Tam.V I) Reading the Torah Portion Now It’S Time to Read the Torah Portion
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3-Year The Torah Portion | Parashat #48 Torah Cycle Shemot (Reading 3 of 3) September 7, 2019 Parashat #48 tAm.v I) Reading the Torah Portion Now it’s time to read the Torah portion. You will get the most out of the Torah portion if you have a Shemot disciplined plan for approaching it each week. I suggest the following (although you may want to develop your own plan of attack). Prepare by having a pen and paper ready to take notes or by Exodus 4:14 – 6:1 having your computer ready. Read the Torah portion quickly just to get a bird’s-eye view of it and Isaiah 55:12-56:7 to gain a general understanding of its contents. Then read it again slowly and more contemplatively. As you read it, you should keep track of 1) changes in the main storyline (plots and subplots) of the Acts 7:35-37 text, 2) the introduction of new major themes you have not encountered heretofore and 3) connections to the main themes developed in the Torah portion. Keeping track of the major themes will provide you with thoughts to help you outline the passage later on. Recording changes in the storyline (subplots) will 1) help you more accurately interpret Scripture and 2) see connections to themes that may be repeated in the Haftarah and Apostolic readings. I strongly recommend that when you study these lessons you have the following tools available. 1) A Bible [all references are based on the NKJV], 2) a printed copy of this lesson, 3) pen and paper [notebook preferred] where you can either write extra notes or complete answers to questions where the lines in this lesson are not enough space to write on, 4) an on-line version of the Bible. I suggest BibleGateway (https://www.biblegateway.com/). There are many instances where I will ask you to make a connection to some other passage. The BibleGateway app has an awesome SEARCH feature to find Bible passages. Also, once you find a passage you can use Control-F or Command-F (MAC users) to find words, numbers or phrases in the text on display. Lastly, as often as possible . have a partner studying with you! II) Outlining the Torah Portion Now that you have read the Torah portion, it’s time to outline it. Try to divide the Torah portion into its major subject divisions. Please limit the outline to no more than seven major headings. Also, try to limit each subject division to a short phrase. In the chart below provide a brief phrase describing each significant change of events in the reading. Outlining will help you develop the skill of “seeing” the themes in the text. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Copyright © 2019 Restoration of Torah Ministries. III) Torah Portion Discussion Questions I have given you a number of questions to stimulate your thought about the Torah portion reading. My goal is two-fold. First, I want to ask you questions about what the Spirit has shown me are important lessons to learn from the Torah reading. Secondly, I want to help you develop the art of making thematic connections. This skill will develop as you practice, practice, practice. Furthermore, once you see the benefits of making thematic connections, I’m hoping that you believe that the language of thematic connections is Adonai’s “language.” 1. Sometimes you can find connections that are not so significant, but are connections, nonetheless. As I’ve said before, you should always meditate on passages and open yourself to the Spirit and ask Him to help you make thematic connections. Some will be not so significant. Some will be seemingly insignificant, yet important as He reveals more truth to you. And some will be epic! How many connections can you find between Exodus 4:14-17 and Genesis 45:12-13? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What passage in our Torah reading gives us a great definition of the function of a prophet? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What passage in the book of Exodus can be given to further strengthen our interpretation above that Moses is defining the role of prophet? This passage will also confirm that Aaron is a prophet. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. From previous lessons, we know that Joseph was a prophetic picture of Moses. Here is another connection between Joseph and Moses. How can we thematically connect Exodus 4:18 (So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”) to Joseph’s life when he was in Egypt? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. How is Exodus 4:22 (Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.”’) thematically connected to Hosea 11:1 and what is its significance? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. At this point you will need to put on your thematic thinking caps to really see what is being taught by the story of the Exodus. At its most basic LITERAL level I am going to give you a summary of what the story of the Exodus (only considering our current point in the book of Exodus) is about: A. The children of Israel have been chosen as recipients of God’s grace through their covenant relationship to Abraham. They are chosen to receive an abundance of grace and mercy because of their relationship with Abraham. B. Israel’s present circumstance does not reflect the reality of the grace and mercy they have obtained through relationship with Abraham. C. The people of Israel are slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. They are in total bondage to him. D. They have known nothing but slavery their entire lives. E. There is no way they can deliver themselves. F. They have no hope and are doomed to a life of slavery. G. Adonai has sent a deliverer, Moses, to deliver Israel from her slavery to Pharaoh so that they can serve their true master, Adonai. H. Pharaoh is resisting and will not allow the children of Israel to leave and serve her true master. Copyright © 2019 Restoration of Torah Ministries. 2 This is our present situation and it forms the prophetic blueprint for everything we read in the New Testament about Adonai’s plan for our deliverance. So, as we continue, please keep the points above in mind so that you can make the connections to what you read in the New Testament. Next, I want you to remember important facts we learned in our study of the book of Genesis. Remember all the narratives we studied pertaining to how the Patriarchs’ wives were taken from them? Remember the prophetic significance of those events? Yes, they were all prophetic events showing how one day Israel, Adonai’s bride, would be taken from Him by Pharaoh (book of Exodus) and enslaved. We saw that the Patriarchs’ wives were prophetic pictures of Israel. The Patriarchs were prophetic pictures of Adonai. Therefore, who are Pharaoh (Genesis 12), Abimelech (Genesis 20 and Genesis 26), Laban (Genesis 28-31) and our current Pharaoh (Exodus 4) prophetic pictures of? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We already know that Moses is a prophetic picture of Yeshua. So, the picture of typology is complete. As we continue to study the Torah we will use our prophetic blueprint to relate what we’re reading in Exodus to what we see in the gospels and epistles. We are about to see how the events in the Exodus teach us about Yeshua’s work on the cross. 7. The Enmity of the Seed – We also saw the importance of Genesis 3:15 in interpreting Scripture. We saw that the seed of the woman represents all of those who keep Adonai’s commandments and have the testimony of Yeshua. However, the seed of the serpent is basically all the unsaved of the world who reject Adonai, His commandments and the Gospel. We learned that the seed of the serpent will always persecute and resist the seed of the woman. Therefore, it is always profitable to identify the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent as we study Scripture because the entire Bible is about the struggle between those two seeds! We know that Yeshua is the seed of the woman. Now let’s identify the seed of the serpent (the ones who persecute and try to kill the seed of the woman) in the Gospels. With whom do we see Yeshua (the seed of the woman) battling most of the time? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________