"And He appeared"
Shemot (Exodus) 10:1 - 13:16; Jer. 46:13 - 28; Romans 9:14 - 24
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For this week's drash I wanted to focus on Exodus 10:7. Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How much longer must this fellow be a snare for us? Let the people go and worship ADONAI their God. Don't you understand yet that Egypt is being destroyed?” Here we find Pharaoh’s servants telling him that it is time to let the Children of Israel leave Egypt and go worship Adonai. Three things we find right away, first that the servants of Pharaoh acknowledge that Moshe was a snare to them, second that they acknowledge that the G-D of the Israelites was not their G-D, and third they acknowledge that Egypt was being destroyed. These same things are true today. The believers in Messiah are thought of as a bad thing or a trap by those who choose to serve other G-D’s. Look at all the things that are being done to attack those of us who love and serve G-D. People have written books saying that we are worse than the fanatical Muslims who are blowing up people all over the world. It has been said we are the greatest threat to our world today. Our lifestyle seems to threaten them even though we do not force it upon anyone. Just our existence seems to be a snare to them. These people readily admit that they do not serve the G-D that we do and really would be glad to see us go somewhere else, anywhere else. The third is also true today. This world is being destroyed. The Scriptures are clear that in the future G-D will destroy this present world and form a new one. However it doesn’t seem as if people are willing to wait for this destruction to come; they are working very hard at destroying this world by themselves, starting with the people on it and working to its very foundations. I say all this because it is important for us to always remember that this world is not ours. We live here temporarily while waiting for our real home to be prepared. Until it is we are going to go through some tough times. People are going to think of us as snares to their way of life and choices. We will be attacked in many ways because of our choice to serve G-D. These people do not serve G-D, so they live their lives under a different set of rules. We cannot expect the unrighteous to act righteous. We also need to not build up our treasures here on Earth. In other words, those things we think are most valuable to us cannot be the temporal things here. Having a nice home, car, clothes etc. is great but our treasures have to be the permanent things of G-D. All else is being destroyed right in front of our eyes.