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The Torah reading Va’era (Ex. 6:2–9:35) is the first of two accounts of how the 10 plagues on Mitzraim (Egypt) humbled a superpower of the time to bring freedom not just to Israel but to the entire world.
How much more would Heaven’s sending the quintessential Son of Man to humble the “prince of the power of the air” win freedom for Israel, and by extension the whole world.
Victuals from Va’era
- Our forebears in faith were charged to take the Name of God to the nations. Are we proclaiming the Name or blaspheming it?
- Are we hardening our hearts against the plans of Heaven or working toward them? It is easy to resist where Heaven is going, that is why we have to check ourselves. We need to measure ourselves to see if we have really left our house of bondage. Have we repented of our actions or do we merely regret our actions?
- Do we acknowledge with our very lives that we know who’s really in charge of the Earth?
- Yes, there are moral lessons and shadows of Messiah in this reading, but this is real history! In other words, real Israel in Egypt, real plagues, real redemption.
The cycle of plagues we see in Exodus are repeated in the book of Revelation. Also we see that just as Pharaoh hardened his heart, dug in his heels and refuse to submit to HaShem, the leaders of the earth in the last days will be the same.
Everyone experienced the first three plagues but starting with the fourth plague, God made a distinction between where the children of Israel lived in Goshen vs. the rest of Mitzraim (Egypt).
Most of the plagues were inflicted on all the citizens of Mitzraim, but starting with the seventh plague, the people of Mitzraim did have a choice to avoid the consequences of the hail. Moses called out to the people of Mitzraim to exercise just a little faith and compassion and to bring their livestock and servants indoors to save them from the hail to come. Those who headed Moses’ warning didn’t lose their servants and livestock in the plagues. The stubborn ones who refused to believe Moses’ words and those who lacked compassion for the animals and servants entrusted to them lost those livestock and servants to death by the hail.
Ezekiel’s prophecy against Pharaoh (Ezekiel 28:25–29:21)
In the haftarah (parallel reading) for Parashat Bo, the prophet Ezekiel was speaking to the descendants of Israel about 1,000 years after the Exodus. They are being threatened with exile from the land that God had given them. Israel thought Mitzraim had their back, but that mighty nation had been crippled over time.
The people of Israel had fallen down by trusting in Mitzraim to save it from a long-running folly of trusting in mankind’s power and understanding of the source of power, rather than trusting in the Source of life and existence as well as Israel itself.
Don’t trust in a Mitzraim, Babylon or another power that’s supposedly more powerful than the LORD’s promises.
From Babylon on, Mitzraim was a vassal state of all the subsequent empires that came through, including the Persians, Greeks, Romans and the Islamic empires.
What do we see in the book of Revelation? Again, there will be those who will appeal to Babylon for a sense of safety, but it is an illusion.
‘Finger of God’ vs. Lord of Flies (Luke 11:14–23; Matt. 12:22–30)
How is Yeshua’s rebuke to the crowds and the Pharisees who couldn’t believe in His power to cast demons a viaduct to Parashat Va’era? Both of them show us a glimpse of “the finger of God.”
“The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’ But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.” (Exodus 8:18–19 NASB)
“‘But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’” (Luke 11:20 NASB)
Yeshua seems to be using a common tool found throughout the TaNaKh for teaching through reference (allusion) to an earlier event. It’s been codified into four levels of exegesis (understanding) and hermeneutics (interpretation) known by the Hebrew acronym פרדס PaRDeS, which forms the word for “orchard.”
- פְּשָׁט Peshat (“to spread out”): Surface meaning, accurate to the historical situation.
- רֶמֶז Remez (“to hint”): Allegoric, metaphoric or symbolic meaning beyond just the literal sense.
- דְּרַשׁ Derash (“to seek”): Comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.
- סוֹד Sod (“secret”): Esoteric, mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.
Examples of PaRDeS in Jewish and Christian teaching
- פְּשָׁט Peshat
- “You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13 NASB)
- We learn through derash that “murder” also includes slander and hate moved to action.
- רֶמֶז Remez
- “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” (John 3:14 NASB; Num. 21:5–9)
- דְּרַשׁ Derash
- From this come halakhot, or ways of walking (living) in the present.
- “for it is written in the book of psalms, ‘Let his homestead be made desolate, and let no one dwell in it’ [Psa. 69:25]; and, ‘Let another man take his office’ [Psa. 109:8].” (Acts 1:20 NASB)
- Two seemingly unrelated verses from Psalms are connected for a din (judgment) on the need to select a replacement in the Twelve for Yehudah Ish-Kariot.
- סוֹד Sod
- The sage Maimonides astutely advised in “Guide for the Perplexed” that one must always compare sod and other interpretations with the peshat meaning to be faithful to the text.
- John 1 and much of the gospel of John is sod explanation.
- Yokhanan’s book Revelation is meant to reveal Yeshua’s role in the Day of the LORD (Rev. 1:1–3, 10), uncovering the Mashiakh ben David (Messiah son of David) mystery that’s been hidden in the Prophets.
How Yeshua’s healing of the demoniac & Parashat Va’era connect
How does the healing of the demonic man and parable of the restrained strong man relates to Va’era? Let’s look at the key players in this story:
- Prisoner: Mute man (Luke). Blind and mute man (Matthew).
- Captor: Demon, i.e., forces not of Heaven
- Crowds were amazed by his recovery (Lk. 11:14; Mt. 12:23), i.e., it was supernatural.
There were many theories from the crowd as to the source of the exorcism:
- Was Yeshua’s power really from Heaven?
- Is Yeshua really the “Son of David”?
- It was from Beelzebul, ruler of demons!
Let’s break down these three theories.
Was Yeshua’s power really from Heaven?
The people ask Yeshua to show a sign from Heaven (Lk. 11:16; Mt. 12:38), i.e., show another sign. One wasn’t enough.
Is this really the “Son of David”?
This question about Yeshua points back to the ancient expectation that the Messiah would be a descendant of David (Mt. 12:23; 2Sam. 7:12–14). Yeshua’s healings look like what was foretold for the era of the Mashiakh (Messiah, Anointed).
“To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1 NASB)
One may wonder whether the apostles were playing fast and loose with this quotation from the Scriptures. However, it’s very close to the rendering in Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures dating to the first to third centuries B.C.
“to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind” (Isaiah 61:1 A New English Translation Of The Septuagint)
Was it from Beelzebul, ruler of demons (Lk. 11:15; Mt. 12:24), i.e., don’t trust the words of an agent of haSatan?
What is this Beelzebul the people are referencing? Beelzebul comes from the word בַּעַל זְבוּל Ba’al Zebul.
- “Lord of dung”?: In modern times, this a discounted derivation for זִבוּל zibul “because there is no such Aramaic word meaning dung.”
- “Lord-Prince” or “Exalted Lord”?: זְבוּל zebul (H2073) is used to mean “exalted” or “lofty” in Shlomo’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple (1Kings 8:13; 2Chron. 6:2) and in later Hebrew became shorthand for the dwelling places of God — the Temple and Heaven (Dead Sea Scrolls: 1Q5 X, 3; 1QM XII, 1, 2. Talmud: b.Hagigah 12b).
Yeshua seems to play off this derisive name in a warning to His students of coming persecution for their association with Him (Mt. 10:24–25).
“‘A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!’” (Matthew 10:24–25 NASB)
- head/master/lord of the house = Yeshua, anointed Lord of the dwelling place of God in the midst of the people called by the Name, typified by the Temple
- Beelzebul = pretender lord of God’s dwelling place
“But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.’” (Isaiah 14:13 NASB)
Some in Israel wouldn’t accept that Yeshua was the Anointed head of the House of God. There is a title that sounds similar to Beelzebul that is also found in the Scriptures, which is Beelzebub.
- Beelzebub = From בַּעַל זְבוּב Baʿal zevuv, “lord of flies”
- This false god is first mentioned in the TaNaKh when Achazyah (Ahaziah), son of Ahab and Yezebel and king of Israel, appealed to it in the Philistine city Ekron whether he would recover from an injury (2Kings 1:2, 3, 6, 16).
- In this account, the prophet Eliyahu demonstrated again with fire Who is truly LORD, similar to the “altared debate” between the LORD and the Ba’als on Mount Carmel during Achazyah’s father’s reign.
In his gospel, Yokhanan (John) records several incidents when Yeshua was accused of “running with the Devil”:
“The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?’” (John 7:20 NASB)
“The Jews answered and said to Him, ‘Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?’” (John 8:48 NASB)
“The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’” (John 8:52 NASB)
“Many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?’” (John 10:20 NASB)
How do we know that Yeshua is the Lord? He asks, seeks, redeems, heals, delivers. We know Yeshua is Lord? By His actions, not just His words.
Yeshua’s confrontation in the Temple on Chanukah was directly related to whether His power was from Heaven.
We have to chose if we will follow the Pretender to the throne who says, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1), or will we follow God’s ultimate anointed leader (Yeshua)? We have to be careful who we trust and where we put our faith.
Summary: Tammy