The Light of Torah
Presents Article One
Prepared by P. R. Reid
We will employ the following hermeneutical tools in this article:
- The Rule of First mention (the first mention of any word establishes the precedent in which it will be used throughout Scripture)
- The Rule of Complete mention
- Covenant language
- His perfect will for creation
- PaRDeS (THE RULES OF PARDES INTERPRETATION *
The four level of interpretation are called: Pashat, Remez, D’rash & Sud. The first letter of each word P-R-D-S is taken, and vowels are added for pronunciation, giving the word PARDES (meaning “garden” or “orchard”). Each layer is deeper and more intense than the last, like the layers of an onion. (http://www.yashanet.com)
If you are a believer of Messiah Yeshua in today’s world, you probably believe with your whole heart, that you are part of the bride of Messiah. The question is how we can be certain of our spiritual position especially when we read Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
This Scripture should give each of us great pause because Yeshua is clearly speaking to two groups of believers, the first group are those He does know while the second belong to a group He says He does not know. The next question is how do we know which of the two groups we belong to?
Can we find our answer in the Scripture itself? The Scripture speaks to those who do the will of His Father. I am very concerned about the ramifications of this Scripture so I choose to seek out what exactly is the will of The Father.
I believe His will can be found in the very first word of Scripture, in its original Hebrew form of course. It’s time to establish the perimeters for this study. The reader should understand that the original Scriptures were written in a picture type form commonly referred to as ancient or paleo Hebrew. Each picture tells its own story aside from the man made definition.
There are twenty two letters in the Hebrew Aleph Bet. Each letter is represented by a picture, the ancient or paleo form. Each letter is also represented by a corresponding number. You can easily search out the paleo Hebrew picture forms in your favorite search engine. My go to chart was prepared by Jeff Benner of www.ancient-hebrew.org.
I will answer our questions by using the Hebrew letters, in their ancient picture form with their numerical values. I will begin with the first word of Scripture in its Hebrew form. The first word in Scripture is Bereshit. In its block letter form it appears thus:
בְּרֵאשִׁית
This is an interesting word in itself. It has been translated into English as “In the beginning.” However in Hebrew this word has a uniquely distinct meaning. I will explain.
The first letter you see is the letter Bet which is actually the second letter of the Hebrew Aleph Bet. The ancient picture of the letter Bet is the floor plan of a house. Its ancient meaning is family, house or in. Its numerical value is two. The number two represents The Son, Yeshua. In the Hebrew script this letter is oversized, that is, larger than the rest of the script. This technique is designed to get our attention.
The oversized letter gives us the Fathers purpose for creation. Surely we didn’t really believe He had no real reason for creation did we? The oversized letter tells us that in, with or on account of The Son Yeshua, was creation made. The Fathers plan was to create a house and family for His Son, Yeshua. The word appears thus in Scripture:
בְּרֵאשִׁית
Believe it or not there is still more to learn about this word. Let’s continue.
Again, the first word is בְרֵאשִׁיתּ. What, if anything, do the rest of the letters tell us? I’m so glad you asked!
בְּרֵאשִׁית
ב ר ‘ ת (brit – the first two letters and the last two letters) means to cut, as in to cut a covenant (defined as divine ordinance with signs or pledges- Blue Letter Hebrew English Lexicon)
אש (aish – the two center letters) means fire
Since we are using PaRDeS in our perimeters, let’s look at the word Bereshit (PaRDeS definitions provided by Wikipedia).
- Pashat meaning as defined is the literal or direct definition – Bereshit simply means “In the beginning,” totally accurate.
- Remez meaning as defined as the “hints” or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense – Bereshit hints at The Fathers will for creation.
- Derash meaning “inquire” (“seek”) – the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences. In its ancient form the letters of this word would mean “His family who was ordained from the beginning will acquire strength as they press into His completed work and are sealed.”
- Sod meaning “secret” (“mystery”) or the esoteric/mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation. The numerical value of this word is 913. 9 + 1 + 3 = 13.
Thirteen speaks to all thirteen tribes of Israel. Recall the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel. The 3rd son, Levi, was removed from the count and ordained to be the priesthood of Israel which reduces the number to eleven. The two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, were adopted into the family of Jacob/Israel bringing the total to thirteen.
1 + 3 = 4 which is a number associated with Yeshua. Yeshua descends from the 4th son of Jacob, Judah.
The Fathers purpose for creation was to create a house and family for His Son, Yeshua, by using the vehicle of a cut covenant with fire in between. This is a description of the Covenant of Pieces, a covenant YaHaVah made with Abraham, the first Hebrew. This covenant is recorded in Ge. 15:7-21: Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, (italics mine) down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. “And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. “Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—“the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, “the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, “the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
By way of explanation, there is something to be understood about a covenant that is cut. By cutting the animals in half during covenant ceremonies, the parties making the covenant were effectively saying, “Let this be done to us if we break the terms of this covenant” (biblestudymagazine.com). If either party breaks their part of the covenant their own life would be forfeit. There are eight pieces total. A number we will discuss later.
Who walked through the cut pieces? A smoking oven and a burning torch. The smoking oven is a representation of YaHaVah who would never break His own covenant. The Father fore knew that there would be a need for a substitute for the descendants of Abraham in the event they would break their part of this covenant. Therefore, the burning torch is a representation of Yeshua HaMashiach, the substitute, who will ultimately pay the death penalty price for the descendants of Abraham, those who will, at the golden calf, break this covenant. The covenant promise is for land and descendant, seed.
Da. 9:4 – 5 speaks to the fidelity of Yah with regard to this covenant: “And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.’” Our key words are keep and rebelled. YaHaVah keeps His part of the covenant of pieces while man, who is in need of a redeemer, rebels from his part of the covenant of pieces.
The promise is restated in Ge. 17:1 – 9: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. “And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. “ Seed and land!
This is a good place to discuss the name change of Abraham. In the Hebrew Scriptures, names mean something in particular. Perhaps it’s a representation of the character of that person. In this case the name Abram means exalted father. It is spelled thus, אברם . In its ancient form Abram would read “Strength of the family comes first for the mighty.” The numerical value of Abram is 243 which reduces to 9. When YaHaVah changed his name to Abraham the ancient meaning and numerical value would also change. Abraham means father of a multitude and is spelled thus, אברהם . We can see that this new name is consistent with Abrahams promise. The ancient meaning of Abraham would read “The leader of the family who was ordained from the beginning will be revealed out of the chaos.” The numerical value of Abraham is 248 which reduces to 14. Messiah Yeshua is a promised descendant of Abraham.
The number 14 leads us to Messiah Yeshua. The 14th letter of the Hebrew Aleph Bet is the letter Nun, נ. The Nun is a picture of a seed, a spermatozoa to be exact. In its ancient form this letter means seed, continue, heir or son.
If it’s a seed, does it still represent Messiah Yeshua? The seed bearing vegetation was a creation of day 3. The number three represents death, burial and resurrection. We can easily see this connection to Yeshua. In fact, Ge. 3:15 confirms this understanding. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (NKJV)
There is still more to this story. Consider John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus (Yeshua) coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! We have often heard Yeshua referred to as the Lamb of God. What exactly does this mean to us and what does it have to do with YaHaVahs’ covenant will and Abraham?
The Lamb of God is a reference to Passover, the Hebrew word is Pesach. The instructions for the first Pesach are given by YaHaVah to Moses, a descendant of Abraham, are recorded in Ex. 12:1 – 13 “Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.’” The instructions are given by The Father, YaHaVah, to a descendant of Abraham, Moses, about the death of a yet future descendant of Abraham, Yeshua whose death will occur on the 14th day of the first month. As you can see, Pesach is a covenant festival. Those who are interested in being in His Will, will be observing this very significant festival.
Ge. 17:10 – 12: records a follow up instruction to the “Covenant of Pieces: “This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; “and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. “He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. (Italics mine)
Now we know there was a covenant made between the Supreme One and Abraham, a covenant that has a sign attached to it. The sign is circumcision. The cutting of the male foreskin, the location of seed disbursement. This event occurs on the eighth day. This is very significant when we examine the eighth letter of the Aleph Bet.
What exactly is a covenant as defined by Scripture. There are two types, an unconditional covenant and the conditional. Naturally, there is some debate as to which of our Scriptural covenants is which.
The rule of first mention speaks to The Fathers covenant with regard to creation, sometimes referred to as the Noahide covenant. This covenant is recorded in Ge. 8:20 – 22: “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
‘While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.’”
The sign of this covenant is recorded in Ge. 9: 12 – 17: And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. “It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting (emphasis mine) covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The Father did not ask, need or invite Noah or subsequent generations to do anything with regard to His own covenant of promise. This is an unconditional covenant.
The covenant of pieces is a conditional covenant, which is man is required to keep.
Ge. 18:19 speaks to man’s requirement to walk in obedience: For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” (Italics mine)
Recall the sign of this covenant is circumcision which took place on the eighth day. The eighth letter of the Aleph Bet is the Chet, ח. In its ancient form the Chet is a picture of a tent wall. This letter means wall, outside, divide or half. On the eighth day a newborn Hebrew male would be divided or separated from the world by his circumcision thereby securing his entrance into covenant, at least in the physical realm. This is a good place to talk about the two aspects of Abrahams seed. One is physical and the other is spiritual. These two aspects reconcile us to the two apparent seeds found in Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden. The pure seed, the seed that Yeshua HaMashiach would descend from Seth and the serpent seed, those who have the spirit of anti-messiah. The Father looks at humanity thus; the Hebrew people which belong to Him and the goyim, those that belong to the world.
If we are in a covenant relationship with YaHaVah, we are to separate ourselves from the world. 2 Corin. 6:17 – 18 reads: “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you and: I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…
If we are walking in covenant then we are separated from the world system (recall the number eight) and can then identify with the spiritual seed of Abraham. If we are rebelling from His covenant then we are still part of the world system. This is the distinction that is being made in Gal. 3:16: Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.
Gal. 3:26 – 29 states further “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Abraham’s spiritual seed walk in a covenant relationship. Abraham’s physical seed do not. The grafting process referred to in Rom. 11 speaks to these two seeds, these two seeds that began in the garden. In the apostle Pauls’ letter to the Romans in 9:6 – 8 he repeats this instruction “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called that is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”
Lk. 1:72: “To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham…” There is no question as to which covenant is being spoken of by Luke. He is speaking of the Covenant of Pieces.
In Acts 3:25 Luke speaks further to this covenant: “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” In Luke’s day and hour everyone in Jerusalem knew what covenant he was addressing
This is a good place to discuss the new, renewed, restored covenant, according to Jeremiah 31:31.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new (new, renewed or restored) covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” If we are not a physical descendant of Abraham, that is a native born Hebrew individual, then this renewed covenant does not belong to us.
Jer.31:32: “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.” The covenant being spoken of is none other than the Covenant of Pieces as previously discussed. The covenant that was broken with the gold calf incident.
Jer. 31:33: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Notice the two houses, the house of Israel and the house of Judah (the divided kingdom) have now been brought back together as one nation. The new, renewed or restored covenant itself is not new, rather it is the location; their minds and hearts instead of their hearts of stone as described by the prophet Ezekiel.
The previous location was the tablets of stone, those that the 10 Words were written upon, those that were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant will now be relocated to our minds and hearts! The 10 Words are the capstone of the Book of the Covenant. The distinction between the Book of the Covenant and the Book of the Law will be discussed in a subsequent article.
The way for the nations to enter into The Fathers covenant is recorded in Rom. 11:1 -23 : “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace—his undeserved kindness in choosing them. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.” I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
The nations are invited to align themselves with the Supreme One. In so doing, they accept their part in keeping the Covenant of Pieces, thus they will be grafted onto Israel, the olive tree. They will then be required to keep His commandments. (See Acts 15:20-21)
What does the true bride of Messiah look like in our day and hour? It’s interesting to me that the first mention of the word bride isn’t found until Isaiah 49:18