B’reisheet – 1

Before my earthly father passed away, during our talks together, he would speak often of “God’s vast eternal plan”. YHVH’s plan is certainly vast, conceived in eternity past, and extending into eternity future. But He created the space-time continuum for his new human family. The steps He took during Creation Week tell us many things about the home He was building and how He was intentional and deliberate in the examples He gave us. We also see Him sadly seeing His human children failing and, in justice and mercy, follow through with the consequences He had to impose on them. While we are mortal men and not divine Elohim, we were designed in His image in the beginning and can learn much about from where we came, why we are the way we are, and how we are to be conformed to His image.

Creation Week is construction on a vast scale. In physics, we learn that every result requires an equal or greater cause. The sheer scale of calling into being through the immense power of the Spoken Word the universe testify to the One Who is so unimaginably great beyond our understanding. But what we can easily grasp is that He is the Master Craftsman, who designed and planned everything in eternity past. His plan was before the foundation of the world. We can understand that He applied intent to His purposes and evaluated the results and found them good or very good.

The awareness that YHVH could have called everything into existence from nothing all in one instant but did not do so encourages us to understand that He was providing lessons for us about Himself. He wants us to study, ponder and learn from what and why He did what He did. As we read through the story of Creation Week, we see that He is intentionally moving from “chaos” to “order” in a step-by-step fashion.

We read that YHVH had two helpers: Yeshua His Son and the Word, and the Holy Spirit of Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding. Together they created the cosmos, the heavens and the earth.

In powerful words, John described who the Word was and His role during Creation Week.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John 1:1-3

Writing to the Colossians, Paul, as a second witness, added more information about the Word.

3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Colossians 1:3a,13-16

The other helper was the Holy Spirit as Wisdom.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Genesis 1:1-3

The prophet Isaiah describes for us the Seven-fold Spirit.

1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah 11:1-2, emphasis added

An unknown Psalmist also described the role of wisdom during Creation Week: 

24 O Lord, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all

Psalm 104:24

Solomon in two places in the Book of Proverbs shared some insights into Creation Week.

13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding.
14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver
And her gain better than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels;
And nothing you desire compares with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways
And all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who hold her fast.
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth,
By understanding He established the heavens.
20 By His knowledge the deeps were broken up
And the skies drip with dew.

Proverbs 3:13-20, emphasis added

He also added these thoughts about wisdom in the Creation of the World

22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
23 “From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
24 “When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no springs abounding with water.
25 “Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills I was brought forth;
26 While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,
Nor the first dust of the world.
27 “When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
28 When He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed,
29 When He set for the sea its boundary
So that the water would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
30 Then I was beside Him, as a master workman

Proverbs 8:22-30

Just by looking at the participants on Day One, we learn much. While mortal men cannot build an universe, they can build great things. The greatest builders have wisdom and understanding. Without wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, order cannot be imposed on chaos, whether that’s the chaos of the great deep or the chaos of a human family. Therefore, the Hebrew Israelite man must gain wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. In addition, a helper or two is a great benefit for the selfsame Hebrew Israelite man.

Looking at Days One to Three, I could summarize them as YHVH building His house. Then on Day Four, He set up time keeping via the heavenly luminaries: the greater light, the lesser light and the stars. Days Five to Six, He populated his house with moving creatures in the waters, air and land, including man. Then on Day Seven, He rested.

When YHVH created man, He enacted what is known in some quarters as the “Dominion Mandate.” This was a grant of authority from a higher authority to a lesser authority, or from a High King to a king. This established the hierarchical relationship between YHVH and the man.

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

Genesis 1:27-28

As the term “Dominion Mandate” indicates, man was meant to rule over all of the moving creatures living in earth, sea and sky. Man was intended to serve as a king and steward under the High King YHVH. Therefore, in addition to being a craftsman and builder, man is intended to be a ruler and steward.

In the second chapter of Genesis, the man was placed in the Garden of Eden. At this time, according to the traditional understanding, woman was not yet in existence. Then another commandment was given to the man:

16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Genesis 2:16-17

This commandment has two parts. The first part is a positive allowance. The second part is a negative command with a penalty attached. The existence of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings into being evil as something opposite of good. Here, the presence of something forbidden sets up a holy and profane situation. That implies that the man was given a role as a priest to maintain holiness. In addition to builder and king roles, man is now given a priest role.

After naming the beings of earth and sky (but not water), the man was put to sleep, a rib taken from his side and a woman formed around his rib. After the man woke up, YHVH brought the woman to the man, establishing patriarchy and marriage at the same time.

As Peter G. Rambo, Sr.  points out in Authority, Headship, and Family Structure (AHaFS), page 7, the Hebrew word ishshah (H#802) is translated both as woman and wife, just like the Greek word gune (G#1135)  is translated as woman or wife. The ishshah is given to the man to be his helper, just like the Holy Spirit is the Helper to YHVH. At some point, the man and woman encountered a serpent. The serpent spoke directly to the woman, disregarding and not speaking to the man at all. He tempted the woman to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The woman was deceived but the man was not. She ate, and gave the fruit to her husband, who also ate. This was an attack on patriarchy by disregarding the man and denying that he was the one to whom the serpent should be speaking. The serpent without divine sanction “made” the woman the decision-maker.

Unfortunately, the man failed in both his roles as king and priest. He failed to exercise his authority as king over the serpent, if the serpent was indeed a land animal, and as a priest to intercede for his wife before his Head, Yeshua. The lesson to be learned here for a Hebrew Israelite man is to actively use his authority when the situation requires it, and to intercede for his wife and family when they fall short. A good example of this priestly intercessory activity is Job offering sacrifices on behalf of his family.

5 When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Job 1:5

YHVH now had to sort out both His disobedient servant and the man’s woman. First, He conducted an investigation. He spoke with the man first. When the man blamed his wife, then YHVH asked her what happened. She then blamed the serpent for deceiving her. YHVH didn’t bother to interrogate the serpent.

He then meted out justice. First, He punished the serpent, and in no manner did He show the serpent mercy. Then He punished the woman. Finally He punished the man. The man and woman were together expelled from the Garden of Eden. They were “cut off” from their communion with their Head.

But here YHVH showed mercy. He made clothes from skin to cover the man and woman. The lesson the Hebrew Israelite man should take from this when disciplining those he is responsible for is to be just, but also merciful. If he provides a penalty to breaking the rule, he has to enforce it. The penalty should fit the crime, as the saying goes.

After the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the man, now named Adam, and his woman, now named Eve, began laboring to earn their living. Adam knew Eve and Cain and Abel were the result; apparently they were twins. The boys grew to maturity. At some point, the men offered sacrifices. I think they were married men but not necessarily parents yet at the time they offered sacrifices. As married men, they had left their parents and started their own direct relationships with YHVH. By offering sacrifices, both men were acting in a priestly role. As shown by YHVH’s rebuke to Cain about his offering, both men likely enjoyed direct communion with Him. Abel understood and followed the rules about sacrifice, but Cain went his own way. Because YHVH accepted Abel’s offering, Cain was jealous and began to sin. Out of jealousy he murdered his brother.

Again, YHVH has to step in. YHVH deals directly with Cain and does not go through Adam. YHVH was the One who banished Cain from his family. This is another form of being “cut off”. It looks like YHVH never spoke again with Cain or his descendants until the Flood.

The lessons for the Hebrew Israelite man gleaned from this first parashah, or portion are these. First, men in general were originally created in YHVH’s image, though marred by Adam’s fall; since the fall, we are born in Adam’s marred image. That means men can dream big dreams and work to realize their dreams in reality. To do that, men need to acquire wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Because it is not good for a man to be alone, a woman taken as a wife and helper can be of great assistance in many ways. Men need to think and act in terms of being a king and priest within their families and a ruler within their “kingdom”. Above all, men must look to Yeshua as their Head, and each of them be the head in their families.