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The very first time God spoke to Abram marked the beginning of the Jewish people, and the very first thing he said was lekh-lekha (לֶךְ־לְךָ), "go to yourself," by leaving behind what has previously defined your life, namely, 1) your land, 2) your relatives, and 3) your father's house (Gen. 12:1). Note that the order is reversed from what we might naturally expect, moving from the general to the specific, until ultimately we discern that we "go to ourselves" in order to leave ourselves behind... Only after this are we able to enter the land God will show us... As Yeshua said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 16:25).
וַיּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־אַבְרָם
לֶךְ־לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ
אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ
va·yoh'·mer · Adonai · el · Av·ram
lekh-le·kha · me·ar·tze·kha · oo·mei·mo·lad·te·kha · oo·mee·beit · a·vee'·kha
el - ha·ah'·retz · a·sher · ar·e'·ka
Now the LORD said to Abram:
"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house
to the land that I will show you."
"Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go... and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing" (Gen. 12:1-2). Notice that the first letters of the phrase "and you will be a blessing" (i.e., וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה) are Vav + Hey (וה), which are the last two letters of the four-letter name YHVH (יהוה), which can signify "the Man (ו) of Spirit (ה)," namely Yeshua the Promised Seed (Gen. 3:15). The first two letters of YHVH of course spell Yah (יָהּ), referring to the LORD God. With the call of Abram, Vav + Hey would precede Yod + Hey, suggesting that Abram would serve as a vessel or conduit of the Divine Presence to the world. This is the deeper meaning of ve'heyeih berakhah ("and you will be a blessing"), since it meant Abram would be the direct forebear of the coming Messiah. This fascinating Hebrew wordplay also suggests that you will be a blessing, a person of Spirit (וה), when you put the LORD (יָהּ) first in your life...
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