This is me with my oldest grandson, 5 years ago on December 24. He was less than 24 hours old at the time. Such a joyous day! So hard to believe the little guy will be starting school in the fall. And we have added another grandson since then! Joy, such joy!
A New Year and with it the chance for a new beginning. These words can conjure up all kinds of thoughts
and mind pictures. For many people New
Year’s Day brings a New Year’s Resolution full of hopes and dreams of; losing
weight, stopping a bad habit or finding new romance. For others it is a chance to leave a rather
bad year behind in hopes of a better year ahead. Then there are those who are looking toward
the fulfillment of a promise; the birth of a long awaited child or the
culmination of years or months of engagement with a wedding ceremony. A fresh start, a do over, a new beginning. We all want a do over at least once in our
life, don’t we? This week’s Parashat is
all about an end, a new beginning and a glimmer at the fulfillment of a promise. I am so excited about what is to come in the
next months in the Torah!!!! I hope to
teach you things about His word that will make you love Him more in 2013 than
you have ever loved Him in your life!
Let’s go now to Egypt to begin our journey!
Our reading for this week is Exodus 1:1 – 6:1. It is so important that you read the Word. I know that many, if not all of you think you know this story well. I thought I knew this story well myself until I began the studies under my Rabbi and oh how much I did not know! It is amazing how much we over read (kind of like overhear in part and fill in the rest with our imagination), or we rely on children’s books or movies! One other problem with the modern day church is we are really, really good at just reading a verse or two and never reading an entire passage! By doing so, we miss a lot of scripture and never know what it says! (I am using a lot of exclamation marks for a reason here.) Also, do not forget what I have been teaching you about looking at the scripture from a new mindset as you read this passage.
Now, having said all of that,
you will DEFINITELY need to read this entire passage for yourself, because I am
not going in-depth on it. I think you
will find nuggets within this story you have either forgotten or you never
really read in the first place. Before going
further, let me suggest that in order to get the most out of your reading, it
would be in your best interest to purchase a Torah. You cannot just purchase these at your local
Christian bookstore. They can only be
purchased through a Judaic website for the most authentic translation
possible. There are several of these on
Amazon, but they are NOT reliable, so PLEASE DO NOT purchase one of those books
neither the hard copy nor for the Kindle.
There are two websites I do recommend:
Either of these websites have the
translation I would recommend for you and they are absolutely authentic. You will not go wrong with a Chumash (this is
The Torah, make sure to choose the one with Rashi’s comments and if possible
choose the Ashkenasi translation since
that is what I quote from most often) or a Tanach (the entire Old Testament,
although it will not be in the same order you are use to) ordered from them. I have ordered from the Artscroll website and
was totally pleased with the content and the company.
Now on to our Parashat! At this point in our reading, approximately 400
years have passed since God made a covenant with Abraham to make him into a
great nation. If you want a refresher on
the covenant you can read Genesis 15 and 17:1-8. I have been torn between two themes or
directions to go in for this writing, and to be quite frank I had a dream about
one, but chose the other. The one I
dreamed about had to do with the conversation between Moses and God at the
burning bush and it would have been entitled, “Who are you and who am I?” I think I was just intended to give the title
so each of you can meditate on it with God and God alone. That one is quite personal and I would
challenge you to take it up with Him, because I cannot answer that question for
you. God has a task for each of us and
only He can tell you who you are in His grand scheme.
The option I chose to write
about is using an analogy of giving birth, although I will use other scenarios
as well. If you are one of my male
readers you will still be able to connect with this one, so don’t leave me
yet. So many times the greatest new
beginnings and the fulfillment of promises in our lives begin with some of the
greatest pain, thus my analogy of childbirth.
I believe so often, unless there
is pain associated with the blessing, we tend to take it for granted. Just as you will see over the coming weeks, we
are no different than the children of Israel.
Many times, in order for us to have a thankful heart, God must shake us to
the core of our being. It almost always
involves pain, whether our own or someone else’s.
The people, who were descendants
of Jacob (Israel), had grown significantly while in Egypt. As their numbers increased, a new leader
arose. This Pharaoh did not care about
the covenant between the previous Pharaoh and Joseph. Feeling threatened by this foreign group of
people, he made them into Egypt’s slaves.
As the case throughout the world’s history, if you feel threatened by a
people group, make them into slaves, is this not correct? Now the pain and suffering begins. The true labor pains, so to speak. Hang on, because this labor is going to be a
long one. It is, after all, a first
child and they mostly take a long time to come into the world!
God promised Abraham descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky, but let me ask you this, did Abraham live
to see this accomplished? Read all of
the covenant promise from Genesis 15.
God also told Abraham that his offspring would spend 400 years as aliens
in a land not their own and they will be oppressed. Oh my,
have I mentioned 400 years somewhere in this post? How old was Abraham when he died? Certainly not 400! Did
the people know about this promise? The
sages say, yes! Abraham taught Isaac,
Isaac taught Jacob, Jacob taught his sons, who then taught their sons, etc.
(Let me get off on a side road
for just a minute here. This is a
subject that greatly bothers me. In our
modern society we fail to do this one thing.
We do not teach our children, yet in not teaching them the things we
should, we teach them after all. We
teach our children they have no responsibility to teach their own children. We teach them it is everyone else’s
responsibility to teach their children.
We have come to believe it is the responsibility of the Church, school
and government to teach our children. I
won’t elaborate further on this issue; I will save it for another post. I just needed to get that off my chest.) Now
back to the Parashat.
This was not the only promise
the people were passing down throughout the generations. Lest you forget, Jacob gave a blessing to
each of his twelve sons, each of those sons passed down the promise of those
blessings to his sons. Those sons would
have passed down the promise of Abraham along with the promise of his
grandfather for his father along with any blessing his father gave to him, etc. Whew!
That was a mouthful! There may
have been thousands of blessings to be fulfilled in the future generations that
would have been passed along from father to son. All would have passed down the promise of God
to Abraham for that promise actually affected each and every one of them.
Now Moses comes on the scene to
start the fulfillment of the promise and the people all say, “Hallelujah, AMEN!”
But wait, there is a problem! The Israelites didn’t come out the big
lottery winners here. In fact, life got
worse, really, really worse. Can you
imagine the conversation among the people as life suddenly became more
difficult in Egypt? Perhaps it went
something like this in an average home.
Wife,
“Dear, how was your day at the brick factory?”
Husband,
“Horrible, the Boss is now saying that Pharaoh won’t give us straw, we have to
find it ourselves and still make our quota.
The days are going to be longer and the pay isn’t going up, in fact, it
may even go down. We are going to have to
make the youngest children go to work to put food on the table. And now they also beat us if we even stop to
get a drink of water. Things just keep
going from bad to worse. Where is this promise
that my father told me about? Hasn’t it
been about 400 years already? When is
God going to deliver us?”
Does this even vaguely resemble
any kind of conversation in your home?
Certainly sounds like a recent one in mine. Can’t quite relate? Let me see if I can help.
Wife,
“Dear, how was your day at work?”
Husband,
“Horrible, there is another layoff coming next month and I’m not sure where my
job stands. The new tax hike went into
effect and with the increase in the cost of insurance my paycheck is $35 less
each week than it was last year. Do you
realize that I will be bringing home $140 less each month, but our bills won’t
be any less? What if I’m the one who gets
laid off? Even if I’m not, they will
just add more work to what I already do and expect me to get it all done in the
same time frame. We still don’t have the
hospital paid off from the testing you had done and now our youngest has a
dentist appointment. Almost all of our
appliances are 15 years old and the car MUST have new tires. What if Congress doesn’t resolve this Fiscal
Cliff thing? Will it ever end? Things just keep going from bad to
worse. When is God going to deliver us?”
There, is that a little
better? Can you now relate? Wow, things haven’t really changed in like,
4000 years, have they? They just got a
lot more technologically savvy. God had
given the Israelites a promise. He would
make them into a great and mighty nation in THEIR land, not in the land of
Egypt. He would deliver them and in
doing so, would make His name great.
Only one problem, we see with human eyes and well, God sees with His
eyes. They are two absolutely different
sets of eyes. Two different views; one
in the valley looking up, the other from atop the mountain overlooking the
valley.
God is about to begin the fulfillment
of the promise and thus also begins a time of pain and suffering for His people
(actually the first of many times throughout history). The pain became so great that Moses went back
to God at the end of our reading with these words:
“My Lord, why have You done evil to this
people, why have You sent me? From the
time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name he did evil to this people, but
You did not rescue Your people.”
Birth pangs. I’ve been there and probably most of my
readers have also, even the men. You
have either felt them or like Moses, witnessed them. A long awaited and glorious event is about to
take place, but what? Pain? Suffering?
Wait a minute? No one told me it
would be like this? I didn’t know it was
going to be this painful? I don’t think
I can bear it! Take this pain away! If I had known it would be this painful, I
would not have chosen this road! I don’t
think I want this promise, Lord! Oh my,
how many women in the midst of hard labor have said that, but alas it is too
late at this point! I still laugh when I
think of the Bill Cosby monologue about his wife giving birth and she screams
at him, “Give me morphine!”
A new nation was about to be
born and the labor pains had begun. Hard
labor, nothing joyous in that, I can tell you from personal experience. Just as we want to maybe have just enough pain
to allow us time to reach the hospital, Moses thought God would send him in and
lead them out. Maybe a little pain, but
not suffering through hours and hours of labor.
Not months or years of an evil ruler.
Just a quick deliverance and on to the Promised Land. As Moses cried out to God on behalf of the
people, God responds.
“HASHEM said to Moses, ‘Now you will see
what I shall do to Pharaoh, for through a strong hand will he send them out,
and with a strong hand will he drive them from his land.’”
To see the hand of God at work! I love the fact that we can look back on this
historical event and see the big picture.
It gives us the unique advantage of using it as a guideline, for all
other situations like it, in our own life as well. We are able to read ahead in the story and
know that God did, in fact, deliver His people in a way that has never been witnessed,
before or since. All of the labor pain was
in order for God’s power to be revealed!
I am reminded at this point of the verse;
“”I have spoken these things to you so that
you will have shalom in me. You have
trouble in the world, but let your heart be brave; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Think back to the delivery of your
first child or, in fact, any of your children.
No matter how difficult the delivery, when you saw the face of that
child for the first time, were you amazed at the awe and wonder of the miracle
of birth? Did you give God the
glory? Most likely you did. You may have even questioned how God found you
worthy to be the parent of that child. Even
those who do not claim to believe in God, will look with amazement at the
miracle of a newborn infant.
God’s power and glory were not
just revealed and evident to His people, but to the Egyptians also. I want to fast forward 2000 years + another 2000
years. God had also given another
promise within that same promise to Abraham.
In Genesis 18:18 we are told that Abraham will become a great and mighty
nation and that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him. Hmmm, I wonder what that could mean. Could that be the promised Messiah? If so, does that mean more labor pains?
Goodness, are we going to have
to go through all of that hardship again like the Israelites did in Egypt? Some
of the same things that happened in Egypt happened in Bethlehem and in all
Judea 2000 years ago. Well, let’s see now;
if you are going to give birth there are two ways to go about it. You either have to go through labor or have a
C-section. Either of those requires
pain, I know, because I have had one of each.
So yes, I guess it means a hardship of some kind or another.
I know this has not been the
most flowing post, but I intend to take the Messianic section a bit farther in
the next Parashat to come, but for this week I want to leave you with something
to hang on to. I know, by reading a lot
of Facebook posts and also hearing, by way of the grapevine, there are a lot of
hurting people in God’s family right now.
Every day we hear of more pain and suffering than we can hardly bear. We, as Christians, search the Scriptures for
God’s promises. We cling to those promises;
write them on our hearts and in songs.
We cry out to God and it seems at times, God is simply not
listening.
Just as during a long, long
labor it may seem like nothing is happening and the pain is too great to bear,
eventually the birth WILL occur and joy will come with the morning. God is not being silent, He has a perfect timetable. A premature baby has multiple problems and at
times those problems turn into fatalities.
God’s promises are never premature and they NEVER FAIL. They are always perfectly on time and He
always delivers a happy, healthy outcome!
God’s promise, to you as an
individual, is at the end of a road less traveled. It is a road which has a very narrow path, a
lot more obstacles, twists, and turns and treacherous stretches, BUT the reward
at the end is greater than anything imaginable.
God’s ultimate promise will be one where His power and His glory will be
witnessed by the entire world. Although
Abraham never physically saw the end result of his promise in a nation, he did
see the birth of his son, Isaac. I may
never physically see, here on earth, the coming of the Messiah, but I have seen
the birth of His work in me. Whether I
live to actually see the fulfillment from earth or I am a participant with the
heavenly host, I can’t wait to see it happen, can you? I think I felt a pain, could labor have
begun?
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