Torah Pearls #13 – Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1)

In this episode of The Original Torah Pearls Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1), we clear away centuries of clutter left by mistranslations, Halacha, and Cecil B. DeMille’s version of events. In the spotlight is the burning bush scene where very clearly God revealed his one and only name to Moses. With instructions for present and future use, he left no room for misunderstanding. We look at how we got so messed up and what to do about it.

The light of language, history and context is also shed on the following: Did Jewish slaves build the pyramids? Were the midwives Hebrew or Egyptian? What is the Egyptian context of the name Moses? Do we know the identity of the man whom Moses witnessed being beaten? Did Moses “help” or “save” the daughters of Jethro? Where did Moses feel like a stranger? What is comforting about the three signs given to the Israelites? What did a zealous scribe do to protect the name of Moses from being tainted?

Word studies include: "swarmed," "task masters," "dread," "lively," “heavy tongue,” “Mt Sinai,” “Mt. Horeb,” and to be “as God.” Concerning “shemati” (I have heard), Gordon encourages listeners to slow down like Moses did upon seeing the bush, and to bring all their stuff, big and little, to Yehovah, knowing that he hears our cries.

I look forward to reading your comments!

Download Torah Pearls Shemot Transcript
Torah Pearls #13 Shemot

You are listening to The Original Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon, Keith Johnson, and Jono Vandor. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Jono: Good day to Sea Shelley, and everybody listening wherever you may be around the world and thank you for your company. It’s time for Pearls from the Torah Portion with Methodist Keith Johnson in North Carolina and Karaite Jew Nehemia Gordon joining the program from Jerusalem.

Nehemia: Shalom. [laughing]

Jono: Good day fellas, how are you going?

Keith: I want to say right now, Jono, I don’t know if you could keep saying “Methodist Keith Johnson”. Everybody that’s been listening or seeing and watching me know that I’m probably really close to not being a Methodist anymore. Not for theological reasons - it’s just that my association with this guy, Nehemia Gordon, is giving me such popularity that even the Methodists are starting to listen; they’re getting a little nervous. So we can keep plugging.

Nehemia: But isn’t this like the super liberal denomination that has all kinds of... I’m not even allowed to say it, but you know what I’m talking about.

Jono: The doors are wide open.

Keith: Sure, they are. Sure they are, but you know…

Jono: I think the papers are still good, right?

Keith: It has to do more with me, than, I think, of them. I’m waiting for a really good excuse, and I think we’re getting closer.

Nehemia: Former Methodist Keith Johnson!

Jono: Shemot Exodus 1 verse 1 to 6 verse 1, and it begins like this. Keith, are you ready?

Keith: Yes.

Jono: Ve eleh shemot bnei Israel.” I had to stop already because... Keith, I need you to help me understand something here. Not so many years ago I thought that the name of the book was Exodus. And then I discovered that this Hebrew book that I’ve been reading actually has Hebrew names, and that the name is Shemot.

But then, when I had a bit of a closer look this week, I opened it up, and low and behold it begins with a “vav”, it begins with the word “and”, which is kind of an interesting way to start.

Keith: It’s funny that you should bring this up, because I thought to myself… I was going to ask Nehemia as we were about to start, and this is so funny. I said, “Whenever I read this book I’ve always known it to be the book of Exodus, and it wasn’t until we started studying that very Hebrew Bible that we discussed this whole issue of books being named after the first couple of words, or the words that the book starts out in the Hebrew text.

But one of the things that I wanted to ask Nehemia, more from an experiential standpoint, when he grew up and he would hear people talk about Exodus, did he hear it in terms of… this is the story of the Exodus?

Nehemia: Until I studied at the Hebrew University, I had no idea what Exodus was. I couldn’t have told you what book Leviticus was. I just knew Bereshit, Shemot, Va’yikrah, Bamidbar, Devarim. I actually only learned those Latin and Greek names of the books when I had to use a concordance that use those names.

It would write “Ex”, and I’m like, “What’s that?” “That’s just Shemot.” Why is it Shemot? I’m not really sure. “Lev”, that’s Va’yikra, why is it that?

Only later on did I learn that those were originally the Greek and later Latin names of the books.

Keith: What I wanted to say, what was so impressive Jono, to go back to you, was that you’re obviously now studying Hebrew and you’re reading these books in their original language.

When you started out learning that first line, did you then make the connection that that was the title of the book?

Jono: Well, it surprised me because I figured Shemot was the name of the book. When I opened up my Tanakh, and I believe you and I have the same publication of that, it’s “ve eleh shemot”, which I understand to mean, “And these are the names.” Is that correct Nehemia?

Nehemia: Right. And that’s the original name of the book. And when I say original, I mean that in the earliest Jewish sources it’s called the “ve eleh shemot”, and then later on they abbreviated that simply to Shemot; Shemot is the name that I grew up with.

“Shemot” means “names”. Isn’t that interesting, that this second book opens up and it lists names? I think that emphasizes how important names are in the Hebrew culture.

There’s this concept that the way a person is blessed after they died is that their name is remembered. And if their name is forgotten - like the name of Amalek we’re commanded to stamp out, to forget, to blot out. That is a curse. So this idea of remembering and forgetting names is a key concept in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Keith: And I know, Jono, you’re going to probably want to do your regular deal, where you read it, and it’s really beautiful when I hear it read. But I want to say, what’s so interesting about this is, and I’m just going back to the time of thinking about the ancient Israelites sitting and listening to the Torah being read, and obviously they didn’t have a Torah scroll, many of them in their homes, they would go to the synagogue, maybe, and listen. Or even before that, was it every seven years at the time of Sukkot where they would hear this, and if you’re listening to this...

And I’ve done this many times where I’ve actually read through the Torah in Hebrew, and when I’m reading it in Hebrew… It’s like now, we’re moving into Names, and so what are these names? And what do those names remind me of? The entire story of Bereshit, and then it just flows into the next thing.

Now, before I ever started reading any Hebrew, and I was just reading my English Bible, I used to skip the section on names. “This is the name of so and so who’s the son of so and so.” I’m like, “That’s not important. We don’t need to get to that. Let’s get to the meat.” Come to find out that there’s meat in the names. [laughing]

Sometimes when you’re reading, I’m like, “Come on. We’ve got to get to the good section.” So I want you to keep doing what you’re doing, because it reminds us of the significance of why this is in the Torah. I’m glad we stopped to take a moment to talk about the “ve ele shemot”.

Nehemia: Can I read the names? Can I read the first…

Jono: Please. Can you read it through to verse 7 for us?

Nehemia: Okay. “Ve eleh shemot Bnei Israel haba’im Mitzraima. Et Ya’akov ish u’beito ba’u. Reuven, Shim’on, Levi, veYehuda. Yisaschar, Zvulun u’Binyamin. Dan veNaftali, Gad veAsher. Vayehi, kol nefesh yotzei yarech Ya’akov shiv’im nfesh; veYoseph haya beMitzraim. Vayamot Yoseph vekol echav vekol hador ha’hu. U’vnei Israel paru vayishrezu vayarbu vaya’azmu bime’od me’od. Vatimlah ha’aretz otam. “

Jono: Beautiful. Thank you, my friend.

Nehemia: And now for the cantillation. [starts praying]

Keith: Oh my goodness.

Nehemia: I can’t sing, I admit this.

Keith: It would have gotten ugly. [laughing]

Nehemia: Wait, I want to comment on verse 7.

Jono: Okay, come out on verse 7. Here we are.

Nehemia: As the children of Israel “paru”, is they were fruitful, “vayishretzu”, and they swarmed. And the word there is the same word that describes the swarming of bugs or herds of animals. This is a word that describes swarming usually applied to animals. And I think that that amplifies...

Normally we’ll hear about “pru u’rvu”, to be fruitful and multiply, and here it adds the words, it says, “They were fruitful, they swarmed, and they multiplied.” I think there’s some significance in that.

Jono: Here in Australia, when we think swarms we think of locusts, of course, and it really adds visually. Because what I have in English is that, “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty. And the land was filled with them.” But swarmed really adds to that.

Nehemia: Yeah, it’s swarmed. And if you look at it mathematically, and I admit math is not my strong point, but look at it - 70 people were in Egypt in the generation of Joseph. And let’s add a few wives that weren’t counted, so let’s say it was a hundred and something people. And then you have 600,000 males, a little bit over 200 years later. That means that they must have been having numerous children. These weren’t nuclear families with three or four children.

According to one Jewish tradition, they were having multiple twins, like four or five children at a time. And that’s how they explained that. And I don’t know if they actually had multiple children at a time, but what definitely must have happened is that the infant mortality rate must have been down to near zero, and that’s extremely significant, because if you look at pre-modern times, up until about 200 years ago, and even today in some third world countries, the infant mortality rate was extremely high.

They talk about how the average lifespan was 40 years old in the ancient times, but that’s kind of misleading because most people didn’t live past the age of five. If you lived into adulthood, then you had a good chance of living to be 60 or 70 years old. And so they must have had a very low infant mortality rate to produce 600,000 males after a couple of hundred years.

Nehemia: One question I do have, and I know that you stopped on this, Nehemia, so it’s a small little Torah Pearl. One of the things that happened when we began to read through the Torah in Hebrew, that these words that you just mentioned, this idea of swarming - when you’re reading it in Hebrew, that word jumps off the page. It took enough for you to stop. When I hear that word I start thinking, “This brings me back to somewhere in Genesis, and I don’t know where,” and so I’m thinking “swarming”. And so then I’m thinking about...

Nehemia: Genesis 1:20

Keith: Yes. So when I hear Exodus 1:7, I think of Genesis 1:20, that then takes me to Genesis 8, speaking about I think it’s the animals there, creeping things, swarming. And it’s funny, because in the Hebrew bible, and we see this again with the words “shem”- “name”. This is an example. Many, many words were for you, when you hear them, you’re like, “It’s obvious. Look at the connection. It goes to wherever.”

Well, for the English reader, sometimes those words are translated differently. So just now we’re talking about multiplied or whatever, and we wouldn’t see... So again, Genesis 1, Exodus 1, what am I thinking about? I’m thinking about Him doing a recreation of these people and preparing to bring them out of Egypt. And they’re going to be fruitful and multiply. So I think of Genesis 1 when I read Exodus 1, for me now. That’s only in the last 10 years that I’ve been dealing with that, but before that I would’ve never made the connection.

Anyway, we can move on. Thank you for stopping.

Nehemia: For me the association is Leviticus 11, or for example in verse 10, it translates it in King James, “all that move in the waters”, and it literally is “all that swarm in the water”, it’s talking about all kinds of fish and other sea animals that are forbidden to eat that swarm.

And then in verse 20 it says all “fowls that creep”, and again, that’s the same exact word. The word they translate there is “creep”. “Creep” is also the word “swarm”, and there it actually is talking about locusts and any other kind of what we would call flying bugs.

It’s actually kind of an unusual word to see applied to humans, because it does apply usually to the swarming of animals and bugs and things like that. And then even in Exodus 7:28, it talks about the frogs swarming in the Nile, and King James translates it, “Bring forth abundantly,” and it literally says “swarm”.

And so this is a word that, again, is like very unusual for me to see applied to a human, and the fact that it is means it’s significant. And it’s emphasizing how...

Jono: Yeah, I was just going to say that it’s used purposefully to emphasize the point.

Nehemia: And you can understand how this would be so intimidating to the Egyptians, where they have 70 people and all of a sudden, half a dozen generations later they’re dealing with millions. That would have seemed to them like the swarming of animals, and that’s something that’s actually alluded to later in the chapter, that we’ll get to if we have time.

Jono: And this is exactly what we’re about to read. “There arose a king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.” What - he’s never heard of Joseph? That just seems strange. What do you make of that?

Keith: When I see that, when it says, “He did not know Joseph,” just for me as I’m reading it, he’s not familiar. Whatever the thing that happened with Joseph, now you’ve got all of these people. And if this word that Nehemia just brought up, we think of it graphically, he’s the king. He’s looking at this, and he gives his reason.

What his concern is, maybe he did know who Joseph was, but what does it matter now when you’ve got this swarming group of people that you’re concerned about in terms of your own survival? As I read it, I think more about that.

Jono: In any case, they certainly weren’t mates like the previous Pharaoh was with Joseph.

Nehemia: Maybe he literally didn’t know who he was. Like if I were to say to you, “Jono, what do you know about Rutherford B. Hayes or William McKinley?” I think the average American wouldn’t know who that was, and frankly I think if you ask the average American teenager, “What do you know about Richard Nixon?” he wouldn’t know who that was either. He might vaguely know that he was a president.

Heck, you’ve probably seen these videos where they go and ask the Americans to identify a picture. They have a series of pictures, and they can all identify Ronald McDonald but a lot of them can’t identify President Obama.

Jono: Well, actually since you put it that way, Nehemia, I’ve seen a lot of videos where people ask the average Joe on the street what the Ten Commandments are, and I guess everyone would say they know the Ten Commandments. But when it comes to actually listing them, you’d find out they don’t really know them.

The first time he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply, and it happens in the event of war that they also go and join our enemies and fight against us. And go… so go out of the land.”

And this is kind of an interesting thing, “Let’s deal hard with these guys, because what happens if they leave us? That’d be no good. So let’s just be mean to them.” “Therefore, they setup taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ramses.”

Let me ask this question. Are we to attribute any of the great wonders of Egypt that we see today on tourist maps to the Israelites?

Nehemia: It actually doesn’t say that they built pyramids. It said they were building store houses or store cities. Based on that, I wouldn’t assume that they built pyramids. And then archeologists say that based on the chronology, they probably didn’t. But that’s definitely not an important point of the story.

One thing that is worth pointing out is that what you translate as taskmasters, literally in Hebrew “sarei misim” means tax officers. In Biblical times, a tax was an amount of time you gave working for the king. And so normally a king would say, “Come and work for me one month out of the year, after the harvest and before you plant.”

With the Israelites, they made them work apparently considerably more than that, and that was how they paid their taxes. We had read in the previous book in Genesis about how when they paid 20% tax that was considered slavery, and so this probably was considerably more than 20%, paying this labor as a form of tax.

And here’s what I would challenge the audience. Think about how many months out of the year you work to pay your taxes, and are we really free?

Keith: Uh-oh. You went too far. We need to move on.

Jono: That’s a very valid point. “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.” How about that?

Keith: Simple question - why is it that the more they afflicted them the more they grew? This is from a practical standpoint. Why would that happen? Is there some secret linguistic thing here, or is this a practical matter?

Jono: I don’t know. Honestly, I remember reading recently that whenever there’s a war in Israel, the population goes up.

Nehemia: I could give an explanation for that but I won’t. Let’s move on.

Keith: Okay, go ahead Jono.

Nehemia: And that word “dread” could also mean despised. They despised the children of Israel.

Jono: “So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. And then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives.” I’ve got a bright idea, Hebrew midwives… “of whom the name of one was Shifra and the other was Puah,” is that correct?

Nehemia: Yeah, Shifra and Puah.

Jono: “And he said, ‘When you do the duties of midwife for the Hebrew women, when you see them on the birth stool, if it is a son you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter then she shall live.’ But the midwives feared God and did not do as the King of Egypt commanded them but saved the male children alive. So the King of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?’ And the midwives said to the Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.’ And so therefore God dealt with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And it was so because the midwives feared God that He provided households for them.” There you go.

Keith: Here it is, Nehemia. This is a Torah Pearl.

Nehemia: It’s a Torah Pearl, and before we get to the Torah Pearl I want throw out a question, which is: are these midwives actually Hebrews? Because when it says the Hebrew midwives, that could mean two things in Hebrew. It could mean these were midwives who were Hebrews, or they were midwives for the Hebrews, meaning the ones that served the Hebrews.

And they clearly had experienced with the Egyptian women or wouldn’t have said what they said to Pharaoh about how the Hebrew women are different from the Egyptians. It seems to me that they have to be Egyptian midwives, because if they were Hebrew midwives, why would Pharaoh even think that they would go for this? So, they’ve got to be Egyptian.

And then verse 19, we have a Torah Pearl which is they say to Pharaoh, they try to give an excuse why they didn’t kill the boys. And they say, “The Hebrews aren’t like the Egyptian women,” “ki cha’yot hen” which in most translations is “for they are lively.” But it could be translated as, “for they are animals.”

And what I think they were doing was playing on Pharaoh’s racism. And if you look at racism, you’ll hear people say, “Those people, they’re animals.” Then sometimes they’ll actually attribute animalistic characteristics to minority groups or groups that they don’t like. And one of the characteristics of animals is... You’re a farmer, you know this. You’ve got goats, right Jono?

Jono: Sure.

Nehemia: And I don’t actually know about goats, but I know for example that a deer could be walking around in the field eating, and all of a sudden she’ll just pop out a baby, and get up and walk around again without any problem. They don’t need assistance.

I believe the reason that humans need assistance is that our heads are so big that we need help getting out of the birth canal. But animals don’t have that problem, they give birth easily, relatively speaking.

And so I think the midwives were playing on Pharaoh’s racism and saying, “You know those Hebrew women, they’re just a bunch of animals. We get there and they’ve already given birth.” Because he was such a racist and hated the Israelites so much, he bought into it. So they were using his racism against him to give him a viable explanation of why they weren’t cooperating with his murderous plan.

Jono: That makes so much more sense, because in that sense they’re in a way complementing the Egyptian women rather than knocking them, I suppose, saying, “They’re not like the Egyptian women. They’re animals. They give birth on the run.”

Keith: The other thing, Nehemia, I think that’s important, just as a casual reading of it, how would they know to compare with the Egyptian women unless they dealt with them?

Nehemia: Absolutely. They must have had experience with them.

Keith: Exactly.

Jono: Verse 22, “So Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every son who was born you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive.’” So how are the Egyptians going to achieve this? Eventually, when a son is uncovered at a certain age they’ll go, “You shouldn’t be alive. Off to the river you go into the alligator’s mouth?”

Nehemia: I guess so. It must have been something that was enforced violently, because nobody would cooperate with that without resistance. And that’s the whole point - that Jochebed, the mother of Moses, she hides it.

Jono: She does. She hides him for three months. “And the man at the house of Levi went and took a wife who’s a daughter of Levi. And so the woman conceived for him a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him...” So he was getting older and he was getting louder and he was getting around probably.

Keith: I have a question. Nehemia, you just named Moses’ mother, correct?

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: Where do you get that name?

Nehemia: That’s in the bible, chapter 6 verse 20.

Keith: Did you see how quickly Nehemia named Moses’ mother? If you ask most people, what was Moses’ mother’s name? Many people wouldn’t do this. He just quickly made that mention.

But is it not interesting that in Exodus, when we’re dealing with this... What normally happens, and if I ask this question real quickly, what normally happens when we see an important person born in the bible? What normally do we see happening? This book is called Shemot.

Nehemia: They’re given a name?

Keith: Exactly. Isn’t it interesting that in Exodus 2:2, here it says, “The woman conceived and she bore a son. And when she saw that he was beautiful she hid him for three months.” The thing that we would think is that such an important person that the person is who is about to be born, I would expect to see, “and the women conceived and bore a son. And she named his name,” but she doesn’t name him.

You know guys, for me when I read something like this I just think, “Why didn’t she name her son?” Or did she name her son, it just didn’t…

Nehemia: No. The daughter of Pharaoh gave him the name. That’s later in verse 10.

Jono: He actually has a Hebrew name, but do we know what that is?

Keith: Just a minute. That’s the point I’m trying to make. This is the thing I want to stop for just a second, because here we have this significant event; a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son.

I’m telling you, the first thing we would expect as we read throughout Bereshit, “And he was born, and they named his name Reuven, and they named his name Simeon, and they named his name...” And here we get to this and there’s no name.

Now you could say, obviously, later we find out that he gets a name, which we’re going to talk about. But I just thought it was really interesting that here she doesn’t give him a name. And my question is, does she not give him a name because she knows that...?

What does the story say? She hid him. Why did she hide him? Because there’s a death sentence. So did she not name him because she’s thinking, “Am I going to be able to hide him? Or how long am I going to hide him? Is he going to live or not?” These are things that I just think about when I’m reading it. I’m not trying to read more into it, but I just think it’s interesting in this story that the most significant person in this particular time is this man that we’re going to find out later that was named by the Egyptian, which is a great Torah Pearl, but that she doesn’t name him.

Okay, we can move on.

Nehemia: Why did she hide him for three months? One of the explanations given by Jewish commentators is that he was a preemie, and it wasn’t unusual in the old days… You know, now you could have a preemie after 20 weeks and the baby will survive. My niece was like that.

But in the old days, if the baby was born at six months it still had a chance of surviving. And if the baby is born after six months, she could pretend she’s still pregnant for three more months. After that no one’s going to buy it. So she might have given birth and then put a pillow underneath her garment to pretend she was still... So that might be why three months.

And then as far as what Keith was saying, what was the other point he made? I forget.

Jono: The name.

Nehemia: Oh, the name. We’ll get to that in the minute. We’ll have to edit this out, because I can’t remember what I wanted to say. [laughing]

Keith: That’s okay, it shows you’re human. [laughing]

Nehemia: I’m not human, I know everything!

Jono: “When she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes and daubed it in the asphalt and pitch, put the child in it and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank, and his sister stood far off to know what would be done to him.”

Keith: I did an in-depth study, and I studied actually the actual dimensions of these wicker baskets, and in fact it proves that Nehemia’s point is correct - that he had to have been a preemie, because if we measured the average size of the children in Egypt at that time, they would have never fit into a basket, unless he had been a preemie and that’s why...

Jono: That’s really interesting.

Keith: I’m not telling the truth and you bought it. [laughing] I’m a great teacher, and so what I do is I come up with these things. And actually the...

Nehemia: That was the secret of the basket.

Keith: Yeah, it’s the secret of the basket, and there’s actually…

Jono: That’s the clever thing for the week...

Keith: Jono and Nehemia, the reason I did that is an example, it’s a great example how I could build on what I heard from Nehemia and I could think, “You know what, if I run with that I could become a great teacher. The problem would be whether or not I’m telling the truth. And you know what? I did bring it as an example because it happens…

Nehemia: No one would know.

Keith: All the time. And so, anyway, I hope people that are listening to us will do as the Bereans did, which is... and when they hear it, they check the Scriptures to see if what we’re saying is true.

And that’s what I love about this whole thing - we’re actually interacting with the Scriptures, so let’s move on. Thank you.

Nehemia: And he doesn’t fit.

Keith: The secret of the basket.

Jono: Make a bigger one.

Nehemia: In the verse 6 we have a really interesting thing. She says, “This is a Hebrew baby. This is a child from the Hebrews.” And it begs the question, how did she know that? How did she know this was a Hebrew child? And I guess one possible answer is, who else would you find in a basket in the river?

But who knows, maybe it could be one of the Egyptians who didn’t want their child. It wasn’t unusual in ancient times, if you didn’t want a child you just left it on the side of the road. You left the child to be exposed so that it would be killed by the elements and you wouldn’t be guilty. That was extremely common up until a few hundred years ago, in fact. And I think actually in some countries today they still do that.

Another possibility is that she looked at the child and immediately saw that he was somehow different, perhaps ethnically different than the Egyptian children.

Jono: Perhaps circumcised?

Nehemia: Maybe he was circumcised, or maybe he was just somehow physically different.

Keith: We’re going to have problems with this, because I watched the movie the Ten Commandments, and some of the people that are listening to Torah Pearls, Pearls from the Torah, they watched the Ten Commandments, and we have to switch in-between what we heard in the movie because it’s so embedded - the reason that she knew she was a Hebrew was because of the cloth. We come to find out it’s not in here.

Nehemia: Not only isn’t that in the story, but in the movie they imply that it’s just known that the Levites had a special type of garment, and therefore she recognized him not only as a Hebrew but as a Levite. But that’s a complete fiction. That’s not anywhere in any story in the Bible.

Keith: Oh boy. So those that are listening they have to bear with us - they’re going to have to turn off their Hollywood pictures that were so powerful, especially as we go further into this story. Continue.

Jono: This is one of my favorite parts. “And then his sister said to the Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Hey, shall I go and call a nurse for you from one of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?’ And the Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Hey, that’s a good idea.’ So off she went, and she got her mother, of course, and Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child away, this is my child, and nurse him for me, and I will give you wages.’” For a moment it seemed like her son was as good as dead, and she’s hiding in the reeds of the river, and who knows, an alligator could take him, and all of a sudden she’s being paid to nurse her own son. So I just think that’s absolutely grand.

“The woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew and she brought him to the Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses saying, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’” I assume that she nursed him until he was weaned. When he was weaned his mother took him to the Pharaoh’s daughter and she named him.

Nehemia: This reminds me of a story my mother told me. Keith mentioned how the child didn’t have a name, and it was unusual. And here, now, let’s say the child is weaned at two or three years old, something like that, and he doesn’t have a name - it seems kind of unusual.

My mother told me the story that when I was in the hospital as a baby, the Jewish tradition says you name the child on the 8th day, at the brit, if it’s a boy, at the circumcision ceremony. So for the first seven days I didn’t have a name. And the hospital demanded that my parents put a name on the birth certificate. When they refused, the hospital came to the conclusion that these parents don’t want this baby, and they sent a social worker to try to convince them, “Do you want to give it up for adoption? Why don’t you want the baby?” They’re like, “No. We’re going to name him at the brit on the eighth day.” So for seven days I was known as Baby X. That’s my original name. Nehemia is a pseudonym.

Keith: I love this. We’re going to go with this, Jono. This is huge.

Jono: I like Baby X. Baby X is good.

Keith: Baby X - I have this great rap song. [laughing]

Jono: It came to pass in those days when Moses...

Nehemia: Hold on. We’ve got to comment on, “And she called his name…” in Hebrew Moshe. In English we’d say Moses and in Hebrew Moshe. “And she said, ‘For I drew him out of the water.’” And the three or four English words for “I drew him”, is the single Hebrew word “meshiti’hu” and from “meshiti’hu” we get Moshe.

Now, this is a very unusual name for an Egyptian woman to give a Hebrew child. She doesn’t speak Hebrew. She’s an Egyptian woman, and why on earth would she give him this name? And there are two things to comment on here. One is that this root of verb is Moshe, or possibly “mashi”. That verb doesn’t appear anywhere else in the entire Hebrew Bible, and as far as I know not anywhere else in the ancient Hebrew language. And so it’s possible that this is actually an Egyptian word, or possibly a subdialect of Egyptian.

Secondly, it’s very common for names to have two meanings. That’s even the norm. There’ll often be one meaning that’s given explicitly and a second meaning that’s implied. We saw an example of that with Edom, which is the name for the tribe that came out of Esau, that one reason given explicitly as he sold his birthright for the red lentils. But the implicit reason, the reason implied, which is even older, is that he was born all covered in red. There’s an explicit and implicit reason, and the explicit reason here is, I drew him out of the water. The implicit reason, the implied reason, is the meaning of the word Moshe in ancient Egyptian, which a hundred years ago, if you would ask a Jew what that was, they probably wouldn’t have known. The ancient Israelites certainly knew it, and today we know it from Egyptology, that the name Moshe in ancient Egyptian means “son”.

And you actually have several Egyptian rulers whose names incorporate the name Moses in them. For example, Ramses is actually Rah Moshe, the son of Rah; Rah being the sun god. You have Thut Moses or Chut Moses, which is another Egyptian pharaoh who is a son of Tchut, who is some Egyptian god.

So this was actually very common. There’s Ach Moshe, which is another Pharaoh who’s a son of Ach, which is some other Egyptian deity.

It was very common to have this as an element in somebody’s name, often the name of a certain god. And so when she called him Moshe it meant two things. One is, “I drew him out of the water,” and the other it meant son. She simply called him “son” in her language.

Keith: It’s interesting Jono and Nehemia when I read this, and you sharing that with me before Nehemia, again, one of the things that I think about is I think, “You’re Moshe, the author. You’re the one who’s inspired to write this and does he do this sort of thing with his name.” It doesn’t show up anywhere else.

I wonder if he’s not thinking of himself, “I have a very unique name that has this multiple meaning, both for the Egyptian and for the Hebrew.” And isn’t that the picture of what we see in the story? It’s both/and.

There’s a powerful picture of what happens in Egypt and around all that’s Egypt, and also the coming out, the drawing out, as we find with the people of Israel. Maybe he was doing some hidden thing with his name in the book, and only we would wait these years to finally realize the significance of it.

Nehemia: And actually, just to make a correction, it does appear, that verb, in Psalm 18, which appears again in 2 Samuel 22. But that seems to be alluding back to the same image here. So, is that really an authentic Hebrew word? Or is it a Hebrew word that entered the language through this incident that happens with Moses?

Jono: “It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren.” That’s interesting, because he obviously knew who he was, it would appear. “And looked at their burdens and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And so he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting. And he said to the one who did the wrong, ‘Why are you striking your companion?’ And 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 has become known.’ And when Pharaoh heard of the matter, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Median. And he sat down by a well.”

Keith: There’s so much that’s added in, and again, let me just for a minute refer back to my favorite movie as I grew up. I didn’t grow up in a church, or I didn’t have any church connections, but every year, around the time of Easter, this movie would come up, The Ten Commandments. And I don’t know why, but at the youngest age, I would sit and watch the entire thing from beginning to end, and I had no church background. I didn’t know what the Bible was. I hadn’t read the Bible. I didn’t go to a church.

And every single year I would look forward to this movie, and I don’t know if it was the colors, the story, I don’t know what it was. But it’s so interesting, because then when I finally started reading the Bible I was so disappointed. I got to this part where it says, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” And then the next thing it says, “Pharaoh heard of this and he tried to kill him.” And then I’m thinking, “Where’s the rest of the story? In the movie there’s much more to the story.”

And what’s funny is, I honestly thought that the Bible was missing part of the story. It was that powerful for me as a child. [laughing] So as Nehemia grew up as a child and he would hear this read and talked... of course it’s “Ve Eleh Shemot”, that’s the name of it. For me, no - it’s Exodus and they’re missing a part of the Exodus story.

So anyway, I love that we’re doing this you guys. I come to find out that actually the movie - this is the radical part - the movie got it from the Bible. The Bible didn’t get it from the movie. Can you believe that?

Nehemia: One of the details that appears in the movie is that the name of the Hebrew who’s striking the other Hebrew is Datan, and he’s a character that later appears in the story of Korah in Numbers as one of the leaders of the rebellion against Moses. The reason he wanted to rebel is there was this old vendetta he had against Moses for rebuking him, and that’s just a complete fiction. We don’t know the name of the Hebrew who was striking the other Hebrew.

And this is actually something that the rabbis cooked up. One of the things they’ll often do is take a famous character in the Bible and combine him with an unknown character.

So here we have some Hebrew whose name isn’t known who’s striking another Hebrew, and they were uncomfortable with that, so they wanted to identify him. And they do this all the time, where they’ll take an unknown character, and sometimes we’ll know the character’s name but we don’t know much about him, and they’ll combine him with a famous character, like Deborah in the Book of Judges was the wife of Lapidoth. Well, who’s Lapidoth? We don’t know anything about him.

And then we have this General Barak, who is a central character in the story. So they say, “Well, Lapidoth is just another name for Barak.” And I guess you could do that, but to me that actually waters down the story. It diminishes it by pretending there are things we don’t know. There are things we don’t know a lot about. We don’t know the name of the Hebrew who is smiting the other Hebrew, and we don’t know who it is he’s smiting. And that’s actually not an important point of the story.

Jono: Can I just clarify, Nehemia, is there Rabbinic tradition in the movie The Ten Commandments?

Nehemia: Oh it’s very, very heavily influenced by...

Keith: No, I don’t want...

Nehemia: A lot of the things added to the story come from the Rabbinical legends.

Jono: Is that right?

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Jono: Really?

Nehemia: And in the full version of the movie which I rented a few years back, they actually say that in the beginning. They say, “There are some things here that aren’t in the Bible, but those were taken from Jewish tradition, from Filo, Josephus, and the rabbis.” And really the emphasis is on the rabbis. It’s amazing.

Jono: It blows my mind. Here’s another application for the word kohen. “Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their fathers flock, and the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered the flock.”

Nehemia: He helped them? Is that what the translation says? Come on. What does it say in the Hebrew? What did Moses stand-up and do?

Jono: I don’t know. He helped them, that’s what it says. What do you have?

Nehemia: He helped them? What does it say in Hebrew? Come on.

Keith: He rescued them. Tell us Nehemia. You’ve got to...

Jono: What does it say in the Newly Inspired Version, Keith?

Keith: It says that “he got up and he came to their rescue and watered their flock.”

Nehemia: Vayoshian”, from the root “yasha”, the same root as the word Yehoshua, Joshua, and other such words.

Jono: Oh! He yeshua’d them!

Keith: Amen, amen.

Nehemia: He yeshua’d them… Literally, “he saved them”. And that’s the most common meaning of the word “yeshua” in the Tanakh is to save somebody from some kind of physical harm.

Keith: And let’s just stop for one second, because this is a big mistake that I do see made many, many times. The word you just used “yeshua” and Yeshua are two different words. It’s the same root, but sometimes people will see that word, and Nehemia’s actually bringing it to the forefront, but they’ll see that word and then they’ll say, “That’s the name,” not realizing that it has the same meaning, but we’re not seeing the actual name Yeshua as much as we’re seeing the word for salvation, or for saving, or the root for “to save”.

Jono: To deliver. “And they came to Re’uel, their father. He said, ‘How is it you’ve come so soon today?’ And they said, “An Egyptian,” they identified him as an Egyptian, ‘delivered us from the hand of the shepherds. And he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.’ So he said to the daughters, ‘Where is this man? Why is it that you had left him? Call him that he may eat bread.’ So Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses. And she bore him a son. And he called his name Gershom. But he said, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land.’ And so it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel groaned because of their bondage. And they cried out. And their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked upon the Children of Israel. God acknowledged them. He remembered them. He remembered His covenant. And he acknowledged them.”

Nehemia: The name “Gershom” is very interesting because it literally means “a stranger there”. And it’s interesting. Where does he mean? Does he mean in the land of Midian, or does he mean in the land of Egypt? Because “there” would imply it’s a place other than where is currently.

And I think when he got to Midian he realized “I grew up in that land, but I was a foreigner there. I was never a person who is a citizen of the land, and I was treated like a foreigner even though I was in the house of the king. “

A little point about Gershom is that he is an interesting character who appears in Judges 18:30. And there we read about how the children of Dan set up an idol in the town of Dan, which is northern Israel. And it says, “And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Menashe, he and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the exile of the land.”

And when it says Menashe, that’s almost the same letters as Moses, Moshe, except it has a Nun in it. And that Nun is called a hanging Nun, which means it’s actually written slightly above the line, hanging as if someone came and added in that Nun.

It’s preserved in the Masoretic text, in the text preserved by the Jewish scribes, as a hanging Nun. And it’s identified in the scribal notes as a hanging Nun, indicating that at some point someone added that Nun, and the explanation that we commonly hear, even in the early Rabbinical sources, is that originally this was Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Moses. And that a zealous scribe who didn’t want the name of Moses sullied by having this evil priest as his grandson came and added the Nun to... It’s not really Moses, it’s Menashe. But apparently this was really the grandson of Moses, whose claim to authority was, “Moses was my grandfather, the one who gave the Torah.”

So as a priest at this place of idolatry, if they come and bring him the book that his grandfather wrote, the book of the Torah, and say, “You’re not allowed to worship idols,” he’d laugh him off. He’d say, “What do you mean? I have a family tradition. My tradition is far more powerful than some book that you brought to me.”

I think there’s a warning there. Even the line of Moses can’t override the word of God that Moses wrote down. We see a similar thing happen with the “ne’chushtan”, the brass snake that was on the pole that people came to worship. And why did they worship it? Because it was traced back to Moses, and that gave a certain sanctity. It was considered so sanctified and holy that it overrode the words that Moses actually commanded, not to worship an idol.

Keith: When we get to that section we’re going to really have to slow down, because I think there’s really something powerful about that.

Jono: Chapter 3, “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire, from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn’. When Yehovah saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not draw near to this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you’re standing is holy ground.’”

And of course, we remember Joshua before the commander of the armies of the LORD, where similar instructions were given. And, “Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. And the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I’ve heard their cry because of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.’”

I think this is the first time that we read that description of the land flowing with milk and honey, “… to a place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

“‘Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel comes to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God...”

Keith: Just one sec, Jono. Two very small things, I don’t want to go into great depth. But when I read this and hear about this bush, there’s really something interesting I just want to bring. We’ve actually seen the burning bush, Nehemia and I together.

At the beginning of this year we went to a place at the very base of the traditional site of Mount Sinai. And there they have in this traditional place, the actual burning bush itself.

Jono: Was it burning?

Keith: Well no, it wasn’t burning. It’s inside the building. The only problem is, come to find out that they must have gone to Midian to get the burning bush, because where the traditional site is for the mountain isn’t the place that this happened.

So Nehemia, when you see these places that claim these sorts of traditional authority, what do you usually say? You took pictures, I was really surprised.

Nehemia: I say let’s look at the sources and see if it fits the evidence. And the case of the traditional Mount Sinai, which is in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, it actually doesn’t fit the evidence. The evidence is that it has to be somewhere in what, today, is northwestern Saudi Arabia, somewhere near the land of Midian.

Because in verse 1 he’s shepherding his sheep, and I think it would probably take a couple of weeks to get from the actual... Because to this day there’s an area of Saudi Arabia called Madyan, or Midian, and I think it would take a couple of weeks to get from Midian to the traditional Mount Sinai if you have a bunch of sheep with you. They’re not walking 10 miles a day. It’ll take a while. How far could Moses have been away shepherding his sheep? It couldn’t have been too far.

Now, the bush they have at the traditional Mount Sinai, that’s a tradition that goes back to Helena the mother of Constantine, who came to have these dreams and made claims about where certain things were in the 4th century.

Interestingly enough, they actually say that that bush has been transplanted from another location. They claimed another location in that same region, but maybe it is the bush, I don’t know. And even if it is, it’s a mistake to then go worship the bush, which is what they’re doing. That’s the same thing as worshipping the copper snake.

Keith: So I shouldn’t take it as a big deal that you spent so much time trying to take pictures of that bush.

Nehemia: Well, I just wanted to get pictures of it, and it was bad lighting, and I don’t think any of those pictures actually came out. That’s why I tried taking them.

Keith: I’m just kidding.

Nehemia: If it was only on fire it would have come out better. One of the things to point out here is in verse 1, it mentions he came to the mountain of God to Horeb, and that’s something we see throughout the Bible, that this mountain we call Sinai, in Hebrew “Har Si’nai” is also called “Har Chorev”. The mountain of Sinai and the mountain of Horeb are the same thing.

What does “chorev” mean? It means the dry place. And Sinai apparently is connected to the word “sneh”, which is the word here for bush. And that’s actually a very unusual word that really only applies to this particular... Or it’s a type of bush, apparently, it’s not a general name for bush.

So “Sinai” refers to the “sneh”, this particular type of bush, and Horev describes it as a dry place.

Keith: I want to say that one of the things that… when I read this story over and over again, but when I read this story again, I did something that I always encourage people to do, and that is to take the approach of Moses himself.

It says that, “When he saw that the bush was in the fire and did not burn up, so Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush has not burned up.’” I call that “Moses slowing down”, and that’s what’s so powerful about reading this in the actual language, because when you’re reading these stories in their language there are these little words that will jump off the page, and they’ll make you slow down, and you’ll stop, and it leads you to something else.

I love this idea that Moses wasn’t in such a hurry. I think if we had his approach in our present day and age, we would probably see a lot more where God is trying to speak to us, but we’re so quick and fast, we have so much technology, we have the internet, we’ve got our iPhone and our iPads, and we have all these things. We’re so quick and we’re so fast.

But the approach of Moses was to slow down and say, “What is this thing that I need to slow down?” And then it says, “When Yehovah saw that he had gone over to look, then He called him.” And I wonder how many times… You know, our Father doesn’t wait for us to slow down to come and to see this thing before He then calls. But we’re in such a hurry and we’re in such a rush, we probably miss many burning bushes that are signs for us to slow down. So I just had to say that.

And then of course, the other part of this is the section that you said in verse 9. It says, “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me.” Again, I stop. I slow down like Moses and I see this verse. And I think, “Wait a minute, you’re telling me the Creator of the universe, the almighty God Himself hears a cry, and then it actually moves Him to action? He says, “This cry has reached Me, so now I’m going to do something.”

Again, when I read this story, before we get to the most exciting part for me, these are all things that are sort of leading up to it, that make me again want to slow down and read them and see them. And we can’t do justice, because… One of the things that Nehemia and I have done over time is we’ve studied different sections in-depth, and at different times we’ve been able to bring some of that forward. We can’t do that really here on the radio.

But it’s amazing when you slow down. Even with the tools that we have in interacting with the English Bible, the things that if you were to slow down and read this chapter line by line, word by word, you’d be surprised how many powerful Pearls there are in it. So I just wanted to give that little push to the people.

And actually, this is going to be a transition to prayer. I’m going to say this, because what we do when we slow down, and we slow down and we see and we ask for this prayer. We say, “Okay, Father, can you open our eyes like you open Moses’s eyes to see the bush and ask the questions?”

Nehemia, you’ve got to do our traditional… because I don’t want this to become something overwhelming, but I want you to pray the prayer that our eyes would be open. Because this section that we’re going to go to is going to literally make us have to slow down and do a radical thing. And that’s to take our shoes off, because the place we’re standing is holy. If you could go ahead...

Nehemia: What you’ve pointed out in verse 7 is something I’ve read more times than I can count and kind of glossed over, and you’re really right. It’s a powerful statement here. “And Yehovah said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people in Egypt,’” and it says, “Ve’et tza’akatam shamati”, “And their cry I have heard.”

And the word there “shamati”, from the same root as shema, listen, to hear. “I have shema’d their cry.”

And sometimes I’ll be praying and I’ll be asking God for help with my issues and my problems and my little petty situations, that I wonder sometimes, the Creator of the universe, is this “katan alav”, is this too small for Him to deal with?

And you know what? Our God is that big, and powerful, and amazing that He can hear your issues, your problems, and your situations, and He hears, and He can respond.

Because He could’ve just said, “I know what’s going on in Egypt. I know everything. And I know the pain of My people, and I remember them.” But He didn’t just say that. He added “shamati” I’ve heard. And your prayer really does have… in fact, it really does have a power for the Creator of the universe to hear it and respond. And that excites me.

So now I’m going to pray this prayer from Psalm 119, “Oh, Yehovah, our Father, please shema, hear, listen to our words that we are praying. “G’al einenu venabitah nifla’ot mitoratechah”. Yehovah, please our Father, uncover our eyes that we may see the wonderful hidden things of Your Torah. May we understand and comprehend the beauty and the power and the awesomeness of Your name, and Your amazingness, and just general awesomeness.”

Amen.

Keith: And may we slow down like Moshe, Moses, so that He hears. Amen. Jono, do your thing, because we’re getting to the part that’s going to make me shout.

Jono: You’ve been to Australia before. You’ve been to Sydney, right? And you were here as the chaplain of the Olympic team, is that correct?

Keith: Yeah, actually I came there to deal with the athletes in the village. I wasn’t serving officially as a chaplain then. I served in 1996, but in 2000 we had some other athletes that we had worked with that were on the American basketball team. So I went and spoke to them and we got a chance to interact with some of the athletes. So I was there, yes.

Jono: I just want to know... I know you’re not a stranger to speaking before maybe 1,000 or 2,000 people, or whatever. I went to the Olympics, and it was huge in Sydney. How would you have reacted if someone had come up to you and said, “We’d like you to give a message this Sunday morning to everybody at the Olympics?”

Keith: Are you kidding me? [laughing] I’d get excited. I love speaking in front of people.

Jono: It’s your kind of thing, right?

Keith: It’s my thing! It’s my thing!

Jono: Here in verse 11 we say this is the beginning of Moses going, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Because really, it’s people’s greatest fear, isn’t it, to speak in public situations? In fact, statistics suggest that people would rather die than to speak publicly.

And this is what we get from Moses. He says, “But who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Does it have to be me? Come on.”

Nehemia: And let’s bear in mind, he later explains that he was a stutterer. He had some reason to be intimidated here. I want to offer a different perspective, from my own kind of experience, which is that I’ve never been afraid to speak in front of a crowd. And I give my father credit here. He had me give these sermons in the synagogue when I was a little child, and I think that kind of neutralized me to being afraid and intimidated in speaking before a crowd of people, because I’ve just done it at an early age.

What I was intimidated by is that I didn’t know what to say. And in that respect, I felt like Moses, that I was of a “heavy tongue”. In Hebrew it translates literally as “heavy tongue”. I was standing in front of that crowd and I wasn’t afraid to be in front of the crowd and speak, but I would get out in front of that crowd, and Keith can tell about this, when you get out in front of the crowd and it’s your turn to speak, there there’s this dead silence. And it might last a millisecond if you start speaking immediately, or it could last three or four seconds. And that is the longest three or four seconds of your life, until you actually start speaking. No, it is. I’m telling you. And that’s intimidating.

So I had no problem speaking in front of a crowd, but it’s knowing what to say. And in that respect, I share this feeling of Moses, “Who am I to go and speak to these people?” I think it’s so beautiful that Moses was hesitant in this way, that he had this humility.

There’s this great story, and I know this is way off track, but there’s this great story in the Book of Judges. It’s the Proverb of Jotham, of Yotam. The Proverb of Jotham is about... It’s says, “All the trees are looking for one of the trees to rule over them. And they go to the olive tree and they say, ‘Olive tree, come and rule over us. You have this beautiful fruit.’ And the olive tree says, ‘Why would I want to rule over you? I’m making beautiful fruit.’ And they go to the fig tree and the fig tree says the same thing. ‘I don’t need to rule over you. I have beautiful fruit.’ And then they go to the Atad, which is this little puny bush. It depends on how you identify it, but apparently either it doesn’t produce fruit at all, or it produces fruit that are so measly and pathetic that you can’t really eat them. And he says, ‘I would love to rule over you. I’m going to be the mighty ruler, and you’ll come and bask in my shade.’” And the joke is that it doesn’t have any shade, the Atad.

What we see there is that the people who are worthy of being the leader are the ones who are humble enough to not want to be leaders. The ones that are eager to be leaders, those are the ones you need to be careful about.

Moses is our quintessential shepherd, and he’s the one who is saying, “I don’t want to be the shepherd. I’ve got my sheep. I don’t want to actually be a shepherd of people.” And that’s the one that God chooses, because it’s the very hesitancy to be the shepherd over people that makes him worthy to be.

Keith: Amen, Nehemia.

Jono: Amen. Keith, I just want to switch to you for a second and then sort of jump out of here. Verse 13, “Then Moses said to God,” this is his second objection. He says, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you,’ and they say, ‘What is his name?’ What will I say to them? I don’t even know Your name. You’ve written this book.” And there’s so many people who don’t know His name, and they don’t even know that He has a name.

What Moses is saying is, “If you want me to be Your ambassador, I have to know Your name. You have to give me Your name if I’m going to represent You.” And this is what your book is all about, if I can just quickly jump to the book, His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, which is available at the website www.hishallowedname.com, and also available from truth2u.org.

But on his hishallowedname.com, you’ve recently made an addition that inspires ambassadors of the name. Could you tell us a bit about that?

Keith: Yes, I would just say this. One of the things that has been so exciting, Nehemia and I just did a radio interview right after Hanukkah. We did a radio interview with a very well-known, well-connected Messianic person who invited us to come in and talk about the stand against the ban regarding The Name.

I’m always amazed that even with those that are really involved in ministry and involved in these sorts of things that when we start talking about some of the information that we provide, that people are literally in shock.

For example, as we’re doing the radio interview, one of the producers of the show says, based on Exodus 3:14, “No, God’s name is ‘I am’. That’s His name, and that’s all, that I’m sticking with it and I don’t want to hear anything else.”

Well, one of the things that we’ve done as a result of this conversations is give people this information for themselves. What I did on this website, hishallowedname.com is to invite people to become ambassadors for the very thing you just said, Jono. I want to represent Him, but I don’t know His name. How do I understand His name? Well, you give them the information so that they then can go out and say, “This is the name of the Creator of the universe based on what He said,” and what we’re going to talk about here in just a second.

But one of the reasons I do that is because I’m finding people, even at this time in our lives, where they really want this information but they’ve never had a chance to really interact with it because of tradition, or because of the prohibitions, et cetera.

That’s again what we do on the site, becoming an ambassador simply is someone going and signing up for the newsletter so that they can get free information, information that we provide ahead of time. And there’s been a great response. I appreciate you plugging that. It’s hishallowedname.com, and we have a page called the Ambassadors’ Embassy, where they go there, they’re going to be getting free videos, information, stuff that is going to help them be able to be like Moses and proclaim the God of Israel’s name. Thanks for that.

Nehemia: And I’m the ambassador of The Name. So come join us. I want to encourage people. There’s this really cool thing he has there on the website where you click on it, in the Ambassadors page, and you can see where other ambassadors are in the world. And I clicked it and I’m like, “Wow, there’s somebody in Jerusalem.” And I realized that was me.

[all laughing]

Keith: This is my techie, ladies and gentlemen. This is the guy that teaches me technology.

Jono: Excellent.

Nehemia: Well, that one he did on his own, so it’s kind of impressive.

Jono: Hisallowedname.com and the Ambassadors page. Quick, people, get on there and register there, it’s well worth your while. Keith, will you please give us verse 14 and 15.

Keith: I feel humbled with my friend Nehemia on the phone, because this is the verse that he used when we were sharing this 10 years ago. He brought this verse, and so I can simply let the people know that when I read this verse in English, and then I read this verse in Hebrew, and then we had a chance to really sit down and study this verse both with Nehemia and myself, it just completely changed the game for me.

I’m going to read it from the NIV, and then I want Nehemia to read it from the Hebrew, if he’d be willing to do that. It says, “Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to them. The God of your fathers have sent me to you,’ and they will say, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” it says in the NIV. “What shall I say to them?”

“And Elohim, God, said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you will say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you,’” And this is what the lady was saying on our interview. She stopped reading right there and said, “There - there’s the answer.”

There’s something really powerful in Hebrew, and I really want to open the door for Nehemia to share this verse in Hebrew and what he sees when he reads this verse in Exodus 3:14.

Nehemia: Verse 14, He answers, “E’heyeh asher E’heyeh”. And “e’heyeh” is a verb that means literally “I will be”, and you could also translate it as “I am.” And the difference between “I am” and “I will be” is that in Hebrew… it’s complicated. But basically, it’s a form of the Hebrew verb that describes a continuing action. I am in the present and I will continue to be, and hence it often describes future things. But literally, “I will be that which I will be.” And the name of...

Keith: I think let’s deal with verse 14 and 15 for a second, if you would.

Nehemia: Okay. He’s saying, “I am that which I am,” or literally “I will be that which I will be.” And then He says, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘I will be, e’heyeh, has sent me to you.” Meaning the one who says, “I will be” has sent me to you.

Here He’s actually not giving His name, He’s giving the explanation of His name. And the reason it’s an explanation is that it’s from the same verb as His name. His name has to do with he will be. And He says of Himself, “I am”.

Keith: I want to stop for a second. If it’s okay, Jono, if we could just slow down a little bit like Moses, just for a second before we get to this next section. Nehemia, I do want you to introduce the actual name that he goes to.

I want to stop for a second, because when I read this in verse 12, there is a foreshadowing. And in my tradition, foreshadowing is very powerful. The foreshadowing is you see this hint of something that’s coming.

In Genesis 26:3 it says, “Sojourn in this land, and I shall be with you and bless you”. This is Genesis 26:3 which we talked about in Bereshit. And again, the word that He says, this is the creator of the universe speaking saying “E’heye”, I shall be with you.

Then in Genesis 31:3, Yehovah said unto Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I shall be with you.”

No one stops in Genesis 31:3 and says, “This is God’s name, “E’heyeh.” But if we’re reading toward Exodus 3 it says “E’heyeh”. Exodus 3:12, before we get to 3:14, foreshadowing. Certainly, “vayomer ki e’heyeh” I will be with you. Just bear with me. As I read this, there’s this foreshadowing, “e’heyeh, e’heyeh” two times before we get to Exodus, He says these exact words, “e’heyeh” in the exact same form.

Finally, in Exodus 3:12 He says, “Moses, don’t worry, E’heyeh”. And Moses says, “What name should I say?” And He says “E’heyeh asher E’heyeh”, “I am who I am. This is what I’ve done in the past. I will be.”

And then the money ball verse comes, and I must have Nehemia give the money ball verse and explain it, because there’s a building up to Exodus 3:14, even back in Bereshit. He’s beginning to reveal the fact that He is “E’heyeh”, I will be with you, I am going to be with you.

Then we get to the issue that causes so much controversy, and who better to put this on than Nehemia.

Nehemia: No, I’m going to let you do that one. But can you quickly explain, Keith, what money ball means? Because I think a lot of people hear that expression and they’re like, “Well, this isn’t about money. This about...”

Keith: I’m sorry. Over in the United States, you probably don’t do this in Israel or in Australia, but there are some folks that do the lottery. And the lottery is that they have these balls that are rolling around. And one of the balls is a colored ball, and if you have the numbers and you get this colored ball with that number, and you put it on there, you win the entire jackpot.

When I use the word the money ball, it’s the most important, if I could say aspect. It’s the main thing. And so for us, Exodus 3:14 becomes the money ball, and I would go so far as to say regarding the revelation of who God is when we get to Exodus 3:14. That’s why I use those terms.

Nehemia: Beseder. So, you want me to read 14 and 15, or just 15?

Keith: Exactly, 14 and 15, please.

Nehemia: Okay. “Vayomer Elohim el Moshe, E’heyeh asher E’heyeh. Vayomer ko tomar l’bnei Israel, E’heyeh shlachani e’leichem.” Verse 15, “Vayomer od Elohim el Moshe, ko tomar el bnei Israel…” Now I’ll let you say the name Keith, you have a whole book about it. What is the name? Bevakasha, please.

Keith: The name Yehovah is what we would see there.

Nehemia: Yehovah Elohei avoteichem, Elohei Avraham, Elohei Yitzchak, ve’Elohei Ya’akov, shlachani eleichem. Ze shmi le’olam ve’ze zichri le’dor va’dor.”

Keith: And so Nehemia, when you’re reading that, and just as you’re reading in Hebrew, in your mind what’s the connection between “E’heyeh asher E’heyeh” and “Yehovah”? When you’re reading it in Hebrew...?

Nehemia: It’s obvious.

Keith: There he is – “it’s obvious”.

Nehemia: And this is, I think, the disservice that the English translation has done, and this is why the lady was confused the other day. And I’ve seen this, they actually do this in the movie Ten Commandments. They bring verse 14, and then it cuts to a black screen, meaning it fades to black. And they actually leave verse 15 out of the story of the movie The Ten Commandments. And he left off with the name of God. He says, “What’s your name?”

And in verse 15, “E’heyeh” has sent me to you, “I am” has sent me to you. And his name is “I am”. And what the King James version does, I noticed, is it has “I AM” in capital letters, implying that that is the name.

And then the next verse, verse 15, doesn’t even have a name. It just has a title, “LORD”. And so you’re left with the name of God as “I am”. Except in Hebrew it doesn’t say LORD, it actually uses The Name, and His name is Yod Hei Vav HeiYehovah. And the connection between Yehovah and “I am” is an obvious connection in Hebrew, because “I am” is “e’heyeh”, meaning literally “I will be”. And Yehovah is a combination of three forms of that verb; “haya” – “He was”, “hoveh” – “He is”, and “yi’hiyeh” – “He will be”. When you smush those together “haya, hoveh ve’yihiyeh”, I was, I am, and I will be, you get “Yehovah”.

So His name indicates the three forms of the verb “E’heyeh” – “to be”, referring to Him as Him in the third person, rather than referring to Him as “I”. Like, I wouldn’t call God “I” because I’m not God, He is God. So we refer to Him as Yehovah. He calls Himself, introducing His name to Moses as E’heyeh.

And that’s simply the explanation of His name in verse 15, E’heyeh, I will be, explains the name in verse 15, Yehovah.

Keith: One last thing, Jono, as the NIV reader, when I read this, if I were to explain this in the simplest form, and I want you guys to check me on this, it’s like Him saying taking it as simple as I can, “Who I am, I am, I am, so when you go to them say ‘He is’.”

And the “He is” the Yud, which is the third… referring to Him as He. So I have to say, that’s why when we take the approach of Moses and we slow down, and we take a look at this, I do a whole section in the book His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, where I allow people from Exodus 3:1 to this to slow down, and the things that pop off the page are absolutely amazing. I hope people will at least consider getting that information, because it really will help you understand the significance. And you said it yourself, Jono, things that you just don’t even think about, that when you think about them they’re amazing.

Jono: They’re incredible. And this obviously is just the tip of the iceberg of what you find in the book, which is now in its second edition. It comes with a CD in the back, and so on and so forth. So I would strongly encourage listeners to get that if they didn’t have it already.

And in chapter 4 - we’re going to skim ahead a little bit because we’re running out of time - Moses says, “What have I got myself into?” He says, “But suppose…” I just wanted to go and see what was going on with the bush and all of a sudden, what?

“But suppose they will not listen. They won’t believe me or listen to my voice. What if that happens?” God says to him, “I’ll give you all these signs,” and we’ll see those later on.

And then he says in verse 10, “But I’m not eloquent with words. I don’t speak very well. You have spoken to your servant, but I am slow in speech and slow of tongue.”

You mentioned Nehemia that he might have been a stutterer. Is it possible that he was just more familiar with his Egyptian language than his Hebrew?

Nehemia: I suppose that it’s possible, but it’s certainly the traditional understanding of the phrase “kvad peh” and “kvad lashon”, literally, “heavy of mouth” and “heavy of tongue” is that he stuttered. I suppose there are other explanations, that maybe it was the Egyptian that he spoke well, but not the Hebrew.

But then why would he have a problem going to Pharaoh? He could’ve spoken to Pharaoh in fluent Egyptian, but only needed Aaron to speak to the Israelites. And apparently he...

Keith: And I know why he couldn’t go to Pharaoh speaking in Egyptian, because he had to reveal the name that is only found in the Hebrew language... [laughing]

It’s funny you guys, as we’re reading chapter 4. There’s one little thing I just wanted to slow down to and I think this is really, really cool. It says… You know, the Father of creation tells Moses, “Here’s My name. Here’s the mission. Here’s what you’re going to do. Here’s the man you’re supposed to talk to.” And Moses makes all these excuses, and then he does this radical thing. He says to him in verse 2, Yehovah said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And I have to stop, because you know what, Jono? What is that in your hand? “Well, I’ve got truth2you.” Use that to proclaim My name. Nehemia, what is that in your hand? “Well, I’ve gone to the Hebrew University, and I’ve...” Use that to proclaim my name. Keith, what is that in your hand?

Nehemia: “I’m Keith Johnson. I went to the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School”.

Keith: There are people that are listening right now, and can I just say this again? As the Creator of the universe, he could’ve told Moses, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to send you one of my angels.” Gideon, I want you to go down and step in for Moses. But He says, “Moses, what have you get in your hand? What have I already given to you?” Go in that.

And he uses those things. And I think that’s so powerful that He does that, and I think He’s still doing that. “What is it in your hand that you will use to proclaim My name, to call forth people to Me?” And that’s what we’re doing right now that’s so exciting. And I just have to keep saying, I think that this story as we slow down, we just see things like that. I just can’t get past that. What is in my hand?

Jono: So his last-ditch effort to get out of this situation…

Nehemia: Let me point something out. I think it’s really interesting, the three signs that God gives Moses. He gives the sign of turning the stick into the snake. He sticks his hand into his garment and it comes out white-like covered in leprosy. And the third sign He gives him is he pours the water on the ground and it turns into blood.

And I think it’s really interesting that God didn’t say to Moses, “You go to the people and tell them I’ve sent you, and they have to have blind faith.” He didn’t say to Moses, “Go to the people and tell them, ‘Here’s one sign, and if you don’t believe in this one sign you’re going to burn in hell forever.’”

And even two signs, He won’t judge the Israelites for even two signs. He said, “You know what, give the Israelites three witnesses, and then they’ll believe you.”

I think it’s interesting, because Gideon asked for two signs. But for the Israelites, on this huge claim that Moses was presenting them, God gave them three signs, and that didn’t diminish their faith or the value of them believing the fact that they needed three signs. They were expected to need three signs and accept those three signs, and that was considered to be having faith in the Creator of the universe.

Jono: And they were impressive signs, but even so he said, “I just wanted to see the pretty lights. Let me go home.” He said, “Oh, my Lord, please send by the hand of whoever else you may send.” And verse 14 interests me. “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses.” It was like, “I’ve ticked you off now. I’m in trouble.”

And he said, “Listen, before I smite you, Aaron, be quiet and go do what you’re told.” So we read ahead, and he meets up with Aaron. But on his way… I just want to say...

Nehemia: Can I ask you to read verse 16 before you get to that?

Keith: Oh no, this is the Torah Pearl. I was hoping you were going to get to this.

Jono: Here it is. “He shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself should be his mouth for you, and you shall be to him as a God…?”

Nehemia: Well, what does that mean?

Keith: Can I give the NIV?

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: “He will speak to the people for you and it will be as if he were your mouth…”, and this is a set-up, “…and as if you were God to him.”

Nehemia: What it literally says is, “And he will speak for you to the people, and he will be for you a mouth, and you will be for him God.”

Keith: No “if”?

Nehemia: There’s no if. Does that mean that Moses is literally God? I hope not. I suppose that somebody could start an entire denomination and say, “Moses, our God, it says it verse 16, how can you not believe it? You must have faith.”

But I think what it means is simply that Aaron will function as a prophet functions, that is, God speaks to the prophet and the prophet speaks the word of God. So Aaron will function as the prophet and Moses is the source of the revelation, and in that sense he’ll be God. Not that Moses is literally God.

Jono: It’s doing the same way that angels are referred to as speaking on behalf of God, speaking as God, if you like.

Nehemia: Absolutely. And we actually saw that in Genesis 3 earlier in the...

Jono: We see it here in the burning bush, right? We see it in the burning bush.

Nehemia: Right. The burning bush, we didn’t talk about it, because I guess we talked about it in the previous episode. But yeah, it starts off saying it was the angel of Yehovah that appeared to him, and then afterwards it repeatedly refers to that angel as Yehovah. Not that the angel himself is Yehovah, but he’s speaking Yehovah’s word.

And the same thing with Moses. Moses is speaking Yehovah’s word, and for all intents and purposes, when we’re hearing Moses we’re hearing the words of Yehovah Himself. And in that sense he’s God. Not that he’s literally God, heaven forbid, but that he’s speaking God’s word through Aaron, who is his prophet, that is, his mouthpiece.

And I think it’s interesting that the word here for God is in Hebrew Elohim. Because I know some people will read all kinds of theological importance into the fact that Elohim is plural. But Moses, who is certainly a single individual, is also referred to as being Elohim for Aaron.

Jono: I want to jump to verse 22. We’re running out of time. “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yehovah, Israel is my son, My firstborn. 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.’” “Israel is My son, My firstborn.”

Another thing we need to highlight here - verse 24, “And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that Yehovah met him and sought to kill him.” He wanted to kill Moses. “Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of his son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, ‘Surely, you’re a husband of blood to me,’ so God let him go. And then she said, ‘You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.’”

Interesting that his son was not yet circumcised - it would suggest that Moses is, and would also maybe suggest that the Midianites didn’t circumcise. Would that be fair, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Mythological... If he had been in Midian, presumably, and that was their practice, presumably, he would’ve circumcised the boy. This whole story is mysterious. It ends in verse 26. In the Hebrew it says, “And then she said, ‘A groom of blood concerning the circumcision.’”

And it seems to me that it’s explaining some well-known expression, and the origin of that expression, but we don’t know expression. And so it’s explaining something that we didn’t have a question about in the first place, and it creates more questions than it answers.

And I think that that’s something we have to accept about the biblical world, that sometimes we can fill in the cultural and historical context from ancient sources and sometimes we can’t. But we just have to accept that - that this is a mystery. Why on earth did God want to kill the child? And how did she know that that had anything to do with circumcision? Maybe God wanted to kill the child because he was so hesitant to accept the mission, or for some other reason. But she immediately knew that it had to do with the circumcision, and she grabbed a sharp piece of flint and she circumcised the boy.

Jono: You say the child, not Moses? The way I read it, He wanted to kill Moses.

Nehemia: Oh no, no, he wanted to kill the child.

Keith: Wait. Nehemia, in the NIV, here’s what it says. “At a lodging place on the way the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.”

Nehemia: Okay. But then why did she circumcise the child? That doesn’t make sense.

Keith: “Zipporah took a flint knife, cut-off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet.” And it gives a little note saying that we’re speaking of Moses or Moses’ son. They’re confused about this, because they’re saying, “Is this Moses or is this Moses’ son that’s about to be killed? Is it the son or is it him?” Is there something in the actual text, Nehemia, that makes you know that this is Moses’ son that was about to be killed, and not Moses?

Nehemia: I kind of just assume that from verse 25, that the way she remedied this danger was by circumcising her son, and if God had actually been trying to kill Moses then she would have probably done something with Moses.

But you’re right, we don’t really know. The whole story is a mystery. I do think it’s interesting, in verse 23 we have this juxtaposition of… It ends, “Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” And then what’s the immediate thing that happens after that? God comes to kill Moses’ firstborn son. And that’s remedied through circumcision.

Jono: And there’s the connection between those verses. And doesn’t it add, if anything… I mean, obviously there’s a lot in the background of this story that we just don’t have details of, but it obviously adds gravity to the covenant of circumcision.

Moving on from there. Chapter 5 is really the first encounter with Pharaoh, and it doesn’t go that well, does it? It results in Pharaoh saying, “I’ll tell you what, I’ve got an idea. When all you guys are making bricks, you can go get your own straw.” How’s that? “You’ve got to keep making the same amount of bricks but go get your own straw. And be sure to blame Moses for that one.”

The interesting thing in verses 4 and 5, “The King of Egypt said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.’ And Pharaoh said, ‘Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labors.’” Is he referring to Shabbat? What’s that about?

Nehemia: Maybe, but I wouldn’t assume that it’s referring to Shabbat. I think what must have happened is - and we see this at the end of chapter 3 - is that he gathered the people and told them, “Here’s what’s going to happen. God remembered you, and He’s going to redeem you from this place.”

If I were an Israelite back then and hearing that God Himself has spoken to our leader, and we’re now going to be taken out of slavery, I wouldn’t keep working. I’d say, “Okay, it’s just a matter of time. God can do anything.”

This is the disappointment later in the chapter, where they come to Moses and they say, “What’s going on?” Literally in verse 21 it says, “You made our smell stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his servants, giving the sword in their hands to kill us.” We thought we were going to be redeemed and set free, and instead our situation is being made worse, because we’ve had faith and trusted in this God of yours that revealed Himself to you.

And then Moses turns around and comes with complaints to God, saying, “You know what? Ever since I started speaking to Pharaoh in Your name, it’s been worst for me. It’s actually been worse for this people. I came and proclaimed Your name to Pharaoh and proclaimed Your name to the people, and things actually got worst. I got persecuted.

I think Keith can testify what that’s about, having experienced something similar. I think the point here is that just because we proclaim our Creator’s name, our Heavenly Father’s name, doesn’t mean we’re going to start getting everything that we want. In fact, it may lead to more persecution. But that doesn’t mean that we should be silent, that we should keep His name a secret, that we should refrain from speaking in His name.

Even if it does lead to persecution and more suffering, we need to speak out His name, because that will bring the ultimate redemption.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: That’s me preaching. I’m done.

Keith: Jono, can I spend a card just on one simple little thing? And I’m simply going to refer back to this for those that are listening that they would read this for themselves. But Nehemia, you did a really powerful thing back at the end of chapter 4 when you spoke about this very complicated passage. In my NIV they’re trying to figure it out, and Jono’s version says a certain thing.

But I just think it’s really interesting, and you said this. He says, “But you refuse to let him go and so I will kill your firstborn son.” Is this not the first time that we hear this, and is this not foreshadowing? Are we not moving toward this idea of the sign? Are we not moving toward this idea of the firstborn being, in that situation, judgment?

And then he goes to Moses’ firstborn. It’s like saying, “Look, we’re going to have to have a sign for him to be protected for the firstborn.” It’s like, when I read that it doesn’t confuse me so much. I think about what’s happening in the story. Moses doesn’t know all that’s happening, but here he says, “But you refuse to let him go and I will kill your firstborn son.” And the next thing happens, Moses’ firstborn son is about to be killed unless there’s the sign. And that sign then actually rescues that son in the same way as they put the sign on the door post.

The blood from the circumcision, the blood that’s over the door post - there’s so much about that that makes me get excited about what we’re going to be talking about. I just had to go back to that, and hopefully people will go back and read and try to make the connection. Thanks for that card, guys.

Jono: That’ll be coming up soon. So let me just close again with the last two verses in the Torah portion. This is Moses complaining, “‘Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to the people. Neither have You delivered Your people at all.’ Then Yehovah said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.’”

Keith: Come on, brother. Come on!

Jono: “You will see what I’ll do to Pharaoh.”

Nehemia: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Jono: You ain’t seen nothing yet. “With a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

Keith: Amen.

Jono: There it is, that is it for the Torah portion. And thank you Baby X and Keith Johnson. [laughing] Their books and DVD’s are available for purchase from truth2u.org. Next week, Shemot, “Va’era” Exodus 6:2 to 9:35. Until then dear listeners, be blessed and be set apart of the truth of our Father’s word. Shalom.

You have been listening to The Original Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon, Keith Johnson and Jono Vandor. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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  • Phillip G. Bradshaw says:

    Now, in year 6023 FC [2024 CE] we have the published studies of Ron Wyatt in Egypt in the book [Mary Nell Wyatt, Royal Hill Press] who found much more detail that the Egyptians recorded in stone Thutmose is a title received with the throne. Pharoah’s daughter that adopted Mosheh was called Hatshepsut, Referred, and Maatkare. Mosheh was also called Senenmut, and had 90 different titles. The Egyptians also gave different names for Mosheh’s mother and father. They made a tomb to honor the natural parents of Mosheh. They named Yokheved: Hatnofer and Amram: Ramose.

  • shell says:

    I know that gen 4:24-26 is so mysterious, but after i heard this story like ten times all this hit me, its just my own speculation: God mustve told moses to circumcise his son before he went and moses mustve told his wife who refused to let him do it to her son, which is why she was so pissed at moses and why she knew exactly why God was coming to kill him and exactly what she had to do to fix it. This is how it plays out in my head every time im here, any thoughts?

  • Renee says:

    Talking about made up traditional stories… in this parsha is the one that when Pharoah said to kill all Israelite baby boys, Miryam’s parents divorced so they wouldn’t have to chance another child. But Miryam pursuaded them to marry again, saying pharaoh is killing all our boys, but you are dooming all our posterity… And she knew the baby boy to be would be a great one, that’s why she is called a prophetess… lol…

  • Elisabeth says:

    Re: Circumcision – another possibility:
    1. The Israelites (or at least Amram and Jochebed) had continued to circumcise their children as per God’s covenant with Abraham since circumcision was a “sign of the covenant between Me and you (Gen 17:9-14)” (as evidenced by: it was the circumcision of the CHILD, not Moses, that resolved God’s anger).
    2. Moses must have explained the need, purpose of (a sign of the covenant), and consequences (being cut off) of not circumcising, (as evidenced by: Zipporah (Moses’ wife) immediately KNOWING what was required).
    3. Circumcision must not have been a cultural norm with Midianites, so she must have rejected/ prevented Moses from performing the “bloody deed,” circumcising “her child,” (as evidenced by her comment: “You are a bridegroom of BLOOD to me”).
    4. Moses, as God’s representative, needed to be a good example and follow all God’s commands, including circumcising all his son’s, hence God’s threat to “CUT HIM OFF” per the covenant agreement Gen 17:14).

  • Dorothy Rook says:

    New Revised Version for Exodus 4:23
    Let my son go that he might worship me, but you refused to let him go: now I will kill your firstborn son.

  • Rich Armentrout says:

    Love you guys. I’ve listened to all the Gospel pearls and pearls plus and now going through the Torah pearls. I feel like I have come to know you as personal friends. Just love the dynamics between you all. Thanks for all you are doing. Oh and just have to add Nehemia you are … the ORIGINAL X-Men. ????????

  • Lucrecia Ortiz says:

    Thank you for all your eye opening comments and insights.

    Speaking about the plagues and if the Israelites went through some of them or not, I would like to comment what I heard of my Torah teacher. She mentioned this:

    What was the condition of the heart of the Israelites while in Egypt?

    “and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God, on that day I swore to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. I said to them, ‘Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.’ But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. T hen I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.”
    ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭20:5-8‬ ‭NASB‬‬

    So, it is possible…

  • Marcela Kovarova says:

    Many thanks to Nehemia for revealing Moshe under the name Menashe! This alerts parents guiding their children to observe the Torah..
    As for the sons of Moshe, Baby A was named Gershom (Ex 2:22), probably in the eigth day of circumcision, and his father projected into his name his own feelings – being a foreigner in the country of Midian (Ex 4:22 says that he was RETURNING to Egypt suggesting he took Mizrajim as his father/mother/homeland). His second son, Baby B was unnamed by the time of Moshe´s return to Egypt. We only guess why – was it because Zipporah disliked that her husband felt as a stranger in her homeland and opposed to naming of her second son similarly, and also prevented his circumcision as the occasion when names have been given? But Moshe was responsible for not keeping the covenant, and the death penalty was for him (Gn 17:14). As Ziporah knew that it was she who stood behind this decision, she made the circumcision herself and thus saved the life of her husband. So, here, Moshe was taught that it was he, not his wife, who was responsible for his small family, and this enabled him to lead the large family of Jehovah. Baby B was then called Eliezer (1 Chro 23:15) – God is help.

  • Cymmie says:

    In 4:20 doesn’t it say sons (plural). I always heard that his second son was 8 days old at this time and he forgot about the rite because of the mission. But his wife remembered.

  • Paulette Gray says:

    A possible reason why when the Hebrews were afflicted they became stronger could relate to what we now know as resistance training (heavy workload) and an improved diet. It doesn’t say whether the Hebrews were eating an Egyptian style diet – but when you look at what happened to Daniel Mishael, Hananiah and Azariah when they went on their strict diet rather than the Babylonian diet they grew stronger – it seems reasonable that the Hebrews health improved. In a more modern example when the people of Britain went on war rations in 1939-1945 their physical health also improved.

    • Elisabeth says:

      Good Point. Significant also that the British people’s health improved on war rations 1939-1945.

  • Oscar Hernandez says:

    I always understood the midwives to be Hebrew. They obviously feared the God of Israel. I surmised that they were very good at their job. Well trained professionals who were also in demand by Egyptian mothers to be. That’s why they were familiar with Egyptian women’s birth patterns. And even if they weren’t they certainly could have lied to pharaoh about their experience with Egyptian women (which they obviously did anyway)! I’m not sure Egyptian midwives would have lied to a Devine king like Pharaoh in order to illegally protect Hebrew babies, too.

    • Elisabeth says:

      Interestingly, one of the midwives mentioned in Exodus 1:15, Shiphrah, is also included in the List of Slaves in the Brooklyn Papyrus, Plate 9, no. 21. [Tim P. Mahoney, Patterns of Evidence: Exodus, (Minneapolis, MN: Thinking Man Media, 2015) p. 163]

  • Juan says:

    I think when Farahon refuses to meet Joseph, it’s the same thing a president wants to deny the real obvious saying “fake News “

  • Gary says:

    Is it possible that Moses wife refused to allow Moses to circumcised his son?

  • the word God/god essentially means “will” in this case Moses would speak the will of I AM. when lucifer said we shall be as gods, essentially it means we shall have our own will.

  • Why did God choose Moses? I read this and it seemed to answer the question:

    Numbers 12
    3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth….
    6 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, Yehovah, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
    7 “Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household;
    8 “With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of Yehovah…”

    • auntganny says:

      Humble and Faithful. What a beautiful description for a follower of Yehovah. May it be true of all of us.

      On that last verse, it is interesting to me that Yehovah has (a) form. What that means in the spirit realm, I do not know ….

  • Isn’t the reason YHVH would kill Moses is that Moses did not already circumcise his own son…..as the covenantal sign that YHVH commanded? It was certainly the responsibility of the parent and isn’t that why Zipporah associated the anger of YHVH with the lack of obedience to circumcision?

  • Blaine Clark says:

    Is it possible that Moses’ mother hid him in plain view? As long as he was able to be passed off as a girl baby he could have stayed in the family home, but at some point he would have been exposed as a boy.
    We don’t know his Hebrew name. No one would have used it or else they would have exposed him.
    We’re not sure if he was ever circumcised.

  • Rick Dunkel says:

    Yah be with you, Nehemiah. I imagine I must be one of your biggest fans. I love thus program. To me, you are a “Moreh Gadol”.
    I hope you can help me with something. It seems odd to me that Hayah, Hoveh, Yiyeh, read from right to left, does not produce the name Yahoveh.
    How can we explain this? I’m sure the answer is obvious to you, but my understanding of Hebrew is very limited.
    Toda in advance.
    Shalom.

  • I am so grateful for your wall. I am becoming increasingly alienated from my rabbinic environment and it is so wonderful to hear teachings that resonate with me and exalt the name

    With much gratitude and love, ishie

  • Ruby Renee Evans says:

    Nehemia, thanks and much love to you, my dear brother.

  • The Mashburns says:

    Nehemia, what do you think about Moses taking of his shoes at the burning bush? You have mentioned in the past, and I have seen in Ruth, that removing the shoe is symbolic in taking an oath. Do you think this is what was happening here and in Joshua, or was it simply an act of respect?

  • Erin Hunter says:

    I am glad you share in the expounding. Please I am hearing impaired so speak slower and less interrupting. I am studying at home and also Praise El for His opening many eyes and ears today! Prophecy is definitely alive as was, and will be…
    YHWH Bless you all