Lech Lecha – You Go Out
B’reshiyt (Genesis) 12:1 – 17:27
Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16
Matthew 1:1-17; John 8:51-58; Acts 7:1-8; Hebrews 7:1-19; 11:1-12; Romans 3:19 – 5:6; Galatians 3:1-29; 5:1-6; Colossians 2:11-15
Note from Klug’s Korner: If you would like to read more readings in the New Testament than just the one or two on the bookmark I hand out, please see me for a four-page set of expanded Briyt Chadashah (NT) reading addresses. I’ve compiled them over the years from multiple sources.
The Brit Chadashah offers the best commentaries to be read anywhere – far better than mine or by anyone else. For example, Romans Chapter 3 to 5, Galatians 3 and 5, and Colossians 2 instruct the believer when ‘you go out’ and face a world hostile to the Messiah, the seed of Abraham, and our walk of faith.
The Kind of Faith Abraham Had
What motivated Abraham to leave his family and familiar community in Ur of the Chaldees for a city that the eye had not seen, nor ear had heard? What motivates a believer to ‘walk by faith and not by sight’ every day? Abraham didn’t leave just to be circumcised and to learn how to keep the commandments in his flesh. Total trust and dependency on our Elohim is required for us to make it to our Promised Land, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’ What kind of faith does it take to make it to the end?
To answer these questions, we thank Abba for Paul’s writings to give us instruction, insight, and inspiration for the journey ahead in each believer’s life.
For in Messiah Yeshua, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:6
Does Paul do away with circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant here? Was Paul talking about a faith different than Abraham’s?
To rectify a seeming contradiction between Paul and Moses, consider this – the circumcision that Paul writes about was not the sign of the covenant given to Abraham. In his expository book ‘Galatians,’ Avi Ben Mordechai did a super job explaining this in the cultural context of Paul’s day. Paul was talking about a sect of Judaism called ‘the Circumcision’ that demanded that any Gentile that had not been circumcised in the flesh would have to be circumcised to be accepted in their faith community. Even if a Gentile had been circumcised beforehand, blood would have to be drawn again at that place on a male’s body. Paul wasn’t discounting Abba’s command to Abraham to be circumcised, he was refuting the claim of the Judaizers that a man must be circumcised to be justified before YHWH our Elohim.
Not having to do with ‘the Circumcision’, Paul teaches that the righteousness of Abraham is a ‘faith working through love.’ Without love, faith doesn’t work. Love is the motivator to believe in His Word. Love for YHWH and one another is how faith works. Without love, faith is worthless.
Faith must have the driver of love to spur on the believer to do good works for others. As Avi teaches, we must ‘copy and paste the love’ of YHWH for true faith to be demonstrated. Natural affection from our soul and body is not the kind of love that propels our walk of faith in God. God is Love.
Abraham loved YHWH and wanted to obey him out of love for him more than anything else in life. That love was tested when YHWH told him to offer up his only son Isaac. Abraham obeyed because he loved his Elohim more than his own son.
Abraham’s faith that YHWH would resurrect his son worked. Why? Because he also believed the love of Abba was so powerful that He would have mercy on his only son Isaac and raise him from the dead! What’s greater than faith and hope? Love.
We love him for He first loved us. True love starts with His love for us. True love is what initiates, motivates, and drives us to walk by faith in our Elohim, Who is love.
The Galatians had lost their focus on the greatest demonstration of love ever shown mankind – the work of the cross. When we lose focus on the power of the cross and focus on the Torah, the commandments, and whatever is right in our own eyes, we end up in the flesh. Catch this – we no longer walk in the Spirit! How do I know?
The Torah, The Schoolmaster
What about all those Jews we see studying and trying to do good works of the Torah, but do not confess faith in Yeshua as their Messiah? What’s that worth to the Kingdom? Can they be righteous like Abraham was called righteous?
We can all agree that no one can be justified before the Father in Heaven by keeping the works of ‘the Law,’ for all have fallen short. Nobody can ‘make it to Heaven’ by doing more good works than bad ones. You can’t be righteous by doing more righteous deeds than some other religious group down the block. Break one commandment, you’ve broken them all. Period. We ‘become the righteousness of God in Him.’ 2 Corinthians 5:21
So what purpose does the Torah have regarding getting saved? ‘The Law’ shuts us all up under sin (Galatians 3:22). We read the commandments to find out that we’ve missed the mark of His holy requirements and so we desperately need Him to be our Savior.
On the other hand, when we read the Gospel accounts of Yeshua the Messiah, we find out how He not only kept all the commandments, but fulfilled, fully filled, and filled them to their fullest intents and purposes. Only the Divine Messiah, the Son of God could do that. The Torah proves the divinity and worthiness of the Messiah as our Great High Priest and as the perfect sacrifice substituting in our place to redeem sinners.
Paul gave us the analogy of the Torah being like a tutor, a schoolmaster, a custodian or guardian that teaches us and leads us to the goal of the Torah – the Messiah Yeshua: Therefore the Torah became our guardian (schoolmaster) to lead us to Messiah so that we might be made right based on trusting. (Galatians 3:24, TLV)
Now consider the Jews who are studying and keeping the Torah but whose eyes are blinded to see the goal of the Torah they attempt to keep. Wouldn’t Abba be leading them to Yeshua by way of the schoolmaster’s Torah as well? Once the eyes of a lifelong student of the Torah are opened to see Who he’s been led to, how much more well-equipped is he to do works of righteousness than the average Joe Christian?
One reason I appreciate my Lutheran upbringing is that I learned a lot of Scripture having attended many Bible classes in 12 years of parochial school. Sure, I learned a lot of Lutheran and Catholic doctrine, but what stuck with me the most was the pure word of God.
So when I finally did give my heart to Jesus, having heard the Gospel, my heart still held dormant seeds and my mind was programmed with many Scriptures and Bible stories. I was able to launch into my new life in Messiah better able to minister the Word of faith to hungry souls. However, it took me over ten years before my mind was renewed on traditional Christian holidays. By the Holy Spirit, those strongholds came down and the Truth set me free. But the Bible teachings I learned before I was born again are a clear advantage for my walk of faith today.
Like me, most Messianic/Hebrew Roots believers have been on this walk of observing the Torah and following after the Messiah for less than 30 years. That’s less than one generation long. Could there be a clear advantage for another faith community that has been studying and keeping the Torah and the sabbaths for millennia?
As for my upbringing, why wouldn’t the same be true for Torah-observant Jews who come to faith in Yeshua Ha’Mashiyach? They’ve been doing Torah for many, many generations. With all their knowledge and experience keeping the Torah all their previous lives, wouldn’t there be an advantage once a native branch is grafted back into its native olive tree? Yes, Yah can graft them in (Rom 11:24) Like me coming out of Lutheranism, whatever baggage they carry in from Judaism, Abba can deal with as He prunes His branches to make them more fruitful. Why is that so hard to recognize?
What Advantage Has the Jew?
Paul asks this challenging question on how we characterize Jews today: Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Romans 3:1
The way so many brethren talk about the Jews these days, the honest answer would be – “none, no advantage.” There is no advantage to anything Jewish, whether it’s rabbinic, tradition, Judaica, sayings or writings, nothing Jewish. To adopt anything ‘Jewish’ would be the opposite – a disadvantage for us in the minds of many of my brethren.
Like me, have you ever heard that to be circumcised, after coming into faith in Yeshua, could mean losing your salvation? It’s a wind of doctrine blowing around out there!
It’s like anything ‘Jewish’ would be detrimental, not advantageous, to our walk of faith. Is that true? How did Paul answer his own question – Then what advantage has the Jew?
Great in every respect! First of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God. Rom 3:2
Great in what respect? Every respect?!? How could that be? Those evil, Talmudic rabbis couldn’t have anything to offer us at all, could they? How could Paul say that?
Abba had a purpose and a calling for the Yehudim from the beginning. Regardless of whether they believe or not, He works everything out for the good to accomplish what He set His Word out to perform.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29.
Paul wrote this verse in the context of the Jews’ giftings and callings to accomplish Yah’s purposes in redeeming mankind. Please Read Romans 11. If YHWH wanted to entrust His oracles to the Jews, who are the Joes to discount that?
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief would not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? Romans 3:3
God is faithful to carry out His plan of salvation, whether Jews or any other Israelites believe in Him or not. He takes whatever is evil and turns it around for good to accomplish what He intends. Yeshua knows no defeat and has never failed to do what He sets out to get done. It is up to us whether we walk in the blessings or curses, in life or death, in light or darkness. It is up to us to hear, believe, and obey Him, whether we are a blessing to all the families of the earth, or not (Genesis 12:3; 28:14).
Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Romans 3:1b Let’s not be void of common sense when conjuring up an answer to Paul’s question.
Wouldn’t it be better health-wise for a Torah-observant Jewish father to circumcise his son at 8 days old, than to wait until the boy came to a saving faith in the Messiah Yeshua and then be circumcised? A baby boy at 8 days old peaks out with Vitamin K, the clotting agent that heals the baby most quickly and least painfully compared to any other time in his life. What if he had to wait until he was 25 years old, the age I was born again before he was circumcised? What a painful experience and more complicated of a recovery! Maybe that’s one driver why Ishmael became such a wild man, being circumcised at 13 years old. It may have ticked him off at old Dad!
Even today, the Jews are the only community of faith I know about where a parent can find a trained practitioner (mohel) who will circumcise a baby boy at eight days old. Sounds like an advantage for parents and their sons in our faith community to me!
Could there be other benefits or advantages that the Jews may have? Great in every respect! Could a Jewish boy growing up studying the oracles of Elohim have an advantage in the Kingdom after he’s been saved? Can we find examples and learn to take advantage of born-again believers who were brought up in Hebrew and in Torah for such a time as this, to advance the Kingdom in the Name of the Messiah Yeshua?
A Jewish Prophet of Today
It is no coincidence that at the time of this writing, Yah changed my plans for yesterday to go hear a Messianic Jewish prophet speak in Portland. The day before, Leslie and I were planning a camping trip for my birthday, but our preparations didn’t materialize and the weather forecast called for heavy rain. At the same time, our dear friend Rosa invited us to a prayer summit in Portland where Jonathan Cahn would be speaking (see heartsoffireintl.com). Abba led us by His Spirit to drive there instead to hear the prophet say that it was his first time in Oregon, which just happened to be on my birthday. He encouraged us all to live for God ‘for such a time as this.’
This Torah portion, Lech Lecha – ‘You go out,’ was the portion at the time I was born. All my childhood I dreamed about heading west and living in the mountains. Once I was born again, Abba called me to ‘go west young man.’ After college, I hopped on a train to volunteer for the US Forest Service in hydrology. YHWH gave me the desire of my heart to work in National Forests for 37 blessed years. Abba has been so good to me.
Now Abba is fulfilling the call on my life to gather His people for the Festivals, especially Tabernacles. Next year, my birthday, 10/24/24, falls on Shemini Atzeret, the last great day of Sukkot. My dad’s birthday, 10/19/24, falls on the weekly Shabbat on the third day of Sukkot. Hearing Jonathan Cahn say ‘for such a time as this’ on his first trip to Portland, on my birthday, encourages my wife and me to walk in the path He has set for us. I was born for this!
I don’t know anyone who connects the dots on important dates in history with the festivals, the Shemittah years, and the Jubilees more clearly with so many confirmations as Jonathan Cahn does. He grew up attending a Hebrew school, his Jewish parents taking him to a synagogue on Shabbat. However, he became disillusioned with just knowing an ancient God of miracles and encounters with mankind, but not being engaged with reality today. Being an avid student of the Tanakh (OT) and of history, seeking the true God, he had an encounter with the Messiah Yeshua at age twenty. He miraculously survived a train destroying his Ford Pinto when he called on God to save him. As Jonathan said, to accept Yeshua as his Messiah was the most Jewish thing he could do. Did his Jewish upbringing give him an advantage in his ministry today? It’s obvious to me that ‘Yes!’ is the answer.
Ever since his encounter and born-again experience, Abba has revealed to Jonathan Cahn how His hand has been at work throughout ancient and modern history. Elohim is raising overcomers warring against the powers of darkness in our day. Jonathan’s upbringing in the Hebrew and Jewish synagogue gave him an advantage in seeing and understanding the God of Israel at work today and in equipping the saints for the Kingdom at hand today. I like how Jonathan Cahn characterizes the Messiah.
Characterizing the Messiah
How can we characterize the Messiah? Shall we characterize Him as Jesus – a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, with brown hair and a light complexion? You know, the revolutionary that dumped the Jewish festivals and introduced to us Christmas and Easter? How about the teacher who said you can eat whatever is set before you, like a ham dinner on your biggest festival days? After all, you just have to be ‘led by the spirit,’ and be ‘free from the Law’ that those Jews keep. Oh, and don’t bother going to the Jews with your Gospel; they won’t accept anything you have to say anyway.
To the Jew first! Yeshua and His disciples were all Torah-observant Jews who went to the Jew first. The Good News is that when it comes to being justified in the sight of YHWH, there is neither Jew nor Greek. Both are saved by grace through faith in the same Messiah Yeshua. It’s not by works of the Torah or any other religious creed that anyone can be found righteous in the eyes of our Elohim. But did Paul contradict himself with the ‘great in every way’ advantage of the Jew and ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek?’
Nobody called the Messiah’s followers ‘Christians’ until the unbelievers in Antioch called them that in derision, mocking them as ‘little Christs.’ Who we are is ‘Israel.’ (Ephesians 2:12)
Rabbinic Jews have beautifully characterized the Messiah to come as both the Messiah, Son of Joseph, and as the Messiah, Son of David. Some believe in two Messiahs. We in Hebrew Roots can share our revelation that Yeshua was the Suffering Servant in His first coming as testified by the four Gospels and later to be the conquering King Who will return to set up His rule in Jerusalem in His second coming. Other Jewish sayings declare the Messiah to be the Light of the world, the Healer of lepers, the Restorer of the twelve tribes of Israel, the Shepherd Who regathers the exiles, and many more sayings that make Christian characterizations to be found wanting, in my humble opinion.
I love the ancient sayings of the Jews on Who the Messiah would be and will be to come. It’s one thing that first drew me to the Messianic faith and still regard in my love for my Jewish brethren and my Jewish Messiah. Sounds like they have an advantage to me.
Take this to heart: ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ (Genesis 12:3) That includes you and I and those in both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jews and Joes in Messiah are all blessings to the world around them. Under the Abrahamic covenant, renewed by the blood of Yeshua, you are a blessing! Believe it! You are a blessing!
The blessings of Abraham be yours in the Name of Yeshua,
David Klug