Torah Trails #15 Bo

Torah Trails

Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr

Kristopher Shoemaker

#15 Bo

Exd. 10:1-13:16

Jer. 46:13-28

James 1:15, I Cor. 10:13

Memory Verses: Exd. 12:29, Jer. 46:28, Rom. 9:29

Exd. 13:1-2

Every physical thing has a mental and spiritual equivalent. Inspiration and ideas are the conception of the Spirit. The planning and mulling over the details of such is gestation and taking that through and bringing forth into reality is birth.  Think I`m taking things to far Well, sin has a similar process; “When lust has conceived it brings forth sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:15). The process is identical. You have a lustful thought, you dwell on it, thinking of ways to bring it to pass, you do it and bring it into this reality. Just as a physical body has a womb, so too our hearts and minds have wombs.

Physically, our firstborn is to be given and dedicated to the LORD. The same goes with livestock and crops, so why wouldn’t what proceeds from the heart and mind be any different?

“Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.” I Cor. 10:31

Bottom line, God comes first. He gets the first and the best of our everything; offspring, livestock, crops, income and ideas and plans.

Jer. 46:27-28

When we love and obey God and give Him our first and best of everything we can be assured such obedience will be rewarded. Past ground and territory and authority lost to the enemy will be returned to us we will overcome, prosper, prevail and rule.

“Abba YHWH Elohim, our lives are not compartmentalized and separated into the secular and the sacred. All is sacred and You deserve to be put first in everything we say or do. Help us Father to fully submit to You and allow You to have first place and accept the sacrifice of all our “firsts” to You and be glorified. In Yeshua’s Name, Amen!”

Torah Trails #14 Va'era

Torah Trails

Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr

Kristopher Shoemaker

#14 Va’era

Exd. 6:2-9:35

Ezk. 28:25-29:21

II Cor. 6:14-7:1

Memory Verses: Exd. 6:2-3, Ezk. 29:21, Rev. 16:21

Exd. 8:1-7, Rev. 16:13-14

A constant musty, humid stench with a hint or urine, a constant deafening drone of croaks, whistles and chirps. So loud you had to shout to converse with your neighbor, so loud you couldn’t even think! Everywhere you look, FROGS! You try to step and you trip or slip on a frog. You can’t sit or lie down without squashing a frog. The ground looks like a moving, living greenish wave of hoping frogs. Frogs like living, dirty popcorn, randomly popping up from the ground. Everywhere you look or turn; FROGS! In your bedpan, in your baking bowls, EVERYWHERE! In your water jar, on your food! You can’t sleep or eat. They leap on your head and with their moist, sticky pads, they crawl all over your body. No peace or quiet, it was enough to drive anyone to the brink of insanity!

YWHW verses the Egyptian god Heket. YHWH brought a countless hoard of frogs from the rive like a tsunami, but Pharaoh wasn’t impressed, his sorcerers could do similar. They too called forth frogs.

Frogs are unclean, defecate anywhere indiscriminately. One can be annoying, a dozen a nuisance but thousands are definitely a plague!

Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.  But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.  And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. Ezk. 29:3-6

In the time of Moses and the plagues, Egypt the tyrant and taskmaster was worn down, decimated and defeated. In Ezekiel, Egypt is called a dragon and is pulled out of the river with fish stuck to its scales to flounder, thrash and die to become food for the scavengers. Dead and defeated.

Rev. 16:13-14

In Exodus, frogs are called unclean animals and a plague. In the Revelation there is mentioned 3 miraculous deceiving spirits described as unclean frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet, the evil, satanic trinity. In Ezekiel, Egypt is called a dragon. Egypt and the dragon both symbolize an evil, anti-Messiah, pagan and godless reign.

The Frogs in the Exodus YHWH used eventually led to the death of the firstborn and the utter demise of Egypt that kicked off the Exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. In Ezekiel, Egypt was again defeated by YHWH by being yanked out of the river and ate by an army of scavengers. In the Revelation YHWH uses these deceiving “frogs” that will eventually lead to the defeat of the Dragon, the spiritual Egypt at the Battle of Armageddon.

Whoever thought something as humble and ridiculous as frogs could ever be used as a weapon of mass destruction? But our God YHWH can do and use ANYTHING!

“Abba YHWH Elohim, You never cease to amaze and astound us with your creative ways of warfare against the enemy on behalf of Your people. You, my God are indeed Great and Awesome and we praise You! In Yeshua’s Name, Amen!”

Torah Trails #13 Sh'mot

Torah Trails

Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr

Kristopher Shoemaker

#13 Sh’mot

Exd. 1:1-6:1

Isa. 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23, Jer. 1:1-2:3

Hebrews 11:27

Memory Verses: Exd. 2:11, Isa. 29:23, I Cor. 14:25

Gen. 2:10, 14, 21, 3:11, 12, 4:2, 5:1, 6:1

•   Moses’s life is the model of the life of a Believer. Like Moses, we are rescued, drawn out of a dangerous environment. Moses was in a river full of hippos and crocs, we were in and rescued from an environment full of sin, death, temptations, vices and snares.

• Moses messed up big time! He killed a man. Most of us have never killed anyone but we all have in our lives; regrets where we screw up and it changed things for us forever.

• Moses had to remove himself from his old stomping grounds and get away from his past, meet new people and work things out and thinking things through. We too, after a life changing event, we often change locations and stations in life as well as a new set of people surrounds us.

• Then after time has passed, we have healed, changed, grown and matured, God often calls us back to our past for victory and closure, just as He did with Moses. But we don’t go empty handed and vulnerable, God, like Moses, equips us with a rod of authority. We go with intentions of setting others free and leading others out of the dangerous environment we once were in. In the end, after we see the impossible happen, though we were there and involved, it was by the work, might and empowerment of God all along.

Isa. 29:22-23

·       God did not send Moses back into the maul of the Egyptian crocodile to fail and be consumed, but to leave victorious and unharmed with a myriad of former captives trailing behind him. So too with us, God calls and equips us to succeed and be victorious.

·       You say, “I’m nothing, I’m a screw up!” Yeah! That’s the point, so the victory and success that is achieved can only be attributed to God. He reveals His power and might by using underdogs and rejects like us.

Heb. 11:27

When we realize it’s all God, we are just an instrument in His Hand, we fear no one or no thing, we allow Him to move through us. Does a clarinet worry if it will bellow out beautiful harmonious notes? No, that concern lies with the clarinet player.

“Abba YHWH Elohim, open a door for me this week to share my testimony with others; what You’ve done for, in and through me, so that You may be glorified, and others may be freed. In Yeshua’s Name, Amen!”