In the eyes of the Jews, the reason why the Holy Scriptures, the Word of Elohim begins with the second letter of the alphabet ב (bet) and not with the first, that is to say א, remains a mystery till this day. BERESHIT BARA ELOHIM ET HA SHAMAIM VE ET HA ARETZ.
For them, it is indeed completely illogical that the first word beginning the story on the origin of origins does not begin with the first letter א (alef). The question is really disturbing and one can indeed wonder if this is due to chance or if Elohim really wanted to point out something unsuspected at first sight.
While it is true that the letter can be dangerous in itself, it is still good to know that each Hebrew letter carries a meaning and a numerical value which alone contains deep additional meaning. So to what extent, by whom and when these things are worth unpacking will not be the subject of our analysis here, but it remains a fact to be taken into account.
The question is all the more relevant since the word Elohim begins precisely with aleph. Why does He not begin the story with his own name in this case with something like: Elohim created in the beginning, or Elohim, in the beginning, created, etc. It may seem strange to some, but this question has really been on the minds of Jews since ancient times and I personally think it is indeed very interesting for us also in the Messiah today.
In what follows we are going to skip over the answers given by Judaism to this question and instead deal with the significance that such a seemingly small “anomaly” can have on the level of the History of Salvation and Redemption.
In what the Earth and Man were created?
We get the answer to that question in the very the first lines of Genesis: Tohu VáBohu (emptiness, darkness and abyss in a word, in chaos).
How is it possible that the place where originally only Elohim exists, there can be darkness and abyss. How can chaos in any form whatsoever rub shoulders with the Eternal Yahuwah and His perfection?
At the time when, there was only Him and no one and nothing else, – if it is possible to use words describing time here – how can one conceive that any kind of tohu and bohu could have existed independently of- and apart from Him? Was there something bigger than Him, a dark universe in which He did not already extended fully? Inconceivable!
The word B-réshit is nothing more than an indication that we are witnessing and participating in the creation of a B plan
Just as the Redemption of man was also not planed originally, but man had been created in perfection having an eternal and incorruptible flesh. This state which would have frozen forever as soon as man resisted the temptation to consume the fruit of the forbidden tree until the end of the probationary period, thus gaining definitive Eternal Life. Perhaps as soon as Eve and Adam would have sent the snake to its right place, instead of stopping to argue with him. Who knows?
Despite everything, it did not happen as expected. Man having sinned from the first generation, Yahuwah was forced to modify his plans and prepare the expiatory sacrifice of the Lamb in order to restore his creature. So was he later compelled to appear personally in the form of the Son, emptying himself, coming out of the womb of a woman and take on a human body so that he could shed his blood and suffer judgment instead of us so that those who believe in Him may have Eternal Life. So we can see that the Work of Redemption had to come into place because of man’s fall into sin.
If we look closer, the Bible is filled with similar modified plans. Following the murder of Abel by Cain, Seth had to be sent as a substitute in order to revive the pure bloodline. The new start following the flood was also a B plan. The exiles imposed on the people following the breaking of the law were all B plans. Jacob’s life itself is littered with B plans and so on through the Scriptures.
The never ending rebellion of the people and humanity is always pushing Elohim, in his huge merciness, to always adjust/repair things, to give more time, to be more patient and to intervene in events in such a way that they ultimately benefit those who yet have sinned, but who finally are to be returning to Him.
The original created world could only be perfect
When Elohim made the creatures surrounding Him in His Kingdom, all those authorities, principalities and other spiritual beings that we commonly call angels,
everything was then perfect, eternal and filled with light.
There was no darkness, no abyss where He would have been forced afterward to bring the Light, which is the Messiah. The Father-Son-Holy Spirit, as one Elohim, delighted himself in his own creatures, among which was also one of His most beautiful and one of the key elements of His creation and who finally turned against Him.
The story of the creation of our world was preceded by another creation, which is not related in the Bible, but which we can perceive, since several prophecies refer to those ancient times in a world that was then exclusively spiritual. Moreover, we can know this because what we read in the opening lines of Genesis does not describe the perfect conditions that arise from the unique presence of a perfect character like our Creator. When the Bible begins, we already see a backdrop of darkness and confusion in which the Creator is forced to intervene in order to restore something original that was perfect and that we do not yet perceive at this stage. It is in these chaotic circumstances that by His Grace, He intervenes in order to create life back on earth and its sky by bringing back to it the ultimate solution, the Light which is none other than the Messiah in whom and by whom all creation was made.
What our Creator originally created was Perfection itself, there is no doubt about it.
There was to be a perfect World, a Kingdom, where the Creator King – being Himself perfect – could only create perfect things.
The fall that created the Tohu VaBohu
The Kingdom of Elohim could therefore only be perfect. One such perfect creature was Helel himself – of his latin name Lucifer – not the light-bearer, but the luminous, the one who reflects Light at most. He was one of the three archangels, who eventually, of his own free will and self-worship, rebelled and decided to attempt to seize Yahuwah’s throne to rule in his place. A third of the angelic armies followed him in his fall. They too were originally perfect and eternal angelic creatures and eventually fell to become Satan (the accuser) and the demons, Shedim in Hebrew (the conceited ones). Isaiah 14:12-14
At that time, an extremely tragic rupture occurred in this perfect world, where these rebels could no longer remain. These fallen angels no longer had a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. So they had to be hunted somewhere. The earth either did not yet exist, or already existed, and was none other than the place of residence of this archangel who later fell. In any case, they needed a separate “living” space.
A parallel dimension had to be created in which Yahuwah was not present. It was then that the Tohu VaBohu “space” was set apart – for a while.
Yahuwah could have immediately destroyed the rebels, but it did not happen that way. Why ? We can only guess. But overall, it’s no surprise that in front of such a destructive rebellion, Elohim still shows patience. Here too, our Father behaves like a kind of perfect “gentleman”, who in such a situation does not act out of anger and strike on the spot, but rather gives time to his opponent so that he can prove himself and fight on equal terms.
The role of the earth
For this duel to occur, a place had to be designated. This place was none other than the very kingdom of Satan. This kingdom of darkness and chaos within which the Earth was present and designated to serve as a battlefield and within which man was also created to serve as spoil for the future winner.
The fall of one third of the angels left a void in the original perfect kingdom of Yahuwah.
In human history such an attempted putsch would have had completely different consequences, as we have seen many times throughout the centuries. The failed putschists are caught and executed on the spot and new people are immediately named to replace their former comrades who rebelled. The putschists are generally soldiers, who have the necessary weapons and who are the closest to the power against which they are revolting.
Elohim however is not human and does not think as such. He does not wish to defeat the rebels with strength and power, but rather by his weakness. He wants to show that even in his weakest state, he is able to overcome an enemy in full possession of his strength and power.
Yahuwah agrees to go into Satan’s kingdom and intends to defeat him on his own ground. It is by having created man, through him and, at the level of his free will that the fight is ongoing. In the end, he does not even fight on equal terms, but offers the enemy to fight him with better means.
Elohim thus creates man in order to defeat Satan at the level of his free will.
The earth situated in the midst of this chaotic world serves as a chessboard, a theater for the great struggle. And the main purpose is mankind itself. If Satan manages to tempt people and keep them in sin until the end, Satan will take them with him into eternal damnation. However, if man manages to remain (or rather return) to his original state when sin had not yet taken hold of him, he will obtain Eternal Life.
The Sin and its Solution
Going back to the history of creation, we well know the sad aftermath of the story. Man finally fell from the first steps. For Satan was given power on Earth and had free access to that little part of the Kingdom of Heaven which was separated and placed within it: the Garden of Eden. This is how he appeared to Eve in the form of the serpent to tempt her.
By this act, man not only cut himself off from direct connection with the Creator and sentenced himself to death, but also empowered Satan to drag him into the physical world. Here the process of death and time leads man to the first and physical death then to the spiritual and second death in case Satan is able to keep him under the domination of sin until the end, remote from the person of the Savior.
This Savior who is Yeshua HaMashiah of Nazareth, the only way back to the Father.
He who freed man from sin by His blood and by His Sacrifice on the Cross and who thereby slew the ancient serpent
What is time?
Time is therefore nothing other than the countdown to death. A period of grace during which man condemned to death has the possibility of surrendering his soul and spirit into the hands of his Creator through the shed Blood of the Lamb of Elohim Yeshua HaMashiah.
Time is the process of slow, delayed and progressive death leaving man the possibility of repentance and finding the way back to Eternal Life.
The fall of Adam and Eve resulted in death. However, this death did not occur immediately and the sentence was not carried out with immediate effect. On the contrary, a process of grace began, where man, through aging and bodily degradation, comes closer and closer to the execution of his sentence. He thus has time to realize and regret his sin(s) before his final hour comes.
This is when, how and why time was created as a result of sin. Time is death itself, but not a sudden death, but a progressive one. Time in fact only exists from the moment Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden. When they received their animal skin and the laws of current physics take effect. This skin we all wear till this day and which is decaying and aging.
To summarize time is nothing other than the countdown period that has been given to us to escape death and find our way back to Eternal Life which is Yeshua HaMashiah.
The purpose of humanity
Beyond what we have learned so far, that man is the ultimate stake in the struggle between the two powers, the creation of man has a much deeper meaning and purpose that no one knows and really speaks about. Once we understand this, we will have answered the oldest and most visceral question mankind has ever asked itself:
“Why are we? Who are we? and Where are we going?”
As previously described:
The fall of one third of the angels left a void in Yahuwah’s originally perfect kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven cannot remain in this temporarily imperfect state at two third of its splendor.
Yahuwah did not immediately destroy the rebels and create new spiritual principalities and other angels in their place with the snap of a finger. At least not until the fight is over.
But He won’t even do that at the end of the war. Because the substitutes have already been created for long. These replacements are none other than the redeemed part of Humanity.
Once the Redemption of the Messiah has been obtained, man on entering Eternal Life takes the place of the fallen angels
This is how Yahuwah finally fills the void left in order to restore His Kingdom.
In place of Satan as the archangel and his demonic army, we have the Messiah as King taking the place of Helel and the army of saved humans taking the place of the demons.
This is the true purpose of our world and the creation of man. Now we are able to understand the contradiction that what Elohim creates cannot be originally imperfect. He does not create darkness, emptiness and death. But some creations that were originally perfect became imperfect and became darkness, chaos and death themselves. Helel by his rebellion lost the status of Angel who bears Elohim’s Light thus generating darkness, a concept that did not exist until then.
So we see that even in Paradise there was a “time” when the perfect creatures of the timeless Kingdom also had their free will and the right to decide whether to remain obedient to the Creator forever or choose another path. As some of them chose this last option, a B plan had to be implemented: This is where we enter the game!
Yahuwah created no one to replace Helel/Satan. He offered Himself as the Son, Yahushua HaMashiah, to take the vacated place of Helel. This is exactly what the disciples could see with their own eyes during the transfiguration of Yeshua, when He appeared with Elijah and Moses, thus taking the place of the missing third archangel. Moses and Elijah being themselves the Archangels Michael and Gabriel respectively. Another article covers this topic in more depth. TERUMAH
The Church – the Body of the Messiah – was built on the foundations of the apostles (Moses – law) and the prophets (Elijah) and its head (or cornerstone) being Yahushua HaMashiach
who is the Light compensating for the disappearance of the light-bearer. And those who are born again in Him, His Body, WE take the place of the third of the angelic host that followed Satan into perdition.
This is how we understand how we humans will judge angels according to 1Cor 3:6. Judgment will be for them, among other things, to see one of the weakest, smallest and most insignificant creatures in the world – the Human – occupying their own place from which they fell. There is no more humiliating judgment for them and that is why they hate us so much.
It is important to recognize these truths so that we can strengthen our faith and run with ever greater confidence and conviction towards the goal which is the Messiah. We also understand much better the essence of the person of the Messiah and why it was important for Yahuwah to appear among us in human form, emptying himself and as a Son to give His Life so that we could find ours. This is how we must run, not by force nor by power, but filled with the Holy Spirit of Yahuwah.
Also see:
BERESHIT, Let there be light,
True Replacement Theology / What was Man made for?
Question of Life and Death
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