Beshalach | בשלח | "When he sent "

 

Torah Portion : Exodus 13:17-17:16 
(My scripture reading came  from the NLT)

 

• The Lord is the Pillar of Cloud & the Pillar of Fire and goes with The Children of Israel at all times~   beginning Exodus 13:17

• The Egyptian Army pursues Israel, yet they miraculously cross the Red Sea and the pursuers are destroyed~   Exodus 14:1  

• The Children of Israel sing songs to the Lord for their safe rescue~  beginning Exodus 15:1

• Miriam Sings a New Song exalting the Lord God Almighty~   beginning  Exodus 15:20  

• Just three days later, The Children of Israel, not realizing & remembering the greatness of the Lord, complained against Moses in the wilderness because they had none but bitter water~   beginning Exodus 15:22

 

• God made the bitter waters sweet because Moses cried out  to him.  beginning Exodus 15:25

• Next, God lead them to a land of twelve wells and three-score & ten (70) palm trees~  beginning Exodus 15:27 

• God next lead the children of  Israel to a new place, but they murmured against Moses again.  The Lord heard them and spoke to Moses giving a message to obey.  This was a test to see if they would trust in the Lord because the murmuring was not against Moses but against God.  The Lord then gave them bread from heaven and meat~  beginning Exodus 16:1 

• Again the Children of Israel are found complaining to the point that Moses is frustrated with them, but God gave Moses a duty to perform in front of the Children again proving His care.  God told Moses to strike the rock and by His obedience, God provided water, even when the children with sarcasm asked "Is the Lord with us or not?"~   beginning Exodus: 17:1 

   

•  Finally, with the same rod that was used to provide the Children with water, God showed them that He was also their protector~  beginning Exodus 17:8

 

Bo | בוא | "Come "

Bo | בוא | "Come "  The fifteenth reading from the Torah is named Bo (בוא), which means “Come.” The title comes from the first words of the first verse of the reading, which say, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘[Come] to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart” (Exodus 10:1). The portion begins by concluding the narrative of the ten plagues, the tenth of which is the slaying of the firstborn. To avoid the plague, the Israelites are given the instructions for the Passover sacrifice and the laws of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Pharaoh finally consents to let Israel go, and they leave Egypt.  (Taken from First Fruits of Zion)

My thoughts and study: It is interesting that my translation below changed the word from “come” to “go”.  This doesn’t greatly change things when you consider that God is and was and is yet to come!  Let us always keep this perspective because there is nothing that happens that He is not aware of and in control of even if we feel alone for He is with us always!

• Torah: Exodus 10:1-13:16

Exodus 10:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

 

Now, I’ve seen this before and read it many times but this time was different.  My study actually stopped in the very first two sentences of this Portion selection for a moment and I had to look again.   

WHAT????  The Lord says that “he” had hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  (As I said, I’ve read this before but never really took the time to think about it much.)

My questions came rushing in.  Can that possibly be?  Why would God do such a thing as harden Pharaoh’s heart?  Well, when I read on I saw the answer immediately!   God wanted to show signs to all of them, to Jew and Gentile alike.  He wanted Moses to be able to tell his son and grandson how ‘the Lord God’ dealt with the Egyptians. 

But, why was there a need to show all these signs?  Reading again, it was for “Moses” most of all.  It was that Moses could finally grasp the knowledge that God was and is Lord of everything forever!  God is the “Great I AM”!!!  (If we go back to Exodus 3, we see where God first called Moses out of the burning bush!)

Had Moses doubted God before?  Do we really know?  I suspect that Moses was full of doubt just by reading about his behavior.  He ran away from Egypt rather than face the consequences of his actions of killing an Egyptian.  That alone must have caused doubt that God was anywhere with him.  He doesn’t trust God when he calls out to him from the burning bush.  Although scripture doesn’t say this exactly, it appears to me that Moses doesn’t want to go back to Egypt.  He most likely was full of fear of what could happen to him.  At this point he doesn’t trust God and take him at his word.   Moses doubts himself and his own ability.  He hasn’t yet placed himself in God’s hand, believing that God would not only deliver the Israelites but that God would also deliver him.  When Moses argues with God, he is worried that no one will listen to him or believe that he even talked to God.

Well, how does apply to me and to you?   The big question is how much do we trust God? 

Look at Moses.  He became fearful and ran away, but God knew where he was at all times.  Moses had to learn to be a simple man.  How many times did he question his actions of murder and wonder how he could have let all his wealth and heritage disappear in one moment of anger?  We are not told, but I’m sure we can all imagine.    Maybe we have never murdered anyone, but I’m sure most of us have regrets at times and think “if only I would have…” concerning our own life decisions.

Then out of the blue (or out of a burning bush) God reveals himself to us and waits for our acknowledgement. He calls us and gives a mission, but how many times do we act like Moses and argue about it because we’re fearful of what might happen to us and how others think of us. Or could it be that we gave up?  Moses never had to worry about much when he had wealth and fame, but when all that was taken away, he was aware of his own weaknesses.   That’s when his journey of work as a simple man began.  Did Moses think that he had done alright by himself and on his own?  At this point in his life, he felt like he was on his own and destined to life as a simple man.  What must that have been like and have we ever felt this way?  Have we had accomplishments that we believed we achieved entirely on our own?  This does give us cause to pause and think about our lives… and about our blessings…

Before Moses was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, God had to put him through training.  He had to change his mind-set.  This is exactly what God had to do with the Israelites as well once they got out of Egypt.  What about Pharaoh?  The scripture says that God hardened his heart.  Pharaoh would never have acknowledged God without the sign.  After all Pharaoh was king, an absolute ruler and in his culture believed to be a god himself.  God was getting the attention of everyone through the signs that revealed that He alone was (is) the one true God!

Do we know of people who have hardened hearts?  Perhaps, just perhaps, God has hardened their hearts to take them through trials in order to reveal His majesty to them.  Perhaps, he is not finished and is about to declare that He alone is God to those with hardened hearts.  Perhaps he is showing signs in the daily lives and waiting for acknowledgement.  Perhaps the trials take place so that sons, daughters, and grandchildren may witness the beauty of His holiness.  It does give us something to think about.  God has a bigger plan than any of us can ever imagine.

 

With hope, I continue to pray for all those both near and far from the Lord. May God use whatever it takes to bring us all into submission and unity in order to bring glory to Him.  In Jesus’ name…AMEN.

 

 

Va'era | וארא | "I appeared "

BTW ~ I've enlarged the print here because my eyes are not what they

 used to be even with glasses... LOL

Torah Portion: Exodus 6:2-9:35    

This study today struck a chord with me because I have at times felt just like Moses must have felt when dealing with a group of people who don’t want to hear what you are saying.  There is much more in this scripture that I could go into but my focus will be in the following scripture from Exodus 6:2-13.  First, join in my thoughts so that you can see where I am coming from…

Have you ever been given a directive from a higher authority and had to address a group, but the group would not listen? This has happened to me.  I had been given a leadership position that had no powers attached.  My main responsibility was that of messenger.  I was never given good news to relay but always negative news and this news was never received well.  I recall even having one of my co-workers actually put their hand up to my face when I was relaying a message!  Can you imagine how I felt in that position?   But all the same, that information had to be shared and the duties had to be performed.  Somehow it had become  my responsibility to see to it that all went as planned from my superior. 

In my situation, I realized that my job was basically to keep negative reactions away from my boss with the expectation that whatever was demanded would be done. Needless to say, this position was not at all pleasant and I was happy when the responsibility was given to another after a year.  Thank God, we were on a rotation and others had to experience this dreaded responsibility. (FYI ~ there wasn’t even any pay, respect or reward involved for this demeaning duty and that made it all the more miserable!)

Well, in my study I see that Moses had a similar situation and reaction from those he was to give his message.  The thing that I must keep in mind (and express to whomever is reading this) is that I am not comparing God to my previous boss.  The only similarity is that the directive had to be carried out. 

So read with me the comparisons…

God spoke to Moses and said to him   “I am the Lord.  I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.  I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.  Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.  Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.  I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.”

So with this I see that God was ready to bring His people out of bondage and lead them to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

How could they neglect the sincerity of this message? Why were they unwilling to believe?  Look again.  The scripture says their spirit was broken because of harsh slavery.  But, what does that really mean?  Basically it meant that their hopes had been crushed and they could not even hear good news.  This might be a time that we think that their faith was not strong enough, but the truth is that they had been in bondage so long that they didn’t know anything else.  It was difficult to grab onto faith that they had not seen in others...  But my unanswered questions are ~ where were the teachings of God’s faithfulness of the past?  Were the generations who had been so prosperous at one time so sure of themselves that they stopped teaching their children that it was all because of God? Were they so caught up in the Egyptian world that they were unwilling to examine their godly heritage and keep it alive within their families?

Questions like these help me to put a light on human behavior.  In my experience, I see that when things are going good, even faithful people stop teaching and sharing testimonies with one another and their children.  Why?  who really knows?  But it happens and God becomes a distant legend or some sort of fairy tale. He is no longer ‘real’ and no longer important... 

The amazing thing is that God knows all about us and our shortcomings.  He knows our laziness in regards to teaching.  He knows our stubborness to reach out to others whether it is family, friend or stranger. When we read scriptures we often find that God looks at us in pity. He often begins to move again becasue someone or a group of believers remember him and cry out.  He then shows his sovereignty once again and pulls us close to Himself. He knows we are as little children.  He looks at our deadness and sees our unbelief.  We don't even know what we need but He does.  He sees our anxious and hopeless response to circumstances.  He takes our broken hearts and makes them come alive again.  He comes in to rescue us even when we have little or no faith.  That’s God!!!  He is long suffering toward us...

God takes our broken spirits and loves us in spite of our poor behavior.  In this He brings glory to Himself and His glory spread all over us as a warming blanket!  God is not hindered by our discouragement, unbelief and anxiety.  I must remember to depend on Him rather than myself.  When I do this, it brings Him  glory and honor that reflects back on me.

So the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”  

But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”  

But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

So there we have it.  The call of Moses was nonnegotiable. The call to us from God is also nonnegotiable.  If we are weak and have a broken spirit, we are to pray and God will help us.  We can trust His promises.  If others are weak and can’t hear anything that we say, let us pray for them and know that God will help.  We can trust Him and in this way we are fighting for them when they cannot fight for themselves.

Lord, help me to do as you have called me to do.  May I remember to pray for others and minister as you would have me share the Good News of Salvation with a lost and dying world.  Give me the strength to carry on when I am weary and may I show You to others and not just tell about You.  Help me to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only!   In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.