Shabbat Midrash (Teaching) Outlines

• Yisrael (Israel) became a nation in the year 1948. Avraham (Abraham), the father of the Jewish people, was born 1,948 years after creation. Tell me numbers are not important to Yah’s (G-d’s) plan for all mankind!
• Why Avraham? We can understand why Yah chose Noach from last week’s teaching:

1) Noach was righteous

2) Noach was whole-hearted (toward Yah)

3) Noach walked with Yah (G-d)

• Avraham’s father, Terach, was not only an idol worshipper (Joshua), but research has shown that he was an idol maker.
• With such closeness to idolatry, Avraham came to see the falseness first hand. This led him to the realization that there was only one G-d. There are many stories in Jewish history that recount Avraham breaking the idols that his father made.
• The ground work had already been laid for Avraham because of the rift with his father.
• When Yah told Avraham, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen, and away from your father’s house”, Avraham was willing and ready to obey.
• Let’s look at what exactly Avraham is being asked to leave behind and what that would mean to him, or more importantly, to us:
• First, his land
• “Your” is used to show possession here. Avraham might not have otherwise left if Yah had not requested him to leave.
• The culture Avraham left represented a system that was entirely counter to the will of Yah (G-d).
• Like Egypt at the time of the Exodus, people have to come out of the system in order for Yah to do his work!
• If people are not willing to leave, then maybe they are not fit to enter the Kingdom of Yah. Disobedience is what caused man’s downfall from the beginning.
• Avraham was asked to leave a physical location and take a journey to an unknown destination.
• Today, we are asked to leave a spiritual location and take a journey to a promised destination.
• Secondly, his kinsmen
• Avraham not only left his homeland, but he also separated himself from those in his family who would not follow him after Yah revealed himself to Avraham.
• Unfortunately, several members of Avraham’s family had become wealthy (in worldly terms) and they had got caught up in idol worship. Sound like anyone you know?
• Thirdly, his father’s house
• Avraham’s father journeyed as far as Haran (meaning: a dry place) with the family. They dwelled there for several years before Avraham got his call from Yah.
• From Haran, Avraham and Lot (his nephew) set out for Cana’an.
• What does this mean to you and me?
• Three things that stand in the way of answering the call of Yah in our lives are:

1) Country

2) Culture

3) Family

• Concerning country: The people of Yah (G-d) will inherit The Land, Eretz (land of) Israel, not America.
• Concerning culture: American culture on every level runs counter to the teachings of Torah and the Renewed Covenant.
• Example: American Christian holidays are immersed in paganism and commercialism and very much at odds with the teachings of Yeshua (Jesus).
• Concerning family: Many people who have come into Torah will tell a similar story: When they learned the true origins of Christmas, Easter, and Halloween and decided not to celebrate them anymore, preferring instead Pesach and the Festivals of the L-rd, a huge rift opened up between them and their families.
• Matt 10:37 says, “He that loves his father or mother above me is not worthy of me, and he that loves a son or daughter above me is not worthy of me.”
• Avraham chose Yah over family several times; what makes us any different from him?
• When Yah’s word asks us to give up things we’ve been doing all our lives in exchange for things HE is showing us, things that will cause division between us and our culture, people we grew up with, and our families, we are being asked to make the same decisions that Avraham did.
• In other words, YOU MUST BE WILLING TO LEAVE YOUR PAGAN ROOTS IN ORDER TO DISCOVER YOUR JEWISH ROOTS!

Building Altars and Digging Wells

• Altars and wells are references to two forms of love and service that correspond to the scriptural adjuration to love the L-rd with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.
• An altar represents developing a relationship with Yah and giving the best of one’s self to His service.
• Digging a well shows service to our fellow man and represents the gift of water (life) to a brother or sister.
• We see in G-d’s Word Yitzchak (Isaac) digging wells and his adversaries continually trying to fill them in.
• Those who are opposed to water (life) are doing the work of our adversary, HaSatan (Satan). The well that HaSatan wants to fill in more that any other is that well of Living Water that flows from the innermost being of those of us who put our trust in Yeshua our Messiah.

The Famine

• Genesis 12:10: “And there was a famine in the land and Avraham descended to Egypt because the famine was severe in the land”.
• This was the third global famine to strike the earth in its early years since creation.
• The first was in the time of Adam. Food was in short supply because the ground was cursed; it was only bringing forth thorns and thistles (until Noach came and brought “rest”).
• There was a second famine in the time of Lamech (Noach’s father).
• The third occurs at the time of Lech Lecha.
• The tenth and final famine will not be a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Yah (G-d). (Amos 8:11)
• Today we are so famished for Yah’s word that we are often satisfied with the “scraps”.
• We have been starving for so long that we have forgotten what it is like to be “full”.
• Torah is too vast and time is too short to be satisfied with so little.
• We need to stay at the table and literally “gorge” ourselves until we are filled to overflowing; then go out and share our fullness with others that are starving.

AMEN!

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