Blessing for the Torah:
Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-O’lam, asher
bachar banu m’kol ha-amim,
v’natan lanu eht Torah-to.
Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(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.)
This section recounts the story of the Tower of Bavel/Babel. Noach's descendants gathered in the Babylonian valley and started building a tower, in
an attempt to “reach the heavens” – attempting to be like YHVH. However YHVH disrupted
their "plan" by causing them each to speak a different language, thus
destroying their communications. This caused them to disperse and settle in
different lands. The Torah then lists the ten generations of Shem's descendants The tenth generation is Avram/Abram (later to be known as Avraham/Abraham),
who married Sarai (later to be known as Sarah).
Once again the Torah calls
us to deep reflection and searching of its message and instruction to those who
are seekers after the truth.
It is generally accepted by
scholars and historians that Nimrod was the architect and builder of the tower
of Babel.
Gen 10:8 And Kush brought forth Nimroḏ, he began to be a
mighty one on the earth.
Gen 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before יהוה, therefore it is said, “Like Nimroḏ the
mighty hunter before יהוה.” (Against YHVH)
What we see here is the beginnings of man- made religion
seeking to “reach the heavens” through its own schemes and devices.
“Until
Nimrod, mankind was governed by the patriarchal system where the heads of
families heard from YHVH and guided their individual tribes. Nimrod, more
accurately a "mighty hunter against YHVH," usurped patriarchal rule,
and crowned himself the first human king in all of history. Now man ruled
instead of YHVH”
“Nimrod’s greed and ambition led him to sell
himself to demonic powers, and he became the high priest of devil worship.
During this time Nimrod married the beautiful and cunning, but notoriously
immoral, Semiramis. Together they ruled the world.”
"Semiramis
became known as the "queen of heaven," and was the prototype from
which all other pagan goddesses came."--World Religions by David
Terrell –
This is one
of the reasons we prefer to call the days of the week after their Hebrew names,
and so avoid invoking the names of the pagan deities from which the names of
the days of the week originate. “Monday” for example comes from the moon
goddess because it is said in: Shemot/Exodus 23:13: and in all things that I have said to you take heed: and make no mention of other elohim, neither let it be heard out of your mouth. See also Debarim/Deut 12:3, Yehoshua/Joshua 23:6, Tehillim/Psa 16:4, Zecharia 13:2, Hosea 2:17, Zep 3:9.
In fact, the English language is
full of the names of other false elohim (mighty ones translated as gods), yet for the sake of not overwhelming our readers,
let us just focus on the days of the
week and how by speaking them all the time, the names of
false elohim are spoken.
- The first day of the week
is called “Sunday,” a name that
gives honour to the ancient Sun god.
- The second day of the
week is called “Monday,” a name that honours
the Moon god.
- The third day of the week
is called “Tuesday,” a name
that honours the Norse god
of war, Tiu.
- The fourth day is called “Wednesday,” a name that gives
honour to Woden [Odin],
the chief Norse god.
- The fifth day is called “Thursday” and gives honour to Thor, the Norse
god of thunder and son of Woden and Frigga. “
- The
sixth day, called
‘Friday” gives honour to Freya, also known as Frigga, the wife of Woden and
female god of love and beauty.
- Finally, in lieu of the
Sabbath, the name “Saturday”
gives honour to Saturn, the
Roman god of agriculture.
On the other hand, all throughout Scripture, the days of the week are
counted just like they are in Bereshit/Genesis 1. They are known by their “ordinal
numbers.”
The first day of the week is Yom
Rishon (Day one).
The second day is Yom Sheni (Day two)).
The third day is Yom
Shelishi (Day three).
The fourth day is Yom Revi’i (Day four).
The fifth day is Yom
Chamishi (the "ch" is a guttural sound like "goed" in
Afrikaans (Day five)).
The sixth day is Yom Shishi (Day six).
And the seventh day is Yom
Shevi’i or the Shabbat (Sabbath) (Day seven).
Whether in Hebrew or English, this naming system remembers the act
of creation and, therefore, it honours the Creator – not the creation. It leads
us to the climax of the week, the seventh day Sabbath.
Even
the Gregorian calendar names for the months from January up to August are the names of
the months that are associated with certain false mighty ones/elohim (false gods)
or personalities, whereas the last four simply come from Latin origins to
indicate the order (number) in which it appeared in the old Roman calendar. It
is thus okay to speak the names of these four months (Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec)
which are not names of false mighty ones when we speak in the Gregorian
calendar frame work.
"Nimrod and his mother (Semiramis) became the chief entities of
worship as a Madonna and child. This belief and practice spread to Egypt, where
the names of the gods were Isis and Osiris.
The son Osiris was born December 25. In Asia it was Cybele and Deonius. In Rome
they were called Fortuna and Jupiter. Throughout the world we still find the
remnants of mother and child worship to this day. It is no surprise that this
same system still exists at the end of the age. It is called "Mystery
Babylon" (Rev 17:5). Shockingly, it is disguised as Christianity and is
still practiced in the celebration of Christmas." --The Bible as
History by Werner Keller
Muslims, like Catholics, refer to her as Our Lady (Sayyida). She
is also venerated as a pure and set apart saint in the Islamic world.
Yirmeyahu/Jer
7:17 “Do you not see what they are doing
in the cities of Yehuḏah and in the streets
of Yerushalayim?
Jer 7:18 “The
children are gathering wood, the fathers are lighting the fire, and the women
are kneading their dough, to make cakes for the sovereigness of the heavens
(queen of the heavens), and to pour out drink offerings to other mighty ones,
to provoke Me.
Yir/Jer 44:16 “We are not going to listen to you in the
matter about which you spoke to us in the Name of יהוה!
Jer 44:17 “But we
shall do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the
sovereigness of the heavens (queen of the heavens) and pour out drink offerings
to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our sovereigns and our heads, in
the cities of Yehuḏah and in the streets of Yerushalayim. And we had plenty
of food, and were well-off, and saw no evil.
Jer 44:18 “But
since we ceased burning incense to the sovereigness of the heavens and pouring
out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all and have been consumed by the
sword and by scarcity of food. (This demonic force obviously has power)
Jer 44:19 “And
when we burned incense to the sovereigness of the heavens and poured out drink
offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to idolize her, and pour out drink
offerings to her, without our husbands?”
Jer 44:20 Then
Yirmeyahu spoke to all the people – to the men and to the women, and to all the
people who had given him that answer, saying,
Jer 44:21 “As for
the incense that you burned in the cities of Yehuḏah and
in the streets of Yerushalayim, you and your fathers, your sovereigns and your
heads, and the people of the land, did not יהוה remember them? And it came into His
heart!
Jer 44:22 “And יהוה could no
longer bear it, because of the evil of your deeds and because of the
abominations which you did. Therefore your land is a ruin, an object of
astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
Jer 44:23 “Because
you have burned incense and because you have sinned against יהוה, and did
not obey the voice of יהוה or walk in His Torah, in His laws
or in His witnesses, therefore this evil did befall you, as at this day.”
Rev 17:4 And the woman was dressed in purple and
scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, holding in her
hand a golden cup filled with abominations and the filthiness of her whoring,1
Footnote: 1Jer. 51:7.
Rev 17:5 and upon her forehead a name written, a
secret: BAḆEL THE GREAT, THE
MOTHER OF THE WHORES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And
I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the set-apart ones, and with the blood
of the witnesses of יהושע. And having seen her, I marvelled – greatly marvelled!
Rev 17:7 And the
messenger said to me, “Why did you marvel? Let me explain to you the secret of
the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and the ten
horns……
Rev 18:1 And after this I saw another messenger coming
down from the heaven, having great authority, and the earth was lightened from
his esteem.
Rev 18:2 And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Baḇel the great is
fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt for every
unclean spirit, and a haunt for every unclean and hated bird,
Rev 18:3
because all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
whoring, and the sovereigns of the earth have committed whoring with her, and
the merchants of the earth have become rich through the power of her riotous
living.”
Rev 18:4 And
I heard another voice from the heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people,
lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.1
Footnote: 1Jer. 51:6 & 45. (Emphasis my own)
Rev 18:5
“Because her sins have piled up to reach the heaven, and Elohim has
remembered her unrighteousnesses.
Teaching:
Gen 11:1 And all the earth had one language1
and one speech. Footnote: 1Hebrew lip
Gen 11:2 And it came to be, as they set out from the
east, that they found a plain in the land of Shin’ar1, and
they dwelt there. Footnote: 1Earlier name for Baḇel
א וַיְהִי כָל-הָאָרֶץ, שָׂפָה אֶחָת, וּדְבָרִים, אֲחָדִים.
Lit. the whole earth had one lip and one set of
words. The sages believe that this language was Hebrew.
In the last days we believe this one pure language
or lip will be restored to bring about the restoration of all things.
Zep 3:9 “For then I shall turn unto the peoples a
clean lip1, so that they all call on the Name of יהוה, to serve Him with one shoulder.
Footnote: 1Or language.
Gen 11:3 And
they said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”
And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
Gen 11:4 And
they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in
the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over all the
face of the earth.”
Gen 11:5
Then יהוה came
down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Gen 11:6 And יהוה said,
“Look, they are one people and they all have one language, and this is what
they begin to do! And now, they are not going to be withheld from doing
whatever they plan to do.
Gen 11:7 “Come,
let Us go there and confuse their language, so that they do not understand one
another’s speech.”
Gen 11:8 And יהוה
scattered them from there, over the face of all the earth, and they left off
building the city.
Gen 11:9 That is
why its name was called Baḇel1, because there יהוה confused
the language of all the earth, and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of all
the earth. Footnote: 1Baḇel is
derived from a verb which means “to confuse".
Today we see an enormous division among the people of the
world caused largely by religious differences. We even see these differences
within certain religions. It is said that there are over 5000 different
Christian church denominations. We also note major differences within Islam and
even Judaism.
In these verses we find the seminal idea of a one world
religion – uniting all its members is the common cause of defying the Elohim of
Yisrael and His Torah.
“Plans were made for a grand tower, a massive type
of building called a ziggurat, which consisted of a series of terraced
platforms, each smaller than the one below it, and all together reaching a
great height. At the top would be a shrine to Bel, whom they worshiped as 'the
Most High god', the god of the sun and of fire; other 'sky gods' would also be
included. Therefore, Genesis 11:4, in speaking of "a tower and his
top with the heavens (literal translation)," is not referring to
the height of the tower, but instead to the inscriptions of the stars on the
walls of the shrine. The constellations were there, but with outlines of the
'sky gods' on them in order to cause people to associate the 'pictures in the
sky' that they had known about from childhood, with the images Nimrod wanted
them to worship. This is indicative of the occult deception which reigned in
Babylon.”
This confusion reigns even in our day. One of the
common misconceptions amongst religious people is that we all serve the same
“God.”
Let it be clearly stated for the record that the
author of this message believes very strongly that there is only One way to
serve the true Elohim of Yisrael and that is by acknowledging that there is
only One Mediator between men and YHVH, His only brought forth son “Yahshua ha
Mashiach.” (1Tim 2:5 “For there is one Elohim, and one
Mediator between Elohim and men, the Man Messiah Yahshua.”)
Sadly the church and society have misrepresented
Yahshua. Once again the author of this message strongly believes that this
Yahshua was a Jewish teacher/rabbi who came and will come again to gather the
lost sheep of the house of Yisrael to teach
and restore the Torah of YHVH.
Let us compare the two kinds of spirituality
practiced by Nimrod and Noach.
It is believed that the tower
of Bavel/Babel was built out of fear that there may be another flood. Let us
consider the following:
1.Noach
was involved in the construction of the Ark
Nimrod
was involved in the construction of the Tower.
2.
Noach means rest comfort
Nimrod means rebellion
3.The
Ark was YHVH’s idea of saving His people
Religious
man creates structures, doctrines and organizations to try and save man.
4.
The Tower built by the masses
The
Ark was built by a handful of people
The Secret to spiritual power
is smallness and anonymity.
5. The Ark was
built in obedience
The
Tower was built in defiance
6. The Ark points to the future – true spirituality points to
the future. (8th day)
The
Tower points to the past – false spirituality claims it has arrived, we see
this in the “kingdom now” theology of the modern day charismatic movements, who
claim they have it all and they have it now.
7. The Ark was completed - The Tower never was.
8. The Ark was built in faith – The Tower was built in fear
and manipulation.
9. The Ark speaks of Messiah’s Torah – and
brings confinement, but also freedom.
The
tower promises freedom and liberty, yet it produces lawlessness (Torahlessness)
and bondage.
10.
Noach builds an altar and worshiped the Father.
Nimrod
builds a tower to show his equality with YHVH.
11.
The Spirit of Nimrod says – “ME FIRST” “You must lay down your life for me and
my cause”
The
Spirit of Noach ( Spirit of Messiah) says
– “you first” - “I will lay down
my life for you”
12.
If we refuse to walk in the truth, we will be handed over to worship false gods
(false mighty ones/elohim).
Let us also briefly in the context of our Torah portion consider the
relevance and importance of “speaking in tongues.”
Generally speaking many in the Messianic movement
tend to avoid this issue. It is however clearly taught in the second writings
and cannot simply be ignored or regarded as unimportant.
For an extensive explanation of this subject you
can go to the following web site:
I personally believe that we are influenced by the
spirit of this age (queen of heaven) more than we realize. Praying in the
spirit may be more powerful than we realize in undoing and exposing the
strategies of the evil one over our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
This evil spirit seeks to emasculate men of Elohim
and cause others to undermine and ridicule true righteous set apart men and women.
Let it be clearly declared that one day this world will be governed by
bearded men wearing tzitziyot full of the gifts and Ruach of YHVH leading
communities and nations by the words of YHVH’s Torah.
Sadly in our day much conflict exists between men and woman concerning
gender issues because we have been conformed to the spirit of this age.
This Torah portion leads us to believe that a “spell” was cast upon
mankind from which we have not yet recovered.
Now we come to a section
that speaks of a chosen people that will bring the promised Seed and redemption to
mankind from the curse and bondage from sin
and the power of
the queen of
heaven.
Gen 11:10 This is
the genealogy of Shĕm: Shĕm was a hundred years old and brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, two
years after the flood.
Gen 11:11 And
after he brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, Shĕm lived five hundred years, and brought forth sons
and daughters.
Gen 11:12 And
Arpaḵshaḏ lived thirty-five years, and brought forth Shelaḥ.
Gen 11:13 And
after he brought forth Shelaḥ, Arpaḵshaḏ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth
sons and daughters.
Gen 11:14 And
Shelaḥ lived thirty years, and brought forth Ěḇer.
Note how the descendants of
Shem are referred to as the sons of Ever/Eber:
Gen 10:21 And also
to Shĕm, the father of all the children of Ěḇer, the brother of Yepheth the elder, children
were born.
We are reminded that “Eber” comes from the same Hebrew
word “avar” which means to “cross over.”
There is still a call going out today to “come out” and to
“cross over” from manmade religion to the true faith of the Elohim of Yisrael
and His Torah.
Gen 11:15 And
after he brought forth Ěḇer, Shelaḥ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth
sons and daughters.
Gen 11:16 And Ěḇer
lived thirty-four years, and brought forth Peleḡ.
Gen 11:17 And
after he brought forth Peleḡ, Ěḇer lived four hundred and thirty years, and brought forth
sons and daughters.
Gen 11:18 And
Peleḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Re’u.
Gen 11:19 And
after he brought forth Re’u, Peleḡ lived two hundred and nine years, and brought forth sons
and daughters.
Gen 11:20 And Re’u
lived thirty-two years, and brought forth Seruḡ.
Gen 11:21 And
after he brought forth Seruḡ, Re’u lived two hundred and seven years, and brought forth
sons and daughters.
Gen 11:22 And
Seruḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Naḥor.
Gen 11:23 And
after he brought forth Naḥor, Seruḡ lived two hundred years, and brought forth sons and
daughters.
Gen 11:24 And Naḥor
lived twenty-nine years, and brought forth Teraḥ.
Gen 11:25 And
after he brought forth Teraḥ, Naḥor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and brought
forth sons and daughters.
Gen 11:26 And
Teraḥ lived seventy years, and brought forth Aḇram,
Naḥor, and Haran.
Gen 11:27 And this
is the genealogy of Teraḥ: Teraḥ brought forth Aḇram,
Naḥor, and Haran. And Haran brought forth Lot.
Gen 11:28 And
Haran died before his father Teraḥ in
the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Gen 11:29 And Aḇram
and Naḥor took wives: the name of Aḇram’s
wife was Sarai, and the name of Naḥor’s
wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milkah and the father of
Yiskah.
Gen 11:30 And
Sarai was barren, she had no child.
