Are
You Beckoning to Yahweh’s Call?
January 28, 2007
Good Morning:
In
today’s first lesson from the Genesis 12 we heard the account of how Abraham
was called by Yahweh to leave the homes he had known and go out into a new
country, to the land of Canaan. Abraham is sent to the land of the decedents of
Canaan the cursed son of Hem who was Noah’s son.
Canaan was cursed by Noah because as we see in Genesis 9:22, Hem had sex
with Noah’s wife, Naamah, who was not
Hem’s mother. Now we read in
Genesis 4 that Naamah was the daughter of Cain’s (of Cain and Able) grandson
Lamech. So Canaan had two marks
against him; one he was a bastard son Hem and his stepmother Naamah, and two he
was a blood descendent of Cain who God had cursed.
Now we know that Cain was in the son of Satan, because in John 8:44 we
see Yeshua (Jesus) stating this, when he is speaking to the Pharisees and their
followers, who are the Judeans, a mixed bloodline of Edomite, Canaanite and some
Israelite. But Abram knew who the
Canaanites were because Canaan would have still been alive when Abraham was born
and for sure is 1st cousin Shelah (Shem’s son) was still alive when
Abram was growing up. But more
specifically when we look at verse 6 of today’s lesson we see that “the
Canaanite” (Canaan) was still dwelling there.
Canaan was still alive in living in the land we call Canaan.
So why would God (Yahweh) call on Abram to go into the heart of the land
of Satan’s offspring and why would Yahweh be promising that land to Abram and
his decedents?
“Get
thee out of thy country”,
is what God (Yahweh) tells Abram. Often
the word for land (Ὄρεκ, Órek) is translated into English
and other languages as Ur of the Chaldeans (Chaldees) as if it was a city but it
is not a city by a region. The
Sumerian city of Ur in modern Iraq has been positively ruled out as the Biblical
Ur in Genesis.[1]
Therefore when we read the oldest know manuscript of Genesis, the
Septuagint, which was written about the 3rd century BC we see that
Abram was living in the land of the Chaldees.
So who where the Chaldees? Chaldees
actually refers to a multitude of local gods or deities and anthropologists and
archeologists have shown us that the people who lived and still live in the area
north of the ancient city of Haran, which is still inhabited to this day, had a
religion that included some 79 gods. This
was the fertile land that Abram lived in with his flocks and his cattle.
The city of Ur, which belongs to the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia
wasn’t settled for another 1700 years. Understanding
where Abram came from helps us understand why God called him out of there.
Abram was special, he was Noah’s son Shem’s 7th great
grandson and it was to him take the blessing from him someday.
Abram under the leadership of Terah, his father, moved from the land of
the Chaldees to Haran, where his father decided to abide for some reason. After several years there Terah died and Abram answered
Yahweh’s call to move to the land of “The Canaanite”, who of course was
Canaan, Noah’s grandson, whom I mentioned earlier was still living. Why is Canaan’s existence in the land Yahweh sends Abram to
important? And why would Yahweh send Abram to a land occupied by cursed people,
if he is having him leave another dreadful land? The answer lies in the curse of Canaan that was put on him by
Noah and the reason why Noah put the curse on him.
In
Genesis 9 we find that Noah said that Canaan would be a servants servant.
That is Noah’s son Japheth’s decedents, shall dwell in the tents of
Shem, or serve him, and Canaan shall be a servant to them.
In the land of Canaan we find this was happening.
Shem who had received the blessing of Noah’s birthrights and priesthood
was still alive at this time in living in Salem (Jerusalem).
The Bible refers to him as Melchizedek the king of Salem and the priest
of Yahweh the most high god. Canaan
was serving Japheth still to that day and Japheth was living under the
protection (in the tent) of Melchizedek (Shem) who was king and high priest to
Yahweh. God was ensuring the
fulfillment of the curse on Canaan but more importantly he was bringing Abram to
receive the blessings and priest hood from Shem (Melchizedek), which the Bible
says he did receive. But why was it
that God (Yahweh) gave the land of Canaan to the decedents of Shem through
Abram? Because one Canaan was a
bastard son, his mother was his father’s stepmother (illegitimate in two
ways). The Bible tells us that a
bastard cannot inherit. So Canaan
was not seen to have rights to the land and God (Yahweh) gave the land to a
legitimate son. The second promise
of God’s (Yahweh’s) that was being fulfilled was that from Genesis 3:15 when
Yahweh tells Satan that his seed (children, descendents) who are Cain and his
offspring will have their heads bruised by the descendents of man, who Seth
carried on the lineage off after Able was killed, and Satan’s seed shall
bruise his heel. Remember we
learned earlier that Canaan’s mother was Cain’s great granddaughter.
Thus God was fulfilling his promises made to Adam and to Noah by bringing
Abram to the land of Canaan.
Just as Abram had to trust in Yahweh and step out into a whole new
strange land, so is for us as we step out in the belief of the truth and good
news promised us by the Messiah, Yeshua. God’s
(Yahweh’s) promise to Abram was that through him all the tribes (peoples,
races, ethnicities) of the world would find salvation.
John in his epistle that we read today is speaking about this wonderful
salvation to not only the elect lady to whom he was writing to but to us today
as well. Not only are the decedents
of Abraham and Israel, who are alive today around the world, to receive
salvation but peoples of any race will be able to receive salvation through the
Abraham descendant as well. That
salvation comes through the Messiah Yeshua who himself is a blood descendent of
Abraham and Israel. John is talking
in his letter about what faith is. It
is the belief that you can go out into the world and make a positive difference.
It is not sitting at home or in a church building waiting to be saved.
Let me repeat that point to make it absolutely clear.
Salvation is not going to come find you.
There is not one line of scripture that truly support the “I’m here,
come find me” approach to salvation. Yeshua
(Jesus) never says wait at home or in church and you will be found.
No he says the exact opposite. He
demands that we go and seek out the truth and we will find it.
We have to ask for it, we have to knock on the doors of the halls of
knowledge for them to be opened to us. Just
like a detective we have to study the evidence, review all the facts,
and we have to weed out the lies from the true story of origins
and our final destination through God’s salvation.
What if we are too busy with our lives at work or school or at home to
spend the time to study the facts? What
if we don’t know how to read the texts to understand it? Then if you won’t break the cycle of indifference in your
life then you are bound to answer for your inaction. See what John is warning the reader, “…for
many deceivers are gone forth into the world…”
and “…this
is the deceiver and the antichrist”.
This warning is for us in our times.
Do you think those big time evangelists with their gold watches, perfect
cut hair, fancy churches, and expensive suits are bringing you salvation while
you watch them on TV or go to their decadently fancy churches. No my friends that is not what Yeshua (Jesus) taught us was
the way to salvation. That, my
friends, is the path of Satan’s Pharisees who tried to destroy our salvation
by nailing it to the cross. You
know in some ways I am sorry for those who preach and believe that righteous men
will receive wealth and happiness on earth, because they have their rewards
right here, there jewelry, their notoriety, their wealth, that is all they are
ever going to get. Yeshua (Jesus)
tells us this in Matthew 6:2 “…as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their
reward.”
There is no eternal reward in heaven for them. John tells us in today’s lesson not to even give a greeting
to those deceivers because that is parting in their evil works.
You know I don’t even have time to argue or debate with those preachers
anymore, because there are so many people out there that want to study and learn
the real truth, the truth that is behind those doors that Yeshua tells us to
knock on. There is so much truth of
God (Yahweh) out there, which has been hidden or suppressed by Satan, that it
will take more then a lifetime to seek it out and find it all.
You and I who are the true believers just don’t have the time to
partake in the deceptions of the deceivers of Satan.
We don’t have time to fight them off or argue against them, we are
following Yeshua’s (Jesus’) commandments and are just to busy learning all
we can about the truth and putting that truth into daily actions everyday to
give the deceivers a single thought.
For ages mankind has been knocking on the door, asking for the bread of life from the master of the house. Have we been getting it? We heard Yeshua’s answer to this question in our reading today from Luke 3. What man would give his child a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread? Do you think God (Yahweh) has not answered with a loaf to those who asked of him for the bread of life? Yeshua tells us that he that seeks shall find and he that asks shall receive, and he that knocks shall have it opened. Isn’t this what happen with Noah, Shem (Melchizedek), and Abram? And what about the rest of the good people of Israel? God (Yahweh) heard their knock and their asking for bread and he alone made sure that their safety and salvation was secured. In for us today understanding how he did this is important because the events foretold so long ago are unfolding before us. Today we learned that facts, the land of the Chaldees from which Abram came from, is not Babylon, it is northern Mesopotamian or modern Western Turkey and in the Northern parts of modern Iran and Iraq, it is in parts of the old Assyrian empire. We read before that the Assyrians exiled the vast majority of the populations of both the kingdom of Israel and Judah (not Judea) long before the Babylonian empire overtook the remnant principality of Jerusalem. Yahweh made sure that the good decedents of Abram through Israel were taken away to a safe place. Lets look at what is said in Jeremiah 24:4-7 “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” God (Yahweh) says like good figs in a basket good that is how he will regard his chosen people, there are two baskets in front of Jeremiah, one is full of good figs the other is full of bad figs. It is the bad figs that Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon, for Yahweh says the good figs where sent to the land of the Chaldees, which is where Abram came from and is in northern Mesopotamia, not in southern Mesopotamia where Babylon was located. God goes on to say that the good figs, the descendents of Israel, God’s elect would be removed for good. They would not come back to the Promised Land on their own. The people who came from Babylon back to the former country of Judah and created a new country they named Judea cannot be the good figs, because if they are then God is a liar. Because God said they were in the land of the Chaldees (a title that in modern times has been mistakenly attributed to the Babylonians) not in Babylon and that they were gone for good until he through the Messiah would bring them back in the end days.
God’s (Yahweh’s) good figs are still scattered around the world and
they have not ever not even till this very day been returned to the Promised
Land. Now what does God do with the
remnant of Jerusalem the people who where left in Judah and who had fled to
Egypt when the Assyrians carried off the descendents of Israel from the Kingdoms
of Judah and Israel? These evil
figs he sends some to Babylon, these are the king and the wealthy and the rest
he scatters around the world to be tormented. Look at Jeremiah 24:10, “And I will send the sword, the famine, and the
pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto
them and to their fathers”. These
evil figs are the very same deceivers that John is warning us of.
These evil figs are the very same children of the devil that Yeshua
speaks of when he accuses the Pharisees of being them, the evil offspring of
Satan. These are the same evil
figs, the Pharisees, the evil figs that came back on their own from Babylon,
that tried to destroy God’s people by nailing our salvation to a tree.
Will these deceivers fool you too? Or
will you beckon to God’s call to seek the truth and find salvation though the
doorway of the Messiah that is opened for all who knock?
Amen.