Jews, Israelites, and King David... the Convert??

In the time of Christ, there was a high degree of prejudice against non-Jews who wanted to worship God. Gentiles were not allowed to participate in worship at the temple in the same way as the Jews and were not seen by the Jews as spiritual equals. Modern Judaism does not carry this prejudice. They maintain that "converts" have the same status as those who are born Jewish, commonly citing King David as an example of a “convert” who was righteous and did many great things in the scriptures.

But wait! David was the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah!!! (I knew all of those genealogies would come in handy someday!)  Since these men were all Israelites from the tribe of Judah, why do they say that David was a “convert?”

Bricks Without Straw

In the previous article, I explored one parallel between Pharaoh during the Israelites' coming out of Egypt and the "old man" referred to by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, who represents the part of each one of us that is being put to death as we strive to live our lives in submission to God. In particular, that article discussed the role of the magicians in Pharaoh's court as it applies to our conversion. Today, as promised, I'm going to spend some more time addressing the lessons that we can learn about the "old man" who is still trying to hold us captive in spiritual Egypt.

Bricks Without Straw
One of Pharaoh's tactics, from the time that Moses and Aaron first arrived to free their people, was to oppress the Israelites by forcing them to make bricks without straw. Straw helped the bricks to solidify faster, so taking it away would mean that it would take substantially longer to make them; however, Pharaoh additionally required that they had to continue to meet their quota of bricks in spite of this restriction. Furthermore, he had his overseers beat the Israelites and treat them harshly if they didn't keep up. The Israelites quickly turned their attention away from the salvation that God had promised through Moses and Aaron:

Do You Not Yet Know That Egypt is Destroyed?

When Moses was pleading with Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, Pharaoh resisted, causing his people to endure 10 terrible plagues. He allowed everyone in his kingdom to suffer because of his selfishness and pride. Even his magicians, who were able to mimic the first few plagues,  acknowledged by the 8th plague that Pharaoh had no chance of stopping God from extraditing His people:

Exodus 10:7

Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”

In our personal lives, we each have a stubborn person inside of us who is unwilling to see his faults and change his behavior.