16.3 Par'shah Beshallach, After He'd Let Go

[alon]

Name of Par’shah- 16.3 Beshallach, After He’d Let Go
Par’shah- Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
Haftara- Judges 4:4-5:31

D’rash: There is so much here. I’ve picked out some important concepts which help illustrate my point. But as you read, think of the concepts and principles illustrated in this rich parashah.

Exodus 13:17b (ESV) God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.”

YHVH-Ra’ah, God is My Sy shepherd (Ps 23:1) will not lead us anywhere we cannot handle.

Exodus 15:26b (ESV)  “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

This is a promise from our Eloah, our Mighty One (Neh 9:17), and He will not fail us. This could be taken as a commandment for us too. Listen to Abishter, and do right in His eyes.

Exodus 16:23b-26 (ESV)  “‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” … Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

On the 6th day we are to prepare meals for the 7th, Shabbat, so there will be no need to work. This is a commandment for us as well.

Exodus 16:29 (ESV)  See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

There is much debate on the meaning of “his place.” Interestingly this is the only commandment Rabbinical Judaism takes from this reading. They interpret it to be a commandment not to leave the boundaries of one’s city. That could be a lot, and what about when traveling? Or doing a mitzvah; or having a holy convocation on Shabbat? I interpret this as more a command to not travel any farther nor any more than is absolutely necessary.

Exodus 14:1-4 (ESV) Then the Lord said to Moses,  “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea.  For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’  And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

Here YHVH-Nissi, God Our Victory (Ex 17:15) told the newly freed people to encamp in a place where they knew they had no escape aside from a miracle. Had they not encamped there, opting instead for a place from which they could flee, it is likely they would have been hunted down and killed or taken back into slavery. Still, that was the “smart” play from a carnal view:

Exodus 14:5-9 (ESV)  When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him,  and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.  And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.  The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

However they obeyed, trusting their Elohim. And as a result, they were saved:

Exodus 14:13 (ESV) And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.

They do see their “salvation,” a type of what El HaKabodh, The God of Glory (Ps 29:3) will do for the world through these very people. The sea parts, the wind blows and dries the crossing while the “Angel of the Lord” and the column of flame and smoke holds back the Egyptians.

Exodus 14:21-22 (ESV)  Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Having been saved, they now go through a type of tevilah passing between the waters. This is a picture of actual tevilah, demonstrating the physical fact of a spiritual commitment. They had trusted Eheyeh, I Am (Ex 3:14; Isa 40-55), the covenant name for their God. And like their father Avraham, who was first given the covenant, they were saved:

Genesis 15:6 (ESV) And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Now they follow on in faith and trust, gaining the other side. This is the importance of tevilah; it is a seal of the covenant. The physical manifestation of a spiritual fact.

Exodus 14:29-31 (ESV) But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

The importance of salvation and tevilah are stressed when the end of the story is signaled by a reversed reading of the order of these two very important actions: one when we are called by YHVH Elohe Yeshuathi, Lord God of My Salvation (Ps 88:1) and we respond affirmatively, the other when we follow Ohr Yisroel, the Light Of Israel (Is 10:17) in tevilah, baptism.

Exodus 14: (ESV) The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.

Because the Hebrews obeyed, camping in what appeared as a trap, they were not only miraculously saved but the cream of the Egyptian army was destroyed. Historians tell us it was because of this, the Egyptians were forced to hold the remainder of their forces in their own borders to defend against their neighbors, who now saw the chance to despoil the once mighty nation. It was because of this the Hebrews would be able to wander in the desert the next 40 yrs unmolested by their nemesis, Mitzrayim. The theme of salvation continues:

Exodus 15:1-2 (ESV) Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

This points up a couple of very important biblical principles: one is that salvation is from and by the Lord. It was never because of our own works. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, and always has been:

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Second, as Pastor Ed Cole used to say, “Grab the gold, but give God the glory.” Salvation, His greatest gift we freely take; but always, always give the credit and the glory to El Emet, the God of Truth, Ruach Shel Chochmah v’Binah, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding (Pslm 31:5) (Is 11:2)- all of which He now freely offers. I see these things every time I sit and write one of these parashot. And I have to tell you, it is a blessing. I’m no prophet, not even a rabbi. But I assure you, I am not without help here. I see it with every insight, and every time I exceed my limited abilities. It’s not much here, but I know this is where I belong.

This is available to you as well in whatever capacity HaShem has called you. I know we can feel isolated, mistrusted, and at times abused. At times it all seems futile, at times like we are just going through the motions. But each of us are where Immanuel, God With Us (Is 7:14) has placed us. Each of us responded to the call to search out and follow His truth. We made a commitment to God; more importantly He made a commitment to us! We entered into a covenant relationship with El-Shaddai, Almighty God (Gen 17:1), which He takes very seriously.

So I encourage each of us to stay the course. Follow Him into the sea, and trust He will see us all safely to the other side. We do not know the plans of the Almighty; what He will do for us and for posterity. We only know that our actions have consequences for us and untold generations. So we should be obedient to our Ro’eh, our Shepherd (Gen 49:24) who leads us to good pastures and clean water. Sheep will drink from fetid water within yards of clean water; they will eat all manner of weeds poisonous to them. The good shepherd goes before them and leads them to clean sustenance. This is what our Elohim does for us, but we must obey. If we choose the polluted water or a field of weeds, we will bear the consequences thereof.

[alon]

Exodus 16:23b-26 (ESV)  “‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” … Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

On the 6th day we are to prepare meals for the 7th, Shabbat, so there will be no need to work. This is a commandment for us as well.

This is a good place to discuss fences. Adonai commanded no work be done on Shabbat, and here He is making provision for their obedience by giving them extra Manna and telling them to prepare it ahead of time. So the Almighty Himself has shown us how to put a fence on a commandment.

Yeshua was often critical of Pharisaic fences, because they undermined the deeper meaning of :

Mark 7:6-13 (ESV) And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me; 
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’  But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—  then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,  thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

However Yeshua was not against fences per se. He also placed fences on :

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Matthew 5:28

adultery- μοιχεύω moicheúō, to commit adultery; debauchery; the Hebrew equivalent is נָאַף nâʼaph, which also carries connotations of apostacy, being drawn away into idol worship. Remember when Balaam told the Moabite king Balak how to separate the Israelites from their God. He said to have the Moabite women seduce the Hebrew men:

Numbers 25:1-2 (ESV) While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to sleeper with the daughters of Moab.  These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So how to avoid being drawn into debauchery? Don’t entertain the thoughts in the first place! Men may see a beautiful woman, and acknowledge the fact. But you don’t have to dwell on it with lustful thoughts:

2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Bring our thoughts under control and we won’t be drawn in by the temptress. Women also must bring their minds under control, otherwise they are swept away by every man with a smooth line and glib tongue. The best pickup lines say something seemingly innocuous, maybe just slightly risqué or suggestive to get you thinking, then come back later and close the deal. Don’t dwell on it, and you’ll see him for what he is. And there’s the fence between us and temptation, preventing us from falling into sin in the first place.

Typically one’s Rabbi or Beit Din would make halacha, setting up fences. However many Meshiachim are not so lucky as to have those. So we are left to do it for ourselves. Some follow Rabbinic tradition and the 613 Mitzvoth. I recommend against that. The Rabbis of mainstream Judaism in about the 3rd-5th cen CE gave themselves absolute authority (Ket.84a). To obscure what they’d done, they built a fence around which both hides and keeps the people from . "Our Rabbis taught: They who occupy themselves with the Bible are but of indifferent merit; with Mishnah, are indeed meritorious, and are rewarded for it; with Gemara — there can be nothing more meritorious; yet run always to the Mishnah more than to the Gemara” (Baba Metzia 33a). Studying the Bible was said not to be important; study of rabbinic writings however brought great reward.

Fences in Rabbinical Judaism indicate ownership. “If he does anything at all in the way of setting up a door or making a fence or an opening, this constitutes a title of [land] ownership.” Baba Bathra 52b. Land or property ownership is now equated with ownership of the spiritual soul of Israel, and all of Judaism is told to trust only the Rabbis who are the sole purveyors of truth. Not who we who want the truth of God’s Word should blindly follow.

So be careful with your fences that they do not violate the principles of . Also they should not be overly burdensome, or for that matter too many. Not everything needs a fence. But in those things which need protecting, put a fence around it. It’ll help.

Dan C