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Moses' second speech, Part 13, Being True Witnesses

When Adam and Eve believed the original serpent's lie in the Garden, they ceased to be true witnesses of God in the earth. They had been created to be the double witness of God, so that heaven and earth would be in agreement and thus establish all things, i.e., the Kingdom of God.

Many years later, Israel received the same calling as a nation. They were to be the earthly expression of God's Kingdom as it is in heaven. When Israel violated the law, they ceased to bear witness to His character, and so Moses said in Deut. 4:26, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you."

Heaven and earth are the most basic example of the two witnesses in the Kingdom. On earth itself, the most basic example of the two witnesses are husband and wife, called to be in agreement even as heaven and earth were so called.

The sin of Adam and Eve tore apart this unity and agreement and split the Kingdom of God between heaven and earth. This duality brought about the need for authority itself, so that heaven might assert its authority over the earth and ultimately subdue it to the will of God in heaven. Likewise, this lack of harmony and agreement also brought about the need for authority in earth, beginning with the family unit itself.

But as I have shown in my book, Old and New Covenant Marriage, it was not so from the beginning, because marriage was originally created to manifest unity and agreement, not authority and obedience. An Old Covenant marriage is based upon obedience; a New Covenant marriage is based upon agreement and equality.

God said to the Israelites in Isaiah 43:10 and 44:8, "You are My witnesses." This is the calling of anyone who, like Jacob, has been surnamed Israel. No one is a true Israelite in the fullest sense apart from bearing witness fully to the character and works of God. Israel as a nation carried that name by virtue of their physical descent from Jacob-Israel, but their continued rebellion against God's law proved that they were unworthy of that name. Hence, God removed their name, cast them out, and scattered them among the nations.

Now, under the New Covenant, the only way to regain that name is to become a true witness of God that brings heaven and earth back into full agreement in character and purpose. In other words, an Israelite in the fullest sense is an overcomer. Like Jesus Christ, an Israelite speaks only what he hears his Father say, and does only what he sees his Father do. He is an "Amen" person (Rev. 3:14), who is a faithful and true witness in the earth.

By contrast, since the fall of Adam, man has been bearing false witness against God and is guilty of violating the Ninth Commandment. The history of the Kingdom of God tells the story of how God returns the earth to its proper calling to be in agreement with heaven in a New Covenant marriage relationship. It has started with one Man, Jesus Christ. From there it extends to His Body of overcomers, which, when complete, will be united as one body at the resurrection and unification of the Sons of God. These will be presented to God and then manifested to the earth as witnesses so that the rest of humanity may follow their lead and example.

But at the present time, creation yet groans in travail, awaiting the manifestation of those Sons of God, for it is still in a state of disharmony with heaven. Those called as God's witnesses are yet being trained and are not yet in full agreement with the law of God. They do not yet fully understand the law of God, and without understanding, how can they say "Amen" (1 Cor. 14:16)? In many ways, the law is yet an unknown tongue that needs to be interpreted so that we may assimilate it and become what we eat.

For this reason, the judgment of the law says that false witnesses must be treated in the same way that they intended to do to their victim (Deut. 19:16-21). The judgment says in verse 21, "life for life." When Adam's life became a false witness to the life of God, he forfeited his life and became mortal.

The judgment also says, "eye for eye." Adam was thus blinded because he no longer saw "eye to eye" with God's purpose. That blindness is a major theme throughout Scripture, beginning with the blindness of Isaac and on into Isaiah 42:19, "who is blind but My servant?" But God, as the Victim, has the right to forgive and to heal the blindness at His discretion. He does indeed open blind eyes (Is. 42:7), but not all at once. His plan is to lead them for a while in a blind condition, saying in Isaiah 42:16, "I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them."

We need to experience blindness, not so much as a judgment of God, but as a tool of learning faith and obedience. Of course, all of God's judgments are ultimately designed to teach us righteousness (Is. 26:9), and we should not view our blindness as an expression of God's wrath.

The law also judges false witnesses by "tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Teeth are for eating and speaking. Hence, when we have borne false witness of God's character, the true food of God (revelation) is removed, and we begin to eat unclean food that lacks a cloven hoof and cannot stand upon a double witness (Lev. 11:4). Our hands become unclean and are incapable of doing the works of God. Our feet become unclean and cannot walk the path of righteousness.

God Himself is the ultimate Victim when men do not represent God's character and works as Jesus did. Hence, the judgment of the law brought death upon mankind, on which man fell into a seemingly perpetual state of sin (Rom. 5:12) that could never truly bear witness of the glory of God.

The path out of this condition, of course, is the subject of Scripture everywhere. It is portrayed in the feast days and Israel's wilderness journey from the house of bondage to the Promised Land. It is typed by the sacrificial system that prophesied of Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb of God, called to die for the sin of the world and bring us justification. Sanctification is set forth through the feast of Pentecost, which celebrated the revelation of the law at Horeb, giving us the promise of the Holy Spirit who would lead us and conform us to the righteousness of God.

It is obvious, then, that the judgment of the law was not the end of the story. We are not doomed to remain false witnesses forever on account of Adam's sin. Yet the path that leads back to Eden is long, even as Israel's wilderness journey was long. Justification takes place in a moment in time, even as it only took a short time for Israel to leave Egypt. Sanctification, however, takes longer, for our character must be forged into His image by time and experience as we learn obedience until we come into full agreement with Him.

The Promised Land is "the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:23) which comes after God has trained us by leading us blindly in the wilderness, learning to hear His voice and trusting that voice to bring us to our destination. As we learn obedience, we also begin to come into agreement with Him. This process continues until we find ourselves at the crisis point of Tabernacles, when the whole Body will enter the land together and once again become the image of God in earth as it is in heaven.