Midrash for Shabbat July 14, 2007

Midrash, Shabbat 14 July 2007
©2007 Mark Pitrone & Fulfilling Torah Ministries
(B'reishit 20.1-18; Yeshayahu 61.9-10; Tehellim 16; Galutyah 3.15-29)

B'reishit - Avraham has his last fling with sight walking as he and Sarah, who is fertile for the first time in her life, go to sojourn in Abimelech's territory. Avi once again pulls the 'she's my sister' trick for fear that YHWH can't deliver on his promises. I understand why he did it, seeing as his wife was nearly as beautiful as mine (and Sarah was 38 years Debbie's senior), and if I had a plausible ½ truth like it that could save my skin, I might try it myself. But he'd done it at least once before with Pharaoh, and I don't think Yah had given him kudos for the move. This time it could have proved disastrous.

An interesting thing happened this time though. After Abimelech took Sarah into his harem, YHWH came to him in a dream. Did YHWH speak to pagan king's in dreams, I wonder? Apparently, but this was an extraordinary event because this was an extraordinary time for Sarah - she'd never been fertile before. She was 89 years old, post-menopausal and a major babe. YHWH influenced Abimelech to NOT bring Sarah into his chamber that night, and told him in the dream that she was Avi's wife, not just his sister. Abimelech complained that he had acted in the integrity of his heart, and YHWH acknowledged that truth. But, as we see in the last verse of the chapter, Abimelech still was responsible for his actions, even though he had not sinned against YHWH. V.6 says that the sin would have been against YHWH and no one else.

Had Abimelech lien w/Sarah, it would have thrown the lineage of Yitzhak into question. Whose son would he have been, Abimelech's or Avraham's? There would have been no way of knowing for certain. YHWH protected the seed from question of lineage.

Other interesting things: Abimelech means father of a king, and Avraham means father of many nations; it seems that when YHWH appears to a man in a dream, it is vivid and the man remembers it in detail. Q&C

Yeshayahu - Whose seed? Who are 'they'? The context begins in v.1, where the meek, the brokenhearted, the captives, the bound, all that mourn, eventually comes down to 'the seed' and the bride who is adorned by her bridegroom with the garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. Yeshayahu goes from speaking of 'them' in the 3rd person, changes to speaking as YHWH's agent TO them in 2nd person, and then, knowing that he is personally included in that seed/bride, he rejoices in the position that YHWH has placed him in. Q&C

Tehellim - David trusts YHWH, not himself or any other man. He won't even name the names of other gods in any form of worship. As far as he's concerned, YHWH is all he wants or desires, and it is YHWH that keeps all David's possessions in store. Everything in David's life is given over to YHWH and he is always foremost in David's mind. For that reason, YHWH is his protector and as long as that is David's heart, YHWH will keep him safe and sure.

When David says YHWH won't let his holy one see corruption, he refers to Avraham, Sarah and Abimelech. While Abimelech had Sarah in the harem, YHWH would not allow him to defile the lineage of the seed, he would not allow his set apart Messianic seed to have any taint on it. Every time Avraham and Sarah told the ½ truth, YHWH protected them and their seed. Same with Rivkah and Yitzhak. YHWH protected his seed all the way down to Yoseph and Miriam when they were led into Egypt with Yeshua and he did so by his Word (Gal.3.24-25). Q&C

Galutyah - Sha'ul begins this passage telling us that he is speaking like just a guy, not one inspired of Elohim's Spirit. If men enter into a covenant or contract, noone has the right or power to abrogate that contract. Our Constitution in Article 1, reflects this 15th verse, "Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

When YHWH entered a covenant with Avraham, noone could impair that covenant in any way. Noone can lawfully impair a contract freely entered. Not even YHWH. How much more impossible is it for me or you or the children of Yisrael playing before a golden calf to abrogate or annul a covenant with YHWH? When he entered a mutually and freely agreed to covenant with the nation of Yisrael at the foot of Sinai, that covenant could not be impaired by anyone. The Covenant with YHWH was NEVER done away with. Nor was it added to (Devarim 5.22, "These words [the 10 words] YHWH spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me"). The 'law' was not added to the covenant.

Sha'ul says in v.17 that the 'law' couldn't impair the contract or covenant. The covenant that YHWH had with Avi was in the form of a promise, that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed and that his seed would be as the sand or the stars for number. When YHWH brought Yisrael out of Egypt, his plan was that all Yisrael would be priests to him (Ex.19.6) and for the earth. When they transgressed his 10 Words, he made the tribe of Levi priests and made laws specific to the priesthood. It was this priesthood and the laws appertaining thereto that YHWH added (3.19) in answer to their transgression. This Levitical priesthood and its laws would have effect until the seed would come. Although the promise was made face to face to Avi, it was really made to his seed. It's very interesting to me that the root word behind both the words 'promise' and 'angel' is angelos and means message or messenger. The word behind promise = epayngeltai - a great message. The word behind 'ordained' is diatasso - to fully arrange. So, restated, 19b can read thusly, The great message to the seed is fully arranged through messengers by means of a go-between. Let me restate that another way; The New Covenant (great message) is fully arranged or fully prepared in Torah and the prophets by means of Yeshua. Cf. Heb.8.6, where Yeshua is the mediator of a better covenant. Q&C

There is no need of a mediator between the Seed and YHWH, since they are one. Cf. v.20.

The law in v.21 is the law of the Levitical priesthood, and all the rituals that pertain to them. They do not affect the covenants and promises of YHWH in the least. Righteousness does not come by the sacrifices offered by the Levites, but by the faith of Yeshua in the promises he made to Avraham, which is the gospel (v.7-9, in conjunction with Eph.2.11-22).

V.23 has US kept (protected) through (the Greek word hupo, when used in conjunction with a verb - like kept - means through, vice under) the law. The law was a hedge that YHWH ordained to keep us close and protect us, not to enslave or imprison us. Those sacrifices had no purpose in our justification, though they did signify to us our obedience to YHWH - they proved (showed to be real) our faith, when they were performed in the full knowledge that they had no true efficacy to justify. Trusting in those sacrifices and the blood of those animals was misplaced, just as trusting in any works is useless to our eternal life; for it is by grace that we are justified through faith, which itself is not ours, but Yeshua's. We are not justified BY our works. We are justified UNTO the good works that YHWH has commanded us to walk in. The schoolmaster, therefore, is not a slave driver or taskmaster. He is one charged with teaching us the ropes, how to live, how to relate to others and get along in society. That was the purpose of the law that was added - to protect us and teach us, not to enslave us. Q&C