Joined: 10/3/2007(UTC) Posts: 1,191 Location: São Paulo, Brazil Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 2 post(s)
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The following my provide some further insight, it comes from KP's The Torah Code volume 1, from the section titled THE “ANGEL” OF YAHWEH: THEOPHANIES - God as Messenger: Quote:When it comes to face-to-face contact with Yahweh’s manifestations, Moses is in a class by himself. His introduction to the God of his fathers was something that hasn’t been seen by anybody else, before or since. “And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And 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 at God.” (Exodus 3:2-6) What Moses saw was a non-human manifestation of God— something we’ll be calling the “Shekinah” in our continuing exploration of the Logos expressions of Yahweh in our world. But what he heard was a theophany—that is, the audible voice of God speaking in a human language, and indeed, holding a lengthy and somewhat confrontational conversation with this man He was trying to recruit. It’s kind of an eye-opener to read the transcript of this chat: even after Moses is convinced that this is Almighty God talking with him, he continues dodging, making excuses, and begging God to choose somebody else for the job He has in mind. There isn’t even a hint of the obsequious boot licking so endemic in our “prayer” today. And I get the feeling that Yahweh, for all His frustration, actually enjoyed this conversation with Moses more than He does with the self-centered and one-sided lectures to heaven that religious people call prayer. At least Moses was being honest with Him! Jacob had wrestled with God; Moses sparred with Him.
This theophanic “voice of Yahweh” would be Moses’ constant companion for the next forty years. Hundreds of times in the Torah we read, “And Yahweh said to Moses…” or “Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying….” He also communicated with Aaron and others the same way. Moses didn’t just listen, either: he also spoke to God, carried on a conversation with Him, enquired, complained, pleaded, interceded, and vented his frustrations. The vast majority of exchanges between God and Moses were of this type. But the exceptions—the other theophanies in Moses’ experience—tell us even more about how Yahweh is willing to reveal Himself to us when the circumstances call for it.
The first one I’d like to look at is the theophany that slew the firstborn Egyptians while passing over the Israelites. I’ve always been confused about this: did God Himself do the “deed,” or did an angel get assigned the task? After all, we read something like this in our typical English translations, “For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.” (Exodus 12:23) First (of course) they mistranslate God’s name: the text reads “Yahweh,” not “the LORD.” And then, who is “the destroyer?” Actually, this too is a mistranslation. What’s literally being said here is “Yahweh will pass over the door and will not put [or give] destruction to come into your houses.” It’s a little awkward in English, but the point is clear that Yahweh Himself would be the One doing both the “destroying” and the “passing over.” Actually, that fact is stated quite bluntly no fewer than eight times in Exodus 12.
In this case, of course, the usual anthropomorphic form of Yahweh’s theophanies seems to be an inadequate description: no “man,” no matter how strong or swift, could visit selective death upon the households of an entire nation in one night (any more that Santa Claus can deliver toys to all the good little boys and girls on Christmas eve). Nor did Yahweh say He would assume human form in order to achieve this. He only said He would do it. We’re left to ponder how. There are, however, several “human” functions that Yahweh (whether as a theophany or the Shekinah) would perform: He would survey and observe which houses in Egypt had the required lamb’s blood on the doorposts, and He would visit with death only those that did not. Then, He would slay only the firstborn of each household, leaving the others physically untouched. And finally, He would slay the firstborn farm animals belonging to the unmarked households. This wasn’t generalized mayhem: it was a focused, directed demonstration of Yahweh’s plan of redemption—including a picture of what would happen if the world ignored it. The point is stated in verse 12: “On all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.”
It was only after the exodus that Yahweh became Moses’ constant companion. The whole Sinai experience—Moses’ one-on-One interaction with God as He delivered the Instructions—would best be covered in our next section: the Shekinah manifestations of Yahweh. But there is one telling incident within this story that will help us to understand theophanies a bit better. “Moses said to Yahweh, ‘See, You say to me, “Bring up this people,” but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.” Now therefore, if I have found favor in Your sight, please show me now Your ways, that I may know You in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people….’” Moses began by noting that Yahweh didn’t tell him everything up front, so he was going to have to rely on his relationship with Yahweh day by day as new challenges presented themselves. There’s a lesson for us in there somewhere, I think. Moses then stated what should be obvious to us, but apparently isn’t: if we’re going to “find favor in God’s sight,” we’re going to have to “know His ways.” And the only way that’s going to happen is for Him to “show us.” As I pointed out before, the purpose of every religion on the planet is to enable man to reach out to God. But that’s backward: the relationship God seeks to share with us results from His reaching out—from Him “showing us His ways.” The Bible is the record of Yahweh having done that very thing. It’s not His fault if we don’t pay attention to what He said and did. Remember the “burning bush?” Yahweh placed the evidence of His presence in plain sight, but it was not until Moses turned aside to investigate that God called him.
So Yahweh offered Moses and the nation of Israel some badly needed reassurance. “And He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’” Moses’ reply reminds me of Jacob’s wrestling match with the theophany— refusing to let go of God. And he said to Him, ‘If Your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not in Your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and Your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?’ And Yahweh said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name….’” One of the most common mistakes believers make, at least in my experience, is to run out ahead of God’s will, and then beg for His blessing on whatever we’ve already decided to do—a process only slightly less harmful than sowing our wild oats and then praying for a crop failure. What we should be doing is what Moses did here: waiting for Yahweh to move, so we can move in concert with Him.
So having established a bond with His God, Moses desired to “take the relationship to the next level,” so to speak. “Moses said, ‘Please show me Your glory.’” Yahweh didn’t want to say no, but He didn’t want to turn His faithful witness into a crispy critter, either. So He did what He could to accommodate His servant: And He said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My name “Yahweh.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy….’” Yahweh was obviously pleased that Moses craved a closer relationship with Him—contact more intimate than anything he had yet experienced. And it was perfectly natural for Him to promise to show grace and mercy to those who sought those blessings through just such a relationship. But what does it mean to “make all My goodness pass before you?” The word translated “goodness” is the Hebrew tuwb: good things, fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity—goodness. It’s derived from the verb towb, meaning to be good, pleasing, joyful, beneficial, pleasant, favorable, happy, or right. So, if I may read between the lines, Yahweh is telling Moses, “I can’t show you My full glory without harming you, but I’ll show you what you so earnestly desire to see: the Goodness that comprises My nature.
He went on to explain (because, let’s face it, that statement still left a bit to be desired in the clarity department): “‘But,’ He said, ‘you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.’ And Yahweh said, ‘Behold, there is a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.’” (Exodus 33:12-22) I have no doubt that this describes what literally happened: Moses was allowed to see a fleeting glimpse of Yahweh’s glorious presence (call it a mega-theophany, perhaps: something less diminished in glory than usual)—but not face to face, for Moses was still mortal, and could not have survived the encounter. But I believe we’re being taught a more significant lesson here. Yahweh was telling us that the “goodness” and glory we would see of Him could only be perceived from the “Rock,” upon which we must stand and within which we must find shelter. I don’t have to draw you a picture, do I? That “Rock” is Yahshua the Messiah. If you don’t believe me, consult Matthew 7:24-27, I Corinthians 10:4, and I Peter 2:4-8.
My other observation is a bit less solid, but hear me out. Yahweh tells Moses, “You shall see My back.” That’s a perfectly good literal translation, but there may be more to it. The word translated “back” (hindquarter, rear, behind) is ’achowr. When rendered le-’achowr, it means future, that is, an indefinite duration of time in the forward direction. I’m reminded of a passage (Psalm 102) that speaks of the physical restoration of Israel as a national entity being a sign for something usually mistranslated “a generation yet to come.” In Hebrew, however, the real meaning is crystal clear: the sign is for “the last generation.” The word used for “last” is ’acharown—an adjective related to our noun ’achowr. (The -own or –on suffix is used in Hebrew to highlight the conceptual nature of a word as opposed to its literal surface meaning.) My point is simply this: Yahweh—maybe—is hinting to us through Moses that we will finally “see” Him (from our vantage point, sheltered in the cleft of the Rock, the life of Christ) during the “last” days. I don’t know about you, but the very idea makes my heart race.
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