And These Are The Names
- Posted on JanpmWed, 18 Jan 2017 22:18:49 -06002017-01-18T22:18:49-06:0010 17, 2016
- in Bible, God, Hebrew, Messiah, Shemot, Study, Torah, Yeshua
- by Hallelujah Girl
This week we enter the book of Exodus, or Shemot in the Hebrew. The book of “The Names”. Shemot, שמות, comes from the Hebrew word “shem”. Shem (שם) is formed from the two hebrew letters shin and mem. Shin is a picture of teeth, meaning sharp, to press ascending flames, and is also a picture of the Almighty. The mem, and in this instance the final mem, is a picture of mighty flowing rushing waters. The definition of the Hebrew word Shem is a name, base, infamous, and renown. As many of you might know, Exodus is the story of slavery in Egypt and how The Almighty rushes in and presses the Egyptian Pharoah to let His People go! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
The book of Exodus begins: “And these are the names of the Children of Israel who were coming to Egypt“. Many times throughout scripture we find sentences beginning with the word “And”. Here we find a book beginning with the word “And”. This can only mean that the book known to westerners as Exodus is a continuation of the book of Genesis. So let’s look back to see just how Genesis came to a close:
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I’m about to die. But God will surely take notice of you and will bring you up from this land to the land that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made Israel’s sons swear an oath saying, “When God takes notice of you, you will bring my bones up from here.” –Genesis 50:24-25
Joseph then dies at the age of 110, is embalmed and placed in a coffin. This symbolizes that Joseph’s spirit would remain with the Children of Israel throughout their many years of suffering. What seems like the end is really just the beginning.
The Torah already mentions the list of the Children of Israel, with a complete count, in Genesis 46:8-27. Why a duplicate sentence? Isaiah may have a notion, “Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who created these? The One who brings out their host by number, the One who calls them all by name. Because of His great strength and vast power, not one is missing.” ~Isaiah 40:26. When something or someone is dear to you the subject seems to get repeated. Trust me, as a hairdresser, I know this to be true. The sons of Israel, or as many versions say the Children of Israel, are likened to the stars. The Holy One knows them all by name, they are so precious to Him that they are worth repeating.
“And these are the names of the Children of Israel, who came into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his family:” ~Exodus 1:1
These “Children” or “Sons”, however your Bible translates, are just that, names of seventy souls who came into Egypt. The verse tells as if they were just arriving in Egypt but they’ve been there a while, however now that Joseph and all his brothers had passed, this generation would come out of Goshen and enter into Egypt. When Joseph was alive Goshen was a safe place, but now the attitudes of the Egyptians had changed. The Children of Israel were growing in number. They were strong and the Egyptian leaders saw this as a threat.
Here we see the first instance of Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is defined as hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group. The Children of Israel were too dangerous to keep and too important to lose according to the Pharoah at that time. His solution was to enslave them. By building cities at locations where the land was marshy, the heavy brick walls would sink and crumble causing the work to be repeated endlessly. Extermination was the hopeful outcome of Pharoah and his advisors.
But The Holy One, blessed be He, wasn’t going to let that happen. The more the Children of Israel were tormented the more their population grew.
Thr prophet Isaiah assures us in the Haftarah portion, “It will also come about in that day, a great shofar will be blown. Those perishing in the land of Assyria and the exiles in the land of Egypt will come and worship Adonai on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.” ~Isaiah 27:13 and follows it up with, “In that day Adonai -Tzva’ot will be a crown of glory, a diadem of beauty to the remnant of His people,” ~Isaiah 28:5
The Holy One placed his infamous Name upon His People. He is mighty to save and He will indeed! Sound the Shofar!
Happy day!
Hallelujah Girl?
Shemot
Torah: Exodus 1:1-6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23
Gospel: Luke 5:12-39
Tags: #ReadYourBible #ItsAllAboutYeshua #TorahIsTruth, Exodus, Names, Shemot