Rabbi’s Reflections – Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Shalom,
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Wed 6-Jan-2021 22nd of Tevet, 5781
Ex 3:1-15 1 Ki 1 Ps 101-102 Lk 17 (Eph 1)
In the Aliyah today (Exodus 3:1-15) we have the first part of Moses at the burning bush. God is waiting to speak until Moses looks. Exodus 3:3 Moses thought, “I will go now, and see this great sight. Why is the bush not burnt?” 4 When Adonai saw that he turned to look, He called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” So he answered, “Hineni.”
God is waiting to speak to you. He is waiting for you to turn your attention to His manifestation. And His manifestation today is Yeshua. Hebrews 12:2a focusing on Yeshua… this comes up again below (fyi, I wrote that part first). God speaks when we are focused and free of distractions. Moses was in the desert which is deserted. Then God speaks…
Eventually, in their discussion, Moses and God get to this question… Exodus 3:13 But Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to Bnei-Yisrael and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ What should I say to them?” In the Hebrew, what follows is God calling Himself “aleph-hay-yud-hay,” which means “I will be” and then God repeats that exactly “I will be” with the word “asher” in between (which means “who”). God is saying, “I am revealing Myself, and I’m not done revealing Myself. In fact, you will never see Me finish revealing Myself. My name cannot be expressed in the present or past, for I will be revealing My greatness (a name is an expression of character) forever.
Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Adonai is the eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Week 2
Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God. For the one who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
6 1/4 Monday: Job 38-39
7 1/5 Tuesday: Job 40-42
* 8 1/6 Wednesday: Genesis 11-12
9 1/7 Thursday: Genesis 15
10 1/8 Friday: Genesis 16-17
Question of the Day: Hey Rabbi, can you break down the first verse of Genesis 12 for us?
Answer: Why sure… I’m going to do this very slowly over the next several days, so we get the full impact. It is very profound. Look for it in a “bonus” first section of the next several RRs until we finish it. Today, let’s examine the first word.
“.לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ”
Lech-l’cha May’artzecha U’Mi’molad’t’cha U’Mi’Bayt Avicha, El-Ha’aretz, Asher Ar’e’cha.
Picture this. Abraham is 75 years old and Sarah is 65. They have no children. They’ve been traveling with Abraham’s father, Terah. But Terah was already 205 years old and stopped traveling on the way to Canaan and settled in Haran where he died. That’s all at the end of Genesis chapter 11. Now we pick up our subject verse, Genesis 12:1 Then Adonai said to Abram, “Get going out from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.
God is speaking to Abraham (at this point he is still called Av’ram). The first word is the command “Lech” meaning “get up and walk around.” It is the command form (to a man) of “Holech” which means exactly that, “walk around.” In Australian Aboriginal Society a “walk-about” is a right of passage into manhood usually undertaken between the ages of 10 and 16. Abraham is well past that.
But God is using this test to mature Abraham in his faith. This is our faith too. We are called, not to believe something “about” Abraham, but to believe “like” (the same as) Abraham. And by extension, our faith is not “about” Yeshua, but the faith “of” Yeshua.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he migrated to the land of promise as if it were foreign, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob—fellow heirs of the same promise.
And not just Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but you and me today. We are called to obey by faith. God is calling His people to meet with Him in the high places. His promise is to include us in His kingdom through His Son, Yeshua, the author and finisher of our faith.
Hebrews 12:1b Let us run with endurance the race set before us, 2 focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
But wait, there is more good news…, we are invited to join Him there. Ephesians 2:6 And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua.