Israel has a rainy season, basically December and January. Israel generally gets virtually all of its rain then. It doesn’t get rain throughout the year as many places do.
I was blessed to spend a summer there when I was younger, and I don’t recall a single day of rain, or anything being postponed or rained out.
A main source of Israel’s drinking water is supplied from the Kinneret (as explained before “Sea of Galilee”).
In the area along the Salt Sea (Hebrew; “Dead Sea”) you see deep wadis, dry riverbeds that are cut into the sandy soil, below the hills, that run to the Sea. The wadis are caused by sudden winter downpours that cause a literal river to flow swiftly over the hills a short distance west of the Sea.
On the road between the Sea and the hills towards the northwest side of the Sea, there are warnings of winter flash floods. When my wife and I drove through there one December, I kept a sharp eye out!
This area is also where David hid out from Saul.
A number of the Shine Forth Songs Of Praise that David was inspired to write, are because this is a very difficult area to survive in; most especially when on the run or hiding from enemies!
When David writes how the LORD protected and provided and sustained him, he does so very very much from Hebrew’s “know”; that of experience, intimacy, and personal relationship.
David writes “concretely”, that is, not based on philosophical contemplating about God, but rather based on being concretely protected from his enemies. That David did not sustain himself by his own effort, but that he needed the LORD to provide for him physically as well as spiritually.
In Mideast heat one can quickly succumb to, God forbid, heatstroke or dehydration. Tourists are told to be well hydrated and that if one starts to, in Yiddish “plutz”, sort of “oy I’ve had it”, it’s too late.
If one has experienced this type of heat, one can much more readily understand why my ancestors (the Israelites) we’re so focused on water to drink!
We have to realize also, that given the hundreds of years they had spent in Constraint ( basic meaning of the Hebrew name “Egypt”), despite being Redeemed by the LORD and Yeshua in his divinity as the angel of the LORD (cf. Ex. 14:13-14; v.19; cf. Judges 2:2-3; cf. esp. 1 Cor. 10:4!)) and Moshe, it would take time for the Israelites to ascend spiritually to be able to transcend physical difficulties.
In short for here, we also see one reason Abraham exhibits Mashiach-like character and action at the beginning of Gen. 18.
In short, the Torah Gen. 18, tells us Avraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day; we should take particular note. However, what we really need to take note of is the following.
Abraham interrupts his personal time with the LORD in order to tend to the needs of the three men approaching his tent. One of these three we know was the Mashiach.
In context, Gen. 17, Abraham had just undergone the Covenant of circumcision commanded him by the LORD. Due to Abraham’s what’s called in Hebrew spiritual level, there’s a great deal of rabbinic debate in Hebrew whether Abraham actually was sore afterwards or not.
Either way we should note; Abraham makes no excuses! He doesn’t tell the men “Sorry, I’m too sore to help you” etc. etc. Abraham exhibits one of the greatest characteristics of which Mashiach is our alternate model; no Self! Cf. Phpn. 2:5-11 et al.
Abraham makes no excuses. Abraham interrupts his time with the LORD, in order to tend to the needs of others! Abraham is not thinking about his Self whatsoever!
One of the great Torah teachers astutely and correctly points out in Hebrew, that the spiritual drives the material which drives to spiritual. Meaning here, Abraham’s very high spiritual level drove him to take care of the needs of the three men who appeared at his tent In the heat of the day.
The Torah doesn’t say that Abraham went to take care of their needs but rather – he ran! Again, no excuses – and Mashiach-like no Self. Abraham makes sure the physical needs of the three men were taken care of.
We then what is driven spiritually; Yeshua tells Abraham he will have a son (the one that will be his heir Yitzchak (“Isaac”, from the Hebrew to laugh or call out cf. Gen. 18:13&15; cf. v.14! etc.).
In short for here, the LORD says in Hebrew that the reflex/response will be, something set in motion without stopping, blessed in an encompassing way, that of (deep) within him (Abraham) the totality of the Nations of the Earth. Gen. 18:18.
In other words, in Hebrew, something set in motion without stopping is that the Nations of the Earth will be blessed in Abraham.
In Hebrew the form of the word blessed is dependent on the word that follows. That form and that word is grammatically dependent on, more deeply “of deep within him”. (The Hebrew translated “him” is not the usual word “him” and it’s hard to render never mind to translate in English).
Speaking the truth in love Eph. 4:15 – the Nations are not going to bless themselves through chasing after signs and wonders, their mega buildings, charismatic personalities, membership in a “denomination”, or a set of theological positions set forth in Latin by a “Re-Former”…..
It Is by their spiritual father Abraham cf. Gal. 3, and because of the work that he did, as our Master points out in Yochanon 8:39. This aspect of the work, i.e. the Godly action that was a result of the Godly character of Avraham, is unfortunately seemingly given little emphasis today.
We should also note: the very opening of the Good News, Mt. 1:1 calls Yeshua son of Abraham.
So let us be inspired by one of the greatest men who ever lived, the Hebrew Abraham!
When necessary, let us also not make “excuses” or let our Self get in the way, when there are those who need help and we are in a position to help them!
Abraham knew – Hebraically, by experience – that people traveling In the heat of the day in the land of Israel needed sustenance or it very well could be deadly!
In short also quickly for here, I’d be very remiss if I didn’t point out that the LORD speaks of the exercise of two of the LORD’S attributes that He exercises towards Man, that Abraham will do “…for/ with direction toward/ to do righteousness and in connectedness justice”, end of Gen. 18:19.
As a quick note, a very fine contemporary rabbi points out that these two terms are found together some 60 times in the Hebrew Bible!
Another fine contemporary rabbi makes a very insightful point about water. That is, if you put a hundred separate drops of water on a table they will quickly dry up and be of no use! However, put them all together in a glass and they can be drunk and help sustain us physically so that we can serve the LORD.
The rabbi’s point is that a bunch of individual Jews does not accomplish much; that they all have to meld together to be effective. How much more so for the followers of Yeshua!
As the rabbi also astutely points out, the seas and rivers are not the result of individual drops of rain that sustain the world – but rather it is when they all come together!
Imagine the tremendous positive potential possibilities for the World, if the Body was like individual drops of water that all come together!
Please pray for all those experiencing ongoing physical pain and difficulty and for whom each day is a physical struggle.
May we be encouraged and strengthened to hasten the day of God, and that the knowledge of the LORD covers the Earth like the seas, and that all physical suffering pain and struggle will be will be over!
Your brother,
Jacob
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