16
January 2016 ~ 13 Shevat 5776
Torah
Parashah - Bo ~ Go
Sh’mot
(Exodus) 10:1-13:16
The bigger picture
Last
week in Torah Parashah Va’era - Sh’mot 6:20 - 9:35 was the beginning of Moshe
and Aahron’s visits to Pharaoh saying - “let my people go”.... and the plagues.
I
asked you to consider what these plagues are ... AND what plagues would happen
to come against things in your life....
I
find that I have realized one in my life... in fact it seems to be going on
right now in greater intensity.
Learning
to not just “survive” and “get through” hard places - but to continue to walk -
have my halacha in YHWH’s instructions...
and
to STAND - no matter how hard the storm....
-
some
of you know this place well.
But
perhaps the bigger picture is - “plagues” going on - to point out or challenge
my EMUNAH... FAITH.
FAITH....
do I have it??
Because
I thought I did... but perhaps not so much....
and
if - “Not so much”... then what plan do I really desire....??
We’ve
talked before about - running a marathon.
I
can say - I want to run a marathon... but the fact is, that if I am not
training - actually working out - hard and with a plan - I won’t run any
marathon....
And
we have talked about what Yaakov wrote in his book (James)....
Yaakov
(James) 2:17
RSTNE p 811
“Even
so emunah, if it has not mitzvoth, is dead, being alone.”
(Traditional
English = “faith without works is dead.”)
So
what if the difficulties in my life right now - are things that are put here to
challenge my faith...
not so much to make me have none
(which these things could do)
-but to invite or CAUSE me to consider
...
DO I HAVE FAITH.
SO
... let’s go to the Torah
If
we start in last weeks’ parashah we find the plagues start....
Sh’mot
7:20....
Plagues
1. Water to blood - against Apis,
the god of the Nile, Isis the goddess of the Nile, and Khnun = guardian of the
Nile and Hopi = god of the Nile/spirit of the Nile.
The Nile was believed to be the
bloodstream of Osiris, who was reborn each year when the river flooded.
The river formed the basis of daily
life and the national ECONOMY, was devastated, as millions of fish died in the
river and the water was of course - not usable.
Get this picture - the thing
you THOUGHT was your life source - is not!!
What is your life source - or WHO??
Sh’mot 7:17 Pharaoh was told
“In this you shall know that I am YHWH...”
2.
Frogs - against Hechet/Hequet = the frog headed goddess of birth. Frogs were thought to be sacred and not to be
killed. They were worshiped. Their dead bodies were everywhere!...
Hequet was the wife of the god
Khnum. She was the symbol of
resurrection and the emblem of fertility and assisted in childbirth.
Hequet - was one of the four primeval
gods who personified the primeval water,infinity, darkness, an that which is
hidden.
Killing a frog could be punishable by
death.
Get this picture - The thing you
worshiped - STINKS in every part of your life!!
Plus - in this YHWH destroys the idea
that resurrection comes from something other than HIM!
=
Worship of anything but YHWH STINKS up every part of your life!
3.
Dust to lice = against the land god
Geb/Set = “god of the earth or desert”
The magicians were unable to duplicate
this one - and declared to Pharaoh ...
(in Sh’mot 8:19) “This is the finger of Elohim.”
-
Something
that no man could copy...
Sh’mot
8:16 literally says the dust becomes a
bug....
our
Bibles say lice - some say gnats.
The
Hebrew word comes from the Egyptian word chenemes which means “gnats” or
“mosquitoes”!!!.... and it was like the
dust in number and size!!
There
is “…a species of gnats, so small as to be hardly visible to the eye, but with
a sting which, according to Philo and Origin, causes a most painful irritation
of the skin. They even creep into the eyes and nose, and after the harvest they
rise in great swarms from the inundated rice fields.”
Another source says - “It is not clear against what specific
deities this plague was directed, but it may have been directed towards Geb,
the great god of the earth. Egyptians gave offerings to Geb for the bounty of
the soil—yet it was from “the dust of the soil” that this plague originated.”
“It is very possible that it was designed to humiliate the
official priesthood. The priests in Egypt were a group that was to be reckoned
with not only religiously but also economically and politically, for they
controlled the minds and the hearts of the people.”
“The priests in Egypt were noted for their physical purity.
Daily rites were performed by a group of priests known as the Uab or ‘pure
ones.’ Their purity was basically physical rather than spiritual. They were
circumcised, shaved the hair from their heads and bodies, washed frequently,
and were dressed in beautiful linen robes.
In the light of this it would seem rather
doubtful that the priesthood in Egypt could function very effectively having
been polluted by the presence of these insects.
"They, like their worshipers, were inflicted with the pestilence
of this occasion. Their prayers were made ineffective by their own personal
impurity with the presence of gnats on their bodies.”
This would be significant because the priests would not be able
to enter the temple to pray to their gods for deliverance because of their
physical defilement.
Sh’mot 8:17 states that the gnats irritated both
man and beast, and included all of Egypt.
This is
significant since the previous two plagues seemed to be concentrated in the
capital and along the Nile and were not a direct attack against the living by
causing pain.
The small insects were around in great numbers, and the
Egyptians dedicated much of their effort and resources to constructing devices
to keep them away, especially from the Pharaoh and the priests.”
Get
this picture...
the small things are very very significant
4.
Swarms of flies = against the god of the air =
shea god khepri = creation, movement, sun and rebirth.
Another source says this was a
judgment on Uatchit, the fly god.
And another source says...
The text here does not use the word “flies;” rather, it uses the
Hebrew word for “swarms.”
The idea of the flies comes from the Septuagint rendering
“dog-fly,” which may carry some weight since those who translated the
Septuagint lived in Egypt.
The blood-sucking dog fly (gadfly) was a great abhorrence and may
be responsible for the blindness in the land.
It might also be the
Ichneumon fly, which deposits its larvae on living things so that it can feed.
The Egyptians saw this as the manifestation of the god Uatchit.
Many other insects may have been revered in the same way.
It is also known that the fly, in Egyptian mythology, gave
protection against disease or misfortune. Stone amulets in the form of flies
were being made in Egypt as early as 3500 BC, approximately. The fly was also
depicted on various ritual artifacts, including the so-called “magic wands,”
often carved from hippopotamus ivory and probably intended to protect the owner
from harm.
There are, some scholars who do not accept the Septuagint
rendering and think the passage implies the scarab beetle, which was actually a
dung beetle.
Swarms of scarabs, with
mandibles that could saw through wood, were destructive and worse than
termites. Deification of the scarab was found in the creator and king god
Amon-Ra.
“Ra, the Sole Creator was visible to the people of Egypt as the
disc of the sun, but they knew him in many other forms. He could appear as a
crowned man, a falcon or a man with a falcon’s head and, as the scarab beetle
pushes a round ball of dung in front of it, the Egyptians pictured Ra as a
scarab pushing the sun across the sky.”
In the Hebrew the phrase “grievous swarm” speaks of something
oppressive like a yoke. It may also carry the idea of massive numbers or
abundance. This communicates the intensity and the severity of the plague and that
all in the land are experiencing the wrath of Yahweh.
This is the first plague where it clearly states that Israel
would be untouched.
Sh’mot 8:23
“And I will put a division between MY people and your people:”
Get this picture - There are things -
small things - that will attack you if you are in Mitzriem / SIN - that will be
relentless miserableness.
Also - The division... we
- part of Yisra’el are called to be divided from Mitzrayim!
5.
Cattle, horses,
donkeys, camels, sheep, oxen (hoof and mouth??) = against bull god Apis and
cow god Hapha, Egyptian goddess Hathor of love and protection. Both Hathor and Apis were depicted as cattle!
= Death of
livestock
This was
destroying the economy of Mitzriem/Egypt.
But notice that
Isra’el’s livestock did not die....
Pharaoh even sent
investigators (Sh’mot 9:7) to see if the livestock of Yisra’el were dying.
Get this picture..... your
economy - what you expect to survive on - can not save you....
6.
Ashes to boils on man and animals = against the
ashes of child sacrifices = Queen of Heaven.
This was against several gods over health and disease - sekhmet, sunu,
and ISIS.
This time- the magicians couldn’t even
stand before Moshe because of their boils.
Another
source says:
This plague was against --- Sekhmet, a lion-headed goddess, who
had the power of both creating epidemics and bringing them to an end.
A special priesthood called the Sunu was dedicated to her.
Amulets were often used by the Egyptians to ward off evil and
sickness in their lives.
Serapis was the god of healing, and Imhotep was the god of
medicine and the guardian of the healing sciences.
Like the plague of the gnats and flies, this plague would also
affect the purity of the priests and hinder them from entering their temples
and praying to their gods.
Get
this picture... man is not in charge of health and disease
AND
the religions of man can not stand before YHWH.
And
then comes the last three plagues...
because all that was not enough....
Pharaoh
was given a special message from YHWH...
Sh’mot
9:14-19
p 55
These
plagues would be more severe than the previous ones.... and they were designed
to convince Pharaoh and all the people that
(Sh’mot
9:14) “That you may know that there is
none like Me in all the earth.”
9:16 Pharaoh is told that YHWH put him in his
position - to show YHWH’s power through Pharaoh...so that the name of YHWH -
would be declared through all the earth.
In
His grace, YHWH warned Pharaoh to gather in cattle and crops that still
remained ... and shelter them from the storm.
vs
20 - Some of Pharaoh’s servants did this... others did not
AND then the last three plagues....
7.
Hail -
thunder, fire
= against the god of nature.
Another
source says - against Nut the sky goddess; Osiris, the crop fertility god; and
Set, the storm god.
This hail was unlike any that had been
seen before.
It was accompanied by a fire which ran
along the ground, and everything left out int he open was devastated by the
hail and fire.
-
Except
no problems for Yisra’el.
Another
source says:
Nut was also considered by the Egyptians to be the mother of
five other gods: Osiris, Hathor, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.
Other gods were Shu, the wind god, and Horus, the hawk-headed
sky god of Upper Egypt.
The plague would have also been directed towards those gods who
protected the crops, such as Isis and Seth.
This plague would have also damaged many of the monuments that
the Egyptians were obsessed with building to honor the glory of the gods and
the Pharaoh. Now those glorious images representing their gods were being
defaced.
The only crops that were destroyed were flax and barley, which
indicates that this occurred in late January or early February. The hail would
not just have affected the Egyptians’ crops but also their homes. They were
confined to their homes while their surviving livestock and crops were being
destroyed.
Get this picture -
the economy is being destroyed, the food source is being destroyed.... Just when you think you have seen it all -
know that there is more than we can imagine ....but it is NOT controlled in any
way by man.
And then we get to our Torah Parashah for today...
Sh’mot 10:2
Then YHWH tells Yisra’elites - I’m doing this so you can tell
your children what I have done in Mitzrayim .... “that you may know that I am YHWH.”
8.
Locusts = “ardabey” in
Hebrew = against the gods - Nut and Osiris and Set. Nut = sky goddess, Osiris = crop god, Set =
storm god
The later crops of wheat and rye had
survived the hail, were now devoured by the swarms of locusts. ... There would be NO harvest that year...
Another source says...this was against
Serapia the god who was to protect Egypt from locusts
There were many gods associated with the crops of Egypt, for the
crops and the Nile were the source for all life in the country.
There was Nepri, the god of grain; Ermutet, the goddess of
childbirth and crops; Thermuthis, the goddess of fertility and the harvest; and
Seth, another god of crops.
There have been discoveries of many amulets in the shape of a
locust that were probably worn by the Egyptians to ward off the swarms that
would ravage their crops.
The locusts were so numerous that Sh’mot 10:15
says that the whole land was darkened.
The locusts would not have just destroyed crops but also the
trees and the fruit of the land.
Get this picture.... you can’t count on
what you count on - unless it is YHWH.
9.
Darkness for three days
= against the sun god Ra who symbolized Pharaoh himself. The Isra'elites had light.
Another source says....this was against
- Ra, Amen-Ra, Atum, and Horus - all who were related to the sun.
Another
source says...
In Egyptian mythology
Horus was the god of light who personified the life-giving power of the Sun.
He was usually
represented as a falcon-headed man wearing a sun disk as a crown.
There was also the god Ptah, the one who created the moon, the
sun and the earth; Atum, the god of the sunset; and Shu, the god of sunlight
and air. Khepre, who often appeared in the shape of the scarab, was a form of
Ra.
The plague would also have been a direct attack against Pharaoh,
for he was the divine representation of the sun god Ra.
Get this picture...light only comes from
YHWH.
10. Bachor = first born = against the god
Pharaoh.
Another source says - this plague was
against ISIS - the protector of children.
In this - YHWH was teaching the
Yisra’elites a deep lesson about Mashiach.
This was different - The Yisra’elites survived ONLY because of
their identity as YHWH’s people.
The protection - required FAITH /
Emunah by them.
The
blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the door posts... and the lamb was to be
roasted and eaten...
ANY
family - that did not follow these instructions would suffer in this plague.
The
ONLY protection was the blood of the Lamb.
When
the death angel saw the blood - he would “PASS OVER” the home.
The
people were in bondage/ slavery in Mitzrayim - AKA = SIN......
Qorintyah
Alef (1 Corinthians) 5:7 p 854
“Clean out therefore the old chametz,
that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Moshiach our Pesach was sacrificed
for us:”
-Y’shua
was our Pesach lamb.... who freed us from bondage
This plague was directed against “all of the gods of Egypt” (Sh’mot
12:12) and would show the total inability of the gods of Egypt to
protect their subjects in the face of unparalleled tragedy.
This plague was potentially more devastating than all of the
other plagues combined,
for the firstborn was not only the heir of a double portion of
his father’s inheritance, but represented special qualities of life.
The law of primogeniture
decreed that the firstborn son would inherit the major portion of a family
estate when the father died. The death of the firstborn son would cripple a
family legally and emotionally.
This would have been humiliating to Isis, the winged goddess of
fertility; Meskhenet, the goddess who presided at the birth of children; to
Hathor, one of the seven deities who attended the birth of children; to Min,
the god of procreation; to Selket, the guardian of life; and to Renenutet, the
cobra-goddess and guardian of Pharaoh.
Not only is this an attack against the gods but also against the
Pharaoh. It undermined his immortality through his inability to protect his
son, who was a god as well, and it undermined his ability to provide unity and
protection over the land of Egypt.
The Hebrew word for “plague” in Sh’mot 11:1
describes a “mark” and comes from the Hebrew root word naga,
= nun -gimel- ayin
meaning to “touch, reach, or strike.”
Previously, Yahweh had
not revealed how many plagues there would be, and now Yahweh reveals that this
will be the last one and that it will leave a mark on Egypt.
In Ps. 135:8 and Ps. 136:10 the death of the firstborn is the only plague mentioned at all,
probably because this plague made such a great impression on future
generations.
Whereas all the other plagues affected everything around, this
one was selected to affect only the firstborn son of each family. It is
interesting to note that even the animals’ offspring are included in this
distinction.
In the previous plagues Israel was left untouched as a nation,
but now Yahweh required an act of faith on their part in order to escape the
judgment.
Pharaoh himself was now left without an heir to the throne; this
would be devastating to a king, especially one who was the representation of
the god Ra.
Get
this picture..... What if - “the mark” is a plague.... that
brings death of what YHWH offers - Chayim....
??
And
then in Torah - we have ...
YHWH’s
instructions for “first” Pesach
But I read something very interesting.... by Mike Clayton
What
if this was not the FIRST Pesach.... ???
Consider
- the “passover” of death in Gan Eden - and they were given skins....
Consider
Avraham’s Akediah - arguably the passing over of death of Yitzchak......
With every plague the Pharaoh is becoming a bit more ticked off,
and to make matters worse, Moshe is again living with the fact that his own
family, the Hebrews, are not too happy with him either.
The difference between his current situation and the one forty
years earlier is he is able to "see" the hand of Elohim working in
his midst. This is what gives him strength.
To fully understand where Moshe is at, we must take a look at
the word I used: see. In English the word "see" is to look upon
something with our eyes. This limits us to our natural vision. In Hebrew the
word for see is "ra'ah," which means to not only see with our
eyes, but to perceive and consider with our spirit.
Let's look at it this way; When a situation arises in life,
whether good or bad from our perspective, we have a choice. We can either
"see" it through our eyes, or we can ask to "see" it
through His.
- Again - back to Emunah!!
For Moshe and the Hebrews, a greater work had to be done than
simply leaving Egypt. Egypt was going to have to leave them.
Many years had passed since Yaakov and his family had entered
Egypt. When they arrived, the Hebrews were abhorrent to the Egyptians and the
Egyptians were abhorrent to the Hebrews. As time had passed, the Hebrews had
settled into the life of Egypt. To many of them the land and ways of Egypt had
become who they were. It was home. The act of delivering the Hebrews from Egypt
meant Egypt had to once again become abhorrent to them. The purpose of the
plagues was not only to judge the pride and arrogance of Egypt, but to destroy
Egypt in the hearts of the Hebrews. We will see in later readings that this
would be more difficult than even Moshe could have ever thought.
With all this said, let's bring it to our day.
It appears the whole
world has entered into a time of plagues. From ebola in Africa to killings in
Paris, the world is being set on fire. I, for one, believe it is just the
beginning. There are going to be events in the near future which will make us
stand with Moshe and say, "I didn't see that coming." The choice each
of us face is the decision to not "see" these events with our eyes, but
to pray for discernment to "ra'ah" through His eyes, for there is a
greater purpose going on in our midst than just those "lousy old
politicians" being judged for the way they are treating us.
The plagues in Egypt were not only to take the Hebrews out of
Egypt, but to take Egypt out of the Hebrews.
With each plague Egypt was being chipped from their hearts and a
greater work was being done. In the end, many would not let Egypt go and would
die in the wilderness. Let us not make the same mistake. When we
"see" things coming and they are not the way we expected, let us pray
that we may "ra'ah" the greater work.
***********************
Keeping
the plagues in mind....
I
want to step back and review something we learned awhile ago.....
If
you still have the handout from Guardian Angel study....
B’re’shiyt 1:26-27
Tselem
- “image”
- is a masculine noun
transferred
authority and order over what destroys.
To
be created in YHWH’s image is to reflect divine action.
Demut
- “likeness” -
is a feminine noun.
“Being
human is ACTING according to YHWH’s path to life.
It means standing against chaos.
..
It also means knowing what is permitted and what is not and acting accordingly.
-To
be human is to ACT LIKE YHWH ACTS... to reflect His choices... It is not to BE
YHWH... but to reflect Him.
I am most interstersted in:
Demut
- “likeness” -
is a feminine noun.
“Being
human is ACTING according to YHWH’s path to life.
It means standing against chaos.
..
It also means knowing what is permitted and what is not and acting accordingly.
-To
be human is to ACT LIKE YHWH ACTS... to reflect His choices... It is not to BE
YHWH... but to reflect Him.
And
we know that Brad Scott also talks about this.
Now....I’d
like to look at something else:
in
Moen’s book - “Spiritual Restoration” he
writes...
“The
Earth-made Being who prays
A
Living Being - YHWH fashioned from the dust the body that he animated with His
breath -
man always manifested as NEPHESH.”
And
he goes on to say....
“Prayer
existed before the Fall.
The
one formed from the earth communicated with the Creator and in the process
received life-enhancing purposes, balance, and instruction.
In a fallen world, prayer is even more
important.
and
- “You must decide to become human.”
Moen
goes on to say...
“My humanity depends entirely on how His life is manifest in my
nephesh.”
Read
that again...
“Now
the world itself is under the power and influence of the IN-HUMAN.
The
systems of this world are designed to remove your humanity because they are
designed to remove you from a relationship with your Creator.”
Whatever is self driven leads to inhuman
behavior.
True
humanity is found in humble submission to the Creator.”
There
is only one model for being human- it is Y’shua!
The
author goes on to say -
“I must decide to become human”
“Now
the world itself is under the power and influence of the IN-HUMAN.
The
systems of this world are designed to remove your humanity because they are
designed to remove you from a relationship with your Creator.
Whatever is self driven leads to inhuman
behavior.”
“My humanity depends entirely on how HIs life s manifest in my
nephesh.”
We
need to RA’AH - to see as YHWH sees... the situations around us !!
Selah!!
“Now the world itself is under the power and influence of the
IN-HUMAN.
The systems of this world are designed to remove your humanity
because they are designed to remove you from a relationship with your Creator.
Questions
for you....
1. How does this relate to who you are and how
you live??
2. And how does this idea relate to the 10
Plagues????
The plagues were attacks on
gods.... the INHUMAN....
3.
How does this relate to my world - and how I
live TODAY??!!!
What if I can actually see (RA’AH) the
world for what it is - inhuman...
What
if YHWH was attacking this “inhuman”??....in the plagues....
and
what if HE is showing us this today - so that we can get cleaned up and live
kadosh????!!!!
BUT
we have to RA’AH - see as YHWH sees....
*
EMUNAH
- faith.... (is dead with out the works of living it and walking it. -
What
do you see??
AMEIN.
