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This week’s Parashat passage is called Lech L’Cha, which translates as “go forth, yourself.” If covers Genesis 12:1 -17:27. In Chapter 12, God speaks to Abram, and tells him to leave his land and to go forth to a place that God will show him. Prior to that, at the end of Chapter 11, we find that Terah, Abram’s father had taken Abram, Abram’s wife, Sarai, and Terah’s grandson, Lot, and moved from Ur to the city of Haran, which would be a location in present day Turkey. Their destination was Canaan, but Terah ended up in Haran and stayed without going to what he intended to be his final destination. However, in Chapter 12, God tells Abram to go to the land that God would show him, which would be the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. God promises 5 things to Abram, that He will make him a great nation, that He will bless him, that he will bless those who bless Abram, that He will curse those who curse Abram and that in Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. All Abram has to do is physically head out, which he does, taking Sarai and Lot with him.
Taken with the events at the end of Chapter 11, we figuratively see the representation of what people like Terah are. In the Talmud, Terah is depicted as being an idol maker. So, we have this idol maker who takes his family and starts heading to Canaan, but ends up in Haran. The translation for the name Haran, is “crossroads.” So, Terah can represent those people who come to the crossroads of having a relationship with God, but due to their worship of idols, today we could look at that as fame, money, possessions, etc., they never find the promised land of a relationship with God. On the other hand, Abram is told to leave and he does so immediately, hearing the voice of God and following it. Terah ends up dying at Haran, the crossroads, while Abram leaves to find the Promised land.
Abram reaches Canaan, but as he is traveling around the land, there is a famine, which forces him to go to into Egypt. Because Sarai is very beautiful, Abram is afraid that if the Egyptians know Abram is her husband, he will be killed and Sarai will be taken by them. So, he tells her to pass herself off as his sister, instead of wife, which she does. Pharaoh does find her to be beautiful and rewards Abram with gifts of servants and livestock. However, God strikes Pharaoh’s house with a plague for taking Serai in. Pharaoh discovers the truth and commands that Abram and Serai be escorted out of the country, due to this deception.
Now, with the gifts given by Pharaoh, Abram and Lot become very rich. Due to the size of their flocks, the herdsman of Lot and Abram quarrel because the land could not sustain the livestock of both men. So, Abram tells Lot to separate from him, either choosing all the land to the left, or all the land to the right. Lot, seeing that the land to the east was well-watered selects that area, which looked good, but also happened to contain the city of Sodom, whose inhabitants are described as being exceedingly wicked and sinners against the Lord.
In Chapter 14, we find that several kings, who had been under the rule of King Chedalaomer rebel against him. Chedalaomer and his allies come to fight against this rebellion, which is also participated in by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. Chedalaomer conquers the uprising and takes captive the people of that region and their possessions. This includes Lot and all that he has. When Abram finds out about this, he takes 318 men and defeats Chedalaomer and his forces taking back everything that Chedalaomer had taken away, including Lot and his possessions.
During his return home, he is met by two kings. One king is Melchizedek, king of Salem, later Jerusalem, and priest of God Most High. Melchizedek brings Abram bread and wine and blesses him. In turn, Abram gives Melchizedek a 10th of all he has, as a tithe.
The king of Sodom, however, asks Abram to give the people that were captured back to him, but keep all the possessions for himself.
What a contrast this is. Prophetically, Melchizedek is a picture of Yeshua, the great high priest who is to come and once and for all take away the sins of the earth. The bread and wine offered by Melchizedek are the two items that Yeshua gave to his disciples at His last meal as symbols for his death for the sins of the world.
On the other hand, in verse 21, when the king of Sodom says “Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself,” the Hebrew word here for people is nefesh, literally, “souls”. This is almost like saying, I will give you possessions if you will give me the souls. Thus, Abram refuses to keep anything that might be the possession of Sodom in order to show that everything that Abram has comes from God.
In Chapter 15, God promises Abram a son, one that will be born from his own body. God tells him that his descendants will be more numerous than the stars. Without any physical proof, Abram believes, and we are told that God reckoned it to him as righteousness. So, even prior to the giving of the Law, to Moses, Abram is reckoned as righteous in the sight of God.
In Chapter 16, however, after 10 years of living in Canaan, Sarai, who is unable to bear children, wants to give her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram so Hagar can bear a child. Thechildren of a servant, or slave, were the possession of the master, so Sarai could take possession of the child. Seemingly forgetting God’s promise, Abram sleeps with Hagar and she conceives. However, Sarai is angry since Hagar now despises her. She ends up blaming Abram and demands that she be able to do whatever she wants to Hagar, which Abram allows. Sarai treats Hagar so poorly that she flees from the camp. But instead of dying in the wilderness, she is visited by an angel of the Lord who promises that the son she will bear will become a great nation. So, Hagar returns to Abram and Ishmael is born.
In Chapter 17, God again visits Abram as El Shaddai, God Almighty. Adonai instructs Abram to walk before him and to be blameless. In these times, the servants would walk before the master so this is a picture of Abram being a servant who is obedient to God, his Master. In the covenant that God makes with Abram this time, there are three sections. What God will do, verses 3 – 8, what Abram’s part is, verses 9 – 14, and Sarai’s role, verses 15 – 17. In verses, 3 – 8, God gives Abram a new name, Abraham, which means Father of many nations, promises him many distinguished descendants and reiterates the promise of land. Abraham’s part in this is the circumcision of all males as a sign of this covenant. And for Serai, who is now also given a new name, Sarah, which means noblewoman, her part is to bear a son to Abraham, from which these descendants will come. The parasha concludes with Abraham having all males circumcised.
I think we can take away several lessons from this parasha. First, we do not want to be like Terah, stopping at the crossroads, and not continuing the journey to find the true God. We want to be like Abraham, who did not wait when he was given instruction. God told him to leave Haran and he left. God told him to circumcise the males of his household and he did it immediately.
However, even for a great man like Abraham, there were consequences. In trying to pass off Sarah as his sister when they were in Egypt, he did receive servants and livestock from Pharaoh. One of those servants was very likely Sarah’s Egyptian maid, Hagar. And, in Chapter 16, by listening to Sarah, instead of waiting upon the Lord for a promised son, Ishmael was conceived. The descendants of Ishmael have caused difficulties for Israel and the Jewish people to this very day. We truly need to consider the consequences of our actions when making decisions.
Finally, what a reminder circumcision is for believers today. Instead of the physical symbolism of circumcision as a follower of the covenant with God found in Genesis, Chapter 17,as believers, through the greater covenant made through Messiah Yeshua, we have the circumcision of the heart. We come to belief through believing that we are sinners and that Messiah Yeshua died for our sins. Then, we make a public profession of this by going through the cleansing waters of baptism. The Apostle Paul puts this so beautifully inColossians, Chapter 2, verses 11 – 12, when he writes: and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. I pray that if there is anyone here today who is not believer, that you would depart from “Haran,” the “crossroads” where you are currently at and come to the promised land of life eternal through believing in and confessing Messiah Yeshua as your Lord and Savior.