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The Secret Song of the Frogs in the Oven
Va'era
"and appeared"
Exodus 6:2-9:35
Ezekiel 28:25-29:21
Psalm 46
Re
16:3-7; Mt 10:22-33
As cute as that frog is, would you want him in your bed or your oven? The plagues weren't fun for anyone.
So if "I AM" could just remove Israel from Egypt, why didn't He? Why go through ten plagues first?
There is a theological purpose to the plagues. It is vital part to forming a collective and personal concept of salvation. Without the plagues, our understanding of Adonai would be insufficient. The sages say that the purpose of the plagues was
to establish the truth of God's existence
. It was experiential. Knowing for sure. It separated the truth of ONE from the Pharaoh's lies of divinity and 2,000+ Egyptian gods.
*
If the Israelites didn't
know
Him, through pressure, they would.
*
If Pharaoh didn't
know
Him, through pressure, he would.
*
If the Egyptians and mixed multitude didn't
know
Him, through pressure, they would.
To know in Hebrew, yada, is to have experiential knowledge. It can be a positive experience, or it can be a painful experience, yet it is an experience. It is more than just information about some deity, it is a revelation of power.
A group of rabbis debated:
"Which is better, Torah study or actions?"
The conclusion was that study was better because it led to appropriate action. Without study, the action could be erroneous, misapplied because it was misunderstood. The context of these rabbis' debate paints it in much more vivid colors. The rabbis risked their lives to have this Torah debate. They were hiding in an attic. Like the Egyptians and Greeks before them, the Romans had virtually cut off all Torah study, especially in public. Public displays of faith could get you crucified, scourged, skin removed with iron combs, etc.
The rabbis' clandestine debate included one of the
mitzvot
of Pesach: Each generation is to engage the telling of the Exodus as if he or she, personally, experienced it. It's not just a story, not just a debate over whether you should have an egg on the
seder
plate, not just a matter of selecting the right
haggadah
. You were there.
You must feel the pressure of the government's desire to kill you because you believe Moses and desire to celebrate a feast to worship Him alone
. "Were you there?" Yes, you were.
At the seder, in the midst of all the fun and food, in telling the story, you must feel the pressure. What did it feel like for a Hebrew? How terrified must they have been, especially when they suffered from the first plagues along with the Egyptians! And this was after months of extra-hard labor and beatings to collect their own straw and infanticide. So many tribulations.
Let's back up a bit.
First, Moses gave Pharaoh a sign. Moses threw down his staff, and it turned into a snake. Although we focus on the magicians' ability to duplicate the sign, also turning their staffs into serpents, think about that. A serpent introduced sin and DEATH into humankind. If Pharaoh was truly Divine, shouldn't his response have been like Moses' second sign, having his serpents swallow Moses' serpent? If Pharaoh was the "great crocodile" as he purported (one of the verses uses "tanin," for crocodile instead of nachash, for serpent), then shouldn't he be able to devour Moses' creation?
Nope. All Pharaoh's magicians could do was introduce more sin and death into the world, for Egypt represents Sheol, Abaddon, death and the grave. Pharaoh commanded more snakes. Maybe it was just an oversight on Pharaoh's part. He forgot he was supposed to be god.
(head-smack here)
Then Moses turns the Nile into blood. Here's Pharaoh's chance to prove he's a god, the creator of the Nile.
Pharaoh was a bit like Al Gore. He "invented" the Nile...or so it was believed. So i
f Pharaoh created the Nile, then why could Moses turn it to blood and death, but Pharaoh couldn't return it to life? All Pharaoh could do was have his magicians mimic the miracle and...ironically...produce more blood. The proper miracle would have been to transform the river from death to life, to clear away the blood. Instead, Pharaoh wants more death.
Wrong miracle, Stupid. It's not a magic competition. It's so all will "KNOW
that there is no one like the LORD our God
." (Ex 8:10) If Pharaoh was really the god of the Nile, then his subjects could see him bleeding out, not making his realm healthy.
(head-smack here)
After blood comes frogs. The frogs spread through Egypt. Everywhere. There are millions of stinking frogs, and Pharaoh's choice of miracles is...more frogs (head-smack). At this point, the Egyptians must have been suffering from killer headaches as well.
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Entreat the LORD that He remove the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD."
Moses
said to Pharaoh,
"The
honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be
destroyed
from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile
?"
Then he said, "Tomorrow." So he said, "May it be according to your word,
that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God
.
The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your servants and your people;
they will be left only in the Nile
."
Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had
inflicted
upon Pharaoh.
The
LORD did according to the word of Moses,
and the frogs died
out of the houses, the courts, and the fields.
So
they piled them in heaps, and the land
became
foul.
So there were two types of frogs. Dead ones and the living ones in the Nile. The living ones in the Nile are symbolic. The Nile is the physical representation of the Pishon River, one of the circling rivers of Eden. The frogs who left the river eventually had to die, just like Adam and Eve. The frogs who stayed in their natural habitat, the habitation of Divine design, would live.
Watching Pharaoh's response to Moses must have been like watching politics today. The longer you watch, the more you say, "If these are the people in charge, things can only get worse."
And then they do.
Maybe instead of making more frogs, Pharaoh's magicians should have tried making them go back into the Nile to sing their proper song.
Take a frog out of the water, and it's only a matter of time until it dies. A frog has a special job to do, and it is done at appointed times (although bullfrogs can be more random). Listen, and you'll hear it. A frog sounds like a bird at night: Amazing Grace Frogs Jat Kah Thoh
Frogs sing a hidden song, and it is a song you already know. You sing it every day. First, though, think about what a frog symbolizes:
Tzfardea, Frog = הַצְּפַרְדֵּע
Tzipor, Bird - צִפֹּר
De'a, Knowledge - דֵּע
A frog is a "bird of knowledge." It was knowledge that caused Adam and Eve to depart from the Garden River Pishon:
Now the man called his wife's name
Eve
, because she was the mother of all the living.
The LORD God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife, and clothed
them. Then
the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us,
knowing (
yada
)
good and evil
; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-
therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken
. (Ge 3:20-23)
Adam and Eve did not "keep," or guard their garments. They mixed the
de'a
of good and evil; therefore, they were naked, unprepared for Elohim to visit them in the Garden. Their souls could "fly" like a bird in the Garden until they believed and acted upon a lie. Afterward, they fell, or descended to earth.
"Who are these who fly like a
cloud and
like the doves to their
lattices?" (Is 60:8)
Yeshua
came to restore our power to fly back into the Garden with his altar sacrifice of resurrection. While we wait, we are commanded to "keep our garments." In other words, remove the
de'a
of evil in a continuous guarding and evaluation process. It's work. The feasts and
sabbaths
help us to reflect on our work, for they flowed from the River of Life from the Throne.
The lowly frog knows it, and it sings this secret.
A frog's water-song reminds Israel that although frogs can't fly, and neither can we, some day we will on the Fifth Day, Yom
Teruah
.
One of the rabbis who hid while debating whether study or action was more important was Rabbi Akiva. He made a terrible mistake when he believed that Bar-Kokhba was the Messiah, and he knew it. Rabbi Akiva came out of hiding and began gathering students to teach Torah. He was captured by the Romans and martyred for teaching. He was skinned alive with iron combs, and he died while reciting the Shema.
Many Jews flocked to Bar
Kokhba
, a false messiah, and they were killed. On the other hand, Rabbi
Akiva's
martyrdom sparked a great fervor for Torah study, his students having witnessed his manner of death, saying the Shma and drawing out the word "
echad
" so he would die with it on his lips. Rabbi
Akiva
was the one who said study comes before action. He realized that he had to put his belief into action. Merely believing someone is Messiah is one thing; do we believe it enough to sacrifice our own lives for that belief? Whether this was Rabbi Akiva's act of repentance is a question for the True Judge Himself.
The sacrifice of one's life was another topic of these famous Passover attic-debaters.
Rabbi
Akiva
represents the potential of the frog. On the one hand, it can be a false prophet. On the other hand, it can sing the song of martyrdom for the unity of the Name in the greatest commandment, the Shema.
It was in the same attic (Sanhedrin 74a) that Torah teachers discussed under what conditions martyrdom for the Torah was required. They concluded idolatry, sexual licentiousness, and murder.
There is an older example of the frog dilemma. Moses told Pharaoh:
The
Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and on your people,
and into your ovens
and into your kneading bowls.
So
the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your servants
.(Ex 8:1-4)
"Into your ovens" is a strange location. A swarm of frogs might hop into an open kneading bowl or on top of a bed, but into a hot oven?
The frogs obeyed a Divine command to commit suicide. (We're not advocating suicide here...head-smack).
Consistent with Passover as a time for Israel to contemplate the cost of serving and worshiping YHVH, the frogs leap into hot ovens to serve their Creator with their body and soul. Because it hints at a bird-like quality, the frogs "went up," or
alah
, symbolizing one's very soul ready to ascend if called upon to commit idolatry, sexual immorality, or murder.
According one rabbi, the courage of the frogs inspired three men to face the oven likewise, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego of
Daniel 3:8-30.
In spite of their trembling at their situation, the Jewish wise men kept their garments in the midst of the fire. Garments of obedience don't burn in Heavenly rivers, and they didn't even smell of smoke! The One True King
is able to help the righteous to cross the burning Rivers of Eden. In that day, it is the wicked who burn without garments of salvation. The three...no four...one like the Son of God...would not worship an idol.
Putting your belief into action may cause death, but it is life. The fire that really counts, the burning Rivers of Eden, are the fires that count, for Yeshua stood at Sukkot and said he was the source of them for the "thirsty," a characteristic of the dead rich man in Yeshua's parable of death. To those in Yeshua's hand, the fire is not harmful, but a return to the life of home in the Garden.
The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of
a
bush
; and he looked, and behold,
the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed
. (Ex 3:2)
Do
not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell. (Mt 10:28)
Passover is to experience YHVH. You were there, and you are here.
The frog-song of Passover is a reminder of martyrdom. What would we endure to obey a commandment? People have heard a whistle calling them to the Torah. Without seeing the frog as both a "knowledgeable bird"
and
a martyr for the knowledge of the Word, those who hear the whistle are in grave danger.
The danger is that they will become so engrossed in the details, they will forget to get up and go practice it. It will be reduced to analysis and correction, but there will be none willing to live at frog level. If a frog can obey a commandment to jump in an oven, then someone who is called to the Torah must be willing to sacrifice something for it without complaining.
Knowledgeable frog-birds must allow themselves to be pulled from the comfort zone to obey a commandment for a very specific reason: so that Pharaoh and the Egyptians will KNOW that there is One True Creator and King in Israel and in the fiery furnace of affliction. Egypt is Abaddon. Their pharaohs can only produce more death and misery. The God of Israel plucks life from death. He returns the captives to the living Rivers of Eden; He removes the blood from the water; He swallows up death and sin in victory.
The Hebrews were ALREADY afraid even before the plagues started. They were already trembling. Imagine having blood and frogs piled on top, before the "finger of God" made a distinction between His people and the Egyptians.
Today, people are ALREADY afraid even before the plagues strike the world. They fear government conspiracies,
msg
in their food, rising violence, GMO, too much immigration, too little immigration...
Even in our study of Torah, we sit and tremble at the world around us. We tremble even before someone comes to take our lives.
If we are afraid in the element in which we live, how much more in the element in which we would die! So it is with us. If such is our condition when we sit and study the Torah, of which it is written, 'For that is your life and the length of your days,' (
Devarim
30:20), if we go and neglect it, how much worse off we shall be! (Talmud
Bavli
Berakhot
61b)
R' Kahn writes:
Study is great, theory is important, philosophy is necessary, but it must eventually lead to practice. There is a time to theorize, a time to debate and cast votes, and there is a time to act, to carry one's convictions through to fruition.
It's easy for the frog to sing in the river. What if he's called to sing throughout Egypt? Will he do it? Will we do it?
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits
like
frogs;
for
they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole
world
,
to gather them together
for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
Behold
, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes,
so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame
.
And they gathered them together
to the place which in Hebrew is called
Har-Magedon
. (Re 16:13-16)
There will be fake frogs sent forth as false prophets. They are only LIKE the singing frogs. It's one thing to study Torah, and it is another to "stay awake" and "guard" one's clothes, which requires more than study. It requires DOING that which one studies and believes. Clothes are deeds. Failing to guard the precepts of the Garden here is one way to remain bare of honorable clothes at the resurrection. Faith without works is DEAD. One who has not been diligent in study will not be diligent in action. A frog out of the River.
The truthful, knowledgeable frogs sing to Israel every feast, every Shabbat, from every Passover Spring to every Autumn Sukkot during the season of the moedim. When we hear the singing frogs, spring is near. When their song fades away, winter is coming. According to Perek Shira, a work traditionally ascribed to King David, the frog's song is "BLESSED BE THE NAME OF HIS GLORIOUS KINGDOM FOREVER AND EVER." It is taken from King David's final song:
May his name endure forever
; may
his name
increase as
long as the sun
shines; and
let men bless themselves by
him; let
all nations call him
blessed.
Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel
, Who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever
; and
may the whole earth be filled with His glory
. Amen
, and
Amen. The
prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended
. (Ps 72:17-20)
The phrase is inserted between the first line of the Shma, the greatest commandment: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD your God, the LORD is One" and the rest of the proclamation.
In a real frog-n-prince story, the frog was created to begin his song at the evening Shema and to cease at the morning Shema. It is the verse of praise inserted between the first sentence of the Shema, which declares there is only One, and the first paragraph, which contains the obligation to love God with all one's heart, soul, and resources, even unto death
. It is sung in the darkness, a light that shines when all the Egyptians have is darkness.
The dragon, beast, and false prophet can only be "like" a real frog. They could never bring themselves to proclaim, love, or serve the ONE Elohim, Creator of the Universe. Their signs are all false, their resurrections never permanent or to very goodness. They are death, not life.
And now
you know
the secret song the
frog-bird
sings at night.
Blessed be His glorious Name forever
and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...
* Go to
www.thecreationgospel.com archived newsletters and read "Don't You Know Egypt is Abaddon?" for a full explanation of Egypt as Abaddon.
**Pishon is said to represent pishton, or flax, which grows beside the Nile.
Amarillo By Morning...
Will we see you in Amarillo this weekend?
I'll be teaching at Life of Worship Friday the 24th at 6:30 and Saturday the 25th at 2 & 5. The first couple of sessions will be an overview of the resurrection at the Feast of Trumpets and what happens when we die from 50,000 DEGREES AND CLOUDY: A BETTER RESURRECTION. The final session will be a detailed look at the Song of Moses and the supernatural locusts of Revelation and why John used so many descriptions of them. This is from the second edition of CREATION GOSPEL WORKBOOK TWO: THE SEVEN ABOMINATIONS, SEVEN SEALS, SEVEN TRUMPETS, AND SEVEN BOWLS which is complete and in the formatting stage for publication soon.
Spotlight on Israel
Interested in celebrating Passover 2020 in Israel?
It's time to plan Passover. Join us in Israel for a Passover seder. To read about the adventure, click
Passover in Israel.
You can't beat the price for room and board!
Relax, hike, volunteer, explore the archaeological ruins, study, count the stars, or day tour, and choose the number of days you spend at Tamar. The sooner you register, the easier it is to book flights that fit your budget and schedule. The feasts are busy flight times in Israel.
If you're interested in a FULL-SERVICE tour, then please consider going at Sukkot 2020. We hope to have registration and information available soon.
Does Something About the "Rapture" Doctrine Bother You?
The deep Torah study in Section One restores the
original foundation of the resurrection. The resurrection is put in the context of the numerous prophecies of in the Torah portions. The Exodus and wilderness journey have illustrations of the event that were too numerous to fit into one book. Section One uncovers the Torah foundation to which the writers of the New Testament refer.
Section Two answers the question, "What happens when we die?" Matching Scriptural information with traditional Jewish sources on the topic, the reader finds more insight into the post-mortem experience of the dead and expressions such as "the souls under the altar." It's a great source of comfort to those who grieve and an encouragement that the Kingdom is very near, just as Yeshua said. The book is worth the price just for the footnotes! Click
50,000 Degrees to view on Amazon.
LaMalah Children's Centre
We appreciate your donations at any time, but especially in the "slow" months of winter. Three of the children will be starting high school, which requires some extra funds.
Thanks to your generosity, the congregations of Kenya and the children of LaMalah were able to enjoy Sukkot.
If you would like to donate to the Children's Centre through The Creation Gospel, click on the Donate link below. It will say The Olive Branch Messianic Congregation on your receipt. Our local congregation is the non-profit covering for our ministry. Checks or money orders may be sent to:
The Creation Gospel
PO Box 846
East Bernstadt, KY 40729
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