Nuggets from Genesis 32 — Jacob’s Dark Night of the Soul

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Genesis 32:24, Wrestled with him. Why did Elohim wrestle all night with Jacob? Why not just wound him early on and save the time and trouble? What does this teach us about the long-suffering nature of Elohim who will continue to strive with us and our fleshy tendencies and self-reliances until we finally submit to him and recognize that only through him can we have real strength and victory, though we might end up physically lame in the process?

Let’s break this story down.

Why the wrestling all night “till the breaking of the day”? What does night and breaking of day represent metaphorically with regard to our spiritual walk?

What does this teach us about faith, the struggles of this life and about not giving up until the very end when the blessings and dawning of a new day are about to break forth?

Jacob received the new name of Israel during this time (verse 28). Through this struggle, he took a quantum leap spiritually and became a new man with a new identity. Has this ever happened to you? Don’t we progress spiritually only out of crisis? “There is no gain where there is no gain,” as the saying goes.

What were the results of Jacob’s struggle? Verse 32 says of Jacob, “as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he limped upon his thigh.” Penuel means “faces of El.” Taking a little poetic license (at the drash/allegorical or third level of Jewish biblical interpretation) here, we could paraphrase this verse as follows:

“As Jacob emerged out of the darkness of self-reliance, the face of Elohim shined favorably upon him as he no longer relied on the flesh.”

Pause to reflect on this for a moment and take quick stock of your spiritual walk in the light of these words.

Who are some other notable Biblical characters besides Jacob who struggled with trying to achieve their divine mission through human means? How about Abraham with Hagar, Moses when he murdered the Egyptian, Samson, or Peter when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant? Can you think of some others? What did these men learn about walking in the Spirit versus walking in the flesh?

Genesis 32:28, Jacob but Israel. Jacob/Ya’acov means “heel snatcher/holder or supplanter,” while Israel/Yisra’el means “Prince of El or El Prevails/Prevailer with El.” What can we learn about the change of Jacob’s character as reflected in the changing of his name? Who is the focal point of the name and the initiator of the action in the first name … in the second name? What can we learn from this for our own faith walk?

Genesis 32:32, The muscle that shrank. Please notice that the sinew, representing the strength of the flesh, only shrank. It was not removed. What does this signify spiritually with regard to the redeemed man’s old sin nature?

At the point in one’s spiritual journey when one is regenerated by the Spirit of Elohim, a man doesn’t lose his identity, personality or soul (i.e., his mind, will and emotions). What then happens to a person’s soul? It must be transformed and renewed by the Spirit of Elohim to be conformed to YHVH’s perfect will (Rom 12:2). The soul-man will still try to assert dominance over the spirit-man, but man must learn to submit to the Spirit of Elohim.

Paul discusses the struggle between the soul and the spirit in ­Romans  7:14–25. This is the same struggle that Jacob faced in his dark night of the soul. There he died to his own will and finally submitted totally to that of his Heavenly King.

 

PRAVDA: Obama re-elected by illiterate society’…

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Today, while scanning the news (I keep regular tabs on about 20 to 30  internet news sites—I’m kind of a news junkie), the following article posted today on Matt Drudge’s site [http://www.drudgereport.com] caught my attention. It’s from PRAVDA—yes you read that correctly.

The fact that Drudge—a major conservative American news site—would post anything from PRAVDA grabbed my curiosity.

For those of us who grew up in the Cold War Era, we remember well that in the former Soviet Union, PRAVDA was the major source of anti-American Soviet lies and propaganda. To our Western mindset, PRAVDA was anything but a reliable source of news and information, yet our American news media continually fed us a steady diet of PRAVDA quotes in an effort to “balance out the news.” Remember those days? As a youth, a journalism student and finally a budding journalist, PRAVDA and American media’s duplicity in quoting PRAVDA always infuriated me!

The headline on Drudge’s news site that made me do a double-take reads as follows:

PRAVDA: ‘Obama re-elected by illiterate society’…

Go read this article for yourself at http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/.

In this article, the Russian author derides America for re-electing Obama, whom he calls a communist. He claims that America is headed in the same failed direction as the former Soviet Union, and that Americans must be illiterate not to know this history to have re-elected Obama.

Furthermore, the author claims that while Russia is in a state of spiritual revival in that its returning to its Christian heritage, America, at the same time, is turning its back on God and its Christian heritage to its own detriment.

Okay, I’ve said enough. You need to read this article for yourself. I found it to be amazingly true and accurate. It definitely sounds like a speech that could have been given by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the late author, Nobel laureate and political dissident—if not by Ronald Reagan himself!

Please read this article and tell the hundreds of other who will read this blog post your thoughts.

Am I going crazy, or is this world going crazy?

Whatever the case, please join me in praying for the spiritual soul of America!
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Are Palm Scanners in Florida a Move Toward the Mark of the Beast?

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From USA Today newspaper (Nov 25, 2012):

Palm scanners get thumbs up in schools, hospitals

Do biometric devices such as this bother you—especially in light of Revelation 13:15–18 which says,

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,

and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

Or do you believe that biometric scanners don’t fulfill this end-times prophecy?

If you are concerned about a literal mark of the beast, then at what point do you believe that Bible believers should refuse to cooperate?

Thank you for your thoughtful insights. They are valuable, since they might help to clarify the thinking of others who have  similar concerns as yours.

 

Come out of Babylon, My People!

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Genesis 31, Laban and Balaam. It is quite possible that the false prophet Balaam, who heard from YHVH and had a sense of righteousness, though was still steeped in paganism, was a descendant of Laban. Both were from Aram (part of greater Babylon) and only 280 years separated them. One of the Aramaic Targums (Targum Jonathan) equates Balaam with Laban, while other scholars view Balaam as Laban’s grandson.

Whatever the case, both Laban and Balaam were involved in a mixed-religious system—some truth and some error, some good and some evil.

This is the nature of religious Babylon (meaning “mixture” or “confusion”). A mixture of what? Of good and evil.

Remember the tree by that name in the Garden of Eden? Who was the one who enticed man to indulge in that fruit in rebellion to YHVH’s commands? Is not religious Babylon of today, out of which YHVH is calling his people (Rev 18:4), just that—a mixture of truth and pagan lies? How else, for example, do we account for the name of the Christian festival called Easter or Ishtar named after the Babylonian sex goddess of fertility? Or how else do we account for the Christmas tree phallus symbol that also originated from Babylonian sex worship? Or how about the Easter egg (an ancient Babylonian fertility or sex symbol) or the egg on the Jewish Passover Seder plate? All these are symbols of pagan sex worship.

As YHVH called Jacob away from Babylon back to Beth-el (the House of El), and as YHVH turned Jacob’s heart back to the ways of his fathers, is not the same YHVH likewise now calling his people to come out of religious Babylon (Rev 18:4), to separate themselves from that which is unclean or not kosher (2 Cor 6:17)? Yes, YHVH is now calling the modern descendants of Jacob (redeemed Israelites) to remember the Torah of Moses his servant and to listen to the spirit of Elijah as the children’s hearts turn back to the fathers (Mal 4:4–6).

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 11/25 through 12/1/12

Aside

Parashat Vayishlach — Genesis 32:4 – 36:43
Haftarah — Obadiah 1:1-21
Prophets — 1 Samuel 12:1 – 19:24
Writings — Psalms 50:1 – 56:13
Testimony — Mark 2:1 – 5:43

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day. One each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 11/25 through 12/1/2012

 

Are You Really Free?

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Genesis 31:43, These daughters are my daughters. Laban claims that Jacob’s wives belonged to him. He was also steeped in the idolatry of Babylon having in his possession idols or images called teraphim (Gen 31:19, 34–35).

Is there a modern counterpart to this? Does modern Babylon want to control and possess wives and children of redeemed Israel, indoctrinate them in its pagan religious system, and keep Jacob’s modern descendants from returning to their spiritual and physical homeland and birthright inheritance, and from returning to the Torah-faith of their fathers?

Are modern governments (e.g., public education and Child Protective Services, welfare programs, various government regulations that have greatly diminished or eliminated many of our freedoms) and socio-political organizations (e.g. ACLU, UN) modern-day Labans? Revelation 18:13 says that Babylon the Great traffics in the souls of men. This speaks at some level of the modern day enslavement of men—of their religious expression, freedom of thought and action.

 

“Go Ye Therefore” and Teach What???

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Matthew 28:19–20, Go you therefore. What were Yeshua’s final instructions to his disciples before his return to heaven? This portion of Scripture is commonly called, the Great Commission and is found in Matthew 28:19-20. Do we find here any clues to Yeshua’s view toward the Torah as to what his expectations were of his disciples? Here Yeshua instructs his disciples (that includes you and me) to:

Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Set-Apart Spirit: teaching them to observe [keep, preserve, hold fast] all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amein.

It is clear from this text that Yeshua, a Jewish rabbi (Matt 26:25, 49; Mark. 9:5; 10:51; 11:21; 14:45; John 1:38, 49; 3:2, 26, 4:31; 6:25; 9:2; 11:8), expected his disciples to follow, teach accurately and spread his teachings (the good news of the kingdom of Elohim) to the world. In the religious culture of first century, Judaism disciples (talmudim) were expected to teach exactly what their rabbi or Torah teachers had taught them. This is no different in our day when students enroll in a denominational Bible college or seminary, receive ordination and are then sent out into the mission field in the name of that denomination. The students are expected to carry forth the unique teachings and doctrines of that denomination. If they do not, they will either be reprimanded and expected to realign their teachings with the denomination’s official position. If they refuse to do so, that denomination will discharge them from their duties and defrock them.

Likewise, Yeshua expected his disciples to teach the nations to “observe all things whatsoever I have com- manded you.” In fact, in Acts 1:8 Yeshua said to his disciples that, “You shall be witnesses unto me” to the whole world. This was their mission and assignment.

Yeshua, as did all Jews of his era, spoke Hebrew, and maybe even Aramaic. The word for “commanded” (Matt 28:20) as in “whatsoever I have commanded you …” in either the Hebrew or Aramaic is the word mitzvah, which would have been the same word used in Matthew 5:19 where Yeshua says, “whosoever breaks one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven …” (emphasis added). The word mitzvah in Hebraic religious thought is a clear reference to the Torah commandments of YHVH in the books of the Law of Moses.David uses the term mitzvah (in its plural form mitzvot) numerous times in Psalm 119 equating it with the Torah-law of Elohim as given to Moses and the children of Israel.

It was these same commandments (mitzvot) that Yeshua stated in the Sermon on the Mount that he told his disciples to “think not” that he had come to destroy, that he taught would never pass away as long as heaven and earth stood, that he said whoever would break one of the least of them and teach men so would be called least in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever would keep them and teach men so would be called the greatest in the kingdom. It was these same commandments that Yeshua commissioned his disciples to teach and observe, to keep, hold fast and preserve.

Even in his final word to his disciples before his death, Yeshua commanded his disciples to adhere to the Torah and to convey to those who would follow them the same message.

Can there be any doubt as to what Yeshua’s view of the Torah was, and what his expectations were for his disciples in this regard? How is it that the church has diverged so greatly from the fundamental teachings of Yeshua and his disciples when so many teach that he and his disciples came to “do away with the law?” It has been admitted, by even some in the church, that Christianity is not the religion of Jesus/Yeshua, but rather the religion about the Person of Jesus/Yeshua. For it to be fully the religion of Yeshua and his early disciples, it would have to uphold that obedience to the Torah’s standards of righteous living is a requirement of Christians today.