Post by R' Y'hoshua Moshe on Nov 8, 2006 23:47:46 GMT -8
"My Teacher Yah"
By Reuel
Parashah Vayera
By Reuel
Parashah Vayera
It has been said that experience is one of the best teachers. In parashah Vayera we see that Adonai wants personally be apart of that teaching experience. And, thus we have the phrase that begins this parashah, “Vayra elav YHVH” which means “YHVH appeared to him”. Those whom find pleasure in obeying our Father in Heaven also enjoy the experience of being taught personally by Him. In a commentary from the Chumash it is noted, “Or HaChaim explains that when people carry out great deeds, God shows himself to them as a token of tribute”. The book of Ya’akov (James) in chapter 4 verse 8 says,
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners! And purify your hearts, double minded ones!”
In the last parashah we see Avraham leaving everything, and turning his back on his old life and drawing near to God. He whole-heartedly moves on to serve Adonai walking before him perfect and blameless. On his journey of sanctification he enters into the covenant of circumcision, removing that last bit of flesh which was in the way of serving God perfectly.
In Divrei-HaYamim Bet (2Chronicles) 16:9 it states, “For the eyes of YHVH run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…”
Will God show himself strong on your behalf? Do you want Him to? This is a good time to check our pulse. As Adonai is searching back on forth throughout the whole earth, is he finding a perfect heart in us? Or, is he finding us being double minded? The Hebrew word in the last passage here for “perfect” when describing the hearts that Adonai is looking for is the word “shalem”. This word can be found in Strongs H7999 which means, “complete, full, just, made ready, peaceable, perfect, quiet, whole.” And, it has it’s connection to the word “shalom”, which can mean peace. But, I believe it can more accurately communicate being complete and being made ready. Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Yeshua our Master encouraged us with these words in Mattityahu (Mat.) Mat 5:6,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
If we recognize that we have been double minded in some area of our service to God and we wish to change that, the book of Philippians has something to share with us. It says,
“Don’t worry about anything; on the contrary, make your requests known to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Then God’s shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua”. – Philippians 4:6-7
Are there certain areas in your life or places where you are struggling, areas where you may have given up? Our Rabbi Yeshua taught a parable in the book of Luke 18:1-8,
“And He also spoke a parable to them to teach it is always right to pray, and not to faint, saying, A certain judge was in a certain city, not fearing God and not respecting man. And a widow was in that city, and she came to him, saying, Avenge me from my adversary. And for a time he would not. But after these things he said to himself, Even if I do not fear God, and do not respect man, yet because this widow causes me trouble, I will avenge her, that not coming to the end, she wear me down. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says; and will God not at all execute the avengement of His elect, those crying to Him day and night, also having been long-suffering over them? I say to you that He will carry out the avengement of them speedily. But the Son of Man coming then, will He find faith on the earth?”
It is when we humble ourselves like Avraham and do what Adonai created us for that we will find fulfillment. When we do this we will find completeness and we will find shalom. The Chumash (Stone Edition pg.18) notes that it was the third day after Avraham’s circumcision that God appears to him. The Chumash also comments that this is the day that “the wound is most painful and the patient most weakened”. If Adonai did visit Avraham on the third day after his circumcision it would be meaningful. It would be during this time that Adonai chooses to strengthen and uplift Avraham. In 2Corinthians 12:9-10 the Emissary Sha’ul (Paul) says the following,
“He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Messiah may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Messiah's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
For those whom humble themselves before Messiah’s second coming the prophet Hoshea has the following words to share about this third day as we see in Hoshea 6:1-6,
“Come and let us return to YHVH. For He has torn, and He will heal us. He has stricken, and He will bind us up. After two days He will bring us to life. In the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him. Then we shall know, we who follow on to know YHVH. His going forth is established as the dawn. And He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth. O Efrayim, what shall I do to you? O Yehudah, what shall I do to you? For your goodness is like a morning cloud, and it goes away like the early dew. So I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the Words of My mouth; and your judgments have been as the light that goes forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
This brings us to the binding of Yitzchak (Isaac) which happens to take place on the “third day” as we see in B’resheet (Gen.) 22:4. In our previous passage we see the phrase, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” And, I believe that through this experience Avraham goes through with his son Yitzchak, this concept is beautifully taught by Adonai. Our Heavenly Father wants to teach us about Him and does not necessarily want the sacrifice in and of itself, but wants the desired result, the fruit that the experience teaches us about Him, His Kingdom, and ourselves. The story detailing the binding of Yitzchak starts in B’resheet (Gen.) 22:1
“It happened after these things, that God tested Avraham, and said to him, "Avraham!" He said, "Here I am."
So, first we see that this was a test for Avraham. But, we know that in B’resheet (Gen.) 18:19 (before the binding of Yitzchak) God states the following about Avraham,
“For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of YHVH, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that YHVH may bring on Avraham that which he has spoken of him."
So, why would God need to test Avraham further? Does He not know the beginning from the end? Of course He does. This Hebrew word “nasah” found in Strongs 5254 being translated as “test” in many translations can also be translated to “prove”. Many times our Heavenly Father proves the ones whom He knows will serve Him for those in the Heavenlies to see. Iyov (Job) comes to mind. In Iyov (Job) 1:8 it says,
“YHVH said to HaSatan, "Have you considered my servant, Iyov? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil."
Just like our Heavenly Father proved Iyov, just like He proved Avraham, He also proved His one and only Son, Yeshua HaMashiach (The Messiah) when He had His wilderness experience. It is like when an engineer works with a construction team to make a bridge. They know what they are doing, they build the bridge correctly and know that it is structurally sound. They know that if they drive a car over the bridge it will support the weight of that car. But, to prove it to everyone else, they park a large truck on the bridge to prove it’s integrity. Are we allowing our Master architect and His construction team to make us structurally sound for the day He decides to show us off to the world and to the Heavenlies? When He returns to establish His Kingdom will he find us complete and made ready?
As we continue to read in B’resheet (Gen.) 22:2 it says, “He said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Yitzchak, and go into the land of Moriyah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of."
Again, Adonai wants to teach Avraham something about Himself and His Kingdom here and thus he commands him to go to the land of Moriyah. The name of this land, “Moriyah” can be translated, “Yah is my teacher”. This land of Moriyah is the very land of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). The sages explain that the land of Moriyah was so named because (the Hebrew word) “hora’ah” (teaching) went forth from it to the world. And, we will once again see this happen as it is prophesied in Yeshayahu (Isai.) chapter 2. This is the special place where Adonai has chosen to teach us His foundational truths. Here we see that He teaches Avraham about His love and the understanding of having to give up His one and only son of promise for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. And, here Adonai is certainly not asking Avraham to do something that He is not willing to do Himself. We whom believe in Yeshua The Messiah know that Adonai sacrificed His one and only son of promise out of love for us and for our sake. What a better way for Avraham to learn this profound truth than to have to experience it for Himself. After all, he is the Father of our faith. It is fitting that he would learn this great truth.
Avraham was commanded to sacrifice His only beloved son on the mountain of Moriyah, the very place were all of the Temples have stood, the very place of the Mishkan. This is the place Adonai chose to teach Avraham about the true meaning of sacrifice, the very place that has a name translated as, “Yah is my teacher”. Yitzchak was to be offered as a “burnt offering”. The Hebrew for “burnt offering” is “olah” which means, “to ascend, or to go up”. Doesn’t this also teach about Messiah whom was God’s one and only son whom he loves and that would be sacrificed as an offering that would ascend and go up back to His Father in Heaven, to be a pleasing sacrifice?
After the crucifixion and resurrection of Messiah, Yochanan (John) 20:17 states, “Yeshua said to her, "Don't touch me, for I haven't yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
In Yeshayahu (Isa.) 53:1-10 says the following, “Who has believed our message? and to whom has the arm of YHVH been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we didn't respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought our shalom was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; everyone has turned to his own way; and YHVH has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn't open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the disobedience of my people to whom the stroke was due? They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased YHVH to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of YHVH shall prosper in his hand.”
During this time that Adonai is teaching this important lesson of giving up a one and only son for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, He reinforces this idea that Avraham’s descendents and the covenant given to him would indeed be preserved through the sacrifice provided by God Himself as we see Avraham understood in B’resheet (Gen.) 22:8. It states,
“And Avraham said, “God will seek out for Himself the lamb for the offering, my son.”
Yitzchak (Isaac) was also a picture of Messiah as he willingly allowed himself to be bound to be a sacrifice. The Chumash (Stone Edition, pg. 103) notes that Yitzchak was 37 years of age and at Avraham’s age he could hardly over power Yitzchak to bind him on top of an altar. Yitzchak willingly gave himself up in obedience to His Father. But, as we read the account in B’resheet we see that Adonai did provide a sacrifice instead of Yitzchak. Verse 14 of chapter 22 says,
“And Avraham called the name of that site “YHVH Yireh,” as it is said this day, on the mountain YHVH will be seen”. And, indeed being the future site of The Temple, the dwelling place of Adonai, this prophecy did and will once again come to pass. This ties not only into the past and coming Levitical priesthood where the shekinah will once again be seen, but it has connections to the priesthood of Mashiach (Messiah). Let me explain. The Midrash notes that name of this place was originally called “Shalem”, a name given by Shem, the son of Noach (Noah). The sages have identified Shem as “Malchizedek”, the king of Shalem (Salem), whom was said to officiate from what we now know as Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). The book of Hebrews tells us that Yeshua is a priest after the order of Malchizedek (which means King Of Righteousness). After the binding of Yitzchak we read that Avraham called it, “Yireh”. The Midrash notes that “in deference to both Shem and Avraham, God synthesized both names and called it “Yerushalayim” (Jerusalem). With this combined name that many know as “Jerusalem” we see that it communicates at this location in the future that Adonai’s plan will be seen (Yireh/Yeru) in it’s completeness (Shalayim/Shalem) as all things will have been fulfilled.
Shalom,
Reuel
- there are 70 faces to 
