Main Theme
This is the first Torah Portion in the yearly reading cycle! This Parsha is Bereishit (genesis) 1:1-6:8. First we need to determine the main theme of this week's portion. In every part of this week's portion it seems that there is a continual theme between all of the stories. Disobedience leads to separation from God. For example, Adam and Chava (Eve) ate from the forbidden tree and were separated from God's presence. Cain killed Able and was separated from God. God saw that mankind had become exceedingly wicked so he decided he would destroy them (separated from God). There seems to be a clear message throughout that says that we cannot enter into a holy God's presence if we have sin in our lives. Lets see what else we can see in this week's portion by breaking these stories down and further studying them.
Messiah in Torah
Starting at the beginning we have to begin to wonder how an infinite being can interact with a finite universe. Have you ever stopped to think about that? If God is infinite how does he fit into a finite universe? Does he just talk to it? Does he just think about it and it happens? If God can walk in the midst of the garden then at least some aspect of Him can be present in a physical universe. Lets see what John says on this subject. Please read John 1:1-18. Here we see that the Messiah is the one who is doing the creating and having interactions with the creation. The Messiah is the aspect of God that he has decided that He wanted us to know him by. No one has seen the face of the Father, however we are told over and over in Torah over and over that people were talking with God face to face. This should raise some concerns if we believe that the scriptures do not contradict one another. We are told here in 1:2 that the spirit of God was moving on the surface of the water. can you think of another passage that this sounds like? Please read John 6:45-52. Here we see Messiah walking on the sea of Galilee! As if this isn't the perfect picture for us! Yeshua is declaring his status as God to his disciples.
Appointed Times
Here in chapter 1 God is creating everything. We see in verses 14-18 he is setting up his appointed times. The word in verse 14 translated seasons is the Hebrew word Moed which is the singular form of the word Moedim (appointed times) this is laying a foundation for the Feast days that we read about all throughout Torah and are written in Leviticus 23. We see here that God had everything planned from the beginning including His Sabbath. Chapter 2 starts off with the Sabbath. This is a touchy subject in today's culture as the world seems to care less and less about anything Holy. The seventh day is the day God set apart for rest. He then gave His Sabbath to mankind as a gift. This was affirmed by Yeshua in Mark 2:27 when he said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." The first full day of Adam's life was the Sabbath day. We do not get to choose any day as our Sabbath. Because it doesn't belong to us. Here and every other place we see in scripture the Sabbath belongs to God. We have no authority to change it, and neither does the Roman Catholic Church. (Google it) :-)
The First Passover?
The first interaction that we get with Cain and Abel is in chapter 4. Here we see a interesting thing happening. Cain and Abel are bringing sacrifices. This seems odd, they haven't received the Torah yet. Right? Let's look at the story a little more in depth to see if we can find any other interesting details. We see Abel brings the of the firstlings of the flock and the best of the best of what he had to offer. Then we see that Cain brings some fruits and vegetables but they weren't described as being anything special. God accepts Abel's offering and looked favorably upon him. However we see that YHVH did not look favorably upon Cain's offering and Cain became angry. He then killed his brother and was sent into exile. This seems to share some similarities with the Passover. Do you see it? We tend to see common themes throughout scripture detailing certain events. In the story of Passover we find we are to sacrifice a firstborn, one year old lamb without blemish. In this story we see Abel bringing a sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock and of the fatness of the herd. We also see that God passes judgement in the story of passover. And in this story we find that he banishes Cain from the face of the earth. We also see another layer of similarities in this story played out in prophecy! For example Yeshua died on passover. He was innocent according to Torah and found blameless in the eyes of the father. He was struck down by his brothers. And then God banished them from the land within the first century. Surely all of these details cannot be chalked up to coincidence as we will see these patterns again in further portions!
The way of Cain
We see in this portion that Cain is trying to worship God in his own way. In response we see God does not look favorably upon Him or his sacrifice. This is a common theme throughout scripture. When the sons of Aaron brought strange fire before YHVH they were killed. YHVH has set up very specific instructions in the ways that He wants to be worshipped. In Deuteronomy 12:29-31 he tells us not to worship Him in their ways. If you pay attention throughout scripture when people start getting into trouble usually this is not far away from happening. Jude 1:11 also talks about a few places in scripture where people have gone the way of Cain to their own destruction.
How Satan Works
In this portion we see a critical piece of information about how Hasatan and the world works. First we see the devil's only trick. "did God really say....." Unfortunately we still see this all too often in today's day and age and even in the Church! We find any way we can to get around what God has told us very clearly to be doing. We claim to be led by the spirit. Or better yet we try to defend our sins by twisting scripture to fit our idea of what is right and wrong. This is the same trick yesterday today and until YHVH returns! We see it play out very clearly throughout scripture. When God gives us His Torah (teaching and instructions) He expects us to obey them! Any attempt to change what God lays out for us is not from God but from our adversary. We also see how separation from God affects how we live our lives. For example when we look at the Genealogies of Cain we find that his descendants were skilled enough at what they did to be recognized throughout the world for their talents. This is in sharp contrast to the line of Seth. No information is given other than the Genealogy itself. Enoch was the only one who got special mention because he walked with God and was taken alive! We see through the contrast that the wicked focus on the things of the world and the righteous line that leads to Messiah focus only on YHVH. Please read 1 John 2:15-16. Do you see a connection? John is teaching us straight out of Torah.
Salvation in Torah
Would you believe me if I told you that the Salvation story is told even in the genealogy of Messiah? Here in chapter 5 we see the beginning of the line of Messiah. To be honest the genealogies used to be my least favorite part of scripture until I came to know Torah. Each name in hebrew has a definition. And when you put the names together in order it tells a story. Here are the names and their definitions. Are you ready??
Adam a man
Seth substituted
Enosh mortal
Kenan Sorrow
Mahalalel the praised of God
Jared descend
Enoch to teach
Methuselah his death shall bring
Lamech powerful
Noah rest
Some of these definitions are of the root words of the names in Hebrew. Also the flood came in the same year that Methuselah died. eg his death shall bring the flood. We see that it paints a fairly vivid picture. A man substituted (for) mortal sorrow. The praised of God (will) descend to teach. His death shall bring powerful rest. Awesome!
Closing Thoughts
As a closing thought we see the first command given by God in this Torah portion. "You shall not eat of it......." Most Christians today believe that God cares about every little aspect of our lives, except when you talk about food. They will give countless reasons for why we can now eat unclean animals. For the rebuttal to these arguments I simply point you to the paragraph above titled How Satan works. However, We learn in this week's Torah portion that it was so important that God decided to make it the first one! Surely we cannot say that Yeshua had to die on the cross to redeem pigs. But that's exactly what has happened. For fun lets look at some end time prophecy. please read Isaiah 66:15-17. WOW! Here YHVH does not mince words. When He returns all those who eat swine's flesh, vermin, and mice will come to an end all together! So, if it wasn't ok in the Tanakh and it isn't ok at the return of Yeshua..... we should naturally assume.... it's not ok NOW! Here's another way to think about it. If Yeshua or Paul or Peter would have tried to tell anyone that it was ok to eat unclean animals they would have been put to death immediately. see deu 13. anyone who teaches against the law of God is not of God. Here in chapter 13 God is telling us that he has sent that person as a test. To see if you will keep His commands and guard them. This alone explains why we can't tell Jews about Jesus. Because the traditional representation of Yeshua disqualifies him immediately as messiah.
Thank you everyone for reading I hope that you learned something new and were blessed. Shalom