Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Vayera (פרשת וירא),is very dramatic and extraordinarily prophetic. Among other things (including the miraculous birth of Isaac, the fiery judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the fate of Hagar’s son Ishamel, and so on), the reading includes what I have called the “Gospel according to Moses,” that is, Moses’ account of how the patriarch Abraham was tested by God to offer his “only begotten son” (בֵּן יָחִיד) Isaac as a whole-burnt offering sacrifice on Mount Moriah — the place of the future Temple. This astonishing story is referred to as the Akedah (עֲקֵדָה), or Akedat Yitzchak (עֲקֵידָת יִצְחָק) – the “binding of Isaac” (Gen. 22:1-18). As Abraham lifted up his knife to slay his beloved son, at the very last moment, the Angel of the LORD (מַלְאַךְ יהוה) stopped him from going through with the sacrifice, and a ram “caught in a thicket” was offered as the vicarious substitute. Upon offering the sacrifice Abraham named the sacred location Adonai-Yireh (יהוה יִרְאֶה), “the LORD will provide/see” (from the 3ms imperfect of ra’ah (רָאָה), “to see”).

The binding of Isaac perfectly illustrates both the principle of sacrificial love and the principle that we must first unreservedly believe in that love in order to understand the ways of the LORD. Those who believe in Yeshua further understand the Akedah as a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice the heavenly Father would give on our behalf. Unlike Abraham, God the Father actually offered His only begotten Son (בֵּן יָחִיד) at Moriah in order to make salvation available for all who will believe (John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9). As Abraham himself confessed: אֱלהִים יִרְאֶה־לּוֹ הַשֶּׂה / Elohim yireh-lo haseh (“God will provide for himself the lamb”). Later Yeshua told the leaders of Israel that Abraham had “seen His day” and understood the deeper meaning of the Akedah sacrifice (John 8:56).

As I’ve mentioned over the years, the very first occurrence of the word love in the Scriptures (i.e., ahavah: אַהֲבָה) refers to Abraham’s love for his “only” son who was to be sacrificed as a burnt offering on Moriah (the very place of the crucifixion of Yeshua), a clear reference to the gospel message (Gen. 22:2; John 3:16). Some scholars have noted that the word ahavah comes from a two-letter root (הב) with Aleph (א) as a modifier. The root means “to give” and the Aleph indicates agency: “I” give (i.e., “the Father gives”). Love is essentially an act of sacrificial giving… The quintessential passage of Scripture regarding love (αγαπη) in the life of a Christian is found 1 Corinthians 13: “Love seeks not its own…”

Whereas Akedat Yitzchak foreshadowed God’s provision for the coming Temple, Akedat Yeshua (i.e., the crucifixion of Yeshua at Moriah) was the altar where the justice and chesed (love) of the Father fully met (Psalm 85:10). For more on this incredibly rich subject, please see the articles, “The Passion of Isaac” and “The Sacrificed Seed.”

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..Vayera Podcast:

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THE VERY FIRST PROPHECY OF THE TORAH concerns the promise of the coming “seed of the woman” who would vanquish the serpent (nachash) that had originally tempted and deceived Eve (Gen. 3:15). This prophecy is sometimes called the proto-euangelion (“first gospel”), since it is the starting point of all subsequent prophecy and redemptive history revealed in the Scriptures. Indeed, since the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God is foreshadowed here, this prophecy is linked to the original woman, Eve. Just as Eve became a carrier of the corruption of human nature by heeding the voice of the tempter, so she would be the carrier of God Himself for the deliverance of mankind through the advent of the Redeemer. In the tragic aftermath of the transgression of the first man and woman, then, God first announced His unfailing redemptive love for the human race that would culminate in the birth, sacrifice, and resurrection of Yeshua our Savior and Deliverer – “born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).

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Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Nitzavim (פרשת ניצבים), is always read on the Shabbat immediately before the solemn holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and therefore it is the last Torah portion read before the new Jewish year (see Exod. 23:16). In many synagogues, the opening and concluding paragraphs of parashat Nitzavim are also read during the Yom Kippur morning service.

Nitzavim begins: “You are standing here today, all of you, before the LORD your God (אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלהֵיכֶם) … so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (Deut. 29:10-13). After this Moses went on to review Israel’s history and prophetic future — i.e., the great prophecy of the Diaspora and Return of the people — and then he solemnly appealed for all those who believed to turn to the LORD for life: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deut. 30:19).

In addition to an overview of the Torah reading, I discuss the fall holidays of the Torah’s calendar, particularly the significance of Rosh Hashanah for followers of Yeshua the Messiah.

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Podcast:

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