24 B’re’shiyt 1:6 ~ Torah Mattot July 19, 20014
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Sh’ma
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19 July 2014 ~ 21 Tammuz 5774
(This means the 9th of Av is Aug 5... pay attention to what is happening in the world - especially on this date!)
B’re’shiyt study by Brad Scott
B’re’shiyt 1:6
Torah Parashah Mattot - B’midbar 30:2- 32:42
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B’re’shiyt 1:6 - p 27 in study guide
“Vay-yo’mer Elohiym y’hiy raqiya’ b’tok’ ham-mayim viyhiy mav’diyl beyn mayim lamayim.”
“And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the water.”
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The first word - Vay-yo’mer we talked about in B’re’shiyt 1:3 - p 18 in your study guide.
VAY-YO’MER = spoke, think, command, promise - an action.
ELOHIYM - first in B’re’shiyt 1:1 = God; strong leader.
YIHIY - first in B’re’shiyt 1:3 = already; brought forth
Then we come to a word that is mentioned for the first time....
RAQI’A’
-Comes from the Hebrew root - RAQA = resh -qof- aiyn
It means = to pound, to beat, or crush - to flatten or to expand:
Translated in Torah as - firmament, expanse, stamp, stretch forth.
It is the action behind what YHWH is doing here in this verse...
Mizmor/Psalm 19:1 firmament -
KJ says...
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work.”
CJ B p 806 says
“The heavens declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.”
“The dome of the sky” is what was translated firmament - and what was originally RAQI’A
Mizmor 136:6 cjb p 928
“to him who spread out the earth on the water for his grace continues forever;”
- “spread out” = RAQI’A
Yesha’yahu 42:5 cjb p 500; 44:24 cjb p 506 = stretch or to spread
Sh’mot /Exodus 39:3 cjb p 105- literal use - “hammered” - in the pounding out of the beating of gold plates...
.... this is like what is going to happen with the waters...
We are talking about the spreading out of the waters in this verse...
that is b/c…
So far the waters have not been divided. - They are in the shamayim - the heavens… (Janet’s question….. Aren’t they also in the earth /ha Eretz ?? - b/c earlier the Spirit hovered over the water… was that in the Shamayim?? hmm)
But now YHWH is going to go through the process of dividing the waters
and there is going to be an expanse between the waters on earth and the waters in the heaven... the canopy that rained down waters....
.... there is going to be an expanse between the two..
and YHWH is going to do that by a pressing and a crushing ...
....so that there is a thin water vapor between the two.
This expanse that it is between the two, is what we will see in the next word = b’tok ..
YHWH literally made - pounded out or stretched out -the waters =
the thin layer between the waters - were man is going to live...
It will have oxygen ...
It is so thin it has oxygen and water in it....
Just a vapor is between the 2 waters...
Another way to say this is that the water that is just that very thin...
we call it humidity!
We can’t exist on just Oxygen... there has to be water in it too!!
That is why we have water vapors....
There is never a time on earth when we have zero humidity.... all over earth. We have to have water in air to survive...
RAQI’A ‘s literal picture =
=like a picture pounding of tin plates....
= and is also woman kneading dough....
....the thin pieces.
Brad also notes that ....
... this same word RAQI’A is translated “stamped” in 2 Tim 2:19 cjb p 1487and “firmness” in Colossians 2:5 cjb p 1471.
On the bottom of p 27 in your study guide Brad writes...
that RAQI’A is about.... “… an expanse pounded or stretched out thin as in the pounding of dough. The expanse would be the extremely thin atmosphere left firmly between the waters. So the expanse contains water vapors which man and other creatures will need to live.”
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Th next word is...
B’TOK
p 28 in study guide
- B’TOK comes from the Hebrew root - tavek -
- which is a - tav - vav - kof
and literally means = to center, to make equidistant, to deceive ...
....that is why in Scriptures it is ...
translated as midst, same middle
How is making something centered... associated with deception?
Remember these words are not just about what took place in creation but also what it is going to be symbolically used for in other places...
Remember the evening and morning - now that we have light and there is a distinction - we can tell the difference
It may look like....YHWH is going to separate the waters and hasatan is going to be in charge… but we know that hasatan is the prince of the air b/c YHWH allows it.
Remember we talked about evening and morning... and that Yah hates the mix???...
....Well - “the mix” - is in the middle!!!
Deception is being in the middle!!
Deception is not one way or the other... deception comes in the mixing of the two so you can’t quite discern…. (like the tree of the knowledge of tov and ra / good and evil. = it is a mixing… and YHWH hates mixing.)
Someone in the middle - is easiest to deceive...
Someone who has strong convictions one way or the other can’t be deceived nearly as easily as someone in the middle!
The moderate is always in between the two... and they are just as far away from a lie as they are from the truth!!!
This is an important concept b/c this is going to be the atmosphere of hasatan’s domain...
What is going to be the atmosphere of hasatan’s domain?
THE MIDDLE... just as far away from the lie as one is from the truth... IN THE MIDDLE - between the waters.
Hasatan is called, in Eph 2:2 cjb p 1460; Eph 6:12 cjb 1464; - the prince of the power of the AIR..
... The air - the domain of the prince..
Hasatan’s never been to hell yet... he lives here…. (despite the fact that i used to believe that he lived in hell and waited for all the bad people to show up there with him!)
He is a very real entity - the prince of the power of the atmosphere....
I find it interesting that most of our deception comes through the air. ......radio and tv, and computer --- and their waves come through the air... the radio and tv waves....
This is why day two is not called good - b/c it is hasatan’s atmosphere... and b/c good /- tov - means = to complete...
YHWH did’t just over look it - it’s all there and not there for a reason…
YHWH can’t declare this day “good” b/c the 2nd day is not complete.
What is going to happen is the action of the waters will be complete when the Eretz is baptized by the waters in the verse ahead - but right now it is not done.
Rabbis call day 2 a day of strife
Rashi - a respected ancient Rabbi says YHWH doesn’t call day 2 good because the waters are not complete....
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- The task of waters is not complete until the third day! - the baptism.
Wow! Think about the 3rd day for awhile!!
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Torah Parashah :
Mattot - B’midbar 30:2- 32:42 cjb p 187
The first part of this parashah talks of vows...
In B’midbar 31 YHWH gives Moshe instructions to take vengeance on Midyanim...and the battle ... and Moshe in 31:14.... is angry that they let the women live - the women who came in to the camp and brought pagainism.
In B’midbar 32 the tribes of Re’uven and Gad decide that they are not going to cross the Jordan /Yarden River and go into the Promised Land.... they overtake the land of Gil’ad and are going to live in Gil’ad.
In this Parashah, as with every parashah... there are many many teachings....
What comes to mind first in this one is this idea that the tribes of Re’uven and Gad had... they were settling for what they wanted and not pursuing YHWH’s plan....
Here was Moshe - knowing he couldn’t go into the Promised Land... and wanting so badly to ... while these boys have decided that they’d rather stay here where it looks really nice....
How many times do we make decisions like that... going after what we want and not hanging on and pursuing what YHWH wants for us??!!!!
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There’s something else we are to look at today...
Let’s look at the B’rit Chadashah for today...
Mattityahu 23:1-39... but before we read it... i want to remind you - that our friend Jessica whom we helped go to Isra’el.... said that when she was in Isra’el - Yahshua gave this teaching standing near Pharisee /Rabbi offices and off to one side of him would have been the tombs /graves
Mattityahu 23:1-39 cjb p 1252
23:3 Aramaic English commentary -- “Peshitta and Greek texts agree that since the Pharisees sit in Moshe’s seat they should teach Moshe but, instead they elevate their oral traditions above Torah. The fact of the matter is, if they would actually study Torah, they would know Yahshua is Mashiyach.”
23:7-8 Aramaic english commentary -- “The Aramaic here does not mean “Rabbi” as in “teacher” per se (as in Mattityahu 28)
Yahshua commands his disciples to teach the world. Instead, Yahshua is addressing the more literal meaning of “rab” which is “great” .... as shown in B’re’shiyt 6:5, “the wickedness of man was GREAT on the earth.”
The previous eight verses teach against elitist behaviors,
... so do not be called “MY GREAT ONE” for you have One that is GREAT, YHWH.”
- This is directed to the Rabbis (leaders) themselves, not to the followers.
23:9-12...
Yahshua gave this teaching in context of warning His disciples not to love to be called exalted names which would seem to give more importance than others. Do not seek praise of men - Do not accept anyone to make you their master , or their source of supply. There is only ONE who is your /their Master and Source of Supply
23:29 -Aramaic English commentary...
“a “marketing strategy” of the Pharisees is to posture themselves as being obedient to YHWH’s Prophets, and thus appear to legitimize their authority regarding Torah and the Prophets. A similar strategy is adopted by Christians who posture themselves as authorities on the Jewish Mashiyach, but how instead promote pagan religious traditions; these “crucify Mashiyach daily by choosing to willfully neglect the Word of YHWH.”
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So part of what is interesting to me here is... He is correcting the leaders - the Pharisees and calling them them to stop mixing man’s traditions/ ideas / behavior with TORAH!!
I also found it interesting that we aren’t to call people “FATHER”.... interesting that is what one religion calls its leaders! hmm...
In 23:23-24 cjb p 1253
“Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah - justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to -- without neglecting the others! Blind guides!! - straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel!”
We talked before about weightier matters.... and said how weightier For example - saving the life of an animal or person on Shabbat. is always the greater god.
Also... What Yahshua is saying in this is what Moshe and Torah said / say!!
“The altar is always more important than the sacrifice!!”
Torah is the altar!
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Do you see the connection between the Pharisees in Mattityahu 23 with the two tribes who didn’t want to go to the Promised Land....
They both were after what they wanted and not what YHWH had for them!!
So which side of the Yardin /Jordan do you live on??
The side that is pretty and is “nice”…. or do you step in faith and walk in that place where obedience is even difficult and live in the place HE has called you to live??
You can stay in the east side of the Promised Land - the place where YHWH has called you - or you can learn that obedience is always greater than sacrifice…. and choose to enter the Promised Land.
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I want to give you one more thing to think about....
As i mentioned before….
There are two trees - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... and the other is “The tree of Chayim” life /….
.... people were supposed to eat from the tree of Chayim - LIFE.
BUT not supposed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil.
- which is what the pharisees were doing.... they were functioning from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil....
There are only 2 trees, and just like we said about power in the world... Either it is of the Living God or it is not... there is no other option. Just one or the other…
So if there are two trees - we are either in one or the other.... we don’t eat from both.
The fruit might even look good from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil….. but it is still not the Tree of Chayim!!! That tree - (good/evil) is a mixed tree - just like the Pharisees of Mattityahu 23… just like the two tribes who decided to stay outside the Promised Land.
May we learn to live out of the Tree of Chayim!!
Amein!!
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