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. Amein.
In the
previous portion, the narrative ends with the bleak notice that all mankind was
wiped from the face of the earth, and that Noach and his family were preserved
in the ark. It is against this picture of destruction that our parashah begins,
Noach and his family are preserved because YHVH ‘’remembered.’’ By His actions
we understand that YHVH confirms and remembers His commitment towards His
people by means of His covenant and promises.
What makes
this small Torah portion so powerful is that two of the times mentioned point prophetically
to the resurrection and the return of the Messiah – see vs 4 and 13.
Why must
YHVH ‘’remember’’? Does He ever ‘’forget’’?
Psa
31:15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who pursue me.
Psa 139:17 And how precious are
Your thoughts to me, O Ěl! How great has been the sum of them!
Psa 139:18 If I should count them,
They would be more than the sand; When I wake up, I am still with You.
Eph
2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah יהושע unto good works, which Elohim prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
Psa
139:4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But see, O יהוה,
You know it all!
So, why
pray? If He knows and sees everything before it even happens?
See
parable of the talents – Matt 25:14-30
How much
time, treasure and talent are we willing to invest into YHVH purposes and
callings upon each of our and others lives? He knows. But we are yet to
discover what the reward and outcome of our lives will be.
That’s
why we pray, study His Word and hear and obey all that He has said.
He
remembers everything. He does not forget anything.
Gen
8:1 And
Elohim remembered(vayizkor) Noaḥ, and all the beasts and all
the cattle that were with him in the ark. And Elohim made a wind (Heb – ‘’ruach’’)to pass over the earth, and the
waters subsided.
Exo
2:24 And Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered(vayizkor) His covenant with Aḇraham, with Yitsḥaq, and
with Ya‛aqoḇ.
He will
remember a faithful remnant in the last days - Rev 12:14 And the woman was given two
wings of a great eagle, to fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is
nourished for a time and times and half a time, Dan_7:25, Dan_12:7
from the presence of the serpent. Rev 12:15 And out of his mouth the
serpent spewed water like a river after the woman, to cause her to be swept
away by the river.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the
woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the
dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Rev 12:17 And the dragon was
enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed,
those guarding the commands of Elohim and possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah.
Gen 8:2 And the fountains of the
deep and the windows of the heavens were stopped, and the rain from the heavens
was withheld.
Gen 8:3 And the waters receded
steadily from the earth, and at the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters
diminished.
Gen 8:4 And in the seventh new moon,
the seventeenth day of the new moon, the ark rested on the mountains of
Ararat. (ארר ('arar), to curse; רטט (retet),
trembling, panic – see Gal 3:13)
Gen 8:5 And the waters decreased
steadily until the tenth new moon. In the tenth new moon, on the
first day of the new moon, the tops of the mountains became
visible.
Gen 8:6 And it came to be, at the
end of forty days, that Noaḥ opened the window of the ark which he had
made,
Gen 8:7 and he sent out a raven,
which kept going out and turning back until the waters had dried up from the
earth.
Gen 8:8 Then he sent out a dove
from him, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.
Gen 8:9 But the dove found no
resting place for its feet and returned into the ark to him, for the waters
were on the face of all the earth. So he put out his hand and took it, and
pulled it into the ark to himself.
Gen 8:10 And he waited yet another
seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.
Gen
8:11 And the dove came to him in the evening, and see, a freshly plucked
olive leaf was in its mouth. And Noaḥ knew that the waters had receded from the
earth.
Gen
8:12 And he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which
did not return to him again.
“By bringing back a
bitter olive leaf in its mouth, the dove was saying symbolically, ‘’better that
my food be bitter but from YHVH’s Hand, than sweet as honey but dependant upon
mortal man’’ – Rashi. R Hirsch elaborates: For a full year, the dove could not
earn its own food; but hunger forced it to rely on Noach’s kindness. Then it
found a bitter leaf that it would ordinarily not eat – and carried it back to
Noach, preaching the lesson of the sages, that even the bitterest food eaten in
freedom is better than the sweetest food given in servitude’’ Stones Chumash
page 38.
Gen
8:13 And it came to be in the six hundred and first year, in the first month,
the first day of the new moon, that the waters were dried up from the
earth. And Noaḥ removed the covering of the ark and looked, and saw the surface
of the ground was dry.
Gen 8:14 And in the second new moon,
on the twenty-seventh day of the new moon, the earth was dry.
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
life form of all flesh that is with you: of birds, of cattle and all
creeping creatures – the creeping creatures on the earth. And let
them teem on the earth, and bear and increase on the earth.”
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.
God's
Covenant with Noah
Gen 8:20 And Noaḥ built a
slaughter-place to יהוה, and took of every clean beast and of
every clean bird, and offered ascending offerings on the slaughter-place. (re-establishing covenant)
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 strike all living creatures,
as I have done,
Gen 8:22 as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Hab
3:1 A
prayer of Ḥaḇaqquq the prophet, on Shiḡionoth.
Hab
3:2 O יהוה, I
have heard your report, I was afraid. O יהוה, renew Your work in the midst(Heb – ‘’bekerev’’ implying ‘’fulfillment)) of the years! Make it known in
the midst of the years. In wrath remember (Heb – ‘’tizkor’’ will remember) compassion.
Hab
3:3 Eloah comes from Těman,(Edom) And the
Set-apart One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendour shall cover the heavens,
And His praise shall fill the earth.
Hab
3:4 And the brightness is as the light, He has rays from His hand, And
there His power is hidden.
Hab
3:5 Before Him goes pestilence, And a burning flame goes forth at His
feet.
Hab
3:6 He shall stand and measure the earth. He shall look and shake the
nations. And the ancient mountains are shattered, The age-old hills shall bow.
His ways are everlasting.
Hab
3:7 I saw the tents of Kushan under sorrow, The curtains of the land of
Miḏyan tremble.
Hab
3:8 Shall יהוה
burn against the rivers? Is Your displeasure against the rivers, Is Your wrath
against the sea, That You ride on Your horses, Your chariots of
deliverance?
Hab
3:9 You uncover Your bow, The oaths of the rod(Heb-‘’matot’’ or tribes) of the Word. Selah. You cut through the earth
with rivers.
Hab 3:10 The mountains shall see You, they tremble. The storm of water shall pass over. The deep shall give forth its voice, It shall lift up its hands.
Summary
Habakkuk: The major theme of Habakkuk is trying
to grow from a faith of perplexity and doubt to the height of absolute trust in
YHVH. Habakkuk addresses his concerns over the fact that YHVH will use the
Babylonian empire to execute judgment on Yahudah (Judah) for their sins. Today we
are faced with the severe captivity of a new world order.
Rev
1:9 I, Yoḥanan, both your brother and co-sharer in pressure, and in the
reign and endurance of יהושע
Messiah, came to be on the island that is called Patmos for the Word of Elohim
and for the witness of יהושע
Messiah.
Rev
1:10 I came to be in the Spirit on the Day of יהוה,a and I heard behind me a loud voice, as
of a trumpet, Footnote: aSee also Isa_13:6, Isa_13:9, Eze_13:5,
Joe_1:15, Joe_2:1, Joe_2:11, Joe_2:31, Joe_3:14,
Amo_5:16-20, Oba_1:15, Zep_1:7, Zep_1:14, Mal_4:5,
Act_2:20, 1Th_5:2, 2Th_2:2, 2Pe_3:10.
Rev
1:11 saying, “I am the ‘Aleph’ and the ‘Taw’, the First and the Last,”
and, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven assemblies of Asia
– to Ephesos, and to Smurna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis,
and to Philadelphia, and to Laodikeia.”
Rev
1:12 And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me. And having
turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, Zec_4:2.
Rev
1:13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Aḏam,
Dan_7:13 dressed in a robe down to the feet and girded about
the chest with a golden band. Dan_10:5.
Rev
1:14 And His head and hair were white as white wool, as snow, and His
eyes as a flame of fire,
Rev
1:15 and His feet like burnished brass, Dan_10:6 as if
refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters. Eze_1:24,
Eze_43:2.
Rev
1:16 And in His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth went
a sharp two-edged sword,[b] and His face
was as the sun shining in its strength. Footnote: bSee Rev_2:16, Isa_49:2,
Heb_4:12.
Rev
1:17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He placed His
right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last,
Isa_44:6, Isa_48:12.
Rev
1:18 and the living One. And I became dead, and see, I am living forever
and ever. Aměn. And I possess the keys of She’olc and of Death. Footnote: cSee
Explanatory Notes - She’ol.
Rev
1:19 “Write therefore what you have seen, both what is now and what shall
take place after these:
Rev 1:20 “The secret of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are messengers of the seven assemblies, and the seven lampstands which you saw are seven assemblies.
These
seven assemblies addressed by Messiah all appear in the same area and country
where the ark of Noach rested.
Is this just a coincidence?
Baruch atah YHVH,
Eloheinu, Melech ha-Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam
nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH, notein ha-Torah. Amein.
Blessed are you
YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of
truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you,
YHVH giver of the Torah – Amein.