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The last of the seven days of the Festival of Matzot (Unleavened Bread) commemorates ancient Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea, when Heaven delivered not just from slavery but also from certain death at the hands of the slave masters who pursued them.
Apostle Paul connected Israel’s passing from death to life through the sea to the passage of everyone who does likewise by trusting in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) and commemorating the freedom through baptism.
Is the exodus of an ancient people long dead irrelevant to us today? Not according to the Apostle Paul. In 1Cor. 10:1-13, he wrote a reflection on the Exodus and the Red Sea crossing encouraging his mostly gentile Corinthian congregants to celebrate the Feast of Matzot (Unleavened Bread).
Earlier, in 1Cor. 5:6-12, Paul used the spiritual lessons of leavened and unleavened bread in Matzot to appeal to the congregation in Corinth, Greece, to no longer boast of their tolerance of member who was engaging in serious sexual immorality. The congregation was “puffed up” about behavior that was even frowned on in that notoriously indulgent city.
He would not made so many allusions to festivals such as Passover, Matzot, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement; Acts 27:9) if these festivals were no longer important or relevant to disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) after His ascension to Heaven.
In Exodus 13:17–15:26, we see that after continuous travel, the children of Israel reached the shores of the Red Sea. Tradition puts this on the seventh day after the departure from Mitzraim (Egypt), what the LORD codified into the bookend rest day for Matzot (Ex. 12:16–17; Lev. 23:7–8).
This was their last day that their feet would walk through the land of bondage. Once they crossed over the sea, their feet would step over from bondage to freedom. God was calling them to “enter My rest,” as we read in Hebrews 3–4 and Psalm 95.
But as we read later in the Torah (Num. 32:9; Deut. 32:52), most of that generation of Israelites did not want to trust the LORD. They did not want to face up against the giant walled and fortified cities in the land of Canaan. They said the people of Canaan were too big for them, the walls were too high (Deut. 1:28; Num 13:28, 33). It was too much for them to take on such an enemy, ignoring the fact that God said — and spectacularly demonstrated during the Exodus — that He would do the work. They just had to show up.
God does not have a peer
But on the shores of the Red Sea, who opened the dry path to cut across the sea? Did the people open the sea? No, they did not, not by a long shot.
In previous studies of the account of the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 14–15), we’ve looked at what the peoples of the nations thought of the powers of the sea. In the land of Canaan, there was a popular piece of religious literature called the Ba’al Cycle. It records the story of the spiritual battle between Ba’a and Yam. Ba’al was the god of the sky, and Yam was the god of the sea. In their conflict, we see the echos of the Asian idea of the balance of yin and yang. There was a balance between Ba’al and Yam. They fought each other, and the battle ended in a detente.
But when Israel came out of Egypt, we read that God “opened His nostrils and the sea opened” (Ex. 15:8). There was no battle, no negotiation between God and the sea. God didn’t send a diplomatic mission to ask the sea for permission to split it in half so the people could walk across it. He is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the sea and every living thing. When He said, “Move!” the water moved. All the children of Israel had to do is stay silent and watch God move (Ex. 14:13).
How to get out of your house of bondage
This story is not ancient history to the Apostle Paul and he connects his Corinthian congregation to the same narrative and he connects every disciple of Yeshua to this journey from slavery to freedom. The Exodus from Egypt and the Red Sea crossing is highly relevant to everyone who calls themselves disciples of Yeshua.
Paul makes the point that just as God called Moses to physically liberate the children of Israel from slavery to Pharaoh, God called Yeshua to liberate humanity from slavery to sin and to conquer death once and for all, just as John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
As we explain every time in this Passover season, we all have our “house of bondage.” And one of the things we see when we go through all the plagues of Egypt during the Passover remembrance that God brought them on Egypt mainly as a judgment against the false gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12), the gods that were over that house of bondage that was driving this particular situation.
The Bible says there that the Lord was hardening Pharoah’s heart. And you see the different words that are used in the account of “hardening the heart” that entailed both solidifying his position, and defending it:
- חָזָק chazaq (H2388): “to be strong” (Ex. 4:21; 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:12, 35; 10:27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17. Compare Deut. 2:30)
- קָשָׁה qashah (H7185): “to be hard” (Ex. 7:3. Compare 2Chr. 36:13; Psa. 95:8; Prov. 28:14; Isa. 63:17 [variant spelling קָשַׁח qashakh, H7188])
- כָּבַד, כָּבֵד kavad, kaved (H3513): “to be heavy, honored” (Ex. 8:15, 22; 9:7, 34; 10:1; 1Sam. 6:6)
So, Pharaoh goes back and forth, defending his position against attack but also digging in his heels into that position.
We have a term called “confirmation bias” meaning that one does not see or listen to anything that challenges your core beliefs about yourself.
The Exodus from the house of bondage took many of the children of Israel from everything that was familiar to them, even to things they held very dear, things they thought they could not live without, but Egypt was actually holding them back from their full potential.
The children of Israel faced some significant hardships after leaving Egypt just as we faced hardships when we left behind our life of sin to follow Yeshua. For many of us, the life we left behind is still in hot pursuit of us. Our old life wants to regain control over the course of our life’s path, but we are told not to go back to the old way of life, it doesn’t have dominion over us anymore.
And one of the key lessons in moving away from Egypt and towards the Promised Land, is that our old way of life that was in Egypt has to die in the wilderness. And we are reborn as a new generation that crosses the Jordan and enters the land. So our destination is the land of rest.
The way of truth is the way of rest
Messiah Yeshua is that way into rest into the kingdom, as He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The old way of life, back in Egypt, that’s gone. You don’t have to worry about that or be plagued by that anymore. He didn’t say He came to put even more regulations on His people than what the Torah taught.
The Apostle Paul talks about the battle against the principalities of the air (Eph. 6:12). We’ve only seen small glimpses of these things in Scripture, where you have the revelation that there are certain powers that tried to make something of themselves against God, that seemed to linger in certain areas of the world.
One of these “small glimpses” is recorded in the Book of Daniel, where the one of the archangels has battle with the spirit called the “Prince of Persia” (Dan. 10:13). You see that these things continue, whether from one kingdom to the next kingdom to the next kingdom.
This pops up again in the book of Revelation when we read about the confrontation between the Creator of Heaven and Earth and the power of the Adversary (Rev 16:14; 17:14; 19:19; 20:8–10). They are continually at war, and continually trying to trying to convince people to go the other direction. This battle is one that you could say is foolish, and futile. There’s no yin and yang here. And thus, in Revelation, you see that when the forces that are against the kingdom of God try to assault the kingdom of God, what happens? They lose.
In the way of this world, we sometimes see an evil man beat down an innocent man, and he wins. People watching that happen think that’s the way the evil man is living is the better way to go. But in the end, it isn’t the better way to go. Just like a bully, dictator any other oppressive force, there is always a bigger bully, dictator, or an even more evil force who comes along and beats the prior bully, dictator or evil force down and takes over where they left off.
So the way of the violent may work for a while, until something worse comes along. But eventually, in the end, the bullies come up against the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Creator is gonna say “Enough of this! You’ve had your way with this for far too long. It’s now come to an end because I’m bringing it to an end.”
The sad thing though is what when Moses went up to the mountain for 40 days, the people were so easily swayed to betray God and follow Ba’al. We read how 23,000 of them quickly descended into gluttony, sexual deviancy, and idolatry. But even after the Golden Calf incident, the Israelites drifted away.
The Israelites bolted on the practices of the heaven nations around them and tried to import them into the worship of the Creator, but their ways are anathema to His. God has no competitor, no equal to Himself. He has all the power and dominion and everything answers to Him.
The book of Job gives us some insight into this when HaSatan (The Adversary) visits the divine counsel and asks for permission to harass Yob (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–6). Whatever the evil spirits conspire to do, they can only do with God’s permission.
God never asks HaSatan for permission to do His will, but HaSatan has to ask God for permission to do his will.
Parable of the Sower
Yeshua tells the parable of the sower, which is recorded in all three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The fact it’s recorded in three of the four gospels highlights the importance of it.
As he tosses his seeds, some land on thin soil and as the seeds grow, they have to compete with the thorns, which choke them out. The thorns represent the cares, persecutions and hardships of this life. They compete for our attention.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2–4 NASB
When we pray to God to ask Him how we can grow in our experience, and He can use it to make us more mature, more complete.
We will never become mature and complete by wallowing in sin and giving in to it at every opportunity as cult leaders such as Rasputin and David Koresh did. This is completely anathema to what the scriptures teach.
The Book of Hebrews tells us we have a High Priest who suffered all things, and was tempted but never sinned. But He is there for us when we repent and return to Him. He forgives sins, transgressions and iniquities.
What the children of Israel did with the Golden Calf was about as iniquitous and treasonous as one could possibly get. They set this monstrosity up at the base of the mountain of God where the presence of God is. Literally put that thing up under God’s nose, they were worshiping and giving allegiance to something completely different from how the the kingdom of God is revealed, yet God forgave them.
As the Israelites were exposed to the gods of the other nations such as the Cananites, the Philistines, Phoenicians, etc, they shifted their allegiance from HaShem to them, it was all very malleable for them, and the transactions between the people and the false gods was very humanistic and transactional rather than transcendent.
The false gods did not have any love or compassion towards those who worshipped them. The transactions were very fear based.
Humanism and the Flood
When you read the flood stories that were passed on from the Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, etc, they all describe the deities in great detail. But from one culture to the next, the same deity would demand completely different approaches to worship, even within the same story arch.
These stories also reach far beyond the Ancient Near East, into China, Australia, etc. HaSatan is every clever in creating counterfeit Flood narratives that have some murmurs or reverberations of the real historical event, but also corrupted with a lot of fantasy. HaSatan specializes in chaos and confusion, while God specialists in order and harmony.
The challenges of a pantheon of gods is they compete and fight each other for supremacy, but God, the Creator has no competition, no one over Him.
Reflection upon the crossing of the Sea
But going back to the Exodus narrative, as the children of Israel approached the Red Sea in Exodus 13–15, they were trapped by the sea on one side and the army on the other. As they were seemingly pinned in, they called out and asked why there were brought out there to die when there were plenty of graves in Egypt.
They did not trust God 100% as they were facing their “valley of the shadow of death” (Psa. 23:4) when death seemed inevitable.
Can we learn to persevere and pray like Daniel’s three friends prayed that even if they died, that they would still trust God (Dan. 3:17–18). They still trusted in the Creator of Life, who not only can create life but can recreate it too.
Job had everything thrown at him by HaSatan. His family was wiped out, all his wealth taken away, he was assaulted with painful physical ailments and a lot of misery, and yet he always had hope of a new life.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
1Corinthians 10:1–4 NASB
The entire nation of Israel were immersed into the sea and purified. When Moses revealed God’s commandments regarding the mikveh, recall that it called for fresh, living, moving water that comes in and then goes out. When they walked through the water, the scent and taint of Egypt was washed away.
When you go into the water, whatever is on you is washed away, sent away from you in the flow. It’s a physical picture of the spiritual lesson of one’s sins and uncleanliness being washed away through repentance and God’s mercy.
It’s no coincidence how Paul connects baptism and circumcision together. When Joshua and the second generation prepared to enter the Promised Land, what did they do? They were circumcised “to remove the reproach of Egypt.”
The prior generation all died in the desert but the next generation were ready to enter the land.
Importance of trusting the Creator of life
The first generation leaving Egypt saw the plagues, traveled through the sea, witnessed Pharoah’s army which was pursuing them, destroyed in the same sea that saved them. They also experienced the water from the rock, food from the sky, which appeared for six days a week, and with a double portion on the sixth day of the week to last through the seventh day (Shabbat). They saw all of that but did not have trust in God.
Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
1Corinthians 10:6–11 NASB
Many who read this story love to criticize those of that older generation, presuming they would not have been that ignorant or untrustworthy, but Paul nips that thought in the bud with this warning.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
1Corinthians 10:12–13 NASB
For the children of Israel, the way of escape was through the sea. Trust the one who opened the sea for you trust the one who led you through the sea. When you were there at the rock, trust, the one who brought the water from the rock, trust the one who gave you your daily bread, trust the one who then later would take you into the land.
They had no prior experience with walking though water on dry land, but they had witnessed God do even more fantastic miracles than that, yet they forgot those events so quickly as they sat at the shores of the sea.
Do we trust that we ourselves are in the care of the Creator of life, and the one who promises to recreate life? The One who created everything that we have around us, created the sky, and the earth, and the waters and the animals and the creatures created us. The One who gave us our fantastic minds with which we can do fabulous things like design and build tall and sturdy buildings like this and various types of technology, etc. That’s the One who did all that can recreate life? That is the ultimate fallback, the ultimate assurance.
When Yeshua was on the cross, one of His most memorable lines was, “Forgive them for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). When Yeshua was on trial before the Sanhedrin, He was speaking to people who should have known who they were putting on trial. They had the witness of Moses and the prophets (Luke 16:31). To them, He did not minced words. He told them that He would return in power and authority and they would look upon the one whom they had pierced.
But for the Roman soldiers, who were merely following the orders of their superiors, they had no idea what was going on. We are reminded of Yeshua’s words that to whom little is given, little is required but to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48, see Luke 12:35–48).
So for us, if our Master Yeshua can say, “Father, forgive them” in the midst of the most unbelievable affront to the Kingdom of God. The golden calf was amazingly bad, but crucifying God Himself? That is even more egregious than what their ancestors did with the golden calf.
And yet in the midst of that, you see Yeshua call for forgiveness for those who didn’t know. And some of them had their eyes open enough to see that there was something different and special in Yeshua (Mark 15:39). He wasn’t like the normal criminals who they crucified many times before. He was something different.
Summary: Tammy