Shemot
Torah Portion Ex 1:1-6:1
Half Torah Portion Isa 27:1-28:13; 29:22-24
New Testament Matthew 2:1-12; Acts 7:17-35
In reading this Torah Portion I couldn’t help to see the parallel between the two people in how they were trained to be mighty leaders in the history of Israel.
You might ask, as to whom I am speaking. Joseph and Moses in the way YHVH trained them. In our day and age, if we want leaders, we send them to either seminar or University.
The first place is the worldly approach for believers who believe they were called into the ministry. The other is again man’s idea without God to train people into their role in a corporate way for leaders. In most cases, even the world this type of training will only get your foot into the door. Neither way will get you into a leadership role right out of university. In most cases, this is the perceived path into these roles.
If you are approaching this path as a believer, you will not be a senior pastor from Seminary rather you will be an associate Pastor for a youth group. In the military, you will not be a General right out of West Point. Becoming a leader in any occupation is a process and not given rather it is earned.
Being in the Kingdom is much the same way. Consider Paul even with his vast knowledge of the Scriptures and all the training from the best teachers of his day. In The University of YHVH, that got him nowhere in the position that YHVH had prepared for him. After his encounter with Yeshua on the road to Damascus he found that he had to back to the scriptures and learn what it meant to live in the Kingdom of YHVH. He had to rid of the Pheresis teachings and rely totally on YHVH and what He taught from the very beginning. Was he called, most certainly?
Now back to Joseph and Moses. Two different men and two different methods YHVH used for each one. With Joseph, he was already listening to the Father, but he was not mature enough to be a leader. So YHVH enrolled him in a series of courses tailored just for him. For YHVH had a task for him to do but he had to be ready. He had to learn to be a leader first in the Potipher house. How to discern the things going on around him so as not to get trapped in a situation that could have thwarted YHVH’s plan for all of Israel.
How not to complain in any situation that he may find himself in, first he was sold by his brothers to Potiphar’s house, and secondly, he was falsely accused. Thirdly he was placed as Viceroy over all of Egypt.
Turning to Moses his training was quite the opposite. Yet YHVH enrolled him into the University of YHVH and again He tailored a series of courses that would span 80 years. He was taught by the finest of teachers. Pharaoh’s court, yet all of that would have to be scrapped because they did not meet YHVH’s expectations’ then sent Moses out of the land of Egypt to be taught by His teachers.
They taught him how to find water in a desert, and how to depend on YHVH for all that he had. The greatest of these they taught him how to listen to the Father. They even brought him to the place where he met YHVH in the form of a burning bush. Who were these teachers? They were Jethro’s sheep. Now he was ready to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Was Moses called? With 100% certainty! Even though gives the tools for the job, evil men will not listen to what God is telling them to do. Moses did everything that He told him to do, and YHVH even told Moses that Pharoah would not listen to him. After YHVH demonstrated His power to Pharaoh, only then did he listen and let the children of Israel leave. It was the very thing that the Egyptians did not want to happen. The first chapter of Exodus reads.
(Exo 1:10)” Let’s come up with a wise plan to prevent them from increasing in number. Otherwise, if war breaks out, they would join with our enemies and fight against us. Then they would leave the land.”
YHVH was teaching Moses another lesson. That it is not by the flesh that we gain the victory rather it is by the power of YHVH that the victory is won. He was also teaching Pharaoh that the trust that he placed in his gods would not save him and his nation.
The question is this, in which series of courses has YHVH enrolled you? Will you require an eighty-year lesson plan? Or will you only require seventeen years? I know that with me it has taken decades and many teachers. Not because I was dim-witted rather, I had to rid of man’s teachings and false doctrines. Where are you in your training?
We are either going to fail or graduate. There is no middle ground, and He does not grade on a scale. Rather He requires us to learn and graduate into His kingdom. Or we will be relegated to the outer darkness where there will weeping and the gnashing of teeth. We will either hear well done my good and faithful servant. Or we will hear depart from me for I never knew you.
The Kingdom is not about the rules and regulations rather it is about serving Him and those around us. If we love Him, then we will serve Him with joy and we will love our neighbors as ourselves.
Thanks!