1st Corinthians 10 is Paul’s midrash (commentary) from Israel’s history on how divisions arose during the journey from Mitzraim (Egypt) to the Promised Land. And the crossing of the Red Sea — recorded in בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach, “when he sent,” Ex. 13:17-17:16 — also is a parallel for our trip from unsaved to Savior.
How do we become righteous? Yosef’s life story shows the way. He walked in the path of righteousness, he did not “do in Rome as the Romans do” and refused to hold grudges against or plot revenge against those who persecuted and defamed him. What we can learn from the Torah reading ויחי Vayechi (“he lived,” Gen. 47:28–50:26) is this was the Messianic template that Yeshua walked too.
Why Yeshua (Jesus) went to the Temple on Chanukah, aka the Festival of Dedication and the Festival of Lights, wrapped in the history recorded in 1-4 Maccabees.
Those are prequels of sorts to the Gospels. You see why the Romans are in the Holy Land, why Yeshua warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days God’s people will have to “run to the hills,” and what the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14) actually looks like.
The LORD sends us into the world to be His ambassadors (2Cor. 5:20) and part of the kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:5–6; 1Pet. 2:9–10; Rev. 5:9–10). Will we go? Will we face challenges of our own making or ones that are out of our control? Division is toxic to the Kingdom of God. How are we living this out?
In this study of the Torah reading וישלח Vayishlach (Genesis 32:3–36:43), we will go over a few of Yeshua’s parables that will make Ya’akov’s WWE match with the Angel of the LORD look logical. We will learn more about how God teaches us. We have been sent to a world full of brokenness while experiencing brokenness ourselves. How we deal with the brokenness of others and divisions and disagreements in the Body is a sign of our spiritual maturity.
The Torah reading Vayera (“and He appeared,” Genesis 18–22) aptly describes how the Creator of the Heavens and Earth shows up “in the fullness of time.”
We will see messianic parallels between the “days of Lot” in Sodom, the “days of Noah” and the Day of the LORD preceding the return of Yeshua (Jesus), the Son of Man (Matthew 24; Luke 17).
“‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. … That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'” (John 3:3, 6 NASB)
The Torah reading Noakh, covering Genesis 6:9–11:32, is a testimony of the origin of Abraham and Israel, of different people groups and of languages. This is real history, not legend or allegory. That is important, because it’s a testimony about the intentions and actions of the Creator.
And the “days of Noah” (Matt. 24:36–44; Luke 17:22–37) teach us how we become “born again” via the Mashiakh (Christ) of God.
This is the second part of a study on how we go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah and how the Creator’s presence goes into us and through us into the world around us by way of the Messiah. Yeshua’s ministry on Earth fulfilled God’s desire to dwell with us, not to be foreign to us. A heart transformed, such as King David’s, welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.
Teachings of Sukkot and Shemeni Atzeret (Tabernacles and the Eighth Day) and of Yeshua’s ministry on Earth are that God desires His dwelling place to be with us — better, within us — not foreign to us. A heart transformed welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.