Remember

The sabbath readings continue in the Book of Exodus, and as we have found out, the word exodus is a Greek-Latin word meaning "the way or road out of". In the Book of Exodus, the LORD miraculously leads His people in the way out of the bondage of Egypt. We will see another element of exodus, valid both then and now, in this week's reading. The title of this sabbath's reading portion is B'shallach, which means "when he let go", and refers to Pharaoh having finally agreed to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. The Torah portion of this sabbath's reading covers Exodus chapters 13 through 16. Egypt had just been through the terrible tenth plague, the death of the firstborn (Ex. 12:29-32). Israel had been spared from this plague by the blood of an unblemished lamb applied to their doorposts and lintels, which is called the LORD's Passover (Ex. 12:21-27). Not only did Passover involve the blood of the lamb, and its complete consumption, but it also included the eating of unleavened bread. This also became an appointed Feast of the LORD to be told to, and remembered by, all future generations (Ex. 12:15-17). The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to last seven days. The unleavened bread was to be a sign before Israel's eyes always, even taking a prominent position in the Holy Place of the tabernacle, and in the two temples that would come later. The phrase "unleavened bread" in Hebrew is the word massa/masas, meaning "without leaven, something greedily devoured for sweetness, sweetness (not soured or bittered with yeast), specially sweet, to draw out or suck out with pleasure as one would with a sweet like milk, sweet and pleasant to the taste". There is a scripture that says: "The Angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who fears in Him!" (Ps. 34:7-8). We are to know the sweet, good taste of the LORD. What is the nature of this sweetness found in the bread of Passover? Jesus solved the mystery of the unleavened bread as He observed the Passover meal with His disciples before His death. He took the unleavened bread of the Passover "...gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body which is given/broken for you; do this in remembrance (anamnesis/anamimnesko - remembrance, recollection, call to mind, admonish, weigh well and consider, put in mind) of Me." (Lk. 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:24). As the LORD led the Israelites out to the border of Egypt by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21), there was no mistaking His presence with them. It may surprise us to find out that the LORD purposefully led His people into a "dead end". They ended up positioned within three fortified cities of Egypt: Pi Hahiroth ("the mouth of caverns"), Migdol ("fortified tower"), Ba'al Zephon ((sacred to the lord destroyer"), and the Sea (roar") before them, making four obstacles. The LORD did this in order to cause Pharaoh to believe that the Israelites were trapped because of their unfamiliarity with the wilderness territory, and consequently chase after the "helplessly" trapped Israelites. The LORD said to Moses to tell the children of Israel: "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, 'They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.' I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so." (Ex. 14:1-4). Though there appeared to be four immovable obstacles around and ahead of the Israelites, the LORD previously repeated four times that they were to remember and pass to their children the knowledge that He had delivered them out of bondage by His "strong hand" and "strength of hand" (Ex. 13:3, 9, 14, 16), even telling them regarding this knowledge: "It shall be as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes..." (v. 16). As the Egyptian army advanced to the location of the Israelites, who were facing the Sea, the Israelites began to panic (they had forgotten to remember already!) and God commanded: "...Tell the children of Israel to go forward (v. 15)." Go forward?! Into the Sea?! However, as we know, the LORD instructed Moses about how he was to divide the waters of the Sea (Ex. 14:16, 21-22). As the Israelites crossed the dry land of the sea bed after the waters were divided, the Egyptians who chased them did not make it across before the waters closed over them. The LORD had caused their chariot wheels to fall off in the middle of the crossing. The stuck Egyptian army drowned in the returning waters (Ex. 14:24-29). The same "way or road out of" bondage for the Israelites through the roaring Sea, became the road or way into death for their oppressors as they tried to follow. The Israelites saw miracle upon miracle as the LORD delivered them out of the bondage of the Egyptians. As they crossed to the other side of the Sea, Moses and the Israelites sang a song of praise, but also a song meant for remembrance. Several parts of the song will appear many generations later in the Psalms and the Prophets, and into the New Testament. This is one example: "The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God and I will praise Him; my father's God and I will exalt Him." (Ex. 15:2, Isa. 12:2, 25:1). However, the song of Moses did not just celebrate an accomplished miracle of God, but it also contained prophetic events. The defeat of Canaanite nations, which the Israelites had not yet encountered, were included (v. 14-16). The knowledge that the LORD was not only leading them to a land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to a holy habitation in God: "You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation...You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. The LORD shall reign forever and ever." (v. 13, 17-18). Not only could this be referring to the tabernacle and temples yet to be built, but this moreso refers to a dwelling and sanctuary of God, built, not with human hands, but with God's own hands. We see this revelation taught in the New Testament also (Acts 7:48-50, Acts 17:24-25, 2 Cor. 5:1-3, Heb. 11:9-10). Remembering the mighty works of the LORD is not only about the past, but carries within it the proclamation of the future, and eternity. Sometimes our understanding limits this power and importance of "remembering". Our exodus today is empowered in part by our remembrance of the exodus from the past. We have another example of an exodus from this week's sabbath reading, and the important part that remembering played in it. From Judges 4 and 5, Israel is delivered from their enemy's oppression by King Jabin of Canaan and his general, Sisera (meaning "battle array, a field of battle"). This enemy had been allowed to overcome Israel in the first place because Israel "had done evil in the sight of the LORD" (Judges 4:1-3). The prophetess/judge Deborah later described that "evil": "They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates; not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel." (Judges 5:8). They had forgotten their God, and these new gods had so deceived them with a false sense of security that they had dis-armed themselves. The deliverance of the LORD would come through two women this time. The first woman, as mentioned above, was the prophetess and judge, Deborah. She is strangely described in scripture. She sat under the palm tree (tomer - palm tree, post, column) of Deborah in Ephraim, meaning doubly fruitful from the root word Ephrath which is another word for Bethlehem. Deborah was the wife (issa - wife, woman, married) of Lapidoth, whose name means "torches, lamp, to shine, flame". As written in the Hebrew, the word for wife or woman, issa, is repeated twice in this verse as "issa Deborah issa Lapidoth". In her song of victory, Deborah describes her calling this way: "Village life had ceased in Israel, until I Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel." (Judges 5:7). Again, in Hebrew but also in English, a word is repeated: arose (qum - raise up, be raised up, establish, confirm, be proven, set, fixed, again). In the Hebrew it is "qum Deborah qum". Deborah, because of the special use of Hebrew words concerning her, sounds to me like a New Testament kind of prophet and judge who had been set in the time of the judges for the purpose of deliverance. In another verse of her song (Judges 5:9), Deborah said that her heart (leb/lebab/labab - heart, mind, understanding, soul, seat of emotions, passions and courage, knowledge, reflection, memory) is with the haqaq (cut, cut into, strike with a sword, stamp violently, encounter violently, to beat, engrave letters, carve out a sepulchre, law giver, leader, sceptre), who offered (themselves) willingly ((nadab - freely, willingly offer, given willingly). Again, from the meanings of these words, Jesus, beaten violently, cut with whips, who willingly gave His life, comes to mind as the place where Deborah has placed her heart (see Jn. 10:11, 17-18). Her husband was a "Lamp", and she sat under a tree (column), which reminds me of the cross. Deborah said that she was raised up to be a "mother" in Israel" in the verse above. Mother is the Hebrew word em, which means mother, but also means "point of departure or division, "mother of the way", a parting of the road, a great and leading city". Being a "point of departure", a "mother of the way", she established a road for a different kind of exodus from oppression. In her song, Deborah orders all judges in Israel: "Speak...you who sit in judge's attire, and who walk along the road...among the watering places, there they shall recount/rehearse (tana - tell agsin, celebrate, commemorate [officially remember and give respect], distribute gifts) the righteous acts of the LORD..." (Judges 5:10-11). The judges were to bring to remembrance to Israel all of the righteous acts of the LORD on behalf of His people. As well as remembering the events of that battle, Deborah concludes her song prophetically: "Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength." (v. 31). Jesus also said this many generations later: "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear!" (Mt. 13:43). This week's sabbath reading concludes with Psalm 78. In it the psalmist repeatedly states the necessity of remembering the works of the LORD: "...our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done...That they should make them known to their children...that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments." (v. 4-7). Sadly, the Psalm continues by speaking of those who saw these wonderful works that we have read about above, but "forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them...They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy..." (v. 11-42). We do not want to be a people who forgets; a people who have experienced the wonderful works of the LORD, but then are turned away by new cares, fears, desires, and events, and forgetting an essential part ot the exodus then and now - to remember. If you would like to learn more about our own way or road of exodus in the LORD, you can join me in my prayer: "Heavenly Father, I remember how You delivered Your people out of bondage and the oppression of enemies by the work of Your strong hand. I will recount and rehearse these paths of deliverance again and again, so that when trying circumstances arise in my life that are meant to tempt me to forget, I will instead be prepared, believing, and following the way and the road out of the house of bondage. I will prepare my children in the same manner, telling them about the miracles of deliverance that you have done. I remember Your Son, who was and is our deliverance. I remember the Holy Spirit, who has been my pillar of cloud by day, and my pillar of fire by night. I remember and praise You in the name of Jesus. AMEN." **There is a free ebook now available that was written by a well-respected author on the subject of the fascinating Shroud of Turin titled: "The Shroud of Turin- A Perfect Summary". You can get this free ebook by going to www.The ShroudofTurin.org/freebook.**