A Little Learning Together
Please pray for Israel and the rise in violence and tensions with the Palestinians. I can tell you from first-hand experience, they unfortunately are too often exactly what we see in Gen. 16:11-12!
A little learning together regarding those verses. We should note that it’s Yeshua in his divinity as the Angel of the LORD, who speaks to Hagar about what her son Yishmael (God hears) will be like.
There are at least several if not more appearances of Yeshua in his divinity as the Angel of the LORD in the Torah. Cf. also Ish. 37:36. One way we see this is that the Hebrew for angel in most of those instances is slightly different then that used to refer to other angels.
These appearances of Yeshua are traditionally called by the Western Tradition System “theophanies”. It’s a Greek-based word basically indicating the appearance of divinity.
The appearance of Yeshua to Hagar is the only one that I’m aware of in which he speaks directly to a non-Jew about a situation that did not completely deal with the Hebrew Patriarchs or Jewish People.
Also, as a quick note; the rabbis correctly point out – Hagar is the only non-Jew – in the entire Bible – to give a name to God cf. Gen. 16:13.
The word in Hebrew used to describe Yishmael as a “wild ass of a man” in Gen. 16:12 is not the usual Hebrew word for a donkey. The word used in Gen. 16:12 refers to a particular type of donkey that was both very swift and so wild that it could not be domesticated!
Again, I can tell you from very first-hand experience dealing with and observing Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem, that they can be extremely extremely emotional! When it comes to emotions, they are the polar opposite of New Englanders! In the Middle East in general on a scale of 1 to 10 regarding emotions, emotions are often somewhere between 12 and 15!
The Israelis are also very very emotional.
When Rachel and I had an apartment in downtown Jerusalem on one of our several trips there together, I would try to walk to the Western Wall for traditional morning prayer. At that time, it was safe for me as a Jew to enter the Old City through Jaffa Gate. Jaffa Gate is a very short distance north of Mount Zion. From Jaffa Gate I would then turn slightly left and head down the smooth, well-weathered stone steps of the northwest part of the Shuk, the Arab Market.
I could have also continued past it and gone a couple of hundred yards or so and taking a left into a narrow alleyway that leads into the Rova, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. I liked to go through part of the Shuk purposely in order to prayer walk for the Arabs. An amazing experience and perhaps more on this for another time. Incidentally, the least known of the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem? The Armenian Quarter.
I would go down those very smooth steps of the Shuk a way and then take a right which would lead me to a back entrance on the left at the back of the Western Wall Plaza. (Of course, you have to pass through a security checkpoint. I also liked to use that particular entrance because it’s not one tourists use, so there was never a line at the security checkpoint).
Tremendous, tremendous emotions by the Arabs in the Shuk! You could also literally – literally – feel tension in the air. I could very strongly sense that this tension was something generally present there and was not there just because a Jew was passing through there.
There was also a tremendous feeling in a very palpable way of spiritual warfare!
You could literally see – and even feel (!) – exactly what Yeshua said Yishmael would be in Gen. 16! The World has seen in the last couple of decades in particular about what the rest of Gen. 16:12 says: “… his hand at (literally (the)) totality (i.e., “all”); and – in connectedness – hand of (the) totality (i.e., “all”) (against) him deeply”…
The Hebrew word translated “all” or in this instance perhaps “everyone” is the word for “whole”. One of the great Torah teachers explains more deeply that it also means “totality”. The Hebrew at the end of Gen. 16:12 is difficult to render in English. I rendered “…him deeply” to try to bring out the deeper meaning, because the usual Hebrew word “him” is not used. It is something deeper.
Gen. 16:12 finishes with “… and in connectedness in an encompassing way His face over in an encompassing way his brothers he will dwell”. One of the great Torah teachers points out that “dwell” in Hebrew in general indicates something temporary and that it includes the meaning “to dwell like a neighbor”.
It is different than “reside”; reside has more of a permanent nature to it. “Dwell” is something for which there’s more than enough material and importance for its own teaching!
We should note the reference to “his brothers” in Gen. 16:12. The various Greek words for brothers and sisters are used 370 times in the RCS. “Xristianos” ” Christians”? Only three times. Paul not only never calls himself “Christian”, he never uses the word – period. Paul does use and does put tremendous emphasis on brothers and sisters. He uses those words between 125-150 times!
We very very much should be encouraged to see each other according to the actual Biblical emphasis; “brothers/sisters”!
To Return about the Descendants of Yishmael
This is not to say – by any means – that “every single Arab” is necessarily emotionally out of control. Just that overall, this was my overall firsthand experience and observation with non-Christian Arabs, particularly in or closer to their own areas in Israel.
The Palestinians are people who very very very much need prayer! As I said above it’s one reason I would prayer walk through part of the Arab Market to get to the Western Wall for traditional prayer.
The Palestinians actually have a lot of potential. Unfortunately, their own government does them no favors. What is a shame about what’s happened over the last few decades or more, is that overall, many Israelis have gone from wanting to trying to work something out with the Palestinians, to wanting nothing to do with them.
I’ve also known and had experiences with any number of Arab Muslims in the U.S. Sometimes here I can tell they’re not, shall we say, too fond of me, but overall, they have tended to be much much friendly towards me then their brethren in Israel! In the U.S., I never feared for my safety being around them.
Muslims here have tended to appreciate that I’ve spent some time in Israel and understand a little bit as to what’s what in that part of the world.
Christian Arabs living in the U.S., who originally came from Lebanon or somewhere else in the Middle East, I’ve also had much rapport with, for the same reason.
Things in the Middle East are much different than what Western media typically portrays.
To Return To Yeshua as The Angel of the LORD
Western Tradition typically cites the theophanies as a proof text of the divinity of Yeshua. One very highly regarded evangelical scholar who wrote a book taking a very very technical look at several verses in the Greek text about whether they spoke of the divinity of Yeshua, at the end came to this conclusion:
The best place to find the divinity of Yeshua, was in the Hebrew Scriptures!
Here though is something extremely extremely key that Western tradition misses: the context of those theophanies. They are virtually always – always – in the context of either helping the Patriarchs Abraham (“father of many”) Yitzchak, (“Laughter”, “Isaac”) and Ya’akov (“Heelcatcher”/reward (of the) LORD, “Jacob”), or the Jewish People.
Unfortunately, Western Tradition in its rush to prove the divinity of Yeshua, looks at the theophanies as just a “proof text” for Yeshua’s divinity.
What they miss – and what you unfortunately get robbed of – is the context of these appearances of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible. The context is, again, that Yeshua comes when the Jewish People need help!
Christians unfortunately also are not taught that Yeshua – uniquely – appears to the Jewish People both in his divinity and his Jewish humanity!
This all serves to keep Christians attached to the post Biblical Western “JC”; but detached from the real Yeshua Hamashiach and the Jewish People he is still part of the whole of – cf. esp. Rev. 5:5, 22:16.
Without unfortunately often being aware of it, the way theophanies are typically taught is one way that Christians are made numb to the Jewish People or their Jewish Brothers.
Imagine the tremendous tremendous potential positive possibilities, if my very dear Christian brethren were taught that Yeshua is part and parcel of the Jewish People uniquely; in both his divinity and his Jewish humanity.
Imagine the tremendous positive potential possibilities if followers heard the actual Biblical emphasis about being brothers/sisters, as much as they heard about being Christians!
Rich blessings to you and yours in Yeshua’s name!
Jacob