Nitsavim 51-3

You are standing

Deuteronomy 29:16-29 (15-28 Heb.) 

...for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them, wood and stone and silver and gold;

Deut. 29:16-17 NKJV

How is it possible to live in the world without being of the world?

There is an evil spirit that rules upon the current world system. Paul calls it "the spirit of this world" and it is contrary to the Spirit that comes from God (1 Cor. 2:12). The spirit of the world is the one who tries to seduce men to seek and satisfy their own pleasures disconnected from the Almighty and in disobedience to His rules. Those who love the spirit of the world become enemies of the Eternal, as it's written in Yaakov 4:4: "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (NKJV)

In 1 John 2:15-17 it's written: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." (NKJV)

The sons of Israel lived hundreds of years in Egypt and experienced the affects of the idolatry that ruled upon that place. Even though many of them resisted that religious system, they had to be exposed to the environment produced by the cult to evil spirits disguised as false gods. However, not all the sons of Israel resisted that spirit of the world and they weren't delivered from Egypt. Only those who wouldn't submit to the system and those who responded to the prophet's calling obeying the divine orders to be able to leave could be delivered at the end. Those who left had lived in the world but were not of the world.

Then they passed through several nations and saw all those false gods called abominations. The cult to those gods belonged to the same spirit of the world that existed in Egypt, and that was contrary the Eternal's Spirit.

In this aliyah, the sons of Israel were severely warned against this spirit and its affects so they wouldn't be fooled into participating in this idolatry, leaving the Eternal and breaking the covenant.

The chosen people have been placed in this world but they are not of this world. Every time the people have tried to submit to the spirit of the world, curse has come to them.

Every time they leave the Eternal in their hearts and seek the things of this world, wars come against them.

Those who have returned to the Eternal in repentance and had said "no" to the spirit of the world have been able to carry on the torch of faith until our present day, and they will still do that until the spirit of the world is taken away from this earth, as it's written in Zechariah 13:2: ""It shall be in that day," says the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.""(NKJV)

Our great Rabbi prayed to the Eternal in this way before leaving this world: "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You... I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." (John 17:11a, 14-16 NKJV)

The people who know how to live in this world without being of this world, both from among the Jews and from among the nations, are the ones who will rule over the world to come.

Kol tuv,

Ketriel