Joy in the Messiah

  וָאֵרָא
Va’era / And I Appeared
Exodus 6:2-9:35
HafTorah Portion Ezekiel 28:25-28:21
Brit Chadasha Romans 9:14-24

     Va’era begins the events of the Passover, which is said to be the holiest day in God’s calendar. In Exodus 6:3-4 Elohim spoke; Vayidabeir which implies a more authoritative and strong speech, while said/vayomer; implies more of a relationship, a softer speech. In this we have a pattern to follow when we speak. When Moses questions God, He declares His dominion and also His loving relationship with both of the Hebrew words: ‘He spoke and He said…’  This is Lashon HaKodesh – The Holy Tongue. 
   Chapter 6 continues with God’s promises to His people. In this chapter we read about the four cups of redemption that are in the Pesach Hagadah:  Take…Deliver…Redeem…Acquire. However, there are five parts to redemption, the fifth one is mentioned in Exodus 6:6-8. ‘Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’ 
      Why, if there are five expressions of redemption, do we only drink four cups of wine during the Seder? The answer is that within a few weeks of the exodus from Egypt, the first four expressions of redemption were accomplished. However, the fifth expression, the entry into the Land of Israel, only began to take place 40 years later under the leadership of Joshua. Each cup of wine is a symbol of the joy we feel as partakers of God's promises.  The sages questioned: is the fifth promise connected to the prior four, or is it a separate promise? Some said there should be four cups in honor of four promises; others said five cups for five promises. This fifth cup later became the Cup of Elijah. This is identified as the land and the Messiah, and is spoken by Messiah Yeshua in Matthew 17:10-12.
     Exodus 7:1-2 God encourages Moshe, ‘See, I have made you as god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. ² You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.’ 
     God continues with a prophetic warning in Exodus 7:3-5, ‘And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴ But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. ⁵ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.’ 
    In this parsha, chapter seven begins with seven of the ten plague and each plague coincides with an Egyptian god.
     Va’era ends with another episode of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. There are three teachings on the hardened heart in Va’era and in the next parsha, Bo. One: Pharaoh’s loss of freewill during the last five plagues was a punishment for his obstinacy in the first five, where he acted freely.  Two: the relevant verb, ch-z-k, does not mean “to harden” but “to strengthen.” God was not taking away Pharaoh’s freewill but, to the contrary, preserving it in the face of the overwhelming disasters that were hitting Egypt. Three: God is a partner in all human action, but we only usually attribute an act to God if it seems inexplicable in ordinary human terms. Pharaoh acted freely throughout, but it was only during the last five plagues that his behavior was so strange that it was attributed to God.”
      God purposedly shaped and warned both Moshe and Pharaoh in Exodus 4:22 of the future.  Maybe they were unaware of this warning, but He said to them, ‘Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. ²³ So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.’
The plague of blood – Pharoah’s heart became hard after the magicians did the same thing.
The plague of frogs - Pharoah hardened his heart when he saw the relief.
The plague of gnats – When Pharoah was told; ‘This is the finger of God,’ he would not listen and his
heart became hard.        
The plague of flies – Pharoah hardened his heart.
The plague on the livestock – Pharoah’s heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.
The plague of boils – The Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart and he would not listen to Moshe.
The plague of hail – Pharoah’s heart was hard when he saw the hail stop.
     Whether we harden our hearts or God allows it, it renders us immobile.
    Hebrews 3:7-9 ‘Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years.’
     Ephesians 4:17-19  ‘This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’
     Proverbs 28:14 ‘How blessed is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.’
    Zechariah 7:12 ‘They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.’
     Hebrews 4:5-7  “They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
     Va’era is the precursor to the next parsha, Bo/Come which includes the final three plagues and Pesach/Passover instituted. In the last chapter of parsha Bo is the answer to the question of the Passover: Exodus 10:14 ‘So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’ What an amazing and utterly important thing to remember.
     The importance of these two parshas cannot be under estimated.  The plagues against Pharaoh coincide with their gods. The four redemptive statements and the final one coincides with our life with Elohim. The Passover coincides with Messiah, and the Seder with order. God delivered His people and He showed His power through His outstretched right arm. He reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and further set apart the people as His Chosen People. He promised a return to the land, giving the people and us a glimpse of the Messiah and now we know the connection. 

וָאֵרָא
Va’era / And I Appeared
Exodus 6:2-9:35
HafTorah Portion Ezekiel 28:25-28:21
Brit Chadasha Romans 9:14-24

     This Torah portion is the beginning of the heart of the Passover.  This is the parsha that clearly defines the Pesach Seder according to The Almighty. Va’era is the beginning of the Passover.
     Va’era starts with God and His words of promise. This is where the seder gets the four cups of redemption.  As we study Exodus chapter six, we actually see that there are five parts to redemption. ‘Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’ Exodus 6:6-8. 
     Why, if there are five expressions of redemption, do we only drink four and not five cups of wine during the Seder? The answer is, that within a few weeks of the exodus from Egypt, the first four expressions of redemption were accomplished. However, the fifth expression, the entry into the Land of Israel, only began to take place 40 years later under the leadership of Joshua. Each cup of wine is a symbol of the joy we feel as beneficiaries of God's promises. In contrast is the fifth promise connected to the prior four, or is it a separate promise? On this the rabbis could not agree. Some said there should be four cups in honor of four promises; others said five cups for five promises. This later became the Cup of Elijah. This is identified as the land and the Messiah, for it is spoken by Messiah, ‘And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Yeshua answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.  But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.”  Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Immerser.’
     This very simple point might be negated if we don’t study and learn from Scripture. And it is one of the most important parts of Scripture. It was and is still God’s redemptive plan for His people.
     In Exodus chapter 7, God lays out the order for the great Exodus, beginning with Aaron’s rod and the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh.  In Exodus 7:14 God tells Moshe that Pharaoh’s heart is hard, and to turn the waters to blood, the first plague. 
     Chapter 8 contains the second, third and fourth plague; frogs, lice and flies. Exodus 8:20-24 holds another key part of the Seder, clarifying who is God’s people: ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me.  Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.  And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land.  I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.”  And the Lord did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies.’ In verse 23 God states: ‘I will make a difference between My people and your people.”
     Exodus chapter 9 has the fifth, sixth and seventh plagues: livestock diseased, boils and hail.  Exodus 9:20 clarifies the difference between the people who feared God and those that didn’t. Those that didn’t, their livestock died. ‘He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses.  But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.’  And Exodus 9:26 ‘Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.’ 
     Even though Pharaoh admits in verse 27 that he had sinned and that the Lord is righteous, yet he continues to harden his heart. ‘And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants.  So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses.’ Exodus 9:34-35.
     Va’era is the precursor to the next parsha, Bo/Come which includes the final three plagues and Pesach/Passover instituted. In the last chapter of parsha Bo, is the answer to the question of the Passover: Exodus 10:14 ‘So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’ What an amazing and utterly important thing to remember.
     The importance of these two parshas cannot be under estimated.  The plagues against Pharaoh coincide with their gods. The four redemptive statements and the final one coincides with our life with Elohim. The Passover coincides with Messiah, and the Seder with order. 
    It is taught that Passover is one of the most holy days of the years.  God delivered His people. He showed His power through His right outstretched right arm, He reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and further set apart the His people as His Chosen People. He promised a return to the land, and He gave the people and us a glimpse of the Messiah and now we know the connection. 
     Ritual and traditions are important and so is order/Seder.  It is said that, ‘Memory, in turn, relies on ritual. Human beings find perpetuating gratitude very difficult. Unless people make a deliberate effort, the good that another has done for them is usually forgotten quickly. Remembering hurtful things comes far more naturally to people than remembering the good things done to them.  God’s people have been grateful to God for the Exodus for over three thousand years is solely due to their observance of Passover — which is all the more remarkable in light of all the terrible suffering Jews have since experienced.’
     God gives us a layout as to the why of the Passover. He also gives us the instructions, of which families have made their own traditions. But without the why and the observance, the traditions become rote or obscure. Traditions of any holy day, or any holiday should revolve around the day. For instance, the Fourth of July is a time of hotdogs, fireworks and red, white and blue. Most family traditions involve some if not all of the major aspects of July 4th.  
    That is why most Passover Seders, private and public involve the reading of a Haggadah, which keeps the seder running smooth and in order tells the story of the Great Exodus – why we do the Passover.