Without Rebecca the inheritance of Abraham would never have reached Jacob and thus the 12 patriarchs. Isaac has put himself in a sort of quarantine for a while so his wife had to take over the family business. She did not act as a jezebel because she did not do it of her will, but because she felt that she was forced to do it. The man on the side of which she was living and whom she had to support in his moments of weakness, lost his sight and was momentarily suspended from the function he had received from the Almighty. Isaac became almost blind. It is very rare that such a thing happens to a righteous man.
The loss of sight is in most cases the consequence of sin, usually idolatry
Indeed, Isaac did not love the same son that Yahuwah did. He admired Esau for his “virility” and force. Esau, on the other hand, was hated by Yahuwah as we read in the haftara of the week Malachi 1: 2. He looked at his biggest son with the eye of the world and that is what caused his blindness. Here is the point where we can the best see what the blessing of Rebecca really represents. She goes so far as to commit a sin considered very serious at the time. She betrayed her husband. This husband who for a time, was not in the place that has been assigned to him. However, she did not quite betray her husband himself, she rather deceived this thing inside of Isaac, that caused his blindness. In fact, it was precisely by committing this “offense” that she showed, although in a human way, but the greatest loyalty to her husband. Rebecca did not lose her sight. In spirit, she was quite lucid and by the grace of Yahuwah, she was granted to carry out the project of the Almighty that had been momentarily rejected by Isaac. She acted in all good faith and as a woman who had momentary loose her marital protection had made a human decision in order to save the situation. It was Rebecca and Jacob who had been deceived by the foreign spirit that provoked Isaac’s deviance.
I emphasize that Rivka acted well here only from a human point of view, this deception was not in Elohim’s will, as we are going to see it below.
Jacob the cheater
As in the case of Rebecca, Jacob has never been a crook. His name, unlike all misconceptions and other bad translations, does not mean cheater, usurper or crook, but “heel grabber” (some sources tell us that it means “Yahuwah favors“, or cunning). The following statement: “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob ? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me” was made by the same usurper spirit inhabiting Esau as the one who once pushed Eve into sin. It is not because something is written in the Bible that it is right and holy. Let us not forget that the words of the enemy are quoted the same way as the Word of the Most High.
Jacob was born grasping his brother’s heel. By this act, he certainly wanted to point something out. They will have to talk about certain things later.
The two children collided in their mother’s womb. Why could they be bickering about at such an early age? Who was fighting the other and why?
Yahuwah defined a well-established order, an order from which He may deviate in some cases and according to His Will. The birthright is one of the pillars of the Jewish spirit. In some cases, however, it happens that Yahuwah wants to show his power by bequeathing the right of the first born to a younger member of the family, to the weak ones, to those who are not even taken into account by their parents. Such was the case of King David and many others. We can not know if this was the case here. However, it is very likely that it was against this original law of birthright that Esau rebelled already in the womb of his mother. He seems to have taken advantage of his strength to overtake the exit of his brother. It was at this point that Jacob made it clear to the outside world that a treachery has occurred against him as by saying: “we’ll talk about that later my brother!”. It is this discussion which has fulfilled when Esau sold back his birthright for a dish of lentils. Esau tried to steal this right by using physical force when they were babies, and now we see that it is by taking advantage of this same carnal instinct governing his brother that
Jacob is taking back what was his originally
However, this is not that simple. How could one believe the word of a man like Esau. He naturally had no intention of keeping his promise, as we will see later. For this reason, Rebecca had to come in reinforcement. Esau may plot as he wish, only their father is allowed to pass on the birthright and the blessing that goes with it.
The Almighty allowed Esau to be the first to be born. Indeed, He warns Rebekah when she was sadden by the behavior of her unborn sons: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23. Perhaps Isaac’s inclination to the flesh was already present in him and that was the reason why Yahuwah allowed the other son to be born first in order to put the family to the test? A similar situation had already occurred in the case of Isaac precisely, when consequence of the “good ideas” and the lack of faith and patience of his parents, an older brother was born to him as well and who is still the source of huge troubles until this day. Ishmael was for Isaac what Esau is now for Jacob.
Even the Jews are against Jacob
Even Jewish teachings often describe Jacob as a cheater. The spirit of history’s first antisemite, Esau, has even been deceiving and contaminating Jacob’s descendants themselves. It’s a huge mistake.
We can describe Jacob as stubborn or reckless, but the saying that he was a liar of a swindler is pure distortion of reality and a false accusation.
It is therefore time to rehabilitate not only the person of Rebecca, but especially Jacob himself. So many would perhaps realize what Jews really are. The Jewish people is not a tribe of parasites cunning like foxes in order to exploit the peoples, but a nation that have received a Legacy from Yahuwah that many other nations would like to steal from them. And as if that was not enough, they are accused of committing the crime of which they are many times the victims themselves.
I do not wish to open a separate chapter, in order to demonstrate how this unhealthy process is perpetuated today when, for example, the Israeli army, the most humanist that has ever existed, is constantly falsely accused of committing serious crimes against innocent victims instead of asking the Palestinians, why do they allow Hamas to constantly hide their weapons and arsenals under hospitals and schools, and then point the finger at the “evil” Israelis who kill innocent people? And why are we never showing the masses of messages printed in Arabic and thrown over Gaza asking civilians to leave because missiles will be fired against these buildings? More about this in Jewish State and Zionism
Because the spirit of Esau, wanting to appropriate the birthright, acts more than ever today against the descendants of Jacob. Replacement theology, unwillingness to cede this tiny portion of land under the current name of Israel to the Jewish people, are all blatant examples of this.
And indeed Jewish is not synonymous with angel. Since Esaus are constantly being born among us to this day, who are our twins, the same Jews in their blood as we are, yet they serve other principalities like power, money and mammon in general, so that the accusations that apply to them weigh on the whole people. But more about this topic in my articleAnti-Semitism and anti-Christianity
The most beautiful proof of Yahuwah’s will to transmit the birthright to Jacob is in the text of the blessing that he is given through his father Isaac: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahuwah has blessed. May Elohim give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.” Genesis 27: 27-28. When Isaac’s mouth opens to speak these words, he is not conscious about what he is saying. He serves only as an intermediary, as a spokesperson, he is prophesying. It is indeed the Spirit of Yahuwah that expresses itself. How could Isaac have said these words to a son who has never had anything to do with agriculture, fields, harvest or flocks. Esau was a hunter and if Isaac had blessed him according to his human vision, he would rather have spoken of hunting, game and precision in archery. Esau had nothing to do with the morning dew, the fat of the earth, the wheat of the harvest, and wine!
And concerning Jews cursing Jacob,I would like to share my own testimony about this. On a French-speaking Israeli Internet channel, I heard an old Sephardic “rabbi” dressed in Middle Eastern European style orthodox clothes teaching about how a big cheater and liar Jacob was. I contacted him the same day by e-mail asking him how even religious Jews could think that these accusations of Esau are justified? I never got an answer from him. But I did get an answer from the Almighty Himself! Because from the next week on, the “rabbi” did never post any more Saturday teachings again, and the TV channel itself, together with its website, also ended up disappearing without a trace after a few weeks. I haven’t seen this company since then either. The funny thing about this is that I didn’t even pray for this to happen, I just asked a person a question and then it all came crashing down like a castle of cards. Here we can see how much more difficult is to be Jewish. For the “Greeks” the time of grace is still valid, and they can still happily curse Jacob, without seing any kind of immediate judgment on them in every case. But for the Jews, stupidity in not tolerated for a minute by the Almighty. It is indeed that hard to be the elder and the first-born of the family.
The well-intentioned person who helps the Eternal
Jacob cheated only once, when he tricked Isaac under Rebekah’s pressure
The character of Jacob is nevertheless not as pure and perfect as I describe it above. Indeed, he too has shown many times the same human weaknesses that have manifested in his father’s and grandfather’s life. His tendency for Truth makes him a fighter like many of his ancestors. The young Jacob often looks more like an avenger than someone in perfect submission to the Almighty. He will go so far as to serve a man for 14 years in order to get a woman like a true medieval knight. He is often acting on a whim, knowing that Yahuwah of Hosts is with him and that nothing can happen to him, at least it is what he thinks. We read in Hosea, “Yahuwah has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with Elohim.” Hosea 12: 2-3.
It seems that Jacob did not have to report anything when he was born. Yahuwah would certainly have asserted His Will in due time, it would not have been necessary for him to intervene as a human and grasp Esau’s heel in order to make people see that something went wrong from the moment they were inside their mother. He should have let things go their way so that the situation would have been restored according to the original will of Yahuwah.
In this act, we can see the same basic mistake many biblical characters are falling into. By knowing the will of Yahuwah concerning their own lives, many of them just thought to have the right to intervene and accelerate the fulfillment of their promises.
But the most amazing example of this deeply human character, which tries to solve everything with its own strength, is when Rebekah and Jacob took the defense of Yahuwah’s plan into such a level that they lied and deceived Isaac, the forefather. No matter how bad spiritual state Isaac was then, since he did not love the son whom Elohim loved, but the other one whom Elohim hated. The consequence of this mental blindness was that he became physically blind as well and his wife and son took advantage of this precise weakness. No matter how commendable the act is, because it served a good cause, it still proves to be a good solution only from a human point of view. In this situation, Rebekah and Jacob, shouldn’t they have fallen on their knees, torn their clothes, dressed in sackcloth, sprinkled ashes on their heads, fasted, anything that is done in times of trouble and especially beg Yahuwah to intervene in some way?
Didn’t Esau go hunting? Didn’t Esau say long before, when he sold this birthright to his brother: “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” Genesis 25:32. At this moment, did he not prophesy about his own destiny, did he not curse himself in favor of Jacob?
If they did not act according to their human wisdom, Esau might have been killed by the beast this time and not the other way around. In this way, they would have spared themselves from constantly having to flee and fear Esau since this one survived because of their good human idea of resolving problems. Not to mention Esau’s descendants who are still present and causing many troubles to Jacob’s descent till this day.
It is therefore more important than ever to ask for the gift of Discernement, not only for seing the alien spirits in other people, but also in order to see what’s the next step we should or should not do in our path of disciples so that we should never curse ourselves again like Rebecca and Jacob did at that point.
We often hear about the concept of the perfect woman. For my part, I could summarize this in one word, or rather in one name: Rivka (Rebecca). She is without a doubt one of the most noble and memorable personalities in the Scriptures. She is the one who embodies all the merits, qualities and virtues written in Proverbs 31: 10-31, the ode to a virtuous woman.
Abraham’s envoy was also perfectly aware of what the ideal woman is.
When Eliezer goes out looking for a wife for Isaac, he is not just asking for the girl to be hospitable, someone who takes care of the visitors (this kind of hospitality was common and quite usual in those times, mostly the mere expression of personal interests), but he asks for someone who also takes care of the camels, that is to say the goods, the material, the tools of his/her neighbor. This detail may seem trivial, but it shows a particular devotion and disinterest. By watering the animals
Rebecca shows a kindness that expects nothing in return, since the camels are unable to honor her services.
In a society of shepherds, this is an inestimable virtue since a good housekeeper plays a vital role in the calling and sustainability of her husband and thus of her family.
The meeting with Rebecca is a fabulous story which I expect myself to happen in our family life as a father. I deeply wish to live a similar story when the day comes that my children will be old enough to marry. May Yahuwah bless us with such a messenger who will go and get women like Rebecca for my sons and who will come and take my daughter to guide her to her future husband, in whom the Holy Spirit is also dwelling. This Envoy already exists. It is up to us to know how to ask for his coming so that he can carry out this mission. One of the greatest joys for a believer is to see his children unite with those whose lives are also under the reign of the King Messiah, when marriages are sealed in Christ and according to His will. The greatest gift is to see our children find their spouses with whom they will complement, support and reinforce each other even if one or the other loses balance as in the next portion of the Torah in the case of Isaac and Rebecca.
Sarah
This week’s parashat is about Rebecca, it is although named after Sarah. Sarah lived 100 years and 20 years and 8 years. In the English translation, it is quoted that she was 128 years old. However, in the Hebrew text this period is subdivided into three as mentioned previously. According to Jewish tradition, this subdivision points out that Sarah was as beautiful at the age of 100 as she was at the age of 20 and was as pure when she was 20 as when she was 8. Whatever the significance, this week’s parashat describes a continuity. Sarah is leaving us and Rebecca joins us to replace her. The death of one leaves an empty place that will be filled by the arrival of the other. Her role is essential in Isaac’s life but so is it for the entire community. As in many cases described in the Bible, when someone dies, a successor is appointed. (Joshua came after Moses, Samuel after Eliyahu, Salomon after David, Yahushua after John) Rebecca is like Sarah’s worthy heir. We read that Isaac is comforted after the death of his mother by the arival of his wife. Indeed, the female presence was missing. A house (a tent in their case) is empty and cold without the presence of the woman who fills the place since being its hearth. Yahuwah does not just ensure the descent of the patriarchs, kings and prophets, but that of the women as well. The succession of women is also vital.
Girls must also learn a lot and mothers have a lot to pass on to them.
The transmission of this feminine knowledge is just as important as the knowledge transmitted from father to son. Indeed, without women and without all that they can give us, men would be helpless. It is very important to pray for the restoration of women, because their strengthening largely ensures ours.
Not as we see today in the Church, where on the one hand the number of women is much higher, but who in many cases, overstepping their role and their identity as women by occupying the place of men – whom by the way are indeed often incapable and effeminate – to the point that they do not even think of returning their places when finally a real man ends up appearing in their lives. This is how many people usurp ministry positions, roles, and are not doing what Elohim expects of them, while not allowing those who have the task to regain their legitimate places.
Until this kind of little problem is resolved, let’s not pray for each other. Praying for women begins precisely by asking that they reoccupy their rightful places, so that they can finally flourish in their femininity and that from there, they can pray for us in return. This is the kind of mutual prayer I was referring to. And besides we can start this right away by declaring:
May Yahuwah make present women like Sarah and Rivka.
Yahuwah appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
Genesis 18:1-2
Yahuwah appeared to Abraham when he was in a very difficult situation. Difficult, because the sun was shining brightly and the scar of his circumcision was still painful. Moreover, he knew nothing about his future. He received the promise of a great descent, but no vision for its realization. He was waiting for the Almighty because he knew that he needed Him and he knew that He would arrive in due time.
Yahuwah appeared to him, and yet three men stood before him.
Who are they? Angels? The three Archangels? Not really, because one of them has fallen, so there are only two left.
The Jewish tradition considers that these men were three angels each with a specific mission to fulfill. The first must reveal to Abraham and Sarah the birth of Isaac, the second must pass judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and the third comes to save Lot.
As far as I’m concerned, this story carries a deeper meaning. It is to Abraham that Yahuwah reveals Himself for the first time as Holy Trinity. After Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, presented to Abraham for the first time the model of what will later be Yahuwah’s Supper,
Yahuwah is revealed to him in his entirety as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But then the question arises, how could anyone be born again at a time when the redemption of the Messiah had not yet been fulfilled? Great is the mystery. However, it should be noted that the redemption of the Messiah is not limited in time. It is, was and will be. Redemption having occurred both in the visible world and in the spiritual world, its timelessness allows it to have been proposed in Spirit to characters who lived before the coming of Yahushua HaMashiah into this world. The promise of redemption was further sealed in part by the consent of our patriarch to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. His only son indeed, because his 7 other physical sons were not really in the same Spirit as their father. (Although, the other sons of Abraham do also have their place in the history of Redemption and they have the promise to get into the true spirit according to the divine promise).
There is therefore an Alliance not only through circumcision, but also through Melchizedek, the priest of Most High, the prefiguration of Yahushua HaMashiah. The covenant is made with bread and wine, and then the entirety of Yahuwah appears to Abraham.
Elohim then lets him know that the promise of his descendants will be through a son whose birth is revealed to him. Sara is going to have a son within a year and Sodom and Gomorrah will be judged. Abraham goes on with faith and as incredible as it may seem, accepts the idea that Yahuwah gives them a son at this very advanced age. On the other hand, he intercedes for his neighbor. He asks Yahuwah of Hosts to spare those who have remained clean in an unclean place and among unclean people.
As for Abraham, our task is the same. To implore the Almighty so that what is pure should not perish with the unclean. But who are the pure, when we see only chaos and sin around us? Moreover, why should we pray for those who have been cleansed, because the Messiah has already redeemed them?
Concerning our brothers and sisters, we must pray only for their edification and protection.
For the lives of whom should we pray then?
Nowadays, we must pray so that the pure part of everyone can blossom and gain ground against their “sodomic and gomorric” side.
Since all humans have something pure in them, life that has been given by the Creator together with this original flame implanted in the heart of each one that are Elohim’s basic laws. These are what we must fight for in spirit, in prayer. So that this tiny seed implanted in each of us should die and get to Life by the Messiah. We have to ask for our neighbors to be cleansed from their old man that is leading them to death. May this unclean part of man be judged and destroyed such as Sodom and Gomorrah, but let the individual be saved like Lot.
May the old man die in us all to give way to the new creation.
The seed of this new creation has been placed in all of us before birth.
We can read that only two angels went on their way to the two sinful cities. One stays with Abraham. For a long time, I did not see whether it was the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit who remained with our beloved patriarch. I have finally found the answer in the New Testament. Just as the disciples received the promise of the Comforter and were filled with the Holy Spirit who descended upon them, so Yahuwah, as Father and Son, goes his way on to announce the judgment. The Messiah left the disciples and returned to sit on the Father’s right so that the Holy Spirit might cover his followers down here. It is the Holy Spirit who remains with the purified man. The Holy Spirit could not reside in a desecrated environment where sin is king. Nevertheless, Yahuwah is present in these places too. He is there as the Father and the Son, but not as a protector or as a comforter, but as the Creator and the Redeemer who comes to offer forgiveness and to judge when it is rejected. So will the Messiah come again to judge the living and the dead on the last day.
Yahuwahtook to Sodom and Gomorrah the possibility of repentance, for he promised Abraham not to destroy the city for 50, 45, 30, 20, or 10 righteous. Finally, the inhabitants of the city refused this proposal by their ruthless behavior. So the only righteous man found on the spot was Lot, who took his wife and two daughters with him.
Lot’s life is a real fiasco. We see a man who stumbles at every step he makes. Even his circle must suffer the harmful consequences of his missteps. We do not know why Abram took Lot with him. By humanism or tolerance, in any case Yahuwah did not give him the order to do so. Only Abram was invited to leave his people and the land of his ancestors. Lot follows him anyway. Maybe he should have stayed. Lot still wanted to follow Abraham. He probably also wanted to take advantage of Abram’s blessings, no doubt he too wanted to learn to know Yahuwah.
His intentions were undoubtedly good and pure.
Nevertheless, we see him as a kind of thorn in the foot of Abraham. No doubt it would have been better to stay at home while Abraham would occupy his place and take root in the will of Yahuwah. Then Abraham could have returned to his people in full knowledge of his vocation to testify to others the need to recognize and follow the one and only Yahuwah. Lot could then have started on the path of submission as soon as his uncle had become a solid model to follow. Perhaps the decision to take him with had been a little bit too hasty? I can not say for sure, but I strongly tend to think that way.
Lot’s life is not really what we could call a series of positive testimonies that worth being followed by today’s believers.
Althought, he is later quoted as being righteous by the apostle Peter in 2Peter 2:7.
But, when someone chooses green and watered meadows, because they are more attractive and more promising for the flocks. When someone moves into the most vile and frivolous city of the known world at the time from which he is unable to decide wether he should come out or not. When Yahuwah of Hosts goes as far as to go and take him out in person and as if that was not enough, Lot still has the nerve to refuse to cooperate and asks the permission to go and find refuge into another city which also was to be destroyed. And when his daughters fall into one of the most incredible sin that is to sleep with their own father in order to have children from him.
It is hard to believe that such a man has the priviledge to be called righteous (Tzaddik)!
This means that Yahuwah testifies in person that Lot is a pure character.
This means that Lot has put his relationship in order with Yahuwah at some point. The morality of this is that it is better to avoid waiting for the last moment to leave our benevolent but stubborn religiosity before choosing the path of submission and obedience to Yahuwah.
Because it can cost us a lot, if I may say so and as in Lot’s case we can even lose our family. Lot’s wife froze, her daughters became incestuous sluts who brought to life the worst enemies of the Jewish People, Midian and Amalek. Similar mistakes were of course also committed by Abraham when he procreated 7 children besides Isaac who had not been scheduled by Yahuwah.
Let’s not wait for such destructive mechanisms to deceive us for finally be saved in extremis and by the incredible mercy of Yahuwah.
Do not pay such a price for our title of Righteous.
Let’s always have in front of us the bad example of our ancestors, be it Lot or Abraham.
We have the free choice to say no to Sodom, to Gomorrah, to Hagar and to all “good” unconscious and incredulous advices of our close relatives of friends. If, on the other hand, we wish to follow Yahuwah at all costs, very well! But let’s wait for our turn. Let us have patience with ourselves and do not cling to the call of others, but wait for your time to come. There is a time for Lot, one for Abraham and one for us.
The birth of a child
The prophetic part (haftara) also tells us the story of the birth of a child. We can aslo read how Elijah met the Sunamite woman to whom he predicts the birth of a son. Then, a few years after his birth, the child gets sunburn and dies shortly after. He dies and then resuscitates.
A child dies, then comes back to life.
I’ve been thinking for a long time this week about why adults are so repulsive to each other? How come when I was a child, I loved everyone, including adults, and saw them with a totally different eye than today. Would people have changed so much? Were the adults of the past so different from what they are today? I just found out the truth about all this:
it was in me that something had changed, something had died in me.
In the preceding story, Abraham testifies precisely of that pure heart of child through which he perceives the world. He was really awaiting Yahuwah and accepting his neighbor without conditions as those children Yahushua was talking about in the Gospel.It is this child who died in many of us. This child who does not basicaly see the evil in the other, but who sees his neighbor as divine creations. This child who was able to accept the other unconditionally and who was curious to know who was the person in front of him. This child who did not yet know the Law and therefore saw no sin in the other and had no vision over the dark side of the people.
Then we find ourselves in the arid and sunny field of adulthood where spiritual sunstrokes do hit us deeply in the hearth. Here, this pure child dies in us. To be able to intercede as Abraham did, it is essential that this child would rise again in me.
It is very difficult because today I know the Commandments, I know the difference between the good and the evil, thus I clearly percieve all the sin around me. I can not fail to see the dirty part of men. I must in no way give up this vision of adult, because it is vital at this age, but in my behavior, in my judgment, it should not influence me negatively in any way. I must recover my child’s heart.
We must ask that the darkness visible in the others does not reach me. It is good if I can’t stand darkness, but it should never overwhelm me, touch me, weaken me in spirit and put me in danger.
Ignorance of the law is a protection for the children.
However, the adult is in danger if he remains uneducated.
We need a more complex protection here, because ignorance of the Law is mortal, its knowledge without love is lethal too. So the first one for whom we must implore Yahuwah’s mercyness is our own person. Being restored and strengthened is the condition for us to intercede for others.
Human sacrifice
Berfore Isaac is to be sacrified, we read the story of a covenant made between Abraham and men. Abraham makes a covenant of peace with the Philistines who thus get the control over a part of the promised land. Nevertheless, Yahuwah has promised this land to the seed of Abraham.
Then comes a request that may seem insane. Yahuwah firmly forbids any form of human sacrifice.
It does seem that now he is asking Abraham to do something that contradicts his Word.
He asks for the life of the son that was offered as a promise, the one in whose seed all the nations will get blessed. According to some Jewish commentators, the trial of Isaac’s sacrifice was inflicted on Avraham so that he could redeem himself from this fault and prove his devotion to Elohim.
Anyway, Yahuwah never wanted the physical death of Isaac.
He still asked Abraham to give back Isaac’s life to him on the altar. A contradiction once again!
It is not precisely his death that he has asked for, but his life.
At that time, before the Covenant on mount Sinai, such a request could not be interpreted otherwise: the child must die. Yahuwah was obviously aware of that. He asked for Isaac’s sacrifice knowing that Abraham would think that he had to kill the child. The Almighty wanted to put Abraham to the test, to see if he was able to give up what he cherished the most. Was he going to choose the man (his son) or remain faithful to his covenant with Yahuwah?
In a man of this age, the arrival of a firstborn is an inexpressible source of joy. Moreover, it was Yahuwah himself who came to announce the news to them. The child comes directly from above. Thus the temptation is even greater to fall into the idolatry of such a child. Following an alliance with the Philistines, Abraham has definitely shown his human weakness. When he has only presented his wife as his sister, he has not yet sealed any alliance with Elohim. His humn weakness and lack of faith became clear. Now, a human and foreign tie has interfered between Abraham and the Almighty. He has made a covenant with someone other than Yahuwah.
Elohim has undoubtedly also wanted to purify Isaac in the heart of his father.
It was precisely in the heart of Abraham that the child was to die so that he too could reborn free from any human bond coming from his father. Indeed, Abraham may have put Isaac between him and Yahuwah. Therefore, we must say that
the sacrifice of Isaac did really happen.
But this sacrifice took place in spirit. Isaac had to die in his father’s heart in order this latter was be free to accomplish his own mission.
I believe that the death penalty has come into effect here several centuries before its promulgation. That capital punishment which is still in force today, but in spirit and applied by the High Priest Yahushua.
The old must give way to the new, the old man must die for his sins in order to allow the new man to be born again. In other terms, all that is not under the power of Yahuwah must be swept away so that the new creation may bloom in the Messiah. Something was born again on Mount Moria following to what 3000 years later and a few meters further another Sacrifice could happen.
The Father offered his only Son for the benefit of mankind.
If such a testimony of faith was asked from Abraham for having made a foreign covenant with men, we can say that this sentence was the manifestation of Yahuwah’s merciness who turned Abraham’s fault to his advantage and to the advantage of the whole humanity.
At the beginning of the story, Abram’s fate is still unclear to us. He is commanded to go to the land which Yahuwah will show him. Following his arrival in the land of Canaan, a famine strikes the region. It is difficult to understand why such a fatality falls on the poor man upon his arrival (although we do not really know the time that has elapsed between his arrival and the beginning of the famine). For the moment, Abram still seems perfectly submissive to the Almighty and misfortune catches him anyway. That was not the punishment or the consequence of a fault, but it was in the will of Yahuwah that Abram, just like all of us, got to know Egypt. There, he introduces his wife as his sister, and Yahuwah strikes the land with wounds. It was Abram who has slightly distorted reality and despite of that, it was the “innocent” Egyptians who are punished.
Moreover, Abram is blessed by all kinds of gifts in exchange for his wife that he can later keep even when the lie had been unmasked. These gifts from Pharaoh are part of the famous fortune of Abram. The basic capital of the people of Israel comes largely from this treasure offered by Egypt in exchange for Sarai. (This public treasure comes in part from the goods with which Abram left his people and will eventually be supplemented by the gift of Abimelech). Yahuwah then shows Abram what will be the destiny of his descendants. The people will have to follow a similar path to his: after a famine, they will go to Egypt to be slaves for four centuries before finally leaving with a very large fortune that will also be handed down to them by the Egyptians. (This fortune is simply the one the people lost by becoming slaves together with the wages of their hard labour.)
At the beginning of our journey of believer, we also make mistakes and stumble when we are put to the test succesively. However, we must not always suffer the negative consequences of our mistakes. On the contrary, we often come out even more blessed than before, just as Sarai enjoyed divine protection from Pharaoh’s misdeeds, and Abram was able to keep the good he had received in exchange for his “sister”.
This is a very comfortable situation.
We make mistakes and are not even getting any telling off, on the contrary, we get cuddles from the Father like little children. Many of us would like to preserve this state of spiritual infantilism. It is indeed very good to live on Yahuwah’s lap like a little kid, but when the time of adulthood comes and we want to remain children, that is not going not work. For the Almighty has not called us to remain eternal infants, but wishes to make us responsible adults. The only thing that must survive from our childhood is the purity of our heart and nothing else. This heart through which we must judge and understand our neighbor in love and total disinterest.
This is perhaps one of the main reasons why many are just stopping after a while without being able to make any further step forward in spirit. We reject all responsibility, like young persons who refuse to grow up and remain eternal rebellious teenagers. When we still thing to be children, we lie mainly to ourselves. In short, we make ourselves spiritually helpless and useless.
Unfortunately, we are not the only ones responsible for this unhealthy state. Those who teach us and act as our spiritual fathers are also stuck in the false idea that they will teach us for the rest of our lives, we are simply to sit in the pews of church and listen to and follow the same pastor Sunday after Sunday, year after year. This Catholic root continues to wreak spiritual havoc, even in the most reformed churches.
But there is another big trap we often fall into. We are harshly rejecting anything coming from Egypt, everything that was part of our previous life. We close the door in front of our past drastically and flee in our religious cocoon as in a monastery from which we categorically refuse to go out to go to the world. Yet it is in this world that our place is according to the will of the Messiah expressed in the Higy Priestly Prayer. It is in this world that we must carry out our ministry. We can not be under the world’s yoke in spirit, but physically, this world does indeed need our presence.
It is also from this world that all our fortune, our material goods and our knowledge
in various fields that allow us to fulfill our ministry and to bring the Good News to the Egyptians. It would be deeply unwise to reject all this. Neither should we reject all aspects of human sciences which, at first glance, may seem to contradict the Word of Yahuwah, but we can easily realize that many times, they actualy prove it. (I am naturally talking here about sciences based on observation and experimentation, such as physics, chemistry or biology – and not on assumptions like most of the so called “natural“ sciences).
Yeshua also came out of Egypt
There is still a third example of an egyptian exile in the Bible. It is the exile of our Lord during his childhood, when he was forced to flee the persecution of Herod. Yeshua spent much of his youth in Egypt fulfilling the prophecy contained in this week’s haftara.
The light of the nations had to make acquaintance with these peoples, the Gentiles
for whom he came down into this world so that the knowledge of Yahuwah and the Redemption should also be offered to them. By that, he showed us the example to follow. It was not necessary for him to know anyone, because he knows everyone originally. Nevertheless, as a man of flesh, he had to show us the way we must go through ourselves.
Noach and Abraham, the stages of the believer’s life
Judaism believes that Abraham was more righteous than Noach. The reason lies in the description itself: Noach was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Many consider that being right at a time when all humanity is seriously corrupt is not an excessive virtue. It is much easier to be perfect at a time like Noach’s than at the time of Abraham when other righteous men existed too. This is why Abraham is seen as more righteous than Noach. This qualitative difference is explained by the fact that Noach built his own ark, according to Yahuwah’s instructions, regardless of the fate of his contemporaries and without interceding for them in any way. In the case of Abraham, however, we see him pleading intensely before the Almighty to avoid the destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.
There is, however, a more balanced opinion, in which we distinguish the historical or rather spiritual context in which the two characters lived without drawing hasty conclusions. According to this vision, Noach had no duty to help others. The decision to destroy all humanity was made, so Noach had no ministry to carry out towards other humans. Noach’s only duty was to build the Ark for himself, his family, and the animals, regardless of what would happen to the rest of the world. Abraham was another man, living in another era and therefore having a different calling.
I would rather tend to opt for this second theory. However, the message of our two patriarchs does not lie in comparing them to one another and looking for the most virtuous of them. We should rather consider them as prototypes, models of the stages of the life of every believer.
One of the major mistakes we make as newly converted and / or born again young believers
is that we want to go to war right away to deliver the world of the forces of evil.
This is a noble and natural reflex given that we are spiritually children, therefore we are pures and of good will. As a child who has just discovered a new truth, we go to the onslaught of our neighbor in order to share with them the treasure we have just discovered. I also acted that way, causing a lot of problems. On the one hand, I went to areas where Yahuwah did not want me to go, so I put myself at risk in dangerous situations against which I was not armed. I thought to give the testimony of Yahuwah for the sake of the Body of the Messiah, without realizing that I made him more harm than anything else. Since then, one of my basic teachings towards younger brothers is to warn them to stay calm. You must not go on a crusade all the time trying to convert everything that moves.
Paradoxically, one has to show some form of selfishness.
A positive selfishness which consists in dealing only with one’s own edification at first, in order to avoid harming others, the Body of the Messiah and himself for lack of knowledge, experience and wisdom.
I have a 6 year old son who already knows how to do a lot of things because I taught him. However, I forbid him to do these things any time and without supervision even if he knows how to do it for fear of hurting someone or hurting himself. We often cook together, we cut meat with a knife, we light the pan, etc., but always in my presence. The same goes for spiritual work. It can only be fruitful and well done by spiritually mature and empowered people performing tasks that fit their abilities and age of mind.
The stages of our lives as believers must follow the order of Noach to Abraham. Build yourself in silence at first in order to be saved. Once you have your foot firmly on the rock after the flood, you will be able to help others as Abraham did. If Noach had stopped to evangelize, to preach, to prophesy, or simply to respond to the attacks of the people who came to make fun of him during the construction in the middle of the desert, when there was no sign that the rain was coming, then Noach and his family would have perished with the rest of the corrupt world. In this case, Abraham would never have been born at all so that he could also fulfill the call that was assigned to him. If Noach had played the humanists, the whole work of Salvation offered by Yahuwah would have been broken. Man would not have been redeemed, but destined to an ultimate and irrevocable disappearance.
So we see how important it is to respect this chronological succession for fear that our spiritual inheritance brings no fruit and vanish forever.
How many believers are thus annihilated because they did not know this rule and had no elder brother who could have warned them not to venture too early on battlefields where much more powerful and educated hostile forces simply crushed their emerging faith.
When the foolish virgins will arrive
We are living today in the last phase of the end times. The opening of the seals probably already began around 2019, with the release of the crowned knight, who with his arrows inoculated more than two thirds of the world’s population with an internal time bomb that can bring death at any moment. Since then, the number of deaths has continued to rise, not as a result of the pestilence, but rather of the “antidote” that followed it. The second seal is also visibly open. Since the pandemic lull, the state of global war has continued to grow. The surge in global food prices is also so widespread in the world that it would seem that the third seal has also been opened.
It is therefore high time to speak of the fact that soon, when the foolish virgins will begin to flock to us for oil, that is to say all those foolish believers who, instead of preaching the fusion and inseparability of the Commandments of Elohim and the Grace of Yahushua, instead of abandoning the pagan names and returning to the use of the original ones, are attached to blaspheming him with names of idols and who instead of preaching the true Gospel continue to remain in the intoxication of the false gospel of success, AND even those who, although they have returned to the original names and have discovered the importance of the law, have nevertheless returned to the dry letters of the Commandments which kill in itself and thus reject the gifts of Ruach HaKodesh, of being filled with the Holy Spirit, of being born again and become a new creation in a word. So when all these virgins suffering from various madness come to us asking for help when it is already too late,
we will have to put on again the character and attitude of Noah, not that of Abraham.
We will then no longer be able to waste the time and energy we have left teaching them, or even praying for them. This is what we have been doing since the beginning. But instead of listening to us and letting the Spirit of the Messiah change them and renew their souls or be born again, they will have rather treated us as a sect of Pharisees for some and false charismatics by others. The time will come soon, and it is already at the door with the Bridegroom, where in the last minutes, we will have to become “selfish” again in order to be ready to receive our crown of Salvation. We are going to close our doors again, not because we have become children in spirit who need to be built up and strengthened in order to go and help others, but quite the contrary, because we have finally grown old and are exhausted by the years, the decades of ministry and trials whose most visible fruits for us until now have only been the many rejections and accusations of these brothers and sisters, of these virgins who never wanted to become wise and who persevered in their foolishness.
For indeed, if we go to take care of them, we risk losing this oil for which we have suffered so much. We could lose it quite simply by dissolving these mad virgins from their foolishness out of pity, fatigue and humanism. We would relieve them of their sins by accepting them out of false love and human indulgence, because we do not wish to see them remain in the world. This attitude of spite would make us accomplices of the spirits who govern them and we would thus also become guilty with them of their sins. Our lamp would overturn, or even break, and the oil, which is the Law, which is the Holy Spirit himself, would risk being spilled on the ground and we ourselves would become foolish.
Perhaps I am not the only one who feels this in the ministry: but more and more the majority of non-believers reject the very possibility of healing when it is offered to them. Those who still allow themselves to experience the healing power of the Messiah who acts through us and accept that we pray for them, they thank us for our help at most and move on. They do not even want to hear about Yeshua, the One who healed them. The people who are baptized most often just want to get by, to have their lives saved, to get Eternal Life, and then step aside and do nothing more. Most often, they disappear from our lives without leaving any trace, no way to find them or to have news of them. These people only want good, but submission and discipleship according to the true rules of the game, they do not want that.
Our religious friends who are already believers for their part, are more and more deeply anchored in their own dogmas and do not even want to hear about moving forward. As for our born again brothers and sisters, they continue to feel good about themselves and still have no intention of leaving their spiritual kindergartens called assemblies, churches or networks. The promises of prosperity and the intoxicating concerts called praises are more than enough for them and in their spiritual simplicity, they feel no lack.
The time is coming when we will have to lock ourselves away again, take care of ourselves and our loved ones only, in order to put the finishing touches to the edification of our spirits. For indeed, the years of work have defiled us, we are sweaty and tired, we are covered with wounds due to the rejection and slander endured by them and by the world. We cannot stand before the Bridegroom in this state when he comes back to take us. Like any good bride, we must sanctify ourselves, that means closing our door and taking care only of ourselves, of our appearance, our dress and our adornment, in order to be ready for the wedding and for the meeting with the Bridegroom. The time is near
when we have to devote our time and energy to beautifying ourselves,
that is to say, to strengthen the presence of the Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh in us, so that our lamp remains full and continues to burn until Yahushua comes to take us.
We will then have to send these foolish virgins back to where they came from, where they have been until now. Were they languishing under the domination of Christian spiritual merchants, churches, networks or denominational assemblies, pastors and human ministries, instead of listening to the prophetic word that we have announced to them? Then let them return there now, because the time of grace is over from our side. Stay where you felt so good until today.
Each in its own extremism, some in their empty charismatic circuses, others in their pharisaical religious delusions and their laws devoid of the Spirit of the Messiah.
In a word, all those believers who did not want to continue the reform.
And all those also who believed – sometimes even through the name of their own ministry – that after them (not the Flood), but that there was nothing more to reform in the Church, because their person, their ministry, their church finalized the last reform that remained. For this command (mitzvah) is a lamp, this teaching (torah) is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life, keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. Proverbs 6:23-24 I could even say… and they will preserve you from becoming a corrupt, flattering, smoothly talking wayward and foreign woman in the eyes of the Bridegroom, in a word, a foolish virgin to whom He will say: “I never knew you.”
I never knew you because you did not call me by my name, because you claimed that my commandments are no longer valid, or because you observed all this, but you did not accept my grace and did not conclude the Covenant by my Blood and refused to let my Spirit come and settle directly in your heart.
And when the door closes on them and they do not leave in the first round, perhaps they will have another three and a half years to sober up and become wise in order to finally have their lamps filled with true oil, even through the inheritance, the ministry and the memory of the words of those who will have left before their eyes – the wise virgins. I do not know if they will have a second chance, I sincerely hope so, but we cannot be sure. After our departure, after the rapture, theorically Salvation goes back and exclusively to the Jews who do not yet know the Messiah Yahushua. But the writtings do consciously leave a doubt on this question. Elohim does not want us to know for the moment.
But if this is the case, and a new time of grace, extensions will be granted to them, then perhaps they will finally abandon their false names of idols, perhaps they will be reconciled with this law of which they were so afraid and those who only put their trust in the letter will finally have His commandments engraved in their hearts by the Spirit of the Messiah, in order to be united in the Church which is the Body of Yahushua. They will be saved, but as through fire.1Corinthians 3:15
I do not wish it on anyone to have to go through this, and at the same time, I wish it on all those who are increasingly testifying to their madness, and as we move towards the goal, towards the appointed time, the more frantically they cling to their usual routine, to their religious traditions, to their idols in a word. If they have not been able to hear the prophetic word until this day, then let them begin to feel in their flesh and soul, the purifying fire of the foundry which will eventually be able to purify them of the remaining impurities.
And we will all feel – wise virgins – when the time has come for us personally when, like Noah, we will have only one task left to accomplish, that of completing our own ark and definitively closing its door before the others.
In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Elohim was hovering over the waters. And Elohim said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1: 1-3
Reading the first portion of the Torah this year, it appears to me that the story of the creation does not really begin with the creation of the heavens and the earth as it seemed to me until now. The creation of the heavens and the earth is already accomplished when the story begins. The first concrete act of creation that the Bible tells us is the gift of Light. Although light, the Light of Yahuwah has always existed and existed before any creation, history reveals the gift of this light in the world after heaven and earth were created. The first word of the Creator is: let there be light.
As if the sky and the earth served only as simple scenery to something much more majestic.
When Yahuwah creates something in our lives, the important thing is not the gift in itself, but the light that goes with it. It’s not so important to know how the sky and the earth were created, how many angels are here, and how many men are here, because without Yahuwah’s light all this would not have any sense.
The big question is wether there is light or not?
Because what Yahuwah creates is worthless in itself, if He does not add His Light, if he does not fill it with His own person and purpose. If He does not enlighten us on the purpose of His creation and if He does not give us the instructions for how to use it, the chaos takes over. Why having a spouse if I do not know how to love her and deal with her. Why having children if we cannot represent Yahuwah in front of them so that they should become believers by conviction and not by tradition and religiousness. Why having a house if it is not the Spirit of the Messiah that reigns over it. But this is true in all areas of life, why working, doing a ministry, or whatever we may receive from Yahuwah, if He does not fill it with His light, His commandments, and life. Why using a car if there are no lights to illuminate the roads of this life which is getting darker each day. We have to see and without light we would at best end up in the ditch.
Without the Light of the World, without the Messiah, nothing makes any sense, on the contrary everything is in danger, because moths, vermine and stealers will destroy it sooner or later.
A gift of Yahuwah used without His Spirit is empty and useless in itself. This kind of gift ceases to be a blessing for the sake of the Kingdom of Heavens and even for the world here below. If I do not use my possessions, my knowledge, my own person for the sake of His Kingdom, then all I own is like these futile and ephemeral earthly treasures that the Bible quotes several times.
Scientists have also known for a long time that light is in fact the most vital and indispensable element in the world.
Without light, life could never have appeared and nothing could be seen and observed. The speed of light itself is a constant that governs almost all the mechanics of physics. In addition, all the information contained in the universe is conveyed by light.
Deformation
The first word of the enemy is also carrying a great message. It is interesting to observe how lie actually works.
Because in reality, the snake did not even lie.
He just deflected the truth: did Elohim really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden?
While he knew very precisely that the ban was only on the fruits of that one precise tree and no other for the moment. What was his intention when he approached Eve in this way? Nothing more than to awaken this naive and warlike human who is in all of us and who loves to play the advocates of the Almighty. He knew that with this sliding of the truth, he was going to wake up this human instinct in Eve who wishes to defend not only its own person, but others and even the word of Elohim as well.
I see in this event the same parallel as in the story of the Ark brought to Jerusalem by King David. When the oxen stumbled, Uzza reached out to take hold of the Ark and he fell dead immidiately (2Sam 6: 7).
Who do we think we are for wanting to protect the One who is infinitely more powerful than us?
We are the only ones who need His protection and not the other way around.
I myself have experienced many times the deadly consequences of such an act. When I let myself be drawn into endless debates and sterile discussions. I struggle to protect the Word of Yahuwah and finally realize that I was the one who have fallen into sin and temptation. Death arises in the form of time lost, the time that I could have devoted to more vital and fruitful things. But my energy had also been destroyed and Satan won a battle against me. Eve made the same mistake. She allowed herself to be dragged into a vain and venomous discussion instead of going on her way like the caravan in front of the barking dogs. She began to argue, to explain the divine will to end up falling into temptation, sin and even death herself and the whole humanity with her. Our time, our energy, our thoughts, our spiritual work often die in this way as the consequence of similar faults. We are not even aware of the fruits thus wasted, because we even kill the possibility of seeing them grow.
To avoid falling into this trap, we also need the divine light, the spiritual vision, the gift of discernment. When, how and in which situations do we have to answer certain questions. When should we remain silent without even paying attention to provocation and when should we instead go to the assault, because the person really seeks the knowledge and the closeness of the Messiah.
Why Jews did not recognize the Messiah in Yeshua of Nazareth ?
The Haftara of the week (prophetic portion: Isaiah 42:5-43:10) reveals the reason for the rejection of the Messiah by the majority of the Jewish people.
This is what Elohim Yahuwah says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, Yahuwah, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:5-7
In this part of the Book, the word Light is also quoted from the first lines. Indeed, Israel was given as light to the nations. The call of Israel is also described and illustrated as follows:
The duty of the Jewish people is to heal the blind and the deaf, to free the prisoners from the darkness in which they are locked up.
We then read that it is because their refusal to fulfill this mission that the chosen people itself became blind, deaf and captive. The process portrayed is a consequence of sin. This is described in another prophecy too, when Yahuwah asks the prophet to give eyes with which they do not see, ears with which they do not hear so that he can not heal them.
This prophecy announces that the Jewish People has to be put under a veil for a certain period of time.
The disobedience of the chosen people veiled their eyes, thus preventing them from recognizing the expected Messiah in the person of Yeshua of Nazareth. The accusation of deicide is false since then. This does not mean that the Jewish people can wash their hands and have no responsibility, but the refusal of Yeshua HaMashiah at first was not a direct rebellion of the people against Yahuwah, but a consequence of the blindness and deaf they suffered from as a consequence of their former sins described in the above prophecy. These diseases were serious, but accepted, and from there on, it was in the momentary will of Yahuwah. Except from his disciples, those who knew who Yeshua really was and who they were facing, were precisely the high priests of the time. These spiritual leaders had no interest in the people discovering the true identity of Yeshua and did everything they could to make the people even more deaf and blind than they originally were.So those priests committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but the rest of the Jewish people did not fall into that.
The Almighty allowed this blindness and deaf in order to fulfill himself the mission that the Jewish people had abandoned which is to divulge the knowledge of the Almighty to other nations. He came personally to earth to gather his other sons scattered around the world, the Gentiles:
Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”(…) I ask then: Did Yahuwah reject his people? By no means! (…) as it is written: “Yahuwah gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” (Excerpts from Romans 10-11).
