follow the cloud

These words have been running around in my head for the last week. At Sinai, the children of Israel heard all the words of Yahweh, and they declared that they would do and obey His commands. I read a Jewish commentary that said that this declaration has remained for all time the anthem of Israel's faith in God and devotion to His word. Yeah, well, I think these words are the shame of Israel. They said they would do the words of Yahweh, a covenant was cut. They then proceeded to break every single word that Yahweh spoke.

So they wandered about for forty years in the wilderness, and then Yehoshua brought them into the Land. At the the end of his life, Yehoshua asked the nation if they would serve Yahweh. He warned them, "You will not be able to serve Yahweh, for He is a holy God; He will not forgive your rebellious sins or your transgressions. If you forsake Yahweh and serve gods of the foreigner, He will turn a act harshly toward you and destroy you after having done good with you." But they said, "We will serve Yahweh only!" And they did not.

In Paul's letter to the believers in Galatia, he asks, "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?"

He proceeds to give a midrash:
"For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slavewoman and one by the free woman. But the son by slavewoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise [of Yahweh]. This is allegorically speaking: for these are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

For it is written, 'Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labour; for more are the children of the desolate woman than of the one who has a husband.'

And you brethren, like Yitzchak, are children of promise. But at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

But what does the Scripture say? 'Cast out the slavewoman and her son, for the son of the slavewoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.'

So then, brethren, we are not children of the slavewoman, but of the free woman. It was for freedom that Messiah set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject to a yoke of slavery."

Here's my take on what Paul was saying. Abraham tried to fulfill Yah's promise to him on his own strength. The product was Ishmael. But the son born by faith was Isaac. Those sons of Israel became slaves, children of Hagar, at Mount Sinai, because they were depending on their own strength. "All that Yahweh has said we will do!" They couldn't do it, and so they were cursed. Likewise, the Judaism of Paul's day was all about doing all the words of Yahweh on one's own strength. But the Jews couldn't do it. They still can't. No one can.

"Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree' - in order that in Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Abraham might come to the Goyim, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

So what can we do? Believe on the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and you will be saved. For if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham's offspring, and heirs according to the promise.