Coming Out

 

The other night in our discussion of the Exodus story, the thought came about the difference between fleeing from the Egyptian slavery and what we face today, that is, fleeing “the daughter of Babylon” which is this present world system.  “Go forth from Babylon!  Flee from the Chaldeans!  With a voice of singing, declare, proclaim this, utter it to the end of the earth; say, ‘YHVH has redeemed His servant Jacob!’” (Isa 48:20).  The Hebrew for “go forth” is a command to “get out” or “leave” (the harlot system). This is echoed in Revelation 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues’”. 

Leaving Egypt or Babylon, in order for YHVH’s servant Jacob to be free from the bondage of a nation or system that is keeping him from Elohim’s ultimate purposes, necessitates His sovereign act or intervention.  In both cases the blood of a lamb is required before the Almighty can move to extricate His people from servitude to another kingdom.  Yet there is also a significant difference.  In the case of Egypt, the entire nation left together at a very specific time, and what’s more, according to the will of YHVH, it had to be by the explicit permission of the sovereign of that nation. In the case of (latter-day) Babylon, coming out is in response to the command to “leave” or “come out”, to and by, each individual who has acknowledged the redeeming blood of Messiah Yeshua (notwithstanding, the eventual, physical and national exodus).  In 2^nd Peter we are reminded that, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (emphasis added 1:3-4).  Isaiah prophesied that, “It shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on YHVH, the Holy One of Israel, in truth” (Isa 10:20 emphasis added).

However, Peter also warns us: “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20 emphasis added).

A warning issued by the writer to the Hebrews, based on the first Exodus, still stands:  “While it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?  And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief… Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 3:15 – 4:1).

What could be worse than, after having been delivered by the blood of the lamb, to die in the wilderness journey and never reach our final destination? Ezekiel’s prophecy in chapter 20 of his book sheds light on the possibilities that loom before us regarding the two paths ahead of us, the cooperate as well as the individual departure:  “As I live,’ says Adonai YHVH, ‘surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you.  I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.  Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you,’ says Adonai YHVH.  ^‘I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am YHVH’” (20:33-38). Are these rebels the same as those that don’t enter His rest?

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).