Reader asks about the “lights” in Genesis 1

READER QUESTION:
Shalom friend! I was just pondering something and wanted your thoughts if you don’t mind. We have been studying as a family since our synagogue closed over a year ago. So we have been studying Genesis (started from chapter 1 vs 1) and we are only on chapter 48 of genesis! Slow and steady! But I am just reviewing some stuff. In the creation account in vs 3 of chapter 1 Elohym created light....but then in vs 14 He created sun and moon to separate light from darkness....sooooo was the initial light His holiness...Yeshua, etc?
OUR RESPONSE:

EXCELLENT question, and here is your answer: No, it wasn’t YHWH’s Light or Yeshua, as Yeshua already existed. This was strictly referring to His Creation. First we’re told He spoke light into being and then divided it from the darkness. (Please read my notes posted directly into the scriptures.)
Gen 1:2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. [Note that the earth was unformed and in darkness.] 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. [Here, physical light was spoken into being.] 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. [Here, He starts forming matter - the stars and the planets - galaxies, etc. The stars would produce light while the planets would receive that light, thus taking them out of darkness.]
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day. 6 God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the water; let it divide the water from the water." [After YHWH made light and separated it from darkness, He then began to form the earth.] 7 God made the dome and divided the water under the dome from the water above the dome; that is how it was.
[Then He made the “lights” to divide DAY and NIGHT and to reveal seasons. It was a progressive creation as, after He made light to divide the darkness, He then placed the sun, moon stars and planets and gave earth a way to tell “day” from “night” as we know it, and to let these “lights” (sun, moon, stars) help us discern seasons. In the next verses (8-13), we read of the earth finally taking shape to sustain the life YHWH would create.]
1:14 God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth"; and that is how it was. [Note that vs 14-15 explain what the lights are for, not that this was their creation moment!] 16 God made the two great lights - the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night - and the stars. [Note that the word "made" here in English is not a proper translation of the Hebrew "vai'ya'as" which more appropriately means "appointed" - YHWH appointed the two great lights (the sun and moon) and the stars into their roles for "signs, seasons, days and years".]
17 God put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.  (CJB)
A word about interpreting Genesis: The book was never intended to be a "blow-by-blow", accurate description of the creation! It is intended as a very brief intro to how the universe came to be, where humans came from, how humans quickly fell from grace; and to reveal who is YHWH so we could return to Him. So, please don't get hung-up looking for a perfect explanation of Genesis! Hope this helps!

Reader asks: What is the difference between His charge, His commandments, His statues, and His Laws?

READER QUESTION:
Hello team - Thanks for all the work that you do!!!  Quick question.  Genesis 26:5 states:
King James Bible: Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Since coming into the understanding that Torah is the critical foundation of our faith in the completed work of Yeshua, we have been doing daily bible study as a family which has been fantastic!!  We have started in Genesis.  Of course! LOL!  Our question is simply this, what is the difference between His charge, His commandments, His statues, and His Laws?  We thought that was an interesting distinction and we were curious to hear your thoughts.  Thanks and Yah bless!!
OUR RESPONSE:
That is a GREAT question!  Genesis 26:5 contains 10 words, 9 really, since two of them go together as a pronoun-verb.  They are:
1.  E’kev,   “as as result”, ”because”
2/3.  A’sher-she’ma,  “he heard & obeyed”
4.   Av’raham, "Abraham" (of course)
5.  be’ko’li,   “[my] voice/proclamation”
6.  vay’yish’mar,  [and] “took in regard”, “kept”, “observed”, “obeyed”
7.  mish’mar’ti,  [and] “watched”, “watched over”
8.  mitz’votai,  [my] “appointed” [times]
9.  chuk’ko’tai,  [and my] “commands”, “ordinances”
10.  v’Torah’tai, [of my] “Torah”.
Therefore a literal translation is:
“Because Abraham heard and obeyed my voice and kept watch over [the] appointed (times), [and the] ordinances [of my] Torah…”
Compared to the KJV you quoted:
“Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws…”
(We had to insert articles and punctuation as the Hebrew had no punctuation and few articles!)
We see that in the better translation from the Hebrew: Abraham “obeyed and kept watch” over only one thing: the “appointed times and commandments/ordinances of Torah”, and not four things as the KJV reads: [he kept] “my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws”.
“Appointed times” are the designated times during which certain commandments/ordinances would be carried out.  These are the weekly Sabbath, Passover, First Fruits, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Succoth.
“Commandments/Ordinances” are those commandments/regulations/rules that are “absolute”, that is they are to “simply be” – no discussion, but they may apply to all, or could only apply to men, or only to women, or only to the Levite priest.  For example, “You shall have no other gods before me”, (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7).  This is something you could not deviate from and it applied to all.  It does not require anything on your part!  Simply have no other gods!  Period. 
Another example: “Order the people of Isra'el to bring you pure oil from crushed olives for the light, to keep lamps burning always. Outside the curtain of the testimony in the tent of meeting, Aharon is to arrange for the light to be kept burning always from evening until morning before Adonai ; this is to be a permanent regulation through all your generations.”, (Leviticus 24:2-3). This applies to all the people who were to bring oil to the Tabernacle/Temple, but also only to the Priest, who was to keep the light burning, the people were not responsible for that part.
And “Torah”, of course, is the whole thing, all the commands and ordinances – it includes the Appointed times, and the commandments for behavior and righteous living.
Our Yeshua, of course, changed nothing!  All of Torah which still applies to us, remains to this day! Otherwise there was no point in Him saying "If you love me, you will keep my commands", (John 14:15).  Torah remains the "righteous way of life so we can always be 'clean and presentable' before Him"!
So the "distinction" you sought to understand in the words "His charge, His commandments, His statues, and His Laws" is not really the question because that phrase is not in the original Hebrew!  In Hebrew, Abraham was considered righteous because he heard and obeyed YHWH's Torah!  That's all. Even though Torah had not yet been written down, Abraham understood the meaning of the Hebrew word "sh'ma", which in English is most often simply translated as "hear" when in actuality it means "hear and do"! 

A message for the women’s group protesting Trump’s inauguration for their “right” to kill fetuses….

A large group of "women's rights activists" plans on protesting Trump's inauguration today. Their agenda is to advocate the idea that "it's my body and I don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do with it." Fine and dandy. But just remember this the next time your body is in the process of creating a baby:

Some Bible verses revealing that YHWH (God) created the babies in our wombs.  They reveal that NO ONE has a right to snuff out the life of their babies!

Exodus 23:7 Keep away from fraud, and do not cause the death of the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.


Isaiah 44: 1 "Now listen, Ya'akov my servant, Isra'el whom I have chosen: 2 Thus says ADONAI, who made you, formed you in the womb, and will help you: Don't be afraid, Ya'akov my servant, Yeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Ephesians 2: 10 For we are of God's making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I separated you for myself...

Psalm 127:3 Children too are a gift from ADONAI; the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Psalm 139: 13 For you fashioned my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; your works are wonders -I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed. 17 God, how I prize your thoughts!  

Constantly learn and grow, but read Scripture for yourself so you can KNOW what it says!

 

My husband and I are so blessed in that we had good grounding for the first eight years of our Torah life. We had a rabbi who taught his congregation the basics of Torah without any silly, extra-biblical nonsense or the pushing of weird spellings of “the Sacred Names.” He would always apply the respective weekly Torah and Haftara (writings and prophets) portions to the Brit Chadasha (NT) readings, which always had the congregation spellbound and in a constant learning mode. In short, he was absolutely awesome!

One of his favorite sayings was, “We don’t have to keep Torah, we GET to keep Torah!” Well, that always kind of bothered me because, according to scriptures such as Numbers 15:13-16, anyone who accepts יהוה as their God, MUST become Torah observant! It’s not an option. Same ELOHIM, same rules…. (Torah consists of His divine instructions in righteousness, so why would there be different rules for His “natural” and “adopted” children?)

Anyway, neither Bill nor I ever challenged him on this; we just quietly disagreed. But then we ultimately ended up with a new “check in our Spirit” the day we asked the rabbi what we should do about eating pork (the main staple of Europe), as we were getting ready to take a trip to Germany when Abba caused me to find my natural father’s side of the family. Rather than to tell us that pork is “unclean” no matter where you go, our rabbi pointed us to one of Paul’s much-misunderstood writings, and said, “It says right here, you should eat anything that’s put in front of you.” (1 Corinthians 10:27)

So, we went to Germany and ate whatever my "new" relatives put in front of us. Somehow, in our gut, we KNEW it was wrong, but our rabbi had SAID it was okay to eat pork, and so we ate….

It wasn't until a couple years later (10 years into our Torah walk!) after Bill and I had grown in our faith (we left that particular synagogue after 8 years), that we realized our rabbi had been dead wrong in his interpretation of Paul, and that "unclean" remains "unclean" no matter what part of the world you're in. And so we immediately repented for having eaten pork in Germany, and decided to become VERY conscientious about our studies, and our future selection of teachers.

The lesson I’m trying to highlight is: By all means, follow GOOD teachers, because we ALL need guidance. But be very careful to never blindly believe anybody or anything you see, read or hear, because it just MIGHT be wrong! Constantly continue learning and growing, but READ Scripture for yourself (with the help of the Ruach) so you can know what it says and doesn’t say. If you don’t, then you’ll surely end up learning false doctrine and following some lunatic with an “ear tickling message” into the pits of hell.

Another note for the Jewish counter-missionaries

 

G-d promised us a Messiah who would save the world, and He made good on that promise (Jeremiah 31:30-33 and Hebrews 8:8-13). Although some counter-missionary rabbis along with their puppets (former Christian-former Hebrew Roots convert podcast hosts), have done their level best to poke fun at the idea that Yeshua has fulfilled more than 300 Tanach prophecies, it doesn’t change the TRUTH! What Y’shua did CANNOT be disputed, no matter how much the counter-missionaries laugh and joke about it!

According to mathematician and professor Peter Stoner, the probability of even 48 of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person is the incredible number 10^157 power. The probability of 300+ being fulfilled by just one man cannot even be determined! Furthermore – whether anyone chooses to “believe” it or not – Y’shua has so far fulfilled the first four of the seven Biblical feasts, with only three more to go!

Believe it, or not.

A word to the men who cannot stand women teachers

Every once awhile, we receive an email from men who hate the idea that there is a woman teacher at our website, The Refiner’s Fire. Well, I have a pat response to guys like that, and it goes something like this:

Thanks for writing. I'm sorry that the idea of women teaching YHWH/Yeshua/Torah via a website has you so incensed. Perhaps women are out there teaching today because men don't exactly have a stellar record when it comes to YHWH/Yeshua/Torah! Male leaders and teachers and priests and pastors and rabbis have been disobeying our Creator since the beginning of time. Why aren't you angry about that?

Why aren’t you angry at Adam, who certainly knew God and what He expected from His Creation (otherwise he and Eve wouldn’t have tried to hide themselves from Him after they sinned! - Genesis 3:7-9), yet he ate the fruit Eve offered him, anyway! Adam (not Eve, because she hadn’t yet been created at that time!) had SPECIFIC instructions to NOT eat the fruit from that particular tree (Genesis 2:16-17)….

Men have done a terrible job of running the world! Check your history books and let me know about a time when there wasn't a war or conflict somewhere...a time when all the peoples of the world were Torah observant believers in YHWH and His Divine Messiah conducting their lives according to HIS Rules.

Take a look around and ask yourself: "Is all REALLY well with the world?" Is it normal for an entire country to leave the Middle East and flee to Europe to escape a crazy leader who KILLS everyone who doesn’t agree with him? Is it a good thing that the dictator of North Korea keeps his people mentally crippled in a “19th century” mindset and has them clap and cry on command when they see him? Is it good that this same dictator is constantly “rattling his saber” and trying to get the world to notice him as a nuclear super-power … especially when the world hasn’t done anything to provoke him?

Are men everywhere getting along? Have men let go of RELIGION and begun to look to the ONLY Creator there is? How many Torah observant believers in YHWH and His Divine Messiah are out there, leading countries, states, cities and towns today? Anybody? Anywhere? Even Israel has strayed in ways too numerous to count! The Holy Land contains THREE "major religions" along with atheists and assorted nut jobs, and it adheres to basically a "world's view" about things God considers to be ABOMINATIONS....

So, let's talk about women teachers:
 
If a woman can be a disciple like Junia or Tabitha/Dorcas; a deacon like Phoebe; evangelists like Euodia and Syntyche; or a judge over all Israel like Deborah (Judges 4:4, 5), why can't she be a "teacher of men?"

Furthermore, ask yourself whether the following women weren't being used by God:

Miriam who was Prophetess and sister to Moshe (Genesis 24:15, 19), the Daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11); Ruth (Ruth 1:1-4:22); Huldah (2 Kings 22:3-20); Esther (saved the Jewish nation, Esther 4:1); Prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36-38); Phoebe (Romans 16:1); and Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9)…
.
YHWH uses whomever is on His path to get HIS TRUTH out to the world! He even included Moshe's and Aharon's sister, Miryam in his list of "leaders"!

Micah 6:1 So listen now to what ADONAI says: "Stand up and state your case to the mountains, let the hills hear what you have to say." 2 Listen, mountains, to ADONAI's case; also you enduring rocks that support the earth! ADONAI has a case against his people; he wants to argue it out with Isra'el: 3 "My people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 I brought you up from the land of Egypt. I redeemed you from a life of slavery. I sent Moshe, Aharon and Miryam to lead you.

Who was YHWH talking to at the time? Only the men? No! He was talking to HIS people! Women are people, too! We can see that YHWH gave blessings and commands to both "male and female" right from the beginning. Don’t take my word for it; read the following scriptures:

Genesis 1:27 And Elohim created the man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him – male and female He created them. 28 And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said to them, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over all creatures moving on the earth.” (ISR)

Exodus 15:20 And Miryam the prophetess, the sister of Aharon, took the timbrel in her hand. And all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miryam answered them, "Sing to YHWH, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!" (CJB)

Moshe gives the daughters of a dead tribe leader the land that was to be inherited in Israel:

Numbers 27:7 "The daughters of Tselophhad speak what is right. You should certainly give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. 8 "And speak to the children of Yisra’el, saying, 'When a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. 9 'And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.' (CJB)

There are 55 prophets in Scripture; 7 of them are women! YHWH never excluded women as teachers, so why would you?

I hope and pray that something you’ve read here will help you to overcome your hatred of women teachers and open your eyes to YHWH’s Truth and HIS will for both men AND women of the world. He uses whomever HE chooses….

Psalm 68:11 Adonai gives the command; the women with the good news are a mighty army.

12 Kings and their armies are fleeing, fleeing, while the women at home divide the spoil.(CJB)

Let’s talk for a moment about that “under a curse” thing

 

Galatians 3: 10. For those who are servants of Torah are still under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not act[1] on all that is written in this book of Torah.” 11. But that no man is made righteous by Torah before Elohim is evident, for it is written, “the righteous will live by faith”.[2]

12. Thus Torah is not made by faith, but whosoever will do the things that are written in it, will live in it.[3] 13. But Mashiyach has redeemed us from the “curse of Torah,”[4] by becoming accursed[5] for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.[6] 14. That the blessing of Awraham might come to the Gentiles through Y’shua the Mashiyach; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (AENT)

Footnotes:

[1] D’varim/Deut. 27:26

[2] Habakkuk 2:4

[3] Leviticus 18:5

[4] There are 12 specific curses mentioned in Deut. 27:15-26; however, one can also apply this to the entire Torah simply because if anyone knowingly or unknowingly sins but does not seek forgiveness and restitution, they are under a curse, certainly not a blessing. There is a “Y” in the road of every choice we make; one road leads to blessing, the other to a curse.

[5] Y’shua was “accursed” by his accusers, but Christians teach that YHWH and Torah accused Y’shua. However, Y’shua was the Perfect Lamb. He never broke Torah; therefore, could never come under any curse of Torah. We come under the curse when we sin and refuse to turn to YHWH!

[6] See Deuteronomy 21:22-23. Y’shua committed no capital crime. Pharisees were warning Jews off Y’shua by saying that he had become a curse because he hung on the torture stake. The Pharisees tried to vilify Y’shua before the Jewish people. Paul is repeating this accusation of the Pharisees for the benefit of “Messianic Pharisees” (see Tosefta Sanhedrin IX.7).

“Messianic Pharisees” (Galatians 2:4) were likely weary of being shunned by their people (see Matthew 10:39) and wanted back into the synagogues, so they were posturing themselves as Ebionites (see footnote Titus 3:9). Today “Messianic Pharisees” or Ebionites, attend Orthodox synagogues and are enamored with traditional Rabbinical Judaism; they believe Y’shua is Mashiyach, but not the Arm of YHWH or YHWH Tsidkenu revealed. Paul is using the strongest words possible to affirm the Truth by reminding certain Galatians that they are trying to dilute the Netzarim Faith with traditional Pharisaism.

In 2,000 years little has changed; many Orthodox Rabbis still call Y’shua a bastard and a curse of the Jewish people because he “hung on the stake.” Some Rabbis will even provide a mock funeral for Jews who follow Y’shua, and teach that the family member is as though they never existed; so if one can understand the duress that certain “Messianic Pharisees” were under, then one can understand why Paul chose such severity of words!