Ozarks Hebrew Heritage Celebrating the Hebrew Roots of our Faith

It’s almost Shabbat!!!  This week’s Torah portion, B’midbar/In The Wilderness (Numbers 1:1 – 4:20), is packed full of LOTZ!!!  As we continue our journey in these end-times, I believe, it is very important to keep the following in mind.

ABOUT THE WILDERNESS:  The wilderness is usually seen as a place of death, primarily because of the lack of water.  The lack of water combined with the constant heat makes the wilderness uninhabitable.  Consequently, the absence of food and water, the blazing heat and the emptiness of the wilderness makes it a place of death.  Many think it is a place to go and die.  For instance . . .

• Hagar and Ishmael go into the wilderness and prepare to die there (B’resheet/Genesis 21:14-15).

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  Several times in Torah, the people of Israel accuse Moshe of taking them into the wilderness to die; two, in  particular are:When the Israelites refuse to enter the promised land, The Almighty declared, “In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.” (B’midbar/Numbers 14:35)

  • They “said to Moshe, “Was it because there weren’t enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out to die in the desert?  Why have you done this to us, bringing us out of Egypt?”  (Sh’mot/Exodus 14:11)

  • “Why did you bring Adonai’s community into this desert?  To die there, we and our livestock?”  (B’midbar/Numbers 20:4)

• And Eli’yahu/Elijah, “he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die.” (M’lakim Alef/1^st Kings 19:4)

 On the other hand, as we will see, the wilderness can be a place of . . .

Refuge                     Provision                      Revelation

 The wilderness is also a place of refuge.  Those seeking to escape find the wilderness can be a safe place where they can hide among the caves.

•  Hagar ran into the wilderness to get away from Sarah (B’resheet/Genesis 16:6-7).

• Moshe fled from Pharaoh into the wilderness of Midian (Sh’mot/Exodus 3:15).

• David took shelter in the wilderness, repeatedly, to escape King Sha’ul/Saul.

• Eli’yahu/Elijah fled to the wilderness of Negev to escape Yezevel/Jezebel (M’lakim Alef/1^st Kings 19:3-4).

• Yeshua and His (tahl-me-deem) talmidim/disciples hid out in “the country near the wilderness.” (Yochanan/John 11:54)

• In Revelation 12, the woman representing Israel escaped from the dragon and “fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by Yehovah.” (Revelation 12:6)

 Although the wilderness is a dry and waterless place, it is also a place of provision.  Here one has to rely totally upon The Holy One and here The Almighty provides for His people.

•  Hagar prepared to die of thirst in the wilderness but The Creator opened her eyes and she saw a well of water (B’resheet/Genesis 21:19).

• In the wilderness Yah provided shelter for the people of Israel with a cloud over them by day and a fire by night (B’midbar/Numbers 9:16).  He also provided manna and quail to eat and water from a rock.

• When Eli’yahu/Elijah fled into the wilderness, The Almighty sent ravens with bread to feed him twice a day (M’lakim Alef/1^st Kings 17:6).

• And the woman in Revelation 12 fled into the wilderness “so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” (Revelation 12:6)

 The wilderness can be a place of revelation when we are stripped of our daily comforts and come face to face with our Creator.

•  In the wilderness of Sinai, Moshe saw the burning bush and received revelation (Sh’mot/Exodus 3).

• Moshe took several forty-day fasts and wrote the Torah in the wilderness.

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  Eli’yahu/Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before arriving at Sinai to seek a word from The Almighty (M’lakim Alef/1^st Kings 19:8).

  • Yochanan/John the Immerser came forth as a “voice of one crying in the wilderness.”  (Mattit’yahu/Matthew 3:3)

  • Yeshua, after His immersion was compelled to “go out into the wilderness.” (Mark 1:12)

These things happened as examples.  The wilderness is not necessarily bad since it requires us to rely solely on our Creator.  As we have seen, it can nurture our spiritual health!  As time draws closer to the return of Yeshua, we can expect to have wilderness experiences.  Our Abba is not a respecter of persons and if Yeshua had a wilderness experience, guess what?, we, most likely, will too!!!

If you have not already started preparation for possible challenging times, let me encourage you to do so.  Don’t be like the five foolish virgins who were caught with no oil in their lamps.  These things are told to us for our edification. (1^st Corinthians 10:11) It is up to us to Shema . . . hear and obey.  Torah is not a storybook of fictional fables; it is an instruction book!!!!  It’s not only historical; it is prophetical!!!

Shabbat Shalom,  Batyah