Torah Commentary Archives

Gen 12:1-17:27

Isaiah 40:27-41:16

Acts 7:1-8

Romans 3:19-5:6

Hebrews 7:1-19; 11:8-12

Lech Lecha (Get Yourself Out)

A Common Thread

This week we are introduced to a man named Avram, (Abram.) His life will be laid out in front of us with days of walking in great faith as well as his days of failure. In the end, his name will be changed to Avraham by adding the Hebrew letter Heh to the end of Avram. The letter Heh is an interesting one in that it is the only letter we sound without using any movement of our mouth. It is sounded by only the use of breath. It is a letter which is used to point us to the breath of Yah. What do we see so far? The life of changing Avram to Avraham was accomplished by Avram's willingness to allow The Creator to breath life-transforming breath into him.

The process Avram went through should take us back to The Garden. Adam was formed from the dirt of the earth, but he had no life until breath was breathed into him. It was only with the addition of the breath of Yah that Adam came to life. Could we therefore conclude that even though Avram was breathing and walking on the earth and seemed to be alive to those around him, it was not until the breath of Yah came into him that he really started to live?

I can look back to a day some thirty years ago now and consider the reality of Avram's experience as my own. From the prospective of other people. I was alive. They saw me going through the same motions of life as they were on the outside, but I was coming to the realization that I was no more than a dead man walking. I had no true life. I remember the day I knelt at an altar in a Nazarene Church in Tucson, AZ and experienced His Heh being added to my life. It was on that day that Avraham and myself had something in common. Faith. The breath of life was the result of faith in a promise of redemption made in The Garden. The rest of Avraham's life would be walked out through the power of His breath flowing through him because He believed and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. I was afforded the same opportunity and, in fact, so are you.

Why is it so important for us to consider this similarity between us and the man Scripture calls “The father of us all?” His story gives us all hope. His story is about a man who entered into a perfect redemption by faith, but was not perfect when he began his walk. As he walked out his faith, he would be perfected. As he walked out his faith, he would challenge others to allow the “Hey” to become theirs also. Some would accept that challenge and some would not. Avraham would not allow their lack of acceptance to make him waver though. Avraham would keep walking.

Just what was the motivation for Avraham to keep walking. As you read through this Torah portion notice how many times The Land is mentioned. When the words “The Land” were spoke to Avram, he never once asked Yah to define what land He was talking about. He knew He was talking about the land currently known as Israel. There is a lesson for some people in those words. Through Avraham's walk, I believe he would begin to piece things together. The promise he had come to faith in. one which had been passed down verbally from Adam, was about a return to the walk of Adam, one which The Creator walked on the earth with His creation. As he walked in The Land of Promise he may have understood that it would one day be The Land The Redeemer would walk with him on. This brings light to the words of Hebrews 11:10, “He looked for a city whose builder and maker was Yah.”

As we read about this man Avraham over the next few weeks, consider your own life. Look to the faith of a redeemer Who breaths His life unto us. Receive courage in the successes of this man. Take heart in that though he was called to a perfect walk, he messed up just as we do. Receive strength to keep walking even after we fail. Learn to keep your focus on a city which is coming to a land which will be the eternal home of our mutual redeemer, One we now understand to have a name Yeshua, (Salvation.)