The Pattern of Salvation — From Slavery to Freedom, Always the Same Way

A Matrix That Repeats Through History

The reading from Exodus 1:1–6:1 is the greatest story of salvation and redemption and deliverance from slavery to freedom, from idolatry to faith in One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But beyond the historical drama, these first chapters of the book of Exodus contain something even more important — the matrix for God's salvation of His children, the homo sapiens. The name "homo sapiens" means the "wise humans," the humans who think and imagine and invent and have a family that is functioning as a unit, with some order of functionality.

Here is the pattern of salvation that the book of Exodus provides for us and for history. What starts as a blessing will soon turn into a problem. The problem happens when the blessed people that have a good life grow and become too visible and too proud and too prosperous in a setting of others who have not been included in prosperity, or feel threatened by the growing prosperous and pampered minority. Objections to the privileged minority bring persecution based on fear, and the feeling of unfairness. The persecution becomes accepted and justifiable, and it is even legalized by the authorities. The minority seeks release from the persecution and enslavement. They cry to their God and continue to seek a way to be delivered. Usually someone who has a sensitivity for those who suffer the persecution wakes up and realizes that what is happening in his country or community is not right and not fair. This unknown, Robin-Hood type hero — in this case an Egyptian prince — receives a wake-up call from God and is commissioned against his own will to challenge the authorities in God's name, and with God's help. God uses this individual to bring salvation and deliverance and a mutation of suffering and slavery into God's grace and glory.

Every moment of salvation in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, has the same pattern. And always the redemption and salvation come with a price. In the end the price is always high, but worth the expense.

The Apostolic Reading of the Torah

Fasting forward, this is the very reason why the apostles and the elders and the evangelists of the Church gathered together in Jerusalem to discuss what to do with the growing number of non-Jews that had abandoned their idols and attached themselves to the Jewish Church — the only Church that existed well until the end of the 2nd Century CE, and thus becoming part of the history of God's salvation itself. This is what the apostles in Jerusalem decided to strongly recommend for the non-Jewish members of the community:

Notice verse 21. The basis of the apostolic instructions for the gentile disciples of Yeshua starts with the premise that

This last requirement is for the gentile disciples to go on the Sabbath day to the synagogues to hear the Word of God. This outcome from the first apostolic conference in Jerusalem in the first half of the First Century of our Common Era is monumental, but it is totally ignored by 99% of the Christian churches.

Netivyah and the Ro'eh Israel congregation in Jerusalem were the first to acquire a kosher Torah scroll. We started to read from it every Shabbat, according to the tradition. To follow the Torah portions and the reading from the prophets, and we added the reading from the New Testament to match the other readings and connect with the content of the Torah, the prophets, and the New Testament. It is wonderful now that many of the Messianic congregations in Israel, and many in the diaspora, are doing the same thing.

Never Give Up — Resist With Intelligence

When there is persecution and suffering and horrible treatment and loss of human rights and social privileges, never give up! Always resist in smart and intelligent ways, without getting caught by the enemy. Never lose the hope of freedom and never stop dreaming of better times. Always look for ways to get around the evil and ungodly laws and survive and do it not only for yourselves, but for all those around yourself. The rule is this: always resist evil and oppression and enslavement and always keep the flame of hope burning and giving life and strength and encouragement to yourself and to those people around you whom you know well and whom you trust.

The second lesson from this Torah portion is that no matter how hard our lives are and how hopeless things look from the outside, the Lord God who created the world is still in charge and still rules the Heavens and the Earth. God is faithful to keep His promises and our history is proof positive that God's faithfulness is uncompromised. Yes, we might not have the wisdom and foresight to see through the veil and see all the possible and impossible options, but God knows options that are beyond our own ability to know and to understand. This is what faith means — although we don't see the solution or the light at the end of the tunnel, the light is there and the Lord is with us in the foxhole during the battle.

Becoming a Tool in God's Hands

At the end of the pain and suffering and persecution and rejection, your own perseverance and willingness to become a tool in the hands of the Almighty God of Israel will have you used at least as the donkey that brought Yeshua to Jerusalem. You, like me, and like Paul and Peter and Jacob (James), are all commissioned by God to be willing to be the donkey on whose back the Messiah will return to Jerusalem as King and Master of all, to rule with grace in the eternal city of Jerusalem, together with the saints forever!

Release what you have in your hand, no matter how small or how insignificant or seemingly unimportant. If you release it, like Moses released his shepherd's staff, God can make it a power-tool that empowers you and your life as a tool of deliverance and salvation to release the captives and those enslaved in the things that enslave God's children even to this day!