A Change In The Administration of the Ekklesia

When the children of Israel came under this new administration in Egypt, life changed for them. They no longer lived under the blessing and protection of the leadership, but came under the heavy hand of bondage. Because of their previous relationship of favor and due to the fact that they had grown and multiplied, they came under the suspicion of the new regime.

The new leadership feared the Israelites, because they were more and mightier than we. So the new regime set a course of action. They "dealt wisely" with them. This does not mean that they dealt with them according to the wisdom of God. This phrase, dealt wisely, means to conquer by subtle devises; to outwit. In other words, they subjugated them through deception. The deception they used was that they told the Israelites that they were slaves.

This new administration set up a hierarchy of rulership. This hierarchy was established to lord it over the Israelites, in order to break the power of the previous leadership. The spirit, which operated in this new leadership, was one of cruelty and bondage.

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour; And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

To serve with rigour means to break apart, to fracture, i.e., to be broken in spirit resulting in depression and despondency. It has the idea of breaking the will and spirit, so as to bring under the complete control of another's will. This concept is found in the basic idea behind the practice of witchcraft. Witchcraft is nothing more than using some means to bring another under one's control, for personal benefit.

Witchcraft, in its purest sense, is nothing more than manipulation.

The Israelites were to learn from this experience in Egypt when they came into the Land of Promise. If one of their brethren fell upon hard times and had to serve as a slave in order to satisfy a debt, he was to be treated with respect. Leviticus 25:43 proclaims, "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour: but shalt fear thy God." They were not to treat their brethren with the same harshness that their fathers had received in Egypt. They were to treat each other with respect, recognizing their mutual relationship in the fear of God.

As part of this hierarchy set up by the new regime in Egypt, they set over the Israelites foremen, called taskmasters. These taskmasters were to ensure that the Israelites carried out the will of the new kingdom. The term used for taskmaster, describes one who was in charge of exacting a tax in the form of forced labour. They were to ensure that the quota of labour was exacted from the Israelites, in order to accomplish Pharaoh's projects. The project at hand was the building of treasure cities for Pharaoh's wealth.

God's people were used as slave laborers to build the kingdom of the new regime.

Directly under the supervision of these taskmasters, were what the Scriptures call officers. These officers were Israelites who were to carry out the orders of the taskmasters. At one point, because the Israelites did not meet their quota of bricks, the taskmasters beat these officers. So we can see that Pharaoh ruled the land with a heavy hand. He appointed the taskmasters to oversee his projects. They in turn, set up officers under them to convey their orders and see to it that they were carried out. It was a harsh and oppressive system under which the Israelites labored. It was not what they had been created for.

In the process of time, God sent a man He had drawn out of Egypt and had sent into the wilderness for a period of preparation. This drawn out one was Moses, whose name means, drawn out. The task God put before Moses was to go to Pharaoh and say, "Thus saith the LORD God, Let my people go, that they may go into the wilderness and worship Me." Of course, Pharaoh refused. After nine attempts to persuade Pharaoh to release His People, God finally broke the will of Pharaoh. He did so by the death of the firstborn.

The only protection that the people had from this judgment was the blood of a lamb. When the death angel passed through the land of Egypt, every house that did not have the blood of the lamb on its doorposts was visited with death. It is only by the blood of the Lamb, that the spirit of Pharaoh can be broken. I believe by the Spirit of the Lord, that even now God has His drawn out ones, who have been prepared by the wilderness, to say, "Thus saith the LORD God, Let my people go!” These are men who have labored in this Egypt, and know personally the cruelty of the taskmaster's whip. God shall raise them up, and by the Word of the Lord, the Blood of the Lamb, and loving not their lives unto death, shall seek the release of God's people from such a tyrannical system, so that they may go in freedom and worship the LORD.

After God had broken this spirit of cruelty and bondage through the blood of the lamb, it reared its ugly head again. But this time, it showed itself among the leaders of Israel. Those whom God called 'shepherds', had denigrated their calling. They had ceased to be shepherds, and became taskmasters.

In Ezekiel chapter 34, we see God pronouncing woes against those who had been called to shepherd His flock. God asks a very pointed question of these shepherds, saying, "Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?" This is the duty and calling of the shepherd — to feed the flock of God. But these shepherds had perverted their calling into using the sheep for their own pleasure and profit. Instead of caring for the sheep, God said that they did “ . . .eat the fat and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock." They did not care for the sick or broken, but instead only fed those who were already fat, so that they could, in time, devour them for their own purposes.

The spirit with which these shepherds ruled over the flock of God, was the same spirit of the taskmaster. For God says, ". . .with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." This is the same description that we see back in Exodus, of the operation of the taskmasters. This is because it is the same spirit at work. Only now it has taken hold within the leadership of Israel. The shepherds of Israel had become the new generation of taskmasters. What was God to do about these shepherds, who with violence and cruelty ruled over His heritage?

Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the Word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD God: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock: neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

The LORD God says that He would deliver His flock from these shepherds, so that the sheep would no longer be meat for these shepherds. If these shepherds were feeding themselves on the flock, instead of caring for them, this would put them in the same class as the wolf. These shepherds, charged by God to care for and feed the flock, had turned themselves into wolves wearing a shepherd's coat. God would not stand for this treatment of His flock, and would deliver them out of the mouth of the devourer.

This same spirit has reared its head once more, in the decades of the 70's. This movement, called the Shepherding Movement, taught that all believers should be under the covering of a shepherd. This doctrine of covering has since outgrown the Shepherding Movement itself, and has found its way into many of the Charismatic churches. At the outset, no doubt it intended to give support and structure to many. But as time passed and the doctrine flourished, it became an insidious spirit of heavy-handed authoritarianism. It taught that if you were not under the covering or authority of a 'covering' pastor, you were in rebellion toward God.

Another insidious teaching that has joined itself to this covering doctrine, is that of making these “shepherds,” THE UNTOUCHABLES. This means, that you are not to question their authority or interpretation of the Scriptures. In self-defense, they will misapply the quote, "Touch not mine anointed", which has nothing to do with men who seek to put themselves above the people of God, but has to do with God's promise and protection of the fathers of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ps. 105).

As already stated, we are to submit to those whom God has set to have the watch over us, as Hebrews instructs us. However, this is not advocating a mindless submission to dictatorial leaders. A man himself, no matter how big his name may be, is never the final authority, only the Word of God can fill that position. That which makes a false teacher false, also makes a false prophet false. It is what they say, that makes them false. Any teacher or preacher can be a false one. All that is necessary is that they speak false words. When they say, "thus saith the LORD", and the LORD has not said, they become false. It is for this reason that the Word of God must be the only final guide and authority to our faith and practice. Anything else is founded upon presumption and deception.

It is interesting to note also that most, if not all of the Charismatic churches call themselves, nondenominational churches. Meaning that they claim no denominational allegiance. But what has happened is that these who proudly boast of no denominational servitude, have become a denomination unto themselves. The non-denominational movement has become a denomination itself. Not necessarily in structure, but in spirit and doctrine. It has become what it once sought to be free from. And true to form, those who are not under their particular "covering” are looked at and treated with suspicion. If you were once a member of one of these covering churches, and for whatever reason left, you were labeled as breaking covenant with that assembly, treated as an outsider and told that you have a problem with authority. Again, we have failed to see the Kingdom of God, because we are too busy establishing our own, and warning the sheep of the dangers of other Shepherds.

This is not advocating what many call church hopping. Some may hop from church to church because they are afraid of committing to a specific body. However, there are many also who are not hopping, but are hoping and searching for the true nourishment of God's pasture. Many seek the refreshment of Living Water, but only find stagnant pools in broken cisterns [Jer. 2:13].

We should encourage believers to plant their lives and gifts in a local body of believers, for fellowship and ministry. This is necessary for healthy believers and a healthy Body. But it is the control and domination of these sheep for the personal benefit of the shepherds, which is at issue here. The dictatorial control of the sheep by a shepherd turned taskmaster, is one of the most hideous things to occur in the Body.