Shemot
(Names) Ex.
1:1-6:1 שמות
Every time I come to
this Parasha I am but mesmerized by the introduction, names, Shemot. What is in a name? Why are names in the Torah
so important? I could never understand
the importance of names until I understood the difference between Western
thinking, (philosophy and abstract thinking) and the Eastern thinking
(concrete, perceptible to the senses), Torah thinking. It is interesting that name (shem) and soul
(nefesh) have the same root. Shem also
means character; the character of the individual therefore is in his name. Additionally we in the West, make a
distinction between names as identifiers and titles. Such was not the case in the Eastern mindset
of the Torah, for example king and name are the character traits of the
individual that carries both titles an example would be King David, both of
these describe his character as a sovereign and the individual, a man after
YHVH’s own heart.
Why then the following passage speaks of the
sons of Israel, and Yaakov in the same sentence? Exodus 1:1: And these are the names of the sons of Israel
who are coming into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his household have they
come; Exodus 1:2: Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Exodus 1:3: Issachar,
Zebulun, and Benjamin, Exodus 1:4: Dan,
and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Exodus
1:5: And all the persons coming out of the thigh of Jacob are seventy
persons; as to Joseph, he was in Egypt.
Furthermore we are told the number, of people and whence they come
from. What is HaShem trying to tell us
with these verses in the Torah? As I see it tells us that where we come from
and to whom we belong are as important as how we do life.
This is our heritage, that cannot be traded
nor given away, we belong to this recounting of events, whether we are native born or
grafted in, Romans 11:17: And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou,
being a wild olive tree, wert
grafted in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Romans 11:24: For if thou
wert cut out of the olive tree
which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these,
which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? So in essence we are looking at our own
family history, unraveling, that then teaches us how to comport ourselves in our
family reunion. The Torah reveals the character of the chosen people, the
priestly nation, a kingdom of priests at the service of YHVH. Therefore the name and character of Israel,
contender with man, contender with heavenly hosts (angels) and overcomer, describes in part the character of Israel.
As we continue to
delve into this parasha we come across another verse, in Exodus 1:8: And there rises a new king
over Egypt, who hath not known Joseph.
Who was this Joseph that so much attention is paid to in the Torah? Joseph was a projection of the Messiah to
come; he delivered his brothers from certain death, his father, his kin. He not
only delivered his own from death he also delivered Egypt and the surrounding
nations from certain doom. Just as
Messiah Yeshua, brings deliverance to all mankind so did Joseph, not of his own
strength but that which the God of his fathers showed him to, he did as he was
shown. Joseph is a picture of Yeshua, and
Pharaoh is a picture of the world and the government system in our current days. Look around and see that they have forgotten
Joseph, (Messiah). They have forgotten
the source of our salvation, they have forgotten YHVH the God of our fathers,
they have forgotten the path of righteousness.
We often wonder, what
is going on in this world why is evil so prevalent around us, and does it
matter if we act righteous or not. Look
no further than the Torah and we get a glimpse of what are the consequences of
doing the right thing no matter what is around us. What’s in a name, we kind of
get back to the same theme in the case of the ones doing righteousness, they
got their names (character) in Torah for acting and fearing YHVH, Shiphrah, and
Puah the midwifes. Exodus 1:20: And
God does good to the midwives, and the people multiply, and are very mighty; Exodus 1:21: and it cometh to pass,
because the midwives have feared God, that He make for them households
(Family). I am sure that there were plenty of good people around that time but
they do not appear on the Torah by name nor they are mentioned. Furthermore HaShem blessed these two
righteous women, with life and family.
We know that Moses
was born to the house of Levi, and that he grew in strength and knowing who he
was and yet he was part of the house of Pharaoh yet identity is a prevailing
thing in our lives (thing = word or utterance as found in the Torah, thing is
not a real word in Hebrew, the word translated as thing is in reality word),
our character is tied to our identity, and it pulls ever so strong, to the
point that you cannot help but to teshuvah, return, to your roots. As a result of this pull Moses ended up
fleeing from Egypt due an act of passion, killing an Egyptian to interject for
his own blood. We find that Moses found refuge in a strange land, Exodus 2:21: Moses was content to
dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. Exodus 2:22: She bore a son, and he
named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.” Yet he was a foreigner in Egypt he regarded
his time in Median as a transient time.
The promise that was given to Abraham Yitzhak and Yaakov was too distant
to remember and make it part of his life.
He yearned Egypt, and his family, had lost sight of his promise. Sometimes we walk the same path that Moses
walked, we loose sight of our promise, and blessings.
Yet we
forget YHVH does not forget, Exodus
2:25: God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them. In some translations it renders concerned
with awareness and knowing their suffering. For this reason that God was
concerned or knew and understood of his children’s suffering we see that he
came down to deliver His children. Exodus 3:8: I have come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Yes HaShem has a plan, yet HaShem always chooses to partner with man to
achieve his wondrous works. Exodus 3:10: Come now therefore, and I
will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel,
out of Egypt.” And what do we always do
is complain see our own limitations and try our very best to slip past the
opportunity to do HaShem’s work. Exodus 3:13: And Moses saith unto God,
`Lo, I am coming unto the sons of Israel, and have said to them, The God of your
fathers hath sent me unto you, and they have said to me, What is His
name? What do I say unto them?'
Isn’t it interesting
that we often refer to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob, yet they did not know his name, HaShem’s name was not revealed until,
Moses and his generation, until he chose to deliver them out of bondage from
Egypt? I can see so many parallels in my
own life, I did not know the God of my fathers, I did not know his name, His
Character until he rescued me from my Egypt, my bondage. The current trend is that the Character of
YHVH is not known because we have chosen to believe the lie that we belong to
the Pharaoh to the world, we believe the lie, we only live once, when in reality
we only die once, if we deject HaShem’s saving grace. Get to know Him the giver of life, the lover
of our soul, from Him where our spirit comes from, His character we represent
here on earth, He told us whom He was, through our kin Moses: Exodus 3:14: And God saith unto Moses,
`I AM THAT WHICH I AM;' He saith also, `Thus dost thou say to the sons of
Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.' Exodus
3:15: God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel
this, ‘YHVH, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name (my
Character) forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. The challenge is whom will you serve this
day? Which Character will you represent this day?
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