The Hebrew Alef-Bet (pdf)
The Generations of Terah (pdf)
Lech Lecha Slides (pdf)
Lech Lecha Notes (pdf)
Overview of Lech Lecha (“Go for Yourself”) Genesis 12:1 – 17:27
In the last two Portions, we saw the foundations that Yehovah established in the first eleven chapters of the Bible:
The creation of the universe
The creation of Man
The fall of Man
The “re-creation” of Adam after the Fall
The fall of Cain
The wickedness of Man
The destruction of the world with The Flood
The re-creation of the world after The Flood
The rise of Nimrod, the world’s first dictator
It is essential that we fully understand this basic world-view information, as it allows us to see in these accounts the nature of Yehovah. The Church today knows all about Yehovah in the form of Jesus in the New Covenant but knows little to nothing about His character from the Tanach.
We are first introduced to Yehovah as Elohim in the very first verse of the Bible. Those of you who are familiar with the Hebrew language recognize that the word Elohim is plural but, more importantly, it has the masculine form. And we see here in the first chapter Yehovah’s actions of creation, separation, judgment, etc. These are typically masculine characteristics.
Then, starting in chapter two, we are introduced to Yehovah as LORD, which is the rabbis code for His personal name: YHVH in Hebrew. And we see that this name ends with “ah” which is indicative of the feminine form. And we see Yehovah’s feminine character when He created a (feminine) “complement” for Adam; when He showed mercy in The Garden after The Fall, and again with Cain after he murdered his brother Abel, and again with Noah at The Flood; and again when He confounded languages at the Tower of Babel. Mankind’s actions leading up to all of these events were contrary to Yehovah’s instructions and in every case deserved death…but instead He showed mercy.
So, when Yehovah said: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”, there could be several possible explanations of who the “us” is. The common understanding is that it refers to the Trinity, and that is a valid understanding. I went further in my Beresheet commentary of this verse by saying it could also refer to Yehovah’s Divine Council who was present for our Genesis creation. I would also suggest that the “us” refers to Yehovah’s many-faceted characteristics, not the least of which is His masculine and feminine forms. Suppose Yehovah had only masculine characteristics; He would have terminally judged Adam and Eve at their fall…and the Bible would only be three chapters long! On the other hand, if Yehovah had only feminine characteristics, then who knows where we would be today…because mankind tends to take advantage of those whom they perceive as “weak.” So the “us” who created mankind has the perfect mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics. Just a thought!
The events of these first two Portions have covered a time span of about 2,000 years – half of the time between creation and the birth of Yeshua. So starting with this week’s Portion, the narrative will slow down considerably, and it will start to develop the characters that play such a big role in Yehovah’s Plan – starting with Abram.
Chapter 12 – The Call of Abram
Chapter 11 ended with Nimrod and the Tower of Babel and we now start chapter 12 with the story of Abram. We could assume that Abram and Nimrod lived at the same time but the Bible is silent on that subject. We can, however, read the Book of Jasher to see (in chapter 7) that Terah, Abram’s father held a high position in Nimrod’s reign. Abram was contemporary with Nimrod; so, when Yehovah told Abram to leave his father’s house and go to a different land, it was to get him away from Nimrod’s influence (and Nimrod’s death threats).
The name Abram means “Exalted Father” even though he had no children when we meet him here. We have seen in chapter 11 that Lot’s father, Haran, died, thus Abram took Lot as his own son. Looking at the Chart of the Descendants of Terah (Abram’s father) here: https://torahnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Generations-of-Terah.pdf we see that Sarai is really Abram’s half-sister (Gen 20:12), and we also see that Milchah married her uncle. All of these events look very much like the Levirate Marriage (Deut 25) in action. We know nothing about Haran’s other daughter, Iscah, and some believe that she is, in fact, Sarai. If this is situation, then it also points to the Levirate Marriage.
Yehovah called Abram when he was 75 years old; the elements of this Abrahamic Covenant, are listed here: Yehovah said I will:
Make you a great nation Bless those that bless you
Bless you indeed Curse those that curse you
Make your name great Bless all families of the Earth
You will be a blessing
Abram Travels to Egypt On his journey from Chaldea, Abram first stopped at Shechem where Yehovah appeared to him (not in a dream or some spiritual vision, but physically appeared to him!) and promised that He would give all of that land to Abram’s descendants…which he had none at this time. Incidentally, Shechem is one of three places that the Bible records the Hebrews actually purchasing a plot of land (Joseph’s tomb) from the local inhabitants –the other two are Sarai’s burial plot in Hebron and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Abram (and family) continued traveling southward to Bethel and onward into Egypt because there was a famine in the Land of Canaan. This is where Abram told Pharaoh that Sarai was his sister (a “half-truth”) and he took her into his harem. But Yehovah troubled Pharaoh as soon as that happened and, when he confronted Abram, Abram told the truth…that Sarai was actually his wife. Pharaoh sent them all back to Canaan with “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants (one of whom most likely was Hagar, whom we will see causes all sorts of problems that are still with us today), female donkeys, and camels.” These events foreshadow Joseph’s journey in Egypt perfectly.
Chapter 13 – Abram & Lot Part Ways
Abram returned to Canaan, to the place he left near Bethel; and he was rich in livestock, gold, and silver – perhaps the wealthiest person in the world at that time. In fact, the land that he occupied could not support all of the livestock that he had; so Abram gave Lot his choice of land, and he took some of the animals eastward toward Sodom & Gomorrah; Abram stayed there in Canaan to tend the rest of the herds and flocks.
Only after Lot separated from Abram did Yehovah again speak to him: He promised that all the land he saw would be his and his descendants, and He would make his descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth (a physical, natural blessing). So Abram traveled to Hebron and dwelt there.
Chapter 14 – The War of the Kings
Lot found himself in the middle of a war between an alliance of four kings (who were descendants of Shem) and an alliance of five kings (descendants of Ham). The four Shemite kings defeated the five Hamite kings and took spoil ….including Lot, his family, and his possessions. When word of Lot’s capture reached Abram in Hebron, he took his personal army of 318 trained soldiers (how many of us have our own private army?!!), he defeated those Shemite kings, rescued Lot from his captors, and returned home.
Upon his return, Abram met the King of Salem (Jerusalem) who is called Melchizedek. Now both “King of Salem” and “Melchizedek” are titles, and not a person’s name. “Melchizedek” means “King of Righteousness” and suggests that this person was both a king and a priest….even though the Levitical Order (which we will see later in Exodus and Leviticus) prohibits the King from also being a Priest. Melchizedek shared bread and wine with Abram and Abram gave a tithe of all that he had taken as spoil in his defeat of the Shemite Kings.
Now…let’s see if we can unpack what is going on here. I would suggest to you that Yehovah has ordained a Melchizedek throughout history; the genealogy of Adam to Noah (Genesis chapter 5) is, in fact, that list of the Kings of Righteousness. And it didn’t stop with Noah; the next Melchizedek was Shem. We know from the lifespans of Adam through Shem that Shem lived until 2,158 years after Adam’s creation and would have still been alive at the time of Abram. Therefore, it is possible that the Melchizedek referred to here is Shem! And the reason Shem is involved here and now is that Abram (a descendant of Shem) just defeated (and killed) the four Shemite Kings who had captured Lot…so this is a “family issue” that had to be resolved by the head of the family – Shem!
Chapter 15 – The Land Covenant
In chapter 12 Yehovah had promised (without conditions) to give Abram a land of his own and many descendants. But here Abram’s lack of faith started to show. He first asked Yehovah if Eliezer, his heir, would be counted as his descendant; Yehovah said “No!” Abram’s descendants would come from his own body; Yehovah said they would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens (a spiritual blessing) in addition to last chapter’s natural blessing of the dust of the earth (a natural blessing).
Abram then asked Yehovah if he could trust Him to keep His promises from Genesis chapter 12 … that was a big mistake! Because Abram doubted Yehovah, His unconditional covenant in chapter 12 was supplemented with a conditional one here in chapter 15. He told Abram to gather several animals, kill them, cut them in half, and place the halves on the ground opposite each other. This is describing a classical Middle-Eastern Blood Covenant confirmation ceremony. In this ceremony, each participant in the Blood Covenant would walk between the bloody animal halves and recite, “If I break this Blood Covenant, then may I become as these animals: dead, bloody, and cut to pieces.” Then Yehovah placed Abram in a “trance” for lack of a better word – he had to be aware of what was happening but unable to participate in it. So when the sun had gone down, Yehovah passed between the animal parts (in the form of a smoking lamp) and confirmed His Covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” In this case, the River of Egypt is not the Nile, but rather a smaller stream located east of the Sinai, very close to today’s border between Egypt and Israel.
Chapter 16 – Hagar & Ishmael
No sooner had Yehovah promised Abram that his descendants would come from his own body then he allowed Sarai to talk him into having a child with her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar – not exactly what Yehovah had in mind! Abram’s lack of faith surfaces again…but that means that there is hope for us, too! And when Hagar conceived, she despised Sarai; so she drove Hagar into the wilderness, where she encountered the Angel of the LORD (I believe that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Yeshua). He told her to return to Sarai and submit to her; and He said her descendants would also multiply greatly. So when Abram was 86 years old, Hagar bore him a son, Ishmael.
Chapter 17 – The Sign of the Covenant
13 years later, when Abram was 99 years old, Yehovah appeared (again, physically) to him to confirm the covenant that He started back in chapter 12 and continued in chapter 15 with the parting of the animals for the Blood Covenant. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham by adding the Hebrew letter hey (the “h” sound) which changed the meaning to “Father of Many.” Incidentally, each letter in the Hebrew aleph-bet has a spiritual meaning (see the meanings here: https://torahnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Hebrew-Alef-Bet.pdf) and the meaning of hey is “spirit”. When Yehovah changed Abram’s and Sarai’s name by adding the hey to it, He added His Holy Spirit to them, and they were both then equipped to accomplish His Call upon their lives.
Abraham would be fruitful, many nations and kings will come through his descendants. But Yehovah expected Abraham to keep his end of the Covenant – by circumcising every male child, on the 8th day after his birth.
And as Yehovah changed Abraham’s name, He also changed Sarai’s name…also by adding the letter hey; so her name became Sarah; and she shall bear a son in her old age (90 years). Abraham laughed at the thought of them having a child at their advanced ages, so Yehovah told him to name the child Yitzchak (Isaac) “Laughing One”. So Abraham circumcised all the males in his household, including himself and son Ishmael.
Abraham’s story will continue in next week’s Portion.
The Accompanying Haftarah Reading is Isaiah 40:27-41:16; it also reviews Abraham’s journey to Canaan and his battle with the four “Kings of the East”. Israel is reminded once again that they are not to take up the pagan practices of the idolatrous nations that surround them. God promised to reward their obedience to Him by diminishing those nations. We read from Isaiah 41:8-14:
“But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ “Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish. You shall seek them and not find them—those who contended with you. Those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing. For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’ “Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you,” says the Lord and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
The Accompanying Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) reading is Acts 7:1-8; it also is a summary of the Torah Portion. We read of the martyr Stephen giving the scholars of the Sanhedrin a history lesson, starting with Abraham, in Acts 7:1-8:
“Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.”