Miketz (At the end of): Genesis 41:1-44:17

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

20th December 2025 (30 Kislev)

Miketz (At the end of): Genesis 41:1-44:17

Despite all the modern-day aids to teaching which are available to human teachers, from computers to whiteboards, books and films, no-one can teach like our Creator God. Only the God of Abraham can create the universe where mankind dwells, give each person life and, through all the peaks and troughs of experience in that life, teach a person about themselves and about Himself. All God’s teaching is relational and is likened to a walk together.

He can also teach us through the lives of others. He shows us ourselves as if in a mirror, through what He has already done in the lives of other people. This is why the Bible, especially the first five books, is called Torah – teaching. Not only does God do this, but He prepares us for what is yet to come through the patterns and principles of what has been.

Our Bible studies must be part of our Hebraic way of life. Unfortunately, we could treat the Bible as a textbook of philosophy and miss the point. After all, the translation of the word philosophy is lover of wisdom. But a seeking after this kind of wisdom can be a lifeless pursuit, if one simply has a desire for academic knowledge, compared with what is intended - a personal walk with God. Joseph was a real person, not a character from fiction. We are also created beings, made in the image of God. Likewise, valuable though some books of theology might seem, they too can be lifeless for us, offering us theoretical knowledge of God rather than relational knowledge from our walk with Him.

It is a matter of wonder to us that the portions of Scripture we read week by week allow us to enter into the lives of those who went before us thousands of years ago, as if time has stood still.

In our portion this week, we continue to follow the way God fulfilled His purposes, despite what seemed like the impossible circumstances that beset Joseph, his father and brothers. God’s timing was perfect and His ways infallible. They were for Joseph and will be for us today and in the days to come. There is no precise formula from which we can predict how things will work out in our lives, or in the way God will complete His covenant purposes in the world, but Joseph’s life, nevertheless, has prophetic significance for the future.

A succession of dreams was the means by which God established the promise in Joseph’s life. Interpretation of dreams he himself had, and others which he interpreted for the butler and baker, made it possible for him to be called out of prison by Pharaoh. Thus, he became promoted to high office in the land of Egypt. God then used a famine to bring Jacob’s family to Egypt, and take a place of honour in Egypt. There, Israel would become a nation, fulfilling prophecy that was given to Abraham (Genesis 15:13). Dreams and physical signs are still used by God but there is no exact formula for any given situation, meaning that we must always be alert and wait patiently to see how He will act at each stage of history.

The important encouragement we get from our Bible study is the faithfulness of God and the certainty of His promises. God is gracious to record these things for us in the Bible. The lives of Jacob and his family were far from easy during the years when God seemed silent. Jacob was taken to his limit several times. He thought he had lost Joseph and feared that he would also lose Benjamin – the two sons of his beloved wife Rachel who had died in childbirth on the road to Bethlehem. Yet the need for food gave him no option but to do what Joseph required and go down to Egypt.

We have a wonderful insight into the outworking of God’s purposes through Joseph. What we are shown clearly was hidden from Jacob’s family. The brothers would find themselves doing exactly what God had prophesied through Joseph’s dreams, when they came and bowed down before him, while there was nothing selfish and proud in Joseph to bring it about. There was an overflow of God’s love when Joseph drew aside to weep when his brother Benjamin was brought to him (Genesis 43:30). These things help when we consider our own personal journey through life, especially when difficulties beset us. We can be sure that all God’s promises will be fulfilled and that He really does care.

The manner of Joseph’s brothers rejecting him, causing him to be put into prison, whilst he was chosen by God as their saviour in time of famine, reminds us of Yeshua.

The Gospel accounts describe clearly how Yeshua was chosen by God to be the Saviour of His people – His very Name means salvation. He entered a troubled world dominated by the Roman Empire. God’s purpose in Yeshua did not fit logically into the expectation of many Jews of the day, especially many leaders whose interpretation of biblical prophecy did not identify Yeshua as Messiah. Eyes were blind to God’s purposes in Yeshua, just as they were to Joseph’s brothers for God’s purpose in Joseph. This was even to the extent of their being willing to take our Saviour’s life by the cruel death on a Roman cross.

Even now, God has not finished and fulfilled everything He has promised. His final purposes are as sure to be fulfilled in God’s own way as they were in the life of Jacob’s family through Joseph, and through Yeshua’s great sacrifice. Furthermore, His timing will be perfect.

There will come a day when all that has been promised through Yeshua for His brothers, the Jewish people and all the Tribes of Israel, and for those grafted into the Israel of God, will be completed. The Bible, in both the Tanach and the New Testament, tells of the troubled times that will precede the final stages of God’s covenant purposes, as unchangeable as was the prophecy given to Joseph that the brothers and the father would bow before him. Yeshua spoke much of this. His return will be in the context of what the Bible calls Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7, Daniel 12:1-3, Revelation 6-12).

Just as surely as prophecies concerning Joseph were fulfilled when his brothers bowed down to him, the prophesies and purposes of God will come to pass for Israel’s present-day descendants exactly as God intends and through whom He Himself has determined. Yeshua was clear about His own purpose in coming the first time as Saviour and second time as Judge. He spoke even more clearly about these things than Jeremiah or Daniel whose prophecies pointed to Yeshua and in harmony with Yeshua’s own prophetic words. This is recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, leaving us no doubt about Yeshua’s own certainty of His prophetic call:

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. (Luke 21:32-33)

Yeshua did not say these things lightly or without showing the compassion of the Father. Just as Joseph demonstrated his love for his brothers when he wept after they returned with Benjamin, so Yeshua wept for His people:

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

He also made it clear that He would not return until the appointed time and this would be signified by a time of preparation and expectation growing among His people. Drawing to Himself the Messianic welcome from Psalm 118, He said of the time of His return, speaking specifically to the Jews of His day, whilst also speaking to those living in our day:

…I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ (Luke 13:35)

We are living in days of greater and greater fulfilment of the prophecies of the last days, which cannot be separated from God’s purpose in Yeshua. There will be difficult times, just as in the days of famine in Joseph’s day, when all that God has purposed through His Son, Yeshua, will come to fulfilment. Learning from our Bible studies, and discerning these times, we can be more prepared than Joseph’s brothers. We have had 2000 years since Yeshua ministered on this earth and told us what to expect.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Vayeshev (And settled): Genesis 37:1-40:23

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

13th December 2025 (23 Kislev)

Vayeshev (And settled): Genesis 37:1-40:23

Abraham is the father of all who live by faith in the One True God. He was the first Hebrew,  ivri (עברי), one who “crossed over”,  avar ( עָבַר) in the Hebrew language. The two Hebrew words are linked. He crossed over, physically, from the land of the Chaldeans, to Canaan, the land of promise. He crossed over, spiritually, from a life of self-reliance to dependency on God, which he was willing to learn on his life’s journey. His son Isaac, his grandson Jacob and Jacob’s family were called to the same life of faith. What does this life of faith involve? The Hebrew language is a great influence on the way life it is to be lived.

The Hebraic life is typified in the verb tenses of the Hebrew language. Rather than past, present and future, the Hebrew verb tenses are perceived as completed action, present action and uncompleted action. Life is seen as the ever present, the events of life coming to us and we going through them, typified by the phrase that occurs many times in the Bible, “and it came to pass”. This is quite different from the modern-day concept of time, and planning more for tomorrow than living today in all its fulness. The Hebraic way of life is to live in each moment of each day, neither dwelling overmuch on the past nor overplanning the future. To be mature in this is to live the life of faith, as God taught us through Abraham,  making the best of every opportunity, concentrating on and enjoying the present task and responsibility, sharing each moment with others and trusting God for the rest. It is a life that has found rest in God. It is discovered naturally rather than by scientific method.

Yeshua confirmed this as the way to live, when He taught:

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ for after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:31-34)

The Hebraic principle of living day by day was also included in the simple phrase, give us today our daily bread, a part of The Lord’s Prayer, that we are encouraged to pray in full (Matthew 6:5-15).

Our Bible studies give us clear descriptions of the lives of the patriarchs of the covenant family. They do not omit the errors made on the journey of life, whilst living day by day as a Hebrew. When Jacob lived with Laban in Padan Aram, his main focus was on building his family and raising his flocks. Like Abraham and Isaac before him, he lived in the light of each day, attending to the tasks in hand. Of itself, this is the right Hebraic way to live. His encounters with God made him ever conscious of His presence in his life and that he had been chosen for the next step in God’s covenant purposes, as promised to Abraham. Yet, his life was far from perfect.

This week, the focus moves more to the lives of Jacob’s sons, each called in a particular way to take forward the covenant purposes of God. They too are Hebrews, living day by day through the activities before them – in many ways, the lives of “ordinary people”. They attend to the needs of their flocks, eat and drink, take their rest, eventually marry and raise their own family. But in the ordinariness of their lives, their call as heirs of the covenant was not held so firmly as to avoid the errors that they made. There was division among Jacob’s sons: Joseph, being so greatly favoured that jealousy arose. This jealously nearly led to murder. It did lead to Joseph being sold to slavery and to a terrible lie and great grief when Jacob was presented with the special cloak that he had made for Joseph, now stained with blood.

Then we have the account of Judah. If Judah could have known how important the multitude of his descendants, the Jews, would be in the covenant purposes of God, would he not have learned self-control and not allowed himself to lie with a harlot, who in fact turned out to be his own daughter-in-law? The consequence was the birth of the twins, Perez and Zerah, through the sin of incest.

Because of his dreams, Joseph had a greater sense of God’s purpose in his life and was able to walk with integrity in the years he spent in Egypt. During the years when Judah fell to temptation, Joseph resisted the temptation and seduction of Potiphar’s wife. Both paths are possible: to live Hebraically and either drift from God’s purposes, or to stay close to Him.

There is one question that we cannot ask, though we would like to: “What if?” There would not be a need for God’s covenant if humankind were capable of a totally sinless life. We live with the paradox of what ought to be the pure walk with God, especially of those called into covenant responsibility, and the degrees by which all have fallen. This is especially so when we consider the lives of the Patriarchs of the faith, observed through the contrasts before us in this week’s Bible study.

It is as the Apostle Paul described it when personalising this struggle to himself:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7:14-20)

We have yet to come, in our weekly readings, to the laws of God given through Moses at Mount Sinai, but there was, nevertheless, a basic knowledge of right and wrong that Jacob and his sons lived by, and the presence of God calling them to walk with Him. Hence Judah could be convicted of his sin with Tamar (Genesis 38:26), Joseph knew it would have been wrong to lie with Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:9) and the sons of Jacob knew that they had done wrong in selling their brother to slavery after almost murdering him (Genesis 37).

They had a very special call, which goes beyond the need to live by law. They were called to walk with God day by day, just as Abraham and before him, Enoch, had done. The Hebraic life is not only to live within the tasks of today, it is also to bind oneself to God in the life of faith. One can be attentive to one’s daily tasks but drift away from God. As we consider Jacob and his sons, therefore, we discover a Hebraic life but also the human errors of the imperfect life of faith.

The greatness of God’s covenant lies in His mercy. How, in all His majesty and perfection, He was willing to walk with sinful men – even the fallible patriarchs of the covenant - to fulfil His promises of redemption, is awesome to contemplate. He does not delight in sin, but abhors it, yet He can allow the “what ifs” of human failure, even foreseeing them, and still chart a course, painful though it is, to the ultimate purpose of His Covenant.

This greatness is shown in how magnificently He came to earth to abide in a man, the promised Messiah. The expectation of the character of the Messiah was, for many generations, likened by the people of Israel to Joseph, who was taken down to Egypt as a saviour for his family when famine beset the land. There are many aspects of Joseph’s life in what we will read over these weeks that echo the life of Yeshua HaMashaich. Yet He alone was able, through His perfect life, to redeem us all from our sins.

Let us, therefore, consider this week the amazing way the Messiah identified Himself with His people, eventually taking onto Himself the sins that had so spoiled their covenant walk. When Yeshua was baptised in the Jordan at the beginning of His public ministry (Matthew 3:13-17) this was the first sign of identification. He submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father and immersed Himself in the waters where repentant sinners expressed desire to have their sins removed.

There also is something quite special in the line of His birth.

Judah, despite all the faults that the  Bible recounts to us, was specially chosen to be the leader of the Jewish tribe that would remain in the Land of Israel up until the time of the coming of Yeshua. His was the kingly line and from his descendants one would inherit the title, King of the Jews. Matthew gives us the complete genealogy from Abraham to Yeshua (Matthew 1).

It begins:

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach), the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram….

It concludes:

….Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus (Yeshua) who is called Christ (Mashiach).

Matthew lists 42 generations from Abraham to Yeshua (Jesus). Right at the beginning is a reminder that Yeshua came from Judah, through the line of Perez, the son of Tamar, with whom Judah had an incestual relationship. Yeshua unashamedly identified fully with the line of descent which, for this reason and others, was full of sinfulness. He is the King of the Jews and He came to complete the Covenant that was promised to Abraham, the first of His genealogy.

Abraham learned to walk by faith on his Hebraic journey with God. All who by faith enter this same family, either by direct descent or adoption, are invited to walk in this same Hebraic way. Like Jacob and his sons, whose lives we consider in hindsight, we live with the potential errors that can lead to our own regrets and  “what ifs” but if we are willing, we can learn to minimise them, studying the lives of those who went before us, helped by the Holy Spirit, waiting for the return of the King.

Ours too is a walk. Paul  put it this way:

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

Reminding us of the time of Noah’s flood and the continued potential of us all to walk as we ought, or to deviate into sin, Yeshua warned of the time before His coming:

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be …. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:37-44)

With our Bible studies to help us, with the anticipation of Hebraically living the life of faith day by day, in these challenging times, these words of Yeshua could not be more important.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Vayishlach (And he sent): Genesis 32:3-36:43

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.

6th December 2025 (16 Kislev)

Vayishlach (And he sent): Genesis 32:3-36:43

As we consider Jacob’s struggles in this portion of Scripture, it is important to remember the context. Human history had only gone forward five to six hundred years since the Great Flood at the time of Noah The first clear stage of the covenant purposes of God were revealed when the sign of the rainbow was given to Noah - God would no longer judge the world in the same way. The nature of human beings was not changed but a plan of redemption began. It should not be a surprise that Jacob struggled in many ways on his journey through life.

Human history is short. The time from the Flood to our day, is only a few thousand years. We too should not be surprised at continuing struggles for all who live in this world which has suffered the consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve. There is, therefore, much for us to learn from Jacob’s walk that helps us to understand our own walk.

After Laban had pursued him from Padan Aram, there was no way back, following the covenant made between Jacob and Laban at the rock named Galeed. The way forward was also filled with potential peril, because Esau would soon appear with four hundred men to carry out the threat to Jacob’s life, made before Jacob left his home to travel to Padan Aram just over twenty years previously. Jacob was at a crisis, and if that was not enough, God took the opportunity to send an angel to wrestle with him through the night at Peniel.

A victory was declared in Jacob’s life. He had struggled with God and with men and prevailed (Genesis 32:28). Jacob recognised that this was an encounter with God. It may not seem like a great blessing in human terms when, from then on, he was to walk with a limp, but this was a major milestone in his walk of faith. It was necessary for his responsibility relating to God’s continuing covenant purposes. From now on his new name, Israel, defined the character of both him and his children that would soon grow into a great nation, denoting one who struggles with God and who is a prince with God.

As it happened, the feud with Esau dissolved away and the brothers were reconciled, later burying their father Isaac together, then going on to dwell in different areas of the country.

Nevertheless, Jacob’s struggles did not end with the wrestling near the brook Jabbok at Peniel. The way his daughter Dinah was treated by Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, which provoked Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi to slaughter all the males in Hamor’s city, heaped trouble on trouble. Jacob also lost his beloved wife Rachel during the birth of her second son, Benjamin. One may be chosen by God for His covenant purposes but this does not necessarily lead to an easy life on the journey through this troubled world.

There is an important theme in our study this week which is easy to miss. Horrendous though the slaughter of Hamor’s community was, a problem was averted that has arisen many times over in the life of the nation, Israel. Either by resisting assimilation with other nations or through warfare, there has been a constant struggle to retain identity. Shechem’s fascination for Dinah, at that time, was potentially the beginning of a seduction that would have caused intermarriage between Jacob’s family and the tribes of Canaan at that very early stage of God’s purposes. This would have ended their distinct call to be the identifiable covenant nation that God intended – a struggle that has beset every generation of Israel since then.

In this context, it is interesting that we have an entire chapter devoted to the family of Esau. Thankfully, Esau did not inherit the covenant blessing given by his father Isaac. He took wives from the surrounding nations and was all too ready to sell his birthright. That would surely have resulted in assimilation of Isaac’s family, if Esau had become the head of the covenant family.

In this world, such has been the continuing nature of the struggle for Israel’s identity. In all of the conflicts we can find imperfection from Israel in the struggle but that is the nature of this fallen world. The sadness for Israel’s constant suffering is echoed in Jeremiah 31. This is the chapter which contains God’s compassion for Israel and the heart-rending passage which recalls Rachel’s sorrow:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more. (Jeremiah 31:15)

That was loud lamentation indeed, for the sound to be carried from her tomb in Bethlehem to Ramah, in the hills where Samuel lived. That weeping also echoes through the centuries of struggle even to the present day, with still recent remembrance of the horrific holocaust. Yet, God’s faithfulness continues to our day through all the wrestlings of Israel’s life. The nation is back in the Land once more, fulfilling God’s promises in Jeremiah 31.

No wonder the modern day song Am Yisrael Chai, עם ישראל חי (the nation of Israel lives) is so meaningful.

Also in Jeremiah 31 is the promise of the New Covenant, whose power was released through Yeshua Hamashiach at His sacrifice, bringing multitudes into the covenant promises of God, now possible for Gentiles as well as natural descendants of Israel. Gentiles, grafted into the Israel of God, now share in the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:14).

Yet the struggle goes on. Everything must be tested. We live an Hebraic faith – learning through life’s walk and not through academic theology. Every one of God’s covenant family has his or her times of struggle which can be paralleled with Jacob’s wrestling at Peniel. Jacob would have surely endorsed the Apostle Paul’s understanding of God’s way of both testing and refining our faith:

…we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 3:5)

Paul also understood that in the bigger picture there is a massive spiritual battle against an enemy whose sole intent is to destroy God’s people:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

In the physical line of descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came Yeshua the Messiah.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 3, we read of Yeshua coming to the Jordan river to be baptised. As he immersed Himself in the waters for baptism, He fully identified with those who were immersing themselves as repentant sinners in seeking cleansing and hoping for a place in the eternal Kingdom of God. By His identification, Yeshua committed Himself to the path before Him through to His sacrifice on the Cross and beyond. This was to enable the redemption of the Israel of God and all others from the nations who would be grafted into this nation through faith.

Jacob fulfilled His purpose before God to bring the physical nation into existence through his sons, holding fast to the covenant promise despite the difficulties and struggles on the journey. Yeshua came to fulfil the promise, yet He too was subjected to testing and wrestling with the spiritual powers. In Matthew Chapter 4, we read how immediately after His baptism He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him…..

Three times satan came to Yeshua to challenge Him with a clever but distorted use of Scripture, which Yeshua countered with the truth. The final temptation came when satan took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

Esau’s birthright comes to mind, sold so cheaply, as does by contrast, all with which the Nation Israel has ever struggled in order to retain their identity and not be lost among the nations who serve false gods. Jacob was once victorious to retain God’s covenant purpose. Yeshua’s victory was greater still, when He dismissed the evil one with a word:

Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’

What a Saviour!

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Vayetze (And went out): Genesis 28:10-32:2

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

29th November 2025 (9 Kislev)

Vayetze (And went out): Genesis 28:10-32:2

The Covenant was confirmed with Jacob soon after he began his journey from Canaan towards Haran (Genesis 28:13-15). Just when he needed encouragement, God came to him in a dream. God’s faithfulness was also to remain with Jacob despite the difficult twenty years he would spend with Laban’s family.

In every generation, God’s covenant purposes move forward. What began with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was to be broadened into the family of twelve sons born in Padan Aram. Despite the deception of Laban towards Jacob in bringing Leah to Jacob as wife before Rachel, and despite the fact that the maidservants of both Leah and Rachel bore some of Jacob’s sons, God used the circumstances for His own purpose. He was active in the most intimate relationship of husband and wife:

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” (Genesis 29:31-32)

It is appropriate to list all the sons of Jacob, because in them is the beginning of the next stage of the covenant plan. The numbers indicate the order of their birth:

Leah’s sons                                                                 Rachel’s sons

Reuben (Behold a son) 1                                      Joseph (And will add) 11

Simeon (Heard) 2                                                     Benjamin (Son of my right hand) 12

Levi (Attached)  3

Judah (Praise) 4

Issachar (Wages) 9

Zebulun (Dwelling) 10

Rachel’s Maidservant Bilhah’s sons               Leah’s Maidservant Zilpah’s sons

Dan (Judge) 5                                                       Gad (Troop or Fortune) 7

Naphtali (My Wrestlings)  6                                  Asher (Happy) 8

Also Leah bore a daughter named Dinah, meaning judgement, born after Zebulun and before Joseph. The names of the children were influenced by the circumstances of their birth. Following Jacob, the history of Israel is the history of the tribes bearing the names of Jacob’s sons, and continues to our day.

Jacob’s time with Laban is described in some detail and nothing is hidden from the family struggles, especially concerning the wealth that was acquired and divided between Laban and Jacob as the flocks and herds grew. In a human court of justice, we might consider arguments both in favour and against Laban’s and Jacob’s behaviour through all of this. Yet there is no doubt about God’s continued favour resting on Jacob:

So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and grey-spotted. Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and grey-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ (Genesis 31:9-13)

God’s ways are beyond our human logic. He separates to Himself, as Jacob divided the flocks of Laban, those who are called and respond to His covenant purposes, and cares for them as a shepherd does his flock. This thread of truth goes right through Scripture and is fulfilled in the imagery of the Matthew 25 where in the final judgement, the sheep are separated for eternal life from the goats who are excluded:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31-32)

As with his father Isaac, despite human failings, Jacob took most seriously his covenantal relationship with God. His response to meeting with God in a very special way at Bethel, was to commit himself to giving back to God from what God had given to him, in the form of tithes. In this he revealed the heart issues of tithing, to be a response to the God who cares for us and to be bound to Him through faith:

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” (Genesis 28:20-22)

Jacob’s dream of angels ascending and descending from heaven on a ladder symbolised God’s confirmation of His presence with him, as His chosen means of fulfilling the Covenant He made with Abraham. This same imagery was used by Yeshua when He gently proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah, the fulfilment of God’s covenant purposes.

The imagery is recalled in the Gospel of John where Yeshua called Nathanael. Here Yeshua is seen as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. As the Son of God, comparable to the way God called Jacob for His Kingdom purposes, Yeshua called Nathanael into discipleship. As the Son of Man, He revealed Himself as chosen by God for the fulfilment of God’s covenant purposes. The call of God on Yeshua was to complete what was promised to and began with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons.

The broad leafed fig tree that Nathanael sat under for shade when Yeshua called him was symbolic of sitting under the authority of Scripture as interpreted by the Bible teachers of the day – the Jewish Rabbis. Was Nathanael reading the very Torah portion that we are reading this week? Was this a preparation for meeting Yeshua and hearing what He had to say to him, which brought forth the declaration that Yeshua is the Son of God? Was Nathanael praying to God from a pure heart motive to understand this passage of Torah, which was answered in his meeting of Yeshua? Quite likely.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:47-51)

This was confirmed at Yeshua’s baptism:

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-24)

This fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah (Chapter 11, Verse 2):

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

Covenant history has moved on since then, with its lessons from Torah to be applied to us as well as Jacob and Nathanael. God continues to seek those with whom his covenant promises and blessings can reside. Yeshua is still gathering the flock of God. As He said to a woman from Samaria (John 4:23-24):

…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

We, who are called through faith in Yeshua to be heirs of God’s covenant purposes in this earth and for all eternity, are greatly privileged, as were those who went before us.

The Holy Spirit will be given to us as well, both as a confirmation of our part in the covenant purposes of God and enabling us to fulfil them:

… you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Toldot (Generations): Genesis 25:19-28:9

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

22nd November 2025 (2 Kislev)

Toldot (Generations): Genesis 25:19-28:9

Far less detail is given of Isaac’s life than that of his father Abraham. Our reading this week takes us from when he was forty years old and Rebekah became his wife, to when he was an old blind man. At that time, Jacob received the covenant blessing and Isaac faded from the biblical account as we begin to follow Jacob in more detail. In fact we hear no more of Isaac until the time of his death at the age of 180 years (Genesis 35:29).

Many questions come to mind concerning Isaac. The great victory of faith for Abraham on Mount Moriah was a climax of covenant history. Isaac seemed to be a quiet trusting son, to let his father raise a knife to him on the altar there. Then followed the magnificent account of his chosen bride Rebekah coming to meet her future husband, their eyes first seeing each other from afar, as Isaac meditated in the fields. What a wonderful, profound beginning to the successors of Abraham and Sarah as the bearers of covenant faith through the next generation!

Yet, in our portion this week, it is far from a glorious continuation of their lives together. We cannot easily read this without comment or question. Isaac made the same mistake as his father in lying about his wife to Abimelech. Then there is the tension between the twins, Esau and Jacob. Was Isaac too passive in his  fatherly role? Why was the precious birthright of the older son no more valuable than a tasty meal? Why was a central factor at the time of passing on of covenant blessing also a tasty meal? Why did Rebekah scheme to bring about the blessing on Jacob rather than Esau? Why was this necessary when God had already promised her (Genesis 25:23) that His hand was on Jacob to be the more prominent son? What had gone wrong with the relationship between Rebekah and Isaac that deception was felt to be necessary? Why was the anger of Esau so strong that he threatened to kill his brother – no less an evil than that which befell Cain and Abel at the dawn of time? Many questions, but we do not have clear answers in our study.

We might excuse some of this in our human way of thinking. Many years had gone by and perhaps God did not made things clear enough to Isaac and Rebekah. Much of their life would have been according to the customs of the day. They were farmers and keepers of animals, constantly seeking food and water. Isaac inherited all of Abraham’s wealth (Genesis 25:5), both his earthly possessions and his servants. This was a big company of people to manage and feed. Yes, they had great covenant privilege and responsibility, but also a very ordinary life too.

As we consider this we might also consider our own situations as present-day custodians and witnesses of God’s covenant promises. How many times do we start well and then drift from the pure path before us? It is no wonder that we are stirred by the sad outcomes in the lives of the patriarchs, because Torah is truly a mirror that we look into and see through our spiritual eyes what we are also like.

Indeed, consider for a moment the entire history of God’s covenant purposes from Adam to today. Study every person whose life is written into the Bible and find anyone who lived his life perfectly. They are just not there – except one.

The Apostle Paul confirmed this with his clear statement in Romans 3:23: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is not to excuse ourselves, because we must earnestly seek to grow towards that perfection. Yet, total perfection is not achieved in this life for us any more than for Isaac.

One thing that we can say for Isaac as we read our passage this week: it is that he retained conscious responsibility regarding the covenant. He was old and must pass on the blessing to the next generation. He knew too that the blessing that he spoke over Jacob had spiritual authority and power. It endowed Jacob with responsibility before God regarding the covenant, and the blessing could not be taken back. Wonderfully, despite Isaac’s many failings as a father and a husband, when he spoke the words of blessing over Jacob, God Himself affirmed it.

This lifts our study into the higher heavenly place. Throughout all history, God’s own purposes stand firm and will not fail. The covenant promise that He gave to Noah, that mankind would continue on this earth despite their human weakness stands firm. The unconditional covenant that He made with Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, continues to be remembered.

For all the weakness of mankind, there is a higher purpose being fulfilled over all history. The golden thread is to be found in all Scripture, that God Himself would bring forth His own Son of promise from the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who would not fail. This was the Messianic promise and the Messianic hope of all Israel. Yeshua was already within God the Father when the covenant was made, waiting to be manifest as a human being at the time appointed by God. At that time, through the birth of Yeshua, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at long last there was a sinless human being able to fulfil all the covenant plan perfectly. As His disciple John recalled Yeshua saying of Himself when challenged by the religious rulers of His day:

Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. (John 5:19-20)

Read the Gospel account in parallel with our portion this week and realise why God could confirm Isaac’s blessing of Jacob, two human beings much like us. Through our studies of Torah we see reflections of our own human weakness, yet the grace of God has been over all history, for all who desire to respond to the covenant call of God. Grace came to its highest fulfilment in the giving of Yeshua as our redeemer from our sin and weakness. We will not find the climax of the covenant purposes of God in any other. Yet we, like Isaac, have a part to play, as God continues to keep His hand for blessing on this fallen world for all who will believe. For our part we must remain faithful, learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of our forefathers, trusting in God for the greater fulfilment of His covenant blessings to all who seek Him in faith, abiding in His grace and forgiveness.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

15th November 2025 (24 Cheshvan)

Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18

Our reading begins with the death of Sarah and ends with the death of Abraham. Their long lives on this earth ended. They fulfilled their part in God’s covenant plan, growing in faith as they walked before Him and passed into their eternal life in dignity and honour. God’s purpose moved forward into the next generation.

When Abraham and Sarah were visited by angels at the time of Sodom’s judgement (Genesis 18), this was said of Abraham (Verses 17-19):

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.

Abraham was chosen as the father of people from all nations who would join his family through faith in the God of Abraham. The responsibility of fatherhood was to beget children and teach them to live in the way of the Lord. That was his life’s purpose and his relationship with God was to bring this about. Thus, it is not surprising that once their earthly task was accomplished, both Sarah and Abraham left this world.

Our study in the central chapter of this week’s Bible portion (Genesis 24) is strengthened for us through understanding this. The final important purpose in Abraham’s life was to find God’s choice of a wife for his son Isaac. What is described is the model arranged marriage, which still speaks powerfully and beautifully to us today. The task was entrusted to Abraham’s oldest and loyal servant, whose name is not mentioned in the passage. What follows is a wonderful arranged marriage in the tradition of those days. A bride for Isaac was chosen carefully, not from the nations around who followed many gods, but from Abraham’s own family who lived in Mesopotamia.

Abraham was now old and mature in his walk with God. It was under God’s guidance that the decision was made as to where a bride for Isaac would be found. This was a marriage arranged by God, who was with the servant at the well when he prayed for God’s confirmation (verses 12 -14) that Rebekah was the chosen bride. This is the beautiful account of the faithful servant bringing back God’s choice of the bride for Isaac. It is full of the traditions of those days and filled with depth and meaning. Just as God chose Abraham and Sarah, so He now moved His covenant purposes forward in His choice of Isaac and Rebekah. The account is filled with the pure intent of God for His chosen people. The climax is when Isaac sees his future bride in the distance while meditating prayerfully in the field, meeting her graciously, and taking her to his mother’s tent where she became the wife whom he loved.

Such marriages in the covenant purposes of God can still go on as they have for many generations, as God seeks those fathers and mothers who live by faith like Sarah and Abraham, bringing their children up and building up the household of God. Jewish parents in particular are conscious of their responsibility before God in this matter, including such sabbath prayers for their children as the following - for their daughters:

May you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.
יְשִׂימֵךְ אֱלֹהיִם כְּשָׂרָה רִבְקָה רָחֵל וְלֵאָה

Yesimech Elohim k’Sarah Rivka Rachel v’Leah

In seeking to live by the faith of Abraham, all parents would be wise to seek God for wives and husbands for their children. All parents, like Abraham and Sarah, are privileged with the responsibility to bring up godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). This principle is in the mind of all who study Torah carefully and would certainly be behind the Apostle Paul’s teaching on marriage, including Ephesians 5. Here Paul showed how marriage is a human representation of God’s relationship with all His people through Yeshua.

The account of Isaac and Rebekah sets the foundation for the New Covenant teaching about marriage. We are, therefore, intended to discover the fulfilment of Torah in the eternal family of God.

Yeshua used imagery of bride and bridegroom in His teaching. He spoke of Himself as the Bridegroom when asked about fasting:

Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matthew 9:15)

We might easily recall Isaac’s taking Rebekah to Sarah’s tent when we read about Yeshua preparing a place for His bride:

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2)

The account of the arranged marriage between Isaac and Rebecca rises to a higher level, helping us to understand the ways of God in the preparation of a bride for Yeshua.

The imagery continues into the Book of Revelation (Chapter 22, verse 17):

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

It is with this fulfilment of God’s purposes that we should study our Bible this week. The servant who goes at the command of Abraham to find a bride for his son is a pattern that can be followed in all marriages, and also models God’s purpose for all His chosen covenant family as a bride for His Son Yeshua. The Holy Spirit, like Abraham’s trusted servant, is sent to prepare the bride of Yeshua to be with Him at His coming:

A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:19-21)

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. (John 14:25-28)

The account of Abraham and Isaac is a study through the lives of human beings pointing to God the Father and Yeshua His Son. Rebekah, Isaac’s bride points, to the bride of Messiah. The servant bringing the bride to Abraham’s son points us to the Holy Spirit preparing a bride for Yeshua. This is not a drama invented by man to be played out on a stage, but history woven into God’s covenant people, waiting for the greater fulfilment in the eternal family of God.

The teaching of God is full of layers of truth and interacting themes of God’s covenant purposes in Yeshua HaMashiach.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Vayera (And appeared): Genesis 18:1-22:24

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

8th November 2025 (17 Cheshvan)

Vayera (And appeared): Genesis 18:1-22:24

All the covenant purposes of God, not only for Israel, but for the entire world, hung in the balance when Abraham raised his knife above his son of promise, bound onto the crude altar on Mount Moriah. The faith of Abraham was tested and was victorious. The victory that was later manifest in Yeshua was enabled, so that the victory of faith for all who would believe in Him would be the granting of eternal life. Such is the magnificence of what we read in our Bible study this week.

Abraham needed to grow in faith on his long journey through life. It was his willingness to learn such faith that commended him to God. There were failures along the way, but redeemed failures are learning points. Fear of Abimelech led him to hide the truth that Sarah was his wife, even when he had been promised so much by God. This is an indicator that he was then not yet ready to trust God in the most challenging matters of life and death, which were soon to be tested on Mount Moriah. Just like us, through many trials, we must be willing to learn on the journey of life. Abraham grew more strongly in faith, so that in his human weakness, he could stand strong in faith at the appointed time.

Abraham had been told that he was to be the father of many nations, so he cared enough to pray for the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had enough faith to bargain with God but not enough understanding of sin and its consequences. Yet his intercessions did enable the escape of Lot and his family from the impending judgment. We learn much from this concerning our own prayers for the world today, as our Covenant Father continues, without compromise, to build up the family of Abraham. Just as at the time of the judgment of Sodom, God sees a darkness over the world that we do not.

The Prophet Isaiah spoke of such darkness covering the world, but that a great light would come to Israel:

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.

The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Searching the Scriptures reveals that Yeshua HaMashiach is that light, so clearly understood by His disciple John:

In Him (Yeshua) was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5)

Yet Yeshua Himself warned that for those who do not believe, it will be worse for them than for Sodom. When He sent out 70 disciples to teach about His fulfilment of the Covenant purposes of God, He said:

 Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’  But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.  (Luke 10:8-12)

When the light of the sun shines over the earth each day, we can easily forget the spiritual darkness in which all mankind can live. Our focus on the physical world alone can blind us from the darkness of sin that God sees more clearly. This leads to the same level of understanding that Abraham had and limits our clarity for intercessory prayer. Abraham needed to learn such lessons before the ultimate test of his faith, where his entire trust was put in God for not only his son but for the multitude that he was promised as his heirs, from all nations. This was a significant and unrepeatable moment of history.

But for our Bible record, this could have been lost in history. Indeed, did not people offer human sacrifice to their gods in Abraham’s day – what was unusual? Anyway, who witnessed this moment on Mount Moriah other than Abraham, his son and the invisible God?

When Abraham raised his knife, it was not a sacrifice in the manner of others. That was just the outward manifestation. The inward reality was that Abraham gave back his son to God, and God looked as much on his heart as he did on the raised knife. How measured Abraham had to be in his act of obedience. Any rash movement would have pre-empted God’s intervention:

 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. (Genesis 22:12-13)

All the symbolism is here for us to understand that in saving Isaac, through the substitute of a ram, God planned an even greater work for the salvation of all who would be heirs to the covenant promise given to Abraham. It is one of those points of Bible teaching where we understand the  how much more of God. If Abraham would not spare his only son, how much more will God not spare His only Son?

Around 2000 years later, just as Abraham had gone to Mount Moriah with his son, where an altar of sacrifice was erected, so God the Father was with His Son Yeshua. He was taken as sacrifice for the sins of all who would come by faith and join the family of Abraham and Isaac. The Gospel accounts help us to understand, through prayerful study, that Yeshua was in the place of Isaac as a sacrifice. He is the fulfilment of the ram in the thicket, which Abraham used as a substitute for Isaac.

We must not simply leave this as a logical exercise for comparison across the Scriptures. Isaac was allowed to live and bear children who, generation by generation, built up the physical family of Abraham. Not only did they live on this earth, but all the pain that their sins would bring to God was also released over many generations. We must not forget the judgement of Sodom as we appraise the depth of painful sacrifice that was put on Yeshua’s shoulders.

He warned that in every generation, especially concerning the time of His return:

 … as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30)

Even Jerusalem, without faith, can be likened to Sodom. Speaking of the death of two witnesses in Jerusalem in the end times, the Apostle John wrote prophetically:

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

Ezekiel too (Chapter 16) did not compromise his prophetic word at a time when Jerusalem was likened to Sodom.

Just as God did not compromise with the sins of Sodom, so He will not compromise with the sins of even of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were given life when the ram in the thicket was substituted for Isaac. Yet deep in the heart of God is forgiveness for all who can live by faith. It was an immense moment of history when Isaac was spared. It was infinitely more immense when God did not spare His own Son, in prophetic fulfilment on Mount Moriah. The faith of Abraham is now to be through belief that Yeshua has saved us from our sins, and from the spiritual darkness of this world, for all eternity.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Lech Lecha (Go forth): Genesis 12:1-17:27

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.

1^st 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 wassufficient 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 inIsaiah 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, andHe 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 prefiguredHis 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.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Noach (Noah): Genesis 6:9-11:32

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).

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.

25th October 2025 ( 3 Cheshvan)

Noach (Noah): Genesis 6:9-11:32

Ancient man is often depicted as primitive and ignorant, not much different from animals that scavenge for food. This does not conform to the message of the Bible. Before the Flood, men and women lived long lives. They were closer to Creation than we are, stronger and healthier. Adam, the first man, was surely a wonderful result of God’s creativity, not a weak physical failure.

Nevertheless, we can only conjecture on what the pre-flood world was like. Over more than a thousand years, mankind had multiplied. Potentially, their world could have been quite sophisticated, in many ways perhaps comparable to ours. The one thing we do know, however, is that the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:6)

This is where we pick up the account from last week’s study. God declared, I destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. (Genesis 6:7)

Yet there was one man, Noah who, like Enoch before him, had learned to walk with God. The pre-flood world was washed away, except for this one man, his family and representatives of every kind of animal and bird, who would bring a new beginning to populate the earth once more.

What happened has not since been repeated and never will be repeated. A mighty flood arose, as water poured from the skies and welled up from the earth. The world that we now live in results from the surging floodwater, moving earth, sand and rock, throwing up new hills and mountains and beginning to resettle after about a year. We can only imagine the world before Noah and his family entered the Ark. The clues to the devastating Flood are in the solidified sediments and rock layers, with their fossils found in our world today. However we interpret these rocks, it is important to know that the depth of sin in the ancient world brought a tremendous judgement from God.

After the Flood, God made a Covenant with Noah that this would never happen again. This is the beginning of God opening His heart to mankind, that even if the wickedness of the pre-flood world arose again among mankind, it would not be dealt with in this way.

As the Torah studies progress week by week we will find other aspects of God’s covenant purposes, and they all point one way. They point to a different response from God to the sin of mankind. As sorry as God was that He had made mankind, it is surely true that, when He covenanted with Noah, He knew what pain lay ahead. He knew that sin and wickedness was not washed away by the water of the Flood. We only need to go a short distance into the future with Noah himself to find that his son Ham did something very wrong in the tent of his father (Genesis 9:22,24). Then in the genealogy of nations descended from Noah and his sons, described in our reading,  arose much evil leading up to Babel.

So the world went on until today when wars continue to rage, jealousies and evil between members of Noah’s descendants multiply bringing lust and greed and all kinds of evil, so that we can ask whether the modern world is any different from the pre-flood world. Indeed, Yeshua Himself said, speaking about the days preceding His return,

And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26-27)

Just as there were surging waves at the Flood so the emotions of God must have surged for His people. His remedy was not another such devastation, but the sacrifice of His own Son Yeshua HaMashiach, as we read in the Gospel accounts. The height of Yeshua’s sacrificial death is an atonement for the sin of all who will believe and like Enoch and Noah desire to walk with their Creator God. This must be measured against the Flood devastation of the ancient world.

The days of Noah are comparable with every generation of mankind. Noah himself, like others such as Abraham after him are forerunners of Messiah. Noah’s name means rest. It was said of him Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah,  saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed”. (Genesis 5:28-29) Through one man, Noah, a new beginning came for the earth and all that was in it. This pointed prophetically to the future, when a new beginning for all who find faith in Yeshua would find a new beginning for their eternal life.

The Hymn writer, William Rees, drawing inspiration from Psalm 85, at the time of the famous 1904 Welsh revival had it right:

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood;
When the Prince of Life, my ransom,
Shed for me his precious blood.
Who his love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing his praise?
He shall never be forgotten,
Through Heav’n’s everlasting days

On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide,
Through the flood-gates of God’s mercy,
Flowed the vast and gracious tide;
Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above,
And God’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org

Bereshit (In the beginning): Genesis 1:1-6:8

Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 (5786).

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.

18 October 2025 ( 26 Tishrei)

Bereshit (In the beginning): Genesis 1:1-6:8

In just over five chapters, this week’s Bible reading takes us from the beginning of Creation to the Great Flood. According to the years given concerning the lives of the patriarchs from Adam to Methuselah, this can be calculated as the first 1656 years of mankind on the earth. During those years mankind descended from the wonderful fellowship with God to the depth of depravity of a world now washed away, which caused God to say, I am sorry that I have made them (Genesis 6:7).

No-one, except Adam and Eve has experienced life in the Garden of Eden. No-one since the Great Flood except, as we shall see, Noah and his family, witnessed the depravity to which mankind fell. Yet in a few short chapters, we have sufficient to understand the nature and need of all men and women.

Year by year we can review the first chapter of Genesis, look at the created universe around us, still speaking to us (Psalm 19) of our Creator, and learn new things. The magnificent created order was an expression of the nature and heart of God and came about through the strength of His spoken Word. How sad that the nature of created mankind, with the ability to either trust and obey God or to disobey Him, inevitably led to separation from their Creator. Since then, there have been people like us who long to be redeemed to that blissful existence of Eden, but without the ability in ourselves to find a way back. Indeed, the sin that heaped on sin over a few hundred years echoes our own inability to resist the snake-like power that tempted Adam and Eve, or the natural tendency to go one’s own way, away from a close relationship with our Creator.

Truly, Torah is a mirror to our own nature and the problem of mankind is expressed in the very first chapters of the Bible.

Nevertheless, right at the beginning, we find hints at a way back by studying these chapters. Abel’s offering to God of the firstborn of his flock was accepted, while Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground was not accepted. Here is our first clue to finding our way back to fellowship with God, which will be a subject of many future chapters of Torah. Cain gave of the work of his hands. Abel gave a life back to God in the form of a lamb. God looked on the heart of both of the brothers, just as He had looked on the hearts of Adam and Eve when they sinned. We see the first indications of sin being  a matter of the heart and the power of sin being a matter of life and death, but God planned a way back. Another hint that there is a way back to fellowship with God comes through the life of Enoch who walked with God. Chapter 5:22-24 is a brief description of a man who achieved what many of us would like to achieve, restoring the close relationship with God. That which was once lost can surely be regained.

It is with hindsight that we, in later generations, are able to build up a more detailed picture through all Scripture. Expectation grew to fulfilment, anticipating the one who would be the Redeemer of His people. The themes of Genesis develop and the thread of truth weaves its way consistently through all Scripture. It is sometimes more plainly stated, such as in Isaiah 9 – the promise of a child being born to the Nation of Israel who would become Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace – or in Isaiah 53, where the Saviour of mankind is likened to a sacrificial lamb, bearing our sins for us. No wonder it was important for us to be taught, right at the beginning of time, that redemption to fellowship with God is likened to the sacrifice of a lamb, such as Abel made. Yet, we now understand that the lamb points to a human being – one who was to be born and die for us.

So in these first few chapters of Genesis we discover the nature of fallen mankind and our need of redemption. The hints are there to be fulfilled in the coming years of the One who would be our redeemer.

John the Apostle walked with Yeshua during His earthly ministry and was able to realise, after Yeshua’s sacrificial death, that this was the one to whom the Scriptures pointed, confirming also what Yeshua taught to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. But Yeshua was not just any man. John realised that the one whom God sent to be our sacrifice and our redeemer existed as part of God Himself before creation. God surely looked ahead to the time when He would come in the form of a man, and that man is Yeshua HaMashiach.

John put it this way, blending the imagery of created light with the spiritual light that was in Yeshua even before He was manifested as a man:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)

That Yeshua the Son of God was also Son of Man is shown in the genealogy given by Luke, in Chapter 3 of his Gospel account, which is traced right back to Creation down to Seth and his father Adam. Each of the patriarchs in Luke’s list, including the genealogy given in Genesis 5, were chosen by God who foresaw the day when Yeshua would be born as a man, conceived of the Holy Spirit to be both God and man.

Did Yeshua have Enoch in mind as one who learned to walk with God in close relationship, when He prayed for us all before His sacrificial death?

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:1-4)

The fulfilment that is Yeshua, begins in our Torah portion this week and continues throughout all Scripture. We must have eyes to see and ears to hear, reading our Bible with expectation.

Dr Clifford Denton

Founder and Director

Tishrei Bible School

www.tishrei.org