 12-29-2007, 2:07 PM
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LovingNeighbor
 
Joined on 02-10-2006
Washington
Posts 397
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Whose are you? - The choices are yours
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Whose are you
For Parasha Shemot
By Lovingneighbor 12-29-2007
This weeks Parasha is in the book of Exodus also called Shemot, and is called Shemot which means 'Names'. In this weeks parasha:
- Yosef died and all his brothers and Yisra'el grew and filled the land
- A new King feared Yisra'el so he put burdens upon them but they kept growing
- The King told the Hebrew midwives to kill the male babies but they didn't
- Pharaoh asked the midwives why they didn't kill the male babies
- Pharaoh commanded all the people if they have a son they shall cast him into the river
- 2 levites had a child and made an ark for him and put him in the river
- Pharaoh's daughter found him and took him for a son to her and called his name Moshe
- When Moshe was grown he saw an Egyptian smite a Hebrew and he slew him
- Moshe saw 2 Hebrews fighting and when he asked why they said who made you judge over us
- When Pharaoh heard about the Egyptian he wanted to slay Moshe but he fled to Midyan
- When the 7 daughters came to water their flocks some men drove them away but Moshe helped them
- Re'u'el gave Moshe Tzipporah his daughter to marry and she bore him Gershom
- It came to pass the king died and Elohim heard the cry of Yisra'el
- The angel of YHWH appeared to Moshe in a fiery bush
- YHWH tells Moshe He has come to deliver Yisra'el from Egypt and He will send Moshe to Pharaoh
- Moshe said they will not believe me and they will ask your name
- Moshe is told to tell the elders YHWH promises to bring them out of Egypt and give them the promised land
- YHWH gave him a sign to show and told him to cast his rod to the ground and it became a serpent
- YHWH told him to put his hand in his bosom and it became leprous
- YHWH said if they don't believe the first 2 signs pour water of the river on the ground and it will become blood
- Moshe complained he wasn't a good speaker and YHWH said Aharon shall speak for you
- Moshe told Yitro he was going to return to Egypt
- It came to pass YHWH was going to kill Moshe but tzipporah circumcised his son so He didn't
- Moshe met Aharon and they went to tell the people and show the signs
- Then they went to Pharaoh and told him to let Yisra'el go
- Pharaoh made them start to gether their own straw to make bricks
- The children of Yisra'el asked Pharaoh why they must now also gather their own straw
- The people were angry with Moshe and Aharon so Moshe prayed to YHWH
- Haftarah - The sending of a prophet to Yahudah and the remembering of the time in the wilderness
In this weeks parasha we see a pattern forming and it starts right in the very beginning of the parasha. It's the concept of whose are you. We start with the names of the children of Ya'akov. Now when it talks of names, name also means authority in Hebrew. Add this to the concept of children which is the Hebrew word bane (which means builder of the family name) and you get the concept that we are dealing with the authority of the family and a child is supposed to build the authority of the parents before them. In other words they should continue to advance what their forefathers did before them. This will take us all the way back to Avraham and his name means father of nations. He is the one who started building the name of YHWH when the promise was made to him. I believe we are still on this same goal. This is why it is essential for people to know the Torah and know what he started in particular. How can we continue to build a house when we don't know what the builder before us was doing and where he is at in the plan, or what the plan is at all. This is one of the great responsibilities we have as fathers. To both know the plan and teach it diligently to our children. It's more than just commandments, and it's more than just salvation. Much more, and until people can open their eyes to the big picture and stop straining at the gnat (salvation) and swallowing the camel (just using the Torah to point to salvation instead of looking at the goal of the Torah). Mashiach said he is the goal of the Torah, but instead of people seeing that he lives and breathes Torah and is the Spirit of Torah and builder of his Father's authority, they will continue to focus on one aspect and not be changed themself. Believing in Mashiach and outwardly keeping the commandments in my opinion is not the goal of Torah. They are tools to get to the goal. The goal is to be one with the Father. Then his authority is one. He s not then trying to rule over you, but he is living in you and this causes you to be fully aligned with his will and authority. It's like a cow wrestler. The first thing they have to so is just get ahold of the cow, then they can actually tie his legs and do what they are trying to do. Believing in Mashiach and keeping the letter of the law are the tools to get ahold of yourself so you can work on the inside and the spirit of the law.
How does this relate to this weeks portion? Well, the children of Yisra'el grew and were multiplying. And a new king came that didn't know Yosef. In a sense the old king was helped and blessed by Yosef so he allowed him to be great and gave him power an wealth. But this king was neither helped by Yosef nor did he give him any power or wealth and Yosef and his impact were gone when the new king took over. So the question is why are these Hebrews getting the best of the land and growing so much. I suspect he wanted to build his own name and authority. So he literally put the Hebrews to work building his cities and his kingdom. He wanted the children of Yisra'el to build his name not the house of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov. He was worried that if a war comes they would turn on him. What he feared was to go to war with them. He then wanted to kill the male children. This is an attack on the strength of the house. It is also an attempt to stop them from building the authority of their fathers. This to me is just an example of the power struggle between good and evil. Imagine Heaven as a big house or kingdom. How many authorities can their be> This is a story of a struggle for authority. To be able to rule over the house by numbers. And we see this in the world. Evil may think it can take over if it has enough numbers. But on of the things that is different than just numbers in the whole scriptures is that Yisra'el was chosen not because they were the largest, but because thy were the fewest. Look in the Middle east, there are over 1 billion muslims around Yisra'el which is only about 14 million worldwide. Catholics about a billion, and hindus about a billion. Even today the influence of the Jews in Yisra'el is much larger than their number. Yet if you add all the scattered Yisra'eli the numbers could be much larger than that of the others. So what happens here is Yisra'el was fine while Yosef was around, then later they start multiplying and as there becomes more of them, the others start to try and stop them from growing. They do this by both attempting to murder them and by forcing them to work more so they don't spread. The more that they see, the harsher the persecution. I see this as a warning and pattern to watch out for in the future as Scattered Yisra'el starts being revealed more in the world. We can expect them to try and stop it.
So we get to Moshe who is really a Hebrew but is hidden and raised as an Egyptian for his own protection. He goes mixes with those who would persecute them for a time until he starts to realize who he really is. This starts a problem that he can't ignore and causes him to act contrary to the thing he used to find OK. Does this sound like your own life? Do you decorate the tree anymore or eat bacon with your eggs? or do these things now become disgusting to you. Do you blend back with the old ways and the ways of the world? Or can you not stomach it, even if it brings persecution. Many times now I hear Messianics saying things like it's OK to go to christmas parties because you don't want to drive them away from your religion. Or it's OK to work on Shabbat because you have no other choice. But the bottom line is you just don't want to deal with the consequences of being who you really are. A friend of mine told me the other day some people at work wanted to do a bible study with me. many people might have been like yeah let's do it. I jokingly said to my friend well it has been nice working here. Because i knew people didn't really want to hear what I have to say, because it would probably be contrary to how they live and believe and once they heard it, they would either have to justify their position or destroy mine because the implications would mean if I was right they would have to change. I have always said you have to be true to what you understand. If you will lie to yourself then you will lie to others. If you don't hold yourself to a standard than you will break any rules when you get a chance.
In this parasha Moshe takes actions that will have consequences, He repeatedly does things that are not popular and can bring him harm. Like coming back and approaching Pharaoh. The children of Yisra'el didn't want to face Pharaoh, or their would have been a revolt. Only Moshe and Aharon would stand up to Pharaoh. They knew they were not Pharaoh's and they were under the authority of YHWH. You should fear the one who is in authority over you. This applies to wives as well but like Yisra'el they feared the wrong person. This is a story of two authorities trying to rule over Yisra'el. There is really no choice in the big picture. If you are Pharaoh's YHWH could wipe them all out. If you are YHWH's Pharaoh can not if it is YHWH's will. But when you start to realize you may not be the world's, many have a hard time making different choices because they have made the other choices for so long. Not only that, if they change people may not like them or may even persecute them. This is what it comes down to. Many say they are Elohim's but they do not act like it or make choices that prove it. They do the traditions and keep doing things that YHWH would not do. The WWYD (what would Yahushua do) concept is really the measure of how hard you will make it on yourself. The more you refuse to do what is right and take the consequences, the longer you will suffer in the world and eventually have to do it anyway. Sometimes there is no easy answer but there is a right answer. You just have to decide whose you are and realize that those who are not like you once you realize this will be against you. I have seen this many times. Even in my own friends. People have a knack for being you buddy until you don't agree with them. I think it stems from the selfishness of people. They are there as long as there is something in it for them. Fear or reward are the two great motivators, but what about truth. People can't understand why Elohim would allow something bad to happen, yet they don't realize the basic fact that evil people do things and that bad things do happen. Growing up is hard. You may experience many spankings, many bad experiences like falling off the couch, burning yourself, saying something stupid. The key isn't why did they happen but what did I learn from them. How can I be made a better person because of them.
If your not sure what I'm talking about read the story of Iyov (Job). His so called friends couldn't understand that Elohim allows bad things in our life experience. More important than what happens to us is how we react and who we become because of it. They thought if you did Elohim's will only good things would happen to you. Just ask the prophets and Mashiach if that is true, as a matter of fact it seems quite the opposite. If you are doing Elohim's will it will probably be a rough road but in the end you have only one question to ask yourself. Whose are you? And if that is the case where is the proof in your choices. We are going to come to a time when the more righteous you are the more you will not fit into society. You can stay in Sedom or get out, but the day is coming in my opinion that we will no longer be able to stay and the world will not want us anyway. Prepare yourself and start learning to make the tough choices now so it is not such a shock or so that you don't hold on when you should be letting go. Shalom!
A disciple should diligently search for the truth and humbly deny and reconsider it's possession.
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