I pray that YHVH will bless you and allow you
to share the Good News of Messiah with others.
Now, on to the portion!
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Parasha VaYishlach is the 8th Torah Portion in Genesis.
It goes from Genesis 32:3-36:43. There are a lot of key topics
in this portion but there is one resounding point that is in this portion,
and that is Jacob becoming Yisra'el, turning from 'the one who
grabs the heel'(the deceiver), to 'the one who rules with El'.
The difference that we will see from the Jacob of the
previous chapters to the Jacob we read of in this portion is amazing!
Genesis 32:3-8
And Yaʽaqob sent messengers before him to Esaw
his brother in the land of Seʽir, the field of Edom
4 and he commanded them, saying, “Say this to my master Esaw, ‘Your servant Yaʽaqob said this, “I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now.
5 “And I have bulls, and donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants.
And I have sent to inform my master, to find favour in your eyes.” ’ ”
6 So the messengers returned to Yaʽaqob, saying, “We came to your brother Esaw, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”
7 And Yaʽaqob was greatly afraid and distressed. So he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups,
8 and he said, “If Esaw comes to the one group and attacks it,
then the other group which is left shall escape.”
We see here one of the biggest tests of Jacob's life.
If we have read the previous Torah Portion we would find out that Esau was very angry at what he thought Jacob did against him(taking away his blessing):
Genesis 27:41
And Esaw hated Yaʽaqob because of the blessing with which
his father blessed him, and Esaw said in his heart, “The days of mourning
for my father draw near, then I am going to kill my brother Yaʽaqob.”
What Jacob does right after this will change his life. Does he try to trick Esau? Does he run away? Does he try to fight? NO, rather he decides:
Genesis 32:9-12
And Yaʽaqob said, “O Elohim of my father Abraham and Elohim of my father Yitsḥaq, YHVH who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives, and I do good to you,’
10 “I do not deserve the least of all the kind acts and all the truth which You have shown Your servant, for I passed over this Yarden with my staff, and now I have become two groups.
11 “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esaw, for I fear him, lest he come and shall smite me and the mother with the children.
12 “For You said, ‘I shall certainly do good to you, and shall make your seed as the sand of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’ ”
He prayed! Actually, he did more than that. There is a word that
I am looking for that matches what he did perfectly. Can you guess what it is?
......................................................................
He... Had.....
FAITH!!!
He trusted YHVH to protect him and to deliver him from the hand of Esau.
In an amazing turn of events, he humbles himself, knowing he doesn't
deserve it, and pleads to YHVH to protect him from Esau.
It really reminds me of what we do when we are in trouble,
and doesn't it make sense, since things repeat over and over again,
not just in Scripture, but in history as well.
Isaiah 46:9-10
“Remember the former events of old, for I am Ěl, and there is no one else – Elohim, and there is no one like Me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from of old that which has not yet been done, saying, ‘My counsel does stand, and all My delight I do,’
Even something small like this is repeated over and over again,
throughout time, and is still done today. Sadly, most people take this for granted. The only time they ever really humble themselves and ask for forgiveness
is when they get in trouble and in a time of disaster, only then do they ask that God helps them.. But as we see in Genesis 35, Jacob took the
next step that a very small percentage of people do.
Genesis 35:2-4
And Yaʽaqob said to his household and to all who were with him,
“Put away the foreign mighty ones that are among you,
and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments.
3 “And let us arise and go up to Beyth El, and let me make there an altar to El, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”
4 So they gave Yaʽaqob all the foreign mighty ones which were in their hands, and all their earrings which were in their ears. And Yaʽaqob hid them under the terebinth tree which was near Shekem.
After He humbled himself, asked for deliverance from Esau,
and YHVH delivered him, he didn't go back to being the same old Jacob.
He didn't go back and stay the same person that he was. He truly did Teshuvah, he truly repented from his sins and never looked back. And he even went another step and told his entire household to put away their idols, and they ALL did!
Sadly, a very small amount of people do that. However, it's not too late!
We can still ask for forgiveness and take out all our idols from our lives,
no matter how big or important they may seem to be.
YHVH was all that mattered to Jacob, and it should be all that matters to us,
and as we see with Jacob, YHVH reaffirms His blessing to him:
Genesis 35:9-12
And Elohim appeared to Yaʽaqob again,
when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.
10 And Elohim said to him, “Your name is Yaʽaqob, your name is no longer called Yaʽaqob, but Yisra’el is your name.” So He called his name Yisra’el.
11 And Elohim said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Bear fruit and increase, a nation and a company of nations shall be from you, and sovereigns come from your body.
12 “And the land which I gave Abraham and Yitshaq I give to you.
And to your seed after you I give this land.”
Because Jacob decided to follow YHVH, YHVH blessed him,
made him a great nation, and changed him from someone at the bottom(the heel) to being at the top(ruling with YHVH). And as we see throughout
the Scriptures and even today, the one nation that has stayed alive,
and the nation that we are all grafted into when we believe in Messiah,
and the nation where the Messiah came out from,
and the nation where Yahshua will reign for 1,000 years, is YISRA'EL!!!
HalleluYAH!
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There is something else that happens in between the changes
that we see in Jacob turning into Yisra'el, and it is one of upmost importance:
Genesis 32:24-30
And Yaʽaqob was left alone. And a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.
25 And when He saw that He did not overcome him, He touched the socket of his hip. And the socket of Yaʽaqob’s hip was dislocated as He wrestled with him.
26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he said, “I am not letting You go until You have blessed me!”
27 So He asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Yaʽaqob.”
28 And He said, “Your name is no longer called Yaʽaqob, but Yisra'el,
because you have striven with Elohim and with men, and have overcome.”
29 And Yaʽaqob asked Him, saying, “Please let me know Your Name.”
And He said, “Why do you ask about My Name?” And He blessed him there.
30 And Yaʽaqob called the name of the place Peni’el,
“For I have seen Elohim face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Now, there are people that believe this was just a man,
or maybe and angel, or maybe a messenger, or in some Rabbinical teachings even one of Esau's men. But it cannot be any of these, for it says in verse 30,
"I have seen Elohim face to face." But it couldn't be YHVH either, for
'No man does see Him and live'(Exodus 33:20). It can only be one person,
one being. It is the same one over and over and over again.
We see Him in SO MANY different ways all throughout the Scriptures,
but because we were taught that, "Jesus is only coming twice",
we don't see Him. This is YAHSHUA!! He shows Himself ALL over the place,
and for 1,000's of years we haven't even seen Him.
But now that we do see Him, and we can tell who He is in these passages,
we can see that He manifests Himself not just as
Yahshua/Salvation, but in SO many other ways, like:
He was YHVH Elohim, walking the garden of Eden(Genesis 3:8).
He was Melchizedek, the King of Shalem, the Priest of the Most High Elohim,
that brought bread and wine and blessed Abram(Genesis 14:18-20).
He was the Messenger of YHVH that met Hagar in the wilderness before
and after Ishmael's birth, promising her that he would also become a great nation(Genesis 16:7-13, 21:17-20).
He was the one who appeared to Abram as El Shaddai,
changed Abram and Sarai's name to Abraham and Sarah, and reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham that he would be a great nation(Genesis 17:1-22).
He was one of the 3 men that came to Abraham, reaffirmed to Abraham
and Sarah that they would have a son, and told Abraham of the destruction
that was going to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah(Genesis 18:1-33).
He was the Messenger of YHVH that told Abraham not to kill his
son Isaac and reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham all the nations
of the earth would be blessed by him(Genesis 22:11-18).
He was the one who appeared to Isaac and promised Isaac
that He would bless his seed(Genesis 26:24).
He was the one who was on the top of the ladder in Jacob's dream
and promised that his seed would be blessed and that
He would go with Jacob wherever he went(Genesis 28:12-15).
And...
He was the one who appeared to Jacob in Paddan Aram,
changed His name officially to Yisra'el, promised him that he
would become a company of nations, and that the land that
He promised Abraham and Isaac He would also give to him(Genesis 35:9-13).
And that is just in the Torah Portions we have covered this year!!!
HalleluYAH!!
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The last thing that happened in this Torah Portion(besides the generations of Esau), is the deaths of Rachel and Isaac. We see how Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin. I find it interesting who Rachel named him one thing but Jacob named him something else:
Genesis 35:18
And it came to be, as her life was going out – for she died –
that she called his name Ben-Oni. But his father called him Binyamin.
There was an interesting reason that Jacob changed the name from
Ben-Oni to Benjamin. The reason he changed the name was because Ben-Oni meant, 'Son of my sorrow', whereas Benjamin means 'Son of the right hand'. Jacob changed what would have been a sorrow into a delight,
from being a sad time into a blessed time. He turned something
bad into something good, something evil into something blessed.
Hmm... do we see that somewhere's else in the Scriptures???
(Hint: It's in the Torah...)
And then we see the death of Isaac:
Genesis 35:27-29
And Yaʽaqob came to his father Yitsḥaq at Mamre, or Qiryath Arba,
that is Ḥebron, where Abraham and Yitsḥaq had dwelt.
28 And the days of Yitsḥaq were one hundred and eighty years.
29 So Yitsḥaq breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people,
aged and satisfied of days. And his sons Esaw and Yaʽaqob buried him.
1st of all, who was surprised that Isaac was still alive when Jacob came back? That is something new that I finally realized this year. Jacob was
away for over 20 years, and when he left Isaac was already old and couldn't see. Another thing that was interesting was that the last time
Esau and Jacob were together was at the death of Isaac.
It seems that death and disaster can bring people together,
no matter how much they dislike each other. It is a... PATTERN!
The end is declared from the beginning,
and there is NOTHING new under the sun. Everything is a pattern,
no matter how big or small. Nothing is done anew.
May YHVH be praised!
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May YHVH bless you and make you part of a
great and fruitful nation, under Elohim, which is Yisra'el!
Numbers 6:24-26
“YHVH bless you and guard you;
25 YHVH make His face shine upon you, and show favour to you;
26 YHVH lift up His face upon you, and give you peace.”
Until next time...
Shalom!
Christian Montanez Dodd
Servant and Emissary of Yahshua, Child of YHVH
HalleluYAH!