Shabbat Midrash (Teaching) Outlines

• Noach was the son of Lamech, the grandson of Hanuk. There were 10 generations from Adam to Noach
• Yah told Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if He could find 10 righteous people there.
• Repentence was preached throughout the generations from Adam to Noach. Noach listened to his grandfather, Hanuk whose name means learning obedience.
• Soon we will be celebrating Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. If we are obeying Yah and His Torah, we will be walking in the Light as He is in the Light.
• Noach means rest – the kind of rest that we experience on Shabbat- rest from our wrestling with the things of the world.
• Noach’s name is spelled with the two Hebrew letters chet and nun
• When they are read from right to left they spell rest.
• When spelled backwards they mean hen (grace).
• What is true grace? You can’t get true Noach (rest) unless you have found hen (grace).
• Don’t be deceived into believing, like many today, that grace is some leafy covering that entitles you to do whatever and not have to pay the penalty for it.
• Hen (grace) in the Hebrew is the ability and the desire to do Yah’s will.
• It is a willingness and a desire to walk in obedience (Hanuk) to Torah.
• Some say, “Well, Yeshua already covered that base for me, so I don’t have to do anything”. This is the language of a perverted generation that focuses on I,I,I,me,me,me - I will do what is right in my own eyes.
• You are still required to do the will of the Father by the grace (hen) that is freely given to you to accomplish it.
• The Torah mentions Noach’s offspring, but it does not immediately talk a whole lot about them. The Hebrew concept of offspring looks at the spiritual, then the natural.
• Noach’s spiritual offspring were:

Righteousness

Whole-heartedness

Uprightness before Yah

• Religious tradition teaches us that we get baptized and then we are pure. The story of Noach teaches us that the flood represents baptism, but if we read carefully it says that Noach was pure before the flood. The flood did not change his purity. Our thinking is backwards when it comes to Yah’s ways.
• Often we have heard that we should “walk in the spirit” and not in the flesh. What does that mean? Walking in the spirit means doing those things that are meaningful for eternity and not those things that are of a temporal nature. If we examine our daily walking from this angle, we will begin to get a different perspective about the things that occupy our time.
• “They shall walk and not faint - fainting means to fall away from what we are instructed to do in the Torah.
• The daily walk is the most difficult. It is easy sometimes to give in to the fleshly desire and give up.
• But those who wait upon Yah, His timing, His grace (hen) shall renew their strength.
• When the name YHVH is used in the Torah, it refers to his mercy - when the name Elohim is used, it refers to his judgement- when the Torah speaks about Yah destroying mankind, YHVH is used - that was Yah’s mercy, but we think of it as judgement. Again, this proves that our thinking is backwards when it comes to Yah’s ways.
• In western thought, law is something that is in place to keep you from doing what you would really like to do. Our concept of judgement is what happens when you break the law - the judge socks it to you and so, we have a negative view of judgement.
• In the Hebrew concept, the Law, or Torah, is instruction in order to give you life so that you keep from being destroyed.
• Judgement is Yah upholding the righteous - the judge upholds righteousness by putting everything right. Judgement in the Hebrew concept is a good thing.
• If you are living a life according to Torah, you won’t dread judgement, you will welcome it. Yah is coming in judgement and its merciful, otherwise this place would be destroyed because of the sin.
• Gen 7:12 - It rained on Ha’aretz for 40 days and 40 nights.
• Verse 17- the flood was on the ha’aretz for 40 days. This is not the same thing. The inhabitants of the Ha’aretz had 40 days to repent before Yah before they were destroyed –THEY DIDN’T!!
• The scripture tells us that “If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
• In our day you can show religious folks what the Torah says and you would think they would want to repent of the lies and wrong teachings that we have inherited. But the prevailing attitude is “God will have to change, not me!”
• Prior to the flood, and ark is built.
• After the flood, a tower is built (Babel).
• The Ark is an image of Messiah. In Him is our salvation. The Ark was G-d’s idea and was made from a living thing.
• The Tower was man’s idea and was made from bricks, a dead thing.

• The ark was built by one person - the tower was built by many
• The ark was moveable , built in obedience. The tower was stationary - built in rebellion.
• The ark ends in salvation - the tower ends in confusion.
• The ark was built by faith - the tower was built by defiance/fear
• The ark was built in humility - the tower was built in pride.
• The ark had a vision of the future - the tower looked to the past.
• The ark was completed - the tower was never completed.
• The ark was Yah’s way - the tower was man’s way.
• The tower represents the religious system. Man came up with his own form of salvation. Man’s form of salvation is NEVER ENOUGH!! Yah’s way is always sufficient.
• The tower was built in Nimrod’s time – the founder of sun-worship - justification through our own way’s, not Yah’s.
• Today’s religion says we can’t walk in obedience so we will walk in defiance - after all, Yah gave us grace (hen) so we could defy Him.
• Yah tells us that we can walk in HIS ways - you can, but it is going to cause you problems. If you go the route of organized religion, you won’t encounter these problems – you will be accepted by the many - the remnant will be accepted by the few…like Noach…but who was spared and who received salvation?
• Colossians 2:8-10

posted by Chris Phillips, Congregational Leader  # 11/04/2005