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Parasha Bo - 5725 - Rabbi Lehtimaki

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Parasha Bo

 

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה אֶל-מֹשֶה בֹּא אֶל-פַּרְעֹה כִּי-אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת-לִבּוֹ וְאֶת-לֵב עֲבָדָיו לְמַעַן שִתִי אֹתֹתַי אֵלֶּה בְּקִרְבּוֹ׃

 

In last week’s Parasha, we read of the first seven calamities (makot), which God inflicted upon Egypt in order to persuade Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery.  This week, in Parasha Bo, God sends the most devastating and final three plagues: locust, darkness, and death of the firstborn.  After the last plague, Pharaoh finally acquiesces, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrews.  But what were the purposes of the Ten Plagues?  To pressure Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free?   Perhaps, but God is fully capable of setting His people free without a king’s permission.  We see in this Parasha and the last that God does not see the Egyptians simply as an enemy to be overcome, but rather, He is committed to communicating something vital to them:  “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.  I am Adonai.”  (Exodus 12:12)  The plagues demonstrate God’s supremacy over and judgment on all the false gods of Egypt.  When Moshe first approached Pharaoh, he said, ”Who is haShem, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2)  In the end, however, Pharaoh came to realize the power of the God of Israel.  But God was not only concerned about the beliefs of the Egyptians.  The Torah indicates that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to demonstrate His power to the nations and the powerlessness of their false gods.  “So that you (Pharaoh) may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.”  (Exodus 9:14 God does not want to be known only to this one nation of Israel; He wants His name to be proclaimed in every nation on earth: “But indeed, for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.“  (Exodus 9:16)  And God certainly did make Himself known to Pharaoh through these final three plagues. 

 

We read in Exodus 10:21–23, Then Adonai said to Moshe, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.’  So Moshe stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.  No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.”   With the ninth plague of darkness, Elohim delivered a crushing blow to the Egyptian sun god, Ra, demonstrating the folly of worshiping false gods.  Although the Egyptians were plunged into total darkness, the Israelites had light in their dwellings in the land of Goshen.  While everyone outside the shelter of God’s covenant live in ever deepening darkness, especially as the end of the age approaches, the light of Believers in Yeshua will shine ever more brightly.    Even the smallest of lights shine brilliantly in the darkest of places. Today, there are so many reports of evil, and many are fearful of what may come upon us.  Nevertheless, even when there is total, paralyzing darkness in the world, we can still have light in our dwellings, just as the Israelites had in Goshen.  It is time for us to stop cursing in the darkness and instead start living in the light.  Instead of complaining, murmuring, and fault finding over the darkness of “Egypt” (the world), we can be all that God has made us to be, shining as lights in the midst of a dark and perverse generation.  (Philippians 2:14–15)   The Bible says that the wicked stumble in the darkness and do not even know what makes them trip.  When people are in complete darkness, they cannot perceive anything outside themselves.  In this state of darkness, it is easy to live in a miserly and completely self-centered world.  Often a symptom of this darkness is using people for self-benefit. But God’s presence in our lives promotes a kind of love that is giving, not self-seeking.  (1 Corinthians 13:5)   We need Yeshua, the Light of the World to set us free from our own preoccupation with ourselves so that we may truly love our neighbor.  Sadly, far too many of us who have been set free from darkness so we can live in the light, willfully stumble in the darkness of unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment. We must determine to let these go and walk in God’s holy Light.  Like Egypt, many in the world will one day experience this same darkness, which is one of the end-time plagues mentioned in the Book of Revelation.  When the angel pours out the fifth bowl of God’s wrath, the kingdom of the beast is plunged into total darkness.  This foreshadows the state of people who descend into She’ol (hell), where there is a complete absence of all light.  This still does not convince the servants of Satan to repent, however.

 

Next, we read in Exodus 11:4-6, “This is what Adonai says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.  Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.  There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.”   When Pharaoh still refused to repent and relent after the Plague of Darkness, God sent the tenth and most devastating plague—the Striking of the Firstborn of Egypt.  Egypt’s king refused to let God’s firstborn (Israel) go, so God took Pharaoh’s firstborn and those of his loyal subjects.  The word is clear—God will treat the nations (and individuals) as they have treated Israel!  God acts on behalf of His people and judgment will fall on the enemies of Israel.  While Pharaoh was perhaps unmoved, remaining stubborn and proud as the rest of the land suffered under God’s hand, when God struck down his firstborn son, the hardness of his heart was broken through.  How tragic that it took the death of Pharaoh’s own child to bring him to the place of humility and submission where he was willing to let God’s people go.  May our hearts be soft toward the leading of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) so that God will never need to use ever increasing disciplinary measures to break through our stubborn and willful pride and bring us into a holy place before Him.  Moshe prepared the people of Israel for this final judgment on Egypt by instructing them to sacrifice a lamb and to put its blood on the tops and sides of their doors.  Exodus 12:7 says, “And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.”   The blood of the Passover lamb was the sign that caused the judgment to “pass over” the Israelites, sparing them from the wrath of God that fell upon the Egyptians.


Throughout the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel watch the process of their liberation from the sidelines. God and Moshe contend mightily with Pharaoh. One after the other, the plagues strike the Egyptians without harming Israel, who are not required to do anything in order to be saved. Israel, at the beginning of their journey, is like a baby, who is not required to do anything in order to merit protection and the satisfaction of its needs.  However, all of this changes at the last minute, with the smiting of the firstborns:  And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13  For the first time, the plague is liable to harm Israel together with the Egyptians. In order to be saved, Israel now must act–by sacrificing the Paschal offering and putting its blood on the doorposts of their houses.  In this way, a new relationship begins to take shape between Israel and God, in which abundance and protection are now conditioned on the actions and conduct of the people. This is a more mature attitude toward the people of Israel.  When a child undergoes the natural process of maturation, he moves from a passive place to an active one, from the satisfaction of his needs without any striving on his part to independent conduct that requires action and effort in order to attain the good.  The child's parents are supposed to start conditioning the abundance: "If you do … you will merit …"   This conditioning is based on a belief in the child's ability to strive and grow and attain benefit through his actions. This is the dramatic transition that takes place during the plague of the smiting of the firstborns.  God apparently wants from Israel, at least in the final plague, some mature and active conduct that will make their redemption possible. Infantile satisfaction of needs must transition into effort and responsibility.  From this point on, the Torah will further develop this idea. The people of Israel will receive many commandments and will be required to act and grow in order to receive God's abundance.  In this way, goodness will reach them not by way of God's grace, but by way of their own merits.

 

The idea of offering a sacrifice as the basis for creating a mature connection with God is self-evident.  The gap between man and God is huge, and the sacrifice, as its name (korban) implies, involves getting closer (hitkarvut).  Man succeeds, as it were, in bringing something of his own to God, thereby creating a mature bond with Him.  So, it was from the days of Cain (Kayin) and Abel (Hevel), Noach, and the patriarchs, all of whom offered sacrifices. Later in the Torah, the people of Israel will be asked to appear before God three times a year with a sacrifice that facilitates this closeness.  However, there are some unusual commands with respect to the manner in which the Paschal sacrifice must be eaten, which dramatically distinguish it from a regular sacrifice.   First, it must be eaten with matzah and bitter herbs: “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it” (v. 8).  Eating the matzah is, of course, unrelated to the fact that Israel's dough did not have a chance to rise. The matzah, bread generally eaten by the poor (Deuteronomy 16:3), imposes on the eating an atmosphere of poverty. The bitter herbs clearly correspond to the description of the bondage: “And they made their lives bitter with hard service” (Exodus 1:14).  It seems, the eating of the Paschal sacrifice takes place in an atmosphere of poverty and bitterness.  This is very far from the classical atmosphere for the partaking of a sacrifice, which is supposed to be one of exaltation and joy.  In contrast to mundane eating which generally takes place in a relaxed manner, here Bnei Yisrael must, unusually, eat the Paschal offering in haste. If we examine the word chipazon (haste) in the Bible, we find it in the context of the flight of the weaker side, the loser, from his enemy. For example, we read about Mephibosheth, the son of Yonathan the son of Sha’ul:  He was five years old when the news about Sha’ul and Yonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled. It came about, as she made haste (be-chofza) to flee, that he fell and was crippled. (2 Samuel 4:4).   Similarly, in the war between Aram and Israel, this root is used to describe the actions of the retreating army: " all the way was strewn with clothes and equipment, which the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. (be-chofzam)" (2 Kings 7:15).

 

But what is the connection between the experience of flight and panic and the Exodus from Egypt? After all, this is an event filled with splendor and elevation, in which the people of Israel merit their independence. One might have expected that the Paschal offering would be eaten in a festive and joyful way. Why the need to eat the sacrifice amidst tense preparations for the journey, with walking shoes on their feet and walking sticks in their hands? Surely the redemption is not supposed to take place in haste.  It should be emphasized that as with the matzah, so too with the experience of eating in haste, we are dealing with a pre-ordained plan to eat the Paschal offering in this manner, even before the constraints imposed by the Exodus itself.  From the outset, the commands regarding the Paschal sacrifice were meant to shape the experience as one of poverty, bitterness, and flight.  What is even more surprising is that of all the events of the Exodus, the Torah chooses to preserve in our memory the experience of haste:  We read in Deuteronomy 16:3, “You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for in haste did you come forth out of the land of Egypt; that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.”   Apparently, the experience of haste touches upon the essence of the Exodus and therefore must be preserved for generations. But why? Why is the most festive day in Jewish history etched in our memory precisely through the eating of the bread of affliction? Why, of all the events connected to the redemption from Egypt, should one remember the hasty exodus?  The difficulties that we have raised stem from the simple assumption that the people of Israel strove to be free. It follows then that the night of Pesach should have been an uplifting and joyful experience for them.  It seems, however, that the mental reality of the people was far from this.  An example is found at the beginning of the next parasha, at the time when the people are standing on the shore of the Yam Suf (the Red sea): “And they said to Moshe: “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying: ‘Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12)  It turns out that the people were less eager than we may have imagined to leave Egypt.  Already there, a sharp debate arose between the people and Moshe about the Exodus.  Moshe pushed for it, whereas the people feared it and asked Moshe to desist from his attempts at getting them out.  Echoes of Israel's attraction to Egypt are heard later, when the people encounter difficulties in the wilderness: "We remember the fish, which we were wont to eat in Egypt for nothing" (Numbers 11:5).  This opposition to the Exodus is also reflected in the lack of interest demonstrated by the people regarding Moshe's speech, at the beginning of Parasha Va’Era in Exodus 6:9 it says, “And Moshe spoke so to the children of Israel; but they listened not to Moshe for impatience of spirit, and for cruel bondage” .

 

Following this disregard, Moshe stopped trying to persuade the people. But now, at the time of the plague of the smiting of the firstborns, when Pharaoh is on the verge of breaking, it becomes necessary to go back to the people and mobilize them for their liberation. It seems, however, that even at this stage, the people of Israel are not happy with the prospect of leaving Egypt.  At the moment of truth, we discover that they do not leave Egypt willingly, but rather they are chased out: “Because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry” (Exodus 12:39)The phrase, "and could not tarry," indicates that that is precisely what they wanted at the time of their departure… to tarry, to remain a little longer in Egypt.   In the end, the Exodus itself was the result of forced expulsion at the hands of the Egyptians.  Until the last moment, Israel remained in the mindset of slavery, and they left only because their masters commanded them to do so.  Had it been up to them, they might have chosen to stay.  This fact is confirmed by their failure to prepare provisions for the journey:  And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.   Why, in fact, did Israel not prepare food for the journey?  After all, they were supposed to prepare for the Exodus, at the same time that they were eating of the Paschal offering: "With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand" (v. 11). How is it possible that they put on their walking shoes and took their staffs in their hands, but did not prepare food for themselves?  There is no escape from concluding that while they ate of the Paschal sacrifice, in order to be saved from the plague of the smiting of the firstborns. The commands regarding the girding of their loins, the staffs in their hands, and the shoes on their feet were apparently ignored. They did not really intend to get up and go anywhere.  For this reason, they also did not prepare food for the road, but unfortunately, they were pushed out of the country.  It turns out that the people were strongly connected to Egyptian culture ("the detestable things" of Egypt).  So much so, that when God arrived with the tidings of redemption, they preferred slavery within the culture, over freedom without it.  In the wake of this, God almost gave up on the idea of the Exodus, which He would have done had it not been for the concern that His name would be profaned.

  

All of these sources present us with an astonishing picture–the people actually want to stay in Egypt, and God and Moshe take them out by force, against their will!  Therefore, the Egyptians must also be drafted, in order to expel them by force: “And the Egyptians acted with strength against the people, to send them out of the land in haste” (Exodus 12:33)How can we explain this strange phenomenon of slaves who prefer a life of bondage over liberation and redemption, and who wish to adopt the culture of their masters, instead of their God who promises redemption?  In order to understand this, we must appreciate the complexity of the experience of freedom.  On the one hand, it is an appealing and magical experience.  Freedom allows us to live our lives to the fullest and realize ourselves. But with freedom comes responsibility.  The free man is required to manage his own life and has no one upon whom to rely.  If he fails, he has no one to blame but himself. It is a potentially threatening experience.  The slave may be limited, but he is free from self-guilt and from the need to assume responsibility for his life.  All of us, in one form or another, occasionally enjoy a sort of bondage, to a framework, a career, a country, or another person; so we can momentarily transfer responsibility to someone else. Freedom is not a simple challenge.  For years, the people of Israel had been living with a consciousness of bondage so severe that they were afraid to raise their heads and take responsibility for their lives. The desire for freedom was completely foreign to them. When Moshe approached them with the vision of liberation, they turned their backs on him and preferred to dig themselves deeper into the experience of bondage and the culture with which they were familiar.  If force alone was required to subdue Pharaoh’s hard heart, here a much more complex action was needed. Israel's heart needed to be opened to liberation. Due to the complexity, this is postponed until the plague of the smiting of the firstborns.  Only now, when it has become necessary to bring the people of Israel into the process, are they required to awaken their desire for liberation, to walk after God and away from Egyptian culture, through the eating of the Paschal offering. But their attraction to slavery and to their familiar surroundings does not disappear so quickly. Two desires wrestle each other in the hearts of Israel – to draw closer to God and to liberation, and to remain with the familiar.  God foresees the opposition of the people that will out in their moment of truth.  That is why He commands haste. On the one hand, the Egyptians will expel them.  On the other hand, even before that, Israel will undergo an experience of flight and urgency. The meal in which they will eat the Paschal sacrifice will be conducted, not in leisure, but rather in tense alertness in anticipation of departure. When the Egyptians begin the expulsion, the Israelites will already be ready to flee. Otherwise, the powerful forces that draw them to Egypt will overcome them. Israel's flight is first and foremost from themselves–from the magnetic internal forces that draw them into slavery. Only afterwards do they run from the Egyptians themselves, who arrive late in the night and create the actual haste. This is also the way to understand the eating of the Paschal sacrifice together with matzah and bitter herbs. In the eating of the Paschal sacrifice there is holiness and drawing closer to God. But during the eating, the people must feel the bitterness and slavery in which they are still found. Otherwise, the Pesach celebration will paint a false picture, as if it were possible to draw near to God and also to stay in Egypt. The introduction of bitterness and poverty into the eating connects Israel to the real place where they are. Even though they are celebrating with God, their mental state is still one of poverty and bitterness. They must escape from this place, and in a hurry.

 

In the end, despite all the preparations for haste and the emphasis on the bitterness of Egypt, the forces of attraction to slavery retain the upper hand.  The people of Israel do not reach a state in which they tensely await their departure, and so they do not prepare food for the journey.  In the end, the people of Israel do not leave Egypt of their own free will. God draws them out by force, through the action of the Egyptian expulsion.  Of all the memories of the Exodus from Egypt, the Torah chooses in particular to preserve for all generations the hasty departure through the eating of matzah (Deuteronomy 16:3-4).  The memory of the Exodus from Egypt preserves not only the experience of leaving slavery for freedom, but also the bitter truth that our ancestors wanted to remain slaves. Were it not for the panic and the expulsion, we, as a nation, would have remained in mental bondage to this very day:  “Had the Holy One, blessed be He, not taken our forefathers out of Egypt, we, and our sons, and the sons of our sons, would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.” (Pesach Haggadah)  Presumably, the wheels of history would have changed the situation, and we would no longer be physically in Egypt. But inside, we would still be drawn to slavery.  We must recognize the bondage that is a force within us.  While we lived in bondage to sin, this force controlled us.   God had to subdue not only Pharaoh, but Satan and our human drive.  From that time on, we have been asked to contemplate our sin and try to contend with it.  The matzah and the bitter herbs return to us every year to that experience of haste, when we had to flee from ourselves, from the destructive and enslaving forces within us.  At the beginning of our history, God showed us how to do this.  Now the expectation that we pursue salvation in every generation has passed over to us.

 

As I conclude, we read in Galatians 3:14, “In order that through Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Avraham might come to the Gentiles, so we might receive the promise of the Ruach through trusting faith.”  I have spoken a great deal about the Holy Spirit and about being filled with the Spirit, over my years in ministry, and I want to make sure you have an opportunity to know the Holy Spirit in this way.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  He will not force Himself into your life in His fullness uninvited.  He will fill you, but only if you ask Him to do so.  In Luke 11:13, Yeshua promises that God will give His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.  And James 4:2 tells us that the reason we do not have certain things is that we do not ask for them.  I encourage you to go boldly before God and daily ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Ask expecting to receive.  Don’t be double-minded or allow doubt to fill your heart but ask in faith.  Believe you receive and thank God that He lives in you.  God is not a man, that He should lie (Numbers 23:19).  He is faithful to fulfill His Word whenever anyone steps out on it in faith, so ask and receive that your joy might be full. 

 

Through the atoning blood of Yeshua, you all have been offered the gift of salvation, a coming redemption.  Gifts cannot be forced on anyone; they must be offered by the giver and then received by those to whom they are given. Do not hesitate to grab your gift of redemption, I implore you to make haste.   God makes the offer of His Spirit, so all you need to do is relax and receive by faith.  After the darkness and death of sin comes redemption.  Make haste, your redemption draws nigh…

 

b’Shem Yeshua, haMelech v’haMashiach Shelanu!  Amein.

(“in the name of Yeshua, our King and the Messiah! Amein.”)

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