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1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Adonai …. After over two hundred years in Egypt, the people of Jacob who had come in for refuge from the famine were very influenced by Egyptian ways and culture. Through the plagues, in plain sight of the Egyptians and of Israel God took on each one of the main gods of Egypt to show the world His ultimate superiority over all that is called 'god'. This was a shock to Pharaoh, and a reminder to the people of Israel of the story they had heard about El-Shaddai, the God of their ancestors. A parallel lesson unfolds for God’s people in the fifth century B.C.E. Israel had already been invaded by Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar and the poor that were left in the Land were governed by Gedaliah’s provisional government. A plot from Amon caused Gedalliah to be killed so the people feared Babylon’s reprisals. Against Jeremiah’s strong counsel from God, the people decided to flee to Egypt for refuge. Once there, they sought Pharaoh’s protection and prayed to Egyptian gods. Nebuchadnezzar was now coming after them in Egypt, which he was going to also destroy. In the forty-sixth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, God shows that through Nebuchadnezzar, His Mighty Hand was again going to destroy the Egypt in which His children had trusted. He takes aim and mocks the futility of the gods of Egypt who are unable to do stand up and protect. He says, 'Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword shall devour around you.' Why are your mighty ones (Egypt’s idols) face down? They do not stand because Adonai thrust them down. He made many stumble, and they fell, and they said one to another, 'Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, because of the sword of the oppressor.' Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt (and self-proclaimed god), 'Noisy one' (he is noisy but is powerless) who lets the hour go by (he is not there in time of need)' (Jeremiah 46:13-17) . And what shall we learn from these? It seems that the Father is on a constant crusade against our hankering for the false gods of this world. No matter what He seems to do to show us His great power, we always seem to fall to the lure of the sensual and indulging gods of this world. As it was then, so it is today. Today again He is calling us to leave ‘Egypt’ and to never return. He is calling us away from the gods of this world, but how can we enter the ‘Land’ with an unregenerate heart? At a future time, the mighty El-Shaddai will return. This time He will destroy ‘Babylon’ (Revelation 17-18). He will also show His great power not only to His children but to the whole world. He will expose the vanity of mankind and bring His people from all over the world unto Him. May we be ready at that time. Let us take off from our ears the ear buds that fill us with the sounds of this generation that we may hear His call. May we then be clean from our idols, a bride without blemish consecrated unto Messiah.
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1 Corinthians 10:11
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. After God delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt with His Mighty Arm He commanded that any future king of Israel should, not … cause the people to return to Egypt … (Deuteronomy 17:16). Because of this commandment, some in Jewish religious circles conclude that once a Jew returns to Israel, to the Land of his ancestors, it is a sin to leave it again, even temporarily. But was the commandment to be applied solely within a geographical understanding? Eight centuries after the Exodus, the Children of Israel had gone full circle. Subject to a coup within their own royal house they fear the fury of Nebuchadnezzar, so the remnant from the Babylonian deportation decides to seek refuge in Egypt. They seek the advice (or demand the approval) of Jeremiah the prophet who by the Word of Hashem tells them to stay put in Israel. They reject the counsel and go anyways, taking Jeremiah with them as a prisoner (Jeremiah 46). Hashem must have foreseen this event for He warned them of this before they even entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 17:16). It is easy to judge and criticize the Children of Israel for this blatant bout of disobedience. Children are known to love to judge their parents, especially teenagers! Yes; we can look at them and say, “Why? Why didn’t they trust God and obey the commandment, especially when Jeremiah told them? Can’t they remember all the bounty and power God showed them in the past …etc …” Yes it is easy to react that way, but the only way to have mercy and compassion on others is to have a good hard and honest look at ourselves. A rule for Jewish judges was that if a judge could not see within himself the fault of the person he was to judge, he would be self-righteous and therefore not fit to judge that person. Seeing the fault of others in ourselves provides us with the Spirit of the Judge of the earth who took on sin upon Himself so He could judge us righteously (Isaiah 11:1-4). He still asks us, Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye (Matthew 7:3)?. We must remember that, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:11). A good honest look at ourselves easily reveals the spirit of fear and compromise which stifles our effectiveness for Him as well as eats at our trust in obeying His word of personal revelation to us. It is usually at the end of our lives when we realize how we have missed the boat. We see then how we have allowed fear and personal interest to provoke us to compromise and choose a life of seeming safety instead of launching out like Abraham into a bright future that could not be altered no matter what. May we learn from the Children who tried to find safety in returning to their old lives. May we learn that we are safer in a desert surrounded by enemies if God is with us that in that within a shaded walled garden with supplies yet without Hashem. We need this lesson to help us face the days to come. We need to live it today so we can teach it to our children for their days to come … and that of their children’s! Matthew 24:15
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand) … From Cain to Nebuchadnezzar, everyone who tried to conquer the Jewish, the People of the Covenant, did it forcefully through land and military conquest. In his Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus gives a detailed account of Alexander the Great's visit to Jerusalem and the transpiring events that caused him not to invade and destroy it. Even though Alexander the Great did not conduct a military campaign against Jerusalem, the Hellenic empire is responsible for the historically most successful conquest of the People of God, and that through cultural assimilation. The Western philosophical Greek is as opposite to the Eastern covenantal Jew as day is opposite from night, but is commonly said, 'opposites attract!' When Israel had gotten truly addicted to Hellenism and even had a Greek appointed corrupt Jewish High-Priest, all Antiochus Epiphanes thought he had to do was to send his emissary with a list of reforms to put all of Judaism into his evil hands. He didn't expect the Maccabee revolt. From where I stand, the Maccabees may have won the war and rededicated the Temple, Antiochus Epiphanes may be dead, but the form of Anti-Semitism that he taught is still alive and vibrant. In his great graciousness and compassion Hashem gave us His Messiah. This Jewish, Righteous, and Torah-observant Messiah was high-jacked by Greco-Roman believers who in less than two hundred years displayed Him as a Roman god dressed as a Greek Adonis teaching Greek philosophy. Under a twisted ignorant interpretation of Paul's epistles, this identity theft of our Messiah included the same set of religious reforms initiated by Antiochus Epiphanes which are to stop observing the Sabbath, practicing circumcision, eating according to biblical dietary laws, and studying theology as per the Torah. As a Jewish believer, I find myself in awe that today, my non-Jewish brothers live by the same religious reforms as those pushed by Antiochus Epiphanes and even find myself shunned from their fellowship as one whose, to say the least, theology is overly influenced by Judaism. I wonder what Yeshua would think of the fact that if I want fellowship with non-Jewish believers, I have to live by Antiochus Epiphanes rules. It may be OK for others, but Jewish believers need another Chanukah revolt where with Matthias Maccabee we say "NO" to Antiochus Epiphanes' rules and live our faith in Messiah according to the terms of the covenant Hashem gave to His people. Maybe that Day will be the Day of Messiah. May Hashem give us another Matthias Maccabee who will stand for us and lead us into the cultural battle to defeat Antiochus Epiphanes once and for all! May it be soon Abba, even in our days. 1 Corinthians 10:11
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. After God delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt with His mighty Arm He commanded them, Only he, (any given future Jewish king) must not … cause the people to return to Egypt … '(Deuteronomy 17:16). Because of this commandment, some in Jewish religious circles conclude that once someone returns to Israel, to the Land of their ancestors, it is a sin to leave it again. But was the commandment to be applied solely within a geographical understanding? Eight centuries later, the Children of Israel had gone full circle. Subject to a coup within the royal house they fear the fury of Nebuchadnezzar. The remnant from Babylonian deportation decides to seek refuge in Egypt. They seek the advice (or approval) of Jeremiah the prophet who tells them to stay put in Israel and trust God. They reject the counsel and go anyways taking Jeremiah with them as a prisoner (Jeremiah 46). God must have foreseen this event for having warned the children of Israel before they even entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 17:16). It is easy to judge and criticize the Children of Israel for this blatant disobedience. “Oh, how children love to judge their parents, especially teenagers!” Yes; we can look at them and say, “Why? Why didn’t they trust God and obey the commandment, especially when Jeremiah told them? Can’t they remember all the bounty and power God showed them in the past …etc …” Yes it is easy to react that way, but the only way to have mercy and compassion on others is to have a good hard and honest look at ourselves. A rule for Jewish judges was that if a judge could not see within himself the fault of the person he was to judge, he would be self-righteous and therefore not fit to judge him. Seeing the fault of others in ourselves provides us with the Spirit of the Judge of the earth who took on sin upon Himself so he could judge us righteously (Isaiah 11:1-4). He asks us, Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye(Matthew 7:3)?. We must remember that, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:11). A good honest look at ourselves easily reveals the spirit of fear and compromise which stifles our effectiveness for Him as well as eats at our trust in obeying His word of personal revelation to us. It is at the end of our lives that we realize how we have missed the boat. We see then how we have allowed fear and personal interest to provoke us to compromise and choose a life of seeming safety instead of launching out like Abraham into the bright future that could not be altered no matter what. May we learn from the Children who tried to find safety returning to their old lives. May we learn that we are safer in a desert surrounded by enemies if God is with us that in that within a shaded walled garden with supplies yet without God. We need this lesson to help us face the days to come. We need to live it today so we can teach it to our children for their days to come … and their children’s! Matthew 6: 24 (KJV)
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. About 3,400 years ago the people of Israel learned that Egypt was an unreliable staff. Not only did they learn that Egypt was no match for God, but that the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic didn’t really cost nothing, but came at the price of servitude to Pharaoh, the god of the land (Exodus 11:5). Ultimately God Himself challenges Pharaoh’s pride, destroys his army, and takes his country down a few notches. The only option at freedom for Israel was to throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will. About eight centuries later, both Israel and Egypt are found to learn the same lesson. Pharaoh Hophra thinks himself to be god and Israel seeks refuge under his provisions. Judea had been told to submit to Babylon and live (Jeremiah 27:12), but stubbornly refused, which eventually caused its destruction and seventy years captivity. Those left from the captivity see themselves again under Babylonian attacks and seek refuge under Ophra of Egypt, thus absolutely rejecting Jeremiah’s advice to stay put in Israel (Jeremiah 42). In the end, Israel finds itself between the Babylonian army coming as locusts to destroy Pharaoh and Egypt (or ‘between ‘Iraq and a hard place’’) (Jeremiah 46:23; Exodus 10:4, 12-14). The only option again for Israel will be to throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will. Today Israel faces the same dilemma. Having a divine destiny to re-conquer and repopulate the Promised Land, Israel is discovering that the political credit and financial support it receives from the international community may come at the price of heavy compromises including the giving up of Jerusalem. Again, Israel has to make hard choices, and throw itself at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will. On a homiletical level, this lesson may apply to us all. In the global economy in which we live, when someone sneezes in Asia or the Middle East, our whole economy gets sick with a cold. Suddenly, that far away ‘sneeze’ echoes and sends shivers into our very pocket books and ability to provide for our families here at home. The good news is that as believers and followers of God, we have the admonition from Yeshua to not rely on the shaky uncertainty of an international economy already so sick that it is actually dead, only made to look alive by the life support of political lies and pretences (Matthew 6; 19-34; Philippians 4:19). Most of the time also, success in business in a capitalistic society comes at the price of aggressive financial maneuvers that go against the principles of Torah and God’s commandment to not practice usury, but to give in love preferring the welfare of others before that of our own. We all have hard choices to make!, and ultimately need to throw ourselves at God’s mercy in total devoted obedience to His will! Revelation 18:2
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Abraham was brought up as one coming from the East to deliver Lot his nephew from the captivity of foreign kings. No, Abraham would not take a blessing from the heathen king of Sodom; the patriarch had better rewards than those on earth in his mire. His faith was duly rewarded when Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness came to bless Abraham with the recompense no-one can ever take from him (Genesis 14). In the same manner, King Cyrus, whom Hashem called over two hundred years before his birth ‘My shepherd’ also came from the East (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Not desiring a bounty in God’s people, he captured the city of Babylon. Isaiah prophesied, And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground (Isaiah 21:9). After his valiant conquest of the impregnable city, Cyrus’ hand was moved to free Judah and Israel from captivity and allow them to return to their country and rebuild their beloved city Jerusalem with its Temple (Ezra 1:1-3). God’s children are still in captivity. This world is certainly not our home. We, along with all the holy elected ones who died before us declare plainly that we seek a better country that is, a heavenly country solely ruled by the Messiah King and His Torah. Wherefore Hashem is not ashamed to be called our God: for He has prepared for us a city (Hebrews 11:13-16 KJV). Even so our Messiah Redeemer also comes with dyed garments from Bozrah. He is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength. He speaks in righteousness. He is mighty to save. You may ask, Why is He red in His apparel, and His garments like him that treads in the winefat? And He answers “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (Isaiah 63:1-4 KJV). Yes, like Abraham of old flew upon the heathen kings to deliver Lot; as God Himself formed a king to conquer Babylon in order to deliver His people, the moral, social and economic collapse of today’s’ societies uncover the distant cry heard 2,000 years ago by Yochanan the Beloved disciple of the Master saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues (Revelations 18:2-4). May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Revelation 18:2
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Abraham was brought up as one coming from the East to deliver Lot his nephew from the captivity of foreign kings. No, Abraham would not take a blessing from the heathen king of Sodom; the patriarch had better rewards than those on earth in his mire. His faith was duly rewarded when Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness came to bless Abraham with the recompense no-one can ever take from him (Genesis 14). In the same manner, King Cyrus, whom Hashem called over two hundred years before his birth ‘My shepherd’ also came from the East (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Not desiring a bounty in God’s people, he captured the city of Babylon. Isaiah prophesied, And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground (Isaiah 21:9). After his valiant conquest of the impregnable city, Cyrus’ hand was moved to free Judah and Israel from captivity and allow them to return to their country and rebuild their beloved city Jerusalem with its Temple (Ezra 1:1-3). God’s children are still in captivity. This world is certainly not our home. We, along with all the holy elected ones who died before us declare plainly that we seek a better country that is, a heavenly country solely ruled by the Messiah King and His Torah. Wherefore Hashem is not ashamed to be called our God: for He has prepared for us a city (Hebrews 11:13-16 KJV). Even so our Messiah Redeemer also comes with dyed garments from Bozrah. He is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength. He speaks in righteousness. He is mighty to save. You may ask, Why is He red in His apparel, and His garments like him that treads in the winefat? And He answers “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (Isaiah 63:1-4 KJV). Yes, like Abraham of old flew upon the heathen kings to deliver Lot; as God Himself formed a king to conquer Babylon in order to deliver His people, the moral, social and economic collapse of today’s’ societies uncover the distant cry heard 2,000 years ago by Yochanan the Beloved disciple of the Master saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues (Revelations 18:2-4). May it be soon Abba, even in our days! |
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