The Prologue

Invasion of Privacy
Conversation with a Stranger
The inspiration that brought about the
writing of this book is the result of my love
for Hebraic roots teaching since I was
introduced to it about four years ago by my
wonder friend and pastor, Joe Amaral of
Canada.
While the bible was written for us, it was
never written directly to us but to particular
people and culture primarily known as the
Jewish people.
Even though the Reformation gave rise to
evangelicals and sound biblical teaching; its
major challenge became the influence of
western culture on the interpretations of the
Bible. Today, when seminaries and bible
colleges teach the Bible, it is taught from a
western perspective. This has always often
led to interpretational doctrinal errors.
The more I look deeper into Hebraic root
teaching or backstage as Pastor Joe calls it; I
am taken aback by how much is lost to us
because of our limited understanding from a
limited English language translation. When
the full meaning and interpretation of
Scripture is lost, its power to transform lives
becomes ineffective.
The goal of this book is not meant to
condemn any preacher or teacher of the
Bible but that it will encourage us to return
to more Hebraic root studies of the
Scripture.
Having said, I strongly believe that every
pastor needs a Rabbi if not Rabbis if he must
become effective in dividing the word of
truth.
Some of the resources for this book are
taken from what I call My Rabbi’s Archives.
These are notes and inspirations taken from
Rabbis’ teachings from the Jewish Scripture.
My two most prominent are Rabbi Manis
Friedman and Rabbi Daniel Lapin. I have
signed into their resource pages online,
follow their teachings and watch their
YouTube videos. The Rabbi that has gotten
hold of me the most through his teachings is
Rabbi Manis Friedman. In fact, when I was
thinking about the writing of this book, I
wrote him to inform him that as a teacher, I
would like to share some of what I have
come to learn through his teaching from the
Torah.
Most of the materials that made this book
what it is were taken from my written notes
taken from watching Rabbi Manis
Friedman’s YouTube videos. While the
emphasis of the Rabbi’s teachings are on the
Old Testament Scriptures; a deeper
understanding of the Torah, the and the
Prophets only gives me a better perspective
to understanding and interpreting the New
Testament.
Sam-Abel Gbinsay
 The Introduction
John 4:1-42
1
Jesus[a] knew the Pharisees had heard that
he was baptizing and making more disciples
than John 2 (though Jesus himself didn’t
baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left
Judea and returned to Galilee.
4
He had to go through Samaria on the
way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan
village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was
there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk,
sat wearily beside the well about
noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came
to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please
give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time
because his disciples had gone into the
village to buy some food.
9
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse
to have anything to do with Samaritans. She
said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a
Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me
for a drink?”
10
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift
God has for you and who you are speaking
to, you would ask me, and I would give you
living water.”
11
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a
bucket,” she said, “and this well is very
deep. Where would you get this living
water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re
greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us
this well? How can you offer better water
than he and his sons and his animals
enjoyed?”
13
Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this
water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But
those who drink the water I give will never
be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh,
bubbling spring within them, giving them
eternal life.”
15
“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me
this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again,
and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
16
“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
17
“I don’t have a husband,” the woman
replied.

Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a

husband— 18 for you have had five
husbands, and you aren’t even married to the
man you’re living with now. You certainly
spoke the truth!”
19
“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a
prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews
insist that Jerusalem is the only place of
worship, while we Samaritans claim it is
here at Mount Gerizim,[c] where our
ancestors worshiped?”
21
Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman,
the time is coming when it will no longer
matter whether you worship the Father on
this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You
Samaritans know very little about the one
you worship, while we Jews know all about
him, for salvation comes through the
Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s
here now—when true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The
Father is looking for those who will worship
him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those
who worship him must worship in spirit and
in truth.”
25
The woman said, “I know the Messiah is
coming—the one who is called Christ.
When he comes, he will explain everything
to us.”
26
Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!”[d]
27
Just then his disciples came back. They
were shocked to find him talking to a
woman, but none of them had the nerve to
ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why
are you talking to her?” 28 The woman left
her water jar beside the well and ran back to
the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and
see a man who told me everything I ever
did! Could he possibly be the
Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming
from the village to see him.
31
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging
Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32
But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food
you know nothing about.”
33
“Did someone bring him food while we
were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
34
Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment
comes from doing the will of God, who sent
me, and from finishing his work. 35 You
know the saying, ‘Four months between
planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up
and look around. The fields are already
ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid
good wages, and the fruit they harvest is
people brought to eternal life. What joy
awaits both the planter and the harvester
alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants
and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent
you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others
had already done the work, and now you
will get to gather the harvest.”

Many Samaritans Believe

39
Many Samaritans from the village
believed in Jesus because the woman had
said, “He told me everything I ever
did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they
begged him to stay in their village. So he
stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many
more to hear his message and
believe. 42 Then they said to the woman,
“Now we believe, not just because of what
you told us, but because we have heard him
ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed
the Savior of the world.”

Jews and Samaritans’ Enmity

“The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse
to have anything to do with Samaritans. She
said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a
Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me
for a drink?” (v.9).
Why Jews refused to have anything to do
with Samaritans? (Though Jesus would
often use them in parables to rebuke
religious leaders of his days who hid behind
laws and traditions).
According to the accounts of 2 Kings 17:24-
41, Samaritans are considered foreigners or
half-bred Jews. Previously, Samaria was the
capital city of the Northern Kingdom of
Israel (10 tribes). However, after Assyria
captured Samaria, they exiled almost all its
inhabitants and brought in foreigners mostly
from Babylon to re-open the land.
These foreign deportees or settlers came
with the religion of their original homelands.
They served the very ‘graven images’ that
were detested by
God and his people and the very reason for
which he had brought judgement upon Israel
as his people.
Return of the Exile from
Babylon
Returning from Babylon to Judea,
Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and other leaders
refused offer from the Samaritans in
rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. Even
Ezra and Nehemiah, as Jews, had refused to
have anything to do with Samaritans and
opposed any Jew who would have anything
to do with Samaritans (Ezra 4:1-3; 8-).
Biblical historical tells us that strained
relations between Jews and Samaritans seem
to have reached its peak from the 5th to the
late 4th century BC.

Some students of Bible history traced the

origin of the hatred to the time of the
divided kingdoms of Judah (southern
kingdom) and Israel (northern kingdom). A
division that was only renewed and revived
at the time of the restoration of Second
Temple Israel.

While the Samaritans may have observed

the Law of the Pentateuch (The Torah) it
was their general attitude towards anything
Jewish that was mixed.

Here was the contrast between expectation

and reality. While the Samaritans may have
offered help to the returning exiles during
the rebuilding of the temple; they saw
themselves as the real descendants of Israel
(ancient Israel, that is) and the Jews who
returned to Jerusalem as the real intruders.
Returning from Jews exiles never accepted
the Samaritans and real Jews and inevitably
refuted their claim to of being true
descendants of ancient Israel. Now it will
only explain why the Samaritans would
eventually side with the enemies of
Nehemiah among the Jews of Judea (Neh.
4:7; 6:1-3) and even plotted with Babylonian
officials to stop the rebuilding (Ezr. 4:8).

Fueling this Ancient Dispute

1
The Pentateuch had been copied in
Palestine both in Palaeo-Hebrew script and
in Aramaic script as far back as early
biblical times.

However, the problem arose when the two

communities finally separated after John
Hyrcanus’ destruction of Samaria. It was the
Samaritans who chose the Palaeo-Hebrew
script, which had previously been in general
use in both Jerusalem and Samaria, as the
exclusive script for their Torah and they
have preserved it to this day. In reaction to
that, the Jerusalem rabbis had declared that
this script was not something sacred; but the
Samaritans would take the opposite decision
and laid it down absolutely that the Palaeo-
Hebrew script could be used only for holy
writ.

The Bible for the Samaritans

The whole Bible for the Samaritans,
contrary to the Jewish tradition, is the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the
Bible) which did not recognize the prophets,
the Hagiographa (Writings) nor any of the
other books of the Old Testament. They hold
the conviction that Moses was the one true
prophet and that they alone preserve the true
version of God’s word as revealed to him.
They believed that the Jewish version of the
Pentateuch was been altered by Ezra.

Drawn Daggers

It can be said that the rebuff from the

Exiles caused the relations between
Jews and Samaritans to have
degenerated into a full-blown
hostility.
At the time of Alexander, the Great’s
conquests, this hostility would take on a new
height when the Samaritans built a temple
on Mount Gerizim as a rival to the Temple
of Jerusalem. Since then, the hatred between
Jews and Samaritans a permanent and
established feature. Establishing their own
spiritual and religious tradition around
Mount Gerizim; it became the spiritual and
physical center of the Samaritan people.

Reconciliation or Rebellion
Historically, neither the dispute over the
Jerusalem Temple nor the day-to-day
dispute was the major cause of Jewish and
Samaritan hostility but John Hyrcanus’s
action in destroying the city of Samaria was
the final nail drailed into the coffin of this
racial and religious hostility. From that point
on; the hope or possibility of reconciliation
had completely disappeared. The Samaritan
would go on to maintain their sectarian
integrity and would never assimilate with
Jews as did the Galileans and Idumeans.
(1womeninthebible.net/Copyright 2006/
Elizabeth Fletcher)
2
John Hyrcanus-Taking advantage of unrest
in the Seleucid Empire, he was able to assert
Judean independence and conquer new
territories. High Priest, John Hyrcanus is
remembered in rabbinic literature as having
made several outstanding enactments and
deeds worthy of memorial. The one worthy
of note is that he cancelled the requirement
of saying the avowal mentioned in
Deuteronomy 26:12–15 once in every three
years. He realized that in Israel, the people
had ceased to separate the First Tithe in its
proper manner and which, by making the
avowal, and saying "I have hearkened to the
voice of the Lord my God, and have done
according to all that you have commanded
me," he makes himself dishonest before his
Maker and liable to God's wrath. At that
time, The First Tithe, which was meant to be
given unto the Levites, was given instead to
the priests of Aaron's lineage, after Ezra had
fined the Levites for not returning in full
force to the Land of Israel. By not being able
to give the First Tithe unto the Levites, as
originally commanded by God, this made
the avowal null and void. Another thing that
John Hyrcanus is remembered for is
cancelling the reading of Psalm 44:23,
formerly chanted daily by the Levites in the
Temple precincts, and which words,
"Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? etc."
He felt it seemed inappropriate, as if they
were imposing their own will over God's, or
that God was actually sleeping. John
Hyrcanus, the High Priest, further went on
to cancel an ill-practice had by the people to
cause bleeding near the eyes of sacrificial
calves by beating their heads so as to stun
them, prior to their being bound and
slaughtered, since by beating the animal in
such a way they ran the risk of causing a
blemish in the animal's membrane lining its
brain. To prevent this from happening, the
High Priest made rings in the ground of the
Temple court for helping to secure the
animals before slaughter. (2Wikipedia).

Jesus and Samaritans

Obsessions
3
During the Roman period, Samaritans
began to play an increasingly important role
in national affairs while violent clashes
between them and the Jews were usually
common.

Samaritans controlled the territory between

Galilee and Jerusalem and they regularly
harassed the groups of pilgrims making their
way to the capital for the great Jewish
festivals.
The Jews retaliated in kind and also in
words. To emphasize the foreign descent of
the Samaritans, the Jews called them
contemptuously “Kutim”, from Kutah, one
of the Mesopotamian towns whose
inhabitants had been deported to Samaria by
the Assyrians.
The Jewish attitude towards the Samaritans
is faithfully reflected in the New Testament,
especially in Jesus’ choice of a “good
Samaritan” to point the moral of his parable
against over-pious and inhuman Jews ( Luke
10:30-37).

Gospel Writers’ Samaritans’

Portraits
Matthew’s attitude towards Samaritans is
one of hostility as Mark chooses to
completely ignore them. Luke, on the other
hand, keeps his distance while John,
however, is much more conciliatory, as in
the story of Jesus and the Samaritan
Woman. (3womeninthebible.net/Copyright
2006/ Elizabeth Fletcher).

1. Conversation with a
Stranger
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift
God has for you and who you are speaking
to, you would ask me, and I would give you
living water.” (v. 10)
Jesus recognizes the fact that, to this
woman; he’s indeed a stranger and is about
to stir up a racial and religious contention.
He should have never entered any
conversation with this Samaritan woman
neither asked her for a drink. That was an
unspoken rule that both Jesus and this
woman knew.
If you only knew: Reality check number
one: I don’t know whom I’m speaking to; so
how can this stranger even start talking
about something so sensitive and important
as “gift God has for you” and asking him to
“give you living water?”
This stranger who has just invaded my
privacy is claiming to be “the Gift of God”
and the One who offers “living water.” He
can’t be serious.
Reading from a 21st century perspective,
there seems to be nothing unusual about the
conversation and how it begins. Everything
seems to be normal and straight forward. In
fact, there is nothing wrong with meeting
someone for the first time and starting a
conversation that goes from race, religion
and then to personal family matters. We see
something similar every day and some of us
may have even experienced that a couple of
times.
Social media platforms have even taken that
to a far greater level where one can share
videos and pictures with a total stranger
somewhere else across the globe. You tend
to accept the individual based on the profile
they create about themselves; in many cases,
those profiles are not usually what they
appear to be.
In the days of Jesus, the Christ, everything
was completely different than it is today.
There were strong laws and traditions that
prohibit Jews from associating with
strangers especially women. It was
unlawfully for Jesus, a Jew to interact or talk
with that Samaritan woman given the
historical nature of the enmity between Jews
and Samaritans. In any case, Jesus still did
talk to her and breaking rules but not meant
to be rude.
Today, such laws and traditions would be
considered as discriminatory and unlawful
with the label “human rights, freedom of
association and movement.”
While sometimes a law could be legal but
unjust and illegal but just; a person who
breaks laws may be referred to as a lawless
person or a deviant whether the law is just or
unjust. There was a
Jesus being a Jewish rabbi, was not
ignorance of the enmity that existed between
Jews and Samaritans and consequences of
crossing the line; which in most cases would
have been tantamount to death by stoning.
Here is Jesus, on his way to from Judea to
Galilee as he escapes confrontations with the
Pharisees over allegation of “he is making or
baptizing more disciples than John;” he had
to go through the Samaritan village of
Sychar. The last thing he wants on his
resume’ is allegation of any act of
impropriety. In other words, Jesus is leaving
where he is at because he wants to avoid
problem with the religious authorities who
often manipulated the crowds against him
and political authorities into arresting him.
They had often falsely accused him of many
things regarding the laws and were always
looking for the least opportunity to kill him.
Any rational person in that case would really
want to be careful and rightly so.
On the contrary, Jesus does the most
unacceptable and unusual thing. Being tired
in the journey from Judea to Galilee; he sat
by a well known as Jacob’s well in the
Samaritan village of Sychar. He is alone
because the disciples had gone to town to
buy them some food. He is definitely a total
stranger in that region. They haven’t heard
of him and his many miraculous works in
other places. Back then news didn’t travel
like we have them today. Unlike today when
you can watch live event thousands of miles
away from your location; back then it would
take days, weeks, months, and even years
for you to know what was taking place
around you. Especially where there was a
deeply rooted cultural and religious hatred;
it would make it even more difficult for
news to go across from one people to
another. To avoid any national security
emergency; it was only appropriate that
everyone kept to his own business.
So, the total stranger that walks by and sits
at the well near this Samaritan town of
Sychar is not the popular Jewish Rabbi and
miracle worker of Galilee, nor the Savior of
the world as we know him today. He is just
some unknown young Jewish male who
happens to pass by and is about to ignite a
religious and racial tension.
With that understanding; it’s easier to have
an appreciation for the way the Samaritan
woman reacts to this Jewish stranger. This is
a complete intruder who comes by with no
regards for laws and customs that have
existed for many generations.
By chance, Jesus sits by a well that was dug
by Jacob, the father of Israel and the Jewish
people but its ownership is claimed by the
Samaritans.
The first thing Jesus, as a stranger, does is
asks the woman for a drink. He doesn’t
introduce himself or his mission as a Jew in
that environment. That should be a major
cause for alarm by the woman. Imagine a
stranger just walk pass your house alone the
highway and without introducing himself
and what brought him there in the first
place; when he ought not to be there. The
first thing he ask you for is water. I can be
imaging you looking him up and down with
his feet all dusty up from the long walk.
Haven’t shaved in days and the hair so
rough and his clothes not took welcoming
and familiar to men in your surroundings. I
guess you are going embrace him with
opened arms and all smiles. Honestly, I
don’t think. You would do just similar to
what this woman did under such
circumstance taking into account your safety
first.
If you think I don’t know you then you are
dead wrong. You are a total stranger without
and any impressive profile and in addition to
that; you Jews have nothing to do with
Samaritans. My question to you is what has
changed that got you breaking your long
held tradition and have the guts to ask me a
Samaritan for water? She was right even in
her limited and narrow minded view.
Something was about to change about her
life, her character, her personality and how
society view her, and it was about to change
for her village, her religious beliefs, and
place of worship. Protocols and laws are
about to be broken to introduce the spirit and
truth of worship.
 2. Israel’s Struggles with
Identity Crisis
At the time of Christ, Israel’s struggles with
identity crisis had reached such peak so
much so that the nation was very much
divided into both religious and political sects
with each trying to answer the question as to
“who was a real Jew?”

Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus

At the time of Jesus in Palestine, according
to the famous Jewish historian Josephus, the
three most influential groups were the
Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes.
However, for the purpose of this book we
will add the Herodians to that list as the
fourth. Even though only a small minority of
people who belonged to these sects, but
what can’t be denied is their strong
influence on Jewish society. These groups
were not only concerned with religious
behaviors and activities but also with the
political issues of the day. The Pharisees
were known to be the largest of these
consisting of about six thousand members at
the time of Herod the Great. This is out of a
population of about one million people.
Today, these groups are the equivalent of
our modern-day Christian denominations or
political parties. In fact. In ancient Judaism,
there was no clear distinction between
religion and politics.

The Sadducees
The name Sadducees is most likely thought
to have come from the name Zadok who was
the priest that anointed Solomon as king (1
Kings 1:32-40). Zadok’s descendants were
recognized as the only legitimate priests by
Ezekiel (44:9-31) and by the writer of the
Chronicles. Apparently, the Sadducees were
of the elite and wealthy class that was
closely allied with the highly priestly
families, and they had a greater following
among the rich only. In the book of Acts,
they are associated with the high priest and
the Jerusalem temple (Acts 4:1-2, 5:17). The
high priest is named by Josephus as Ananus,
a Sadducee. The high priest was appointed
by King Herod in New Testament times who
was the puppet king of Rome, then by
Archelaeus, Herod’s son, and later by the
Roman rulers of Judea. The Sadducees’
connection with the high priestly families
brought them into close ties with Roman
rule in Palestine.
While ancient Jews had varying beliefs
about life after death, the Sadducees are
thought to have believed that the soul died
along with the body. They did not believe in
resurrection after death nor the existence of
angels. However, the Pharisees did believe
in them all (Acts 28:8).

The Pharisees
While most members of the pharisees were
not priest; they had enormous influence in
Jewish society. They did not hold direct
political offices but their huge following
among the ordinary people allowed them to
influence political leadership as in the case
of the Hasmonean Queen, Salome
Alexandra, and later Herod the Great. We
also see that portrayal in Mark with the
Pharisees plotting to with the Herodians to
destroy Jesus (Mark 3:6, 12:13). They also
served on the Sanhedrin council that advised
the high priest (Acts 5:34, 23:6-9).
The origin of the Pharisees is thought to
have come from the time of the Maccabean
revolt because of their zealous support of the
Torah which later developed into a rabbinic
Judaism. In they gospel the Pharisees are
described as hypocritical and concerned
with more outward appearance that sincere
faith (Mat. 23:3-5, 25-28). Their emphasis
was on applying the details of the Torah
Law to everyday life and giving rise to the
emphasis placed on tradition (Mark 7:3-4).

Essenes
This group is often associated with the
community that lived in the desert
wilderness at Qumran, the site on the
northwestern end of the Dead Sea where the
famous Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They
did not agree with the interpretation and
practice of Torah by the priests at Jerusalem
with their emphasis on the law of purity.
The thought that the best way to keep the
law is to be separated from the rest of
society.

The Herodians
Though not much is often said about them in
the Bible at the time of Christ; they were
mostly a sect of Hellenistic Jews thought to
be a pro Herod Jewish party more connected
to and concerned with politics and power
than with religious matters. In Mark 8:15,
Jesus thus warns about Herod and his
followers with “Watch out; beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of
Herod,” as followers of Herod were those
willing to compromise in order to achieve
personal gain.
At some time during the ministry of Christ
there is a friendship through mutual
adversary by the Pharisees and the
Herodians through their common hatred of
Jesus. “The Pharisees went out and
immediately held counsel with the
Herodians against him, how to destroy him,”
(Mark 3:60).
At the time of Christ, the Messiah, the real
problem that Israel had to struggle with was
an identity crisis. The real crisis was “who
was a real Jew?” Each of these sects claimed
to be more Jewish than the others. The
problem that resulted from this sectarian
division was multitudes of neglected Jews
often referred to as sinners for whom when
Jesus “saw the throngs, He was moved with
pity and sympathy for them, because they
were bewildered (harassed and distressed
and dejected and helpless), like sheep
without a shepherd,” Mat. 9:36, AMPC.
Does that sound familiar to any addicted
God lover? I guess so. Amid all these
religious glamour and publicity stunts;
they’re still many who are “harassed and
destressed and dejected and helpless like
sheep without a shepherd.” At the time of
Christ, it is to that destressed and dejected
group that Jesus was moved with
compassion.

3. The Fight for Inheritance

Many had lost track of their family heritage
and lineage because of the deportation by
Nebuchadnezzar and the 70 years of
Babylonian Captivity. The name Samaritan
is the result of that era and subsequent
events. Study Nehemiah and Ezra.
John 4:5-6 - KJV
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which
is called Sychar, near to the parcel of
ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well: and it was about the
sixth hour.

John 4:12 - KJV

12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob,
which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle?
 Jacob gave the parcel of land to
Joseph.
 Jacob’s well was there.
 Jacob gave us the well.
 Jesus sat on the well.
At the time of Jacob’s death, Joseph is prime
minister in Egypt with great wealth, power,
influence, and affluence. Yet, his father
Jacob is so wise and far sighted enough to
have still left him an inheritance. “A good
man leaves an inheritance to his children’s
children,” Prov. 13:22.

Where did Jacob bury Rachel?

Rachel’s tomb is on the ancient road
between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. “And
Rachel died, and was buried on the way to
Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set
a pillar upon her grave,” Gen. 35:19-20.
Why did Jacob bury Rachel (his beloved
wife) in the middle of nowhere and not at
the family burial site at Machpelah (Gen.
49:31) where both Jacob and Leah were
buried?
It is understandable enough to say that
Rachel died while the family was on the
road and therefore, Jacob had no choice but
to bury her by the road and put a stone pillar
there. Why if I tell you that there is the real
story behind the story? Let us go backstage a
little and see the story behind the story.
Jewish tradition says that Yaakov buried
Rachel for one specific reason. Yaakov
knew by divine revelation that during the
Babylonian exile, his descendants, the
Jewish people would travel along that very
road and would weep at the tomb of Rachel.
Not only would they weep but they would
also ask her to intercede with God for them.
The belief was that, since she had selflessly
given her husband to Leah, her prayers
(tfilos) alone would be accepted by God on
the behalf of the Jewish people.
From our western perspective or
understanding of scripture, we can say that
Jacob was a very cunning man. However,
understanding the storing behind the story
from a Jewish perspective, it is fair to say
that Jacob did not do anything without
having a clear understanding of its impact
on the Jewish people with regards to God’s
vast eternal plan.

4. The Jacob VS Esau

Philosophy
When you initially read the story from the
English translation and see how Jacob ran
away from home, what you see is sibling’s
rivalry with parents taking sides. The
narrative makes it seems as if the brothers
had very little in common but rather that all
they did was argued, disagreed, and fight.
However, that’s not the case when we go
backstage to understand the story behind the
story.

The story as we know it

Physically, Esau is the first born with Jacob

holding onto his heels at birth and Jacob, on
the other hand, wants the rights of the first
born and he buys it from Esau with a bowl
of soup. Isaac is very upset because Jacob
gets all the blessings and pretends to be
Esau. Esau is even now more upset than
anyone in the story. At this time in the story,
Rebekah seems to love Jacob while Isaac
loved Esau. Now the story becomes even
more complicated and thus giving us a
reason why do we need to know such
complicated story and the eternal truth we
can learn from it.
We need to understand the history within the
story and that Esau and Jacob represent two
different positions which are significant to
the eternal significance and truth within the
story. The story from the mother’s
perspective makes Esau looks like the bad
guy and from Isaac’s point of view; Jacob
seems to be the bad guy. More reasons why
we need to understand the story. This is not
just some little incident in history but one
with eternal significance and truth in relation
to God’s vast eternal plan for humanity.

The real story: There’s something more

profound going on here that the Torah is
telling us.
1. The argument is not about
themselves, and this is no physical sibling
rivalry.
2. The argument here is about the
approach to the ultimate perfection. How do
we reach the realization of the ultimate truth
and perfection of creation? That would a
serious subject to argue over especially for
young boys.

The Difference between Jacob and

Esau

Jacob wants the process of human

development from the ordinary to the godly
to be an eternal, integrated, and personally
challenging procedure. He wants human
transformation from within; that is, by their
own strength, efforts, and talents until the
ordinary becomes godly. Now you can see
why the illustrations about asking Esau for
his birth right in exchange for a bowl of
soup, how he acquired his wealth at Laban’s
and wrestling with the angel of the Lord
makes more sense.
Esau, on the other hand, thinks differently
and believes that going from the ordinary or
physical to the godly, we’re not going to be
able to do it from within because inwardly
we’re just too human and limited by our
human frailties. If the world is going to
become perfect, it’ll have to come from
above. Not miraculously but through an
eternal process at a human rate and that’ll
take thousands of years. If it was
miraculously, God wouldn’t have to wait for
anyone. He would have just gone ahead with
the process.
However, Esau is impatient with this
gradual human process and thought to make
it happen quickly by overlooking the human
conditions and transcending the human
conditions because it’s never going to
become good. Esau thinks that humanity
needs to find a way to make the process
quicker and even though it won’t have to be
a very thorough and careful process.
The two positions are the real ground for
arguments between the twin brothers.

While Esau thinks that as the first born his

way of doing it is the right way;
Jacob claims that spiritually, he’s the first
born and therefore regarding spiritual
matters; Esau got to listen to him.
That sounds just like something familiar
with religions, denominations, and doctrines
today.
The separation of the two brothers is the
result of their approaches to achieving the
ultimate truth and perfection of creation. It
remains the same today with religion. The
separation and division are the result of one
thing; and that is, which approach is right?

After many years of separation: they both

realized that it hasn’t been worth fighting
and arguing as to whose way is the best
because no human way to ultimate
perfection is the best. Paul said, “All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God and
are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus, Rom
3:23-24.
It has never been worth all the strife,
division and hate as there is no other right
way than “I am the Way, the Truth and the
Life,” John 14:6.
Romans 3:10-12 Amplified Bible (AMP)
As it is written and forever remains written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS [none
that meets God's standard], NOT EVEN
ONE. THERE IS NONE WHO
UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO
SEEKS FOR GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED
ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE
BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE
WHO DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE.”

Before meeting face to face with Esau,

Jacob declared: “I am not worthy of the least
of all the mercy and loving-kindness and all
the faithfulness which You have shown to
Your servant, for with [only] my staff I
passed over this Jordan [long ago], and now
I have become two companies,” Gen. 32:10.
AMPC. That’s a true and genuine
confession right there as the scales are
removed from his eyes.

However, it’s so sad to know that Esau

doesn’t get that revelation yet. So, when
Esau and Jacob meet after separation for
many years; Esau tells Jacob “Let us get
started on our journey, I will go before you,”
(Gen. 33:12-15). The conversation is like
this from Esau’s; “the world is ready now to
be perfect and we can make peace now and
unite the whole world. With that we have
achieved perfection and redeemed creation.”
Esau thought that the redemption of creation
could happen that quickly by ignoring some
human frailties and conditions and that’s
why he wants them to go faster.

But what Jacob said in response is very

important. “The children and sheep are
tender and delicate. They need gentle care
and therefore I need to go slow, if the men
overdrive them for a single day, the whole
of the flocks would die,” Gen. 33:13.

While Esau wants everything so fast and

quick by overlooking the human condition
(frailties); Jacob, after 20 years of hard
labour at Laban’s, has learned that you need
to go slow at a gradual human rate as
directed by God through the course of
history.

Inheritance- through Right of

Purchase and Right of Conquest
Genesis 48:21 And Israel said to Joseph,
Behold, I [am about to] die, but God will be
with you and bring you again to the land of
your fathers.
Genesis 48:22 Moreover, I have given to
you [Joseph] one portion [Shechem, one
mountain slope] more than any of your
brethren, which I took [reclaiming it] out of
the hand of the Amorites with my sword and
with my bow. [Gen. 33:18, 19; Josh. 24:32,
33; John 4:5.] AMPC.
The land belonged to Jacob by right of
purchase from the children of Humor and by
right of conquest. When the Amorites
invaded the land and took it violently; it was
an unrighteous possession and Jacob had to
use his sword and bow to repossess it.
Finally, the land became the property of
Joseph as a gift and by inheritance. Even
though Joseph was well established in Egypt
and physically independent of Canaan, the
time for his descendants to claim their
inheritance was yet in the distant future.
However, with the eye of faith, Joseph still
believed and declared that “I am going to
die. But God will surely visit you and bring
you out of this land to the land He swore to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob [to give
you].
25 And Joseph took an oath from the sons of
Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and
you will carry up my bones from here.
26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old; and
they embalmed him, and he was put [a]in a
coffin in Egypt,” Exodus 50. (Amplified
Bible, Classis Edition).
What a conviction of faith. God will surely
visit you and please remember to take my
body with you to the land of my inheritance.
It is amazing how through a gradual human
process God’s vast eternal plan is finally
revealed at the fulness of time when a
descendant of Joseph, the Messiah sits over
Jacob’s well at the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to Joseph. As spiritual Jacob, he
purchased our inheritance and took it away
from all forms of human fraternities and
religious practices and freely bestowed it
upon his children (every believer who
gratefully receives it).
Joseph had gone up to Canaan to bury his
father, Genesis 50:7 and at the end of his
life; “Joseph said to his brethren, I am going
to die. But God will surely visit you and
bring you out of this land to the land he
swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to
give you. And Joseph took an oath from the
sons of Israel, saying, God will surely visit
you, and you will carry up my bones from
here,” vv. 24-25.
Joseph had so much power and influence up
to the time of his death but why didn’t he
use his influence to let Israel return home?
They would have all their needs provided
for and escorted by the nobles and officials
of Pharaoh but that didn’t happen.
 This process needed to go slow at a
gradual human rate directed by God,
“your descendants will be
strangers… in a land that is not
theirs… afterward they will come
out with great possessions,” Gen.
15:13-14.
 God’s visitation and timing was
more important than any human
process and nobody in that instance
knew it better than Joseph. “God will
surely visit you, and you will carry
up my bones from here,” Gen. 50:25.
 5. Cast of Characters-
Genesis to Exodus
First Book of Torah-Who
Who is going to make the world a godly
place? Who is going to bring God’s
kingdom down to earth, his will on earth as
it is in heaven? Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Jacob, Joseph, and Moses are the players.
We already discussed Jacob in the previous
chapter with regards to God’s vast eternal
plan.

Adam Vs Moses
1
Lev. 1:1 “The Lord called to Moses…” In
the book of Exodus, the Lord speaks to
Moses over and over but never says, the
Lord called to Moses. It often says, God
spoke to Moses. Ex. 3:12-15 “God said to
Moses”.
Why is there a sudden change from “God
said to Moses” to “God called Moses” to
speak to him? The explanation. With other
prophets, let’s take Balaam (the wicked
prophet) for example, it says, the Lord
abruptly or chance upon him to speak to him
and in that case he does it without any
introduction. Does not use the word
VaYikra (Hebrew for “and He called”).
However, with Moses, God called him by
name and speaks to him. VaYikra, here, is a
sign of affection. That is, when God spoke
to Moses or with Moses; it was with
affection. However, this raises a question of
interest which is very important. In Exodus
we see God speaks to Moses many times
without bothering to call him by name first,
why now in the third book of Leviticus that
God calls him by name before speaking to
him? You must understand that Leviticus is
a book of judgement which focuses on what
needs to be redeemed, repaired, what needs
to be elevated, what needs to go from
material to spiritual (more details about that
in my next book; Invasion of Privacy). God
therefore sees it necessary to let the rest of
the world knows that whenever he spoke to
Moses in Leviticus; it was not with regards
to judgement but with kindness and
affection. Whenever there was an expression
of judgement in Scripture; God had to make
it clear by pointing out where the judgement
does not apply. God is speaking to the rest
of the people about judgement and how to
go from negative to positive, from physical
to spiritual but Moses is not included. With
Moses, God spoke always with kindness and
affection.
Here is an interesting point worthy of note.
In the Hebrew spelling of the word VaYikra
is the letter olive, the first letter in the
Hebrew alphabet. It is the A of the Hebrew
Alphabet and must always be handwritten in
small letter in the Torah scroll. That means,
it is a miniature olive. When you see letters
in the Torah in Hebrew, some appear
smaller than the rest and others are larger.
However, every letter in the Hebrew
alphabet gets that kind of treatment.
In showing his affection for Moses, VaYikra
(“and He called” to Moses) shows up with
small olive as Vayikra. That demonstrates
that instead of letting God’s affection for
him goes into his head; he was humbled by
the affection, and it humbled him.

Humbled Moses Vs Arrogant Adam

Where is the connection to Adam with the
Hebrew word Vayikra/VaYikra? The letter
olive is the initial letter in the word for
Adam (a person) and it also means a
thousand. The letter olive can also mean the
general or the ruler. In referring to the
humility of Moses, the word Vayikra has a
miniature olive. However, in referring to
Adam, VaYikra has a large olive at the
beginning of the word Adam. The way it is
written shows that the large olive represents
pride and the small olive represent humility.
While is Adam written with a large olive?
The answer is simply that he had a high
opinion of himself. Instead of his body being
born through the natural human process of
conception in the womb for nine months;
Adam’s body was created and shaped
directly by God. Now you can only imagine
why he had so much high opinion of
himself. It was that very high mindedness or
pride that got him to sin. However, on the
other hand, as great as Moses was, a man so
closed to God so much so that God would
speak to him face to face; he was
extraordinarily humbled. How humbled was
Moses, one may ask? Moses believed that
the symbol of power and leadership that he
had become wasn’t earned; but it came from
God and was given to him by God for free.
Therefore, he never thought of himself as
deserving or earning anything even to the
point that when Miriam and Aaron envied
and gossiped him; God himself got angry
with them. Numbers 12:3-8, “Now the man
Moses was very meek (gentle, kind, and
humble) or above all the men on the face of
the earth. Suddenly the Lord said to Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam, Come out, you three, to
the Tent of Meeting. And the three of them
came out.
The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and
stood at the Tent door and called Aaron and
Miriam, and they came forward. And He
said, hear now My words: If there is a
prophet among you, I the Lord make Myself
known to him in a vision and speak to him
in a dream.
But not so with My servant Moses; he is
entrusted and faithful in all My house. [Heb.
3:2, 5, 6.] With him I speak mouth to mouth
[directly], clearly and not in dark speeches;
and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why
then were you not afraid to speak against
My servant Moses?” AMP Bible.
What a humility beyond human
comprehension. Moses didn’t struggle with
his core identity and therefore, he was so
humbled and had no place for resentment or
envy towards anyone. Numbers 27:18-23,
“The Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua son
of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay
your hand upon him; And set him before
Eleazar the priest and all the congregation
and give him a charge in their sight.
And put some of your honor and authority
upon him, that all the congregation of the
Israelites may obey him. He shall stand
before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire
for him before the Lord by the judgment of
the Urim [one of two articles in the priest's
breastplate worn when asking counsel of the
Lord for the people]. At Joshua's word the
people shall go out and come in, both he and
all the Israelite congregation with him. And
Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He
took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the
priest and all the congregation, and he laid
his hands upon him and commissioned him,
as the Lord commanded through Moses.
Joshua 1:5, “No man shall be able to stand
before you all the days of your life. As I was
with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not
fail you or forsake you.” AMP Bible.
It was his humility that unleashed his
greatest potentials. Nature, the works off
God’s hand did obey him (turned water into
blood, hails to fall from the skies, turns dust
into lice, parted the Sea of Reed, brought
forth water from the rock, etc.). Most
importantly, he led Israel from Egypt after
more than 400 years of slavery and bondage
by standing up to Pharaoh (the god of
Egypt).
“Dear God, I earnestly and fervently pray
for the humility of Moses because I don’t
deserve the depth of your lovingkindness
towards me. All that I have become and will
ever be is owed to you. I do not earn
anything and neither do I have anything that
you have not given me.”
Moses’ humility wasn’t only towards God,
but he was humbled towards every other
human being and thought of them highly
above himself. He felt that with the gifts and
talents he had, any other person with such
gifts and talents would have done better than
he did. That’s how much humbled this
Moses was as he saw all other people as
superior to him.
Exodus 3:11, “And Moses said unto God,
who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of
Israel out of Egypt?” KJV.
What a definition of true humility when you
consider that you don’t deserve any credit
and that any other person would have done a
better job than you’re doing with the gifts,
resources, and opportunities you have been
given. To be humbled to the point of having
no ego (accepting abuses and humiliation)
and have nothing to be proud of is one thing;
but to be humbled to the point of
considering others as superior to you, but
that you’re only privileged; there is no man
as meek as Moses, the true definition of
humility. This Moses just gave us a whole
new standard of what humility is.
Right now, I am humiliated, intimidated,
and awestruck by Moses’s humility as I type
these lines. Do you know that it’s much
easier to admit that you are wrong than to
admit that you are right?
Moses’ humility demonstrated both sides of
the coin. Without thinking so highly of
himself with regards to the gifts and
authority he had been given to serve his
people; he saw all others from a positive
perspective that they would have done even
better in his position. That’s real humility
man.
Adam trusted his own confidence and
innocence so much so that he intentionally
stepped into the world of sin (not
accidentally but with confidence) - he knew
that the tree was the knowledge of good and
evil, yet he didn’t hesitate to step into that
world. Adam trusted his own innocence to
be invulnerable and that no sin could
penetrate his innocence because he had no
appetite for sin. He didn’t know sin. That
was arrogance.
Imagine having the ability and capability to
name all the animals there were. Adam
didn’t have to go through the normal process
of birth that every human being goes
through and even Christ did go through and
neither did he have to go through the process
of growth we all go through. He was created
a full-grown man and was therefore, older,
wiser, matured for his age. That is, he
appeared older than he was. That was
wisdom beyond imagination. That’s a kind
of wisdom that not even the angels had but it
was a wisdom inspired from above.
Adam’s body was as holy as his soul, and he
wasn’t born by any natural birth but created
directly by God; so, you can see the place of
his confidence. I can enter the place of sin
and I’m not going to be affected. However,
his entry to the place of sin ended up in the
world of sin. Confidence left unchecked
only breeds arrogance.
Why it is important to be a large olive like
Adam, with the confidence to think positive,
and dream of achieving the impossible; the
key to becoming unstoppable is to be a small
olive with the humility of Moses regardless
of how gifted and powerful you may be. In
order to become unstoppable, you need to be
like Adam and with the humility of Moses.
However, we must note that Adam’s pride
was not ordinary pride. Given his moral and
natural likeness to God; Adam was justified
in his thoughts and confidence. When he
stepped into the world of sin it was not
accidental but with confidence. However,
justified the source of your confidence may
be; remember to have the humility of Moses
in that confidence. Adam had been warned
against eating of the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge, of Good and Evil; yet he chose
to step into that world and trusting his own
innocence to be invulnerable to sin and that
was confidence without humility.
With no appetite for sin Adam felt
impenetrable. While there was no sin in
Adam, it was the confidence to step into the
world of sin with the thought that he would
not be tempted or diminished was the
arrogance that led him into sin.
Glory to God that through God’s redemptive
plan we are restored and reconnected to the
innocence of Adam before the fall. Romans
5:1-2, “Therefore being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ: By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” KJV.

Noah
What is worth mentioning of Noah amid a
perverse society is that “Noah found grace
(favor) in the eyes of the Lord.” Gen. 6:8.
Imagine being surrounded by a generation
so corrupt that they all got swept in a flood,
but Noah wasn’t affected by any of these.
He walked with God God in righteousness
and eventually found favor with God at the
time of the flood. He may be considered the
most righteous human being to have ever
lived in his generation.
Noah lived in a time early in human history
when people were still experimenting with
humanity. The righteousness that got Noah
into favor with God has nothing to do with
believing God, serving God and neither
loving God. The awareness of God to
humanity was still strong as the creation was
very much new and God was very much real
and closed to those who lived in that time.
They didn’t have any doubt about the
creation of the world by God.
Still learning how to be human was
something new that Noah and his generation
had to grapple with. As the result of that, the
people had to experiment with every kind of
lifestyle and behavioral character. That just
made everything chaotic and lawless. Living
within such a messed-up society; Noah
remained decent instead of being destructive
socially.
However, Noah’s decency is not the kind of
righteousness that we understand from the
Bible today. A testament to that is the fact
that while he was decent; his righteousness
did not influence anyone else outside of his
family to be in that ark. Noah lived like a
child who is doing everything right but
unable to have influence on anybody.
While Noah may have found favor in God’s
eyes as an individual; in the 120 years of
building the ark; Noah was not able to
convince a single person to join him in that
ark because he lacked influence.
Noah did a very poor job socially as we
observed from his ineffectiveness. Unlike
Noah, Abraham, on the other hand,
challenged both his family and his world to
rethink their beliefs about God and thus
started a movement as the result.
Genesis 18:19, “For I have known (chosen,
acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he
may teach and command his children and
the sons of his house after him to keep the
way of the Lord and to do what is just and
righteous, so that the Lord may bring
Abraham what He has promised him.”
While Noah waked with God or with God’s
support; Abraham waled before God as God
commended with “walk before me and be
perfect,” and I will bless you. When you
walk before God, it is out of your own
volition and initiative by using your inherent
godliness of your soul.
Even after such a horrific and destructive
flood through which only Noah and his
family are saved; he was unable to influence
his household and generation after him. It is
after Noah that we got the generation of the
Tower of Babel, a thousand years after the
flood. This was a generation that decided
that God no longer runs the world. Since
they were scientifically advanced, they
embarked on build a tower and city that
would reach to heaven. One thing the
generation of the tower had learned was how
to be sociable, coexist, and to work together.
Therefore, they decided to use that to their
advantage to build a tower. God said,
“These people are one…therefore nothing
they have imagine they can do will be
impossible for them,” Gen 11:6.
With their advancement in science and
technology, they had decided to move from
earth’s atmosphere into the heavenly sphere
scientifically because they thought that the
earth had become a dangerous and unstable
place to live. They believed that as the result
of the unstable nature of the earth’s
atmosphere; there would come a flood every
thousand. They therefore thought to move
out of earth and into heaven.
Their project of building a tower was a clear
demonstration that the flood was not an act
of God but a natural phenomenon and
therefore could be avoided or escape.
King David was wise enough in his
generation to have said, “Where could I go
from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee
from Your presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in
Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You
are there. [Rom. 11:33.] If I take the wings
of the morning or dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea, Even there shall Your hand
lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me
and the night shall be [the only] light about
me, Even the darkness hides nothing from
You, but the night shines as the day; the
darkness and the light are both alike to You,
Psalms 139:7-12.
God wasn’t against the unity and
corporation but against the project that stood
in opposition to his purpose for humanity to
“multiply and replenish the earth” and not to
escape from it. What did God do then? He
caused some group of people to develop
their own language opposed to the one
language of the project. That resulted in
different people speaking different
languages, creating different cultures,
nations, and boundaries.
What a dramatic turn for the generation of
the flood and the generation of the tower.
The flood generation went from being ok
with God but not being ok with each other.
The generation of the tower became ok with
each other and not being ok with God. Then
comes Abraham who becomes a unifier of
both worlds (earth and heaven). He was an
influencer, he was social, people could relate
to his language, and most importantly, he
had a unique relationship with God because
he “walked before God” unlike Noah who
“walked with God” or needed God’s help
before he made any move. Abraham
combined both a little bit of earth and a little
bit of heaven. While Noah’s godliness can
be compared to that of a child content with
being himself; Abraham’s godliness is
compared to that of an adult whose goal is to
influence those around him.
Abraham
Abraham’s obedience to walking with God
is demonstrated when he is told:
What Journey has no destination?
Abraham is told where to leave from but not
told where to go. What a strange command
when told to go on a journey without a
destination.
The most important part of every journey is
the destination and not the starting point.
Jewish wisdom teaching tells us the
following:
Abraham’s father sought spirituality at the
later stage of his life.
His journey led him out of Ur with his
family to Canaan but was never able to get
there. So, he settled in Haran until his death.
After Terah’s death in Haran, the Lord tells
Abraham to take the toughest decision of his
life.
“Leave for yourself (for your own
advantage)” and “go unto/to yourself,”
(AMPC). Leave for yourself to discover
yourself!
Abraham’s father decided to take his family
on this unknown destination but got stuck
along the way and finally died in his
journey.
Now God tells Abraham to take the journey
for himself and to his own advantage if he
must discover himself.
The most difficult part of this journey
(which has seen his father died) for
Abraham is that it lacks a destination.
Imagine someone inviting you for
graduation ceremony but only tells you
where to leave from and not where the
ceremony is taking place. That’s the
problem right there.
That problem presents a serious challenge
which sets the stage for everything Abraham
must deal with in the journey to get to his
destination.
The Process of the journey
The first challenge is to identify a
destination and to do that you need to have a
clear goal. Your goal identifies the way that
leads to the destination.
The final thing is to identify what will it cost
you to get you there. The process of the
journey begins in the mind. You must
picture and process in your mind the clear
destination you expect to arrive at. The
image you create is dependent on the
information received.
You may only know the details and realities
of where you are now but to get to the
destination; you got to come to the end of
yourself and your human reasoning or the
information feeding you through your
senses.
The blessing is in the obedience and the
obedience is carried out by faith when you
can’t understand all the details of what the
destination looks like apart from what you
can imagine.
“Abraham believed God and…”
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Journey to Discover Yourself

The phrase “go for yourself” and “go unto
yourself” is the goal of life. That is, the real
goal of life is to discover for yourself who
you are.
The unknown journey of life is the journey
of self-discovery.
You can imagine what to expect in the
journey and you can set goals and make all
kinds of plans; but if you will ever achieve
anything tangible; you will realize that the
visions you had in mind were nothing
compared to the real journey.
Some of the harsh realities are things you
were never prepared for,
The real journey goals far beyond the
limited goals you set for yourself in starting
the journey.
It’s good that you go for yourself because
the journey to self-discovery is the Journey
of Faith.

The Journey to Faith

“And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in,
relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord,
and He counted it to him as righteousness
(right standing with God),” Gen 15:6.
What is to Believe in God or Faith in God?
What is Faith? Familiarity: Faith is making
God familiar. When he called Abraham, it
was to make himself familiar to Abraham
through the process of faith (leave your
country and your father’s house and go to a
land that I will show you.” That’s a process
that cannot be explained rationally.) Faith
means that which cannot be explained
rationally. It is not the absence of
explanation but only that it cannot be
explained rationally. Like Abraham, when
we face a situation which is unknown and
unfamiliar to us, the tool at our disposal with
which we can deal with that in ways that the
human brain cannot is called Faith. 2 Kings
7:1-16, v 1, “Hear the word of the Lord,”
that’s making God familiar. If I’m not
making God familiar to my family,
community, country, and the world; them
I’m not familiar with him yet.

In the journey of faith, you already know

where you are beginning from but what you
don’t know is what lies ahead and what God
has for you. You must come to the end of
yourself and the information feeding you
through your senses.
The journey towards self-discovery is the
journey to Greatness. Like traveling on sea,
you must create your own path because
there is no path before you. Everything
around you is so unknown and unfamiliar.
It is where you get to discover your definite
purpose in life. That’s why it is to your
advantage to go for yourself.
It is by stepping out of you comfort zone
that you begin to realize that things that
never matter before do matter now.

The journey to covenant

Abraham had never had problem with Sarah
not giving him children until he’s out of his
comfort zone; now he knows it matters
because God thinks and blesses
generationally.
Through trials and failures Abraham
discovers the best version of himself. It
couldn’t happen in his father’s house. He
learned that in “Abraham believed God and
it was counted as righteousness.”
“I don’t have problem with people” or “I
don’t bother about other people’s things;” “I
don’t lie” and “I don’t cheat.”
The proof is in the journey, and you don’t
need to boast about it. The journey exposes
all that you were hiding behind the walls of
your father’s house.
Lies to Pharaoh, accepts to have Hagar
because children matter now, and deceives
Abimelech.
But he discovers his true greatness when he
realizes that the journey is a journey to
Covenant. “I will make my covenant
between me and you, and will multiply your
seed exceedingly,” Gen. 17:2. Read vv. 3-8.

The place of covenant

Genesis 15:1-8, “AFTER THESE things,
the word of the Lord came to Abram in a
vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your
Shield, your abundant compensation, and
your reward shall be exceedingly great.
And Abram said, Lord God, what can You
give me, since I am going on [from this
world] childless and he who shall be the
owner and heir of my house is this [steward]
Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram
continued, Look, You have given me no
child; and [a servant] born in my house is
my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came to him, saying, This man shall not be
your heir, but he who shall come from your
own body shall be your heir. And He
brought him outside [his tent into the
starlight] and said, Look now toward the
heavens and count the stars–if you are able
to number them. Then He said to him, So
shall your descendants be. [Heb. 11:12.]
And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in,
relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord,
and He counted it to him as righteousness
(right standing with God). [Rom. 4:3, 18-22;
Gal. 3:6; James 2:23.] And He said to him, I
am the [same] Lord, Who brought you out
of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land
as an inheritance.
The place of covenant is the lace of:
1. Protection (I am your Shield)
2. Reward and Guaranteed (I am your
abundant compensation)
3. Vision (Look now towards the
heavens…count the stars…number
them)
4. Complete reliance on God even
when the realities don’t line up with what
you believe. (Abraham believed in and
relied on the Lord).

Covenant blessing is generational

“And Abram said, Lord God, what can You
give me, since I am going on [from this
world] childless and he who shall be the
owner and heir of my house is this [steward]
Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram continued,
Look, You have given me no child; and [a
servant] born in my house is my heir. And
behold, the word of the Lord came to him,
saying, This man shall not be your heir,
but he who shall come from your own body
shall be your heir. And He brought him
outside [his tent into the starlight] and said,
Look now toward the heavens and count the
stars–if you are able to number them. Then
He said to him, So shall your descendants
be. [Heb. 11:12.] And he [Abram] believed
in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast
to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as
righteousness (right standing with God).
[Rom. 4:3, 18-22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23.]
And He said to him, I am the [same] Lord,
Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees
to give you this land as an inheritance.
When you think God’s blessings, you got to
think generational because if God will bless
you, he will bless you generationally. When
Jacob gave a parcel of land to Joseph; he
was thinking generational. When Joseph
appealed to his brethren not to forget about
his bones in Egypt when God would visit
them; he was also thinking generational.
God is not only interested in your existence
but in the generations after you. That is why
it is important for you to not only exist but
to live life by effecting and impacting your
surroundings with the generations after you
in mind. When “David had defeated his
enemies on every side, then the Lord
established the kingdom in the hands of his
son Solomon.” That is thinking
generationally.
We are in a time when our nation needs
generational leaders as there is a serious
generational leadership’s deficit. No
policies, projects are not designed and
implemented generationally but rather
everything is politically motivated.

Strategic Alliance for Strategic

Battles

Gen. 14:13-17
“Then one who had escaped came and told
Abram the Hebrew [one from the other
side], who was living by the oaks or
terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, a brother
of Eshcol and of Aner–these were allies of
Abram. When Abram heard that [his
nephew] had been captured, he armed (led
forth) the 318 trained servants born in his
own house and pursued the enemy as far as
Dan. He divided his forces against them by
night, he and his servants, and attacked and
routed them, and pursued them as far as
Hobah, which is north of Damascus. And he
brought back all the goods and also brought
back his kinsman Lot and his possessions,
the women also and the people. After his
[Abram's] return from the defeat and slaying
of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were
with him, the king of Sodom went out to
meet him at the Valley of Shaveh, that is,
the King's Valley.”

We earlier noted that Abraham was sociable

and an influencer with a language that others
could gravitate towards.
Some relationships may be dear to you but
not strategic for your purpose and survival
and needs breaking up especially when they
become toxic. They need to break up
without strife. “And there was strife between
the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the
herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite
and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the
land [making fodder more difficult to
obtain]. So, Abraham said to Lot, let there
be no strife, I beg you, between your
herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are
relatives. Is not the whole land before you?
Separate yourself, I beg of you, from me. If
you take the left hand, then I will go to the
right; or if you choose the right hand, then I
will go to the left,” Gen. 13:7-9.

Understanding and having environmental

awareness is key to cultivating and
maintaining strategic alliance. That is only
possible when you go from existence to
living. While existence is conditional and
depends on resources, living does not.
In the case of David, his strategic alliance
for his strategic battle with king Saul was
friendship by mutual adversary with Achish,
king of Gath. To stay alive while on the run
from king Saul, David had to make alliance
with Israel’s greatest enemies, the
Philistines. “BUT DAVID said in his heart, I
shall now perish one day by the hand of
Saul. There is nothing better for me than that
I should escape into the land of the
Philistines. Then Saul will despair of
seeking me any more within the borders of
Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.
And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he
and his men, every man with his household,
and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the
Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess,
Nabal's widow.
When it was told Saul that David had fled to
Gath, he sought for him no more.
And David said to Achish, If I have now
found favor in your eyes, let me be given a
place to dwell in some country town; for
why should your servant live in the royal
city with you?
Then Achish gave David the town of Ziklag
that day. Therefore, Ziklag belongs to the
kings of Judah to this day.
The time David dwelt in the Philistines'
country was a year and four months,” 1
Sam. 27:1-7.

Joseph
Genesis 37:18-20, 25-28 KJV
“And when they saw him afar off, even
before he came near unto them, they
conspired against him to slay him. And they
said one to another, Behold, this dreamer
cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay
him, and cast him into some pit, and we will
say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and
we shall see what will become of his
dreams. And they sat down to eat bread: and
they lifted up their eyes and looked, and
behold, a company of Ishmeelites came
from Gilead with their camels bearing
spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry
it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his
brethren, What profit is it if we slay our
brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and
let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not
our hand be upon him; for he is our brother
and our flesh. And his brethren were
content. Then there passed by Midianites
merchantmen; and they drew and lifted
Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the
Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and
they brought Joseph into Egypt.”
v These are God’s chosen people
through whom redemption will come
for the rest of humanity.
v They supposed to be morally good
and holy, but the general view is that
they hated their brother for his
dreams and the coat of many colors
his father Jacob made for him.
v Think about that. What kind of
reasonable person will hate his
brother for his dreams and a coat that
 his father made for him so much so
that you can plan to destroy him.
v He’s not hated for any wealth or
inheritance, but we’re told that he’s
hated for dreams and coat.
v Is there something more to the story
that we are missing?
v Are these brothers just blinded by
ignorance and hatred to the point that
they don’t care to reason?
v Can we go deeper into this story
beyond the conventional
understanding and see the point
we’re missing?
v Jacob showed favoritism and so he
gets bad result. It must be something
more.
v If this is the chosen people through
whom the rest of humanity expects
redemption; then there must be
something more to the story.
This whole family rivalry beginning with
Cain and Abel, Esau and Jaco, and now
Joseph and his brothers is all about
philosophy regarding the vast eternal plan of
redeeming the world and making it a perfect
place.
The brothers’ hatred of Joseph was that they
believed that his philosophy was dangerous
and went totally against the vast eternal plan
of God for the Jewish people. They were so
much convinced that the result of Joseph’s
philosophy would be fatal to the Jewish and
therefore threatened their very existence.
They get uncomfortable with Joseph each
passing day and begin to think that with him
around, the eternal plan of God for the
Jewish people will never be able to pick up.
However, when it came to the future of the
Jewish people; Joseph's idea was the right
idea and his brothers were mistaken.
The brothers were shepherds and being
shepherds; they believed that being
shepherds and removing themselves from
the rest of society was the best idea. That’s
why they took their sheep way into the
jungle and Joseph had to go see how they
were doing. As God’s holy people, they
thought that separating themselves from the
rest of society, from the corruptions of
business and being out there by themselves
to commune with God was the only way to
remain a holy people.
Joseph said to them, separating yourself
from the rest of society doesn’t make you
holy. In fact, isolating from society is
something that anybody can do.
Joseph’s idea on holiness was this. To be a
holy people, you have to make your world
holy. Holiness is not meant to be kept but to
be spread. You were given a
talent/responsibility for holiness to make the
world holy and why are you hiding in the
jungles and separating yourself from
everyone and think that’s going to make you
any holier.
By doing that, you’re letting the rest of the
world go about blindly without any
direction.
Joseph insisted that you must go out into the
world, stay in contact with the world and
have a positive effect.

Jn. 17:15-17 - KJV

15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. 16. They are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. 17.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth.
The brothers said to Joseph, if you try that
all your holiness will be gone, and you’ll
become corrupted like the rest of society.
Instead of elevating them to your level of
holiness; they’ll bring you down to their
level.
So, the first thought of the brothers is to get
rid of Joseph because his idea of holiness is
going to be a bad influence and if he should
stay with them; he’ll take them in the wrong
direction.
Now they conspired against him. Since he is
so confident of his idea about affecting the
world in a positive way; let’s not kill him.
Let’s sell him into that world and “see what
becomes of his dreams.” They’re referring
to his philosophy and idea of holiness and
they mockingly called it dreams because
they thought it was very much unrealistic.

Matthew 10:16 - KJV

16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves.
So, by selling him to Egypt, they are
confident that they’ll never see him again.
He’s going to assimilate into Egyptian
culture and become an idol worshipper and
will lose all his moral standards and his
holiness. Instead of elevating Egypt to his
level, Egypt is going to bring him down
(Now the story about Potiphar’s wife can
make more sense to you). Egypt will be the
end of his philosophy. Come on guys and
let’s sell him into the world of his dream and
let’s see what becomes of his dreams.
Imagine a Jew living in the ghettos of
Egypt? He’s going to be corrupted and
that’ll be his end.

Genesis 37:11-12 - KJV

11. And his brethren envied him; but his
father observed the saying. 12. And his
brethren went to feed their father's flock in
Shechem.
However, Jacob knew that Joseph was right,
and that the future of the Jewish people is to
be involved with the world and affecting the
world. God’s plan for choosing the Jewish
nation was not for them to become hermits
(a person living in solitude as a religious
disciple).
Instead, Jesus said: Matthew 5:14-16 - KJV
14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that
is set on a hill cannot be hid. 15. Neither do
men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto
all that are in the house. 16. Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. “This gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached to all the world….” Mat.
24:14.
Jn. 3:16, “God so loved the world that he
gave is only begotten son…
 6. You Have Nothing
Stranger
John 4:11, “She said to Him, Sir, You have
nothing to draw with [no drawing bucket]
and the well is deep; how then can You
provide living water? [Where do You get
Your living water?].
She was wrong on the first count because
there will always be something available if
God is the designer of nature. God is the
designer of nature, and with God, miracle is
an interruption of nature. God doesn’t
perform miracles out of nothing but through
what I consider as a necessary interruption
of nature. In other words, for God to
perform miracles there must be something
present in nature with which he can work.
Performing miracles out of nothing will be
too much of an unnecessary interruption of
nature. So, there must be something in your
hands with which God can perform a
miracle.
Speaking to a Jewish man who should have
no dealing with a Samaritan, the woman is
not wrong when she says, “You have
nothing to draw with.” Little did she did
know that this stranger with whom she was
talking was no ordinary Jewish man.
2 Kings 4:2-7, “Elisha said to her, What
shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you
[of sale value] in the house? She said, Your
handmaid has nothing in the house except a
jar of oil. Then he said, Go around and
borrow vessels from all your neighbors,
empty vessels–and not a few. And when you
come in, shut the door upon you and your
sons. Then pour out [the oil you have] into
all those vessels, setting aside each one
when it is full. So she went from him and
shut the door upon herself and her sons, who
brought to her the vessels as she poured the
oil. When the vessels were all full, she said
to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he
said to her, There is not a one left. Then the
oil stopped multiplying. Then she came and
told the man of God. He said, Go, sell the oil
and pay your debt, and you and your sons
live on the rest.”
Elisha tells the widow of the dead prophet
that if you expect me to do something for
you then there has to be a collateral
presented in which and through which God
can interrupt nature and invest into.
The widow saw nothing of value in her
house except a pitcher of oil; but Elisha
knew that if that’s all there is then that’s
what God is going to use but there can’t be
nothing.
The church is so ignorant today that while
believers expect miracles from God; they
expect God to perform miracles out of
nothing. Some expect miracle money
without applying their lives to any skills nor
putting any ideas into use.
The Israelites are facing the Red Sea in the
middle of nowhere with a ruthless Egyptian
army pursuing them. The last thing Moses
wants to hear is, “it would have been better
for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in
the wilderness.” They were right because it
would take a miracle to get them out of
there. “The Lord said to Moses…Lift up
your rod and stretch out your hand over the
sea and divide it, and the Israelites shall go
on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”
Exodus 14:15-16.

A stranger greater than your

ancestor
John 4:12, “Are You greater than and
superior to our ancestor Jacob, who gave us
this well and who used to drink from it
himself, and his sons and his cattle also?”
She was right on this one because this
Jewish man was a stranger greater than her
ancestor. The Jewish stranger takes the
conversation even deeper with, “All who
drink of this water will be thirsty again. But
whoever takes a drink of the water that I
will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty
any more. But the water that I will give him
shall become a spring of water welling up
(flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him
unto (into, for) eternal life,” John 4:13-14.
From “Sir, you have nothing” to “whoever
takes a drink of the water that I shall give
him shall never be thirsty anymore.” The
conversation with a stranger continues with
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may never
get thirsty nor have to come [continually all
the way] here to draw,” John 4:15. I thought
you said this stranger had nothing.
Acts 3:6, “But Peter said, Silver and gold
(money) I do not have; but what I do have,
that I give to you: in [the use of] the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” What I do
have is what God is going to always use to
his glory.
 7. Too Familiar to be a
Stranger
The conversation with a stranger continues
with, “The woman said to Him, Sir, give me
this water, so that I may never get thirsty nor
have to come [continually all the way] here
to draw. At this, Jesus said to her, Go, call
your husband and come back here. The
woman answered, I have no husband. Jesus
said to her, You have spoken truly in saying,
I have no husband. For you have had five
husbands, and the man you are now living
with is not your husband. In this you have
spoken truly,” John 4:15-18.
“Go call your husband, I have no
husband”
2 Kings 4:1, “Your servant my husband is
dead, and you know that your servant feared
the Lord. But the creditor has come to take
my two sons to be his slaves.”
The relationship of the godly soul to God is
considered to be the wife and God is the
husband. Unlike the animal soul, the godly
soul is one with God. The Torah uses “one
woman” meaning the soul that is one with
God or the soul with oneness that is the
godly soul.
This godly soul married a minor prophet.
When the soul comes down to earth it
becomes like a minor prophet. However, by
coming down to earth, this minor prophet
senses God’s will but is unable to express it
in a way a real prophet can. Every soul that
is unable to express God’s will is a minor
prophet. On the other hand, a real prophet is
the soul that is able to express God’s will.
When the soul comes down to earth and is
unable to express God’s will, it cries out. In
other words, the soul goes into shock that
even though it wants to express God’s will,
but it is unable to. Therefore, it cries out and
not only does it cry out, but it cries out to
Elisha- meaning, “my God who is able to
respond.”
Every soul that comes into the body is in
shock and cries out to God with “my
husband, your servant is dead.” That can be
understood as “serving you with godly fire.”
The Hebrew word for husband is “ee-shi” or
“ishi” which is the same as “my man.” The
word expressed in that sense means a godly
fire.
What is that godly fire? LOVE. When the
soul cries out to God, this is what it says.
“Now that I am in a body with an animal
soul, my serving you with love has died or
my serving you with love is dead. That
godly fire with which I need to serve you is
dead. The love for the animal soul has
muddied up my love for you.
Jesus says to the woman, where is your love
for God because I don’t see any of that? You
are full of all these religious ideas, but I
don’t see your godly fire when you have had
“five husbands” and the one you are with is
not your husband.
When you can no longer tell the difference
between whether you are loving God or
loving yourself, then your fire is dead. When
you are loving the rewards, you are
anticipating and nothing about God, then no
more fire.
The godly soul, on fire, use to love God and
serve him with fear but right now there is no
fire, so there is no fear. That’s the reason
why you have had five and still not enough.
You are too deeply rooted in religion that
you no longer have that fire for God. “Our
forefathers worshiped on this mountain, but
you [Jews] say that Jerusalem is the place
where it is necessary and proper to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, a
time is coming when you will worship the
Father neither [merely] in this mountain nor
[merely] in Jerusalem. You [Samaritans] do
not know what you are worshiping [you
worship what you do not comprehend]. We
do know what we are worshiping [we
worship what we have knowledge of and
understand], for [after all] salvation comes
from [among] the Jews. A time will come,
however, indeed it is already here, when the
true (genuine) worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the
Father is seeking just such people as these as
His worshipers. God is a Spirit (a spiritual
Being) and those who worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth
(reality),” John 4:20-24. It’s about the love
and the fire and not philosophical ideas.
1 Thes. 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit,” means
quench not the godly fire.
Rev. 2:4 says, “But I have this against you:
You have abandoned your first love.” You
no longer have that godly fire for me like
you did before.
How many believers are lukewarm, and they
don’t even realize that they are.
Rev. 3:16, “So, because you are lukewarm
water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you
out of my mouth!”
 8. From Stranger to Messiah
“The woman said to Him, I know that
Messiah is coming, He Who is called the
Christ (the Anointed One); and when He
arrives, He will tell us everything we need to
know and make it clear to us. Jesus said to
her, I Who now speak with you am He. Just
then His disciples came and they wondered
(were surprised, astonished) to find Him
talking with a woman [a married woman].
However, not one of them asked Him, What
are You inquiring about? or What do You
want? or, Why do You speak with her? Then
the woman left her water jar and went away
to the town. And she began telling the
people, Come, see a Man Who has told me
everything that I ever did! Can this be [is not
this] the Christ? [Must not this be the
Messiah, the Anointed One?], John 4:25-29.
The woman left her water jar
What a dramatic turn around when she
encountered the Messiah. When her fire was
kindled and her love redeemed and restored,
she left her water pot. I can imagine out of
joy and excitement, the woman dropping
that clay jar and shattering it into pieces.
When she dropped that jar, all protocols
broke. Amen and glory to God.
When Jesus broke protocols, it was not
meant to be rude but to restore kingdom
order. That’s grace. Where the law excludes
us, grace grafted us in. “An Ammonite or
Moabite shall not enter into the congregation
of the Lord; even to their tenth generation
their descendants shall not enter into the
assembly of the Lord forever,” Deut. 23:3.
That law ended with David, a man after
God’s own heart, as the tenth generation of a
Moabite woman.
With that godly fire, I could hear the woman
say, “Come, see a Man Who has told me
everything that I ever did!” He must be the
Christ, the Anointed One and Messiah.
Like the apostle Paul, she continues with
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good
news) of Christ, for it is God's power
working unto salvation [for deliverance
from eternal death] to everyone who
believes with a personal trust and a
confident surrender and firm reliance, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek,” Rom. 1:16.

“Therefore you are no longer outsiders

(exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from
the rights of citizens), but you now share
citizenship with the saints (God's own
people, consecrated and set apart for
Himself); and you belong to God's [own]
household,” Eph. 2:19.

He is our peace and has broken down every

middle war of (religious) partition that
separated us and made us one with God.
“For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of
unity and harmony). He has made us both
[Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has
broken down (destroyed, abolished) the
hostile dividing wall between us,” Eph.
2:14.
 9. Many Samaritans Believed

Making God familiar

What does it mean to believe in God from a
Jewish perspective? Why is that question
important? It is important because the Bible
was given or written to Jewish people for us.
You must see it through the lens of a Jewish
audience and not through your 21st century
seminarian interpretation. That’s what we
call going backstage. To believe that God
exist is completely nonsense because either
he exists, or he doesn’t. It is not a subject for
faith. Faith means something that you
cannot explain rationally. It is not that there
is no explanation but only that the
explanation cannot be explained or known
rationally. Whenever we face circumstances
that cannot be known rationally, we have
another tool to deal with the circumstances
that the human brain cannot handle, and that
tool is faith.
Faith in God simply means familiarity (the
call of Abraham and his journey was about
getting him to become familiar with God,
getting to know God better. Through his
journey, when circumstances arose that his
human brain and reasoning couldn’t handle;
he had another tool that was developed
through his journey with which he could
deal with the circumstances. It was FAITH.)
We know God exist, but that existence is
often from a distance and often seen as
irrelevant to our own existence. Faith means
making God familiar.
Whenever someone asks why you believe in
God, it has nothing to do with where and did
the world begin, or who created the world.
What the person is asking without knowing
is, there is a God but why do you care? Why
do you want to base your life on God? Why
that may be a good question; it is not always
a rational decision. Why your mind may
insist that there is a God, your mind does not
insist that you must serve him. What your
mind tells you is that you are dependent on
him and therefore, you must pray to him and
appease him, praise him, and complement
him in order for him to be good to you.
That’s a horrible position to be in as a
human being. Exposure to such religious
thinking over the years is just sad.
Actual Jewish thinking: we are not needy
and dependent on God. God is the one who
is needy, and He is depending on us. That is
FAITH. We are familiar with God because
God needs us more than we need him.
Commandments or 10 commandments is a
terrible translation because it has ruined
everything with regards to God’s need of us
in regard to our need of God. Every time we
speak of commandments with regards to
God, it carries the idea that God is not
friendly anymore and you got to be very
careful of how you relate to him in violation
of a commandment.
When God spoke to the Jewish people at
Mount Sinai, he wasn’t telling them what
they must do but on the other hand, he was
telling them what he must have. It’s about
the kind of world he needs and the kind of
world he envisioned when he created it. So,
God revealed himself and that’s why we call
it revelation at Mount Sinai. Imagine getting
this into our educational system and our
thinking that we need God more than God
needs us. Here is the reality of that. If God
created us, then who needs whom? How did
human beings ever become the needy ones
when he created us? The question someone
may be asking is, don’t we need to eat, to
drink and all that? But that’s how he created
us. If God created you with a need to eat and
drink then you don’t have to worry about it.
He provided food to eat and water to drink
for Israel in the wilderness. When God says,
if you follow my commandments, you will
have this and all of that, it’s because he is
indebted to you and not a reward for
following his commandments. In other
words, God says, I created you because I
need you this way, so if I need you this way,
then I will provide whatever is required for
you because I need you. He must keep me
healthy, feed me protect me, etc., or else
how can I serve him.
Religion has switched the needy party from
God to human beings and used that as a
whip thus making people to have a form of
godliness and must be religious because they
are so dependent on God. If he turns off on
you or against you then you are in big
trouble and you will go to hell. This is an
infectious thinking that has been used by
religions for many centuries to keep people
in bondage to serve religious institutions
instead of God’s need.
I want to serve a God that I can do for and
not have him do for me. My reason for
serving God should not be because I want to
get from him. He created me with some
specific needs and he’s always going to take
care of those needs. They shouldn’t be my
problem and my worry.
Let me ask this question, are we here or do
exist just to get from God what we need,
which he made us need? That wouldn’t
make any sense at all. What is life all about?
Fulfilling your needs. Did I ever ask for
those needs? Off course not but, you spend
your whole life taking care of your needs.
Why if you don’t then you go to hell
according to religion. That’s so silly. On the
contrary, God is the needy one and not us.
Here are the two important virtues as the
result of that understanding.
1. God becomes lovable and not distant
and cold and invulnerable.
 2. It’s a relief by taking the burden off
your conscience by knowing that you
are not the needy one.
You don’t have to or neither do you need to
do this or that as religions make it appear.
You did not create yourself and neither did
you create the world. You are here because
God has a vast eternal need and if you can
do something for him, then you justify your
existence by doing that. Stop looking for
deep repressed needs and stop letting people
tell you that you have more needs than you
think you have. Instead, tell me that I do not
have any need because I did not ask to be
born. Now you can see that why you are
here makes all the sense in the world. He
who created you has a purpose for you and
made you with needs that he can take care
of.
What Judaism introduced to the world is that
God is a Someone and not an object. What
makes God a Someone? As a Someone God
has preferences, He makes choices, He has
feelings and opinions.
You can’t ask the question What is God
without also asking what is it to believe in
God? The question what is to believe in God
makes it look like there is no God and
therefore, we just must believe it, as if it’s
your believe in God that gives his existence
validity. What question means that God is
the figment of your believe and exist only in
your imagination but he is not real. So, if
you are not a strong believer then your God
is not very real and if you believe very
strongly then your God is very real. That
means you’re left with a choice like, I wish I
could believe in God, but I don’t. The
conclusion then is that we have the believers
on one hand and the nonbelievers on the
other side and no-one can switch from one
side to the other. That would be interestingly
laughable. The day a nonbeliever decides to
believe that means he made have lost his
mind and vice versa. What made him to
suddenly believe or to unbelieve when God
is only the figment of the imagination and
not real?
What is the definition of God? The simplest
definition of God is “that which was at the
beginning.” The universe and creation had a
beginning, and it is that beginning that we
call God, “in the beginning God created…”
Gen. 1:1. It is from that original being or
that beginning that everything else evolved.
According, to evolution, the earth became as
a subatomic particle (huge mass of liquid
gas that gradually cold and hardened).
Whether big bang or small bang, it started
with something and that something is what
we call God.
This is the part that I love. As the result of
this simple definition there is no one who
doesn’t believe in God. The only people
who don’t believe in God are people who
don’t want to think.
For instance, the theory of evolution is a
belief in God but the only problem with that
belief is that the God they are talking about
is a subatomic particle. What they are saying
is that at the beginning there was a
subatomic particle present, which was
eternal and when it exploded, everything
else became history. Therefore, everyone
else has a god or believe in a god. What was
at the beginning? God was at the beginning
and it’s this God that Judaism introduced to
the world as a Someone. See also Acts
17:22-30.
God is a scientific fact because the whole
idea of evolution is trying to figure out how
it all started from the beginning. You may
refer to God as an “it” or a thing, that’s ok
even though he is not.