|
Hukkat (Num 19:1 - 22:1) |
| Messianic Education Trust | ||||||
|
|
|
|
||||
B'Midbar/Numbers 20:16 And we cried out to the L-rd and He heard our voice and He sent a messenger and He brought us out from Egypt.
View whole verse and interlinear translation ...
These words come in the middle of the message that Moshe sends to the king
and people of Edom, the descendants of Esau, when the people are
approaching the Land of Israel and would like to pass through the territory
of Edom - on the King's Highway, a well-known caravan route from Damascus
to Egypt that passed south to the east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea
before turning west across what is now the Sinai Peninsula - rather than
go around. This and the previous verse explain why Israel - who was, in
the days of Avraham, Yitz'khak and Ya'acov, north-west of Edom, in the
Land - is now approaching Edom from the south-west: they have been in
Egypt, but are now free and returning to the Land. Egypt was perhaps the
most significant of the regional super-powers and Israel's release from
captivity by
The Name ...
HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem was a signal demonstration of His
power and a testimony of Israel's chosenness and purpose to the nations
of the world.
There are four phrases or stages in the text above. The first one -
, "and we cried out to
HaShem" - uses the root
, "to cry out"
especially, as Davidson tells us, for help. It reflects
the time when the Israelites were still in slavery, making bricks in
Egypt: "the people of Isra'el still groaned under the yoke of slavery,
and they cried out, and their cry for rescue from slavery came up to G-d"
(Shemot 2:23, CJB). To whom else should they cry? Jewish
tradition tells us that they had already tried the Egyptians and the
Egyptian gods, but to no avail. As HaShem told Moshe to tell the
Israelites, He is "the G-d of your fathers, the G-d of Avraham, of
Yitz'khak, and of Ya'akov" (3:16, ESV). He is the
covenant-keeping G-d who had promised to bring them back to the Land of
the fathers. The first step in release had to be that our people cried
out to G-d, that they focussed on Him and directed their cries solely to
Him.
What Is ...
Targum Onkelos: An early (1st-2nd Century CE) translation/paraphrase of the Torah into Aramaic; attributed to a Roman convert to Judaism, Onkelos; used in Babylonian synagogues during the Talmudic era
Targum Onkelos changes "cried to" to the
post-pentateuchal "prayed", thus diminishing the intensity of the personal
relationship between the people and G-d.
The second phrase - 
,
"and He heard our voice" - uses the verb
, "to listen or hear".
Frequently in the Torah, Israel is urged to "listen to G-d's voice" and it
almost used as a synonym for "obey G-d's voice". Is that why HaShem
responded to the people and released them - that He was in some way obliged
to obey their call for freedom? On the contrary, HaShem tells Moshe,
"Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Isra'el, whom the
Egyptians are keeping in slavery; and I have remembered My covenant" (6:5,
CJB). While HaShem was obligated, it was not to obey Israel; He
was obligated to keep His covenant. He had given promises to Avraham,
"Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that
is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred
years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward
they will come out with many possessions" (B'resheet 15:13-14,
NASB) and Ya'akov: "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I
will also surely bring you up again" (46:4, NASB). Now He
needed to deliver on those promises to be consistent with His own
character.
The third phrase - 
,
"and He sent a messenger" - receives two quite different translations: ours
(also JPS) and the more frequent "and He sent an angel" (NIV, ESV, NRSV,
NASB, etc.). Even the Jewish world is divided: pointing to the same word
used just two verses earlier "Moshe sent messengers
to the king of
Edom" (B'Midbar 20:14)),
Who Is ...
Rambam: Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides (1135-1204 CE), Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer and physician; author of Mishneh Torah, Guide for the Perplexed and other works; a convinced rationalist
Rambam and
Who Is ...
Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105 CE), French rabbi who wrote commentaries on the Torah, the Prophets and the Talmud, lived in Troyes where he founded a yeshiva in 1067; focuses on the plain meaning (p'shat) of the text, although sometimes quite cryptic in his brevity
Rashi
insist that this refers to Moshe, the human messenger or emissary that
HaShem sent to the Israelites to lead them out of Egypt.
Who Is ...
Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra says that this word refers to a heavenly angel. Targum Onkelos
cannot quite make up its mind, switching the plural 'messengers' in verse
14 to the Aramaic word for messengers because it is plain that Moshe didn't
send angels to the king of Edom, but retaining the ambiguous
in verse 16! Speaking
through Joshua, HaShem Himself seems quite clear on the matter "And I
sent Moshe and Aharon, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of
it, and afterward I brought you out" (Joshua 24:5, ESV).
Whoever is in view here, it is clear that HaShem didn't just hear the
cries of the Israelites and remember His covenant, He acted; He made
something happen - He sent an agent to represent Him on the ground, to
Pharaoh and to the Israelites, and to lead the people.
Finally, the fourth phrase -
, "and He brought us
out from Egypt" - tells us the conclusion of what happened. HaShem
didn't just send someone to comfort the Israelites in their afflictions,
to stroke their backs while they carried on making bricks, to mop their
fevered brow as they toiled in the mud-pits in the heat of the day, He
sent supernatural plagues to show His glory and force Egypt to let Israel
go. Notice that the subject of the verbs has not changed, it is still
HaShem; though mightily used by HaShem and at His instructions taking a
huge role in leadership, it was not Moshe who brought our people out of
Egypt - it was G-d who alone had the power to make it happen.
We have then a four-stage process described in the text: The Israelites cried out to HaShem, Hashem heard their cries and remembered His covenant, HaShem acted by sending something new into the situation. Only then, in the fourth stage, does He bring the people out of Egypt and bring about our redemption.
We can see the same process at work in the history of the world. G-d heard the cries of His creation, for example, "the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now" (Romans 8:22, ESV); He remembered the covenant and the promises that He had made - "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (B'resheet 3:15, ESV), "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (9:16, ESV) and "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (12:3, ESV) - and notice that although given to individuals, these promises affect all of mankind; and G-d sent His Son "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son" (Galatians 4:4, ESV), something new and dramatic, unexpected in many ways, yet typical of G-d: "Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, 'My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them'" (Isaiah 48:5, NASB). This completely changed the game, so that He might "bring many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10) and "gather together into one the children of G-d who are scattered abroad" (John 11:52, NASB). Now, He invites those who will to hear Yeshua's words: "The time has come, G-d's Kingdom is near! Turn to G-d from your sins and believe the Good News!" (Mark 1:15, CJB).
Then again, the same four steps repeat themselves - in miniature, as it were - in our own lives. We are in times of bondage1 and we cry out to G-d; Rav Sha'ul was clearly in a vibrant and powerful relationship with G-d, being used in the preaching of the Gospel, yet at times cried out "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24, ESV). G-d hears our cry and because of Yeshua's promises - "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20, ESV0 and "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18, ESV) - He sends His Spirit, "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26, ESV). Notice that although the King James Version translates the role of the Spirit as "The Comforter", He is not there to pat us on the shoulder and pass the tissues, but to stir us into action, to raise up our faith and call us to step out in His freedom. Taught by Him, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32, CJB). The Ruach is the game-changer who the Father sends into our situations and reminds us who Yeshua is and that we belong to Him. The Ruach gives us the "weapons of our warfare" with "divine power to destroy strongholds", to "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Messiah" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, ESV).
These four steps or stages are available for each of us, every day. They bring us into the kingdom of G-d; they keep us in the kingdom of G-d and they will see us stand firm until the fullness of that kingdom is manifest in our midst when Yeshua returns.
1. - Remember that the Hebrew name for Egypt - Mitzrayim - means bondage.
Further Study: Shemot 3:2-6; Romans 8:22-25
Application:
What stage are you at in your journey? Have you cried out to G-d and do
you know that He has heard you? Are you still waiting for someone to come
or has He taken you by the hand and brought you out of bondage? Wherever
you are, it is time to move forward again today!
© Jonathan Allen, 2014
Your turn - what do you think of the ideas in this drash ?
Tweet
Messianic Trust Home Page
Join Weekly Email
More Weekly Drashot
Last Week
Support the work of producing this weekly commentary
Next Week
Last Year - 5773
Scripture Index
Next Year - 5775