VA’ERA by Raphael ben Levi
Ex 6:2–9:35; Ezek 28:25–29:21, Matt 12:1–14
Our reading of the Torah starts this Shabbat with these words from Scripture:
“God spoke to Moshe; he said to him, “I am Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [יהוה] Adonai. 3 I appeared [Va’era] to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov as El Shaddai, [אל שדי] God Almighty, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, [יהוה] Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai].” (Ex.6:2–3)
Here at this moment of Israel’s history as they faced the darkest night was when they were poised to experience their greatest encounter with God. In the midst of hopelessness, hope was born as they stood at the edge of the abyss of despair following centuries of abject and unremitting misery. Nothing can adequately describe the wretched situation of the Israelites. The Final Solution was implemented in January 1942 until the end of the 2nd world war in April 1945 – 3.5 unrelenting years. Yet, the Israelites endured Nazi-style slave labour in concentration camp conditions for over 300 years! Unimaginable!
Hope seemed an evasive illusion that defied logic but the reality is that our God is a God of the impossible. The sequence of events that were to follow led to the single most formative moment in the history of Israel: the intervention of God on behalf of His covenant people to demonstrate His faithfulness and love before every power and principality no less so than almost 1,500 years later when He set free the captives enslaved by sin through doing the unthinkable – sending His own Son, Yeshua, to be the means whereby ALL of humanity might now be set free – for all those who would choose Him as their Saviour and Lord.
Here, at this definitive moment, God spoke to Moshe and said to him, “I am Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [יהוה] Adonai. 3 I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov as El Shaddai, (God Almighty) although I did not make myself known to them by my name, [יהוה] Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh.”
Here we see distinguished between a composite description of God: El Shaddai (“God Almighty”) and His actual name (Yud-He-Vav-He) referred to by observant Jews as “Hashem,” “the name,” because this word is regarded as one too sacred to repeat. But for Messianic believers in Yeshua, “Ha Shem” is the name ascribed to the One who is above all names, our Redeemer and Lord!
God told Moses: “I am Yud-He-Vav-He, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:6-7).
God told Moses at the very outset: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [E-l Shaddai], but by My name (Yud-He-Vav-He) I was not known to them” (Ex.6:3). Here, we can see an important distinction between the Patriarch’s experience of God, against that which which the Israelites were about to have. In these verses of Scripture, God initiated something entirely new and unprecedented.
For here we see a glimpse of the meaning of Yud-He-Vav-He. For example, the Ten Commandments do not begin with the words “I am the Lord your God who created heaven and earth,” but “I am the Lord your God who brought you out from Egypt, from the house of slavery.”
To explain: Elohim is God as we encounter Him in nature and creation. The Book of Genesis opens with the statement, בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ but Yud-He-Vav-He is God as revealed in history, who delivered the Israelites from slavery and the tyranny of Egypt. So too in the incarnation with Yeshua, beautifully explained by Paul how Yeshua“ 6 being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil.2)
In Ex.1:9, we hear for the first time the phrase, “Am Bnei Yisrael,” (“the people of the children of Israel”). Israel ceased to be a family but now are transformed into a people. Moses at the burning bush was promised by God that He would bring the people to “a good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8). Yud-He-Vav-He is, therefore, the God who acts in history to fulfil His promises as demonstrated to redeem His covenant people from slavery.
God revealed Himself to Moses as Yud-He-Vav-He because it represents a name that transcends time and space – in other words it is eternal. This was the definitive moment in the history of Israel, for it identified the Creator God as indelibly connected to the nation of Israel that is repeated in the NT to identify Yeshua as our Deliverer: the One who invaded space and time to bring salvation to all of humanity enslaved by sin:
“‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matt. 22:32
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Yeshua, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.” Acts 3:13
The importance of the name, Yud-He-Vav-He is embedded in the relationship of the One who moved His covenant people to a land that He promised them for their possession and to their children as an everlasting inheritance.
And here we find Moses, the displaced Jew, disconnected from his nation and people, a prince of Egypt, reduced to a common shepherd of a Midianite’s flock, who is now addressed by the living God and commissioned to lead his people from captivity to freedom. Now, the one who was separated from his people for 40 years in Egypt at birth, then exiled for a further 40 among the pagan Midianite nation suddenly becomes reconnected in the most staggering of Divine encounters.
This same God demonstrated to Moses His faithfulness. Never once has He failed in any one of His promises that are “Yes and Amen” in Messiah Yeshua. This same Creator of the Universe whose mothers (Sarah, Rachel and Rebecca) were unable to give birth to a son naturally now informed Moses how infinitely He cared for His children and their offspring held captive as slaves in Egypt. And He would demonstrate this by delivering them from the Egyptians and returning them to the land given to their forefathers.
In last week’s parasha God chose to reveal His presence to Moses within a thorn bush considered useless by the heathen even for carving their wooden idols. God chose to dwell in the stunted, thorn bush to illustrate something of great importance. The King of the Universe chose not to reveal Himself within the magnificence of a mighty oak tree or any other number of other manifestations of nature, but in a common, worthless thorn bush. It is a beautiful picture of humility. God revealed an aspect of His character which everyone else had overlooked – the Creator of the universe who revealed Himself clothed in humility. And it was this event that changed Moses’ life forever and transformed him into a man of God who became known as being more humble than anyone else who walked the earth (Num 12:3).
And at a later stage in history, our Redeemer, Yeshua, gave His life for us. But, on this occasion the thorn bush became a crown of thorns placed upon the head of the One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the “Suffering Servant” who willingly paid the price for our sins. And God has made His name famous throughout all creation. Yud-He-Vav-He in human form, the Incarnation – Yeshua the perfect and complete expression of humility, who humbled Himself even unto death on a crucifix stake, and paid the price at a cost higher than eternity can ever fathom.
What was it that changed Moses’ life that transformed him radically from a passive shepherd with a speech impediment to a fearless lion? Num.12:3 reveals it was this incident at the burning bush – God’s staggering humility shattered his life completely that equipped him with the courage and confidence to overcome all obstacles presented in his confrontations with Pharaoh and later with the Israelites.
Herein lies the paradox. Humility is the partner of one who walks in spiritual authority even as pride is the partner of a tyrant. And we see here how God’s humility was manifested to completely confound the enemy.
When Moses confronted the proud and arrogant Pharaoh, his initial efforts met with failure. Not only did Pharaoh refuse to release the Israelites, he made their abject working conditions even worse. They still had to make the same number of bricks for Pharaoh’s building programme but now they had to gather their own straw. At that point, even the Israelites turned against Moses and were ready to stone him.
Why did God allow the Israelites to suffer even greater extremes of suffering? Sometimes, things get worse and then continue to further deteriorate rather than improve but therein lies the true test of our faith where we must choose to whom we place our trust in?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks provides us with this insight: “At the beginning of this week’s parsha, God tells Moshe that He bring the Israelites to freedom, and then tells him to announce this to the people. Then we read this:
“So Moshe told this to the Israelites but they did not listen to him, because their spirit was broken and because the labour was harsh.” Shemot 6:9
The italicised phrase seems simple enough. The people did not listen to Moshe because they were busy trying to survive day by day. They had no time for hope, or for promises that seemed to have no grounding in reality. Moshe had failed to deliver in the past. He had brought them messages from God before which had done nothing to improve their situation. So they had no reason to think he would do so in the future. So far, so straightforward.
But there is something more subtle going on beneath the surface. When Moshe first met God at the Burning Bush, God told him to lead, and Moshe kept refusing on the grounds that the people would not listen to him. He was not a man of words. He was slow of speech and tongue. He lacked eloquence. He could not sway crowds. He was not an inspirational leader.
It turned out, though, that Moshe was both right and wrong, right that they did not listen to him, but wrong about why. It had nothing to do with his failures as a leader or a public speaker. In fact, it had nothing to do with Moshe at all. They did not listen “because their spirit was broken and because the labour was harsh.”
It’s difficult to hear God’s message if our spirit is broken and our labour harsh. Although tempted to blame God for everything, a true believer fights through it because he understands that true freedom is not freedom from our persecutors or freedom from the worst physical deprivations and torture ever designed by man. We dare not miss the urgency of the moment in the present to allow Satan to paralyse our future. Remember, the more hopeless our situation may appear the sweeter will be our victory. So too as the day draws near and our redemption draws nigh!
Let me share with you a story. The year was 1945 just after the war. The place: a refugee camp somewhere in Germany. Jews just out of concentration camps had gathered in a barracks-turned-Synagogue to pray.
The unanimously chosen “rabbi” of this one-time congregation was none other than the godly Klausenburger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam. His holiness and closeness to God were unquestionable, but even more amazing, he had retained his sanity after losing his wife and 11 children to the Nazis.
The “congregation” was composed of all sorts of Jews. From traditionally orthodox, to those that had never been in a Synagogue before. But they all had one thing in common. No one but them could possibly understand what they had been through.
Slowly the cantor began singing, and the congregation followed. There was much genuine weeping that night, until they got to the confession prayer called “Al Chet” where we request forgiveness for the sins we did with our eyes, our hands, through brazenness, through callousness, and so on.
Suddenly one of the congregants stood up and stamped his foot. “No!!” He screamed “No!”
Everyone turned and looked at him. One or two tried to gently calm him down. “No!” he looked at them and yelled.
“What? I should ask forgiveness to G‑d for sins I did with my eyes or my hands?
“These eyes saw my own children killed! These hands had no time to sin, they had to work for those German devils day and night!
“What? I was brazen?! I didn’t dare lift my head for three years! I was callous? I gave my last piece of bread to people I didn’t know!
“No! No! If anyone has to ask for forgiveness, it is G‑d. G‑d should ask us for forgiveness! He gave the Nazis eyes to see and hands to torture, and brazenness and callousness to rape and kill. So let Him ask forgiveness from us!”
The room fell silent again, and all eyes filled with tears and turned to the Klosenberger Rebbe. What would he say?
After several seconds of awful silence, the Rebbe cleared his throat and said:
“You… are… right…”
And everyone burst out in uncontrollable weeping. Men fell to their knees, and others just put their faces in their hands and wept and wept and wept.
After the crying had subsided and the room fell quiet once again, the Rebbe continued where he had left off.
“But I want to tell you why I did ask G‑d for forgiveness today.
“In our camp the guards used to amuse themselves every morning by playing a sadistic game. They would line us up and pick five inmates. These unfortunate souls would be forced to carry a load of bricks up a steep flight of stairs in front of everyone. If one brick would fall, they would add another two in its place, and if the prisoner himself fell, they would slowly torture him to death before our eyes.
“So it was every morning. True, the rest of the day wasn’t much better. It was unbearably cold, our clothes were infested with lice, and we were given almost nothing to eat. Everyone was sick, and prisoners were dying like flies. But the worst and most humiliating was that morning ordeal.
“It got to the point that the prayer each of us said before we went to sleep was: ‘G‑d, merciful G‑d, please let me die in my sleep. Please don’t let me wake up tomorrow morning.’ And I used to say it too.
“That is what I just asked forgiveness for. That is the sin I confessed to this Yom Kippur.
“It never entered my mind that if I am going to pray, if I am going to ask G‑d for something, I should ask Him to set me free! I forgot that there could be such a thing as being free….”
This well-known story of the Klausenburger Rebbe poignantly illustrates that we can make good choices even in the most unimaginable situations. Although tempted to blame God for everything, he finally understood that true freedom is not freedom from our persecutors or freedom from the worst physical deprivations and torture ever designed by man. As he discovered, “It never entered my mind that if I am going to pray, if I am going to ask God for something, I should have asked Him to set me free! I forgot that there could be such a thing as being free . . . .” This was something the Israelites never asked God throughout their entire period of slavery.
It is true that many of us have suffered from spiritual myopia (short-sightedness) whenever we make our personal circumstances our prime focus. But, true freedom becomes available to the whosoever through the shed blood of Yeshua when we choose instead for Him to become our prime focus: the One who made the bold claim that, “He who the Son sets free shall be free indeed!” (John 8:36).
In these days, God is enlarging our boundaries and calling us to press in violently (that is with every ounce of energy) to possess the land overflowing with “milk and honey.” We dare not miss the urgency of the moment in the present to allow Satan to paralyse our future. Remember, the more hopeless our situation may appear the sweeter will be our victory. So too as the day draws near and our redemption draws nigh!
