The Christian Letter, Volume One: Chapter 13
“I AM Yahoweh, your Deliverer, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2). The first Commandment may not sound like a Commandment at all, but in truth, it is very important. For until we accept that He is Yahoweh, our Deliverer, no other Commandment has any merit. Some boast, “This is easy to follow. I already believe in Him.” However, even the demons believe. There is more to this commandment than simple belief. The first Commandment tells us the first thing we must do to honor and respect Yahoweh: Fully acknowledge that He is our Deliverer.
“But without belief it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to Elohim has to believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). Metaphorically speaking, being a slave in Egypt is being a slave to sin. Yahoweh loved us first, and so has freed us from the punishment of sin by the hefty price of His blood. Let us then give the utmost recognition to He Who brings forth freedom from slavery with Salvation, by accepting that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, not of those who just kind of believe and follow when it’s convenient.
“So we see that they were unable to enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19). He who comes to Yahoweh must first believe that He is! We do not do this if we believe the name of the creator is Accidental Random Chance. If one believes that it is a fact there is no Elohim, then consider this: If you were in love with someone, and all of a sudden he or she just started pretending you did not exist, to the point of seeing other people, walking past you, and ignoring you 100%, then how many hours would it take before they were right—that you do not exist—as you would be out of their life forever? Two hours? Maybe three hours? When an Atheist says there is no Elohim, he feels he is right, however:
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no Yahoweh.’ They have done corruptly, they have done an abominable deed, there is no one who does good. Yahoweh looked down from the heavens on the sons of mankind, to see if there is a wise one, seeking Yahoweh. They have all turned aside, they have together become filthy; no one is doing good, not even one.” (Psalms 14:1-3). All of us have gone astray, but now is the time to take hold of the first Commandment by seeking Yahoweh Elohim with action!
“Search me, O El, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if an idolatrous way is in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalms 139:23-24). The first sin, ever, was Satan trying to place himself higher than Yahoweh, which threw not only Satan out of the Kingdom of Heaven, but also one third of Heaven’s angels with him. Thus, the first Commandment is so very important to follow that if we don’t, we could drag others to hell. We must search our hearts and make sure we are not just professing our faith with our mouth, when in secret we harbor a sinister desire to take credit.
The question was put to the Israelites, “Will you serve / follow Yahoweh?” and they answered, “Yes.” (See Exodus 24:3). The reason they said yes was that they knew He is Yahoweh, the Deliver, Who brought them out of the house of bondage, but do we know Him the same way? Will we follow Yahoweh and keep Sabbath as He kept it? The modern day church answers with a stern, “No.” The Messiah kept Passover and said to do it in remembrance, in honor, of Him. Do you keep it, O church? “Never!” they often reply. This answer brings shivers to my spine every time.
If posing these questions, and living a Biblically sound way of life, makes you lose the majority of those in the church body then so be it. If you lose one hundred people from your church by walking as He walked … weren’t they already gone? It’s time to jump into the fire of the Holy Spirit, and for those lukewarm Christians who don’t like the Refiner’s Fire can just go jump out into the snow, because being lukewarm (Revelation 3:15-16) will not take a single impurity away. “A refining pot is for silver and a furnace for gold, but Yahoweh tries the hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3).
Let us be brave enough to ask: “Do I believe in Him enough to follow Yah in love, no matter how different it is from the way I’ve grown up?”
Do we love Him enough (Psalms 111:10, Proverbs 9:10) to obey Him? The Spirit will guide you to His way, and His way is the way we are about to begin really examining. So ask it and ask it again—let your yes be an oath and your no, a curse—pray and answer it: Will I follow Him in acceptance of the First and greatest commandment of all time?
If the Messiah does something the world sees as Christian, such as baptism—I am going to do it!
If the Messiah does something the church sees as worldly, such as talking with a whore—I am going to do it!
If the Messiah does something the world and the church sees as Jewish, such as Passover—I am going to remember that He is Yahoweh, Who brought me out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, to be my Deliverer!
Stop caring what the label is. My whole sermon is this: Walk as He walks. That is all I have ever preached on, and all I surmise that I ever shall.
He has said, “I Am Yahoweh, your Deliverer, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” I accept this fully. Do you?
… Fully?
Be Blessed and be a Blessing.
Selah
-Valentine Thalken Billingsley
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Additional Scripture References:
Jeremiah 17:7, Proverbs 3:5, Deuteronomy 6:5, 11:16
