3-Year The Torah Portion | Parashat #107 Torah Cycle Beha’alotkha (Reading 3 of 4) Parashat #107 November 14, 2020 ^.tol][;h.B I) Reading the Torah Portion Beha’alotkha Now it’s time to read the Torah portion. You will get the most out of the Torah portion if you have a disciplined plan for approaching it each week. I suggest the following (although you may want to Numbers 11:1-35 develop your own plan of attack). Prepare by having a pen and paper ready to take notes or by having Judges 6:1-16 your computer ready. Read the Torah portion quickly just to get a bird’s-eye view of it and to gain a Matthew 6:25-30 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 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 Revelation 21:9-14 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. VIII. Copyright © 2020 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. 1. Did you notice that this week’s Torah portion began talking about food and ended with talking about food? What might this suggest? Hint – it has something to do with a literary pattern! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Read Numbers 11:1-9 and 11:31-35 and explain how they are thematically connected. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Read Numbers 11:10-15 and 11:24-30 and explain how they are thematically connected. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Read Numbers 11:11-16 and 11:18-23 and explain how they are thematically connected. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Discuss how the central axis is functioning. Is it functioning as the most important part/point of the chiastic structure (the divinely highlighted part), or as the point of turning? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. I believe that Moses’ desire in Numbers 11:29 (Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!”) actually shows us a glimpse of what Adonai desired all along! Adonai wanted all His people to be filled with His Spirit. Furthermore, He wanted them to be prophets, inasmuch as a prophet is one who speaks the words of God! Can you think of a passage from the prophets which speaks of a time when Adonai would pour out His Spirit upon His people and a time that they would prophesy? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Besides the connection to Numbers 11:29, how else is Joel 2:28-30 (“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke.) thematically connected to the Torah portion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. How many connections can you find between 2 Kings 4:42-44 (Then a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.” 43 But his servant said, “What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?” He said again, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the LORD: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ” 44 So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.) and the Torah portion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2020 Restoration of Torah Ministries. 2 9. How is Genesis 3:17-19 (Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”) thematically connected to the Torah portion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. The children of Israel ate manna forty years in the wilderness and did not have to sweat at all to get their daily bread. What is the significance of this fact in light of Genesis 3:17-19? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ IV) Messiah in the Parsha In Luke 24:25-27 and 46-47 Yeshua stated that Moses, the Prophets and the Writings all prophesied of His death, burial and resurrection in three days. Therefore, we should expect to see teachings about Yeshua and His role in redemption throughout the Torah. In this section I will ask you questions that will hopefully help you “see” Messiah Yeshua in the Torah portion and sometimes the Haftarah reading as well. 1. We have seen in previous lessons that Moses is a messianic figure. In other words, his life foreshadows that of Messiah Yeshua’s in many ways. For example, we know that Moses’ birth is a prophetic picture of the birth of Messiah, and that Pharaoh is a prophetic picture of Herod. But that’s not the only event in Moses’ life that teaches us about the work