Hebraic Studies - “Let My People Go!”
Please do NOT visit
this site on Shabbat or on a
Please Note: On this site I will
show the four letter blessed *“Memorial Name” of
the Almighty in Ivrit - 
- Y-H-V-H, which we usually
pronounce as “Adonai” or “HaShem”.
Also I will use “Elohim” which is NOT a Name, but the
attribute, or the title of Who our Creator is! At all times
please treat the most blessed Name with sanctity and when we even
see the Name, we should say “blessed be His Sanctified
Name.”
*“This is My Name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” Shemot - Exodus 3:15.
On this site I will mostly use a version based on the “Jewish Publication Society” Tanakh (JPS) with some minor updates
Please Note: for those who may be using other “Bibles” verses may differ, but the Hebrew Tanakh is the original!
Introduction:
This study has a very special purpose, for it will cover a time in our amazing history, which was without a doubt the grandest of them all, I am speaking of course of Elohim having heard Israel’s cry of pain when we were enslaved in Mitzraim - Egypt.
“And the children of
You may have noted that they did not cry out unto Elohim, no it was just a cry of sheer pain and anguish, yet Elohim, blessed be He, heard them and He acted - But why, well that is simple, for He keeps His promises!
“And Elohim heard their groaning, and
Elohim remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak, and
with
But what was so special, Elohim, blessed be He,
set in motion events that would take a very special person, even
from the moment he was born, to the day his mother took him from
her hiding place at home and placed him in a basket and placed
him in the
Then one day Moshe being a shepherd …
“Moshe was keeping the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the
farthest end of the wilderness, and came to the appeared unto him
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked,
and, behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not
consumed” Shemot - Exodus: 3:1-2 (JPS).
Thus you ask; “what is the reason about this part of our history which all Jews will surely know about”. That may be true, but there is so much more to this whole event than the one we tend to think of, for it contains the battle of three, two men and of course Elohim,. Thus it is all about the Pharaoh, Moshe and our beloved Elohim, blessed be He!
I will cover the three “I” that play a powerful part in this whole event, it will be explained soon, but in Phase (Part) Two, I will reveal so much more regarding the “Ten Plagues” and believe me sadly nothing much is really known about what each Plague was really all about, especially who was being humiliated, that is besides the Egyptians? You will find it very interesting!
We obviously love the State of
I am challenging you with this very special, and I believe a powerful study for you to grasp your Jewish roots and become closer to His wonderful Torah and do good deeds, yes I mean deeds of “Tzedakah”, and lighting the Shabbat lights, men, why not start laying Tefillin and so many other blessed things we can do to please our beloved Creator! Life will be so much the richer for us all, when we please our Elohim, blessed be He!
Let My people Go:
However, it was Elohim, blessed be
His Sanctified Name, who said through Moshe to Pharaoh;
“Moshe and Acharon came, and said unto
Pharaoh; ‘Thus saith , the Elohim of Israel, Let My
people go’” Shemot - Exodus: 5:1 (JPS).
However, there is so much more to this verse
and the tragedy is, that today most of those living in
This is why, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
desired to set His people free, that they may be bound to Him, to
worship and to serve Him and that is the whole point of redemption!
And we should always remember the truth of that we were redeemed!
The word “Redeem,” in Ivrit -
Hebrew is “
“Wherefore say unto the children of
Israel: I am , and I will bring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their
bondage, and I will (Ga’al) redeem you with an
outstretched arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you
to Me for a people, and I will be to you an Elohim; and ye shall
know that I am your Elohim, who brought you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians” Shemot - Exodus 6:6-7
(JPS).
We know what this word means, because the very part of the Torah we are currently studying is saying to us that Elohim, blessed be He, desires “to set His people free” in order that they can be His people.
It is important for us to note that the word
“
In Shemot - Exodus Chapter 6 the word “
However, the prophet Tsephanyah - Zephaniah uses this very same word in chapter 3 verse 1 of his book where the word is not translated as “Redeemed,” but something very different - “Polluted.”
Here is the verse in question.
“Woe to her (speaking of
We might ask: “How can this possibly
be?” The fact is to understand the word “redeemed”
correctly we have to realise the following. To be
“redeemed” is to be “covered” or “surrounded”
with protective care. When the word “ Sanctified Name!
“Bless , O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities … Who (
Therefore we need to understand that when the
word “
Thus, when “Ga’al” - “Redeem is used in Shemot - Exodus, it means to be liberated from the chains of their past sins as sadly many did worship pagan gods whilst in Egypt, but Elohim, blessed be He, broke their bondage and thus we celebrate Pesach - Passover.
Moshe meets the Pharaoh:
Let us return to the dramatic story of the Exodus and the conflict that is about to take place between Moshe the servant of Elohim and the evil and pagan Pharaoh.
Nowhere in the annals of human history has
there been an event that had as many far-reaching effects as
those associated with the Pesach - Passover and
I never fail to be thrilled and spiritually
stimulated by the contest between Moshe, who was described in the
Word, as “the meekest of men” and Pharaoh being
the most arrogant and without doubt the most powerful man of his
time. Pharaoh had all the power of an absolute monarch and at his
disposal was a massive army that stood poised, ready to carry out
his every command. He held the fate of
The Pharaoh rated Moshe even lower than a rabble-rouser and he must have thought it was a joke that …
“This abominable shepherd was going to represent those despised Hebrews.”
For did it not say in Bereshis - Genesis chapter 46 …
“For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians” Bereshis - Genesis 46:34 (JPS).
Pharaoh’s advisors might have joked,
“Just listen to him, he stammers and stutters when he speaks
and he dares to demand the release of those Hebrew slaves in the
name of their Elohim, whoever that is?” But of course both
Moshe and Acharon -
“And afterward Moshe and Acharon came, and
said unto Pharaoh: ‘Thus saith , the Elohim of Israel: Let
My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the
wilderness.’ And Pharaoh said: ‘Who is , that
I should hearken unto His voice to let , and
moreover I will not let
Pharaoh in reality was asking “What kind of god are they talking about, for the Israelites have never seen Him, and surely is he not a god of a nation of slaves, the very slaves I might well exterminate?” Is it any wonder that Pharaoh exclaimed …
“‘Who is , that I should hearken
unto His voice to let , and moreover I will
not let
But, the all-powerful Pharaoh was about to be humbled by Israel’s all powerful Elohim. But more so those false Egyptian pagan god’s were about to be totally humiliated in the most frightful contest of power the world had ever seen. For Elohim, blessed be He, had declared in Shemot - Exodus 12:12.
“Against all the gods of ” (JPS).
Moshe’s confrontation with Pharaoh developed into a full head-on collision between the gods of Egypt and the Great ‘I Am’ of Israel.
We need to understand that there were two phases of struggle going on between Moshe and Pharaoh.
1. Words - The 1st.phase was - Elohim gave His demands.
2. Works - The 2nd.phase was - Elohim acted on His words.
In His mercy, we should note that our loving Elohim always speaks first, as He will warn us. But sadly, many will not listen, nor believe, thus they will end up “Ga’al” - “covered” in the negative tense as we have learned earlier. Sadly rabbis have changed Elohim’s truth, as they started to teach that all Jews will have a place, etc, etc, sorry that is not what the Tanakh has taught us, for not all will be “redeemed” at the end!
And we should remember that the Hebrews that were redeemed out of Mitzraim - Egypt (except Yahoshua - Joshua and Caleb) would all die in the wilderness because of their sin again Elohim, blessed be He. Thus these two faithful ones and the children of those who left Mitzraim were the ones to enter the “Land of Milk and Honey”.
Read what Elohim had to say in Bamidbar - Numbers chapter 14;
“And spoke unto Moshe and unto
Acharon, saying: ‘How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation that keep murmuring against Me? I have heard the
murmurings of the children of Israel, which they keep murmuring
against Me. Say unto them: As I live, saith ,
surely as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to
you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all
that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from
twenty years old and upward, ye that have murmured against
Me; surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which
I lifted up My hand that I would make you dwell therein, save
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Yahoshua - Joshua the son of
Nun. But your little ones, that ye said would be a prey,
them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have
rejected. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the
wilderness forty years, and shall bear your strayings, until your
carcasses be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of
the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for
every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty
years, and ye shall know My displeasure. I have
spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation
that are gathered together against Me; in this wilderness they
shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ And the
men, whom Moshe sent to spy out the land, and who, when they
returned, made all the congregation to murmur against him, by
bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men
that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague
before . But Yahoshua the son of Nun, and Kalev -
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went
to spy out the land
What is the moral lesson here: “It
was so easy for Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
to take
And believe me I am sure we will all know how
difficult it is to remain true to Him, and follow His Torah, and
by that I do not mean those much later introduced man-made laws. We
so blessed to have the Torah, which contains the Law as given to
Moshe by Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
but sadly rabbis of the past have added thousand’s of
man-made laws called the “oral-Law, which are NOT from
Elohim, but are wholly man-made. You will find studies online
that covers this sad subject. Such as Ushpizin & Other
Customs.
In Shemot - Exodus Chapters 5 to 7 Elohim spoke:
We are about to discover that there were three
different voices speaking, and I am sure that this will relate to
all of us. The key word in Chapters 5 through to 7 is “I.”
Yes I do mean “I, me, myself” type of ‘I”
when it comes to men. But they are three very different sources
who were saying “I.” 1. Pharaoh, 2. Moshe, and
above all, Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
said it.
Of course, I am sure that you will understand that it all depends, which “I” we listen to. This tiny little “I” will come to you from three directions. It will come from those who oppose you. It comes from your own fears and doubts, but it will also come from Elohim, blessed be He. Let me ask you; “Who is the central “I” in your life?” This was precisely what Moshe had to face, for it can be difficult to work out who is really speaking the truth! Let me tell you one very simple truth … it is always Our blessed Creator!
Lets take the first capital “I” – being the “I” of Pharaoh.
Moshe went to him and said, “Let my
people go” and Pharaoh said “Who is that
I should take any notice of Him” - “‘I
know not , and moreover I will not let Israel
go’” In Pharaoh we see “the adversary” or
“the opposer” in Hebrew it is ‘Ha Satan’,
being just like all evil dictators saying, “I will not
let this nation go, it is mine.” Pharaoh thought
that he was the great I Am.
Moshe could have given in to this powerful “I”, the great and powerful and a Egyptian god, the Pharaoh. This same kind of “I” was also found in many evil popes, cardinals, bishops and priests as they tortured, slaughtered and murdered countless thousands of innocent lives during their evil inquisitions and during their many other onslaughts murdering both Jews, and yes those who were not part of that hideous Pagan based Roman church! But there are also those Eastern European churches who murdered Jews by the thousands.
But there were also another evil so-called
christian who was the ultimate hater of the Jewish People, his
name is
And these evil “I’s” I have just mentioned from popes, Luther, to Hitler were all extreamly evil!
But let us now look at the 2nd.“I” - being the “I” of Moshe, the self.
After delivering the first demand to release the Children of Israel, Pharaoh became angry and ordered that, no straw was to be given to Israel to make the bricks. This brought great hardship to the Israelites and as we know they rebelled against Moshe.
Did you know that archaeologists have found one of the walls that is spoken about, right here in Shemot - Exodus chapter 5. It is located at “Ra’Amis” where there is a ruin, part of a wall that contained bricks made with straw, but then there are others with much less straw and then suddenly some with no straw at all. Once again archaeology has proven that the Word of Elohim, blessed be He, to be completely true! Israel was persecuted because of Moshe’s demands. Thus the second “I” and Moshe turns again to Elohim as we read in Shemot - Exodus 5:22-23.
“And Moshe returned unto , and
said: ‘Master, wherefore hast Thou dealt ill with this
people? Why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came
to Pharaoh to speak in Thy Name, he hath dealt ill with this
people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all”
Again, Moshe was saying again, “I am not
the one for I cannot do this, for it will be worse, how
can I possibly make it better.” Poor Moshe, for in
his heart he considers himself as a despised person in Egypt, and
here we see him still trying to get out of his responsibilities
as he did a the Mountain when he stood with the fire of Elohim,
and he was tested. The fact that he was a man, venerable at this
stage but soon he would become what we now call
But at this stage, as a man it is sad to know that he did this three more times in these Chapters, for Moshe continually attempts to get out of his responsibilities. The capital “I” is now, the “I” of Moshe. “I cannot do this. I am going to mess it up. I am not the person for you.”
But let us now look at the 3rd.capital “I”.
What was Elohim’s reply to Moshe in Shemot - Exodus chapter 6 … three times He says - “I will”.
“And Elohim spoke unto ; and I appeared unto Avraham,
unto Yitzchak, and unto I made Me not known to them. And I
have also established My covenant with them, to give them the , and I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from
their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched
arm, and with great judgments” Shemot - Exodus 6:2-6 (JPS).
Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
is showing Moshe and us of course, that He is the “Elohim
of the Past, Present and Future.”
“I Am the Elohim of the Present who hears you. I Am the Elohim of the Past who made a covenant, a Promise. I will deliver because I Am the Elohim of the Future.”
Which “I” is going to govern your life? Is it the “I” of Opposition, the “I” of Self or Fear, or the “I” of the Almighty Elohim, blessed be He!
That is your dilemma, as it was Moshe’s. This is the great dilemma of Chapters 5, 6 & 7.
Praise our beloved Elohim, for finally Moshe
stopped arguing and thus he no longer listened to the “I”
of Pharaoh, nor the “I” of self, but was
only obedient to the Great “I Am - Elohim”,
blessed be His Sanctified Name, who had revealed Himself to him
at
This is the simple lesson for all of us to begin with, and it is an important one.
Whenever you are called by the Almighty to do His work, as I have stated; you will come up against a number of different “I’s” and it will depend on which “I” you choose to heed to, that will decide whether you will help people or not. Believe me, somehow we all have a calling, you just need to listen to Elohim as He speaks to us through His blessed Torah and the rest of the Tanakh. If you listen to the “I” of the opposition, or the “I” of self, or the “I” of fear and doubt, you will fail your Elohim in two vital ways.
1. You will have failed to live in His will.
2. You have failed to help others, as you will not have been at the right place at the right time in order to do His will.
Let us always listen to He who is the “Great I Am,” and go forth; knowing that He goes before us. For He is like a Lamp at our feet guiding us.
“Thou art my lamp, O ; and doth
lighten my darkness” 2 Shmuel - 2
This concludes “Phase One” of this study.
“Phase Two” is very different and powerful, as it is where Elohim, blessed be He, goes from Words to Works.
In addition we will discover that Elohim’s Power also has Two Phases, being; 1. Demonstration & 2. Destruction.
Being human, we must know that our Elohim, blessed be He, has great patience, for He did say, “I will do it, but listen to Me.” But sadly, far too many will not listen to Him. I pray beloved that we are listening to His Word as we have His wonderful Torah and all of the Tanakh which is packed with His teachings, and includes a special message that is interwoven within this study, thus Elohim is speaking to you through His Word, and I pray you are listening and able to be obedient for He is always there for you.
This may sound a strange thing to say, but we should not just blame the Pharaoh in this study, for sadly far too many have hardened their hearts at some time or other, and I mean even those who have been good and faithful Jews, for there are some that have become so set in their ways and sadly I have to say so bound in their rabbinic traditions that they just cannot see that they need to change to return to what Elohim has told us, and not just men! I pray that we will understand what I mean for “tradition” can override that which is Torah, and that is what these Shemot - Exodus studies are all about, learning what Elohim, blessed be He is saying to us in His Word! You see we can place His will into our lives which will change us dramatically, having been taught by the very Words of His most wonderful Torah!
We all need to change our lives and our ways; soon I will place online a study where we discover that we should be ready to cast our “Rods before Elohim.” He is calling us, for we are all His servants and we do have a responsibility to be “a watchman” to help our fellow Jews and other’s where the opportunity arises. Read what Elohim said to his servant Yechehel - Ezekiel in Chapter 3.
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the House of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from Me. When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood” Yechehel - Ezekiel 3:17-18.
Now you might say, “But that was the Tanakh of the ancient days”; and yes I agree with you for it was, but the principle remains the same today as it did back then, for us to guide and lead when we see those who need to be led in the right direction!
As we go back to the conflict in Egypt, it again shows us the problems that exist to this very day.
As Elohim demonstrates His power He uses a small piece of timber. Yes, our Heavenly Father once again uses a Rod, but not the rod that Moshe carried which is now known as the “Rod of Elohim,” But he and Acharon came before pharaoh and it is Acharon who throws his rod before the pharaoh and as we know it turns into a snake. But certain Egyptians were also able to do these same things, but they called it “magic.” Thus, that smug and mighty pharaoh called his court magicians who continually practiced in the occult.
But, it is the power of Elohim that will always be the greater as there is nothing in heaven or earth that can ever overcome the Almighty, therefore the snake from Acharon’s Rod as we know from the Word did not just kill and devour one, but both of these snakes of the Egyptian magicians as we are told in Shemot - Exodus chapter 7 that states;
“And Moshe and Acharon went in unto
Pharaoh, and they did so, as had commanded; and Acharon
cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it
became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called
for the wise men and the sorcerers; and they the magicians of
Egypt, did in like manner with their secret arts. For they cast down every man his rod, and
they became serpents; but Acharon’s rod swallowed up their
rods (serpents)” Shemot - Exodus 7:10-12 (JPS).
Yet after seeing the power of the Elohim of Israel, pharaoh did not heed and now the greatest battle of all time had began. For that very reason, Shemot - Exodus chapters 7 to 10 could be called “Elohim declares war on the gods of Mitzraim - Egypt.”
We now come to Moshe’s great confrontation
with pharaoh, one that developed into a head-on collision between
the pagan gods of Egypt and the Creator of heaven and earth, the
Elohim of Israel. On the one hand, Moshe and Acharon represented Elohim
of Israel, blessed be His Sanctified name, and the pharaoh with
his wise men and sorcerers who represented everything that is
evil and pagan as they worshipped so many deities including the
pharaoh himself who was considered to be the god
“Horus”, which his son would be come upon his death.
The Ten Plagues & the Egyptian Deities:
Let us mingle with the interested observers and see how the Elohim of Avraham, Yitzchak (Isaac) and Ya'aqov (Jacob) systematically destroyed the power and the prestige of the Egyptian deities and thus that evil pharaoh.
Each morning Pharaoh and his family would go to the River Nile enter it and worship it. The Nile is one of their many gods.
“And said unto , the Elohim of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto
thee, saying: Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the
wilderness; and, behold, hitherto thou hast not
hearkened; thus saith : In this thou shalt know that I am
,
behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the
waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to
blood” Shemot - Exodus 7:14-17 (JPS).
And Moshe and Acharon did so, as commanded;
and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the
river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants;
and all the waters that were in the river were turned to
blood. And the fish that were in the river died; and the
river became foul, and the Egyptians could not drink water from
the river; and the blood was throughout all the land of
Egypt” Shemot - Exodus 7:20-21 (JPS).
Here we have read how the “Nile” god was humiliated before all Egypt. It is obvious that water is life, but blood will kill all the life present in the river. Remember fish was the vital food source of Egypt!
Hekt was an Egyptian goddess that had a frog’s head, all I can say - wonderful, who would even want to worship such a hideous thing!
“And said unto Moses: 'Say unto
Acharon: Stretch forth thy hand with thy rod over the rivers,
over the canals, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up
upon the land of Egypt.' And Acharon stretched out his hand
over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the
land of Egypt” Shemot - Exodus 8:1-2 (JPS).
The magicians copied the act, but the big difference was, that the frogs that had came from Elohim could not be controlled, unlike those by the magicians, and the frogs became a massive curse, one that simply could not be removed. Finally, Pharaoh begged Moshe to call upon the Elohim of Israel, blessed be He, to remove them.
“And did according to the word of
Thus their goddess “Hekt” was totally humiliated before all Egypt, which was completed with that hideous stink of dead frogs, throughout the entire land.
Seb was the Egyptian god of the Earth.
“And said unto Moses: ‘Say
unto Acharon: Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the
earth that it may become gnats - lice (a stinging insect)
throughout all the land of Egypt.’ And they did so; and
Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of
the earth, and there were gnats (lice) upon man, and upon beast;
all the dust of the earth became gnats (lice) throughout all the
land of Egypt” Shemot - Exodus 8:12-14
We certainly do not need much of an imagination to understand the intense discomfort and total humiliation that this plaque caused the Egyptians. But did the pharaoh learn, NO he did not!
The Scarab was a beetle/insect worshipped by the Egyptians.
“If thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms (Heb: arov) of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms (arov) of flies, and also the ground whereon they are” Shemot - Exodus 8:17 (JPS).
In Hebrew the word “arov” is used and it means a “swarm”.
You will have noted that “of flies” is written in italics and the reason is that translators at some time much later have added the text “of flies.” However, the text literally reads “If thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms upon you.” This was in all probability and according scriptural archaeologists in the form of a beetle known as the “Sacred Scarabaeus” that was worshipped by the Egyptians. And I believe this to be correct as it is pictured in many temples, having done archaeology myself in Yisroel and some in Egypt and have worked as a guest at the British Museum. Thus we see yet another Egyptian god humiliated.
The sacred Egyptian bull Apis was the target for the fifth judgement.
“‘And shall make a
division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt;
and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children
of Israel.’ And appointed a set time, saying:
‘Tomorrow shall do this thing in the
land.’ And did that thing on the morrow, and all the
cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Israel
died not one. And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not
so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the
heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people
go” Shemot - Exodus 9:4-7 (JPS).
Thus, “Apis” was destroyed and humiliated before all Egypt.
Typhon the evil genius of the Egyptians and
“And said unto Moshe and unto
Acharon: 'Take to you handfuls of soot of the furnace, and let
Moshe throw it heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh. And it
shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be
a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast,
throughout all the land of Egypt.' And they took soot of the
furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moshe threw it up
heavenward; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon
man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before
Moshe because of the boils; for the boils were upon the
magicians, and upon all the Egyptians” Shemot - Exodus
9:8-11 (JPS).
Both god’s were taken care of with judgement number 6. This plague was only directed against the Egyptians.
A hailstorm in Egypt would be very rare sight indeed and the seventh judgement was directed towards the humiliation of Shu the god of the atmosphere.
“Behold, tomorrow about this time I will
cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in
Egypt since the day it was founded even until now” …
“And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and sent
thunder and hail, and fire ran down unto the earth; and caused
to hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire
flashing up amidst the hail, very grievous, such as had not been
in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation” …
“Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel
were, was there no hail” Shemot - Exodus 9:18,23-24
& 26 (JPS).
We need to understand that it really never hails in Egypt, thus here we see another pagan god “biting the dust” as massive hailstorms destroyed all the crops of Egypt!
The Egyptians worshipped this god for protection against the devastating plagues of locusts. The eighth judgement certainly proved the impotency of this deity.
“And said unto Moshe:
‘Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts
that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb
of the land, even all that the hail hath left.’ And
Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and brought
an east wind upon the land all that day, and all the night; and
when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And
the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all
the borders of Egypt; very grievous were they; before them there
were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be
such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that
the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land,
and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there
remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the field,
through all the land of Egypt” Shemot - Exodus 10:12 to 15
(JPS).
our Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified
Name, has taken care of those false gods related to the earth,
and the imagination. The final two plagues would take care of the
human ones.
Ra as we will all know is the sun god and Pharaoh was also known as the “son of the sun” and therefore he was considered to be a god himself. This plague would totally humiliate Pharaoh personally as well as all of his ancestors.
“And said unto Moshe:
‘Stretch out thy hand toward heaven, that there may be
darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be
felt.’ And Moshe stretched forth his hand toward
heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt
three days; they saw not one another, neither rose any from
his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had
light in their dwellings” Shemot - Exodus 10:21-23 (JPS).
This proved that the Elohim of Israel, the
Creator of all things was in total control. The sun god was
completely darkened, no matter how much Egypt prayed it could and
would not shed any light until Elohim, blessed be His
Sanctified Name, allowed it!
But, tragically, it had to come to the final act, and it was a tragic one, for pharaoh to force Elohim’s hand!
Divine status was automatically attributed to
all Pharaohs. Thus, it would be the 10th.plague that finally
convinced Pharaoh of the awesome power of the Almighty Elohim
of Israel, blessed be His sanctified Name, and it finally brought
Pharaoh right down to his knees. The death of his first-born had
a particular significance, because the first born of a Pharaoh
was given equal status to Pharaoh himself for both were
considered gods.
This plague was directed against all the first born, including all cattle thus again exposed the impotency of “Apis,” the sacred bull, together with “Hathor,” the goddess with the head of a cow.
This judgement was frightful in the extreme as Elohim had to break the iron will of Pharaoh and his people, in order to bring about the release the children of Israel, from the harsh Egyptian bondage.
“And Moshe said: 'Thus saith : About
midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the
first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of
Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of
the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born
of cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the
land of Egypt, such as there hath been none like it, nor shall be
like it any more” … “For I will go through the
land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in
the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods
of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am ” Shemot - Exodus
11:4-6 & 12:12 (JPS).
What terrible and great lengths our Heavenly Father was forced to go to in order to save His people, the Children of Israel from this harsh and terrible slavery!
What a mighty promise Israel was given so long
ago to Avraham! The Hebrews were living in Egypt, at first it was
by Elohim’s will, but they should have returned home after
the drought was over, but they stayed as they were living in
Goshen, the land of plenty and refused to go home, and sadly far
too many of the Hebrews commenced to worship pagan gods, just as
they did during Yirmyahu - Jeremiah’s days. And in Egypt
most were living in sin, but because thankfully there were still
a few faithful Hebrews and due to the covenant that Elohim had
made with Avraham, Elohim, blessed be His Sanctified Name,
delivered them from bondage and slavery. He brought them into
freedom and gave them hope and returning them, well the new
generation, to the “Land of Milk and Honey, after the 40
year journey in the wilderness”.
Today Israel is only partially restored to the land of promise, yet sadly they are not living according to the will of Elohim, blessed be He, for the land as I mentioned is really secular and very much has become sadly a sinful nation, I addition the vast majority of Jews are still living in dispersion.
However, Elohim, blessed be He, will in due course deliver us from bondage, but return all of us, which will be the great Exodus that is still to come and we will eventually all go home from the “Four Corners of the Earth” and it is an Exodus that will be greater than the one we are currently studying, but that is a whole different story!
Let us sum up the Exodus story and turn to the words of Moshe in Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:32 – 34.
“For ask now of the days past, which were
before thee, since the day that Elohim created man upon the
earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether
there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath
been heard like it? Did ever a people hear the voice of
Elohim speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard,
and live? Or hath Elohim assayed to go and take Him a nation from
the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs,
and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand,
and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
according to all that the your Elohim did for you in
Egypt before thine eyes?” Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:32 to 34
(JPS).
Let us now look at the 7 statements of Deliverance in the concluding part of these verses. According to verse 34, YHVH our Elohim delivered Israel by the following seven ways.
| 1.
By Trials |
| 2.
By Signs |
| 3.
By Wonders |
| 4.
By War |
| 5.
By a Mighty Hand |
| 6.
By a Stretched Out Arm |
| 7.
By Great Terrors |
Never since the days of
In Tehillim - Psalm 105 verse 8 it says that
Elohim “Has remembered His Covenant (with
We all know that the number 7 is the number of perfection and completion, thus, Israel’s Deliverance was a perfect Deliverance, for 7 proves that is was complete in every detail. What a great Elohim He is. Here He shows that when He saves, He saves with perfection as has been proved by the night of the Pesach - Passover, and I will write a special study on that soon, for there is something most of us do not now, and it will be a blessing!
But in conclusion, why was
It is because Elohim, blessed be His
Sanctified Name, wished His Name to be a by-word of power and
to show His Presence and His Wisdom to 1.
Yahoshua - Joshua 2:10-11 – Rachab - Rahab said;
“For we have heard how dried
up the water of the Red Sea before you, when ye came out of
Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that
were beyond the Jordan, unto Sihon and to Og, whom ye utterly
destroyed. And as soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt,
neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of
you; for your Elohim, He is Elohim in heaven above
and on earth beneath” (JPS).
“Our hearts did melt” Did they
“melt” because of the greatness of the Children of
Israel? No certainly not, their “hearts melted” because
of the Great I AM - of
Beloved, nothing can happen if we stay at home being a good, but not a very useful Jew!
We are living in what I believe to be in very
urgent and most certainly evil times, for the world is certainly
not heading in the right direction. Let us go forth and give out
Tzedakah, and do anything that will benefit our community and not
waste any precious time. I know that Elohim is calling many of
us, even today!
I trust that you have gained something from this study, and I pray that it will bless your life and that of another!
Regarding the
man-made laws, etc, read - Ushpizin
& Other Customs
May the Shalom (Peace) of Elohim fill your
life, your family and your home!
- Y-H-V-H, which
we Jews usually pronounce as “HaShem” or “Adonai”.
*“This
is My Name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.”
Shemot - Exodus 3:15.
