At the Passover Seder a fifth cup is filled for the Spirit of Elijah to come and drink, and the Seder is concluded with "next year in Jerusalem." Though the plan of the God of Israel is not yet complete in every detail, the goal and purposes that he has set forth for his people are quite clear and unambiguous. Though the journey of Israel out of Egypt ended in catastrophic failure and death in the wilderness--- for all but Joshua, Caleb, and the children--- it is not the end of the story or journey for the surviving remnant, including the surviving remnant right up to this day.
When all Israel is re-gathered from the "nations" into the Land of Israel, at the appointed place (and in an appointed time or "moed") for a free, delivered, and redeemed people, then all things will be joined in an "echad" (oneness or unity). Then the Kingdom of Israel will have its King ruling his Kingdom. The Land will have its blessed Sabbaths and care, and a fruitfulness that flows simply from being under the hand of its true people. Nothing will be forced, intensive, or artificial. Each will dwell secure under their "Fig and Vine". The marriage of the King's own people to the Land will clean up and remove the stains of pollution: all the trash of the Land---physical, soulish, and spiritual---will be gathered and burned. Everyone will know what is clean, and everyone will know what is unclean: it will be written on the hearts of the people.
This final "Israel of God" will succeed all the other intermediate "Israels" of history. How will one know or recognize that final Israel of God? The coming of the Spirit of Elijah will reveal and confirm that Israel. Just as the Spirit of Elijah called to the people of Israel of his day, so once again that Spirit will "call" to the people of Israel. The drought of rain from the heavens will once again sear the Land and the hearts of the people. Once again, mighty divine judgments will fall on the false priests, prophets, and rulers of Israel, and once again the people will have a choice. Once again the spirit of Jezebel will fulminate and rage, to no avail: the dogs will once again lick up her polluting blood. And once again the latter day manifestation of Ahab---the false messiah and king---will have the same ending: slain by the true King of Israel.
The drinking of the final Passover Cup establishes, ratifies, confirms, and seals our participation in the Spirit of Elijah. This is the great hope of the Kingdom of Israel: a consummation of the relationship of King-Kinsman-Redeemer-Bridegroom with his Bride. And a final Great Feast.
If that King of Israel and his Kingdom is coming to earth, a "rapture" people could find itself going in the opposite direction of that descending Kingom! One might want to ponder whether one is headed in the wrong direction. Sure would be a shame to miss the Feast!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Passover: "The Fourth Cup...I will take you as my people"
If the first three cups of the Passover Seder are filled and drunk, the fourth cup then, and only then, may be filled. The lifting of that fourth cup acknowledges the purpose of God to have a people of his own possession. The drinking of it ratifies, confirms, and agrees to the covenant of "taking." It is mutual and reciprocal. It is a covenant freely entered into; it is the covenant of relationship that joined Boaz and Ruth. A covenant is not a relationship of superiority/inferiority, but there are necessary pre-conditions: freedom, deliverance, and redemption. If any one of these is missing, compromised or deficient, various impediments will be revealed---for example, the people of Israel likely had taken up with the idols of Egypt. Thus, the necessary freedom, deliverance or redemption are lacking and Israel cannot enter into a true covenant with God.
A covenant is not a contract because contracts are contingent on performance and signify a possible (even likely) inequity and imbalance---usually of power---between the two parties. Anxiety of one or both parties is resolved by the contract and its terms. Israel looked at its relationship with God as a contract: no meat, no land flowing with milk and honey... God had not performed according to their reading of the contract terms and promises.
Only a free people can come to the fourth cup; only a delivered people can come to the fourth cup. Finally, only a people who know their redeemed status can fill, lift, and drink that fourth cup. By so doing they are "taking" the God of Israel as their own, and the God of Israel is "taking" them. Such a "taking" has clear connotations of marriage, a union in spirit: the spirit of the people enters into relationship with the Spirit of God. And the two become one. That unity precludes any other possible union with any other spiritual entity or "god."
Such a "taking" cannot be a seduction or raping. No coercion, no manipulation, no prevailing---neither the most blatant forms nor the most subtle forms---upon the body, soul, or spirit is permissible in a covenantal "taking." So the relationship of Israel and God is not of a powerful, awesome, and demanding God with a weak, diminutive, and submissive/accommodating Israel... The fourth cup is drunk fully and willingly and joyfully by both God and Israel.
Relationship is the central characteristic of the Passover journey. Until there is Freedom, Deliverance, and Redemption, relationship is not possible. Israel cannot enter into the relationship of Covenant, Israel cannot ratify, confirm or establish that Covenant relationship until the first three cups have been drunk.
So it is relationship, relationship, relationship...
All this must precede the "marriage to the Land." The prophets describe Israel's dwelling in the set aside or "holy" land as a marriage, which is to further reveal the relationship between the covenant partners. If the Land is polluted---physically, soulishly, or spiritually---the nature of that dwelling relationship is certainly suspect. But that is another Cup for another "moed" (appointed time)!
A covenant is not a contract because contracts are contingent on performance and signify a possible (even likely) inequity and imbalance---usually of power---between the two parties. Anxiety of one or both parties is resolved by the contract and its terms. Israel looked at its relationship with God as a contract: no meat, no land flowing with milk and honey... God had not performed according to their reading of the contract terms and promises.
Only a free people can come to the fourth cup; only a delivered people can come to the fourth cup. Finally, only a people who know their redeemed status can fill, lift, and drink that fourth cup. By so doing they are "taking" the God of Israel as their own, and the God of Israel is "taking" them. Such a "taking" has clear connotations of marriage, a union in spirit: the spirit of the people enters into relationship with the Spirit of God. And the two become one. That unity precludes any other possible union with any other spiritual entity or "god."
Such a "taking" cannot be a seduction or raping. No coercion, no manipulation, no prevailing---neither the most blatant forms nor the most subtle forms---upon the body, soul, or spirit is permissible in a covenantal "taking." So the relationship of Israel and God is not of a powerful, awesome, and demanding God with a weak, diminutive, and submissive/accommodating Israel... The fourth cup is drunk fully and willingly and joyfully by both God and Israel.
Relationship is the central characteristic of the Passover journey. Until there is Freedom, Deliverance, and Redemption, relationship is not possible. Israel cannot enter into the relationship of Covenant, Israel cannot ratify, confirm or establish that Covenant relationship until the first three cups have been drunk.
So it is relationship, relationship, relationship...
All this must precede the "marriage to the Land." The prophets describe Israel's dwelling in the set aside or "holy" land as a marriage, which is to further reveal the relationship between the covenant partners. If the Land is polluted---physically, soulishly, or spiritually---the nature of that dwelling relationship is certainly suspect. But that is another Cup for another "moed" (appointed time)!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Passover: The Third Cup of Redemption
First, freedom.
Second, deliverance. We are delivered from ourselves to Him. We are delivered from Egypt to the wilderness. We are delivered from the judgments in Egypt, but we are not delivered from the judgments on the Egypt in us that we carry forth into the wilderness. There we will utter the same words that the so-called wise-men (magicians) of Egypt uttered to Pharaoh: "Do you not see Egypt (and we) are all ruined?" When the fire of God comes off the altar and touches us, will we not say as the prophet Isaiah, "Woe I am a man of unclean lips"? We are ruined, impoverished, at the end of ourselves...utterly undone, bereft of hope, riches, status, husbandless...like the Moabite woman Ruth.
Then, and only then can the third phase of our Passover begin: my redemption, our redemption, the redemption of all Israel, draws nigh in the wilderness.
If the cattle on a thousand hills are his, he is rich indeed. If all the gold and silver of Egypt are his, he is rich indeed. Not in Egypt, but in the wilderness, we meet our Kinsman-Redeemer. Just as Boaz provided for Ruth a special portion of his fields for her gleaning...so he, our Kinsman-Redeemer, will have a special provision for us in the wilderness. And even in the "night" at the threshing floor, she was sent forth with a sack of grain. His redemption had already begun when he first spotted her laboring for Naomi in his fields. Now his plan proceeded toward the "moed", the appointed time, of her full and public redemption. But first a night of darkness at the threshing floor...
He was utterly mindful of her, her beauty, her choices, all she had left behind, her lack of status, her hope, her love of Naomi... Now, in-deed, he "deemed" her special. Now, in-deed, he would "re-deem" her. He would pay and satisfy all claims for or against her; out of his riches he would buy up all that might stand in the way of him claiming her for himself. All this was to happen first, in the wilderness, simultaneously, in the the darkness of the night, then finally at the wedding feast publicly.
Why did the redemption of Israel fail in the wilderness? They, in fact, were not free of Egypt; they, in fact, were not delivered of Egypt and themselves...so they could not, even at Mt. Sinai, "see" their Redeemer-Kinsman. In the midst of the shakings, signs, and wonders they could not "see" anything but the gold of Egypt re-cast into a calf. This was their god, and it was an Egyptian god. They could not see the manna as the grain of the wilderness (threshing floor). The "moedim", that is the appointed times, were utterly missed. They could not and did not see themselves as free and delivered: grumbling, complaining, strange fire, rebellion..."You have brought us out into the wilderness to slay us" "Can the Lord set a table in the wilderness?" "You have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey..."
Nothing was lacking or amiss in the "strong arm" of the Redeemer-Kinsman. But the state of "being" of the Israelites in the wilderness was anything but the state of being of a "redeemed" people. "Seeing" yourself as free, seeing yourself as delivered, and seeing yourself as Israel, Bride...whatever...that is in fact Redemption.
Ruth no longer sees herself as a Moabite! She sees herself as her Kinsman-Redeemer-Husband (to be) sees her. What you see determines your redemption. Most Israelites, after the spying out of the Land, saw themselves as "grasshoppers." Totally, un-redeemed. They are not mindful of their true status, they are not mindful of their God...finally, they have no real sense, in body, soul, or spirit, of their Redeemer or their Redemption. And so sadly, what one sees is what one gets! It is not enough for someone else to see you as...you have to see yourself as...! Boaz remains only a Kinsman until Ruth enters into, sees herself, as redeemed by him as Redeemer. So her "seeing" is clearly righteous (for which he commends her) for in faith she sees herself as part of Israel, redeemed, and him as her possible Husband. The fourth stage of our Passover journey cannot take place, unless, and until, the first three cups of wine of the Seder are drunk: Freedom, Deliverance, and Redemption. Why was Boaz drinking and rejoicing at the threshing floor? He perhaps already could see the possibility of the Feast of the Fourth Cup. Can you "see" the full cup of wine waiting for you?
Second, deliverance. We are delivered from ourselves to Him. We are delivered from Egypt to the wilderness. We are delivered from the judgments in Egypt, but we are not delivered from the judgments on the Egypt in us that we carry forth into the wilderness. There we will utter the same words that the so-called wise-men (magicians) of Egypt uttered to Pharaoh: "Do you not see Egypt (and we) are all ruined?" When the fire of God comes off the altar and touches us, will we not say as the prophet Isaiah, "Woe I am a man of unclean lips"? We are ruined, impoverished, at the end of ourselves...utterly undone, bereft of hope, riches, status, husbandless...like the Moabite woman Ruth.
Then, and only then can the third phase of our Passover begin: my redemption, our redemption, the redemption of all Israel, draws nigh in the wilderness.
If the cattle on a thousand hills are his, he is rich indeed. If all the gold and silver of Egypt are his, he is rich indeed. Not in Egypt, but in the wilderness, we meet our Kinsman-Redeemer. Just as Boaz provided for Ruth a special portion of his fields for her gleaning...so he, our Kinsman-Redeemer, will have a special provision for us in the wilderness. And even in the "night" at the threshing floor, she was sent forth with a sack of grain. His redemption had already begun when he first spotted her laboring for Naomi in his fields. Now his plan proceeded toward the "moed", the appointed time, of her full and public redemption. But first a night of darkness at the threshing floor...
He was utterly mindful of her, her beauty, her choices, all she had left behind, her lack of status, her hope, her love of Naomi... Now, in-deed, he "deemed" her special. Now, in-deed, he would "re-deem" her. He would pay and satisfy all claims for or against her; out of his riches he would buy up all that might stand in the way of him claiming her for himself. All this was to happen first, in the wilderness, simultaneously, in the the darkness of the night, then finally at the wedding feast publicly.
Why did the redemption of Israel fail in the wilderness? They, in fact, were not free of Egypt; they, in fact, were not delivered of Egypt and themselves...so they could not, even at Mt. Sinai, "see" their Redeemer-Kinsman. In the midst of the shakings, signs, and wonders they could not "see" anything but the gold of Egypt re-cast into a calf. This was their god, and it was an Egyptian god. They could not see the manna as the grain of the wilderness (threshing floor). The "moedim", that is the appointed times, were utterly missed. They could not and did not see themselves as free and delivered: grumbling, complaining, strange fire, rebellion..."You have brought us out into the wilderness to slay us" "Can the Lord set a table in the wilderness?" "You have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey..."
Nothing was lacking or amiss in the "strong arm" of the Redeemer-Kinsman. But the state of "being" of the Israelites in the wilderness was anything but the state of being of a "redeemed" people. "Seeing" yourself as free, seeing yourself as delivered, and seeing yourself as Israel, Bride...whatever...that is in fact Redemption.
Ruth no longer sees herself as a Moabite! She sees herself as her Kinsman-Redeemer-Husband (to be) sees her. What you see determines your redemption. Most Israelites, after the spying out of the Land, saw themselves as "grasshoppers." Totally, un-redeemed. They are not mindful of their true status, they are not mindful of their God...finally, they have no real sense, in body, soul, or spirit, of their Redeemer or their Redemption. And so sadly, what one sees is what one gets! It is not enough for someone else to see you as...you have to see yourself as...! Boaz remains only a Kinsman until Ruth enters into, sees herself, as redeemed by him as Redeemer. So her "seeing" is clearly righteous (for which he commends her) for in faith she sees herself as part of Israel, redeemed, and him as her possible Husband. The fourth stage of our Passover journey cannot take place, unless, and until, the first three cups of wine of the Seder are drunk: Freedom, Deliverance, and Redemption. Why was Boaz drinking and rejoicing at the threshing floor? He perhaps already could see the possibility of the Feast of the Fourth Cup. Can you "see" the full cup of wine waiting for you?
Passover: Deliverance is the Ding of Freedom
Deliverance is quite a different matter than freedom. Freedom is not deliverance. A truly "delivered" person or people sees themselves as free and they are able to act. In the history of the U.S., blacks were freed by the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, but the deliverance from the bondage in soul and spirit came later. Likewise, inmates of WWII death camps were "liberated", but deliverance from the soulish and spiritual ravages of their experiences, similarly, came later. The body may be free, but if the soul and spirit continue in bondage and oppression, deliverance is necessary.
The captive people of Israel got physically out of Egypt, but deliverance from their Egyptian "mindset" and the "spirits" of Egypt did not happen before or during their hasty departure. Deliverance requires a Deliverer stronger than that which constrains, binds, and hinders us. If we are physically free, but unable to act out of that freedom, we need a Deliverer. They needed a Deliverer to make possible "the choosing and doing" of a new life. Service, feasting, and worship of their God was going to require more than just walking out into the wilderness, and going forth into the wilderness only heightened their awareness of what they had left behind in Egypt! Something like the "you can take the Jew out of the Diaspora, but it is another matter to take the Diaspora out of the Jew!"
Deliverance requires a strength greater than our own---we cannot deliver ourselves---otherwise we become the strength, the strong arm, the Deliverer. Deliverance has to include deliverance from ourselves: self-images, imaginations, delusions, lists of what ifs, lists of wants, and lists of "I can't"... Deliverance is for faith in the Deliverer, and that sets in motion the possibilites of action. If a people are truly delivered, they are free and able to respond to the demand: "This day choose whom you will serve." Deliverance is for obedience to the Deliverer's commands, instructions and teaching...that is for obedience to the Torah. The Passover Deliverer is essentially a Messiah. So the people of Israel now had the possibility of saying "Our God has saved us!" He, "my Deliverer" is in Hebrew Yeshuati my Salvation.
Clearly, the spies who went into the Land of Canaan had not been delivered from Egypt: their complaining, their faulty eyesight, and perceptions concerning "the giants"---all these and more were wrapped up in a fear that killed any possibility of faith. A delivered person would have seen themselves as free and able to act. Such an un-delivered leadership could only propose a return to Egypt.
Slavery is much more than simply physical chains. We need to be released from our slavery mentality, and it is only in the wilderness that this deliverance takes place. It is there where our God takes care of the deliverance of our souls and spirits. It is impossible to take the old life of Egypt with us into the wilderness and have a hope of making the whole journey. The LORD said to us "leave it all behind and take nothing with you"...except...what? He said to them first eat your unleavened bread and bitter herbs, have your sandals on, and staff in your hand.
Be ready! Be ready for my call. Be prepared for I will come in an hour you might not expect!
I will come in an hour of great darkness! (Is this the dark night of our soul perhaps?) The instruction is simply to walk by faith with him when he calls even if it is the darkest time in your life. It is faith that delivers you, and our faith is our own. We cannot borrow from anyone else. We are called to leave it all behind and come out with him.
Why unleavened bread?
Why bitter herbs?
Slavery is bitter, but so is leaving slavery. Slavery is a hard journey to leave behind, especially when the new journey is somewhat shrouded in mists of uncertainty. Unleavened bread...
God wants our lives unleavened. Do we not leaven the bread with our "thinking"? The list of "what ifs" that our mind conjures up is endless. The list of "I can'ts" stretches from the past through the present to the future! These are all the leavening of Egypt, big time.
He says take what I instruct and do what I instruct...not more, not less! Don't add to or take away anything from my instructions.
Have faith in my words...my provision. I've got your back covered...and I've got your front covered, too!
Joshua and Caleb displayed a different spirit..."we are well able to do this thing...they are bread for us..." Truly, they had been delivered out of their souls and the spirits of their former life in Egypt, and they could see a new life in the covenant and promises of their God, truly in a land flowing---in the physical, soul, and spirit---with milk and honey. And they could say (fore-shouting the "traveling music" of the late Jackie Gleason) "How sweet it is!"
And a true deliverance by a Deliverer God makes possible the 3rd stage of the Passover journey: Redemption. Stay tuned!
The captive people of Israel got physically out of Egypt, but deliverance from their Egyptian "mindset" and the "spirits" of Egypt did not happen before or during their hasty departure. Deliverance requires a Deliverer stronger than that which constrains, binds, and hinders us. If we are physically free, but unable to act out of that freedom, we need a Deliverer. They needed a Deliverer to make possible "the choosing and doing" of a new life. Service, feasting, and worship of their God was going to require more than just walking out into the wilderness, and going forth into the wilderness only heightened their awareness of what they had left behind in Egypt! Something like the "you can take the Jew out of the Diaspora, but it is another matter to take the Diaspora out of the Jew!"
Deliverance requires a strength greater than our own---we cannot deliver ourselves---otherwise we become the strength, the strong arm, the Deliverer. Deliverance has to include deliverance from ourselves: self-images, imaginations, delusions, lists of what ifs, lists of wants, and lists of "I can't"... Deliverance is for faith in the Deliverer, and that sets in motion the possibilites of action. If a people are truly delivered, they are free and able to respond to the demand: "This day choose whom you will serve." Deliverance is for obedience to the Deliverer's commands, instructions and teaching...that is for obedience to the Torah. The Passover Deliverer is essentially a Messiah. So the people of Israel now had the possibility of saying "Our God has saved us!" He, "my Deliverer" is in Hebrew Yeshuati my Salvation.
Clearly, the spies who went into the Land of Canaan had not been delivered from Egypt: their complaining, their faulty eyesight, and perceptions concerning "the giants"---all these and more were wrapped up in a fear that killed any possibility of faith. A delivered person would have seen themselves as free and able to act. Such an un-delivered leadership could only propose a return to Egypt.
Slavery is much more than simply physical chains. We need to be released from our slavery mentality, and it is only in the wilderness that this deliverance takes place. It is there where our God takes care of the deliverance of our souls and spirits. It is impossible to take the old life of Egypt with us into the wilderness and have a hope of making the whole journey. The LORD said to us "leave it all behind and take nothing with you"...except...what? He said to them first eat your unleavened bread and bitter herbs, have your sandals on, and staff in your hand.
Be ready! Be ready for my call. Be prepared for I will come in an hour you might not expect!
I will come in an hour of great darkness! (Is this the dark night of our soul perhaps?) The instruction is simply to walk by faith with him when he calls even if it is the darkest time in your life. It is faith that delivers you, and our faith is our own. We cannot borrow from anyone else. We are called to leave it all behind and come out with him.
Why unleavened bread?
Why bitter herbs?
Slavery is bitter, but so is leaving slavery. Slavery is a hard journey to leave behind, especially when the new journey is somewhat shrouded in mists of uncertainty. Unleavened bread...
God wants our lives unleavened. Do we not leaven the bread with our "thinking"? The list of "what ifs" that our mind conjures up is endless. The list of "I can'ts" stretches from the past through the present to the future! These are all the leavening of Egypt, big time.
He says take what I instruct and do what I instruct...not more, not less! Don't add to or take away anything from my instructions.
Have faith in my words...my provision. I've got your back covered...and I've got your front covered, too!
Joshua and Caleb displayed a different spirit..."we are well able to do this thing...they are bread for us..." Truly, they had been delivered out of their souls and the spirits of their former life in Egypt, and they could see a new life in the covenant and promises of their God, truly in a land flowing---in the physical, soul, and spirit---with milk and honey. And they could say (fore-shouting the "traveling music" of the late Jackie Gleason) "How sweet it is!"
And a true deliverance by a Deliverer God makes possible the 3rd stage of the Passover journey: Redemption. Stay tuned!
Passover: The Freedom Thing
Many a man has made a career, and a name for himself along the way, by ringing the "Freedom" bell---from Martin Luther to Karl Marx to Martin Luther King, Jr.... The parade of historic figures is long. Yet slavery seems to persist intractable as ever in the course of human experience....with or without designer jeans or religion. If only "freedom" were an easy thing to gain, experience and hold onto.
Moses rang the bell in the presence of Pharaoh...but only after the ruin of Egypt in a series of divine judgments did he, Pharaoh, let the peopke of Israel go forth into the wilderness to all die a rather ignoble death, unfree indeed! We will come back to Joshua and Caleb---notable exceptions in deed and spirit.
So why would Passover make such a big deal of such a colossal failure of freedom? For sure "the devil is in the details!" Would the people of Israel have been more successful in their journey if they had all been armed with Kalashnikov assault weapons? Or perhaps the people of Israel were way ahead of their time in rejecting the leadership of their God (and Moses) and His purpose... Maybe indeed, as they repeatedly accused their Leader(s), "you have brought us out of Egypt to slay us in the wilderness..."
Clearly and repeatedly they turned that notion over and over in their minds, including even a plan and desire to simply return to their slavery in Egypt. After all the "good things of Egypt...garlic, leeks, flesh pots..." had pretty much caused them to forget the reality of their hard life in Egypt. Toleration was to be preferred, not that hard-line Patrick Henry motto of "Give me liberty or give me death." And even such an illustrious rebellion as the American Revolution almost faltered and failed as the years passed by and goods got scarce...(whatever "manna" was...it didn't fill the hollow stomachs of the Continental Army).
God promised a new "life" but what the people of Israel got was death in the wilderness. They did get out of Egypt, at least physically their bodies made it to the wilderness, but did they choose to carry Egypt with them in their soul and spirit? Did they fail to see that "freedom" from something---Egypt---is not freedom for something?
If "Let my people go..." is the end of our hearing, our end will be the same: either a new slavery (albeit perhaps a mind-game slavery), or death in a new (albeit modern and perhaps urban) wilderness. If our hearing includes not only the "from", that is from Pharaoh's Egypt and slavery, but also the for "that they may hold a feast to me (God)..." then wilderness can be transformed into a place and time of feasting.
If the ring-a-ding-ding of the freedom bell is simple heard as an "I'm outta here" with a get-out-of-jail-free ticket...be assured you will land again in jail on the next go-round of the Pharaoh monopoly game. Freedom has a godly purpose according to the god or God we consult and hear. So, Passover is a freedom plan for the people of Israel put forth by the God of Israel. Freedom from the slavery of Egypt, for sure, but more importantly freedom for the purposes and plan of the God of Israel.
Then in that freedom, and only then, can the further stages of deliverance, redemption, "taking" in covenant relationship, and "marriage" to the Land be experienced. But first, we have to be free (of Egypt and Pharaoh) including our tolerance of even the slightest trace or hint of that life of slavery. If we think we are not free, indeed, we are not free. If we are "free", we are free in-deed for the purposes and plans of our God! Service, worship, and feasting in the wilderness are the first glimpses into the plan and purpose of the God of Israel for his people.
Stay tuned for further stages on the "Freedom Trail!"
Moses rang the bell in the presence of Pharaoh...but only after the ruin of Egypt in a series of divine judgments did he, Pharaoh, let the peopke of Israel go forth into the wilderness to all die a rather ignoble death, unfree indeed! We will come back to Joshua and Caleb---notable exceptions in deed and spirit.
So why would Passover make such a big deal of such a colossal failure of freedom? For sure "the devil is in the details!" Would the people of Israel have been more successful in their journey if they had all been armed with Kalashnikov assault weapons? Or perhaps the people of Israel were way ahead of their time in rejecting the leadership of their God (and Moses) and His purpose... Maybe indeed, as they repeatedly accused their Leader(s), "you have brought us out of Egypt to slay us in the wilderness..."
Clearly and repeatedly they turned that notion over and over in their minds, including even a plan and desire to simply return to their slavery in Egypt. After all the "good things of Egypt...garlic, leeks, flesh pots..." had pretty much caused them to forget the reality of their hard life in Egypt. Toleration was to be preferred, not that hard-line Patrick Henry motto of "Give me liberty or give me death." And even such an illustrious rebellion as the American Revolution almost faltered and failed as the years passed by and goods got scarce...(whatever "manna" was...it didn't fill the hollow stomachs of the Continental Army).
God promised a new "life" but what the people of Israel got was death in the wilderness. They did get out of Egypt, at least physically their bodies made it to the wilderness, but did they choose to carry Egypt with them in their soul and spirit? Did they fail to see that "freedom" from something---Egypt---is not freedom for something?
If "Let my people go..." is the end of our hearing, our end will be the same: either a new slavery (albeit perhaps a mind-game slavery), or death in a new (albeit modern and perhaps urban) wilderness. If our hearing includes not only the "from", that is from Pharaoh's Egypt and slavery, but also the for "that they may hold a feast to me (God)..." then wilderness can be transformed into a place and time of feasting.
If the ring-a-ding-ding of the freedom bell is simple heard as an "I'm outta here" with a get-out-of-jail-free ticket...be assured you will land again in jail on the next go-round of the Pharaoh monopoly game. Freedom has a godly purpose according to the god or God we consult and hear. So, Passover is a freedom plan for the people of Israel put forth by the God of Israel. Freedom from the slavery of Egypt, for sure, but more importantly freedom for the purposes and plan of the God of Israel.
Then in that freedom, and only then, can the further stages of deliverance, redemption, "taking" in covenant relationship, and "marriage" to the Land be experienced. But first, we have to be free (of Egypt and Pharaoh) including our tolerance of even the slightest trace or hint of that life of slavery. If we think we are not free, indeed, we are not free. If we are "free", we are free in-deed for the purposes and plans of our God! Service, worship, and feasting in the wilderness are the first glimpses into the plan and purpose of the God of Israel for his people.
Stay tuned for further stages on the "Freedom Trail!"
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