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.)
Gen
33:18 And Yaʽaqoḇ came
safely(Heb “Shalam”) to the city of Sheḵem, which is in the land of
Kenaʽan, when he came from Paddan Aram. And he pitched his tent before the
city. Gen 33:19 And he bought the
portion of the field where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Ḥamor,
Sheḵem’s father, for one hundred qesitah – (value unknown) Gen 33:20 And he set up an altar there and called it Ěl
Elohĕ Yisra’ĕl. (The Mighty El of Yisrael) Gen 34:1 And Dinah, the daughter of Lĕ’ah, whom she
had borne to Yaʽaqoḇ, went out to see the
daughters of the land. (Big mistake! Assimilation is more dangerous than death.)
Gen 34:2
And Sheḵem, son of Ḥamor the Ḥiwwite, prince of the
land, saw her and took her and lay with her, and humbled her.
Gen 34:3
And his being clung to Dinah the daughter of Yaʽaqoḇ, and he loved the
girl and spoke kindly to the girl. Gen 34:4
And Sheḵem spoke to his father
Ḥamor, saying, “Take
this girl for me for a wife.” Gen 34:5
And Yaʽaqoḇ heard that he had
defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field,
so Yaʽaqoḇ kept silent until
they came. Gen 34:6 And Ḥamor, the father of
Sheḵem, went out to Yaʽaqoḇ to speak with him. Gen
34:7 And the sons of Yaʽaqoḇ came in from the
field when they heard it. And the men were grieved and very wroth, because he
had done a senseless deed in Yisra’ĕl by lying with Yaʽaqoḇ’s daughter, which
should not be done. Gen 34:8 But Ḥamor spoke with them,
saying, “My son Sheḵem’s being longs for
your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife.
Gen 34:9
“And intermarry with us, give us your daughters and take our daughters
for yourselves, Gen 34:10 and dwell with
us, and let the land be before you. Dwell and move about in it, and have
possessions in it.” Gen 34:11 And Sheḵem said to her father
and her brothers, “Let me find favour in your eyes, and whatever you say to me
I give. Gen 34:12 “Ask of me a bride
price and gift ever so high, and I give according to what you say to me, but
give me the girl for a wife.” Gen 34:13
But the sons of Yaʽaqoḇ answered Sheḵem and Ḥamor his father, and
spoke with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.
Gen 34:14
And they said to them, “We are not able to do this matter, to give our
sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. Gen
34:15 “Only on this condition
would we agree to you: If you become as we are, to have every male of you
circumcised, Gen 34:16 then we shall
give our daughters to you, and take your daughters to us. And we shall dwell
with you, and shall become one people. Gen 34:17 “But if you do not listen to us and be
circumcised, we shall take our daughter and go.” Gen 34:18 And their words pleased Ḥamor and Sheḵem, Ḥamor’s son. Gen
34:19 And the young man did not delay to
do this because he delighted in Yaʽaqoḇ’s daughter. Now he
was more respected than all the household of his father. Gen 34:20 And Ḥamor
and Sheḵem his son came to the
gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying,
Gen 34:21 “These men are at peace with us, so let them
dwell in the land and move about in it. And see, the land is large enough for
them. Let us take their daughters for us for wives and let us give them our
daughters. (Big mistake – “Yakov’s sheep” should NOT assimilate with anyone
outside the flock of Yakov.)
Gen 34:22
“Only on this condition would the men agree to dwell with us, to
be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. (this infers a kind of conversion to the
Elohim of Yisrael). Gen 34:23 “Their
herds and their possessions, and all their beasts, should they not be ours?
Only let us agree with them, and let them dwell with us.”
Gen 34:24
And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Ḥamor and Sheḵem his son; every male
was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
2Co 6:14
Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have
righteousness and lawlessness? And what fellowship has light with darkness?
Many modern day
believers frown on such radicalism. Listen to Yochanan on this issue.
2Jn 1:9
Everyone who is transgressing(wilfully and arrogantly disregards Torah)
and not staying in the teaching of Messiah does not possess Elohim.1
The one who stays in the teaching of Messiah possesses both the Father and the
Son.2 Footnotes: 11 Tim. 6:3. 2See 1 John 1:3,
1 John 2:22, 1 John 5:20.
2Jn 1:10
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive
him into your house nor greet him,
Gen 34:25
And it came to be on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of
the sons of Yaʽaqoḇ, Shimʽon and Lĕwi, Dinah’s
brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the
males. Gen 34:26 And they killed Ḥamor and Sheḵem his son with the
edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Sheḵem’s
house, and went out. Gen 34:27 The sons
of Yaʽaqoḇ came upon the slain,
and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. Gen 34:28 They took their flocks and their herds, and
their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field, Gen
34:29 and all their wealth. And all
their little ones and their wives they took captive, and they plundered all
that was in the houses.
Gen 34:30
And Yaʽaqoḇ said to Shimʽon and Lĕwi, “You have
troubled me by making me a stench among the inhabitants of the land, among the
Kenaʽanites and the
Perizzites. And I am few in number, they shall gather themselves against me and
shall smite me, and I shall be destroyed, my household and I.”
Gen 34:31
But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a whore?”
Yasher 33: 52 And they circumcised Shechem and Hamor his father,
and the five brothers of Shechem, and then every one rose up and went home, for
this thing was from YHVH against the city of Shechem, and from YHVH was Simeon's counsel in this matter, in
order that YHVH might deliver the city of Shechem into the
hands of Jacob's two sons.
CHAPTER 34:1 And the number of
all the males that were circumcised, were six hundred and forty-five men, and
two hundred and forty-six children.
Read
these full chapters in the book of Yasher to discover the true intentions of
these Philistines.
Gen
35:1 And Elohim
said to Yaʽaqoḇ, “Arise, go up to
Bĕyth Ěl and dwell there. And make an altar there to Ěl who appeared to you
when you fled from the face of Ěsaw your brother.”
Gen 35:2
And Yaʽaqoḇ said to his household
and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign mighty ones that are among
you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments.
Gen 35:3
“And let us arise and go up to Bĕyth Ěl, and let me make there an altar
to Ěl, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the
way which I have gone.”
Gen 35:4
So they gave Yaʽaqoḇ all the foreign
mighty ones which were in their hands, and all their earrings which were in
their ears. And Yaʽaqoḇ hid them under the terebinth
tree which was near Sheḵem. Gen 35:5 And they departed, and the fear of Elohim was
upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of
Yaʽaqoḇ.
Assimilation was and
remains the biggest threat to Yakov’s flock.
Gen 35:6
And Yaʽaqoḇ came to Luz, that is
Bĕyth Ěl, which is in the land of Kenaʽan,
he and all the people who were with him.
Gen 35:7
And he built there an altar and called the place El Bĕyth Ěl, because
there Elohim appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. Gen
35:8 And Deḇorah, Riḇqah’s nurse, died, and
she was buried below Bĕyth Ěl under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was
called Allon Baḵuth – “Alon Bachut”
the oak of lamentation.
Why is this sad event mentioned in the
Torah? Does it not possibly relate to the neglect of the Torah?
Yokes were made from the Terebinth trees. A
yoke is a symbol of taking the Torah upon yourself to follow and obey every
word. Is this not what Yahshua meant when he said we must the yoke of Torah
upon ourselves – THE WAY HE AND HIS TALMIDIM TAUGHT US?
A Chosen People
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 Kena‛anites 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 strike 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 slaughter-places, and smash their pillars, and
cut down their Ashěrim, 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. Deu 7:7 “יהוה did not set His love on you
nor choose you because you were more numerous than any other people, for you
were the least of all peoples,
Deu 7:8 but because of יהוה loving you, and because of Him guarding the oath which He swore
to your fathers, יהוה has
brought you out with a strong hand, and ransomed you from the house of bondage,
from the hand of Pharaoh sovereign of Mitsrayim. Deu 7:9 “And you
shall know that יהוה your
Elohim, He is Elohim, the trustworthy Ěl guarding covenant and
loving-commitment for a thousand generations with those who love Him, and those
who guard His commands, Deu 7:10 but repaying those who hate Him to
their face, to destroy them. He does not delay to do so with him who
hates Him, He repays him to his face. Deu 7:11
“And you shall guard the command, and the laws, and the right-rulings which I
command you today, to do them. Deu 7:12 “And it shall be, because
you hear these right-rulings, and shall guard and do them, that יהוה your Elohim shall guard with
you the covenant and the loving-commitment which He swore to your
fathers, Deu 7:13 and shall love you and bless you and increase you,
and shall bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain
and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring
of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. Deu 7:14 “Blessed are you above all peoples – there is not going
to be a barren man or a barren woman among you or among your livestock. Deu
7:15 “And יהוה shall
turn away from you all sickness and put on you none of the evil diseases of
Mitsrayim which you have known, but He shall put them on all those who hate
you. Deu 7:16 “And you shall consume all the peoples whom יהוה your Elohim is delivering
over to you – your eye shall not pardon them. And do not serve their mighty
ones, for that is a snare to you.
Matthew 11:27-30 The Message (MSG)
27 Jesus resumed talking
to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to
do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son
intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the
Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go
over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn
out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover
your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with
me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything
heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live
freely and lightly.”
Mat
11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn
from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your
beings.1 Footnote: 1Jer. 6:16.
Mat 11:30 “For My
yoke is gentle and My burden is light.”
Do Yaqov’s sheep still exist?
During the past few months a breed of sheep called “Yaqov's sheep” have
attracted much international attention. Some experts claim there may be around
5000 of these sheep in the world at the moment. Following is a recent news headline from the
Guardian:
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 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 – Ameyn.)