Vayetze - And he Went Out (ויצא)- Audio Podcast Dec 10, 2022
Pastor Omar Portillo
B'reisheet - 2022-2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 3:20:15
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This Torah Portion:
Gen 28:10-32:3
Hosea 12:13-14:9
John 1:41-51
Introduction
Introduction
In the previous Torah portions we talked about God calling Abraham out of his country and family
We also heard how God also uses his daughters - a couple of weeks ago: Sarah - Abraham’s wife
Last week we also examined the role of Rebekak, another daughter of the Lord, and her impact on the Generations of God’s People
We also considered the whole book of the Bible is about the generations that belong to the Lord
We talked about the Generations coming from Esau and how the colour red seems to be a tendency for those who come from him- an attraction to blood
Esau has grown bitter and desires to kill Jacob. Jacob has received Isaac’s blessing, and is advised to leave, and to to Laban’s house
This week we’ll continue to speak about Isaac’s descendant: Jacob, and how God revealed Himself to him, and changed his name
We will see how the covenant made with Abraham and Isaac is extended to Jacob
In this Torah Portion we will talk about four aspects, ranging from “opening the heavens to Israel” to blessing all his descendants as part of the covenant
Let us consider the covenants with the fathers of the faith
ABRAHAM
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
ISAAC
Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
In both cases God had to give these two fathers of the faith tests to follow. He does the same with Jacob
Presentation
Presentation
Let us begin by presenting the context as to where Jacob is.
Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
Beersheba means well of 7 or well of oaths- This is important to understand not only because of the significance of 7 - but because when a “righteous person departs from a place, this leaves a void.”
When that person is around, everyone gets to enjoy and benefit from The glory that God has placed in that person
When that person leaves that glory departs with them
Jacob has left his parents to begin a personal exile that, unknown to him at the time, this exile will include 20 years in the home of Laban
Laban, characterized as a dishonest man by the Jewish rabbis, because as the Passover Haggadah says, he attempted to uproot the Jewish people
Jacob spent 14 years at the academy of Shem and Eber, before going to Haran
He did not need more years of study to become a scholar, but went there for a different reason;
Rabbi Yaakov Kamenestky explains, that “the first sixty-three years of his life he studies Torah with his father, in an atmosphere insulated from corruption from Canaan. Now he would be living in Haran among the people who were Laban’s comrades in dishonesty.”
Jacob needed to study the Torah with Shem and Eber to survive the environment, and learned from those who had experience with corrupted environments.
Shem had live in the generation of the Flood and Eber with those who built the Tower of Babel.
Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
Went Toward
(halak) = הָלַךְ = go up
2143 הָלַךְ (hā·lǎḵ): v.; ≡ Str 1980,
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
The name Haran means and it is also mount Moriah
Haran #1 (ha’-ran) = Mountaineer; very high; enlightened; strong. (Generally refers to a man).
Haran #2 (ha’-ran) = Very dry, (place parched with the sun); (root = to be dry; to kindle; to burn). Grievous. (Generally refers to a place).
Stelman Smith and Judson Cornwall, The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos, 1998), 96.
So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.
The impossibility of travel after sunset is the only reason for Jacob’s stopping at the nameless “place.” The use of this designation is suggestive because Hebrew makom frequently has the connotation of “a sacred site,
Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 197.
A certain place refers to a place that would be close to the temple
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
THE LADDER
Jacob’s Ladder
Video Spiral
And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?
And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
The bread of Life
The Hebrew perspective of the symbolism in this section is:
The dreams mentioned in Scripture are vehicles of prophecy, otherwise the Torah would not cite these dreams
The dream is symbolizes the future of Israel and man’s ability to connect himself to God’s master plan
The Ladder alludes to Mount Sinai because of the numerical value of the letters in the word
Angels represent Moses and Aaron and God atop
The Ladder is where God stood to give the Torah
The Torah being the Bread of Life - Yeshua
Ladder
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Ladder = Sullam = סֻלָּם
סֻלָּם: ascending series of stones, staircase (more prob. than ladder)
William Lee Holladay and Ludwig Köhler, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 257.
Staircase
Consider the Temple Salomon Built
The doorway for the middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.
Staircase with door
Lul = Stairs = לוּל
4294 לוּל (lûl): n.[masc.]; ≡ Str 3883; TWOT 1094—LN 7.26–7.53 stairway, i.e., a series of steps to ascend or descend from one level of a building to another (1Ki 6:8+), note: some ancient versions refer to them as winding stairs
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.
Doorway = Pethah = פֶּתַח
7339 פֶּתַח (pě·ṯǎḥ): n.masc.; ≡ Str 6607; TWOT 1854a—LN 7.26–7.53 doorway, opening, door, i.e., the portal or entrance way in and out of a space, often a construction, but including other larger areas
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
So far we have talked about the dream, the ladder, the staircase and the door, The Lord, the descendants around the world
Let us now consider the following:
So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.
Jacob rested his head on the Rock
And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
He anointed the Rock
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle—
cornerstone”
He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.
Notice the New Testament symbolism of these Old Testament events.
Jesus is the “chief cornerstone”
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
The Rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Jesus used this dream of Jacobs and applied it to Him
John 1:51 (NKJV)
John 1:51 (NKJV)
And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (who is the Rock).”
And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (who is the Rock).”
Jacob anointed the rock and called it “God’s House.” Jesus is the Messiah; and Messiah means “anointed one.”
Jesus body is called “God’s House.”
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
Added to this, John wrote in his Gospel:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The “Word” which is Yeshua “dwelt” among us. The word “dwelt” should read
“Tabernacled.”
Strong’s 4637 states, “Grk. skēnoō to tent or encamp, that is, (figuratively) to occupy (as a mansion) or (specifically) to reside (as God did in the Tabernacle of old...” (#4637).
God’s house was the Tabernacle in the wilderness. It was his house that he dwelt
Tabernacle
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
Jesus dwelt in a “Tabernacle,” his body.
Solomon wrote speaking of the temple or house of God,
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
When did Solomon says this?
On the Feast of Tabernacles
Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
On this feast he asked when God would dwell on the earth. Jesus Christ was born on the Feast of Tabernacles. He dwelt among us. Why would John use that language unless Jesus was born on that day?
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now when it comes to Jacob, him anointing the stone, and the angels ascending and descending on it-this has all the ear marks of the feast of Tabernacles!
Many commentators agree that the ladder was, “...probably a type of Christ, in whom both worlds meet, and in whom the Divine and human nature are conjoined.
The Ladder was set up on the Earth, and the Top of it reached to Heaven; for God was manifested in the Flesh, and in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Nothing could be a more expressive emblem of the incarnation and its effects; Jesus Christ is the grand connecting medium between heaven and earth, and between God and man.” (Clarkes Commentary, emphasis added).
This dream was about the incarnation of Christ-of Christ “Tabernacling” on the earth as a man.
After the dream Jacob did not live in Israel his permanent home but went out of his land into the lands of the east
So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East.
He dwelt in tents-temporary homes, not his permanent home in Israel. This is the whole meaning of the feast of Tabernacles.
“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel!
Now when did this dream take place?
In ancient Judaism many believed that Jacob when his name got changed to Israel (Gen 35:1-11), this took place on the feast of Tabernacles according to the book of Jubilees and the temple scroll. (Jubilees 32:16, 28; Temple scroll ii.128-129).
Jacob left after serving 20 years under Laban
Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
God told him to return to Israel and God mentioned the dream at Bethel
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”
Why mention that time unless it was near the same time of the year that the dream in Gen 28 took place?
Why mention that time unless it was near the same time of the year that the dream in Gen 28 took place?
Jacob said 20 years elapsed from the time he came to Laban house which took place after the dream in Genesis 28
Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
So it had to be near the same time when he returned to Bethel where the covenant was re-established in Bethel again (Gen 35). So most likely the dream of Jacob (Gen 28) took place on the Feast of Tabernacles.
Closing
Closing
What of Abraham and Isaac?
A Tabernacle is a temporary place to live-a mobile home that you can pitch, then pack up and pitch again. The name “Feast of Tabernacles” or “Feast of Booths” means the Feast of Temporary Dwellings.
But why was Israel to spend the Feast in temporary abodes? The answer is given in
that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ ”
After the tribes of Israel came out of Egypt they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years before going in and possessing the Promised Land. While in the wilderness they had no permanent dwellings. They wandered from place to place, setting up their tents, staying awhile, then pulling their tents down and moving on.
The Israelites were heirs to the land God had promised to them. But they were not yet inheritors. They were merely heirs waiting to become inheritors of the land of Canaan. That is why they lived in temporary dwellings. They were sojourners, pilgrims. They lived in the world of the wilderness, but they were not of it. Their inheritance was elsewhere.
Abraham too was also a stranger and a pilgrim! God told him,
Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
When Abraham was in the land, God still called him a “stranger.” His full inheritance was in the future in the Kingdom of God when he would inherit the land for ever.
When Israel was to enter the land, God still told them,
‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
Although they entered the land, their permanent inheritance was still to come at the setting up of the Kingdom of God!
The book of Hebrews states,
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed... By faith he dwelt [a temporary stay] in the land of promise, as in a strange country [because he hadn’t yet received it for his inheritance], dwelling in tabernacles [tents, temporary dwellings] with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs [not yet inheritors] with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations [permanence], whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:8-10).
Yes, Abraham in faith looked for the New Jerusalem and the glorious Kingdom of God.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
He and other saints “died in faith, not having received the promises [the inheritance], but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
They had seen them a “far off.” They were “persuaded of them” and “embraced them.” They “confessed” that they were “tabernacling” in this world waiting for the world to come. They had the knowledge of the meaning of the “tabernacle.”
Israel knew of the spiritual significance of it, and the Kingdom of God-the knowledge of salvation. Obviously God revealed to them this feast as God revealed to Israel and those who are grafted in.
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
For we Christians are “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11) in this life. We are in the wilderness of this world, but we are not of it
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
(John 17:11, 14). We are separate from the world (Rev. 18:4) — heirs, but not yet inheritors, of our permanent dwelling place, the promised Kingdom of God.
It is this feast that Jesus will have all of mankind celebrate in the Kingdom (Zech 14). This feast is not just for Israel, but all of mankind.
Jesus in the Feast of Tabernacles in
Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
Jesus on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles said,
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Jesus was offering salvation not just to the Jews but “any man” on the last great day of the feast which was a symbol of the great white throne judgment when all mankind stands before God (Rev 20:11). God intended for all of mankind to celebrate his feasts!
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Shabbat Shalom