DECEMBER 31, 2021 Exodus 34:11-12 Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. […]
DECEMBER 30, 2021 Exodus 34:10 And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” In […]
DECEMBER 29, 2021 Exodus 34:8-9 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” I have long […]
DECEMBER 28, 2021 Exodus 34:6-7 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” As […]
DECEMBER 27, 2021 Exodus 34:6-7 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Think […]
God did not arbitrarily or capriciously decide to harden Pharaoh’s heart. From the outset, He explained that He intended to make His contest with the Egyptian pantheon into a public affair. He said, “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12). He intended to use Egypt as a theater in which He could establish His name (i.e., His reputation) and His identity in the eyes of His people Israel, in the eyes of all Egypt, and in the eyes of the whole world.
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. (Exodus 7:5)
In the Semitic sense, to declare one’s name means to broadcast a person’s fame and reputation. To declare God’s name means to reveal who God is, i.e., to glorify Him. It has nothing to do with pronouncing or not pronouncing the sacred name of God; it has everything to do with revealing God’s person and character to the world.
Consider the following passages from the exodus narrative in which the Almighty explains His motives for striking Egypt and delivering Israel:
The Egyptians shall know I am the LORD. (Exodus 7:5)That you many know there is no one like the LORD our God. (Exodus 8:10)So that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. (Exodus 8:22)In order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. (Exodus 9:16)And that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD. (Exodus 10:2)Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the LORD. (Exodus 12:12)I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD. (Exodus 14:4)
The LORD used the plagues, the signs, the wonders, and even the redemption of Israel to show His power and to proclaim His name through all the earth. He made His grand entrance onto the stage of world history and sent a message to the whole world: “I exist, I am God, there is none like Me!” He sent a message to the false gods and the idols, proving that He alone is God and there is none other. Israel is the trophy of His victory.
The demonstration succeeded. The decimation of Egypt made an impact on the world, and the name of the LORD has never since been forgotten. In Jericho, the Canaanites were still talking about what God did in Egypt forty years later. The Philistines were still talking about it two hundred years later. We are still talking about it today.
Va'era – ו××¨× : “And I appeared” Torah : Exodus 6:2-9:35 Haftarah : Ezekiel 28:25-29:21 Gospel : Matthew 12:1-14
DECEMBER 25, 2021 Exodus 34:1 And the Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Let us consider the fact that the original tablets of stone — those that were broken — were cut from a mountain without hands. That […]
DECEMBER 24, 2021 Exodus 34:1 And the Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Because the original stones were broken by Moses, he was instructed to hew the second pair of tablets from stone himself. It is these tablets […]
DECEMBER 23, 2021 Exodus 33:21-23 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, […]
DECEMBER 22, 2021 Exodus 33:21-23 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, […]
