Torah portion: Exodus 6:2-9:35

Va’era (‘And I appeared’)

In this week’s Torah portion, God gives a wonderful invitation through Moses to the Children of Israel: to know Him by name. God had ‘appeared’ to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the All-Sufficient God, El Shaddai, but He did not make Himself known to them by His Name - YHVH (Yahweh), that they might know Him on a more personal, intimate level. This revelation was given to Moses (Ex 6:3).

What’s in a Name?

Names in Scripture reveal character and purpose. To ‘know’ a person by name is to understand them in a close relationship.

God gave Moses and Aaron the opportunity to know His Name and experience His power. In front of Pharaoh and his sorcerers, Aaron cast down his rod and it swallowed up the rods of the magicians (Ex 7:12), symbolising God’s sovereign power and authority over Egypt. This was confirmed when God sent plagues to bring judgment on all the idols and gods of Egypt (Ex 12:12), while the Israelites were protected. Moses proclaimed God’s Name to Pharaoh and demonstrated God’s power, but Pharaoh still hardened his heart, refusing to bow to the Name and authority of the God of Israel (Ex 9:1, 18-19, 35).

In these days also, when mankind is in rebellion against God, against the LORD Jesus (Ps 2:1-2) and against His covenant people,¹ hearts are again hardened against Him. Man has made many idols and gods, including wisdom, strength, riches, military might, sexual immorality, the environment, secular humanism, Darwinism and eugenics, and recently transhumanism. Peter, Paul, John and Jesus Himself all warned us of the judgment that will follow this sinful rebellion, though men’s hardened hearts will still not repent in the end days, in spite of this (Rev 9:20-21).²

Knowing God Through Jesus

To understand His purposes in these days we need to know the God of Israel, by knowing His Son Jesus (Yeshua), through whom God has revealed Himself by name (‘Yeshua’ means ‘He will save His people from their sins’). Of His disciples, Jesus prayed to His Father: “I have made You known to them” (John 17:26). And of His new covenant with the House of Israel, He said: “No longer will they say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me” (Heb 8:11).

So this is His invitation to us today: “Let not man boast in wisdom, strength and riches, but in that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, declares the LORD” (Jer 9:23-24).

Author: Greg Stevenson

References

1 Reports of a surge in anti-Semitism worldwide include, most recently (December 30), the attack in Monsey, New York by Grafton Thomas, who broke into the house of a Rabbi’s family celebrating Hanukkah and stabbed five people.

2 See 2 Peter 3:7, Romans 2:5, Revelation 6-19, 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (referring to those who do not know God) as discussed in Floodgates by David Parsons (2018, Whitaker House, PA), pp77-87.