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The Significant Name of God (9)

The Bible mentions important persons by Name

André H. Roosma
14 May 2020 (NL original: 19 Dec. 2014)

Sometimes, a Bible story can reveal an insight that we did not expect at first sight. That certainly was the case, one time when I was reading in Exodus 1, and the Spirit of YaHUaH gave light on the names explicitly mentioned there and the names not mentioned. Just read with me.

7 And the children of Isra’el were fruitful and increased abundantly; and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. 8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power over Egypt. 9 He said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Isra’el are many and mightier than we. 10 Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it will be when there comes a war, they join our enemies, fight against us, and depart from the land. 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens: they had to build store cities for the pharaoh, Pitom and Ra'meses. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. And they became more anxious because of the children of Isra’el. 13 Then the Egyptians caused the children of Isra’el to work with harshness; 14 Yes, they made their lives bitter by hard slave labor with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of labor in the field; all work in which they used them as slaves with harshness. 15 The king of Egypt also commanded the midwives among the Hebrew women, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Pu‘ah: 16 If you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, then you must observe at the delivery: if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live. 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt told them, but let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the boys live? 19 And the midwives said to pharaoh, The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; they are vigorous: they give birth before a midwife gets to them. 20 And God treated the midwives well; the people multiplied and became very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He gave them each a family of their own.

Exodus 1: 7-21

There is something that strikes me: the names of the main characters in this story.1 There is the mighty pharaoh, who was a kind of king of Egypt. One of the mightiest men of the world at the time. He snapped his finger and everybody ran. But who exactly was he? To this day, scientists are still debating which pharaoh is concerned here. Was it Amenhotep II? Or was it Tutmose (and if so, which one), Kamose, or Seqenenre Taa?2 The Bible, that is: God, did not find his name important enough to be mentioned here. Someone who – no matter how rich and great in this world – did not fear God YaHUaH was worthless in God’s eye, was apparently not worthy of his name being remembered, or of us knowing who it was.

And then there are those two midwives in Isra’el ... Just two ordinary Israeli women, who at first glance just did their job: helping delivering babies into the world. I said, Israeli women, but even that is not entirely certain.3 Yet they are special, these Shiphrah and Pu‘ah. The Bible says of them, “But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt told them, but let the boys live.” They had the courage to be ‘civilly disobedient’ to a superior who asked for something that clearly went against God. They found YaHUaH more important than the mighty pharaoh.

And thus they do not remain nameless. They are called by name: those Shiphrah and Pu‘ah in the province of Goshen, there in Egypt.4 Their names become important. They cooperated in the birth of the man who would exile Isra’el. They got their own family. And later they went with Isra’el on the journey to the land promised to them by God and got a share in it. And now, about three and a half thousand years later, we still know their names. They are called and important, where that pharaoh perished nameless and without any glory. Do you see the enormous irony in this story ...?

 

This story, and like this there are many more in the Bible, makes it clear that there are two types of persons in God’s order: those who are not worth knowing their name, and those who must be remembered by name. The persons who were in awe of YaHUaH and who therefore were worthy in their thinking and actions are called by their personal name, so that they are remembered personally. The persons who had no reverence for YaHUaH, and from there were unworthy in their thinking and doing, are not named by their personal name, so that they are not personally remembered; they disappear into oblivion.

Do you understand, that against this background I am appalled that many Jews and Christians have forgotten or never even known God’s glorious and telling Name because Bible translators have translated Him away?

When God found the names of these two midwives important enough to remain known for three and a half thousand years ...
... How much more should we remember the God of Isra’el by Name, the more so because that glorious Name YaHUaH tells us so much beauty about Who He is and what He has done. I shout with joy:

Hallelu YaHUaH !


Notes

1 The names in the Bible have meaning. That is why I transliterate them carefully so that they remain recognizable. Especially the glorious Name of God I represent here as accurately as possible from the oldest Hebrew original, instead of replacing this grand personal Name of The Most High by a common word, such as ‘Lord’. For more background information see:
André H. Roosma, ‘Life, security and belonging in joyful adoration, from the hand of God.pdf document, brief Hallelu-YaH article about the Biblical Name of God in the earliest Hebrew (old Semitic) script, January 2011.
André H. Roosma, ‘The Shema‘ – the First Testament declaration of faith (1)’, Hallelu-YaH! web article, February 2012.
André H. Roosma, ‘The wonderful and lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who will be there.pdf document, extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009.
2 As an example: Prof. Douglas Petrovich claims in his article ‘Amenhotep II and the historicity of the Exodus-Pharaoh’ (at Academia.edu), on various grounds, that this pharao was Amenhotep II.
Prof. Gerard Gertoux, denotes in ‘Dating the war of the Hyksos’ (and other documents at Academia.edu) that this pharao was Seqenenre Taa, based on at least as many arguments (a.o. that he died in a mysterious way, only a few days after his son, and his body was half decayed before being balmed).
Steve Rudd, arguments in ‘New Evidence for Thutmose III as Exodus Pharaoh in 1446 BC’ that Thutmoses III was the Exodus pharao.
For a further discussion see also the English Wikipedia page about it.
3 De Midrash Tadshe, an old Judaist document, says that these two women were proselytes (women of another people converted to YaHUaH). The fact that they were not, with all other Israelites, involved in the slave labor, and that they could compare Israeli women to Egyptian women, might me a hint to this. The Biblical text gives no decisive answer; apparently that was not important in God’s eye.
4 Nice detail: their names mean Shining and Shimmering (Beautifully)!

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