Parsha Yitro (JETHRO) – Ex 18:1-20:23; Is 6:1-7:6; Matt 5:8-20
This week’s Torah portion focuses on many things surrounding returning and uniting to God both in a physical sense and spiritually. Moses had sent for his wife Tziporah and his two sons Gershom (foreigner) and Eliezer (my God helps), and now Jethro who had looked after them during Moses’ prolonged absence, returned with them with joy and celebration. It was that same type of joy that we now experience as we as the family of God are once again reunited in fellowship together. And we are reminded of the great celebration that will soon occur when we will also be reunited with the Lord and our loved ones who have gone before us when we are snatched away in the Harpatzo known as the Rapture.
As a Midianite, Jethro was in alliance with Amalek (the grandson of Esau) a sworn enemy of Israel. So why would a parsha be named after such a person? It reveals that in Yeshua, there is both Jew and Gentile, including those who were formally our enemies. Frequently, we hear testimonies of people who were former enemies of Jews and Christians who made a 100 percent turn when Yeshua revealed Himself to them often supernaturally through dreams and visions.
So, here we Jethro who was a pagan priest, who in Jewish tradition converted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob after he heard about the miracle of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians. (18:1-5)
“Now Moses had sent his wife, Zipporah, and her two sons back to Jethro from Egypt, and Jethro had cared for them in his long absence. Moses had named one son Gershom, because as he said, “I have lived as an outsider in an unfamiliar land.” 4 Moses had named the other son Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper, and He rescued me from Pharaoh’s sword.” 5 Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law) brought Zipporah and her two sons into the desert to meet Moses when he and the people of Israel were camped near God’s mountain. (VOICE)
In this parasha, Moses’ two children are mentioned only in passing (ch.2:21-22;4:20) and yet they hold something of great significance.The name, Gershom means ‘foreigner’ or ‘sojourner’ and Eliezar means, ‘my God helps.’
Prophetically, we can see how the ‘foreigner’ (Gershon) can now enter into covenant relationship through Yeshua, because God is my ‘Eliezar’ (i.e., He is my help). The children of Moses and Zipporah whose parents were Jew and Gentile would in the fullness of time be joined together as ‘One New Man’ through Yeshua: “Once you were “not a people,” but now you are “God’s people.” You were shown “no mercy,” but now you have been shown “mercy.” (Hosea 1:10)
To be named Gershon (foreigner or sojourner) can not be immediately be seen as something flattering until we see it in the context of the One New Man. And there is another sense which Scripture reveals about the name. We, as believers in Yeshua are urged to be GERSHONITES: “Loved ones, I urge you as strangers and sojourners (GERSHONITES) to keep away from the fleshly cravings that war against the soul.” (1 Peter 2:10-11) We are urged not to invest in the things of this world because everything the world offers is temporary. We are in the world but not of the world. And so, we do not walk aimlessly through life without hope, or boxing the air aimlessly, but “forgetting what’s behind…”, as temporary residents, strangers (or Gershonites!).
Our eyes are fixed upon Yeshua, who offers us full and eternal rights as Citizens of Heaven with a glorious future that neither rust nor moth can destroy.
The concept of uniting with God through covenant relationship is no more clearly illustrated than in this Torah portion where God calls Moses up Mount Sinai where he communed with Him for 40 days and nights after which he received the Torah engraved on two stones known as the “ten utterances” (aseret ha-devarim).
The Israelites encamped on the foot of Mt Sinai where they received the Torah. Until this time God’s revelation was restricted to only a few individuals through personal encounters without the Torah. Yet now, in a defining moment, in God’s perfect timing, the nation of Israel was birthed as God’s covenant promises through the patriarchs now began to unravel and every individual was held accountable to His Word.
The giving of the Torah was not some private affair confined to a small elite or group. The whole nation was included and each person was commanded to prepare and sanctify themselves. Three days before God spoke from Mount Sinai, the nation as a whole, including the mixed multitude of Gentiles from Egypt gathered, heard God’s voice and saw the mountain shake and smoke with fire. This was one of the most dramatic and significant events in the entire Tanakh. A whole nation – 600,000 men between the age of 20-50, their wives and children, their hand maids and servants, the Gentile nations that accompanied them out of Egypt, the Kenites, the Mecherites, the Kahanites, heard God’s voice audibly from the mountain, each according to their language and dialect. It was a terrifying sight!
It is a perfect prophetic shadow of the flames of fire that fell upon 120 Jewish believers, who had gathered in the Temple courts as instructed by Yeshua 10 days before Shavuot (Pentecost). The power of God fell and they began to speak in tongues in languages that the multitudes who had gathered from all nations could understand – a mixed multitude. This was the Acts 2 event that turned the world upside down and changed history but with an important difference.
At Sinai, God established the Israelites as a nation and a people – His people – but their failure to live up to the terms of the covenant opened the way for God to offer salvation to both Jew and Gentile through Yeshua!
God was not taken by surprise. He knew that the Israelites would not be able to fulfil the terms given to hem: “…now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.” (19:5-6)
Israel fell short – the best among the nations of the world – so although they would remain a treasure to Him (‘segulah,’ from the word ‘sagol,’ meaning purple representing the colour of royalty) among all peoples because of His covenant promises through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the priesthood previously confined to the nation of Israel and later restricted to the Cohens and Levites, would now be extended to the whosoever. 1Peter 2:6: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;” (also, Rev. 1:5-6)
The conclusion of these things has yet to play but is close! At that moment, in a twinkling of an eye, those who belong to Him will be gathered up in the clouds for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19) in no less dramatic fashion than with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai:
“6 I heard what sounded like the noise from a large crowd, like the noise of raging waters, like the noise of loud thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! The Lord our God, the Almighty, has become king. 7 Let us rejoice, be happy, and give him glory because it’s time for the marriage of the lamb. His bride has made herself ready. 8 She has been given the privilege of wearing dazzling, pure linen.” 9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the lamb’s wedding banquet.’ ” He also told me, “These are God’s true words.”
How did the Israelites respond to the words of God when He spoke to them and provided them with the conditions necessary for blessing? Unsurprisingly, it was with enthusiasm: “Everything Adonai has said, we will do!” (19:7) So what went wrong? We need more than just enthusiasm to live in accordance to Gods Word; it must also be accompanied by unconditional commitment regardless of circumstances.
And this links in perfectly with our Haftarah portion for this week which is taken from Isaiah 6 revealing the altogether nature of God’s holiness:
“6 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw Adonay sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple. 2 Angels were standing above him. Each had six wings: With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They called to each other and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Tsevaoth! The whole earth is filled with his glory.”
4 Their voices shook the foundations of the doorposts, and the temple filled with smoke.
5 So I said, “Oh, no! I’m doomed. Every word that passes through my lips is sinful.
I live among people with sinful lips. I have seen the Melech, Yahweh Tsevaoth!”
The Israelites experienced something similar here in this Parasha to what we read here occurred with the prophet Isaiah. Their response to God was wholehearted until tested and then was found wanting. Wholeheartedness for God is commendable but walking in fellowship with God comes at a price and unless we are prepared to embrace the Fellowship of His Sufferings alongside the Power of His Resurrection, our faith will become compromised and who then will be able to stand in the day of trial? This was the message given to five of the seven churches found in Rev. 2-3. “To him who overcomes…” is the person who receives the reward that withstands the fire of God and is not burnt up as wood, hay and stubble but is rather purified in the furnace as with gold and silver.
We do not preach a feel-good Gospel – it would be a grave disservice for me to do so – but rather I seek to preach the whole counsel of God, and how much more so in these current days as the time of His return draws ever closer.
But, the message of the Kingdom is not gloom and doom but quite the opposite for God has stored up for those who place Him first in their lives unreservedly an eternity overflowing with joy unspeakable and glory that defies description!
Let’s be those who run well the race set before us in worship and thanksgiving to the One who alone is worthy of praise and thanksgiving!
Raphael ben Levi
