Tag: mosheh

  • A Day of the silence of the Passover Lamb

    A Day of the silence of the Passover Lamb

    The Son of Man is Slain

    From the day the Son of Man is delivered into the world and laid in a manger the shadow of the Cross foretold Christ’s Sacrifice.

    And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

    For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

    John 1:14,16-17 NASB

    וַיִּקְרָ֥א מֹשֶׁ֛ה לְכָל־זִקְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם מִֽשְׁכ֗וּ וּקְח֨וּ לָכֶ֥ם צֹ֛אן לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתֵיכֶ֖ם וְשַׁחֲט֥וּ הַפָּֽסַח׃

    Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.

    Exodus 12:21 WLC; NASB http://blb.sc/002lS2

    Jesus has prepared unwilling ears of the Disciples for this shabbath of the pecach, which takes away the sins of the world.

    silhouette of Jesus on Cross in front of sunset

    “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up..

    John 3:13 NASB

    The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’?

    Who is this Son of Man?”

    John 12:34 NASB

    By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

    Hebrews 11:28 NASB

    Now the body of the Son of Man lays lifeless and bloodied, partially wrapped in the shrouds of burial and entombed in darkness sealed away from the living by a guarded stone door.

    Jesus the ROCK of Salvation

    The Song of Moses

    “Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
    And let the earth hear the words of my mouth!
    2 May my teaching drip as the rain,
    My speech trickle as the dew,
    As droplets on the fresh grass,
    And as the showers on the vegetation.
    3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
    Ascribe greatness to our God!

    4 The Rock! His work is perfect,
    For all His ways are just;
    A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
    Righteous and just is He.
    5 They have acted corruptly against Him,
    They are not His children, because of their defect;
    But are a perverse and crooked generation.
    6 Is this what you do to the Lord,
    You foolish and unwise people?
    Is He not your Father who has purchased you?
    He has made you and established you.

    הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה וְתִשְׁמַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִֽי׃

    2 יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י תִּזַּ֥ל כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב׃

    3 כִּ֛י שֵׁ֥ם יְהוָ֖ה אֶקְרָ֑א הָב֥וּ גֹ֖דֶל לֵאלֹהֵֽינוּ׃

    4 הַצּוּר֙ תָּמִ֣ים פָּעֳל֔וֹ כִּ֥י כָל־דְּרָכָ֖יו מִשְׁפָּ֑ט אֵ֤ל אֱמוּנָה֙ וְאֵ֣ין עָ֔וֶל צַדִּ֥יק וְיָשָׁ֖ר הֽוּא׃

    5 שִׁחֵ֥ת ל֛וֹ לֹ֖א בָּנָ֣יו מוּמָ֑ם דּ֥וֹר עִקֵּ֖שׁ וּפְתַלְתֹּֽל׃

    6 הֲ־לַיְהוָה֙ תִּגְמְלוּ־זֹ֔את עַ֥ם נָבָ֖ל וְלֹ֣א חָכָ֑ם הֲלוֹא־הוּא֙ אָבִ֣יךָ קָּנֶ֔ךָ ה֥וּא עָֽשְׂךָ֖ וַֽיְכֹנְנֶֽךָ׃

    The Messiah & the Pharisees

    Philip found Nathanael and said to him,

    “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

    Gospel of John 1:45 NASB

    The Pharisees had often come to Jesus before they crucified Him and now faithful men have laid their Messiah in a grave. Joseph, Nicodemus and a remnant of influential Jews believe and follow the Messiah secretly out of fear of their own lives.

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

    John 5:25
    painting of Christ and the Pharisees by Earnst Zimmerman

    “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

    “I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves…

    The Pharisees had tested Jesus. Yet most continued to give glory to each other rather than the Messiah who came to teach truth in their midst.

    Jesus preached the truth of Scripture to the Jews who claimed to be teachers.

    “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;

    the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.

    For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

    John 5: NASB

    The Writings of Moshe

    Deuteronomy 32:
    New American Standard Bible

    .. And you drank wine of the blood of grapes..

    18 You forgot the Rock who fathered you,
    And forgot the God who gave you birth.

    19 “The Lord saw this, and spurned them
    Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.

    20 Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,
    I will see what their end will be;
    For they are a perverse generation,
    Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.

    39 See now that I, I am He,
    And there is no god besides Me;
    It is I who put to death and give life.
    I have wounded and it is I who heal,
    And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.
    40 Indeed, I raise My hand to heaven,
    And say, as I live forever,
    41 If I have sharpened My flashing sword,
    And My hand has taken hold of justice,
    I will return vengeance on My adversaries,
    And I will repay those who hate Me.

    דברים 32
    Westminster Leningrad Codex

    18 צ֥וּר יְלָדְךָ֖ תֶּ֑שִׁי וַתִּשְׁכַּ֖ח אֵ֥ל מְחֹלְלֶֽךָ׃

    19 וַיַּ֥רְא יְהוָ֖ה וַיִּנְאָ֑ץ מִכַּ֥עַס בָּנָ֖יו וּבְנֹתָֽיו׃

    20 וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַסְתִּ֤ירָה פָנַי֙ מֵהֶ֔ם אֶרְאֶ֖ה מָ֣ה אַחֲרִיתָ֑ם כִּ֣י ד֤וֹר תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙ הֵ֔מָּה בָּנִ֖ים לֹא־אֵמֻ֥ן בָּֽם׃

    39 רְא֣וּ׀ עַתָּ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י אֲנִי֙ ה֔וּא וְאֵ֥ין אֱלֹהִ֖ים עִמָּדִ֑י אֲנִ֧י אָמִ֣ית וַאֲחַיֶּ֗ה מָחַ֙צְתִּי֙ וַאֲנִ֣י אֶרְפָּ֔א וְאֵ֥ין מִיָּדִ֖י מַצִּֽיל׃

    40 כִּֽי־אֶשָּׂ֥א אֶל־שָׁמַ֖יִם יָדִ֑י וְאָמַ֕רְתִּי חַ֥י אָנֹכִ֖י לְעֹלָֽם׃

    41 אִם־שַׁנּוֹתִי֙ בְּרַ֣ק חַרְבִּ֔י וְתֹאחֵ֥ז בְּמִשְׁפָּ֖ט יָדִ֑י אָשִׁ֤יב נָקָם֙ לְצָרָ֔י וְלִמְשַׂנְאַ֖י אֲשַׁלֵּֽם׃

    Prophesy: Curses on Disobedience

    Deuteronomy 28 :: HNV / WLC

    20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.

    33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don’t know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always..

    45-46 All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his mitzvot and his statutes which he commanded you: and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

    יְשַׁלַּח יְהוָה בְּךָ אֶת־הַמְּאֵרָה אֶת־הַמְּהוּמָה וְאֶת־הַמִּגְעֶרֶת בְּכָל־מִשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה עַד הִשָּֽׁמֶדְךָ וְעַד־אֲבָדְךָ מַהֵר מִפְּנֵי רֹעַ מַֽעֲלָלֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר עֲזַבְתָּֽנִי׃

    פְּרִי אַדְמָֽתְךָ וְכָל־יְגִיעֲךָ יֹאכַל עַם אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדָעְתָּ וְהָיִיתָ רַק עָשׁוּק וְרָצוּץ כָּל־הַיָּמִֽים׃

    וּבָאוּ עָלֶיךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָלוֹת הָאֵלֶּה וּרְדָפוּךָ וְהִשִּׂיגוּךָ עַד הִשָּֽׁמְדָךְ כִּי־לֹא שָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֺתָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר צִוָּֽךְ׃

    וְהָיוּ בְךָ לְאוֹת וּלְמוֹפֵת וּֽבְזַרְעֲךָ עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃

    “In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’

    And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’

    because of the fear which terrifies your heart,

    and because of the sight which your eyes see.

    Deuteronomy 28:67 NKJV – curse of the LORD on Israel for breaking His Covenant

    Judgment by a Savior

    “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;

    those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,

    those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

    The words of Jesus – John 5:28-29 NASB
    So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” - John19:15 - collage of Jesus and Pilate with first and 21st century crowds

    As the crowds had approached Jerusalem for the seven-day celebration they laid palms before Jesus at the gates atop the holy hill.

    Now as Jesus lay in the grave, His broken and bloodied Body partially prepared for burial, the public mourning of the faithful must wait for a sacred celebration of the final feast of pecach.

    As Jesus lay on a slab of stone in a tomb sealed by a rock rolled before its entrance, faithful Jews knew well the curses of their own disobedience and separation from the Lord their God.

    The Prophet Hosea (~755–710 B.C)

    Hosea’s name means: salvation, as did that of Moses’ successor Joshua and as does that of the Son of Man known of Nazareth, Jesus.

    From the hand of Sheol I do ransom them,

    From death I redeem them,

    Where is thy plague, O death?

    Where thy destruction, O Sheol?

    Repentance is hid from Mine eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 YLT

    After this day of irony in the festival feast would come the sorrowful day of mourning on the first day of the week.

    Yet the words of Jesus before summoning Lazarus from the grave surly resounded in the hearts of their recent memory.

    Lazarus come forth - photo of sunrise and Bible

    Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.

    Do you believe this?”

    the Good News of John 11:25-26 NASB

    She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.” – John 11:27 Hebrew Names Version

    The Silence of this Shabbat

    two Roman soldiers standing by fire at night by Jesus' tomb

    There, as Jesus’ loved ones, family and followers mourned silently during the final feast of the Passover, the preparations of their hearts found no solace in His upcoming burial on the first day of the week.

    For they had witnessed the brutality of sin against the Sinless One on the Cross of Calvary.

    The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. One who believes in the Son has eternal life,

    but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

    the Good News of John 3:35-36 Hebrew Names Version

  • Before Abraham was, I AM

    Before Abraham was, I AM

    “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

    Exodus 3:6 KJV

    13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

    14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

    Who sent Jesus to us?

    Moses relates one of the most remarkable encounters with the LORD which results in his leading God’s chosen from slavery to the promised land. Exodus records for us not only the genealogy of Israel, Isaac and Abraham, here we learn the Lord’s own Name:

    הָיָה הָיָה

    I AM that I AM – that is: the LORD IS the Existing One!

    As we learned previously in Who May Judge Sin?, Jesus answers questions of the religious leaders of the Temple. They asked Him to judge a woman accused of adultery, but relented from stoning her when Jesus showed her mercy and challenged their motives.

    They question Jesus legitimacy as the Messiah of God. Do you?

    Essentially they want to prove that Jesus is not sent from God, even though this Son of Man has given many signs of His power and Authority from God.

    These rabbis will go to any length and make any false argument against the legitimacy and authority of Jesus.

    So what does the Messiah Jesus claim?

    Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world.

    John 8:12a CSB

    What does this mean? It depends if you have ears to hear.

    Who sent Jesus to the world twenty-one centuries ago is a matter of faith – also our question of who to believe.

    So Jesus now speaks to two groups of Jews:

    1. Followers of Jesus – those called by faith, which includes some Jews who believe their Messiah; and also
    2. Those who judge Jesus, refusing to believe the very Word of God! These include some but not all of the Pharisees from the Court of the Jews.

    Let’s dissect Jesus’ words as heard by each group, both then and now.

    John 8:

    1. Followers of Jesus

    Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    The promise of Jesus – John 8:12b CSB

    14 … “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going.

    I judge no one. 16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

    29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

    30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

    31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

    36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

    42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.

    49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father … 50 I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. 51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

    Then the teachers of the Jews will follow with a question, the answer which divides the faithful from the deceitful.

    But first let’s go back to the beginning of this testimony of the Gospel to stand beside Jerusalem’s religious elite who question the Messiah of God, determined to kill Him and preserve their own temporal glory among men.

    2. Court of the Pharisees

    Hear this same Messiah of Israel through ears refusing to listen to truth. These Pharisees feed the crowds of Jews they teach with their own dismissive words and questions of resentful doubt.

    13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

    Jesus replied, “… But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards.

    17 Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

    19 Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

    “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered.

    21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

    22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’?”

    23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

    Who are you?

    25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

    28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.

    33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

    34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

    Jesus, speaking to the Jews to whom He was sent, warns in the same manner He told many parables. The Father, His Father in heaven sent the Son to redeem them of their sins. He will become the Sacrifice God provides, just like the substitute for Isaac the Lord sent to Abraham.

    A sinful man must sacrifice to the Lord because of man’s sin.

    The Son remains in the Father’s house because He will inherit all that the Father owns. But a slave, even a chosen slave freed from Pharaoh, only lives freely if his sin does not shackle him to death once more.

    Abraham believed God; but unbelief binds one to die as sacrifice only for yourself, a sentence of death for your own sin.

    Descendents of Abraham

    37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.

    … so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

    39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied.

    “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

    41 You’re doing what your father does.”

    “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”

    Your father, the Devil

    43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

    44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

    47 The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

    48 The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

    Demons and Samaritans

    Do not dismiss quickly their accusation of demons. Many will accuse Jesus of having a demon or evil spirit, even though the Messiah has done no evil.

    And later, confirming the signs of the Messiah some Jews ask, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? ”

    The Pharisees knowing from scripture that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem only know the Son of Man as ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ and we know their contempt as Judeans for Samaritans (and Galileans as well).

    49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered.

    51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

    [How can that be, anyone must wonder. Never see death?]

    52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

    A Convicting Question

    53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

    Who could be greater than David, King of Israel a thousand years before Jesus?

    In the new traditions of the Pharisees of a rebuilt temple certainly Moses, who was given the Law and brought them out of Egypt, would be revered most.

    Some prophets like Elijah might be seen as great because of great signs they performed, along with Jacob and Abraham as first fathers of the promise of the Lord to the Hebrew people.

    So the question of the Pharisees to Jesus comparing Him to Abraham and the prophets is meant to convict.

    Who do you claim to be?

    Note that they do not ask, “who are you,” but “who do you claim to be.” Jesus’ unequivocal answer will claim His very deity!

    Jesus’ Glorious Answer

    Even before Mosheh (Moses)

    Returning to Scripture as these rabbis would well know as background:

    וַיִּשְׁכֹּ֤ן כְּבֹוד־יְהוָה֙ עַל־הַ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַיְכַסֵּ֥הוּ הֶעָנָ֖ן שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בַּיֹּ֥ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י מִתֹּ֥וךְ הֶעָנָֽן׃

    The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

    Exodus 24:16 WLC; NASB

    The context of the hearers, fellow Jews like Jesus, connects their question to Jesus’ answer. (You must know scripture (Old Testament) as they knew scripture. The Torah of Moses includes the Lord’s promise to Abraham’s descendants.

    And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

    Exodus 24:17-18 NASB

    Their Hebrew forefathers witnessed the glory of the LORD more than once.

    John 8:

    Now, returning to the Gospel, Jesus gives witness to a glory which preceded Moses who received the Law directly from the LORD.

    54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him…”

    And now the Son of Man, who must say only truth, does so even though the depth of Jesus’ words do not immediately sink in.

    “… If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word…”

    Jesus the Son knows the Father unlike ANY son of man, even the Prophets, any of the fathers of Israel or Moses.

    “… Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

    The Messiah Jesus to Rabbis of JudahJohn 8:56 CSB

    Think of the context of Jesus’ witness of Abraham in the timeline of centuries before the Son of God – the Word – coming to a manger in Bethlehem of Judea.

    57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

    Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

    Witness of the Messiah – John 8:58 CSB

    before Abraham was, I am

    59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going[b] through the midst of them, and so passed by.

    Other places in the Gospel add explanation to this.

    Why did religious officials determined to kill this man claiming to be God not successfully seize the Lord Jesus and stone Him to death?

    For his time had not come.

    • So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. – John 7:20 NET
    • (Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.) – John 8:20a small detail of the Gospel we have just read

    When, then, would the time for Sacrifice of the Messiah for sin occur?

    Do you see the significance of the substitution of the acceptable sacrifice to the Father?

    For the LORD provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac for Abraham, an early sign of what must take place to fulfill God’s plan of redemption of sinful man.

    No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

    I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

    John 6:44,51 KJV
    NEXT: More Signs  

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – to Goshen

    Pulled from the Torrent, a Redeemer Forgotten

    Perhaps you recall that the name Moses or מֹשֶׁה Môsheh means drawn; from drawing out (of the water), i.e. rescued. He is revered as a rescuer of Israel, but how did Moses get to Egypt in the first place? As a baby fleeing harm in a wicker sarcophagus, Moses was plucked from certain death in the waters of a river in Goshen.

    Psalm 18:

    16 He reached down from on high
    and took hold of me;
    he pulled me out of deep water.
    17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too strong for me.
    18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.
    19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.


    Pharaoh’s daughter then brought Moses into the house of the King of Egypt where he was raised in the best of privileged circumstances. She takes him from a wicker ark closed over him by his Hebrew mother and draws the child from the water into her saving arms. 

    Exodus 2:

    5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, 6 opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

    She most certainly would have known her father’s command:

    Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.” – Exodus 1:22


    2:10 When the child grew older, she [Moses’ mother, hired as a mid-wife] brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

    Migrant Tribes in the Lands of Others

    Perhaps you have not thought of it: peoples or tribes are homeless families looking for a place to live.

    The Hebrews were one such people; yet the Lord God is their ever-living חֲיָא Patriarch, even more so than Moses or Abraham. Ever since Abraham they raised sheep, migrated to lands where they could sustain life and became merchants trading with citizens and travelers in lands to which the Lord would lead.

    Recall that the persecution of the Hebrews in the time of Moses was consequence of envy of their prosperity by the rulers of the land.

    Exodus 1:

    8 A new king… said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

    11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

    In the first hall of the Temple of Rameses II

    Egypt’s and Israel’s Forgotten Redeemer

    Genesis 46:

    The words of Zaphnathpaaneah:

    “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

    32 The men are shepherds; they also raise livestock. They have brought their flocks and herds and all that they have.’

    33 When Pharaoh addresses you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’

    Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians.”

    All about Goshen

    Goshen & Ramses


    To be continued… 

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