Heading Toward the River
Here we are already in the second parasha of Exodus, how time flies! This parasha is titled Vayera and covers Chapters 6:2-9:35. We open this portion with YHVH revealing another of His names not previously known to Moshe. According to Ramban, El Shaddai describes God when he performs miracles unseen, as he did for the patriarchs He referenced here. The miracles their forefathers saw had to do more with keeping them alive and childbearing in old age, all of which He did 'behind the scenes'. As for Moshe, he would be seeing great miracles out in the open, such as the parting of the sea and the great plagues. Here we see YHVH making four promises for Moshe to relay to the people. First He would bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; second, He would deliver them out of their bondage, third, He would redeem them with an outstretched arm and fourth, He would take them to be His people and He would be their God. It is generally referred to as the four expressions of redemption. How many cups are there at Passover, boys and girls (4):? But what happens when Moshe tried to tell the people this, they wouldn't listen. They were so worn out in spirit and body, they weren't very open to hear anything. Then YHVH tells Moshe to go in and tell Pharaoh to let the people go. Moshe replies something that sounds pretty logical to us on the surface. He tells YHVH, if the people won't hear me, what makes you think Pharaoh will. You will notice in verse 13, YHVH gave Moshe and Aaron a command both for the people AND for Pharaoh. The command for the people was to bring them out according to their divisions.
Then you'll see a whole list of people named after this. These scriptures are the ones we usually skip on by:. But you will see a couple of interesting names listed in this section. You see Amram (Moshe's father) who married Jochebed (Moshe's mother) who was a daughter of Levi. So there you have the parents of Moshe and Aaron. Aaron married a woman named Elisheba from the tribe of Judah. I thought you might want to know that last one. At the end of all these names we see YHVH instructing Moshe once again on what to tell Pharaoh. What's his reply, why should Pharaoh listen to me? But YHVH has an excellent answer for him, although at this point if I were YHVH, I would probably have slapped him:. Good thing I'm not God, huh:? But YHVH tells Moshe that He has made him 'like a God to Pharaoh' and made Aaron like his prophet. We see that Moshe was 80 years old when he first spoke with Pharaoh and Aaron was 83. This just goes to show you it's never too late in life for YHVH to do something great with your life. So now YHVH begins to have Moshe confront Pharaoh. As he was told, Moshe told Pharaoh what he was commanded to tell him. We all know how Moshe's rod was cast down in front of the King and it turned into a serpent. Pharaoh has his sorcerers do the same thing. But Moshe's rod swallowed up the other rods/serpents. This was the 'sign' of things to come. Now Moshe returns again to Pharaoh in the early morning as he goes out to the riverbank. Notice when the river was turned to blood, it was not Moshe who struck it with the rod, it was Aaron. Evidently, every single bit of water was not turned to blood everywhere, because it says Pharaoh's sorcerers did the same thing. You couldn't do the same thing to something that had already turned to blood. But for the next seven days I'm sure there were some thirsty people around there. It says they had to dig around for water to drink. As we know, Pharaoh would still not let the people go. Notice as you go along that each of these plagues were announced to Pharaoh either at the river or his palace, both of which, Pharaoh thought he was God over. Now here comes the frogs! Once again it was Aaron that stretched out his hand with the rod and brought forth all these hideous little creatures. Then once again, the sorcerers did the same. Seems funny that with all the frogs that came from Aaron's calling them out, Pharaoh would want even more brought forth from his own men. Isn't one ton load of frogs sufficient:? Next we have the third plague, lice.
You notice the sorcerers could not reproduce this miracle. Did you ever wonder why? Satan can not produce life from nothing. They could take the water where the soil is full of iron-ore and make it appear red like blood in the water. They could call forth the frogs out of the water because they were already created. But they could not make life out of something that has no life in it. The sand was an innate object. Satan can not 'create life,' he can only imitate it in some way. He has to have something to work with that has some life already in it. The picture of the first three plagues is a picture of how YHVH has delivered us. The blood represents Yeshua's blood in which we are washed. The frogs are the idols in our hearts. The lice would be our old way of thinking, because lice is associated with your head. Next, I'm going to show you that even the Hebrews had to go through the first three plagues. A lot of people say the Hebrew people never had to go through any of the plagues, they were exempt. But that is not so. It was only "after the third plague" that YHVH separated them out from the rest. Think not, let's look at chapter 8 and verse 22. Did you notice that verse and chapter number? Twenty two letters for the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and 8 standing for a new beginning. The people surely had a new beginning bestowed upon them in this verse. Chapter 8:22 says; And I will "separate in that day the land of Goshen" in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there…You will not find anywhere before this passage where YHVH separates His people from the first three plagues, only when the plague of flies is ready to be pronounced are they separated. It was easy for YHVH to get the people out of Egypt, the hard part was getting Egypt out of the people! Now, we are through the water into blood plague, the frogs, the lice and the flies.
Then, Pharaoh decides he will let the people go, but as soon as the flies were taken away, his heart changed. Next comes the pestilence on the livestock, all the cattle of Egypt died. But not one of the Hebrew's livestock died. The next plague is the boils. Notice that YHVH told Moshe and Aaron 'both' to take handfuls of ashes. But when the time came, only Moshe threw the handfuls of ashes toward heaven, not Aaron. Now the magicians were even covered with boils, where's their magic when they need it:? The next plague was hail. There were a couple of miracles you can see in this one. The first one is that fire shot downward. Fire always burns from the bottom up, not from the top down. The second one is the fact that fire and hail (water) appear together. Fire and water do not mix, only when YHVH commands them to! There was also thunder. That sounds somewhat like a picture of Mount Sinai doesn't it, where there was thunder and fire and lightening. It is said that it was the thunder which scared the people the most. If you can imagine how you dislike just regular thunder in a storm and magnify that many times over, you can see how scary that might be. The one thing you can see alluded to here is that it took place in the spring of the year because of what you read in 9:31. It tells you the barley was beginning to come in but the wheat wasn't, which is the latter crop. Remember when Passover takes place? Even after all these events took place, we know that Pharaoh would not let the people go. Look at how much he caused the people to suffer because of his choices. If you have an evil person presiding over you in government, the people suffer for his sinful choices! But the suffering is far from being over. Come back next time as we head toward the river! Shalom
Then you'll see a whole list of people named after this. These scriptures are the ones we usually skip on by:. But you will see a couple of interesting names listed in this section. You see Amram (Moshe's father) who married Jochebed (Moshe's mother) who was a daughter of Levi. So there you have the parents of Moshe and Aaron. Aaron married a woman named Elisheba from the tribe of Judah. I thought you might want to know that last one. At the end of all these names we see YHVH instructing Moshe once again on what to tell Pharaoh. What's his reply, why should Pharaoh listen to me? But YHVH has an excellent answer for him, although at this point if I were YHVH, I would probably have slapped him:. Good thing I'm not God, huh:? But YHVH tells Moshe that He has made him 'like a God to Pharaoh' and made Aaron like his prophet. We see that Moshe was 80 years old when he first spoke with Pharaoh and Aaron was 83. This just goes to show you it's never too late in life for YHVH to do something great with your life. So now YHVH begins to have Moshe confront Pharaoh. As he was told, Moshe told Pharaoh what he was commanded to tell him. We all know how Moshe's rod was cast down in front of the King and it turned into a serpent. Pharaoh has his sorcerers do the same thing. But Moshe's rod swallowed up the other rods/serpents. This was the 'sign' of things to come. Now Moshe returns again to Pharaoh in the early morning as he goes out to the riverbank. Notice when the river was turned to blood, it was not Moshe who struck it with the rod, it was Aaron. Evidently, every single bit of water was not turned to blood everywhere, because it says Pharaoh's sorcerers did the same thing. You couldn't do the same thing to something that had already turned to blood. But for the next seven days I'm sure there were some thirsty people around there. It says they had to dig around for water to drink. As we know, Pharaoh would still not let the people go. Notice as you go along that each of these plagues were announced to Pharaoh either at the river or his palace, both of which, Pharaoh thought he was God over. Now here comes the frogs! Once again it was Aaron that stretched out his hand with the rod and brought forth all these hideous little creatures. Then once again, the sorcerers did the same. Seems funny that with all the frogs that came from Aaron's calling them out, Pharaoh would want even more brought forth from his own men. Isn't one ton load of frogs sufficient:? Next we have the third plague, lice.
You notice the sorcerers could not reproduce this miracle. Did you ever wonder why? Satan can not produce life from nothing. They could take the water where the soil is full of iron-ore and make it appear red like blood in the water. They could call forth the frogs out of the water because they were already created. But they could not make life out of something that has no life in it. The sand was an innate object. Satan can not 'create life,' he can only imitate it in some way. He has to have something to work with that has some life already in it. The picture of the first three plagues is a picture of how YHVH has delivered us. The blood represents Yeshua's blood in which we are washed. The frogs are the idols in our hearts. The lice would be our old way of thinking, because lice is associated with your head. Next, I'm going to show you that even the Hebrews had to go through the first three plagues. A lot of people say the Hebrew people never had to go through any of the plagues, they were exempt. But that is not so. It was only "after the third plague" that YHVH separated them out from the rest. Think not, let's look at chapter 8 and verse 22. Did you notice that verse and chapter number? Twenty two letters for the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and 8 standing for a new beginning. The people surely had a new beginning bestowed upon them in this verse. Chapter 8:22 says; And I will "separate in that day the land of Goshen" in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there…You will not find anywhere before this passage where YHVH separates His people from the first three plagues, only when the plague of flies is ready to be pronounced are they separated. It was easy for YHVH to get the people out of Egypt, the hard part was getting Egypt out of the people! Now, we are through the water into blood plague, the frogs, the lice and the flies.
Then, Pharaoh decides he will let the people go, but as soon as the flies were taken away, his heart changed. Next comes the pestilence on the livestock, all the cattle of Egypt died. But not one of the Hebrew's livestock died. The next plague is the boils. Notice that YHVH told Moshe and Aaron 'both' to take handfuls of ashes. But when the time came, only Moshe threw the handfuls of ashes toward heaven, not Aaron. Now the magicians were even covered with boils, where's their magic when they need it:? The next plague was hail. There were a couple of miracles you can see in this one. The first one is that fire shot downward. Fire always burns from the bottom up, not from the top down. The second one is the fact that fire and hail (water) appear together. Fire and water do not mix, only when YHVH commands them to! There was also thunder. That sounds somewhat like a picture of Mount Sinai doesn't it, where there was thunder and fire and lightening. It is said that it was the thunder which scared the people the most. If you can imagine how you dislike just regular thunder in a storm and magnify that many times over, you can see how scary that might be. The one thing you can see alluded to here is that it took place in the spring of the year because of what you read in 9:31. It tells you the barley was beginning to come in but the wheat wasn't, which is the latter crop. Remember when Passover takes place? Even after all these events took place, we know that Pharaoh would not let the people go. Look at how much he caused the people to suffer because of his choices. If you have an evil person presiding over you in government, the people suffer for his sinful choices! But the suffering is far from being over. Come back next time as we head toward the river! Shalom