Exodus Going With God 6 Exodus 5 -12 Going, Going, Gone Gods of Egypt

Exodus Going With God #6
Exodus 5 -12 Going, Going, Gone Gods of Egypt

In the beginning the Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days. During that week of creation man was created on the 6th day and for as long as Adam and Ever remained in the Garden there was only one God, who walked with them in the cool of the day. All the world then knew God was the only God. Then one day we don’t know how long into the time of the Garden, Adam and Eve listened to the temptation of the great Serpent, the Dragon, the former arch-angel Lucifer who had been cast down from heaven, for trying to supplant God.

Isaiah the prophet records the even in Isaiah 14:12-14

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

From that day to this day Satan has desired to be worshiped as God and for the most part he is very successful. There is only two beings one can worship in the entire universe. There is Jehovah God, who reveals Himself directly to man or there is Satan who deceives man, just as he deceived our first parents. He deceives, by presenting himself as something other than what he is, a fallen angels and a cursed creature who is awaiting his creator’s final judgment.

Satan wants to destroy God’s creation, just as he destroyed the Garden and to corrupt man, the one creature God made in His own image. Through paganism, pantheism, Buddhism, Shintoism, humanism and even atheism, Satan has succeeded in redirected the worship that is rightful God’s to himself.

It started in the Garden and it grew until it engulfed the ancient world and it is still happening today. But Jehovah God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe is not passively standing by. And from time to time according to His divine plan, Jehovah shows himself in His great overwhelming power and reminds the world who really is the only true God. He comes to the forefront of history and civilization and shows who really is the boss and it’s not a toady, second-rate, wanna-be that got kicked out of heaven.  

Our sermon today is about one of those times when God said, “The time is now, and I will stretch forth my hand and the world will know that I Am the Lord God Jehovah!” The Battle takes place from Exodus 5-12 and it is fought in three epic battles. 1, The Battle of Bondage. 2. The Battle of Belief and 3. The Battle of Blood.

Battle of Bondage Exodus 5:1-9

 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.  And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.  And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.  And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.  And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.  And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.  And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.  Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.

Ruler of Egypt Keeps the Hebrews Under Labor

In response to Moses asking for time for the Hebrews to go apart and worship God he increases the workload. Claiming they are idle and have too much time Pharoah, who is Satan’s minion, seeks to take away the time the Hebrews might seek their God.

By increasing their burden, what they owe to Pharoah, the Hebrews are kept bound to their labor and away from their need to meet with God.

Not has this tactic been abandoned by Satan in the modern battle of bondage.

Ruler of This Word Keeps Us Under Labor

In our modern world we are also held in bondage in order to keep us from having time for the Lord. We now live in a global culture from the time we young children until we die, we are bound to this world with no time for God.

Whereas our forefathers and mothers often worked 12 or 13 hours a day and still had time to read their Bible, pray at every meal pray before they went to sleep, and never miss a church service, we don’t seem to have a minute to devote to God. Instead, our time is filled with work, entertainment or any other activity but time with God. We fill our hours with our jobs and then with social media, steaming programs on television, video games, going out to restaurants or any of hundreds of other things the world tells us to do and we don’t realize that these things are binding us to this world and keeping us from God.

The Bondage of The World Information / Entertainment Overload. Globally, people average 6 hours 58 minutes of screen time per day. The average American spends 7 hours and 4 minutes looking at a screen each day. Almost half (49%) of 0 to 2-year-olds interact with smartphones. Gen Z averages around 9 hours of screen time per day. Of that time it is estimated that U.S. adults will spend around two hours and 33 minutes watching TV each day streaming tv shows news or movies, while over 2 hours is spent on social media and over one hour a day is spent on playing video games. The rest is screen time at work.

Labor Overload. And though we no longer work 12 and 14 hours a day in this country instead we work 16 hours a day or longer because instead of one outside the home earner there now has to be two, both Mom and Dad must work out of the house earning enough money to pay for our houses, our cars, our possessions our lifestyle. We are told this is right, this is good this is how a modern society works. And in the meantime time with God, time with each other, time with our children evaporates in the light of another TV binge watch or two parents too tired to talk to each other, their kids or their God.

Pharaoh filled the Hebrews day with hard labor to keep them from God and the ruler of this world gods of this world seems to have filled our lives with diversions and has accomplished the same thing.

Listen carefully, I’m not trying to tell you to quit all these things. There is a blessing in labor and there is good that can be seen on social media and we should find ways to destress and find re-creation. But it is oh so easy for these things to become addictive and divert us from the things of God. We need to be aware, so we don’t fill our ears with the world’s noise and fail to hear the voice of God. We need to be careful that we don’t fill our bank accounts with the world’s money and not have the riches of God. We need to be on guard that the world’s meeting places don’t replace the church meeting of God.

Parable of the Rich Fool Luke 12:16

Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be, which though hast provided. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God!

We need to understand the danger of filling our lives with the things of this world that keep us from God.

This was the first battle of the Exodus; it is still a battle being fought today. The second battle is much, more direct. It is the  

Battle of Belief - Exodus 6 -11

Exodus 6:1-7 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.  And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:  And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.  And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.  And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.  Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:  And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

God Battles The False Gods of Egypt

Now God begins open warfare against the gods of Egypt. These of course weren’t gods at all they were at best demons and mostly they were all just one deception upon another deception by the great deceiver himself, Satan the Father of Lies. And so God brings on the battle and his weapons of mass destruction are terrible, unstoppable plagues, each plague would be a new battlefront against the false gods of Egypt.

Water to Blood

 Exodus 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

Hapi was the "spirit of the Nile" and its "dynamic essence." Hapi was the god of the annual Nile inundation. Epithets for Hapi describe him as being the "lord of the fishes and birds and marshes."

 One of the greatest gods of Egypt was Osiris, the god of the underworld; the Egyptians believed the Nile was his bloodstream. (Isn’t that ironic?)

During this first plague, the Egyptians would have to wonder where was Tauret, the hippopotamus goddess of the river. Where was Nu, the god of life that resided in the Nile?

Frogs

  Exodus 8:2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: 8:3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: 8:4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

 The frog was considered the theophany of the goddess Heqt, the wife of the creator of the world and the goddess of birth. Heqt was always shown with the head and body of a frog. Amulets and scarabs worn by Egyptian women to protect them during childbirth would often bear the image of Heqt for protection. Heqt was believed to assist women in childbirth

Lice (Gnats, Fleas, Sand Fleas)

 Exodus 8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

 The word "lice" is rendered as "sand flies" or "fleas" in some translations. The Hebrew word kinnim comes from a root word meaning "to dig"; it is probable that the insect in question would dig under the skin or come from the ground.

This plague would have been an embarrassment to Geb, the great god of the earth. Egyptians gave offerings to Geb for the bounty of the soil -- yet it was from "the dust of the soil" that this plague originated.

Swarms Flies (Beetles)

 Exodus 8:21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

 Notice the word “of flies” is in italics in the KJV, the Hebrew simply says "swarms" -- the phrase "of flies" was added by the translators.

It is very likely that the "swarms" in this passage were swarms of the scarab beetle. The scarab was actually a dung beetle -- an insect that feeds on the dung in the fields. The plague of swarms of scarabs, with mandibles that could saw through wood, was destructive and worse than termites!

Deification of the scarab beetle is still seen in Egypt today. Amon-Ra, the creator and king of the gods, had the head of a beetle. "Ra, the Sole Creator was visible to the people of Egypt as the disc of the sun, but they knew him in many other forms. He could appear as a crowned man, a falcon or a man with a falcon's head and, as the scarab beetle pushes a round ball of dung in front of it, the Egyptians pictured Ra as a scarab pushing the sun across the sky." (Geraldine Harris, Gods & Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology, p. 24).

Livestock Diseased

 Exodus 9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

 The Egyptians worshiped many animals, and many animal-headed deities. The god Apis was represented as a bull, and had been worshipped in Egypt since around 3,000 B.C. The Apis bull was the living image of the god Ptah. He was also associated with Ra, from whom he borrowed the disk he wore between his horns.

Hathor was the cow-headed goddess of the desert. "The cow was the living symbol of Isis-Hathor, represented sometimes as a cow, at others as a woman with a cow's head, at others as a horned woman." (How and Wells, Commentary on Herodotus, p. 185).

The goddess Hathor was the symbolic mother of Pharaoh, and the king of Egypt was referred to as "the son of Hathor."

In addition to the gods already mentioned, this plague would have been a direct insult to Khnum, the ram-god, and to Bast, the cat goddess of love.

Boils

   Exodus 9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 9:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

This plague was probably skin anthrax, a black abscess that develops into a pustule. This plague was accompanied by painful boils that affected the knees, legs, and soles of the feet (cf. Deut. 28:35). This explains why Pharaoh's "magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians" (Exo. 9:11).

This medical malady was an affront to Imhotep, the god of medicine. Imhotep who had been an actual physician, architect and chief adviser of King Zoser (ca. 3150 B.C.). He did so much for Egyptian medicine that later generations worshiped him as a god of knowledge, author of their sciences and their arts -  (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume One, p. 147).

 This plague would have also been an affront to Serapis, the deity in charge of healing, and to Thoth, the ibis-headed god of intelligence and medical learning.

Thunder, Lightning and Hail

 Exodus 9:18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

Since this plague originated from the sky, it would have been an insult to Nut, the sky goddess. "Her most general appearance, however, is that of a woman resting on hands and feet, her body forming an arch, thus representing the sky. Her limbs typified the four pillars on which the sky was supposed to rest. She was supposed originally to be reclining on Geb, the earth, when Shu raised her from this position." (Lewis Spence, Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends, p. 173).

Nut was also considered by the Egyptians to be the mother of five other gods: Osiris, Hathor, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.

During this plague, you have to wonder: Where was Shu, the wind god? Where was Horus, the hawk-headed sky god of Upper Egypt?

Isis and Seth supposedly protected the crops, but the burned fields testified of their impotence.

Locusts

 Exodus 10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: 10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field

Where were Nepri, the god of grain, Ermutet, the goddess of childbirth and crops, Thermuthis, the goddess of fertility and the harvest was speechless or Seth, another god of crops?

Darkness

 Exodus 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. 10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days

This plague of darkness was an insult to Egypt's religion and entire culture. The sun god Amon-Ra was considered one of the greatest blessings in all of the land of Egypt.

Amon and Ra were originally two separate deities. Ra was a sun god whose cult was centered at the city of Heliopolis, and is usually represented in art with a man's body and a falcon's head surmounted by a solar disk. Ra was believed to sail across the sky in a boat each day and under the world at night.

In Egyptian mythology Horus was the god of light who personified the life-giving power of the Sun. He was usually represented as a falcon-headed man wearing a sun disk as a crown. The reigning kings of Egypt were believed to be incarnations of the god Horus.

Once again, the gods of Egypt were silent. Where was Ptah, the chief god of Memphis, and the one who created the moon, the sun and the earth? Where was Tem, the god of the sunset? Where was Shu, the god of sunlight and air?

  Death of the Firstborn

 Exodus 11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

Exodus 12:12 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

This plague was directed against Pharaoh the supreme, living god and  a final blow to "all of the gods of Egypt" (Exo. 12:12) and would show the total inability of the gods of Egypt to protect their subjects. In the face of unparalleled tragedy, "all of the gods of Egypt" were silent. Where was Meskhenet, the goddess who presided at the birth of children? Where was Hathor, one of the seven deities who attended the birth of children? Where was Min, the god of procreation? Where was Isis, the goddess of fertility? Where was Selket, the guardian of life? Where was Renenutet, the cobra-goddess whose task was to be the guardian of Pharaoh and his family?

Transition: Today there is still a battle raging between the gods of this world and the true God of Creation and Revelation.

God Still battles the god of this World

In this post-modern, neo-pagan age in which we live. Satan is still deceiving and still seeking worship, both overtly and covertly. Just this month of May 2023, in Boston, the Temple of Satan held a Satan Convention, a SatanCon. Over 800 people attended this is up from 300 last year. The Satanist say their worship is really about free-thinking and being a champion of independence and personal expression. They are big contributors to abortions, homosexuality and of course destroying the design of God as male and female by advocating transsexual rights.

Satan in the Shadows Now that is very much in your face and overt, but Satan has never worked on just one front. His covert, secret operations are much more effective. Though philosophies like humanism, relativism, nihilism or lifestyles like hedonism, Satan has made man believe that they can be their own god, just as he told Eve in the Garden, “thou shalt not surely die but shall be as God.”

And today our society is filled with created beings who think they are their own creators. People who can just imagine themselves into a new gender, a new life, or a new truth. Reality does not matter, we are told we can create our own reality. We can be our own god. But in truth the only god they are worshiping is Lucifer, the original “make your own truth” created being.

God’s Battle Plan Today. And yes, still in this day and age God is still battling the god of this world. Though it would seem that mankind deserves to suffer the consequences of falling at the feet of the Father of Lies, yet God has not left man to his own folly and sin. He is still destroying the works of Satan.

Today, it is not with plagues and wonders as it was in Moses time but with a much more powerful attack, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Though the plagues seem powerful they were not supposed to win the heart of the Egyptians but to show God’s power over the false gods of the Egyptians. They accomplished that which God willed for them. Today the Gospel has a different purpose, it is intended to win the battle over the gods of this world, not by showing them as ineffective and weak but by changing the hearts and minds of those who deceived by their lies.

Paul says in Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

As Moses was given the Rod to show the Egyptians the power of God, we have been given the Gospel to show the world the love of God.

John 3:16-17 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

And just as Moses was commanded by God to go to Egypt and free His people, we are commanded by Jesus, God the son to take the Gospel and to Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Moses’ task of freeing the Hebrews may have seemed impossible but by the power of God it was “Mission Accomplished.” Our command to preach the Gospel to all the world, seems even more impossible but God has will supply the power, the gifts and the means so that one day in the halls of heaven, we also will hear, “Mission Accomplished”

Transition: Only Final battle is left it is the battle of blood and it is fought with the angel of death.

Battle of Blood - Exodus 12:3-7

 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:  And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.  And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

God And Blood That Was Shed

In the last plague, the last battle, God’s judgment sheds Egypt’s blood but He brings deliverance though the shed blood of a lamb.

Remember that this plague, by far the worst of all the plagues, is also the last. God has, over and over shown his power in every home, pasture, river, palace and temple of Egypt. None have escaped the plagues upon their land, upon their bodies, upon their crops and upon their cattle. God has clearly and openly declared unto all, “I am God. The only God.”

Yet now at the very last, Pharoah and the Egyptians still would not listen when they are told your children will die. The people go to bed that night after a year of the most undeniable signs and wonders and they hold the lifeless bodies of their children in their arms as proof of their stubborn hearts and unbending wills.

Then later that night God delivered his people from judgment and from captivity by the blood of a shed lamb. There was power in that shed blood by the word  of God. Power to save and power to deliver those who believed God’s word through Moses and Aaron. Through that shed blood, God delivered his people from judgment and from bondage.

The Judgment of the Blood Today

In our “Be Your Own God World” today our children are dying in number much greater than on that fateful night in Egypt.

Our news is filled with children who are gunned down in drive-by shootings, with teens who commit suicide or take drugs until death takes them. They live nihilistic lives that deny God and his forgiveness.  Children are dying because their parents reject God, and the Gospel. They believe in themselves; they are the gods of this age and they willfully ignore the warnings of the death angel.

The death angel approaches, and we don’t know the time or night when he will pass over our house, but he is coming. He may not come when your children are young and pliable. He may come when they are teenagers and rebellious. He may not even come when they are still at home but he will come. He always comes.

How can we protect them? How can we prepare them for the touch of the angel of death?  Isn’t it in the same way that the Hebrew parents protected their little ones on that first Passover night? They put them under the blood. That night those believing parents sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their home. For God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

This is still our only protection. We must apply the blood of God’s own lamb, Jesus Christ, to protect our home and our families. We must tell our children of Jesus, the son of God, given on the cross of Calvary to save our souls. We must take our children to Church, teach them the Bible, pray with them, and tell them over and over again as John the Baptist proclaimed in John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

The Terror of that night

Can you imagine the terror that night? I remember watching the movie “The Ten Commandments” and this scene was horrifying.

In the middle of the night, you see the homes where the people live, you see the lamps lit and their doors closed against the night and against the judgment that is coming. As you watch a mist forms in the sky around the full moon and slowly drops into the streets of the towns and villages of Egypt. The mist moves through the streets and enters into the homes that are not covered by the blood. Inside the homes of the Hebrews you can hear the distant wails and cries of their Egyptian neighbors screaming in anguish as they discover their first born children are dead. The Hebrews listen from their own homes, and they hear the death angel passing over them.

It is a dramatic, horrifying scene, a Hollywood masterpiece, but in the end, it is just a movie. The real terror is seeing children today living in homes without the protection of the blood of Christ. The real heartbreak is to hear a child dying from the lies, the deceit and the abuse of this world and its gods. The real tragedy is that the death angel still takes lives and those lives pass into eternal judgment because we are not placing ourselves under the protection of the shed blood of Christ.

Conclusion: The Last Battle For Mankind

We began by talking about how after creation, all the world knew God. Over the centuries and eons of time, Satan has deceived, lied and enslaved mankind into believing that he is to be worshiped, that he is god. In Egypt God proved that Satan’s centuries of lies could not stand up to a year of God’s power and truth.

Now we live in an age when the whole world seems to once again be deceived they the lies of Lucifer. But the battle is not over. The Old Testament account of the plagues of Egypt show us the judgment of God upon the false god of this world. The New Testament account of Jesus Christ proves that Satan is still an imposter god, who is impotent to stop the plan of God and the Gospel of Jesus Our Savior.

There is one last battle that will take place and just as surely as the Death Angel came that night, this Day will also come. The climax of that final battle takes place in the book of Revelation 19:11- 16, 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 -- His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

On that day, the whole earth will know once and for all time and eternity, who is the one true God. I will be riding in that army of heaven riding behind my Captain of the Lord’s Host. I will be there because years ago, I put my faith in Him and put myself under the protection of that shed blood.