The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/WQwSmL5JFXg
Reading
Exodus chapters 1 & 2
By
Dan & Brenda Cathcart
As
we begin the second book of the Torah, we see that it opens by listing the
names of all the sons of Israel who went into Egypt because of the severe
famine in the land of Canaan.
Exodus 1:1-5 NKJV 1 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).
The
book of Exodus, or in Hebrew, Shemot, means names. This book focuses on the
sons of Israel and their time in exile in Egypt, their redemption from bondage,
and their time in the wilderness.
When
they began their sojourn in Egypt, they are quite prosperous. They possessed
the best and most fertile land in all of Egypt and live in harmony and peace
with their Egyptian hosts. Over the course of their 430 years stay in Egypt,
the promises from God that they would become a great nation will be fulfilled. But
as we will see in this series covering the book of Exodus, their situation will
take a dramatic change. How do the names recorded in this book lead us to the
redeemer of Israel and, ultimately, the whole world?
The
names of each of the sons of Jacob who entered Egypt with their entire
households, reflects God’s blessings. When we take the meanings of the names,
each name reflects an aspect of redemption.
This
list of names is not in their birth order and begins with the six sons of Leah;
they are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon.
The
name Reuben is number 7205 in the Strong’s Concordance meaning to look or see,
and Simeon, number 8095, means hearing. God saw and heard the cry of His
people.
Exodus 2:24-25 NKJV 24 So God heard
their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged
them.
The
name Levi, number 3878, literally means attached. God has joined Himself to the
children of Israel in His declaration that they were His people.
Exodus 6:7 NKJV 7 '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.
The
name Judah, number 3063 meaning celebrated, comes from a root word, number 3034,
meaning praise. The children of Israel would praise God for this deliverance.
Exodus 15:2 NKJV 2 The LORD is my
strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will
praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
The
name Issachar, number 3485, is from two root words together meaning, he will
bring a reward. The children of Israel received their wages or reward when they
left Egypt with the wealth of Egypt given to them.
Exodus 3:22 NKJV 22 "But every
woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house,
articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on
your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians."
The
last son of Leah is Zebulun number 2074 which is from a root word, number 2082,
meaning to reside or dwell. When they left Egypt, God said that He would dwell
among them.
Exodus 25:8 NKJV 8 "And let them
make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
After
the listing of Leah’s children, the Torah lists Rachel’s son Benjamin, number
1144, whose name means son of the right hand. God will bring the children of
Israel out of Egypt with His strong right hand.
Exodus 15:6 NKJV 6 "Your right
hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed
the enemy in pieces.
The
next sons listed are those of the handmaidens of Leah and Rachel. Here we have
Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The name Dan is number 1835 and means judge. God
brought the children of Israel out of Egypt with judgment against Egypt.
Exodus 7:4 NKJV 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.
There
seems to be an interesting word play with the next two names in the list. The
name Naphtali, number 5321, which means my wrestling. It sounds similar to
“no’feth,” number 5317, the Hebrew word for honeycomb. The Jewish sages liken
the name Naphtali to receiving the Torah which the Psalmist says is sweeter
than the honeycomb.
Psalms 19:10 NKJV 10 More to be
desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey
and the honeycomb.
Jacob’s
prophecy over Naphtali reveals that Naphtali uses beautiful words. We can also
look at the literal meaning of wrestling to refer to the contest between God
and Egypt. God will ultimately win, and the Children of Israel will receive the
Torah as a sweet reward or gift.
The
next son in the list is Gad, number 1410, from a related word, number 1413, meaning
to gather or assemble in troops.
Exodus 6:26 NKJV 26 These are the same
Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring out the children of Israel
from the land of Egypt according to their armies."
The
name Gad also sounds similar to the Hebrew word for coriander, number 1407. The
manna was described as being like a coriander seed.
Exodus 16:31 NKJV 31 And the house of
Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the
taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
With
the names Naphtali and Gad, we see that God provides for His people throughout
their redemption process. He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt in
troops or armies and fed them with “wafers made with honey.”
The
next son in the list is Asher, number 836, meaning happy. When Asher was born
by Leah’s handmaiden, Leah pronounced that she was happy.
Genesis 30:13 NKJV 13 Then Leah said,
"I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed." So she called
his name Asher.
The
list ends with Joseph, the son who was already in Egypt. Joseph, number 3130,
means let him add. God would add to this redemption a second redemption even
greater than the first.
Jeremiah 16:14-15 NKJV 14
"Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that it
shall no more be said, 'The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel
from the land of Egypt,' 15 "but, 'The LORD lives who brought up the
children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He
had driven them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to
their fathers.
All
these names also refer to the blessing of a son. The entire meaning of the name
Reuben, who is the first son listed in this account, means “Look, a son.” And we
see that the list is perfectly bookended with the implied meaning of Joseph’s
name that God will add.
Rachel
declared at Joseph’s birth that God would add another son. So, the redemption of
the children of Israel begins and ends with the son and the return of the son,
foreshadowing the future Messiah!
This
account, at the beginning of the book of Exodus about Jacob’s sons, concludes
with the statement that there were seventy descendants who lived in Egypt. The
number seventy is a number associated with the nations of the earth. Later,
Moses explains the connection.
Deuteronomy 32:8 NKJV 8 When the Most
High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of
Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the
children of Israel.
The
number seventy tells us that God’s redemption includes the nations as well as
Israel. Egypt was the land in which the children of Israel were in slavery to
Pharaoh. The children of Israel were redeemed out of this slavery. Paul speaks
of the redemption from the slavery to sin. Therefore, Egypt represents the
world of sin and the flesh in which all of the sons of Adam are in slavery.
Romans 6:16-17 NKJV 16 Do you not know
that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slave
whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to
righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet
you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
The
deeper meaning of these opening verses of Exodus or Shemot is that the promise
of redemption is, literally, from slavery in Egypt and, metaphorically, from
slavery to sin.
The
children of Israel had a good life in Egypt. They prospered and multiplied just
as God had promised they would. They stayed in Egypt many generations beyond
the end of the famine that brought them to Egypt in the first place.
At
some point in the future, perhaps a few generations later, following the death
of Jacob, Joseph, the brothers and all their families, a new Pharaoh rose to
power who saw this multitude of people as a threat.
Exodus 1:8-10 NKJV 8 Now there arose a
new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people,
"Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
10 "come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it
happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against
us, and so go up out of the land."
Pharaoh
conscripted the Hebrew men to build cities for him keeping them from tending
their flocks and farming their land, and, thus driving them into poverty and
slavery. Despite everything Pharaoh did, the Hebrew people continued to
multiply.
Exodus 1:11-13 NKJV 11 Therefore they
set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built
for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted
them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children
of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
Fearing
the rising numbers and influence of the Hebrews, Pharaoh responded by declaring
first, that all Hebrew boys were to be killed at birth.
Exodus 1:15-16 NKJV 15 Then the king
of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and
the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, "When you do the duties of a
midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son,
then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."
When
this action did not prove successful, Pharaoh ordered that baby boys be thrown
into the Nile River at birth.
Exodus 1:22 NKJV 22 So Pharaoh
commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast
into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."
At
this time we see the birth of Moses, who is the central character in the rest
of the Exodus account. He is the one sent by God to redeem God’s people from
their bondage. The name Moses is number 4872 meaning drawing out of the water. Moses’
parents already had two children, Miriam and Aaron. Yet the Bible tells us that
a man from the tribe of Levi married a woman from the same tribe.
Exodus 2:1-2 NKJV 1 And a man of the
house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman
conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she
hid him three months.
Weren’t
they already married? The Talmud explains a Jewish tradition that many of the
Hebrew men divorced their wives so they would not be tempted to father a child
that would then be killed at birth.
First
Fruits of Zion in Shadows of the Messiah explains the Jewish tradition
about the marriage of Moses’ mother and father and the conception of Moses.
The Talmud states that Amram (the
father of Moses) divorced his wife Jochabed after the birth of Aaron and
Miriam. Later, he remarried her after receiving a prophecy instructing him to
do so. What is more, the Talmud suggests Amram’s wife had miraculously
conceived during his absence—though she had known no man.[i]
At
Moses’ birth, Jochebed, his mother, describes him as a beautiful child. The
literal translation of Exodus 2:2 reads that “she saw that he was good.” Traditionally
a male child is named on the eighth day. Since Jochebed called him a good
child, perhaps his original given name was Tovia, derived from the Hebrew tobe,
number 2896, which means good.
Later,
when she could no longer hide the child from the order of Pharaoh to throw all
the baby boys into the Nile, Jochebed devised a plan to save him.
Exodus 2:3-6 NKJV 3 But when she could
no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with
asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's
bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. 5
Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens
walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent
her maid to get it. 6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and
behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, "This is
one of the Hebrews' children."
The
daughter of Pharaoh took the child as her own and raised him in the household
of Pharaoh. It was Pharaoh’s daughter who named the child Moses.
Moses
grew up in Pharaoh’s household. He received an education the same as that of a
natural born son would receive. It is apparent that Moses knew of his heritage
as a Hebrew while growing up. One day when he was forty years old, Moses saw
the mistreatment of two fellow Hebrews and sought to intervene killing the
taskmaster who had mistreated them. However, these two Hebrews did not
appreciate his intervention and taunted Moses.
Exodus 2:14 NKJV 14 Then he said,
"Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as
you killed the Egyptian?" So Moses feared and said, "Surely this
thing is known!"
As
a result of the Hebrews rejecting Moses’ intervention, Moses was forced to flee
from Egypt. He spent his next forty years in exile. But back in Egypt, conditions
got much worse for the children of Israel. Finally, they cried out to God for
help.
God
heard their cry and chose Moses to redeem the children of Israel from their
afflictions. At first Moses was not so sure of this calling of God. Moses asked
God what signs he could show the people so they would know that God had sent
him. God gave Moses two signs. The first was to turn his staff into a serpent
and back into a staff again.
Exodus 4:2-5 NKJV 2 So the LORD said
to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." 3
And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses,
"Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his
hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 "that they may
believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."
This
sign was to remind Moses that God has the authority over creation! By grasping
the serpent by the tail, and having it turn back into a staff, God is
demonstrating that He was taking back the authority over creation that Satan
had stolen from Adam!
The
second sign God gave to Moses was to show the children of Israel his authority
over uncleanness.
Exodus 4:6-7 NKJV 6 Furthermore the
LORD said to him, "Now put your hand in your bosom." And he put his
hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like
snow. 7 And He said, "Put your hand in your bosom again." So he put
his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was
restored like his other flesh.
Moses’
hand turning leprous represents Moses, as the one sent to redeem his people, taking
on the uncleanness of the people. His hand, then, becoming clean again. These
signs that Moses was to perform for the people, set Moses in the position of
the redeemer of his people and as such, a type of Messiah. When Moses returned
to Egypt and demonstrated these signs for the children of Israel, they accepted
him as being sent by God.
Moses,
once rejected by his people as an intercessor and sent away, returns as the
redeemer sent by God! In this way Moses is the shadow of Yeshua the ultimate redeemer
sent by God to bring, not only Israel out of their bondage to sin, but to offer
the same redemption to the whole world! Yeshua came once as the suffering
servant. He will return as the ultimate redeemer.
Hebrews 9:28 NKJV 28 so Christ was
offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He
will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
In
these opening chapters of the book of exodus, or Shemot, we see name-after-name
of the sons of Israel, which when taken together with the other names, tells us
the story of God’s plan for redemption for his people. The children of Israel spent
430 years in exile in Egypt and suffered many years of slavery and bondage. But
God never forgot His promises to them, He heard their cries for a redeemer and
answered! And both names for this second book of the Torah also point to God’s
redemption of man. The name Shemot tells us that story of redemption in the
name of Jacob’s sons. The name Exodus tells us that God will take us out of our
bondage and accept us as His people.
Study
Questions:
2.
Compare the signs that Moses was given to
demonstrate that he was sent by God with the signs Yeshua gave to prove His
Messiahship.
3.
Why would the two Hebrew men being abused
by their Egyptian taskmaster reject Moses’ intervention on their behalf?
General
Portion Questions
4.
The meanings of the names of Moses’
mother and Father, Jochebed and Amram are not defined in the teaching. What is
the meaning of their names, and how do these meanings enhance the message of
this Torah Portion?
5.
The Exodus story is the prime example for
Messianic redemption for both Jew and Christian. Discuss the parallels between
the Exodus story and our salvation in Yeshua.
6.
What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in
this Torah Portion that point to Messiah Yeshua?
Bonus:
Compare the meaning of the names of Jacob’s sons with Jacob’s blessing of them
found in Genesis 49:1-28. Is there a correlation?
©
Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.
[i]
Torah Club. Shadows of the Messiah. Book Two.
D. Thomas Lancaster. First Fruits of Zion. 800.775.4807. www.ffoz.org. Page 314.
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