Naked unto Shame among our Enemies
32:25 וַיַּרְא מֹשֶׁה אֶת־הָעָם כִּי פָרֻעַ הוּא כִּֽי־פְרָעֹה אַהֲרֹן לְשִׁמְצָה בְּקָמֵיהֶֽם׃
פָּרַע pâraʻ, paw-rah’
- to loosen; by implication, to expose, dismiss;
- figuratively, absolve, begin:
- —avenge, avoid, bare, go back, let, (make) naked, set at nought, perish, refuse, uncover.
We read it before Moses and Aaron led the Hebrews into the wilderness:
Exodus 5: KJV
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh,
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.
Here is the first enemy to mock the Lord our God!
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt knowing Moses, who at eighty years old returns after forty years to redeem the Lord’s own people from bondage to a king. Pharaoh would send them away only after the plagues threatened his kingdom.
“.. I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.
3 And they said,
The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
(A warning here, even to God’s enemies, NOT to oppose the Lord God!)
But the king of Egypt said to them,
“Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!”
Exodus 5:4 NASB95 – links to pāraʿ – nakedness (or leading without restraint)
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.
In the year of our Lord 2021, does choosing obedience to your OATH before the LORD seem to uncover our nakedness to the SHAME of our enemies?
Punishment!
Exodus 32: continued
26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said,
“Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.”
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’”
For the idolaters in their uncontrolled worship had brought the wrath of the Lord upon themselves and had uncovered their nakedness as men bound to the Lord by Covenant to the shame of the Glorious One.
The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell dead that day among the people.
Exodus 32:28 CSB
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה מִ֚י אֲשֶׁ֣ר חָֽטָא־לִ֔י אֶמְחֶ֖נּוּ מִסִּפְרִֽי׃
The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
Exodus 32:33
34 But go now, lead the people where I told you…
To be continued... NEXT: Rebellion by Korah
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