EX 13:17-17:16 "Israel's rescue and the army of Egypt's fatal water baptism"
SHABBAT SHALOM: "B'SHALACH" and he sent
EXODUS 13:17-17:16.....................JUDGES 4:4-5:31..................JOHN 6:15-71
A very interesting Parasha, we see that pharaoh "lets Israel go" (sort of...) yet he still has reservations, he repents of it later...."What? our labor force gone? no way! let's get' em boys!"
this reminds me of the funny "Passover video" which shows a goat with a pipe in its mouth, speaking to pharaoh, "Oh, Pharaoh, the Jews are gone" What? impossible!
..Uh, well...uh... yeah! "Impossible, who let the Jews out?" (Jews..Jews...Jews..Jews) etc
Some of you probably saw it, its kind of funny, and it shows Moshe going through the Red Sea in a convertible with a bottle of wine.
But on a serious note, Pharaoh signs his own death sentence, and the death sentence of thousands of his soldiers. Egypt never really recovered from that blow, the widowed queen went on to rule for a few years, but was later kicked off the throne by another would be pharaoh.
The bible goes on to show the route of the Israelites, they left Goshen towards the Red Sea, Adonai is leading them all this time by the glory cloud, he doesn't lead them through Philistine territory, not only it would have discouraged the Israelites, but the Egyptians would have caught up with them. He lead them across the Sinai Peninsula to the shore of the Red Sea.
The maps in our bibles show that they went down Sinai, and got to the "so called" Mt Sinai in southern Sinai. Yet, there is no archeological evidence of that, no tell tale signs of Israelite encampment. the so called "Mt Sinai" got its name from the mother of Constantine, she thought it was a good place to call "Mt. Sinai" so, Constantine consented; "OK Mom, Mt. Sinai it is"
In reality, the Israelites left Goshen and went East, across the Sinai Peninsula, then went south and arrived at what is now known as "Nuweba Beach" you can find it on "Google Earth" Today it is a resort area for tourists. But the beach is wide enough to accommodate the large population of Israelites, including cattle, as we know the, Sea opened, allowing Moshe to lead his people across the body of water today known as the "Gulf of Aqaba" it is a ten mile crossing to the other side which is Saudi Arabia, but then it was known as the "Land of Midian, where Moshe lived for 40 years, and where he met the great I AM at Mt. Horeb, today it is known as "Jebal Mouza" (Mt of Moses)or "Jebal Al Lawz"
The crossing area today is about 1000 feet below the sea, it is still a flat area, which met the needs of the millions of Israelites who crossed, on the other sides of the crossing area, the sea dips to about 5000 feet deep. In Hebrew the name of the crossing is "Yam Suf"
You can go to YouTube and look up, "the real red Sea crossing" or "chariot wheels under the Red Sea". They are still there, in coral formation, taking the shape of wheels, archeological proof that "Yam Suf" was indeed the crossing place.
When we look at the spiritual side of all this, we see that the "Glory cloud" went behind the Israelites to stop the Egyptians, in order to give the Israelites time to cross over, so, they crossed over during the night, it would have taken many hours for a few million people including cattle to cross over. The glory cloud was "darkness" to the Egyptians, but "light" to the Israelites. Yeshua is for us "light" yet to his enemies, Yeshua is an offense!
The Bible to us is "blessing" yet to those who want nothing to do with Adonai, it is a "stumbling block" it represents "change" which is not welcome to many even today, they, like Pharaoh, wish to remain in darkness.
The crossing of the Red Sea symbolizes the final separation from Egypt, to us, we cross over from Satan's domain, to the domain of Yeshua-Adonai, we are no long slaves to Satan, but bond-servants to Adonai, we come from being disorganized lost sinners, to an organized member of God's family, a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, with direction, a purpose, and looking forward to eternal life and rewards in Heaven!
But just like pharaoh pursued the Israelites, Satan still pursues us as believers, he will never leave us alone, he will continue to try to make our lives miserable, by tempting us with things of the flesh, putting hard-to-deal-with people in our midst, many of whom are un saved, if he can, he will make our testimonies worthless, that is IF we let him. We must never forget that we have the Holy Spirit to give us strength, and by the blood and name of Yeshua, ALL demons and Satan must FLEE! not to mention our personal angels that are at our disposal.
The Israelites cross over, but they soon forget what God did for them, they start to complain, no water! sour water! no meat! no water...again! Yet we see a God with compassion, with patience, and HE supplies their needs, with bread (manna) with meat (quails) and with water (from the ROCK) Moshe takes them to the "ROCK" which is near the real Mt Sinai in Arabia, about 50 feet tall with a large crack down the middle, (maybe it was like a giant cork to an underground water supply) God told Moshe to "strike" the rock and it cracked and brought forth water, and formed probably a small lake. We look at this ROCK as it symbolizes YESHUA HA TZUR, (Yeshua the Solid Rock) who was "struck" once, and he was "ripped open" and out of him flowed his blood, for our sins, He is known as the "Living Water" whose "water" gives us eternal life.
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JUDGES 4:4-5:31
We see in this Haf Torah, the again, the enemies of Israel are defeated, Adonai himself defeated the Egyptians by water, this time, Adonai gives the victory to the armies of Israel they were outnumbered, yet they overcame the Canaanite forces of Sisera, by the leadership of Barac, Deborah, and Ya-el. Barac and Deborah through the power of El Shaddai, fought and destroyed the forces of Sisera, and Ya-el, drove in the nail that gave Sisera one splitting headache, one from which he never recovered. We all have the power through the Holy Spirit to fight against all the forces of Satan, we just have to call upon the LORD, and He will answer.
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JOHN 6:15-71
Again, the focus is on "Yeshua" who is the "Living Bread" and the "Water of Life" People followed him to get more "bread and fish" and he knew that, and so he let them know it,
Not to say that we shouldn't put importance on physical food, it is important for our physical health, yet the SPIRITUAL food, is even more important for us, we need to grow both physically and spiritually. Yet our bodies will one day waste away and die, but our spirit being will live on, so therefore, Yeshua puts more emphasis in our spiritual growth,
He is both our "Bread of Life" and "Living Water" he is "HaLechem BaShamayim" (The Bread from Heaven) who came down to give us the "bread of life" Yeshua talks of "eating his flesh and drinking his blood" in symbolic terms, of course the "bread" symbolizes his flesh and the "wine or grape juice" symbolizes his blood (of course he never meant it literally) so every time we take communion, it symbolizes us taking into us, into our lives the person of Yeshua, and being part of his covenant, the blood covenant that forgives and erases our sins for ever.
Shabbat Shalom.....................Rabbi Ben Avraham
