E17–6: In Hebrew, the names Joshua and Yeshua are IDENTICAL!

“Joshua did as Moshe had told him and fought with ‘Amalek’.”-Exodus 17:10

Let’s talk a little about Joshua, the one whom Moses commissioned to lead the charge in the battle against Amalek.

First, you should know that Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim.

Keep this little fact tucked away in your back pocket, because Ephraim is the key to understanding the end times and especially the Book of Revelation.

Second, during this battle with Amalek, Joshua’s name was NOT yet “Joshua”.

Rather, it was HOSHUA in Hebrew or Hosea in English. (This is totally different than the prophet Hosea, so don’t get confused.)

Now this is another one of those lessons that would be totally missed unless presented in the original Hebrew.

In Hebrew, HOSHUA means “help” or “salvation”.

However, after the victorious battle over Amalek, God changed his name to YEHOSHUA which becomes Joshua in English.

A more technically accurate rendering would be as follows:

YAH-HOSHUA

In other words, following the battle with Amalek, HOSHUA just had the “YAH” from “YAH-WEH” added as a prefix to his name.

So now, the meaning of his name changes from just “help” or “salvation” to “God helps” or “God saves”.

This name change occurred to reflect what happened on that awesome day when God saved the Israelites from Amalek.

In order to commemorate a special event, we’ve seen such name changes occur before, haven’t we?

Recall that Abram had his name changed to Abraham.

Jacob’s (or YA’AKOV in Hebrew) name was changed to Israel.

And now HOSHUA’s name is changed to YAH-HOSHUA.

There is one other mind-blowing point I have to share before I close.

I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, but in Hebrew, YAH-HOSHUA is actually the very same name as our savior YESHUA.

They are the same names in Hebrew, and this is NOT coincidental.

This is an awesome Torah connection to the New Testament.

Just as Joshua PHYSICALLY saved Israel through God’s power, Yeshua SPIRITUALLY saved Israel through God’s power.

Just as Joshua was commissioned to take the Promised Land, so will Yeshua when He returns.

And just as Joshua was a friend of Moses, Yeshua claimed it was Moses who wrote about Him.

Rest assured, these patterns and connections I’m showing you are not contrived.

They are there for us to study and give us hope in the power of God’s Word.

**NEXT TIME WE BEGIN EXODUS CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

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