This week we return to the beginning of the Torah cycle. I know that most of you receiving this email have been through the cycle at least once; some of you, perhaps more times. Each year my goal is to dig a little deeper into each Portion. So, I would encourage you to keep reading these weekly studies as we go to the next level in each Portion.
Overview of Bereisheet (“In a Beginning”) Genesis 1:1 – 6:8
Last week we read the final Portion of Torah and have re-rolled the scroll; this week we are starting our Torah journey over again by reading the opening verses of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The last few Portions have been very short ones – one or two chapters long. So my comments on these Portions were also short. This week…is another story. Bereisheet is not only a long one (almost 6 chapters), it covers an enormous span of time: some 1,500 years; and the concepts established here form the foundation for the rest of the Bible. It is important that we absorb these foundational concepts so that we can build upon them as we proceed through Torah.
Also keep in mind throughout the Bible: this is not just a history book. I have heard many people say to me, “If it’s not in the Bible, I don’t believe it.” That is the wrong way to look at it. Yehovah placed events and people into the Bible to tell the story that He wants to tell us; and He left out many events that actually happened, but don’t fit into His story. The Bible is Yehovah’s view of history that He uses to instruct us.
Chapter 1 – Creation of Heaven and Earth
The chapter starts by telling the creation story as a series of separations: light from darkness on day #1 and separation of waters on day #2. Those of you who have attended my Torah studies in the past know that I have favored the Gap Theory: Genesis 1:2 says “the earth was without form and void”, but Isaiah 45:18 says (in the Hebrew) “(God) did not create it (Earth) in vain.” This leads to the conclusion that there were one (or more) destruction/recreation events on the Earth during a tremendous amount of time that transpired between these first two verses in the Bible. This would explain several things that are not clearly addressed in the Bible. One of these is the different views that people have concerning the age of the Earth; it also allows for Lucifer’s fall into The Garden.
All of creation occurred in verse one; Yehovah created (Hebrew bara) all of the “raw material” that He would need; this was all done according to His purpose. He would then go on to use those raw materials to make (Hebrew asah and yatzar) the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything else in His creation. When He formed man and the animals, He finished His creation by blowing His breath of life into their lungs.
Verse two shows a completely different condition in the Universe:
- The Earth was “without form, and was void”; indication that the original condition had been changed to one that did not fulfill Yehovah’s purposes.
- Darkness covered the Earth. If Yeshua is the Light of the World, then who is the Darkness? This describes Satan’s evil rule over Earth
- Then water covered the Earth…just like Yehovah will do in next week’s Portion with Noah’s Flood.
- Then the Spirit of God covered the Earth. This is Yehovah intervening to restore the Earth to His original purposes.
Day #1 (not the first day, as most translations say). The word “first” suggests that there were events happening before this one, and also after; this says to me that time was created sometime during Day #1 (that’s a WOW moment!)
Light was not created here; the text says that it “became”. I believe that this is not just describing the physical properties of light…but it goes deeper into the spiritual aspect of light and darkness. Incidentally, light has very unique properties; it exhibits characteristics of both a wave and a particle. When it is tested for its wave properties, it acts like a particle; and when tested for its particle properties, it acts like a wave…very strange! I suspect that light exists in more than the three physical dimensions that we live in (another WOW moment!). So, when light “became” in verse 3, I suspect that Yehovah simply made it available to these physical dimensions in which we live.
At the end of Day #1, Yehovah said that His creation was “good”. Biblically speaking, when Yehovah uses the word “good”, He means that it is accomplishing the purposes for which He created it. Yehovah blessed the day (called it good) “so the evening and the morning were day one.” The rabbis say that this establishes that the day starts with evening and ends with morning…thus the Hebrew Calendar starts the new day at sundown. I see some difficulties with this distinction in the Brit Chadashah with the Gospel writers’ accounts of Yeshua’s resurrection. But…Until Yehovah establishes a higher earthly authority than rabbinic understanding and tradition, then I will observe what He has established through the rabbis.
Day #2 (the second day): This is the separation of the waters on the face of the Earth from the waters above the Earth; The King James translation calls this thing that makes that separation the firmament…we call it the atmosphere. It is believed that, prior to The Flood, there was a canopy of water surrounding the globe of the Earth. This water canopy accomplished three purposes:
1) It kept the oxygen from drifting off into space – therefore the %-age of oxygen in the air was much higher then than it is now (more about this next week when we talk about The Flood);
2) The weight of the water canopy increased the atmospheric pressure on the surface of the earth. This combination of more oxygen and higher pressure would allow huge animals (like the dinosaurs) to live: every breath would deliver much more oxygen to support their huge bodies. The collapse of this canopy during The Flood is a possible explanation of the extinction of the dinosaurs (we’ll talk about this also next week with The Flood); and
3) The water canopy filtered out harmful radiation from affecting people and animals living on the surface of the Earth. As a result, human lifespans started to plunge from almost 1,000 years to below 100 immediately after The Flood.
Yehovah did not bless this day (by calling it good)…why? The firmament – we call it “air” – would soon be controlled by Satan, whom Paul refers to as “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2.
Day #3: Yehovah separated the waters on the face of the Earth with the dry ground (and called it good); and He brought forth the grasses and the fruit of the Earth (and called that good also). The herbs yielded seeds “according to its kind”; the Biblical prohibition of genetically modified seeds (GMO’s) that have almost completely taken over our agricultural system….and our food supply here in America.
This day had two blessings, and every Jewish couple wants to be married on the third day to receive that double blessing. That’s why the wedding feast at Cana (John 2) was on “the third day” of the week!
Day #4: “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.” Light had already been brought forth on Day #1, and here the light-emitters and light-reflectors were positioned. It is interesting that Yehovah said that one of the purposes for those light-emitters was to establish “seasons” (the Hebrew word mo’edim, which is usually translated as “feasts”). When we study the Feasts of the LORD in Leviticus 23 we will see that the feast days are determined by the position of the moon in the sky.
On this day Yehovah positioned the stars in the Heaven and, specifically, our sun and moon. Yehovah blessed this day also by calling it good.
Day #5: Now that the waters had been separated from the dry land, Yehovah created (by breathing life into their lungs) all the water creatures to inhabit the waters that covered much of the face of the Earth. And now that the firmament separated the waters, Yehovah also created the winged creatures to inhabit that firmament. And Yehovah charged the sea creatures and the winged creatures to be fruitful and multiply. He called that day good.
Day #6: On this last day of creation, Yehovah created all the beasts of the field “according to its kind”; the Biblical prohibition against genetically modified animals. Today the cloning of animals in research laboratories is happening all around the world with no apparent regulation or oversight. I believe that the Prophet Daniel warned us about this in one of the most chilling verses in the Bible; here he interprets his dream of the multi-metallic statue representing the future (for Daniel) kingdoms of the Earth. Speaking of the last Kingdom, one that has yet to appear, Daniel said: “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.” Whoever “they” are will mingle with the seed of men; in order to mingle with the seed of men, “they” must be something different from the seed of men. Could these be genetically modified humans or animals or??…I don’t even know what to call them.
At the end of Day #6, Yehovah created man: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Here Yehovah is referring to Himself in the plural form. This could be an acknowledgment of the Trinity, but I believe it goes much deeper than that; it is Yehovah giving us a glimpse into His Divine Council, where He presides over a group of created Heavenly beings to whom He has delegated certain authority over all of His created realms. We see Biblical references to this Heavenly Council in many places: Psalms 82 & 89; Daniel 7:9-10; I Kings 22:19-23. If this topic interests you, then I suggest this book: The Unseen Realm, by Dr. Michael Heiser.
“So Yehovah created man in His own image; in the image of Yehovah He created him; male and female He created them.” This clearly says that Adam was originally created both male and female; so it would have been Adam’s female reproductive organs that Yehovah removed in order to create Eve!
Yehovah told Adam to be fruitful and multiply, just like He told the animals; and He gave him dominion over all of the animals and over all of the Earth. This is the foundation of our Biblical World View: Yehovah created Mankind to administer Planet Earth. Man is the only one of Yehovah’s creations that He created with a Spirit…the only one that can communicate directly with Yehovah. He spoke to Adam (and still speaks to each of us who has His Spirit within us) so that he (and we, today) would carry out His desires and plans here on Planet Earth. Our ultimate destiny is NOT Heaven (as I have been told for as long as I can remember). Our destiny is to carry out Yehovah’s instructions to Adam to have dominion over the Earth. This concept was the central point of Yeshua’s prayer template which He gave to His Disciples in Matthew 7: “Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” Our destiny is not heaven; it is here on Earth.
When Adam sinned in The Garden, he didn’t immediately die…but he did immediately lose his dominion over the Earth. Satan took over that dominion until Yeshua came to Earth and His death paid our penalty for sin. He re-established His Kingdom 2,000 years ago, and He is waiting for us to assume our rightful position as administrators of Planet Earth. Again, I have been told for a very long time now that we must wait for Jesus to return to establish His kingdom here on Earth. But I suggest to you that He is waiting for us to take the Earthly dominion that He has already given to us 2,000 years ago! If we want to see Yeshua return, then we must reclaim that dominion that Adam lost to Satan in Genesis 3…and that Yeshua restored to us at His death, burial, and resurrection!
Continuing with Day #6 events: He then gave Adam the menu from which he could eat: the seed of the herbs and the fruit of the trees; nothing about eating animals here! And in the same manner, He gave the same seed of the herbs to the birds and land animals to eat. And Yehovah called good everything that He had created on the sixth day.
So…in these six days of creation, everything that Yehovah had created was good.
Chapter 2 – The Shabbat and the Garden
All of creation was completed on the sixth day. Yehovah made the seventh day and He called it good, just like the other six days. Then He sanctified it – made it holy by setting it apart from the other days – because He rested on the seventh day from all His work. Shabbat is a sign and a reminder to us of Yehovah’s creation. So Yehovah took the seventh day (which He called good) and He made it holy (set it apart). This theme of separating evil from good from holy is the focus of the Book of Leviticus (“Be holy, for I am holy.”) and is the focus of the entire Bible. Understanding this is critical to understanding Yeshua’s parables in the New Testament.
There was no rain (as we know it) on the Earth; the plants were watered by a mist that came up from the earth. We are told that Yehovah formed man from the earth (we know that the human body is made up of the same elements that are found in the earth), and Yehovah breathed into his nostrils and man became a living being.
The Garden The Garden was east of Eden, and Yehovah caused every tree to grow there…and the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were also there; Yehovah placed the man there also; He gave him two assignments: to tend (avad) and keep (shamar) (watch over, guard, protect) the garden. We know that Yehovah is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so our assignment from Him is still the same: to tend and to protect this planet Earth for Him (not to “go to Heaven” and sit on the edge of a cloud strumming a harp!).
Adam’s Help Mate Adam named all the animals on the Earth and the sea, thus establishing his dominion over them, but he could find no mate for himself. So Yehovah put him into a deep sleep and took a “side chamber” (the female reproductive organs) from him and formed woman for him. So Yehovah joined Man and Woman and they became one (echad) flesh. And they were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
Chapter 3 – The Fall
Let’s recap what we have seen so far in this Portion: we saw the creation of good in chapter one, and we saw the sanctification of one of those “good” days (the seventh) when Yehovah set it apart and made it holy. In chapter three we will see the introduction of evil into the world.
We all know the story of the Fall of Man: the serpent deceived Eve in the Garden by twisting Yehovah’s instructions to Adam. Both Adam and Eve were the strongest, most powerful, and smartest of Yehovah’s creation, yet it took only a few seconds for the serpent to bring Eve down. What chance do we have against him?! We, by ourselves, would fall just like Eve did if it weren’t for the victory we have over him through Yeshua. He has already conquered Satan for us by His finished work on that Tree of Sacrifice.
We get tremendous insight into the way that Satan works: he convinced Eve that the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was good food; it was pleasant to look at; and it would make her wise. John summed this up for us: “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” (I John 2:16)
Eve ate the fruit because the serpent deceived her, but was Adam also deceived when he ate of it? I would suggest that Adam immediately knew what Eve had done (probably because she looked different) and he had a choice to make: he could remain in his original created state of sinlessness – and be eternally separated from her, or he could eat and join her. He chose the latter. When he ate, his appearance also changed. We are told: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked “, so they covered themselves with leaves to hide their nakedness. This is the very definition of religion: man trying to reconcile himself to Yehovah. We are not to be religious – trying to make ourselves acceptable to Yehovah; but rather we are to seek a relationship with Him through Yeshua whose sacrifice on our behalf accomplished what we cannot.
So they hid themselves from Yehovah, but He called out to them: “Where are you?” Now…did He actually not know where they were? Of course He did! When He asks you a question, it’s not because He doesn’t know the answer…He wants you to know the answer! The question that He asked is actually: “How are you?” He knew what they had done and what condition they were in…He wanted them to acknowledge it (confess their sin). That’s when the blame-game started: Adam said “the woman You gave me gave me the fruit…and I ate.” Then Eve said, “the serpent deceived me…and I ate.”
Then Yehovah handed out their curses for disobeying Him, first to the serpent: he would be cursed above all others; he would crawl on his belly and eat dust; and he would be at war with the woman and her seed. This is a very interesting choice of words because it is the man that has the seed, not the woman. This is a strong hint at the virgin birth of Yeshua. This war between Satan and the Seed of the woman is the first prophecy in the Bible, and it is the theme throughout the Bible. Next came the woman’s curse: He would increase her pain at childbirth. This wording certainly implies that Eve already had experienced pain at childbirth…which means that Cain and Abel had been conceived and born before The Fall. Perhaps that is why most of chapter four is dedicated to their fall as well. Eve’s curses continue: her desire would be for her husband (and not the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life); and he would rule over her. I find this also very interesting that her curse was for her husband to rule over her; this suggests to me that perhaps she was ruling with him before The Fall. And lastly, Adams’s curse: the ground would produce thorns and thistles instead of naturally producing the food they were to eat; he would therefore have to work to produce his food; and he would return to the ground – he would eventually die.
After their failed attempts to cover themselves, Yehovah “made them tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Now I had taught for years that this was the first animal sacrifice: that Yehovah killed an animal and used its skin to cover them. But I have recently realized that this is taking the text too spiritually. It literally says that He gave them coats of skin; and don’t we all have a “coat of skin”? He covered their nakedness with a coat of skin…which we all have today. But in the resurrection, John tells us: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2) So, in a way, this is a re-creation of Man…just like the re-creation of the Earth in the first chapter.
And the manifestation of their curses was for them to be expelled from Eden. Yehovah drove them out and placed two cherubim (large guard angels) at the east end of the Garden – suggesting that they were expelled eastward. We know that historians say that life began in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Iran); so the Garden was located to the west, posssibly in modern day Israel…and the “midst of the garden”, where Yehovah regularly met with Adam, is the modern day Temple Mount!!
One final thought about those cherubim placed at the entrance to the Garden: why did Yehovah use two of these Heavenly warriors? Indeed, fallen Man could not re-enter the Garden to eat of the Tree of Life and thus remain in his sinful state forever; but it certainly wouldn’t take two of these heavy-duty warriors to keep puny little Fallen-Man out! I suggest the need for all of this fire-power was to keep Satan from blocking the way back to the Tree of Life; we see at the end of the Book (Revelation 22) that we do indeed return to Eden and to the Tree of Life (but no Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!)
Chapter 4 – The Fall of Cain
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.” The tense of the verb “know” is past tense and it should read “had known”. This is perhaps another clue that Eve bore Cain and Abel before The Fall. Now, I am not teaching this as fact, but presenting it to you for consideration. If that is the case then this chapter is about the second Fall of Man when Cain murdered Abel. And this text could also be suggesting that Cain and Abel were twins (one conception, two births), with Cain the firstborn…but on to the story.
We know that Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer. When they brought offerings to Yehovah (yep…this was when offerings started, not in Leviticus!), we must assume they brought the Firstfruits of their assigned tasks: Abel brought a lamb from his flock, and Cain brought the grain from his field. Both of these are perfectly acceptable offerings according to Leviticus 1-10. So why did Yehovah accept Abel’s offering of a lamb, and reject Cain’s grain offering? Just as the High Priest could not atone for Israel’s sins until his own sins were first atoned for, neither could Cain present a grain offering (from a cursed ground) without first offering a blood sacrifice. Even if he was sinless (which we are only speculating here), Yehovah is still showing us the pattern that we must follow to atone for sin: “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.”
So Cain became unusually enraged at Yehovah’s rejection of his offering and he killed his brother Abel. But why did Yehovah not require his life for murdering his brother – the first murder in the Bible? I would suggest that, at this point, murder was not known; Cain did not know that striking his brother would lead to his death. So from Yehovah’s perspective, this was not premeditated (Cain had no knowledge of the concept of murder); it was an accidental death… and the concept of the Cities of Refuge (Numbers 35) began here with the death of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain. There are strong parallels between the rules for the Cities of Refuge and the rules that Yehovah established for Cain. Instead of sending Cain to a (non-existent at this point in time) City of Refuge, Yehovah made him a City of Refuge by placing a mark upon him so that no one would take revenge on him and kill him.
The chapter continues with Cain’s willful disobedience of Yehovah’s instructions to him (he was to be a vagabond) by saying that he built a city for himself and his son Enoch. In the fifth generation of Cain’s descendants we see Lamech (a different person from the Lamech that we see in the next chapter) who confessed to also killing a man.
These descendants of Cain certainly seem to be a list of the Unrighteous… as opposed to the descendants of Seth who we will see in the next chapter. I would mention that Na’amah, the sister of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:22) is thought by the Rabbis to be Noah’s wife….which we will talk more about next week.
The chapter ends with Eve bearing another son, Seth, “for Yehovah has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
Chapter 5 – The Generations from Adam to Noah
Our inclination when we see a list of who-begat-who is to skip right over it and go on to the next chapter where we can read more interesting stuff! But there are some gems in this genealogy that we cannot miss…so here we go.
Yehovah lists the 10 generations from Adam to Noah; and He starts with a revelation that we rarely hear taught. We were told here that Yehovah created Adam in His own image, but that Adam begot Seth in his own (Adam’s) image. We saw in chapter 3 that Adam & Eve’s images changed at The Fall – from being naked and not ashamed to being naked and ashamed. Something changed in their physical appearance. So we are not actually made in the physical image of Yehovah as Adam was, but rather in the physical image of Fallen Adam. But, according to John in the verse we read earlier, we will return to our pre-Fall state!
This listing of Adam’s generations gives us exact dates for each of them, which gives us an exact date for the beginning of The Flood. It is, I believe, also the list of Yehovah’s righteous men (His Order of Melchizidek, if you will) through which His message to the World was carried. And hidden in the meaning of each of their Hebrew names is the Gospel message (see the Power Point slides for the full impact of this): “To man is appointed mortal sorrow. The God Who is praised shall come down, teaching. His death shall send to the despairing rest and comfort.” This message is completely lost in our English translations, but it was (and is) obvious to those reading it in the original Hebrew. How awesome is Yehovah that He hides in plain sight His Gospel message to the World in the fifth chapter of the Bible!
Chapter 6 – The Sons of God & the Daughters of Men
The traditional teaching of this section equates the Fallen Angels with the Sons of God who then bred with the daughters of men to produce Giants (the Nephillim). The First Book of Enoch clearly describes this series of events. I have taught this view for years, and it may very well be the case, but…I want to propose an alternate view of this passage.
Reading these first few verses of chapter 6 in context with the preceding two chapters, we see a pattern:
Chapter 4 describes Cain as disobedient to Yehovah, and Cain & Lamech as murders. They certainly epitomize the unrighteous line of Mankind
Chapter 5 lists the righteous descendants of Adam through Seth down through Noah and Shem. These two chapters show the contrasting characteristics of Mankind at this time.
Chapter 6 (viewed in this context) then describes what happened when the unrighteous mingle with the righteous and produce (unrighteous) offspring. This leads to the destruction of Mankind (except for Noah & family) with the Flood.
Commentaries today have used the following verse to equate the Nephilim with the Sons of God:
“There were giants [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4
The literal reading of this verse sees the reference to Nephilim only as a time reference and not as a direct correlation to the Sons of God. This interpretation in no way negates the existence of the Nephilim. They are clearly described in the above verse as existing prior to the Flood as well as after the Flood, when Joshua and company encountered them in Numbers 13:32-33; the Nephilim may also be the source of the reference to “the fallen warriors of long ago” in Ezekiel 32:27.
If you want to explore this alternate view of the Sons of God / Daughters of Men, I highly recommend this 3-part teaching by Bill Cloud: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+bill+cloud+sons+of+god&view=detail&mid=B23C4C717A75CA94B442B23C4C717A75CA94B442&FORM=VIRE
Yehovah told Joshua to “utterly destroy the inhabitants of The Land”; the Nephilim were not part of His plan and, in fact, had been sent by Satan to foil His plan. They were huge (some as tall as a cedar tree (130 feet tall) according to Amos 2:9) and evil by nature. But Joshua and company did not completely obey Yehovah’s instruction and some of the Nephilim survived, and were present in David’s time, i.e., Goliath. I wonder if these are the “beings” that Daniel referred to in the verse we looked at earlier as appearing at the End of Days.
The evil nature of these non-human evil beings permeated almost every living being upon the Earth, and necessitated Yehovah bringing on The Flood to wipe them off the face of the Earth. The Portion ends with: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” And this sets the stage for next week’s Portion.
The Accompanying Haftarah Reading is Isaiah 42:5 – 43:10; here the Prophet relates God’s creation of the universe to His purpose in calling Israel to be the light to the nations. We read from Isaiah 42:5-9:
“Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
The Accompanying Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) reading is John 1:1-5 & 14; the Apostle John gives us his creation account – including the role of Messiah Yeshua – in five short verses. We read from John 1:1-5 & 14:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it……And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”