The Gospel of Exodus opens with the portion of Shemot, meaning names. As it says:

וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הַבָּאִים מִצְרָיְמָה אֵת יַעֲקֹב אִישׁ וּבֵיתוֹ בָּאוּ

“And these are the names of the children of Israel which entered Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household” (Ex. 1:1).

The portion of Names also records the birth of the future leader and deliverer of the people of Israel, Moses; but there is something unusual in his brother announcement:

“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months” (Ex. 2:1-2).

What is unusual? Neither Moses, nor his parents are named. Moses is named by Pharaohs daughter only a few verses later, and the Torah later provides the names of the parents of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses: Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20). Why are they absent here?

In the eyes of the Pharaoh and his court, Israel is a nameless, faceless hoard. Perhaps this was how the Egyptians themselves related to them: a mass of people who have overrun their country. It is not until the daughter of Pharaoh adopts Moses that he is given a name: מֹשֶׁה/Moses, from the verb, to pull or draw out.

What do we learn from this?

Moses was not chosen because he was born to the most important tribe, as the Levites were yet attached to the Tabernacle. He was not born of a great house. He was not wealthy and free; rather, he was born under and then hidden from a death decree. He only survived because his mother was willing to send him down the Nile in a bulrush basket. She let him go, and the Lord lifted him up.

To serve the Lord you need not be born of a great house, family name or of prominent parents. Too many today disqualify themselves because of past sin or present circumstance. Yet, in Christ you are born-again into the greatest house, into His name, and now you call the Lord of heaven, Abba, Father, by the Spirit of Adoption (Ro. 8:15).

Moses faced the challenge of his upbringing as well. Yes, he was born nameless, faceless, and in peril; but, he was raised in the house of the Pharaoh. When the Lord called Moses, and ultimately established him as the leader of Israel, do we think there would not have been whispers about Moses? This “Hebrew” Egyptian “now leading us”? We see this now for the second time, as an earlier deliverer, Joseph, the one the Pharaoh of Exodus 1 forgot, was also a Hebrew “Egyptian.”

The Lord used the experience of both Joseph and Moses to rescue His people, but not in their own name.

When Moses went into the court of Pharaoh, he did so in the name of the Lord: the Name above all names. It was not the name of Moses or even Joseph that rescued, but the name of the Lord God.

When Paul is correcting the Corinthians about the divisions among them, he says so powerfully:

“For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor. 1:11-13).

Baptized and then resurrected in the name of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus. Not that of any earl they house or position. Why does this matter? You, dear reader, are not called to serve, go out, or even build up your own name, but His.

Just as Joseph and Moses were raised to the house of Pharaoh, you may graduate from the most prominent university or from the school of hard knocks, but that matters not. What matters is the calling in His name. For it is by His name that we are saved, sent out, and ultimately harvested into His glorious presence.

Do not focus on your apparent lack, but on the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Moses was a nobody of a dying house, but in God’s name, he is remembered as a man of God.

Hear Paul’s doxology:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:5-11).

The Name above all names has called you by a new name, one from His House. Remember who you are in Him, and He will position you according to His will.

Be well. Shalom. And Happy New Year.