לֶךְ-לְךָ
Lech Lecha / Go For Yourself
Genesis 12:1-17:27
HafTorah Portion Isaiah 40:27-41:16
Brit Chadasha Romans 3:1-26  

      This parsha tells the story of Abram and Sarai and their journey towards an unknown path. Hearing a call from God telling them to “get up and go,” they take their nephew Lot and begin their new life.
     It is taught that Lech Lecha can be translated four ways. Rashi translates the phrase as “Journey for yourself.” According to him, God is saying “Travel for your own, there I will make you into a great nation.” Another interpretation is “Go with yourself,” meaning, by travelling from place to place, you will extend God’s influence over many lands. A third interpretation is “Go to yourself.” This translation seeks to discover who one truly is. The fourth interpretation is “Go by yourself.” This interpretation is unique in the fact that one must be willing to stand- alone and steadfast - in the calling of God. This included a journey into the unknown. 
     There is possibly a fifth interpretation: "Go see for yourself" because first God tells him and then He shows him. 
     All of the translations show us the depth of Abrams’ journey and the calling of God. Abram was about to say goodbye to the things that mean most to us – our land, birthplace, home, our people and the religious system that we are ‘comfortable’ living in. God was calling Abram out of comfort into the unknown by faith.  “Go For Yourself” by faith you will follow Me.Lech Lecha in this sense means being prepared to take an often-lonely journey: “Go by yourself.” To be a child of Abraham is to have the courage to be different, to challenge the idols of the age, whatever the idols and whichever the age.
    God sent Abram into the land of promise as a Hebrew to influence the environment rather than have the environment influence him. He was to influence the cultures according to Adonai.
     In chapter 14 Abram gave Lot the first choice: ‘So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.’
    Soon after this agreement was made between Abram and Lot, the men of Sodom became evil in the sight of Adonai, Lot is taken captive and Abram is blessed by Melchizedek. 
    The Abrahamic Covenant is given in Genesis 15.  Genesis 15:17-20 describes it: ‘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. 18 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— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
     There are many commentaries on who and what is the smoking oven/furnace and burning torch/fire. A hint as to what and who the smoking furnace is in Exodus 19:17-19 ‘And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.’ In Genesis 19:28 God descends as a smoking furnace. ‘…and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.’
     What about the burning torch? Isaiah 62:1 ‘For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.’
      During the Exodus, the pillar of fire gave the Israelites light. We know from reading Proverbs 6:23 that light is synonymous with Torah. Additionally, we know that Yeshua the Messiah is the Light of the World, the Word of God, the Torah John 1:1-14.  Yeshua, in passing through the pieces of meat, ratified the Abrahamic Covenant. He accepted the offering as it went up to heaven in a cloud of smoke even as fire came forth from the same cloud in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. Revelation 19:12-15 describes the coming of Yeshua: His eyes like flames of fire. 
     The prophet Isaiah references ‘a fire and a furnace’. Isaiah 31:9 ‘His rock will pass away because of panic, and his princes will be terrified at the standard, declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.’
    The fire and the smoke. 
    In Genesis 16 of this parsha, Hagar and Ishmael encounter an angel of The Lord at the water after being sent away. Lech Lecha closes in Genesis chapter 17 with the sign of the covenant, circumcision, as the Lord explains to Abram that his name is now changed to Abraham, he will carry the covenant onto his descendants as he will have a son and call his name Isaac. 
      The Abrahamic Covenant is the 4th covenant. All the covenants are built upon one another, stacked, supporting the next, and building upon the foundation of the one prior. The Edenic Covenant, The Adamic Covenant, The Noach Covenant, The Abrahamic Covenant, The Mosaic Covenant, The Davidic Covenant, and the Messianic Covenant. 
  Circumcision, the sign of the covenant is still valid for us today. Only now, we are to circumcise our hearts as stated in Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4 and Romans 2:28-29.

לֶךְ-לְךָ
Lech Lecha / Go For Yourself
Genesis 12:1-17:27
HafTorah Portion Isaiah 40:27-41:16
Brit Chadasha Romans 3:1-26  

      When God instructed Abraham to leave his home, He wasn’t asking Abraham, or coercing him. It was as if He was telling him: “I want you to be different. Not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of trusting Me.    
     In the next parsha, Vayera, we see that God chose Abraham specifically for a great calling: ‘For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’ Genesis 18:19. God wanted Abraham to start over with a faith that did not worship the idols of his people, but rather the God of Creation.
     We make a mistake when we think of idols only in terms of a physical appearance – statues, glass figurines, pieces of clay from the past - but idols can represent much more to the person obsessed by them, in which case they can represent a false sense of power. That is what Ra was for the Egyptians, Baal for the Canaanites, Chemosh for the Moabites, and Zeus for the Greeks. 
     Abraham was called by God to leave those false symbols of power. The Sages say that he was called ha-ivri, “the Hebrew”. He was called to leave, to cross over. ‘The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.’ Genesis 12:1.
     Idols represent the false powers that we cling to, assuming it gives us a purpose. In the religious life, it can be a cross on the wall, the tree decked out with glass balls in the corner of the house, or the small clay angel on the shelf.  Deeper yet, the idols in our lives become ourselves when we cling to the idols we see.
     But, like Abraham, God is calling us to leave the idols of our lives and of our hearts, trusting in Him as He guides us to cross over where the promises are.
     As soon as God calls him to leave, He gives Abraham a great promise: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3.
     It was Abraham’s calling to be different, to step out with faith in the God that called Him. But he had to understand that it was God’s calling, God’s vision, not his own.
     Genesis 15:6 ‘Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.’
     Romans 4:3 ‘For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
     Hebrews 11:8-9 ‘By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.’
     Hebrews 11:17 ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son…’
     Lech Lecha translates into exactly what Abraham was called to do, ‘Go Forth’ ‘Journey for Yourself’ ‘Betake Yourself’ ‘Go and see what I have in store for you…’ ‘Go with yourself…’
     The sages teach that Abraham was commanded to leave his place in order to testify to the existence of a God not bounded by place – Creator and Sovereign of the entire universe.  How do we do that as mere humans? We cannot without the existence of the God we serve, and that is our faith in His faithfulness, not in our faith in Him.
     Emunah is the Hebrew word for faith. It is not a blind faith or a leap of faith, but rather a very strong, sturdy and steadfast faith.  To assume that Emunah refers to blind faith would be to have the mindset that it is the faith of what one wishes to be true, not necessarily what is truth. In the Aleinu prayer it is proclaimed that “we shall know today, and take to heart, that God is the only God…” We are instructed to ‘know’ that God exists, not guess.
     Psalm 100:3 ‘Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.’
     John 1:2-3 ‘By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
     1 John 4:16 ‘We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.’
     Jeremiah 9:23-24 ‘Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
    It is this simple act of knowing that makes us strong and gives us the courage to step out to be different and to Lech Lecha.

 

 

  לֶךְ-לְךָ
Lech Lecha / Go For Yourself
Genesis 12:1-17:27
HafTorah Portion Isaiah 40:27-41:16
Brit Chadasha Romans 3:1-26  

     The first sentence of Lech Lecha states in a roundabout way that in order for you, Abraham to raise up a nation for Me out of one people, you must go forth for you and away from all the influences you have ever known and be under the influence of God, thus being an influence of God as a testimony of Him and for Him.  ‘Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.’ Genesis 12:1.
     This mind set of leaving our influences behind is repeated in:
     Genesis 19:17 ‘So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that they said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.’
      Luke 9:62: ‘But Yeshua said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  
      2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’
     Philippians 3:13-14 ‘Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Yeshua HaMashiach.’
     Isaiah 43:18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.’
     Why? Why is this so important?  What if Abram, looking back and longing for the past, wished for the days of old with his family and the idols that were so much a part of his life?  Didn’t the Israelites, when faced with hardship longed to return to slavery? Isn’t that what our past is?  A form of bondage. It must be important for Yeshua reiterates in Luke 17:32, ‘Remember Lot’s wife…’
     In Genesis 31:34, Rachel steals her father’s idols.  Some of the sages teach that she did so to help her father remove himself from idolatry. But if that was the case, wouldn’t Adonai have known that? For the commandments state:
    Colossians 3:5 ‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.’
     Leviticus 26:1 'Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.’
     1 Thessalonians 1:9 ‘For they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…’
     If it was the case that Rachel had good intentions to protect her father, would she have passed so young?    
       Other sages teach that perhaps she wanted a backup plan. She was raised with idols, and as a child, she would have participated in the rituals and pageantry associated with them. She would have watched the sacrifices, the chants, the divinations, and more. When he was introduced to Jacob, her father Laban became a man of two religions: he was aware of Adonai, but he also liked his household gods -- after all, they never questioned his motives or his actions, and never challenged his conduct or made him pay any consequences for his treachery or immorality! Perhaps she was clinging to the past that she was leaving.
    We don’t need to turn back or look back. We don’t need to long for the slavery we once lived in. For Genesis 15:1 states: ‘After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
     The beginning of this parsha is about us leaving our past, the influences that played such a big part in our lives.  When we reach back, we grope and long for the past, the comfort moments, the cucumbers of Egypt. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be an influencer of Torah and Adonai’s love and great mercy. But rather not seek outside the camp. When we do, are we in deed seeking the idols of our past?
     Joshua 23:6-8 ‘Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.’
     1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ‘I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked person from among you."
     Proverbs 22:24 ‘Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered…’
     2 John 1:10-11 ‘If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.’
     What is the importance here? It is obvious that God views unwise associations as just that – unwise. In Proverbs 22:24, God states to not make friends with a hot-tempered individual. The proverb does not state to seek them out and try and change them.  We are not to be haughty in our faith, in our walk, but rather wise.
     Abram left. ‘Go for yourself’…it is as simple as that.