Joy in the Messiah

שְׁמוֹת
SHEMOT / NAMES
Exodus 1:1-6:2
HafTorah Isaiah 27:6-28:13
Brit Chadasha  Acts 7:17-35

      Why Me? 
     This Torah portion begins a new book, the second book of the Torah called Shemot which translates as ‘Names’.  This parsha begins with the names of the sons of Jacob who went to Egypt, ‘Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. ⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country. ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.’
     Moshe is saved from death, rescued from water, raised in the Egyptian household, and eventually flees to Midian where Zipporah is given to him to be his wife. The end of Exodus 2 reveals the greatness of Elohim and the beginning of the journey of Moshe:  ‘During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.’
      In Exodus 3 Moshe encounters God.  In this chapter God makes the declaration of who He is – and interestingly, Moshe questions who he himself is.  These are scenes that are indicative of God and Moshe, Elohim and man, the Creator and the created.
     Moshe asks God two questions.  His second question is in Exodus 3:13 when he encounters God at the burning bush, basically he asks of God ‘who are you?’  “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God’s reply is: Ehyeh asher ehyeh, wrongly translated in almost every Christian Bible as something like “I am that I am”. But that limits God. Ehyeh asher ehyeh has a much deeper connotation. It means ‘I will be what, where, or how I will be’.
       However, Moshe’s first question in Exodus 3:11 was ‘ Mi anochi, “Who am I?” God answered the second question yet He never directly answered Moshe’s first question. Instead, God reveals His plan, ‘And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:12.
     Maybe Moshe is indirectly asking and answering himself.  In the Tanakh as a whole, the people who turn out to be the most worthy are the ones who question themselves of completing the task that God sets them to do.  The prophet Isaiah, when given his mission in Isaiah 6:5 said, ‘I am a man of unclean lips’. In Jeremiah 1:6 Jeremiah said, ‘I cannot speak, for I am a child’.  The greatest king of Israel, David, echoed Moses’ words, ‘Who am I?’ in 2 Samuel 7:18.  And we all know the events of Jonah, sent on the mission to Ninevah and tried to run away only to be swallowed by a fish who then delivered him onto the shores of Ninevah.
     These men of the Bible are not mythical Greek figures or people that sensed and designed their own great destiny, determined to achieve fame. They did not go to expensive universities nor do they have an ego sense of superiority and self-greatness.  They were people who doubted their own abilities. There were times when they felt like giving up, even reaching such points of despair that they prayed to die. But they became vessels of God as He appointed them.  There was work to be done – God told them so – and they did it. It is almost as if a sense of weakness is a sign of greatness. So God never answered Moses’ question, “Why me?”      

שְׁמוֹת
Shemot/Names
Exodus 1:1-6:2
Isaiah 27:6-28:13
Acts 7:17-29

      Shemot / Names begins with the names of the tribes and the passing of Joseph: ‘Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ⁵ All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). ⁶ And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. ⁷ But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.' Exodus 1:1-7.
     Shemot seems to begin with the ending of Bereshith. However, this parsha is really about Moshe and his journey with God. But what is it about Hebrew Names? And what is the significance of Names?
    Chapter 1 is the history of the multitude of the Hebrews in captivity. The new king of Egypt, who did not know Joseph, felt threatened and he called the Hebrew midwives telling them to kill the male children. The midwives are named: ‘…of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah.’ Exodus 1:15.
     Exodus chapter 2 begins the story of Moshe.  After he is discovered and nursed, (by his original mother) he is named, ‘And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moshe, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10. After Moshe flees to Midian, he is given Zipporah as a wife and she bears a son.  ‘And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.” Exodus 2:22.
     Shemot chapter 3, Moshe encounters the burning bush. When he inquires who shall he say sent him, God names Himself; ‘And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (I will be who I will be). And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” ¹⁵ Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord 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 this is My memorial to all generations.’ Exodus 3:14-15. 
     The true Name is powerful and sovereign. When the Name is altered so is the concept, the walk, the ideology of the King we serve. The entity behind the name chosen by man is just that – chosen to fit man’s or that particular denomination's ideology.
     AI states: ‘Yeshua: A Hebrew name that means "salvation". Jesus: The English pronunciation of the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Yeshua. Jesus, which is the name used by most English-speaking people today, is an English transliteration of a Germanic adaptation, of a Latin transliteration, of a Greek transliteration of an originally Hebrew name, that is simply Yeshua.’  Convoluted, isn’t it? Why go to the trouble of changing it? Some will argue that it is only semantics, but they are modifying the Name – changing it. Which modifies the walk, the truth. 
     Jesus is the name most of us came to know. But as we graduate towards the meat and leave the milk behind, 1 Corinthians 3:2, we learn the truth and the truth does set us free – in Yeshua. The name Jesus is fairly recent. Some teach that the first time the name Jesus was ever used was in 1632.
    Yeshua (יְשׁוּעָ) translates as “salvation from God” or “deliverance.” It derives from the root word “yasha” (יָשַׁע), which means to rescue, deliver, or save. The word salvation appears more than 170 times in Scripture and is first mentioned in the last Torah portion of Beresheet, Genesis 49:18. 
     Yeshua was directly named by the angel Gabriel in Matthew 1:21-23, to fulfill the passage spoken by the prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah 7:14). 
     Yeshua mentions the use of His Name in Matthew 7:22-23 ‘ Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”  Notice that Yeshua states: ‘in Your Name’ 3 times. 
    His name did not change. He is the same today, tomorrow, and forever. We do not follow a changing Messiah. We follow a Messiah who changed us but is Himself unchangeable.
     In chapter 4 God gives Moshe signs, yet he is still apprehensive, causing the anger of God to kindle against Moshe. However, God reassures him in Exodus 4:14-17.
   Moshe’s first encounter with Pharoah is in Exodus chapter 5.  Pharoah twists the entire truth of events, which today we would call ‘gaslighting’. He blames the newly set harsh conditions that he imposed upon the Israelites as the fault of Moshe. This conniving trick worked - Exodus 5:20-21. ‘Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. ²¹ And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
     In the last part of Exodus 5 and the beginning of Exodus 6, which ends the Torah portion Shemot, Moshe returns to God, with despair and blames God as he quips: ‘…neither have You…’   Exodus 5:22-23 ‘So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? ²³ For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”
     With His continual lovingkindness/chesed/ for God did not strike Moshe at that moment, He responded to Moshe with the sovereignty of who He is: Exodus 6:1-2. ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” ² And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord.’ 
     Names in Scripture are relative, meaningful, and powerful. We are told in Philippians 2:9-11 ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
     Acts 4:12 ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
     Revelation 3:12 ‘The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.’
    Psalm 8:1 ‘O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!