Names

Torah Portion: Exodus 1:1-6:1

The names of many men and women of faith are recorded in the Law. The Law itself is not really a book of statutes as much as the various scrolls collected over the millennia are a uniquely human story. Evolution cannot account for the uniqueness of man and our desire to worship and from that our interactions with the divine.

The “name” of those who will be spoken of in this set of chapters and verses are names known throughout the world and that hold great renown and respect. They are also names that have, at one point, almost forever disappeared from the earth. These names, the opening men; are the tribes left in Egypt after Joseph had gone. After God had brought them down from Canaan to save them from a famine.Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. These, are the names.

During the Holocaust under a murderous dictator their descendents were almost removed from the earth. Like, these names, the men and women of Israel were to be redeemed. They were taken from brutal enslavement and set free. This is an ancient story that replays. Again, it is not a story of Law, it is a story of God intervening in history to bring His people; to His purpose.

In Exodus, the twelve heads of the families and all of their families are left in a land not their own. They soon find themselves under a Pharoah who did not honor Joseph. In fact, like Hitler this Pharoah sought to destroy the Hebrews. His goal was to control and use and destroy the people for his own gain and political purposes. Why? Because the Hebrews were many and a threat.

However, God did not have in His mind to destroy His people; the Hebrews. Just as He did not have His people slated for destruction under the brutality of an evil dictator in the 20th century. NO! God, the God of Israel Instead brought freedom to His people.

In the midst of Pharaoh's desire to murder the children of the Hebrews; Moses, a Hebrew man was brought into the Pharaoh's court. Moses was raised as one of the Pharaoh's own and Moses in this story on his first attempt to save his brothers (like some other Savior we know) was rejected and forced to leave under duress and the threat of death. This, a story that also replays in history. In this case Moses used violence in a strange land. In the other case the One used Truth in His own land.

Moses fled to the gentile nation of the Midianites. There, he found a family and acceptance. There He met the God he did not yet know by name. There Moses was commissioned to return, confront Pharoah, and bring God’s people to their land.

God brought the names down to Egypt. Now, it was the time to return those names to the land that was promised to their father Abraham and build the nation they were to be. The famine was over and the Hebrews were to move out from under their evil captor; like Joseph was set free from his slavery… they also like Joseph were become a powerful.

By the power of the Lord God and with his brother by his side Moses went to Pharoah. The Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharoah; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land”. The Lord of time was to change the history of His people once again!