Zion's Voice

Torah Portion for 22nd Novermber - 28th November 

Torah portion               Genesis 32 : 3  to  36 : 43

Haftarah portion        Hosea 11 : 7 to 12 : 12

“He sent”

God’s mighty hand on a life

Just when Jacob thinks all in the garden is rosy, he gets the worst news he could ever imagine. Esau is on his way to greet him!! And he has four hundred men with him !  Jacob did the only sensible thing he could. Remembering his dream, wherein God made promises to protect him, to prosper him, and to take him safely back to his own country, he turned to God in prayer, talking to God about those promises. In Genesis 32 : 11 he confessed his fear of his brother before the Lord.

So here is a lesson for us. Like Jacob, we should make our confessions honestly before God, remembering His promise never to leave us nor forsake us. Then as we turn to Him in prayer, recall the Scriptures which God has Himself provided for our instruction and benefit. It is an undeniable fact that God will not act in any way that is counter to His own Word. We cannot pray outside of the will of God when we are praying the Scriptures, as Jacob did, but if we wax lyrical in our own thoughts and demands, we can soon find ourselves on shaky ground, even wondering why God seems slow to answer our prayer !!

Having said that, it did not stop Jacob being his “tricky” self. The story is told in the balance of Genesis 33, in which we see the ‘tricky’ Jacob put as much distance as he possibly can between himself and his brother Esau, who resided in Biblical Edom. (a place eventually destined to become a perpetual wasteland).

Jacob went northwards, away from Esau, and came to a place called “Succoth”, before eventually settling his family in the city of Shechem (modern day Nablus). There he bought the piece of land where Joseph was eventually buried. (Joshua 24:32)  We remind ourselves again that this is the second of three parcels of land which were actually BOUGHT for a full price by the descendants of Abraham.

Genesis chapter 34 contains a story of great infamy. It has truth and error mingled together which culminates in the death of Hamor’s family. Read it for yourself. The lesson which comes from it is that there is no place in society for revenge outside of the law, because that merely exacerbates an issue to a point where compromise is impossible. In our day, we have seen the spectacle of countless deaths arising from such a situation in Ireland. We see an endless round of ‘honour’ killing in some communities. On a broader level we have the whole situation in the Middle East.

Simeon and Levi, the principal culprits in our story, were dealt with in a very different way to their brothers when it came to the time of Jacob’s blessings for his sons.  (Jacob enjoined Simeon and Levi together in his blessing to the boys in Genesis 49. Jacob proclaimed that they would be divided and scattered in Israel. The Levites, of course, had no Land possession, and the Simeonites, being the smallest and weakest of the tribes, was apportioned land, near Beersheva, within the boundaries of the larger territory allotted to Judah. There is also evidence (2 Chron. 15:9) that they wandered about, as Jacob had prophesied, and at least some of them moved up to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Asa and Josiah).

 In addition, when Moses declared a series of blessings on ELEVEN of the tribes which were about to go in to possess the Land in Deuteronomy 33, Moses did not mention the tribe of SIMEON in his blessings.

I am not sure how appropriate it is but I am reminded of something my mother taught me many years ago .“be sure your sins will find you out !”

My final reflection on this passage is from Chapter 35. We find Jacob taking firm leadership within his family. It is how God expects men to behave in families.  (And sometimes it is very difficult for strong women in families to honour that). Jacob recognised the hand of God on his life and he led from the front. Out with idolatry. “As for me and my house, we will worship the Lord”.

God was pleased with Jacob. So pleased that He did TWO very important things. Firstly, He changed Jacob’s name to ISRAEL. No more “supplanter” but now “triumphant with God” or “prince with God” (or similar). Secondly, in Genesis 35:12, God tells “Israel” that the land promise made to Abraham and Isaac before him He also now affirms to him. Then Israel named the place of his encounter “Bethel” … House of God.  It is amazing what happens with God’s mighty hand on a life.

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 15th Novermber - 21st November 

Torah portion              Genesis 28 : 10  to  32 : 2

Haftarah portion       Hosea 12 : 12 to 14 : 10

“He went out”

God’s promises are trustworthy

Isaac and Rebekah had seen Esau marry Hittite wives. The Scripture tells us it was a “grief of mind” to them. Rebekah had conspired with Jacob to have Isaac confer the ‘firstborn’ blessings on Jacob. Esau was furious. She was also “worried sick” that Jacob might also take a wife from the  Canaanite people. Rebekah told Jacob to go to Haran to stay awhile with her brother Laban. Jacob agreed with his mother and “went out”.

It is a long way from Beersheva to Haran. At nightfall, Jacob lay his head on a stone and fell asleep. What a night that was!! He dreamed. With the thoughts of the ‘firstborn blessing’ of Isaac still in his mind, with the knowledge of the promise of God to his grandfather, Abram, those words became real as the Lord confirmed them to him in the dream.

Most of us, reminded of this event, recall the picture of the angels ascending and descending up and down the ladder, don’t we? But the real message of this story is in the astounding affect it had on Jacob for the rest of his life. Just look at the things he exclaims when he wakes up from his sleep.

“Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. How awesome is this place This is the House of God. This is the gate of heaven. If God be with me and keep me in this way that I am going  … then the Lord shall be my God. Of all that You give me, I will surely give a tenth to You”

For Jacob it was a real encounter with the living God. He never forgot it. We also can experience such an encounter, and the memory of exactly what happened remains with us for the rest of our lives. It is NEVER trivial. Most of us have probably heard people claim “God told me to … “  when it is quite obviously not the case (it is a cliché, a “holier than thou’ manner of speaking)  I am aware of THREE gifted, popular, internationally known Bible teachers who declared that God told them to divorce their wives (so that they could co-habit with a younger model!) God will not be mocked in this manner!  Trust me on this. A God encounter is not something we can ‘drum up’. When He desires our attention He finds the means to get it. The evidence is always that the action is in complete accord with His word. And we never forget it.

(The very well-known leader of Sydney’s largest mega church recently encouraged his congregation to become dreamers and  “have dreams like Jacob” and branch out into ‘whatever’ follows.)  Friends, this is a gross misrepresentation of what this event means, and it is symptomatic of deceptive teaching in our churches today.

Read Ezekiel 13 and Ezekiel 22 for a reality check on this.

Genesis chapter 29 tells of Jacob’s ‘love at first sight’ encounter with Rachel. It continues with the ‘tricky’ Jacob meeting his match in the ‘trickier’ Uncle Laban. But in Genesis 29:31 we have a short statement about Rachel’s inability to bear children. Then in Genesis 30:1, the devastating effect of this on her mental state. (We focussed a little on this last week, and saw how God seemed to require the SIX barren women of the Scriptures to rely solely upon Him for the gift of children. In each case those children were important in God’s plan for mankind).

It seems that God, in His infinite love and grace, sometimes uses our despair to bring us to a place where we have NO option but to rely totally on Him. It is painful, it is uncomfortable, it is frustrating .. but it is effective. And it is life changing. His promises are trustworthy. He is a very present help in times of trouble.

In Genesis Chapter 31, we have a most interesting dialogue between two very ‘tricky’ people. Laban had deceived Jacob in relation to his marriage to Rachel. It cost Jacob an EXTRA seven years work, but for his trouble he ended up with TWO wives (Leah, the mother of the tribes of Judah, and Rachel, the mother of the tribes of Israel), Jacob was a very successful breeder of sheep and goats, and he used his skill, knowledge and trickery to enrich himself at Laban’s expense (albeit at a cost of another six years work).

Our parashah concludes this week with Jacob leaving the household of Laban after 20 years, complete with his TWO wives, lots of sheep and goats, and although he did not know it, Laban’s household idols. Eventually they part company with an agreement not to oppose each other in the future.  Finally, Laban left to go home, without his daughters, without the sheep and goats he believed Jacob had swindled him of, and without his household idols. Then an amazing thing happens. As Jacob begins his journey back to his own homeland, he is met on the way by the angels of God. All this time in the foreign country, God had His hand on Jacob for good. God’s promises are always trustworthy. Blessed be His Name.              

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 8th Novermber - 14th November 

Torah portion              Genesis 25 : 19  to  28 : 9

Haftarah portion       Malachi 1 : 1  to 2 : 7

“History”

Our ways are not God’s ways

Last week we noted the care with which Abraham sought a wife for Isaac, who incidentally was 40 years old at that time!

In our frail humanity, it is somewhat difficult to understand why Almighty God, in his infinite love, mercy and grace, so perfectly provided the beautiful Rebekah as a wife for Isaac the son of promise, through whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed, and through whom God intended to produce a people for Himself, His own special treasure, whose numbers were to be counted as the ‘stars of heaven’. Then the ‘bombshell’, Rebekah was infertile. Barren is the word used in the Scriptures.(Genesis 25:21) . The nearest fertility clinic was thousands of years away !!

Did you know that there are at least six women in the Scriptures who were mightily used by God, having also been described as ‘barren’ initially?   I’ll provide the names, you do the investigation !!

Sarah (mother of Isaac), Rebekah (mother of Jacob), Rachel (mother of Joseph and Benjamin), Manoah’s wife (mother of Samson), Hannah (mother of Samuel), Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptizer)

It seems that God, in order to fulfil His purposes in them, required that these ladies be completely dependent on Him for the gift of children. They had to call on him in prayer, anguished prayer, committed prayer, believing prayer .. because there was NO other way.

Do we have a lesson for ourselves here? Do we want God to use us to fulfil His purposes in us? Read the paragraph above again, take out the words “gift of children”, and substitute that which you are seeking from God.

There is yet another parallel feature common to these ladies. God alone miraculously made it possible for these ladies to bear children, all of which had life changing work to fulfil in His Name. So too with our Messiah Yeshua. God alone was able to bring His birth to fruition, but this time in a quite unique intervention in the life of the virgin Miriam (Mary).

Chapter 26 opens with the news of famine in the land. Abraham had earlier found much favour with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines, in the region called Gerar. Isaac went to Gerar (the region of the Northern Negev today alongside Gaza) where Abraham had found water and dug wells. Later in a dispute over the water wells, Isaac moved a little further north and found more water at Beersheva.

Some years ago, I visited Kibbutz Nir Am which had been established in the 1930’s close to the Gaza border where there was a ‘water museum’. It was a barren area where there appeared to be a good supply of ground water and a reservoir. “How did you find water here?” I asked innocently. “We found it by reading the Bible” was the quick reply!!    It is, of course, the site of Biblical Gerar.

Gerar is also the place where Both Abraham and Isaac tried to pass off their wives as their “sisters”.

The ‘history’ in this week’s parashah continues with an event which has caused conflict for Israel ever since. In chapter 25 we read about the birth of the twins Esau and Jacob. The Lord had told Rebekah that the ‘older would serve the younger’. Very soon we also read that Esau had sold his firstborn birthright to Jacob. In Genesis 26 : 34,35 we have more sad news that Esau had married two Hittite women and this was “a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah”. (He later also married a daughter of Ishmael. There’s a combination for you!! (Genesis 28:9))

This was possibly ‘the last straw’ for Rebekah, and in her grief she conspired with Jacob (Genesis 27) to deceive Isaac into giving the ‘firstborn’ blessing to Jacob. Once given, it could not be retracted.

There are many people today who have no understanding of the implications of that event. Initially, Jacob fled from his home and went to live with Rebekah’s family. But Esau’s resentment continues to this day in the offspring which have been born down through the centuries. Our modern day relational conflicts with Islam are shaped by it.

God’s purposes are being fulfilled, but as is so often the case, not always in ways we might have planned things ourselves. The history is most interesting, but we need to remember, that God’s purposes will be fulfilled, with us, or in spite of us.   God’s ways are not our ways.

Shabbat Shalom

RS

Torah Portion for 1st Novermber - 7th November

Torah portion                  Genesis 23 : 1  to  25 : 18

Haftarah portion          1 Kings 1 : 1- 31

“Sarah’s life”

Trust and obey

Even though this portion is titled "Sarah's life", it opens with the announcement of Sarah’s death at 127 years old. Abraham looks for a suitable place to bury his beloved wife. He bought a field with a cave.

The detail of the story is well known. Today, that site is revered by Jews and Moslems alike. That which was a field with a cave in it, is today an extremely large Herodian building which was built over 2,000 years ago. (plus some additions built by the Crusaders in the 12th century) The site is managed by the Moslems, but the Jews have a fairly small area assigned to them where they have a synagogue and reading room. On just TEN days each year, the Jews are allowed to enter the larger room (normally used as a Mosque) in which the 1 metre square small entry to the actual cave below is situated. (The cave area was explored by a 12 year old girl, acting on the instructions of Moshe Dayan, when the area was captured by the Israelis in the 1967 six day war).

The “cave” became the final resting place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. It is also significant for the fact that it is one of THREE major pieces of “real estate” which were purchased from their owners for the FULL market price. The other two are the Temple Mount (threshing floor) and Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (present day Nablus).

Chapter 24 of our parashah deals with the provision of a wife for Isaac. This is an extremely important selection because we know that Isaac was God’s ‘child of promise’ given to Abraham, through whom all the Nations of the Earth would be blessed. It is worth reading the detail with which Abraham specified the selection process for his son.

TWO things stand out. Firstly, Abraham was careful to ensure that Isaac should not marry a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites were idolaters. Abraham had been ‘saved’ from idolatrous worship many years earlier. Secondly, whilst he thought that a suitable wife could be found amongst his brother’s family, knowing that Nahor, his brother, had been brought up with values similar to his own, never-the-less, he did not permit Isaac to leave God’s ‘promised land’ to go to Mesopotamia himself. Abraham was, in a sense, ‘working with God’ to ensure that Isaac continued in the path that God had shown Abraham. It was a path of blessing which Abraham had experienced by being faithful to the call God had given him. And he wanted the best possible outcome for Isaac.

Now to the extent that we can use Abraham as an example, there is a salutary lesson there for us. God had given Abraham a convincing call to service. God had abundantly blessed Abraham in that calling. Abraham’s response was both obedient and co-operative. Abraham was not even prepared to take the slightest chance of stepping outside the boundaries where he knew God’s blessing prevailed.

O that we should be so protective of our children’s welfare. There is a lovely verse of Scripture in Jude verse 21. The NKJV translates it “..keep yourselves in the love of God …” But the Living Bible paraphrases it this way:- “stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and protect you”. It is a verse of scripture that was quoted to my own teenage daughters (several years ago) so often that they could not forget it even if they wanted to !!  It expresses the love that Abraham showed for his son Isaac.

This part of the story has a beautiful ending. Read it for yourself in Genesis 24: 61 – 67. There can be no doubt that God had again blessed Abraham in this provision of a loving wife for Isaac. A lady whom God had chosen to be the mother of Jacob, and, if you will, the grandmother of the TWELVE tribes of Israel.

There is another element to the later life of Abraham. He had already had a son, Ishmael, by Hagar. After Sarah’s death he married Keturah and had other sons, one of whom was Midian. The truth is that those two sons of Abraham, in particular, became enemies of Israel and provided hostile obstacles to the peaceful settlement of the land. One might go so far as to say that they continue to do so to this very day.

The main lesson from this parasha however, is that through the obedient trust of Abraham, God was able to advance His plan for mankind. Whenever God finds willing, obedient disciples, He is able to advance His plans for mankind. His invitation is ongoing.

Do you remember the old hymn?  “ Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”

Shabbat Shalom

RS