Deuteronomy

The word Deuteronomy derived from Greek and Latin. It is "Devarim" in Hebrew and it means "words."

I see in this book that people's hearts are so stubborn. Mine is like that, too.

God "Go and conquer the land I am giving you."
People "Let us send spies and study the land first."

After the spies came back they didn't want to go.


God "Turn around and go back."
People  "We repent. Let us go forward to the land."

God "Stop."
People went any way.

They cried after they were defeated but it was too late, but God is still gracious and compassionate. He loves them anyway.

Many situations like this happen in our lives, I think. Then we cry and think to ourselves (or to the Christians) "where is God when we need him?"

Please forgive me for being selfish and self-centered...

She conceives (Tazria)

(This is not according to the reading schedule.)

Leviticus 12:1-13:59

The instruction regarding a woman who conceives and gives birth to a child. The Scriptures say that the woman is unclean for certain days. I didn't know what to think of this. She becomes a mom and is 'unclean'. But the "Walk! Leviticus" commentary says something interesting. It gave me a different point of view.

"Women do not sin by giving birth to children (Gen. 1:28). Nor do their subsequent rites of purification require laying on of hands, confession, an asham, or a different offering for the birth of a boy or a girl. But the loss of blood diminishes a mother's wholeness, rendering her incomplete and thus tam'ah (cf. Lev. 12:4, 5, 7). Only the passage of time restores her wholeness."

(Walk! Leviticus)

(The word "tam'ah" means defiled.)

I feel God's thoughtfulness towards our wholeness.

Urim and Thummim

Leviticus 6:8-8:36 ...."Command!" is what the LORD told Moses.

Chapter 6 is more detail about the sacrifices we read in Chapters 1 - 5.
Chapter 6 is where we read about Urim and Thummim...something I have been wondering about for a long time. What are they? I read that they meant 'light and perfections'.
Some commentaries I read don't mention Urim and Thummim so much. Mysterious...

Leviticus!

ויקרא

This is the title of the first part of Leviticus. It says "and He called." It is read "Vayikra."

The whole book of what we call "Leviticus" is titled "And He Called" in Hebrew.

Leviticus 1:3 is interesting.
I found an interesting website. When we compare different translations in one page like this we notice that the Hebrew word that means "of his own voluntary will" is not translated. I think this word's presence makes a big difference in understanding who God is. Immediately I thought of a verse from the Bible: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Book of Hebrews). We call our God and Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever but we think God in the OT is not a loving God. He has always been a loving Father! My desire is to know my Father and Jesus who was sent by our Father more from the entire Bible.

I learned that it is well known that the letter Alef (the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), the one on the far left above, is written in a smaller size than the rest of the letters in the Torah.

Let's look. This website shows the English text on the right and the Hebrew text on the left. In the first verse, you can see in this one that the letter alef is written in a smaller size. (Hebrew is read from right to left.) Our Jesus is humble...

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0301.htm

I hope that whoever comes to this blog can see it. It is totally God.

I learned that there are special-trained scribes who copies every little thing in the Torah. If the reader find an error, then the scroll would be given to the special place and the scribes would correct it. So every little thing counts. It is not an error that this letter is written smaller than other ones. Jesus said in Matthew 5:18

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (KJV)

"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. " (NLT)

"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."(NIV)

I learned that this small alef represents the LORD's small voice calling Moses from behind the tabernacle. The LORD is in many little things, not just in the big thunders and lightnings.

This is one of the unimaginable joy that God must have hidden in the original language. If our Father gives us the ability to read the original language and the help of the Holy Spirit, I can not imagine what kind of joy is available to us! We will fall out of our chair!!

Matthew 13:52 explains perfectly what those people are like. Those people can experience the unimaginable joy from both the OT and the NT.

Matthew 13:52
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. (KJV)

I prayed before I read

It is amazing how quickly I dry out if I don't go back to my first love towards God. "A little later" becomes too familiar and pretty soon I feel like I am okay without my time with the LORD and my in-depth word study. I must be deceived!!! The study session time alone with God is my fun time and God tickles my heart, but I was a little concerned that I may look crazy to spend time in my closet - literally I turned one tiny closet into my room where I leave the Bible or other study materials open on the desk(board). Then my friend's words encouraged me. She seems to think that God is actually guiding me into this place of studying the word of God! She is a wonderful woman of God, so I trusted her words. Her words freed me. Wait for me, my closet, here I come!

My friends from my Scripture-memorizing group used to tell me that if we were stuck in one spot and couldn't go on while we were trying to memorize a certain section of the Bible, then God is trying to say something to us. Well, I was not memorizing Leviticus. I was just reading chapter 16 over and over because I was stuck there somehow. Then I remember to pray before dealing with God's precious words. It is God's words. My flesh alone cannot understand God's way. I am thankful God reminded me...again.

So...

In my closet I said a little prayer before I started with Leviticus chapter 16, and started writing down some meanings of the original words, using the Strong's numbers and dictionary. Ohh... wow... I didn't know the Hebrew word for the ark was "ארון (arown) ". It sounds like Moses' brother's name "Aaron"!

אהרון (Aharown) - Aaron's name
ארון (arown) - ark, box, chest...Ark of Covenant

The difference between Aaron and ark is the letter "H" just like Abram's and Sarai's names.

Abram + H = Abraham
Sarai + H = Sarah

Aaron is in the line of Levis. His name is an ark plus "H". I think I wrote about the letter H which I learned from Hebrew For Christians (www.hebrew4christians.com). Letter H in Hebrew indicates the presence of God. So if I can still apply this to Aaron's name, then...

ark + God's presence = Aaron, the Levi, the priest

Isn't it a perfect name for him!

leaven is leaven

The following is a quote from this site, joy of baking.

The word "yeast" comes from the Sanskrit 'yas' meaning "to seethe or boil". Yeast is a living organism and is in the air around us. It is a member of the fungus family and is a single-celled fungi of which there are about 160 different species. Baker's yeast as well as brewer's yeast belong to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae species. Louis Pasteur in the 1850's is credited with first discovering and understanding the fermentation process which led to the development and cultivation of the yeast we use today.

Baker's yeast, like baking powder and baking soda, is used to leavened baked goods
(breads, Danish pastries, brioche, croissants). The difference between these two leaveners is that baking powder/soda react chemically to produce the carbon dioxide that makes the baked goods rise. Yeast, on the other hand, is a living organism and the carbon dioxide it produces is the result of the yeast feeding on the dough.

Here is a definition from dictionary.com.

leaven
–noun
1. a substance, as yeast or baking powder, that causes fermentation and expansion of dough or batter.
2. fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
3. an element that produces an altering or transforming influence.

There are two types of leaveners.

• yeast - a living organism, creates carbon dioxide by feeding on the dough
  

• baker's yeast - react chemically to produce the carbon dioxide and makes the bread rise
  

Just like other Christians, I have been wondering about yeast for a long time. Then last week as I came across a messianic website . God told the Israelites to get rid of the baker's yeast, a chemical reaction to cause baked goods rise, which is called khametz in Hebrew. It is any flour of the five species of grain, mixed with water and allowed to ferment before being baked. The five species of grain are wheat, spelt, oats, barley, and rye. Khametz, in reality, comes from a root which means "to be sour", according to Refiner's Fire (above mentioned website).

Then I suddenly remembered about one evening around 1988!

A friend of mine came over to give me something in a container. I cannot remember what she called it, but it was a bread starter. It was like some bread dough in a small container. She told me to use it to bake some bread and to save a portion of the new batch before I baked a loaf of bread. She said that this bread dough started long ago (sort of like chain letters??) and it hadn't been broken. She wanted me to give the saved portion to someone else so that the next person could do the same and give a new portion to another person. Just like #2 of the Dictionary.com definition:

2. fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.

It looks like Amish people do this.

I am not starting any new religion by posting this, but I think now I can understand the concept of starting a brand new batch...without using a little batch (bread starter) from the old batch and mix it into the new batch. This was the beginning of the new life for the Israelites. God didn't want them to bring the old customs and start a totally new batch! I suspect if this was one of the reasons why God said:

Exodus 12:19 (New International Version)

¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.

They were to be cut off from the community of Israel! God was very strict about this. God wanted to end the life in Egypt, the old life, for the people.

It can be said about us, too. Just like we are made a brand new christian when we believe in Jesus, the old cannot be there. We are brand new, born again. We took off our old clothes and wear a new one. New bread needs a brand new ingredients, not to be mixed with the old. To me the concept of 'old' can be better understood with the 'bread starter' method because if the yeast is everywhere in the air, I wouldn't know which one is old.

Matthew 16:5-6 (King James Version)

5And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Here's my thoughts. My friends' bread starter got started long time ago and it continued, adding little more of the new batch. Jesus didn't want us to continue our old way like Pharisees and the Sadducees' traditions. The law ended when Jesus came.

Galatians 3:19 " Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people."

Our Father is so wonderful. He wants to make us brand new. Jesus made it possible.

God was, is, and is to come.

God said to Moses "I AM who I AM." (Exodus 3:14)

The original word for "I AM" is הָיָה . It is pronounced haya.

I always imagined that the original word for "I AM" would be Jehovah because I had heard that Jehovah meant self-existing one, but the original word here is not Jehovah. Haya means to exist, breathes, etc... See Blue Letter Bible.
Yehovah (Jehovah) means existing one.

The other day I wrote that God is the same. He was, He is, and He is to come. John wrote that in the book of Revelation 1:4. In the letter to the Hebrews 13:8, it says that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

God existed, and he exists, and he will exist. That means he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Is it written in the Old Testament? I could not find it. But the Jewish people say that God is "who was, is, and is to come." It is in Siddur Sim Shalom. I was wondering where in the Old Testament it said so. But now that I know the meaning of הָיָה (haya), I think that it is in the Hebrew language itself that explains God is who he was, is, and is to come. Doesn't it look like the meaning of הָיָה (haya) explains in itself that God was, is, and is to come? I think so!

Exodus!! (Shemot)

After Jacob's life ends, the Israelites continue to live in Goshen, Egypt.

The word Exodus is Greek.

In the Hebrew Bible, Exodus is called "Shemot" and it means names. The first verse starts with "And these are the names," and that is why it is called "names," just like Genesis is titled Beresheet and it means "in the beginning." Genesis 1:1 starts like this: "In the beginning...."

Moses' mom put baby Moses in a basket of "ark" (KJV). The word ark is the same word used in the story of Noah, but the tar Moses' mom used is different from Noah's. I was guessing that they may be the same. Well, I was just wondering if the mom was praying that the God who saved Noah's life by putting him in the ark would save Moses by putting him in the basket of ark.

wise Joseph

Scriptures for today...

Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. - Genesis 47:13

"Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone."-Genesis 47:15

It almost sounds like a lot of us, especially the second verse. Our money is gone, father!!

Then Joseph helped the people, and at the same time he made Egypt rich.

Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land. - Genesis 47:22

This is happening before Moses' days. When did priests appear? I am not going back right now, but it is interesting to see that Joseph and Egypt left them untouched. God did not let the priest lose their land.

Here is an interesting verse.

"And at the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones."- Genesis 47:24

Fifty percent went to Pharaoh (tax?), forty percent was for the people (we get to use this for ourselves), which is totaled 90% of the harvests. Where is the ten percent? Interesting.



Being born in the times when my parents' generation had nothing (though some were rich), my parents worked hard, and my sister and I were well taken care of. Now I am a parent and my husband and I are the ones to take care of the next generation. It is very scary sometimes. Is my God my strength today? Sometimes I lose faith, but then I remember that He is mighty.

Alpha and Omega, Alef and Tav

I saw a very interesting thing in the Bible the other day.

In Genesis, there is a word that appears here and there and that word doesn't really have any meaning to it. You can see it in Genesis 1:1. It is the word את (et). It looks like people debate about it. They are trying to figure out what it is. The word has letters א (alef) and ת (tav). "What is this alef- tav?" is what they say. Alef is the very first letter in Hebrew. Tav is the very last letter in Hebrew. It is like alpha and omega in Greek.

I am trying to memorize a few chapters in the book of revelation. After I was in Genesis for awhile, I went back to the New Testament and read the book of revelation. Then I saw it.

"What is this alef-tav?" we ask.

Jesus said in the book of revelation, "I am the alpha and omega."
If Jesus said it in English, it would have been "I am the a and z."
If Jesus said it in Hebrew, it would have been "I am the alef and tav."
People say that the word made up of alef and tav in Genesis is Jesus, and I couldn't figure out why they could say that, but now I see it. What a joy we experience when we actually see something directly from the Bible and understand what others are saying!

What is this alef-tav?

"I am the alef and tav," says Jesus.

Judah means praise

When Leah had the fourth son, she named him Judah because she praised the LORD.

Genesis 29:35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

Now will I praise the LORD = Judah

Exactly which part of the name is praise?


Both Christians and Jews say hallelujah (hallelu=praise, jah=LORD) to praise the LORD. Many people have heard that the word baruch (ch sound is like ch in Bach) means to bless. I thought Psalm 1 uses baruch for "How blessed is the one who ..." but to my surprise, the Hebrew word for the "blessed" in Psalm 1 is "asher" as in the name of Asher, which means happy. I even learned the word "tehilla" which means to praise with songs, like David wrote psalms. None of these sound anything like Judah. So I explored.

The Hebrew name for Judah is Yehuda. And it derived from yada which is related to hand. The following is from this website.

1.YADAH - yaw-daw - to worship with the extended hand. The giving of oneself in worship and adoration. To lift your hands unto the Lord. It carries the meaning of absolute surrender as a young child does to a parent - "pick me up, I'm all yours".

I still don't know how yadah became Yehuda. Anyone?
I see that the spelling of Yehuda is close to Yahweh (the Jewish people say Adonai whenever they see the word in the Bible), or Jehovah.

Sarah is in the name of Israel!!

Every year I get stuck in Genesis where Abraham's, Isaac's, and Jacob's lives are recorded because there is so much to ponder. But I successfully moved on to the next portion!! Then I saw something I never saw before.

Genesis 33:28 (NLT2007)
"Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won."

El means God, but I what was the meaning of Israel? I could not answer that. So I looked up my Strong's concordance. Here is what I don't understand. I see something in my concordance to see the meaning of a word, then I get excited about what I see. Then I Google the same word to find out more, then I come up with different definitions and get disappointed. This happens a lot when I research Hebrew words. Anyway, below is from Biblos.com. I am glad I saw this on line!

Israel
From sarah and 'el; he will rule as God; Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity: --Israel. (http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/3478.htm)

Sarah's name is in it! I never noticed it before. It is not Isra and el, but it is i + sarah + el. If a Hebrew reader reads my blog, I would love to know what the Jewish people's view/understanding/thoughts are regarding this. But for now, I keep my excitement in my heart, believing that God is showing me a new aspect of Genesis I never saw before. I learned that Sarah is the only female whose years of life is recorded in the Bible, and I now see that Sarah's life is continuing in Jacob"s life because her name is literally in the new name God gave to him. It is a special name for Jacob.

Joshua's name came to my mind immediately because I just did a little research a couple of months ago. Israel's "I" part is the Hebrew letter yod, which is the same letter that Moses added to Joshua's name (in Hebrew his name is Yehoshua), and the yod indicates God's name. Jacob's grandma's name Sarah (rule with power as a princess) is sandwiched between yod (indicating God's name) and -el (God).

God's name + rule with power as princess+ God = Israel.

My October 20th blog has a link to the story of the name of Joshua. Joshua's original name was Hosea, or, without "y" sound.

Numbers 13:16 (NIV)
These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

Moses gave the "y" part to him. And the letter was to protect Hosea (Hoshea) from the danger. If I combine the message from my blog from October and the story of Jacob, then it could mean that God wanted Jacob to know that he can choose to walk with God and if he did, then God is with him all the way to the victory. Doesn't God talk to us the same way now, too?

Age of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

I posted this longevity chart in November 2008 originally. As I was preparing for the Bible study group I attended at that time, I started to sidetrack and paid attention to Jacob's age because I noticed some websites say that Jacob was in his seventies when he met Rachel. Really???
I didn't notice it before. Let's see...

If Adam was born in the year 0 and if we continue counting according to the information from the Bible...

1948 Abraham was born
2048 Abraham 100 years old, Isaac was born
2108 Abraham 160, Isaac 60, Jacob and Esau were born
2123 Abraham was 175 when he died, that makes Isaac 75, Jacob and Esau 15

^{Genesis 26:34} When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

It is after this that Jacob disguised as Esau and went into Isaac's tent. Then Rebekah came up with another idea.

Genesis 27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living."

So we can say that Jacob was at least 40 years old when he left home.

2148 Esau was married, 40 years old

After this is a little tricky. We have to go to the time when Jacob finally saw Joseph in Egypt and count backwards to figure out their ages. Then as we can see later, we learn that Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born.
If we simply counted the 7 + 7 years and deduct it from 91, that makes Jacob 77 years old when he met Rachel. Someone said that he was 77. But I am not sure about this because if Jacob was 77 when he met Rachel, all the other children (even though it was from 4 women) must have been born within 7 years.


We can say that Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born by calculating backwards from Genesis 41:46 and 45:11. (see scriptures below)

2199 Jacob 91, Joseph was born
2228 Isaac was 180 years when he died, Jacob 120, 　
Joseph 29

When we see Genesis 41:46, it says that

He was thirty years old when he began serving in the court of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt

2229 Joseph began serving in Egypt, 30 years old

Then 7 years of plenty came.
After 2 years into famine (Genesis 45:11 says "for there are still five years of famine ahead of us"), Jacob traveled to Egypt. So Joseph must have been 39 years old when he finally saw Jacob, who was 130 year old.

2238 Jacob 130 when he went to Egypt (speaking to Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9),　Joseph 39
2243 Famine ended

--------------

our imagination

I used to think the Bible was talking about only one tree in the middle of the garden of Eden. I always thought that after Eve reached to the fruit from the forbidden tree and got kicked out of Eden, God protected that tree. Then later I found out that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn't the tree God guarded later. It was the tree of life that was guarded. That means they used to eat from it freely. But the imagination in the brain was already painting my own picture, and I was not understanding the passage correctly. I should have paid attention to the facts. After I read carefully and got the facts, I could see it!
I am learning the same lesson here. Jacob's true age was somewhat shocking to me, but knowing the facts is important. Now I don't imagine a youthful man battling against an angel. He was in his nineties when that happened. ( I am sure the age 90 was not that old in those days, but still, 91 years old.)

The three kings

In Genesis, the place "east" is mentioned here and there. When I
first noticed that Abraham gave gifts to Isaac's half brothers and
sisters (?) and sent them to "east", I wondered if their descendants
were related to the three kings who went to visit Jesus, the
Messiah. Otherwise, why would anyone in other parts of the world
be interested? Okay, maybe they did, but why not the other
descendants of Abraham? I just wondered.

To me, they don't seem to be just astrologers because they
seem to have known the promise God gave to Abraham.

But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham
had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from
Isaac his son, while he yet live, eastward, unto the
east country. Genesis 25:6

Jacob went to the east, too.

Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the
land of the people of the east. Genesis 29:1

Just as Rahab had heard about the Israelites' God and believed,
could the sons of Abraham have wanted to know more about
the promise to Abraham? Am I totally wrong? I wonder.

Abraham's prayer for Abimelech

This is after the three men appeared to Abraham and told him that Sarah would have a baby.

Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

There Abraham said that Sarah was his sister (again!), so the people in Gerar took her. It is interesting to know that Abraham told the same lie for the second time regarding Sarah after the LORD and two angels visited Abraham and told him that Sarah will have a baby. Then God visited the king in his dream and told him not to touch Sarah. (Then it is clear that Isaac was not from this king.)

Then Abraham prayed for him.

Then what happened?

"God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again".

To me, it looks like what God just did was to show Abraham that God was able to close and open the womb. I wonder what Abraham thought of this! He was getting too old, yet God confirmed that Sarah was the one to have the baby. Then he lied, putting Sarah in danger underAbimelech. Yet it is clear in the scripture that Sarah was untouched. Then God told Abimelech that Abraham could pray for him. When Abraham prayed, Abimelech's wife and his household could have babies!

And he went out (VaYetze)

Reading portion...Genesis 28:10-32:3

God of Jacob
In this portion Jacob went out to his mom's brother's place. Then God appeared him as 'God of Abraham and God of Isaac'.

I joined a woman's Bible study group even though they had already started several weeks before I joined. The day I joined, they were studying this passage about Jacob. Then for the first time I saw how God of Abraham and God of Isaac became God of Jacob also.

After God appeared to him, Jacob said this in Genesis 28:20-22(NIV):

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

Jacob got to his uncle's house, met Rachel, married Leah, then Rachel, and he had children. After working for his uncle for 20 years, he left his father-in-law's house. Then God appeared to him again in Genesis 35 (NIV):

1 Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with wherever I have gone."

I see that God indeed answered Jacob's first prayer (Gen. 28) and now God has become Jacob's God!

This reminded me of a story I heard on the radio many years ago. A student at a seminary always prayed for other people, being a good seminary student, but never prayed for herself. A personal/social problem happened and she did not know how to handle it. Then a professor told her that it is okay to ask God for guidance for her personal problems. The student was amazed that the professor would say something like that...but then she decided to pray for herself. In the meantime, the professor and his wife prayed earnestly for her because the professor really wanted this girl to experience God in her daily life. And God answered all of their prayers in a very personal way that no one expected. Then she became a changed woman. Her face was glowing because she now experienced how much God cared for her. God became her personal God. God will be everyone's personal God because He is willing!

God of Abraham and Isaac is now God of Jacob also. Jacob experienced God in his personal life. God is his God now.

Generations (Toldot)

The meaning of the names
Esau was named "hairy"because he was hairy. Jacob was named "heel holder" because he was holding on to Esau's heel when he came out of the womb. I read in a Messianic commentary that Jacob doesn't mean 'deceiver'. When I think of it, when we discuss Jacob's story in a bible study without consulting the original meaning and by simply comparing the different translations, our opinions are usually based on the image of Jacob as a deceiver. All my Christian life I was taught that Jacob meant deceiver. Did 'holding on to a brother's heel' automatically mean 'deceiving'? If not, when did people add the meaning of 'deceiver' to Jacob's original meaning? I just wonder.

My husband and I named our children with hopes that their lives will be blessed, that their names will somehow be true in their lives - like 'Christ's light shining', which is the meaning of our daughter's name. Don't we choose our baby's names because we want them to be blessed and we are thinking more of their future rather than right now? We were thinking toward the babies' future when we named them. But! Now that I think of it, my name was given because of the time of the day I was born - in English, that would be 'dawn'. My aunt wanted me to be hopeful --- because more light comes at the dawn. Well, at least mine is not like Moses (sorry!) who was name "drawn out of water" because he was drawn out of water. Benjamin was at first named Ben-oni which means son of suffering because Rachel was suffering when he was born. She named him first then later Jacob changed his name to Benjamin. We usually don't choose the names for our babies because we were thirsty or we were in pain. But the Old Testament people seem to do that.

the image of Jacob

We tend to form a certain image of a person according to their nickname even before we get to know him/her. My image of Jacob has changed since I started reading this passage from the Jewish point of view, with the Hebrew dictionary, and both Jewish and Messianic commentaries. If I don't think of him as a deceiver from the very beginning, then I start to see things differently in the Bible. Esau sold his birth right, knowing what he was doing. The Bible says so, too. He despised it and sold it to Jacob.
In Genesis 25:27 we read that Jacob was a plain man (KJV), a kind man (NLT), a quiet man (NIV), etc... Compared to Esau, the verse makes us have an image of Jacob as a weak person. But behold the meaning of the original word! (from the Blue Letter Bible)　

1) perfect, complete

a) complete, perfect

1) one who lacks nothing in physical strength, beauty, etc

b) sound, wholesome

1) an ordinary, quiet sort of person

c) complete, morally innocent, having integrity

1) one who is morally and ethically pure

other notes

This could be just me, but doesn't it look like it is a family trend to favor one child over another? Both Abraham and Isaac (and Jacob, later) favored one son over the other. Abraham seems like he liked Ishmael a lot because he was reluctant to listen to Sarah, so God had to tell him to listen to her, and Isaac loved Esau more. Then later Jacob favored Joseph and it was obvious, and that caused a problem.

uncle Laban

I did not know that Abraham was from the Syrian family. Some other translations I saw said "the Aramean." Some people who use certain translations wouldn't know what I am talking about (I didn't know, either) because certain translations omitted that part (Syrian or Aramean).


a little bit of Hebrew lesson...

On the way to his uncle's house, at a place called Luz (it means 'almond tree'), God visited him in his dream. Jacob called the place Bethel. Beth means house and -el means God....so, the house of God.


After the dream,
Jacob said that this place is like the gateway to heaven.
Later Jesus said that he is the gateway. I wonder if the Jewish people were reading Toldot during that week when Jesus said this. Now, that would have been a true life application from the Bible!

Rebecca and her water

There is an interesting Jewish custom in the kind deeds Rebecca displayed.

^{Genesis 24: 18}She said, "Drink, my lord." And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. ¹⁹When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, "I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking." ²⁰So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels.

The Jewish way of understanding this passage is like this:
After letting a stranger drink from her jar, Rebecca had to make a choice. She couldn't have taken the rest of the water home to give to the family after a stranger drank out of it. But it would be rude to the stranger if she spilled the water in front of him. So Rebecca told Eliezar that she would give water to the camels also, then pour the water into the trough. She wanted to maintain the dignity of the stranger. She genuinely cared about others. ( and animals at the same time)

I think she is quick to do the right deeds. She reminds me of Abraham.

I found similar commentary here. This website is not a Messianic but I think we can learn a lot from their way of understanding.


The roots still support the branches.

Sarah's life (Chayei Sarah)

Abraham wanted his servant to find a bride for Isaac. Eliezar, Abraham's trusted servant, is just like Abraham. He left with gifts right away to Abraham's brother's town to look for Isaac's bride . Just like Abraham he was quick to obey.

An interesting thing I noticed was that even though Eliezar was sure that God guided him to Rebecca, he wanted to see what they thought, for he said this to Rebecca's family: v,48 “Then I bowed low and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, because he had led me straight to my master’s niece to be his son’s wife. 49 So tell me—will you or won’t you show unfailing love and faithfulness to my master? Please tell me yes or no, and then I’ll know what to do next.”

He knew God led him, but he didn't push it to the other party. A wise man! I like his approach.

List of Genesis portions for the beginners

Genesis is divided into 12 portions or stories.

Jewish title	English translation	scriptures	contents
B’reisheet	In the beginning	1:1-6:8	God's creation
Noach	Noah	6:9-11:32	Noah's story
Lech Lecha	Go forth	12:1-17:27	Abraham's story
Vayera	And he came	18:1-22:24	The LORD appeared
Chayei Sarah	Life of Sarah	23:1-25:18	Sara lives on
Toldot	Generations	25:19-28:9	The coming generations of Isaac
VaYetze	And he went out	28:10-32:3	Jacob went out
VaYishlach	And he sent	32:4-36:43	Jacob sent gifts to Esau
VaYeshev	And he settled	37:1-40:23	Jacob settled in the land
Miketz	At the end of	41:1-44:17	Joseph explained the dreams…
VaYigash	And he drew near	44:18-47:27	Judah drew near to face down ….
VaYechi	And he llived	47:28-50:26	towards the end of Jacob's life

Reading the scriptures as stories helps me a lot, I think. I like the way it is divided.


Today's song in my heart.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”, says the LORD of hosts. (Zech. 4:6)

My church in Japan used to sing this a lot. I just started singing this while I was on line looking for a job, remembering that God is the source of everything.