On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua met with two of His disciples and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27). For our Torah studies this year, therefore, week by week we will seek to discover how all of Torah prepared the way for the coming Messiah.
1st November 2025 (10 Cheshvan)
Lech Lecha (Go forth): Genesis 12:1-17:27
God teaches us step by step through history. The record of His teaching (torah) enables us to review the steps by which mankind is being redeemed from the fall of Adam and Eve and the proneness to sin of all mankind.
According to the years of the generations following Noah, it was 292 years from the great flood to the birth of Abraham. Genesis 11:10 tells us that Shem’s son Arphaxad was born two years after the flood, so we can begin the calculation of years from there. During this time much had happened in the continued rebellion of mankind leading up to Babel. Noah and Shem witnessed it all, since the length of their lives was sufficient to overlap the life of Abraham.
God’s covenant plan went forward through the choice of this man, Abram (later to be called Abraham), a direct descendant of Noah and Shem. Modern day archaeologists have concluded that Ur, the city where Abram’s family lived, was among the largest cities of the world. We can imagine the bustle of such a city and compare it with a modern-day large city, where people’s lives are full of the activity of business, entertainment and survival, and where false gods can so easily divert attention to themselves.
It was out of such a lifestyle, offering security in human terms, that Terah took his son, Abram, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife (Genesis 11:31). We do not know how preparations were made in the lives of these people, but there must have been a growing unsettledness with the life of the big city. This was the first step. When Terah died in Haran, Abram was commanded by God – Lech Lecha (Go forth!) to a land that he would be shown. He was given a great promise:
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
So began Abram’s walk of faith. God made covenant with Abram, promising all the Land from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18-21). Abram was counted as righteous because he believed God. Note that he later made mistakes, including in the birth of Ishmael, but it was his willingness to learn to grow in faith that pleased God, rather than a sudden impartation of perfection.
Here we read of the life of faith that has become the model for all of God’s covenant family. A covenant is said to be cut, as signified in our study by the cutting and shedding of the blood of animals. Abram’s name (meaning exalted father) was changed to Abraham (father of a multitude of people) when the sign of the covenant was given – the cutting of the flesh that is required for all Abraham’s physical offspring.
There is much to study in this account of the life of Abraham and Sarah and we must read it over and over, relating it to all Scripture, especially the interpretation and relevance given to us in the New Covenant. God chose a man and through that man established the foundation for all who will live by faith and inherit eternal life. Abraham had sons and a physical line of descent through Isaac and Jacob. This physical line of descent defined the nation of Israel, through which God would continue to teach us about His covenant plan both on this earth and for all eternity. Later, as covenant history proceeded, as we read in the Bible, God added to His covenant family, those who lived by the same faith as Abraham, first from the nation Israel, then those from every nation who live by the same faith.
There is layer after layer to uncover in our studies. The appearance of a mysterious man, Melchizedek, for example, Priest of the Most High God, to whom Abraham gave tithes, opens up many questions. The writer to the Hebrews (Hebrews 5 ) brings insights concerning Yeshua MaMashiach, who is High Priest of the order of Melchizedek. Abraham submitted himself to Melchizedek and gave tithes to him as one receiving tithes on behalf of God. We gain insight into such matters by prayerful consideration of all Scripture, and always find fulfilment through the revelation of Yeshua.
In another way, Abraham is God’s representative earthly father. With his wife Sarah, he was to bring about a miraculous birth, considering their old age. Their son Isaac was to be heir of the covenant promise. This father/son relationship can be considered as an earthly outworking of God’s higher purposes. He Himself was to bring His own Son into the world when the time was right, much later on from this beginning in Genesis. We will see more details of this next week, but for now it is sufficient to see how the promise to Abraham was a pointer to what God would do in a similar way to what happened in Abraham’s life. We discover in Isaiah 9:6-7, the promise of a Son:
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
In Matthew 1:18-23, God’s Son is announced:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMshiach) was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (Yeshua), for He will save His people from their sins.”
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Abraham waited a long time for the son of promise, Isaac. All Israel waited many centuries for the birth of God’s Son Yeshua. Both were born by God’s supernatural help. In Matthew 3:16-17, we read of God’s identifying Yeshua as His Son.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The writer to the Hebrews understood that Abraham’s faith pointed to something far greater than he understood, but that he knew that in the distance there would be a fulfilment of all that his life and that of his son represented. This was the eternal life brought through the sacrifice of God’s own son.
Hebrews 11:9-10
By faith he (Abraham) dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
God selected a man, Abraham, from whom came a nation, walking with Him through outworking of a life that prefigured His covenant purposes until they were fulfilled in the One Man Yeshua. The great darkness (Genesis 15:12) that came upon Abraham when God cut His covenant with Abraham, conditional only on faith, shows us the immense spiritual battle that takes place to fulfil the covenant. The Book of Revelation contains a picture of this spiritual battle when the nation of Israel, through the chosen virgin Mary, brought forth the Saviour of the World:
Revelation 12:1-5
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labour and in pain to give birth.
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
Truly all Scripture points one way, in the lives of God’s people and in the workings of God, to the eternally momentous day when Yeshua HaMashiach, the Son of God, was born to die as the sacrifice for our sins.
