Through the Strainer (IV)

How important today is the “faith of our father Abraham” (Romans 4:16)? Does his faith mean anything to us? Does it have any relevance? Do we even consider that when the scriptures tell us that we have the same faith, i.e. Abraham’s, it is because we are of his progeny/seed, through Sarah’s miracle son Isaac (Romans 9:8b-9)? “But the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: ‘At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son’” (Romans 9:8b-9).  There is another term that is attached to the Abrahamic faith and that is “hope”. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 emphases added). YHVH sealed a covenant with our forefather because Abraham’s “belief” was based on this hope, which is a confident assurances that Elohim would carry out what He had promised.

We, as human beings, have the capability to “believe”, which means that we are able to believe anything, even lies, and be convinced that it is truth. This kind of “belief”, however, is not “the faith” of Abraham. For example, many non-Jewish believers profess that they are like Ruth, which means that they compare their attachment to Israel or to the Jewish people to Ruth’s choice to follow Naomi and her Elohim. But, even though it is a heart-warming analogy, it is not corroborated by scripture.  When it comes to the New Covenant books, Ruth is mentioned only once, and that is in the genealogy of Yeshua (see Matthew 1:5). With this analogy inbred into the common doctrines, the believer is convinced that he or she cannot be an Israelite, and thus is blinded to the truth.  There is another doctrine espoused to the solving (or to the dissolving) of the non-Jewish/Israelite identity, and that is to believe that the natural forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are one’s spiritual fathers. Such a viewpoint distorts the word of Elohim concerning those fathers, making Elohim one who does not keep His word, His promises, or His covenants to all the natural descendants.  What is worse, it makes the book of Genesis not as relevant for the non-Jews, and the rest of the scriptures anemic.

There is something even more tragic, and that is that we miss seeing Yeshua the Living Word of the Heavenly Father actively involved in the history of His people, faithfully watching over and guarding every dot and tittle of His Father’s assignment. Do we really know Him - Yeshua - not just from His first appearing in the flesh of man, but also as the Word in the Beginning?  “For by Him [Yeshua the Word] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).  Again, do we see Yeshua in the Creation, both visible and invisible? “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things (in the natural) that are made, even His eternal power and divinity; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).  We are told to mind the things of the spirit (see Romans 8:5-6) so that we can understand correctly the created things. When we read the book of Genesis do we see the unseen realities of Him who is the Word, the “same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)?

His divine power gave Sarah something that her old body could not produce.  She was given a “christed” (spiritually anointed) egg; a supernatural miracle on the female side of Man.  In one sense “the Word became flesh” in a tiny egg fertilized by an adamic man, who had the faith/hope that His Elohim could do and accomplish what He had spoken and promised. But this was only the beginning of the destiny of this zera/seed/zygote called “Isaac”.  YHVH, by the power of His word, was calling into being “a father of many nations” [Goyim] I have made you’, in the presence of Him whom he believed, Elohim, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.  In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘so shall your seed be’” (Romans 4:17-18 emphasis added).  Actually, the SPIRITUAL connection to the forefathers is what YHVH provided in Sarah’s womb.

Abraham’s faith/hope in the seed that YHVH was going to bring forth by his son Isaac, in the womb of Rebecca, was made manifest in him whom we know as Jacob. His seed would carry the life of “the Word” into the future progeny.  Jacob’s anointed life and the faith that can believe life from the dead, was to become real in a multitude of people, only after the Father raised Yeshua from the grave.  From Sarah’s womb until Yeshua’s resurrection the faith remained hidden in the life of the scattered tribes of Israel. “But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed” (Galatians 3:23). “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17).  By this very faith of Abraham our father, we are in Messiah, and because we are in Him we are heirs according to the promise (see Galatians 3:29). We are the evidence of that which was not seen.  Oh the faithfulness of the Elohim of Abraham!

“The counsel of YHVH stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is YHVH, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance” (Psalm 33:11-12). “For YHVHs portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9).