodus 5:1: 
"And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." 

Exodus 8:1 (NIV): 
"Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”’" 

God used three words interchangeably: Serve, Worship, and Feast. Since He used them interchangeably, they must carry the same meaning. To serve God is to worship Him. To worship God is to feast unto Him. 

Serve = Worship = Feast. 

Understanding Worship 

• Shachah (Hebrew): To bow down, prostrate oneself (Psalm 95:6). This refers both literally and figuratively to humbling oneself before God in reverence and submission. 
• Ābad (Hebrew): Service, labor, work (Exodus 8:1). This is the context of Jesus’ instruction to Moses. 

Worship is humbling ourselves before God—literally or figuratively—in submission, to serve and labor for Him. The Israelites were already doing this for Pharaoh, but now God was demanding their freedom so that they could serve Him. 

Matthew 11:30 (NIV): 
"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

You are serving and laboring for God when you do His will against your Humanistic instincts.

Example; Loving your enemy would be your act of worship. Being kind and good to everyone would be your act of worship. Being generous to the homeless would be your act of worship.

What Makes Worship Acceptable to God? 

John 4:23-24 (KJV): 
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

In Spirit 
Acceptable worship must be done in spirit. I once thought this meant worship inspired by the Holy Spirit. But in context (John 4:7-26), Jesus was saying worship is no longer tied to a physical place like Jerusalem because God is spirit. He desires worship based solely on faith, without physical references. 

This means the church must move away from symbolisms—crosses, anointing oil, prayer shawls, etc.—as they can and will lead to idolatry. At the very least, we know God does not desire worship through physical means. We have direct access to Him.

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV): 
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

In Truth 
Worshiping God in truth means worshiping Him with the revelation of Jesus and His mission. 

Exodus 5:1: 
"Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." 

There are seven feasts that God introduced to the Israelites in the wilderness. Their purpose was to reveal Jesus Christ, the Truth (not to be repeated by believers after fulfillment):  

1. Passover (Pesach) – (1 Corinthians 5:7). 
2. Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot) – (1 Corinthians 5:8).
3. Firstfruits (Yom HaBikkurim) – (1 Corinthians 15:20).
4. Pentecost (Shavuot) – (Acts 2).
5. Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah / Rosh Hashanah) – (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). 
   

The Land Flowing with Milk and Honey 

The plan from the beginning was to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Canaan was not literally overflowing with rivers of milk and honey, but it was a fertile land, rich in resources, capable of sustaining livestock (milk) and producing abundant crops (honey). The phrase served both as a literal description of the land’s prosperity and a metaphor for something deeper. 

Genesis 12:7: 
"The Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your offspring I will give this land (Canaan).' So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him." 

Paul later explained that this offspring was Jesus. 

Galatians 3:16 (NIV): 
"The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ." 

Canaan represents a place of intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a place of communion with Him, full knowledge of God, and God’s rest. It is place where humans get the full reality of Jesus. 

The first prototype of this land flowing with milk and honey was the Garden of Eden—a place of abundance and intimacy between God and man. 
Genesis 3:8 (NIV): 

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden." 

God and man coexisted in Eden, making it the first true place of intimacy with God. 

Returning to Zion 

While many people believe that the prophecies about Zion refer to a physical restoration of Jerusalem (possibly but irrelevant), their true message is that Jesus will restore relationship and intimacy with His people. 

Zechariah 8:3 (NIV): 
"This is what the Lord says: 'I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.'" 

Psalm 126:1-3 (NIV): 
"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy." 

JESUS IS THE KING OF ZION.

Genesis 14:18-20 Melchizedek means King of Righteousness. He was also described as the King of Salem. Salem was the Old Jerusalem which was in canaan. It means the King of Peace. He was without beginning or end. Melchizedek serves as a divine prototype of Christ, revealing Jesus as our ultimate King, High Priest, and Mediator before God. Hebrews 7 

Conclusion 

The whole theme of the scriptures is the restoration of the Intimacy between Jesus and His people. God desires His people to be free—free from sin, legalism, and religious oppression. He has paid the price for our freedom. We need to be free to truly know Him and to worship Him.

Idolatry can hinder the plans of God because we are now free to choose. Idolatry will take us back to slavery.

True worship must be done by faith (no physical references) and in truth (the revelation of Jesus Christ). This will take place ONLY at Zion, where the King is waiting. 

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NIV): 
"The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel... I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."