Genesis 1:1-6:8
Isaiah 42:5-43:10
Introduction
When the six days of creation are over, God rests on the seventh, called the Sabbath. God sanctifies and blesses the day, and we are called upon to follow the same practice, that is, work for six days and rest on the seventh.Genesis 2:1-4
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (ESV)
We have the tendency to just skim over the opening verses in Genesis about the Creation story but what we need to do is to just slow it down a bit and start really looking at Scripture. If we don’t we will lose out on so much. We begin to take the word of God for granted and it should be just the opposite. We need to start being serious about our relationship with the Almighty because if we don’t we are the ones who will wind up with the short end of the stick. I know that is not where I want to find myself and I would hope you don’t want to find yourselves there as well?
Ecclesiastes 12:12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (ESV)
Fear God and keep His commandments…truer words have never been spoken or written. Fearing the Almighty has nothing to do with being scared as we would assume fear means but more of a respect for the Creator of all there is. The Almighty is awesome so beyond comprehension we need to take a step back at times and reflect on His greatness and just what He has done for us not just through the creation process but in the gift He gave us in His Son Yeshua. As awesome as the creation is, not just because we were part of this labor of love, but the fact the Almighty knew we would sin before He created us but He still created us anyway. How great is that? He gave us the gift of life knowing we would take it for granted and many times we simply throw it away. We only need to take a long look around us or watch television or check out the Internet to see the state of mankind today. As technologically advanced as we are we are no better off than the civilizations that have come before us. Our sin is just as great today as it was in Rome, Greece and other places which are no longer around. Babylon the great, as it was called, no longer exists though Scripture tells us it may rise once again to herald in the real last days. The last days define a period of time leading us towards the final confrontation between man and God and God and Satan. We are all involved in this together, so for better or for worse we has better make the best of this because a lot is riding on the decisions we make.
It must seem kind of ironic to you that here we are at the beginning of the Torah cycle with the very first Torah portion and I am talking about the end of all things but the truth is the beginning teaches us about the end and we need to get it together before it is too late. Man thought he was the greatest only to find out he was great only in his own mind. Fear God and keep His commandments.
Strong's 03372 yare' {yaw-ray'}
Meaning: to fear, revere, be afraid, to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe, to inspire reverence or godly fear or awe, to shoot, pour
The word for fear in Hebrew is yare and it is also the root word for Torah in the sense that Torah is an arrow that is shot at our hearts where it takes root and helps us to follow the Almighty but also we can pull the arrow out of us and disregard Torah and do as we please. The word of the Lord is connected in so many different ways all leading back to the source which is the Holy One of Israel who has poured out His Son Yeshua for us – Yeshua being the living Torah of the Almighty. Yeshua was the One through whom everything there is was created and it was for Him that everything was created.
Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (NKJ)It is through Yeshua that everything exists and it is through Him that everything owes its existence because He sustains it and holds it all together. God is everywhere. He is around us, above us, in us, He holds us together by His Son because it was through Yeshua that everything was created. This is why Yeshua had to die to redeem His creation because it is His creation and no one else could have done what He did. In everything He did He created man last on the sixth day and on the seventh day He deemed the creation work finished and declared the seventh day was to be the Sabbath day – the only day of the week He gave a name to. He named the seventh day Shabbat which in Hebrew means rest. We should not assume the Lord needed to rest because He is – the Lord. He set an example for us to follow that we need to rest one day out of the seven from all labor of any kind no matter what it is. Man has forgotten the Sabbath and the day it falls on and even when the Church shifted the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day they still do not honor the Sabbath day as the Almighty intended us to do. It is to be a day of total rest which we spend in honoring Him.
Leviticus 23:3 "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places. (ESV)
Strong's 04744 miqra' {mik-raw'}
Meaning: convocation, convoking, reading, a calling together, sacred assembly Origin: from 07121; TWOT - 2063d; n m
Usage: AV - convocation 19, assemblies 2, calling 1, reading 1; 23
Interesting, to say the least, is the fact that the Hebrew word used for convocation in this verse is also the word used for rehearsal as in the Festivals of the Lord. Each one of the Festivals spoken about in Leviticus chapter 23 is a mikra or rehearsal for the Almighty’s plan for us. The Spring Festivals have already come to fulfillment with the first coming of Yeshua but the Fall Festivals have not yet been fulfilled. The Sabbath is a taste of what eternity will be like with the Lord but He has given us a small taste of what it will be like with the weekly Sabbath, the Sabbath’s of the Festivals and the Messianic Kingdom and then eternity – each Festival a rehearsal of what He has in store for us. While life is not easy at times life is also a rehearsal for what is to come with the blessings He promised to His people for keeping faith with Him by holding fast to one’s faith in Messiah Yeshua and to His Torah. Nothing is better than this and the whole of Creation sings His praises but there are those among men who have turned away from their Creator or have never known Him. It is our responsibility to show them the way by being living examples of the Torah and how the Torah leads us to Messiah and shows us the Torah does not save. It was never meant to save only Yeshua brings salvation but the Torah not only shows you the way to Messiah it is the way we are to order our lives after coming to faith in Messiah. It is something we do out of love not because we expect something in return or an attempt to earn something. Salvation is a free gift from the Holy One of Israel given through His only begotten Son – Yeshua! What better reason could there be for why created everything there is than to desire to be in fellowship with us for all of eternity?
Isaiah 42:18-21
18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! 19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? 20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. 21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his Torah and make it glorious. (ESV)
Strong's 08451 torah (435d)
Meaning: direction, instruction, law
The deeper meaning of this verse is seen in the word Torah which is usually translated as law. Usually the verse is translated as The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. There is so much lost in the meaning when it is translated like this when so much more can be seen when law is translated properly as Torah. The word Torah means teaching or direction and instruction coming from the Almighty but we can take it one step further in understanding the true meaning of the word Torah as Messiah Yeshua the living Word of the Father. Yes, all the way back in the “Old” Testament we see the Messiah. You see the Messiah is not a new idea or concept but one taught by the Jewish people for thousands of years that stretches all the way back to the book of Genesis and those who had chosen to place their faith in Him. They saw the reality of the promise of the Messiah even though it was far off in the future. He walked with so many Biblical figures from Adam and Chava in the Garden to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are others throughout the Bible but I present these to you to give you the understanding that Yeshua is not something only revealed in the pages of the “New” Testament. He has been there, sometimes just out of our reach but still there nonetheless, waiting for us to cry out to Him to ask Him to come into our hearts – to redeem us.
He wants so much to be one with us if only we reach out and take hold of the promise. The Holy One will not force you to accept Yeshua. He may prod you a little because of your need for redemption you do not think you need or in response to the prayers of others who are lifting you up in prayer. Prayer is a mighty wonder and the way the Almighty hears us today. Prayer is the line of communication He has provided us so we can talk to Him. Imagine that – being able to talk to your heavenly Father who wants to hear from you. How much more do you need? Beyond this the day is coming when we will be able to sit at the feet of Yeshua and have Him teach us Torah face to face as clearly as when Adam and Chavah walked with Him in the Garden. We serve a great and awesome God through whom all there is was given to us as caretakers and look what we did with it? As Israel was taken from the Promised Land because they refused to allow the land its Sabbath rest look at what we have done to the rest of the earth since then? Are we any better than those who have gone before us or are we stripping the earth of all the blessings the Almighty placed here for us?
Genesis 3:17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (ESV)Adam was created from the ground and received the breath of life from God Himself. In pronouncing this curse upon Adam and his descendants the Lord almighty was making a statement that I brought you forth from the dust of the earth and formed you at the time the ground was still free from sin but you turned from me and now you will work the ground to get the food you had only to pick from the trees I had given to you in the Garden. In the end you will die and your body will return to the earth from whence it came. We receive life from the Holy One from the seed of Adam and Chava only to work the earth to receive the bread need for life when once it was there ripe for our choosing. In the end we all die and return to ground which we were brought forth from but the bread of life we find in the earth is ours, once more, for the picking by turning back to the one who gave us life in the first place. He wants you to have this life so much so He asked His only Son to offer up His own life on our behalf which He did willingly.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (NKJ)God does not desire to condemn us but to show us the way out of sin through Yeshua. We have received our judgment by our faith in Yeshua. He is the way, the truth, and life, all we have to do is to believe in Him. The whole of creation is a witness to the love of the Holy One for His people Israel, for all of us. God does not want anyone to be lost He desires that all would come to Yeshua and be saved but the choice is ours my friends.
John 14:6 Yeshua said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)
Blessings,
Mordecai Silver
Torah Man say: “A fool and his money are soon partners.”
Tree of Life Messianic Ministries PO Box 467
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