We start the Torah reading לֶךְ-לְךָ Lech Lecha (“go forth,” Genesis 12:1–17:27) in Genesis 12, with God telling Abram to “get out” of his country and go to a new place he had never seen before.
God calls upon Abram to separate himself from his extended family. Abram’s obedience to this call is the first example of Abram’s great faith. Yeshua (Jesus) also told His disciples in Matthew 8 that He hasn’t come to bring peace but division in families. Families can either draw you on the path of faith or away from the path of faith and for believers in Yeshua, they have to be willing to walk away from family members who want them to reject their faith in Yeshua.
There are many parallels between Abram’s trip to Egypt and Israel’s trip to Egypt. Here are nine such parallels:
- Famine: Both Abram and Israel were drawn to Egypt in response to a severe famine.
- Fear of strangers: The Egyptians “saw” Abram and Israel and what they saw brought fear into them.
- Plagues: The Egyptians of Abram’s day and Moses’ day were inflicted with plagues until they liberated their captive.
- Material wealth: Abram and Israel left Egypt with great wealth
- Eviction: Egyptians eventually evicted Abram and Israel
- Testing: Abram and Lot’s separation because of access to food/water. Israel repeated tests regarding access to food/water.
- War: Abram went to war with kings who kidnapped the people of Sodom. Israel went to war against Midian and Amalek.
- Land covenant: God promised the Holy Land to Abram and He reiterates this promise through Israel that had blessings and curses that accompanied the covenant.
- Circumcision: Abram circumcised his family and in the time of Joshua, all of Israel were circumcised.
Grass isn’t greener on the Sodom side
When Torah tells us about someone “lifting up his eyes” we are given an intimate glimpse into the core values of the person who is “lifting their eyes.” In Lot’s case, when he “lifted up his eyes,” he only saw the physical world. He marveled at the abundant water, the green pastures, and the extensive market for his animals as he looked towards Sodom and the other cities of the valley. Lot was only interested in physical promises of comfort, wealth and influence.
When Abram “lifted up his eyes,” he looked towards heaven, the stars and received profound spiritual and physical promises from HaShem. God gave Abram wealth and influence, but Abram cared more about the spiritual promises HaShem gave him, and Abram died in peace at an old age.
Inhospitable Sodom and Gomorrah
I was listening to a reading of the Book of Jasher during Sukkot. As I read through it, I noticed there are a lot of “call backs” in Jasher to the Bible, particularly to the events of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even Yeshua harkens back to the destruction of those infamous cities to bring out lessons and warnings to His followers. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were infamous for their extreme xenophobia. People think that the rampant homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah were their worst abominations but that is not even close to the truth.
Jasher fills in a lot of the details of how Sodom’s extreme xenophobia, cruelty and immorality moved from thought to actions. For example, Jasher records that the Sodom dwellers would give strangers generous amounts of money but they would not give them, or even sell them any food and water. The people of Sodom would wait for them to starve and then rob their corpse.
There’s also a story of Abraham’s favored head-servant Eliezer of Damascus who had the misfortune to visit Sodom once and was attacked by a citizen of Sodom. The Sodom dweller threw a rock at Eliezer’s head, injuring him seriously enough to draw blood. The people of Sodom had a tradition that if you drew blood out of someone, the victim would pay his attacker in gratitude for drawing out his “bad blood.” Eliezer disputed this and took their case before a judge in Sodom.
Unfortunately for Eliezer, the judge ruled in favor of his Sodom attacker, so Eliezer threw a rock at the judge’s head and the judge’s head started to bleed. Eliezer told the judge, “Since I drew blood from you, give the money you owe me to my attacker.”
The last straw for God regarding Sodom and her sister cities was when a woman in Sodom found that a person was being starved out, she decided to extend kindness to the man and fed him. The authorities found out about her and she was sentenced to death by being smeared in honey and attacked by bees.
A similar story happened in Gomorrah where a woman extended kindness to a stranger and she was burned to death. Jasher is quoted a couple of times in the Scriptures, so it is a historical book of some value to those who study the Bible.
Although the Book of Jasher was not included in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures, it’s worth studying. If you are an auditory learner, you can find audio readings of the Book of Jasher on YouTube.
God tells us in Torah that He cares in a special way for the widow, orphan and the immigrant/tourist/stranger. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah repeatedly oppressed these groups of people, particularly the strangers. Although God tells Abram that the iniquity of the Canaanites is not yet full, the iniquity of Sodom and Gomorrah’s filled its limit much sooner and God wiped them out in such a spectacle of fire and brimstone that their memory is merely a by-word of God’s punishment of those who refuse to extend hospitality to strangers and who practice and justify extreme immorality in their culture.
Summary: Tammy
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