Parashat Bo ~ Go

Saturday 24 January 2015                   Shevat  4  5775

Parashat Bo ~ Go                                                                     by Shelley Wood Gauld
Ex 10:1~13:16, Jer 46:13~28, Rom 9: 14~29

Various ‘types’ of Yeshua appear in the Hebrew Scriptures. One of these is Joseph who had to descend into the pit, travel down to Egypt, and be thrown into a dungeon before he could be elevated to princely status and save the known world from famine.  Jonah was thrown into the sea and descended into the depths where he spent three days in the belly of ‘the fish’, before being spewed out on dry land in order to fulfil his commission: to urge the people of Nineveh to repent and save themselves from destruction. In the life of Jacob, Malach Adonai appeared three times: He is the One who spoke to Jacob in his ‘ladder dream’, who advised him regarding the accumulation of wealth by means of the speckled sheep, and the One who wrestled with him on the banks of the River Jabbok. 

Moses had a peculiarly intimate relationship with HaShem and often spoke to Him directly and acted as a mediator on behalf of the people. His powerful interrelationship with the Divine appears to begin with the intense repartee with a physical manifestation of HaShem at the burning bush. But there are two more poignant pictures of Messiah to be seen in ‘Akedat Yitz’chak’ (the binding of Isaac) and in the lamb of Pesach…
In each of the above examples, a life was directed, and circumstances orchestrated, by HaShem. We look at the story of Joseph today and marvel at God’s wisdom ~ but ‘hindsight is always 20/20 vision’. What to us is marvellous, to Joseph must have been difficult and unnerving. We can say the same of Jonah. He was in a quandary. The last thing he desired was for Nineveh to repent. What he was called to do was deeply counter-instinctive. We look at Jacob and his vision of the ladder and the night spent wrestling with the angel. These were dramatic, even traumatic, life-changing encounters... And then we listen to Moses as he speaks to HaShem at the burning bush… and are amazed at his effrontery, his ‘chutzpah’. He responded to ‘The Presence’ by refusing to engage... He tried his utmost to ‘opt out.’ He lacked the drive and confidence for such task, yet he was destined to become the greatest of the prophets of the Tanakh…

Isaac, the Pesach lambs and Yeshua had this in common: they were all destined for sacrifice. Both Isaac and Yeshua went like lambs to the slaughter ~ silently, without resistance ~ but, unlike a Pesach lamb, were cognisant of what lay ahead. Isaac must have been terrified… and it is perhaps the trauma of that event that rendered him a ‘non-entity’ in the cast of patriarchal personalities. Yeshua was so afraid of what lay ahead that he sweated drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest. So what shall we say? That HaShem is cruel, merciless? No. In hindsight we see that the works of HaShem are works of grace, that his ways are mysterious and wise, and that it could have been no other way… but only in hindsight…
Let us now picture the preparation of the Passover lambs (or kids) in Parashat Bo. The Messianic undertones are particularly powerful here. The Pesach lamb was selected on the tenth day of the month of Nissan and slaughtered four days later on 14 Nissan. The lamb lived with the family, thus endearing itself to them. It had to be a male in its first year, without defect. It had to be roasted and eaten with matzah and maror.  Its blood had to be applied to the posts and lintles (vertical and horizontal beams) of the Israelites’ wooden doorframes. This would serve as a sign that these houses were to be ‘passed over’ (pasach) on the night of the ‘death of the firstborn of Egypt’. 

What are the Messianic undertones here? Yeshua was known and loved by many. He was a male and He was without defect or blemish. He was sinless. And, as with the Pesach lamb, none of His bones were broken...  In Isaiah 61:2 we read that Messiah came to ‘proclaim the year of the favour of Adonai’. Although it is commonly accepted that Yeshua ministered for three years ~ seemingly indicated by the number of feasts mentioned in the Gospels ~ one has to wonder if the authorities would have allowed Him to hold sway over such a large section of the populace for that length of time? Crowds followed Him wherever He went… It makes more sense that it was during a one year period only, “the year of the favour of Adonai”, that the good news of the Kingdom was preached. A man of such influence, in a volatile world, would surely not have been permitted free reign for three whole years?
Matzah, in itself, is a picture of Messiah Yeshua. By rabbinic decree has to be pure, unleavened ~ sans yeast made from fermented dough ~ reminding us of His sinless nature. It is striped, reminding us of the 39 lashes: “by His wounds we are healed”. It has a bruised appearance, reminding us of the blows to His head and body. It is pierced, reminding us of the wound in His side: “He was pierced for our transgressions”...

As on the night of Pesach, on the dark afternoon of Yeshua’s death judgement was executed on ‘the god of this world’ and a way of escape from the Adversary’s oppression was forged; thus setting HaShem’s people free to worship and serve Him alone.