Lech Lecha – Torah with Joseph

Lech Lecha [Part 1] – Leaving Everything to Follow God

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. My name is Joseph Shula and we're continuing the weekly study of the Torah portions that are being read in every synagogue around the world together with Brad TV. This is a major project. And this next Sabbath, we'll be reading from Genesis chapter 12 and following, and I want to go back a little bit to the background of this event.

God Calls Abraham to Leave His Country

It is a major event in the Bible that God is calling Abraham and his family to leave their country, their family, their culture, their language, and essentially to go to a land that He doesn't even specify in the beginning that they are to go to. He just tells him, get up and go – “get up and go to a land that I will show you.” Leave your father, your mother, your family, and go to a place that I will show you. No address is given to Abraham at the beginning. I think that this is a little bit funny, but it, it shows that - first of all, Abraham's trust of God. And second of all, it shows a little bit of humor.

And God could've told him, go to the land of Canaan, the land of Canaan that has so many different nations that have flocked into that narrow space between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Girgashites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Philistines. Abraham would have said, oh God, just a second. Maybe you should send me in another direction. Send me to Switzerland, it's a much better neighborhood. So God doesn't tell him where. He says, go to the place that I will show you. Why? What happened between chapter 11 and chapter 12 of Genesis? I'll tell you what happened. Humanity after the flood came for one family. Noah's family, the survivors of the flood, that obeyed God and built a huge boat. A huge ship that housed in it all the species of animals and birds that lived on this earth, except for the fish and the animals that lived under the sea, under the water, all of the species, including humanity that lived above were wiped out in the flood.

Now this is another issue. The flood is another issue that I talked about last week, but I'm going to repeat this point. The biblical story of the flood is not the only story of the flood in the ancient world. We have Sumerian myths and Babylonian myths, and even myths from other continents in the world that tell a story very similar to the one of the flood. But that's something that belongs to last week's teaching. This week's teaching starts a new chapter. God had condemned the world for these reasons. One is humanity that was united with the same language and the same culture had decided that they don't want God to rule over them. They want to be independent. They wanted to have control of their own destiny, but they didn't want God to be a part of their destiny.

So God consulted somebody like he did when he created man in the book of Genesis. At the beginning of Genesis, He says, "let us go down,” “us,” not “I,” go down. Let us go down and confuse the languages of the people." Before that there were no Gentiles. We were all a part of the same human family, no nations. What comprised a nation is language, territory and a constitution or culture. So, when humanity was divided into languages and territories, nations were created, and all the human beings in the world were a part of this structure of nations. But they were all under a curse.

God Places Curse on Mankind

The curse that God put on humanity at the tower of Babel, divided them. They had been united but God divided them into nations. And the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 4 through 7, tell us that God divided the human beings, the human race, and allotted to each group, its own territory, not only its own language, but its own territory. And that created nations. Not only that, but in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 19, it says of God, that they didn't want Him to be the ruler. To be their God, to be the one that, that sets the norm of what it means to be children of God, what it means to be under the authority of God.

And therefore He divided the nations up, at the tower of Babel and gave to each one, not only its own language and its own territory, but also what they're going to worship. The stars and the moon and the sun and other elements and creatures of this world. But for, for Israel, for Jacob and his family, he chose that they are going to be his lot. And that was in chapter 11. In chapter 12, God calls Abraham and his family to leave, to leave their country.

All Nations of Earth to be Blessed Through Abraham’s Seed

And he gives Abraham and his family three blessings, three promises I should say. The first one is that He's going to be with him and with his family. The second one is that through his family, through his seed, which at that time he didn't have any seed yet, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. All the families of the earth.

The same promise is repeated several times in the book of Genesis. It's repeated to Abraham several times, like in chapter 15 and then chapter 13 and in chapter 22, and then to Isaac in chapter 26 of Genesis. So this promise is not repeated one time. It's repeated several times, by God, to Abraham and to Abraham's seed more than any other promise in the Bible. And so he promised him a seed. He promised him a blessing from the seed to all the families of the earth, to all the nations of the earth. And he promised him the land and he gives the borders of the land. We're going to get to it further down in the text.

Now together with Abraham, what a lot of our Christian brothers don't realize, came to souls, which we had made in Harran. And the same chapter of chapter 12 of Genesis, the souls, which you made in Harran. Now in Hebrew to evangelize is to make a soul, nephesh, in Hebrew. To make souls. to gain souls, you can say instead of to make, to gain souls. Now, it's interesting at the end of the book of Genesis in chapter 48 of Genesis, we read in the text chapter 48, verse 16, we read in the text that Jacob is telling Joseph and his sons, the following; "and the angel who redeemed me from all harm." It means the angel, an angel of the Lord, or somebody sent by God who redeemed me from all harm. Bless these children, the children of Joseph, that they may be recalled or called in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac.

And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth? Now the word multitudes in the Hebrew text is a very interesting word. The Hebrew is vague. The root is Dag. Dag is fish. The translators in this context of the Bible to other languages, didn't understand the term. What does it mean that they would fish among the nations of the earth? They didn't understand it. So they translated what is fish, fish multiplies? One fish can, can send thousands of eggs into the water and fish multiply. So they translated it multiply among the earth.

But this is the source of Yeshua's statement to his apostles when he sends them to become fishers of men, like who? Like Abraham. It's an interesting thing that, you know, most people who don't know Hebrew and don't understand the Hebrew Bible, miss because of the translations. So together with Abraham, came a multitude of people. The souls, which he had made, he had evangelized in Harran.

Abraham Evangelized Souls in Harran

That within itself is a very interesting issue. How many souls did he evangelize? How many people came with him from Harran together with Sarah, and Lot and his family, to the land of Canaan? Well, we have a story in, not in this portion, but in the portion following and chapter 14 of Genesis, that Lot had moved from the mountainous area of the center ridge that starts in the Jezreel valley, starts again south of Nazareth and ends up in Hebron, the central backbone of the land of Israel. They moved, Lot moved to the Dead Sea. What is today's Dead Sea.

It wasn't dead then. At that time, it was fertile, the most fertile part of the country. Lot moved with his flocks and with his shepherds and with his family to the most fertile part of this country, which was before it became a dead sea after the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, maybe a kind of a huge nuclear event that turned the most fertile part of the land into the harshest desert in this part of the world, the Judean desert. So how many people came with Abraham?

How Many Did Abraham Evangelize?

That group that is called the souls, which he had made in Harran. How many people? Well, we know that in chapter 14, when Lot is captured by the five Kings that came from the area of Damascus from the north, Abraham chases to bring Lot and his family back, to save Lot and his family. He chases those five Kings and he has a small army. How many people? 318 men between the ages of 20 and 50. They're the army age, those that could fight. He chases those five kings and rescues Lot and his family. 318 men, soldiers between the age of 22 and 50, which were a part of the people that came with him from Mesopotamia.

Well, men between the age of 12 and 20 and 50, usually in that area. And even today, most of them are already married with children. So, if you add to 318 men; soldiers, one wife each, and one child each, you arrive to a thousand people that Abraham evangelized in Harran in Mesopotamia. And they came down to the land of Nan with him. That's why he never lived in the city. If it was a family of four or six or eight, they could have lived inside the city, inside the walled area.

No, he always lived outside the cities in along Moray and Ella named Monterey and outside of the city of Hebron and outside of the city of Scrim. That's where Abraham lived in his own encampment. And the same continued with Isaac and with Jacob, they were not small families, the way we envisioned them. They were a tribe of people, even bigger than a normal tribe.

God Sends Abraham to Caanan

So, Abraham leaves the land that he grew up in. Look Ur, we know about Ur, what kind of city it was. Ur of the Chaldeans, which was in Iraq, sitting on the great rivers of the Euphrates between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, the Jordan river would look like a ditch compared to the Euphrates and the Tigris. Yeah. It would look like what the Americans would call a creek. Not, not a river, not even a river. They would call it a creek compared to the great rivers of Mesopotamia.

Imagine this Abraham leaves Ur which was like leaving New York or Mexico City or Sao Paulo, Brazil. Yeah. And he comes to this land, which is a total mess. It's got all these nations, from Europe, Aryans like the Hittites and Perizzites and Gilgashites, and Amorites from Asia. And they're all city states fighting with each other jockeying for control of this small piece of land. And he lands in this land. That is a total mess. I often joke and say, if God would have really loved Abraham and his seed, he would have sent them to Switzerland. It's a much nicer neighborhood, greener country, plenty of water.

This is semi-desert land. And politically, it was a mess in the days of Abraham. And it remained a mess throughout the history of Israel. Our enemies have never, our neighbors have never accepted us. They didn't accept us. They didn't accept Abraham. They didn't accept Ezra, or Nehemiah when they returned from the Babylonian exile. They haven’t accepted us up until today. So if God would have loved us, he would have sent us to Switzerland. But no, he didn't. He sent us to this piece of land and he gave it to us in this Torah portion in chapter 13, verse 15 of Genesis. He gave it to us as a perpetual inheritance. Perpetual inheritance chapter 13, verse 15.

I'm going to read it to you from the Hebrew translation of the text, not from the king James, but from the Hebrew translation. I'm reading from chapter 14. I know chapter 13 from verse 14 on, "And the Lord said to Abraham after Lot had parted from him, raise your eyes and look out from there. Where you are to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west. For I give all the land that you see to you and to your offspring forever. And I will make your offspring, your children as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring too can be counted. Look at the promise, give this land forever to your offspring."

Listen, I believe the Bible from Genesis chapter one, the first word in the beginning to the last words of revelation, chapter 22. Which also has to do with a promise of God, for Jerusalem, that, that new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven down to this earth, will be an eternal city for all the believers to be, you know, come there to worship God.

God Promises His People the Land Again and Again

So I believe the word of God tells Abraham here. And again, in chapter 15, and again, in chapter 22, and again, in chapter 26, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. He repeats it to Jacob all the way down to chapter 28 of Genesis and all the way to the end of the book of Genesis. And again, through the prophets of Israel. Their brothers and sisters, this reading of the Torah, which I, again, want to encourage you to read the portions of the Torah that we are talking about. I'm only able to use 20 minutes, around 20 minutes to touch the highlights, but the details are great and very important.

So if I'm going to summarize what we said, first of all, God called Abraham to start a new nation that was not under the curse of the tower of Babel. A fresh nation. A nation that will restore all the nations back to God through Maschiach. Mashiach or Jesus Christ that sent his disciples at the end of his ministry, to all the nations, to do what? To teach them, to share with them the good news, and to teach them to observe everything that he, our Messiah and our Lord commanded them. That's what the commission was to his apostles.

And that's what they did. They spread around the world the teaching about the oneness of God and the participation of the Messiah in the divinity of God and the spread of God's word all the way to the last Indians in the Amazon river valley. If you wish, to all the world, and we are going to continue these studies of the Torah together with Brad TV, and I want you to, you know, schedule your time to watch these presentations of the Torah, to think about them, to pray about them and to stand with us in Israel and with Brad TV that is taking this initiative to do this great project that will last a year. 54 or 55 sessions of these weekly presentations of the Torah portions. God bless you and Shalom from Jerusalem.

Lech Lecha [Part 2] – The Man God Chose, Flaws Included

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. My name is Joseph Shulam and I'm continuing together with Brad TV to go every week with a Torah portion that is read in every synagogue around the world, including in ours, synagogue of Jewish believers, disciples of Yeshua, in Jerusalem. These portions in the beginning of the book of Genesis are so important and so basic, for the understanding of the whole Bible, that one session of 20 minutes or about 20 minutes is not enough. So I'm doing a second session for the portion of Lech-Lecha, that starts in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1 and continues on, to the end of chapter 16.

This portion in which I talked about Abraham before, has in it some of the most important foundational issues of our whole Bible. From Genesis, all the way to Revelation, because Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel and the father of all the faithful in the world, is a central figure for the whole plan of salvation or the plan of redemption of mankind. So I have to do a second session for this portion of Lech-Lecha.

Abraham and Sarah Go Down to Egypt

Chapter 12 ends with this strange story that Abraham and Sarah and their team have to go down to Egypt because there is hunger in the land, there is drought and they go down to Egypt, and Abraham tells Sarah, "Listen, I will say that you are my sister because I'm afraid for my own life. You're such a beautiful woman, Pharaoh or one of the Egyptian noble men may like you and take you and they would kill me. So I will say that you're my sister".

Of course, it's not true. Scholars have tried to figure it out that she was his half-sister and that he was adopted by her parents, and all kinds of such stories that have absolutely zero foundation in the scriptures and of course, with God's help Pharaoh receives information that she's actually not his sister, but his wife, he doesn't touch her. He doesn't take her and he releases both Sarah and Abraham and gives them whatever they wanted and acts like a gentleman. So this is the first time this happens.

Abraham Deals With Lot

After that, we have the story of Lot. Here Abraham reveals his true character. Lot's shepherds are taking advantage and taking the best land and the best place to take the sheep and to pasture them where the grass is greener and are basically pushing Abraham's servants, Abraham's shepherds and their flocks, to the side. So there is a feud between the two groups of shepherds. Here comes Abraham. He's the boss, he's the head of the family. Lot is a nephew that Abraham takes with him to the land of Canaan from Horan.

But Abraham acts magnanimous, kind, is not looking for a argument, is not looking for a fight. He says to Lot and to his shepherds, "You know what, choose whatever piece of land you want and whatever you want, I grant you the right to go there and live there and pasture there and raise your family there." It's a very kind, considerate, non-belligerent, looking for peace, move of Abraham and that is one of the glimpses that we have into his character, that we're going to see it further down the road in Abraham stories, that he's not a person that is looking for a fight. He's not a person that says, "It's my right, and I'm going to take my right and I don't care what you say." No. Abraham is the kind of person that would fit within Yeshua's paradigm of who is a righteous man. He's the one that turns the other cheek and this is something that most Christians don't realize.

Abraham Has His Own Army

That Abraham was a very powerful person in our parashah in Lech-Lecha in chapter 14, when Lot is taken by the five kings from Syria, from the north, that come and plunder the land and take booty and take Lot and his family as slaves, and Abraham has 318 men between the ages of 20 and 50. All men who carry the sword. They're all soldiers. They're the people that in chapter 12, we heard about them. The soldiers which he had made in Horan and I have already mentioned this in the last teaching. To make soldiers is to evangelize them.

He convinced them that there is one God and that the idols are nothing but pieces of wood, silver, gold and marble and stone. And so they followed Abraham. Being between the ages of 20 to 50, they had families. You can do the math yourself. He takes the 318 men, chases the kings of the North, captures the booty that they took from the cities of the land of Canaan, takes Lot and his family and brings them back.

Abraham Blessed by Melchizedek

On the way back, he passes by Jerusalem or Salem and meets Melchizedek, Melchizedek comes out to the edge of town to meet him and blesses him with what we would call today, the Lord's supper. He welcomes him with wine and bread. Honors him as an honored guest with wine and bread, and of course, Abraham tithes from all the booty that he captured from the five kings from the North, to Melchizedek and this becomes a major issue in the book of Hebrews and in the community of Qumran. So these are pictures of Abraham's consideration. He's a considerate man. He's a man who thinks, a man who wants to do what is right. He's a man who seeks peace with his neighbors, seeks relationship with his neighbors and doesn't want to take.

Abraham Buys Burial Plot

Further down the road, we see about this negotiation with Ephron the Hittite in Hebrew and to buy the cave in which he will bury his wife and then himself and his children and grandchildren will be buried in that cave. So he doesn't want it for free. He doesn't want anything for free. He's paying full price, whatever Ephron asks. That's Abraham's character.

Abraham’s Flaws

But Abraham's character also has flaws and one of the most formative or problimatic chapters in the whole Bible is chapter 15 of Genesis. And I will share with you my thoughts and ideas of chapter 15. God comes to Abraham and says, "More promises." And Abraham says, "Listen, you know, I'm an old man. You promised me a son." I'm rephrasing with my own words, "You promised me a son and I'm getting old and my wife is old and we don't have a son." Then comes verse 6 in chapter 15. It says, "Abraham believed God and God considered it, reckoned it, as righteousness."

Different Interpretations

The story is very interesting. The Hebrew texts can go both ways. The grammar of the Hebrew texts can go that Abraham reckoned to God as righteousness and God's faithfulness was in his heart, in his mind, in his soul, he trusted God and he reckoned God's promise as righteousness and that's why God blessed him. But you could read the same text in Hebrew, the other direction too. That Abraham believed God and God reckoned it as righteousness to Abraham and therefore God gives him this covenant. There's only three such covenants in the whole Bible. It's a covenant of suzerainty. That's the professional, theological word for it, or sociological word for it.

Abraham’s Covenant Dream

God says to Abraham, in a dream, "Take animals, a goat, a sheep and other animals and cut them in half and I will pass, as a torch of fire between the two animals and I will ratify this covenant that I'm going to repeat to you, that I'm going to give you a son, a land and the blessing". The same promises that he promised in chapter 12 but now this very ancient form of covenant is a one-sided covenant. A one-sided covenant is much stronger than a two-sided covenant because one side of the covenant, only one side can break it. The other side is the recipient of a covenant that he can receive but he can't break. Only the person who gives this covenant, can break it.

One-Sided Covenants

Now we have a lot of Assyrian, Babylonian, Northern Eucharistic, the northern part of the Middle East, bordering with Northern Syria and Turkey, documents. They're collected by Pritchard in ancient near Eastern texts and you find such covenants and the meaning of such covenants in the ancient near east. What's the meaning? The meaning is this, the person who gives that covenant, the second one of its kind, the first one was the rainbow after the flood.

God one-sidedly promises, that the world will not be destroyed by water again. So this is a one-sided covenant, the same kind like what is being given to Abraham now. And what it means is that, if I don't keep my word and if I break my covenant, may I be cut in half and burned. That's the meaning of that vision. May I be cut in half and burned. I will keep my promise. I will keep my covenant. Come what may, I will keep my covenant. So this is a very, very formative thing.

Abraham’s Seed Will Serve as Slaves

After this covenant, He tells Abraham, "Yes, I promised you the land but it's not going to be so soon that you're going to come and inherit this land. Your seed, your descendants will go down and become slaves, serve another nation and after four generations, they will return to the land." Which is a prediction of Jacob, Abraham's grandson and all of his children going down to Egypt, living in Egypt, a period of close to 400 years or around 400 years and then taken out from Egypt miraculously, after 10 plagues upon Egypt and brought to the land of Canaan and inheriting the land of Canaan with Joshua and Caleb and the tribes of Israel. Moses stays on the other side of the Jordan. So, this portion of the Torah, Lech-Lecha. Torah portion in Hebrew is parashah and I'm going to start using this Hebrew word, parashah. Parashah Lech- Lecha, is a key parashah because of this story.

Abraham Repeats Same Sin

Now, the strange thing is, that this mistake, sin, the weakness of Abraham of telling that his wife, Sarah, is his sister, is repeated again with Abimelech, the king of Gerar, Northern Negev. Abraham didn't, how should I say, didn't learn from the experience with Pharaoh in Egypt and he repeats the same sin. Why is the Torah, why is the word of God, sandwiching Abraham? He's on top of the mountain. Talks to God, God talks to him. He promises revelation, hallelujah, wonderful promises, a covenant, a one -sided covenant, the covenant suzerainty given to Abraham. Wow. And then immediately, boom. He sins. Boom. Second time, he sins.

Bible Heroes Are an Example of How Easy It Is to Fall

Why do you think that the holy spirit is revealing these things to us? I'll tell you why. In my opinion,the holy spirit is revealing these things to us, to tell us, "Abraham is not a God. He's a human being and human beings make mistakes, human beings, sin." And that's why through the power of the holy spirit, oftentimes, the greatest heroes of the Bible, Abraham, Moses, King David, they're on top of the mountain, talking to God, God chooses them.

God reveals Himself to them. Hallelujah, praise God and then immediately after that, there is a falling, boom. They sin, which is telling us, "Hey, don't worship these men. They're like you, you're like them and you can be on top of the mountain one minute but if you don't pay attention and you're not careful, you may fall. Even though a minute ago, you were on top of the mountain talking to God."

Yup. Yup. So that's my second lesson from parashah Lech-Lecha, for Brad TV. We're going to continue, for the next week to another parashah that is called Vayeira. I invite you to come back, according to the schedule of Brad Television, and hear me teach about the next episodes of the book of Genesis and their importance. God bless you all.

Pray for Israel. Pray for your Jewish brothers in the faith in Israel and bless God every day and when you make plans, always say, the way we are commanded, God willing, I will go. God willing, I will do. The Arabs and the Jews, Orthodox Jews, say it all the time. The Arabs say, "In shaa alleh", with Allah's will. And the Jews says, "Beezrat hashem," the same deal in Hebrew. Not about Allah, but the holy, mighty name of God himself. Shalom for now.