SHEMOT: How To Overcome "Worldliness"

[Rebbe]

BRI International Internet Yeshiva Parashah Notes, January 14, 2012

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"I teach nothing new but all things original" -- Rebbe

Parsha Shemot (names)
Exodus 1.1-6.1
Haftorah Jeremiah 1.1-2.3  (Sephardi)


"And [Zipporah] bare [Moses] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land" (Ex 2.22).

As I read through this week's Parsha, I found I could only get past this text with some difficulty. I was riveted to it, and when that occurs I know that heaven is speaking urgently to me.

Like Father Abraham before him, Moses had dwelt as a foreigner or pilgrim in a strange land. The letter to the Hebrews, when speaking of Abraham's sojourn, uses the Greek word paroikeo (pronounced par'oy'keh'o). Essentially it means to dwell as an alien, or foreigner. A little later in the same context the unknown author (probably James the brother of the Lord and the alternative High priest located at Qumran) mentions all the patriarchs as "pilgrims." The word used for pilgrim also conveys the meaning of "resident alien" (Heb 11.13).

And so Moses also resided on this earth as a "resident alien." There have certainly been occasions when Glenys and I both at the same time experienced a dissociation from the world as we walked through shopping centres and amusement centres in the midst of milling throngs of people. We seemed to be totally divorced from all that surrounded us. It was as if we were visitors from another star system.

Moses saw himself as a stranger in a strange land. Equally, Abraham longed for a city, not of this world. Both Moses and Abraham rejected the very thought of "worldliness."

"By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker [Greek, demiourgos] is God" (Heb 11.9,10).

Please -- may I bring to your attention that the text does not say the Abraham sojourned in Chaldea "as in a strange country," or Egypt, or Syria -- the text states that the HOLY LAND ITSELF was considered by Abraham to be "a strange country"! Even the Promised Land was considered "a strange country" to the patriarchs! If all the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 had one thing in common it was anti-this-world-liness.

But WHAT is worldliness?

Rav Shaul says, in Rom 6.2-6  "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

What is sin? Well, John tells us that "sin is the transgression of Torah" (1 Jn 3.4). It's not playing pool at a bar, it's not having a beer at the end of the work day at the local "water hole'" and its not bare knees, bare breasts or bare bears. There are commandments in the Torah, and if we break them we have committed sin! (There is a serious qualification here though: if a commandment has been clearly and absolutely rescinded then it is no longer a sin to do the opposite of what is written, and consider also that some commandments were to be read in the context of the time and place in which that law was originally applicable -- it also helps to know the full background of certain written regulations which were to be understood as required against a background of Canaanite religious cultic expression.)

There are some people who remain doggedly under the curse of religious mania! Especially Constantinian religious philosophy. Was Leah Jacob's only legitimate wife? Some would argue this to be the case. If they are correct, then Jacob was in a negative relationship with three sluts and the children and the tribes which descended from these three women are illegitimate. As far as the children of Bilhah and Zilpah are concerned, Dan and Napthtali and Gad and Asher have no place in the authentic chronology of the tribal federation of Israel. (True, Dan and Ephraim were jettisoned from the tables of the 144,000 in the Apocalypse: but this deletion has to do with their propensity toward idolatry and has nothing to do with the question at hand.) But nowhere does the biblical revelation inform us that Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah were in adulterous union with Jacob. I raise this point because of a current situation in which two fine people of God, a husband and wife team, both capable teachers of the biblical revelation, are in retreat running away from accusations of sexual impropriety and false teaching -- from grossly ignorant people who have had their heads drenched in Constantinian Christian sleeze. Its a monumental tragedy to witness a total biblical/theological turn-around in this husband-wife teaching ministry as they try to cover their tracks by curtailing their original (and correct) teaching of the truth of God in order not to lose the support which they have spent years in fostering.

To continue: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Messiah Yeshua were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through [the waters of] baptism into death, that just as Mashiach was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin."

Question: Are we freed from sin?

It is the apostle John who presents us with an undeniable dichotomy. We cannot "love the world nor the things that are in the world." He adds: "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 Jn 2.15).

Clearly, if "the love of the Father" is absent we are not even converted.

Yet how many of us love this world? How many of us love to celebrate with the world? How many of us are unhappy when we miss out on some worldly event? Our friends have gone to the movies on a Friday evening and they wanted us to go with them -- even though it would have desecrated the holiness of the Sabbath day. How many of us are grieved when our physical family ignores us and gives us cause to feel distanced from their activities that include everyone else?

Please note that with John there is no thought of compromise. He goes so far to inform us that we cannot shake hands with representatives of a false Gospel who come door knocking or even say "Goodbye" when they leave. Why is this so? For the simple reason that the world we live in will inevitably oppose the Messiah, and thus his people. You may not agree with this assessment, but both the Rebbetzin and I can assure you all that such is certainly the case. If you have not as yet experienced this rejection by the world, one day you will. Nothing is more assured.

Listen! When Yeshua died he did so in order (amongst other things) to SEVER us from the kingdom of THIS WORLD. Of Moses it is written:

"By faith Moses, when he had matured, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing instead to experience injury and affliction along with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He weighed up and compared the facts of his situation and considered the abuse suffered on behalf of the Messiah far greater wealth than the treasures in Egypt for he looked away [from those treasures] keeping focused on the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of Pharaoh. He was staunch and steadfast as seeing him -- he was entirely focused on the One who is invisible" (Heb 11.24-27 Tentative BRI/IMCF Version).

Our "pilgrimage" demands that we live in this world while resisting the temptation to identify with it.

Again, Paul wrote: "And do not be CONFORMED to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom 12.2). And again: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?" (2 Cor 6.14).

Abraham understood the basis for his calling. So did Moses. Do we?

Brethren, Yeshua "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from THIS PRESENT EVIL AGE, according to the will of our God and Father" (Gal 1.4).

Let me sum it all up in one word: worldliness is not so much what we do; rather it is an ATTITUDE. It is a desire to take up permanent residency IN THIS WORLD. Worldliness consists of our HERE AND NOW and not in our visualisation of the invisible. It is a matter of surrendering to the flesh and dislodging the focused locale of our heart.

John McArthur has written, "Worldliness is not so much what we do as what we want to do. It is not determined so much by what our actions are as by where our heart is. Some people do not commit certain sins only because they are afraid of the consequences, others because of what people will think, others from a sense of self-righteous satisfaction in resisting - all the while having a strong desire for these sins. It is the desire for sin that is the root of worldliness, and from which the believer is to be separated."

Do you desire the world? When we SEE our goal, really and truly SEE it, it is THEN that we shall lose our inert attraction to those "things that are in the world" as John refers to them.

Again, it is one thing to participate in the world and another to be ATTACHED to it. Moses most assuredly participated in this world, and he did so in fulfillment of the command of God. But he was in no way attached to the present evil world.

Moses was a warrior. He was known in ancient Egypt as Mer-Mose (also known variously as Mer-Mshau, Mer-Moshoi, Mir-Mashau, Mer-Mes-Hau) -- "General of generals" -- who believed in the existence of ONE God. Most scholars have failed to make any connection between this famed General and the identity of the biblical Moses. Moses took this title because it was the official appellation which graced the High Priest, and the Great Emancipator adopted it in his own priestly rather than his military capacity. This famed "General of generals" was a king serving the interests of his people not only as a political figure but also in his priestly office. Precisely as did Moses. The two are identical characters. But my point being that Moses participated in life. He brought all he possessed to LIFE, and LIFE rewarded him.

You see, in Jewish thoughtform there really is no meaning to life. Life is the meaning we bring to IT.

As the final countdown to the coming of the Lord draws near millions of Christians are preparing to cast their vote in the next US election -- deluded into believing that their vote will actually count. To them our future depends on what bills get passed. And this depends on the policies of some political party as opposed to another political party. They fail to realise that a silent powerful largely-invisible ELITE really governs, not merely the USA, but the entire western world. WE are largely being manipulated by a secretive cabal. The Scriptures warn us about this situation, but we do not believe the contents of the sacred Scriptures. We prefer to believe what CNN or the ABC or SKY-NEWS tells us while we enjoy our TV dinners in front of an Image of the Beast. After all, they wouldn't lead us astray, would they?

The authentic son and daughter of HaShem, learning to live by faith, indeed living as a temporary resident alien in a strange land, are much less troubled by the chaos of the changing world in which they find themselves surrounded. This is primarily due to the fact that they have learned to develop single-minded FOCUS.  Paul writes to Timothy, "Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Mashiach Yeshua. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier" (2 Tim 2.3,4).

An ENTIRELY NEW CITY with awesome dimensions of reality is coming to our Earth. It will eventually orbit our skies and hover directly above earthly Jerusalem.

Concerning our future specifically in this New Jerusalem, Paul writes, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God. When Mashiach WHO IS OUR LIFE appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: porneia, uncleanness, misdirected passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience" (Col 3.2-6).

I am convinced that one of the reasons -- if not the major reason -- we desire so much to get involved in the politics of this present evil world system in order to agitate for new laws controlling morality and negating negative social change is our realisation that this satanic world is becoming less accommodating in its presence and we feel uncomfortable being viewed more and more as existing "on the outside." We feel that we are losing our grip on our own everyday reality. We feel that we are becoming increasingly more powerless in having a say about how things are done. In fact, the truth is we feel nobody listens to us anymore. Isn't this the case with each of us -- to some extent? Sure it is.

And what these feelings are really telling us -- and I am going to be in your face a little bit now -- is that we are becoming increasingly worldly, caught without realising it in one or more of the "Three Nets of Belial" which John in his Apocalypse warned us about.

Moses named his son Gershom, for he himself was "a stranger in a strange land" and as his son grew to manhood he would echo this personal distress of his father. And, brethren, a degree of distress is necessarily involved.

Are we strangers dwelling in a strange land? If we are, we have the favorable smile of God indwelling our hearts.

[Michael]

Dear Rebbe;

Thank-you for this inspiring reminder and post about worldliness posted in the Parshah lectures and Shemot: How to Overcome Worldliness. What an important issue for all of to consider-every single day. As you taught so well, the desire or intention to be involved in things that serve the world and ego is what makes all the difference.    

A few more thoughts that I wanted to share on this here as well for discussion. I found your teaching very thought provoking. I think of instances in my own life over many years now, that I have found myself in that same dilemma that Sha'ul Paul had, when he asked  himself in Romans 7, how would he find his way out of his own personal struggle with sin and the law of sin in his body? When in prayer after accusing-examining myself, I find when the LOUD voice of HaSatan and EGO of blame and shame, would have me swallowed up in guilt, the Rhema and reassurance that invariably comes to me in a quiet voice breaks through. This might happen even after a night of struggling in my sleep over a sense of wrong-doing or even worse, of wrong-BEING). It comes sometimes while drilling myself down and beating myself up about a past wrong-desire or action, and while accusing and judging myself, all the while being accused by the accuser-in-Chief, HaSatan, that the real importance is in the attitude and position of the heart. That powerful word, INTENTION always comes back to me whispering in a quiet voice "It is your intention, Michael, your heart's intention", I am told repeatedly by the Ruach Hakodesh. "I read the heart remember?"

I have often struggled with the question of what really makes the difference between a "good" or a "bad" person? Apart from the most important of course of our justification in Yeshua Ha'Mashiach, I am fully convinced that it is the position, or attitude of the heart that even if we cannot discern it, Elohim can and does exactly that. What a contrast, we see this attitude exemplified too in the thief who had a least a desire to believe and trust, as opposed to the one who mocked Yeshua while He was being executed at His crucifixion!  How much we see this contrast too in those whose consciences have become dull and whose desire is not toward the things of our Adonai? Who trample others in their ambitions, and who use others for personal gain, who exploit others sexually, and who rarely if ever admit to others or themselves that they have made a mistake. We only have to turn on the evening news to be reminded of this contrast.

I recall a story of a man who was about to be executed by an axe man during the slaughter of either the Albigenses, or Waldenses by the Roman Catholic Church. These believers were sincere students of the Word and Sabbath keepers, who also opposed the doctrines of the Church of Rome.  The axe man asked the innocent man how he wanted to position his head, to the side, or straight down before taking the axe. The man about to be executed replied to his executor, "it is not the placement of the head, but rather the position of the heart that matters".

As you explained so well Rebbe, to become enmeshed and drawn into the world and worldliness is something we all have to be aware of, daily, since it is all too easy to be taken in by all of its attractions. I am reminded of the young man who came to Yeshua, stating that he had kept the law in all of it's entirety. Yet when Yeshua testing him, told him, "to sell all that he had, and "follow me" (Yeshua knew how wealthy the young man was), the young man walked away." He had his youth, his wealth, and position in life. His heart's desire was set firmly on holding onto those worldly things that he treasured so very much.

Yeshua's own words in the real prayer to our Father, spoken for and about His disciples In John Chapter 17 also comes to mind.  He said, in prayer speaking for the disciples (and all of us as well) that v. 14.."the world will HATE them, since..v. 16-17, "they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world". What makes the difference then between being IN the world, and yet NOT OF IT, if it is not where our heart's desire is, where it leans and inclines to? And no, we will not be very well liked at times, but instead avoided, rejected, or worse even despised and hated. And despite all we ALL fall short and sometimes even miserably so. And while we find ourselves in the very dilemma that Paul describes himself, if our hearts and minds are inclined to our help of the Ruach Hakodesh and Yeshua, our attitude, DESIRE and INTENTION inclined to the Creator and re-creator of our very souls, this makes all the difference!

Proverbs 3:5-6 : Trust in El-YHVH with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Shalom and Grace,
Michael