Am Yisrael Chai. Why?

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There are many keys to unlocking the scriptures. Here is one that surprised me. 


Firsts

I've been interested for a while in "firsts" in scripture, the first time something happens, or the first time a certain word gets used.  The culture of faith is an evolutionary process.   The word "contrite" was first used by King David after his sin with Bathsheba.  David's broken heart before God is a new concept, it needed a new word.      I feel like our friend and cantor Mark Dayan used to quote this verse a lot:    A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Psalms 51:17     David then uses the verb "to bow down" to mean one's spirit is "contrite" 
 
Personally, this scripture was a "first" for me.  It's the very first portion I ever thought deeply about. The portion I am reading today is Exodus 7:1-5.   Moses has just finished telling God all the reasons he can't do what God asked him to.   God responds by saying something brand new.  That Jewish people are "MY people"   This portion, Exodus 6 and 7 was my bar mitzvah portion.  I was one of those tiny kids that stood on a platform at the Torah.   I grew 10 inches the next year!  

Bar Mitzvah year, 1969

There is a much more significant first here (than my bar mitzvah!): This group of scriptures is the FIRST time God refers to Israel as “MY PEOPLE”


God had talked before this about Abraham’s descendants as a “people” עם "am" before.  

  • God told Abraham his offspring would become a "distinct people"

kings of peoples will come from Sarah, his wife. Genesis 17:16

  • God appeared to Jacob and told him his offspring would be a "numerous "people"

‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, Genesis 48:4

  • But here, for the first time, God tells who Isreal is, this unwashed slave nation would become "MY people"
והוצאתי את־צבאתי את עמי בני־ישראל

I will lead out this multitude (army), the sons of Israel, עמי “AMI “… MY PEOPLE  Exodus 7:4

A Figure of Speech?

Is this important, or just a figure of speech? Starting with this Parasha, God calls the nation of Israel MY PEOPLE one hundred and thirty-three times. 

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:33


“If the heavens above can be measured

And the foundations of the earth searched out below,

Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel 

Jeremiah 31:37


In other words, God never rejects Israel from being "His" people. Furthermore, the very name of the "New Testament" that Christians read is NAMED after this verse where God says he will make a "new covenant" or "new testament" with the house of Israel (Jer 31.31)  These “my people” verses are quoted seven more times in the New Testament.

Is Israel always right? No. Always blameless? clearly not. Jewish scripture has Israel repeatedly punished by God. But are they ever CAST OFF? NEVER.


Eternal Truth vs Personal Truths

You know in our post-modern world, intersectionality and cultural relativism say that no one culture has THE truth.   If there are no Eternal and immutable truths, any truth will do.  People say “This is MY truth”.    So if a culture believes it’s their God-given right to murder their neighbors as Hamas and many Palestinians fervently believe, who can say that’s wrong? Collectively, it's "their truth". Truth is all about the “context”, we are told, loudly and prominently of late.   In such a world without any real meaning or eternal truths, only exerting your will in the face of a meaningless void has meaning.  Thus choice becomes the catechism of a worldview without eternal truths.       


Here is the key from this group of scriptures where Moses is thinking of every reason he can NOT understand God’s plan for his life.    Knowing God, and seeing his plan for HIS people are corollaries of one another.

“Then I will take you  for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  Exodus 6:7


Am Yisrael Chai... why?

Because understanding what God's faithfulness looks like, that it's unchanging, loving, nurturing, and sees the beginning from the end, is a key to understanding His love and grace toward us today.  

 because God says so.... over and over and over... THAT'S WHY. 



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