followHIM - Exodus 1-6 -- Part 1 : Anthony Rivera Jr., MTS

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

How is Moses a type of Jesus Christ? Anthony Rivera, Jr. MTS discusses this and the importance of covenantal relationships, naming in the Book of Exodus, and what brings Moses to the mountain. Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers/SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Transcripts/Language Team/French TranscriptsAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith. And I'm John, by the way. We love to learn. We love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow him. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name's Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my burning bush co-host, John, by the way. Is it hot in here or is it just me? That's how we all see you, John. You're just a burning bush of our lives. You really are. John, we get to start a new book. Come follow me, Exodus, right? I am sure the views of Prince of Egypt and the Ten Commandments is going to skyrocket this week as everyone goes back to the old movies for this.

We couldn't bring in Cecil D. DeMille, so we had to bring in a different type of expert. Who's with us today? We have Anthony Rivera with us today. He's a scholar of ancient scripture. And listen to this background. Who's with us today? and institutes for many years. Anthony has a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School in Hebrew Scripture and Interpretation and a bachelor's degree in Near Eastern Studies from BYU. He's also the founder of HebrewBible.info, a customized online learning resource for curious and serious students of the biblical Hebrew and the ancient scriptures. I'm excited to look at that, Hank. Anthony loves to teach and his research focuses on issues relating to ancient Near Eastern languages and

cultures, the Hebrew Bible, Jewish writings in religion, and ancient scriptures. Anthony and his wife Jill have three daughters. He is passionate about traveling the world and is also an influential Native American leader. And I asked him before, he's of the Ahachaman Nation. Did I say that right, Anthony? That's correct. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you for being with us today.

I'm very excited to look at these. Like Hank said, I've had music from Prince of Egypt going through my mind all night. Thank you for having me. Very exciting to be on the program. So this is really exciting for not only myself, but for all folks throughout the church and those studying this. For me, personally, this is going to be the most I've ever studied these six chapters, I'm sure.

We'll hand it over to you, Anthony. John and I are here for the ride. We have the best seats in the house. This is going to get very exciting very quickly. It's like a roller coaster ride, and we're going to be heading down the roller coaster in our study of these introductory books of Moses. It's very exciting. The end of Genesis is connected directly to the next scroll, which is the Exodus scroll. And the storyline actually doesn't stop at the end of Genesis with the death of Joseph. It actually continues immediately in the first chapter.

We're going to see the mention of Joseph three times in the first chapter. So we see this continuation, but in a different way, that's for sure. I wrote this down years ago. The Exodus can be put in three stages. First, a nation enslaved. Second, a nation redeemed. And then third, a nation set apart. It helps me to kind of see a flow, be prepared for that kind of flow. Enslaved, redeemed, set apart. Pete And you can think about it that way on a scriptural or even a national way, but also try to think of that also in an individual way. Pete In our own lives, yeah.

Pete We're enslaved by sin, then we're redeemed, then we're set apart. Oh, I like that, yeah. Exactly. We often see the Exodus as this monumental national movement of the large house of Israel with so many people and diversity and all housed there. Again, like Joseph in the background, there's this underlying feature that connects directly to you. I like how you organized that because that's a perfect example of how the reading of the scripture in Exodus can also pertain and apply directly to us. It's so great.

That is a macro look and a micro look, right? Yes, exactly. And Moses is the perfect representative for all of us, if you will. We often think of Moses as this great prophet parting the Red Sea and doing all these miraculous things. The red robe. Yeah, most people have that look, right? That the best part of the movie is when he's standing there, right? Parting the Red Sea.

But we need to take a step back from Moses, the great prophet, and we need to really start at the beginning and see how Moses, the very humble and confused person who is trying to discover not only who he is, but also who God is and how they interact together to move through those stages, like you said, Hank, enslavement, redemption. Hank Barger Being set apart, being made holy, yeah. Pete Slauson Setting apart, right? So, he's a great representative, and we need to start off at his humble beginnings. I mean, even as a child, he should be dead. People are out to kill him as an infant. Can you imagine starting life that way? Being tossed into a river, but his mother, yeah, his mother knew

well enough to put him in a basket, right? Yes. I'd like to walk together with Moses as modern-day House of Israel, as individuals walk together with Moses through this exodus of life, this journey of discovery and redemption and salvation. Walk together with him through these initial chapters to see how it sets off. Anthony, right? The original audience is these Israelites a little bit later in the promised land, and they're reading this, and this is going to tell them their story. This is going to give them purpose and meaning and why they're going to be different than the rest of the world. Yeah. And not just after the Exodus, but throughout the history of Israel, even unto the time of Jesus and his teachings and ministry draws directly from the Exodus teachings to teach these very things about salvation and redemption and God's direct relationship and love for his people to deliver them to the promised land.

Yeah. I've noticed as I've read the Book of Mormon, John, I'm sure you can comment on this, that this story is important to Nephi. He's frequently referring back to the story of Moses. So it's not something they'd forgotten. What's that? 600 BC. They definitely had not forgotten then. And yeah, you're right. In Jesus's life, 600 years later, still talking about this same story. The Exodus and Moses are referred to more than like anything else in the New Testament. I heard somebody say that once. The more I started looking for it, the more I thought, yeah, they do talk a lot about Moses. I don't know if that's really true, but the more I read the New Testament, the more I see them referring back to Moses and the law of Moses. I mean, Moses is what a central figure he is for the rest of the Bible.

Even in Isaiah, John, Isaiah is frequently saying, this is the same God who parted the Red Sea, who struck down Pharaoh. And even carrying on, not only throughout later prophetic scripture and the New Testament and other scripture like the Book of Mormon, as an important feature of the plan of salvation. It really is. It's acting out the plan of salvation and its importance and meaning. But also, even to this day, we continue this. For example, what I mean by that is Jesus in his Last Supper is in the middle of the ceremony of Passover, which is an exodus. There it is, right? And he's acting it out like they had for thousands of years, right? Pete For millennia, yeah.

Pete For millennia. And here he is in his final hours going through it with his apostles, apostles and this time explaining the reasons why and the fulfillment of this initial Passover and that the blood of the Lamb, which will protect and save, is going to happen within a few moments. And every week, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints partake of the same emblem, the bread and the water, which represents this Last Supper of Christ, which represents the Passover in Exodus, where we internalize it to this day on a weekly basis. We don't realize how much the book of Exodus affects our weekly service. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said that once. Do we see the sacrament as our Passover and connected those? So true. The Passover became the Last Supper, and they're all remembering this Passover lamb.

And then Jesus says, this is me. This is my body. Whoa. Everything Passover was pointing to that last supper with Jesus. Whoa. I mean, that must have been a moment when Jesus said some of those things during the Passover meal. Pete Yeah. So, we're going to see Moses as a representative, if you will, of one who is working out his salvation. And I think we can all relate to that. I think we can relate to our humble upbringings, to cultural impacts, to being alone in the desert, meeting a mentor, having some sort of a fatherly figure, marriage, family, meeting God, getting close to Him, asking questions, and going on various different life missions, if you will, in service of God.

I think we can relate to Moses that way. Now, the Passover episode and the Exodus, actual Exodus episode comes later. It's not coming for a while. It's not coming for a while. Let me ask you this. When you first think of Exodus, who usually comes to mind? I know this is a very general and sometimes even basic question. You might say, come on, Anthony.

It's all about Moses. He's the man. When I think of Exodus, I think of two other people. Of course, don't get me wrong. Moses is the key figure here, but there are two other people that I want to make note of that get me thinking. Number one is Joseph, because Joseph carries on from the end of Genesis throughout the Exodus, and he's mentioned three times by name in chapter one of Exodus, right? Pete Verse five, six, and eight, yeah.

They mention him specifically by name. That's not a coincidence, and we shouldn't gloss over that. The second name I think about, which is very influential and critical to chapters 1 through 6, is Jethro. Joseph and Jethro. Jethro is so important. I've done a lot of research. As a matter of fact, I've written chapters and have done research e-books on this, on Jethro himself. Jethro is a key factor, and I want to talk about him because we meet him as the main priesthood holder and the first one that Moses runs into or actually meets. So, he's very critical in the training of Moses and pointing Moses toward the mountain of God. Moses, once he learns this from his father-in-law, the priest of the God of the mountain, he never turns from that. Moses never turns. He's focused on it. And it's quite awesome. So, I want to also address those two names and persons because we see them named by name in these first six chapters of Exodus.

Pete I'm delighted to talk about Jethro because I've always wondered where he got the priesthood, what priesthood order he was in. Doesn't he have another name in here too, Jethro? He does. He has actually three names that they refer to him. He's first introduced as Jethro, the priest of Midian. Afterwards, they call him Ruel, which is another name referring to the man that may be more of a clan-like name that may have some significance. Something of God. The friend of God. What a great, great name to have. He's also called Yeter, which may be a derivation of Yitro, which in Hebrew, his name is Yitro. Yitro in Hebrew means something like his abundance, meaning he has been blessed. He may have been blessed for various different

reasons, which we'll look at when we get to chapter three, when we're introduced to him. I think most folks, members of the church, have seen the movies, right? Or they're seeing them now, right? So, they know the storyline, and they know the exciting key events and factors. Everybody knows the parting of the Red Sea and Moses in Egypt and Let My People Go and the plagues and all that good stuff, right? Everyone knows the storyline. But what I'd like to do is walk through some of the storylines we don't often get to focus on because I think they have some significant meaning. Not only that, but I also want to look at the language which is steering us towards a greater understanding

than just, hey, this is a great story. There are key things that are happening in the first six chapters that are pointing us towards that same mountain and the introduction of relationship with God. Let me just give a quick summary, if I can, of the six chapters, okay? And then I want to zero in on just certain verses and some of the language there that I think you'll enjoy. Now, remember, the Hebrew Bible, the first five books, if you will, were originally scrolls. And the first five books are, in English, we call them after certain events like Genesis, the beginning, Exodus, the Exodus, the exit, Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

But in Hebrew, they're not called by these names. As a matter of fact, each scroll is called or named by the first word that appears on the scroll. Bereshit means in beginning of. What's interesting is the second scroll is not called Exodus by the Israelites or the Jews today. The second scroll is called Shemot. Shemot means names. Pete Because it starts by naming the family of Jacob. That's correct. It starts by listing names. And names is an important theme throughout this book. Because not only are we going to reiterate the names of the house of Israel

with the highlight of Yosef, Joseph, but it's also going to give us other names. And we need to pay attention to these names and why are they there, including most of all, which we will learn in these first six chapters, the name of God as he reveals it, as he reveals it to Moses on the mountain. The scroll starts off by saying, Va'ele sh'mot b'nei Yisrael. These are the names of the sons of Israel. Isn't that a great way to start? It's a reminder. It's connecting Genesis to Exodus. Okay. And then it goes through the names of the sons of Israel and it categorizes them by family, which is interesting. So, you have the sons of Leah listed together. Is that verse 2?

Pete Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah. Pete That's right. These are the sons of Leah. These are the oldest of the sons. Then you have Issachar and Zebulon, sons, which are other sons of Leah. Pete Yeah, she had six. Pete Okay. In verse 3. But you also have Benjamin. Isn't that interesting? Benjamin's in there. Yeah, she's going to be highlighted. And then you get the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah in verse 4, the other wives of Jacob. You get Dan and Naphtali and God and Asher. And then in verse 5, here it is. It says the total number of persons that were of Jacob's children came to 70, and Joseph was already in Egypt. This idea of 70 is when they came to Egypt to be saved from the famine, they had 70 of them.

As the families coming in, yes, and their wives, their children, and so forth. Joseph was already there waiting for him. He was already there. He was already there waiting. I knew you'd come eventually. The connection of Joseph, Egypt, and the storyline, this continuation with Egypt is very interesting. Joseph's world, you see Joseph a Semite or an Israelite, a Hebrew rising to the highest levels in the Egyptian royal court. Basically, the prime minister of Egypt.

He's running the show in the name of the king. Yeah. Scholars believe that this is during a period when the native Egyptians were in a low point. And it is possible that Semitic folks are running the show, cousins of the Israelites, if you will. Sometimes they refer to them as the Hyksos. But before we get there, something interesting happens in verse 7. Sometimes we gloss over this in English just because in English, we're just reading. Yeah, just the story.

We're reading a narrative. In Hebrew, it's providing data. Let's see, John, can you read verse 7 first, just so that we know what it says, and then listen to it in Hebrew, if you will, please. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them. Okay. Good job, John. Thank you. Good job, John.

Well done. That's in English. I just did the English version. You Good job, John. Thank you. Good job, John. Well done. I did my best. That's in English. I just did the English version. You speak English really well. Thank you. Now, let me ask you this. In that verse, did you recognize any words that you have heard before at the beginning

of the other scroll? Yeah. In the Garden of Eden, be fruitful and multiply. Fruitful and multiply. And one more. And fill the land of Eden. Be fruitful and multiply. Fruitful and multiply. And one more. And fill the land. Yeah. And fill.

That's right. This is Eden language. This is what I call creation language that is scattered throughout the Old Testament. And what it is doing is it's pointing us back to the creation. Because when we're pointing back to the creation, we're pointed back to God. Pete The who and the why, yeah. Now, Moses is going to go through this, right? When he's on the mountain and God introduces

himself, the first thing that he shows Moses is what? The creation. And this is where we get into the book of Moses or the revelation of Moses in the Joseph Smith translation, which fits in right in these chapters. The Israelites, as they're reading Exodus, they're hearing things and they're thinking, aha, I should be thinking about creation, new creations. What is God trying to tell me about? What is being created here? He's created a nation, first of all, as he promised, as he covenanted with Abraham.

This is the fulfillment of the covenant. So, in verse 8, here we are. Here's the situation and here's the setting. And this is that famous line, right? Hank, can you read that one, verse 8, here we are. Here's the situation, and here's the setting. And this is that famous line, right? Hank, could you read that one, verse 8? There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. Just politically speaking, is that the Hyksos were overthrown, and this is a different person, or is that just one school of thought on it? It's one school of thought, yes.

Now notice it says, there rose up a new king. Notice they're not saying Pharaoh. Tells us that, okay, there is a new administration, a new government, if you will. The history of Egypt is really volatile. And here we know around this time, it appears that this is the rise of the great, what they call the new kingdom, the 18th and 19th dynasty. These are the famous kings of

Egypt that you all know and love in pictures and in movies. You know, Thutmose III, Seti, the first, Ramses, the great. These are all kings. Remember, they're kings of Egypt. So, it appears that here we're getting rise of these kings. Now, these are native Egyptians. These are not foreign Egyptians. And somehow, some way, they were able to recoup the native Egyptian government. So it's not just a new pharaoh, it's a whole new system. A beginning of a new dynasty. Yes, and it's connecting it to an old one that we learned from Abraham, the book of Abraham. We really should be broadcasting today from Karnak Temple in Egypt and Thebes, and maybe one day we can do that.

I'll have to talk to our executive producers and say, hey, we really need to move our studios to Egypt so we can really get the feel of this. Yes, because there we can walk around. I can just point to actual inscriptions dating to this time that depict a lot of these things. So, it's a new administration. And this new kingdom, this new king does not know or care about Yosef.

Now, remember, the kings of Egypt, especially during these dynasties, this new great kingdom. Remember, they thought and presented themselves as the son of God. In their royal names, they call themselves after the son of the Egyptian god Amun, who was the great father of all the gods, Amun. Pete So, that's King Tut's name. Pete Amun, that's right. Tutank Amun, going back to the great father. Well done. Well done, John. You get an A for the day.

Looking at those little cartouches, I read about King Tut and how they liked to put the name of God in their name. And we do it too. Israel prevails with God or let God prevail. So, we're setting up a whole new system that is trying to present themselves as the representatives of God. Now, this is going to become in great conflict with actual real God, right? That's what this is really coming down to. So, the king on earth was represented as the incarnate son of God, Horus, ruling the land on earth. Isn't that interesting? We're going to see as going to be a very clear conflict between Horus, the son of God of Amun, the father god Amun, and the son of God, who we are going to learn his name, Yehovah.

So, this is setting the stage. Verse 8 is setting that stage, okay? And Yosef, they're trying to erase his name. It goes on in verses 9 and 10. The king says, look, the Israelite people are growing. They're getting bigger. He doesn't know about the covenant made with Abraham. Nobody filled him in on that. He doesn't care. He's starting to get paranoid of what just happened. And that is, well, what if these guys get too big

and somebody else comes in from the east, allies with them, some more Semitic cousins, and it happens again. What does he try to do to prevent that from happening? First, he says, let's make their life so miserable. Taskmasters, to afflict them. Let's pile burdens upon them. My children are going to use this against me. I can already see it. You're a taskmaster that afflicts me with burdens.

Yeah. Just don't share with them, verse 13. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. Put that in vinyl and put it in your kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. That's the nice way of saying it. Make the children serve with rigor.

Rigor. Which really means to ruthlessly impose these tasks on them. I mean, they're trying to work Israel to death. And then the king has an idea. He says, if we can't work them to death, then we must put them to death. And he does something interesting. Now, this is curious, and we don't always talk about this in our classes or discussions, and that is verse 15. Let's read this. This is an interesting intersection that we need to ask some questions. So, John, verse 15.

And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shipra, the name of the other, Pua. Oh, they have similar definitions, don't they? I read this somewhere. Yes, they do. In Hebrew, me-yaledot, feminine plural noun, coming from the word yeled, which means a child. It's also in verb form,

it means to give birth. So, these are the women who have the knowledge on how to deliver children healthy and safely. They are the life givers. Now, what does that remind you of? Back to the garden, right? Because when the woman, the first woman is presented, who's very special, by the way, presented to Adam, or Adam, and God says, what do you think, Adam? Adam says, she should be named Chava, or in English we say Eve. Chava is a very standard word which means the life giver. She is the one who gives life. They're the ones who are fulfilling Eve's role, and that is bringing children forth healthy and alive. They're giving life. What was kind of their standing in society? I would think they're pretty important.

Yeah. Like doctors. Very important. Enough for the king to speak to them, right? The king could have gone to the elders of Israel, the princes of the house of Israel, which are still there. Moses even says, I need to go to the elders of Israel, the heads of the leaders, right? They're still there.

Why doesn't he call them in? Why doesn't he call the princes in, the direct descendants from the sons of Israel? Why does he call them is the question. Because these midwives, you know what this reminds me of? When Adam calls Eve Chava, because she is the mother of all living, there is an immediate attack on her. Remember this in the garden? Remember when the serpent who becomes Satan says, I'm coming after her children. In order to stop this plan, I'm coming after her children. In order to stop this plan, I'm coming after her

children. You have this very similar thing happening here. Pharaoh, the serpent in this case, is coming after the children, her children. Yes. God says, remember to Eve, he tells the serpent in the garden story, he tells him, I will place enmity, which is hatred. I will place a natural hatred between her children and you. They will be born hating you. Remember, the name of the second scroll is Shemot, right? Names, names. So, here in verse 15, we get more names. The names of two of the midwives, Shifra and Pua. Shifra means brightness and Pua, it literally means to glitter, light, stars. They're symbols of creation. The word shifra pops up again later on in Job. This is in Job 26.13. The same word is used. He says, shifra. By his spirit, the heavens

were made brightness. Shifra. He's specifically referring to creation. And that's not in our footnotes, so we have to make that. Job 26? 2613 should be a footnote. So, Shifra and Puah, in my thoughts, are representatives of Chava, of Eve. This is the same garden story that is translating throughout time. I hope I have some granddaughters named Brightness and Glitter. Beautiful people, strong women, standing before Pharaoh, even before Moses's. One of the things I was hoping to learn today was things that the movies kind of don't cover. And this is one of those.

I don't remember the Ten Commandments or Prince of Egypt talking about the midwives and their importance. I know that Camille Frank Olson has written about them a little bit. So, I was excited to talk about this. They are important. I mean, why are these two women who are named specifically standing in front of Pharaoh? And they don't even call him Pharaoh at this point. They call him the king, which is emphasizing his new role. They said a new king.

John, keep going. John's our expert English. Reader, by far. He'll be our narrator. And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. Isn't that interesting that they specifically say a son or a daughter? These are family names.

It didn't say a boy or a girl. It doesn't say it in Hebrew. It says Ben for a son or a girl. It doesn't say it in Hebrew. It says Ben for a son or Bat for a daughter. It doesn't say a boy or a girl. He's trying to destroy families. Shifra and Pua are mentioned, but they never tell us the name of the king or the pharaoh. Isn't that interesting? In a scroll that's called the names. Yeah, we don's called the names. Yeah. We don't get their names.

They never once mentioned the name of the king or the Pharaoh. Well, 17 says they won't do it. The midwives feared God, did not. That's right. Now, verse 17, you should put a little star by, because this is the first time in this scroll that we see the word God. This is it. In Hebrew, it says, and the midwives feared, and then it says ha Elohim. So, it specifically says in Hebrew that the midwives fear, respect, reverence Elohim.

This is their God. Now notice it doesn't say that they fear the king of Egypt from this new kingdom, who were pretty ruthless. Most of the images of these kings, of these dynasties, Thutmose III, Seti I, Ramses II, always depicts them. Huge. Especially there at the Temple of Karnak, which is dedicated to Seti I, who was probably the king at this time. It always shows him with his hand raised, with something in his hand, his other hand holding his enemies, and him destroying them with his hand raised.

That's how they depict the king. And it was all over Egypt. The Israelites were building these temples and they're thinking, oh boy, did you see that picture we just put up the other day? They should fear these guys. Yeah, but these women don't. These women don't. These women don't. Remember what God told Eve, I will place hatred between you and the serpent. They're fulfilling and referring back to Eve. In our Latter-day Saint storyline, we have Eve as the kind of the hero of the Eden story, right? Like she's going

to figure out what she's supposed to do here. And so you have these same women doing that. They defy the serpent. Yes, they're defying the king. It says, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men, children alive. It says in Hebrew, the boys. Here it uses a different word. It doesn't use sons. It uses the boys. The king finds out and he summons the midwives back. And look what he says in verse 18. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, why have you done this thing and have saved the men children alive? This question that he asks is almost the same question that God asks Eve. Remember?

When Eve partakes of the fruit, he first asks Adam, Adam, where are you? The second question is to the woman, remember? And he says something, what is this you have done? It's almost the identical word. It's so cool. Here, the Pharaoh is asking these women again, the life givers, right? Why have you done this thing? It's almost ironic that here, the king who thinks he's God is asking the question.

And he says, you're letting these boys live. But he's asking a creation question, a garden question. Okay, so again, we're pointed back there. Let's see what they say. John. I'm excited to hear it because I don't know what this means. And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. They deliver before we can get there?

Does lively mean full of life? Does it mean quick? Let me tell you what it says in Hebrew. He says, it clearly says the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. It says, is the word for life. It's very close to the word, which is the name of Eve.

And it's very close to the word, which means to be, which we're going to learn very soon is the root of the name of God. What it's trying to say here is they're not like Egyptian women because they are living or alive. It says that, chayot, full of life, is what they're trying to say. And again, this is pointing us back to Chava, who is Eve, the mother of all living. It's their job, it is their purpose, it is their blessing to keep the commandments of God. Remember, be fruitful, be great, fill the earth. Those were the first commandments ever given, and only the woman can do that.

Pete Is this something that our Jewish friends probably study these scrolls all the time, and is this something they clearly see that connection and have always seen it? Pete Yeah, the answer is yes. They do this weekly, and they know it because they can hear it. They're hearing the similarities. We don't get that in English because we're reading translations. The Hebrew Bible in ancient Israel was meant to be heard. It wasn't meant to be read. The Hebrews don't read scripture. They listen to scripture. This is why we're going to see later on in Deuteronomy, Moses with his great saying to Israel. That every day, that's right.

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad, he says. Hear, O Israel, the God that I introduced you to, he is the only one. The scriptures were meant to be heard. So you can hear these things. When we read them, sometimes we don't listen and we don't necessarily hear and we don't necessarily study. It's very rare you see the Lord say, I command you therefore to read the scriptures. So it seems like these women don't follow through on the commandment because they fear God. But when the king says, why didn't you do it? They almost slight the Egyptians by saying, listen, the Hebrews are smarter than the Egyptians. They're smarter than you think. Like they're better at this than you think. It seems almost like a slight to the Egyptians. Yeah, I don't know if this is an excuse or a fact.

What they don't say is this. Pharaoh or king of Egypt, our Hebrew sisters have been blessed with this covenant of Abraham a long time ago, which God promised that this nation needs to grow. So before we even get there, sometimes the child is delivered. We just make sure it's healthy and stays alive. That's what I was wondering when you were saying lively and comparing that to Eve full of life. I also thought, hey, this is part of the covenant. They're going to have posterity.

Jacob, Jacob's will have posterity that's huge. And so they're, they're lively that way, perhaps. They're like, yeah, they're smart. And the king has no idea what birth is about. He doesn't really argue with them. That sounded a lot like my wife talking to me, just right there. He thinks he knows what birth is all about, but he doesn't. I was reading in another Bible translation, which is, let's see,

what's it called? The Living Bible. And the way that it put this verse, the Hebrew women have their babies so quickly, we can't get there in time. They are not slow like the Egyptian women. We don't use that translation, but it was curious that it says that line, they're delivered ere the midwives come. Yeah, I read in another translation, John, they said they're almost midwives themselves, these Hebrew women. They know what they're doing. They're very skillful, yeah. Sisters out there know a lot more about this than we do, brothers.

Here's three guys talking about childbirth like we know. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm basically in Pharaoh's seat right now saying, okay, whatever you say. Well, I was going to ask you about this because the Pharaoh, instead of just off with their heads or whatever, is, well, why did you do that? And I thought Pharaoh being big, powerful would just, if they didn't obey his commandments, I thought he'd totally punish him. But instead, he just asked him, why are you doing this? Pete Well, again, if we equate it to the question God asked Eve, there's a consequence there in God's question to Eve. He says to Eve, ma zot asit? He doesn't ask Adam, why have you done this? He asked the woman that, which is so interesting.

This is a question of action, asit. He says, mazot asit, what is this you are doing? Which is a question of action, but there's consequence to it. He's giving her an opportunity to speak. And she does speak. She says, hey, listen, that serpent came in here and is telling half-truths. As a matter of fact, he's lying to me. Notice that we shifted from verse 18 to 19, we shifted from the king of Egypt to Pharaoh. Yeah. Now it's Pharaoh. Now, Pharaoh is an Egyptian word, which means a large house. Now it's Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh is an Egyptian word, which means a large house. And it's usually referring to the house of the king or the palace.

But God also has a large house. We call the temple. It's referring to the greatness of the house of God. Okay. In Hebrew, the word for temple is the same word large house or palace if you will i'm thinking of these houses you're mentioning pharaoh the large house the temple is large house and then it says in verse 21 because the midwives feared feared god that he, I think he means God, made them houses. So, is that the same word,

or is this house like a family-like house of Israel? You're going to be prosperous in your posterity. It's the same word. So, this is in contrast to Pharaoh, the large house. He thinks he has a sustainable house. The house was also a representative of the family. The kings of Egypt during these dynasties are families, father, son, father, son, father, son, right? And so, the house of Pharaoh means his posterity. But really, it's God who shows you what a great house looks like by blessing these midwives with households for them, it says. It says batim, houses for them. And I think it's referring to their posterity. Yeah. It sounds like then in the movies, we go right to cast the children in the river and we skip that was the Pharaoh's plan B because the midwives wouldn't do what he asked them to.

Pete That's right. Pete Yeah. Pete That's right. If he cannot destroy the families of Israel from inside, then he is going to take action himself. Pete Okay. So, this was supposed to be the secret plan. This was supposed to be the not-so-public plan, and it didn't work.

That's right. This is what the serpent is trying to do with the woman. Notice the woman's alone in the garden, right? The man's not there. He tries to separate them and break them apart from the inside. Okay? The secret plan, if you will. Well, luckily, these sisters, the daughters of Eve, are faithful.

Okay? And don't buy that. So, here, the serpent has to take action into his own hands. I will destroy her children then. And here, Pharaoh says the same thing. So, our last verse in chapter 1 is this. John, please. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.

There it is. There's the decree. You mentioned that you have some e-books and things. I would just love to see this side-by-side with Genesis. Or is there one of your publications that covers this beautiful parallel here? There's a couple on my website. This is what I use deeperbible.info website for, is to post some of these things so that folks who are studying this can use that as a resource, because we don't always have time in gospel doctrine or even in

other places to really get into this kind of stuff. So, I use that as kind of a library, a resource where people can have access to this. Pete It doesn't just increase my testimony of the story or the characters, but it increases my testimony of the ancient scriptures. This is not random. These are not just words. This isn't just somebody reporting it. This is crafted. This is revelation. To have that parallel so closely to creation story, I did not know I'd be getting this today, so thank you. So, here we have the decree from the Pharaoh. The sons must die. Infant sons must die. And he doesn't just tell it to his guards. He tells it to all his people. This is a foreshadow, right? Where the sons are ordered to

be slaughtered. A type of shadow, Moses. Matthew is going to use this story to present Christ as another Moses, another Redeemer, another Deliverer. Chapter 2 focuses now. Now we're going to focus on one family. So let's do that. And in chapter 2, verse 1, we get introduced to this family. Let's see what it says. And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. There's that word again, daughter of Levi. This is a motif, daughter. They keep repeating this word.

So, when I'm reading the text in Hebrew, I often think, why do they keep saying that word? Moses is writing this, why does he keep using daughter and not a woman? Because they say a man from the house of Levi, it says Levi in Hebrew, or Levi we say in English. It says a man, but then it says that he took a daughter of Levi. Because remember, the verse before, at the end of chapter 1, they ended with the daughter. Yeah, the daughter you shall save alive. That's right. And now in chapter 2, they're beginning with the daughter. Here's one of those daughters that was saved alive.

It's almost as if Pharaoh sealed his own fate by saving those daughters. Yes, because here she is, this daughter of Levi, who is going to bring forth the deliverer, the savior of Israel. Oh, she's so good. We learn later on what her name is. Verse two, there's no doubt that Moses wants the creation connection here. And the woman conceived and bear a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. We read that all the time, right? And it sounds okay. All right, I got it. Let's keep going.

Did you notice? Did you notice? Saw that it was good. This is almost word for word what God says in Genesis 1, verse 4, when it says, And God saw the light, that it was good. Hebrew says, And God says in Hebrew, in Genesis 1, verse 4, he says, The same verb, Elohim. haor, the light, kitov, that it was good. It's the same word. It's the same phrase. So, here we're getting another, with the new creation

of this sun, we are connecting it directly to God and the creation. Yeah, that's the idea that God did this. God saw, yeah, this was good. Here comes God's plan. God is inserting himself into the story. That's right. Through the daughter, that she's acting like God as a creator. That even comes through in the English.

She saw that he was good. Underline that. And there should be a footnote below. I don't know what there is. There should be a footnote that says Genesis chapter 1, verse 4. There is now. And then, verse 3, verse 3 is that famous event that we're, this is where

the movie starts, right? And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. That's a fancy way of saying she put him in some kind of a basket type vessel. In Hebrew, it's a little more specific on how it's made. But the translation there is spot on. They call the little vessel an ark. Yeah, there's got to be some hearkening back to Genesis there, right?

Oh, yeah. A saving thing. It's a saving vessel, right? It's the same word as Noah's ark, teva. Except Noah's Teva or Ark was this huge thing that was saving all of God's creations, right? The flood is just a reversal of creation. It's the same words as creation, but it's a reversal. Remember in the creation, God separates the waters above and beneath. The flood is the windows are open and the plugs are unplugged and all the water, the primordial water comes back in. And then it comes back out and we have this new creation. The only thing that survives is the Teva, the ark. And remember, an ark is an interesting vessel. It has no steering. There's no rudder.

And the plans that God gave Noah, it goes with the flow, right? Wherever it is being led, God guides it. There's a lot of book of Ether there, too. God is guiding these vessels. It has no steering. The baby's not going to steer it. But God guides it down the river, right, to where it needs to go. We know the story, right?

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. There's that word ark again. She sees the Teva. We have daughter of Pharaoh now, and we have the ark. We have her maidens. In Hebrew, it's na'arot, which is young women. So, these are all females who are fashioning the progress of this plan. Isn't that interesting? And so, here she takes the ark, and she says something interesting in verse 6.

And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. It could be translated, This is one of the Hebrew boys. Probably knows of her father's decree. He told all the people. He told all the people, right? And here she's saying this is one of the Hebrew boys. Later on, we learn that she has Moses' sister who is watching all of this, right? And Moses' sister

approaches the daughter of Pharaoh and says, the child is crying because it's probably hungry and needs to be fed. So, the sister arranges to bring in Moses' mother to nurse him. And then in verse 10, a number of years or months have gone by, and here the mother of Moses and the family of Moses, she brings him back to the daughter of Pharaoh. Imagine these two parents, this family, this Hebrew family has to make these decisions, life and death situations and decisions, the saving of this child. And here, in order to save him, the mother brings him back to the daughter of Pharaoh. This is a really precious time. In verse 10, we learn what is his name. Now remember, this scroll is called Shemot, right? The names, this is going to be important. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.

And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. Okay. In Hebrew, it says that she called his name Moshe in Hebrew. She called his name Moshe because she drew him out of the water. Now, the word for drawing out of the water is the same word, mashah. So, it says, I called him Moshe because Masha, I drew him out of the water. Now, that's the Hebrew perspective because we know him as Moses, not Moshe. In the Christian world or in the English Bible, they translate it Moses, not Moshe, which is interesting. Now, where are we getting that name? The children of the Pharaoh,

especially the kings, had to be born of a certain god in order to be the son of God. So, you have different gods. You have the god Tot, the god Am begotten of Ra. Ra-Moses. Moses means begotten of. Tut-Moses, begotten of Tot, the god Tot. A-Moses, begotten of Amun, right? So, Moses means begotten of. And so, the Egyptian kings have all these son of God names. Ra-Moses, Tut-Moses, A- of God names, Ramoses, Tutmoses,

Amoses, Kamoses, and so on and so forth. They don't know where this one came from. So, instead of saying that he was begotten of a god, the daughter of Pharaoh, an Egyptian, just called him Moses, begotten of question mark. He's the Nile baby, the mystery baby. Begotten of question mark. Question mark. Moses. And that's where we're getting the English version. Moses is from the Egyptian and not the Hebrew.

But Jews today, everybody knows Moshe. They don't call him Moses. They call him Moshe all day long. I love that you're talking about this because I've heard this before and it just changed Moses chapter one for me where the Lord repeats three times, thou art my son, because his name implies son of nobody, well, I drew out of the water, I guess. And to have the Lord say, you're not raw Moses, you're my son, you're not the son of raw, which is just how he repeats it. And then Satan comes along and son of man, but that idea of identity is, and him learning that from God in Moses chapter one

makes this part of the story really wonderful. Pete So good. Now, remember, Moses grows up in this Egyptian house, the house of the daughter of Pharaoh and Pharaoh, right? And he's inundated with Egyptian culture. So, he's surrounded by all these Brahmoses, Thutmoses, Kamoses, and so forth. This is why on the mountain, when he is discovering who he really is, that's why what you're saying, John, in the book of Moses is so significant. Yeah, he's going to have to unlearn some things. He has to unlearn everything. You see how we can relate this to ourselves. Sometimes we come from backgrounds or families that have to make difficult decisions, that are living in times that are challenging. And sometimes we feel like we're being sent down the Nile. You know, just randomly we can't steer and we end up somewhere.

I find myself in denial all the time. I was waiting. I was waiting. I've been waiting for someone to do that. Getting away from this pyramid scheme. There you go. There you go. Right?

It feels that way sometimes. And we grow up in a culture that may not be telling us exactly who we are. Something needs to this discovery of who we really are. And this is what's going to happen next with Moshe. And fast forward to him leaving Egypt. In verse 11, immediately the next verse, it says that Moses grows up, right? And he starts to witness this inequality between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. John, can you read 11? Okay, verse 11 of Exodus 2. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown

that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. Do you notice this word brothers now? Yeah, and I've always wanted to know in the movies, it's like he discovered it. He didn't know. Did he know growing up that he was a Hebrew? There's no way to know, is there?

Doesn't appear that he knows at this point. Because remember, we learn from other writings like in Josephus. Josephus expounds, the Jewish historian expounds a little bit on the story. And he tells us that Pharaoh sends Moses on all kinds of other missions. He's a great military leader. He's a general. He's a great warrior, it says. And he's distracted.

He's going the opposite direction of where he should be going, okay? That's Pharaoh's plan for him. God's plan is a little bit different. At some point, it looks like he's realizing he's not Egyptian. You know what? I'm really tired of people calling me Moses, you know, begotten of nobody. You know, why am I so different than Ramos over there, my brother, and Thutmos over there, the great king over there? Why am I different? And I think the Lord is prompting him. He's preparing him for this great discovery of who he really is, okay? So, he gets a sense. And in the text, it says that he calls the Egyptians his brothers, and he starts calling the Hebrews his brothers, which is curious. It looks like he's starting to

understand. But he notices that the Egyptian is beating the Hebrew, it says. Now, these words are going to start being important. So, this word is he's beating. In the next verse, this is when Moses looks around. I like this. And he looked this way and that way. And when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. We get the connotation that Moses is angry or upset. He is killing this guy, right? Well, it says in Hebrew, it uses a specific word because there are specific words for killing. There's multiple words and they're specifically used throughout the book of Exodus and in Genesis to tell you what kind of a death it is. Here, it says that Moses struck the Egyptian.

It doesn't say that he killed him. I don't think he's trying to kill this Egyptian. I think he's trying to get him off of that Hebrew. He's trying to say, yeah, back off. It says that he struck him. So, I would translate it, he struck the Egyptian. Then he realizes, oops, you know, I forgot. I'm really good at the striking stuff. I don't know my own strength. I killed the guy. That's right. So he buries him in the sand, it says.

So almost as if it's an accident. Almost. It's just an interesting word. Why aren't they using the word to kill? Because that was not his intent. I think so. That's what I'm getting. Now, remember in the garden or just outside of the garden scene in chapter four of Genesis, remember Cain, he doesn't do this word. They don't say that he did this word, naka. Naka, it says, to Abel. The word they use for Cain is this word harag. Harag doesn't mean just to kill. It means to slaughter. It's

not the word for kill. Like, for example, later on in the Ten Commandments that we'll see in the next episode, that's a different word. That's ratzach. Ratzach means to murder somebody. Harag means to slaughter somebody. Okay, it's what you do to an animal. That's what Cain did to Abel. This is not what Moses is doing to the Egyptian. And it's not the word ratzach that says thou shalt not kill. It's not that word either. So, some folks might think, well, you know, Moses, you know, that there was a commandment, the 10th commandment that's coming says thou shalt not kill and Moses is killing. How do you justify this? Well, Hebrew already justified it. It says it's not the same. It's a different word. Now, what happens, which is curious in verse 14, Moses comes upon some other Hebrews and the Hebrew says, ha ha, there's

the guy over there that killed the Egyptian. Now, the word they use there is harag. The perception of the Hebrews towards this Egyptian is he slaughtered that guy. It's very bad. But he didn't because that's not the word they use. It's nakah. So, this might be semantics, but I do know that Hebrew is very specific in the words they're using. So, this is why Moses gets nervous. He says, these guys are going to start spreading the word that I killed this Egyptian.

And sure enough, that happens. And they're using the word harak. Pharaoh finds out about it. He hears. Now, when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. Okay. Now, the word that it says for Pharaoh, what Pharaoh's going to do to Moses

is harak. It's the same word that they're accusing Moses of. It's the same word that Cain does to Abel. That's what Pharaoh is going to do to Moses. That's his intention. Okay. That's his intention. He's not going to throw him in jail. He's not going to beat him Moses. That's his intention. Okay. That's his intention. He's not going to throw him in jail. He's not going to beat him up. He's not going to cut off his hand. He's not going to banish him. He is going to slaughter him. Moses fled, literally says, from before the face of Pharaoh, he says.

And he dwelled in the land of Midian. So, here we are. And he dwelled in the land of Midian. So here we are. Moses' journey of discovery has begun. Please join us for part two of this podcast.