Are
You Ready to Hear God?
January 21, 2007
Good Morning:
Today I am going to break from tradition and begin my sermon from today’s second lesson from the book of Philippians 3. We pick up Paul’s letter as it enters its conclusion and one of the first things we see is that this is not the only letter Paul has written to the Philippians. So these people must have been of some importance to Paul. We wonder who they were individually and collectively whom did they represent. Let us look to the history of Philippi to try to understand whom Paul was writing to and why.
The city of Philippi was settled in 360/359 B.C. when
the colonists from Thasos founded the first city, called Krenides.
In 356 B.C. the Krenidian turn to King Philip II of Macedonia for support
against the 
Thacians.
King Philip pulls a double-cross and captures the city for himself and
then renames the newly refortified the city Philippi. Later in 42 B.C. it became
a Roman province, as it was when Paul visited there.
The importance of Paul’s visit is in histories recording of the
settling of members of the lost house of Israel in Macedonia.
Thus Paul was carrying out the apostolic charge given all the apostles by
Yeshua to go only to the tribes of the lost house of Israel and again confirming
the meaning of these instructions. Centuries
earlier the remnants of the exiled descendents of Jacob who had lived in both
the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judea had been
settled in the Macedonian region. It
was to these members of all the lost tribes that Paul writes.
Paul has very strong words of caution for his fellow
Israelites, he says; “Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs,
those who insist on cutting the body”. Even
by today’s liberal social standards calling someone a dog is still considered
pretty harsh words. But whom was he
talking about? Paul was talking
about the Pharisees/Jews and their followers who were persecuting the children
of Israel, even the descendents of Judah of whom Yeshua was one, wherever they
found them. Paul knew first hand
about the persecution that the Pharisees/Jews had instituted because he had been
a part of it. He reminds the
readers of this letter that he also was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin,
a pure blooded Hebrew, but he had been practicing the religion of the
Pharisees/Jews known as Pharisaism. Paul
admits that he was so brainwashed by the Pharisees that he was actually going
around seeking out and persecuting those believers of Yeshua’s assembly
(church), members of his own tribe in fact.
This is important because he is warning the reader of the seriousness of
this infection that is upon them. The
Pharisees/Jews while they were still in Babylon had even taken on the Israelite
custom of circumcising their male children.
There charade was so complete that it was hard for a born and raised
Hebrew to distinguish between true Hebrews and these “dogs’ as Paul puts it,
never mind the average gentile person distinguishing between them.
Even Yeshua cautions us this deceit in Matthew 24:24, stating that if it
were possible even God’s (Yahweh’s) elect individuals would be deceived by
them. No wonder why today two
thousand years later it is so confusing for us, as well.
How can we keep ourselves from being deceived by these creations of Satan
that try to lure us away. Paul tells us, “I now have the righteousness that is given
through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on
faith.” That is the simple answer
by trusting in the Words of Yeshua the Messiah, and putting all of our faith in
God, who is the very essence of Righteousness.
In those days just like today many people had become so wrapped up with the details of the Law, and the customs, and the dogma, and the doctrine of the religious leaders that they no longer knew nor could see the spirit of the law. The Law is God’s love for us, not a curse, by a guiding light for us to use to measure our success in maintaining our lives within Yahweh’s love. So what does Paul say, he says he has thrown all this hula-hula into the garbage. He did away with all the doctrines and dogmas so he won’t be tied down with that part of his past and could focus on following the path of the Messiah. Now be careful he didn’t throw away the law itself. Oh no, for even Yeshua says the law will not pass away. No Paul is saying get rid of all the man-made baggage that comes along with Yahweh’s law, we don’t need it. We have the good stuff, just sit back and watch the cream rise to the top and enjoy it. Yes it is scary to throw away the traditions of your fathers and mothers, the doctrine of your grandparents, and all the dogma of the generations preceding you, just to follow the Messiah’ path for you. But like God tested the Hebrews coming our of Egypt, his test for us is his symbol to the world that he loves us, his true believers, more then all others.
We
are reminded of the cry of the Hebrews in the wilderness for their “Flesh
Pots”, as we read in today’s lesson from Exodus 16.
Here were these pious people, who had just been guided out of bondage in
Egypt (Mitsrajim),
literally by the strong hand of God (Yahweh) himself and they still doubted his
love. Sitting in the middle of the desert with no where to go these
people were crying that Yahweh had forsaken them, and they were wishing to be
back in bondage sitting around the flesh pots of food provided by their masters.
Now you and I read this and we say hey, these guys must have been crazy.
How could they wish to be back in bondage, rather then being free with
God? My friends, you and I are in
that same place today. No you say!
Well I beg to differ with you, because every time we look back to the
good ole life, you know before you had to worry about what Yeshua would say, or
what Yahweh would think of your actions, we are crying out for those fleshpots.
That’s what backsliding is all about.
Backsliding is looking to the future with God (Yahweh) and saying his way
is too tough. When you say, why
can’t things be like they were before when it was easy for me, you are
backsliding All of us do it though,
I do, you do, backsliding is part of being human.
But we can’t live in the past today, no more then the Hebrews coming
out of Egypt could all those thousands of years ago could.
But
God has a future for each of us, according to our own individual needs.
When we look at what will happen next in our lesson we see that God (Yahweh)
brought a whole new beginning for the children of Israel.
That night they eat fresh quail and in the morning God (Yahweh) brought
them manna the bread from heaven to eat. God
took away the old life of bondage and misery and brought forth a new life of
promise and hope. But it is up to
each of us to reach out and grasp on to that hope.
God (Yahweh) hears our murmurs today just as he did then, but we have
drifted far from the path Yahweh established for us in the laws he gave us
through Moses. Many times people
ask why Yahweh doesn’t talk to us today as he did in Moses’ time.
But we are so slow to understand that it is us who have closed our ears.
Yeshua tells us that in our time people will be like they were in the
days of Noah, and we are acting just like the people who laughed and mocked at
Noah. If we don’t really believe
in Yahweh then how can we expect to hear him when he speaks and why should he
bother speaking to deaf ears. Remember
this earth is transitory. It exist in just a blink of God’s (Yahweh’s) eye.
Everything that exists around us really doesn’t matter because it will
be soon replaced, just as the world of the Israelites in Egypt was to be
replaced. What matters is what we think and what we do to and with those
around us. Yahweh is using this
world and this day to test our metal; he wants to see what our souls are made of so to
speak. He is giving each of us the
chance to stand up and be counted in his kingdom.
Some of you may
be sitting out there thinking, Reverend Bob I have heard this story before and
it is pretty hard to swallow. Well
my brothers and sisters it is quite all right to v
oice
your doubts because only then can you be reassured.
I want to take a minute and give you some proofs.
In our lesson today we read of the Israelites leaving Egypt. But
were they ever really there? One of
the most amazing accounts of Hebrew history, our history, is that of Joseph. For
most of us our knowledge of Joseph is limited to what we read in the Bible.
But did you know that there are numerous other writings of Joseph that
don’t come from our Bible. Joseph
was a real person, and he is written about in Egyptian writings dating back
thousands of years. Joseph’s
Egyptian name would be pronounced Imhotep and there are a number of inscriptions
about him that have been uncovered by archeologist over the years.
For example in
1926 the issue of his existence was resolved by the discovery of a statute of
pharaoh Djoser under the Step Pyramid at Sakkara. Djoser who was the king of Egypt during the 3rd
dynasty is the pharaoh who has the dream that Joseph interprets concerning the 7
years of feast in famine. Inscribed
in the base of the statute is the following saying "Imhotep, Chancellor of
the King of Lower Egypt, Chief under the King, Administrator of the Great
Palace, Hereditary Lord, High Priest of Heliopolis, Imhotep the Builder, the
Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vases..."
So Imhotep was a real person. But
was he Joseph? Miles away just
below the First Cataract of the Nile on the island of Sihiel, there is a large
rock and on it is a copy of a document written by Djoser in the 18th
year of his reign. In this document
is the account of the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine described by the
Pharaoh. The inscription describes the events of the 7 years of plenty and 7
years of famine and that Imhotep (Joseph) including the dream of Pharaoh.
It also tells of how the Pharaoh promised to tax the people 1/10th
of all they owned to offset the costs. An
immense and elaborate complex of grain storage pits surrounds the Step Pyramid
of Sakkara. These pits are larger then any found any where in the ancient
world. We read in Genesis 42 that
Joseph’s brothers came to him in Egypt to buy grain. It is at this site that they met him.
On
Agilika Island now sits the Temple of Philae, where it was moved from it
original site on the Isle of Philae, there we find a inscription carved again
referring to Imhotep (Joseph). In
this inscription we find the meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, “Imhotep,
the Voice (or spokesman) of the God, Im (I AM)”.
There is no record of any deity amongst all the Egyptian gods called Im
(I AM). The Biblical says that
Pharaoh called Joseph "the God lives; the God speaks" or
Zaphenath-paheah. The Egyptian
records go on to speak of all the wondrous things that Joseph did, he is recorded
as the earliest physician whose records survive, consistent with Genesis 50:2. Imhotep (Joseph) lived to be 110 years old just as it is
recorded in the Bible and w
hen
excavations were done around the Step Pyramid at Sakkara, a labyrinth of tunnels
dedicated to Imhotep (Joseph) that lead down to a funerary chamber, part of a
larger mastaba tomb, (Mastaba Tombs were invented by Imhotep (Joseph)) with an empty sarcophagus.
In the chamber is a Greek inscription carved centuries after the
sarcophagus was emptied that describes how this anonymous Greek was cured by
through a dream.
This
account of finding the Biblical Joseph in Egyptian inscriptions is more then a
neat story, it has a moral to it. For
thousands of years people, just like you and me, have asked is there any truth
in the Bible? Did these things
happen at all? In the fullness of
time Yahweh makes his words known and verifies them for us. He is still speaking to us today but we have to put aside our
self-serving man created traditions and dogmas and look for God (Yahweh) where
he is speaking to us from. If we
are willing to open our ears, we will hear him, if we open our eyes we will see
him, and if we open our heart we will love him.
Amen