שְׁמוֹת

 

The children of Israel leave Egypt.

    Since the 7th of October, the weekly Torah portions have been lining up with what is going on around us today, and the nuggets of personal application abound. For a short but thorough study on the first few verses of Exodus 1, please watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqkMT5KyVIA

    The weekly Parashot (portions) are sections of Torah that are read every week in synagogues and homes where the God of Israel is worshipped. Each weekly parashah is then further divided into 7 aliyahs, a section of the weekly parashah for each day of the week.

    Today is Thursday, the 5th day of the week. The first two verses of the aliyah of Sh'mot for today is Exodus 3:16-18, and it reads thus:

    [God is speaking to Moses] "Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared unto me, saying: 'I have surely remembered you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said: I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

    The first thing to note is that God is identifying Himself, making sure there is no confusion about who He is. He is the Same One who created the universe, formed man in His image, and brought the father of our faith, Abraham, out of a world lost in idolatry. He is the same Ancient of Days as He has always been and will always be.

Secondly, it's not that God has memory loss and just randomly forgot about His people. When the Torah says "and God remembered", it means that He has now taken special note of them and their situation and is about to act decisively. It was the cry of the Hebrews that reached His ears and heart and caused Him to act on their behalf. Just so when we cry out to God today. He hears our pleas.

    Number three: The land that God is telling His people He will take them to once He delivers them from Egypt, is the very same land that He set aside at the beginning, when He made the Covenant with Abraham. This cements the truth that God will always keep His promises. He is not a man, that He should lie. If He says He's going to do something, we can believe Him.

    Also, on the issue of the land, the nations that He said He would drive out from before His people were six. These nations had defiled the land - which is Holy, and belongs to God - by extreme idol worship. They were therefore, by extension, opposed to God and His people. As enemies of Israel, they were removed. Not even one of these nations is in existence today, they were utterly destroyed. It gives us pause as we consider what is going on in Israel today. There are enemies all around Israel who are attacking them from all sides. The Torah teaches us that history is cyclical and Pirkei Avot (the Ethics of the Fathers) teaches us that as it was for the fathers, so it will be for the sons. The land remains God's, and the people too. Today, just as in history, the enemies of Israel are fighting God Himself and cannot win.

    Lastly, the term "flowing with milk and honey" is an agricultural term. It is worth noting that the Holy Land only blossoms when the people of Israel are inhabiting and farming it. They have turned the desert into fields of amazing provision. At all other times, when other nations and peoples occupied the land, it was a place of deserts and marshes. It gave forth nothing. This is one of many signs that the land belongs to Israel.

    Remember, Jacob, the last of the Patriarchs, was renamed Israel. As the Word of God teaches us, not all who are Israel, are Israel. In addition, those of us who are grafted in and holding onto the tzitzit of the Jew, are also now part of the House of Israel. May we learn to adapt our lifestyles to the ways of the Jewish people. Yeshua Himself, a Jew, born and raised, lived His life on Earth as a Jew. Let us follow His great example and in doing so, return the authentic Yeshua HaMashiach to the people of Israel. Let us remove His Western garments and re-clothe Him in His Jewish attire, so that He will be recognised by His own people.

See you soon. Shalom!