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Thomas Jefferson

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Today’s Feature

Yahweh’s Promises to Abraham

God made His promises to Abraham, and He extended most of them to his “descendants.” (Genesis 17: 7)  He said, “I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17: 5)  His promises, therefore, apply to Abraham’s descendants through a multitude of nations, not just his descendants through Isaac and Jacob.

It is perfectly clear in the Bible that the Jews are God’s chosen people.  He declares Himself often as Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Why are the Jews so special to Him?  First, because He said, “Now then, if you will indeed obey My Voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the people, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19: 5-6)

In essence, the Jews are to the world what the Levites are to the Jews—priests.  That is why God was so angry with the Jews when they broke His Law and followed other gods.  They were not just a nation.  They were the nation Yahweh chose to lead the world to Him in righteousness and holiness and truth, and they let Him down.  There is no question that God’s promises are true and that one day the Jews will become the nation of priests to the world that He intends for them to be, but they certainly are not that now.

There is a second, even more important, reason why the Jews are so special to Yahweh, and to everyone else in the world for that matter.  God said to Abraham, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 22: 18)

Yahweh extended most of His promises to a multitude of nations through Abraham, but He extended this promise to the Jews alone.  From the Jews will come the seed of Abraham who will be a blessing to everyone on the face of the earth.  Yahweh did not say Abraham’s seeds would be a blessing to all the earth.  He said seed—a single individual.  That Person is the Messiah, the Redeemer, and the Savior.  He is Yahweh Tsidkenu—Yahweh our Righteousness.  Our faith in Him secures our salvation.

Our Decision

There are more than 6 billion people living on the earth right now, and there may be twice that many opinions about what God requires us to do to be saved.  However, Yahweh has exclusive jurisdiction in this matter, and any attempt we make to substitute our personal views for God’s unambiguous instruction is similar to the sin Adam committed in the Garden of Eden.

From God’s point of view, Adam’s sin was an act of moral independence. (The New Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday, New York, 1985, p. 19)  It was a direct assault on His sovereignty—a sin of the highest magnitude.  Only God has the authority to determine right and wrong, good and evil, and He alone has the privilege of determining how He redeems and saves mankind.

We would be foolish to ignore this fact, because the consequences for doing so are catastrophic.  They are beyond our ability to comprehend.  To understand what I mean, you need to search the Scriptures and find out what Yahweh said He would do to people who reject His gift of salvation and choose to follow their own instincts instead.  He said He would send them to the lake of fire where there will be perpetual burning and eternal punishment.  Forever is a long, long time.

Yahweh laid out His plan for our redemption and salvation very clearly in the Bible.  He did not give us a list of options and tell us to select the one that is most consistent with our own personal preferences.  He told us to accept or reject His plan, and each of us must do just that.  Yahweh requires us to decide if we have faith in Him.  Abraham made his choice, and Yahweh declared him righteous.  Since God never changes, He will declare us righteous as well if we have faith in Him, but if we do not have faith in Him we are doomed to die and eternal death.  It’s just that simple.

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

Chapter 2 of Exodus takes us from Moses’ birth to his adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter and his upbringing in Pharaoh’s house with his own mother as his nurse.  Chapter 2 skips Moses’ adolescent years and moves directly into his young manhood.  Moses knew that he was a Hebrew. (Exodus 2: 11)  He must have felt compassion for his people because he killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was treating them harshly.  (Exodus 2: 12)

The day after killing the Egyptian, Moses visited his kinsmen again and saw two of them fighting.  Moses questioned the man who was in the wrong.  The man turned to Moses and said, “And who appointed you to be prince over us and judge?” (Exodus 2: 14)

It’s evident that Yahweh was working in Moses life preparing him to lead His people, but Moses didn’t know that.  He became frightened because he knew his secret was out.

Pharaoh heard about the incident and tried to have Moses executed so Moses fled to Midian.  There he met the priest of Midian and his daughter Zipporah who would become his wife.  They had a son whose name was Gershom.  Moses lived in Midian with his family.  He was a shepherd by trade.

In due course, the Pharaoh who tried to kill Moses died.  Pharaoh had continued to oppress the Israelites throughout his lifetime.  Their cries for help resonated with Yahweh.  He saw their affliction and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Chapter 2 sets the stage for Moses first encounter with Yahweh.

Exodus Chapter 2

1. There was a man descended from Levi who had taken a woman of Levi as his wife.
2. She conceived and gave birth to a son and, seeing what a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months.
3. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him; coating it with bitumen and pitch, she put the child inside and laid it among the reeds at the River’s edge.
4. His sister took up position some distance away to see what would happen to him.
5. Now Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, while her maids walked along the riverside. Among the reeds she noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it.
6. She opened it and saw the child: the baby was crying. Feeling sorry for it, she said, ‘This is one of the little Hebrews.’
7. The child’s sister then said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and find you a nurse among the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’
8. ‘Yes,’ said Pharaoh’s daughter, and the girl went and called the child’s own mother.
9. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child away and nurse it for me. I shall pay you myself for doing so.’ So the woman took the child away and nursed it.
10. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who treated him like a son; she named him Moses ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’
11. It happened one day, when Moses was grown up, that he went to see his kinsmen. While he was watching their forced labour he also saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen.
12. Looking this way and that and seeing no one in sight, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13. On the following day he came back, and there were two Hebrews, fighting. He said to the man who was in the wrong, ‘What do you mean by hitting your kinsman?’
14. ‘And who appointed you’, the man retorted, ‘to be prince over us and judge? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Moses was frightened. ‘Clearly that business has come to light,’ he thought.
15. When Pharaoh heard of the matter, he tried to put Moses to death, but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He went into Midianite territory and sat down beside a well.
16. Now there was a priest of Midian with seven daughters. They used to come to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17. Some shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses sprang to their help and watered their flock.
18. When they returned to their father Reuel, he said to them, ‘Why are you back so early today?’
19. ‘An Egyptian protected us from the shepherds,’ they said, ‘and he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’
20. ‘And where is he?’ he asked his daughters. ‘Why did you leave the man there? Ask him to eat with us.’
21. Moses agreed to stay on there with the man, who gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage.
22. She gave birth to a son, whom he named Gershom ‘because’, he said, ‘I am an alien in a foreign land.’
23. During this long period the king of Egypt died. The Israelites, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God.
24. God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
25. God saw the Israelites and took note.

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His Name is Yahweh

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh.  His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5.  If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should.  The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

Available on Amazon Kindle and it can be downloaded at www.hisnameisyahweh.org