The significant Name of God (23)

The Speaking God of the Exodus and of the entire Bible

André H. Roosma
6 March 2024

For several years now, I have been retranslating the Bible into Dutch. I pay special attention to God's glorious Name YaHUaH.¹ In the spring of 2023 I was busy with the book of Exodus and also with the book of Jeremiah, or better: Yirme-Yahu (יִרמְיָהוּ - YaHU rises up or is exalted, also seen as: appointed by YaHU).
And something really struck me about YaHUaH, and that is

that He, YaHUaH speaks, speaks very much.

For example, I looked at the phrases: “Thus saith YaHUaH” (כה אמר יהוה - koh 'amar YaHUaH; in the KJV: “Thus saith the LORD”) and: “This is what my Lord YaHUaH says” (כה אמר אדני יהוה - koh 'amar adonai YaHUaH; KJV: “Thus saith the Lord GOD” - this form especially in the book of Ezekiel). Together, these two phrases appear already around 150 times in the one Bible book of Yirme-Yahu alone. And not only in this one book of the Bible does YaHUaH show Himself as a God Who speaks. In fact, these phrases appear more than 500 times in the entire Bible!
And that does not include all those times that slightly different words are used, such as: “YaHUaH spoke”, “spoke YaHUaH”, “YaHUaH said” , “said YaHUaH”, “... (is the) word of YaHUaH” and “(the) word of YaHUaH (came)”, “YaHUaH has spoken”, etc. (altogether several hundreds!)
And His speaking is usually, if not always, driven by love, faithfulness, mercy and justice. He stands up for the oppressed and rescues them from the power of their oppressors. Even when people go in the wrong direction, do things that are diametrically opposed to the beautiful plan that He had in mind for them in love, He warns them and tries to move them to retrace their steps.

We find a very clear example in the extensive conversation between God YaHUaH and Moses (in the original Hebrew text he is called Mosheh) in Exodus 3 to 12 (the verse numbering in some translations differ). I provide a portion here in my own translation (partly inspired by the MKJV, the NIV and the NET Bible) with the Name of God and other names restored:²

3: 4 And YaHUaH saw that he had turned aside to see. God called unto him ... and said, Mosheh! Mosheh! And he said, Here I am. 5 And He said, Do not come near here. Put off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. 6 And He said, I am the God of your ancestors, the God of ’Abraham, the God of Yitschaq, and the God of Ya‘aqobh. And Mosheh hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And YaHUaH said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in 'former oppressions'; I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows well. 8 And I am coming down to deliver them out of the hand of the 'former oppressors', to bring them up out of that land, to a good land, a large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, .... 10 10 And now go, and I will send you to the phara‘oh, that you may bring forth My people, the descendandts of Israel, out of 'former oppressions'. 11 And Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to the phara‘oh, and that I should bring forth the descendants of Israel out of 'former oppressions'? 12 And He said, I will be with you. And this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought forth the people out of 'former oppressions', you shall serve God upon this mountain. 13 And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the descendants of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they shall say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them? 14 And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM [or: I SHALL BE, Who I SHALL BE]. And He said, So you shall say to the descendants of Israel, I AM [or: I SHALL BE] has sent me to you. 15 Further, God said to Moses again, You shall say this to the descendants of Israel, YaHUaH the God of your ancestors, the God of the God of ’Abraham, the God of Yitschaq, and the God of Ya‘aqobh, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is how I want to be remembered from generation to generation. 16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, YaHUaH the God of your ancestors has appeared to me, the God of ’Abraham, Yitschaq, and Ya‘aqobh, saying, I have surely paid attention to you and to what is done to you in 'former oppressions'. 17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of 'former oppressions' ... to a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they shall listen to your voice. And you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of 'former oppressions'. And you shall say to him, YaHUaH, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now let us go, we beseech you, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to YaHUaH our God. 4: 1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me nor listen to my voice. For they will say, YaHUaH has not appeared to you. 2 And YaHUaH said to him, What is this in your hand? And he said, A staff. 3 And He said, Throw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground. And it became a serpent. And Moses ran from it. 4 And YaHUaH said to Moses, Put forth your hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand, -- 5 so that they may believe that YaHUaH, the God of their ancestors, the God of ’Abraham, the God of Yitschaq and the God of Ja‘aqobh, has appeared to you. 6 And YaHUaH said to him again, Now put your hand in your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was as leprous as snow. 7 And He said, Put your hand into your bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again. And he brought it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again like his other flesh. 8 And it will be, if they will not believe you, neither listen to the voice of the first sign, then they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 And also it will be, if they will not believe these two signs, neither listen to your voice, then you shall take from the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land. And the water which you take out of the river shall become blood on the dry land. 10 And Moses said to YaHUaH, O my Lord, I am not a man of words now, nor since You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. 11 And YaHUaH said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, YaHUaH? 12 And now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. 13 And he said, Please, my Lord YaHUaH, I pray You, send by the hand of him whom You will send. 14 And the anger of YaHUaH was kindled against Mosheh. And He said, Isn't ’Aharon, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. And also, behold, he comes forth to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him, and you shall put words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 And it will be, he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be for a mouth to you. And you shall be to him an authority. 17 And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do those signs. 18 And Mosheh went and returned to Jitro his father-in-law, and said to him, Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in 'former oppressions' and see if they are still alive. And Jitro said to Mosheh, Go in peace! 19 For YaHUaH had said to Mosheh in Midian, Go! Return to 'former oppressions', for all the men who sought your life are dead. 20 And Mosheh took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the 'land of former oppressions'. And Mosheh took the rod of God in his hand. 21 And YaHUaH said to Moses, When you go to return into 'former oppressions', see that you do all those wonders which I have put in your hand before the phara‘oh; but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. 22 And you shall say to the phara‘oh, This says YaHUaH: Isra’el is My son, My first-born. 23 And I have said to you, Let My son go, that he may serve Me. And if you refuse to let him go, behold, I am going to kill your son, your first-born. 24 And it happened by the way, in the inn, that YaHUaH met him and sought to kill him. 25 And Tsipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband you are to me. 26 So He let him go. Then she said, You are a bloody husband, because of the circumcision. 27 And YaHUaH said to ’Aharon, Go into the wilderness to meet Mosheh. And he went and met him in the mount of of the gods [or: of God], and kissed him. 28 And Mosheh told ’Aharon all the words of YaHUaH Who had sent him, and all the signs which He had prepared for him. 29 And Mosheh and ’Aharon went and gathered together all the elders of the descendants of Isra’el. 30 And ’Aharon spoke all the words which YaHUaH had spoken to Mosheh, and did the signs before the eyes of the people. 31 And the people believed. And when they heard that YaHUaH had visited the descendants of Isra’el, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed and worshiped. 5: 1 And afterward Mosheh and ’Aharon went in and told the phara‘oh, Thus says YaHUaH, the God of Isra’el: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness. 2 And the phara‘oh said, Who is YaHUaH, that I should obey His voice to let Isra’el go? I do not know YaHUaH, neither will I let Isra’el go. .... 6: 1 (5:24) And YaHUaH said to Mosheh, Now you shall see what I will do to the phara‘oh. For with a strong hand he shall let them go, and with a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land. 2 (6:1) And God spoke to Mosheh, and said to him, I am YaHUaH. .... 6 (5) Therefore say to the descendants of Isra’el, I am YaHUaH, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the 'former oppressors', and I will rescue you out of their bondage. And I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments. .... 10 And YaHUaH spoke to Mosheh, saying, 11 Go in, speak to the phara‘oh, the king of 'former oppressions', that he let the descendants of Isra’el go out of his land. 12 And Mosheh spoke before YaHUaH, saying, Behold, the descendants of Isra’el have not listened to me. How then shall the phara‘oh hear me, since I cannot speak well [lit: since I have lips that are not circumcised]? 13 And YaHUaH spoke to Mosheh and to ’Aharon, and gave them a charge to the descendants of Isra’el, and to the phara‘oh, the king of 'former oppressions', to bring the descendants of Isra’el out of the 'land of former oppressions'. .... 28 And it happened on the day YaHUaH spoke to Mosheh in the 'land of former oppressions': 29 YaHUaH spoke to Mosheh, saying, I am YaHUaH. You speak to the phara‘oh, the king of 'former oppressions' all that I say to you. 30 And Mosheh said before YaHUaH, Behold, I cannot speak well [see verse 12], and how [shall] the phara‘oh listen to me?
7: 1 And YaHUaH said to Mosheh, See, I have made you a god to the phara‘oh. And ’Aharon your brother shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I instruct you. And ’Aharon your brother shall speak to the phara‘oh, he will send the descendants of Isra’el out of his land. 3 And I will harden the phara‘oh's heart and multiply My signs and My wonders in the 'land of former oppressions'. 4 But the phara‘oh shall not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon 'former oppressions', and bring My multitudes, My people, the descendants of Isra’el, out of the 'land of former oppressions' by great judgments. 5 And the 'former oppressors' shall know that I am YaHUaH when I stretch forth My hand upon 'former oppressions', and bring out the descendants of Isra’el from among them. 6 And Mosheh and ’Aharon did as YaHUaH instructed them; so they did. .... 8 And YaHUaH spoke to Mosheh and to ’Aharon, saying: 9 When the phara‘oh shall speak to you saying, Give a miracle for yourselves, you shall say to ’Aharon, Take your rod, and throw it in front of the phara‘oh. It shall become a snake. 10 And Mosheh and ’Aharon went in to the phara‘oh. And they did so, as YaHUaH had instructed. And ’Aharon threw down his rod in front of the phara‘oh and in front of his servants, and it became a snake. 13 And He hardened the phara‘oh's heart so that he did not listen to them, as YaHUaH had said. 14 And YaHUaH said to Mosheh, The phara‘oh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. 15 You go to the phara‘oh in the morning. Lo, he goes out to the water. And you shall stand by the river's brink until he comes. And you shall take in your hand the rod which was turned to a snake. 16 And you shall say to him, YaHUaH, the God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Let My people go so that they may serve Me in the wilderness. And, behold, until now you would not hear. 17 Thus says YaHUaH, In this you shall know that I am YaHUaH. Behold! I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. ....

And so it continues for a long time, until Isra’el leaves the 'land of former oppressions' (Egypt). The meaning of this long quote is clear: God YaHUaH speaks!

The books of the prophets are also full of the speaking of God YaHUaH.

We can therefore conclude that the Bible frequently teaches us that YaHUaH is a God who speaks to His people.

Earlier I have discussed that God YaHUaH is par excellence a God Who is faithful, unchangeable and honest (the Hebrew word used in the Bible is אמת - ’emet - faithful, true, truthful, consistent, honest). So it simply cannot be true what is taught in some churches, that this God has now suddenly (or about 2000 years ago) stopped speaking to His people. Isn’t He still that same speaking God?

The problem is not that God YaHUaH no longer speaks, but that we do not hear Him. Or we hear Him, but explain it away. We may have forgotten how to distinguish between our own thoughts and His words. But don't worry, we can learn that just like young Samuel.

How we can learn this, is a subject already treated extensively by various people on the Internet under the header Immanuel approach. In Dutch, I have already written a lot about it on the website www.Immanuel-levensstijl.nl.

Hallelu YaHUaH !

Notes

1

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, ‘The wonderful and lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who will be there’ , extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009. See also the other articles on the significant Name of God, on the articles page here.

2

Some notes on this translation: I have transliterated the names from the original Hebrew text as best as possible, that is to say: transferred them letter by letter into our script, in the most usual way. For example, the letter א (’aleph) is represented here by a ’, the ע (‘ajin) by a ‘, the כ (kaph) by a k, or kh (in the case of the soft variant), the ק (qoph) by a q. I took the word פַּרְעֹה - the phara‘oh as a title (it means something like 'great house'), and not as a name, and therefore not written with a capital letter (compare: the king). It is remarkable that throughout this story the name of the phara‘oh in question is not mentioned; even the names of the midwives who helped deliver Mosheh are mentioned, but his name was not worth mentioning. I have translated the remarkable feminine plural (possessive form, 2nd person plural) אֲבֹֽתֵיכֶם (abhoteïkhem) from the woord אב (ab - father) as: your ancestors. Likewise, I have also translated the expression בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל (benei Isra’el) as: the descendants of Isra’el. There are a few remarkable details throughout the entire story about Isra’el in Egypt in the ancient Hebrew original text. Not only is the name of the phara‘oh in question not mentioned, the name of the country is in fact not mentioned either. Where all translations translate 'Egypt', the Hebrew reads מצרים - mitsraïm. We can see this as derived from the two-letter root צר - tsar - hard stone (as Tsipporah used to circumcise her son in Ex.4:25), oppression, oppressor, distress, fear. It is composed of the tsade and the resh, originally a papyrus or grain plant (which was squeezed or beaten for threshing) and a higher other (often: God), respectively. So together something like: pressed or beaten by a higher person. We recognize in מצרים - mitsraim this core tsar; the mem as a prefix stands for something like 'from', the ending -im is a masculine plural; it is clear that people associated this country with oppressions from which God had delivered them. So 'land of former oppressions' is perhaps a better translation for ארץ מצרים - ’erets mitsraïm. The skin disease that Mosheh got on his hand when he put it in his bosom is צרע - tsara‘ - after the old symbols: tsar + ‘ajin = to see, therefore: to see oppression (God saw how Israel was oppressed). And there is much more. All the verb tenses that relate to YaHUaH speaking, I have put in boldface (over 40 in this section!) in the context of this article. The same for His Name itself, and a few other notable expressions.

Fortunately, there are several books available today that can help us learn to listen to God. I will mention a just a book and a tape-series here:

• Janet Johnson, Listening to God, NavPress, Colorado Springs (USA), 1998.
• Derek Prince, the tape-series 'Hearing God's voice', Derek Prince Ministries.

Appendix: Archeology and Linguistics and The Exodus

In recent decades, some scholars have claimed that no indications can be found in Egypt for the Exodus of the people of Israel, as the Bible teaches in the book of the same name. Others have stated that the literary characteristics of the Torah Bible books in any case seem to indicate that they were not written in the time of Moses (16th century BC) but only around the 5th century BC, when the Jews returning from the Babylonian exile were looking for their roots.

To start with that last point: the observation about the literary characteristics ignores the script in which Moses wrote these books, the script in which they were transcribed in the time of the kings, and the script and language that the Jews used after the Babylonian captivity. Those three were quite different from each other. The script that Moses must have used was the West Semitic picture script, which I study extensively elsewhere on this site.³ In the time of the kings, this was greatly simplified in the Paleo-Hebrew script for quick writing, although many features remained. However, when the Jews returned to their own land from exile in Babylon, they had known only Aramaic script for 70 years, had been taught it in school for at least 2 generations, and had lost knowledge of their own Paleo-Hebrew script. Thus, Ezra and others then had to rewrite all existing books of the Bible in the Imperial Aramaic script. The language was also strongly influenced by Aramaic. Some words were hardly known anymore and were replaced by more modern forms or equivalents. Here and there they added editorial commentary, relating the text to that time. That fully explains the style characteristics from the 5th century BC. It is as if I type the ancient works of the famous Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel in a little more modern Dutch and print them out on my laser printer, and someone then says: no, that was really not written by Vondel, it is much more modern Dutch and those letters come from a laser printer, which was not yet available in Vondel's time! The fact that it was somewhat edited in the 5th century does not contradict the fact that the original text - still recognizable - was from Moses...

Then the point about the Egyptian annals, which were discovered through excavations, which would contain no indications for the Exodus of the people of Israel. There too, the question is whether matters have been properly and objectively investigated. Some closer research has revealed things that are very clearly in line with the Biblical Exodus story. Many details of the Bible story can actually be found exactly in Egyptian sources.
A problem with this is of course that the Egyptians were not proud of their final, major defeat, and therefore did not write about it in that sense. But the facts revealed by excavations tell a story that very clearly supports the story of the Bible.
Many have done in-depth research into this for decades. One such researcher is the French scientist Gérard Gertoux. After reading a long book and several articles by him about this⁴, I was alerted by the site Academia.edu that he had posted a new study on that site: Gérard Gertoux, ‘Egyptian chronology, 2838-342 BCE, through astronomically dated synchronisms and comparison with carbon-14 dating’. In this article (e-book) of 274 A4 pages (!) he quotes countless ancient Egyptian sources. Through astronomical verification (special configurations of stars, solar eclipses, etc. were often noted down and can be accurately calculated almost to the present day due to the regularity of all the orbits of the celestial bodies) he can date exactly everything that has been described. For example, he was able to determine when the Exodus took place: April 25, 1533 BC; and also who was the pharaoh under whom this took place: Seqenenre Taa. Everything appears to be very accurate. For example, the son of this pharaoh, Ahmose Sapaïr, died a few days before him (namely one day before the Exodus), and the body of this pharaoh Seqenenre Taa was not embalmed immediately after his death (as normally happened), but only a while later (namely when his body was finally washed ashore, after he had drowned while chasing the Israelites into the sea - see also Ps.136:15; it was already in some state of decomposition). The circumstances of his death and that of his son Ahmose Sapaïr are categorically silent in the Egyptian annals... The second son of Seqenenre Taa, Ahmose, was still a baby and therefore much too young when his slightly older brother and his father died, so the government of Egypt was temporarily taken over by regent Kamose, a younger brother of Seqenenre Taa, who already had a political position in southern Egypt at the time. The capital of the area where the Israelites lived was Avaris. The Egyptian annals show that on that same April 25, 1533 BC, that city was suddenly largely abandoned and plundered.

It is also very clear from the timing that indeed the Semitic rulers known in Egypt as the de Hyksos are simply the Biblical Israelites, as the Jewish historian Vlavius Josephus noted in the first century AD. They came to power in Egypt very quietly and peacefully (although normally it would be strange that a foreign people suddenly takes over power without a fight), they served only one God, and when they leave there are all kinds of violent things going on. happened (such as the death of Seqenenre Taa and the elite of his army), but a real war was not waged (there has been much speculation about this, but evidence is lacking)...

3

More information on the ancient script referred to here in the Hallelu-YaH Draft Research Report: ‘The Written Language of Abraham, Moses and David – A study of the pictographic roots and basic notions in the underlying fabric of the earliest Biblical script’ , a living document by André H. Roosma, 1st English version: 18 April 2011 (Dutch original: January 2011; updated irregularly).

4

E.g. Gérard Gertoux, Moses and the Exodus - Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence, Lulu.com; August, 2015; ISBN 978 1 329 44525 3. Also available as a download at Academia.edu. Gérard Gertoux, ‘Dating the war of the Hyksos’, at Academia.edu. This comprehensive article provides an enormous wealth of archaeological and historical evidence that the Hyksos can indeed be identified with the Israelites. Gérard Gertoux, ‘The Pharaoh of the Exodus - Fairy tale or real history? - Out­come of the investigation’, at Academia.edu. This comprehensive article/e-book provides an enormous wealth of archaeological and historical evidence for the historicity of the Biblical Exodus story, including observations regarding the Hyksos.

Hallelu YaHUaH !

Reactions

Previous articles in this series on The significant Name of God:
‘(22) The riches of the Title אֵל רַחוְּם - ’El Rachum’, 13 March 2021;
‘(21) Why Christianity often ignored The Name YaHUaH’, 21 June 2020;
‘(20) YaHUaH - the true God of the Bible - is involved!’, 19 June 2020;
‘(19) The riches of the Title אֵל שַׁדַּי - ’El Shaddai’, 17 June 2020;
‘(18) Why Rabbinic Judaism refuses to mention THE NAME’, 14 June 2020;
‘(17) What we learn from Jesus’ temptation in the desert’, 12 June 2020.

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