GOOD AFTERNOON, SIBLINGS!
Today’s readings are Exodus chapters 1-3

Click here to read these passages on BibleGateway.

Introduction to the book:

Author: Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible, known in Hebrew as the Torah and in Greek as the Pentateuch. Confirmation of this authorship may be found here: Exodus 17:14, Exodus 24:4, Exodus 34:27, Mark 7:10, and Mark 12:26 . 

Titles of this book: The Hebrew name for this book is Shemoth, which means “These are the names”. The English title comes from Greek, Exodus, which means to exit or depart. Interesting fact: The original Hebrew names of these books are generally the first few words of the first sentence. 

Major events in this book: While this entire book is a treasure and it is vital that we read the Word in context, the major events that are recorded in this book are the oppression of Israel by a new Pharaoh after Joseph’s death, the deliverance of His people by YHWH, and the giving of YHWH’s commandments. We will also see the first dwelling place of YHWH built, according to His specifications. In doing that, as in all other aspects of the Bible, we will see that details are important to YHWH.

Many miracles take place in this book, things that could only be brought about by the hand of our God, and events that still affect us to this very day. The information we are about to receive is not only relevant to Believers today, but contains integral lessons and wisdom that we must heed in order for YHWH to count us among His followers. In this book the Father gives His guidelines for how we are to worship Him, how we are to live, ethics and morality as defined by Him, and how we are to relate to and treat one another. 

Rabbit Trails

Today we enter the book of Exodus. Whereas Genesis was the book of beginnings of all things, Exodus sees many more beginnings for God’s chosen people. We will also see the nation of Israel multiply rapidly, mature as followers of YHWH, and many amazing miracles will take place.

We open this book with the people of Israel increasing greatly. The Bible mentions this more than once and this is to let us know that this increase in their numbers was of divine origin, something that would have been impossible had YHWH not had His hand upon them.
In fact, in Exodus 1:7 the word that was translated to “increased greatly” or “increased abundantly” is the same word the Father used in the first chapter of Genesis when He inhabited the land and it better translates to “swarm”, evoking the sense of a creature becoming so abundant as to overwhelm with it’s presence.
Check it here: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/1-7.htm

We see that the new pharaoh and the other Egyptians felt threatened by the population increase of the Israelites- as people in power have a tendency to do when those they abuse begin to increase beyond them in number. Even without numbers right now, we can see that this population has a feel of being able to overthrow the pharaoh’s power and install their own king in his place. And so Pharaoh set out to oppress them by making them slaves to the Egyptians. The more they increased, the heavier the burden he put upon them. When even that did not seem to phase their expansion, he called in two midwives.

Exodus 1:15 Shiphrah and Puah – These are the only two midwives mentioned by name but I believe it would be an error to assume these were the only midwives. Rather, these two are singled out and we are told of them because of the actions they took.

Now, most assume that Shiphrah and Puah are Hebrews but some say that the translation “to the Hebrew midwives” should read “The midwives to the Hebrews”. That is an interesting rabbit trail and we can’t know the answer for sure but it is worth noting that they could be either Hebrew or Egyptian.

Either way, when commanded to kill the sons, they immediately defied this order by telling a lie to the pharaoh. In doing this, they saved many innocent lives and managed to avoid the sin of murder. We are told they did this solely because they feared YHWH and as a result, YHWH honored this by giving them families.

Something important to note in today’s reading:
-Moses was from the tribe of Levi.
-Levi is not pronounced like the jeans of today. Instead, it is pronounced Leh-vee, so add this tidbit to your back pocket. Moses’ name was pronounced Moe-shay, just in case you were curious. Pronunciation isn’t that important to us but I enjoy knowing these things.
Knowing Moses was from the tribe of Levi will help put some puzzle pieces together in terms of the events of his life later on.

Exodus 2:3 The Hebrew word used for the basket Moses was put in is the same word used for the ark that YHWH had Noah build. Note that this word was only used in these two instances in the Bible. The ark of the covenant uses an entirely different word.
Practice your Biblehub skills to look up Exodus 2:3 and see this. Make sure you take all the steps to get to the root of the word. If you need a refresher on how to use Biblehub to dig into words check out the post I’m including further down in today’s notes on the name of YHWH for a great refresher.

Moses knew his family. With his mother as his wet nurse, the Bible tells us that he lived with them and didn’t return to the princess until he was weaned. This was likely at least three years of age but closer to five years old (or even 7) is more realistic when it comes to tribal societies.

The reluctance of Moses: It is a pattern of YHWH that He chooses those who are reluctant to represent Him. Think through so many of the figures you may know about from the Bible and keep this in mind as we move forward with our reading.
YHWH chooses the ones who don’t feel qualified and really don’t want to be chosen. He does not choose the grandstanders, the ones out there with an agenda of fame and success in the name of religion. In fact, history tells us that the people YHWH chooses are often not even respected by their friends, family, and community as a result of their calling.
He chooses people who do not consider themselves to be worthy – as these are the people who have a full understanding that they cannot carry out this purpose alone – and the glory, therefore, goes to YHWH rather than to man.

Exodus 3:15 In today’s readings, we have God revealing HIS PERSONAL NAME to us. This is enough to take any believer’s breath away. Unfortunately, most people have never read His personal name because translations have replaced it with various things, most commonly with “the LORD”.
I struggle with this because YHWH revealed it to us, had Moses write it down on record, and man willfully removes something that YHWH had intended us to know.

FYI: His personal name originally appeared approximately 7000 times in the Bible.
This is part of why I read several translations and even then go back and forth between interlinear.

The Holy Bible – all of it – is the Word of God, but translations  – all of them – are man’s work and therefore subject to being imperfect in various ways.
Encouraging Reminder: We don’t argue over which translation is best here. We use whatever translation we have the easiest time reading and go from there. It is my firm policy that the best Bible translation is the one you’re going to read.
To learn how to find His name, how it’s been changed, and where to find out how your Bible treats this, click here to read my paper on that.  
Note, the above link is also the refresher course I mentioned earlier on how to look up original words and meanings on Biblehub.

Another note about the name of our God: Today we have the Islamic faith growing by leaps and bounds and many in the “emergent” Christian churches (as well as Islamic leadership) have attempted to say that we all worship the same god. Now, we are not going to discuss other religions here or church doctrine – we have enough to do with keeping our nose in the Word.
However, I want to be clear that YHWH is not “allah”, but if you call them both by the same name (God/god) it can seem to be so to those who may not understand this. This is just another reason why it is important to know the Father’s personal name. It will most assuredly be an important identifier at some point. For that matter, teach it to your children and grandchildren as well. ❤️ I challenge you today to visit that post (above), learn about His name, and then check out how your Bible has translated it using the information provided in that post. Then, dive into Exodus and watch it be revealed to Moses.

 I am so grateful to you for being here. It is an honor to be reading through the Bible with each of you!

Exciting things are taking place in the Word and we get to relive them!
Test everything, hold tight to what is good. ~1 Thess 5:21

And May YHWH Bless the reading of His word!

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Christy Jordan
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