Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Male): Both knew God. Both spoke to God. But only one had faith. This two reminds us of the parable of the wheat and the tares. This is how the kingdom of God began. The wheat and the tare, both in the same field, in the same house, with the same God but with different ending. One with faith, the other one without.

Guest (Female): When I look at my four children, I know that each one is different from the other. Same mother and father for each of them, but different in appearance, motives, drives, likes, and dislikes. Go ask the mom of twins. Even coming from the same zygote, the same egg, twins are different. Science continues to question why there are such differences when the genome pool is the same for twins.

Doesn't this direct our attention to the wonderful passage in Psalm 139 where God is said to be knitting us individually, each one fearfully and wonderfully made? Above all, we know from scripture that we are given a free will that God chooses not to control.

Cain and Abel did not have too many people around them to be influenced by. There were not so many philosophies at the time, social demands and norms that would sway or manipulate them. Yet basically, it comes down to one of two choices. You are either for or against God. In terms of genes, I prefer the ones that God designs. And in terms of choice, I choose to wear His will. Like Cain, we are all accountable. Whose genes then will you wear today?

Guest (Male): Welcome to Messianic Viewpoint. Welcome to our continuing study in the book of Genesis with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in, and Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: I can't begin to tell you how blessed I am to study Genesis. The only problem is that I can't go to the next section because every time you read and reread a section, there's something new always that drives you again. This is why we're taking so long. Let's open our scriptures to Genesis chapter 3 where we will see the beginning and evolution of our civilization. It's a history that was sustained, it was preserved and saved by God from its very beginning all the way through and, of course, to the very end. In many ways, it is His story even though history books today rarely mention the name of God.

So far in our text, we could already see that without His preserving actions, there would not have been any Earth or no civilization at all. Our record begins with Adam and Eve who had two sons, Cain and Abel, but history was about to stop right there and then when Cain, who was thought to be the Messiah, kills his brother.

What a deception it must have been for the parents. From this point on in history, we read of murder. We read of polygamy. We read of pride and hatred, and this is only in one chapter, chapter 4, so it's not a good beginning. After the killing of Abel, in His unconditional love, God raises another man. Adam and Eve had another son, Seth. It is with him that the history of the Bible kept its course.

It is with Seth where we read this curious phrase in chapter 4, verse 26, where it says, "Then men began to call on the name of the Lord" because it seems that early in history, they had already turned their back to God. From this point on, beginning with Seth, the scriptures focus on one particular line of ancestry, that of the promised seed of the woman spoken of in Genesis 3:15.

This was the first prophecy of the coming Messiah and it began with Seth, leading to Noah, to Shem, to Abraham, then to Israel, and then to Jesus. This was a selected and protected line which was to survive amidst many attempts to break it. And so the history begins with Cain and Abel, two distinct individuals: one representing what is good, what is proper, and the other representing what is pride, what is arrogance, what is evil leading to murder.

These two brothers were living in the same environment, same place, same parents, but they were so unlike to each other, and their ending is very different. The Bible never forgot about them. Both are taken as example of what is good and what is evil. And because both were religious, they both came to represent one, the true worshiper, and the other, the religious without faith.

Both knew God. Both spoke to God, but only one had faith. This two reminds us of the parable of the wheat and the tares. This is how the kingdom of God began. The wheat and the tare, both in the same field, in the same house, with the same God but with different ending. One with faith, the other one without. But before we look at these individuals, let's see the last verses of chapter 3. There's a lot to be learned in there. Let's begin reading from verse 20 to verse 24.

Genesis 3 says, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, 'Behold the man has become like one of Us to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.' Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life."

After the promise that we see in Genesis 3:15 and the action of Adam in Genesis 3:20, which showed his understanding and acceptance of God's offer to salvation, we then read in the next verse that the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Instead of fig leaves, God sacrificed some animals and covered Adam and Eve. This was the first death. A prophetic action pointing to the death and resurrection of the Messiah who is the final sacrifice.

This covering is the first of a long road leading to the final salvation. We can trace the road of this redemption beginning in Genesis 3:21 with the covering. Then you go to Leviticus 17:11 where it says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." This was at the base of all the sacrificial system in the Mosaic law. From the killing of the first animals, these precepts was established and enforced in the Mosaic law. This was the way to approach God: where is your blood?

Then the prophecy leads us to the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah in Isaiah 53:5 where it says that He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and all our sin was upon Him. And His second coming, in Revelation 1:5, says He loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. It all started with Genesis 3:21. In Genesis, we see the seed of all the doctrines of the scriptures. It is the book of beginnings in many ways.

There is something else truly beautiful in Genesis 3:21. The Hebrew word for "clothed" in this verse goes beyond the action of covering someone from judgment of sin. This word, *labash*, speaks of clothing someone by bringing him to a higher rank, a higher status, like the anointing of a king. There are seven synonyms in the Hebrew for "clothing", but this one is intended to show the covering of nobility, of royalty.

The word "garment" is the same word used for the one that the priest wore. So there is much more than salvation here. There is a change of position for man. The choice of these words brought the translators of the Targum, these translations that were done 2,000 years ago and even more, to understanding. The rabbis understood and they said, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of glory," because they understood this word.

Through their newfound faith, they attained a new position with God and a new status in heaven. This is just like the believer today when he accepts Jesus, Yeshua, as his personal savior. He becomes a son of God, and he enters into the family of God and is protected and covered. This is what the spirit says in Revelation chapter 1: "And He, Jesus, Yeshua, made us kings and priests to His God and father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

This is the covering that is placed on all believers of all ages. We see it right there in Genesis. A covering that protects the believer, a protection that says that he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. And so when God covered Adam and Eve, He saved them and He covered them. This is what is so beautiful about this passage.

Guest (Female): Don't go away, we'll be right back with the second half of our program coming up just after this message. As we wind up for the second part of our program today, we would like to remind our listeners how blessed and privileged we feel to be part of your radio day. We pray that the messages you hear will instruct you, edify you, and encourage you to love the Lord more and follow Him into obedience in even greater ways.

We are all changed by the challenges and transformed by the trials of life, and as we walk them together, we keep looking up to Him who is mighty to break down the walls of Jericho that stand before us and to hand over to us the spiritual victories in life. Yeshua has broken down the greatest barrier, the greatest wall that has separated us from God the father. Thank you, listeners, for joining us in prayer and in financial support for this ministry.

If you have it on your heart to give to this ministry, then you can by logging on to our congregation website at bethariel.ca (B-E-T-H-A-R-I-E-L dot C-A). And if God leads you to contribute from the treasures that God has blessed you with for the continuation of this radio ministry, shalom shalom as we begin part two of today's program.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: The serpent tempted man, then man sinned and brought the sentence of death on himself, but by some miracles, a few verses later, he is saved and now he is like God and under His protection. He lost Eden, but he gained heaven. This is the miracle of salvation.

Guest (Female): What Satan does, God undoes. And while we think that Satan has succeeded in his plan to bring us down, let's patiently wait to see how God turns that around. Just think about Pharaoh for a moment. Pharaoh wanted the firstborn Israelite boys annihilated, the power to perpetuate the race to be dismantled. But God saw to it that it would not be the Israelite boys who were going down, but actually the firstborn of those who rebelled against God.

From trying to down a nation, instead, a nation is created. God is the greater good in every situation, and scriptures promise us that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called to His purposes. Remember, Satan needs permission from two sources to come against us. He needs God's permission and He needs ours.

When Peter asked Ananias why Satan filled his heart, he is not addressing Satan in this situation, he is addressing Ananias as the one who allowed Satan to enter. Let's recognize the temptation and cry out to the Lord so that we do not give Satan access, but rather we carry out what God would purpose in our lives. Welcome to Messianic Viewpoint, and welcome to our continuing study in the book of Genesis with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in, and shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: And God did not say to Adam that he was going to become like Him. He says, "He become like one of Us." One is *echad*. "Like one among us and part of us." This would be more acceptable than being like God as it was suggested by the serpent because no one can be like God. And so these views flows with the road of salvation that we see in Genesis.

Genesis 3:15, you have the promise, you have the first Messianic promise about Jesus coming. Genesis 3:20, you have salvation, the belief of the promise, this is when he called his wife Eve. Genesis 3:21, you have the sanctification, the covering, and Genesis 3:22, you have the adoption, the belonging. He become like one of Us, one of the *echad* in heaven. The New Testament speaks of similar terms for the believers today, just like in John 3:2.

"Beloved, we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is." We are like Him in our position, not in our present state. We are like Him in our adoption, like with Adam. And why did God put them out of the garden of Eden? So that they do not eat of the tree of life because if they had eaten of the tree of life in their fallen state, they would have lived in sin forever.

This is an act of grace. Again, it seems that the translators of the Targums 2,300 years ago understood and adopted this point when one of them said, "For behold, if he eats it, he will live and endure forever. Endure his fallen state forever." Thank God we're not in the garden of Eden so we won't be tempted to eat of that tree and live forever in our sins. This is what we understand from the last words in verse 22: "And live forever."

The truth is that man was to live forever regardless since man was created in the image and likeness of God. So this was an act of grace from God, not an act of jealousy as some suggest. Now what is the significance of the tree of life? For the Jews, it represents the Torah, that is the law of God, the word of God, the place of blessing. This is how the Talmud interprets it.

In the synagogue today, the wooden staff around which the parchment of Torah scroll, which contains the five book of Moses handwritten, is called actually the Tree of Life. This is where the word of God is wrapped around. And every Thursday and Saturday when they take out the Torah and they put it back, they all sing together at the end. They say, "It is a tree of life to all who hold fast of it, to all who are praiseworthy."

For us, we can see the Tree of Life as the place of blessing, eternal blessing, similar to the earthly tree. The earthly tree is the olive tree, where Jews and Gentiles get together. It is a place of blessing for both Jews and Gentiles. So the Tree of Life is the one for heaven. By the way, did you know that we're all going to eat of the Tree of Life? Revelation 2:7 is a promise actually that God gives us. Jesus says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the Tree of Life." Once you eat it, that's it. You're in heaven forever and ever. Sin cannot touch you anymore.

But there's another point that is important for us to look into in this verse before we go on to the next. God said, "Behold the man has become like one of Us to know good and evil." But how is the knowledge of good and evil makes us become like Him or part of the family of God? Obviously not in the action of sin because God does not sin, so it must be in the knowledge, in the awareness of the evil that made man now ready to be trained and to be tested so that he can go to heaven.

It seems that evil was necessary for us to be tested, to be experienced so that we can be worthy to go to heaven. If God allowed the presence of evil, it must be then for this very purpose of testing us and preparing us because it's like a school where we're at now. In this sense, we now know, we now confront what is good and what is bad, and the next event will demonstrate this especially when we go to see Abel and Cain and how these two are so far apart.

When the serpent thought to have administered a final blow to man, God turned evil into good. The serpent tempted man, then man sinned and brought the sentence of death on himself, but by some miracles, a few verses later, he is saved and now he is like God and under His protection. He lost Eden, but he gained heaven. This is the miracle of salvation. The story has just begun and the best wine is yet to be served.

If there's a practical application, one truth that comes out is that God can turn a desperate situation into a blessed one. This is what we understand from the fall to the rising of Adam and Eve. Satan succeeded to have Adam and Eve sin, God turned their curse into blessings. Being sovereign, God does use evil for the betterment of His own. He does it every day and He does it also, we can see it all over the scriptures.

Do you remember when Pharaoh wanted to annihilate the Israelites? He actually ended up being instrumental in bringing the Jews to become a nation because they became a nation out of Egypt. And he was instrumental in bringing the Jews to their land. This is what happened. He wanted to annihilate them, they became a nation. Similar things happen with Hitler. He wanted to annihilate the Jewish people, but lo and behold, less than seven years later, the nation of Israel was reborn. From evil to good. This is what God does for those who are His elect.

There's a higher good in every situation. This is a promise from the scriptures, "For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God." Are you going through a tough time? Believe that God has a plan for you, something better at the end. We see it all over the scriptures. You are covered with His blood. Sometimes we cannot make sense of evil that may strike the believer at times, but like a surgeon who operates to remove a cancer, we need to go through certain situations, but it will all work out fine for the believer who is covered again with the Messiah.

And we have the greatest of all surgeons. I read a story about a woman who adopted a baby boy. It's a true story. After five years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, to their surprise, a short time after the adoption, she discovered that she was pregnant, and she later gave birth to a boy. So one day when the two boys were 8 and 9 years old, a neighbor visited and asked the woman, "Which boy is yours?" The woman answered, "Both of them." The neighbor persisted, "But I mean which one is adopted?"

And so the woman did not hesitate. She looks straight at her guest and replied, "I forgot." I forgot. Did you know that God forgets? God forgets our sins. He forgets our past. When we are adopted as God's children, we quickly belong as His child, almost His unique child. He treats us as if we have never sinned. He sees the best of us. In fact, He teaches us to see the best of each one of us.

Now what happened next when man is brought outside the garden of Eden? This is where verse 24 opens up a new era in the history of men and women. It says, "So He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim in the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the Tree of Life." Here we have the first mention of the cherubim, a special class of angels. What can we learn from their presence right there and then?

The next time we read of them is in Exodus 25 where Moses was asked to make two cherubim to guard the ark of the covenant which symbolizes the presence of God. And then in 1 Kings and also 2 Chronicles when Solomon built the temple of God, they were everywhere to be seen. Even the entrance of the sanctuary was made of olive wood and carved with figures of cherubims. And we see them somewhere else, in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel is where we're given a description of the temple in heaven. They were there and they were visible everywhere. So these cherubims are then connected with the place of God, the dwelling place of God. The garden of Eden then had perhaps become a sanctuary, like a temple where the people would bring their offerings to God, as we have seen before. The garden of Eden was placed where the temple was to be built on Mount Moriah.

And so as early as Genesis, it became the place of worship. And notice where here the mention of the east. The word east, *Kedem*, often designates the place where God or His seed, Jesus, is. Micah 5:2 says, "But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be a ruler of Israel, whose going forth are from of old, from the east, from everlasting." So we know that the east is where God is in the scriptures always. This paves the way to the following verses where we're going to see that Adam and his descendants already understood the way to approach God.

Guest (Female): Messianic Viewpoint is a daily radio program emphasizing the Jewish perspective of scripture. God is not through dealing with Israel, nor will He renege any of the promises He has made to her. Our teacher for this program, Jacques Isaac Gabizon, is a Messianic Jewish believer and Messianic leader at Beth Ariel Congregation right here in Montreal.

If you've been encouraged by the messages, we'd love to hear from you. Give us a call at 1-888-685-5902 or you may write us at info@bethariel.ca. You are also welcome to join us for our Saturday morning services. We are located at 6297 Monkland Avenue, corner of Madison in NDG. The message is given in English, but we do offer simultaneous translation into French and Russian. Services begin at 11:00 AM.

We have Shabbat school for children of all ages up to and including teens. You may also download audio messages from our website at bethariel.ca and enjoy other in-depth teaching from Jacques Isaac. If you would like to sign up for informative newsletters, log on to our website and add your name to our email list. Messianic Viewpoint is a listener-supported program. If you have it on your heart to donate, it will be a great blessing for the continuing ministry and outreach of Beth Ariel. Thank you and shalom shalom.