mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: Vayetze (And he went out), B’resheet (Genesis) 28.10-32.3
Haftorah: Hoshea (Hosea) 11.7-14.10(9)
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Yokhanan (John) 1.19-51

Shalom,

This week’s parashah focuses on Ya’akov (Jacob). In last week’s parashah, his father Yitz’khak (Isaac) had blessed him and sent him out to find a wife from the land of his mother’s relatives. It is of interest to note that some of the commentators believe that Ya’akov may have been over 70 years old at this time, but still relatively young for one who lived to the age of 180 (B’resheet 35.28). We do know that Yitz’khak was 60 years old when Ya’akov was born (B’resheet 25.26). We can also know that Ya’akov was over 40 at this time, for in B’resheet 26.34 we are told of his twin brother Esav (Esau) marrying a couple of Hittite women at age 40, which brought grief to his parents. In B’resheet 27.46, Yitz’khak’s wife Rivkah (Rebekah) made complaint of these women wearing her out, and urged Yitz’khak to sent Ya’akov back to their former homeland to find a wife. So Ya’akov headed out, apparently alone – a marked contrast to how the wife of Yitz’khak was pursued (see B’resheet 24). As he traveled, the sun began to set, and B’resheet 28.11 is translated as, “he came to a certain place…,” or, “he lighted upon a certain place…,” etc. The Hebrew for “came to, lighted upon” is פּגע pah-gah, which can also mean, “prayed, interceded.” Because of his experience that followed, we see that Ya’akov had stopped for the night and was unknowingly about to have an encounter with the Creator, which I believe was a result of the intercession of his father and grandfather. Per the events of the life of Ya’akov in the previous chapters, this may very well have been his first actual encounter with ADONAI.

Many people who have come to a saving faith in Yeshua as Messiah and Lord of their lives can define a certain point when they met Him, particularly if there was no prior level, or perhaps a low level, of familiarity with godliness in their homes or lives. But for those who grew up in a family of believers, there is not always a defined moment per se. There may be a marked point when a public statement was made of one’s faith, perhaps there was a public immersion, etc, but sometimes the exact point of personal awareness of G-d is blurred simply because one was always aware of G-d. But when a person is raised in a family of believers and they stay on that path, there comes a point which is more defined, when they realize that this G-d that my fathers have served is also my G-d. When the awareness surfaces that G-d is a personal G-d, the light comes on and a quest normally begins, just as it did with those who had never known [about] Him. A.W. Tozer wrote, in his magnificent book “The Pursuit of God,” that for a true pursuer of G-d there comes times when one’s hunger and thirst for Him becomes so strong that that one “will not be content with shallow logic… [but will] turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, ‘O God, show my Thy Glory.’ They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.” I feel this is the point Ya’akov reached after ADONAI came to him this particular night, a point of pursuit where all believers should be, but more often than not a point to which we need to return.

Daily life can so easily jade our hearts if we’re not careful. To counter that, we need to seek out that “lonely place” often, daily if life permits, to meet with our Creator. And if at all possible, as the Word of G-d tells us in Hebrews 10.24-25, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Believers in restricted lands are literally dying for doing what we in this free land too often take for granted, that of gathering with like-minded believers, whether in a home or a more public setting. For western believers in particular, the “things of earth” hold too much sway over our decision making. Yeshua told us in Mattityahu (Matthew) 26.41 to, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse in the Message as: “Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

Our spirit desires something greater, but is so often too easily overruled by our flesh. Stephen Charnock, in his great book, “The Existence and Attributes of God,” first published in 1853, noted this [definitions in brackets are mine]: “Now the soul of man finds an imperfection in everything here, and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity [great happiness; bliss]. In the highest fruitions [accomplishments] of worldly things the soul is still pursuing something else, which speaks a defect in what is already has. The world may afford a felicity for our dust, the body, but not for the inhabitant in it; the world is too mean [selfish, unkind, cruel] for that… There is, therefore, some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the soul, and this is God.” As Yeshua stated in Mattityahu 5.6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

So Ya’akov went to sleep and had a dream, “and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of ADONAI were ascending and descending on it!” This is probably to be more accurately understood as a “stairway,” but whatever it was, it was revealing a great mystery that Ya’akov would not be able to fully understand. As he looked up the stairway, he saw the angels ascending and descending, and “הִנֵּה Hee-ney, Lo!, Behold!, Suddenly! ADONAI was standing over it, or beside him,” depending upon the translation. ADONAI pronounced a great blessing upon Ya’akov; Ya’akov then awoke and realized that he had “stumbled upon” a holy place, and he worshipped.

And regarding what this “stairway” was, in Yokhanan (John) 1.51, from the reading this week, Yeshua tells Natan’el (Nathaniel) that he, Natan’el, would see heaven opened and the angels of ADONAI going up and coming down on the Son of Man!” By saying that, Yeshua declared that He is the stairway, the connection between the holiness of heaven and the desperate search of fallen man; to climb that stairway, to rejoin with the heavenly, is now possible, but only through Him. Humanity has an internal need to try to re-gain what was lost at the fall. Ya’akov was to take the message of the stairway and teach it to his children, who in turn were to teach it to the world. When the descendants of Ya’akov on the whole later rejected the “stairway,” that burden was given to the non-Jewish world to bear; sadly they for the most part rejected the children of Ya’akov at the same time. Now in these last days the children of Ya’akov are beginning to understand and accept the message of the stairway once again, and non-Jewish “stairway bearers” are beginning to stand with them.

One of our duties then, as believers, is to “light upon” that lonely place, that place of intercession. We are to let Him satisfy our own hunger and thirst, then seek for the welfare of others. We must be “full” spiritually before we can successfully intercede for others. On the other hand, we should not get filled up and then just “leave” the room; we need to “empty ourselves out” on behalf of others. When we desire for someone to understand the truth of who Yeshua is, we have through intercession the key to the removal of the blinders over their spiritual eyes, the veil over the spiritual heart, and this should be our prayer before we begin any discussion with them. Sha’ul says in 2 Corinthians 4.4, concerning people who can not see the truth of Yeshua, that they cannot come to faith “because the god of the olam hazeh [this world, this age] has blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God.” Sha’ul teaches a little later on that through intercession we are actually engaged in spiritual warfare. As he told us, the mind of unbelievers has been blinded by the god of this world. In 2 Corinthians 10.3-5, Sha’ul teaches us what to do in order to help open these blinded minds: “For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing [spiritual] strongholds. We demolish arguments [the logic of the mind] and every arrogance [the pride of the mind] that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought [the deductions, conclusions, and judgments of the mind] captive and make it obey the Messiah.”

This type of praying for someone is NOT what is sometimes known as “spiritual, or charismatic witchcraft,” or mind control, i.e., “praying” for a person do something against their will, or “praying” for our will to happen in their lives. No, true intercession is the crushing of the spiritual power that blinds the eyes of a person to the truth. Only then will that person realize what truth is, and hopefully they will direct their mind, or “will,” to that truth. Sometimes this type of intercession may take weeks, months, years, even decades. The teaching about intercession in Scripture is that it must be consistent with and insistent upon ONLY the will of ADONAI.

The point then: if you want to “see and understand” THE stairway to heaven, you must withdraw to the lonely place and ask the Creator to “show me Thy glory”. The busy-ness of life can be a roadblock to this time, yet all too often we are not too busy to sit in front of the tv, go shopping, etc. These things are not bad in and of themselves, but they should not be priority over our pursuit of G-d. Along with that, you must withdraw to the safety of fellow believers if and when you can.

The Haftorah reading ends with these words from the prophet Hoshea: “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of ADONAI are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May eyes Jewish be opened in that city, in all of Israel, and globally, to see and understand their father Ya’akov’s “ladder”.

Torah: Vayishlach (He sent), B’resheet (Genesis) 32.4(3)-36.43
Haftorah: Ovadyah (Obadiah) 1.1-21
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Heb 11.11-20

Shalom,

(B’resheet 32.25(24)): “And Ya’akov was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the
day.” As our parashah opens, Ya’akov (Jacob) is returning to his home, after all the many years of
working for and being cheated continually by his less-than-honest father-in-law Lavan (Laban). Now he is
returning home, uncertain of how his brother Esav (Esau) would greet him. By this time, Ya’akov has 11
sons and a daughter, and as far as he knows, he may be putting them all at risk. Yet at the same time he
knew it was time to leave the home of Lavan. Ya’akov seems to have kept his faith in ADONAI during those
years, but also seems to have leaned a lot upon his own devices. Now the time has come in ADONAI’s
plan for the formation of a chosen people. (As we noted in last week’s drash, Ya’akov was the first of the
three patriarchs of Israel to father only “Hebrew” children.) But first Ya’akov’s heart must be dealt with.

So Ya’akov, before he comes in contact with Esav, spends a night alone wrestling with a man. I am
reminded here of a later story, when Y’hoshua (Joshua), the new leader of Israel, was near Jericho when
suddenly he saw a man in front of him with his sword drawn. When Y’hoshua asked the man if he was for
Israel or for their enemies, the man basically replied, “No, I’m here to take over” (Y’hoshua 5.13-15).
Y’hoshua was a soldier, and was prepared for battle, so he was ready to fight as needed. We are not told
how the Ya’akov event began, so we don’t know Ya’akov’s initial reaction. We do know that the Hebrew
says that a “man, אִישׁ  ish” was wrestling with Ya’akov; the same term is used for the man who stood
before Y’hoshua. This word is a contraction of אֱנָשׁ  enosh, which we find used in the Book of Daniel,
where the prophet saw “one like a son of man, and he came up to the Ancient of Days.” The phrase “son
of man” here is בַר אֱנָשׁ bar enosh. When Yeshua referred to Himself as “the Son of Man,” he would have
used “Tanakh terminology” that the people of Israel, His listeners, were familiar with, and this title in
particular indicated His deity. אֱנָשׁ  Enosh means, “sick, incurable, desperate, wicked, woeful,” in the
sense of the mortality of man. This is in contrast to another usage of son of man found in Scripture, בֶּנ
אָדָם ben adam, meaning, “[son of a] human being.” (Bar is Aramaic for “son,” ben is Hebrew.) Stern uses
“human being” in the CJB. בֶּנ אָדָם Ben adam is seen particularly in the book of Yechezk’el (Ezekiel), as
ADONAI calls out often to Yechezk’el with this title.

When Yeshua called Himself “Son of Man, בַר אֱנָשׁ Bar Enosh,” He was indicating His dual role. [Although
this term is not seen in the Greek, we must remember that Yeshua was Jewish, speaking to His Jewish
audience, using the language they knew – Hebrew and/or Aramaic.] Firstly, He came and took on the
weak flesh nature of man, to the point of experiencing physical death; Secondly, He stated that He is THE
Son of Man who approached the throne of the Ancient of Days, as seen by the prophet Daniel. No mere
mortal man could have done that and lived; this One was blessed and given an eternal kingdom. Nor is
any angel ever blessed in such a manner. This בַר אֱנָשׁ Bar Enosh could only be one “person” – the One
who is fully God and fully man, Yeshua HaMashiakh, Yeshua the Messiah. This heavenly vision of
Daniel’s is found in Daniel 7.13-14; a similar picture is found in Revelation 4 & 5 as witnessed by
Yokhanan (John).

So in all likelihood, Ya’akov was very possibly wrestling with the pre-incarnate Yeshua. But there are
other aspects to look at. English is a boiling pot language, with a word history coming from many ancient
languages of the earth, so it is good to study the Word of G-d in the original language and thought as best
we can. In the book, Aleph-Bet Soup, by Charles J. Thurston (Hearthstone Publishing), the author notes
that “there are more different English versions of the Bible (at least fifty) than any other translation in any
other language.” Thurston’s book is a study on the reliability of the Hebrew Scriptures through the ages,
and the author continues, “The freedom of speech so treasured by the English, both in Britain and its
colonies in America and Australia, has permitted a very wide range of potential meanings of Scriptures
not necessarily intended by the Author, as the Scriptures have been brought down to our modern lowest
English common denominator. It is not the original inspired Hebrew and Greek Scriptures that create so
many divisive factions and such wide disagreements of theology, but rather the inferior and imprecise
nature of the English language.”

With that in mind, let’s proceed. We are told that, “a man wrestled with [Ya’akov]….” The Hebrew root for
wrestled is אָבֵק  ah-bahk, which means, “to float away (as vapor); to bedust, to grapple.” A dictionary
definition of grapple is, “to struggle, in or as if in wrestling” (my emphasis). This gives a bit of a mysterious
slant to the idea of wrestling here. Is it possible that Ya’akov was not actually physically wrestling with this
man? But what about the hip injury? That sounds pretty physical. Wikipedia gives this description of the
working of a hip: “The strong but loose fibrous capsule of the hip joint permits the hip joint to have the
second largest range of movement (second only to the shoulder) and yet support the weight of the body,
arms and head.” Could this possibly mean that Ya’akov, as the father of a [coming] new nation, could no
longer depend upon his own strength to lead this people? Did this injury infer his weakness, and that the
strength and power would have to come from the One who wrestled with him? The literal Hebraic
implication is that the man struck “the power of the generative parts;” perhaps the limp that followed
referred to the constant “pain” that the descendants of Ya’akov would endure.

My take here is that Ya’akov spent the night “wrestling” with ADONAI in deep, deep intercession. In doing
so, Ya’akov became totally aware of the weakness of his flesh-man, and the error of doing things his own
way. And so he interceded for his prophesied numerous descendants. His “hip injury” meant to him that
he could not depend upon his own strength anymore, but would have to lean upon the strength of the
One who “touched” him. Yet because of his persistence all night long, his faithfulness was shown to
ADONAI, who in turn blessed him mightily. I believe that when we are told that “the man saw that he did
not prevail against Ya’akov,” this simply meant that ADONAI was testing the faith of Ya’akov to the nth
degree. So this man in a sense said here also, “No, I’m here to take over”. Because of this, Ya’akov knew
that He had touched the heart of the Father, who was guiding and protecting his every step, and thus
from Esav he would have nothing to fear.

So whether or not this was an actual physical wrestling, or a spiritual wrestling, the implication for us is
that when things seem so fearful and life does not seem fair and just, in the midst of great trials and
difficulties, Yeshua is there. His “touch” may seem at times to be injurious, but in reality it is healing, and
“all things work together for good….” Things may not go the way we would desire, even to the point of
suffering and death, but He is still there. Yeshua, as a man, walked the same path we walk, and He
understands. Why He allows great trials to come is beyond our human understanding. Even such
questions as “Why the holocaust?” are well beyond our understanding, but yet I believe that He was
there, tending to His sheep, providing for many a Corrie Ten Boom or an Oskar Schindler; history has
revealed that there were many such rescuers and “angels;” others remain unknown, as Irena Sendler did
for many years.

There is another lesson here. This wrestling continued until “the breaking of the day”. We are entering a
season of darker and darker days, as evil is growing stronger in these end times. Perhaps the idea is not
so much one of whether or not we can spend an entire night in intercession, as it is that we must continue
in intercession – “grappling” in prayer constantly (praying without ceasing) – until The Day comes, the
Day of the return of Yeshua. We will have to press in while the darkness seems to envelop us. I want to
encourage all who read this that you must prepare your hearts for greater and greater spiritual darkness,
for potential tribulation. But be encouraged, do not be fearful, for greater is He who is in us than he who is
in the world. Scripture speaks of a great end-time apostasy, a massive falling away from the faith. I
encourage you to hold on to your faith, just as Sha’ul wrote to Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith,
take hold of [literally, “seize”] the eternal life to which you were called when you testified so well to your
faith before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6.12).

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָםִ – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! The salvation of
the Jewish people will affect the rest of the planet, for only when they cry out to Yeshua in acceptance
and repentance will He return (see Matthew 23.37-39). That most likely will not happen until after “Jacob’s
trouble” (Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 30.7). As a Messianic believer, my choice would be to stay here and stand
with Israel during her trials. May ADONAI grant me that grace if/when it is needed!