Walking Genesis: In The Beginning. A Messianic Jewish Devotional Commentary. For Readers of the Torah, Haftarah, and B'rit Chaadashah

By Jeffrey Enoch Feinberg Ph.D.

This commentary follows the weekly Torah readings from the synagogue, along with the related Haftarah readings. Helps you relate the ancient Scripture to your daily walk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Messianic Jewish Communications
• Release date: Jan 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781936716340

Jeffrey Enoch Feinberg Ph.D.

Dr. Feinberg is leader of Etz Chaim Cong. In Illinois, and Midwest regional director for UMJC.

Book preview

,

God made heaven ‘n earth, new with life

and new with birth,

with man as the crown

to rule creation,

resting in Eden

for his recreation!

But paradise crashed

‘cuz man disobeyed,

and living forever

with God was delayed.

Adam had to die

for his sin to be paid,

but Noach rested

and Noach God saved!

Walk B’REISHEET!

1:1-6:8

In the beginning

TORAH—Genesis 1:1-6:8

HAFTARAH—Isaiah 42:5-43:10

B’RIT CHADASHAH—Revelation 22:6-21

Hiker’s Log

We must ask ourselves how we arrived at the present. Scripture says we take our problems with us. Problems left unsolved (e.g. disobedience, sibling rivalry) are transmitted from generation to generation. These problems, recorded in Scripture from the earliest beginnings, explain our world today. For example, Yisra’el’s apparent blindness to "give ear" (HA’AZINU) to God’s way of glorifying Himself among the nations highlights this week’s Haftarah (Is. 42:5-43:10).

B’REISHEET (in the beginning), before time itself, God creates a perfect world with man as creation’s crown. But man disobeys God and eats of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge to become like God. Now, man can discriminate good from evil. God foresees that man will not attain His predestined purposes, if he eats from the Tree of Life and lives in a fallen state forever. So God banishes Adam (humankind) from paradise in Gan Eden.

Sadly, Adam fails to enter Shabbat (Sabbath) rest with God. Man has not completed the work God has given him to do. Instead, Adam’s firstborn son, Kayin, walks an evil path. Sibling rivalry kindles raging jealousies, leading Kayin to kill his brother, Hevel. Whereas God curses the ground for Adam’s disobedience in Paradise, God curses Kayin for the murder of his brother! Kayin’s years are never recorded. In striking contrast, Shet’s line (God’s appointed) fathers children, and their ages are always recorded at fatherhood and at death. The one exception, Chanoch (disciple), fathers children, walks with God, and is taken before he dies!

In the tenth generation, NOACH (Noah/rest) will escape judgment and carry the hope that the fathers can be redeemed! Yeshua warns that the Days of Noach resemble the end of days. Today, people are busy pursuing material prosperity and entertainment apart from God. People say that they are too busy to enter into Shabbat rest. Scripture records these days as times when people are too distracted by life’s cares to rest or watch for the coming of Messiah (Mt. 24:37-39). Yet watch we must!

Compass Work

—Genesis 1:1

Related Words

Hit the Trail!

God Creates

Before time began, God created space for heaven and earth. God speaks and it happens, but the number seven most stands out! Seven times the Torah reads, And it was so. Seven times it is recorded, and God made. Six times God speaks with approval, Good! (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), climaxing the seventh time with Very Good! (Gen. 1:31).

The build up to the seventh day is dramatic! Each day of creation ends, And there was evening and morning, day (one, two, . . . six).

On the seventh day, God rests; but the account never concludes, and there was evening and there was morning, day seven. Man’s failure to enter Shabbat rest with God on day seven screams out.

Thus, the rishon (first) section of B’REISHEET leaves the beginning open-ended. The next verse, (Genesis 2:4), begins the creation account anew—but this time from the perspective of man!

A Perfect World

Perspective shifts! The first account starts with the literal words in beginning and has an absolute sense which comes before time. Here, the perspective changes from creating to literally the making of earth and heaven.

Commenting on Gen. 1:14, Rashi says that everything was created (in potential) on the first day, but the actual generating takes place on the days that follow.

Thus, the tol’dot (generations, life story, offspring) of the universe (Gen. 2:4) describe the generating of life in the context of heaven and earth. Here, the sequence of creation takes a back seat to the drama surrounding God’s purposes for man and his being placed in Gan Eden (paradise).

God commands man not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man is told to care for the garden, to eat freely from its fruits, and to order creation by naming all living creatures.

Creation’s Crown

Man called names to all the cattle, birds, and beasts. Later, the LORD will call (VAYIKRA) a priesthood from the names (SH’MOT) of those who go down to Egypt to become a nation.

Here, man calls names to the animals in Gan Eden. Man’s work is to order creation. Naming involves asserting authority (Gen. 1:26, 28). God assigns names to the celestials (heaven, earth, seas, darkness, day and night); now, man orders the terrestrials by naming the animals, fulfilling the command to rule over every living creature (Gen. 1:28). Man is the crown of creation—higher than any other terrestrial, and only a little lower than angels in the heavenly order.

But a helpmate is missing. All animals have a partner, but man has none. The LORD creates woman, his complement, as a sustainer beside him (Gen. 2:20, 3:20), and man names her Chavah (mother of the living).

God Limits Free Will

Man chooses to disobey God and eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Immediately, he becomes separated from terrestrials, knowing good and evil. God banishes him from Gan Eden, lest he eat from the Tree of Life and spend eternity seeking sensual gratification.

Jewish commentators say that man’s enhanced desire for sensual gratification competes with God’s intended spiritual bliss [Rambam, Sforno]. Man loses access to the Tree of Life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 16-17). God intervenes to drive man from Paradise, lest man eat of the Tree of Life and pursue sensual gratification forever.

The ground is cursed and man must struggle by the sweat of his brow for the food he needs to live (Gen. 3:19, cf. 2:15). Lost is man’s immediate access to the Presence of God. Man must die—return to the adamah (ground) as a consequence of the knowledge he has gained.

Kayin’s Line Pursues Evil

Lemech has the curious distinction of being the first recorded bigamist. According to Rashi, Lemech fathers and later kills his son, Tuval-Kayin.

It was common for the generation living in the days of Noach to keep one wife for children and another wife for pleasure [Rashi]. The wife that was for pleasure was pampered; the other wife was often ignored.

Here, both wives bear children. Note that Adah means ornamented or pretty. Adah’s firstborn, Yaval, becomes father of those who wander with herds (Gen. 4:20, cf. Gen. 4:16, where Kayin goes eastward to Nod, an area east of Eden meaning wandering or exile).

Torah does not record the ages of Kayin or any of the sons in Kayin’s line (Gen. 4:17-22), contrasting sharply with those in Shet’s line, whose ages are given when they first become fathers and again when they die (Gen. 5:1-32) or

Be Fruitful, Forever!

Both male and female are created in the likeness of God. Adam also becomes the personal name of the man (Gen. 5:3). However, God first calls both male and female Adam (humankind). No stronger statement can be made about the spiritual co-equality of male and female.

The continuity of Adam, as mankind, can only be assured by the cleaving of ish (man) and ishah (woman) as one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Mankind is incomplete apart from the joining together of both man and woman.

The blessing of fruitfulness follows a familiar pattern with firstborns living to father firstborns, and then living some more, fathering sons and daughters. Fathers die after that, but the next firstborn continues the toldot (generations). In this segment, the pattern culminates in Chanoch, a firstborn who fathers the oldest man in the world, before God takes him alive!

The Line of Shet Continues

The oldest man in Torah fathers a son named Lemech. M’tushelach will then live another 782 years—outliving his son (cf. Adam), watching his grandson Noach build the ark (for 120 years), and dying in 1656, the year of the flood.

All the fathers in the ten generations from Adam (through Shet) to Noach live, father sons, then live some more, and die (va-yamot)—except Chanoch. He walks with God and escapes death (Heb. 7:14). The fathers, firstborns, and life spans follow:

Both Shet and Kayin father sons named Lemech, but only one passes on a father-to-son heritage to his son.

Noach Finds Grace

The LORD determines to blot out man from the record (Ex. 17:14; 32:33-34). Fewer people than a minyan (ten) will survive. In fact, only Noach finds chen