This is the third article on the exile and restoration of God's people. In the first article, Exile I, we briefly explored God's process of exiling His people from His land. In the second, Exile II, we looked at the process of awakening and return. In that second article, we answered the question whether God's people would ever unite under sound teaching. In this final article we will take a look at what the enemy is doing to thwart God's process of restoration.

We started studying Ephesians this past Tuesday, and were treated to one of those 'Holy Spirit' moments where the discussion veered from the planned path and took us to something new and wonderful. The Spirit had prepared the gound in my studies the day before, so all He had to do was give a little shove.

It is a frequent complaint in polite society that the Torah's laws are harsh and archaic, perhaps appropriate for the barely civilized people of 3500 years ago, but certainly not for today. If you speak of Torah in secular company you'll quickly get some variant of the dismissive question, "So you want to stone gays, cut off hands for theft and pluck people's eyes out?"

Over the past two thousand years, there have sprung up literally thousands of denominations, sects and doctrines among God's people. Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses can all read the same passages of Scripture and derive completely different meanings. Why has that happened and will the children of God ever unite in one understanding of God's word?

We read this story and think: Here's the mighty Moses, who confronted Pharaoh, arranged the Ten Plagues, split the Red Sea, brought the Torah down from Mount Sinai, and defended the people through trials and tribulations in the desert. Now he makes one little mistake and God takes away his dream of entering Israel. The consequence seems just a little harsh for one mistake! This parsha has always been puzzling.