follow the cloud

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip, April 27 - Tens of thousands of Israelis marched through the largest settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to protest the planned evacuation of all Gaza settlers this summer.
Photo by Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times
 

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.

So, now we come to the name of this blog . This Torah portion introduces us to the mysterious pillar of cloud which would move through the midbar seemingly at random with a rag-tag crew of ex-slaves chasing it. The reason I chose to name this blog as I did is that the term "follow the cloud" has become a bit of an idiom in our circles. It means "don't build a shrine, keep moving through the wilderness, keep your eyes on the spirit which moves like the wind, remember the merkavah of Yah is on wheels." It happens that there is a revelation, and so we strike camp, and then the cloud moves on without us and we're alone in a dry place. I'm trying to justify breaking with tradition, ie the anti-nomian christian tradition. Torah needs no justification but the common question that comes up is "what about before? is the entire protestant tradition a hell-bound procession of the blind leading the blind?". Not at all, "follow the cloud", we're continuing the protestant tradition but we don't make a shrine out of Protestantism.

Also in this torah portion is bread from heaven and water from the rock, both very messianic and mystical images.
In John 6 Yeshua Says: I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
And, Paul in 1 Cor 10:4: all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

'"It is better that we should serve Egypt than that we should die in the wilderness."

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand fast and see the salvation of YHVH that He will perform for you today; for as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again! YHVH shall make war for you, and you shall remain silent."' Shemot (Exodus) 14:12-13

Imagine the intense desperation of the children of Israel. Faced with the fear of death, they frantically declared that lifelong slavery and misery would preferable to death. You'd think that after going through the whole Pesach experience that they'd have some faith in YHVH. But Moses tells them to lose the fear, and stand firm, and they would see the salvation of YHVH.

They had to be baptized as a nation in Yeshua.

"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." 1 Letter to the Corinthians 10:1-4

They had to walk into the sea and die, turning their backs on Egypt. They couldn't afford the fear of death, because it was keeping them as slaves.

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too (Yeshua) shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Letter to the Hebrews 2:14-15

"On that day, YHVH saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great hand that YHVH inflicted upon Egypt; and the people revered YHVH, and they had faith in YHVH and in Moses, His servant." Shemot 14:30-31

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May the Kadosh One, blessed be He, make Shalom upon all Israel.

Let's dance.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

-Yochanan

Something I've been pondering recently is the distinction between knowing what God is, and how God is. We know what God is (His character, attributes, identity) quite clearly from the Scripture, but the how of God (the actual physics of His existence) are immensely mysterious.

Great is YHVH, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3

Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, YHVH, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is not searching of his understanding. Isaiah 40:28

'Ein Cheiker' is a Hebrew phrase meaning 'unsearchable', 'unfathomable', or 'mystery'. This phrase is found in both of these verses. We learn from these verses that YHVH's greatness and understanding cannot be comprehended by us.

When Yeshua walked the earth 2000 years ago, He showed us what God is like, by demonstrating the character of God. He also taught us how to live as sons of God. We know what God is like, and our identity in relation to Him. But the Scripture promises that one day we shall be like Him, and we shall be clothed in immortality, just like Yeshua is. On that day we shall no longer see as in a glass dimly, but we shall see the Holy One face to face. Perhaps then the how of God shall be made evident.