by Rabbi Russ Resnik

Now the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD." (Ex. 10:1-2)

God's strategy of making himself known drives the entire first half of Exodus, from the roll call of the tribes of Israel who went down to Egypt, through the story of their deliverance, to their arrival at Mount Sinai to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In last week's parasha, the Lord disclosed this strategy to Moses:

"I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians" (Ex. 6:7).

This divine self-revelation begins with the children of Israel, and quickly expands to include the Israelites' oppressors, the Egyptians (Ex. 7:5, 8:10, 8:22, 9:14). God's goal in Exodus, then, is not only to deliver Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, but something far greater: to make known his name—his kingly authority and activity—first to Israel, then to Egypt, and ultimately throughout the entire human race. Thus, the Lord says to Pharaoh, "But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, so that I might show you my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth" (Ex. 9:16).

"Earth" is aretz in the original Hebrew, which could also be translated as "land," meaning all the land of Egypt. But in God's utterance to Pharaoh, he uses the word three times, as the final word in three consecutive sentences, each with a worldwide implication:

"For at this time I will send all my plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. Now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth." (Ex.  9:14-16)

Clearly, the scope of each of these verses goes beyond Egypt to encompass the whole world. God's strategy of self-revelation in Exodus includes the entire human race. In today's parasha, God reveals that this global strategy moves forward on one-by-one telling—"that you may tell your children and your children's children…"

Translator Robert Alter notes,

The rationale of establishing God's enduring fame shifts here from the global scope of Exodus 9:16 ("that my name be told through all the earth") to a consideration of educating the future nation. Confirming the LORD's supremacy throughout the world might be viewed as a kind of monotheistic ideal, though not a very realistic one. (The Five Books of Moses, p. 365)

The goal of declaring the LORD's name throughout the earth is "not a very realistic one," as Alter says, if it depends upon us. But our verse reveals an essential contrast. The LORD does the work, through mighty signs and wonders, of making his name known. To the Israelites he assigns the more "realistic"—but no less important—task of telling "your children and grandchildren" about these mighty deeds. Through passing the knowledge of God on to the next generation, even one by one, we take part in the vast divine initiative of declaring his name—his reputation and glory—in all the earth.

The Messianic Jewish community needs to raise up a younger generation, not only among the children of its current generation, but also by reaching Jewish people who do not yet know Messiah

The relevance of this lesson to our families, and the extended family of our congregations, is obvious. For us who believe in Yeshua, telling about God's mighty deeds shouldn't be so difficult, because in Messiah the LORD has revealed himself fully to us. The God who continually makes himself known through redemption from Egypt has moved in lives of many of us to bring us out of addiction, bondage, alienation, and despair.

We need to tell our children and our children's children about his mighty works, of course, but we can apply this lesson more broadly.  The Messianic Jewish community needs to raise up a younger generation, not only among the children of its current generation, but also by reaching Jewish people who do not yet know Messiah. In Exodus, the Lord says, I'll provide the mighty deeds; you tell others about it. God's work of self-revelation reaches its climax in the death and resurrection of Messiah—which significantly take place at the same time of year as the departure from Egypt. Now he assigns us the task of telling others.

From my travels and correspondence within the Messianic Jewish community, my impression is that we critically need to renew this assignment. One of our greatest needs is simply to reach our people more effectively with the good news of Messiah. Outreach in the past has often implied a negative attitude toward Jewish tradition and values, as if we need to repent of being Jewish when we come to Yeshua. We have rightly developed a more positive outlook and relationship toward the wider, non-Messianic Jewish community. But we still have a message of good news in Messiah that we need to spread.

In his recent book, Gonzo Judaism (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006), Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein speaks for Jews who are disaffected from Judaism as they've known it, but open to spiritual exploration. Goldstein writes,

"We don't need to be treated with kid gloves—we need to be agitated. Our generation calls for a Judaism that is bold, confrontational, and smack in your face. We want to be pushed. And we want to push back" (p. 125).

Surely, the message of a God who reveals himself through mighty deeds on the stage of human history—like the deliverance from Egypt and the resurrection of Messiah—and calls people to serve him alone is "bold, confrontational, and smack in your face." And far from being a message that rejects Judaism, it calls us back to the heart of the Jewish story.

In the UMJC, we have always sought to spread this message through establishing Yeshua-centered congregations within the wider Jewish community. Now we need to expand our vision of congregation beyond the Shabbat service. Shabbat services deserve continual creative attention, but they are not the main way of spreading the word. We need to meet Jewish people literally where they are, in their homes and office, in coffee shops and recreational events and online, bringing Jewish texts and discussion—and the presence of the Ruach—along with us.

In recent years, we have made great progress in reaching a new generation through innovative efforts like our internship and work-study programs, young adult conferences and forums, and helping our youth connect more deeply to Israel and its Messianic community.  Now we need to apply similar creativity and initiative to reaching those outside the Messianic Jewish world. Our parasha reminds us that this effort will be a battle. 

So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?" And Moses said, "We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD." Then he said to them, "The LORD had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you." (Ex. 10:8-10a)

Pharaoh apparently could accept a few chosen individuals, or even most of an individual generation, going out to serve the Lord, but not the whole multi-generational community. So it is today with the principalities and powers that oppose Jewish renewal in Messiah: It's bad enough for individuals, or for an individual generation, to have an encounter with God, but a multi-generation Jewish movement for Yeshua—never!

Our parasha concludes with a simple strategy for facing down this opposition. We are to remember God's mighty deeds through keeping the festival of Passover every year. When our children ask us what it is all about, we say simply, "This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt" (Ex. 13:8).

God has made himself known on a broad, universal scale. But he has also made himself through what he did for me. His mighty acts are not in the distant past, but are the defining realities of my own life. If we are among those who came up from Egypt, we must not forget, or cease to tell those around us.

Shabbat Shalom!
Russ Resnik, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it