Shabbat Midrash (Teaching) Outlines

Genesis 1:1-5, 6:5-8, 4:19-24,26

• Torah portion covers quite a span of history - the beginning to just before the great flood
• And the haaretz (earth) was tohu (without form), vovohu (void) and choshech (darkness) was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the face of the waters. And Yah said, “Be Light”: and there was orah (light). And Yah saw the orah (light) that it was tov (good); and Yah divided the orah (light) from the choshech (darkness). And Yah called the orah Yom (Day), and the choshech (darkness) Yah called Lailah (Night). And the erev (evening) and the boker (morning) were Yom Echad (Day One).
• When you look at the Hebrew word for light, orah, you simply add a T and you have Torah
• When the Spirit of G-d came and began to hover upon the face of the waters, He brought both physical light and spiritual Light (Torah) - with Torah came order out of the chaos that existed in the choshech (darkness)
• Talmudic commentaries inform us that nothing that happens did not already happen at the time of creation (Jewish understanding)
• When Adam and Havah (Eve) rebelled against Yah and fell from hen (grace) and brought sin into the world, the state of falleness, darkness and void wasn’t something new; it was not a new thing; their act of disobedience brought what existed before Torah came; they brought pre-Torah conditions to the earth- tohu, vovohu, and choshech
• Sin is not bringing evil to the earth that never existed, it is regressing to the state that existed prior to Torah
• Tohu (without form), vovohu (void), and choshech (darkness) describes a person without Torah – a person who is blinded to Torah due to their spiritual darkness
• The Torah, according to B’resheet (Genesis) came and brought light, life and form
• Soon after that sin, through deception, entered into an orderly, light filled, full of life situation and everything regressed to a state of ignorance and stupidity
• Adam and Havah (Eve) actually thought they could “hide” from the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of G-d) behind a clump of bushes
• They thought they could cover their falleness with a couple of fig leaves-The first Adam went looking for fig leaves to make a worldly covering for his sins- The problem was that it didn’t take long for the leaves to shrivel and die!
• Yah knew their helplessness and knew that only blood would cover their sin and the guilt that followed
• Yah provided the first sacrifice (sin/guilt) offerings for Adam and Havah and according to the Torah in the book of Leviticus, the priests were allowed to keep the skins of the sacrificed animals
• A blood atonement was offered for both Adam and Havah and they sewed the skins together to cover themselves
• The Hebrew word for skin in Hebrew is “or”, from which we get the word light (orah)
• When the skins were stretched and dried they were used as material on which the Torah was inscribed. They were called “leaves”. When they were sewn together they were called a katan, or a hairy garment. Later we see that Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) wore a hairy garment as he baptized people preparing the way for “The Lamb of G-d who takes away the sins of the world”- the ultimate blood atonement offered by Yeshua
• Symbolically Adam and Havah wrapped themselves in the Torah while awaiting the arrival of Yeshua who would be the final blood atonement for their sins
• Sinners today are still looking for worldly coverings when they are disobedient
• Matthew 21:18,19- Yeshua was hungry- many are hungry today! Why? There is a famine in the land; a famine of the Torah! Spotting the fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing but leaves - usually the fruit on a fig tree is preceded by the leaves. This was representative of barren, dead religion! It was then and it is today! The fig-leaf righteousness and false revival are the characteristics of the last-day Laodicean Church. II Timothy 2:5 tells us that they had a form of Godliness, but were denying the power.
• Yeshua cursed the fig tree because it would produce after its own kind. It was a law established at the time of creation. He cursed the worldly covering because fig leaves cannot cover up our disobedience and spiritual emptiness. The first Adam looked for leaves. The second Adam (Yeshua) looked for fruit!
• The blindness produced by the sin of Adam and Havah in the garden convinced them that they could somehow convince the All Knowing, All Seeing G-d that it was not their fault, but it was somebody else’s - Ha-Satan (Satan) made me do it!
• The offspring of the couple show us by their behavior that sin is a generational thing - the disobedient one kills the obedient one
• From the scripture, you see the descendents of the disobedient one dwell in cities, they create music, they work in brass and other fine metals- all appears to be well, or is it? The last portion of our Torah reading (called the Maftir) tells us that they were actually advancing in darkness and formlessness.
• The Torah is trying to tell us not to be deceived just because things look a certain way according to the world. We as believers need to judge things by one and only one true indicator- Yah’s Holy Word. If it does not line up with Torah- stay away from it.
• The descendents of Cain introduced some of the pagan rituals that are still around even today; the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. They justified this by the idea that if Yah created them; let’s worship them
• To someone walking in darkness, they think they are in the light. To someone walking in formlessness, they think they have form. To someone walking in void, they think they have completion and fullness because when you are walking in spiritual darkness, you don’t even know you are in the dark
• It is only when you are in the light and look back can you know that it was dark; it is only as you are in the form of the Spirit of the Living G-d that you are informed by Him can you tell the formlessness; it is only when you are infilled by His presence and His Spirit can you tell that you were empty!
• In the end days it will be as it was in the Days of Noah- Yah will say “I regret that I have made them”
• In the Days of Noah the last thing that happened beforeYah koshered the earth was that He sent darkness for five and a half months. Why physical darkness? Because they were walking in spiritual darkness.
• If Yah had not cut the darkness short, no flesh could live - this is referring to the spiritual darkness; not the physical darkness
• What are we to do in these last days? We are to walk in the Light as He is in the Light according to Psalms 119- The One who brought Torah to the tovu, vovohu, and the choshech will guide us into the light. I would caution you to “lean not to your own understanding” but follow the leading of the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of G-d) and stay in the Light, the Torah!

The Four Rivers

• The Hebrew word for river comes from the word for “to shine, beam, light”
• The four rivers that flowed out of the Garden were:

1) The Pishon – increase

2) The Gihon – bursting forth

3) The Tigris – rapid

4) The Euphrates – fruitfulness

• When you pronounce these together we see that there is an increase that is bursting forth rapidly bring fruitfulness.
• The rivers flowing from the Garden are still flowing today; physically and spiritually. Physically the water is still flowing upon the earth and spiritually in our life in Yeshua.
• John 7:38 says that “ whoever believes in ME (Yeshua), as the scripture said, rivers of LIVING WATER will flow from his innermost being
• John 4:10- Yeshua answered the woman at the Samaritan well, “If you knew the gift of Yah (G-d) and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you LIVING WATER”.
• The woman continues her conversation with Yeshua and demonstrates that she is tohu, vovohu and choshech by the words she speaks and the questions she asks. Yeshua declares to this woman that He is the Messiah that she awaits. I wonder what her response was? What is your response? I urge you to make the decision to walk in the LIGHT of Messiah as He is in the LIGHT.

posted by Chris Phillips, Congregational Leader  # 10/28/2005