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James 1:22
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. The reading portion assigned for this week starts with the rulings of freeing slaves every seven years (Exodus 21:2). This law of release also applies to fields that are to be let fallow one year out of seven. The purpose of these rulingss is to keep people from oppressing each other, as well as to establish a sense of priority in our hearts. Hashem doesn’t want us to spend our lives aimlessly increasing our wealth at the cost of our relationships and and responsibilities towards human beingsas well as towards our spiritual walk, which also needs attention. When the people of Israel did not obey the law of release, God sent Babylon against them. The seventy years of Babylonian captivity correspond to the seventy jubilees they did not observe (Jeremiah 25:11). The earth is God’s and everything in it. He makes the rules and He gets His due, you can make sure of it. The part that compliments this week’s reading portion is in the Book of Jeremiah. As the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, through the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord convicts the people about not observing the jubilee (Jeremiah 34:8-10). As they obeyed, word reached the Babylonian army that Hophra was coming up out of Egypt with an army to raise the siege. It is not that the Egyptians loved Israel so much, it is just that whoever controls Israel controls the Via Maris, the main trade route between Egypt and Assyria. Here is where the story changes. When Israel sees Egypt coming to its rescue causing the lifting of the Babylonian siege, they renege on their repentance. They bring their slaves back to labor. They maybe thought they played a good one on God, until Jeremiah unveiled God’s retributive plan. You can read it in chapter thirty-four of the Book of Jeremiah. Through Abraham, God made a covenant with mankind which cannot be broken (Genesis 15). But the fact that this covenant cannot be broken does not exclude retributions for us breaking it. Though these retributions may not be fatal, they are nevertheless drastic (Jeremiah 34:13-22). In the same manner, when a person goes under Hashem's redemptive covenant made with the world through Yeshua the Messiah, that person becomes liable to the obligations of its contract. Inclusion under Hashem’s covenant is free, but there are particulars to the terms. As we read Scripture, it is important for us to understand the particulars of our contract. In this day and age of literacy, the only excuses we have for not knowing is distraction, disobedience, or indifference, and all are bad. James admonished the Israeli community of believers in these very pertinent words, Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:21-22). May we also take these words to heart!
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Hebrews 11:24-26
By faith Moses, … considered the reproach of Messiah greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. One of the concerns with the Children of Israel appointing a king over themselves was that he may cause the people to return to Egypt (Deuteronomy 17:16). Because Egypt's agriculture did not depend on rain falls but on the yearly over flowing of the Nile, the country was rich and comfortable. That is why every conqueror wanted Egypt, including, Rome whose economy heavily relied on Egyptian goods. From the Exodus, Egypt had been a snare for the Children of Israel. The journey from Goshen to the Promised Land by way of the Mediterranean Sea is actually very short, but God took them in a way they could not return to Egypt even if they wanted to (Exodus 13:17-18). Time and again when the children of Israel grew dissatisfied, they wanted toreturn to Egypt. When they hungered they thought about the food of Egypt (Numbers 11:5); when they were scared to conquer the giants in the Land of Canaan, they wanted a leader to take them back (Numbers 14:4). But from the beginning The Mighty El-Shaddai forbade it. Some interpret this command as a forbiddance to make the journey from Israel to Egypt, but God Himself sent Yeshua and His family there to find protection from Herod. The idea of returning to 'Egypt' was much deeper than that. Several times when faced with wars and conquest, to God's great displeasure, Israel looked to Egypt instead of Him for strength and protection, trusting horses and chariots that they could see instead of the God they couldn't see; Israel may be facing the same lesson today (Isaiah 31:1-3; Jeremiah 42:15-16). Returning to Egypt has to do with trusting the world for survival instead of God. It also has to do with being dissatisfied, greedy, and desiring more than what the Father has wisely given us. It has to do with despising the prospects of the Promised Land for temporal personal comforts. 'Egypt' provided for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It was the 'world', so it has to do with 'love of the world' which is not of the Father (1 John 2:15-16). In the movie 'The Matrix', a man quits the mission on the Nebuchadnezzar and returns to the Matrix just because of food, even though he knows it is not even real; that is returning to Egypt. So when God says that Israel should not return to Egypt, he says, "just because you presently feel a little bit uncomfortable and you want to 'stuff your face' with better food, don’t return to the ways of the world". May we take sample from Moses who considered the reproach of Messiah greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. May we not look on a world with failing morals and economies for support and strength, neither compromise in order to benefit from their strong armies who can't protect us if God has not decreed it. It is our God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills who will fight for us (Psalms 50:10; Nehemiah 4:20)! Matthew 2:15
"Out of Egypt I called my son." We read in the Torah that before entering the Promised Land, Moses warns for eventual kings of Israel not to, cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never return that way again' (Deuteronomy 117:16). Abraham settled in Egypt because of financial distress (Genesis 12:10). His grandson Jacob also brought the whole nation of Israel birthed from his loins to Egypt because of famine (Genesis 47). Up to the times of the Roman Empire Egypt was the place of wealth and plenty, of comfort and ease. It was also the center of idolatry with a culture and lifestyle in opposition to God’s ways. The Almighty had reversed the trend started by the patriarchs. He was finally going to give His first-born Israel a country of his own so the people could settle and live in Hashem’s ways. Hashem warns them: “do not let trade and comfort tempt your future king to make you return to Egypt”. If we remember, this was the constant temptation in the desert. As soon as something went wrong they cried, “Oh my, why have we left the comfort of Egypt?” Trade and comfort is also what made Lot, Abraham’s nephew leave his uncle’s side for the wicked city of Sodom. This warning seems to echo through time on deaf ears when nearly a thousand years later we read that in spite all of Jeremiah’s pleading and reminding, the remnant from the Babylonian exile seeks refuge in the arms of Pharaoh (Jeremiah 42). As believers and followers of our Master Yeshua, we are destined to problems, trials, tests, even to suffering. This is an age of uncertainty and like the Children of Israel we have left it to go after the visions of the bright future outlined in God’s promises. Like Noah we are building for the future while everyone enjoys life as if everything was going to last forever (Matthew 24:38). Many have travelled that way before us, by faith, seeing Him who is invisible, having never received the promises, and like for them, God has provided something better for us (Hebrews 11:27; 39-40) . It is easy to become wary of the way and to desire the lives of others who have settled down for the devil’s arrangements on the planet (Luke 4:6). As we hear the sounds of war, of bankruptcy, and of the general evil around us, let us rebuke that temptation and keep our eyes towards the promises of the ‘World to Come’. When we finally enter the last phase of this Messianic age, when Messiah rules on earth and justice covers the land like water covers the sea. We will then look back and wonder, ‘what did ‘Egypt’ have to offer me anyways!” May it come soon Abba, even in our days! |
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