This week we are back with our series “Footsteps of Messiah” and we cover some family parables and the power of Dinah as well as touch on our continuing study in the Song of Songs.
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This week’s teaching is a free excerpt from Esther’s Mysteries Behind the Mask.
The excerpt is Chapter Five, which gives a brief overview of the sister relationships that figure heavily in Torah prophecy, and even in the Song of Songs, where the Groom and His beloved have a “brother-sister” relationship. It is not creepy, but a parable to help the reader understand the “one flesh” aspect of humanity, who all descended from Adam. Adam points this out when he sees Eve (Chavah) for the first time and exclaims, “Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.” Likewise, Messiah Yeshua’s Bride is part of his human flesh, a key component of understanding the Gospel. Because his flesh is their flesh, his “sister,” they too can be resurrected with him.
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We’ve taken a break from the Footsteps of Messiah series while I present some principles of leadership from last week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah.
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One of the most distressing…if not THE most distressing thing…about learning Torah within a community is that it too frequently leads to learning Torah outside a community. In our livestream on Shabbat, I plan to present a simple overview of leadership principles that may help you whether you are a congregational leader, home fellowship leader, family leader, or just want to learn how to be a good follower.
Those community principles are often challenged because we don’t have good study tools in our toolbox, and without them, we can adopt all kinds of variations of understanding and practice from a single commandment. Those variations become divisive when it affects what the community can observe together.
In this week’s newsletter, I’d like to pass on to you what I spent lots of time and money learning in college. No charge! It can be of tremendous help when navigating through divergent understandings of Scripture. If we understand the difference between meaning and significance, it could squash a lot of arguments over what a Scripture means, especially when we look as smug as our friend up there when we’re convinced we found THE explanation instead of ONE explanation.
For instance, over the last couple of years, we’ve been studying the Song of Songs. It is a parable, poetry, song, commentary, elucidation of Torah, and prophecy, so it is rich in symbolism, and we’ve enjoyed deriving lots of interpretations of each verse’s significance based on passages with similar context and even Hebrew wordplay. When one encounters Biblical symbolism, it is important to remember:
When parsing a passage of Scripture, the application of wordplay should not derive a new meaning even though a new significance is expected.
Let’s review these two principles of hermeneutics and the definition of hermeneutics.
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“A canopy (apiron) has King Solomon made for Him, from the wood of Lebanon. Its pillars he made of silver; its covering was gold, its seat was purple wool, its inner side was decked with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.” (So 3:9-10)
This week, we continue from last week’s lesson on the chariot of King Solomon. If you didn’t have a chance to read it or print it, click here. We’ll weave in a couple of themes from this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, particularly the second time Avraham calls Sarah his sister and the binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah.
Vayera “and appeared”
Genesis 18:1-22:24
2 Kings 4:1-37
