A Matter of Reputation

Dec 26, 2021 | Torah Portion

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 – וארא : “And I appeared” Torah : Exodus 6:2-9:35 Haftarah : Ezekiel 28:25-29:21 Gospel : Matthew 12:1-14

The Death of a Dream

Dec 19, 2021 | Torah Portion

When Moses was forty years old, he went out from Pharaoh’s court to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. He was appalled to see the mistreatment they endured. He realized that God had placed him in a position of power in order to help his people. Moved with compassion for his countrymen, Moses went to the defense of one man who was being beaten by an Egyptian. Moses struck the Egyptian, killed him and buried him in the sand.
He returned to the Hebrews the next day. He had a deep sense of purpose. Somehow he must help his people. He was on a mission from God. When Moses came across two Hebrew men fighting, he attempted to mediate between them. Instead they turned their resentment toward him. Clement, the disciple of Peter, says that they resented him out of a sense of envy:

Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow countryman, “Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” (1 Clement 4:10)

Yeshua taught that a prophet is without honor in his own home ( Matthew 13:57). Just as the Israelites initially rejected the authority of Moses, so too the Jewish leadership in the days of the apostles rejected the authority of Yeshua. Just as Moses disappeared, only to reappear a generation later and bring about the redemption from Egypt, so too Yeshua has been concealed and will be revealed in the last generation to bring about the final redemption.
When Moses realized that his attempts to help his people were not welcomed, nor could he trust them to conceal his secret about the Egyptian he had killed, he fled from Egypt. His noble delusions of being the redeemer of Israel all came crashing down.

“He supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand” (Acts 7:25).

Moses’ life can be divided into three forty-year segments. At the age of forty, Moses thought he was the redeemer of Israel. He had a dream of saving his people. His dream was frustrated, and in exasperation, he gave up. He fled into the wilderness, where he became a shepherd, herding sheep for a pagan. He married a Midianite woman. His dream of redeeming Israel died in the wilderness. Only after the dream was dead and Moses was no longer trying to achieve it at all did God call him. Only then—long after the all the pride and bravado were gone—was Moses ready to be a tool in the hand of God. He spent the last forty years of his life fulfilling the dream that had been birthed in him forty years before.
This can be compared to a carpenter who hired a young apprentice. The apprentice was eager to get busy with building houses, too eager to take the time to learn the carpentry trade. “Very well,” said the carpenter, “if you are so certain of yourself, go ahead and build.” Halfway through the construction project, the lopsided frame he was erecting collapsed. The young apprentice turned in his tools and shamefacedly said, “I have to quit. I’m not a carpenter. I can’t build anything.” “Excellent,” the carpenter replied. “Now you are ready to learn how to build.”
Shemot – שמות : “Names” Torah : Exodus 1:1-6:1 Haftarah : Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23 Gospel : Mark 1,2