koberstein
Active member
We can learn about rebirth from Israel's history. They went into Egypt with seventy
individuals, Exodus 1 tells us: "Now these are the names of Bnei-Yisrael who came
into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his family.....The souls that came out of the
line numbered 70 in all, while Joseph was already in Egypt" (vv. 1,5). Consider that
Israel went in as a group of only 70 souls but came out numbering in the millions!
The word for Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzraim, "a place of confinement or restriction."
Mitzraim comes from the root word tzur, which means "rock." In Jewish thought,
Egypt is considered the womb of civilization. The people in Israel was in exile for
about four hundred years. Four hundred is a multiple of forty. And forty weeks is
a full term pregnancy. So, they were in Egypt symbolically as a full term
pregnancy----not weeks but years. Egypt was the womb. The ten plagues brought
on the Egyptians were labor pains, the shaking and quaking. When the Israelites
left Egypt, they went in great haste. (This is one of the reasons we eat matzah,
unleavened bread---they left so quickly that their bread did not have time to rise.)
They were instructed to eat Passover with their loins girded and their staffs in hand.
Pregnancy can seem to be taking forever for expectant parents, and then boom!
The baby comes---often with little warning, in the middle of the night or while we
are fully engaged in something else. We can use the human birth process as an
analogy for the birth of Israel. The parting of the Red Sea was like the woman's
water breaking. Israel going through the Red Sea was like the baby going through
the birth canal. The water closing in on the Egyptian army after Israel had passed
is symbolic of God washing away their past. The old was passing away, and the new
was coming. The water closed, and they could not go back to Egypt. He was birthing
them from an enslaved people into a redeemed free nation.
As Israel could not physically return to Egypt, neither can we physically return to our
mothers' wombs. The people of Israel was born naturally with some divine intervention.
To grow as a nation---the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob---twelve tribes had to have
a physical birth. But they were not born supernaturally as a free nation until they escaped
Egypt. And so they had two births. They were naturally birthed through Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and they went to Egypt. God used their time in Egypt to birth them as a redeemed
nation and caused a supernatural multiplication---incredibly, from seventy to millions.
This is what we read in Exodus 1:6-7:
"Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and all that generation. Yet Bnei-Yisrael were fruitful,
increased abundantly, multiplied and grew extremely numerous---so the land was filled with
them"
The more the Egyptians afflicted and oppressed the people of Israel, the more they multiplied.
The word in Hebrew translated "multiplied" (rabah) means "broke through" or "burst forth."
They had to endure affliction and oppression to experience a break through---a new birth.
As Israel was twice-birthed, so we and Nicodemus need to have two births---a natural,
physical birth and a supernatural spiritual one.
Shabbat Shalom
individuals, Exodus 1 tells us: "Now these are the names of Bnei-Yisrael who came
into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his family.....The souls that came out of the
line numbered 70 in all, while Joseph was already in Egypt" (vv. 1,5). Consider that
Israel went in as a group of only 70 souls but came out numbering in the millions!
The word for Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzraim, "a place of confinement or restriction."
Mitzraim comes from the root word tzur, which means "rock." In Jewish thought,
Egypt is considered the womb of civilization. The people in Israel was in exile for
about four hundred years. Four hundred is a multiple of forty. And forty weeks is
a full term pregnancy. So, they were in Egypt symbolically as a full term
pregnancy----not weeks but years. Egypt was the womb. The ten plagues brought
on the Egyptians were labor pains, the shaking and quaking. When the Israelites
left Egypt, they went in great haste. (This is one of the reasons we eat matzah,
unleavened bread---they left so quickly that their bread did not have time to rise.)
They were instructed to eat Passover with their loins girded and their staffs in hand.
Pregnancy can seem to be taking forever for expectant parents, and then boom!
The baby comes---often with little warning, in the middle of the night or while we
are fully engaged in something else. We can use the human birth process as an
analogy for the birth of Israel. The parting of the Red Sea was like the woman's
water breaking. Israel going through the Red Sea was like the baby going through
the birth canal. The water closing in on the Egyptian army after Israel had passed
is symbolic of God washing away their past. The old was passing away, and the new
was coming. The water closed, and they could not go back to Egypt. He was birthing
them from an enslaved people into a redeemed free nation.
As Israel could not physically return to Egypt, neither can we physically return to our
mothers' wombs. The people of Israel was born naturally with some divine intervention.
To grow as a nation---the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob---twelve tribes had to have
a physical birth. But they were not born supernaturally as a free nation until they escaped
Egypt. And so they had two births. They were naturally birthed through Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and they went to Egypt. God used their time in Egypt to birth them as a redeemed
nation and caused a supernatural multiplication---incredibly, from seventy to millions.
This is what we read in Exodus 1:6-7:
"Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and all that generation. Yet Bnei-Yisrael were fruitful,
increased abundantly, multiplied and grew extremely numerous---so the land was filled with
them"
The more the Egyptians afflicted and oppressed the people of Israel, the more they multiplied.
The word in Hebrew translated "multiplied" (rabah) means "broke through" or "burst forth."
They had to endure affliction and oppression to experience a break through---a new birth.
As Israel was twice-birthed, so we and Nicodemus need to have two births---a natural,
physical birth and a supernatural spiritual one.
Shabbat Shalom
