Genisis 7/22/2017

GENESIS

July 22, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

 

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

 

Although we summarized chapter 28 last week, it is far too intricate to leave so soon. For those of you who have a history with WOW, you may remember the year (2014-15) we followed the Parasha or Torah teachings we did then and what we usually refer to as the portion including Jacob’s Ladder, starts the Parasha teaching entitled Vayeitsei, which in Hebrew means and he went out.

 

Hebrew titles encompassed the first few words of a passage or letter, so Vayeitsei translates (albeit personally) in English to the first words in 28:10, “And Jacob went out from Beer-Sheba and went toward Haran.” (Words are in bold in the ONM to indicate the translation.)

 

So as we can see, Jacob actually had two reasons to take off: to allow his brother to cool his heels and to get a wife that his parents will approve of. So he takes off to his mothers’ brothers’ house to find a wife, which was neither illegal nor creepy at that time in history, and actually had everything to do with who or Who a family worshipped. At least as far as God’s [Yah Weh’s] people were concerned.  

 

The first night Jacob spent on his journey was life changing: “And he dreamed, and there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached heaven and, behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And, behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I AM the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land on which you are lying, to you I will give it, and to your seed. ¹⁴And your seed will be as the dust of the earth and you will break out to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south: and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’” Genesis 28:12-14 

 

Note that it is mentioned that they were first ascending, meaning that they were here on earth too. Thus, the Lord again shows us His eternal nature of protecting His own; “You must habitually not neglect hospitality, for through this some who entertained angels were not aware of it.” (Hebrews 13:2) This is not a New Testament reality, because as “Y’shua Messiah is the same yesterday and today and forever.”; (Hebrews 13:8) so is His protection, ministering and love. Which can help us understand why the Lord was reiterating His promise to Abraham to Jacob, as he was going to be very instrumental in fulfilling it, being the [then future] father the twelve (12) tribes of Israel and the third generation of the direct Hebrew descendants of our Messiah. In Genesis 12:3 we read one of God’s promises to Abraham He also spoke to his grandson Jacob in today’s verse 14, “And I shall bless those who bless you and curse those who curses you: and in you will all families of the earth be blessed.” 

 

Genesis 13:14-17 covers the rest of the promises of today’s verse 14, “And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, ‘Now lift up your eyes and look northward from the place where you are, then southward and eastward and westward, ¹⁵for I shall give to you and to your seed forever all the land you see. ¹⁶And I shall make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then you seed will also be numbered. ¹⁷Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I shall give it to you.’” 

 

So Jacob wakes up, decided that he stumbled upon a place where God lives, builds an altar and named (or renamed) that place Beit-El (meaning House of God), and gives the first promise to tithe to the Lord, “And Jacob vowed a vow saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I am going and will give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, ²¹so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD will be my God: ²²and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, will be God’s House: and of all that You will give me I shall surely give the tenth to You.’” (Genesis 28:20-22) 

 

Do not let anyone tell you that tithing is under the Law and therefore not applicable to New Testament saints. It is a show of our love for Him, just as was was for Jacob. Do we have to? No. In fact, the Holy Spirit led Apostle Paul to be sure and tell us NOT to feel obligated in 2^ndCorinthians 8:7-12, “But even as you are abounding more than enough in all things, in faith and in speaking and in knowledge and in every eagerness and in your love for us, as you also would abound in this grace of giving. ⁸I am not saying in a command, but proving the sincerity of your love through showing you the diligence of others: ⁹for you know the merciful kindness of our Lord Y’shua Messiah, that although He was rich, He became poor for your sake, so that you would, in His poverty now become rich. ¹⁰I am only giving an opinion in this: for this is to your advantage…¹²For if the willingness to give is there, which is said to be acceptable, but not to the degree that he does not have.”  This passage was speaking specifically about an offering that the Corinthians started a year ago, but never sent. However, the message to give is there as is the fact that it is not a command and should not be beyond your capacity. 

 

It is true that the tithe is the Lord’s and should – through love – be given to Him. And although we are redeemed from every curse, including the one mentioned in Malachi 3:9 by not tithing, His promise in Malachi 3:10-11 can be claimed by us when we do. “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be food in My house and test Me now by this’, says the LORD of Hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing for all eternity. ¹¹And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and he will not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither will your vine cast her fruit before its time in the field’, says the LORD of Hosts.” This of course also means that if we do not tithe, we cannot claim this promise, as it is conditional. Not that He will not still provide for us, of course He will. He loves us. But the abundance of the open heavens cannot be claimed if we do not tithe. It is in our best interest. Everything that He does and says is in our best interest! If we seek His wisdom in matters of our day-to-day life, as I’m sure we all do, why wouldn’t we seek His wisdom in our finances too? (Just a little aside, that I put in for free.)

 

But getting back to Jacob, let’s look at the symbolism in this Parasha (portion of Scripture) as it is LOADED with Messianic symbolism! In Genesis 28:18, Jacob sets up the stone he laid his head on for a pillar and pours oil on it. Pouring oil on something or someone is anointing it or them. Christ is the Greek word we see in English New Testaments meaning Anointed One. Messiah also means Anointed One. He is actually Jesus the Christ in English, Y’shua Mashiach or Messiah in Hebrew, meaning Jesus the Anointed One, as opposed to Jesus Christ that reads as a surname (like Smith or Johnson). 

 

He is our Rock, “and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank for a spiritual rock, which was following them, and the rock was the Messiah.” 1^st Corinthians 10:4 

 

He is The Head of the Church, “…the Messiah is head of the congregation, He is the savior of the body.” Ephesians 5:23

 

So as Jacob anointed that stone, he was foretelling of the Anointed Messiah. “And Jacob rose up early in the morning and put the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. ¹⁹And he called the name of that place Beit-El…” Genesis 28:18-19

 

And the very place where he slept that night and his dream occurred was the mount where Abraham (his grandfather) offered up Isaac (his father) and thus where God saved Isaac by providing His own sacrifice(Genesis 22:1-19), as He also did for all of us when His Son appeared. It is also where the Temple Mount is, that was the site of Solomon’s Temple, (but is now the site of the Muslim Mosque with the Gold Dome). 

 

How can we apply all this practically to our daily lives? I mean, symbolism and sacred insight is great, but it cannot be purely intellectual and do us any good. Let us note first of all that the portal to heaven was available via ladder not pulley or escalator. Getting closer to our God requires effort on our part. It is true that our spirit is instantly resurrected and therefore born-again in holy perfection, but the soul or mind needs to be continuously renewed. “Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassion of God, to present your bodies holy, living offerings, pleasing to God, your spiritual service: ²and stop being conformed to this age, but you must from the inside continually be changed into another form, by the renovation of your mind, to prove what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God for you.” (Romans 12:1-2)

 

Climbing a ladder takes deliberate effort. And you can go either up or down, but side-to-side will take you off the ladder altogether. Therefore when we climb up we are pursuing Him to “…continually work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: ¹³for God is the One Who works in you, both to determine and to work, for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13) I used these verses because they are so often misunderstood. It is NOT that we have to earn our salvation, because we know that our ultimate spiritual/eternal destiny solely hangs on our faith in His grace (see Ephesians 2:8-9). 

 

But the salvation of our new life on earth takes our effort! The salvation of our new life is the breaking of old chains and curses and bad habits or mindsets that sets us free to live for our Lord, being filled with His peace and shining His light wherever we go! 

 

And as those of us who have spent any time pursuing this new life knows it is a constant uphill climb – like climbing a ladder.

 

Of course, we don’t always climb higher do we? We can perch on a comfortable rung. However, rungs don’t stay comfortable for long do they? Have you ever noticed that when your thirst for righteousness is in full swing you can’t perch? You just have an almost irresistible pull that takes you deeper and deeper into His Word and prayer, higher and higher in spirit and farther and farther away from your problems and former desires or troubles. 

 

Our spirit is like an invisible muscle – the more it’s worked out the stronger and more predominant it gets! 

 

But when a time of spiritual restcomes, we not only perch, but soon go back down the ladder, pursuing our own selfish goals, feeling less and less like studying His Word or praying or going to church, etc. This is commonly called “backsliding” also. It usually comes very gradually, but (taking the ladder as our current metaphor) should we just slide a little to the left or right instead of straight up, which means compromising just a bit at a time, we will eventually fall off! 

 

Now does that mean we lose our salvation when we fall? No! If you were climbing an actual ladder and you fell off where would you land? Right next to it! It’s not a matter of losing eternity, but rather going back to ground zero as far as character goes. So it’s easily found and right there for us to start ascending again! God allows all the do-overs and U turns we need. In fact, He knew how many we would take before the beginning of time – and chose us anyway! How cool is that?!

 

And as mentioned earlier in Jacob’s dream, the angels ascended first. That means that they were down here with him, as they are with us. We will never know just how much our Father’s angels have helped us throughout our lives until we get to heaven and it’s revealed to us. And as we have seen in this passage, they have always been included in His protection package! 

 

We need to remember that:

1.     We are never alone. God lives in us and promises never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5), helping us change from the inside out, like it says in Romans 12:2.

2.     We are never alone. God’s angels or messengers are always around us ministering and helping us. Although unseen with the physical eye, they fight unseen battles for us more often than we know. “For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your Ways.” (Psalm 91:11)

3.     It is our effort although not unassisted (because of #1 and #2) that determines how close we come to imitating our Savior. And Romans 8:29 tells us that His will is for us to be like His Son. 

 

Our God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and “the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces until the separation of breath of life and spirit, of joints and marrow and passing judgments on the thoughts and understandings of your heart: ¹³and no creature is hidden from Him, but everything is uncovered, since it has been laid bare to His eyes, to Whom an accounting by us is required.” (Hebrews 4:12-13) 

 

Therefore the study of His Torah (which means teaching) is as valid and helpful to us today and for those of us who have accepted His Savior, as it was in ancient times to those who were waiting for their Savior! For the Savior is interwoven into His entire Word – Old and New Covenants/Testaments. Let us learn from each because we know that everything He wants us to do is ultimately for our own good as well as for His glory!

 

“The LORD will bless you and He will keep you. ²⁵The LORD will make His face to shine upon you and He will be gracious to you. ²⁶The LORD will lift His countenance to you and He will establish Shalom for you.”

(Numbers 6:24-26) And the LORD’s Shalom for you is that no good thing shall be withheld from you. Amen! 

 

SHALOM!!