וַיֵּרָא
VaYera / And He Appeared 
Genesis 18:1-22:24
Haf Torah 2 Kings 4:1-37
Brit Chadasha 2 Pere 2:4-11

     This Torah portion begins with the Lord appearing to Abraham in the great trees of Mamre. Interesting that Abraham after he sees the visitors, he questions God, ‘if I have found favor in your eyes my Lord do not pass your servant by.’ This is such a good example of a righteous man seeking favor from God. Genesis 15:6.
    God will appear to us in many ways and many forms. In one instance or another within this parsha, people either saw God as He appeared or they did not.
Genesis 18:2 Abraham lifted his eyes
Genesis 19:1 God appears in the form of two beings to Lot
Genesis 19:24 God appears in the form of fire
Genesis 20:3 God appears to Abimelech in a dream
Genesis 21:12 God appears with a comforting voice
Genesis 21:17 God hears the cries of Ishmael
Genesis 21:19 God speaks to Hagar and opens her eyes
Genesis 22:1 God appears to Abraham with a test –The Akeidah
Genesis 22:11 God calls out
Genesis 22:13 God physically provides the ram 
Genesis 22:16-18 God appears with blessings
     Throughout Scripture God appears to people in many forms; fire, wind, breath, voice, dreams, smoke, voice, a donkey, people, and most importantly -The Word. 
     Abraham knew God, he called on His Name, he dialoged with him, he even questioned him, Genesis 18:22-32. He called upon the Name and spoke to Him directly, Genesis 12:8..
      The Name is important. It’s a Name of power, peace, faith, prosperity, life and The Word, but the name has to be the right name.  It can’t be something we feel or we want or we are accustomed to. So how do we know what the name is? We go to scripture.
     Peter in Acts 2:21, says to the people; ‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’  He is quoting Joel 2:32 in English Bible, and it reads: ‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.’ This verse, however in the Hebrew script is found in Joel 3:5, and the wording is YHVH. It is not Jesus. 
     Romans 10:13 ‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’     Zephaniah 3:9 ‘For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.’
     The destruction of Sodom and Lot’s wife is in chapter 19. Despite having been warned not to look back, Lot’s wife looked back anyway, and was immediately turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:26. It was not only a fatal act of disobedience, but an example to be avoided for all time. The second shortest verse in Scripture is Luke 17:32  ‘Remember Lot’s wife!’ Yeshua warns His people: “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife.’ Luke17:31-32.
    There are over 170 women mentioned in Scripture, yet Yeshua mentions only one, Lot’s wife.   
    We are not to look back into the past of disobedience and chaos of our prior lives, but rather we are to see God and His Word. We are to move forward into His Ways, step by step. 
     In Genesis 19:4-8, the perverted men of Sodom demanded Lot’s visitors in order to know them, in carnal way.  When Lot offers his daughters instead, this solidifies the fact that Lot was only for himself, bringing light to why it is taught that he was to blame for the part he played in laying with his daughters, Genesis 19:30-38. 
     In the first event, in Sodom, Lot was ready to force his daughters, against their will, to engage in sexual relations with the townspeople. This is in direct contrast to what a father would normally do, offer up himself instead to save his children. In the second episode, which takes place after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters engage in relations with their unwitting father. It is taught that these acts of incest are Lot’s punishment for his vile behavior. Lot thought that if he were to dwell in Sodom, he could engage in the perverted behavior. He accordingly was punished by his daughters engaging in intercourse with him; which is common knowledge, Genesis 19:36. Lot is a good example of the teaching: ‘Whoever is driven by his hunger for transgression will eventually be fed from his own flesh.’ Lot was eager to engage in promiscuity; in the end, his daughters played the harlot with him. Lot was intoxicated when the elder sister lay with him, but he was sober when she rose, as is indicated in this parsha by the dot over the word u-ve-komah (“when she rose”). Despite his knowledge of what had transpired, he did not refrain from becoming intoxicated the next night as well, and lying with his younger daughter, thus lusting after his own daughters. Genesis 19:34.
     Abraham’s life was that of challenges, and Pirkei Avos, Ethics of the Fathers, teaches that Abraham was tested ten times.
1. He is thrown into a fiery furnace. (Scroll of Yashur).
2. God tells him to leave his homeland to be a stranger in the land of Canaan.
3. Immediately after his arrival in the Promised Land, he encounters a famine.
4. The Egyptians seize his beloved wife, Sarah, and bring her to Pharaoh.
5. He faces incredible odds in the battle of the four and five kings.
6. He is told by God that his children will be strangers in a strange land. 
7. God tells him to circumcise himself at an advanced age.
8. The king of Gerar captures Sarah, intending to take her for himself.
9. God tells him to send away Hagar and her son, Ishmael.
10. Abraham is told by God to sacrifice his dear son Isaac upon an altar. 

     In Genesis 22, Abraham faced the tenth test; the command to offer his son Isaac. His faith was tested, and his faith was confirmed.  But why would God command Abraham to do as the pagans in those days were doing? We know from Tanach that the willingness to offer up children as a sacrifice was common in the ancient world. Tanach mentions that Mesha, King of Moab, did so. So did Yiftah, the least admirable leader in the book of Judges. Two of Tanach’s most wicked Kings, Ahaz and Manashe, introduced the practice into Judah, for which they were condemned. There is archeological evidence – the bones of thousands of young children – that child sacrifice was widespread in Carthage and other Phoenician sites. It was a pagan practice. This pagan practice is offered today through abortions, except the offering is not to a god, but rather to the idol of ‘self’. 
       Jeremiah 19:5 ‘They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal – something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.’  Micah 6:7 ‘Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’  2 Kings 3:26-27 ‘When the King of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the King of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.’ 
     It is taught that what God was doing when He asked Abraham to offer up his son was not requesting a child sacrifice but something quite different. He wanted Abraham to renounce ownership of his son. He was establishing as a non-negotiable principle of children are not the property of their parents. So why then did God say to Abraham about Isaac: “Offer him up as a burnt offering”?  To make clear to all future generations that the reason true people of God condemn child sacrifice is not because they lack the courage to do so. Abraham is the proof that they do not lack the courage. The reason they do not do so is because God is the God of life, not death. 

 Parallels between Isaac and Yeshua:

  • Both sons born miraculously
  • Both fathers willing to sacrifice their only son
  • Both sons willing to be sacrificed in obedience to their father
  • Both sons sacrificed in the same place
  • Both sons carried the word for their own sacrifice
  • Both sons rode donkeys to the place of their sacrifice
  • Both sons were bound (nailed) to the wood – The Akedah הָעֲקֵידָה (The Binding)
  • Both sons lived

                                                     Choose Life.