Exodus 7:9: “When Pharaoh says to you: ‘Prove yourself by working a miracle.’

It is interesting to note that the word for prove here is not nacah which is your standard Hebrew word for prove.  Instead the writer uses an interesting word which is nathan. This was one of the easiest vocabulary words to remember when I was taking my first year Hebrew class. I just had to think of Nathan Hale who said, “I have but one life to give for my country.”   That old boy must have had some PR guy working for him when he came up with the name Nathan, because it is a Hebrew word meaning to give.   What makes this word interesting is that it is spelled the same way both backward and forward. The word starts with a Nun and ends with a Nun. This shows a circular pattern. The Final Nun does not have a foot on the bottom but the line extends below the page.  This shows that  the first Nun which represents faith passes through the taw which represents praise or prayer from the heart, goes back to another Nun (faith) but that Nun is not closed so it is given out and then,  because of the circular nature of the word, it comes back to you again. The sages see two representations for the word Nathan and the fact that is spelled the same backward or forward.  The first is when you pray in faith the prayer comes back to you answered.   The other representation is that when you give, you will receive back so that you will always have something to give our again.

Curiously  in Exodus 7:9 nathan is followed by the word takem (to you or for you).  Nathan is used as a verb here and the writer could have easily put this into a Hithpael (reflexive) form.  The question is why add the prepositional phrase rather than put it into a Hithpael form?   The answer may be found in the next word, mopheth. This word is rendered as miracle, yet once again this is not your usual Hebrew word for miracle. The Hebrew word for miracle is owth.  Mopheth comes from a Semitic root word yaphath.  This really has more of the idea of a sign or wonder that is used for purposes of intimidation.  Quite literally what Pharaoh was telling Moses was: Make yourself an intimidation to me.  

That is understandable. Here was the Pharaoh, he was considered a god.  Here was Moses,  an outcast representing the slavery class and Pharaoh was saying: “Who are you and who is this God of yours.  You don’t scare me.  Go  ahead and try to intimidate me.”   The Talmud puts it this way: “Give yourself some credibility by displaying a sign.”

There is a story in Jewish literature about a simple man and his wife who owned a small inn.  The man would spend all his time in prayer and study of Torah.  When a guest would come, the wife would call the man and he would come and prepare the meal and bed for the visitor. He was just a simple man.  One day his brother in law, a very learned and well recognized rabbi  was passing through and stopped to spend the night in the inn. The rabbi thought to himself how unfortunate it was that he should spend the night with this simple boring brother in law.  When he arrived he began to order the brother in law around, telling to feed his horse, prepare his meal etc.

The next day was Friday and the rabbi was anxious to leave to spend the Sabbath with his learned friends, so that he might study Torah with them and discover the mysteries of God.  After a hasty breakfast the rabbi prepared to leave and the rabbi’s brother in law asked if maybe the rabbi would honor them and spend the Sabbath with them.   The rabbi thinking what a bore it would be to spend the Sabbath with this simple man and his sister said he had important and learned friends to spend the Sabbath with and needed to be on his way.  But he had no sooner left than a wheel on his carriage broke. He returned, had it repaired and went on his way again.  This time the other wheel broke.  He returned had it repaired and went on his way again.  The third time his harness broke.  By now it was too late to travel and he was forced to spend the Sabbath with the simple, boring brother in law.

During the Sabbath dinner the inn keeper expounded on a passage of Torah in such a simple way that  the rabbi brother in law just rolled his eyes and thought what a simple understanding this man has and to himself laughed it off.

That night  as the rabbi prepared for bed he saw the glow of a fire in the dinning room. He called for his sister and cried:  “There is a fire in the dinning room, we must put it out.”  They raced to the dinning room and there the rabbi found no fire but his brother in law sitting by a candle studying Torah and his face glowed with a brilliant light.  The rabbi immediately thought of the Torah passage that evening and his brother in laws explanation and knew that he had been given insight into the deep mysteries of God.

You see, although this inn keeper was a simple, uneducated man, the rabbi just passed his insight into Torah off as the expression of a simple man and gave it no thought. Yet, God gave this simple inn keeper mopheth – credibility.

Yesterday in church I listened to my pastor expound on a passage of Scripture. My first thought was, “I respect this man as a man of God, but still I have studied this verse among many learned men and that is not what the passage is really saying.” At the same moment this thought crossed my mind I glanced over at the congregation and I saw a woman suddenly begin to weep when she heard our pastor’s “simple” explanation of this passage. I was suddenly filled with guilt and shame.  I realized that my pastor’s explanation came from years and years of personal experience and study.  I knew he lived every sermon he preached.  God reminded me in this mopheth sign of credibility  that my own personal pride almost kept me from receiving a deep and important message being delivered by this servant of God.  I felt God was saying to me, “Ok, Pharaoh if it takes a mopheth sign to give my Moses servant credibility in yours eyes, and then a sign I am giving.”

Credibility in God’s world does not come from a title in front of your name and a bunch of letters after your name, it comes from years of experience and study of God’s Word but mostly it comes from a heart that is joined with the heart of God.