Parasha "Toldot" GEN 25:19-28:9

SHABBAT SHALOM: Parasha "Toldot" (generations)

GEN 25:19 - 28:9..................MAL 1:1 - 2:7.......................ROM 9:6 - 13

We see in this Parasha the birth of Jacob and Esau, but before this, we can see a bit of the repetition of "like father, like son" behavior. Isaac also told a "half-lie" to AviMelech,

"Riv'kah is my sister" well, the king found out, fortunately, nothing really bad happened, only that later on, out of jealousy, the men of AviMelech filled in the wells that Abraham had dug previously, we can see that Isaac was not a war-like man, he just dug them again, if there was strife, he would just move on. The name "AviMelech" means "My father is king". I think we can all agree that "Adonai-Elohim is AviMelech" since "He is OUR KING, since He is OUR FATHER, the correct word to use would be "Aveinu Malcheinu"

To Isaac and Rebecca, are born Jacob and Esau, two brothers, but distinct characters and destinies. One to look up to God, look for the things of God (even though he had to go through Uncle Laban's school of hard knocks) and to form "Am Yisrael" who lead to finally Mashiach Yeshua! (Baruch HaShem!)....and the other...to be a "man of the earth, an earthly man, with earthly/carnal desires, not desiring the "things of above" but the "things of the earth, material things, disinterested in God and the things of God.

If we know our Bible, we know their names; JACOB and ESAU, when we look at the Hebrew we see some interesting things;

JACOB is YA'AKOV from the root word "Akeiv" which means "heel" from a spiritual stand point, we can look at the "heel" as part of the foot, which is planted firmly on the ground, when one grows, a person grows "upward" from the feet upward, as did Ya'akov, it took some time, not to be a cheat and trickster, yet he did mature into "Israel" and fathered the 12 tribes.......on the other hand............

ESAU in Hebrew is ESAV, is also interesting, a similar word is "eisev" which means "grass" which grows from the earth. ESAV is also called EDOM, which points to "redness" a "red earth" EDOM is similar to ADAM, and ADAMAH, which also remind us of "dust, earth, red" Esau was a hunter, a man who knew the country, ran in the hills, hunted game yet Jacob was a "stay-at-home-and-help-mama" kind of guy. I mean, nothing wrong with that. We could compare Esau to a Hill-Billy mountaineer with a keg of whiskey hidden up there in the hills, a tobacco chewing, cussing dude who loves women and the things of the world, that was Esau. Jacob took advantage, and bought his "birth-right" using lentil stew, (which was also a red color stew) since Esau cared nothing for the birth-right, he sold it quite cheap, kinda like selling a 2015 Mercedes for a bicycle.

But we see that God has his perfect will in all of this, even in the womb, God told Rebecca

"two kinds of people will come out of the womb, the older will be stronger, yet the older will serve the young" we can see the two kinds of people/nations who came from Jacob and Esau, very interesting;

from JACOB: 12 tribes of Israel, David, Solomon, (who built the temple)...and finally Yeshua! and today we have modern Israel, and the descendants of Jacob who are like the "stars of Heaven" many live in Israel and many outside of Israel, scattered among the nations still, yet still maintaining their identity,

from ESAU: Edom, Amalek, Haman (the Agagite) Rome,(which destroyed the temple)

Even though they were stronger than Israel, TODAY...No one dares messes with Israel! nor the IDF! and in the future, ISRAEL will be the spot light, and "ALL NATIONS/PEOPLES WILL HONOR AND SERVE OUR LORD YESHUA, in ISRAEL.

We can look at the blessings of both Jacob and Esau, Jacob tricked and deceived his own father to get the blessing, even using the name of God deceitfully, guided by his mother Rebecca, did she do right? or wrong? I'll let you ponder on that one, but we will see later on that the "chickens come home to roost" as the saying goes" what "goes around comes around" but I'll save that for a later Parasha
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MALACHI 1:1-2:7

here the prophet quotes Moshe's words "YET JACOB I HAVE LOVED, BUT ESAU I HAVE HATED" one could ask, but why? isn't God a God of love and forgiveness? yes, but we must understand that the LORD GOD Adonai-Elohim-Yeshua who is the creator of all, can read into our minds, and knows the thoughts of our hearts, and could see "rejection" in the heart of Esau, so, before Adonai rejected Esau, (which is what the word "hate" means in this instance) Esau had made his mind up to reject God.

Are we offering polluted and foul sacrifices to our Holy God? today, we do not offer animal sacrifices, but sacrifices of "praise" and "good works (mitzvoth) and use of our spiritual gifts" do we use them the "best we can"? or "do we give HIM our leftovers, or "half-hearted" service, ?

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ROMANS 9:6-13

The chosen seed was/is through Isaac, through Jacob, Not all of Abraham's descendants are considered "B'nei Elohim" we see the descendants of Ishmael, the Arab nations, many of whom are part of Isis, Al Qaeda, Hamaz, etc, and HATE Israel, (yet not all arabs, many are full of love for Israel and many have accepted Yeshua as Messiah) But It isn't the blood line that determines our relationship with the KING of Kings and LORD of Lords, but our heart and spirit, we enter into a personal relationship with God through Yeshua by being "born again" in our spirit, and our renewed spirit directs our faith walk and that gives us all rights to being part of the "Commonwealth of Israel" as One (Echad) family of believers.

Shabbat shalom.................rabbi Ben Avraham