Parashat Vaera 5766/2006
EJD
The weekly reading for the week of 28 Shevat, 5766 - January 28, 2006 Parashah: Vaera Exodus 6:2 to 9:35; Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 to 29:21; Mei Kituvim: Psalm 105:1-45; Brit Chadashah: Revelation 15:5-8; 16:1-21
Parashah Lite Edition (Focuses on one verse or idea anywhere in the readings)
The Bagel: Pharaoh the Reed.
"And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 29:6 JPS HOLY SCRIPTURES 1917).
"....they have been a staff of reed" is the reading of the Masoretic text (MT), but the context is Adonay speaking to Pharaoh, thus most translations, including the Septuagint, render it as "you have been a staff of reed." Pharaoh was that Reed. The word for it in Hebrew is Kaneh. This kind of reed was used for measuring things. It is used to measure the dimensions of the future temple in Ezekiel chapter 40. Perhaps, G-d was using Pharaoh as a measuring reed to measure Israel during the time of the Exodus. Pharaoh's resistance to G-d and persistence to oppress affected a response from Israel. How did Israel measure up? There was need for patience on Israel's part. In the long wait during the plagues will there be faith? Israel was stressed beyond measure by Pharaoh's recalcitrance. Yet, they believed in the end and left.
It is ironic that the Reed perished in the Sea of Reeds (Yam Suf - the Red Sea). A Suf reed is a water reed, a different species. Perhaps, the MT's insistence on the 3rd masculine plural form is to suggest a picture of all of Egypt as reeds that followed the Reed, Pharaoh in hot pursuit to destroy Israel. Hence, even water reeds could not survive the judgment of the returning waters. The mass of floating Egyptian corpses after the flood may have looked like a mat of twisted and uprooted water reeds on the surface of the water.
Pharaoh overstepped his bounds. G-d may have intended to use Pharaoh's harsh treatment as discipline to stir Israel to leave. But Israel didn't vacate, so Pharaoh resorted to using unlawful tactics. He sought their extermination, not their perfection. Sometimes, persons that function as "standards" abuse their position and injustice results. At the bottom of this is unbelief. People simply ignore G-d as the standard for life, so G-d raises up authority structures to affect the needed discipline. For a while things may coast along, but eventually the human standard fails because of this long-standing need to return to G-d.
Yeshua is the Reed that measures even the secrets of our hearts. His life is the perfect standard. When we follow Him, we measure up. This is the place of true joy rather than the oppressive, Pharaoh-like systems as alternatives. The measure of His love is from heaven to earth. The distance of that love is beyond the horizon. This instrument of measure with its vertical dimension and its horizontal one forms the shape of the cross, the perfect measuring reed.
Cream Cheese Which yardstick, Pharaoh's scepter or Christ's cross?
Unless noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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