One
of the first commandments YHVH gave Adam and Chawah was to be fruitful and
multiply (Ber/Gen 1:22), this
commandment is repeated three times in this week’s parashah – 8:17,9:1&7.
The
law of first mention is very important for us in understanding the Word of
YHVH. This first commandment to be fruitful and multiply must also be
significant in our understanding of all other commandments given by YHVH to
man.
How
can one be fruitful? My understanding of scripture is that one can only be
properly fruitful if you eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. What is the fruit
of the Tree of Life? The Torah of YHVH and specifically the way the Torah
points to the only brought forth Son of YHVH – Yahshua Ha Moshiach.
Gen 9:1
And Elohim blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and
said to them, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the earth.
This commandment also has a physical aspect
to it. A well known teacher stated that this commandment could have been
phrased “let there be sex.” The implications are enormous. Most believers tend
to ignore the impact of this commandment and commandments in the Torah related
to this first commandment. A well known example is found in Dev/Deut 25 – the
levirate marriage. Very, very few men have ever taken this commandment seriously.
Vay/Lev 18 gives clear instruction of what is forbidden sexually. It remains
silent on what is allowed. Perhaps YHVH wanted to see how man would use his
freedom to choose to function in a sexually righteous manner. Sadly many
religious leaders avoid sensitive sexual issues and have added and taken away
from YHVH’s Torah instruction regarding human sexuality. The consequences of
this have caused the “yetzer ha ra” (the
evil inclination) to rage out of control in the lives of many dear believers.
Only when
YHVH blesses us can we be truly fruitful and multiply in our understanding of
Torah and Messiah.
Has
this commandment been fulfilled on earth?
Man
seems to have multiplied and filled the earth with a corrupt seed and violence –
Ber/Gen 6:11,12.
Yet
the promise remains that the whole earth will be filled with the Esteem of YHVH.
Some
sages comment that the gematria (the numerical worth) of “white seed” or “zera
levan” or sperm has the same gematria as “satan”- 359. They make this comment
because the ‘yetzer ha rah” or evil inclination seems to be most associated
with devious sexual behavior.
Isa
60:2 “For look,
darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But יהוה arises over
you, and His esteem is seen upon you. (Upon those who follow the guidelines of
Torah including the instruction regarding sexual behavior)
Isa 60:3 “And the
gentiles shall come to your light1, and sovereigns to the brightness
of your rising. Footnote: 1Isa. 60:19,20, Rev. 21:23,24.
Sexual dysfunction in the world has caused a deep
spiritual darkness to come upon the world.
Isa 45:17 Yisra’ĕl shall be saved by יהוה with an
everlasting deliverance. You are not to be ashamed nor hurt, forever and ever.
Isa 45:18 For thus said יהוה, Creator of the heavens, He is Elohim,
Former of earth and its Maker, He established it, He did not create it to be
empty (Heb-“tohu” or chaotic), He formed it to be inhabited: “I am יהוה, and there is none else.
Hab 2:14 for the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the esteem of יהוה, as the waters
cover the sea1! Footnote: 1Isa. 11:9.
Our Torah Portion:
Gen 8:15 And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ, saying,
Gen 8:16 “Go
out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
Gen 8:17
“Bring out with you every living creature of all flesh that is with you:
of birds, of cattle and all creeping creatures that creep on the earth. And let
them teem on the earth, and bear and increase on the earth.” Or “be fruitful and multiply…”
Gen 8:18 So
Noaḥ went out, and his
sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him,
Gen 8:19
every beast, every creeping creature, and every bird, whatever creeps on
the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.
Do these opening verses
point to a future prophetic destruction that will come upon the earth, when
YHVH will once again call those whom He has protected to come out of hiding and
to once again be fruitful and multiply?
Gen
8:20 And Noaḥ built
an altar to יהוה, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar. (It is interesting to
see that the revelation about clean and unclean animals (as seen in chapter 7:2
and here) existed already at the time of Noach. They must have known then the
difference. That did not mean that the clean animals could be eaten at that
time. We saw that man could not eat meat before the flood. A while after the
flood (Gen 9:3) YHVH said that animals are food and we know that Noach already
knew which were clean and which were unclean. The difference between clean and
unclean animals was, at that time, only in connection with the offerings as we
see here in verse 20).
Gen
8:21 And יהוה smelled a soothing fragrance, and יהוה said in His
heart, “Never again shall I curse the ground because of man, although the
inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again smite all
living creatures, as I have done,”
“the inclination of man’s heart is evil” in Hebrew we
call this the “yetzer ha ra”
According to Judaism man is able to subdue the “yetzer ha ra” or evil
inclination. “although you have the ability to subdue it,” meaning, if you wish, you
will overpower it. [see: Sifrei on Deuteronomy, P. Ekev 45, Kidd. 30b]
According
to Shaul only in Yahshua is one able to
help us overcome the “yetzer ha ra”
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
from this body of death? Rom 7:25 Thanks
to Elohim, through יהושע Messiah our
Master! So then, with the mind I myself truly serve the Torah of Elohim, but
with the flesh the law of sin.
The Apostolic scriptures or Second Writings (NT) clearly
express that man cannot be saved through his own efforts.
Eph 2:8 For by favour you have been saved,(perfect
passive verb) through(the) belief, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of Elohim,
Eph 2:9 it is not by works, so that no one should
boast.
Once again we need to remind ourselves that there was never a time when
man was able to save himself. Salvation was and always will be in and through
Yahshua the Messiah.
Rev 13:8 And all those dwelling on the earth, whose
names have not been written in the Book of Life of the slain Lamb, from the
foundation of the world shall worship him.
Rev 13:9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Act 4:11 “This is ‘the stone which was rejected by you
builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’
Act 4:12 “And there is no deliverance in anyone else,
for there is no other Name under the heaven given among men by which we need to
be saved.”
The writer to the book of Hebrews was concerned that because of
persecution and isolation from the Jewish leaders some of the messianic
believers would turn back from the faith.
Heb 10:38 “But the righteous shall live by belief, but
if anyone draws back, my being has no pleasure in him.” Or by means of the faith
Eph 4:4 one body and one Spirit, as you also were
called in one expectation of your calling, Eph 4:5 one Master, one belief, one immersion, Eph
4:6 one Elohim and Father of all,1
who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Footnote: 1Mk.
12:32,34, 1 Cor. 8:6, 1 Tim. 2:5, Mk. 12:29-34.
The one faith Shaul
speaks about is the way of YHVH’s salvation from before the foundation of the
world. There is no other faith and there is no other way.
Isa 29:16 How perverse of you! Should the potter be
reckoned as the clay? Should what is made say of its Maker, “He did not make
me”? And what is formed say of Him who formed it, “He did not understand”?
The fact that Noach
offers clean animals as offering to YHVH is clear proof that man could not
redeem himself- he needed an intercessory offering on his behalf to be
presented to YHVH. Every offering that was made and will be made in the future
all point to the once for all sinless offering of the Son of Man – Yahshua.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one Elohim,1 and one
Mediator between Elohim and men, the Man Messiah יהושע, Foornote: 11
Cor. 8:6, Eph. 4:6, Mk. 12:29-34.
1Ti 2:6 who gave
Himself a ransom for all, to be witnessed in its own seasons,
Gen 8:22 as long
as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and winter and
summer, and day and night shall not cease.”
Gen 9:1 And Elohim blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and
said to them, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the earth.
Gen 9:2 “And
the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every
bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of
the sea – into your hand they have been given.
Gen 9:3
“Every moving creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all,
as I gave the green plants.
Gen 9:4 “But
do not eat flesh with its life, its blood.
Gen 9:5 “But
only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I
require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I
require the life of man.
Gen 9:6
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image
of Elohim has He made man.
Gen 9:7 “As
for you, bear fruit and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and
increase in it.”
Gen 9:8 And
Elohim spoke to Noaḥ and to his sons with
him, saying,
Gen 9:9 “And
I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you,
Gen 9:10 and
with every living creature that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and
of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every
beast of the earth.
Gen 9:11 “And
I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by
the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the
earth.”
Gen 9:12 And
Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you,
and every living creature that is with you, for all generations to come:
Gen 9:13 “I
shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Gen 9:14
“And it shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow
shall be seen in the cloud,
Gen 9:15 and
I shall remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living
creature of all flesh, and never again let the waters become a flood to destroy
all flesh.
Gen 9:16
“And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall see it, to remember
the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living creature of all flesh
that is on the earth.”
Gen 9:17 And
Elohim said to Noaḥ, “This is the sign of
the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the
earth.”