On Shabbat, while studying Exodus 2:23..25, there was something I became aware of, “the need to be ready”. Not like Are you ready for the return?; or Are your ready to be saved?; but more of a “When will We be ready to consider those questions?”
Here is the text that brought this to mind:
“Exodus 2:23 And it came to pass in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God saw the children of Israel, and God took cognizance of them.”
There is a timing issue of 400 years, promised to Abram in Genesis 15:13, which has come and gone. It is not however and issue with GOD remembering, for HE is always there and maybe not “focused?”. No, It occurs to me that We were not ready to be saved. There had not been enough Pain and Sorrow yet.
That is a very strange idea, that they were not ready. Before the time of Moses’s birth, Pharaoh and the Egyptians were killing the male children of the Hebrews, to reduce the population of the Hebrews by the death of the males and the assimilation of the females. Or so the plan seems to have been. Yet!, we did not cry out at the losses, injustice and hardships of slavery. The bondage must have gotten much worse in the 80 years since Moses’s birth and his river trip.
Even after they are brought out of Egypt, they were continually looking back to Egypt with longing during the 40 years in the desert. So it would seem even Exodus 2 was not enough to turn the hearts away from what they were accustom. This makes Leviticus 26 and the end Deuteronomy clearer when considering our readiness to be redeemed or desire to return to the good instead of the evil.
The timing demonstrated in Egypt gives insight to the timing of say Leviticus 26. Where: “14 But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant;” the beginning of our correction starts. We refuse the Good and seek the bad, so we are given punishment, then The LORD checks to see where we are in readiness and we have not changed so Seven Times more punishment, then a checking to see, and so and so forth until we are ready.
So what does that look like in our real world view. A portion is Israel, taken away into exile in Babylon(the House King Solomon built destroyed), and then some are brought back; acting worse than before; causes expulsion from the Land Of Israel, scattered among the nations of the earth, allowed to recover and thrive, yet we are not ready for GOD, so we are punished again but worse this time; a remnant survives and grows; we are observer to See, not ready yet, punished again; and so and so forth. Then the 1930’s and 1940’s happen, worse than at any other time in history, but not bad enough yet, for we have not changed. We are not ready as a people. No, not yet, but very soon!
Very soon, enough will return, so that all of this STOPS. The CREATOR HAS HIS CHILDREN, those that love HIM with all their Heart, All their Soul and ALL their being!
Are you ready yet? You should be.You should BE!
I can show you the way, if you want to know.
IT is to our benefit to HEARKEN until the LIVING GOD OF ISRAEL, and to our pain and shame to do otherwise.
My prayer is that The LORD grant you eyes that see, ears that hear and an understanding heart, then you return unto HIM soon!(Isaiah 6: 9 And He said: ‘Go, and tell this people: hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and understanding with their heart, return, and be healed.’)
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Shalom,
Yaakov