What’s In A Name?

In the Torah portion SHEMOT, the children of ISRAEL had multiplied and flourished in Egypt while living in the land of Goshen. Shemot means “Names” in Hebrew, the Torah makes a point to begin with the Names of the children of Israel:

“Now these are the names of Bnei-Yisrael who came into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his family:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;  Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;  Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.  The souls that came out of the line of Jacob numbered 70 in all, while Joseph was already in Egypt.” – Exodus 1:1-7 TLV

🗝Everything in the Bible has a deeper meaning. A revelatory key in the passage above is the last verse: “The souls that came out of the line of Jacob numbered 70 in all, while Joseph was already in Egypt.” Ex. 1:7

The number 70 represents nations; hundreds of years earlier God had promised Avraham that He would make a great nation out of him and this coming from his one and only son, Isaac;  Isaac begat Jacob who became Israel.  Jacob begat the twelve sons who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. The number 12 represents government and authority. When we learn these representations, we can understand more deeply what God is saying to us in every story; their names are also vital to their destinies and that of the nation. 

If we look deeper, the entire identity and destiny of Israel is hidden in this beginning passage! No word from God will ever fail! Egypt was the womb that held Israel for 430 years till God would send a savior to lead them out of Egypt. God’s promises to Avraham were coming to pass…

Egypt is also called “Mizrayim” which means “a narrow place”. This is actually describing the spiritual condition of the people for we know that Egypt is a very large and vast land. Pharaoh the King of Egypt represents satan, the arch enemy of God and mankind. Pharaoh means “Ruler who speaks evil”; satan means “Adversary”.

Israel means “He Who Retains God” – the people of Israel were in covenant with God through God’s covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

So these are the players: The Pharaoh and Egypt represent the devil and the dark kingdom of Hell; The Prophets represent God (filled with the Holy Spirit) and Israel represents the Kingdom of Heaven.  One can only be in either kingdom by the Covenants we make. The world is currently in bondage to the kingdom of darkness because of original sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, we handed over our authority of the earth realm to satan! Egypt also represents bondage to sin which is the state of the world without God and His Righteousness. 

A new Pharaoh had risen up over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph and the great deeds he did that made Egypt into the mightiest kingdom in the world. He looked upon the land and saw that the Hebrew people had grown and prospered in the land, the Bible tells us that he became intimidated by the presence of God’s people there:

“He said to his people, “Look, the people of Bnei-Yisrael are too numerous and too powerful for us.  Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or else they will grow even more numerous, so that if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.” – Exodus 1:9-10 TLV

Let’s look more closely at this passage: The ruler of this great kingdom looked upon the Hebrew people who lived only in Goshen as a potential threat to his kingdom. Why is that? How could such a relatively small group of people do him any harm? We must realize it is the spirits at work behind the people. Pharaoh’s mindset is the way the enemy sees us all; children of God he wants to keep in bondage to maintain his position here on the earth. The more bondage we are in, the harder it will be for us to see God and His Goodness:

Poverty/starvation/sex trafficking/drug and alcohol addiction/abusive relationships/corruption in business, governments and even religion – some say, “how could there be a God?”

We can apply the story of Pharaoh and Egypt to every sector of life – we are operating either by the Spirit of God or the spirit of the Anti-Messiah. Moses was called out and chosen by God to be the deliverer of the Hebrew people and the nation of Israel was birthed when we crossed through the Red Sea. It was a showdown of God’s power over the gods of Egypt who were no match for El Shaddai – God Most High! Moses was a type of Messiah but not the One who was promised to come through the line of the Tribe of Judah. Moses told Israel that one day there would be a Prophet greater than him that would come out of our brothers – it was to Him that we must look for and listen!

The Bible tells us that as we cried out to God He looked down upon us and remembered His covenant with our Forefathers: 

“God heard their sobbing and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God saw Bnei-Yisrael, and He was concerned about them.” – Exodus 2: 24-25 TLV

It is the same today! When we call upon God, we can be sure He will hear us but we must be in covenant with Him to see our deliverance. As we live in this fallen world under the power of the enemy, we must make a covenant with God to change kingdoms and establish His Lordship over us. It is only by a covenant that God establishes that we can be saved. How do we know if we are in covenant with God today? 

When God brought Israel to Mt. Sinai, He gave Israel covenants that would establish us as His people moving forward. Moses then had the young men go out and sacrifice oxen whose blood would be the seal of the covenant. This was vital to close the deal! God requires a sacrifice to be in covenant with Him. 

“So Moses wrote down all the words of Adonai, then rose up early in the morning, and built an altar below the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.  He then sent out young men of Bnei-Yisrael, who sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings of oxen to Adonai.  Then Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and the other half he poured out against the altar.  He took the Scroll of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. Again they said, “All that Adonai has spoken, we will do and obey.”

 Then Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which Adonai has cut with you, in agreement with all these words.” – Exodus 24:4-8 TLV

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had themselves all built altars and made sacrifices to God, thus sealing the covenants between them. It would be no different for Israel to seal the  new covenants with God He gave us at Mt. Sinai that would be for them and the future generations to live by. This was all done at Mt. Sinai and sealed with the blood of the covenant there. 

The Levitical Priesthood (Kohanim) were to be consecrated by blood sacrifice, the altar consecrated by blood sacrifice and the nation of Israel would be covered by the twice daily sacrifices of lambs done early morning and at dusk for the sins of the nation. After those consecrations, then the people would be able to come and bring their own sacrifices for sins based on the laws of Leviticus. If a person was too poor to bring an animal or bird, they were allowed to bring a grain offering to God. This is a legality whereby many Jewish scholars today have made an argument that we do not need blood sacrifice for atonement for sins. What they are missing is the consecration of the Kohanim! The sacrifices and consecration of the Kohanim are what allowed us to even come into the presence of God, they were our mediators. We cannot come into the presence of God without this! Though God is everywhere and sees everything, we must be in covenant with Him to receive salvation, healing and deliverance from our troubles.

What then do Jewish people do today? We have been told by Rabbi’s that since the Temple is destroyed we can no longer make sacrifices so we offer up prayers and tzedakah (charity, service to others) to God for our sins. This is where we see the corruption of religion that has stolen the truth from us. It’s so much more than being forgiven for sins, it’s about being in a relationship with God Himself. This lie has separated us from God, caused division in Israel and many sects of religious and non-religious Jews. It’s led people to believe that we can seek God on our own terms and have a relationship with Him the way that we choose but that is a lie of the enemy. Through these divisions and deceptions, he makes it look like God is religious because we are LOOKING AT THE RABBIS and not GOD! God is HIS WORD. The Rabbis will say that you cannot understand Torah without the midrash and talmud but that is also not true. They have kept the Jewish people far from God’s Word with those ideas and the laborious study of Rabbinical books. It seems so holy and erudite, how could they be wrong??? 

The Bible tells us this: 

 “For I am Adonai. I do not change,

So you, children of Jacob, are not consumed.” – Malachi 3:6

Because God loves us, He established a new covenant that would ensure we could not break – He couldn’t bear to see the children of Israel continually led astray by the power hungry, idolatrous, religious kohanim, rabbis and many kings of Israel. This is what He declared: 

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

    “when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

    and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant

    I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

    to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

    though I was a husband to them,”

declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel

    after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds

    and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.”

How did God do this? Through the Messiah!

The Jewish people have also been looking to the Rabbis for the Messiah instead of looking at God and His Word to see who the Messiah is. We have been told that the Messiah will bring peace to the nations but He brings so much more than that! 

The Messiah is the One sent by God Who brings Salvation upon the entire earth. This is why Yeshua was given His Name, Yeshua means “Salvation” in Hebrew. God told Israel through the Prophet Isaiah that the Messiah would not just come for Israel but to save the entire world: 

“It is too small a thing for you to be My Servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel that I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that My Salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.” – Isaiah 49:6 Hallelujah! God loves the entire world and has made a way for both Jew and Gentile to be saved!

What do we need to be saved from? Sin and death! Yeshua defeated death on the cross when God raised Him from the dead. Just like Moses lifted up his staff to part the Red Sea by the power of God, Yeshua was risen from the dead by the power of God! He lived a sinless, sacrificial life before He went all over Israel declaring that the Kingdom of God was at hand through the repentance of sins and water immersion. As Israel was born, immersed in the Red Sea and given the words of the covenant at Mt. Sinai that were then sealed with the blood of the covenant, Yeshua is the Greater Prophet Moses spoke of that we are to be listening to, not the Rabbi’s who have not been in covenant with God for centuries. There must be a blood sacrifice and it must be orchestrated and ordained by God, it’s not something we can do on our own. This is the Good News! Yeshua is called the Lamb of God for His Blood that was shed on the cross is the only sacrifice God requires for sins, for God provided Him;, the Lamb who would take away the sins of the world! 

In Yeshua, we are saved from sin and death, born anew by the Spirit of God and led to the eternal promised land of the Kingdom of God. We are restored to a relationship with God, the same way God used to be with Israel is an even richer relationship today for the Spirit of God comes to live in our hearts. He is closer than a brother! 

All we have to do is receive Yeshua as Lord and confess our sins – His Blood is the payment for our sins. Yeshua is also the eternal Kohen Gadol who lives to intercede for us. He is The King of the universe, the Name above every name\ that is named! Salvation cannot be found in any other name, nor healing, nor destiny, nor deliverance from evil. If you are seeking your destiny in horoscopes you are actually consulting the dark powers of the universe who know nothing about you and what God created you for. They are leading you on the wrong path away from your destiny not to it!

This is the New Covenant that God gave to us in Yeshua: 

“If you believe in your heart and declare with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9-10

He is the Greater Prophet we are to listen to, will you receive Him and follow Him today? He will lead you home on a path of righteousness to your true destiny as you walk with Him every day! 

“This is the work of God, to believe in the One that He sent.” – John 8:29

Say this prayer out loud and from your heart:

“Dear God, I believe that You sent Yeshua as the Messiah and that His sacrifice is the atonement for my sins. I renounce satan and all of his works in my life. Please forgive me for my sins, I plead the Blood of Yeshua as payment for them all. Yeshua please come into my heart, fill me with the Holy Spirit and lead me all the days of my life! Thank You God! Baruch HaShem Adonai!” 

Yeshua! HaShem above every name! (Shemot)