There’s a sneaky hidden prophecy that happens during the sea crossing, related to the Feast of First Fruits. If it doesn’t blow your mind, I’ll take the blame for how I explained it and how I’m simplifying the Hebrew transliteration to English. And yes, it’s now 4 days after Day one, and I’m still dwelling on it.
Mary’s New Testament arrival at the empty tomb is prophetically spelled out (literally) in surprising detail in Exodus 14 and 15—the parting of the Red Sea. Let’s see if you see what I see at the sea.
It’s crucial (and fun!) to realize that the original language in which the oldest parts of our Bibles were written was more like hieroglyphics. Each and every letter was a picture that had meaning in addition to providing a sound for pronunciation. You can really catch the spirit or the weight of simple words, just by reading the meaning in the combined pictures. We’ll discuss this over and over again, providing several detailed examples between now and Day 50.
A great example is the word for ‘Egypt’ in Hebrew: MITZRAIM. It literally means ‘bondage’, but more literally it means to be stuck in a really tight place.
Now, let’s talk about the Hebrew letter in the MIDDLE of the word ‘miTZriam’. Tzade is what that letter is called. It makes the tz sound (like the zz in pizza). The letter itself has a meaning, and that meaning is even implied in the shape of the letter–a righteous man, likely lying down, concealed, or praying. Words that use ‘tzade‘ often illustrate righteousness.
Um…such as ‘righteousness’, pronounced ‘tzade-kah‘.
So MI-TZ-RAIM has that ‘Tzade‘ there, stuck in the middle. But, in the middle of what exactly?
The first and the last two letters of MI-TZ-RAIM tell us. Mem, Yod, Mem (pronounced mayim). Each Mem is a picture of water or blood, and often chaos. The Yod in the middle is the hand of Yah. The three letters together reinforces the definition of the word. Mayim means ‘water’. Yah separated the waters in the very beginning of creation, and that image now appears in the eternal language as the word for water.
So, Egypt is more than just bondage…the picture illustrates a little righteous man that’s sandwiched and trapped between water. For the rest of your bible-studying lives, whenever you see the word Egypt (Mitzraim in Hebrew), I hope you’ll imagine the righteous firstborn striving for freedom between the waters–and about to be granted that freedom.
Here’s where it gets good.
Up until this point in Exodus, right up to and through the crossing of the Red Sea, there’s a crucial character who is only referred to as “his Sister” [Moses & Aaron’s]. She isn’t given a proper name in the text until the righteous firstborn had finally become delivered from the tight-water-place, and she sings the chorus of the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:20.
Take the TZ out of Mi-TZ-raim, and the letters you are left with spell MIRIAM. [Trust me, this works with the Hebrew letters, without rearranging them for the English spelling].
No wonder she was banging those tambourines so hard!
No wonder she is called a Prophetess!
She witnessed the salvation of Moses from the water as a baby, and now she’s the witness to the salvation of YHWH’s firstborn from the water too. Miriam has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
In the Gospel accounts, when Messiah is freed from the bondage of the tomb on the very anniversary of the Red Sea crossing—we see the same picture—a formerly hidden, trapped, and righteous man, whose salvation is witnessed by Mary.
Is the delivery from Egypt a story of a birth of a nation? Look at all the references to midwives in Exodus. Is this a story of resurrection? Joseph, the seed of Israel, was the first to be implanted in the womb of Egypt, and his physical bones were carried out on this very day. Are we being taught that being “born again” is the same thing as a resurrection?
John, 3:1-9 “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Yeshua by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Yeshua answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Yeshua answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Yeshua answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?“
What about the Tzade, the formerly trapped righteous man? Where did he go next? He appears again in the narrative very shortly in another mind-blowing way, related to both the Exodus Miriam and the Gospel Mary.
I’ll cover that in the next article.