Don't You Know that Egypt is Destroyed?
Although the Torah portion for this week is Vaera, this message has been on my heart. My concern for those turning to Torah is that they are seeking after prophecy, numbers, calendars, conspiracies, end-time prepping, and easy snacks of Torah. These require little of the individual other than a willingness to engage in internet surfing for others' earnest, but not always accurate, theories. In-depth weekly Torah study and the basics of Hebrew unlock prophetic books such as Revelation.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ עַבְדֵי פַרְעֹה אֵלָיו עַד־מָתַי יִהְיֶה זֶה לָנוּ לְמֹוקֵשׁ שַׁלַּח אֶת־הָאֲנָשִׁים וְיַֽעַבְדוּ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם הֲטֶרֶם תֵּדַע כִּי אָבְדָה מִצְרָֽיִם׃
Long before the last plague on Egypt, Pharaoh's servants recognized what Pharaoh didn't: Egypt was already destroyed. After
the plague of locusts
, the servants tell Pharaoh:
Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" (Ex 10:7)
Here's an annotated quotation highlighting the very important prophetic Hebrew wordplay with Hebrew
shoreshim (roots):
Pharaoh's servants [
avad
- AVD] said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve [
avad
- AVD] the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed [
avad
- AVD]?" (Ex 10:7)
The first two uses of
avad in the verse is the Hebrew root for servant, and the word begins with a letter
ayin. The last use, describing
the destruction of Egypt, begins with the letter
aleph. The word is
avdah. You are more familiar with the last use in the Book of Revelation:
Abaddon. The difference? Abaddon in Revelation is a permanent form of Egypt's
avdah, destruction.
An
eved (servant) does service or
avodah, which is worship. Abaddon, however, is the place of the cursed, those who worship the beast and do not have the seal of Elohim on their foreheads:
They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss;
his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. (Re 9:11)
Those consigned to Abaddon's destruction have been servants, but not of YHVH, the God of the Hebrews. They have worshiped other things. This prophecy in Revelation Nine follows a plague of locusts:
The appearance of the
locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
Like Pharaoh before them, those who descend to Abaddon are like their king, stubbornly misplacing their faith in the wrong places. They serve the wrong king and the things that the king of Abaddon supplies. Do they not know that Egypt is destroyed? What did Pharaoh supply that made his servants worship him? What made Pharaoh stubbornly cling to the things that were already destroyed after the locust plague? Why did he wait for darkness and the death of his firstborn?
Maybe the better question is why do we stubbornly persist in putting our faith in the wrong places? Where we spend our time, money, and attention is evidence of our faith. If faith without works is dead, so faith in the wrong things sustains our death. Do we not know that Egypt is lost?
Name one of these staples of American life and servanthood that have not suffered increasing judgment, scandal, sickness, and destruction in the last few years:
Sports and movies and music
Politics
Military and other public service
Homeland security
Weather
Religious leadership
Vegetable and animal food sources
Health, both physical and mental
There are more, but these come to mind. Sports figures and teams have been worthy of our money and most valuable time and attention. If we spent less time worrying about grown men who play games and spent more time playing sports with our own children, we would be ready to acknowledge that American sports has become an idol by which we enthusiastically separate the "seasons." How many of the men and women who produce our viewing and listening "entertainment" must be exposed as sexual deviants and teachers of spiritually wicked doctrines to our children before we acknowledge that Egypt is lost?
How much time do we spend following the latest political scandal, conspiracy, and controversy? Do we dedicate as much time educating ourselves on the Torah portion each week? It doesn't matter which political party you serve or how independent of parties you profess to be, if your faith in is politicians or government, don't you know that Egypt is destroyed?
Will the military protect America? Or will the Elohim of Moses and Aaron? How many military scandals and asleep-at-the-helm shipwrecks does it take for us to accept that Egypt is destroyed? Pray for our public servants to be protected while they serve, and pray for America, but public servants serve systems that are not greater than God, for they are created by humans. Elohim has no creator, for He is the Creator. Human beings are capable of desertion, dereliction, sexual harassment, and bullying. Buying more bullets or playing Call of Duty or Halo games will not stop Divinely-appointed judgment, but they may deafen an Israelite to Moses' repeated messages. If an army pursues Israel, then it will be destroyed either by the Reed Sea or the Euphrates. Pray that Godly men and women prevail in our military and public service, for those servants serve the Holy One first.
Homeland Security cannot protect America from foreign and domestic terrorism. Hardly. You're not safe at the local airport, Walmart, bar, biking path, marathon, or even at work minding your own business. "If you see something, say something" hasn't worked so far, and how do you mount a defense against or deter those who WANT to die? Do you not know that Egypt is Abaddon?
What about the weather? Feeling pretty good because you choose not to live in a tornado zone? Fires may come. Escaping blizzards? Hurricanes or earthquakes will shake your faith. Don't you know that Egypt is destroyed?
Trust popular religious leaders? List how many sex or money scandals have been revealed in this generation. Don't you know that Egypt is destroyed?
The food we eat is frequently contaminated. We eat the blood in the flesh of sick and diseased animals, and hallal meat is creeping into the stores. Don't you know that Egypt is Abaddon?
Is our trust in modern medicine and self-help books? Aren't those we love being destroyed by a rising tide of dementia, physical diseases, and mental illnesses in numbers never recorded before? Drink all the kale smoothies you can, but it's no guarantee. Don't we know that Egypt is destroyed?
Name anyone who is not affected by these plagues. Both Egypt and America have no "safe rooms" free of locusts unless they hear Moses and prepare for departure. Becoming comfortable with the foods, army, medicine, religion, government, easy farming, and entertainments of Egypt will create Pharaoh's deafness to the message. We'll miss the exodus to the Land of Israel. Forget Israel and Jerusalem, and you will turn your nose up at milk and honey and settle for hydrogenated vegetable oil and corn syrup.
Beloved, the systems we serve are already destroyed. The deception is that we are still alive...or so we think. Adam and Eve must have thought they'd suffer instant death, and after they ate the fruit, nothing happened...or did it? It began a long process of destruction called death. Abaddon. It took hundreds of years for their bodies to descend to the fallen condition of their souls, but fall they did.
The plagues were a long, continuous process of death to the Egyptians, yet they were already dead, long lost before the locusts of the eighth plague. The only difference was that a few recognized they were already destroyed before the end. Perhaps these wise advisors were among those who left Egypt with Israel and escaped Abaddon along with the final judgments of locusts, darkness, firstborn, and military.
Why wait that long to perfect our faith in the Word? How much money do we spend on sports, rich foods, self-help books, new nutritional diets and their gadgets, and creams and lotions to retain our youth? How much time do we spend on social media, news feeds, conspiracy books, and prepping? Do we invest even a fraction of that time or money in studying the Word, helping the broken among us, or supporting those who will teach us Hebrew or sound study methods instead of spouting doctrines and prophecy without the years of Torah study that the Prophets of Israel had?
If attention, time, and money is invested in the Egypts, then we are missing the message of Revelation. It is the same message that Pharaoh's servants tried to convey:
Pharaoh's servants (avad - AVD) said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve (avad - AVD) the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed (avad - AVD)?" (Ex 10:7)
The Father in Heaven is destroying our Egypts so that we will go to the wilderness to serve our Elohim, for we can surely say that neither Pharaoh nor Egypt knows our Elohim. In context, Moses and Aaron asked to take the Israelites a three-days' journey to celebrate a
chag, which usually refers to Passover, Shavuot, or Sukkot. Pharaoh's servants identify this celebration to him as an act of AVD, worship. Moses and Aaron had told Pharaoh that if they did not go, then Adonai would send a pestilence upon the Hebrews, not the Egyptians!
When Pharaoh prevented the act of worship, the pestilence shifted to Egypt. What if, however, Pharaoh lets go, but the Hebrews fail to leave and Israel remains only a religious icon of faith when first steps are possible? In Revelation, the pestilence of locusts will come and seal the fate of many to Abaddon. Even Pharaoh's servants could see the end had already come.
One day Pharaoh will have to let go, but first, we must have begun a process of repentance in the lands of our dispersion:
Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; but
if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.'
They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. (Ne 1:8-10)
Plan A was to celebrate the chag in the wilderness. In our generation, however, we are privileged to access celebrations of the chagim in Jerusalem, the designated city. While the fullness of the restoration has not arrived, the gate is open. It is expensive. It is a commitment of time. It requires your attention to plan. It involves some degree of personal safety risk. The time comes, however, when the dead must be left to bury the dead.
It means saving money by dining out less, cutting off the high-priced satellite TV subscriptions, shifting and saving some family vacation days to synchronize with the Father's, and it may take years to save the money, but you will NOT BE FOOLED. Israel is your destination while you await Pharaoh's release of your family, your income, your attention, and your time. You will know that Egypt is already destroyed, and you are on your way out to meet the Angel of the Presence in the wilderness.
Abandon Abaddon if you know Egypt is already destroyed.
