PARASHAH B’RESHEET
WEEK 1: Genesis 1:1-6:8
B’RESHEET is written in the ‘Divine Narrator’: The Third Person
B’RESHEET: In the beginning: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) The first letter is BET meaning HOUSE, followed by three VAVS, in Gematria adding up to 18, the value for LIFE (CHAI). The “HOUSE of CREATION” is the LIFE of the universe; God dwells with us, in His house of creation.
YESH ME’AYIN, EX NIHILO: Out of nothingness, in a 6 Day ‘Period of Time’ God created the Universe
YEHI ‘OR: Let there be light: (YEHI: Let there be) (OR: The Light of God) MORE than illuminating darkness
VEHI ‘OR: There was light: (VEHI…There was) (OR: The Light of God) MORE than illuminating darkness
TOHU VAVOHU: Void and Chaos without THE LIGHT OF GOD!
PI ’EL: To Hover or To Brood over, as a mother bird over her nest. (The RUACH hovered over creation)
BETZELEM ELOHIM: “Let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness” Father, Son, Holy Spirit
ELOHENU: All Powerful, Pre-eminent, Prevailing God and King … ‘The Uncreated ONE’
YAWEH: (YHVH) God of Presence, Provision, Protection and Promise… How God relates to ‘Mankind’
RUACH HAKODESH: Holy Wind, Holy Breath, Holy Spirit (Kadesh means HOLY)
SABBATH: REST, ‘God blessed the seventh day, set it apart as His own, and hollowed and rested’ Gen 2:3
NESHAMA: The Divine Spirit; Higher spirit (Let us create man in our IMAGE/NESHAMA) Prescription for man
NEFESH: The Human Spirit; Lower spirit (Our DESCRIPTION without the Divine Spirit) Description of man
AY’DEN: EDEN, meaning Delight; Garden of Eden, Garden of Delight
IESH: MAN (ISH means fire!) Divine Fire: heals, illuminates, refines, brings beauty!
IESHAH: WOMAN (ISH means fire!) Unholy Fire of the Flesh: burns, hurts, destroys, consumes!
ADAMAH: ADAM; Deep Red Earth
HAVAH: EVE; Life-Spring or Life-Bearer
AVODAH: Holy Work; Adam given AVODAH by God to “SHAMAR”: To Cultivate and Guard Creation
(Adam’s PRESCRIPTION WAS AS GUARD AND CULTIVATOR OF ALL ELOHENU HAD MADE!)
EZER KENEGDO: EZER means: One who helps, surrounds, protects, aides Adam (This is a military term)
KENEGDO: For and Against! For Adam; when he is aligned with Adonai, Against Adam; when he is misaligned with Adonai. (Eve’s PRESCRIPTION: KEEPER OF THE BOUNDARIES OF LIFE WITH ADONAI)
Envision Adam and Eve Back-to-Back (for and against each other) in Divine Union as ONE Warrior
AYEKA: “How”! The broken lament of a compassionate God to Adam and Eve after they sinned
TORAH: The root word for Torah is YAREH…an archery term meaning To Hit the Mark!
CHATTA’AH: Sin, To Miss the Mark! To miss living out our divine prescription by His Spirit!
SERPENT: ‘The Shining One’; a Being of light, ‘The More-crafty One’; who diligently observes us
ALLAH: Curse (An extremely interesting fact, the Hebrew word for curse is Allah, Muslim God)
ADONAI: The Hebrew name for Lord, Adonai; My Lord!!
ADONAI SETS BOUNDARIES! Out of the VOID and CHAOS, the TRINITY sets the first boundary of light into the darkness. ADONAI created the first DAY, beginning at sundown!
More boundaries came in God’s Creation: the separation of the Heavens, land masses, seas, and in the Garden… Male & Female, and the boundary around “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”
More on Eve: “EZER KENEGDO”:
She stands in front of him, facing him, but is designed to work harmoniously with him. She works as his strength, aid, and balance. Therefore, it is erroneous to think that her design is one of inferiority. This line of reasoning, which stresses full equality, is continued in Genesis 2:23 where Adam says of Eve, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” The meaning of the phrase, “bone of my bones” is a “very close relative” to “one of us” or in effect “our equal.” However, she can be dynamically opposed to him if he is not just or righteous, resulting in a contentious manner. This is by creative design, and not necessarily out of wickedness. Eve becomes the Sacred Contender and can pronounce judgment on him. By her God-Given prescription, Eve is Adam’s REMINDER OF THE HEAVENLY BOUNDARIES, HIS ARROW POINTING TO ADONAI TO HELP ADAM HIT THE MARK, THEREBY WORKING FOR BOTH AS CO-CULTIVATORS OF GOD’S DESIGN!
More on Adam’s AVODAH: As ‘Guard AND Cultivator of the Garden’!
Adam was to serve Adonai in the garden as a form of worship, and to keep a protective observation in guarding and caring for the dominion he has been given. He is commissioned to act as a King or Priest over the garden; one who Oversees and Cultivates!
His commission as a Priest over the Kingdom that was entrusted to him was to subjugate and keep it under his control. We are to understand the original calling of Man was as one who was to overcome anything opposed to the order Yahweh set into heavenly motion.
Yahweh had ALL AUTHORITY in the Universe! He delegated to Adam ALL AUTHORITY in the earth. In the beginning, Man was both Priest and King. Adam was to rule and serve as Mediator of God’s blessing and order of creation. We can be assured in this intent, Yeshua was at the HEART of CREATION, for in God’s Sovereignty Yeshua was at the center of THEIR creative plan, from Genesis to the final word in the Revelation!
Yeshua calls Himself, The Word! The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were fully present and eternally United as One (YACHAD) before Creation. In the Trinity there is YACHAD…UNITY!
To the Serpent: The first curse exercised by God on His creation was to the Serpent. “You will crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live”. Gen 3:14
The worst punishment for “The Shining Being of Light” would have been to be thrust LOW, and crawl about on the earth’s surface, instead of being LIFTED HIGH, feeding into his own pride!
To Eve: ‘I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband but he will rule over you.’
(In her lower nature, Eve strives to devour Adam’s role in the relationship, yet he, in his lower nature, seeks to dominate Eve, which was never part of God’s plan for marriage. They were created to be complementary; not dominate or overpower one other. Like the beautiful balance of RESTRAINT in CREATION, there can be a beautiful balance of restraint in marriage as we ALLOW each Adam and each Eve to grow and lean into their Divine Prescription!
(Pain during birth, and pain in Childrearing, for now the children are brought into a sinful, broken world. In Eve’s prescription as Ezer Kenegdo (Help, Surround, Protect, Aide) she will painfully fail, and she will see her children succumb to the enemy! This brings PAIN!
To Adam: ‘Because you listened to your wife (and failed in his prescription to GUARD and CULTIVATE what was of GOD) you ate from the tree about which I gave you ‘the order,’ you are not to eat from it, the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground for you were taken out of it, you are dust and you will return to dust.
Did you know that Adam and Eve were not meant to ever experience a physical DEATH?
Do we clearly see that Adam was given Holy Work in the Creation, to Shamar or Guard ALL that God had created! He was to also Shamar, Guard Eve! Yet on that day the “Shining Being of Light” spoke with Eve, Adam stood looking on, not fulfilling HIS God Given role as GUARD.
The Banishing! Please consider the MERCY of Adonai, in the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden! Had they not been banished, and continued to eat from the tree of life, they would have been immortal, as God Himself; immortally sinful and separated from their Creator.
God’s redemptive plan was PART of CREATION! Interestingly, the two times “Cherub Angels” as GUARDS are mentioned is here in Genesis, as they were put in front of the Garden entry to protect it from re-entry of man…AND…over the Ark of the Covenant which HELD the TORAH LAW! Both the Garden and Torah Law brought forth and guarded LIFE!
Eve: “I have acquired a man from Adonai” This sentence is full and rich in Prophecy regarding Eve’s exclamation as to her new son Cain! Through the very seed of Eve will the “Eternal redemptive plan of God be set in motion”! Through the SEED of EVE, the Messiah CAME!
Chatta’ah (sin) runs through our veins! In Cain’s jealous rage over Abel’s favor with Adonai, and Adonai’s rejection of Cain’s “less than pure sacrifice as prescribed by God” he refuses to turn away from sin and master his emotions…instead he entertains sin and kills his brother in a jealous rage. When approached by Adonai, he is insolent…”AM I my brother’s guardian?” MORE curses! (Midrash says Cain’s sacrifice was rejected as it was not a Blood Sacrifice)
The literal genealogical legend of Adam and Eve is listed in Chapter 5 and is a beautiful picture of how important each one of God’s children IS in the eternal picture of HIS ~ STORY.
Remembering the 6 days of Creation:
Day 1) “Yehi’ OR” Let there be light! (EREV — Sundown ~ BOKER– Sunrise)
Day 2) The Canopy / Dome of Heaven, Sky, and it’s separation of upper and lower waters
Day 3) The boundaries of dry land and seas, calling forth trees and seed-bearing vegetation.
Day 4) Position of Sun, Moon, Stars, established times and seasons / signs and wonders! Establishing TIME in creation reveals there is an eternal PLAN needing the boundaries of TIME, for there is the Beginning, the Middle, and the End (Acharit Hayamin, End of days, time ceases)
Day 5) Sea life, Birds, Reptiles
Day 6) Land Animals / Betzelem Elohym created Adam and Eve as ‘Image Bearers’ of Elohym
Day 7) Sanctified the Sabbath Day of REST, from His CREATIVE FORCE, as an example for man.
HAFTARAH READING: (Old Covenant Reading): Isaiah 42:5-43:11
These verses in Isaiah UPHOLD the Creation Story! They uphold the evolving relationship with the chosen Nation, Israel.
“You see much but don’t pay attention, you open your ears, but you don’t listen. Adonai was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to make the Torah great and glorious!”
‘No god has produced before me, nor will any be after me. “I, YES, I, am Adonai!”
The verses go on into the prophetic deliverance by Adonai, of Israel! These are PARALLEL VERSES, meaning that throughout God’s Word, there is a SYNERGY of His TRUTH in His own Words. God’s Word UPHOLDS ITSELF as the Truth of God, written through the Holy Spirit, about God.
Studying Torah, as a Messianic Believer, gives tremendous credibility to the fullness and perfection of God’s Word, and literally BUILDS OUR FAITH VERSE BY VERSE!
Torah truths etched on our hearts create an eternal ‘Weaving’ of the Divine into the Mortal.
BRIT CHADASHAH READING (New Covenant Reading): John 1:1-14
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD.
AND THE WORD WAS GOD. HE WAS WITH GOD IN THE BEGINNING.
ALL THINGS CAME TO BE THROUGH HIM, AND WITHOUT HIM NOTHING MADE HAD BEING.
IN HIM WAS LIFE, AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MANKIND.
THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS, AND THE DARKNESS HAS NOT SUPPRESSED IT.
THIS WAS THE TRUE LIGHT, WHICH GIVES LIGHT TO EVERYONE ENTERING THE WORLD.
HE WAS IN THE WORLD, THE WORLD CAME TO BE THROUGH HIM,
YET THE WORLD DID NOT KNOW HIM.
HE CAME TO HIS OWN HOMELAND, YET HIS OWN PEOPLE DID NOT RECEIVE HIM.
But to as many as did receive him, to those who put their trust in his person and power, he gave the right to become children of God. Not because of bloodline, physical impulse or human intention, but because of God.
THE WORD BECAME A HUMAN BEING AND LIVED WITH US, AND WE SAW HIS SH’KHINAH,
(Divine Presence) THE SH’KHINAH OF THE FATHER’S ONLY SON, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH.
My Dearest Am Segulah: (Treasured People)
There is not one word to be added nor taken from this truth. This truth can only be read, considered, believed, and trusted. May our faith be built by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Father. Baruch Ha Shem! (Blessed Be His Name!)
May the peace of God hover over you, dear treasured people!
Sydney,
A Scribe for the Lord