Exodus: God’s School for Israel and for Every Generation

The Book of Exodus — School for Israel and for Us

The story of Exodus starts with Jacob and his sons going down to Egypt by Joseph's invitation and the book ends with the children of Israel leaving slavery behind, going through a 40-year long boot camp in the Sinai wilderness, Aaron sinning and building the Golden Calf, eating manna fresh every day except the Sabbath, drinking water from the rock twice, and building the Tabernacle. The 40 years in the wilderness with Moses was school for the children of Israel — but not only for them, for us also. The most important lesson in the Bible, and the basis of our understanding of God's relationship with Israel and through Israel with all of humanity, can be found and learned from those 40 years. The most beautiful pictures of God as our father and God as our teacher and God as our military general and chief of staff, and God as our doctor and comforter, are all found in the book of Exodus. Who else would tolerate and love a nation like Israel and invest so much grace and forgiveness and care for His children Israel, except the father?!

The very end of Pekudei has a dramatic description of the presence of the Lord — by day as a pillar of cloud hovering above the Tabernacle and by night a pillar of fire. The Lord was manifest by day and by night in the middle of the camp of Israel visibly, and He was their guide and compass. You would think that with the visible and physical presence of God in the camp there would be no sin. But sin was there, and some of the sin of Israel in the wilderness even after the building of the Tabernacle was so serious that God had to send plagues and snakes to wake up Israel to plead and pray and seek God's grace.

Oh How I Wish — and What We Have Instead

Oh how I wish and pray that today we would have God's presence visible and tangible in the middle of our camp. How I wish that our leaders would hear from the Lord of where to go and what to do even to the smallest details. How I wish that we would not have to have four national general elections to vote for prime ministers from political parties that are themselves lost in the moving sand dunes of the political deserts. After 2000 years of diaspora, being spread out to every corner of the world and God's face being hidden from us, it would be so nice to have a physical manifestation of God dwelling in our midst!

However, as disciples of Yeshua, born again into the newness of life, we have something that ought to do the same job for us as individuals that the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did for Israel:

I have the book of instruction and a map of where the pitfalls and the dangers are, and where God wants me to be every day. And if there is a change in the curriculum, there is the Holy Spirit that is there for me and for you. You have to ask for guidance and you will get it and receive it from the Word of God and from the Spirit of the Lord that is in you!

Nothing Was in the Ark Except Two Stone Tablets

The Haftarah for (Vayakhel-)Pekudei usually comes from 1 Kings 7-8 — Solomon building and dedicating the Temple in Jerusalem. And there is one verse from that reading that stands out above all the ornate detail:

Solomon builds this fine stone structure on top of the mountain of Moriah. The building is so beautiful and ornate, with gold and with artwork. And the children of Israel carried this wooden box, not very big, with the two cherubim hovering over it. The most shocking thing for me is that the box had nothing in it except the two tablets of stone that Moses brought down from the mountain. All that was written on those two tablets were the ten words of God, the Ten Commandments.

The unique thing about all the Ten Commandments is that they are all deposited in our human hands. We have to choose to keep them and that doesn't just happen automatically. Each one of the commandments is actually kept or broken by our own personal and individual choices. These Ten Commandments regulate our relationship with the Almighty God and Father of us all, and also regulate our relationship with our fathers and mothers, and protect our society and community. I am sad to know that the great nation of the United States of America that was built and created on the basis of biblical principles and faith, has taken down the Ten Commandments off federal buildings and out of the courthouses and away from schools. If a schoolchild sees the clay representation of these commandments hanging on the wall of his classroom, he will remember that he ought to honor his father and his mother. Yes, the wooden box had nothing in it — only two stone tablets with ten short and very clear commandments that, if kept and observed, our society and our world would be so much better and so much more blessed and happy.

Let us do our best to keep these Ten Commandments. We would all be happier and better fathers, mothers, children, and people if we restore their importance — and Yeshua ratified them and gave us the ability to keep them by sending us the Holy Spirit to guide us unto all truth.