Joseph Shulam: We Are in the Fulfillment of God’s Promises [2023]

The reading this Shabbat is from the portion that is called Va’era. It is from Exodus 6:2-9:35. Just as soon as we get to read from the book of Exodus, there is a major change in the narrative of the Torah. Suddenly there is mystery, intrigue, a storyline that has birth and struggle or war or crisis, and the end is victory or success or some big-time accomplishment.

The matching of the reading from the prophets is always encouraging us to find the connection between the Torah portion and the Haftarah (the reading from the prophets). Why did our sages a long time ago choose this reading from the prophets?

This Shabbat the reading is from Ezekiel 28:25-29:21. And from the New Testament, we will read from Romans 9:14-24.

Here is what I think made the connection between Exodus 6:2-9:35 and Ezekiel 28:25-29:21. The portion Va’era is the approach of Moses to Pharaoh in Egypt. Both in the Torah portion and in the Haftarah from Ezekiel 28:25 forward God is fulfilling promises He made to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This idea of God’s promises and fulfillment of His promises is a very important and very complicated issue. What makes these texts so complicated is that there is no calendar, no set timeline, no limit to the time frame.

For me, this is also what makes these texts and promises so exciting. First let me set the time frame between the time that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses going to the house of Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh “let my people go!” is over 400 years.

Moses going down to Egypt to face Pharaoh is a fulfillment of a promise that God gave to Abraham. This shows that God is fulfilling His promises across many generations.

“Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’” — Genesis 15:13-16 [NKJV]

Look at the distance in time between Abraham and Moses and Ezekiel (who is in exile, like the children of Israel in the days of Moses). It is important to remember that the God who created the world is faithful to keep His promises.

We, the Jewish nation, must remember that God is the Promise Keeper. God kept His promises to Abraham and delivered His descendants from slavery in Egypt. We all know this monumental deliverance.

God fulfilled His promises to David, and sent David’s seed, born in Bethlehem, to provide the salvation of the nation of Israel from the oppression of Babylonian Exile, and brought them out of captivity, back to the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Now we, the Jewish nation, are living and working out the fulfillment of the promises that God made to Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah and the prophets.

Yes, there are more promises that God had made to our prophets that need to be fulfilled. We are working and praying for the full fulfillment of God’s promise to the prophet Obadiah. We are waiting for the captives of Sepharad (Spain and Portugal, the victims of the Catholic Inquisition) to be restored back to the land of Israel and populate and rebuild the Negev Desert.

Yes, we see with our own eyes the fulfillment of God’s promises to Ezekiel and Zechariah and Amos and Joel. We are seeing the amazing rebuilding of Jerusalem and the land given by God to the seed of Abraham.

Nothing in the history of the nation of Israel is accidental, nothing! We are a nation whose history is engineered from birth to slavery in Egypt for around 400 years, to return to the land promised to Abraham, to falling into idolatry and sin, and being sent to exile to Assyria and Babylon.

Again, in the fulfillment of the return from Babylon to restore Jerusalem and the land of Israel, God was faithful and kept His promises. Again, because of our iniquities and hate inside the camp of Israel, God sent us and spread us from one end of this blue ball called Earth all the way around.

Now, we, the Jewish nation, against all odds, are in the process of returning home to Jerusalem. Of rebuilding the wasteland of the land promised to our forefathers.

My family arrived in Israel in 1947 and landed on the shores of this land just close to Pardes Hanna, south of Haifa. My father and mother didn’t believe in God and knew very little of the Bible and of God’s promises to the Jewish nation and to the world.

I can state it clearly that my family was vigilantly against all religions, but especially against Orthodox Judaism. But, the land of Israel is not a Kleenex. It is sandpaper that shapes you and cleans the rust of history off our lives and bodies and souls.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, we are in the fulfillment of the spiritual side and physical side of our existence as children of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. We are in the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophetic promises.

The returning to the land of promise to the land of Israel, the rebuilding of the ruined ancient cities: Jerusalem, Jaffa, Rehovot, Be’er-Sheva. Even Eilat, way down south on the shores of the Red Sea, is a fulfillment of God’s promises.

Our historical memory is not forgotten. And our national anthem is “HaTikvah” (“the hope”), which is the hope of our nation based on the promises of God to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos and on and on!

What the world doesn’t understand is that although we are a nation that is still not fully aware of who we are and who is our savior and the savior of the entire world, (Yeshua son of Abraham, son of David… whom we have rejected in the days when we had a temple in Jerusalem), the dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision spread in the valleys of the dead from Siberia through the death camps of the Third Reich in the lands where the cross is the symbol of salvation in the name of the Ultimate Jew, Yeshua the Messiah.

The smell of death of the Jews that were burned in the holocaust, in Ukrainian death fields, and in industrial cities in the Baltic nations like Lithuania, and in the suburbs of capital cities like Berlin.

Now, according to the words of Ezekiel and the other prophets, the children of those Jews and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren are rebuilding the wasteland and the forgotten fields where King David, as a youth, shepherded the flocks of Jesse, his father.

Please, dear brothers around the world, don’t imagine even for one minute that what is happening in the world, and especially in the Jewish nation and in the land of Israel, is accidental. No, it is not an accident that the Jewish people are returning home to the land of promise.

Please don’t imagine that our struggle to survive in the land of promise, trying to survive and flourish, fighting terrorists and criminals who have only one thing on their mind (to kill Jews for over 70 years), is over.

The roadmap of our future is written in the pages of God’s word. We are waiting for the One whom God sent to the world, because of God’s love for all the world.

Yes, we, the Jewish nation, are a living map of the future of the whole world. Yes, Yeshua will be back in Jerusalem, and when He comes back, no one in Israel will shout, “crucify Him, crucify Him”. Everyone in the streets of Jerusalem will shout, “Baruch Ha Ba Beshem Elohim!” (“Welcome in the name of the Lord!”)

This is what we are about in Jerusalem and in Israel and around the world, the people who were spared and saved from the Nazi death camps of Europe and from the ghettos of Morocco and Fez, and other cities in North Africa, and from the gulags of Siberia, are fulfilling the promises of God from the Torah, the law of Moses, and the promises given to the prophets thousands years ago!

This, my dear brothers and sisters, is where you need to invest your faith and your being. To see the promises of the apostle Paul’s letters being fulfilled.

Yes, our non-Jewish brothers and sisters have a role to play and pray in this grand scheme of redemption for the human race! The return of the Son of David, Yeshua, back to Jerusalem. Amen!

Please join Netivyah in prayer and in service and hard work to work for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel and the world, and sing with us the songs of Zion, preparing the way of the Lord back to the marketplaces of Jerusalem and the streets that once were full of crying, that are being filled with children of Israel praying and playing!

Stand with Israel. This is where history is going. The Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit are on their way back!

Yehuda Bachana: The Four Stages of Salvation [2023]

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This week we will start the long process of the Exodus, the historical event that formed our nation, and is engraved into our collective memory. We remember the Exodus every week, and in a deeper way, we relive it once a year, during the Passover.

Now, Passover is one of the most important holidays in our scriptures, because it speaks about salvation, redemption, hope, freedom and the end of oppression! During the Passover meal, we drink four cups of wine. These four cups symbolize and stand for the four stages of salvation from the Egyptian slavery.

The stages of salvation are based on the first verses of our Torah portion:

1. “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians…”
2. “I will rescue you from their bondage…”
3. “and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”
4. “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.”

“Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” — Exodus 6:6,7

We believe that Yeshua took the third cup of the Passover Seder, the one we drink after the meal, the cup that represents “the redemption”, and said: “This is Me, I am the Redemption promised to the world”. The Lord’s Supper is built on Yeshua’s redemption, who took us out of slavery to sin into salvation and freedom.

This wonderful promise, “I will bring you out, rescue, redeem and take you as my people”, that we just read, the promise we remember every Passover, this amazing promise of God, is the foundation of the Lord’s Supper. The foundation for salvation and redemption in our lives.

The Lord’s Supper — what is it? It is a ritual in which most of the believers in Yeshua participate, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Every church or congregation does it in a slightly different manner. But it usually consists of a blessing over bread, and then over wine, and the entire congregation participates in it by eating a piece of bread and drinking some wine or grape juice, somewhat similar to the Sabbath Kiddush.

Today this ritual is seen as Christian, because nearly all Christians, in some way, do the Lord’s Supper. But Jews break bread and drink wine every Friday night during “Kiddush” (or on various special occasions and holidays, like the Kiddush for Rosh Hashanah).

Bread and wine have a long history of holiness. Already in Genesis, after Abraham rescued Lot, Melchizedek, the King of Jerusalem and a priest of God Most High, took out bread and wine, as it is written in Genesis:

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High…” — Genesis 14:18

In the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Qumran, in Community Rule Manuscript, we read about a special ritual of breaking bread and drinking wine. Just to remind you — the Dead Sea Scrolls were written before Christianity.

The Lord’s Supper symbolizes our unity with Yeshua HaMashiach and with each other. The ritual itself is meant to be a reminder and a connection to the Messiah.

“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’” — Luke 22:19

Yeshua said: “do this in remembrance of me.” This memory has to lead us to repentance.

We look at Yeshua, who was sacrificed in our place. However, the sacrifice is not only an “atonement for sins”, it causes us to regret and repair our ways.

The prophets harshly criticize people who think that they can sin, and afterwards go to the Temple, where priests and sacrifices will atone for them. No, it has to start with repentance, with a meaningful change of our lives towards the good and the godly.

The Lord’s Supper is a ritual that symbolizes and reminds us of Yeshua’s sacrifice. It must have a central place in the life of the believer, as if we are standing before God to offer a sacrifice.

The idea of bread symbolizing sacrifice is not shocking for us as Jews. As our Sabbath table symbolizes the sacrificial altar, and the two challah loaves are a symbol of the double sacrifice, done in the Temple on the Sabbath.

It is customary to spread salt on the challah, following the verse from Leviticus:

“And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.” — Leviticus 2:13

Because of this, in a Jewish home, you can never put your feet on a table. Again, because the table is like an altar, and the challah bread symbolizes a sacrifice, salted with salt.

Let’s go back to God’s promise, at the beginning of our Torah portion: “I will bring you out, rescue, redeem and take you as my people.” The people who originally heard this exciting promise were children of Israel, in the middle of a working day in Egypt.

But what happened is that the children of Israel did not listen to Moses and were not touched by the intimacy offered to them by God. These exciting words of God that touch us today did not reach the hearts of their original audience. This promise did not sow seeds of hope in the Israelites.

And the Torah tells us why:

“But they did not listen to Moses, because of anguish of spirit and harsh labor.” — Exodus 6:9

This text teaches us a valuable lesson about the Exodus. But it is also relevant in parenting, and in relationships in marriage, or to those close to us.

When we want to talk to someone, for example, to our spouses, we need to know that the other person is emotionally open to hear and understand us. If the person in front of us is tired or hungry, or if he is focused on work, or is trying to solve another problem, we will be wasting our words and our nerves.

If the person or the child in front of us is hungry… if I am trying to talk to my son, when he is hungry… It is better to make him a sandwich and hold on for 15 minutes, while the food calms him down, then I can talk to him again. If the person in front of us is preoccupied with something else, it is better to wait for an hour or two if I want to get their full attention.

The Children of Israel are stressed and frightened, they are hungry and tired. In this state of mind, they are not capable of seeing the next step or think about the next stage in their national development, because it is too far beyond their everyday reality.

The question that bothers them is: What is happening now? What will I eat tomorrow? How will this day end? Who cares about future promises? Who knows if I will even survive till then?

And here I want to ask, seriously: How can God not know their reaction? Why does He reveal His plan to Jacob’s sons, the future children of Israel?

It is because God is also talking to their tomorrow, to their children. The Word of God is available for us today. It is meant for us, so we understand that there is always a plan for the future, even if we do not get it at the moment.

God has a plan for today as well. Even when we cannot see it — His plan is there. God’s plan of redemption will happen step by step. It is a process, not an instant change. Sometimes, this process takes a very long time.

There is a plan for the Body of Messiah as well. The day will come and all Israel will be saved. Slowly but surely, we as a body are growing and becoming stronger, and when we will be ready, God will remove the veil from the eyes of Israel. And they will see Yeshua — their Messiah, our Messiah!

Our life of faith is a process as well. Salvation is a process, usually a long one, that continues throughout our entire lives.

As is our faith, along with our knowledge of Scriptures. The more we know and understand from the Word of God, the more our faith grows and becomes stronger.
All of us are asking ourselves, what is required from me as a believer, as Yeshua’s disciple? What shall I do? What does God want from me?

The first disciples of the Messiah asked a similar question: “What is required of new believers?” The answer given in Acts chapter 15 refers to new believers from among the nations.

The Book of Acts tells us of a long discussion and many opinions on what to do with non-Jews who come to faith. Then the leader of the first congregation — the apostle James (Jacob) — concluded the deliberations with a plan.

First, do not make it difficult for “believers from the nations”. When people are coming back to God, we should not put additional demands and rules before them. We cannot demand from new believers to immediately keep the entire Bible. As the life of faith is a process, which takes time.

So, the apostles decided on the first step in this process. The idea is to let them use their spiritual energy for repentance. Later, there will be enough time to process and understand the Word of God.

As the first step in this process, Jacob issues a set of rules that are based on the Seven Laws of Noah. What are they?

Do not worship idols.

Do not curse God.

Do not murder.

Do not commit adultery or sexual immorality.

Do not steal.

Do not eat flesh torn from a living animal.

Establish a court of justice.

Actually, the New Testament approves the Seven Laws of Noah, which are acceptable in Judaism. And here in Acts 15 we see the earliest witness to this concept of fundamental universal laws that are relevant to everyone.

This is the foundation. As we said, salvation is a long process. But what about the rest of it, the rest of the Word of God? They will learn the rest of the Scriptures, step by step, week by week. When the Torah is read publicly, when we discuss and study each portion from the Word of God.

“For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” — Acts 15:21

Every week the Law of Moses — Torah portions — are read publicly in synagogues. Every week they will go and learn, step by step.

In our Torah portion, Va’erah, we read about the beginning of the Ten Plagues. And it looks like every commentator is trying to answer the question: Why, in order to get children of Israel out of Egypt, were Ten Plagues needed? Why not hit Egypt with one especially devastating plague?

The answer given us by the Torah is:

“That you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” — Exodus 10:2

The reason is simple:

“So you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.” — Exodus 9:14

And everyone witnessed the great power of God, who rules over everything. He who rules over nature and its course, over life and death. And truly there is no one like God in all the earth.

The ultimate proof that this was the purpose of the plagues is the fact that till this very day we study and discuss the Exodus from Egypt. 3500 years later we still remember the Exodus!

God showed His mighty hand, His power, and His complete control — not only to the generation of the Exodus, but also to us and our children till the end of days.

Shabbat Shalom.

Joseph Shulam: God’s Many Names [2021 – 2]

This Shabbat we are reading the portion Va’era from Exodus 6:2 – 9:35, and the reading from the prophets is from Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21, and from the New Testament this Shabbat, we read from Romans 9:14-24.

Just take the opening verse that starts the reading of the Torah in every synagogue around the whole world on the same date and from the same ancient scroll that was used in the synagogue in Nazareth when Yeshua (Jesus) was reading from Isaiah.

Our reading of the Torah starts this Shabbat with these words:

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.’” – Exodus 6:3 [NKJV]

This is probably one of the most enigmatic verses in the whole Bible. I have written about this in a previous prayer list, maybe last year. I am mentioning this again in order to confront and discourage Christians or Jews to join these sects that insist that they know exactly how to pronounce the holy name of God that is made up from four Hebrew letters: yod-hay-wav-hay.

I get every week at least some Christian that is talking about “YaHaWe”, and another that thinks that the name of God has to be “YaouWho” and immediately I know that these people have lost their way into the maze of ignorance and sectarianism. Because in the Hebrew Bible the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has 70 different names by which our forefathers addressed Him.

All these names are kosher and every one of them describes a different aspect of the Creator of the Universe. Right here in the texts of Exodus 6:2-3, you already notice that there are two very important names of the Lord. We hear God say to Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as “El-Shaddai” (God Almighty).

Then God reveals to Moses another name that is pronounced by all Jews when they read the Torah scroll on Shabbat and holidays as “The Lord” – “Adonai”. Here is a short list of the names by which God is addressed by our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the other great heroes of the Bible:

God – el
God Most High – el elyon
Almighty God – el shaddai
The Lord of Hosts – yahweh sabaoth
The Mighty One of Jacob
The Fear of Isaac
The Lord our Righteousness – adonai tsidkenu
King of Kings – melech hamelachim
The Lord Provides – yahweh-yir’eh
Father – abba
Everlasting God – el olam

The reason that the Lord is now revealing Himself to Moses with the ultimate name, is that essentially it is a name that transcends time and space. In last week’s Torah portion from Exodus chapter 3:2 forward, the Angel of the Lord appears from a bush that is burning and not being consumed by the fire.

Moses sees this phenomenon and says to himself, let me go and see what this is, a strange bush. In verse 3 of the same chapter Moses says to himself, “Let me go and see what is this strange bush!”

In verse 4 we read:

“So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’ Moreover He said, ‘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 3:4-6 [NKJV]

The way that the Lord identifies Himself to Moses here in one of the most important moments in the history of Israel and in the history of salvation has to be examined. The identity of the creator of the world is indelibly connected and attached to the nation of Israel and to the fathers of this nation.

In the New Testament the Lord is identified in the same way:

“‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” – Matthew 22:32 [NKJV]

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.” – Acts 3:13 [NKJV]

“…saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.” – Acts 7:32 [NKJV]

The importance of this name of God is the relationship and identification as the God of the family, the God of history, the God who has called our forefathers to move from their birthplace and move to a land that would be given to them and their children as an everlasting inheritance.

Moses, who is disconnected from his nation and from his natural family and is now a shepherd of Jethro’s flock, is addressed by God who is identified as the God of his family. The family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is in this identity making himself eternally connected to this people, the family of these patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The importance of this text is that this displaced prince of Egypt who is also a fugitive for 40 years and without his historical family, is suddenly encountering the God who created this world and who relates Himself to the three wandering fathers of the nation of Israel.

Now in chapter 6 this same God of our family, the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is again giving Moses a revelation that He is the God who cares and who is keeping his promises and covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This relationship of the creator of the Universe who is attached to this family whose mothers are all unable to give birth to a son naturally is now telling Moses how much He cares that His children are slaves in Egypt and who have to be saved from their situation and leave Egypt and return to the land that was given to their forefathers.

Yes, to the Land given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This God that is speaking to Moses is also a God who doesn’t forget His promises and covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The reading of the Torah this Shabbat is accompanied with the reading from the prophets, from Ezekiel 28:25-29:21. We must remember that like Moses, the prophet Ezekiel is also in the diaspora, he is also not in his God-given land and home.

In this context Ezekiel the prophet is again hearing that God is planning to keep His promises to our forefathers, the promise to give the children of Israel the land, and even though He sent them out and scattered them among the nations of their exile – He, the God who created the world, has never forgotten His promises to our forefathers.

Here are the words of Ezekiel. We must remember that Ezekiel was in Babylon when he was writing this revelation that he received from the Almighty God of Israel:

“Thus says the Lord God: ‘When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God.’” – Ezekiel 28:25,26 [NKJV]

As you notice the words of God to Ezekiel are very relevant for us today. This promise includes us today. It is talking of the return of the children of Israel to their land, and they will build their houses and dwell in safety and plant vineyards.

Just today I drove through the hills of Judea and passed at least five vineyards that produce wonderful wine that are famous internationally and compete with Italian and French wines.

Yes, we are living and experiencing the living Word of God both from the book and from our relationship with Yeshua. Yes, through the fulfillment of God’s promises we are also enjoying the fulfilment of God’s salvation through Yeshua.

This reminds me of 1971, the Holy Spirit Conference in Jerusalem. The who’s who of the evangelical churches in the world were gathered here in Jerusalem. The daughter of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Ada, was attending our congregation in Jerusalem. She was already very old, but still very sharp.

So, Ada asked me, Joseph I heard that there is an international conference of Christians who are friends of Israel at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, would you please take me with you?

I took Ada with me and because of advanced age I sat her in the third row up front near the stage. Next to Ada was a big blonde woman with her hair fixed in what I would call the “Hallelujah tower” hair fashion. Ada was a small woman and in her 80’s. So, this big woman turned to Ada and asked her, “Where do you come from?” Ada answered, “I came from home!”

Where is your home? Asked the blonde woman. Here in Jerusalem! Ada answered. “How wonderful to meet a Christian from Jerusalem,” said the blond. Ada said: “I am not a Christian; I am a Jew!” “What are you doing here, this is a Christian meeting?” Said the blonde with the Hallelujah hairdo. Ada answered, “I am very interested in Yeshua!”

The blonde was in shock now. “How could you be interested in Jesus and not be a Christian? Don’t you believe in Jesus?” Ada replied, “No, I don’t believe in Jesus, I know Him!” “How do you know Him and not believe in Him?” said the blonde.

Ada said: “From the time that I was a very young girl, my father and my sisters would take the Bible and walk through the land and read the New Testament and walk and read and walk and read and in every place where Yeshua was teaching and making signs and wonders, we would stop and read. This is how I know Yeshua.”

The poor big American blonde from Texas was now totally bewildered. She really didn’t understand Ada, nor did she understand what is really going on here in Israel. What is going on here and is often forgotten even by some of our own dear and precious Jewish brothers and sisters in this land is that we are again experiencing a major exodus from the diaspora back to the land of Israel.

From the North and from the East and from the South and from the West, the Jewish people are being returned home by God. Yes, there is not one Moses and one Aaron today that walk in front of the camp. Yes, we don’t have a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night leading us, now. Yes, we are returning, and the abandoned cities of Israel are being rebuilt, and Jewish soldiers are, like in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, defending our borders and the streets of Jerusalem.

Yes, we still have the very same enemies that tried to keep those who returned from Babylonian exile from returning, who are trying today to keep Israel from returning home and rebuilding the land and the people. God’s word is not returning empty and void, we are in the land of Israel.

Spiritually, Yeshua is still dragging the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and the crown of thrones is still on His head. He is waiting for us, the Jewish and the non-Jewish disciples to replace the thorny crown with that of King David.

Here are the words of the apostle Paul from Romans 9:14-24:

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” – Romans 9:14-24

It is not easy to see the hand of God fulfilling His promises to Israel and to the world, but if you just close your eyes and ask God to show you the events of the 20th and now the 21st Centuries after Christ, and pray sincerely, projecting from the stories of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis, and stretch through your imagination what you are seeing today in Israel, and in the relationship of Israel to its neighbors, like in the past still in this present, you will see with the eyes of faith…

O Lord how great Thou art and how magnificent are Your deeds and how faithful You are to keep Your promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thank you, Lord, You are truly righteous, and Your deeds are righteous altogether.

(Read Psalms 145 for your dessert.)

Joseph Shulam: Brad TV Video Teaching – Va’era [2021]

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam and together with Brad TV, we’re continuing every week to study the Torah portion that is being read in all the synagogues. And we started last week with the book of Exodus, the first portion of Exodus that started in chapter one verse one, and ended up in chapter six verse one. Chapter six, verse one, of the book of Exodus says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will let them go. And with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his own land.’” What does this text tell us?

That when Moses went to Egypt to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go” the first time, things didn’t get better for the children of Israel. In fact, they got worst. The Children of Israel cried and begged for some relief from the work that they had, from the slavery that was imposed upon them. Instead of giving them relief, Pharaoh made it harder for them. He made them also get the straw to make the bricks that would build the cities of Egypt.

God Hardens Pharaoh’s Heart

He hardened his heart against the children of Israel. And now we’re in chapter six verse two, the new portion of the way, it’s called va’era and it means I have appeared, I’ve shown myself to your forefathers and now I’m going to show myself to Pharaoh, and he will know who I am. That’s the essence of the beginning of this chapter six, verse two. And we have a great revelation. A revelation that is earth-shaking, literally earth-shaking, my dear brothers, A great revelation.

I’m reading from the New King James version, chapter six of Exodus verse two, “And God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God almighty,’” El Shaddai in Hebrew. “By my name Jehovah, YHWH,” the Tetragrammaton. “I was not known to them and I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers. And I’ve also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant.”

In other words, my promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Very important text. Why is it such an important text? We find out here the formula to negate and dismiss one of the prevailing doctrines of modern biblical scholarship. And that is that the Torah was written by four different schools, maybe by more than four different writers. And this is called the documentary hypothesis. My first lesson, my first day at the Hebrew University in 1964, I went to the freshmen class at the university, in other words, a first year student at the university, I go to one of the most popular classes of that day, Bible class, and a young Orthodox man with curls on his head, wearing a kippah, white shirt, black pants, is standing on the stage with700 students in the auditorium, a large class ‘cause studying Tanakh, Bible, at that time, was very, very popular. In 1964, it was very popular.

It was before the Six-Day War. And this young Orthodox man had just gotten his doctorate from the Hebrew University and he opens up his mouth and he says, “Moses did not write the Torah.” All the students, “Ah, Moses did not write the Torah? We are Jews, we know Moses wrote the Torah. “No,” he said and he gave us a bibliography, starting with Wellhausen’s “Prolegomena” and then Devedeve Fonrad and all the 19th century and early 20th century scholars. But this text tells us something else.

The Tetragrammaton

He says, “Yes, it’s true. It’s true that our forefathers did not know that Tetragrammaton, the four letters. The holy name of the Lord, which is pronounced Jehovah, YHWH, all kinds of pronunciation, modern pronunciation. There are all kinds of sects in the Christian world, the YHWH, Yahweh, JHWH, Yaha havo all kinds of crazy things that are happening in the Western world. Nobody knows how to pronounce it.

Definitely the Jews don’t know, the rabbis don’t know, and in fact the New Testament doesn’t have it. Yeah, the Tetragrammaton doesn’t appear in the New Testament from the mouth of the apostles, but Lord appears, which is the way that the Jews already in the BC, Before Christ period, already didn’t even write it, the most ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Torah, have the Tetragrammaton, the four letters written, not in Hebrew script, not in Aramaic script, which is the modern Hebrew script and the script in the days of Yeshua. It was written in the Deirs, in the ancient Canaanite script. And you can see that in the manuscripts.

Most old manuscripts of the Torah from the Dead Sea scrolls and others, you see that it’s written in a totally different alphabet than the modern Hebrew alphabet, than the Aramaic alphabet that they used then and that we use today. So I didn’t reveal myself to the fathers. Oh, you read the story of creation. Yes, the name of the Lord is there, but the story of creation was written after Moses or by Moses.

So yes, it’s kind of interesting text, which tells us, yeah, there is a progressive revelation that this text tells us, “I did not make myself known to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by my name Jehovah. I was revealed to them as God almighty,” El Shaddai, yeah. That’s an important principle to learn that there is such a thing as progressive revelation. And now I’m revealing to you my proper name. And now I’m telling you that I know what’s going on in Egypt.

God Knows What’s Going on in Egypt

That’s what God tells Moses. I know what’s going on in Egypt. I know what Pharaoh is doing to the children of Israel. But I also remember my promises, my covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. I am the Lord. Verse six of chapter six, “I will bring you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians and I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you as my people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians, and I will bring you into the land, which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God Will Give Them the Land

And I will give it to you as a heritage, I am the Lord.” This statement here is a repetition of the promises that God gave to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, and He’s still faithful to keep his promises. That’s a very simple truth, but probably the most important truth in the whole Bible. God is not a liar and He doesn’t renege on His promises. It might look like this if you take a particular chapter of Jewish history, Israelite history and separate it from the larger context that God is not keeping his promise.

They’re in Babylon for 70 years in exile, they’re 2000 years in exile in the Christian world, in the European Christian world and in the American Christian world, they’re in exile 2000 years. Yup, that’s true. God promised that too, to the prophets of Israel. He promised that to Isaiah, He promised it to Jeremiah, He promised it to Ezekiel, He promised it to our prophets, that He’s gonna send us out.

And He sent us out because of our sin, but He also promised, I will gather you back. We have chapter 36 and 37 of Ezekiel. The dry bones, the heaps of dry bones will put on flesh, and sinews, and tendons and come alive and they will return home to the land of Israel. It’s all here in this very small chapter of seven verses in chapter six of Exodus.

He Will Bring Them Back

Yes, you are in bondage. I told Abraham your father that you will be in bondage in chapter 15 of the book of Exodus when I revealed myself to him in the vision of the animals that were cut in half and I passed through them as a flaming torch in chapter 15 of Genesis. And I’m telling you, I’m the same God. I keep my word, I keep my promise. The children of Israel will come out of Egypt and the world will know it, and Egypt will know it. This is a very, very important text, folks, chapter six of the book of Exodus, the first verses.

And the Egyptians will realize that they made a mistake when they took me on and they took my people on and they enslaved them, they will know that I am the Lord by what they’re going to experience, by the outstretched arm and the great judgment that I will place on the Egyptians. They will beg the children of Israel to leave and to go free, and I will bring you back to the land, which I promised Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

That promise appears 20 times in the Torah. We’re today in Israel, we’re living it out, folks. We are experiencing, and you my Christian brothers in Korea and around the world can see this happening. And you need to partner with us, especially with the Jewish disciples of Yeshua in the land that bring not only the physical restoration of Israel, but brings also the spiritual restoration of Israel, not of Presbyterians, or of Methodist, or Baptist, or Pentecostals, or Catholics, or Greek Orthodox.

Yeshua is Spiritual Heritage

No, we are bringing back their heritage of Israel from inside of Israel. That heritage is Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus Christ, who never became a Gentile and he never was a Presbyterian. And neither was Paul or the other apostles, nor were they Methodist, or Baptist, or any Christian man-made denomination, yeah. Because when I travel in the world and I ask people, my Christian brothers, “You know, who is the founder of your church?” So they say, “Well, Calvin, John Wesley, John Knox, Alexander Campbell, Luther.” Folks, we’re not talking about this. This is not in the Bible. In the Bible, there’s one body, of one Christ, of one Lord, of one baptism, of one Holy Spirit.

And God’s promises are as valid today as they were valid to the children of Israel when they were enslaved in Egypt. Yes, the same promises that God promised that appear so many times. The same God that is faithful to keep his word and to keep his promise is the same God today, He’s our God, He’s still the father of Yeshua Hamashiach. Yeshua Hamashiach is still sitting at his right hand, folks. And this is all here in this text in chapter six of Genesis. Then verse 10 of chapter six, “The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh the king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.” Moses spoke before the Lord saying, “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me for I am of uncircumcised lips,

”I stutter. I don’t talk straight. And if the children of Israel themselves don’t believe me and don’t hear me, and don’t obey me, and look at me with strange eyes, how would a fellow Egyptian, Pharaoh, listen to me? I don’t have credibility among my own people. Folks, I don’t have credibility among my own people, which politician in the history of Israel, which king in the history of Israel has had credibility?

King David enjoyed credibility for a season. But at the end of his life, he didn’t have credibility. We are a strange people. On the one hand, we are wonderful, talented, gifted. On the other hand, my dear brothers and sisters, it’s difficult for us to give credibility to anybody. David Ben-Gurion, the great founder of the State of Israel, the first Prime Minister of Israel, did he have credibility? No, he got criticized. And every prime minister and every president we’ve had, gets criticized and loses credibility very quickly.

Jewish Leaders Lack Credibility

He enjoys credibility a month, or two, or three months, six months of his career as a politician. But after that, boom, we’re not an easy people, but we’re a special people, God’s chosen people. And the same thing happened to Moses. Moses says to God, “Well, you’re sending me to Pharaoh. My own people don’t believe me. My own people don’t give me credit, What do you want from me?” “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.”

And then we have the genealogy. Chapter six verse 14. “These are their heads.” No, chapter six of Genesis verse 13. “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh King of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.” It’s your job. God says to Moses and Aaron, “It’s your job to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. I’ll give you the tools. I’ll give you the instruments to bring them out, but it’s your job to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”

And then we have this genealogy. These are their heads of their father’s houses. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob. The genealogy of the children of Israel starts here. But it’s a very strange genealogy, which is very important for us to understand. When they get to Moses and Aaron, the genealogy stops. What do we learn about this genealogy and all the genealogies in the Bible? That they are political instruments.

This genealogy starts with Reuben, but when they got to Levi and to Aaron and Moses, that’s it. The purpose of this genealogy is to tell you where Moses and Aaron come from. It starts with Reuben. It gives you the impression that I’m gonna give you the genealogy of all the children of Israel. No, it has a political purpose to explain where this Moses and Aaron came from, and not to give you a true historical genealogy.

And all the genealogies in the Bible are given for political reasons, not for historical reasons, but for political reasons in the days in which the text was written, yeah. You get to verse 20 of chapter six. “Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were 137 years.

And the sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. The sons of Uzziel,” and that’s it. It gets to the tribe of Levi and to Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the children of Israel.” Verse 26 of chapter six. Okay, we’re approaching the continuation of this portion of va’era. And I showed myself to Moses and Aaron, and then through them to Pharaoh, and Moses continued his song and dance.

Chapter six, “Moses said before the Lord, ‘Behold I am of uncircumcised lips. How shall Pharaoh listen to me, I stutter?’” And God said to Moses in chapter seven, “Listen, you go and Aaron your brother is going to be your prophet.” You will be like God unto Aaron and Aaron will be like a prophet. He will speak your peace, your text. And from there on, Aaron and Moses together faced Pharaoh on numerous occasions and God hardens the heart of Pharaoh.

God Shows What He Is Capable of Doing

And the revelation is this, folks, very important, listen. The revelation is that the reason that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh is to demonstrate to Pharaoh, to Egypt, and to us in all generations, just what God is capable of doing to accomplish his goal. 10 plagues fall on Egypt. 10 plagues, where each one is worse than the other.

God Controls It All

And in those 10 plagues God showed the following. First of all, that He controls nature. He controls their main god, the river, the River Nile. He controls it, He can poison it. It can turn into blood. He controls their agriculture, the locust, the frogs. He controls their health with plagues. He controls the sun and the moon, the light and the darkness. And finally, He controls their lives, their future, the first born of Egypt.

This is Exodus. This is a message that we all need to learn today. You know, we think that Google controls, or Facebook controls, or WhatsApp controls, or our computers and our modern electronics control our lives. No, sir.

Let’s not forget that the ultimate controller is God. And we have his roadmap from Genesis to Revelation and the quicker we realize this, the quicker we’re going to be happier, stronger, more capable, more effective, and more serving of each other and of our God who created the heavens and the Earth. May God bless all of you, dear brothers. Continue reading the Bible. Shalom.

Joseph Shulam: The True Name of God [2020 – 1]

The Torah reading this week is so appropriate for what is going on in the whole world and in the land of Israel, plagues, and being stricken by God both the people and the land of Egypt. The Torah reading is from Exodus chapter 6:2 – 9:35, Vaera, from the prophets, the Haftarah is from Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21. The reading from the New Testament is from Romans 9:14-23.

The text from Exodus 6:2 starts:

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.’” – Exodus 6:2–3 [NKJV]

This beginning of the reading for this next Shabbat is a true bombshell. It is an atomic bomb that the Lord drops on Moses and the children of Israel and in fact on all of us!

Why? Because if we go to the book of Genesis already in the story of Creation we see that the whole chapter 1 of Genesis uses only the name “God” – “Elohim”. However in chapter 2:4 we see a change and the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) appears for the first time in the Bible.

In the book of Genesis alone the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) appears 15 times. In the whole Bible the proper name of God (YHWH) appears 6828 times. The whole story of Genesis has several hundred times, the name of God in the four Hebrew letters.

So, now we come to the book of Exodus and the Lord says to Moses, “I am the Lord (YHWH), but to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I only appeared as God Almighty (El-Shadai).”

The fathers of the nation, those who had such a personal relationship with the Almighty God, Abraham, that didn’t spare his son Isaac and tied him on the altar ready to sacrifice him, didn’t know the Lord by His most holy name? Let us go to Genesis 22:14 and see what is written there:

“And Abraham called the name of the place, The–Lord–Will–Provide; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’” – Genesis 22:14 [NKJV]

Abraham from his own mouth says: The Lord (YHWH) will provide. So, dear brothers! What is going on here? How could Abraham say the name of the Lord and celebrate that God provided a ram in place of his only son Isaac, and call that place, “The Lord will provide,” and not know the Lord’s name? It is also clear already in the book of Exodus’ earlier chapters that the writer of Exodus knows the Lord’s name to be YHWH.

See for example Exodus 3:13-15:

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’” – Exodus 3:13-15 [NKJV]

So, what is going on here? The Torah was written according to tradition by Moses before his climbing Mount Pisga (Nebo) and dying there. When Moses writes the Torah, it is after the events in chapter 6 of the book of Exodus. Moses now knows that the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, didn’t have the full revelation of the Lord, a revelation that Moses and the children of Israel are about to experience personally in the next months.

The name Elohim (God) is generic and plural. The proper name, the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is unique and special. Outside of Israel there is only one place in the edges of the Arabian desert that this name is found in a small shrine dated to the second millennium B.C.E.

All the rest of the history of this Holy Name of the Lord is only in the possession of Israel. The Lord didn’t risk giving this revelation of His holy name to the patriarchs because they were individuals, their faith was, so to speak, in the family. They were far from being a nation or even a tribe.

To hand the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) name of God to such a relatively small group of people who are not crystalized and ready for such a unique name and so different from the people and neighborhood that they moved in, would have, maybe, been too much for them. El-Shadai – “God Almighty” was not a name so unique in the religious environment of the Land of Canaan or Egypt or even in Ur or Haran in Mesopotamia.

The God El was the father of the Canaanite Pantheon and Shadai is “mountain” or “power”. The name El-Shadai is a kind of generic name very similar to the names of the gods of the nations around.

Now that Moses is about to take on the great empire of Egypt, Pharaoh and His army, and deliver the slaves from Egypt – He and the children of Israel had to have the full force of God’s power and revelation of His holy name.

So, before God launches Moses to face Pharaoh and his court, God gives this revelation to Moses, and tells him, “in all my dealings with the forefathers of this nation, they had a limited revelation of who I really am, now I am revealing to you that I am the master of time and existence, not only a god like all the other gods. I am not an idol like the idols of Canaan and Egypt and Mesopotamia. I am the existence of everything that exists. Everything that your eyes see and even your eyes with which you see is ‘I AM!’”

“The world is the fruit of my ‘existence’ – it came from its beginning out of nothingness into a tangible and functioning atmosphere of life and into a life-giving and life-perpetuating ‘existence!’ You can go and face Pharaoh and all of Egypt because I am ‘YHWH.’”

Just yesterday a friend asked me if I knew how to pronounce the name of the Lord (YHWH). I told him that even in the time of Yeshua and the apostles the vast majority of Israel, including all the great rabbis and leaders of the nation, didn’t know how to pronounce the holy name of God because they couldn’t read it.

In the manuscripts of the Torah and the prophets and the Psalms written by hand by scribes, the four letters that make up the holy name of God were often not written in the Aramaic Hebrew script like the rest of the Torah and the Bible. The four letters were written in the ancient Canaanite script that most of the people, including the rabbis, didn’t know how to pronounce. This is how the name of God was written in the time of Yeshua:

There are these days so many Christian sects (dangerous sects) that pretend to know how to pronounce the holy name of God. They are divisive and aggressive sectarians who fight with each other and with the rest of the believing world as to how to pronounce this holy name.

The main thing that exemplifies these groups is that they are not Jewish, they are not formally educated, and they are very sectarian. Jews, when they read the Torah and come upon the Holy Name of God pronounce it: Adonai (Lord). This is also how the proper English translations have it written: Lord.

There is one more general thing that I would like to share with you! All of the Bible is built on the paradigm of progressive revelation. God does not reveal everything all at once. Revelation is progressive, it is given to us in the Bible on the basis of “Need to Know!” Our forefathers did not know much about the Messiah or a heavenly Kingdom, or about heaven and hell, and judgment day, or the Millennium…

The Lord sends His revelation to His children on a need-to-know basis. He also does not reveal everything right away, not even to the leaders and prophets, but as the information is needed the Lord opens up His secrets and delivers them to His faithful children. Yeshua did the same thing with His disciples and at times He gave them a revelation and told them to keep it to themselves and not share it with unbelievers.

What we are seeing is that this Torah reading is also on a need-to-know basis. Moses doesn’t receive the ultimate detailed plan of God for the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. The Lord gives Moses a step-by-step revelation that He needs to share with Pharaoh. The same is true today.

There are things that are hinted at in scripture that even the most educated leaders in the church can’t really pinpoint and give you a clear and total outline of what God is going to do in the end time or when and how exactly Yeshua will return. The whole doctrine of the so-called Millennium is a cause of division and argument and sectarian attitudes precisely because the Lord didn’t give us a spelled out, clearly outlined, dated, Power Point presentation of when and how, or of what is going to happen when He returns to judge the world.

Anyone today that teaches or says that he knows exactly how and when the Messiah is returning is someone who claims to know more than Yeshua Himself knows. Therefore the only title that I could give such a person would be: False Prophet.

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” – Matthew 24:36 [NKJV]

The day will come when we will all know everything that we need to know, but for now, let us learn of the great works that the Lord did in Egypt before releasing the children of Israel from slavery and bringing them to the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel as an everlasting inheritance and an eternal possession.

Joseph Shulam: Why Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart? [2020]

The Torah reading this Shabbat is Vaera (Exodus 6:2-9:35). From the prophets the reading is from Ezekiel 28:25-29:21. From the New Testament the reading is from Romans 9:14-33.

Now to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart by the Almighty God, the creator of the world. The question that is asked is, why does God, the creator of the world and father of all mankind, use such a measure as the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart?

If the objective is only the release of the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, would it not be more expedient and faster to just allow Pharaoh to release and send the children of Egypt out to freedom and return to the land of Canaan given to them by the Almighty God?

The first thing that we must remember is Pharaoh’s refusal to let the Israelites leave Egypt and be free from slavery. This is what complicated the situation and invited God’s intervention – God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 7:3).

This could give us the impression that Pharaoh did not have a real free will. Pharaoh had total free will when Moses and Aaron first demanded of Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” Pharaoh consulted with his wisemen and magicians, and preferred to follow their advice rather to hear Moses and Aaron, who spoke in the name of the one and only creator of the world.

Pharaoh’s obstinance and refusal to let Israel leave Egypt started a competition and a duel between Moses, representing God, and Pharaoh, representing Egypt and the Egyptian gods. The ten plagues which God inflicted on the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to let Israel leave Egypt were not only plagues against the people of Egypt, but also against the gods of the Egyptians.

Blood was against the god of the Nile river, the lifeline of Egypt. Other of the plagues were against the gods of the livestock of Egypt, and others against the sun god, who was one of the main gods of Egypt. The competition and struggle was not only between Moses and Pharaoh, but between the One God of Israel who created the whole world, and the idolatrous Egyptians who worshiped many gods.

Freedom for Israel was ultimately the demonstration of the God of Israel’s power, the One God against the multitude of gods. The Hebrew nation was the candle in the wind, the light for the rest of history of mankind as a demonstration of the One God and the victory over the idols of Egypt.

This is why God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, in order to demonstrate to the rest of history that the God of Israel is the God of the whole world. Yes, it was needed and a necessity to delay the exodus out of Egypt to show the world forever that the deliverance of Israel from slavery into freedom was not a natural event, not a political compromise, not a financial consideration, but a designed and pre-ordered prophetic fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, as it was recorded in chapter 15 of the book of Genesis.

Only when we look at the big picture can we really understand the justice and the righteousness of God in all His actions put together. Israel become a free and independent nation, in Mount Sinai Israel received the Torah, and after 40 years resettled in their God-given homeland, the land of Israel.

Pharaoh continued to resist, ten times, until the last plague. He could have acknowledged God, but he relied on his Egyptian idols, and God demonstrated His power and His sovereignty, until Pharaoh said, “Take your people and go!”

Rashi, the great commentator of the word of God in the 13th century, notes that there was a process of increasing punishments, plague after plague. It was necessary to demonstrate God’s power – not only to the Egyptians, but to the Israelites and the world.

Rashi noted that during the first five plagues, Pharaoh himself was responsible for his hardening heart. Pharaoh’s heart was “strengthened” (Exodus 7:13) and then became “heavy” (Exodus 7:14). The Torah uses three different words to describe what amounts to a single description of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon insists that all mankind has free will. Everyone can choose to do good, or bad. The ability to choose freely defines us as human beings, our choices define us as humans. The freedom to choose is an essential and inherent human right, but we must remember that our choices always have consequences to our choices and actions.

Pharaoh’s heart became “heavy” and hardened, because he didn’t want to lose such a valuable financial commodity – slaves, cheap labor. He refuses to change, even when he recognizes God’s existence, his arrogant heart, which is described as “his heart was strengthened”, was the cause that brought plague after plague upon Egypt and his nation, and finally on his own family.

This fate has been the fate of every Jew leader and nation. The world needs to look to history and see that God’s promises to Abraham are valid today as they were in the days of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, ancient Rome, and Byzantium, Germany’s Hitler… and the leaders of Iran are standing in line to experience the same fate as all their predecessors who hate and promote hate against God’s chosen people.

Please don’t forget God’s promises to our father Abraham. This is the paradigm of history in relationship to all of God’s children. The good is good forever, and the evil is in need of repentance and change to fall in line with God’s eternal program for the redemption of the whole human race. The Bible is life and gives life to those who don’t harden their hearts against the Father of all mankind.

Pray for Israel and for the salvation of Israel, because of there is nothing surer and more set-in-stone than God’s promise, “All Israel shall be saved!” (Romans 11:26)

Invest in sharing good and love and good news with the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. Invest in prayer for Israel, invest in the “household of God”, as the apostle Paul said. Invest financially to enable us to continue to feed the hungry and share the good news, publish material, teach and lecture around the world, and especially build up the local fellowship in Jerusalem.

Joseph Shulam: A Rabbinical Perspective on Pharaoh [2019]

This coming Shabbat the reading is Parashat Vaera (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35), the reading from the prophets, the haftara, is from Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21, and from the New Testament Luke 11:14-22.

The main story of this reading is the Lord’s plagues on Egypt and on the household of Pharaoh. The big question in these chapters is why the Lord was using these horrible plagues on Egypt.

Why did the Lord not soften the heart of Pharaoh and motivate him to just let these stiff-necked Israelites go? The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh several times so that Pharaoh would not release the Israelites so quick.

Here are three times that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh:

“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 7:3 [NKJV]

On this text Rashi (one of the greatest medieval commentators of the Hebrew Bible) says on Exodus 7: 3,

And I will make it difficult (harden his heart), since he has been convicted and defiant before me, and before the nations of the world. The nations of the word are not happy for me to give him heart to return to me (repent). And I will say: “But you shall see me, and you shall learn the moral lesson from your defiance. Although in the first five plagues I did not harden your heart but strengthened your heart O Pharaoh.”

What Rashi says here is that God gave Pharaoh five plagues without hardening his heart, but actually strengthening Pharaoh’s heart.

There is another phrase that is translated in the English as “harden the heart”. However, in this second phrase that appears also in Exodus chapter 4:21 and in 7:13, and all through the story of the Exodus, Pharaoh himself “strengthens his heart”. He becomes stubborn and refuses to release the children of Israel out of slavery and out of Egypt (this second phrase appears in the following places in the word of God: Exodus 4:21, 7:13,22, 8:19, 9:12,35, 10:20,27, 11:10, 14:4,8,17).

In all these texts, and many more through the Bible, God looks into people’s hearts and sees that they are defiant, and blasphemers, and they challenge God and His authority in the world. At this point God says to Himself, “I cannot allow this kind of behavior to continue and to challenge My authority and place among the nations of the world. For this reason, I will allow Pharaoh in this case to follow his own inclination and defiance. So that the world will see where disobedience and disrespect for Me leads and in the end Pharaoh and his nation and the whole world will know that there is a creator of this world who both loves and rewards and punishes His children in the whole world.”

These are my words for explaining why at times God hardens people’s hearts and allows them to follow their own desire and inclination even to the bitter end. The reason is one God wants all men the world over to know Him, and to be wise and know that there is a God and rules of conduct in His creation.

We should all know that God, as our Father, the Father of all of His creation, has limits for both His grace and His love, and also limits to His wrath and anger. For each one of us and our nations, we ought to be careful not to transgress and ignore God’s limits on either side of His spectrum.

Joseph Shulam: God’s Name Revealed to Moses [2017]

This Shabbat reading is from Exodus 6:2-8:35. The very first verse of this portion is a bit of a shock to most people who read the Bible carefully.

In the book of Genesis, we find the Tetragrammaton (the four letters that comprise the name of God – “yodh”, “he”, “waw” and “he”) 165 times. So, now we have the revelation that until the moment when Moses is about to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” the only revelation that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was of “God Almighty”.

God clearly states that our forefathers did not know His name as “Jehovah”. What can we learn from this statement that God reveals to Moses?

Revelation is progressive. God revealed His identity and His plan for humanity progressively. That is, bit by bit, inch by inch. Yeshua himself states this very clearly:

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” – John 16:12 [ESV]

What are the implications of progressive revelation?

1. God does not tell us the end from the beginning.
2. God speaks to us in human language, a language that we can understand. Our Jewish tradition states that Torah (God’s ultimate revelation, the Law of Moses) speaks to us in human language, and it is “not in the Heaven” – it is down here on Earth.
   • The implications are that it is given to us in a language that we can understand. Not only the language, but also the content is geared for us to understand.
   • God’s commandments are reasonable and not difficult. Yeshua said it in a very clear way: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29–30 NKJV)
   • What we know today about God and the way He works among men was not known in previous generations. Therefore, the apostle Paul said: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NKJV)

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.” – Exodus 6:2,3 [NKJV]

The new revelation that God gives to Moses is the most amazing truth of the whole Bible. You see, the children of Israel before Moses were worshiping a God of power. A God that is in some ways not that much different from the gods of their neighbors.

He was a personal god to the fathers of the nation. He was a god who had a relationship with the children of Abraham.

God was a god of a people, not a place, and He did not reside in a house (temple) made by man’s hands. God went with the people, He went with the individuals.

Like in the case of Jacob going north to Haran, and stopping to sleep in Bethel. God reveled Himself to Jacob in the dream, as his personal guide and protector.

The first time that we see and hear of God being a national God is in the giving of the Torah in Mount Sinai. The answer that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai next to the burning bush was:

“And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I Am has sent me to you.”’ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.”’” – Exodus 3:14,15 [NKJV]

There is a major change happening here. The change is from a personal god, that goes with the family, to a god of time, a god who reveals himself in time and through time.

The Word “I am” or “to be” is a time word. This switch and new revelation is a major change in relations, and of course of demands.

From this moment on, the God of Israel is dealing with a nation, and has national demands of the people and of their leaders. From this point on, Moses does not represent his family or his tribe.

Moses is a national representative of God and His people. The God that Moses serves is a god of history. History is a sequential set of connected events on a timeline.

This is precisely the importance of this revelation and the significance of prophecy. Prophecy can only have a meaning if it is a proclamation of the one who controls time and events.

This ought to make it easier for us to understand the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. In the Hebrew it is clearly visible in the language.

Pharaoh hardens the life of the Israelites with hard labor, and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. There is here a classic “measure for measure”.

As you already know, Yeshua gave a very clear teaching on this issue:

“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” – Matt 7:2 [NKJV]

This is why the last revelation is the most authoritative one!

Joseph Shulam: Points on the Art of Negotiation [2016]

This week all the synagogues in the world are going to read Exodus 6:2- 9:35. This is the story of the negotiation between Moses and Pharaoh.

There is much to learn about negotiation from the word of God, and negotiation is a part of life that all of us participate in from birth till death. For this reason it is important for us to learn from the wisdom of God of how to best negotiate with the “opposition”. Let us look at this lesson from the word of God.

1. God appoints Moses to go and deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. Moses does not feel that he is qualified for the job. Moses argues with God, and if you count, Moses goes three rounds with God, and God wins in the end. How is it that God wins the argument with Moses?
2. God has made a decision and He is absolutely sure that He is right and is not willing to take a “no” for an answer! Some might call this stubbornness, others ought to call it determination and assurance that this is the right thing to do.
3. God’s willingness to hear the other side’s (Moses’) reasons for rejecting the offer, and to give a one-on-one response to every objection. Moses says, “I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue”. God answers Moses: “Who do you think made man’s mouth and who makes some people dumb or deaf, seeing or blind. Is it not me, the Lord?”
4. When negotiating, give your opposition the time and the respect to make his side of the argument and respond point by point, concentrating on a proper logical response.
5. You can’t negotiate with people for whom you have no respect and/or you feel superior to. You have to look at people on eye level and respect their dignity. Only in this way you can really negotiate and win.
6. When you win the negotiation to your satisfaction, make practical steps to quickly seize the opportunity to do what you negotiated and put it into action. It does not pay to spend energy to negotiate and then be lax in putting into action or catching the object of your negotiation. Don’t negotiate now if you are not ready now to put the object of your negotiation into action.
7. Moses does not go alone in the negotiation with Pharaoh. He comes with Aaron, his brother. Moses states the goal of his negotiation right out in the beginning: “Let my people go!” This is an outrageous demand. What makes this so outrageous is that here you have a person who, for forty years, has been a fugitive from the law, and without much self-confidence.
8. Being a discouraged and depressed person is not a permanent situation, for anyone. A person can change. God can equip a person of that demeanor and enable him to stand tall in front of his opponents.
9. Moses was assured, and sure of the righteousness of his demand from Pharaoh. You can’t negotiate if you have any doubts of the righteousness of your demands. You have to know for sure that you are sure that your demands are righteous and just.
10. There is no room for compromise when you are sure of your righteous demands.
11. Your stubbornness or determination is not out of your selfish, greedy motives, but out of a much bigger mission of doing the right thing, and being a blessing to your greater goals in life, your people, your nation, your family, your community, your divine mission in life. Only when you are not “working” to satisfy your greed and your selfish ambition can you stand firm and not compromise.
12. You must have some “tricks up your sleeve” to demonstrate to the other side that you are strong, capable, independent, and able to withstand anything that the other side can dish out (the different powerful demonstrations of the plagues that God brought against Egypt). You might say to yourself, “I am not God and God did not appoint me to this job. I don’t have any such powers.” You might not have the same scope of “signs and wonders” that Moses received from God, but you can think of some demonstration of your powers. Among “signs and wonders” that you can pull out of your bag are historical events and previous accomplishments that can point to your record and your previous successes.

I don’t know if this is helpful to you, but reading again the book of Exodus is inspiring me to be strong, determined, uncompromising for everything that is clearly true and pure in the word of God. From my experience in negotiating in the Jerusalem Old City market, I learned that weakness or lack of confidence does not help you in negotiation.

We have to be kind and controlled, and to respect the other side, but at the same time believe in what you want and be sure that it is not selfish and motivated by greed, and that as a child of God you have God’s interest to be your interest for the greater good.

Yehuda Bachana: Do We Have Free Will? [2018]

Read the teaching below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

Passover is one of the main feasts in The Scriptures due to its motif of redemption, salvation, and the creation of God’s people. Passover is the connection between God and a nation, “…you will be my people, and I will be your God.” On Passover we drink four cups of wine which describe and represent the four stages of redemption from Egypt. This is based on the first verses from this week’s Torah portion:

…I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God… – Exodus 6:6b,7a [NIV]

From being a nation of slaves without any natural chance of attaining freedom, we became a nation that bears the banner of faith throughout the ages. During the Lord’s Supper, I believe that Yeshua took the third cup, the one called “Redemption” and said, “This is me, I am the Redemption.” The Lord’s Supper is based on the redemption of Yeshua the Messiah, who brings us out of slavery to sin and redeems us with His blood.

I’d like to share a thought regarding the ten plagues that started in Parashat Vayeira. We understand from the portion that after the plagues occurred, Egypt changed drastically. It was no longer a place of refuge in the event of a famine. In fact, post-plague Egypt was a broken country.

I think that 99% of all commentators have tried to find the answer to the following question: Why was there a need for ten plagues, instead of one particularly devastating plague, in order to set the people of Israel free? The answer that the Torah offers is:

…That you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord. – Exodus 10:2 [NIV]

The reason was simple, during the ten plagues, the Egyptian superpower was humiliated together with its idols, before the creator of the world. God says:

…So you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. – Exodus 9:14 [NIV]

Everyone witnessed the might of an all-powerful God, a God who controlled nature and even death. God’s intent is evident, today we still discuss and learn about the Exodus from Egypt, even after about 3400 years. For instance, every week during Kabbalat Shabbat:

…As a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt.

A Theological Challenge

In the Exodus, God revealed His mighty hand, His strength, His utter dominance, to us as well as to our future generations. I want to ask a deeper question, beyond the focus of the ten plagues. When I read our Torah portion as well as next week’s, I immediately encounter an invigorating theological challenge. One of the most well-known sentences regarding the plagues of Egypt is:

…For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials… – Exodus 10:1b [NIV]

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron… – Exodus 9:12a [NIV]

We run into an issue at this point, what exactly happened to Pharaoh’s free will?

Does God interfere with the heart and mind, deciphering for us how to act?

The question therefore arises: What will we be judged for? For our sin or for a hardness of heart that God chose for us? In fact, the question is, if God hardened Pharaoh’s heart – what is He punishing him for?

There are believers who claim that God chooses who exactly will believe in Him from the beginning, there is no free will, everything is decided by the Almighty. It’s been decided ahead of time who will be saved and who will not, which is known as predestination.

Our belief is that every person has the power and the ability to choose whether to follow the path of God or not. We have free will, which is a gift from God. This idea is supported in the book of Deuteronomy:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. – Deuteronomy 30:15 [NIV]

…I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live… – Deuteronomy 30:19b [NIV]

Why would God say “choose” if indeed we have no free will? I believe that sin is our free choice, that we are the ones who seek out the sin and open ourselves up to all kinds of temptations.

One of the elders of our congregation once told me a humorous story that I want to share with you: A known rabbi and teacher entered a classroom in order to lecture and he saw that his students were in the middle of a conversation that abruptly stopped when he entered the class. The rabbi was interested in what the conversation was about, but the students did not want to let the rabbi know, and only after much prodding did the students let the rabbi in on their conversation. It turns out that they were talking about how the evil inclination (yetzer hara) is chasing them, and always trying to tempt them. The rabbi simply smiled and answered, “You have nothing to worry, for now you are the ones chasing after the evil inclination.”

Sin exists inside each of us, and we will be judged for our actions. The fact is, we have the ability to overcome sin, because if not, what then will we be judged for?

Do We Have Free Will?

Every person is responsible for his or her own actions, and we cannot blame others for our choices, mistakes, or sins.

…But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. – Genesis 2:17 [NIV]

In Genesis we read that God commands Adam not to eat from the tree. This means that there is a prohibition, but this presents two options. God created man with the ability to choose and decide – even if it is not always what’s best for man. God gave us the option to sin, but I want to emphasize the fact that God also gave us the option to choose what is right and holy.

Let’s go back to Pharaoh – how did God harden Pharaoh’s heart without harming his right to free will? Some say that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a punishment. Pharaoh was a evil king and he enslaved the people of Israel. Perhaps he had reached such a threshold of evil and sin that God punished him and hardened his heart in order to bring down all ten plagues on the Egyptians.

I read an insightful commentary. It opened my eyes to the fact that we tend to forget how Pharaoh actually made efforts to reach a compromise with Moses. During the negotiations, Pharaoh offered suggestions that seemed reasonable, but they contained only a partial answer to Moses’ demands. Moses rejected every suggestion, after pointing out why each one did not meet the needs of his people. This exchange between Pharaoh and Moses may seem unnecessary, but if we read it carefully, we come to the answer of how Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

We will delve further into this topic during the coming week. Until then, Shabbat Shalom.