13.3 Par'shah Shemot- Names

[alon]

Name of Par’shah- 13.3 Shemot- Names
Par’shah- Ex 1:1 – 6:1
Haftara- Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23; Jer 1:1-2:3

D’rash: Moshe is commanded to go back to Mitzrayim and free his people. However this was a commandment given for a specific task to a specific person. Now we can glean a lot of principles from this, however our primary focus this year is on actual commandments given to us, the body of believers for all the ages. There is only one universal commandment in this entire parashah. But it is an important one! Important because it gives the Name by which the Almighty is to be known. And important as to why it was given this way to Moshe.

Exodus 3:15 (ESV) God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, 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 forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

 וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

Instead of familiar YHVH יהוה we have Eyeh אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה as the sacred name of the Most High. And this is the name we are commanded to remember Him by! So what gives? Well, I did some digging and apparently the important part that is the Name is הְיֶ֖ה. In Hebrew, aleph א when prefixed to a verb indicates 1st person singular, future tense. So (and I must give a “duh moment” warning here), Abishter was correct in using this form! Yud י as a prefix to a verb indicates 3rd person future tense. But failure in English as I was, even I know names are nouns! So why are we talking verbs here?

Hebrew is a very action oriented language, and HaShem is making a statement here abut who and what He is! So He says “I WILL BE AS I WILL BE.” אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה But when anyone else talks about Him, we say “HE or THEY WILL BE WHAT HE/THEY WILL BE.” יהוה

But there’s always more, right? Why the הְיֶ֖ה in the name given in our reading, but הוה in the name we use? Well, using my limited understanding of Hebrew, the interchangeable yud יֶ֖ and vav ו ties the two forms of the Sacred Name together. Also we must consider the pictographical meanings of the letters. The yud יֶ֖ is a hand, representing a work. So HaShem is saying He will do a work that makes Him who He is. He is the only self-existent being. But when we say the name using the vav ו, which is a peg or a nail, that represents joining, making secure, binding. So we would be saying He, the Self Existent One is who binds the universe together. He is El Sali (Ps 42:9) and Elohe Mauzi (Ps 43:2) God of My Strength; our Yated, Tent Peg (Zech 10:4) holding all in place. We are saying it is done. The work belongs to HaEl HaGadol, HaGibbor v’HaNorah, The Great Mighty Awesome God (Deu 10:17), and it is done- יֶ֖הוה “ADONAI IS THAT HE IS!” Baruch HaShem!

But think what this is saying to Moshe. Since this is the only time the TNK uses Eyeh אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה, “I WILL BE, I AM,” this is a message for Moshe. “I, El HaNe’eman, The Faithful God (Deu 7:9) will do the work for you.” Now, as we used to say in church, “That’ll preach!” And so would Moses response, “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11 ESV).  HaShem was saying “Keep your focus on Me.” But Moshe was saying “What about ME?” Let us keep our eyes on יהוה, the Self Existing One and the One who always accomplishes His will. Get our focus off self, and off the world as we see it. If Adonai sends you, you are just the instrument. He will do the work through you. There is more to obedience than simply doing the mitzvoth.

[alon]

Since we are now starting Exodus, this might be a good time to update our commandments. I also updated the categories. They will be important as we are about to go into some readings with a LOT of commandments, and they often double up with past scripture/commands. As always, any additions, problems, or corrections welcome. We may discuss them first, or might just adjust the list. Either way, this would work better as a group effort.

Actual Commandments:

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV) fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I take this as a command and a promise. (fear not)

Exodus 3:15 (ESV) God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, 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 forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
This gives the Name by which the Almighty is to be known.


Moedim:

Genesis 1:5 (ESV) God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
This sets the calendar, dividing it into days and weeks at this point. This will later be extremely important as HaShem’s moedim, His appointed times must be kept on God’s calendar.

Genesis 1:14-15 (ESV) And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons [Or appointed times], and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
The commandment to use the heavenly lights to know when His appointed times are is implicit here.

Genesis 2:3 (ESV) So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Shabbat, the first of the moedim! God made it holy; and what God declares set apart, we keep set apart!

Genesis 1:26-27; 2:15 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created *man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. … The Lord God took the *man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
*The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind, and becomes the proper name Adam.
We have a responsibility before God to care for our environment.

Sin:

Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Consider sin and its nature. Every bad habit, every forbidden pleasure, every sin I ever indulged in, loved and was habitually attracted to would have been a whole lot easier never to have partaken of than it was to quit! Don’t eat the forbidden fruit!

Genesis 4:7b (ESV)  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
This just naturally goes with the above commandment. The commandment: speaking of sin, which crouches at the door- we “must rule over it.”

Genesis 3:7,21 (ESV)  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. … And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
So cover it up. (modesty)

Genesis 9:4 (ESV) But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Don’t eat the blood.

Isaiah 42:10a, 11b-12 (ESV)  Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!
There is a little doble entendre here. God, through the prophet was speaking of idols of wood and stone facetiously telling them to hear and see. However He is primarily telling us to wake up, put away our idols and worship the One True God.

Genesis 12:1 (ESV) Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country [land] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
Many missionaries (including Messianics) say “If God calls you, go. But if you are not called, it is far better not to force the Lord’s hand.” Go where you are called, not where you want.

Hosea 12:6 “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”
With God’s help, return (repent), hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.

Marriage:

Genesis 2:24 (ESV) Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And here we have the model for marriage: 1 man, 1 woman, 1 marriage, making 1 new family. God allowed multiple wives at times, but looking at the examples where there were more than one wife, it caused a lot of problems.

:

Exodus 12:49 (CJB) The same teaching is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner living among you.”
It sounds as if we (gerim) are responsible for the whole when we accept Yeshua. Not talking about the 613 Mitzvoth of so called “Rabbinical Judaism,” but what it actually teaches- the laws, the instructions, the lessons, and the principles.

Halacha:

Genesis 17:1b (ESV) “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,”
Pretty clear. (obedience)

Genesis 17:11-12 (ESV) You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 
If you are male and joined to God’s family, you must be circumcised.

Genesis 32:32 (ESV) Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.
It clearly says that God’s people do not do this. (eat sinew)