Torah: Exodus 18:1-20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:6(5)-7(6)

Long ago, the Jewish sages created the parsha, a reading calendar to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books or Nevi’im of the Old Testament or Ketuvim). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days. For February 7, 2026, Yitro (Jethro), the readings are cited above. I would encourage you to read those passages first before you read my post, or at least read them in tandem.

This portion takes us through Jethro’s visit to Moses at Sinai, the delegation of responsibility to “competent men” for helping him judge the people, and the giving of the Ten Commandments and how to make an altar for God. So today I want to break it down so we can see Messiah throughout this portion. First, I want to talk about how the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai (Horeb) foreshadows the coming of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of the Messiah in the last days, as well as how the Mosaic Covenant is a continuation of God’s promise to Abraham (it did not nullify previous covenants like the Abrahamic and Noahic ones, nor was it nullified by the Davidic Covenant or any other subsequent covenants, including the New Covenant in the Messiah). Finally, I want to connect the Torah portion with the portion from the Book of Isaiah and explain what that can tell us about Messiah and the heart of God for our own generation.

The Ten Commandments at Sinai and Messiah: Is God Done with the “Old Covenant”?

Sinai was a powerful event. God spoke from the mountain out of a smoky cloud of fire. The earth shook, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and a mysterious shofar sounded, growing louder and louder. The event must have been terrifying. The people trembled (Ex. 19:16, 20:18[15]) and were so scared, they thought they were going to die (Ex. 20:19[16]). Let’s talk about God’s promise to Israel if they remained faithful and the sounding of the shofar and how these both are a part of Jesus Christ, Messiah Yeshua.

God told Moses,

“⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex. 19:4).

Moses later echoed this in his song to the people;

“¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹ Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
¹² the Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him” (Deut. 32:10-12).

Isaiah, who is the prophet for this portion, said,

“but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Is. 40:31).

This promise is still true today and will be in the future. In Revelation chapter 12, John records his vision of a woman who gave birth to a son that a dragon was waiting to devour. The dragon is Satan (Rev. 12:9), the woman is Israel, and the child is Jesus. The woman is clothed with the sun, the moon at her feet, and twelve stars around her head. According to Joseph’s dream, the sun and moon refer to Jacob and Leah, and the twelve stars refer to the 12 sons of Israel or the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob interpreted his dream, saying, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” (Gen. 37:10). Therefore, we can reasonably assume that John understood this imagery and God used it to communicate His ongoing plan for “what must take place after this” (Rev. 4:1). The child is Jesus, for He “is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne” (Rev. 12:5). This is the ascension. Jesus returned to His throne in heaven after His death, burial, and resurrection. But God was not and is not done with Israel when the Messiah came like some people claim. Instead, “the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days” (Rev. 12:6).

“But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time” (Rev. 12:14).

Just like the ancient Israelites were born on eagles’ wings and cared for in the wilderness, so will Israel be cared for by the Lord for a designated period of time in a designated future. By the way, 1,260 days is three and a half years, and “a time, and times, and half a time” is an expression for three and a half years. Joseph said when something was doubled prophetically, it was fixed (Gen. 41:32). This ongoing care and provision for Israel is fixed no matter what church doctrine or the UN or any of Israel’s enemies say. If God will care for Israel, should not His children?

Now that we have looked at what God did and prophetically will do for Israel, let’s look at His promise to Israel and how that applies to the Church:

“⁵ Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; ⁶ and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel” (Ex. 19:5-6).

Peter, himself a Jew, a member of this “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation,” writes to the Church, saying,

“⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

By reading the interpretation of Peter, we can confidently conclud that he understood this passage in Exodus to also extend to the Gentile church, not just to believing Jews. How? The answer is in preceding verses:

“⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4-5)

The answer is through Jesus Christ, but let us not forget that the passage from which Peter quotes says, “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant.” We must be living and active believers, “living stones,” not dead stones who put their confidence is a one and done prayer we prayed 30 years ago in Sunday school.

I believe it is no coincidence that Peter uses the word “excellencies” in conjunction with his quote of Exodus 19. Exodus 19 lies in the portion named Jethro, and Jethro means “excellence.” You know what I think? I think God’s intricate hand in the composition and preservation of His Word over thousands of years is excellent. And here I am proclaiming it on a platform that literally reaches around the world. Last year alone, my blog reached 40 countries. To God be the glory!

So if God nullified the Mosaic Covenant when Jesus came, the promises Peter applied to the church which was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles would be vain. For those promises were given with the Torah. If the Torah became obsolete, then the promises became obsolete long before Peter even penned that quote. What did Jesus Himself have to say about this? He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt. 5:17). Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (Rom. 3:31).

The Trumpet and the Lightning

Next, I want to talk about the trumpet or shofar that sounded on Mount Sinai and the lightning and the fire on the mountain and what that has to do with Jesus as Messiah and you and me.

The shofar that sounded on that day at Sinai–who blew it? The Bible doesn’t say explicitly, but it doesn’t appear to be Moses, and it wasn’t the people. The shofar is associated with the great spectacle of God’s manifestation of the mountain:

“¹⁸ Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far of” (Ex. 20:188[15]).

It seems that God Himself was blowing the shofar. Is there a connection with this shofar and the Messiah? The answer is absolutely. God will blow this trumpet again when the Messiah comes in power and glory to rule the earth in peace. Let’s go to Zechariah:

“¹⁴ Then the Lord will appear over them,
    and his arrow will go forth like lightning;
the Lord God will sound the trumpet
    and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south” (Zech 9:14).

“Then,” when? What’s our context for “then”? Well, check it out:

“⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
¹¹ As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
¹² Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double” (Zech. 9:9-12).

Matthew clearly ties the first part of this passage with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey (Mt. 21:4-5). That was His first coming. That was when He brought the blood of His covenant (Mt. 26:28, Mk. 14:24, 1 Cor. 11:25). His second coming will fulfill the second half of this passage. He will claim on the accomplishment of the blood of His covenant. And this is when God will blow the shofar again with lightning. Indeed, Jesus Himself said, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt. 24:27). That trumpet will be the last trumpet when the dead in Messiah are raised (1 Cor. 15:51-52). Whereas the Israelites were terrified they would die if they continued to hear and see what they did at Sinai, Jesus’ return with the shofar God blows will bring those already dead alive. You and I, as believers, will be transformed or raised.

The Fire

Next, I want to talk about the fire on Mount Sinai the day God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, how this is connected to Pentecost, and what it has to do with you and me. Exodus 19:18 says,

“¹⁸ Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire.”

This event happened on a holy day God would institute as Shavuot, a time for bringing in the first fruits of the harvest to dedicate to God. New Testament readers and Christians understand this day as Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit was given.

“2 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).

Check it out. On the same day God came on the mountain in fire to give the Torah, God came on believers in fire in the Holy Spirit to give prophetic utterance. In the portion Yitro, God took a portion of His spirit on Moses and put it on the “chiefs” of Israel and they prophesied. In Acts chapter 2, God took the Spirit that was on Jesus (Acts 1:2, 10:38) and put it on the apostles of the Church and they prophesied. Could the timing of this parallel be any more perfect?

Jesus said that the one who receives the Holy Spirit receives power (Acts 1:8), the power that raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11), the power of God. If you believe Jesus Christ Yeshua Ha Mashiach is the Son of God, that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead, then when you ask Him to forgive you, He is faithful and just to do so (1 Jn. 1:9), and when you believe in Him as your Savior and confess Him with your mouth, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9). You will receive the Holy Spirit. Remember this fire, this power, because I will come back to it when we visit the Haftarah of Isaiah toward the end of this post.

The Altar of Earth or Stone

“²⁴ An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. ²⁵ If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it” (Ex. 20:24[21]-25[22]).

This portion closes with instructions for building an altar. It had to be out of earth or unhewn stones. Even this too, I argue, is another indicator pointing to the Messiah and the death that He would die and the purpose it would accomplish. For Jesus to be the sacrifice once for all for our sins, He had to come to earth. So he did, and it was on that earth that He was crucified, His altar. If the altar was stone, it had to be made of stones not hewn by a human. This reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as recorded in Daniel chapter two:

“a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan. 2:34-35).

The image represented various kingdoms of the earth over time. This rock that was cut by no human hand crushed those kingdoms of the earth and filled the earth. This fits right in with Zechariah 9 where the Messiah comes and sets up His reign on earth over the whole earth. The atonement for sin would be on earth by God’s plan, not by any human contrived or “hewn” plan.

Isaiah, Mount Sinai, and You and Me

Lastly, let’s dive into the portion from the prophets this week, because I see a lot of parallels between it and this portion. It reveals the unchanging heart of God and the Messiah Himself.

Isaiah records the moment of his calling. He saw God just like the Israelites at Sinai saw God. He said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Is 6:5). This is just like the Israelites at Sinai who said, “[D]o not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:19). Moses told the people, “Do not fear” (Ex. 20:20), and Isaiah in this week’s section was sent to King Ahaz of Judah to say, “Do not fear” (Is. 7:4). God told the Israelites at Sinai to wash their clothes and be prepared to meet the Lord at Sinai in three days. God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to meet him “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field” (Is. 7:3). The JSB translates Washer’s Field as “Launderer’s Field.” Ahaz was being intimidated by the military alliance between Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but God called them “two smoldering stumps of firebrands” (Is. 7:4). Well, yeah, compared to the powerful fire on Mount Sinai, that’s what they were. During Isaiah’s lifetime, Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell captive to Assyria. Don’t be afraid of what faces you. God is greater than any smoldering stumps of firebrands that threaten to burn you. His fire is greater. His fire lives in you when you believe in Him. Like Isaiah told King Ahaz, who was evil, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (Is. 7:9).

The “Holy Seed” in Isaiah

The Complete Jewish Study Bible says about Isaiah chapter six, “Yesha’yahu’s need for personal cleansing (v. 5) mirrors the cleansing the Nation needs to experience” (494). God desired to cleanse the nation as readily as he cleansed Isaiah when he confessed his unworthiness. God has that same heart toward you and me today, and we have no less of a need for cleansing than they. When Israel was unrepentant, He winnowed them with discipline, but He left enough of a remnant from which the Messiah would come, the “holy seed” (Is. 7:13). Going back to the very first prophecy of Messiah, God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). Now what the ESV translates as offspring actually is the Hebrew word for seed, zera, just like the word used for “seed” in Isaiah chapter 7. Is Isaiah’s “holy seed” the “seed” of Eve Who would bruise the serpent’s head? Well, check this out. The portion skips right to Is. 9:6(5)-7(6):

“For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

I think the portion itself gives the answer. This is widely understood among Cristians and Messianic believers as a prophecy of Jesus. I always hear it read at Christmas. Moreover, why is a son called Mighty God unless He is the Son of God? Why is He called Everlasting Father when Isaiah clearly says he has a birth, unless He was the Everlasting before He was born?

This “holy seed” is “Christ the firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:23). I think it’s another intricate pairing of text with events and dates, given that this part of Isaiah is paired with the passage in Exodus that occurred on what became Shavuot, Firstfruits. This was a plan accomplished by “the zeal of the Lord of Hosts,” not anything hewn by people.

I hope you enjoy thinking about these things as I do. I hope this encourages you to put your faith in Him if you have not yet, and I hope it deepens your faith if you have. I am in absolute awe of him. I literally fell on the floor and worshipped after this Bible study. May we worship Him together. Until next time, God bless.

His Excellencies

Lord of Hosts, holy, holy, holy One.
I am wholly unworthy, so profaned.
You say I am Your treasured possession,
Holy, chosen, royal, priestly–contained
In this tiny clay jar the world disdained.
I ride on Your eagles’ wings without fear.
You give me white robes, remove the old, stained.
I proclaim Your excellence far and near,
How the earth You made was Your altar. Here
Mighty God became a man. Wonderful!
The Everlasting Father born? Hear!
“My blood, my covenant is merciful.”
What wonderful counsel! Amen! Indeed!
That the Prince of Peace is the Holy Seed.

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

Britannica. Assyria | History, Map, & Facts | Britannica. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

The Complete Jewish Study Bible. Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2016.

The Interlinear Bible. Hendrickson Publishers, United States of America. August 2010.

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1996.