I Have Put My Words in Your Mouth
Parashat Va’era, Exodus 6:2 - 9:35
Rachel Wolf, Congregation Beth Messiah, Cincinnati
Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. (Exodus 4:12)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.’” (Exodus 8:1)
I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
to plant the heavens
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ (Isaiah 51:16)
This week’s portion, Va’era (“I appeared”), dramatically documents the series of confrontations between Pharaoh and Moses and Aaron, as well as the first seven plagues. Moses knew the heart of Pharaoh and doubted the success of God’s plan (6:12), but God had commanded him to speak these words – God had put these words in his mouth – “Let my people go that they may serve me.”
As we shall see, in Exodus 6 Moses is told to deliver the “good news” – God’s message of deliverance – to the enslaved Israelites. Moses is told to say to Zion: “You are my people!” In doing so, Moses is “planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth” (Isa 51:16).
The Purpose and Meaning of the Exodus from Egypt
At the end of last week’s portion, when all the Israelites turn against him, Moses says to God, “I told you this wouldn’t work!” (5:22-23). But God remains unperturbed. He explains to Moses (Ex. 6:1-8) that it is all part of the plan. God makes two points regarding this plan:
1. Fulfillment of the Covenant
The plan of God at this point in history is to restart the action toward the fulfillment of God’s covenant with the sons of Jacob: “Go to the Land I will show you!.” We know this because God explains the plan to Moses by reviewing the history of the covenant, mentioning each of the fathers by name. He does not say: “this is about freedom” or “this is a metaphor for coming out of sin into the atonement in Jesus.” He summarizes his talk with Moses: “And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as an Inheritance” (6:8). This inheritance is not merely for land. It is an essential stage in God’s eternal plan to set up his “tent,” to actually dwell with us on the earth – on Har Tzion, Jerusalem.
2. Gotta Serve Somebody – First Stop: Sinai
God’s words that he puts in Moses’ mouth are: Let my people go to serve me in the wilderness – not “so that they can be free.” They are to serve the true God; they are not to serve the gods of the Egyptians.
Concerning Freedom and Servitude
The Israelites are God’s people! They are not to serve another! In fulfilling the eternal covenant, the Israelites need to know who they are and whom they serve. Human beings, especially in the West after the Enlightenment, have cultivated the illusion that something called “freedom” is the elixir for happiness. This is not completely wrong. We need freedom. But, while we are created with free will and the ability to choose, especially to choose our actions, there are also invisible forces that bend each of us toward serving one of the sides in the raging war for sovereignty over the earth.
The Shema, when seen in context, is stating that Hashem is the only true God, and that Israel must serve only their God. There are lots of other gods, including men who make themselves into gods, but Israel must serve only the true God who calls himself by their name.
But the great paradox is this: to serve God takes freedom! In the scriptures you will always come up against a paradox if you study deeply enough, because God’s ways are higher than our ways. A paradox is something that is intuitively true, even though it may fail to follow strict rules of logic. The enemy of our souls enslaves us, often against our will. But we need freedom of spirit and will to serve the living God. Gifted individuals throughout history have been able to muster their freedom of spirit even under the harshest slavery. These include the likes of Viktor Frankl during the Holocaust and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag. But most people can utterly lose hope in these “hopeless” situations.
The Inability to Hear Good News and to Choose
We need at least a degree of freedom in our spirit to be able to serve the living God. When we are forced into bitter slavery to another god, whether Pharaoh or any other man or program, it can become difficult to muster the strength to make choices. The ability to choose takes a freedom of spirit that allows for even a small degree of hope. When hope is gone, the human spirit gives up and, often, can no longer choose to serve the living God.
This is what happened to the Israelites as we read in our parasha. God commands Moses to deliver this message to the Israelites:
“And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob . . . as a heritage: I am the Lord.” So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they could not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. (6:9)
They had no hope left. They were thoroughly heartbroken. Egypt had taken not only their outer freedom, but also their freedom of spirit, their hope.
How does all this relate to our Messianic Jewish Vision and mission in the 21st century?
I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
to plant the heavens
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and say to Zion, “You are my people.” (Isaiah 51:16)
We are called to be a part of fulfilling the purpose of creation by reawakening the Jewish people, by believing and proclaiming God’s words: “You are My People!” “Behold, your God reigns”
Speak support and encouragement.
Bring freedom of Spirit and hope to awaken the ability of our people to serve the Living God.
Joseph (who in many ways prophetically represents the Messiah) sent away all of the Egyptians when he knew it was time to reveal himself to his brothers. This was a heart-to-heart meeting between him and his brothers.
It is not for us to convince, but we are called to facilitate, and perhaps hasten, this special (Joseph-like) reunion between Yeshua and his family! Our mission is to counter the Enemy’s plan to deeply plant “anguish of heart” into the Jewish people in order to sap the strength of their soul, so that they can’t believe the good news of God’s promised salvation from our enemies: “You are My People!” “Your God Reigns!”
Many Jewish people today are too realistic and “modern” to believe the old stories about the Holy God coming to earth to set things right and to actually dwell with us, reigning from Mt. Zion!
Yeshua, the Revealer of the Father
But somehow, Yeshua, like Joseph, reveals the reality of the spiritual realm and the faithfulness of God’s words through our own prophets.
In the New Testament, Luke records the seminal prophecy of Zechariah, Yochanan’s father. If you read the text as the apostles understood it, you will see a deep connection between Zechariah’s words and the words of the prophets of Israel. You will also see the clear connection between Yeshua’s mission and the archetypal events of the Exodus. Look especially at Luke 1:72-74: “To grant that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.”
Now his (Yohanan’s) father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied saying,
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed His people.
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago,
That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
[cf. Psalm 106:10]
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant,
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham:
To grant that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. (Luke 1:67-75)
If we, today, speak the words of the Prophets with grounded faith and deep compassion, these words will “plant the heavens and lay foundations on the earth,” as we assure the Jewish community of Hashem’s faithfulness: “You are my people!”