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.
Gen
15:16 “Then, in the fourth generation
they shall return here, for the crookedness of the Amorites is not yet
complete.”
Gen
15:17 And it came to be, when the sun
went down and it was dark, that see, a smoking oven and a burning torch passing
between those pieces.
The smoking
oven and the flaming torch (furnace or stove) refers to the altar of sacrifice
and the altar of incense – the priestly service of the Levites.
Gen
15:18 On the same day יהוה made a covenant with Aḇram, saying, “I have given this land to
your seed, from the river of Mitsrayim to the great river, the River Euphrates,
Gen
15:19 with the Qĕynite, and the
Qenizzite, and the Qaḏmonite,
Gen
15:20 and the Ḥittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Repha’im,
Gen
15:21 and the Amorite, and the
Kenaʽanite, and the Girgashite, and the Yeḇusite.”
Genocidal
Commandment.
Deu 7:1
“When יהוה your Elohim brings you into
the land which you go to possess, He shall also clear away many nations before
you: the Ḥittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Kenaʽanites and
the Perizzites and the Ḥiwwites and the Yeḇusites, seven nations greater and
mightier than you.
Deu
7:2 “And when יהוה
your Elohim gives them over to you, you shall smite them and put them under the
ban, completely. Make no covenant with them, and show them no favour.
Deu
7:3 “And do not intermarry with them –
you do not give your daughter to his son, and you do not take his daughter for
your son,
Deu
7:4 for he turns your sons away from
following Me, to serve other mighty ones. Then the displeasure of יהוה shall burn against you and promptly destroy you.
Deu
7:5 “But this is what you do to them:
Break down their altars, and smash their pillars, and cut down their Ashĕrim,
and burn their carved images with fire.
Deu
7:6 “For you are a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim. יהוה your Elohim has chosen you to
be a people for Himself, a treasured possession above all the peoples on the
face of the earth.
Only a remnant
will survive – vs 6 …Their
cities are destroyed, without man, without inhabitant.
Zep
3:8 “Therefore wait for Me,” declares יהוה, “until the day I rise up for plunder. For My judgment is to
gather nations, to assemble reigns, to pour out on them My rage, all My burning
wrath. For by the fire of My jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.
The
Conversion of the Nations
Zep
3:9 “For then I shall turn unto the peoples a clean lip,[b] so that they all call on the Name of יהוה, to serve Him with one shoulder.
Zep
3:10 “From beyond the rivers of Kush my worshippers, the daughter of My
dispersed ones, shall bring My offering.
Zep
3:11 “In that day you shall not be put to shame for any of your deeds in
which you have transgressed against Me, for then I shall remove from your midst
your proud exulting ones, and you shall no more be haughty in My set-apart
mountain.
Zep 3:12 “But I
shall leave in your midst an oppressed and poor people, and they shall trust in
the Name of יהוה.
Zep
3:13 “The remnant of Yisra’ĕl shall do
no unrighteousness and speak no falsehood1, nor is a tongue of
deceit found in their mouth. For they shall feed their flocks and lie down,
with none to frighten them.” Footnote: 1Rev. 14:5.
Mat
24:12 “And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of many shall
become cold.
Mat
24:13 “But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved.[a] Footnote: aSee Mat_10:22.
Gal 3:7 Know,
then, that those who are of belief are sons of Aḇraham. Gal 3:8 And the Scripture, having foreseen that
Elohim would declare right the nations by belief, announced the Good News to
Aḇraham beforehand, saying, “All the nations shall be blessed in you,” Gal
3:9 so that those who are of belief are
blessed with Aḇraham, the believer.
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once nations[c]
in the flesh, who are called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called ‘the
circumcision’ made in the flesh by hands, Footnote: cSee 1Co_12:2. Eph
2:12 that at that time you were without Messiah, excluded from the citizenship
of Yisra’ěl and strangers from the covenants of promise,(several covenants only
One Promise) having no expectation and without Elohim in the world. Eph
2:13 But now in Messiah יהושע you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood
of the Messiah.
Rom 11:33-26 – unsearchable or inscrutable - incapable of
being investigated, analysed, or scrutinized; impenetrable. Way over our heads,
we’ll never figure it out.
Baruch atah
YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam
nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are
you Yahweh, 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 – Ameyn.)