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Parallel passages: Matthew 14:22–33/Mark 6:45–52; John 6:1-58; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Hebrews 3:1-4:13
The biggest question in the Torah reading בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach (“when he sent” or “after he had let go,” Ex. 13:17–17:16) is this: Is God with us or not? This is one of the main questions asked — and answered — in the opening verses of the book of Lamentations.
King Ahaz was given the prophecy of the coming of עִמָּנוּ־אֵל Immanuel (Isa. 7:14). but what he did with that information, in trying to help God out, doomed his kingdom to harassment by Assyria and eventual captivity in Babylon. He also decided to worship the gods of Aram, and even sent his sons into the fire. Some wonder if Ahaz’s son, the one the prophet told him to name Emmanuel was cast into the fire? He certainly didn’t believe that God was really with him to do such a thing.
The secondary questions we have to ask ourselves in Beshalach are these:
- Are we really free?
- Where are we going?
- How will we get our daily bread?
- Where will we find living water?
These questions are as relevant today as they were for our spiritual ancestors when they were caught between the army of Egypt and the Red Sea.
Are we free?
Are we free form our former way of life? The Exodus from Egypt is something we all experience, which is freedom from bondage to sin. We have all been in bondage to a way of life that was contrary to God and He has called us out. The call went out at midnight and they had to leave immediately. The day they had to leave was “today.” We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to leave immediately and if we are willing to leave completely and not leave our heartstrings in the land of bondage?
Are we following Yeshua and allowing His word and His spirit to block the oppressing forces of our past lifestyle?
God tells us that those who endure to the end will be saved. Just as the Apostle Peter had to keep his eyes on Yeshua as he walked on the water towards him (Matthew 14:22–33/Mark 6:45–52), we are called on to keep our eyes on Yeshua and not on the world:
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121:1–4 NASB
Where are we going?
Israel was leaving the bondage of Egypt to the destination God had in mind for them: the mountain of God. That was the mountain where Moses had originally met with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3). The mountain is where God revealed Himself to His people in a unique way, giving the tablets of the Testimony.
In the “Lord’s Prayer,” we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. God’s will for us on earth is revealed in the two domains of the Ten Commandments: God is to be the only occupant of our heart, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
“Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Exodus 14:12 NASB
The children of Israel were afraid of the pursuing army of Egypt, and actually though slavery in Egypt was safer for them, which seems a strange logic to us reading their story these many centuries later. Yet, Moshe speaks reassuring words back to them from a position of strength and faith:
But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.”
Exodus 14:13–14 NASB
Ba’al Cycle or Song of the Sea?
The Epic of Ba’al is a 13th century B.C. Ugaritic religious account of Ba’al’s overcoming the sea god Yamm.
When one compares the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15) with the Song of Ba’al, we don’t see thatIsrael copied and pasted the Epic of Ba’al into Scripture. Rather, we read God’s point-by-point rebuttal of the Epic of Ba’al. God counters pagan propaganda with the truth.
The crossing of the Red Sea “in the face of Ba’al Zephon” was a broadside, not only the gods of Egypt, but the gods of Canaan too. He is laying waste to all the false gods. Yet, we will see later at the Golden Calf that even though God had defeated the gods of Egypt, that some of the children of Israel still carried those gods in their hearts. Rachel also felt the pull of the false gods when she stole the household gods from her father’s house.
Yeshua warned that if you throw the demons out of your life but don’t fill the space they occupied with the Spirit, than the demons may return and you would be worse off than if you had never threw them out. The spiritual realm, both angelic and demonic are real and we have the freedom to choose our allegiance.
Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab the Canaanite completely rejected the false gods they were taught to hold their allegiance and God rewarded their faithfulness to Him by making them foremothers of the Messiah Yeshua.
How will we get our ‘daily bread’?
The bringing of the manna teaches us important lessons. The children of Israel ate the manna but they did not have an active faith in the One who gave it to them. We even see that when God instructed them to pick the manna six days a week and on the seventh day (Shabbat/Sabbath) there would be no manna. Some went out and tried to pick manna on the shabbat anyway.
This became obvious again when the 12 spies returned from the Land of Israel and only two of them had faith that God would help them conquer it.
Yeshua had countered the Adversary’s challenge to feed His bodily hunger with His own power, outside of what God would provide (later via Heaven’s servants), by quoting the Torah.
“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 NASB
Yeshua taught us the lesson that the children of Israel didn’t fully learn in the Wilderness. In other words, trust that God will sustain us, whether we have little or much.
What we need may not be what we want. We should also not despise what God has graciously provided us. One of the great travesties that came with the quail was that the children of Israel said “give us quail because we are sick of the manna.” God answered the greed for something other than Heaven sent manna with another Heaven-sent food miracle, a massive flock of quail. But that greed came with a price, eating that meat brought a plague.
We should learn to recognize one’s blessings, thank God for them, and be content.
Yeshua used kal v’khomer (light and heavy) argument to teach that more than manna that kept the mortal bodies of Israel alive in the wilderness for 40 years, He is the “true bread out of heaven,” “the bread of life,” “the living bread” that gives eternal life (John 6:32, 35, 50–51).
We can glean from the various Shabbat passages in the Bible that it is a memorial of:
- God as Creator of the heavens and the earth.
- God as the Creator of Israel through Abraham, a representative of God to the nations.
- God as Provider of daily needs.
- God as Liberator from slavery and obstructions between God and mankind.
- The Messiah as healer of body and “heart” connection to God.
- The Messiah as ultimate high priest of Yisra’el, “shabbating” the gulf between mankind and God.
Where will we find ‘living water’?
Israel saw the 10 plagues against Egypt and witnessed their salvation by God’s hand from Egypt, which came in two phases: Blocking the Egyptian advance and opening the sea in front of them. From a worldly point of view, it seemed really dumb to trap oneself with your back to sea, but God took something that was foolish and
People in this time had a greater understanding of the spiritual realms than we do now in our rationalist generation. You would think the opening of the sea would have scared them enough to decide not to follow through. After all, the Egyptians also witnessed the plagues and the pillar of fire, rather than not seeing that God was setting another trap for them, in their hubris, they thought their gods had opened the sea for them, rather than God opening the sea for His people.
The Adversary continually acts with hubris. Again and again, God defeats his aims, yet he continues to attack. We see in the book of Revelation, even at the end of days, that the Adversary will refuse to submit and will attack the holy city for one last time. He goes down fighting.
This theme of the Exodus and the Red Sea is reflected upon in the Scriptures over and over again.
The Shabbat was given to the children of Israel as a reminder, not only of the Creation of the world, but also as a reminder of their liberation from their slavery to evil men. The shabbat is a time to refrain from strife and enmity and to live in peace and reconciliation between God and mankind.
Summary: Tammy