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This week’s Torah portion is called Va-era, which means, “And I appeared.”  It covers Exodus, 6:2 – 9:35.

In the opening of Chapter 6, when things are very tough for the Israelis with them having to gather the straw to make the bricks for building, God shines through with His Saving power.  In verses 6 and 7, God specifically says “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage.  I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgements.  Then I will take you for My people,…”

You may already be familiar with these great promises, because these are the verses used at Passover to describe what God was going to do for the people of Israel.  In fact, the rabbis decided that because these 4 promises gave such joy to the people, this is why there are 4 cups of wine that should be had at the Passover table, because wine is a symbol of joy (reference Psalm 104).  I hope that these promises will give us joy today, even in difficult circumstances.  The first promise is that God was going to bring the people out from the burdens they were facing.  Doesn’t that apply to us today; I think many of us pray that we would be brought out from under some of the burdens we are facing.  The second promise states that not only will God bring the people out from the burdens that they are facing, but that he will deliver them from their bondage.  This means that the burdens were not just going to be taken away for a certain period of time, but that God was going to deliver the people from those burdens once and for all.  I think most of us would like to leave behind forever some of the burdens we are carrying.  The third promise is that God will redeem the people.  One of the dictionary definitions for redeem is, “to obtain the release or restoration of, as by paying a ransom.”  When we think back to the Israelis living in Egypt, they were enslaved there for hundreds of years.  They most likely picked up customs of the Egyptians, which could have included worshipping Egyptian gods.  They would be redeemed from these falsehoods they had picked up in Egypt.  In addition, this redemption refers to the physical redemption that they would experience.  They would not just get out from under their burdens and be delivered, but that they would physically be redeemed out of the land of Egypt, which was not their home.  God had a better place for them in this world that would become their home.  And finally, this redemption points to the redemption that is so meaningful to us.  Whereas the redemption out of Egypt was a physical redemption, our redemption, today, for those of us who believe in Yeshua, is that we are spiritually redeemed from the terrible consequences of sin.

And lastly, the fourth promise is that God would take the Israelis as His own people.  What a tremendous promise that was.  God would be with the people.  They would be enveloped in the love that He had for them.  He, God, wanted them to be His people, for people to be close to Him.  This is the same thing that God wants today.  He wants believers, both Jews and Gentiles to be close to Him.   He wants us to be His people, and for Him to be our God.

These four promises should be as important and memorable today for believers as they would have been to the Israelis.  And, I find it interesting that we are reminded of these promises, at least once a year, on Passover.

In the last half of Chapter 6, we have the genealogy of Reuben, Simeon and Levi.  You might wonder what this genealogy is doing here when we are discussing the interaction between God and Moses and the situation with Pharaoh.  Well, the purpose of this genealogy is to focus on the house of Levi and trace the descent of Moses and Aaron.

Chapters 7 through 9 deal with the direct confrontation between Pharaoh and Moses and the consequences that fall upon the land of Egypt due to Pharaoh hardening his heart.

Some overall comments concerning the plagues:

1. Each plague is a direct attack on the Egyptian system of false gods. The Egyptians had many gods.  Many of the plagues directly show that the gods being worshipped by the Egyptians were not true gods.  And when the plague is not a direct confrontation between the one true God and the false Egyptian gods, it is still a confrontation with Egyptian religious beliefs.  For example, when the plague of boils affected Pharoah’s magicians, this made them unclean and not able to worship because of their boils.  This again demonstrates the importance of not following a false belief.
2. Secondly, the plagues needed to be a demonstration of God’s power to the Israelis. Up until this point in Jewish history, people knew God as a maker of covenants, those covenants made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they did not know Him as the One who fulfills covenants.  Additionally, very few people had witnessed God’s actual power.  This time, the power of God would be viewed by the majority of the people.  The would come to know God as not only the maker of covenants, but the keeper of covenants as they are lead out of Egypt towards the land promised by God.
3. And lastly, the power of the plagues shows us how human pride can overwhelm us in the face of the greatest truth. Pharaoh consistently hardened his heart even after seeing God’s great power.  And, perhaps, this is the greatest danger for us today.  Often, we want to follow things that we want to follow, and not the way God is directing us.  We want things to be as we want them to be and not the way God wants them.

Today’s parasha passage leaves us with several lessons that we can apply to our lives:

1. God not only makes promises and covenants, but He keeps and fulfills them as well. He is the one who sent the promised Messiah here to earth to live, die and be resurrected in order that those who believe can be saved from their sins.
2. God’s Power has been shown in different ways throughout history. During Pharoah’s time, it was with the mighty power of devastating plagues.  During the time of Messiah, it was through the miraculous healing and teaching of the Messiah.  Let’s not forget that this same power is at work in today’s world.
3. And, finally, just as Pharaoh and others disregarded God and hardened their hearts, it was the same way during the time of Yeshua and also in today’s time. People did not believe, and dismissed the truth for a lie.  Let us be sure not to make the same mistake.