The Word of Elohim is like apples of gold in a picture from of silver. (Proverbs 25:11)
YHVH’s People to Be Spared From His Wrath—Not Tribulation
Exodus 8:22; 9:4, 26, Set apart the land of Goshen. YHVH separated the children of Israel from the Egyptians in that he spared them from the last seven plagues. What does this teach us about the judgments of Elohim? The Israelites were made to go through the first three plagues only. Do YHVH’s people ever experience trials and tribulations? (Read Deut 8:2–5; 2 Tim 3:12; Heb 11, the entire chapter; Rev 7:9–14.) Do the saints need spiritual refinement in order to help them become the chaste bride of Yeshua who is without the spot and wrinkle of sin? (Read Eph 5:27; 1 Cor 3:9–17.) The saints may go through tribulation, but they will not have to experience Elohim’s wrathful judgments unto death upon a wicked world (1 Thess 1:10; 5:9 cp. Rev 6:17; 7:2–3). Other examples of the saints going through tribulation, but then being delivered before Elohim poured out his final wrath upon the wicked include Lot in Sodom, and Noah at the flood.
Exodus 8:23, I will make a difference. As YHVH intensifies his judgments on a nation to get that nation’s attention, he, at the same time, will highlight his true servants by affording them special protection from the judgments. He delivered both Noah and Lot from his severe judgments upon the surrounding heathen rebels. This will occur in the end times when YHVH will allow some of his servants to escape his judgments (Ezek 9:4; Luke 21:36; Rev 7:4; 9:4).
Exodus 10:23, But all the children of Israel. YHVH protected the children of Israel from the most severe plagues that fell upon Egypt (Exod 8:22; 9:4, 6; 10:23; 11:7; 12:13). Similarly, YHVH spared Noah and Lot from the utter destruction that fell in their days. In the last days, YHVH will protect his remnant people in the great tribulation, from the wrath of Satan and from the day of his fierce wrath (Rev 7:3; 9:4; 11:15–18; 12:13–17) either by removing them from the scene of destruction (e.g. Noah and Lot), or by placing a mark on them that distinguishes them from those targeted with destruction (see Ezek 9:4; Rev 7:3; 9:4 cp. 22:4). It is interesting to note that the invisible mark that the angel placed on the heads of the righteous just before the destruction of Jerusalem was the Paleo-Hebrew letter tav (t) that resembled our English letter “t” or “x” and pictographically signified “sign, seal, covenant” and resembled a cross (Ezek 9:4). The mark of the righteous is related to the Torah that is to be written in our hands and on our heads as stated in the shema (Deut 6:8) and elsewhere (Exod 13:19, 16; Deut 11:18) and to the name of YHVH written on the foreheads of those in the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:4).
Why We Do a Passover Seder
Exodus 10:2, Tell or recount, relate. YHVH commanded Moses to record the story of Egypt’s judgment and fall for the Israelite’s future posterity. The Israelites were to pass this story down orally and in written form. The Passover seder is renactment of the exodus story and a fulfillment of Torah command of YHVH to tell the story of the exodus to successive generations of Israelite children. In other words, YHVH is commanding parents to pass the gospel message of redemption downward to each new generation. The Passover seder is literally a gospel tract involving a dramatic presentation where the participants act out the message of the gospel.
Intact Families—The Building Block of Spiritual Community
Exodus 10:8–10, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and daughters…we must hold a feast [chag] unto YHVH. Egypt and Pharaoh [metaphors for the world and Satan] wanted to destroy, cut apart families—the bedrock of YHVH physical and spiritual order and the center of Torah community, but Moses insisted on keeping families together when exodusing Egypt and going out to serve YHVH. In YHVH’s order of things, families stay together.
