B’resheet
Torah: B’resheet (In the beginning), B’resheet (Genesis) 1.1-6.8
Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 42.5-43.10
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Revelation 22.6-21
Shalom,
“בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, B’resheet bah-rah Elohim…, In the beginning G-d….” Torah begins with the simple understanding that G-d is. Torah has no need to take a few chapters explaining if Elohim exists, or how He came to be. No justification needed; all we need to know is “In the beginning G-d….”
Creation is a mystery. Was it a literal 24/7, or were the days “long”? I personally have come to believe that each day of creation was a long-day – that is, the Creator did His work throughout the billions of years that are allotted for time travel across the universe. Not that He needed the time, but that is just how large the universe is. Contrary to short-day creationist thinking, one can believe in the long-day creation concept without being an evolutionist. I do not believe in evolution. It took a lengthy study and a new paradigm development to accept this teaching, and if one can refrain from throwing the baby out with the bath water, it is a fascinating concept, and doesn’t take away anything from the creativity of the Creator. The Hebrew term יוֹם yom (“וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָד, vay’hee bo-kehr yom ekhad, and there was the first day”) usually translated “day” does not necessarily have to be a 24-hour day, but can also be used “figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term)” per Strong’s definition. In the NASEC(1) definitions yom also be understood as “age;” BDB(2) lists one definition of yom as “a period of time”.
But the length of time of creation is not the thrust in this writing. Our concern is just with the fact that Elohim created. Nothing “just happened;” if there was a “big bang” it was from the hand of Elohim, and was not simply a gaseous explosive cosmic event. The AHLB(3) gives this definition for בָּרָא bah-rah, create: “The fattening or filling up of something. The filling of the earth in Genesis 1 with sun, moon, plants, animals, etc. And the filling of man with life and the image of God.” This definition helps to give the ArtScroll translation of the first few verses perfect sense: “In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth – when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters – God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” If the verses of creation are chronological, then the earth was created before the sun; also this “light” was created before the sun. Another thought is that this initial created “light” must not have been the light of the Creator Himself, but some form of an outward light separate from the “person” of Elohim. One hopes that when we step into eternity, there is a large-screen set up somewhere so that we can watch a replay of all the events of creation, as well as the rest of Scripture, and history itself.
So whatever it looked like, “God said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light.” And however long it took, evening and morning came to gather, and there was “יוֹם אֶחָד, yom ekhad, day one”. E-khad is defined by the AHLB as, “Two or more coming together as a unity. The sharp edge of a blade is the coming together of the two to one point.” This is the same term found in the Sh’ma (D’varim/Deuteronomy 6.4): “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI ekhad [Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one].”
The Jewish rabbis and sages have struggled with this word ekhad, and have explained it off one way or another. As Sha’ul discusses in 1 Corinthians 3, the Jewish people in particular have a [spiritual] veil over their hearts, which is preventing them from seeing Yeshua as their Messiah, and it must be our prayer that the veil be removed. On the whole, the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah (although they are NOT in any way to be labeled as “Christ-killers; there is a vast difference); “The stone [Yeshua] that the builders [Israel] rejected has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118.22, repeated several times in the Messianic Writings). Ekhad means “a unit of one”. Yokhanan (John) 1.1-5 relates this about creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
We don’t know at what point in “time” Lucifer rebelled against his Creator, but we do know this: when “The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Sha’ul expounds on this in his letter to the Colossian congregation of believers, “He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son (1.13)… For by him [Messiah Yeshua] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. He existed before all things, and he holds everything together” (1.16-17). “Let there BE light” – this indicates an ongoing action. I figure that when Lucifer fell, he had to have a location to be placed into until the final judgment, and that is the “domain of darkness”. And man was about to be created, and he would need a location to be placed in. This would have to have been the “domain of light”.
But early in the Garden, man got curious and wanted to check out the darkness, and it must have looked appealing. Seems it still does today. So essentially man, with his free will, chose to walk into the “domain of darkness,” where Lucifer, now hasatan, the adversary, was lurking about. There were men who “crossed over” (which is the definition of the word “Hebrew;” BDB defines “Hebrew” as “one from beyond”) out of the darkness from time to time – the patriarchs, the prophets – but overall, mankind tended to continue walking in the darkness. Since most of humanity had turned away early on from the Creator to worship the creation, He chose one man (Avraham) to begin a people (Israel) who would bring His light to the world. Israel only partly fulfilled that calling by maintaining the Tanakh through the centuries, so the Creator had to come Himself into the physical realm of man and offer that light to man. He came first to Israel to help this people find their way back into the light of the Creator. Many did, many more did not accept that offer; some turned totally away, others peered out at the edge of the darkness, yet would not venture completely out. When people turned to Yeshua as their Messiah and Redeemer, they found a way out of the domain of darkness. Some unfortunately wandered back into the darkness, others walked with one foot on both sides without a solid direction, with unclear eyesight, but others remained fully in the light and begin reflecting that light onto others who are still within the darkness. And the cycle goes on.
I hope that you who are reading this can now proclaim with me, “Barukh HaShem! ‘He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son’”! Thank G-d that in the beginning, He said, “Let there be Light”.
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May Israel be unveiled and step out into the Light. Romans 11.15: “For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead!”
1 New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance
2 Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions
3 Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible