בְּרֵאשִׁית
Beresheeth/In the Beginning
Genesis 1:1-6:8
Isaiah 42:5 – 43:10 John 1:1-14
The Creation of Shabbat…
Days, nights, beings, creatures and plants, waters and skies, moon and sun, all created by The Almighty. There is no doubt or argument among believers that God created heaven and earth and all that is in it. As our children draw pictures of the seven days of creation, we teach them of the unlimited power of God. We teach them about the disobedience of Adam and Eve and the fall. We read and study about the evilness of Cain towards his brother Abel, and the blood of the earth cries out.
In Genesis chapter 5, we read about Adam's lineage up to the flood and the man Noah. We study, learn, agree, and teach. Then why is the Sabbath non-descript and changed so drastically in certain denominations around the globe?
A brief but potent paragraph is between the great and awesome events of the creation of heaven and earth, and the events of Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:1-3 states: ‘Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.’
Just two simple sentences in the events of creation about the Sabbath, the seventh day of creation. An example is that He rested. A powerful declaration is that He blessed it and He sanctified it. The Seventh Day Sabbath is the first blessing of all creation.
In the prior chapter, Genesis 1 God created and saw that it was good. Every day is a new creation that He sees and it is good. But nothing, not day nor any creation is blessed or sanctified until the Seventh Day.
The Seventh Day is blessed: Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11.
The Seventh Day is set apart: Leviticus 23:3, Deuteronomy 5:14.
The Seventh Day is a promise forever: Exodus 31:16.
The Sabbath is a sign: Ezekiel 20:12, 20.
Yeshua is the Sabbath: Mark 2:28, Luke 4:16.
It never changed: Acts 16:13, Acts 18:4.
The prophet Isaiah gives a warning about the set apart day that God made, blessed and sanctified. Isaiah 58:13-14 ‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
Selfishly, this is often interpreted as, ‘Can’t I have fun on the Sabbath Day?’ That is not the meaning of these verses. Isaiah is exhorting us to lift the Shabbat up beyond our fleshly desires and to have the joy, mindset, ability, and love to call the Sabbath our complete joy. When we ‘go our own way’ on Shabbat, we create a void between the Creator and His Creation- Sabbath. Whether we shop, partake in sports, lashon ha’ra, speak idle words, work (by choice), hire people to work for us, or any other secular activity, are we thinking about Him and Shabbat, or are we concerned about ourselves and the immediate activity.
Living in the diaspora creates an allusion that we can process the Shabbat to fit our schedule. Isaiah is simply asking God’s people to put the Shabbat first and call that holy day our joy.
בְּרֵאשִׁית
Beresheeth/In the Beginning
The Book of Genesis
Genesis 1:1-6:8
Isaiah 42:5 – 43:10
John 1:1-14
The True Light~
Beresheet begins with Hebrew words that translate – ‘In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.’ The root of Beresheet is rosh which has more to do with the “head” or the “beginning” of something, rather than an association with “time” as Elohim is completely outside of time, there is no time with God; a year is a thousand days and a day is a thousand years. Psalms 90:4 ‘A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.’ 2 Peter 3:8 ‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.’ This shows the greatness and vastness of Adonai.
The prophet Isaiah tells us that the earth was not empty in Isaiah 45:18: ‘For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it empty- Who formed it to be inhabited. “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
The sages teach that the world was created for the Torah and that the Torah was created for the world. Beresheeth continues ‘Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.’ Genesis 1:2-5.
There is a moment in time where God separates the darkness/hoshek/confusion from the light. In Hebrew, the word for light is OR אוֹר and within the word Torah is the word OR / light.
Yeshua refers to Himself as the light of the world in John 8:12 ‘When Yeshua spoke to them again, He said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Here we again see the root OR. Prior to John chapter 8, Yeshua is referred to as the Word from the very beginning.
John 12:46 references that Yeshua has come as Light into the world.
John 3:19 states ‘This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the Light for their deeds were evil.’
John 1:4 states that ‘In Him was life and the life was the Light of men.’
2 Corinthians 4:6 references creation and Yeshua – ‘for God who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah.’
John 1:5 – ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.’
Yeshua – Beginning – Word – Light – Torah. Aleph - Tav.
The denominations of man have tried to limit His Deity by making Him a man/child with the statues of the baby in the manger in all nativity scenes; the baby that people worship and sing songs to. Yet His greatness is the very Word of God.
Beresheet contains the first three blessings; the creatures of the air and sea, mankind, the Sabbath, and the first curses; the serpent, the ground and Cain. These curses show the first three times of deception.
Genesis chapter 3 not only contains the first act of deception, but shifting blame. It begins with Eve as she blames the serpent for her sin when she answers God. ‘The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13.
HaSatan, knowing the fleshly weakness of Eve, deceived her. Cain was deceived by his own self of narcissism and the people of Noah’s time were deceived by their lusts of the idols of their heart. ‘Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’ Genesis 6:5.
There are also several similarities within Genesis and Revelation, the Beginning and the End. In Revelation 1:8 Yeshua states: ‘I am Alef and Tav, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ Genesis 1:15 – ‘Then God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.’ Revelation 22:5 – ‘There shall be no night there; they need no lamp nor light of sun, for the LORD God gives them light.’ Genesis 2:9 – ‘The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden.’ Revelation 22:1 – ‘And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river, was the tree of life.’
This parsha ends with the genealogy from Adam to Noah and then the stark declaration about Noah, ‘But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.’ It is not until the next parsha, Noach, that we learn why he found favor. ‘Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.’ Genesis 6:9. Noach walked in faith.
In Genesis 2:1-3 there is the creation of the Sabbath. It is a day made holy by God. ‘Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.’
If we deny the sanctity and holiness of Sabbath, do we then deny the sanctity and holiness of creation and the holiness and Divinity of Elohim?