ABRAM BECOMES ABRAHAM (Gen 17-18)
Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, YAHUAH appeared to Abram once again saying, “I'm Yahuah Al Shaddai (STRONG SUFFICIENT ALAHIM OF THE MOUNTAIN), come walk before me and behave perfectly. I'm refreshing My Blood-Covenant I made with you son, and no longer will you be known as Abram (EXALTED FATHER), for I’m changing your name to Abraham (FATHER OF MANY). Now it’s time to begin increasing your family so that you become the father of nations. Yes, Kings and Priests shall come from your loins and My Blood Covenant of Deliverance will be for all of their generations too, for I'm giving your descendants all of this land of Canaan as an eternal inheritance and I'll reign over all of them, blessing and protecting them”.
And after changing Abram’s name, YAHUAH refreshed His Blood-Covenant with Abraham saying, “This refreshed Blood-Covenant between Me and you has terms Abraham and involves the seed from your loins, and so ANIMAL BLOOD WILL NOT SEAL THE DEAL HERE, for this is far too important, so much so, that you and all the men in your household, (whether slave or free) are to circumcise the flesh of their foreskins and BE PARTAKERS IN THIS SHEDDING OF BLOOD AS A SIGN OF MY BLOOD COVENANT WITH YOU. Every male child born into your household is to be circumcised after 8 days, for any male found in your household that is not showing this SIGN of My Blood-Covenant in their flesh will be cut off for being disobedient. Indeed all the nations that are produced from your circumcised flesh shall be born into My Blood Covenant of Deliverance.
It is your responsibility to Guard My Instructions and My Covenant Abraham, behave perfectly and do not call your wife Sarai anymore, for she is to be refreshed in this Covenant too and you shall now call her Sarah (PRINCESS) for I'm about to bless her with a son, yes, she will give you a son Abraham and Kings and Priests shall come from her body.”
And Abraham fell on his face and cracked-up laughing, saying to himself “How on earth will a child be born to me when I’m 99 years old, or Sarah who is 90?” And Abraham said to YAHUAH, “That’s crazy-talk, just let my son Ishmael carry this promise for You, we’re way too old to have a child now”. But YAHUAH said “No Abraham, your wife Sarah is to have a son and you will call him Isaac and I will continue My Blood Covenant with him also and with his descendants. And don’t worry about your son Ishmael, for I have heard your request and I know you love him very much, so I will bless him also and he shall be a mighty nation, bringing forth 12 princes. However I will continue to establish My Blood-Covenant through Isaac, who Sarah will give birth to next year”.
And after YAHUAH had finished speaking, Abraham immediately took his 13 year old son Ishmael and all of the males in his household, (both slave and free) and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, sealing them all through their bloodshed in the Blood-Covenant, just as YAHUAH had commanded, for indeed this refreshed Blood-Covenant of Deliverance and Relationship (ONCE SEALED WITH ANIMAL BLOOD TO AN UNCIRCUMCISED ADAM, NOAH AND ABRAM) was now made alive through the cutting away and shed blood of Abraham’s own flesh as the mediator, for his behaviour and obedience pleased YAHUAH greatly in his generation.
ABRAM’S COVENANT INVOLVED THE BLOOD OF ANIMALS BUT ABRAHAM’S REFRESHED COVENANT INVOLVED MANKIND’S OWN BLOOD (FROM THEIR FORESKINS). REMEMBER YAHUAH'S EARS ARE DIRECTLY LINKED TO THE DIVINE `LIFE-FREQUENCY' OF MANKIND'S BLOOD - MAKING THE SHEDDING OF IT A FAR MORE POWERFUL `BRIDGING OF RELATIONSHIP' THAN MERE ANIMAL BLOOD !!
CIRCUMCISION ...
REMEMBER THAT STANDARD COVENANT-PROTOCOL REQUIRED SHEDDING OF BLOOD (TYPICALLY ANIMAL BLOOD) AND THE CUTTING OF FLESH (TYPICALLY ANIMAL FLESH) AND THE SEPARATING OF THAT CUT-UP FLESH INTO TWO GROUPS. HERE, WITH CIRCUMCISION, THE COVENANT PROCEDURE OCCURRED USING THE MALE BODY AS THE SACRIFICIAL FLESH - THE FLESH WAS CUT, BLOOD SHED, AND THE CUT-UP FLESH SEPARATED; ONE PART BURIED IN THE GROUND, THE OTHER REMAINING ON THE BODY. QUITE LITERALLY, ABRAHAM AND HIS MALE DESCENDANTS WORE THE COVENANT, AND WERE THE COVENANT. THE PENALTY FOR REFUSING THE CIRCUMCISION COVENANT WAS STERN: YOU WERE TO BE CUT-OFF FROM YOUR PEOPLE. THIS WAS BOTH SPIRITUAL AND LITERAL. WHEN A MALE DESCENDANT OF ABRAHAM REFUSED THE CIRCUMCISION, OR WHEN A PARENT REFUSED TO HAVE THEIR BOY-CHILD CIRCUMCISED ON THE 8TH DAY AFTER BIRTH, THEY WERE PHYSICALLY SEPARATED FROM THE CLAN, AND THEY WERE SPIRITUALLY SEPARATED FROM YAHUAH. THEY WERE NO LONGER HEBREWS AND COULD CLAIM NO RIGHT TO ANY OF YAHUAH’S PROMISES. THIS IS WHY YAHUAH, THROUGH PAUL, EXPLAINED THAT WHAT YAHUSHA REALLY WANTED WAS CIRCUMCISED HEARTS, NOT CIRCUMCISED FLESH. HE WANTS OUR HEARTS TO ACCEPT AND WEAR THE BLOOD-COVENANT THAT CAME TO US AT SO GREAT A PRICE (YAHUSHA'S BLOOD). AT IMMERSION, OUR HEARTS ARE CIRCUMCISED AND WE ARE VERY LITERALLY ACCEPTING YAHUAH’S BLOOD-COVENANT PROTOCOL UPON OURSELVES. AND NOW WE FIND OURSELVES IN THE SAME POSITION AS ABRAHAM: EITHER WE ARE CIRCUMCISED BY ACCEPTING THE NEW COVENANT WHICH IS THE BLOOD OF YAHUSHA, OR WE REFUSE IT. IF WE ACCEPT IT, WE ARE ACCEPTED AS PART OF HIS BRIDE. IF WE REFUSE, WE ARE CUT-OFF……SEPARATED…..
INFO ON ISHMAEL'S DESCENDANTS
ABRAHAM WAS HAPPY WITH ISHMAEL. HE LOVED ISHMAEL. HE CONSIDERED ISHMAEL HIS FIRSTBORN SON. HE NEVER EVEN REMOTELY THOUGHT OF ISHMAEL AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN HIS LEGITIMATE, MUCH LOVED, HEIR. BUT LET’S BE VERY CLEAR HERE: YAHUAH EMPHATICALLY REJECTED ISHMAEL AS THE ONE WHO WOULD CARRY ON THE LINE OF THE BLOOD-COVENANT PROMISE THAT YAHUAH HAD MADE WITH ABRAHAM. THIS IS NOT CONJECTURE. RATHER, IT WOULD BE ISAAC WHO WOULD BE THE ONE.
BUT TODAY, MUSLIMS CLAIM THAT THE SCRIPTURES HAVE BEEN MODIFIED TO REFLECT ISAAC AS THE FAVORED SON, WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ISHMAEL. HERE IS ANOTHER DIVISION BY YAHUAH; A SEPARATION, AND AN ELECTION. YOU SEE, ISAAC WOULD BE GRANDFATHER OF THE YISHARALITES, WHO WOULD EVENTUALLY BRING THE MESSIAH INTO THE WORLD; WHILE ISHMAEL WOULD BE GRANDFATHER TO THE ARABS.
UNDERSTAND, ISLAM IS NOT A RACE OF PEOPLE; IT IS BUT THE RELIGION THE ARABS ADOPTED SOME 6 CENTURIES AFTER YAHUSHA’S DEATH AND RESURRECTION. BUT, THE MUSLIMS SEE NO DIFFERENCE FOR THEY CALL ISHMAEL, AND ABRAHAM, THE FATHER OF ISLAM. YET, HOW QUICKLY WE TEND TO OVERLOOK WHAT YAHUAH SAYS TO ABRAHAM, REFERRING TO ISHMAEL, “I HAVE BLESSED HIM”. OR, IN A BETTER TRANSLATION, “I AM BLESSING HIM”.
ISAAC IS THE LINE OF PROMISE. BUT, ISHMAEL IS ALSO BLESSED……JUST NOT AS BEING THE LINE OF PROMISE. IF FACT, IT IS NOTEWORTHY THAT JUST AS YISHARAL WOULD CONSIST OF 12 PRINCE (12 TRIBES)…..SO WOULD THE DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL BE MADE UP OF 12 TRIBES. IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT NOT ONLY IS ABRAHAM THE TRUE FATHER OF THE ARABS, JUST AS HE IS THE TRUE FATHER OF YISHARAL; BUT THAT SHEM, THE BLESSED LINE OF GOOD, IS THE FOREFATHER OF BOTH ARABS AND JEWS. BOTH OF THESE PEOPLE GROUPS ARE SHEMITES.
HAS ISHMAEL BEEN BLESSED? WELL, NOT ONLY HAVE THE ARABS GROWN INTO AN ENORMOUS POPULATION, FAR OUTSTRIPPING THE NUMBER OF YISHARALITES, BUT LOOK IN OUR TIME HOW THEY HAVE BEEN BLESSED. 100 YEARS AGO THE MIDDLE EAST WAS LOOKED UPON AS PERHAPS THE MOST WORTHLESS EXPANSE OF LAND ON THE ENTIRE PLANET. YET, THERE, UNDER THE DRY DESERT SAND, THEY HAVE ALSO DISCOVERED ABOUT HALF OF THE EARTH’S OIL RESERVES, WHICH HAVE MADE THE ARABS AMONG THE WEALTHIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. UNFORTUNATELY, THE ARAB CULTURE HAS REMAINED TRIBAL, AND SO ONLY A FEW OF THE MOST POWERFUL BENEFIT FROM THIS VAST WEALTH.
Interesting eh !
YAHUAH AND HIS MESSENGERS
One afternoon while Abraham was sitting in the doorway of his tent, escaping the afternoon heat under the terebinth oak trees in Mamre, YAHUAH appeared to him. Abraham looked up and saw YAHUAH standing there with two of His Messengers right in front of him and in sheer excitement he jumped up to greet them, bowing himself on the ground, “Please Yahuah let me find favor in Your eyes today, come and join me under these trees, let me wash your feet and let us break bread and feast together, please don’t go my Master, stay!”
And YAHUAH said “Of course we’ll stay, get everything ready Abraham”. So Abraham ran into the tent and told Sarah to make some bread-cakes for their guests, then he ran to his herds, found a good calf, telling his servants to prepare it along with their finest curds and milk.
Soon after, Abraham set it all out in front of their guests under the trees, and stood by them as they ate. “Where is your wife Sarah?” YAHUAH asked, “Over in the tent,” Abraham replied. “I’ve got exciting news for you Abraham. Next year I will return to you because your wife Sarah is going to have a son”.
And Sarah (who was listening at the tent-door right behind them) laughed to herself, for she knew she was way to old to have children anymore and she mocked inside herself, “Now He decides to bless me with children and give me some pleasure, now that I am so unbelievably old! As if that will ever happen! Especially since my husband is so ‘over the hill’ too!”
And YAHUAH said to Abraham, “Why does your wife laugh, saying she is far too old to have children?
Is anything too hard for Me? Can’t I do anything? I’m telling you that at the appointed time next year I will return to you and Sarah will have a son”. And Sarah lied, denying that she laughed, making excuses for her behaviour of unbelief because she chose to be afraid, but YAHUAH said “No, you did laugh!” Letting her know that He could see her innermost feelings and thoughts.
ABRAHAM THE NEGOTIATOR
YAHUAH and His two Messengers rose up after the meal and looked towards Sodom and Abraham walked with them to see them off. And YAHUAH said to His two Messengers “I’m going to tell Abraham what I’m about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, since he serves and follows My Instructions and teaches his family and everyone within his camp to guard all that I’ve taught him. I know the thoughts of his heart, that his behaviour is clean and perfect in his generation”.
So YAHUAH spoke to Abraham: “It has come to My attention how perverse and depraved the people in Sodom and Gomorrah are; cruel, violent gluttons, living a constant wickedness in My face day and night with no generosity or compassion for the poor, so we are heading there right now to destroy them for their sinfulness!”
And the two Messengers headed off towards Sodom but YAHUAH stayed back to chat more with Abraham, who was shocked by this news, “Are you serious my Master Yahuah? What if there are 50 people in the cities that walk according to Your Instructions, will you destroy all the good people with the bad? You are the Creator of all the earth and the skies and the judge over all, so does that seem fair to you?"
And YAHUAH said “Ok My son, if I find 50 people who walk with Me in Sodom then I will spare the city and not destroy them”.
And Abraham said “I know I am nothing and no one. Who am I but dust and ashes of the earth to speak to the mighty Yahuah like this, but what if there are 5 less than 50 people? Would you destroy the whole city for the sake of 5 less?"
And YAHUAH said “Fine, if I find 45 people with behaviour that pleases Me I will spare the city”. And this negotiation went back and forth for a while until Abraham had pleaded with YAHUAH to spare the city of Sodom if He found only 10 people who followed His Instructions.
The translation has altered somewhat since this (1st EDITION) recording, but still easy-to-grasp :-)
