Parasha Bo 2022

Me

When I was in high school I highly doubt anyone that was friends with me would have ever thought, “Hey, that dude… That dude is destined to be a Messianic Jewish rabbi...” In fact, I know this to be fact, because I am still friends with some of my closest friends from high school and they have made comments to me like, “Hey, who would have ever thought you’d be a rabbi?”.

This isn’t to say I was necessarily a bad kid growing up or that I wasn’t walking with the Lord. But, I wasn’t a great kid either, and a lot of times my walk with the Lord would probably have been better described as “walking with the Lord-adjacent.” Outside of synagogue I wasn’t really working hard to be a disciple of Yeshua, and I definitely wasn’t working hard to make disciples of Yeshua. Honestly, Danielle and I were dating in high school and I was in NJROTC and those two things were pretty much the only things that mattered to me…

I didn’t have a great relationship with my parents in high school either… Not because I didn’t love them or vice-verse, but because I was hard-headed and generally a pretty angry and aggressive kid. My dad and I were almost always at odds and I could have cared less about what they thought of choices I was making. And trust me, a lot of the choices I was making at that point were not anything to be proud of, heck, a lot of choices I’ve made sense then aren’t anything to be proud of for that matter…

And trying to avoid sin was the least of my concerns. And I definitely wasn’t thinking about what I was going to do for the Kingdom when I got out of school, much less standing here today leading a Messianic Jewish congregation.

But, I was raised in a Messianic Jewish household. Even in my rebellion I was still sitting through Passover Seders and High Holy Day services. I was still at synagogue every Shabbat… I was still hearing the Word and witnessing lives devoted to Yeshua. At the very least, I know my parents were praying for at least a little osmosis to kick in.

Ultimately, as I got older I began to take ownership of my own life and take responsibility for my own walk with the Lord. I began to feel the Lord calling me in T’shuvah. I began to rededicate my life to Him. And there are absolutely defining moments in my life I can look back at and see that these were the times where God was grabbing ahold of me and my hard heart was being softened and my life was being transformed. It took a few years, but ultimately I walked away from my own ways and made the decision to prioritize God’s ways in my life.

And I can tell you numerous times the enemy tried to snuff out my life because he believed in God’s call on my life more than I did. And despite several incidents in which I should have died God had much bigger plans for me and it just took me a little time to catch on and get on board.

We

And I highly doubt any of us listening to this message today are unable to relate to my own story in one way or another. Heck, I am sure many of you have stories of what God saved you from that are way more interesting then mine.

And some of you may be sitting here remembering the shenanigans you put your own families through when you were running from God.

And some of you may be sitting here, like my parents were, praying for your own children who’s lives are, at best, adjacent to walking with God (or what I like to call “fire insurance”), and at worse running from God as hard and fast as they can.

And some of you may be thinking that, while my story sounds nice, you can’t see any way where yours flips around…

But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God who loves a comeback story! He is all about restoration and renewal. In fact, He gave His only begotten Son specifically to provide a way back to Him. And He has empowered us as disciples of Yeshua to live a life that points people to His mighty works of Salvation.

God

This week we read Parasha Bo, Exodus 10:1-13:16, in which we continue with the saga of Adonai freeing Israel from slavery in Egypt. Exodus 10 relays to us plagues 8 and 9, Locusts and Darkness; and Pharaoh’s continual hardening heart toward Israel and HaShem. Chapter 11 brings the details of the 10th and final plague, the death of the first born of all of Egypt—which, though sad, ultimately paved the way for Israel to be Shalach (sent out).

In chapter 12, through Moshe, Adonai reveals to Israel how they are to observe what we now know as the first Pesach, the first Passover. And in this observance will Israel find protection from the 10th and final plague. And at the end of Parasha Bo we read the beginning of chapter 13 which describes the prominence of the firstborn of Israel, both man and animal, and how Israel is to redeem their firstborn sons when they come into the Promised Land.

Now… there’s a particular aspect to Parasha Bo that dramatically stands out as we read through it. And granted, yes there is a lot happening here… But there is one continual theme we see flowing through this Parasha, and realistically throughout the Word of God as a whole, that I believe is vital for the Body of Messiah and something we have solidified as a priority for us here at Congregation Mayim Chayim.

As we dig into the Word today we’re going to focus on and return back to a common thread we see sewing the entire narrative of Parasha Bo together—This thread is...

While the enemy wants to destroy our walk with the Lord, he is even more concerned with destroying our future generations’ walk with the Lord.

(Repeat)

So let’s dig into the text together, and because often the enemy, like I said a moment ago, believes in God’s call on our life more than we do, I want to start by looking at something Pharaoh says...

Exodus 10:7–11 TLV

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Send the men, so they may serve Adonai their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is being destroyed?” So Moses and Aaron were brought to Pharaoh again. “Go, serve Adonai your God,” he said. “But who will be going?” Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our elderly, our sons and our daughters. We will go with our flocks and our herds—for we must have Adonai’s feast for Him.” But he said to them, “So may Adonai be with you, if I ever do let you go, with your little ones. See clearly now! Evil is in your face. Not so! Go now—the men—and serve Adonai! For that’s what you were seeking.” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

Here we see what is really the goal of Pharaoh in all of this… Pharaoh is ultimately a tool of the enemy… And while the enemy is annoying, he isn’t stupid… Pharaoh’s hardening of his heart is not just about those who are currently enslaved in Egypt now, he is fighting to keep the people of God enslaved for generations to come.

The early 20th century Yiddish commentary Maayanah Shel Torah (Wellsprings of Torah) describes the heart of Pharaoh’s intention here in this way:

Pharaoh was willing to let the menfolk go, as long as the children remain behind; for as long as the younger generation remains “in Egypt,” there would be no future for the people of Israel.

The “Pharaohs” of our day have the same attitude. If the older folk wish to cling to Jewish tradition, that is perfectly acceptable; but the youth should be raised in “the spirit of the times” . . .

And though this is nothing new, it is very much a reality in the world around us today… The enemy would love nothing more than to entrap and keep our future generations in the ways of this world rather than thriving fully in the Kingdom of God.

But here’s the thing, while the enslavement of Israel l’dor v’dor was a priority to Pharaoh and to the the enemy, the freedom of Israel l’dor v’dor has always been the priority of HaShem for His covenant people. And not just in what we’re about to see in Parasha Bo, but we can go back much farther to see God’s plan for the blessing that would be His covenant relationship with the future generations of Israel.

Genesis 12:1–3 TLV

Then Adonai said to Abram, “Get going out from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing. My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

And again in Genesis 15:1-6

Genesis 15:1–6 TLV

After these things the word of Adonai came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “My Lord Adonai, what will You give me, since I am living without children, and the heir of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look! You have given me no seed, so a house-born servant is my heir.” Then behold, the word of Adonai came to him saying, “This one will not be your heir, but in fact, one who will come from your own body will be your heir. He took him outside and said, “Look up now, at the sky, and count the stars—if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your seed be.” Then he believed in Adonai and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

And this promise of a future inheritance with future generations to inherit it continues throughout the lineage of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.

Now, let’s go back to Parasha Bo again. As we’ve already established, the enemy could care less about the here and now of Israel, he is most concerned with keeping the future of Israel enslaved. But what is God’s concern? What is God’s plan? What is God’s command to Israel?

Exodus 10:1–2 TLV

Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I might show these My signs in their midst, and so you may tell your son and your grandchildren what I have done in Egypt, as well as My signs that I did among them, so you may know that I am Adonai.”

While Pharaoh’s desire is to keep the future of Israel enslaved, Adonai’s desire is to free the current generation so they can tell all future generations about what God has done. Why? So that they too can find freedom in the Lord. And we see this same theme again in several more key places throughout Parasha Bo. So let’s take a quick look at those together.

Exodus 12:25–27 TLV

“When you come into the land which Adonai will give you as He has promised, you are to keep this ceremony. Now when it happens that your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ You are to say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Adonai’s Passover, because He passed over the houses of Bnei-Yisrael in Egypt, when He struck down the Egyptians, but spared our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

Exodus 12 lays out for us the way the first Passover was to be observed, and in great detail, and that we are to keep the Passover l’dor v’dor. He says in the future our children will ask us, “Why in the world do we keep doing this over and over again? What does this all mean?” When they ask us we are to tell them of all that HaShem has done for our people in freeing us from Egypt with His might and power.

Then we read further in Exodus 13…

Exodus 13:8–10 TLV

“You are to tell your son on that day saying, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt. So it will be like a sign on your hand and a reminder between your eyes, so that the Torah of Adonai may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand Adonai has brought you out of Egypt. You are to keep this ordinance as a moed from year to year.

And again at the end of our Parasha we read...

Exodus 13:14–16 TLV

“So when your son asks you in times to come, ‘What is this?’ say to him, ‘By a strong hand Adonai brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage, and when Pharaoh refused to let us go, Adonai slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals. So I sacrifice to Adonai all firstborn males, but I redeem the firstborn of my sons.’ So it will be like a sign on your hand and like frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt.”

When we look at Parasha Bo we see that the overwhelming theme is the heart of God for our future generations. And this is key because as we see when Israel finally leaves Egypt and begins their journey to the Promised Land the first generation is who becomes the failure over and over again. But their children are who actually enter in and take the Promised Land, their children are who actually walk in relationship with the Lord, their children are who begin to live out the command to relay the Mighty Works of God l’dor v’dor!

And again, as we see in Exodus 10, Pharaoh knew good and well that the key to destroying Israel was in destroying their future. E

Exodus 10:7–10 TLV

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Send the men, so they may serve Adonai their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is being destroyed?” So Moses and Aaron were brought to Pharaoh again. “Go, serve Adonai your God,” he said. “But who will be going?” Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our elderly, our sons and our daughters. We will go with our flocks and our herds—for we must have Adonai’s feast for Him.” But he said to them, “So may Adonai be with you, if I ever do let you go, with your little ones. See clearly now! Evil is in your face.

Pharaoh’s goal is not just to demoralize Israel by keeping them enslaved, his goal is to destroy Israel by keeping their future generations enslaved.

And the enemy’s game has not changed at all in the last 4000 plus years...

While the enemy wants to destroy our walk with the Lord, he is even more concerned with destroying our future generations’ walk with the Lord.

[Talk about Shamar--Shamar- A primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to, etc.: - beware, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep (-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch (-man)]

This is why we see so much throughout the Bible about teaching our children the ways of God over and over again. It isn’t so that we make robots out of our kids, it’s because the enemy wants to destroy our children and it is our job as parents, our job as the village, to Shamar (guard) His ways and to shamar our children in His ways.

Deuteronomy 4:9–10 TLV

“Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children. The day that you stood before Adonai your God in Horeb, Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.’

And the Hebrew here is so important because in Deuteronomy 4:9 the phrase, “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely” in Hebrew reads, “Rak hiShamer L’cha ush’mor naph’sh’cha m’od”—in which we see the root word Shamar (guard) twice…

And the Shema is another prime example…

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 TLV

“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house… And listen guys, it isn’t just that we are to tell our kids about God’s word… It isn’t just that we’re to read the Bible with or to our kids… We must model a walk with HaShem in the power of the Ruach HaKodesh before our children at all times. They should not only hear about the Ways of God from us, they should see them modeled in our lives before their eyes.

We see Yeshua’s heart toward children in several places throughout the Gospels, for instance…

Matthew 19:13–15 TLV

Then little children were brought to Yeshua so that He might lay hands upon them and pray. Then the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Yeshua said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After laying His hands upon them, He went on from there.

As we look at the story of the Exodus we see that it is a foreshadowing of a greater prophetic reality. While in the immediacy of the text the Passover is about Israel being freed from physical slavery in Egypt, it is a foreshadowing of the promised restoration through Messiah Yeshua, a foreshadowing of the promise of the freedom we find in Yeshua from slavery to sin. And just as the Exodus is a foreshadowing of a greater prophetic spiritual reality, so is the actions, thoughts, and words of Pharaoh.

Pharoah was a foreshadowing and a tool of the enemy. His goal was to destroy the future of Israel and in the same sense the enemy’s biggest goal is to destroy the future of the Body of Messiah. The enemy wants nothing more than to destroy the message of salvation in Yeshua, of freedom from sin, of life everlasting with HaShem l’dor v’dor...

And in the world we live in today the enemy is working overtime. Virtually everything happening around us today is for the distinct purpose of destroying the message of Messiah in the lives of our children. The world wants to drag them down, to destroy their hope and dreams. The world wants to ostracize them for their faith. The world wants to make them feel alone and unwanted because of Messiah. The world wants them to feel self-conscious because their faith makes them look and act different than everyone else…

I am still somewhat kind of young, but I can tell you the world I grew up in is not even remotely the same as the world my children are growing up in… Generation Z and Generation Alpha are experiencing realities that Boomers, Generation X, and even Generation Y (Millennials) never had to face. And if we aren’t diligently discipling and equipping our children in Messiah, then those around them are more than willing and ready to disciple and equip them in the ways of the world.

Proverbs 22:4–6 TLV

The reward of humility and fear of Adonai is riches, honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the path of the perverse, but one who guards his soul stays far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it.

This is so important… If we train up, if we Shamar our children, if we disciple our children while they are under our care, when they grow up they may get led astray by the world, but they will know in their heart The Way, The Truth and the Life and they will make T’shuvah. I have heard people bastardize Proberbs 22:6 so many times in my life and make parents feel like if their kids have walked away from the faith then the parents have failed… But the reality is we have absolutely no control over what our children do when they grow up and are responsible for themselves. What we do have control of is what we teach them, what we instill in them, what we model before them while they are still under our care. Once they grow up and become adults their walk with or without the Lord is in their own hands…

But, if we have modeled faithful discipleship, if we have taught the Word of the Lord diligently to our children, if we have invested our time in answer their questions about why we do what we do and what it means in the greater prophetic reality of God’s promises, then they have a fighting chance to walk with the Lord when the choice is theirs. They also have a fighting chance at making T’shuvah if they fall prey to the temptation of the world and walk away from the Lord.

And mishpacha, listen closely to me when I say this… This isn’t just about parents and grandparents, this is about the whole family of God. Whether we have kids or not, the children in our commUNITY are looking to us for guidance, for love, for wisdom, for examples… It takes a village… And we are all apart of that village. And Yeshua tells us—

Matthew 19:14 TLV

But Yeshua said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I can tell you from my own experience with my own kids, children have questions about everything… And I mean everything… So when the Torah says that “when your children ask you why are we doing these things” you are to tell them it is because of our freedom by the Mighty Hand of God, He means it. If we don’t answer our children’s questions and diligently teach them His ways and faithful model a life of devotion to Yeshua the world is ready to show them what the opposite looks like… And the enemy is counting on it...

Genesis 4:6–7 TLV

Then Adonai said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, it will lift. But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the doorway. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

This is a reality for our children today as much as it is for our own lives, and as much as it was for Cain… The enemy is crouching at the doorway, in their schools, in their peer groups, in their social media accounts, in their tv shows, in their web browsing, anywhere and everywhere he possibly can… And if we don’t live out the biblical mandate to train up our children in the way they should go then they won’t even remotely have a fighting chance when the enemy attacks.

And this has been his goal since the fall of Adam and Chavah… He has always been out to destroy the seed… The seed of Adam, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Israel, the seed of David… Messiah Yeshua, the true prophetic seed who will crush the serpents head has come and now the enemy is trying to snuff out His spiritual seed…

While the enemy wants to destroy our walk with the Lord, he is even more concerned with destroying our future generations’ walk with the Lord.

You

You may be listening to these words today thinking about your own children, your nieces and nephews, your grandchildren, your neighbors kids… You may even be thinking about your own life and where your walk with the Lord is at right now.

You may be wondering where things went wrong or how you can change their heart. The answer is you can’t, only Yeshua can. If you have taken the time to invest in their lives and diligently Shamar the Lord’s ways before them and to teach them diligently and model before them His ways then it is all in God’s hands and you can trust that He is faithful in His promises.

If you weren’t walking with the Lord yourself when your children were growing then it is time to start covering them in prayer and begin modeling faithful discipleship today. This doesn’t mean shove anything down their throats or beat them over the head With the Bible, it means living your life for Messiah in a way that He is seen in you without you ever having to open your mouth.

L’dor V’dor has to become a priority in the Body of Messiah!

We

If our worship team will make their way back up to the stage. (Unmute worship team)

We need to reevaluate our hearts and our lives, both as parents and as members of the faith community that is the Body of Messiah. We need to ask ourselves, are we hindering children from seeing a legitimate faith-walk with Yeshua modeled before them? Are we modeling a relationship with the Word before them? Are we making the Bible life-giving or are we making it legalistic? Are we showing them how to live a life that shines the Light of Messiah before the world around us, or are we showing them how to drive the world away from the Good News?

But, when we do diligently teach them then they can live out the call of 2 Timothy 3:14-15…

2 Timothy 3:14–15 TLV

You, however, continue in what you have learned and what you have become convinced of. For you know from whom you have learned, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to make you wise, leading to salvation through trusting in Messiah Yeshua.