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Mowadah
Greetings and Salutations and Blessings to you all on this another Lord’s Day! Hope you had a good rest during the night and are rarin’ to go for this day.
Grab that French Press and pour yourself a steaming cup of some good hot French Roasted Columbian or that strong stuff they bring in from Sulawesi, or whatever lights up your taste buds. Mmmmmmm……Goooooooddd !!!
With a title for today like, “Mowadah,” I know you think I’m trying to teach you some kind of foreign language, and this is a word from classical Hebrew, but my purpose is not to teach you Hebrew. What I’d like to do today is to share with you a vision.
Different, huhh?
The word, “mowadah,” (don’t mind the spelling – that’s just a literary way of helping you pronounce the actual word) comes from its Hebrew root, ya-ad, and means as follows:
1. to point out, to define, to appoint (from a prophetic standpoint) a time in the future.
2. specifically, to espouse a wife; to betroth.
3. to meet with one('s betrothed) at an appointed place or time; to come with them to that appointed place.
4. to call or summon the one espoused.
5. an appointed sign or signal.
Throughout the Old Testament, and particularly in the Torah – the five books of Moses – this word is translated as “the tabernacle of the congregation,” or more simply, “the congregation.” It simply denotes the calling together and assembling of the people for a pre-appointed time and purpose.
The significance of the “calling together and assembling” is far more reaching, however, than a simple “getting together of people.” Within the Hebrew language – which was a remarkable confluence of the Semitic tongues of the day – was incorporated divine calling and purpose. Every word had (and still has today) hidden meanings, numerical values and pictures that, for those within the camp of Israel, denoted God’s sovereign calling to them, His special purpose for them as a growing and developing nation, and His ultimate purpose for Israel in the earth.
Here was/is the hidden picture.
Israel was God’s chosen people. It was a nation that came forth as the result of God’s promise to Abraham and His covenant with Isaac. Israel was likened to the Betrothed of the Lord God, with God being Israel’s Bridegroom-to-be. The word, mowadah, signified a prophetic time in the future when Israel would be permanently joined in a marriage relationship to the Lord God. The calling together was the calling of a betrothed people by an expectant Bridegroom for the purpose of preparation for the wedding day. The Bridegroom, through His appointed representative(s) – in those early days it was Moses – gave instruction to the Bride-to-be. This was instruction that would ready that prospective (betrothed) Bride in such a way that she would be prepared to become the Bridegroom’s counterpart, His other self.
We see this picture repeated throughout the Old Testament in numerous Hebrew metaphors. One that occurs in the Song of Solomon is translated in English as, “my sister, my spouse.” The Song of Solomon, incidentally, is the most metaphor-filled book in the entire Bible, and contains so many hidden meanings and pictures as to stagger the imagination. This phrase, “my sister, my spouse,” literally translates from its Hebrew metaphor as, “my counterpart, my other self.”
Back in the mid-1970’s, when I was ministering at Long Beach Christian Center, the Lord began to unfold a vision for me of something that has continued to grow in understanding. That vision comes out of this word, mowadah, and is one I have shared periodically – both in writing and in public preaching and teaching.
For those of you who know their Old Testament fairly well, you will remember King David. He had insight into the heart of the Lord as an expectant Bridegroom-to-be like no one else in the history of the nation. There is a remarkable reference to him in the book of Revelation (see Chapter 3:8), “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it…” The "open door" is identified with the "key of David." The phrase, "the key of David," is a very well identified Hebrew metaphor which means, "The power and authority of David," and represents "the authority to access all that is within." The authority represented by this key is that He who holds the key, "openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." The "key of David" also has another very specific application: the "tabernacle of David."
The "tabernacle of David" was nothing like the Mosaic tabernacle with the outer courts, the Holy Place, the table of shewbread, the golden candlestick, etc. It had only one thing: the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies contained only one thing: the Ark of the Covenant. David's tabernacle was nothing more than a simple tent (no complicated structure, no complicated procedure to gain access to the Holy of Holies -- the "Secret Place," the "Inner Chamber") pitched over the Ark of the Covenant. This was an extraordinary departure from the Tabernacle of Moses. Not only did it not have all of the accoutrements of Moses' tabernacle, it did not even have a veil which covered the Ark from view.
Picture, if you will, what David set about to accomplish in Israel. His first act as King was to appoint singers and musicians whose responsibility it was to minister unto the Lord in praise and worship, 24-hours per day, 365 days a year -- CONTINUALLY! Yes, of course we know that the Levites continued in their normal priestly duties, but these praisers and worshippers did not concern themselves with any of the traditional priestly duties. They had only one responsibility: to minister unto the Lord. They did not minister unto the multitudes. They did not offer burnt sacrifices. They did not take, or receive from the people their sin offerings, etc., etc., etc. Under the direction of three families (the families of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun), they ministered in rotating shifts or "courses" before the "open door" of the Tabernacle, praising and worshipping the Lord continually.
This presented a living photograph to Israel of the very core of God's desire for His people. It presented a picture of the wedding chamber -- the bridal chamber -- having been opened by the Lord to receive a Bride who was expressing her great love and great desire for Him. The praisers and worshippers replaced the golden candlestick. They were the flame of love and passionate desire for the Lord, burning continually before him, night and day. There was no need for a table of shewbread, because the table was spread before Israel night and day in God's provision for them.
From a purely historical standpoint, Israel prospered economically and militarily, and was provided for by the Lord in a never-ending display, so long as praise and worship went forth unhampered and unhindered. During the forty years of David's reign, Israel never lost a battle. David took territories and dominions which had been promised to Abraham, and commanded to Moses and Joshua, but never attained by any leader in Israel's history to that time. He subdued the last of the Hittites, and eradicated the remaining traces of other nations which had contaminated Israel with their co-habitation. The Jebusites, which had occupied Jerusalem since Shem's death, were subdued and destroyed; and David purchased from Ornan, the Jebusite, both the hill, and the threshing floor as the site of the temple which would later be built. He refused to take as a gift, or recognize Ornan (whose title was "Araunah," or "lord king") as a king, or his equal, even though Ornan was the last of the Jebusite rulers.
Never before in history had a people prospered as they did with continual praise and worship going forth. Israel saw its land produce agriculturally and yield an abundance such as never had been seen. The surrounding nations turned to Israel for leadership. Kings, who before times had been constant enemies and invaded the cities of Israel, sought after peace treaties. The Philistines, who had invaded the land with their armies for hundreds of years, were decimated militarily, and were unable to so much as raise an army against Israel (or anyone else, for that matter) for more than three hundred years.
The picture of Moab, Ammon and Syria was similar. Each time they came against David, and against Israel, they were defeated. In each case, after their third incursion, the defeat was so great that they were unable to raise an army capable of offensive action for some fifty years. The Moabites, the Ammonites and the Syrians all became servant to David.
This picture continued throughout the reign of Solomon, who saw an expanded ministry of praise and worship. One of David's last acts as King was to increase the number of families who ministered to the Lord under the direction of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. Twelve people each were chosen from twenty-four families, making a total contingent of 288 worshippers, twelve for each hour of the day and night, around the clock (see I Chronicles 25).
During the forty years that Solomon sat on the throne, Israel reached the zenith of its power and influence in the world. The nation had prospered during David's years, and now saw such wealth and abundance as would stagger the world's imagination for centuries, and even millennia, after Solomon's death. With praise and worship going forth unhampered and unhindered for eighty continuous years, the Lord did for Israel what they could never accomplish in the natural. Battles were fought in the heavenlies in the midst of praise and worship and spiritual foes defeated. Having been fought in the heavenlies, the outcome of the earthly battles was a foregone conclusion. When the people ministered unto the Lord, He ministered unto them, provided for them, fought their battles and filled every conceivable need.
Rehoboam, Solomon's son, did not see the connection between the worshippers and Israel's might and prosperity, and after the counsel of some self-seeking politicians three years into his reign, he abandoned the ministry of praise and worship and sent the worshippers packing. No sooner had he done so when Jeroboam came out of Egypt, gained the favor of ten tribes and split the nation of Israel with civil war. Israel soon became prey to its former enemies and lost its dominion in the world from that day forward. Never again would a unified nation of Israel see the power and glory that had been theirs. Never again would they see the provision of God in such manner as He had displayed during the eighty years of David and Solomon -- eighty years of continuous praise and worship.
Only four more times in the nation's history (and that only with the descendants of David who sat on the throne of Judah) did kings arise who remembered what God had done when praise and worship went forth in ministry to Him continuously. Jehoshaphat was the first to remember, and the Lord gave him victory in the midst of an impossible battle with peace and prosperity during the last seven years of his reign -- a seven-year period in which praise and worship went forth continually.
Fifteen years after Jehoshaphat's death (a period of time in which there had been no ministry of worship to the Lord), after Jehoram's eight years of war, Ahaziah's conspiracy and death at the hands of Jehu after one year on the throne, and six years under Athaliah (Ahaziah's mother), Jehoiada, the high priest, took Joash, crowned him king, put Athaliah and her Baal-worshippers to death, and reappointed the descendants of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun to the ministry of praise and worship unto the Lord.
For the first thirty-nine years of Joash's reign, praise and worship went forth as it had in the days of David and Solomon. For thirty-nine years, the nation of Judah prospered as it had in the days of David. Joash was able to throw off the yoke of his enemies, and ruled with freedom and authority in the land. At the end of the thirty-ninth year of Joash's reign, Jehoiada died, and there came a flood of self-seeking soothsayers currying Joash's favor. He succumbed to their words and enticements, abandoned the ministry of praise and worship, and dismissed the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. Immediately, he was beset by war; and a year later, he was assassinated by his own servants.
For 112 years, the nation of Judah went through periods of war, famine, occasional prosperity and subsequent decline, politically, economically, militarily, and -- most of all -- spiritually. Not until Hezekiah came to the throne was the ministry of praise and worship reestablished. In his first year as king, Hezekiah reappointed the descendants of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun to the ministry of praise and worship. For twenty-nine years this ministry went forth unhampered and unhindered. Hezekiah came to such prominence that even the kings of Israel honored him. He shook off, once again, the yoke of bondage from the surrounding nations. The nation prospered as it had in the days of David and Solomon, saw victory over its enemies and saw a peace such as it had not seen in more than two hundred years.
During Hezekiah’s reign, the scion of a wealthy family came to prominence. He had already served for a time as a governor in the land, and (although he had already begun prophesying in the time of Hezekiah’s father and grandfather and great-grandfather) came to be recognized internationally as a prophet among prophets. During this time of such praise and worship going forth, he saw such visions as no prophet before or after him, and drew pictures of the coming Messiah and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, in words which would forever etch themselves in the minds of God’s people. His name was Isaiah.
Only one more time in Judah's history did a king come to power that saw the pattern of praise and worship, who reappointed the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun to minister unto the Lord. Fifty-seven years after Hezekiah's death -- a period in which Judah had become a vassal-state to Assyria and Babylon -- Josiah came to the throne. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah repaired the temple in Jerusalem and reappointed the worshippers to minister before the Lord continually. History tells us that Ephraim and Manasseh, and Simeon and Naphtali, four of the tribes of Israel, joined with Judah during Josiah's reign to worship the Lord. For the next twelve years, they saw peace, prosperity, the provision of God, and victory over their enemies.
Maybe now you are beginning to understand my vision.
The pattern seen in David’s calling together of families whose entire lives would be spent in the total ministry of praise and worship to God is one that I have yearned for in this modern age. I believe that God has been calling and preparing people whose life and breath revolve around ministry in this realm, people who are musicians, songwriters, orchestrators; people who know how to totally walk away from the printed music page and begin to worship spontaneously as the Holy Spirit flows through them.
America cries – no, forget that, the nations of this world cry – out for peace and prosperity. We seek solutions through politics, through diplomacy, through wars, through throwing huge sums of money at social programs in an effort to resolve problems that can only be resolved through a relationship with the Lord. That’s never going to happen on a nation-wide or world-wide basis until spiritual strongholds are torn down and the Enemy of our soul is defeated.
As I have shared a vision for praise and worship in my years of ministry, and in our travels, we have seen many folks grab at least a portion of it and run with it. I believe that we can accomplish in this day and age the very same thing for America that David accomplished in Israel, but it will take the dedication of many, many people who have been called by the Lord to this purpose. What we accomplish here can be exported to other nations.
How does this relate to the word, mowadah?
Tomorrow, I will share with you a five-year experiment in this realm, and the results Della and I saw and experienced. You will see a demonstration of mowadah – the calling together and preparation of a people called to intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finish that cup of coffee you are drinking and get ready for the best day of your life. Blessings on you!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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