The God of the Outstretched Arm

Original photo by Aaron Cowan, used with permission 

from the website http://aaroncowanphotos.wordpress.com

Okay, as I promised I am picking up where I left you hanging with the last post.  And I am also giving you another two for one with this one.  These are some of the most exciting scriptures in the Word of God, so hang on to your hats, people!  And keep the picture you see above in the back of your mind.  I know it isn't the Red Sea which in all honesty would look more like Lake Michigan in size, but it can give you a visual image, none the less, for it's primitive natural look!  

If we have experienced God’s grace, then we don’t have to worry about God’s judgment, right?  …………..right?  Well, do we?  Hmmm.  Well, let’s take a good look at how God’s judgment can be defined, will that be fair enough?  Okay, are you ready to dive into more of the Tree of Life?  All right, come on let’s go!!!!

While researching for the Parashat on the Tree of Life posting I found some of the most AWESOME information that needed to wait until this week!!!!!   God is soooo magnificent!  Last weeks’ Parashat is Beshalach and covers the reading of Exodus 13:17 – 17:14.  That portion of scripture covers the Israelites first leg of their escape from Egypt following the dreadful plagues and the first Passover.

The first obstacle they faced was a body of water, but that is not all.   Once they left Egypt, God re-strengthened Pharaoh’s heart and he decided to pursue the Israelites and bring them back.  And herein lays the Israelites dilemma, the sea before them and the Egyptian army closing in behind them!  What are they going to do!  Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!

A little research on the website http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/redsea.htm  brought me to the following facts: at it's most narrow point, the Red Sea is 12 miles wide (Gulf of Suez) and the average depth is 1640 ft.  Does this give you a little perspective on their dilemma?  Yes, I would say my friends picture is not quite up to spec and yes Lake Michigan is probably a better match, but the pictures I had of it were too commercialized (taken from Navy Pier in Chicago, I think you understand my point.)

At 12 miles I don't think you could see the other side and the Gulf of Suez itself is a mere 195 miles in length.  The entire Red Sea is 1200 miles in length 190 miles wide at it's widest point with a maximum depth of 8200 ft.  Wow!  That is a little bit bigger than the lake near my house!  Just sayin!  1640 ft deep means that as they crossed they had to descend down the side of a mountain the equivalent of a 164 story drop and then ascend back up the same within that 12 mile walk!  Blows that little vision of them walking across a flat plain, doesn't it?

Now, just stop here for a moment, because I want to talk through a thought with you.  Most, if not all of you, know how this story goes.  Even if you weren’t brought up in church learning this story, you’ve probably seen the movie with Charlton Heston or at least the animated version.  Think about something with me.  IF GOD is so powerful and can do ANYTHING, why did He cause the water to separate (or part) so the Israelites could walk across on dry ground?  He could have done this part any way He wanted to, could He not?  If Jesus walked on water to get from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other, then why didn’t God just have the people walk on the water across to the other side?  I mean, come on, God could have had large fish give each of them a ride to the other side if He chose, but really why not have them just walk on water.  It would have made a great correlation with the New Testament and Jesus walking on the water, would it not?  After all, He knew Jesus was going to do that, didn’t He and at that point the disciples would have said, “You have to be the Messiah, you walked on water just like Moses!”  Well, let me tell you why, but first I have to back track a little, so hang on!

Think back to last week and the Tree of Life.  Do you remember the hands or arms?  Chesed (loving kindness, grace) and Gevurah (judgment, might), well the sages teach that the world was created with Chesed.  Psalm 89:3 (your Bible may be 89:2) the original Hebrew says the World was built with loving kindness (chesed).  It is because of God’s great chesed that the world and everything in it exists.  His Chesed is unending and it is the very reason for the creation.  He created so He would have someone to bestow Chesed on.  (There is a greater lesson here, but for another time!)  His nature is complete benevolence.  He who is good, it is His nature to do good. 

Now, we have a great God whose nature is loving kindness and He has an infinite supply of it.  He is in the creating mood and is creating, but there is a problem.  His loving kindness and His willingness to pour out that loving kindness would never stop without something to cause it to stop, therefore Gevurah, judgment!  God needed boundaries to His creating!  Why, you ask?  The creation itself, pure and simple.  It was for our benefit.  Infinite love, pure and Holy poured out immeasurably without restraint would have nullified us!  Let me see if I can explain.

There is a song recorded by Nicole Mullin which says, “Who told the sun where to stand in the morning and who told the oceans, you can only come this far, and who told the moon, where to hide till evening” You see, without Gevurah, there would be no boundaries.  Where would the water stop?  Gevurah or judgment is making a decision based on where the boundaries would be best placed to benefit creation.  God doesn’t need boundaries, but we do.  We need dry land and oceans.  We need the sun by day and the moon by night, do we not?  I want to pursue this thought further just a little later in this post, but for now, let me get back to my point on the crossing of the sea. 

And this is where I wanted to take you with the crossing of the Red Sea……one other thing about creation……..Chesed also means………[drum roll please(as in the second day)] the separation of waters!  There it is!!!!!  The separation of the waters means that the infinite chesed of God which is referred to as “the higher waters”, is separated from “the lower waters” – finite chesed!  That is it!  That is why God with His mercy and grace separated the waters for the Israelites to walk through on dry ground.  He was showing them a picture of His grace and mercy!  The separation of the waters!!! 

After they crossed over the Egyptians tried to follow, but God told Moses to hold out the staff and when he did, the waters closed up and drown them all.  Now let me show you one other thing about this portion of scripture that our Bibles just cannot capture.  After the Egyptians were drowned, Moses and the people sang a song of deliverance called, “The Song of the Sea”.  I want to show you the way it was originally written in Hebrew, taken from a Sefer Torah.

Do you see anything that stands out to you?  It is two walls of water with the Israelites walking through the middle!  The elongated letters have a meaning also!  Is this not fantastic!  I am told that even the white spaces have meaning.  I think I understand what that means!  Oh WOW!  Are you getting a better picture now?  Do you see the story a little clearer? 

Now I want to bring you up to something even greater, are you ready?  You are going to see a VERY familiar portion of scripture with BRAND NEW EYES!  At least I certainly hope you do!  Remember that God poured out loving kindness on us and chose us from the foundations of the world!  Do not ever forget that!  Come on; let’s see what else He has in store for us!

Let us travel now to the other side of the tree for a good look at the branch we call Gevurah.  As our Parashat for this week continues the Israelites have crossed the Red Sea, they have seen the Egyptian Army drown and three months later they have arrived at Mt. Sinai.  I’m tired just thinking about it!  At this point, I think you all know what is going to happen next, right?  Do you, really?  Are you sure?  Perhaps you should read the passage for yourself.  Exodus 18:1 – 20:23 is the reading of Parashat Yisro. 

The picture we have mostly seen as we have been taught this scripture is one of a mountain covered in a thick black cloud with lightning and thunder and a big booming voice that shook the earth like an earthquake giving Moses lots of “THOU SHALT NOTS! RESTRICTIONS, A TYRANT THAT WANTS TO TAKE AWAY MY FREEDOM, MAN!”  What we have instead is nothing of the sort.  What the Jews have passed down SINCE the time of Moses is a TOTALLY different story!  Well, there is the cloud over the mountain part, but the connotation of God is totally different! Get out of here, you say?  For real!!! 

Let me give you a brand new picture, so all of you Charlton Heston fans, SORRY, you’ll never be able to watch that movie again!  New movie to watch now!  Here goes; A man desires a woman to be his wife.  He sends a messenger to tell the woman of the bridegroom’s wishes and his proposal.  She then replies back with an answer of, “Everything I will do” if she wishes to accept the proposal.  In chapter 19 God tells Moses to give a proposal to the people and the people respond back with, “Everything that HASHEM has spoken we shall do!”   (Sounds like a marriage proposal to me!)

Next on the agenda, A WEDDING!  And what do you need for a wedding, well you use the standard ole vows or you can write your own, but someone had to be the first one to write those vows!  God wrote wedding vows for His bride!  Gevurah!  Boundaries for the marriage!  Have you ever thought of the “10 Commandments” in that way?  God is setting down the boundaries for a perfect relationship within the marriage. 

Now let’s just stop for a minute, because I want you to think for a moment.  (I am going to go into the individual 10 in a minute, so hang on.)  What kind of marriage would any of us have without some kind of boundaries for that marriage?  What if we said our vows (like our salvation experience), and then spent the rest of our marriage like we spend in our relationship with God?  On fire throughout the honeymoon, then hit or miss for the next 10 years?  Keep that thought in mind as we delve into the individual commandments, oh yeah and they aren’t called commandments.  The Jews know them as “connections or the 10 Words”.   You see there were only 10 words on those tablets.  We’ll discuss that in a later post!  Oh we have so much to re-learn! 

   

1.        I am the Lord your God.  (I am to be your only husband)  - Simple enough, right?

2.       You shall not recognize the gods of others in My presence.  You shall not make yourself a carved image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the water beneath the earth.  You shall not prostrate yourself to them nor worship them, for I am HASHEM, your God – a jealous God (Would you want your spouse to have an idol of someone other than you in your home?  Would you want them to “worship” or adore someone else beside you?  Ladies, how do you feel about your husband looking at nude or scantily clad women in a “men’s” magazine?  I thought so, enough said and men don’t want their wives crooning over a superstar either, hint, hint!)

3.       You shall not take the Name of HASHEM, your God in vain (Do you want your spouse either cursing you or using your name to swear by?)

4.       Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.  Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; but the seventh day is Sabbath to HASHEM, your God; you shall not do any work (every couple needs a special time each week when they spend time with each other and only with each other, blocking out everything else in the world!  And work should never come before that special day!)

5.       Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will be lengthened upon the land that HASHEM, your God, gives you.  (Honoring parents gives our spouse a glimpse into our nature.  It allows that spouse to see how we might respond when that spouse is in need.  If we honor our parents it naturally follows that we will honor others, especially our spouse.)

6.       You shall not kill (Murder is more than taking a physical life.  In Jewish thought to speak evil of someone in order to hurt their reputation you murder them over and over and over.  Would you want your spouse to speak words of harm over you and your reputation?)

7.       You shall not commit adultery (Well, I think this one is self-explanatory!)

8.       You shall not steal (Stealing, trustworthiness.  How do you think this comes into play in a marriage?  Marinate on it…..!)

9.       You shall not bear false witness against your fellow (this also means gossip and slander – a spouse who will gossip and slander others will probably gossip and slander their own!)

10.   You shall not covet (Is your spouse and what they have to offer not good enough for you?)

What kind of marriage would you have if there were no boundaries or expectations?  What if your spouse simply said, “Do you want to marry me?”  And you said, “Yes” and that was it.  You had no clue where you went from there.  Do you live at their place or yours?  Do you know when they will come home or if they will have no other partners but you?  If you stop at the grocery store on the way home from work, will they be angry or will they even be at home?  Walking on eggshells, many of you know that feeling, because you have lived it.  Boundaries, judgments – always a bad thing?

We all know how short we fall in our own marriages, but when you were saying your vows in front of your guests at the wedding were you thinking, “Gee, I don’t like these commandments!”?  I certainly doubt it.  Even if your marriage ended in divorce, most likely you were thinking, “to have and to hold, in sickness and in health……yes, yes….I will do all of these things.  You didn’t see them as restrictions, you were actually looking forward to fulfilling every last one of them and saying, “I will stand by all these VOWS!”  The 10 Commandments, (Connections, Words) – God’s Wedding Vows!

I don’t know about you, but makes me want to put on my wedding dress (if I could get it to zip) and send out invitations and order a cake and throw rice and reserve a limo and…..oh, no can’t do that.   But, all kidding aside, (since I’m a woman and get teary eyed at the least thing), I am about to cry just thinking about how much God loves me!  Want to know something else that is so cool?  I told you a few weeks ago how God puts an event into my life that goes with the Parashat I am working on, well today I was out about town shopping and I went to this thrift store in town called Angel’s Attic.  It is a sort of goodwill store where people donate things they no longer want.  The items are then re-sold and the money used to support a clinic in town which provides services for working people with no insurance.  Guess what their window display was today?...........Yep you guessed it, wedding dresses!!!!!!   It was all about weddings!!!!!   Ain’t God soooo good!   Whew!  We could have church, right now!   Can I get a witness up in here?   If it were May or June I wouldn't have been surprised, but how many businesses do you know that have a wedding themed window in February!  Ha!  Here is the picture - couldn't resist showing it to you....guess they were thinking about Valentines Day!

Guys, God loves you too and those vows were for you as well!  You are as much His as the women are, let me show you how.  Men, and women for that fact, do you remember early on in my posts when I presented a Hebraic thought to you called, fractals?  (I'll give you a refresher - broccoli!)  Well, this is a fractal; Marriage.  I have already written a post along the line of marriage, but I want you to see it in this light.  Men, I know it is hard for you to see yourself as a Bride in this picture, so let me see if I can give you a better picture.  You, in your marriage are the snapshot or fractal of God in the bigger picture.  Can you understand that?  As God is the Groom and the Israelites were the Bride, men are the groom in a marriage and they are a fractal representing God in the relationship between Him and Israel, but also representing a future fulfillment in Christ and the Church!  That is why we are told by Paul in Ephesians 5: 25 “Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her.”   You are supposed to be a picture of God and Christ to the WORLD!   

Men, you are SO important in the relationship.  More than you could ever dream and Ladies, we need to understand how important the role of a man is in the marriage!  If we could just wrap our heads around the truth of the role of the husband and wife in a marriage from God’s perspective and the picture it is supposed to show to the world!  WOW, could this ever change the rate of divorce within the body of Christ!  And once we got this figured out, could we ever change the way people see GOD!!!!  (We aren't giving them much of a picture by looking at our marriages these days, are we?)

The boundaries are there to help us have the very best relationship and keep the line of communication open with our one and only true love, God!  Breaking a vow doesn’t mean the marriage is over, it only means a strain in the relationship.  (Do you remember the illustration I gave several weeks ago with the electrical outlet?  If not, go back until you find that post and re-read that one, because it has to do with the consequences of not being connected properly in the relationship!)

Think about your own marriage for a moment.  If your spouse lies to you about something, are you no longer married?  Of course not, but what does that do to the relationship until the issue is resolved?  Now, if the lying continues and goes on and on and on, the human marriage will probably end in divorce.  On the other hand when someone says they are in a relationship with God, yet lives a life that is constantly crossing boundaries we have to stop and ask ourselves, “Was there really a relationship there in the first place?” 

Now, for this week I am going to leave you with this thought, God told Moses to tell the people He was going to redeem them with an outstretched arm and great judgments.  Chesed and Gevurah.  Overwhelming loving kindness with boundaries!  Boundaries for our sake, not His!  Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, His child and forever I am!