Sermon Tone Analysis

Lech Lecha

Introduction

This Torah Portion:

Genesis 12:1-17:27

Isaiah 40:27-41:16

John 8:51-58

In our previous Torah portion we studies Noah and the deluge

We presented hidden meanings like the Broken Olive branch the dove took on her beak being Israel

We spoke about how and why Noah found favour on the eyes of God

We talked about “God Remember” meaning He keeps His covenant with Noah that Noah and his family will remain alive

We said that this remembering was like being put on the spot light where all God’s attention and eyes are on Noah

We talked about the observance of the Feast of God and the Calendar of God already at work in Genesis 8

In our previous Torah portion we also talked about Job, Daniel and Noah being found righteous - obeyed - did what is pleasing to God

Abraham also was found to be righteous

This Parsha in Genesis 12, starts with a new birth of mankind: the story of Abraham and his descendants

According to the purpose of creation in:

History

9352 תּוֹלֵדוֹת‎ (tô·lē·ḏôṯ): n.fem.pl.; ≡ Str 8435; TWOT 867g—1.

LN 10.26 genealogy, i.e., an account or birth record of a family-line’s descendants (Ge 5:1; 10:1, 32; 11:10; Nu 1:20–42 passim), see also domain LN 33.35–33.68;

2. LN 33.11–33.25 account, i.e., a written record of a story (Ge 2:4; 6:9; 37:2)1

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

The first 2000 years from Creation were the Era of Desolation.

Adam had fallen.

Abel had murdered.

Idolatry had been introduced to the world.

Ten dreadful generations had been washed away with the Deluge, and 10 generation from Noah had failed.

Abraham was born in the year 1948 from Creation

After the Tower of Babel, the Dispersion of the Nations, and six years before Noah dies, Abraham starts serving the Lord

The Era of Desolation ends and the Era of the Torah begins

With Abraham and Torah there is a profound change in the spiritual nature of mankind

The plan of Creation is for mankind to share in the same fulfilment of Divine mission: to accept the sovereignty of the One God

His sovereignty is my sanity

Presentation

One of the first things that come to mind when we talk about Abraham is the covenant of God

We have taught in the covenant of God

The Hebrew Blood Covenant:

‌

Take off Coat/ Robe

Take Off Belt

Cut the Covenants

Raise the Right Arm/Mix w/blood

Exchange Names

Make a Scar

Give Covenant Terms

Eat a Memorial Meal

Plant a Memorial/tree

.

First Born

Most of the time we look at God and glorify Him for the work of His hands

Very rarely do we consider what was Abraham’s response, role, life and walk like in this covenant.

Did he also have to keep the covenant after he was found righteous?

Is believing a mental exercise, a mysticism based experience or a reality to live?

mysticism, the practice of religious ecstasies(religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them.

The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an initiate of a secret cult or mystery religion.

In Classical Greece (5th–4th century BCE) and during the Hellenistic Age (323 BCE–330 CE), the rites of the mystery religions were largely or wholly secret.

The term mystes is itself derived from the verb myein (“to close,” especially the eyes or mouth) and signified a person who kept a secret.

Early Christianity appropriated the technical vocabulary of the Hellenistic mysteries but later disavowed secrecy, resulting in a transformation of the meaning of mystes.

In subsequent Christian usage, mystes, or mystic, referred to practitioners of doctrinally acceptable forms of religious ecstasy.

Encyclopedia Brittanica

https://www.britannica.com/topic/mysticism

We will attempt to answers questions about Abraham’s responses to God, with our Torah portion today.

We will examine if he needed to respond to God to be saved

We will also examine what Abraham’s responses did to him.

How they helped him.

How they became part of his relationship with God.

To our Torah Portion:

Lech Lacha - Get out

Found in the Hebrew Bible 1547 times in the expand of 1346 verses

Str 1980, 3212; TWOT 498—

1. go, travel, i.e., make linear motion to another place, with any form of transportation

travel

take, send, i.e., cause linear motion of an object, collection, or mass (Jer 32:5); (hitp) go about

2. walk, i.e., make linear motion on foot or pod

go about, cause to walk

walk about, walk without particular goal

3.follow, i.e., make linear motion behind another object or collection

4.follow, i.e., be an adherent of a person, group, or belief

5. behave, conduct, live, formally, walk, i.e., go about doing certain actions in a regular, more or less consistent manner, so possibly constituting a life or lifestyle, as an extension of the act. of walking as regular and patterned

Live

Lived for, formally, walked

1 James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

Synonyms are: rûṣ “run,” bô “come, enter,” yāṣāʾ “go out,” ʿālâ “ascend,” and šûb “return.”

Its antonyms are: yāšab “sit,” and ʿāmad “stand.”

Our root occurs 1562 times.

It is a common Semitic root1

1 Leonard J. Coppes, “498 הָלַך,” ed.

R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 216.

Back to Verse 2

Although God tells Abram this promise, God does not tell him the process

Also, God is going to “make” Abram a “A great Name”

In Biblical language Name refers to Character

Character formation requires: nurturing, developing, and correction

God chooses to use TESTS to work with Abram and us

Test [Heb.

usually nāsâ or bāḥan, also ṣārap̱ (Jgs.

7:4; Ps. 17:3; 105:19), bārar (Eccl.

3:18), ḥâqar (Lam.

3:40), bōḥan (Isa.

28:16); Gk. (verbs) peirázō (Mt.

16:1; 19:3; etc.), ekpeirázō (Lk.

10:25; 1 Cor.

10:9), dokimázō (2 Cor.