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לְךָ לֶךְ

Lech Lecha
(leck le-kah)
(go for yourself)

B’reshit [Genesis] 12:1-17:27

The Call to Leave Babylon

B’reshit (Genesis) 12:1-4
1 Now YHWH said to Avram, “You get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you;
2 and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing;
3 and I will bless them that bless you, and him that curses you I will curse; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
4 So Avram went, as YHWH had spoken to him; and Lot went with him; and Avram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Avram was seventy-five years old when he received the call from YHWH to pack up and move. Avram lived in Ur of the Chaldees, which was a part of Babylon. YHWH was calling him out of Babylon. One of the interesting things about this call was that Avram didn’t know exactly where he was going, only that
YHWH would show him when he got there. That would take some kind of faith, don’t you think? I wonder how many of us today have that type of faith? Yet, this is exactly what YHWH expects of us as well, since we now live in the midst of the Babylonian/Roman system. Let us look into His word to see what He is saying to us today.

Yeshayah (Isaiah) 48:20
“Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing you declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; you shall say, ‘YHWH has redeemed his servant Ya’aqov.’”

When we wake up and find ourselves in the midst of Babylon, YHWH tells us to flee from it. We are to flee from the Chaldeans. This is essentially telling us to get out from the midst of a people who are self-serving and self-worshipping. Furthermore, as we are going out and separating ourselves, then we are to declare that YHWH has redeemed His people, the descendants of Ya’aqov.

There are many people today who are hearing this call, but are not understanding the call, nor understanding what they are to do once they hear this call. There are many people who are feeling stirred up inside their spirits, yet instead of taking the time to search Scripture and find out what it is that YHWH is actually telling them, they begin hopping from one church to another. Or, they go and find a Messianic synagogue to attend. There are even those who turn away from Messiah altogether and turn to Judaism thinking that this is the call that they are hearing. Yet the word teaches us that YHWH is the same yesterday, today and even forever. So the call that people are hearing today is the same call that YHWH has always given to His people, to come out of serving Babylon and serve Him with their whole being. In short, YHWH is calling us to shema Him.

Yeshayah (Isaiah) 52:11
“You turn, you turn, you go out from there, touch no unclean thing; you go out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, you that carry the vessels of YHWH.”

This chapter in Yeshayah is teaching us about the redemption of Israel and Jerusalem. YHWH begins with the command to “awake” from our slumber and to see and understand what has happened and to turn away from, or repent of that type of living. We are to come out of that filth and live within the boundaries of Torah so that we can be a set apart people for YHWH.

According to Torah it was the priests and Levites who carried the vessels of YHWH. But is that the only understanding of this passage? No! Let us consider some other verses to see that it is speaking to us, and about us today.

Ma’aseh (Acts) 9:15
But YHWH said to him, “Go your way; for he is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel;”

Notice that YHWH states that Shaul is a chosen vessel. Shaul was not a Levite or a priest, but from the tribe of Benyamin.

Romans 9:23-24
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us, whom He also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

Those who will hear and answer the call that He has sent out are vessels to bear His name. We are chosen by YHWH Himself to carry His name to all those who would have ears to hear.

Qorintyah Bet (2nd Corinthians) 6:17
“Therefore come out from among them, and be separate,” says YHWH, “And touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you,”

The context of not touching anything unclean is dealing with idolatry. YHWH commands us to be completely removed from anything and everything that has anything to do with idolatry. If we truly desire for YHWH to be our Elohim, and that we would be acceptable in His sight, then we must put away everything in our lives that is idolatrous in His eyes. Then He will take us to Himself and we will be His people and He will be our Elohim.

Tehillim (Psalm) 1:1-2
1 Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 But his delight is in the Torah of YHWH;
And on His Torah does he meditate day and night.

We are blessed when we obey His Torah. If we do not obey His Torah, then YHWH considers us to be wicked and unrighteous. How do we obey His Torah? First, we accept His Son Yeshua as our Mashiach and Redeemer. Then we ask to be filled with His Spirit. Then we have the proper context to hear the fullness of His Torah commandments. Then we can truly hear and obey His Voice. It is when we are walking moment by moment hearing and obeying His Voice that we are walking in the fullness of His strength and not our own.

Mishle (Proverbs) 9:6
Forsake folly, and live;
And walk in the way of understanding.

Folly is walking in one’s own counsel. It is doing whatever one wants to do. Folly is the order of the day in our world today. But this is not what YHWH wants for us. He wants us to walk in the way of understanding, which is the way of righteousness. The implication of the verse above is that if one does not forsake folly, then he will not live – he will die.

Ma’aseh (Acts) 2:40
And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

The truth is that the majority of the world is lost. If all one ever does is to follow the majority, then he will never find eternal life. This is particularly true in religious circles as well. And yes, even in Christianity. Anyone can be religious. But not everyone has life, and that eternal, because not everyone is willing to hear and obey His Voice. Not everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to follow after YHWH.

If we do not show YHWH that we are willing to do whatever it takes to save ourselves as the verse above commands us, then why should we expect YHWH to lift even one finger to save us? If a person is not willing to do anything towards salvation, then what can YHWH do? Nothing. This is not to say that our salvation is by one’s own works, but one’s salvation is perfected by what he does. And if a person does nothing, then is that person truly saved? No, or at least, not for long.

Kepha Aleph (1st Peter) 1:14-16
14 as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance;
15 but like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living;
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”

The Babylonian system is based upon feeding the lusts of the flesh. This is where the Babylonian system gains its strength. But we are not to feed the lusts of our flesh as we had done beforehand in ignorance of YHWH’s ways. Christianity is a system that is a mixture of feeding these same fleshly lusts, but also seeking to justify those lusts through a faith that is divorced from a sure and solid foundation. That foundation which Christianity is missing is the Torah Moshe. There are many sects in Christianity that even go so far as to teach that the entire Old Testament has been done away with because Yeshua fulfilled it all. Yet they fail to realize that Yeshua is the Torah made flesh, and that since we are admonished to be like Him in all manner of our walk, we too should know and walk in knowledge and understanding of Torah that we do not walk in ignorance feeding the lusts of our flesh.

Matithyah (Matthew) 10:37-38
37 “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
38 And he that does not take up his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me.”

The cross that Yeshua admonishes us to take up consists of two pieces. The vertical piece represents the Torah as it is our plumb line. It is the Torah that determines and measures the rightness or wrongness of all things in our lives. Without the Torah we have no standard with which to judge or measure our own lives.

The horizontal piece represents our relationships with one another. We are our brother’s keeper and we are to walk in such a way as to strengthen and lift up one another. We are never to tear down one another, but to build each other up in Mashiach Yeshua that we all might live and function as the body of Mashiach, which is Israel.

It is upon this that we are taught from Scripture, that the two greatest commandments in Scripture are to love YHWH our Elohim with all our heart, mind and strength; and the second is like it, that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But the Babylonian system teaches that we are not our brother’s keeper; that we are to live and let live. This is completely against Torah and the path of righteousness.

Yochanan (John) 12:25
“He that loves his life loses it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.”

A person simply cannot live for self and have eternal life. Each person must root out all areas within himself that would have its own way. One must put to death all aspects of wanting his own way and living for the gratification of self and its many fleshly manifestations. Make no mistake about it, the flesh is tricky and deceitful and will masquerade as something quite pious if that is the only way in which it can live. But one must die completely and totally if he truly desires to have eternal life. There is no other way.

Yochanan (John) 12:24
“Amein, amein, I say to you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Life or death, this is what YHWH has placed before us. Israel or Babylon, this is the choice that we have to make. If one chooses Babylon, then he can and will have all the passing pleasures of this world.

However, if he chooses to be a part of Israel and to have life, then he dies to those pleasures having primacy in one’s life. He must die.

If one voluntarily dies, then he can live in this life, and have life more abundantly as he lives for Him and as He lives His life through him. In this way He will bear fruit for Himself and for His kingdom. But unless one dies, he cannot bear any fruit for His kingdom.

Gilyana (Revelation) 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And he that hears, let him say, “Come.” And he that is thirsty, let him come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely.

Are you thirsty for true life? Do you hear the call of the Spirit and the bride of Mashiach calling to you to come out of Babylon unto Him? Come, join us, all those who are coming out of Babylon, and join your voice with ours calling others to come out of that wicked harlot as well!

ABBA YHWH, we ask that the Spirit of grace would light the path of righteousness clearly before us that we may walk in it without stumbling; in the name of Yeshua our Mashiach. Amein.

Shabbat Shalom
Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.com
zerubbabel@onetorahforall.com

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