Bar’chu et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch ata YHVH
Eloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu
eht Torah-to.
Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the
blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us
your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)
Gen 15:1
After these events the word of יהוה came to Aḇram in a vision,
saying, “Do not be afraid, Aḇram. I am your shield, your reward is exceedingly
great.”
Gen
15:2 And Aḇram said, “Master יהוה,(Adonai YHVH – first time used) what would You give me, seeing
I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliʽezer of Damascus?”
2Sa
7:19 “And yet this was a small matter in Your eyes, O Master יהוה. And You have also spoken of
Your servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the torah of man,(For
mankind) O Master יהוה? (Adonai YHVH
used seven times in this chapter – Only YHVH can make good on such a covenant)
Gen
15:3 And Aḇram said, “See, You have
given me no seed, and see, one born in my house is my heir!”
Gen
15:4 And see, the word of יהוה came to him, saying, “This one is not your heir, but he who
comes from your own body is your heir.”
Gen
15:5 And He brought him outside and
said, “Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars if you are able to
count them.” And He said to him, “So are your seed.”
Gen
15:6 And he believed in יהוה, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness. - וְהֶאֱמִן,
בַּיהוָה
Note this Hebrew verb –‘’aman’’ for faith (confirm
nourish) is in the ‘’hyphil’’ or causative form.
Rom
10:17 So then belief comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Elohim.
Rom 4:4 And to him
who is working, the reward is not reckoned as a favour but as a debt.
Rom 4:5 And to him
who is not working but believes on Him who is declaring right the wicked, his
belief is reckoned for righteousness,
Rom 9:16 So, then,
it is not of him who is wishing, nor of him who is running, but of Elohim who
shows favour
‘’Genuine faith is a confession of one's inability to
acquire the promises of YHVH in one's own strength’’
Gen
15:7 And He said to him, “I am יהוה, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this
land to inherit it.”
Gen
15:8 And he said, “Master יהוה, whereby do I know that I possess it?”
Gen
15:9 And He said to him, “Bring Me a
three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old
ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Gen
15:10 And he took all these to Him and
cut them in the middle, and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not
cut the birds.
Gen
15:11 And the birds of prey came down on
the carcasses, and Aḇram drove them away.
Gen
15:12 And it came to be, when the sun
was going down, and a deep sleep fell upon Aḇram, that see, a frightening
great darkness fell upon him.
This same
word for deep sleep in Hebrew – “tardeimah” is same word used in Ber 2:21 –
where YHVH put Adam into a deep sleep to create Chava from one of his bones.
It is as if YHVH was about to create a saving
faith that would bring eternal life to multitudes of people.
Maybe this
deep darkness was the frightening realization that there was nothing Avram
could do to save himself and bring YHVH’s promises to pass.
We all like
to speak of Avram’s faith and his confidence in YHVH as if it was something Avram
did and we have to do as well to get the right faith outcomes in life.
But Avram
understood true saving faith as the admission of one's inability to acquire
righteousness and favour with YHVH in one’s own strength.
The
covenant that YHVH makes with Avram and with mankind is essentially a one-sided
covenant. Its success would be YHVH’s doing and His doing alone.
This is
very hard for religious people to accept who are forever striving to do things
that they hope will make them more acceptable to YHVH and better deserving than
others of His blessing and favour. This reality is so deeply inbedded in most
of us we fail to recognize it. It usually requires an overwhelming situation to
confront us before we realize our helplessness and our total dependence upon
YHVH and His plan to redeem us.
We see in
the following verse that part of YHVH’s great redemption plan was to allow His
people to go into captivity, where they face the danger of becoming completely
assimilated into the surrounding pagan culture. It's often only in these
desperate situations that we realize how much we need redemption. We remember
this truth when we celebrate Pesach –
Gen
15:13 And He said to Aḇram, “Know for
certain that your seed are to be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and
shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
Gen
15:14 “But the nation whom they serve I
am going to judge, and afterward let them come out with great possessions.
Gen
15:15 “Now as for you, you are to go to
your fathers in peace, you are to be buried at a good old age.