# 4 - Torah Parashah Vayera

[Music] you [Music] you this morning's tour portion is era and the Viera means he appeared it's God's appearing in we're gonna talk about how God appears at different times you know Hebrews 1 and this verses 1 through 3 talks about how God has appeared in various times and in various ways but in these last days through remember who through Yeshua that's the ultimate appearing and this is the story of Isaac he appears and he announces the birth of Isaac and he tells him that he is the Covenant child and Isaac is a type of Yeshua just as Abraham is a type of the father so we're gonna see a model there in days gone by times past God spoke to us in many and varied ways to the fathers through the prophets but now in the iqari tiya meme this is the last days he has spoken to us through his son to whom He has given ownership of everything and through whom he has created the universe this son is the radiance of the Shekinah the very expression of God's glory in essence upholding all that exists by his powerful word and after he had through himself made purification of sin he sat down at the right hand of God in the holy place in heaven this is the model that we're gonna see in Isaac's sacrifice we call The Binding of that we call it the binding in Hebrew because he wasn't actually sacrificed the finding is called the acaba so whenever you hear of a Jewish man talk about the aquadolls talking about the binding of issac with Abraham and I'm gonna go through with you a little overview of the chapters that we're gonna look at five chapters and then we'll go through the parties and look at some of the symbolism that we're gonna bring out in today's Torah portion the passages are in from chapter 18 through chapter 22 and chapter 18 God appears to Abraham and he's down by the trees of Mamre we know this to be close to heavy on and this is a very holy place this is where the temple stood for seven years before David moved it up to Jerusalem chapter 19 - angels go on so there's three that come to Abraham to go on to one to deliver lot and the other to enact judgment upon Sodom in chapter 20 we're gonna see a vemma leg he's actually the king of a place called Guerard this is the area of the early Philistines before they were known as Philistia and the same thing that happened with Abraham calling Sarah his sister in Egypt happens also in Philistia with a vemma leg and Abimelech wants to take Sarah but God turns the curse into a blessing we see just as in the wealth taken from Nimrod and from Pharaoh God uses Sarah that when she's sent back from the house of Abimelech she comes back with great riches so Abraham's wealth just keeps growing and growing and this is how God works in mysterious ways for the wealth of the nations because this wealth is gonna preserve you know come down through Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel in chapter 21 we see yet sock is born and Ishmael is sent away and in our final chapter we're gonna look at the Akkad ah Aviat sack The Binding of Isaac on the Temple Mount now each week we go through the parties and the parties is our word for the Paradise comes from and it's our word for orchard we're gonna be talking about the trees of Mamre this morning and what's interesting is God has an orchard with much varied kind of fruit and the Word of God is likened unto seed right and sometimes the seeds not obvious sometimes it's within the fruit it's not always like a blade of grass where the seeds on top and obvious so we have the plain meaning of the word much like the grain has the seed right in the obvious forefront and the plain meaning of vieira is God's going to appear to Abraham and he's going to announce in a year you're gonna have a son had a hundred years old he's talking about the birth of Isaac but it's also pointing to this model this type Viet sac as a type of the son of God who's going to come this beloved son of Abraham represents the beloved son of God who would willingly lay down his life as a sacrifice so when we go into the Ramez the meanings just beyond the literal we always like to look at three main points and the three main points are what does the tour portion teach us about God's character each tour portion is something unique to teach us about God's character and it's so important for us to understand what God's character is really like because by beholding we become changed into that same likeness so this is part of the recreation returning us back to his image and we see in this tourist portion in chapter 18 verse 19 it's going to talk about sadaqa and mish pot which are actually charity like we take sadaqa that's our charity box but also judgment and these balance one another we're gonna see charity in that he gives Abraham a son charity in that he saves lot but judgment upon Sodom when their sins have reached the culmination we also look for hidden glimpses of Messiah and of course this is a very obvious hidden symbol in Messiah being the Son of God willing to sacrifice himself this is our model to realize that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience we're not physical beings needing to feed the physical having an occasional spiritual experience we are spiritual beings and we need to feed ourselves spiritually by the Word of God more than we even feed ourselves with the physical food this is what you was saying with man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God if we're going to find the application for us today we have to be willing to die to the self to the ego to the false identity and live like yet sac and like Yeshua in humble obedience to the Father there's a great model in the story for us we're also going to see further symbolism of the father and the son in that Abraham did not kill Yitzhak you know how many people in the world today and throughout the ages have thought that God had to kill Yeshua you know or as if God was separate when he says my God my God why hast you forsaken me this is what sin does isaiah 59:2 says your sins have made a separation between you and your God it's not God separating himself God was right there within him laying down his life the ultimate reflection of selfless love to humanity this is what Yeshua came to show what God's character really looked like in action so we see some beautiful glimpses there that the father's hand was stayed showing that no the son is willing to sacrifice himself but the father's not the one doing the killing so there's beautiful models here and then in the we always look for hidden anomalies in the Torah sometimes there's in large letters sometimes there's small letters in this week's Torah portion we're going to see some food which are dots that the scribes placed above certain words to bring out certain hidden elements and that's in Genesis 18 as well then we're gonna refer to some Dead Sea Scrolls for the rest of the story and see how the haftorah about the story of Elijah blessing the Shulamite woman who was too old that she was barren to have a child and she had a child just like Sarah was too old miraculous birth of a son and how the son died and was raised to life another symbol like yet sac and like Yeshua of a miraculous birth of a son that the Father loves and then it's going to die but then it gets saved and so we see this model coming through in every which way so we'll just without further ado dive right in and if you have your Bibles turn with me to Genesis Bereshit chapter 18 verse 1 it says out and I appeared to ah from is that what your Bibles say but you know in the Hebrew it doesn't say offer is a little trick oh yeah our Albert hum it doesn't say that in the original Hebrew it says I don't I appeared to him what it's doing is it's differentiating the true identity from the false identity sometimes we think that we're our name right I think I'm youths often Devine I think I'm this body I think I need to protect it and what God's doing is sometimes he reaches us at our very core at the spirit that comes from him and he appears to us and that's where he can actually best appear to us when we're not involved in the self when we are in the spirit and Abraham was specifically in the spirit in a special way because he had just performed the Britney Law the Covenant of circumcision and he was in the apex in the most difficult day he's in the third day after circumcising himself and Ishmael was 13 Abraham's 99 and Abraham is responsible for 318 other families that are kind of grafted into the family of Abraham they all get circumcised as well his servants all circumcised this whole household imagine all the men for three days you know and the pain gets the most intense you can hardly stand up and so here he is sitting in the shade of the trees of Mamre and God appears to him and not by name but to his very core yes Stephen good that's a correct translation yes it was specifically Yoda evolving so we know we're gonna look at this a little bit further when we see the two angels and yo David Haye right there with him by the and it doesn't say Oaks either sometimes you know add a few things it actually says trees a low name of the memory and memory was an area that was named after a person who'd is said actually gave Abraham advice and Abraham took that advice memory gave Abraham advice to wait until God commands you to circumcise yourself know exactly the right time and wear on the body see when God appeared to Abraham last it was actually on Shavuot and he said in one year you're gonna have a son and yet sock was born on Shavuot now it would have been very easy because Shavuot is the time for renewal of covenant to circumcise yourself on that feast but mamrie gave advice to wait a little while so that way the feast could be done I mean and it's perfect cuz there's a lot of sacrifices to do on Shavuot and it was about a half a month later this is in the fourth month that Abraham is circumsized and also it is said that memory gave him other knowledge in the process of circumcision but it's interesting that it talks to the area of Mamre and Abraham is under these trees and he's sitting at the entrance to the tent now normally sitting is Mushaf that's the Hebrew word Kneeshaw of is a yoda Sheen and evolve evolve looks like a standing man but because Abraham is sitting because he's in pain he can hardly stand do you know that what's the two letters for the V sound in Hebrew the voor the the Veit right it uses the vein only time in scripture because he's not standing it's even showing that the little man that the vaad represents in sitting can't stay and yet Abraham's kindness is so great that when he sees these visitors these strangers he leaps up to go and serve them that's how anxious he was to do a dacha to do acts of kindness and so this isn't the very heat of the day and it has a connotation of the brightest part as if God's glory his appearing is even making it brighter and hotter and he raises his eyes and he looks and there in front of him stood three men so God is appearing and one of the things I like to bring out when people have a problem with God manifesting himself in different ways who are we to say how God can manifest himself right sometimes people say oh no God's not gonna be up here as a man no we're not supposed to worship a man according to the second commandment not supposed to make any graven image of anything in the heavens above the earth beneath or in the waters below the Seas but doesn't mean that God can't manifest himself that way and his word was made manifest in human flesh and we see an exact representation of what God's character looks like in yahushua but we see various tourists orys where God appears as either an angel or as a man to meet man where he's at to be in physical form so you see three coming and upon seeing them he leaps up and runs from the tent door to meet them and he prostrates himself on the ground now you would not normally do this for just a stranger and you wouldn't even do it for Angels the angels remember through many times like Daniel they would say no no I'm just a fellow bondservant like yourself do not bow down to me but when it's the yo hey Bob hey is Archie brought out they then this worship this prostration is accepted and Abraham says out and I I don't nee my lord if I have found 10 now who's the first one to find hen in the eyes of the Lord grace 10 is great remember Noah is grace reversed and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord Abraham's familiar with the story of Noah and how God used Noah and spoke to Noah and so he's actually asking for the same grace if I have found this favor in your sight please do not leave your servant please let me send for some water so that you can wash your feet and rest under the tree and that's the way we feel and we come into God's presence whether it's on Shabbat we desire for Shabbat to last as long as possible and we're sad when it's going or when you're deep in the word and you're digging out nuggets and sometimes you might take off work you might stay up all night long because you're like please do not leave my presence I just love being in your presence yes yes that's right he's the one and one of the few that serves the one true God ll yo Nell should die in the last couple tour portions God's been revealing himself through him with various titles and he says I will bring a piece of bread like him now you have come to your servant refresh yourself before going on very well they replied do what you have said so over ham hurried into the tent and told Sarah quickly three measures of the best flour knead it and make cakes then Abraham ran to the herd he took a good tinder calf like Kobe beef and gave it to the servant who hurried to prepare him then he took curds which is curdled milk like cheese and the calf which he had prepared and he said it before the men now it's interesting because we have laws in Israel called cash root these are the laws of what's kosher what's clean what things can be cooked with one another and one of the laws that become fences is because of the text that says you shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk which is talking about honoring the life and the source of life you know you can take one or you take the other but don't cook the child in its mother's milk that's just disgracing and dishonor in life that's the principle behind that text but the Jewish nation has taken it so far as to don't even eat milk and meat together don't eat meat and cheese together and so one of the proof texts that I use to show that that's not the exact application or intended meaning of that is here Abraham is serving Hashem himself and he's laying out this tender beef and he is laying down the curds with it and the bread so he's eating meat and cheese together now if there was any time to correct a misunderstanding that would have been the time to correct it but just interesting to let the Scriptures speak for itself it says they said to him now what's interesting in this word they said to him is this word is a lab and a love is spelled all of LA med can you see this down here see the olive and there's a little lamb in here okay and then there's a yodh and evolved and there's three dots that are placed upon here now the common meaning no tag in are at the top of letters these are called Neku no they're called nut coud yeah added by the scribes and here is a little picture of this verse if you can see it in the Hebrew here's a Lev and see the three dots above it so this is the word to him and the sages say this is in the context of they said to him what's the question where is Sara over they all left the yode and evolved there's a dot to teach that they knew her location but they were especially respect to Abraham asking him kind of like where is she sometimes you ask a question where are you right now you're deep in thought or where is your heart or not just a physical location so that's one application of it but I also think it's significant that in the context of the theme of this tour portion we see the father and we see the Sun now the father is known as Elohim right and Elohim is spelled with an olive all lift is the first letter of the alphabet it always represents God the first dot is over the all F now why didn't it put a dot over the first three letters all Islam in yo'd why is it olive yodh Bob it actually skips the mahmud yodh is the first letter of yahushua this is how the father is going to appear and manifest himself in human flesh the word made flesh so that's the next dot and the voff is in the form of a man this is an upright man so even in the context of vieira we're seeing a deeper meaning to these three dots bringing out a significance of how God is going to manifest himself and it Yeshua in prophecy is also referred to as the outstretched arm you know of salt cod salvation or the right hand of God so this yo'd is a hand so it has double meaning as to yahushua and then the father's the sixth letter of the Olivet six at the number of man and it also is upright one and he was an upright one so there's all these beautiful deep meanings that come up that's not a dot this is the top of the lammott and this is a dot this is a dot and this is a dot but this is just the tall neck of dalamud when it's drawn okay maybe cantillation okay well look at that well yeah it's interesting many people have surmised which holyday's are these you know some have speculated yom kippur when he said circumcise himself some have speculated we know it's one year before Isaac was born and a lot of people traditionally have said Isaac could have been born on Passover which would have put this at Passover but we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that it was shava ode so this is just after Shavuot in the 4th month and it is known also that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in the 4th month of the year yeah cuz they were angels and he did know sometimes you just yeah you didn't have time for quick using kneading flour with olive oil and such you would just make it very quickly yes Jeff there's another there's another thing that Isaac and I talked about this there's a misunderstanding at 11:00 what leaven is so in a nutshell leaven is doctrine you can have a good doctrine and you can have bad doctrine and there's a teaching we can go through on all of this but you would never present to an angelic being or to the father doctrine mm-hmm never presented them they here's how you are to act he would always present to us proper doctrine so in one sense you could say unleavened bread was I am honoring you that I'm not going to tell you anything to do or present any doctrine to you yeah it's very good point that's a beautiful teaching in itself the teaching of leaven and what it really represents there's many proof texts not in this text in the case of lot it says matzo in this case if you read it in the Hebrew you probably have your interim mini Airy homage it'll say like him now look him is a common term for any bread it doesn't necessarily mean that it's risen but it's just that you can't definitively say that it's matzo because it's not using that word so they ask where is Sarah your wife and he says they're in the tent he said I will certainly return to you around this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son so around this time next year this is just within a couple weeks of this time next year sure enough he was born on shovel owed the Covenant child born on the day that God makes covenant so there's many things that have happened on Shavuot including Noah making covenant with God or God making covenant with Noah after the flood Noah built the altar and actually had the sacrifices for Shavuot we see Isaac's birth and we also see that he God appeared in this time now he appears at Sinai thousand years later on Mount Sinai establishing the Covenant of ketubah with Israel so it's interesting that he's appearing to Abraham making covenant with him at the time that Abraham made covenant with him through the circumcision all of this schoville Oh always screams covenant and renewal of the Covenant covenants built upon one another they don't do away with one another so this is just beautifully further proof that this is the time of Chava oh and I will show you some proof text in a little bit that from the Dead Sea Scrolls that confirm that this Yitzhak was born in the third month so he said I will certainly return to you around this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son Sarah heard him from the entrance of the tent behind him Abraham and Sarah were old advanced in years Sarah was well past the age of childbearing so she laughed to herself thinking I'm so old and so is my lord and this is the way that you Sarah showed respect for Abraham in all the time that they were together she treated him like a beautiful with such respect she even called him my lord the only time that she ever had an issue was when Hagar was coming between her relationship with Abraham so it's a good lesson for us in our marriages we learned in a previous tour portion that there was dots above that place where she said let God be the judge between me and you how about this Hagar and what she's doing she's basically saying she's causing problems for us and it's a lesson for us never come between a husband and a wife and a wife should always show respect for her husband unless God is you know revealing that somebody's coming between and she needs to speak up and that's the only reason why Sarah spoke up is to preserve the relationship in the marriage so she calls him my lord Abraham am I to have pleasure again so she's not just talking about child-birthing but she's actually talking about making love it's a beautiful thing out and I said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh and ask am I really going to bear a child when I am so old interesting how hashem sometimes meets us right where we're at what's your heart really saying what's the intents of your heart and the thoughts of the mind is anything too hard for out an eye at the time set for it at this season next year I will return to you and Sarah will have a son Sarah denied it saying I didn't laugh because she was afraid but he corrected her and said not so you did laugh so the men set out from there and looked out towards Sodom so basically they go from this area of Hebron and they go east for the area where the bluffs start going down and you can look down into the Jordan Valley and they're gonna look down and I don't know says should I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do in as much as al-rahim is sure to become a great and strong nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by him you know Abraham was known for not just his kindness but he had four traits it says in the Gemara says he had wisdom he had strength he had wealth and he had humility and when you break these down as applying to us today it's not just a head knowledge of knowledge right what is wisdom it's really understanding what to do with knowledge and how that knowledge works but more importantly it's about that he always sought wisdom it's not so much that I'm wise and you call yourself wise nobody if they're humble will ever call themselves wise what it means is that Abraham was always seeking more about Hashem and Hashem sways he studied with Melchizedek for forty years to learn the priesthood even though he never had to officiate in the role of a high priest because his attack lived not only ten generations after the flood but then passed Isaac's life and into Jacob's life and it wasn't until Jacob's life that he actually died and that mantle have priesthood onto Yaakov so it's about a seeking wisdom be an eternal learner a lifetime learner of God's ways and strength has a connotation of someone who overcomes the yetzer Hara it's not just about me overpowering you because that's force and that's not a part of the character of God it's about an internal strength to overcome the self and the ego to overcome the yetzer her eyes everybody know what the yet stir her eyes the evil inclination the evil Clint inclination is really the self just trying to rise in one's life for supremacy and trying to with the two things can't thrive together you know if you're feeding the self and the ego and the flesh and go out me and all of this the Spirit is gonna suffer if you fast once in a while and you pray and through the study the Word of God that's true spiritual food the spirit will thrive and that's what we're intended to be is thriving spiritual beans and the body will be a perfect vessel and more perfect vessel to carry the spirit and so it's all about having strength and overcoming yetzer hara and of course the wealth was not wealth that he had to take by force but the wealth that God blessed him with and that's why we should all be content with whatever God gives us and be faithful with it he who's faithful with a few things God will make ruler of many and this is the way Abraham was faithful and of course his humility and his kindness was well known throughout the the land and throughout the ages so just something to kind of meditate on when it talks about even Hashem is kind of complimenting Abraham he says he's going to become a great and strong nation and all the nations of the world are going to be blessed by him and his descendants for I have made myself known to him so that he will give orders to his children and to his household so I wanted to go back one slide and talk a little bit about these different areas of Abraham appearing in the form of a man he appears to convey that Sarah is gonna have a son verse 10 that we just read and he's going to appear in the next verse to evoke a spirit of mercy in Abraham he's to basically letting him know I'm about to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah what this does by telling him in advance it's like mo che when he tells him I should just destroy the children of Israel and make a great nation out of you what does it do it reveals the true character if you're selfish you're gonna say yeah I'd do that if you're unselfish and you're humble and you're make you're gonna say no I would rather die but my name from the book of life then for you to hurt or for any of the children of Israel to be affected so this is evoking a spirit of mercy and Abraham to save any righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah God appears to Abraham in the form of an angel and also in the form of a man to save his sock from being sacrificed and to show that God will provide his own lamb as the sacrifice and we see in what we just read in Hebrews 1 1 through 5 that God was using this as a model for what he was going to do through his son his only begotten Son now God has many sons even Adam was a son of God but he's planted his seed in different ways right all the other sons of God in the universe he has spoken into existence and remember in the book of Job all the sons of God have come to gather themselves and give an account of the Dominion that God has entrusted to them these were created beings spoken into existence Adam was unique in that he not only created him in his image he formed him from the dust of the ground with his own hand and breathed his seed his DNA through breath through his nostrils and it says he became in living a fish a living soul Yeshua yahushua is called the only begotten son of god because it's the only time that that word was planted as seed in the womb of a woman and he was actually birth and so this is the uniqueness of yahushua but god is appearing manifesting his word in different ways but they're all different sons Yeshua being unique in that he's the only begotten haha you know they aren't maybe one minute I'll conduct over in me and I am D and they also may be blended into us the world may believe that thou art sent me and the glory or the economy amen it's a perfect text hit fits and that shows our calling also that's our purpose is to return back into him where he is all in us and we are one in him it's kind of like his spirit is like droplets of ocean right each one of us have the Spirit of God within us that's our true identity together we comprise this ocean but we are not God right may God be all in us may we be each one in him so this is where new age kind of goes off and they start to realize get a little knowledge is dangerous right you realize wow that spark of life in me that is divine oh that means I'm God and then you go off in the wrong tangent so he says I'm gonna make myself known to him and we'll give orders to his children and to his household after him to keep my ways and to do what is right and just English translates that as right and just but it sadaqa and mish pot which means charity acts of kindness and judgment we're gonna see Hashem not only being charitable in saving lot for Abraham and giving Abraham a child in his old age but he has to enact justice and it is said that it was at the point that Sodom had killed one of Lots daughters in such a horrific way remember what the sin of sodom and gomorrah was it was more than the homosexuality it was the unkindness to strangers no lot was a righteous man he new even though he wasn't perfect for height he made a lot of mistakes but he knew the ways of God through his a through Abraham uncle Abraham who took him under his wing like his own son and he's had to pass on this knowledge to his children now his wife wasn't always on board with it and didn't always perform and that's also passed down to us but his daughters were trying to perform acts of kindness in the most unkind place in the world and it is said that she hid some bread for a hungry Sojourner somebody passing through Sodom she hid it in a vessel so that nobody else would know but when the people found out about it that she was actually being kind to a stranger instead of robbing him like everybody else did they stripped her and put honey on her and put her in on the wall of the city where there was a beehive and the bees came and stung her until she died it's at that point that the sins you know how the sins pile upon one another and even revelation says your sins have reached heaven it's that point that Hashem said there has to be justice there has to be judgment this cannot continue and so this is some of the knowledge that's passed down through the ages and God says that he's going to teach Abraham and his descendants what is right and what is just what is sadaqa what is charitable and what is right judgment so that out and I may bring about for augur ham what he has promised him I'd and I said the outcry against Sodom and amaura is so great and their sin is so serious that I will now go down and see whether their deeds warrant the outcry that has reached me if not I will know the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom but over Homs they'd remain standing before Hashem so this means out of the three two of them went on to Sodom right now there's two angels there with Hashem one informed Sara that she was gonna have a son while she why they were there with her and then he went on to go and deliver lot one angel and we know the Angels named Raphael he was the angel of healing and he actually had a part in healing Abraham during this time of the circumcision it was actually very like a healing balm just this visit from this angel Raphael that came with Hashem so each one even had their purpose this isn't often brought out you usually have Gabriel as the interpreter of dreams or a messenger we don't know or I haven't done enough research to tell you who the other angels name was but we know that he informed Sarah and then he went on to save lot from the city of Sodom and to destroy the city and the other angel was the one to heal but Abraham stay remains without an i or AD and I remains with Abraham oh yes healed her womb very good I love it it fits the principle so the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom but Abraham remained standing before Adonai Abraham approached and said will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked this has a connotation of Abraham when it says he approached him and said this in Hebrew this is like gosh it has a connotation of trying near to Hashem very close to intercede and this is a model for us in prayer when you see that somebody is doing something in their life that they're creating a cause-and-effect that they're gonna lose the blessings that Hashem has intended for them we draw especially near and the only way to do that is through fasting through holiness through purity of our own life and in our prayer life we intercede for that person this is what Abraham was doing will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked he didn't know how many righteous were there but he knew his nephew lot was there maybe there are 50 righteous people in the city will you actually sweep the place away and not forgive it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are there far be it from you a sham to do such a thing to kill right just along with the wicked so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike now God doesn't have to kill anybody sin it's the wages of sin right that is death but what Abraham is doing is saying don't let the righteous die along with the wicked when judgment comes upon the city so many times cities and nations have been saved because of a few righteous and that's when we pray for this nation and we pray for the nation of Israel it's the same way we need to make sure that our lives are in the right place so that if you know cuz you can't change anyone else you can't count on anyone else but if we can be righteous we can be a saving grace for others who need more time so he's bartering with Hashem if there's 50 will you still far be it from you to do such a thing shouldn't the judge of all the earth do what is just ad and I said if I find in Sodom 50 who are righteous then I will forgive the whole place for their sake Abraham answered here now I who am but dust and ashes he's humbly coming again to Hashem I've taken it upon myself to speak to yo Dave of hey what if there's five less than fifty righteous he said I won't destroy it if I find 45 there he spoke to him yet again what if there's just forty found there he said for the sake of forty I wouldn't do it he said I hope yo default hey who will not be angry with me if I speak what if there's thirty found there and Hashem answered I won't do it if there's thirty he said here now I have taken it upon myself to speak to Adonai what if there's only twenty found there and Hashem said for the sake of twenty I will not destroy it he said I hope I don't I won't be angry with me if I speak just once more it's so cute like you're bold enough to be able to even speak to God audibly face-to-face you know he's appearing to him and then kind of this bartering process you know is less than what you would do with the king of the universe what if Tanner found there he said for the sake of the ten I will not destroy it and then add and I went on his way so that opera ham could not barter any longer as soon as he had finished speaking to Abraham I don't I must have vanished and Abraham returned to his place so now this brings us to the focus of the angels in Sodom and Gomorrah chapter 19 verse 1 yes that's right that's right absolutely this is developing Abraham's character and preparing them for something greater and it's developing his faith to imagine how much faith you would have for the rest of your life's mission if you had spoken face-to-face without an eye right there is the only time that he went to inquire he sent his servant Eliezer so he really doesn't know what's going and this is another thing about a righteous man that you don't spend long periods of time in wicked areas Abraham really kept himself separate and that's what holy means to be set apart that's to be sanctified so through our sanctifying process in our life we have to make sure that we by association are not becoming contaminated that we're not associating with evil or fellowshiping with the wicked that we are set apart from the paganism of the past that we are truly called out in so many ways like Abraham our Father as we look at this the sins of Sodom there's an interesting scripture in the prophet Ezekiel that talks more about what the sins of Sodom were so if you have your Bibles turn to Ezekiel 16 verse 49 and you can correlate this with your poor portion for chapter 19 verse 49 says the crimes of your sister Sodom were pride and gluttony think about those two things in the context of what I said about the self and either we're crucifying the flesh daily or we're feeding the flesh and the false ego right pride comes from self from self focus gluttony is the body feeding the flesh everything they were doing was an exact opposition to the thriving of the true identity in the spirit and then look how it breaks down pride and gluttony further she and her daughters were careless and complacent so that they did nothing to help the poor and the needy this is what Pride and gluttony looks like when you're so full of yourself and you're feeding yourself your whole focus is only on yourself that it's one thing when you don't help others that's bad enough as it is but they were actually robbing instead of helping the people the foreigners who they're supposed to help they're robbing the foreigners and the sojourners they were arrogant verse 50 goes on to say and they committed disgusting acts before me so that when I saw it I swept them away so arrogance goes with pride gluttony is all about feeding the flesh in different ways we often think about it food right but what were the disgusting acts of gluttony that they were practicing not only overindulgence in food but sexual immorality as well so I think it sums it up beautifully through the prophet Ezekiel and now with that understanding we will go back and look at chapter 19 the two angels came to Sodom that evening when lott was sitting at the gate of Sodom so here it's clarification only two of them went lot saw them got up to greet them and prostrated himself on the ground hmm he said here now my Lords please come over to your servants house spend the night wash your feet get up early and go on your way no they answered we will stay in the square so this is another way of them testing him is he truly going to perform the acts of kindness like his uncle Abraham he wanted to protect them this is why he asked him to come inside the house because if they were left out in the square he knew the people would end up finding that there was visitors and try to have their way with him mm-hmm so he kept pressing them so they finally went home with him and he made them a feast not just a meal but this is a mission mishit a and he baked matzah for their supper which they ate yes but it doesn't mean that it was Passover that's the thing we can but we know that this was in the 4th month so this isn't the time of year for Passover but it's the same type of meal that you would eat in the feasts of matzah but before they could go to bed the men of the city surrounded the house young and old everyone from every neighborhood of Sodom now what caused this it is said that when lot was showing the kindness of Abraham and bringing in these guests Lot's wife didn't want to share what they had with these guests and she says if you bring them in then let's divide the house you keep him on your portion of the house when you went to cook a meal for them he wanted to make covenant with them and how do you make covenant or preserve the covenant salt so there was not enough salt in the house so he unfortunately if there was enough salt but she didn't want to give her own salt this is how self-centered she had become much like Sodom there was this division an equally yoked lot was with his wife so she went to the neighbors and asked for salt even though she had salt and in the process gossiped about having visitors and it was because of that act of Lot's wife that the whole town came to Lots door and demanded that he send them out before they could go to bed the men of the city surrounded the house young and old everyone from every neighborhood of Sodom they called Glatt and said to him where are the men who came to stay with you tonight bring them out to us we want to have sex with them wot went out to them and stood in the doorway closing the door behind him he said please my brother's do not do such a wicked thing look here I have two daughters who are virgins let me bring them out to you and you can do whatever seems good to you but don't do anything to these men since they are guests in my house now lot knew that the practice of these men were sodomy and he really didn't wasn't wanting to put his daughters at harm's way but he's like calling their bluff you know using this to know knowing that they were not going to take his daughters they wanted these two handsome men these angels who had come into town yes yeah but that's the problem and you bring out a really good point because when you have an estate and you have acreage you know you can guard that when you choose to live in the city you lose your power of protecting yes I do and he was choosing to live in the city and and you know how many people love the amenities they come from they say wow I can just walk right outside my condo and there's a restaurant then there's this and there's that and there's so the amenities of the city suck us in god never designed from his people to live in cities which were always will be hot beds of wickedness yes and the pleasures of the self again it feeds the self and the materialism of the city feeds the self as well yeah these are really good points that the spirit is bringing out this morning because we have to apply them to our life and say where would God have us he wants us to be out in nature he wants us to be sustainable he wants us to be eating just what we need to sustain the vessel for housing the spirit but not overindulgence and not be focused on materialism to be free enough to multiply our wealth where we can be a blessing to others and where we're breathing God's good clean air and drinking his good clean water and these are not things that you have access to in the city you're gonna be drinking the chlorine water showering in it you're gonna be sucking the fumes of the carbon monoxide from the thing you know but you're doing you're making all these sacrifices for the self and that's exactly the opposite of the principle of God yes we must keep the focus that nothing is ours we are only stewards of what God hasn't entrusted and we will lose even what he's entrusted to us if we don't use it in acts of kindness for his children and for his kingdom so these men would hear nothing of it they said stand back we're gonna break on through this guy came to live here speaking of lot and now he's decided to play judge for that we'll deal worse with you than with them then they crowded in on lot in order to get close enough to break down the door but the angels inside reached out their hand and brought a lot into the house and shut the door then they struck the men at the door of the house with blindness both small and great so they couldn't find the doorway the men said to lot do you have any people here beside yourself whomever you have in the city sons-in-laws sons daughters bring them out of this place because we're going to destroy it Adonai has become aware of the great outcry against them and out and I has sent us to destroy it what went out and spoke with his son-in-law who had married his daughters and said get up let's leave this place because I don't know it's going to destroy the city but his son in laws wouldn't take him seriously and that's the way even the people in the city will be when God sends a message through his servants the prophets judgment is coming upon the cities it's time to get out leave whether it's a city or a country that's gonna receive judgment people are like the frogs in the warm water they're lukewarm and they won't take it seriously yes 2nd Peter brings out an interesting aspect about lot and you know how I always incorporate both the written Torah and the oral torah passed down from the fathers through the sages from God to Moses to Joshua there's an interesting thing that popped out at me just this yes yesterday 2nd Peter says in chapter 2 verse 4 through 9 for if God spared not the Angels that stand but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of Darkness to be rescued unto judgment remember we're talking about God's characteristics and alongside of his charity in his acts of kindness you see that he's not going to allow wickedness to continue what he's doing is he's preserving life from the lamb slain from the foundation of the world normally sin would kill a person immediately right it's his mercy his sadaqa his charity and his kindness in extending life but justice is such that you can't do that forever just to allow people to keep sinning and hurting one another at some point you have to say you've wanted to sever yourself from me I'll allow you and that's what's called the wrath of God in Romans 1 to give men over to the lust of their hearts so his judgment is not an arbitrary act of destruction that's what I want people to get through their minds God is so good he's only a life giver not a life taker but when you sever yourself through sin from the source of life inherent in everything else outside of that is death right that's the domain of death so here a refers to first to these angels that corrupted man before the flood the watchers and he spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness so we're gonna look at righteousness and judgment bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes he condemned them with an overthrow making them an example for those after who would choose to live an ungodly life and he de l'eau delivered just lot this is the first thing that jumped out at me oh they're calling a lot just I know he wasn't perfect but and nowhere in the Torah does it says he was just right nowhere in the Torah does it say he was righteous look at how Peter goes on he was vexed with filthy conversation of the wicked so he's littering to live in the city but he can't even stand to hear the words that are in the deeds that are being done all around him it vexed his very soul it says for that righteous man Peters calling him a righteous man dwelling among them the wicked in seen and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations so he's delivering lot out so here it's calling lot just righteous righteous soul godly and God knows how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished when when you get to know the Torah and you write it upon your heart and then you go back to the Brit hadashah and that's the proper way to do it you know right God's word upon your heart the scriptures that the prophets and the patriarchs had that Yeshua had and his disciples had then when something like this jumps out at you you I mean immediately you know because torch written upon your heart that's not from Torah that's not from the scriptures where did they get that you know where Peter got that from the oral torah he's quoting also it's only there and it was after he wrote this so the oral was oral for thousands of years right and it was only around I would say a hundred and sixty years after he is schewe it was actually codified and written down so at this point is still oral and it's being passed down but by the time they write the Mishnah and the Talmud this is being recorded and we have a proof and let me show you Bible doesn't mention Lot's wife by name but the rabbi's refer to her as Edith this is from the mission Mishnah on my era of his tour portion this woman sorry in teaches of her life even though she was rescued from the upheaval of Sodom she was stricken together with the other inhabitants of the city from which the rabbis conclude that her actions as well were no different from those of the rest of Sodom's populace she was basically self-centered that's what it's saying jealousy of others she offered no hospitality to guests the Angels did not initially want to be her guests but rather they accepted this is why he had to pretty much begged angels to come they didn't even want to be in the house with Lot's wife but they finally accepted because of lots righteousness but rather those of her husband lot since he was more righteous that's in rabaa 10-5 she even tried to bar their entry to the house Lot's wife divided their house into two parts and told her husband if you want to receive them do so in your part while one of the members of his household to participate in the Meritus act of hospitality as had Abraham and he asked his wife to bring them salt she responded do you even wish to learn this bad habit from Abraham giving what you have you know to others they don't deserve it she finally complied with her husband's request but she acted cunning in order to remove the guest from her house she went to her the woman neighbors to borrow salt this is oftentimes the beginning of problems who can women get together and start stripping complaining right you know what my husband's doing he's so foolish she's giving stuff that we have to so they found out that she had guests they asked her why don't you need salt why don't you prepare enough beforehand she answered I took enough for our own needs but guests came to us and it is for them that I need salt in this manner all the people have sought him knew that lot was harboring guests they stormed his house and demanded that he hand them over to the townspeople this is from Mishnah Agha da Dada is a part of town mood that it tells stories and like parables that's where parables come from because she sinned through salt Lot's wife was punished by being turned into a pillar of salt the exact same material that she was selfish with okay the pillar of salt was left by God as a memorial for all time do you know that where they fled because this was before the Dead Sea waters were in the northernmost place in that northern place there was five cities and you're gonna see in this text that law actually asked to flee to one of them and they fled instead of going up towards Abraham the westside for those of you that been to Israel with me you know how the Dead Sea runs north and south you can either run to the west up towards Jerusalem or you could run to the east and you'd be up in Jordan right this is the way that lot and his wife went to one of these other cities and it's amazing that orally they passed down that because of this it would be a memorial for all times for our learning to not ever be selfish like Lot's wife was Moses it is said saw the pillar of Lot's wife when God showed him all the land of Canaan before his death so he was passing right through that same area and he saw this pillar of salt anyone who sees Lot's wife is required to recite two blessings the first blessed be the one who remembers the righteous expresses Thanksgiving and praise to God for having remembered Abraham by the merit of whose righteousness he saved lot and his wife from the upheaval this blessing relates to the miracle that was performed for lot the second blessing blessed be the true judge we say somebody eyes it's recited for the punishment visited on Lot's wife a late Agata a story in the Talmud relates that Lot's wife stands in her place to the present day so I thought I would try to find a couple pictures to show you this every day passing auxin licked her feet you know how cows loved the salt blocks and so she used to have like this robe it was much wider and over the years it's gotten thinner and thinner because it's been licked upon by the passing people with their cattle and sheep every day passing oxen licked her feet and every morning she rises once again to her previous shape as a pillar of salt so this is the north part of the Dead Sea this is Sodom Gomorrah being rained on by fire and you're standing up in Jordan looking down into the valley and here's this pillar of salt and then you know the big Bluffs the big cliffs that are on the opposite side of the Dead Sea where Masada is and the Qumran caves and all of that that's on the other side now I'm gonna show you a real picture here here's the bluff the cliffs on the other side here's the Jordan side and here's that pillar of salt to this day these are powerful things that are passed down to us from father to son for thousands of years yeah this is on the east side of the northern part of the Dead Sea and this is where those five cities would have been down in the valley here so this would have been a lush green valley and that's why it's dead there's so much salt in that area because of the sulfur and brimstone yes so now we'll read the story from the Torah when the morning came angels told a lot to hurry get up they said and take your wife and your two daughters who are here otherwise you will be swept away and the punishment of the city but he died late so the men took hold of his hand and his wife's hand in the hands of his two daughters out and I was being merciful to him and led them leaving them outside of the city on this side when they had brought them out he said flee for your life don't even look behind you and this is a lesson for us today when God is calling us out whether he's calling you out of a false religious system or a wicked City or any number of things that we are being called out is called out believers don't look back sometimes you go strong for a while but then you kind of miss the things of the past you have a memory of sin in your life and sometimes people backslide don't look back look what happened he says do not look behind you do not stop anywhere in the plane but escape to the hills otherwise you will be swept away lot said to them please no my lord here your servant has already found favor in your sight and you've shown me any even greater mercy by saving my life but I don't want to go to the hills he didn't want the country life he asked to go to another wicked City now remember there was five cities only two of those five are being destroyed at this current time the other city remember the four kings that came from the north and last week's Torah portion and they took all of the possessions and the people the souls from those five kings in the different cities and we listed those different cities well he asks to go to one of those cities and that was called Zoar he says you've helped me you've had mercy on my life but I don't want to go to the heels I'm afraid of the disaster the disaster will overtake me and I will die look there's a town nearby to flee - and it's a small one so please let me escape there isn't it just a small one and that way I will stay alive he replied all right I agree with what you have asked I won't overthrow the city of which you have spoken otherwise Oh or would have been overthrown as well he allows lot to go there and that one righteous man preserves the whole city hurry and escape to that place because I can't do anything until you arrive there for this reason the city was named zou are the original name was Bella in which we read in the last week's Torah portion which means small yeah it smells like rotten eggs by the time law had come to zou are the Sun had risen over the land so this means he's running at night and this is what we're told that our flee will be then out of night cause sulfur and fire to rain down upon Sodom and Amura from out an eye out of the sky he overthrew those cities the entire plain all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a column of salt so is there anything that we're looking back on or is there anything that we are holding on to Abraham got up early in the morning went to the place where he had stood before out an eye and looked out towards Sodom in a Mora scanning the entire plain now there's a lot of caves up in the hillside here this whole eastern side this is also the side of the Galilee had a lot of caves that's where the demoniac or residing but this is the east side of the it sure is so Abraham now the story breaks and looks at what Abraham is doing he has heard that Sodom and Amara have been destroyed he gets up early in the morning and he goes to the place where he stood before with the Lord and he looks out towards Sodom in a Mura scanning the entire plain before him and the smoke was rising from the land like the smoke of a furnace but when God destroyed the cities of the plain he remembered Abraham and he sent lot out away from the destruction when he overthrew the cities in which lot lived lot went up from so our and lived in the Hills with his two daughters because he was afraid to stay in so r and he and his two daughters lived in a cave and they assumed that the other cities had been destroyed and the way that it looked from all the smoke they began to assume that they were the only ones left on earth this is why lots daughters thought that they needed to procreate to keep the human species alive yes Deborah Debby yeah well they're so you can't even see let's say Abraham is over looking on this side of the hill maybe I should do it with this so where Abraham is is over here looking down there's no water here these are all the five cities and all your scene is smoke so you can't even see across and you can't go through it so Lots on this side Abraham's on this side and he doesn't know what's become of the rest of the world so Locke goes up from zoar and he lives in this cave the firstborn said to the younger our fathers old and there isn't a man on earth to come out to us in the way speaking of the Derek this is the way customary in the world basically they're saying that they're not going to be able to procreate come let us have our Father drink wine and then we'll sleep with him and that way we'll be in B will enable our Father to have descendents what's interesting that in this cave this act of incest is basically happening and yet there's light coming out of the darkness just like God creating the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said let there be light right so the day begins in darkness in the evening and moves towards the light Shabbat the brightest of all days it is at the end of the week and then you go back into the darkness the week the first day of the week the day of the Sun who is called but it starts in darkness and moves towards the light of Shabbat so you can see the week going from darkness to light the moon what starts the new month the new moon the conjunction moon when it's total darkness moving from darkness to light the year the cycle of the earth around the Sun when you have the least amount of light the cycle of the year starts in darkness and moves to the light God is showing that in the sinful world there's hope we can move from the beans of darkness through sin into being restored and being recreated into beings of light and so out of this cave as I was meditating on this and praying about this I'm thinking what a horrible atrocious you know seemingly act that's happening in this darkness the cave but light is gonna come out of this cave in the fact that Yahshua the Messiah and King David are the offspring of this union and do you know the rabbi's have known for thousands of years that Messiah would come from the lineage of lot not just Abraham so here's a little cave just made a little illustration a picture's worth a thousand words you've got Abraham's nephew lot Abraham Mary's lot sister Sarah has Isaac Jacob Jacob has twelve sons Judah of one of them Judah has relations with the granddaughter of Melchizedek which is Tamar so Yeshua is actually through the order of Melchizedek and he's through the line of Judah and lot through his daughter has moab and ammon it's through moab that ruth comes and ruth marries the grandson of Judas son Perez his name was Boaz and they have a child named Obed and Obed has a son named Jesse and Jesse has a son named David which becomes king of Israel and unifies all Israel and of who it is said that Mashiach will reign on his throne and unify Israel once again and who comes from David's lineage yahushua so light comes out of the darkness of this cave with this in sexual act and we can have a high priest who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities because even his lineage has murderers incest reign fest you can't say that oh he had an advantage and he had no advantage that you don't have you have the same access to the father that he had and he came to live as an example of how to live being living Torah each one of us should be living torrez's he is so out of this cave amazing things happen it seems you know when you first read this story especially when you're young you're like whoa what this I thought a lot was a good guy and what good things could come out of this in sexual in sexual act but you see this amazing story that God is unfolding so they applied with their father and they slept with him and the next night the older says to the younger here I slept last night with my father and she became pregnant from that one night let's make him drink wine again and you go in and sleep with him and that way will enable our Father to have descendants plural and they plied their father with wine that night and the younger one got up and slept with him and didn't know when she laid down or when she got up thus both daughters of lot became pregnant by their father the older one gave birth to a son and called him Moab he is the ancestor of Moab to this day the younger also gave birth to a son and she named him Ben on me he is the ancestors of the people have Adlon to this day and you know in prophecy we love prophecy and when we were doing our studying in The Book of Daniel do you remember Daniel 11 when it talks about the last days and how this king of the north this type of Antichrist is taking over all of these different countries who escapes his hand moab and ammon interesting cause remembering the descendants of lot even in the last days now they're probably like Israel they don't even know their own identity right but there will be preserved I find that interesting mercy chapter 20 takes the focus back to Abraham and it's going to tell the story of a vemma Lac it's a short chapter then like travels there from the Negev which is the south of Israel and lives between Kadesh and Shur and while living as a Nellie alien in Guerard which is Philistia Abraham was saying of Sarah his wife she's my sister again so of Emelec king of her are sent and took Sarah but God came to a family in a dream one night and said to him you are about to die because the woman you have taken she is someone's wife now a village had not come near her so she had not been defiled either by Pharaoh or by a villach and so he said he in this vision in this dream Lord will you kill even an upright nation didn't he himself say to me she's my sister in essence I didn't take her by force I'd had no idea that she was his wife and so he didn't yes his name even connotates that avi Malak it's my father the king and so he's a right example of what a king should be even though this is in the very early days before the Philistines totally went wicked he was an early ruler of what is now the Gaza Strip basically if you want to put it in geography terms so he says Lord will you kill an upright nation didn't it Abraham say that he was his sister and he even and even she herself said he is my brother in doing this my heart has been pure in my hands and are innocent God said to him in the dream yes I know that in doing this your heart has been pure and I too have kept you from sinning against me this is why I didn't even let you touch her therefore return the man's wife to him now he is a prophet I think this is beautiful it establishes Abraham is not only our patriarch a father but as a prophet as well and he will pray for you if a prophet knows how to pray the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much so now what's beautiful out of this what God allowed to happen of Emelec is going to get a special blessing because of Abraham this Prophet this righteous man of God is going to say a special prayer for him and a vemma Lac is gonna send Sarah back untouched unscathed with great wealth to Abraham so Abraham's blessed and the king of Gerar is blessed it's a win-win situation this is what happens when we are perfectly in God's timing we don't go ahead of the Lord and we don't fall behind Abraham was quick to act when God told him to do something but he was very patient and slow to act if there was ever any tribulation or toil or anything that God did not ask he was just waiting on the Lord a good righteous example for us today so I've in like got up early in the morning called his servants and when the men heard this they became very afraid then of Emelec called Abraham and said to him what have you done to us how have I sinned against you to cause you to bring on me and my kingdom a great sin you have done things to me that are just not done a Villach went on asking Abraham what ever could have caused you to do such a thing honor him replied it is because I thought there could not be possibly any fear of God in this place so I thought you would kill me in order to take my wife by force but she actually is also my sister so I wasn't completely lying she's the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother so when it says father a lot of times in Hebrew it's also talking about you can be like grandfather and you don't always know exactly which generation it is but we know it was his brother's daughter and through that the daughter of his father and so she became my wife when God had me leave my father's house I told her do me this favor wherever we go say about me he is my brother so a vim electic sheep cattle and and female slaves and gave them to Abraham so now the great wealth is added to Abraham's Kingdom from not only Nimrod and Pharaoh but also from the king of Gerar and he returned Sarah and Abimelech said look my country lies before you you can live wherever you like to Sarah he said I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver that will Olay the suspicions of everyone who is with you before everyone you are cleared Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and slave girls so that they could have children so he healed their wombs beautiful Brad and I had made every woman in Avenel ex household infertile on the account of Sarah Abraham's wife being there in his harem now the promise of this covenant child yet zach-bots and I remembered Sarah and what he had said and out and I did for Sarah what he had promised Sarah conceived and bore a son and abraham in his old age at the very time whenever the bible says at the very time it's a significant what it's talking about is at the very feast time of Shavuot that out and I had appeared one year before now I want to bring out some who has your supper with you who would look up Jubilees chapter 15 verse 21 and somebody else look up Jubilees chapter 16 verse 13 I want to give you the proof from the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Essenes preserved and Jubilees 17 I will read so who has Jubilees chapter 15 verse 21 let's talk about covenant remember shuffle oh it is the day of covenant right with the it side huh in the next year okay so it's establishing two things one is a year before his birth and - he's the Covenant child I'm gonna establish covenant with youth sack who's a type of yahushua on the covenant day that I make covenant now what time of year was this if you go back to the beginning of the chapter look at verse 1 chapter 15 verse 1 and in the fifth year of the fourth week of this Jubilee in the third month what month is Shavuot in the third month God's appearing to him on Chava oh speaking of covenant about this covenant child that's going to that the future Messiah is going to come through and make covenant with Israel so we have proof that out and I was speaking to him and it even says in the middle of the month Abraham celebrated the feast of firstfruits of the grain harvest this is the wheat harvest this is unequivocally shava ode and he offered new offerings on the altar now who has Jubilee 16:13 she bore a son in the third month the month at the time in which you you have a spoke to Abraham Abraham on the feast of first fruits of the harvest itself was born Wow it says it in so many ways she bore a son in the third month in the middle of the month the exact same time of year that and I had appeared to Abraham one year later in the middle of the month at the time of the feast of the first fruits of the wheat harvest Yitzhak was born isn't this beautiful unequivocally Shavuot now you go to 17 one says in the first year of the fifth week Yitzhak was weaned well when you calculate this out this puts him at two years old he's being weaned from his mother's milk and Abraham makes a great feast on Shavuot on yet sects birthday and he has yesh mail there with him still the son of Hagar so he's about 15 and says Abraham rejoices and blesses Elohim because he had seen his sons and had not died childless and he remembered the words which he had spoken to him and it's on this day that he invites Shem Melchizedek along with Eber to come and be a part of that feast so they had a big birthday party on Chava Oh for yet sac wouldn't that need so remember that as we're going on it just kind of sets the context the rest of the story Abraham circumcised his son you're the sac on the eighth day as God had ordered him to do which makes Isaac the first two totally fulfill the Covenant just like Yeshua is the first one to totally fulfill the Covenant because remember Ishmael and Abraham they weren't circumcised on the eighth day yes they were circumcised but it wasn't specifically on the eighth day which represents eternity perfection with God only yet sac was this covenant child to fulfill this Abraham was 100 years old when his son yet sac was to him Sara said God has given me good reason to laugh and that's what yet suck means means laughter it's funny how names like a self-fulfilling prophecy because you grow into your name and I was always a happy-go-lucky kid always laughing growing up and it's just you become a part of your name so I encourage you when you name your children it's so important to name them something that you want to for them to grow into this is why most names either have yaw like Eliyahu innit or L has some aspect of the divine characteristic in the child's name that they can grow into so she's relating to this laughter that she couldn't believe but now everyone who hears that it's actually come to pass will laugh with me and she said who would have said to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah would nurse children at 90 years old nevertheless I have borne him a son in his old age so the child grew and was weaned so now you know the rest of the story he was two years old right and Abraham gave a great feast on the day that yet suck was weaned so this is confirmation this is how you can see the Torah is giving kind of an outline of not only the commandments but of the stories but it's not the full depth of the story there's so much more behind the scenes it doesn't even mention here that Melchizedek Shem and Eber came on the feast we get that from the lost books of the Bible from Jubilees and Jasher tells part of the story as well but Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom Hagar had born to Abraham making fun of the attack now between verse 8 and verse 9 you have a span of three years you only get that if you study the lost books because Isaac's weaned at two but at five he's sitting in the tenth just a little boy and this young bowhunter who's 18 years old now and he's an archer skilled Archer Sarah walks into the tent where they should be playing and Ishmael has a bow drawn with an arrow in it pointing at Isaac this is how he was mocking him basically saying I can take your life anytime that I want you know when Sarah saw this she says I'm not gonna give him an opportunity to ever let go of that arrow hag argh get out of here and she went told Abraham what was happening this is what's happening behind the scenes so in the Torah you're just seeing it seems as if the child is weaned and this issue with Hagar is happening simultaneously and it doesn't even tell you what's really happening with Sarah why she's so adamant she realized the sex life could be at risk if this boy Ishmael who's the firstborn continues to have jealousy for her father's love and at the time that the inheritance is to be given you know could he be a threat to Isaac so this is why it was so important to get rid of them so quickly but the Torah just puts it like this when Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom Hagar had born to Abraham making fun of the attack well the Hebrew word is mocking he was mocking his life that he had the power to take it so Sarah said to Avraham throw the slave girl out and her son I will not have this slave girls son as your heir along with my son Yitzhak abraham became very distressed over the issue in this matter of his son he loved Ishmael as well but God said to Abraham don't be distressed because of the boy and your slave girl listen everything that Sarah says to you because it is your descendants through Yitzhak who will be counted but I will also make a great nation from the son of the slave girl since he is descended from you and God actually gave Ishmael twelve sons they became the twelve princes of Arabia just like he gave Jacob twelve sons so you see this parallel blessing but the actual Covenant has to go through yet sack and through Yaakov so Abraham gets up early in the morning and he takes twelve loaves of bread here it just says bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar putting her putting it on her shoulder and on the child and he sent her away after leaving she wandered in the desert around bear Sheva when the water in the skin was gone she left a child under a bush now when you first read this story you imagine Hagar with this little baby and she's sent out to the wilderness and she's sad they're gonna die they're you know dying of thirst so she puts this little baby under the bush but remember he's 18 years old but it's still calling him a child maybe it's because of the way he acted maybe he was spoiled because sometimes it refers to a man at 14 so these are little anomalies that we just kind of pick up on so she say lace this 18 year old child under the bush and went and sat down a ways off about a bow shot interesting that it uses an archers term because he's an archer and in the seals in Revelation when it identifies the first seal being a writer on a horse with a bow and he's given power to conquer these are the descendants of the two bow hunters Esau the distance of Esau and Palestinians and the descendants of Ishmael is the Arabs and they are conquered all of the countries around Israel and this is what sets the scene for the second plague for peace to be taken from the land so we're literally in-between the first seal and the second seal the only part left of the first seal is that authority ends up being given to this rider on the first horse carrying the bow and authority is given in the recognition of statehood authority of the state like in the Palestinian state by the UN so we're living in Bible prophecy that is in its infancy and it's seed right here being hinted at at his being a bow hunter and she said I can't bear to watch my child die so she sat there looking the other way crying out and weeping God heard the boy's voice and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her what's wrong with you Hagar don't be afraid because God has heard the voice of the boy in his present situation get up lift the boy up and hold him tightly in your hand because I'm going to make of him a great nation then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water so she went filled the skin with water and gave the boy water to drink God was with this boy Ishmael and he grew he lived in the desert and became an archer now he wasn't such a bad guy like a lot of times we get a negative thought or connotation about somebody but you know he continued to come up harmony and peace with the it sack every shovel owed because this was Abraham's favorite feast this was the feast that God had made covenant with him the feast that God had promised him a son the God the feasts that God had fulfilled that promise to him so and it was yet sex birthday so they would have this big family reunion every Shavuot and yesh mail and Isaac would come from wherever they were living and as long as Abraham was alive so they continued to keep in touch it's not as if he was gone forever but what Hagar was doing and taking hurt him down through the Negev desert south she's going back to her homeland she was a princess she was daughter of Pharaoh from one of his harem and she would have had great wealth and recognition in bringing her son back to Mary not just anybody from Egypt but another princess so this is that royal Egyptian bloodline that the Arabs have that go is half Egyptian and half Semitic half through Abraham yes starchy yes yeah you have a whole new appreciation for these stories now that you've been there don't you so she takes him down and God's with this boy and he lives in the desert and he becomes an archer and this correlates with revelation six to that four seal that I was telling you about he lived in the Perron desert and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt at that time of Emelec and pacol the commander of his army spoke to Abraham and they said God is with you and everything that you do there Foursquare to us here by God that you will never deal falsely with us or with my son see a vim elec is kind of a title and so a vemma like son is going to take the throne after vemma is gone and he wants to make sure that he will be able to live in peace with Abraham he says Abraham says I swear it now Abraham had complained to Ave Emelec about a well which of Emelec servants had seized them like answered I don't know who has done this you didn't tell me and I heard about it only today Abraham took sheep and cattle and them two of Amalek and the two of them made a covenant together Abraham put seven female lambs from the flock by themselves then Lex asked Abraham what is the meaning of these seven female lambs that you've said over here he answered you are to accept these seven female lambs from me as a witness that I dug this well now we know that in that area Abraham had actually dug seven wells this is why it's called bare Shiva Shiva is the word for seven bears the word for well but it's also the word for oath so it's like you have the place of seven oaths as well so you have this play on the words he's making an oath a covenant with a vemma lek and there's seven wells there but he says you are to accept these seven female lands from me as a witness that I dug this well this is why that place was called bare Shiva well of seven or well of oath because they both sworn oath there when they made the Covenant at Birth shaiva of Emelec departed with pacol the commander of his army and returned to the land of the Philistine this is where you get the first recognition or proof text that Guerard is Philistine and Philistine is Gaza so you can see names changing over the years but the area is still the same Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in birth Shiva and there he called on the name of Adonai the everlasting God this is a new title ever Abraham lived for a long time as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines now in our final chapter we are going to see the ninth test that God tests Abraham with remember the ten tests of Abraham see if I put those on I didn't put those ten testing but I did last week the ninth test was the sacrifice of Isaac the binding of isaac the ten test was the death of Sarah and in every test Abraham was faithful so we're gonna conclude our Torah portion with The Binding of Isaac and we're gonna look at this symbol of this promise son who's really got a miraculous birth as not only a model of Yeshua but then we're gonna see this model of a promised son by miraculous birth dying and being raised to life in the haftorah it totally ties it in with the schewe there's so much symbolism and this is the way you schewe taught he would walk with his apostles and he would walk through these Torah portions and reveal himself in every passage that there was significance from the father so God tests Abraham and he says to him Abraham and he answered here am i and he said take your son your only son Isaac whom you love yet second go to the land of Moriah there you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you now we know that becomes Mount Moriah this is interesting Abraham gets up early in the morning he saddled his donkey and he takes two of his young men with him together with yet sack his son he cut the wood for the burnt offering departed and went toward the place where God had told him about now do you know who is on Mount Moriah this is where Melchizedek had his yeshiva with his grandson Eber this is where Abraham had literally been trained for 40 years in the Oracles of the priesthood so yes Maury exactly it has two words I mean two meanings myrrh comes from the term mori and also my instruction the e the Yoda on the end of it is my it makes it personal which is to say that when we take God's instruction as our own personal instruction it's like a healing balm to our life it's like myrrh it has blessings and it has health and it has prosperity all inherent in it so I'm glad that you brought that out exactly [Applause] yeah the mem and the race when you have more like the sea water is Mar and that's why in Spanish even the term C is called a Mar because it has bitter waters that is where Mary gets her name from exactly so it's good once you start seeing these Hebrew letters and how they work and play with one another you can start to see different applications of them no this is the Temple Mount and this is the Temple Mount no Sinai was called the Horeb it had two different names but this is mountains no one laters Mount Zion and it's interesting he says take your son your only son Isaac this is a reflection of God's only begotten my beloved son my only son that you see and we don't have the rest of the story just in the Torah but God doesn't tempt anyone right and he doesn't unnecessarily test anyone that's not his objective to catch you up what was happening behind the scenes just so that you know the character of God and it's vindicated is that hasatan was questioning Abraham's faithfulness much like he did job's he only serves you because you've blessed him so greatly take away his blessings or better yet the greatest blessing that you've ever give him the thing that he cherishes the most more than money or anything this son of the Covenant that you've promised him ask him to sacrifice it and see if he puts you first even above this son this was what was going on behind the scenes so Abraham he trusted so much in God he knew God was not a killer and God's not asking him to kill but if this was my test he's basically saying I know that God is not only faithful but he can raise him from the dead so I'm gonna be faithful and I know God will also be faithful so if I give my son to God he's gonna give him back to me because I didn't have him in the first place he created him by miraculous birth so this is what's going on with Abraham's mindset and his faithfulness but also what's happening with hasa time you know questioning him and it doesn't stop there when Abraham who's faithful and he starts to take his son and his two servants Ishmael and Eliezer to Mount Moriah the place where God has placed his name Satan it's like oh oh he's gonna prove his faithfulness so then he appeared as an old man before him and he said Isaac your father's old he's senile God would never ask him to kill you you know he would never so rebelled against your father for now Isaac's 25 years old according to the book of Jasher at this time he's going as a willing sacrifice just like Yeshua he's the willing sacrifice and he's trusting his father just as Abraham is trusting his father yet Zack is trusting his father and he is being tested and he proves faithful in the test and he doesn't listen to hafsat on then he comes and manifest him a river such a deep river that there's no way that you could get from where you are to Mount Moriah it's like last time I walked this path there was no big river here it looks so realistic Abraham he you wanted Abraham to turn around to give up or to use it as an excuse like sometimes we do you know we start to do what God asks us to do but then we were looking for the first opportunity to find an excuse to back out of it Abraham just starts walking in the water faithfully and then of course it's a it goes away you know it's just a false manifestation so in all these ways yeah I want you to it's like a mirage I want you to realize the spiritual warfare that we're in and how each one of us are being tested in different ways that God is calling us to be faithful are we gonna be faithful are we gonna keep our eyes on him or are we gonna allow the enemy to catch us up and to thwart the beautiful purpose that God has for us you had something turns yeah I don't know the exact place where these waters were manifested but you're right in Revelation it says out of the mouth of the Dragon he seeks to consume the descendants of the woman which is Israel and we know how Israel has been lost amongst the nations right but God promises to gather them back in the last days he seeks to wipe them out with a flood of water now waters in prophecy is people's nations and tongues so this is a group of people that the enemy is going to use to do his persecuting agenda against God's people in the last days and we see Islam arising on the scene fulfilling that very yes and only in Islam can the prophecy be fulfilled where there's a 200 million man army because no country has anything close to that America has 1 million counting all their reserve China has two million but every boy 12 years old and older is a jihadist and they have 200 million warriors for jihad for Allah fulfilling the like waters their people's their nations their tongues the end time prophecy so isn't it neat to be able to apply all of these things simultaneously within these and messiahs living waters are gonna flow from the throne after Jerusalem's been raised up on high his living waterful for boats to the east and to the west and heal the waters of the eastern sea which is the Dead Sea yeah all the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah that are causing that place to be a dead place and no life to thrive in that water are gonna be healed and it will team with every kind of fish and fishermen will cast their nets there once again yeah from Jerusalem so there's a major gravity feed there yes yeah doesn't have to correlate with his age there's enough other symbolism that fits so here they are going now you know the rest of the story he gets up early in the morning he doesn't hesitate to fulfill whatever God has asked him to do this is why it says he got up early in the morning what is showing that is painful as it would be to take your child to therein demise he's acting promptly when God asked him to do something he saddled his donkey and he takes his two young men which were Ishmael and Eliezer together with he attack his son he cuts the wood for the burnt offering and guess who's carrying the wood for his own sacrifice yet sack another symbol of yahushua and he's asking the whole time father where's the sacrifice where's the lamb God will provide Abraham sane all along the way God will provide by faith okay dad I'll trust you on this carrying the wood for me yeah that's right on the third day interesting nothing is by accident right Abraham raises his eyes and sees the place in the distance Abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey I and the boy will go their worship and return to you now they're gonna worship on this mountain this is another connotation of the holiness of this mountain Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering laid it on yet Zach his son then he took in his hand the fire and the knife and they both went on together this is actually the first mention of worship and it has his connotation in the center of worship Jerusalem and more specifically Mount Zion the Temple Mount the cup place where God placed his name and the place where Messiah will dwell as high priest and King for a thousand years this is the first mention of worship right in the place yep the exact location even though it wasn't built there at that time and along with worship we're seeing an act of obedience so what is our worship to God it's not just about singing praises and it's not just about believing because faith without works is dead we're seeing worship true worship coupled with obedience from this beautiful mmm love these nuggets yet sach spoke to Abraham his father my father avi he answered he named me here am I my son he said I see the fire and I see the wood but where's the lamb for a burnt offering Abraham replied God will provide himself the lamb look at the way the Hebrew puts it God will provide I would have just said God and provide right keep it short and sweet he says God will provide himself the lamb the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us the lamb slain from the foundation of the world God Himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering my son and they both went on together they came to the place God had told him about and offer him built the altar there instead of the wood in order bound yet sack his son and laid him on the altar on the wood then this would have been north of the Damascus Gate basically where the place of God Gotha is the same place where you ho schewe hung on the cross then Abraham put out his hand took the knife to fulfill this act of sacrificing his son to Hashem but his Shoom never asked for human sacrifice and it was never God's intent that Isaac be sacrificed this was a test that positon had asked for and just by raising his hand he proved faithful and he sent an angel to stop it and the angel of the Lord called out to him out of heaven Abraham Abraham he answered he named me Here I am he said do not lay your hand on the boy do not do anything to him now I know that you are a man who truly fears God because you have not withheld anything even your son your son from me interesting that is saying from me first it says an angel of the Lord angel of FeO Tawaf hey but then it's referring the first person so see how God even manifests himself sometimes to reach out to us and we think it's something else but then you get glimpses of who's really speaking by the language Abraham raised his eyes and looked and there behind him was a ram caught in the bushes by its thorns this is why we blow a ram's horn traditionally in Israel Abraham went and took the RAM and offered it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son Abraham called the place Adonai year--a which means out and I will see to it and that he provides as it is said to this day on the mountain out and is seen and he is seen on that mountain and will be seen throughout the Millennial Kingdom where is the greatest display of God's character seen on that exact place where Isaac was to be sacrificed as a type the only begotten beloved son of his father and yet the father wasn't doing the killing it's the same place that yahushua died and we see God more clearly through yahushua through his great love for us and through the self-sacrificing example of willingly laying down your life for your brother and for israel this is where we truly see God and so if Abraham called it out a nyira the angel about and I called to Abraham a second time out of heaven he said I have sworn by myself says Aden Ayad heave up hey because you have done this and you haven't withheld your son your only Son I will most certainly bless you and I will most certainly increase your descendants to as many as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my order so Abraham returned to his young men they got up and went to to bear Shiva who is he going back to bar Shiva to his tent with all three of them that he came with just the two servants Ishmael and Eliezer where's Isaac where's he at sack he's he leaves him to be mentored by Melchizedek just as he was mentored in the Oracles of the priesthood he leaves yet stuck there on the Temple Mount where Shem Melchizedek and Eber are and he only goes back with his to imagine Sarah looking you know from afar for their return hoping and then she sees him but Isaac's not there oh how her heart must have sunk you know when you go through a traumatic experience in your life you ever seen how people can almost get white overnight imagine it is said that the fear of losing Isaac and that this happened really caused Sarah's death like it was not at that exact moment but it really affected her she really thought that she had lost her son so Abraham returns with his young men they got up they went together to bear Shiva and there he settled afterwards Abraham was told Milka to has borne children to your brother Nahor so this is how he learned about the family of Laban up in the North Woods his firstborn Boots's brother Kim well the father of Aram has said has Oh Hilda you'd laugh and be 2 L by 2 L is the one who fathered Rivka the wife future wife of Viet sac these 8 Milka bore to Nahor Abraham's brother up in Lebanon up in the north his concubine whose name was Ray uma for children also Tyvek dokkum takács and maha and this is where the Torah portion leaves us for next week but we're gonna go on into the haftorah just really quickly before we closed and I want to show you the beautiful correlation of why during the years that our forefathers were prevented by the Greeks in studying the Torah portion and teaching it to their children every Shabbat would replace particular passages from the prophets that would parallel the analogies brought out in this tour portion look at how they chose second Kings chapter 4 verses 1 through 37 in this week's Torah reading God promises a child to Abraham and Sarah despite childless Sarah's advanced age in the haftorah it describes a similar incident through the Prophet Elisha many years later he assures an elderly childless woman whose barren like Sarah that she will bear a child and there's two miracles that are discussed so I'm just summing up the haftorah so it doesn't take so long for us but it's after we get done doing the tour portions what I'd like to do is teach you more in-depth how these hoth Torre's parallel the tour portions so two of the miracles in this tour portion the first miracle involved a widow who was heavily in debt and her creditors were threatening to take her two sons as slaves to satisfy the debt when the Prophet asked her what she had in her home the widow responded that she had nothing but a vial of oil Eli should told her to gather as many empty containers as possible even if she had to borrow them from the neighbors so she was to pour the oil from her vial into the empty container she did as commanded this is where her faith in obedience performed miracles she had this little vial of oil in this big earthen vessel and the oil just kept pouring and pouring and that vessel filled up so she went to the next one filled up the next one every single big vessel that she could collect from around the community got filled with oil so much so that not only for her debts paid and her two sons restored to her but they were yeah they could live off it she profited greatly thanks the second miracle Elijah would often pass by the city of Shu nam where he would dine and rest at the home of a certain hospitable couple the couple even made a special addition in their home for Elijah to stay and to teach and to do his ministry there when the Prophet learned that the couple was childless he blessed the woman that she should give birth to a child in exactly one year's time this is exactly like Hashem coming to Abraham one year before we get sex birth and indeed one year later a son was born to the aged couple a few years later and unless you would come and go according to wherever God called him but he always had that little apartment that he could stay in when he was in the area so he's off some other area and the news comes to him from his servant that this boy had complained of a headache and died shortly thereafter the Schuneman woman laid the lifeless boy on the bed of Elijah's you know his apartment and in his bed because she knew there's something that attends the spirit of a person you ever thought about using somebody else's old mattress you know when you go to get a mattress you only get a new one right you don't want any of that the soul ties or any of that energy or any of those spirits that maybe somebody had you don't know what that mattress has been through fright but with a holy person it's just the opposite she's thinking if there's one place to for this boy to be close to the power of God through the prophet Elijah it's on his bed so she lays him on his bed and his servant comes to him and tells him that this boy has died and Elijah tells him take my staff and go and lay it on the boy's face and because you'll get there faster gird up your loins basically run and sprint and I will be coming but it'll take me a little bit longer so the servant comes and lays the staff on the boy did it heal the boy nope it took a lie ship coming just kind of like Lazarus being in the tomb three days and they're thinking me Shu is prolonging you know this is to really establish that the boy is dead Elijah comes and he lays himself upon this boy fully you know warming the boy and like a transference of spirit upon this boy and the boy sneezes seven times and comes alive miraculously so we have a model just like get suck being the willing sacrifice but he was not killed and we see Yeshua the one who was a willing sacrifice who was killed but raised again this haftorah perfectly connects the Torah portion with Yeshua in the boy that had the miraculous birth who was foretold about who died but who was raised again and that beautiful we serve a risen Savior hallelujah amen let's stand and close with prayer and then after we pray let's sing the vishwam root today the Covenant that God has made with his people who will keep his Shabbat in Exodus 31 Abba Father we thank you for these deep and meaningful glimpses of Messiah Yeshua in your word and in your haftorah and we thank you Father for teaching us the model of selfless living to glorify you father to die to self daily like Paul said may we glorify you and may we live a more humble life in service to you and in obedience this is true worship and this is true faith we thank you Father for showing us so much in your word and we just ask a special blessing upon this fellowship upon our family and friends who are not here with us and upon the food that we're about to receive and the continued fellowship throughout your holy day Shabbat Father we thank you so much for this day and we ask that just as it is set apart from the rest of the week may we be set apart as your holy people and your holy name we pray you

Channel: Assembly of Called-Out Believers

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Keywords: Torah, Parsha, Parashah, Parashah Vayeira, Vayera, God appearing, manifestion of the Divine, Abraham, Sarah, Lot, Yeshua, God's character, Tzedakah, Mishpatim, Charity, Judgement, Book of Jubilees, Jubilees, Jasher, Called Out Believers, Assembly of Called-Out Believers, Torah Study, Pastor Isaac, Rabbi Yitzchak, Learn Truth, Torah Truth

Id: mgw4ldDoXlQ

Length: 114min 23sec (6863 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2017