17 October 2015
~ 4 Cheshvan 5776
Torah Parashah ~ Noach B’re’shiyt (Genesis) 6:9-11:32 RSTNE p 12
Guardian Angel - “desire” = “teshuqah”
Torah Parashah today
Noach - B’re’shiyt
6:9-11:32 RSTNE p 12
I want to back up to last week’s Torah parashah
first.
I want to remind you of something we learned a
long time ago... that came from Chuck Missler’s work.
B’re’Shiyt 5 RSTNE page
11
This is the list of the 10 generations of man from
Ahdahm to Noach.
In Hebrew - names mean something.
If we take each name in Hebrew and just read the
definition of each name... It would
read:
“The blessed Elohiym will come down, and his death
will bring the restoring rest/comfort.”
!!!!
Just a reminder to us that YHWH didn’t just decide to send Messiah when
Yisra’el “couldn’t keep the instructions” - as
many of us grew up being told. -
Mashiach was the plan from the B’re’shiyt / Beginning!!!!
**
Torah Parashah - Noach - B’re’shiyt
6:9-11:32 RSTNE p 12
Let’s back up one verse:
YHWH has just said - “I will destroy man...”
and then in
B’re’shiyt 6:8
“But Noach found favor in the eyes of YHWH.”
“favor” = “chen” - a chet and a nun
Chet = fence, outside, half, divide, protect
Nun = continue, heir, life, son, action
Hebrew Interlinear translates it as “grace”
B’re’shiyt 6:9
“These
are the generations of Noach: Noach was
a tzadik (tzdiq) man and perfect in his generations, and Noach had his halacha
with Elohiym.”
“tzdiq” = “just”
“righteous”
Some will say he was the Melchizadak on the earth
at that time.
thamiym = flawless ... “perfect” = complete and
whole.
Not perfect as in flawless - but perfect as in His
heart was after YHWH.... He was complete
and whole.
Divre Hayamim Bet (2nd Chronicles)
16:9 RSTNE p 659
“For
the eyes of YHWH run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself
strong on the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
“perfect”
= shalom =
Strong’s
says shalom means:
=
“complete, safe, peaceful, perfect, whole, full, at peace, unharmed, complete
of keeping covenant relation”
**
“B’re’shiyt 6:14
- “tar” / “pitch” = kaphar (kopher in Strongs)
= “atonement or ransom”
*
Let’s talk about the children of Noach ...
Shem
= Hebrew people
Ham = Cainanites,
Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Babylonians (Iraq), Africans.
Yahpheth
= “gentiles” - “Their open-mindedness causes them to be susceptible to
deception.” - European, Russian, Indian, German, British, Spanish, Italian, Celtic etc...
We
know that many of those people came out of Hebrews as well.
*
B’re’shiyt 10:8
“And
Kush begat Nimrod: he began (chalal) to be a mighty one (gibbowr) in the
earth.”
“begat”
= chalal = implies sexual profanity
Strong’s
= to profane, defile, pollute, desecrate
“mighty
one” - gibbowr = most often refers to giants
*
Before we leave the Torah Parashah -
Mattityahu 24:37
RSTNE p 700
“But
as the days of Noach were, so shall also the coming of the Ben Ahdahm be.”
Who
is the Ben Ahdahm? - the Son of Man?... Yahoshua HaMashiach.
What
is “as the days of Noach were” - talking about?...
B’re’shiyt 6:4-6
RSTNE p 12
“There
were Nephilim in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the
sons of Elohiym came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to
them, the same became might men who were
of old, men of fame.”
5And Elohiym saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his lev (heart) was
only evil continually.
6 And it bothered YHWH that He had made man on the
earth, and it grieved Him in His lev.”
Nephilim
= giants
nun
- peh - yod - lamed
nun
= seed, heir, son, life, action, continue
peh
= open mouth command, scatter, blow
yod
= hand, work, throw, make, energize, worship
lamed
= staff, lead, teach, yoke, forward, tongue, control
Root = nun-peh-lamed
Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew
says
nun-peh-lamed =
“fall,
drop down, descending quickly, giant”
There are many teachings out there that this is
happening now... that Nephalim are again on the earth...
We know that there is much DNA recombination going
on....
I have seen persons with features not of man. It is here.
B’re’shiyt 6: 11
“The
earth also was corrupt before Elohiym, and the earth was filled with violence.”
“violence”
= hamas ... now what or WHO is “Hamas” today??
**
Again the world is “full of violence”... but we don’t know if it is almost as bad as
it is going to get - or if it will continue for years and years and years...
we know that every generation has
believed that theirs was the one that Yahoshua haMashiach would return... We
also know that for the first time in the history of the world as we understand,
man is rearranging the seed the DNA of plants and animals and man itself.
The one thing i do know for sure is that i desire
- we desire - that when YHWH’s eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to show Himself strong on the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward
Him.” -
That HE
finds us - with perfect hearts toward Him.
AMEIN.
****
Study of “Guardian Angel” by Skip Moen
In the last weeks we talked about:
Radah = meaning to act /walk in authority given
from someone else. We carry the radah of
YHWH.
Atsav = Sorrow = emotional pain and suffering
B’re’shiyt
3:16 RSTNE p 11
“Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow
and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring out children; and your desire
shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Meyers says “The Hebrew text could read, “I will
intensify your pain and your child rearing,”
NOT “your pain and your giving birth.”
“Meyers says this verse cannot be translated in
the classical way about childbirth. he
contends the critical word always refers to mental and emotion suffering and
about child REARING, not child bearing.”
“There are two Biblical possibilities for syllable
and vowel construction in the consonants that make up the phrase translated
“greatly increase” or “greatly multiply”....
Translators usually assume that the consonant
construction is
Resh - Bet - Hey with the vowels meaning “to be
many” or better translated - “to be many
many” - or “greatly multiply”.
BUT a small shift in the pointing (vowels) in the
second word - and it changes the meaning entirely.
to -- Aleph
- Resh - Bet
and this word is ARAB.
and it means “to lie in wait, to ambush”.
“If this second word is ARAB and not the
repetition of RABAH, then the meaning would be ...
“has
caused to increase the lying-in-wait your sorrow”
Re-arrange that to an English sentence structure
and you get...
YHWH says -
“The one who ambushed you has multiplied your sorrow.” !!!!!
*
end of review
**
So today we are still on
B're'shiyt 3:16 RSTNE
p 11
“Unto the woman He said, I
will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall
bring out children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule
over you.”
Let’s talk about a couple of words in this verse that has been
so messed up:
“Desire” and “rule”.
“Your desire shall be to
your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Desire = teshuqah
Teshuqah is found only tree times in scripture.
Here, and in
B’re’shiyt
4:7
“And the eyes of both of
them were opened, an they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
togheter and made themselves aprons.”
= the darker side of the
word is revealed. Teshuqah in this
passage describes a relationship between sin and Cain. - Cain chooses anger and he sins... This
shows us an important correction to our understanding of the first occurrence
of teshuqah....
.... Using it here makes
it clear this is not a sexual thing!!! -
-- This is NOT sexual
desire!
It is about authority and
control, not sex!
Shir HaShirim
(Song of Solomon) 7:10 RSTNE p 588
“I am my Beloved’s, and
His desire is toward me.”
Let’s start this study
looking at some research on this occurance...
B're'shiyt 3:16 RSTNE
p 11
“Unto the woman He said, I
will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall
bring out children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule
over you.”
- “This verse has created an incredible amount of grief
within the Body.”
The church has mostly interpreted this verse as a
“prescriptive curse”, basically saying
that Chavah sinned - so YHWH is mean - no
longer loving ....Thus HE authorized men to rule over women!!! They even argue that sexual desire is part of
the curse on women... “but their husbands were given the power to dominate
these emotionally distressed creatures”.
In fact - B’re’shiyt 3:16 “became the proof text of centuries of male domination, often without
any semblance of blessing.”
In 1921 Katherine Bushnell
wrote “God’s Word for Women” (an excellent book!).
She pointes to what she
calls -- “a linguistic
sleight-of-hand --- that ultimately created the “curse” model,
thanks to a Catholic monk named Pagnino.”
- “The crucial term, teshuqah, has two distinct
linguistic etymological backgrounds. The
first follows the path of the LXX winding its way back through ancient Syraic,
Ethiopic and Arabic roots to the Hebrew text.
This path provides us with the meaning - “turning.”
With this meaing, the statement in B’re’shiyt is not about Chava’s
DESIRE. It is about Chava turning AWAY
from YHWH and toward her husband as the center of her life.
In other words, YHWH observes that Chava’s sin
is the result of her decision to make Ahdam more important than YHWH. She chooses to take the fruit because she
opts for her evaluation of what is best in the fulfillment of her role as ‘ezer
kenegdo’. she puts her choice ahead of YHWH’s commandment.
Bushnell was the first to
point out that a major shift in translation occurred in 1528, almost 3000 years
after the text was written.
A Dominican monk named
Pagnio translated this Hebrew word with the Latin equivalent of “lust”.
In her book, Bushnell
demonstrates that Pagnino’s translation became the basis of nearly every
English translation following his 1528 publication. But the ancient translations, including the Septuagint, render the word
as “turning” and not “lust”.
Moen says - her research
is “enormously important”.
“With the exception of the
1380 Wycliffe translation and the 1609 Douay Bible (both translations from the
Latin Vulgate), every subsequent English version adopted Pagnino’s translation
of “lust”, modifying the term to “desire” in later works.”
“In other words, our
contemporary understanding of Chavah’s relationship to Ahdam after the Fall is
characterized by the WRONG English
word.” !!!!
Maybe someone should ask -
what does “the real Bible” say?
And does YHWH really
intend men to rule over women??
Because if He does, “how
do we explain Sha’ul’s admonition for husbands to love their wives with the
same self sacrificial love that Yahushua
exhibited for the Body?”
“How do we explain the
golden rule applied to marriage?
“How do we explain all the references to women as leaders (even apostles) in the early congregations?
“How do we understand the
admonition to ‘mutual submission’?”
“And how can we expalin
the clear assignment of the Prime Directive to BOTH men and women equally?”
Moen says - “It seems we
maintain the translation “desire” because it is closer to what MEN would like
to think rather than what YHWH actually says.”
*
So what happens is -
“YHWH observes that
Chavah’s actions are described by teshquah but now, in a fallen world, her
husband will exercise the upper hand.
The pact of mutual responsibility and harmony is broken.
Now there is a battle for
control. In spite of her longing to
regain her previous status as the ‘ezer kenegdo’, she will experience her
mate’s resistance. Just as the earth resists
Ahdam, so Ahdam will resist his ezer kenegdo.
This parallel is important.
The source of Ahdam’s
creation (the earth) will resist him.
Where it once was the source of delight and fruitfulness, it is now the
arena of atsav. In parallel, the source
of Chavah’as creation, Ahdam himself will resist her. Where it was once the arena of delgiht and
fulfillment, it is now the place of Atsav.
Her life will be frustrated in her attempt to fulfill both divinely
commanded purposes: to bring life
into this world and to act as the protector and provider for her mate. She will have atsav in the field of her
operations (relationships) and atsav in the attempt to fulfill her intended
destiny.”
Summary -
1. The
prescriptive curse is not extended to humanity.
Only the serpent and the ground receive curses.
2. The descriptive declarations of the effect of sin on
Ahdam and Chavah are the natural results of sin and are concomitants of sin
itself.
3. The divine
command issued to Ahdam and Chavah is not erased or rescinded. Only the circumstances of fulfilling the
command change.
NOW we can correct the
mistaken translation of teshuqah as “desire”.
this is not about a passionate wish of fulfillment. What happens here is concerned with
alienation from the ground of being. Ahdam
is alienated from the earth. Chavah is
alienated from Ahdam.
This insight helps us
recognize something about the second part of the declaration to Chavah.
It is not possible to
understand “your turning will be toward your husband, and he will rule over
you” --- without recognizing there is an implied
previous state where the opposite was true.
The frustration of
Chavah’s intended role reverses what was previously a natural sate of affairs.
Before her disobedience,
she was expected to execute her role of responsible stewardship as avodah,
delightful work, service and worship.
Now she will experience a battle doing what she was naturally equipped
to do. ‘
In B’re’shiyt
3, we encounter the great
collapse. Chavah still knows what she is
meant to do, but own her destiny is opposed by the very one who previously
recognized her perfect suitability. She
seeks to be the protector and provider over the very person who now refused to
acknowledge her designed assignment.
Once serving as ‘ezer kenegdo’ was a delight and an act of worship at the
same time. Now is toil.
This fits exactly the
Hebrew idea of “measure for measure”.
we talked about this last
week.
In Hebrew justice, the
punishment fits the crime -
precisely!.
= equivalent recompense. It does not establish the minimum
sentence. It establishes the
maximum. You can do no more than ask an
eye for an eye.
The great news is YHWH
demonstrated the minimum is forgiveness!
Consider what all this
means in relation to the punishment resulting from the sin of Ahdam and
Chavah. Ahdam is alienated from he
very substance that provides his essential makeup. He is separated from what he is made from. This is the deepest kind of alienation. He and the earth are now at odds.
His assignment doesn’t change. He is still to BLESS the earth with his
stewardship, but now he finds resistance.
His avodah must be worked out in the context of atsav.
Precisely the same is true
for the woman. She is alienated from the source of her substance - the man - for she came from him. She is separated from the very thing that she
is made from - her husband. Her task is
frustrated. She is to be his steward, to
BLESS him with her care, but now he resists.
She has to work out her assignment, her avodah, in the context of
atsav. This is measure for measure.”
*
Let’s think about the
whole sin moment...
Notice - the serpent approaches Chavah not Ahdam. This was
not an accident. The Word says the
serpent is the most cunning of all beasts.
“What better way to defeat
YHWH’s purpose than to seduce the protector and guide. Also notice that the serpent appealed to what
she was called to do...- She is to steward Ahdam, just as Ahdam is to steward
the earth. And so here is the serpent -
“appealing to her desire to accomplish this task by suggesting that she will be
BETTER EQUIPPED to fulfill her destiny if she has the same knowledge and status
as the Creator. After all, with the
ability to discern good from evil ON HER OWN, she will rise from the role of the steward of another to the role of the benefactor of another.” -
- So the serpent appealed to the TRUTH she already
understood... just making it better!!
Ahdam’s part is that he
follows along!
Ahdam is stuck in a
position where he must decide to follow his creator or this woman - given to
him to take care of him.
Interesting that even
though YHWH spoke directly to Ahdam -and told him what not to do - Ahdam
still decides he will do what Chavah said. - sort of like a child might
do with an adult who is a trusted protector.
According to
1 Timothy
2:14 RSTNE p 903
“And Ahdam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression.”
“The fact that Chavah is
the first one attacked and Ahdam offers no resistance makes sense once we
acknowledge her role as the ‘ezer kenegdo’.”
B’re’shiyt
3:13
“And the man said, the
woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the eytz, and I did eat.”
This sure sounds like
Ahdam understood the role of the ‘ezer kenegdo’.
So this story has a lot of
details... it goes like this:
-YHWH creates Ahdam.
-YHWH builds the ezer for
Ahdam.
-The ezer is deceived by
the serpent, steps over the boundary of human dependency and provides an
opportunity for deliberate disobedience to Ahdam.
-Ahdam chooses to follow
his ezer rather than obey YHWH’s external word.
- Bad things happen
- YHWH confronts the parties.
- They shift blame, but not in the same direction.
-Ahdam blames the woman.
- The woman blames the serpent.
- The serpent blames no one (it accepts the verdict.)
- Ahdam doesn’t just blame the woman alone, he
ultimately shifts the blame to YHWH!!!
Katherine Bushnell notes
that Ahadam’s excuse puts him on the same side as the serpent in oppostion to
YHWH.
Ahadam attempts to hold
YHWH responsible.
Chavah doesn’t do that.
Chavah blames the
serpent. (And she is CORRECT in this!!)
Chavah doesn’t say - “You
made me an ezer YHWH, I was just doing what you said”
and Chavah doesn’t say -
“You made the serpent, YHWH, so it’s your fault.”
She doesn’t take
responsibility - but blames the serpent... BUT she doesn’t blame YHWH!
But Ahadam blames YHWH!
We can recognize that
Ahadam and Chavah are not accountable, but “do we recognize how subtly Ahadam
changes sides?”?? !!!
When we repent to we give
excuses??
“Ahadam’s excuse implies
that he recognized and acknowledged the role of the ezer kenegdo prior to the
fall.”
Ahadam has to feel
betrayed by his own body... She was his ezer and she messed up.
Ahadam has to respond with
something like - “Well, I’ll never listen to her again!” - and
this is exactly what “your teshuqah will be for your husband, (but) he will
rule over you.” !!
Chavah is created as the
ezer kenegdo.
She is seduced because she
is the ezer kenegdo.
Ahadam follows her lead because she is the ezer kenegdo.
Her failure to uphold the responsibility entrusted to her causes Ahdam to reject her as ezer kenegdo.
Instead of forgiving,
Ahadam assumes control, suggesting that the woman is unfit for the job.
From this point forward,
Ahadam takes the initiative.
HE no longer trusts his
wife.
Chavah must now fight to
act as the ezer kenegdo for her man.
“The loss of innocence is
not the psychological loss of unashamed sexuality. It is a loss of the fundamental ingredient
for all intimate relationships- trust.”
**
Koheleth
(Ecclesiastes) 7:29 RSTNE p 599
“Behold, this only have I found, that Elohiym has made man
upright; but they have sought out many devices.”
Moen says
“YHWH made man upright
(yashar). YHWH designed men to have a
perfect relationship with Him. He
created men in HIs image, completely equipped to become fully human in
conversation with YHWH.
But something went
terribly wrong, not because of a design flaw but because men sought out the
wrong object of desire. This verse
tells us that we are just as capable of seeking YHWH , with the same intensity
and commitment, as we are of seeking something that destroys our relationship
with YHWH.
The intellectual,
emotional and volitional (power to make your own choices or decisions) process
that led Chavah to take the forbidden fruit is exactly the same provess that
should have led her to embrace her role as ezer.
Life does not consist of
two separate incommensurable - unrelated, dissimilar methods of operation.
Life consists of two separate and incommensurable goals achieved by the
SAME method of operation.
That’s why sin seems so
easy. It uses the same circuitry. It just chooses the wrong direction.
We have to look at -
consider - evaluate the turning in our behavior every day!
Moen’s point becomes -
Chavah’s sin shows us that it’s possible to pursue YHWH with as much emotion,
dedication and jubilation as we put into our favorite team or most satisfying
hobby or greatest passion!
YHWH could be our deepest
passion!
But in all likelihood, He
is not. You and I might be fanatics for
track or football or basketball or piano or knitting ...but we are not likely
to be fanatical about YHWH.
We have taken what YHWH
built into us, designed for Him, and sought out other objects of desire.
Too late we learn that the
design is perfected in only one direction.
We are more likely to
follow Chavah in the pursuit of independent strength rather than learn to
pursue DEPENDENT OBEDIENCE.
How about you?? How excited are you at pursuing YHWH - or do
you have more passion to do something else??
We have to get ourselves
in a place where our passion is radical defiant faith with so much passion that
it rises up and runs over all of the time.
So that ... we are making
a path for others toward the order of YHWH... always.
AMEIN.
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