Parashat 3 – (Lech lecha) - Portion 12 Ber/Gen 15:1-21 Is 1:1-8; 2:2-3 Zeph 3:8-20 Rom 4:1-9.

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.

א  אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, הָיָה דְבַר-יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, בַּמַּחֲזֶה, לֵאמֹר:  אַל-תִּירָא אַבְרָם, אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָךְ--שְׂכָרְךָ, הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד.

בַּמַּחֲזֶה, לֵאמֹר: 

Isa 1:1  חזון ישׁעיהו

In Hebrew the book of Revelation is called ‘’chazon’’

Gen 15:1  After these events the word of יהוה came to Aḇram in a vision,(chazon) saying, “Do not be afraid, Aḇram. I am your shield, your reward is exceedingly great.”

Why does YHVH speak in visions?

Because flesh and blood cannot reveal to us the plans and purposes and the mind of YHVH.

Flesh and blood cannot even reveal to us who the Messiah is

Mat 16:17  And יהושע answering, said to him, “Blessed are you, Shim‛on Bar-Yonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in the heavens. Mat 16:18  “And I also say to you that you are Kěpha, and on this rock I shall build My assembly, and the gates of She’olb shall not overcome it. Footnote: bShem Toḇ reads: GěHinnom, i.e. ‘valley of weeping’. Mat 16:19  “And I shall give you the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever you bind on earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loosen on earth shall be having been loosened in the heavens.”[c] Footnote: cBinding and loosening is a Hebrew idiom for exercising authority (to prohibit and permit). 

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?”

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 (Heb ‘’chashav’’) it to him for righteousness.

‘’Genuine faith is a confession of one’s inability to acquire the promises of YHVH in one’s own strength’’

YHVH repeats this promise to Avraham - Gen 22:17  that I shall certainly bless you, and I shall certainly increase your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore, and let your seed possess the gate of their enemies. 

Gen 22:18  “And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

Heb 11:11  By belief also, Sarah herself was enabled to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the normal age, because she deemed Him trustworthy who had promised. Heb 11:12  And so from one, and him as good as dead, were born as numerous as the stars of the heaven, as countless as the sand which is by the seashore. Gen_15:5, Gen_22:17. 

In summary - The vision was the promise of a future King; a Kingdom and a Constitution (Torah) – built on a sacrificial system.

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. (Bird singular)

Gen 15:11  And the birds of prey (הָעַיִט ) 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 Chawwa from one of his bones.

Same word also used in - Isa 29:10  For יהוה has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets. And He has covered your heads, the seers. 

Isa 29:11  And the entire vision is to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men give to one who knows books, saying, “Read this, please.” And he said, “I am unable, for it is sealed.” 

 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.

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 imbedded 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 to come out of assimilation (mixture). 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 future sacrifice/offering of Messiah.

Heb 9:11  But Messiah, having become a High Priest of the coming good matters, through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, Heb 9:12  entered into the Most Set-apart Place once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, having obtained everlasting redemption. Heb 9:13  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sets apart for the cleansing of the flesh, Heb 9:14  how much more shall the blood of the Messiah, who through the everlasting Spirit offered Himself unblemished to Elohim, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim? 

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 (not 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.

 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.

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.

Rom 11:33  Oh, the depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of Elohim! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!  Rom 11:34  “For who has known the mind of יהוה? Or who has become His counsellor?” Isa_40:13. Rom 11:35  “Or who first gave to Him, and it shall be given back to him?” Job_35:7, Job_41:11. Rom 11:36  Because of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all, to whom be esteem forever. Aměn. 

Our calling is deep and can only be revealed by the Spirit of YHVH

Rom 11:33-36 – unsearchable or inscrutable - incapable of being investigated, analysed, or scrutinized; impenetrable. Way over our heads, we’ll never figure it out.

Job 32:8  But truly it is the spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty that gives him understanding. 

Pro 20:27  The spirit of a man is the lamp of יהוה, Searching all his inmost parts. 

1Co 2:11  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? So also, the thoughts of Elohim no one has known, except the Spirit of Elohim. 1Co 2:12  And we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from Elohim, in order to know what Elohim has favourably given us,1Co 2:13  which we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Set-apart Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual matters with spiritual matters. 1Co 2:14  But the natural man does not receive the matters of the Spirit of Elohim, for they are foolishness to him, and he is unable to know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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.