Starting after Sukkot 2024, Hallel Fellowship switched to a three-year cycle of Torah and parallel Bible readings (2024–2027), outlined by TorahResource. While there’s ancient evidence for a triennial cycle, a major benefit is to provide more time to mine more of Scripture for lessons.
Readings
- Genesis 28:10-29:30
- Hosea 12:12-14
- Ephesians 5:5-10
Corresponding reading in the 1-year cycle
Insights from the readings
The passages from Genesis 28:10–29:30, Hosea 12:12–14, and Ephesians 5:5–10 collectively highlight themes of transformation, covenantal faithfulness, and the call to live in alignment with God’s holiness.
Interconnected themes
Jacob’s transformation and covenant with God (Genesis 28:10–29:30)
Jacob’s journey from Bethel, where he dreams of a ladder reaching heaven, to his service under Laban, illustrates his personal transformation and the establishment of a covenant with God. This covenant includes promises of land, descendants, and God’s continual presence (Genesis 28:13–15).
Israel’s reflection on Jacob’s journey (Hosea 12:12–14)
Hosea references Jacob’s experiences to admonish Israel for their unfaithfulness. He recalls Jacob’s time in Aram and his service for a wife, paralleling Israel’s need to return to God with sincerity and humility (Hosea 12:12–14). This serves as a call for repentance and a reminder of God’s past faithfulness.
Call to holiness (Ephesians 5:5–10)
Paul urges believers to abandon immoral behaviors and to live as “children of light,” embodying goodness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:8–9). This passage emphasizes the transformation that comes from aligning with God’s will and rejecting former ways.
Key Hebrew and Greek terms
עָקֵב ʿāqēb — “heel”
Refers to Jacob’s name and his act of grasping Esau’s heel, symbolizing his early character and later transformation (Genesis 25:26).
בֵּית־אֵל Bethel — “House of God”
The location of Jacob’s dream, representing a place of divine encounter and covenant (Genesis 28:19).
πορνεία porneia — “sexual immorality”
Used in Ephesians 5:5 to denote behaviors contrary to God’s standards.
φῶς phōs — “light”
Symbolizes purity and truth, encouraging believers to live in alignment with God’s nature (Ephesians 5:8).
Theological lessons
Transformation through encounter
Jacob’s experiences demonstrate that personal transformation often begins with a profound encounter with God, leading to a renewed identity and purpose.
Call to repentance
Hosea’s reflection on Jacob’s life serves as a reminder that returning to God requires humility and acknowledgment of past unfaithfulness.
Living in the light
Ephesians emphasizes that believers are called to reflect God’s holiness by rejecting former sinful behaviors and embodying virtues aligned with the “fruit of the light.”
Messianic insights
- Ya‘akov’s story reveals the journey from striving flesh to faithful spirit.
- Hosea calls Israel to remember Jacob’s transformation and to return to covenant loyalty.
- Paul reminds the renewed Israel (the Body of Messiah) to walk in the light of Messiah, reflecting God’s holiness.
Ultimately, all point to Yeshua HaMashiach — the Ladder, the Stone, the Light, and the Shepherd who restores the covenant and gathers His bride with everlasting love.
Ya‘akov (Jacob) — From Heel-Grabber to Israel, a Shadow of Messiah
The name Ya‘akov (יַעֲקֹב) comes from eikev (עֵקֶב, “heel”), because he grasped his brother’s heel (Genesis 25:26). This action foreshadowed his early life: striving, wrestling, trying to secure blessing by his own strength.
Yet at Bet-El (בֵּית־אֵל, “House of God”), Ya‘akov encountered the God of Avraham and Yitzchak and received a vision of the ladder (סֻלָּם sulam) connecting earth to heaven (Genesis 28:12–13). It was here that Elohim promised to be with him and fulfill the covenant made with his fathers.
In Messiah Yeshua, the striving of humanity finds its answer. Yeshua refers to Jacob’s dream when He tells Natanel (Nathaniel):
“You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
John 1:51
Yeshua is the sulam, the living ladder between heaven and earth, the true mediator between God and man (1Timothy 2:5).
Where Ya‘akov’s transformation took years, culminating at Peniel (“face of God,” Genesis 32:30), Yeshua’s obedience was instant and complete. He is the Second Adam (Romans 5:12–19), the true Israel who prevails with God and overcomes for our sake.
Bet-El and the Covenant of Presence
At Bet-El, Ya‘akov recognized the place as “the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17). He took a stone (אֶבֶן even) and set it up as a memorial pillar.
According to commentators Itzhak Shapira and Michael Brown, the Hebrew word even (אֶבֶן) is made of two words — av (אָב, “father”) and ben (בֵּן, “son”). By this רֶמֶז remez (“hint,” i.e., wordplay), in Messiah Yeshua, the Father (Av) and the Son (Ben) are united — the living Stone whom the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42).
Thus, Bet-El anticipates Messiah’s coming: A place where heaven meets earth, where the covenant is renewed, and where the promises of God are carried forward not just physically (in the seed of Jacob) but spiritually (through the Seed, Yeshua — Galatians 3:16).
Hosea’s prophetic midrash: Return to the covenant
Hosea (הוֹשֵׁעַ Hoshea, meaning “salvation”) reminds Israel that just as Ya‘akov served for a wife (Rakhel/Rachel) and guarded sheep (Genesis 29:18–20; Hosea 12:12), so Israel was meant to serve God with faithfulness and humility.
However, Israel became like Ya‘akov before his transformation — striving, deceiving, forgetting the covenant. Thus Hosea calls for תְּשׁוּבָה teshuvah (“repentance”), a return to God who is full of mercy and steadfast love (חֶסֶד chesed).
Messiah Yeshua, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), fulfilled the work that Jacob only began — laying down His life to win His bride (Ephesians 5:25–27), not through deceit or human striving but through perfect obedience and love.
Walking as children of light: A call to Israel
Sha’ul (Paul) in Ephesians 5 urges the kehila (assembly) to reject πορνεία porneia (sexual immorality), greed, and idolatry. Instead, we are called to walk as בְּנֵי אוֹר b’nei or, “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).
This is directly tied to the Messianic calling prophesied over Israel:
“I will also make you a light to the nations (or la’goyim), so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:6
Messiah Yeshua is the Or HaOlam (“Light of the World,” John 8:12), and in Him, Jew and Gentile together become bearers of His light, fulfilling the prophetic mission given to Avraham and Ya‘akov.
Studies
Unveiling Jacob’s vision: The Suffering Servant links Heaven and Earth (Genesis 28:10–32:2)
Torah reading Vayetze (ויצא): Genesis 28:10–32:2
Jacob’s ladder vs. Babel’s tower: Choose what’s true; reject what’s false (Genesis 28)
All-in bets on the Kingdom of God last a lifetime
Living in the ladder days of Jacob’s stick-with-it deliverance (Genesis 29–31; Hosea 12–14)
Best-laid plans of Jacob and Laban often go awry (Genesis 28:10–32:3)
Genesis 28:10–32:2: Messiah seeks ‘the lost sheep of Israel’
The Torah reading ויצא Vayetze (“and he went out,” Genesis 28:10–32:2) is another example of how all the Scriptures testify of the Mashiakh (Messiah). The account of Ya’akob’s (Jacob) using striped sticks to encourage breeding among livestock and separating livestock sounds like archaic superstition, but it actually is a Messianic prophecy about how Yeshua (Jesus) would draw to Himself the “lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 10:6; 15:24) and make them stronger than what appeared to be the preferred flock. Ya’akov left Beersheva (“Well of the Oath”) and went to Bethel (“House of God”). Ya’akov was not the first member of…
Genesis 28:10–32:2: Underestimating the strength of the ‘weak’
Genesis 28:10-32:3: Is it better to learn through mistakes?
8 miraculous women of Chanukah
Laban and Ya’akov’s final covenant (Genesis 30:25–31:55)
Battle of Ya’akov’s handmaidens foretells of Messiah’s gathering of the nations (Genesis 30)
Love, Deception, and Divine Intervention: Exploring Ya’akov’s Journey in Genesis 28–29
Chanukah celebrates 6 dedicated women
Rachel vs. Leah and the names of the 12 sons of Israel (Genesis 30)
Ya’akov finds God then Rachel (Genesis 28-29)
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