(Moses Before Pharaoh)
Va’era - Our Journey to know the Father
Don HRN Melbourne
Sh’mot Exodus 6, 7
The journey of the children of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov is just beginning. Firstly, there will be the Exodus from Egypt, then the journey to the Promised Land where they will see many miracles, but more importantly begin to learn about the Elohim of their forefathers and his laws and commandments for triumphant living. This will be their growth period. We can relate to this aspect of their journey as they have a lot of the world in them which they must lose. Remember they have completely assimilated into Egypt.
In the journey to come we can and must relate this to our lives in our walk with YHVH from prior to salvation to now.
Va’era is a Hebrew phrase meaning “and I appeared”. The words - “and I appeared” means that the Father does not simply want us to intellectually acknowledge that He exists in some theoretical sense in some ethereal untouchable realm, but instead wants us to KNOW and INTERACT and HAVE A VIBRANT ON-GOING RELATIONSHIP WITH Him.
In the book Beresheet he appeared to:
Adam as Creator, life-giver and as matchmaker
Kayin as a caring friend, as righteous yet compassionate judge and devoted protector
Enoch - He revealed himself and walked with him as an intimate companion
Noach as Sovereign King over Creation and as faithful Covenant partner and as a Jealous Guardian of the Human Species.
Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov many times.
Let us begin today at Exodus 6:3 I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Yaakov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by My name Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [ADONAI].
The sages say that the Father’s names in Torah reflect His attributes. The amazing miracle- working of YHVH was not clearly known to the generation of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov as it was to Moses’s generation. They did not experience the miracles that Moshe and his generation would.
YHVH our Elohim wants Moshe and Isra’el to know:
WHO HE IS
WHAT HE IS LIKE
And
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE IN COVENANT WITH HIM
He wants each of us to know for certain these three things about him.
Exodus 1:5 …and I remembered my covenant. The Father sees a covenant as binding and unbreakable, He honours all covenants. Interestingly, when we are married in the presence of YHVH with our husband or wife (I refuse to say partner here, as in 2018 it has a completely different meaning associated with it!) we made an unbreakable covenant with Him. This is not as many see it today, as a contract which is easily broken.
READ Exodus 6:2 – 8 which shows us, and of course, the Israelites four fundamental elements of the kind of relationship the Father wants to have with us. These can be related to the four cups of SALVATION taken at Passover in remembrance of Him. We drink four cups at the Pesach Seder.
1. The Great Bringing-Forth CUP 1 SANCTIFICATION
The verb for bringing forth is yatsa and was first used in
Genesis 1:12 the earth brought forth grass, plants each yielding its own kind of seed, and trees each producing its own kind of seed-bearing fruit and God saw that it was good.
The Father says that He will, from our bondage in Egypt, create a new thing – a thing full of life and hope and promise. Halleluiah! à We are to read Sh’mot as being US!
Cup 1 is the same cup in Luke 22:17 – 18 READ
One of the reoccurring things that will be brought out in their walk of growth to the Promised Land is mentioned in the Brit Chad’shah reading in:
2 Corinthians 6:14 – 16
14 Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners. What fellowship does light have with darkness?
15 What harmony can there be between the Messiah and Belial (one of Satan’s main demons)? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement can there be between the Temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
I put this in as it was brought up in our last Shabbat meeting and will be a continual focus as they go on their 40-year journey and when they reach the Promised Land.
Yeshua shared about our journey in John 3:3 – 8
3 “Yes indeed” Yeshua answered him “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 Nikademus said to Him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can He go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?”
5 Yeshua answered, “Yes indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
6 What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit.
7 Stop being amazed at my telling you, you must be born from above!
8 The wind blows where it wants to, you hear it’s sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with everyone who has been born from the spirit.”
And beautifully related this spiritual growth in:
John 4:24 “God is Spirit and we must worship Him is spirit and in truth.”
2. The Great Free-ing CUP 2 DELIVERANCE
He promises to free us from serving them – the World. The Hebrew word for free us is natzal. It can mean a violent snatching, or it can mean a slow purposeful process of disentanglement, disconnection and deliverance. natzal. was first used in
Genesis 31:9 This is how God has taken away your father’s animals and given them to me.
YHVH is saying He is going to woo and seduce us away from Egypt. Think of yourself being taken away from the ‘One World Order’ Utopian Dream of today!
3. The Great Redeeming CUP 3 REDEMPTION
Thirdly the Father is going to promise His Chosen One that He will redeem her. The Hebrew word for redeem used in this verse is ga’al (GAW-AWL). The verb can be translated as redeem as a kinsman, a redeemer drawing his blood-kin from debt or slavery, or to avenge as a blood relative avenges a wrong done to a kinsman.
READ Matthew 26:27 - 29
YHVH is promising to always be there for us. Not only that, He is promising to always work diligently on our behalf.
4. The Great Taking CUP 4 BETROTHAL
The fourth promise is that He is going to “take” the Chosen Ones to Himself as His people. The Hebrew verb for ‘take’ is laqach (LAW-KAWKH). It means to purposely take something or someone unto oneself and make a treasured place for it in one’s home and in one’s heart. It is the verb used to describe what a man does when a he takes woman to be his bride. It gives an image of the covenant of marriage. The Divine Proposal.
Exodus 6:6 – 8 ‘I am yod-hey-vav-hey
I will bring you forth from your forced labour in Egypt
And I will free you from your slavery
I will redeem you with a demonstration of My power,
And with great acts of judgement,
I will take you to myself as a nation
and I will be to you as a God
You will know that I am the Holy One your God
The One who is bringing you out from under the Egyptian subjugation,
I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised My hand [swearing]
That I would give it to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov,
I will give it to you as an inheritance.
I am YHVH!
This is a stunning declaration by the Creator of the Universe – a declaration in which the Creator stated in no uncertain terms His plan to enter into a special relationship with the descendants of Avraham Yitz’chak and Ya’akov. He had made the promise to Avraham that they he would have numerous descendants and the role they would have in the redemptive plan for man.
Some details of the relationship are now beginning to be given. He is now going to make them ‘His People’ and to make Himself well known to - and by – them individually and corporately, and then to establish those very people as custodians of the Promised Land. It appears the Creator wants the nation to have a relationship with Him similar to the relationship He had with Avraham.
Genesis 18: 19
19 For I have made myself known to them, so that he will give orders to his children and his household after him to keep the way of ADONAI and to do what is right and just, so that ADONAI may bring about for Avraham what He has promised him.
Last Shabbat, John shared that after YHVH divorced the Israelites it was necessary for Yeshua to die to restore the covenant relationship with the YHVH. This enabled us to take a similar path in our walk with YHVH as outlined previously in John 3: 3 – 8.
Exodus 6:14 – 26 gives us a further list of names, remembering the it is sh’mot (names) not Exodus.
Some interesting names that will be coming up in the rest of the Torah:
Ø Levi à K’hat à Amram who married Yokheved à Miriam, Aharon, Moshe
à Yitz’har à Korach (a Torah portion)
Ø Aharon married Amminadav à Nadav, Avihu, El’azar and Itamar
Ø El’azar married a daughter of Put’iel à Pinchas
NOW THE BEGINNING OF THE REDEMPTION
Exodus 7:5 Then I will stretch my hand over Egypt and bring the people of Isra’el out from among them, the Egyptians will know that I am ADONAI. This is the reason for the need for 10 plagues!
Whilst it is not important what sort of creature was formed from the rod or staff, in Exodus 7:8, 9 there is a difference with what the Father did with the rod in front of Aharon and the Hebrew elders and he will do in front of Pharaoh.
In Exodus 4:23 the rod was caused to become a nachash (serpent), however in Exodus 7:9 the word tannin (Hebrew for crocodile) is used.
Tannin is used in Genesis 1:21 where it is usually translated as ‘sea monsters’, in Ezekiel 29:3 where it is translated as ‘crocodile’, and also used in Psalm 24:3, Isaiah 27:1, 51:9 and in Job 7:12. In Exodus 7:10 the word tannin is again used – meaning crocodile.
Why a Crocodile?
It is important to see this as the Egyptians considered the Nile a god – a god whose image was that of – you guessed it – a tannin (crocodile). The crocodile god was named Sobek and was supposedly in control of and having exclusive dominion over the waters of Egypt. Sobek was going to be the first Egyptian ‘god’ revealed as a fraud. It would not make sense to be a snake as it was the crocodile which was the Nile god! Is there something in the first born being thrown into the Nile. Maybe it was to appease the ’god’ of the river.
Exodus 7:12 , 13
12 Each one threw his staff down and they turned into ‘crocodiles’. But Aharon’s staff swallowed up theirs’.
13 Nevertheless, Pharaoh was made hard-hearted; and he did not listen to them as ADONAI had said would happen,
THE NILE
It seldom rains in Egypt. The Creator causes rain to fall in the tropical forests of Central Africa which flows to Lake Victoria (in Uganda) and Lake Tana in Ethiopia. During the rainy season these lakes overflow with the streams meeting at Khartoum (Sudan) and then flow down the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile rises 23 to 26 feet, overflowing its banks and spills rich tropical soil in the river valley. It is the Nile and only the Nile which gives Egypt drinking water and arable farming land.
The Father did not desire to destroy Egypt or even inflict a smidgeon of harm on them, His desire was for them to acknowledge his existence and His sovereignty.
The Blood
The Hebrew word for blood is dahn. Dahn is the source of life for a creature. It is first mentioned in Genesis 4:10 – 11:
10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!
11 Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood at your hand.
The blood is so special to YHVH.
Genesis 9:6:
Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man will his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man.
Let the education of Pharaoh begin as the Israelites are taken to salvation in the Exodus!
Don HRM
