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.
ויזרע יצחק
Gen 26:1
And there was a scarcity of food in the land, besides the first scarcity of
food which was in the days of Aḇraham. And Yitsḥaq went to Aḇimeleḵ, sovereign
of the Philistines, in Gerar.
Gen 26:2 And יהוה
appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Mitsrayim, live in the land which
I command you. (don’t trust what
you can see with your eyes - the arm of flesh – Jer 17:5)
Gen 26:3 “Sojourn in this land.
And I shall be with you and bless you, for I give all these lands to you and
your seed. And I shall establish the oath which I swore to Aḇraham your father.
Gen 26:4 “And I shall increase
your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I shall give all these lands to
your seed. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
Gen 26:5 because Aḇraham obeyed My
voice and guarded My Charge: My commands, My laws, and My Torot.”a Footnote:
aTorot - plural of Torah, teaching
Gen 26:12 And Yitsḥaq sowed in that land, and reaped
in the same year a hundredfold, and יהוה
blessed him. (note the circumstances and the promises – vs 1-6)
|
יב וַיִּזְרַע יִצְחָק בָּאָרֶץ הַהִוא, וַיִּמְצָא בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִוא מֵאָה
שְׁעָרִים; וַיְבָרְכֵהוּ, יְהוָה. |
Pro
10:22 The blessing of יהוה makes one rich, And He adds no pain(toil) with it.
What was
the secret? How do you sow in
famine? You invest your life and faith into that which the world rejects and
despises. No normal person will sow in famine. No normal person will invest
themselves and their resources into a venture that appears to be a total lost
cause and waste of time.
You invest your life
in embracing the righteousness of the Torah while the world invests itself in
its own self-righteousness. The world will first hate you for this but
eventually will learn to fear you.
Mar 10:29 יהושע said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house
or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for
the sake of Me and the Good News,
Mar 10:30 who shall not receive a
hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and
children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, everlasting
life.
Mar 10:31 “But many who are first shall be last, and the last first.”
Who has done such a thing as forsaking all, even his family to follow Yahshua? Maybe saint Francis of Assisi –
Rev 3:9 “See, I am giving up those of the congregation of Satan, who say they are Yehuḏim and are not, but lie. See, I am making them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Rev 3:10 “Because you have guarded My Word of endurance, I also shall guard you from the hour of trial which shall come upon all the world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
2Co 3:5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to reckon any matter as from ourselves, but our competence is from Elohim, 2Co 3:6 who also made us competent as servants of a renewed covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.
Gen 26:13 And the man grew great and went forward until he became very great.
Gen
26:14 And he came to have possessions of
flocks and possessions of herds and a great body of servants, and the
Philistines envied him.
Gen
26:15 And the Philistines had stopped up
all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Aḇraham his
father, and filled them with dirt.
Gen
26:16 And Aḇimeleḵ said to Yitsḥaq,
“Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
Gen
26:17 So Yitsḥaq went from there and
pitched his tent in the wadi Gerar, and dwelt there.
Gen 26:18 And Yitsḥaq dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Aḇraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Aḇraham. And he called them by the names which his father had called them.
Note they
did not dig new wells but unstopped the old wells. We don’t have to look for
new sources of water or spiritual life, we simply need to remove all the pagan
mixture that has come into the wells of our salvation and deliverance.
And this is why we too are called back to the ancient paths - Jer 6:16 Thus said יהוה, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and find rest for yourselves. But they said, ‘We do not walk in it.’ Jer 6:17 “And I raised up watchmen over you, and said, ‘Listen to a voice of a shophar!’ But they said, ‘We do not listen.’ Jer 6:18 “Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is upon them! Jer 6:19 “Hear, O earth! See, I am bringing evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My words, nor My Torah – and they rejected it.
Gen
26:19 But when Yitsḥaq’s servants dug
in the wadi and found a well of running water there,
Gen
26:20 the herdsmen of Gerar strove with
Yitsḥaq’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the
well Ěseq, because they strove with
him.
Gen
26:21 And they dug another well, and
they strove over that one too, and he called its name Sitnah.
Gen
26:22 And he moved from there and dug
another well, and they did not strive over it. And he called its name Reḥoḇoth, and said, “For now יהוה has made room for us, and we
shall bear fruit in the land.”
Gen 26:23 And from there he went up to Be’ĕrsheḇa.
When we begin to rediscover the ancient wells of the truth of Torah,
which have been blocked by the “Philistines” we experience strife from those
outside Esek (or contention) then from those inside (Sitnah or quarrelling) but
if we persevere we will come to Rehoboth or ‘’wide places’’, to a hundred fold
blessing in this life.
Gen
26:24 And יהוה
appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the Elohim of your father
Aḇraham. Do not fear, for I am with you, and shall bless you and increase your
seed for My servant Aḇraham’s sake.”
Gen 26:25
And he built an altar there, and called on the Name of יהוה, and he pitched his tent there, and the servants of Yitsḥaq
dug a well there.
Gen
26:26 And Aḇimeleḵ came to him from
Gerar, with Aḥuzzath, one of his friends, and Piḵol the commander of his
army.
Gen
26:27 And Yitsḥaq said to them, “Why
have you come to me, seeing you have hated me and have sent me away from you?”
Gen
26:28 But they said, “We have clearly
seen that יהוה is
with you. And we said, ‘Please, let there be an oath between us, between you
and us. And let us make a covenant with you,
Gen
26:29 that you do no evil to us, as we
have not touched you, and as we have done only good toward you, and have sent
you away in peace. You are now blessed by יהוה.’
”
Gen 26:30 And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
The Targum Yonatan explains Abimelech’s sudden change of heart: “When
Yitzchak left Gerar the wells dried up and the trees bore no fruit. They felt
this befell them because they had driven him away, so Abimelech went to
Yitzchak from Gerar”
Gen
26:31 And they rose early in the morning
and swore an oath with one another. And Yitsḥaq let them go, and they departed
from him in peace. -
Gen
26:32 And on the same day it came to be
that the servants of Yitsḥaq came and informed him about the well which they
had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
Gen 26:33 So he called it Shiḇah (or oath- this
blessing would be sealed for future ‘’toldot’’) Therefore the name of the city
is Be’ĕrsheḇa to this day.
Gen
26:34 And when Ěsaw was forty years old,
he took as wives Yehuḏith the daughter of Be’ĕri the Ḥittite, and Basemath
the daughter of Ělon the Ḥittite.
Gen 26:35 And they were a bitterness of spirit to Yitsḥaq and Riḇqah.
Pro
17:21 He who brings forth a fool has sorrow for it, And the father of a
fool has no joy.
Eph 6:2 “Respect your father and mother,” which is the first command with promise, Eph 6:3 in order that it might be well with you, and you might live long on the earth.” Exo_20:12, Deu_5:16.
In the last days YHVH will once again bring a famine
in the world during the great tribulation.
Rev 11:3 “And I shall give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clad in sackcloth.” Rev 11:5 And if anyone wishes to harm them, fire comes out from their mouth and consumes their enemies. And if anyone wishes to harm them, he has to be killed in that way. Rev 11:6 These possess authority to shut the heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. And they possess authority over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they wish.
Amo 8:11 “See, days are coming,” declares the Master יהוה, “that I shall send a hunger in the land, not a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the Words of יהוה. Amo 8:12 “And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east – they shall diligently search, seeking the Word of יהוה, but they shall not find it.
The spirit of many believers remains hostile towards the “ancient paths” that the patriarchs spirit spoke of in the Torah and throughout all scripture. It was Yahshua who came to reopen the ancient wells of blessing and salvation that the ancient patriarchs left behind. We are called to walk as He walked - 1Jn 2:6 The one who says he stays in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.
Mal 4:6 “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with utter destruction.” [a] Footnote: aSee also Zec_14:13.
Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheinu,
Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chai-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.