Why All Ten Plagues?

July 9, 2015September 1, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. – Exodus 4:21

It seems odd that God would tell Moses from the very beginning that it would take many plagues to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Why couldn’t God have freed them with one spectacular display of power? Why couldn’t God have skipped the milder plagues if he knew he’d send the more powerful ones later?

One reason was that the purpose of the plagues wasn’t just to convince Pharaoh to free the Sun God Ra Israelites, but to declare that God was supreme over the many “gods” that Egypt worshipped (Ex.
12:12). God was communicating this to Pharaoh, and also to his own people who very likely believed in them after four hundred years in that land. Each of the plagues was a defeat of one or more of the gods that the Egyptians worshipped – the Nile god, the Sun god, the Frog god, the animal gods

Another reason could have been mercy. God didn’t simply come in and destroy the oppressor of his people, Pharaoh, before giving him a chance to let them go on his own. God gave him many chances that he rejected, and only after several times did God harden him from further repentance.

Finally, perhaps it was simply that God realized that after four hundred years of not knowing him, his people had to experience his power firsthand many, many times. He knew that they would soon be in the desert facing trials, and would lose faith quickly enough. He knew they would be there for forty years before reaching the Promised Land, and they needed strong memories to sustain them. He also knew that humans often think they’ve learned a lesson when they need to repeat it many times. He was instilling in his people a sense of his power that would sustain them for the millennia ahead.

_{Photocred: J. M. W. Turner and Riccadov}

Longing for Moses

July 9, 2015September 1, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Therefore when the people saw the sign which he had performed, [the feeding the five thousand] they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. – John 6:14-15

Moses The story of the exodus from Egypt was a defining event in the life of Israel, when God heard their cries and saved them from their enemies. In Jesus’ time, it took on a heightened significance because the people were suffering under severe oppression of a foreign government, and they saw themselves as reliving the afflictions of Egypt. They prayed for a Messiah to come as a second Moses who would free them from bondage to the pagan ruler, just as he did before.

One way to see how much the people resonated with the earlier story is to observe how many people in the Gospels were named for the characters in the Exodus story. For example:

Mary (Miriam, in Hebrew), named for Moses’ sister.
Joseph was Jacob’s son who was sold into slavery in Egypt, eventually to reign there.
Elizabeth is derived from Elisheva, the wife of Aaron, Moses’ brother.
Lazarus comes from Eleazar, Aaron’s son who became priest after him.
James was actually Ya’acov, Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes
Jesus (Yeshua, also a common first-century name) is a contracted form of Yehoshua, which means “God’s salvation” and is related to the name of Joshua, who lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Ancient texts indicate that names of characters in the Gospels were very common first-century Jewish names. This suggests that they were hoping that the Messiah would be born among them very soon, and that God was placing in them a longing for redemption. At the very same time he was preparing to fulfill his many promises and send someone to answer their prayers. The redeemer, this time, would not just save them physically from their enemies, but for eternity instead.

_{Photo cred: Luca Volpi (Golmund100)}

A Good Parable for a Sukkah

July 7, 2015September 1, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Why do you call Me, `Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.
– Luke 6:46 – 49

In a week, Jewish people will be celebrating Sukkot, when they build booths to remember how they lived in tents for 40 years when God led them through the desert to the Promised Land. Jesus would have celebrated this every year of his life, and probably made the walk to Jerusalem often to celebrate at the Temple with millions others.

The booths of Sukkot are built according to a tradition that mandates that they are not a permanent structure. They are made of natural materials and open on one side, and branches are laid loosely across the roof, so that you can see at least one star above. Nowadays, it is often a family project to build one, using a few poles or boards and some cloth and branches. Even though people are supposed to sleep in them or at least eat meals in them, it isn’t unheard of that they will blow down before the week is over.

In Jesus’ time, Jerusalem would have been filled with booths, as travelers would have used them as temporary housing in the city. Rabbis often taught using physical examples around themselves, and I wonder whether Jesus was standing next to a sukkah, giving it a strong shake, when he said the words of today’s passage. Even if it was a particularly well-built one, because it didn’t have a foundation, it would have rattled and swayed violently with a tug from his strong carpenter’s arm.

While it is good to learn the lesson from the Sukkah that our lives are fragile and God is our true protection, Jesus teaches that we should learn another one – that we need to move out of the fragile house of a life without foundations to one built on rock, and the only way to do that is to build our lives according to the master builder’s plan.

Photo: German Federal Archives

Meeting God on the Way

July 3, 2015September 1, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” Genesis 28:16

Meeting God on the Way An interesting pattern emerges as we read the stories of Isaac and Jacob carefully. Both of these men had encounters with God, and interestingly, the encounters usually happened when they were traveling into or out of the Promised Land.

Isaac never actually left the land, but when a famine came, he headed for Egypt to find food. On his way there, arriving at the southern boundary of Canaan, he had a vision from God. The Lord told Isaac not to leave the land and that he would prosper there. Since God had promised to give this land to Abraham’s descendants, it was symbolic of that promise that his son never left the land and lived his entire life there.

Isaac’s son Jacob, however, did need to leave the land to go and find a wife from among his relatives back in Haran. His first encounter with God came as he was traveling out of Canaan, when he had a vision of a stairway to heaven. God said to him, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15). His next encounter was as he was going to cross the Jabbok river on his way back into the land (Genesis 32:24). There he wrestled with God, and God gave him a new name, Israel.

The last encounter occurred when his sons brought him down to Egypt to live with his long lost son, Joseph, who was in a position to provide for their family during the famine. When Jacob got to the southern border of Canaan, he had a vision in which God said to him,

I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes. (Genesis 46:3-4)

All these encounters show us that God had claimed the land of Canaan as the particular place where he would dwell with his people. The early patriarchs entered it and left it only with his permission and at his direction. Interestingly, the scenario is repeated when the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land upon their return from Egypt. An angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand stopped Joshua and told him to remove his sandals for the place where he was standing was holy. (Joshua 5:13-15). Once again God had made his presence known as he lead his people into this, his special land.

Photo: Yair Haklai

Drinking Rain From Heaven

July 3, 2015March 27, 2020Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

“The land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” Deuteronomy 11:11-12

During our five weeks in Israel in late June and July, not once did it rain. In fact, almost 6 months go by each year without any rain, between May and October. In all of the Middle East, water is precious, like oil is nowadays. In ancient times, countries that had water in abundance became superpowers, and the countries with little barely survived. Egypt received almost no rain at all, but had abundant water from the flooding of the Nile. That was why when regional famine came, people went there to purchase food, like Abraham and later Joseph’s family. The water available from the Nile each year was 30,000 times more plentiful than the yearly rainfall to Israel – an enormous difference indeed!
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Knowing this, we should be surprised that God saw the water of Israel as superior to that of Egypt. In Deuteronomy 11:10 – 12 it says,

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

The difference between Egypt and Canaan was that in Egypt the crops were irrigated by the labor of hand-watering, while in Canaan the land was entirely watered by rain. In the ancient Middle East, that had profound spiritual implications, because rain was understood to be a gift straight from God, whereas water drawn by hand was a seen to be human self-reliance without regard to God. Egypt and Canaan, therefore, were a contrast of security of human effort compared to dependence on God.

This was a spiritual lesson for the Israelites when they left the land of Egypt for the promised land of Canaan — that when God chose a land for his people, he didn’t choose a place where they could have security because of their own efforts, he chose a land where they would be far more dependent on him and would need his presence watching over them to send them the living water of rain.

Many of us have seen God do the same thing in our own lives, when we step out to follow him and he takes us from security in our own efforts and brings us to a point of dependence on him, which doesn’t always include prosperity as the world sees it. God often desires dependence for his people rather than abundance, contrary to what “prosperity gospel” teachers may tell us. While we may not have the material wealth as if we lived in “Egypt,” we know that God’s eyes are on us from the beginning of the year to the end.

The Mountain of the Lord

July 3, 2015September 1, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations (or, Gentiles) will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. – Isaiah 2:2-3

The words above are from a prophecy of what would happen in the last days, in the Messianic age. Because the Messiah has come, we are in that age, and it is fascinating to see how these words are finally coming true right before our eyes.

Specifically, it says that the nations (goyim, also Gentiles) will come to the land God has given his people, in order to study, to learn more about the Lord and how to follow him. In the past 50 years since the nation of Israel has been established, an enormous wealth of information has been uncovered to enrich our study of the Bible. Most of us are hardly aware of how important that has been for Christianity.

This welcoming sign greets everyone arriving at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered the year Israel was established, have been some of the most important finds. They have shown the reliability and antiquity of the Scriptures, because they are over 1000 years older than other manuscripts. They date from Jesus’ time and give us much insight into the Essenes, an important part of the culture that Jesus was addressing. Every new discovery in archaeology gives another piece of the puzzle, making the text a little clearer. Some of the most important finds in Israel have been made in just the past 10 years! We can be optimistic about what is just around the corner.

Few may also know of a remarkable wave of scholarship that is developing as Christians and Jews are studying Jesus together in Israel. In former times, Christians have tended to miss the importance of Jesus’ Jewish context for understanding his message. But as they have traveled to Israel to study the land and manuscripts, the Jews there have worked together with them to yield great insights on Jesus’ life in its context. A pioneering group of scholars called the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research is part of this development, and has had fascinating insights on Jesus’ words in the light of his Jewish culture (1).

While Christians may not know of some of the amazing things that are going on in the land of Israel, they are starting to discover how powerful it is to personally experience the Promised Land. Many find that the text takes on brilliant color and new depth once they’ve walked the land.

It has taken thousands of years for a window to open, to enable the Gentiles to come from the ends of the earth to the mountain of the Lord. And only now have we had the tools to uncover evidence that God preserved below the surface of the land. How amazing of God, that he allows even us to be a part of the Scriptures, because we now are the fulfillment of his words in Isaiah 2 long ago.

The Land Up and Down

July 3, 2015September 19, 2019Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.” Isaiah 2:3

For visitors from the flat American midwest, Israel is challenging because of its many hills. To get practically anywhere is to hike up or down. As we studied the Hebrew of the Scripture in the land, we saw that as often as the text said that a person “went” (halakh) somewhere (literally meaning “walked”), it says they “went up” (alah, meaning “ascended”) somewhere, or “went down” (yarad, meaning “decended”) somewhere. The language reflects the topography!

Some places in the Bible are almost always associated with going up or going down, partly because of geography, and partly because of their spiritual associations. A person always “goes up” to Jerusalem, because it is on one of the highest mountains in the area. The Temple is at the highest point, to remind worshippers that they are coming near to God.

Every time our bus climbed up the hill into the city, we were reminded of “going up” to Jerusalem. If we would have walked as Jesus did, it would have been even more obvious. Our burning legs would tell us that we must make an effort to enter the presence of God.

Often simply going into the land of Israel is “going up” in the Scriptures, and even today, when a Jewish person moves from another country to Israel, he or she is said to make “aliyah” which means to “go up” or “ascend.” On the other hand, a person almost always “went down” to Egypt. In our thinking, since Egypt is to the south, we would call it “down,” but they didn’t associate the south with “down.” Rather, it is downward because of being outside of the Promised Land, and somewhat also because it was the land where the Hebrews were oppressed.

It is interesting that over the history of Israel, there have been few flat places – it seems that the nation was either ascending or descending spiritually, to worship the true God, or to fall into idolatry or sin. Our spiritual lives are like that too – we tend to be either ascending or descending rather than just on the level. Each day we need to ask ourselves which way our next step will go.

Geshem – Drinking rain from Heaven

July 2, 2015July 24, 2023Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

The land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. (Deuteronomy 11:11-12)

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

The difference between Egypt and Canaan was that in Egypt the crops were irrigated by the labor of hand-watering, while in Canaan the land was entirely watered by rain, geshem in Hebrew. In the ancient Middle East, that had profound spiritual implications, because rain was understood to be a gift straight from God, whereas water drawn by hand was a seen to be human self-reliance without regard to God. Egypt and Canaan, therefore, were a contrast of security of human effort compared to dependence on God.

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Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).

Ahf – When Anger Burns

July 2, 2015January 7, 2020Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” – Numbers 20:9-12 (NAS)

Hebrew has a very interesting word for anger, which is ahf. It is also the word for “nose” or “nostril,” and when someone is very angry, his anger is said to “burn,” harah (ha-RAH). It’s a picture of a person so furious that his face is flushed and his nostrils get hot.

In the Scriptures there is an interesting lesson we can learn about anger. Jewish commentaries discuss why God decided after Moses struck the rock not to allow Moses to enter the Promised Land. They suggest that perhaps the reason was not the simple fact that Moses disobeyed God by hitting the rock instead of speaking to it. Rather, could it be that instead of speaking calmly and honoring God by showing that he would provide water, Moses let his rage at the people so overwhelm him that he forgot to honor God and struck the rock out of fury? The commentators imaginatively suggest that after many long years with this obstinate people, Moses had finally reached his limit, and his anger simply overwhelmed him. At that point God decided that another leader must be raised up to complete the mission of entering the land.

Interestingly, this happened in the life of Elijah as well. He struggled for years against the apostasy of Israel in Baal worship. Even after he had won the great victory on Mt. Hermon, he fled for his life, exhausted, and ran all the way down to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). There he poured out his anger against the people, saying,

I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

With him too, anger had taken its toll, leaving him profoundly discouraged. God told him to find Elisha and train him up to take his place. Even though Elijah had every reason for anger, when it was too much, God saw that someone else would need to take over for him.

These two stories show us how even the wisest can get worn down by frustrations over the years. One rabbinic comment is that, “When a wise man lets his anger overcome him, he loses all his wisdom.” We need to seek relief from our anger before it costs us our ability to lead. Certainly this is all the more true in marriage — uncontrolled anger and contempt is often what brings them to an end.

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Further reading:

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).