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Exo 4:1-9 Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'YHVH has not appeared to you.'" YHVH said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But YHVH said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail"--so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand-- "that they may believe that YHVH, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." YHVH furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom." So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then He said, "Put your hand into your bosom again." So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. "If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign. "But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

In a recent teaching engagement the question was posed by a very bright and inquisitive "Rabbi-neta" about the reason that the above sited signs were given to convince Israel that Moses had indeed been sent by YHVH. It was with a mixture of pride and also embarrassment that I had to look at one of my "talmadim" (students) and say "That's a very good question!" which of course everyone knows is code for I DON'T KNOW! As I pondered more this point I began to formulate a reason that YHVH in his infinite wisdom had chosen these signs. Let's take a look at the three and see what we can learn about Him and ourselves.

The first sign is that the staff, a symbol of power was changed into a serpent. Now whenever I think of a serpent I go back to the first mention of it, or should I say him, in the Garden of Eden.

Gen 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which YHVH God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!

This story from the beginning would have been very well known to the Israelites as the transmission of the history of civilizations was very important to all peoples everywhere. The concept of sin and repentance is and has always been an important part of Hebrew culture so it is with some surety that I propose that the first sign was to demonstrate the power (staff) that the sent one (Moses) had over the serpent (enemy.) We know from our studies that Moses was a type and shadow of the Messiah giving us a glimpse into the work that Yeshua would do in His future visit. Yeshua (sent One) also demonstrated His power (staff) over the enemy (serpent) as He defeated him on the wood approximately 1500 years later. The prophetic significance is plain to see and I believe that the Israelites would have made the easy connection as well.

Exo 7:9-12 "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent.'" So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as YHVH had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

When Moses and Aaron preformed this miracle before Pharaoh, the magicians did the same thing with their sorceries, BUT in English we miss something very profound that is revealed in Hebrew, go figure!
There are two different words used in Hebrew for serpent.

In B'reshit (Gen.) 3 and Shemot 4 the word used for serpent is "nachash" which has a connotation of "shiny or divination." However in Shemot 7 the word used is "tanin" which is more readily translated as "monster or dragon." The very interesting thing is the cognate of tanin is "atan" which means "gift" or "price" as in a price brought to a prostitute. We will look at this in more detail later.

Next we have the "leprous" hand. Every student of the Torah should easily recognize this as the tzaras affliction that is spoken of in detail in Vayikra (Lev.) 13. The important thing that we glean from this encounter in Shemot (Exo.) is that the affliction is only given by YHVH and removed by the same.

This will be the pattern for our understanding of tzaras in Vayikra (Leviticus) also. Even though this is the first mention of tzaras in Scripture, I submit that the Hebrews already understood this affliction. The one who would not have understood it was Pharaoh. You see we have two very important clues in the text to tell us what is happening. One is the, in my and several others opinion, mis-punctuated verse in chapter 6:

Exo 6:3 "...and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by My name, YHVH, I did not make Myself known to them. "

Now you may or may not like what I am about to say, but never the less, I propose that the verse in the Hebrew could be rendered;

"...,but by my name YHVH did I not make myself known?"

There are no question marks or commas in Hebrew and since the name YHVH has appeared some 240 times and we have Abraham using the name YHVH (Gen.21:33) Isaac also (Gen.25:11) and finally Jacob (Gen.28:16) the current rendition of not revealing His personal name doesn't make any sense. Now let's couple this verse with the following;

Exo 5:2 But Pharaoh said, "Who is YHVH that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know YHVH, and besides, I will not let Israel go."

You see the personal name of YHVH was revealed to Israel but NOT to Pharaoh. This is why the sign of the tzaras hand was not given to Pharaoh he would not have understood the power of the act. Only YHVH could heal tzaras, Namaan was healed of tzaras in Melekim beit (2 Kings) chapter 5 but the encounter is clearly the work of YHVH not the prophet Elisha, as Elisha was not even present when the healing took place. We once again come to The Messiah Yeshua who personally heals lepers ( Mat.8:2, Luk. 17:12), and you guessed it, it's the same word used here, tzaras. So what are we saying? That in the healing of the tzaras Yeshua is proclaiming he is YHVH! Only those with a personal relationship with Yeshua, the human manifestation of YHVH, can understand the awesome miracle of the tzaras healing. YHVH revealed Himself to Israel in this miracle and gave us an irrefutable sign for Messiah at the same time.

The third sign was that the waters from the Nile would be poured out to become blood. B'reshit 9:4 states

Gen 9:4 "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

The Nile was, and is, a source of life for all of Egypt. The overflowing of its banks every year enriches the surrounding country side with minerals for farming. Also just plain water is a daily necessity. Changing the water to blood was a proclamation over life itself. The Nile was a source of bloodshed for Israel as all the males born some 80 years earlier were cast into it to reduce the population of Israel.(Shemot 1:22) The pouring out of the water on the ground is tantamount to the same thing in B'reshit;

Gen 4:10 He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.

The blood shed in the Nile years before was crying out to the injustice done. YHVH had remembered their tears and was acting on Israels' behalf. It is interesting to note that when this sign is given to Egypt all the water, not just in the Nile, is changed to blood. The atrocity done in one place against Israel would be visited on all of Egypt. When a leader does wrong all the followers suffer too.

To sum it all up, the first sign, the serpent, and the third sign were given not only to Israel but also to Egypt. The sign of the tzaras affliction was withheld from Pharaoh because he didn't know YHVH personally. I mentioned before that a cognate of tanin (serpent) is atan or a gift for a prostitute, the word used by YHVH to Moses for serpent is nachash, related to divination or, if I may, discernment. Pharaoh should have discerned that this YHVH he did not know was the real thing, however he had prostituted himself as did the whole world, to false gods.

Bottom line YHVH is demonstrating in these three signs, that He is THE God who has power of sin, over death and over life and by His name, YHVH, He is calling together a people unto Himself.

When I was in Israel I heard a Rabbi say once, "Christians are always saying that God spoke to me, as if the person was something special. This is very strange to us because we believe that God is always speaking to us, it's just we are not always listening." The question to ask ourselves is "What sign is YHVH giving me in my life and what will happen if I don't heed them?"

Shalom B'Shem Yeshua
Bill