FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH
The Narrow Place
And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
The above Scripture speaks of Moses’ time when God passed by him with His glory. There were some specific things God mentioned to him in these verses which speak spiritually of what He would do with His people in the coming days when the glory passes by them. God says, “Here is a place by Me,” that means He was speaking of a current place Moses was going to come to, which God created for him to be in (a position he would put him in). What was going on with Moses at that time? This was the period in which God told him to take the people out of Sinai because He was going to give them the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 33:1-6). Mount Sinai was a significant place where many important events and spiritual lessons were gained (Exodus 19-33).
The place that God gave Moses was first on the rock. It was a place that God had to bring him to so that he’d stand firm in the things of God (Psalm 40:2). In all the experiences and trials he had to endure while in the desert, he was able to grow and learn through them, along with increased patience in the Lord which brought forth God’s true salvation or deliverance in the end (His people entering into the promise). This is no different then:
Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation.
2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.
3 How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
4 They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved.
7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
8 Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
The rock that was by God (or the Way or path by one would take, John 14:6; John 10:9) was a mountain, the mountain of the Lord. Moses actually went upon a mountain but this was to demonstrate the spiritual walk of God’s people in the future where they’d have to endure or go by in order to be able to stand firm in God and move forward onto the promise land or into the promises of God. This was and is to be a firmness that is secured where no one is able to snatch you out of (John 10:28-29); in the hand of the Father or under the power of the Father. This place is not a place chosen by you but by Christ (John 15:16); the same place Christ came to when He was on the cross and committed His spirit to God for God’s will and glory. Christ is the One that brings you to this place and it’s done in God’s timing and under the command of the Father. No man can ‘make it happen’ on their own. This is done by the Power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Moses was naturally experiencing something in the Old Testament which would occur spiritually with God’s people in the future. The Father would draw His people to Himself (into the desert) through His Son and then His Son would commit our spirit to the Father, into His hands (or power, His Wisdom), for His glory and purposes to be carried out, through testing and trials (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1-14). This would be the mountain of the Lord. God’s Wisdom is higher than all things (1 Corinthians 1:25; Isaiah 55:8-9).
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
3 And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths [walk in the Way by Him].”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6 For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land has also been filled with silver and gold
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with horses
And there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.
9 So the common man has been humbled
And the man of importance has been abased,
But do not forgive them.
10 Enter the rock and hide in the dust
From the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.
11 The proud look of man will be abased
And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
The trials and testing were part of the purging of foreign things to God (as the house of Jacob had taken part in). The common man had to be humbled (James 4:9-10; 2 Chronicles 7:14) and the man of importance had to be abased or degraded (Ezekiel 21:26) in the desert. No one was exempt from the humiliation (James 1:1-18). God will make His mountain the chief mountain; that is His Son Christ Jesus above all men and their ways.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief corner stone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing [a place by Me, Exodus 33:21];
It is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a Chief Corner Stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.
This mountain is the Wisdom of God. It is His Son Jesus Christ that one needs to stand firm on (Matthew 7:25; Luke 6:48) and He will establish your steps by His Power (Psalm 119:133-135), which is directed by the Spirit of God. Moses walked led by the Spirit of God in the desert. God put him on the rock, but then He said as His glory would pass by, He’d put him in the cleft of the rock. This is a narrow place and God said He’d put him there. This was after He put him on the rock. What is the cleft of the rock?
A cleft can also be known as a fissure. A fissure is: often a long narrow crack or opening, a breach, or rent (which is made by rending, as in a rip or tear; Mark 15:37-39). Moses not only had to stand firmly and be established, but then he was placed in an opening that was a Way where God would pass over him in His glory. This corresponds with Christ, fulfilling the Scriptures:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The place of life hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:2-4) is a place of confinement (narrowness) and appears as a disability because it does not conform to the ways of the world. It is a life of pleasing God and not men (Galatians 1:10). God in His Wisdom cripples (disables) you in your fleshly nature so that He may be glorified in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is where He gets the glory in all things. In a sense, He disqualifies you before men so that you alone are pleasing to Him and no other (1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Psalm 44:9-19). The fissure is the opening or is a Way made by God (through His Son) that keeps you so that God’s glory may pass by you and you may see Him (Matthew 5:8; Revelation 22:4; Psalm 17:15).
* A breach is also a gap. God is calling His people to be in the opening or gap, in prayer by the Holy Spirit’s leading alone (this being the sword, which is One with Christ Who is the Word, Ephesians 6:18). These people led in complete obedience unto the Spirit of the Lord will naturally be in prayer always in order to rebuild and repair with righteousness.
I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.
Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
* The rent can also mean the breaking of a man’s heart in his weakness in the flesh. What veils men from seeing God is his heart in the flesh, but when the heart is made new in Christ, men are able to approach God (Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26). God will break the heart of man, in order that He may heal him with the heart of His Son.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
* The rending of our hearts in brokenness are the sacrifices of God, not of men. Men in their darkness will not be broken over sin (as Christ was and is). A broken heart over sin and what it has done and does is what God is satisfied with; this true understanding within a man (Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9).
Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
There is a narrow place that God must bring His people into. However, before that occurs He first will place His people on the rock which is established by Him and His ways alone, led by the Holy Spirit. After He establishes you on His foundations then He will place you in Him. It’s that narrow place where confinement, deep Spirit-led prayer is exchanged consistently, and most importantly where a man’s heart is broken over sin in order that true righteousness is carried out to restore people into that place of peace with God as well. This is so that they will return to their God and dwell in the midst of the city IN the mountain, a place hidden in His Son; the narrow place (Psalm 48:1-3).
Then the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’ 3 Thus says the Lord, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’ 4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. 5 And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.’ 6 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?’ declares the Lord of hosts. 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; 8 and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.’