*Message* Saturday October 29, 2022: Noach (Noah)
Pastor Lance Hamel:
All right, it’s on. Okay, all right,
as I was sayin’, we come into the house
of the Lord on Shabbat. That’s what we wanna do. We wanna get our blood pumpin’. We wanna get our spirit ready
to praise Hashem so that his presence and his Spirit
can come in this place. I taught during the Moadim about
joy and the fact that God does not rest on one who is sad. I know a lot of people
will disagree with that, but the Shechinah, the
dwelling presence of God, doesn’t like sadness. He likes joy,
because in his presence, there is no sickness.
In his presence,
there’s no death. In his presence, there’s
no ailments and no sadness, and it says in the messianic era
that we are goin’ to have every tear wiped away from our eyes
because all of these things in his presence, amen? Amen. So let’s get started this
mornin’ on our teaching. We are in Parshat
Noach, Noah, this week, and let’s go ahead
with the blessing. Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam,
asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu laasok b’divrei Torah. “Blessed are you, Lord our
G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by your
commandments and commanded us to study the words
of your Torah.” And this week, our
parshah, Parshat Noach, starts in Genesis
chapter 6, in verse 9, and it says this. It says, “This is the
genealogy of Noach. Noah was a great
man–was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” So, this week, our parshah
opens up with these words. It says that it’s the genealogy.
“This is the genealogy of Noah.” So you would think that after
these words would come something along the lines of
a list of names, his children, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t say that. It leads us to believe that we
are going to be studying the family of Noach, but what
follows is the words of “Noach was a just man, and he was
perfect in his generation.” So how can we
reconcile this in our minds? Normally, when you say, “These
are the generations,” it’s gonna list names, but there’s two
sentences right after these words. So how do we reconcile this? How do we wrap our
minds around this? One of the things that we do
when we come to the Scriptures is we need to ask questions.
The sages were amazing in
interacting with the text. They didn’t just read it
and then put it on the shelf. They interacted with it. They asked
questions, and it’s okay. It’s okay to ask
questions and say, “Why is this word
next to this word, and why does this
sentence say it this way, and why does it add
this ‘but” here, but then it
doesn’t add it there?” So that the text invites
us to ask these questions, and it invites us to interact
with it on a deeper level.
So how do we explain the way
that this passage unfolds before us? Well, when we read that “Noach
was righteous and perfect in his generations,” we might get this
idea or image in our heads when we hear the word “righteous”
or the word “pious” or the word “upright” or “just,” we
might get this idea in our heads because society has
brought this idea out. We might think about the Pope,
or we think about a Catholic priest, you know, who goes
around doin’ his little hand motions and got
his hands folded, somebody who might be
righteous and pious. This is what we think of a lot
of times when we think about this idea of being “righteous
and just in his generations.” And so the question that we
ask is “Is this what ‘religious person’ actually is?” Because you’ll see this actually
done on TV when they bring, what they would say, people
from the church or the Catholic church, things like that.
They’re always walkin’
around with their hands folded, and they speak in
a certain tone, and this is the image
that’s being presented, and so, often times, this is the
image that we have in our head when we read these words. But what does it
mean to be “righteous”? What is this word actually mean? Well, in English, it’s defined
as “a person–” or it’s defining “a person or a conduct which is
morally right or justifiable.” It’s someone who is virtuous,
and it has more to do with a person’s character than it has
to do with the way they dress and the way they walk
and the way they speak.
Has everything to do
with their actions. The Hebrew word for “righteous”
is the word “tsaddiq.” You’ll hear this in
messianic Judaism all the time, “tsaddiq, tsaddiq, tsaddiq,
and it comes from the root word “tsadaq.”
Tsadaq. And how is this word defined? It means “to be upright,”
instead of crooked or bent over. And these ideas create pictures
of one who is crooked and bent is not in the position
that they should be in. One who is
straight, who is upright, is one who has carried himself
according to the commandments of God, so it means, essentially,
“a moral person who is above reproach,” and the text tells
us that Noah was such a man. So the Torah praises Noach in a
way that no other person gets praised within
the entire Tanach. These things are not even
written about Abraham or Moses, believe it or not. It doesn’t come out right and
praise either of these biblical giants in such a
way as it does Noach. Now, Job might come close. Job was considered an
upright man and all of that, but it doesn’t use
the word “tsaddiq.” Noach, in the entire
Torah and the Tanach, is the only one
who’s called a tsaddiq.
And so this is somewhat of
an anomaly in our minds. We think, “Okay,
Noah was righteous. He was just.” And we read these words, but
what happens at the end of the parshah? What happens at the end of Noah
after he gets out of the ark? Well, it says he–they get out
of the waters–or get out of the boat, after the
waters have abated, and Noach’s son Ham walks
into his father’s tent, finds him drunk,
naked, and exposed, and you ask the
question, “Well, okay, how do I reconcile this with
the text that I just read in the beginning of the parshah that
says that he was a “just and upright man”? Well, we read in
Genesis chapter 9, following the flood and
Noah coming out of the ark, it says this, chapter 9,
verses 20 through 23, it says, “And Noah
began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Then he drank of the
wine and was drunk, and became
uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father, told his two brothers outside. But Shem and
Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders,
went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned
away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” So how could this happen? How was this even possible that
Noah would end up in this kind of condition after the text
tells us that he was “just and righteous”? I mean, it was the man who
heard the voice of Hashem, and he was
instructed to build the ark.
Piece by piece, he was given
instruction by instruction. He saved his entire family. He fed all of the
animals, right? The sages of Israel
tell us that Noah, day and night, stayed on a
feeding schedule for the animals to give them their proper food
at their proper time for the entire time that
they were on the ark. This was over about a
year’s worth of time. He did this each and every day. And so the man who
did all of this, at the end of the parshah,
ends up bein’ a drunkard, unashamedly layin’
naked in his tent? How could this be? How is this possible? Well, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may
his memory be for a blessing, makes a statement.
He says, “Noach is the classic
case of someone who is righteous but not a leader. His influence on the life of his
contemporaries was apparently zero.” Now let’s unpack
this just a little bit. Noach is the vessel through
which Hashem brings a covenant to all of humanity. He brings a covenant
to all of humanity, and, yet there is a
deficiency within Noach, and these are things
that we need to learn from. What do we make of the statement
that we find in Genesis chapter 7, in verse 1, that states this? “You alone have I found
righteous in this whole generation.” What is it about this particular
statement in Genesis 7:1, that should make
our ears perk up? Our ears should say, “Huh? There’s somethin’ not quite
right with this statement right here.” Well, it’s the fact that Noach
had 120 years to influence just one person, just one
person, and he didn’t do it.
Hundred and twenty years, his
job was to influence someone to get on that boat with
him, and this text says, “You alone in this generation.” The sages of Israel
look at that and say, “That’s a condemnation on Noach
because he was the “preacher of righteousness,” in
2 Peter chapter 2, right? But no one got on
the boat with him. It’s implicit in the fact
that it was only Noach, the animals, and his family
who were saved on the ark. What would Abraham have done if
Hashem told him that the whole world was going to be destroyed? Surely, Abraham
would’ve protested. He would’ve protested. He would’ve stood
up on both feet, and he would’ve argued with God. He would’ve influenced everyone
around him that he possibly could have influenced. What did Noach do? Well, Noach began building
the ark in silent obedience. Now, I’m not sayin’
that this is wrong. He followed God’s commandments
completely and totally, word for word, not
missing a thing. He was obedient,
down to the very last, minute detail.
Noach’s righteousness and his
apparent lack of influence on the people around him–his
lack of influence and his righteousness are two factors
that can be related to each other, right? Noah preserved his virtue by
separating himself from his environment, and
according to Rabbi Sacks, he says, “This is how,
in a world gone mad, he stayed sane.” This is a good place then to
talk about the different types of people and
circumstances, right? The overall understanding of
Noach falls into two camps: One camp says, states that Noach
was perfect in his generations. It’s either a praise
or it’s a criticism. It’s one of the two. If it’s a criticism,
then it merely means that, if Noah was in the generations
of righteous giants such as Abraham, Noach
would’ve been insignificant. Why are we sayin’ that? Because they’re saying it’s
relative to the generation in which he was in. He was righteous in
that generation there, but if you take him out of
there and put him in another generation, he wouldn’t
have been that righteous.
Noach lived in a time that the
wickedness was so prevalent that a tiny amount of righteousness
seems like a great big amount. Even if he just
did a little bit, it would stand out from the rest
of society because the rest of society was so wicked. And, on the other
hand, if the phrase, “perfect in his
generations,” is a praise, then it means that, in
such a wicked environment, Noach was a pillar because he
withstood the moral failings of his day, and how much greater
would he be if he lived in the time of Abraham and
havin’ Abraham as one of his contemporaries and
one of his influences.
Both
interpretations seem plausible, but the point seems to
hinge on this one thing, and that one thing
is Noach’s character. What type of
character did Noach have? What kind of person was he? Was he an outspoken
person full of vigor, or was he more of an introvert
who liked to stay to himself or a loner as you might wonder? If he was a loner, was it
necessary for the time in the environment that
he found himself, meaning, if he was a loner,
did he get that way by nature, or was it that way
because of circumstance? Did Noah withdraw into himself,
based on his circumstances, or was that just how he was? The generation of the
mabul, of the flood, they were totally
steeped in wickedness, and they weren’t
going to listen anyway.
Yeah, they weren’t
gonna listen anyway. Then isolation from the
communities of the flood would’ve been necessary to
remain unstained from the sin. Now, if Noach was a
loner, so to speak, then he surely wouldn’t have
been influenced by anybody because that’s
normally how a loner is. They stay to themselves. They do what they’re gonna do,
and they don’t listen to this person or listen to that person,
and they’re not influenced for either good or bad. If he was not a loner by
nature but by circumstance, then he would’ve found
like-minded people in another generation, in another age,
and become greater still.
So living in the
time that Noach did, how was he supposed to do? I mean, how do you be an
influence in a time when the entire generation is bent on
evil no matter what you say or do? How do you speak to
people who just don’t listen? Some might say that,
in times of Noach, the people were so wicked, they
weren’t gonna listen to him. Didn’t matter what he said. Didn’t matter what he’d do. There are examples in the Torah
where people didn’t even listen to the very voice of
God when he spoke. Let’s look at the
example of Cain, Abel’s brother, right? He was upset about his
sacrifice being rejected, and then Hashem
spoke to Cain and said, “Why are you so furious? Why are you depressed? Sin is crouching at the door. It lusts after you, but
you can dominate it.” What happened? Cain went out and
murdered his brother. He heard the
literal voice of God, and he still didn’t listen. He still didn’t obey.
So, if people won’t
listen to God directly, then how can we blame Noah
if, in his wicked generation, he chose not to speak when
it seemed obvious they wouldn’t listen? How can we blame him? “As Rabbi Aha, son
of Rabbi Hanina, said–” and this is an ancient
midrash that is talking about certain attributes of God and a
situation that God was dealing with, “As Rabbi
Aha, son of Hanina, said, ‘Never did a promise
manifesting a good attribute emerge from the
mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and He later
retracted it and rendered it evil, except with regard to
this matter.’ As it is written, ‘and the Lord
said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the
midst of Jerusalem, set a mark, a tav, upon the foreheads of the
men that sigh and that cry on the account of all
the abominations that are done in her midst.'” And this is
surrounding Ezekiel chapter 9. “‘The Holy One, Blessed be
He,’ said to the angel Gabriel, ‘Go and inscribe a
tav–‘” and if you know, the “tav,” in the ancient days
was in the sign of a cross on their forehead.
“Go and inscribe a tav of ink on
the foreheads of the righteous as a sign so that the angels
of destruction will not have dominion over them. And inscribe a tav of blood on
the foreheads of the wicked as a sign so that the angels of
destruction will have dominion over them.” And so, after God said this, the
“attribute of justice–” they personify certain
attributes within these stories, and “This attribute of justice
comes before God and says this.
It says, ‘Master
of the Universe, how are these people different
from these people?’ He said to that attribute,
‘These are full-fledged righteous people and those are
full-fledged wicked people.’ And the attribute of
justice said to Him, Master of the Universe, it was
in the hands of the righteous to protest the
conduct of the wicked, and they did not protest.’
He said to that attribute, ‘It is revealed and known before
Me that even had they protested the conduct of the wicked,
they would not have accepted the reprimand from them. They would have continued
in their wicked ways.’ The attribute of
justice said before Him, ‘Master of the Universe, if
it is revealed before You that their reprimand would
have been ineffective, is it revealed to them?'”
What’s he saying? “So, God, You knew it, but
do the righteous know that? Did they know
that, when they spoke, the people wouldn’t listen? Did they have any idea?” “‘And then the Holy
One, Blessed be He, He retracted His promise to
protect the righteous and decided that those who failed to
protest would be punished.’ And that is the meaning of
that which is written, ‘Slay utterly old
and young, both maid, and little children, and women,
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.
Begin at My Sanctuary.'” Okay, this is in Ezekiel 9: 6.
This is where we understand that the judgment of God comes to the
household of judgment first. He said, “Begin
at My Sanctuary.” But as the rabbis often do,
they’ll take a word that they find in that sentence, and
they’ll slightly change it to draw a lesson out of
this, and what has it said? “Rav Yosef, he taught this. He said, ‘Read not: My
Sanctuary,'” at the end of Ezekiel 9:6. “Don’t read the words, ‘My
Sanctuary,’ ‘mikdashi,’ rather, ‘Those sanctified to Me,’
‘mekudashai.'” Same word, slightly altered
at the end to say, “Those who are sanctified to
Me, these are the people who observed the whole Torah in
its entirety from Alef to Tav.” So according to this passage,
even the righteous in Jerusalem were punished at the time of
the destruction of the temple because they did not protest
the actions of the wicked or of their contemporaries.
They didn’t protest. God objects to the
claim of justice. He says, “Why punish them for
their failure to protest when it was clear that
what they had done, no one would have listened?” And justice
basically said, “Look, this might be
clear to the angels, but the people? They had no idea that they
would not have had an impact.” So justice asks, “How can you be
sure you will fail if you never try?” Men don’t have perfect vision. We can’t read people’s heart,
and we can’t determine whether a person will listen
to our words or not. We don’t get to make
that determination. You never know that the one word
you speak might make even the slightest difference. We don’t know that.
We don’t know that. So why then do we have this
tendency to wanna not say something? Because we think
that they won’t listen.
So according to this story, God
agreed with the logic that was being used here. When there’s nothing but
wickedness being perpetrated all around, corruption,
violence, injustice, it is our duty to make it known
that these things are not right, even in the face of the
possibility that no one will listen. Silence in the face of injustice
gives the impression of consent. Let me say that again. Silence in the face of injustice
gives the impression of consent. When we fail to say anything,
it appears as though we’re okay with what’s going on. We just, “I’m not gonna
say anything about it. It’s not my business. They’re not gonna
listen to me anyway. They’re gonna do what
they’re gonna wanna do.” That appears like we’re
consenting to what’s happening. Dietrich Bonhoeffer–if
you don’t know who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was, a
preacher during the time of the Holocaust, during
the Third Reich, and he said, “The only thing
needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” Ezekiel chapter 2,
verses 3 through 5, he says, “Son of man, I’m
sending you to the Israelites, to a Rebellious nation
that has rebelled against Me.
They and their ancestors have
been in revolt against Me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending
you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what
the sovereign Lord says–‘ and whether they listen
or fail to listen, for they are a
rebellious people. They will know that a
prophet has been among them.” So what does this
passage teach us? It teaches us that Hashem
instructs the prophet to speak regardless of whether the people
will listen or not because, in the end times,
they don’t get to say, “You never told us. You never said anything.” That’s one of the worst
things that can ever happen. Somebody ends up
gettin’ in trouble, and we’re standing next to
’em, and we didn’t say a word.
We didn’t warn them. We didn’t say nothin’ to them. There’s a principle in Judaism. It says this: Kol Yisrael
Areivim Zeh Bazeh, “All Israel are
guarantors one for another.” “All Israel are guarantors one
for another.” What does this mean? It means that, when
Cain asked the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer is a
resounding, “Yes. Yes, yes, you are.” We have an obligation to hold
one another accountable for our actions. We are in acharit hayamim. We’re in the last days, and
Yeshua said this in Matthew 24, verses 37 through 41. He says, “For in the
days before the flood, people were eating, drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that
Noah entered the ark, and they nothing about what
would happen until the flood came and took them all away.” How did they not know? “This is how it will be the
coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be in the field. One will be taken,
the other left. Two women will be
grinding at a hand mill. One will be taken
and the other left.” So there’s two things
that I wanna discuss or talk about in this passage. First is “How did they
not know what was coming?” If Noah was a preacher of
righteousness, as 2 Peter chapter 2, tells
us, then how could they have not known that the flood was coming? I believe what Yeshua said. Yeshua said, “They didn’t know.” They didn’t know it was coming. They didn’t say that they
didn’t–the text doesn’t say that they didn’t believe Noah.
It says that they didn’t know. How did they not know? Well, I think we have
the answer to that. Noach did, and he
did his commandments. He did the things
that God told him to do. He lived his life righteously,
but what Noach failed to do was to connect to the
people around him, unlike Abraham. Abraham was the guy who took
his tent wherever he went, and the sages say he threw open
all the doors on all four sides of his tent, and every
person that passed by his tent, he urged them to
come into his tent. He sat them down. He fed them.
He talked to them. There’s a great story. The rabbis say that the way
Abraham was able to influence people was that they would come
into his tent and sit down for a meal, and then,
when they were done, he said, “Okay, now, what you
need to do is bless God,” right? Deuteronomy 8:10, “When
you have eaten and are full, then bless the Lord for the good
land for which he’s given you.” So after they were done eating,
Abraham goes to his guests, and he says, “Okay, you need
to bless the God of heaven.” And if the person then
rejected that request, he would charge them an
astronomical amount of money for the food, and eventually,
they would end up just blessing the Lord, right? But he made this connection.
He made this way of
getting people into his tent, connecting with them on a
one-on-one level and then revealing the God
of heaven to them. Noach didn’t do this. Noach saved him, he
saved his family, and he saved the animals, but he
failed to touch the people who were around him. The second thing that I want to
address concerning this passage in Matthew 24–it’s, again,
a little bit of a rabbi trail, but since I was
studying this text, I felt like I needed
to talk about this, but in verses 40
through 41, it says, “Two men will be in the field.
One will be taken.
The other left. Two women will be
grinding with a hand mill. One will be taken
and the other left.” So the question is what is
the context of this passage? I know, right now, some
of you, in your head, I know what you’re thinking
already about what this passage means and what it says. Yeshua is
obviously, in this passage, speaking about
the Second Coming. He’s talking
about the end times. That is definitely the
context of the passage. He’s comparing the end times
that are coming with the times of Noah and the judgment that
came upon the world at the time.
They didn’t know that
the flood was coming, and the flood was judgment, and
they didn’t know it was coming till it happened. That is the context of this
statement in Matthew chapter 24, and it is a grave error to
read something into the text regardless of its context. The context is about
Noach and the judgment. I keep repeating this
because it’s hard to overcome a preexisting idea that we have
or a notion that we have in our head about what this
text actually means. This text is about
the coming judgment. Read verses 39–read verse 39,
in Matthew 24, through 44. Says, “And did not know until
the flood came and took them away. Then two will be in the field. One will be taken
and the other left. Two women grinding at the
mill, one will be taken, the other left. Watch therefore, for you
do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
But know this, that if the
master of the house had known what hour the thief would come,
he would have watched and not allowed his house
to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” “Those who are going to be
taken,” in the context of Yeshua’s words, in Matthew 24,
has nothing to do with what’s known as the Rapture. Has nothing to do with it. Who are the ones that are
going to be taken away? Those who are taken away in this
context and in this passage are those who are taken in judgment,
just like the people who were taken away in the flood. They were taken
away in judgment. This is not a Rapture passage
that talks about the rapture of the righteous because the entire
context tells us exactly who he’s talking about. He’s talkin’ about the wicked. In Noah’s time, they were
swept away by the flood. Those in the future who are
going to be on the wrong side are gonna be swept
away in judgment as well.
And I know this is gonna be hard
for some people to wrap their mind around because it’s been
taught and taught and taught that this is pointing to the
Rapture, but it’s not. Okay, enough of that. That’s enough of my rabbi trail. Back to Parshat Noach. A great sage of Israel who’s
the master of the Parshat level, Pastor Mark talked about
the Parshat last week, and I’m sure he’s gonna cover
more of that in the coming weeks when he’s teaching Alef-Bet,
but the Parshat level is the literal understanding. If it says, “Abraham
ran,” then Abraham ran. That’s what it means. And he, and this
particular sage states this. Says, “since after stating,
‘These are the progeny of Noah,’ it does not at once mention
the names of his children but declares that he ‘was a
righteous man,’ Scripture thereby teaches you that the
real progeny of righteous people are their good deeds.” So that answers our
question from the beginning, and we ask the question, why? Why, all of a sudden, when it
says that he was a righteous and a just man and that Noah walked
with God is because the sages understood this to say
that the real progeny, the real thing that follows
after a person in their life, their legacy, is not
necessarily their children, but it’s their
character, their morality, and their good deeds.
This is what follows a person. So I wanna make a
comparison here. I wanna make a comparison
about our good deeds and our righteousness that
we do to a family. What is our motivation
for helping our children? What is our motivation? Is it out of sheer obligation? Is it because we have to do it? We’re pressured to
help all children? Or do we help our children
purely out of love because they are valuable to us? They’re valuable human beings.
They’re valuable, precious gifts
that God has put into our life. In the same way, what is
our motivation for doing the Commandments or for
doing good deeds? Is it a matter of
listin’ dos or don’ts? Or do we serve Hashem out of
the abundance of our hearts? A great sage known
by the name Malbim, notes that,
throughout Scripture, the term “tzadik,” the
“righteous one,” encompasses exemplary social conduct, while
the term “tamim” is the word for “perfect,” means that someone
acts without thought of personal gain or aggrandizement, for a
person may deal justly to get honor or a good reputation, but
if this incentive is removed, he may change his behavior. Let me say that again. If a person is doing something,
and they’re motivated by honor, glory, praise by other men, if
they no longer get praise by other men and they don’t–no
longer get honor and glory for what they’re doin’, they might
stop what they’re doin’ because that’s their
motivation for doin’ it, right? Yeshua talked about the
Pharisees who would stand on the corners, and they’d have long
tzitzits all the way to the ground, and he said they have
great big tefillin on their heads, and they would
stand on the corners, and they’d make long,
great, loud prayers in front of everybody, and Yeshua said
they do that to be seen by men, and he said,
“Surely, I say to you, they have their reward.
They’re getting
what they’re getting, but it’s not gonna be
in the olam ha-ba, in the world to come. It’s not gonna get a
reward in the messianic age. They’re getting
what they’re getting, and they’re getting it now
because their intentions were incorrect. So do you understand the
difference between the two? You can do something that is
good with the wrong intention or incentive. You can actually do something
wrong with the purest of motives and intentions as well. You didn’t mean to
cause hurt to someone. It was purely unintentional. God looks upon your heart. He knows what your intentions
and what your motivations are for why you’re doin’
what you’re doin’. I just love it, just love
it when I see these videos, on Facebook Watch or
YouTube, where somebody goes, and they give a hundred-dollar
bill to a homeless person, and they do this
with their phone. It’s aggravatin’ ’cause they’re
doin’ it for the wrong reasons.
“Hey, world, look at me. Look how generous I am. Look at how amazing I am ’cause
I’m doin’ this wonderful thing for people.” Yeshua said do things
not for that reason, not for that purpose. Do it because you’re honoring
God and because you wanna do what God wants you to do,
not for the world to see.
Another comparison
that we can make is that, just as we love our children
even with their failures and shortcomings, we also should
love the good deeds that we have performed in the past. But you might say, “What?” That’s right. We must not down or hard on
ourselves because we should have or could have done a
better job in hindsight. Most people are their worst
enemies as far as criticism is concerned. They go, and they do something,
and then they look back and say, “Oh, I could’ve done it better.
I could’ve done it–I
should’ve done it this way.” No, even when your
children do something wrong, you still love ’em. You encourage them
on to do better. We should strive in
excellence in all that we do, and we should, but there is
a saying that I’m fond of. It goes something like this:
“The good is often the enemy of the best.” We have a tendency to get down
on ourselves ’cause we didn’t do things the right way.
You know what? Be glad that you did
good deeds in the past. Get over it.
Move on. When we’ve done a good deed,
we should be okay with the fact that we did a good deed. Doing good is way better
than doing nothing at all, and don’t let anyone shame
you because it wasn’t perfect. Don’t even let
yourself shame you. You did a good deed. Love it just as you still love
your children even when they fall short, even in the same way
that God loves all of us even when we fall short
of the glory of God.
Another comparison, just as a
parent looks for a way to help their child
improve their conduct, so also should we look at our
good deeds and find ways to improve in their
execution, right? Don’t confuse that with the last
point that I made about loving your past deeds. This is something different. We should be okay with our past,
but we should also strive to become better in the process. Lastly, just as a parent strives
hard to help their children to reach even greater heights, so
also should we work diligently in order to improve our efforts
in good deeds towards Hashem and towards others. I want you to stand this mornin’
as we close out this first portion of the teaching
and the service today. Our heavenly
Father, we are thankful. We’re thankful for the righteous
man that we know of as Noah, and we thank you for the example
and the teaching that you give us so that we can
learn from him ’cause, Lord, we’re living in
perilous days today. We’re livin’ in the day that it
feels like no one’s gonna listen to anything we have to say.
It feels like the
world is on autopilot. It’s bent on its wickedness. The leaders of this nation
are not gonna listen to us. The people that are in our city
councils are not gonna listen to us. They’re gonna do
what they wanna do, state governments, all of
them, and we feel almost like, if we were to speak, it
would just fall on deaf ears. And, Father, we also have this
feeling in our hearts that it’s difficult to live in a
generation like that, but nonetheless, we know that we
have an obligation to speak your Word. We have an obligation to
live our lives before the lost, and we have our obligation to
rebuke our brothers when they are in sin or that sin will be
charged to us because we saw it, and we did nothing about it. So I’m just askin’ today for
this holy congregation of El Shaddai Ministries and those
who are watching online throughout all of the world,
even in the parts that you’re in, Lord, I pray that
you would strengthen, encourage, lift us
up by ruach hakodesh, your Holy Spirit.
Give us the strength by your
Holy Spirit to move forward, to speak the words we need to
speak to and to the people that we need to speak to
and make a difference. Lord, we want our light to shine
out of here so brightly that people will see our good
deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. That is what we’re
askin’ for today. We pray for those who
are watching online, those who are here today, and we
also pray for the tithes and the offerings that are comin’ in,
and we’re just thanking you, Lord, in advance for the
provision that you are giving El Shaddai Ministries to do your
work throughout the world to touch people’s
hearts, to change lives, to fix marriages,
change relationships, Lord, and we just ask that
you would help us to be good stewards of all of these
resources from the kingdom, and we’re thankful that
we’re joined by all the nations, tribes, and tongues that are
with us here today listenin’ to your Word and loving you
with all their heart and soul, with all their strength,
Lord, in Yeshua’s name, amen.
And let’s do the final blessing
after the Torah reading and the study. “Blessed are you, Lord our God, Creator and King of the Universe. You have blessed us with Your Torah of Truth. You have blessed us with the whole counsel of Your Living Word. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, through the completed work of Messiah Yeshua. You alone have planted among us life eternal. Blessed are You, Lord our God.” And Baruch Hashem.
Take about a 20-minute break. Schmooze with everybody, and we’ll see ya back here shortly. Pastor Mark Biltz: Okay,
I’m gonna be teaching the Hebrew letter Alef in just a minute. I also like touching on
the Torah portions as well, so we’re gonna try to do both. I want to show you Noach’s name. On your right is modern Hebrew. It’s the Nun and the Chet, and
the blue is the ancient Hebrew, and the Nun is
represented by fish. It means “life,” and the Het is
a fence or a fence around life. So your little
children, what do you do? You build a fence
to protect them. So the whole concept of Noah’s
name means “protecting life.” The other thing is this: Here
you have “Noah,” and the first letter is the Nun. The second letter is the Chet,
and what did we find out about Noah? What did he find? He found grace.
That’s exactly right,
but let me show you. This is the word for “comfort,”
and Noah’s name means “comfort.” Right there, the very word
for “comfort,” Noach’s name is implied there,
but you take Noach, who found grace, and
you reverse the letters, you get “grace.” So Noah’s very
name means “grace.” Can you believe it? There was grace in
the Old Testament. I know that’s a shock
to a lot of people. Noah had faith. Noah found grace, and
it’s always been there. Looks like it was Ash Wednesday. So in Genesis 5:28-29, we
see, “Lamech lived 182 years, became the father of a
son and named him Noach, saying, “This
same–” will, what? That’s why they
called him Noach, ’cause it means “to
comfort,” all right? And it says, “Because
of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” So look at Genesis 6:6.
This is amazing. This is one of my most hated
favorite verses of the Bible. It says, “The Lord was so sorry
that he even made man on the earth, it grieved
him in his heart.” In Hebrew, that word for
“grieve” means “difficulty in breathing,” as if God is sobbing
over man who is trying to destroy everything, and it means
to intentionally destroy it. It’s one thing if you have a
little kid running through the house and knocks a vase down. It’s another thing if you have
the teenager who stares at you in the eye and hurls the vase
at the wall and destroys it.
That was the
condition of mankind. Their whole intention was to
destroy everything that God had created. That is amazing to me. But what do we find? Not only did Noah find
grace in Genesis 6:8, we see in the Hebrews 11, he
also had faith, and he was warned of God of things that
weren’t even seen yet. Moved with fear, he prepared an
ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the rest
of the world and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. So here we see, in
the Old Testament, Noah had faith,
and he had grace. And I think one reason why he
may not have warned everybody– ’cause he had no
clue what rain was.
How do you try to tell everybody
it’s gonna rain when you’ve never seen rain? Now look at Genesis 6:9, when
it describes the generations of Noah, “Noah was a
just man and–” what? And as Lance was mentioning, I like to describe
that word “perfect.” We all know no one’s
perfect, but in Hebrew, what that word means,
it really stands out, and this may be why the other
people in the Old Testament word called this, and I’ll give
you some quick examples, but it means “non-hypocritical.” Abraham was hypocritical:
“Sarah’s my wife,” “No, she’s my sister,”
“No, she’s my wife,” “No, she’s my sister.” Same with Isaac. He did the same thing, okay? So, but Noah shot straight. Straight shooter, all right,
and he wasn’t hypocritical. Now, Amos 3:3, we saw
that Noah walked with God, and in Amos 3:3, it says, “Can
two people walk together except they’re in agreement?” How many of you, if a stranger
walked up to you and say, “Hey, let’s go on a walk?” Like, “No, thank you.” All right, you walk with people
that you’re in agreement with.
And how many of you
know, sometimes, when spouses walk together, one of them’s
maybe ten feet ahead too? And, like, “Get back here. Walk with me.
Don’t walk ahead.” Well, we’ve gotta
be in agreement. What does it mean,
“walking with God”? Look at Deuteronomy 8:6. It says, “Therefore you shall
keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in
his ways and to fear him.” Noah feared God. He kept the
commandments, and so, when Noah walked with God, it
was in the sense of having a relationship with him. Like I said, you don’t go
and walk with strangers. Genesis 6:22, this is an amazing
verse: “Thus Noah: Did according to all that God commanded
him, that’s what he did.” He just does what God says. In Genesis 7:16,
“Those who went in, went in male and
female of all flesh, as God commanded him,
and the Lord shut him in.” Now, there are some
disagreements as far as the dating because it talks about,
in the second month this happen, well, some people think it’s the
second month of the religious calendar, the month of
Iyar, others think, “No, it’s the second month of
Cheshvan on the civil calendar.
Well, it was definitely the
second month on the civil calendar, Cheshvan. Moses wasn’t around yet. There was no
religious calendar, plus, you’re going to see, and I will
prove it to you why it happened in the second month. Okay, so here’s a
calendar, right? There we are. Everybody’s gettin’ in the
ark, and if you’ll notice, on that calendar, it’s
the 10th of Cheshvan. Now, this is our calendar. We’re about to enter
the month of November. So you can look
and we know that, on this calendar,
this coming November 4, is the very day, okay,
that God tells Noah, if you look at your
notes, in Genesis 7:4, God says, “In seven more days,
I’m gonna cause it to rain on the earth for 40
days and 40 nights, and everything alive, I’ve made,
I’m gonna destroy off the face of the earth.” Okay, well, we’re gonna find
out in a minute that the rain started on Cheshvan 17,
which is November 11, this year, is the
very day the rains fell, this coming November 11,
in just a couple weeks.
So, if he said, in
seven more days, that means it was on the
10th that he told them that, and the ark is
pretty much finished. Now, here’s what’s
also amazing to me. Do you know what year this is? From creation, 1,656. It’s been 1,656 years
from Adam to the flood. When we think back, that takes
us clear back to Constantine in the 300s. That’s how much time has
passed before–I mean, God is long-suffering. Sixty, almost two
thousand years have gone by, and God says, “I’ve had enough.” And so in Genesis
7:7-12, Noah goes in, his sons, his
wife, his sons’ wives, into the ark,
because of the waters.” It says that “of the clean
beasts and the beasts that aren’t clean, the fowls, and
every thing that creeps on the earth, they went in two by two.” We know the clean
went in by sevens. And then it says, “as
God had commanded Noah.” And then it says, “It came
to pass after seven days, the waters of the
flood were on the earth.
In the 600th year
of Noah’s life, in the 2nd month, on the
17th day of the month, the same day, the rain came
for 40 days and 40 nights.” And now we’re gonna put
the little rain cloud in. Okay, so the 17th of Cheshvan
is the very day that the rains fell, and it was
in the year 1656, okay? Now here’s the
interesting thing. Do you know what the
Hebrew word for “flood” is? “Mabul.” Lance had mentioned it. Say, “mabul,” “bul,” okay. Now watch what happens. Look at the next verse. In 1 Kings 6:38,
“In the 11th year, in the month–” what? “Bul.” That tells you it’s
the month of the flood. So, in Genesis, it’s
called the second month, and now it’s called
the eighth month, but it’s the same.
It’s just one is on
the religious calendar, and the other time, it’s
on the civil calendar. So the calendars
don’t replace each other. They’re added to each other. I just wanted you to catch that
’cause mabul means “flood,” and they called it “bul,” because
the whole world knew that was the month of the flood. And then, on the
17th of Cheshvan, which is November 11, this year,
it rains for how many days? Forty days.
Well, let’s take a
look at something. I just wanna show
you here Tishri 1, was always the beginning of the
civil calendar for 2,453 years. How do we know that Tishri 1,
was the civil calendar for 2,453 years? Because, when we read all the
“begats” and how old Adam lived and Noah lived,
they went by Tishri 1. Nissan 1 hadn’t become the first
of the religious calendar yet. So the only way you can know the
year of everyone in Genesis is if you realize they’re following
this civil calendar which was Tishri 1, and that’s when
the other calendar was added. Okay, so now here we go. It was 40 days and 40 nights. If you do that, it takes
you to the 27th of Kislev, which is Hanukkah. The rain literally stops in the
middle of the Feast of Hanukkah, when Yeshua is conceived
also, all right? And Yeshua’s
the light of the world, and here we have this
bright, beautiful rainbow. It says here, Genesis 8,
look at Genesis–well, 7, verse 17. “The flood was for 40 days.
The waters
increased, bore up the ark, and it was lifted
above the earth.” And then in 8:3-4, “The waters
returned from off the earth continually, and after the
end of–” how many days? “A hundred and fifty
days the water were abated. And the ark rested
in the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month.” Guess what that is? On the civil calendar, that
takes you to the day the Lord resurrected. It’s on the 17th of
Nissan, the very day now. You can’t do this if you’re
usin’ the other calendar. You’re not gonna
find out these things. So here the ark rests now
on the 17th day of Nissan. And then what do we find? In Genesis 8:5, “the waters
decreased continually until the 10th month, and
in the 10th month, the 1st day that month, were
the tops of the mountain seen.” Well, guess what? That takes us to the 1st
of Tammuz and the new moon. And then we see,
in Genesis 8:6-9, “It came to pass at
the end of 40 more days, Noah opened the window of
the ark which he had made, and he sent a raven,
which went to and fro, until the waters were dried up,
and he also sent a dove to see if the waters were abated
from off the face of the ground, but the dove found no rest, and
so she came back to the ark.” Okay, so here we wait 40 days.
He sends off the raven. Off it goes, and the
dove just stays–I mean, he comes right back. Well, then what happens? It says, “Seven
days later–” okay, oh, and I just
wanna mention the dove, Matthew 3:16, we see, “the
Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon him,”
but then in Genesis 8:10-11, we find “he stays
another seven days, and again he
sends forth the dove, and this time, the dove returns
with an olive leaf,” all right? And that is on the 18th of Av. We know the 9th of Av is very
significant historically in the future, but here we see
it’s on the 18th of Av, it brings back an olive branch.
And then what do we find? And this during–oh,
what’s Noah’s name mean? “Comfort.” And the 18th of Av is beginning
of the three weeks of comfort. So then what do we find? Oh, and the olive
branch represents Israel. Israel is the olive tree, and
they say that the olive branch that the dove brought came
from the Mount of Olives. And it says in Isaiah 11:1,
“There will come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” So the olive branch also
represents the Messiah, and the leaves represent
new life after judgment, which is why, in Revelation, the
leaves are for the healing of the nations. And then, in
Genesis 8:12, we find, “he waits another
7 days, and then, this time, he
sends forth the dove, and the dove never comes back.” So what do we find
next in Genesis 8:13? “It came to pass in the
601st, of the 1st month, the 1st day of the month, the
waters were dried up from off the earth.
Noah removed the
covering of the ark, and behold, the face
of the earth was dry.” Guess that. That’s Rosh Hashanah. The very day Adam is created is
the very day he takes off the roof of the ark and
sees everything is dry. You can see how the whole
flood is tied to the biblical calendar. But here’s what’s amazing. This wasn’t in my notes. This is gonna be in my
superior notes for next week, so any of you
watching, close your ears. How many of
you’ve been to Israel? How many of you know it’s
a long flight from here? How many of you have
ever been on a long flight? What’s the first thing you
wanna do when that plane lands? Get off the stinkin’ plane.
Now, how many of you would
like to have been on a beautiful cruise ship when Y2K hit, and
you’re stuck out in the ocean for six months? How many of you
would enjoy that cruise? Even though it was
a nice cruise ship, you wanna get off the boat. Noah, we just read it. It says that he
opened up the lid, he looked out, and
everything’s dry, and it’s on Rosh Hashanah. Now, how many of you know
the ark did not have all the amenities that a
cruise ship has? The first thing I’m
goin’ to, if I’m Noah, is get off the stinkin’ boat.
I’m tired of smellin’
these giraffes and elephants. I mean, how many of you–I
mean, the first–you’re gonna be runnin’ to get off the
boat, but look what Noah does. It’s the 1st day
of the 1st month. It says, in Genesis
8:14-17, “And in the 2nd month, on the 27th day of the
month–” it’s almost two months, and Noah hasn’t
even got off the boat. Why? “I ain’t goin’ till
God tells me to go.” He only did what
God told him to do. I would’ve been off that boat,
after I saw the earth was dry, without even asking God. I’d have said, “That’s a sign.” But Noah stayed.
He’s been on it for a
year, not three months, an entire year, and he says,
“I ain’t gettin’ off the boat.” And God says, “Oh, my
goodness, get off the boat.” Look, Genesis
8:14-17, “In the 2nd month, the 27th day of the month,
the earth was still dry. And God finally spoke to
Noah, “Get out of the boat, you, and your wife, your
sons, your–” he probably–God probably felt like he’ll never
get out of that boat until I tell him.” And he says, “And bring
everything with you–” ’cause, if it was up to Noah, he’d have
made everyone stay on the boat until he said to let them off– “everything that
creeps on the earth.” So, anyway, so
Monday, November 21, of this year–let
me just see Monday. Am in the right year? Oh, that’s 2023. Let me go–oh,
that’s the wrong year, but, anyway, that’s
the day of the flood. Okay, now, one last thing before
I jump into the letter Alef, what was Noah’s
three sons’ names? Shem, Ham, and Japheth, okay? And what’s fascinating is Ham’s
son was, who? Canaan.
And Canaan was, what? Cursed. Now, Noah’s grandson is Canaan,
and Canaan gets cursed, right? Well, guess what? Cush, remember Cush? Okay, he was the
father of Nimrod. Nimrod, he sees his first cousin
got cursed by Grandpa Noah, so Nimrod said, “I’m not gonna
build this Tower of Babel till Noah dies,” and he doesn’t build
the Tower of Babel until right after Noah dies. When you look at the calendar,
when Noah dies is within the next ten years Nimrod builds
it because he did not wanna be cursed by Noah, all right, which
is quite fascinating to me. But Ham’s wife, do you know, we
found out what Ham’s wife’s name was. The Beitzim. Nobody knows Hebrew, okay.
It’s a joke. Th* “Beitzim” means
and “eggs,” Ham and eggs. It’s a joke. It’s a joke, okay. All right, okay,
but here they are. They get off the boat, and
they go on their merry way. Now, one thing
else I wanna mention, since we’re kind of talking
about Genesis bereshit last week, this is one of
the things I didn’t get a chance to go over. Here’s the ten
generations from Adam to Noah. This is the
problem with English. You’re not gonna
see this in Russian. You’re not gonna
see this in Spanish. You’re only gonna
see this in Hebrew.
How many of us hate
reading the begats? Like, “Blah,
blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah, let’s move on.” I did this one time in Israel. I’m at McDonald’s,
and they have their, you know, big Russian security
guard with a gun standin’ there, and then there’s other
people around the tables, and so I sit down at this table. We’re this big group, and
there’s this other man who sees us, and we’re
havin’ a good time. “Hey, where are you guys from?”
You know? So I jump over to his table. “Oh, you know, we’re
from the United States.
And we’re doing a tour.
We love Israel.” And I said, “Hey, could
you help me with my Hebrew? You know Hebrew.” And I said, “I’ve got the–” and
I had these ten names written down on a napkin, and I said,
“Can you help me understand what these names mean in Hebrew?” See, we don’t even think. Adam–and so I’m
writing it all down, and he’s just agreeing with me. “Adam,” in Hebrew,
means “mankind.” Do you remember
when Cain killed Abel? Seth was appointed to take
Abel’s place because his name means “to be appointed to.” So, when you say that in
Hebrew, you’re saying, “to be appointed to.” He begat Enosh.
“Enosh” means
“feeble, frail, mortal.” He begat Cainan. “Cainan–” this
particular Cainan, not the land of Canaan–means
“a fixed dwelling place,” like a house, compared to a tent. So, in English,
we’re saying, “Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Cainan,” but in Hebrew, you just said, “Mankind
is appointed to feeble, frail mortality, a
fixed dwelling place.” Well, then what? “Mahalaleel” means “God who
is praised,” who begets Jared, which means, “to come
down,” who begets Enoch. You ever heard of
the word “Hanukkah”? That’s part of it,
and “Enoch” means “to train or
instruct.” Methuselah is a man who’s been
“sent to die.” “Lamech” means “to be beaten
and tortured.” “Noah” means “bringing comfort and rest.” So, when you read these ten names in the genealogy, you have “Mankind is appointed to feeble, frail mortality, a fixed dwelling place, but God, who is praised,
comes down to instruct.
He was sent to die,
being beaten and tortured, but it brought us
comfort and rest.” This is why I’m saying that it’s
all there when you understand the Hebrew in context. Isn’t that fun? Okay, are you ready? The first letter, Alef, okay? Now, I want to
show you John 1:1, in Hebrew, okay,
and you’ll notice, on the far right is
the little letter Alef, and the first word is
“bereshit,” “in the beginning.” It’s the same as Genesis 1. The Alef is the
number one, okay? And so we have John 1:1,
the Alef is the number one, and it begins, if you remember, “In the beginning
was the–” what? “Word.” And when you think–if
you wanna look up a word, where do you go? The dictionary. And we say,
“Everything from A to Z, if you wanna know a word, it’s
everything from A to Z in the dictionary.” Well, in Hebrew, if
you wanna know the word, it’s everything
from Alef to Tav.
Well, he is the Word,
and he is the beginning, which, and “The
Word was with God. The Word was God.” Well, here, let’s take a look. There is “bereshit.” The first verse in Genesis, you
see “bereshit” is number one. “Bara,” “created.” Number three, “Elohim,” and
number four is “Alef Tav.” That’s not in your English. You’ve been robbed in English. You’re missin’ that fourth word. You just have–and then
shamayim et erets.” So, “In the beginning created
God the heavens and the earth.” What’s amazing is there
are seven Hebrew words, and in a menorah,
there are seven branches, and in the middle
is the Alef Tav.
This is why, in
Revelation 1:12-4, John says, “I turned to see
the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw
seven golden candlesticks. In the midst of the candlestick,
there’s one like to the Son of man,” and it says, “His
eyes were as flames of fire.” He’s talking about the
first verse in Genesis. Right there is the
Alef and the Tav. Now, in ancient Hebrew,
when Moses wrote that, the Alef refers to an ox or a
bull or the leader because the Alef is the first among equals. Let’s say, every
Hebrew letter is equal. Well, it goes first, so
it’s the first among equals, and here, “Alef” means an “ox,”
and then the Tav was a cross. It’s the leader
nailed to the cross. When you see the Alef Tav,
it’s referring to God in the covenant. Okay, now let’s see
Revelation, look at this, 1:17.
This goes on. He sees his eyes as
the flames of fire, and it says, “And
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his
right hand upon me, saying, ‘I am the Alef
and the Tav.'” He is the Alef Tav, and it’s
right there in Genesis 1:1, but you don’t see it in the
English, but you see it in the Hebrew, so it makes sense
when John is talking. Okay, so now what
I’m going to do, you have on your notes these
Hebrew words that all begin with the letter Alef, and I want you
to fill in the blank what each one means as I go through this,
and I’m gonna go kind of slow, but this is to help you learn
the first letter Alef, okay? And I’m gonna show
you how to write it, too, here in just a minute. Let me just look at this here. Maybe I’ll help you
right now with that. I have so much stuff. I don’t know if we’re
gonna get it all done, but I’m gonna jump
back for a minute.
Let me just jump here. Okay, the letter
Alef, number one, is a diagonal line
going right to left, down. Then the second thing is
a little line going down, connecting a
little past the middle, and then the next
one is, up at the top, a little line coming down. Okay, if you look at
the middle of that line, one’s right below it. One’s right above it. If you wanna
practice writing that Alef, then there’s one
that’s written right there. Again, there’s different font. Yours may not be
perfect, but that’s okay. Okay, with that
said, let’s go back, and we’re gonna take a
look at some things. Let me see where I’m at. Okay. Genesis 1:14, what does it say? It says, “God said, ‘Let there
be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the
day from the night, and let them be for–” what? “Signs, and for
seasons, for days, and years.” Oh, there is to be for signs.
Well, guess what? That is the Hebrew
word for “sign.” It begins with
the Alef, the Vav, and the Tav, and the word is pronounced
“oth,” but it means “sign.” Now, what’s
incredible about this–well, I mean, this, the
Alef, by itself, represents God. The Alef Tav
definitely represents God. The Vav, the letter in the
middle–it’s just basically a straight line–is the word
“and,” or it’s a connector like a nail. Think of two boards and that
nail drives and connects the two boards.
The letter Vav in Hebrew is
the conjunction “and,” ’cause it connects two
words, two thoughts. So here we have the
leader nailed to the cross. Now, here’s a verse that I was
talkin’ to Lance about the other week, and I wanted to show him
where the word for “sign” does not have the Vav in the middle. Very interesting.
Look at this first. We’re gonna go to
Exodus 13, verse 9, and you will notice–and let me
go ahead and put a little circle there– “for a sign.” Do you see that word in black? It says, “And it will be
for a sign upon your hand, a memorial between your eyes,
and the Lord’s Torah may be in your mouth, for with a strong
hand has the Lord brought you out of Egypt,” so
it’s to be a sign.
There’s the word
“le-ot,” and here it is, and you’ll see the Lamed is
“for,” and then you have Alef Vav Tav. Do you see that? So “It’s to be a
sign upon your hand, upon your eyes.” But look at this in
Exodus 12, verse 13, where they’re putting the
blood on their doorposts. It is “for a
sign,” “le-ot” again, but there’s no Vav. It’s the blood of the Alef Tav
that’s being put on the doorpost at the Passover. Pretty cool. So here we are. “God said, ‘Let
them be for–” what? Signs. So here we are,
the letter, “ot.” The first sign God says or the
first reason he made the light is for signs. When God said he put the
lights in the heaven for signs, he’s talking about eclipses. That’s what he’s talking about. He made them for signs.
That’s the number one reason. The number two
reason was for seasons, but that’s not
winter, spring, summer, fall. That’s for, like, Passover
and Sukkot and Rosh Hashanah because, on Passover and
Sukkot, you have a full moon, and you can only have a
lunar eclipse on a full moon.
Rosh Hashanah’s on a new moon,
and you can only have a solar eclipse on the new moons. So God created them for signs
on the feast days when the new moons are and
Passover and Sukkot are. It all connects. And then, number three, it
says, “for days and years.” He’s not talkin’
about Monday and Tuesday. He’s talkin’
about Sabbath years, Shmita years, Jubilee years. Now here’s the next thing: Look
at the size of the sun compared to the size of the earth. Pretty crazy. Well, guess what? Here’s the sun. There’s the little tiny
moon, and there’s the earth. How in the world could that
little moon block out the big ol’ sun? How does that happen that
you can have an eclipse? It all has to do
with size and distance.
Right now, my thumb can block
out your whole head, right? It’s size and distance. Well, guess what? The sun is exactly 400
times larger than the moon. It is exactly 400
times further away, and guess what? The Tav has a numerical
value of exactly 400, and that means sign. So God put the sun and the
moon and the heavens for signs, and you can only have an eclipse
sign if it’s 400 times larger and 400 times
further away, and the Tav, which means “sign,” is
the numeral value of 400. Everything is there. Now, I wanna show you something. This is what I saw,
clear back in 2008, that many people wrote
about in 2014 and ’15.
I noticed there were four total
blood moons in 2014 and 2015. This was in 2008, I
saw this, and I thought, “Wow, that’s crazy.” And I’m lookin’ at
this, and I’m thinkin’, “Wow, when do
these things happen?” Well, first off, you only
would’ve seen this if you have an alert, but I
notice, on Google, a magazine was talkin’ about me. Here is the article from
“The Sun,” and it talks about apocalypse. “What is the
Blood Moon Prophecy? Conspiracy theory
explained,” and it goes in, and it talks about me and
John Hagee and all this kind of stuff.
And I think it came up because
there was an eclipse the other day. But they–I think it’s
interesting that they call it a conspiracy theory. So I’m gonna go over
this with you real quick, which is kind of interesting. I am only gonna
deal with the facts. This is from NASA’s website. Lunar eclipses for 5,000
years, from 2,000 B.C. to 3,000 A.D.,
which we’re, like, 1,000 years away from,
just lunar eclipses, there were
12,000 lunar eclipses, of which some were
partial, some were penumbral, and there were only 3,479 total
lunar eclipses over 5,000 years, which means, on average,
over 5,000-year time span, you only get one total lunar
eclipse every year and a half, but now we have four
in one year and a half? That should spark some interest.
And not only that, in
the last 2,000 years, it’s only happened eight times. But let’s take a
look at something here. We’re gonna look at
what are the odds? Dun-duh-dun-duh-daaaah,
here we go. You have four total lunar
eclipses in one and a half instead of just one? On top of that, all four total
lunar eclipses are in a row, not separated by
other–you know, not just scattered? Not only that, all four eclipses
fall on Passover and Sukkot? Not only that, significant
events happen to the Jewish people when it does happen? And it repeats
during Jewish history. You could see why it
caught my attention. Okay, so this is when
they fell in 2014 and 2015, and on top of
those lunar eclipses, there were also solar
eclipses on Nissan 1, the beginning of the
religious calendar, when the glory fell
on Moses’ tabernacle, and on Rosh Hashanah,
there was a solar eclipse.
And so I thought,
“Oh, my goodness, here we have these things
happening on these particular feast days. When was the last time you
had four eclipses in a row, especially if it’s supposed
to be this big rare thing? And I noticed, the time
before was 1967 and ’68, when Israel captured
Jerusalem, and I said, “Duh, there’s a pattern.” The time before that was
right when Israel was born, and I’m thinking,
“Oh, my goodness, this is a pattern.” And then, guess when the
next time it happened? 1492, when all the Jews were
kicked out of Spain on the 9th of Av, right, surrounding
it, and so I’m going, “Oh, my goodness.
Something’s going on here.” And I went all the
way back to 70 A.D., and it happened in 70 A.D.,
around the destruction of the temple as well. But wait, there’s more. You notice, the two bottom
eclipses are hybrid solar eclipses? Well, according to NASA, how
rare are hybrid solar eclipses? Of the 12,000 solar eclipses
listed over a 5,000-year span from 2,000 B.C., to 3,000
A.D., in NASA’s “Five Millennium Catalog of Solar
Eclipses,” only 569. You only get one hybrid
solar eclipse every ten years. Well, guess what? In 70 A.D., you had two in a row
on Nissan 1 and Rosh Hashanah. God put these for signs. As a matter of
fact, in 32 and 33 CE, there were solar
and lunar eclipses. So I think there was
great significance, and we’ll see what is to come. Okay, with that
said, here we go. Here are the 22 Hebrew letters. You can see the
number one is the alef, and I wrap it around. There are 22 letters, and so,
and one way of looking at ’em, that’s their place value,
but they also have a numerical value, where the first one
through ten is one through ten, and then they go by
twenties–or tens, and then they go by hundreds.
So you can see at the very end,
the Tav is the numerical value of 400. That’s what I was talking about. Now, one other thing that’s just
fascinating is look at this. Here we have the
planets going around the sun. I want you to notice it says,
“The earth’s average orbital speed is 29,800
meters per second.” That’s moving. That’s how fast we’re going
around the sun right now. And if you look
at underneath it, again, it says, “The orbital
speed of the earth is 29,800 meters per second.” How many of you
know that’s flyin’? Well, guess what? Here is Genesis 1:1, in the top,
and if you put the place value of every letter
inside of those letters, it adds up to 298. Well, you take
that, times 10-squared, you get 29,800
meters per second. In Genesis 1:1, it
literally tells you, the first time it
mentions the earth, what the orbital speed is
of the earth around the sun.
This is why I’m
saying there’s 70 layers. So here we go. Here’s the Alef through the
Tav, and it has the name, so if you wanna take
pictures, you can take pictures, or whatever, but that’s how
we’re gonna go through the Hebrew alphabet, from the
Alef, all the way to the Tav. Now, to make this fun and easy,
there were ancient letters.
Just like we have
different font on our computer, they had different font in
Hebrew as it changed over time. Each letter is also a picture. Like I said, the Alef is the
Ox, and that next letter was the shepherd’s staff, which
became the “L,” or Lamed. And so that is God’s
name, “L,” the Alef-Lamed. That’s “L,” standing for “God.” Now watch this: In the Proto Canaanite alphabet, the way it was
before, as I mentioned, the Alef is an ox or a bull.
To the left is how
Moses drew the ox. To the right is how
David drew the ox. You can still see the ox there. Does everybody see the ox? And then the letter Bet
means “tent or house.” Moses do a three-room
house for the letter. David drew a tent
on the landscape, okay? That’s “house.” The letter Hey
means “to behold.” It represents a window, and the
one as someone standing there with his arms raised, going,
“Hey,” that means “to look,” “look here.” And then, Yood or Yod is “hand,”
and it was the arm with the elbow and two fingers like this.
I just wanna kind of
be–introduce these few letters here, but they were pictures. Now, if you see
the top far right, the ox, guess what? That became our “A,”
the Alef, and the “A.” And guess what?
That became our “B.” All right, so, if that became
our “A” and “B,” who can tell me what this word is? Av or Ab, that’s the
“A” and the “B,” right? So Moses drew Av like this,
and David drew it like that, but it’s the same word. Who knows what that means? Like, don’t you already know it?
Don’t tell me. If you’re trying to learn
it, what do you think that is? Well, let’s put it together.
“Abba.” That’s “Dad,” because “Dad”
is the “ox of the house.” It was written on a
first-grade picture language. You draw an ox and a house? Well, that’s Dad.
That’s “Abba.” That’s who that is.
That’s Daddy, Dad and Daddy.
Okay, so now here’s Psalm 119,
and most people don’t know this, but in Psalm 119, the entire
Psalm is based on the Hebrew alphabet. Every eight verses
begins with the letter, like, on the far right where
that little yad pointer is. If you go down, every word
begins with the letter Alef. And the next eight verses,
everything begins with the letter Bet and then Gimel, but
you don’t see that if you don’t know Hebrew. A lot of times in
your Psalms 119, they’ll have these little
words above each section. You wonder what that is. That’s the Hebrew letter
that they’re talkin’ about. So here we are.
The Alef, the first
letter, means number one. And here you see it
right there in Genesis 1:1, and then you see
underneath it is the Bet, which is number two;
Gimel, which is number three. Here’s how you draw it. Now here’s an easy
thing–way to memorize things. If I just told you the letter
“H” and the letter “T,” how would you pronounce it? It could be “hit,”
“hat,” “hot,” “hut.” You followin’ me? In the Hebrew,
there are no vowels, and so like you see here, on the
“A” with the little semicircle above it, we know that’s
pronounced “aah,” and if it’s got the long line over
it, it’s “ay,” okay? And, like, “E” can be
“egg” or–can’t even say–oh, “easel,” all right? So we have–everyone know,
when you look in the dictionary, those little marks tells
you how to pronounce it.
So that’s what
they do in Hebrew. Now, the Alef is silent, okay? So when you see the letter Alef,
it’s the marks underneath it that tells you how to pronounce
it ’cause there’s no vowels. So if it has a
little dot, it’s “ee.” Three dots, it’s “eh.” Two dots is “ay,” and “aw,”
and “oo” and “oo,” and “oh, oh, oh.” Okay, is everyone following me? Okay, so Alef is one, but when
it’s pronounced “elef,” it’s 1,000, okay? And if it’s “aloof,” it
means “the master,” “the boss.” So it’s the–you can look at a
word and pronounce it different ways, and, guess what? That’s why you get different
translations of the Bible ’cause people translate it differently. And here we see–and
I’m circling the letters. You’ll see the Alef,
Lamed, Peh, or Feh, and you’ll notice it
means–there it is–Alef, and it’s the number 1,000. It says, “I will give you a
thousand pieces of silver.” So here we see that it is
also “a thousand,” right there.
Okay, so here we go. I’m gonna help you a little bit. “Av” is “father.” Now, if we change
it and we put a Mem, you get “mother.” God is with both the
mother and the father. And guess what? If you put a Nun on the end, you
get “Amen,” which means “to be faithful.” That’s what that is. And if you take–and the
mother is the one who’s always faithful, “to be faithful.” That’s why it’s rooted
in the word for “mother.” And then, not only that, the
word for “truth” is “emet.” That’s what it is. The word for brother
is “ach,” and it means, again, a “strong fence.” A brother is supposed to be a
strong fence to protect the rest of the family.
Here what do we see? Adonai, the Alef,
Dalet, Nun, Yod. Almost all the names for God
begin with the letter Alef. God is light, right? Or–that’s what it
says in 1 John 1:5. What else is God? God is love, and it
begins with the letter Alef. That’s what God is all about. And as I just
showed you earlier, “L,” or Elohim,
that refers to God. Do you see how God’s
name, almost all of them, begin with the letter
Alef because he is first? Okay, now we’re
gonna have some fun. What’s that? Anybody can guess
what that might be? You know it’s Av to begin with. Abraham, Avraham. Exactly. That is Abraham. Okay, I’m gonna give
you a hint on this one. Created in God’s Image.
Adam. That’s exactly
right, Adam, Adam. Okay, we’ll give
you another hint. God is a consuming–exactly,
and it begins with “esh,” Alef. But get a load of this.
Look at this. Man, the word for “man”
is made up of the Alef, Shin, for “fire.” The word for “woman” is
made up with the Alef-Shin, with the Hey. Now, they both
have the Alef-Shin. God is a consuming fire.
We’re created in his image,
so we’re consuming fires, and what do we find? “Man” is the word for
“fire,” with the Yod, or the “hand,” because man is
always working in the midst of the fire. The woman is “ishshah,”
which has the letter Hey, and that’s the glory that
comes out of the fire–the gold, the silver, the precious stones. And what’s amazing
is you take the word, just a Yod-Shin, you get just
“mere substance,” but you add God to it, you get “mankind.” Now here’s the word for “unity.” Anybody know what that is? “Echad.” That is exactly right. And what happens when we close
with the priestly blessing? “Ayer Asher
Ayer,” “I am who I am, what I am, where
I am, that I am.” Their two words are the same,
but right in the middle is the different one.
Okay, I just kind of raced
through that real quick. The worship team can come up,
and I’m gonna go ahead and share one more thing. The letter Bet is next. Practice writing Alef. Does everyone recognize
where the Alef is in that word? Okay, everybody, say, “Alef,”
which is the number– that’s right. See, you already
know one letter. Think of this: In 22
weeks, you’ll have them all. Like I said, my main goal
here is letter recognition.
By the time we’re done, you’re
gonna be able to recognize all the letters. You may be able to
pronounce some words. You’ll have no idea
what you’re saying, but, you know, I
think a lot of it, you will. But I wanna tell
you a quick story. I don’t know how many of you
ever heard of Horatio Spafford. Anyone who’s never
hear of Horatio Spafford? Oh, good, well, let
me tell you this. Look at what he wrote: “I’m glad
to be able to trust my Lord when it costs me something.” Isn’t that amazing? Well, guess what? He lived in 1870s. He was there–well, first
off, Horatio Spafford was a successful attorney. He was a real estate
investor, but guess what? How would you like to be a real
estate investor when billions of dollars of real estate burned
in the Chicago Fire in 1871? The big, great
Chicago Fire in 1871, as a matter of fact, that fire,
back then, was 222 million.
Compared today, it is $5
billion of real estate was gone. Well, guess what? He lost it all. There were 17,500
buildings burnt. That’s a lot of buildings. Well, after the
Chicago Fire of 1871, about the same time, his
little four-year-old son died of scarlet fever. Well, he thought a vacation
would do his family some good, so he sent his wife and his four
daughters on a ship to London, and he planned to join them
after he finished some pressing business at home.
His four daughters were
Annie, who was only 12; Maggie, who was 7;
Bessie, who was 4; and an 18-month-old baby. So it was four daughters
of those ages and his wife. He sent them on this
ship to go to England, however, while
crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in
a terrible collision and completely sunk. More than 200
people lost their lives. He lost all four of
his precious daughters. After the fire of ’71, after
his son dies of scarlet fever, his four daughters die,
his wife only survives. When she gets to
England, she sends a telegram, saying, “I’m the only one saved. What am I to do?” He immediately set
sail for England, and at one point,
during his voyage, the captain of the ship, who was
aware of the tragedy that had struck his family, summoned
him to tell him they were now passing over the very spot
where his daughters died. As he thought about his
daughters in their final moments, words of comfort and
hope filled his heart and his mind, and he wrote them
down, and they became the song, “It Is Now Well with My Soul.” Let’s pray.
Ye’varechecha
Adonai v’yishmerecha, Ya’er Adonai panav
eleicha v’ihuneca, Yisah Adonai panav
eleicha v’yasem l’cha shalom. “The Lord bless
you, and keep you; the Lord make His
face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord
lift up His countenance upon you, and give you His peace,”
in that most wonderful name, Ayer Asher Ayer, amen. See ya next week. ♪♪♪.
