"Is God with Us or Not?"

Have you ever asked the question, “Is God with us or not?”  I believe we have all asked it from time to time.  The congregation of Israel asked the same question when they were thirsty. [Exodus 17:1-2 RSV] "1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Reph'idim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people found fault with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the LORD to the proof?”" They questioned the proof of God even after experiencing the 10 plagues that God inflicted upon the Egyptians, the mighty deliverance from Pharaoh, the parting of the Red Sea, and crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.  This type of questioning is known as irrational doubt. Shortly after the children of Israel entertained irrational doubt, Amalek attacked: [Exodus 17:8 RSV] "8 Then came Am'alek and fought with Israel at Reph'idim." The origin of doubt goes back to the Garden of Eden. [Genesis 3:9-11 RSV] "9 But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 And he said, "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." 11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"" There is a hidden code in this Scripture that connects us to the concept of irrational doubt.  Where did this doubt originate?  The element of doubt was brought into the world at the moment Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice that it was not a tree of pure evil because that would be relatively easy to fight. Rather, the fruit of the tree contained a mixture of good and evil so that it was difficult to separate them and determine what was good and what was evil.   After they ate of the fruit, God came into the Garden of Eden and asked Adam, “Ayekah - Where are you,” “Hamin hoetz – Did you eat of the tree ...?”  Note the Hebrew words, “Hamin hoetz” that mean, “Did you eat of the tree …?”  The word, Hamin contains the very letters of our archenemy, Haman.  Haman tried to eradicate the Jewish people from the Persian empire and thus eradicate the knowledge of God in the world.  We read about this in the Scroll of Esther.  This teaching will be the first of several teachings on the Scroll of Esther as we prepare for Purim. Haman was a descendant of Amalek.  Irrational Doubt is connected to Amalek.  Amalek's goal is to eradicate the knowledge of God from the world.  If you give into the ideology of Amalek, then you are left with a world of helplessness, insignificance, and loneliness.  You are not alone in this world.  In this teaching, I would like to lead you on a journey to eliminate irrational doubt from your life.   Join us for “Is God with Us or Not?”