PARASHAH VAYETZE
(Genesis 28:10-32:3) Week 7
VAYETZE: And He Went Out (Jacob flees from Beersheba to Haran as commanded by his father)
CHALOM: To Dream (Notice how close this Hebrew word is to “Shalom”)
BEIT EL: House of God (Beit means house, El is the name of God)
SHAW’AR: Gate, Gate of Heaven
HA SHEM: The Name; This is an intimate name for Adonai, translated by Jews to denote “Dad”.
MORIAH: “Bitterness of the Lord”. Some believe Moriah is Mount Gerizim, but we should see Moriah as one of the hills of Jerusalem. It was here that Solomon’s temple was built, on the spot that had been the threshing-floor of Orman the Jebusite. It is usually included in Zion, to the north-east of which it lay, separated by a valley. This was “the land of Moriah” where Abraham traveled to offer up his son Isaac. It has been supposed that the highest point of the temple hill is now covered by the Dome of the Rock, and is the actual site of Arunah’s threshing-floor. One thousand years after Abraham, David built an altar and offered sacrifices to God on this same sacred spot.
THRESHING FLOOR: John the Baptist uses imagery of a threshing floor to describe the coming Messiah who would separate true believers from false ones or the wheat from the chaff. The true followers of Christ will be gathered into the kingdom of God, just as grain is gathered into the barns, while those who reject Christ will be burned up by unquenchable fire, just as the worthless chaff is burned (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). The wicked are often described as chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:4; Isaiah 17:13). Similar imagery of the good grain being separated from the worthless weeds appears in the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:36–43.
SULAM Yaakov: Jacob’s Ladder leads to an ascent from earth into the third Heaven where God resides. In the dream the Lord makes His presence known at the top of the ladder, as Ha Shem, meaning The Name, and once again reminds Jacob of His promise that Jacob’s offspring would be like the dust of the earth, and that through Him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The ascending ladder has many implications for Jacob, and as a “window” into the ascent into heaven which the Messiah would also descend from…to come to earth as Savior.
Yeshua Mashiach…OUR LADDER TO HEAVEN!
Jacob awoke knowing the memory of the “Chalom” or Dream, was more than just a dream. This is why he consecrated the place where he lay during the dream as ‘Biet El, or House of God’.
In verse 13 Adonai is standing at the top of the ladder. “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.”
These verses are a wonderful account of how God reveals the Portal or Window in a dream to a man for the purpose of a Revelation into Heaven! This is seen time and time again in the bible from Genesis, to The Revelation!
The place of Biet El, House of God, profoundly moved Jacob, to commit to Ha Shem, His Heavenly Father, his own personal commitment to return obediently to Isaac’s home, and that Adonai would be His God, and He would remember the standing stone, on which he proclaimed God’s awesome presence at Biet El, and to return 1/10th of everything that Adonai blessed him with.
I see the remembrance of this profound dream, and how it was the defining SPIRITUAL moment for Jacob, which led to his adult decision to worship and truly follow the God of Abraham and Isaac! (Sydney)
LABAN: “To Be White”
RACHEL: “She Knows”
Jacob fell in love with Rachel at first site at the well as she watered the sheep. We have the repetitive story of the beautiful girl chosen by Adonai, seeking WATER at the WELL, as she is first seen by whom God intended for HER.
Do we see the delicious irony that Jacob, like Rebecca his mother, watered his beloved’s sheep at the well, out of the fullness of his heart! Jacob was his mother’s son! 😊😊
Laban is again very accommodating to another visiting relative! Laban, in his flesh, dually motivated by what was right and good, but also what would serve his personal agenda; greed. We will see this lived out over the 20-year history where he manipulated Jacob into a form of slavery.
The supplanting of Jacob: Laban supplanted Jacob’s desire to have Rachel as his wife, by sending in Leah her older sister on the wedding night of Rachel and Jacob. Jacob was fooled. This is another irony which can bring about much discussion.
LEAH: “Weary, Tired” … Did Leah and Rachel WRESTLE against each other like Jacob and Esau? Was their rivalry such that Leah became EXHAUSTED by trying to gain Jacob’s love and attention away from Rachel…as the First-Born Daughter and Wife?
Jacob’s 12 Sons: Through Leah, Rachel, (Zilpah and Bilhah who were two handmaidens)
Rachel’s giving of her handmaiden Bilhah, who bore 2 sons, Dan and Naphtali, mirrored her great grandmother Sarah’s impatience in waiting for the Lord to give her a son.
Rachel steals Laban’s IDOLS before she and Jacob flee. Was her intention to take the false gods of her family home in order to put Laban in a state of fear and vulnerability? We clearly see that her father participated in Idol Worship. Did she intend to strip her father of all intended curses issued forth on the gods he worshipped, upon Jacob?
The Lord appears also to Laban in a dream and warned him to allow Jacob to go to Haran. There was still contention between Laban and Jacob. THE LORD INTERJECTS HIMSELF INTO ANY SITUATION TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL, EVEN THROUGH AN IDOL WORSHIPPER!
A peace treaty finally was made, attested by a pile of stones in honor of the agreement of Gal Ed or “Heap of witness.”
Angels from God meet Jacob as he enters the land of Canaan! Jacob called the place Machanayim, or “two camps.”
The Parashah ends as Jacob sends messengers before him to inform Esau, in the land of Edom, that after 20 years he would be returning to Haran.
HAFTARAH (Old Covenant) READING: Hosea 12:13-4:10
The parallel verses in Hosea speak to the fleeing of Jacob from Laban’s 20-years of slavery
This is a prophetic accounting of the future of Israel, and her Idol Worshipping Wanderings!
The message is “Return Oh Israel”, from your iniquity!
God is trustworthy to HEAL our iniquities and apostasy, enabling us to inherit His blessings, especially the promise for Israel, but also for US.
The great prophesy and promise: Through Israel the entire world will be blessed!
BRIT CHADASHAH (New Covenant) READING: John 1: 19-51
Yeshua Himself makes reference to Jacob’s dream of the Ladder and the angels descending and ascending to heaven.
Yeshua is the CORNERSTONE over which all must STUMBLE over and FALL down!
Yeshua IS the LADDER to the FATHER for ALL who will come!
Yeshua is the: The DOOR, The WAY, The GATE, The LADDER to our Heavenly Father!
NO ONE comes to the Father, but by way of The Son!
Dear Seekers:
Each morning as I run and pray, I visually pray through the Tabernacle, all the way into the Holy of Holies, seeking my rest on the Kapporet or the mercy seat of Adonai.
I stand at the GATE, and I stumble OVER the Cornerstone or Threshold of Yeshua! The tree upon which He hung for me and all mankind, lays now at the entrance to the Tabernacle, in our hearts! This “Threshold Covenant” made by Jesus is the only way IN!
I confess my sins before Him and thank Him for His Life-For-Life sacrifice, which has freed me from the slavery of sin and death! I move past the altar of His sacrifice to the Laver, the Priestly Mikveh, where His blood washes me as white as snow!
To the left, I see the glow of light from the Menorah, filled with holy oil, illuminating LIFE from the RUACH HAKODESH (Holy Spirit) which is our gift and guarantee that we are HIS.
Turning to the right, I see the low, gleaming, gold Showbread Table where my voluntary offerings lay before Adonai. I see all that I have laid before Him, for His supernatural touch!
Jesus as the Door, the Gate…The only way into the Father
Jesus as the eternal Sacrifice laid on the Altar…The final redemption for the Father
Jesus as the Laver…The only way to be washed clean from our sin
Jesus as the Menorah…MESSIAH is the light of the world
Jesus IS Kohen Hagadol or Great High Priest and our intercessor at the throne of the Father
Jesus IS the VEIL, torn for us, from heaven down to earth
Messiah Jesus is the BEATING HEART of TORAH!