Shemot

Names
“Israel, Cry Out!”

Exodus 1:1-6:1
Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23 (A);
Jeremiah 1:2-3 (S)

excerpted from TorahScope, Volume I

This week in our Torah studies we begin our examination of the Book of Exodus. In my personal meditations on the first parashah of Exodus, I was really hit with what the following verses communicate:

“The LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them’” (Exodus 3:7-9, WMB).

Shemot takes readers from the death of Joseph, to the time when the people of Israel began to be delivered from the oppressing hand of the Egyptians (Exodus 6:1ff). The principal figure in the Torah narrative shifts from Joseph, who we saw at the end of Genesis, to a Levite named Moses,[1] who would be called by God to lead Israel out of its Egyptian bondage.[2]

In essence, much of our parashah reveals the process of how Israel would be released from the bondage of physical human slavery, and we see how its relationship to God is more clearly described and defined. This portion has a number of interesting vignettes which can help Bible readers better understand our Creator. Moses had his burning bush experience,[3] and we see God first revealing His Divine Name to people.[4] We see in many specific ways how the Most High is a very personal God to His people, and how He talks to His servants and instructs them in what He wants them to do.

The God Who Sees and Listens

I would like to focus your attention on two statements from Shemot, which reveal how our covenant-keeping God was intimately concerned about the condition of His people. In fact, we see how He saw and listened to the very groans and cries of His people:

“In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the children of Israel, and God understood” (Exodus 2:23-25, WMB).

“The LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows’” (Exodus 3:7, WMB).

Here, we are reminded how God watched over His covenant people and listened to their concerns. Like a good shepherd minding his fold of sheep, the Lord oversaw His chosen flock. He was faithful to remember the promises He made to the Patriarchs.[5] This should be very comforting not only for us to read in the Scriptures, but for those who serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today. As the Psalmist strongly asserted, the Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps:

“A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper. The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more” (Psalm 121:1-8, WMB).

The Lord is always attentive to the pleadings of His own. The question modern persons must ask themselves, is simply this: Are we crying out for His presence and deliverance as in days of old? What can you learn from our reading in Shemot, which you have perhaps glossed over in the past?

The Cries of David

We know how the Holy Writ is replete with examples of faithful men and women who have cried out to God for help. Perhaps one of the most consistent “criers out” to the Lord was King David. Multiple times we are reminded in his Psalms that he cried to God for guidance, mercy, and compassion. Are there some principles we should be learning about our relationship with Him? Consider these varied quotations from the Book of Psalms:

• “Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you. LORD, in the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly. For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can’t live with you” (Psalm 5:2-4, WMB).
• “In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears” (Psalm 18:6, WMB).
• “Hear, LORD, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me. When you said, ‘Seek my face,’ my heart said to you, ‘I will seek your face, LORD’” (Psalm 27:7-8, WMB).
• “The LORD’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. The LORD’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:15-17, WMB).

Here, in just four Psalms, we can detect some important characteristics about how King David communed with the Lord. We see how David cried out to God on a regular basis. We are told that in the morning, he prayed before Him. David’s words remind us that he understood how the Lord is indeed approachable through prayer and supplication. David knew that the Lord heard his pleas, and by some of the statements delivered in Psalms, we know that He would speak back to David:

“When you said, ‘Seek my face,’ my heart said to you, ‘I will seek your face, LORD’” (Psalm 27:8, WMB).

Here, David said that He requested him to seek His face. Of course, when David heard God’s voice, the response was an immediate affirmation of the request. Should not this be the kind of intimacy we should all be seeking?

God’s People Today

From the testimony of the Ancient Israelites and how they were eventually delivered from Egyptian bondage, we should have confidence that God will hear our own groans and cries today. But are we consistently offering them before the Father’s throne, or are they issued before Him as complaints? Do we simply issue some kind of lip service to the Lord, because ultimately we are in bondage to the things of this world, which are either not oppressive enough to prompt any pleadings—or that we actually want to be in bondage to?

We know that the whole Creation is groaning because of its slavery to sinful corruption. In a like manner, we should be groaning for the ultimate redemption of our bodies, which has been promised from the beginning. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul, who described this reality:

“For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:20-23, WMB).

Paul was writing to Believers who had been redeemed by the power of the Spirit of God, but were still waiting for the Second Coming and the complete restoration of the body. Because of Yeshua’s atoning work, they were able to approach the Father much more easily and personably than the Ancient Israelites before them, and pray for the ability to overcome the struggles of life:

“But if the Spirit of him who raised up Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:11-16, WMB).

Here, Paul taught that Believers have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear, but instead have received a spirit of adoption leading to hope. In this case, as redeemed people, we should now be crying out with even greater confidence than King David—because we have the Spirit of God decisively testifying how we are His adopted children!

As redeemed children of God, how much more secure should we be, in knowing that our groans and cries to Him are heard? Today, it is our responsibility as God’s people to be crying and groaning for the sake of Israel and our fallen world. As fellow heirs with the Messiah, we can intercede for the lost, just as Yeshua interceded in prayer:

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17, NIV).

May the Lord encourage you in your walk, as you approach Him and intercede to Him for those who have not yet been adopted by Him as a son or daughter of faith. Perhaps our groaning and cries will lead to another great deliverance for Israel, and indeed, the entire world. Certainly, we should be rest assured that our cries will be heard! May His deliverance occur in our lifetimes!

NOTES

[1] Exodus 2:1-4:31.

[2] Exodus 3:10-22.

[3] Exodus 3:1-9.

[4] Exodus 3:14-15.

[5] Exodus 3:6, 16.