Parashat Bo — “Go”

"A Circumcised Heart"

This Parashah begins by describing the last three plagues against the Egyptians, and continues with the establishment of two signposts in the lives of the Hebrews, (1) the sanctification of the New Moon — Rosh Chodesh, and (2) the establishment of the Passover — Pesach.

But first, it reveals the reason why God wanted the Jewish people out of Egypt, for we read in Shemot 10:3 God's message to Pharaoh: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” The reason God wanted the Jewish people out of Egypt was that they may serve Him freely. But there is an interesting dichotomy here. The Egyptians were free men, but they ignored the true God and were slaves to the many “gods” of their own lifestyle. The Jews were slaves without hope and a miserable life, yet God wanted these humble ones to serve Him. Through their enslavement God wanted to make sure that the Jews will never forget what it means to be oppressed. Pharaoh’s sin was his refusal to humble himself before God, thus the object of the plagues was to teach meekness and to educate men about the character of God. God knows our hearts — that we are stubborn and hard to change — but He is giving us opportunity after opportunity to correct ourselves. Until we do, He disciplines us just as a loving father does with his children.

Through the deliverance from Egypt, God wanted the Jews to be physically free in order to attain spiritual freedom and He eventually gave them the Torah as a guide. Unfortunately, in today's day-and-age the more physical freedom we attain the more spiritually slaves we become, just like the Egyptians, ignoring God and His Torah. Only a humble heart can experience a true spiritual freedom. God is always ready to help in our spiritual quest and He is correcting us through many tangible reminders, if only we were ready to listen.

— THE FIRST SIGNPOST – OBSERVING THE NEW MOON / REQONING TIME. At this moment in time in the Parashah the Jews are still slaves in Egypt. They could not be free until they had to think as free men, so God wants to change their way of thinking. The first thing He tells them to do is to observe the time. “This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Shemot 12:2). By repeating the words “to you,” God emphasizes that the Jews need to wake-up out of their spiritual slumber. As slaves their time belonged to their master, but from now on they would be the master of their time. The time will belong to them and their only Master would be God. The month of Aviv would become the first month of their freedom. They would start reckoning their time from the hour of freedom; thus, Exodus was to mark the beginning of a new era; Israel now has a new calendar beginning with their redemption from both physical and spiritual slavery. The beginning of the year is a great way to "renew" our commitment to the Lord, but in a smaller scale the beginning of every month, which is marked by the New Moon - Rosh Chodesh, could also be a signpost for our “renewal” in our walk with the Lord, to be celebrated, as the Bible says, with the blowing of the Shofar (Psalms 81:3).

— THE SECOND SIGNPOST - PASSOVER. Passover was the inaugural festival because it marked the emergence of the Jewish nation. This nationhood was not based on revolution, triumph in battle, conquest of a land, or any of the other manifestations of national pride. Rather, the people had fallen to the lowest depths of degradation, spiritual and physical. In the spiritual realm, they had virtually forgotten even the covenant between God and Abraham’s seed, the covenant of circumcision. In the physical realm, they were downtrodden slaves, without the power to protect even their babies from being drowned by their masters. God’s plan was that the Jewish people in Egypt would become totally powerless, so that when they were constituted as a nation, they would have nothing but what God had given them. To stress the centrality of the Exodus in Israel’s faith, the Ten Commandments identify God as the One who took Israel out of Egypt, not as the One who created heaven and earth.

But Passover is much more than a festival. Passover is the corner stone of our spiritual freedom. Without experiencing Passover we have no freedom, and no salvation. The Israelites were asked to perform a ritual that will symbolize for all times the meaning of salvation by sacrificing an innocent lamb, without blemish, and expressing their faith to God and to the whole world by smearing its blood on the outside of their homes, so when God will come in judgment to smite the unbelievers would see the blood and pass over. “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I AM YHVH (Yehovah). And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Shemot 12:12). God Himself executed this judgment.

The absolute holiness of God prevents us from coming in His presence; our sins, no matter how small, are incompatible with God's holiness, but God in His grace will accept a blood sacrifice to atone for our sins, to cover our sins. This is God’s requirement for redemption; a perfect sacrifice must be made through the shedding of blood and the lamb of Passover was an exemplification of that requirement. But the Passover lamb was not the absolute perfect sacrifice because the Israelites had to make this sacrifice year after year. A different sacrifice was needed to atone for every sin by every person from every nation, not just the Hebrews. Yeshua came to fulfill this requirement in order that every human being who believes in Him be passed over and enter into a fellowship with God. The ancient Passover was a typology of the redemption that God will fulfill in the fullness of time by sending His Son to die on a Roman execution stake as the absolute perfect sacrifice once and for all.

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