Parashah 5: Hayyei-Sarah (Sarah's life)

Parashah 5: Hayyei-Sarah (Sarah's life) - Genesis 23:1 through 25:18.

Haftarah (Writings and Prophets): 1 Kings 1:1-31.
B'rit Hadasha (New Testament): Matthew 8:19-22; 27:3-10; Luke
9:57-62.

Summary & Overview

TORAH
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Genesis
Genesis
Genesis
Genesis
Genesis

23:1 | Sarah's Death and Burial

24:1 | The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah
25:1 | Abraham Marries Keturah
25:7 | The Death of Abraham
25:12 | Ishmael's Descendants

Where was Abraham when Sarah died?

Our Parashah begins with the death of
Sara. The Torah tells us that Sara passed
away in Chevron and that Abraham came
to mourn her. The phrase and Abraham
came implies that Abraham was not
present at the time of Saras death and
returned to Chevron when he heard of her
death.
The phrase and Abraham came is not necessarily correct. This phrase may
not mean that Abraham travelled to Chevron at the news of Saras death. The
phrase is sometimes used to communicate that a person moved to engage in
an activity. If the phrase is understood in this manner, then the meaning of the
passage is that Abraham was moved to mourn for her after she died.
This is one explanation, however, the Sages acknowledges that the phrase can
be understood in the more common sense: Abraham came to Chevron from
some other place upon hearing of Saras death. This raises the question: Where
was Abraham? Why was Abraham not with his wife at the time of her death?
The end of the previous Parashah provides the answer to this question.
At the end of Parashah VaYerah, the Torah provides an account of the binding
of Isaac. YHVH told Abraham that he must take his beloved son to a place He
would reveal. At the appointed place, he must offer Isaac as a sacrifice.
Abraham followed YHVHs instructions without reservation.
Q - How is the death of Sara related to the binding of Isaac?
Is it possible that when Sara heard the news of the binding of Isaac that the
shock caused her soul to leave her. In other words, her death was a response to
the news of Isaacs encounter with near death.

If this was the case, then Abraham faced yet another test; the loss of his
beloved wife as a result of the obedience to YHVH. This raise another question,
was there a need for someone to die and Sarah died instead of Isaac?
If this is the case, then the binding of Isaac has two pictures of Messiah dying
for our sins; firstly Isaac symbolised the death of Messiah and secondly, Sarah
died in the place of Isaac, symbolising the death of Messiah as well.

The Creation of the Bride

Gen 23: 11 The servant had the camels kneel
down outside the city by the well. It was
evening, when the women would go out to
draw water. 12 Then he prayed,
Yahweh, Elohim of my master Abraham,
make me successful today. Show your
kindness to Abraham.
What caught my eye was that this event took place when it was evening. YHVH
separated Eve from Adam putting him in a deep sleep, cut a covenant with
Abraham with Abraham in a deep sleep as well symbolising evening.
Q - What is the significance of the start of the evening?
Firstly, the start of the evening defines the starting of a new day or new
beginning as defined in Genesis wherein YHVH created everything. Each part
of creation was compartmented in a specific day. The day is the term to define
time and time is the dimension higher than our three dimensional world, namely
the fourth dimension. What we learn form this that whenever YHVH Created or
Translates something form the Higher Dimension (where He is), it has to pass
through the Time Dimension or 4th Dimension that is linked to a Day in which
YHVH then manifests the Spiritual into the Physical. Time is also the place or
Dimension where the Sabbath is defined as well as Prayer. Here we see that
this is the Place where YHVH is creative again, doing a work choosing a
Bride for Isaac, with His Spirit moving over the deep of the waters.
We have looked at the Creation process previously and saw that it consists of 4
processes; firstly YHVH created by speaking things into existence out of
nothing, then He separated things, then He named things lastly He fills it with
purpose. What we see here is the Creation of the Bride within a day staring
at evening. The evening starts with darkness and then the light comes, in the
same way His creation starts with darkness or no revelation from our point of
view, then the light or revelation comes that transfers form the Mind of YHVH
(Spiritual), into the Physical. YHVH chooses man to be the receptor of His
Creating Words in order to release it in the Physical so that it can create and
manifest.
We look form the Physical and does not see anything at first (darkness), then
YHVH reveals His Word to us, we speak it into this realm and patiently awaits in
Hope or Faith to see if we can start to see the physical manifestation of that
Word YHVH spoke through us into this realm. When it manifesting into the
Physical , thats when the sun comes up and we see YHVHs creative work.

Q What do we learn from this explanation?

We learn that YHVH uses us to still create things in this world according to His
Will. We also see that we paly a crucial role in receiving what is in the Mind of
YHVH in order to speak those words into existence into the world. Thats why
Paul says in 1 Cor 2:6 , Rom 12:2, Phil 2:5 that we should have the Mind of
Messiah because His Mind and the Mind of the Father are One and contain His
Plan and creative Words that He wants to manifest into this World to recreate or
restore it back to its original intent.
Eliezer received the Word, went out to the fountain and waited for the sun to
come up or to see what YHVH promised will come to pass. The Word that was
revealed to him had certain things he had to look out for in order to recognise
the birth of YHVHs idea into the Physical. YHVH spoke and it came to be,
starting the Creation Process. Rebecca was then Separated from her family,
Named as the Bride of Isaac and Fulfilled a specific purpose within the Plan
of YHVH.

Abrahams Faith demonstrated in Choosing a Bride for

Isaac
Q Why did Abraham ask his Servant to go and get a bride for Isaac?
Think about it, if you are not familiar with arraigned marriage, this is a
challenging thought, especially for the two getting married. But this arraigned
marriage is taken to a higher level than what we are used to; here the parents
do not know the other family or the bride to be and a servant was sent to go
and get the best bride for Abrahams son. It seems to be a double faith action
form Abrahams part where he had to trust his Servant Eliezer and had to trust
YHVH as well.
This action of Abraham show us that he has graduated from
the Faith Institute passing the previous test with flying
colours becoming a man of faith rather than someone driven
by fear all the time like it used to. Faith is not something
you do only once and now you have it, you need to keep
on walking in faith to grow stronger in it. The more you
exercise faith, the better you get at it.
Q Why is the principle of Faith so important to YHVH, why cant He just let
things happen without this thing called Faith and what is Faith exactly?
Faith is the Hebrew word amunah that means faith, strength, pillar and faithful
and comes form the root word aman that means truth. This is where the word
amen comes from that we use after a prayer to confirm that it is the truth and
we agree with what is being prayed. There is a beautiful Prophetic Picture of this
word found in Exodus chapter 17 where Israel fought against Amalek with Aaron
and Hur holding up Moses arms in order to win the battle. Faith is the upholding
of the truth until the battle is won, whatever your lifes battle may be.

True faith can only be found if it is based on the Truth aman and if you believe
anything other than the Truth, then it is not real faith. Faith consists of two
elements, one of knowing and believing the Truth, we discussed in last weeks
Portion where Abraham believed the Promises of YHVH.
The other aspect of faith is acting on the Truth or obeying the Truth or
Commandment. All YHVHs Commandments are Truth that comes from Him
describing His Standard and His Character. When we act on His
Commandments we are faithful in doing acting and becoming like Him. As
James says in James 2:14-26 Faith without works is dead which can also
be read as not obeying the Commandments is dead or brings death.
Hebrew Study Tip
Prophetic Pictures are stories and historic events that are base on the
lives of characters in the Bible that describes an idea or principle as
played out by that historic event or persons life. For example, Josephs
life portrayed the work of Messiah Yshua.

Eliezer - Prophetic Picture of YHVHs Spirit

Eliezer means My God or My Elohim helps and he
is a perfect picture of YHVHs Holy Spirit in this
Prophetic Picture. Abraham represents the Father
sending out His Spirit, Eliezer to go into the world to
find a Bride (Rebecca) for His Son, Yshua (Isaac).
This tells us that the Father has faith, just like
Abraham and everything He expects us to become,
He already is, or as His Name says; I AM. He will
not expect us to become something that He is not.
Within this Prophetic Picture we look at the first Character, Eliezer, representing
YHVHs Holy Spirit. Studying this historic event will give us insights on how
YHVHs Spirit works and how He is our Helper. Lets look at a few attributes of
Eliezer to make the connections:

He controlled the entire household and made sure everything runs

smoothly Gifts of the Spirit within the Assembly serving the Body.
He sought a bride for the Son (v4) Spirit of the Shepherd going out into
the world to call those who are to be YHVHs people, the Bride.
The Son not to return with Eliezer - Yshua went to the Father and did
not return back to the earth after His resurrection, only His Spirit returned.
The Bride to come willingly (v8) - YHVHs Spirit does not force people to
come to faith in Messiah, you receive a gentle prompt and have to follow
Him out of your own free will.
He gave her gifts (v22) - YHVHs Spirit gives gifts to the Bride or the
Body of Messiah.
No respecter of persons (v23) - He chose from among a number of
woman at the spring.
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Gave gifts, gold and silver jewellery and garments to the Bride and her
family (53-54) Gold and Silver represents Spiritual Character and the
Garments represent authority, all the work of YHVHs Spirit.
Calls those who will go (56) - Everybody is called, not all accept the call.
You are only chosen when you choose to accept the call.
Leads the bride home (61) - His Spirit helps us through this life to walk in
His Ways that leads to where He is. Salvation is to follow Him and be at
the same destination He will be at the end.
Reveals the Son to the Bride (64-65) - YHVHs Spirit reveals to us Who
Yshua is and Who the Father is.

YHVHs Spirit is called the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth. The functions of
His Spirit is seen in these two names; His Spirit helps us to become Holy or set
apart unto Him and His Spirit reveals the Truth to us giving us spiritual
enlightenment, opening our spiritual eyes so that we can see the truth.
Hebrew Study Tip
A Word Picture is where a Hebrew word or phrase is broken down into
each letter and every letters picture or meaning is used as well as its
position within the word. All the meanings of every picture including its
position are used to describe the meaning of the word. We will see this
technique in actin looking at the meaning of the phrase Tree of Life.

Tree of Life Spirit of YHVH

YHVHs Spirit is also found in the Garden of Eden known as the Tree of Life or
the Tree that gives Life. Revelation 22:2 tells us that we will eat of the fruit this
tree and it will be present in the New Jerusalem as it was in the Garden of Eden.
Tree of Life is the Hebrew Phrase Ets

and consists of an Ayin Tsadik for tree and a Chet Yod

spelling life. What is interesting is
that the word for Tree or Ets
Chai

looks like a tree with the Ayin branching

off from the Tzadik that is the main

branch or stem of the tree.
Q - What does the Ayin and the Tzadik represent?

Ayin means eye and normally has a physical negative application and is
found in Genesis where the eye of Eve caused her to eat of the fruit because it
looked good. In this case the Ayin is on the right hand side of the word and
Right means Spiritual that gives it a positive application namely spiritual sight
or enlightened eyes that can see the truth. This is one of the first miracles that
Yshua did when He walked the earth giving sight to the blind.

Remember everything happens in the Spiritual first and then manifest in the
Physical and the miracle we saw Yshua do had a spiritual meaning of Him
giving Spiritual sight or revealing the Truth to the blind or unbelievers.

Tzadik on the other hand means Righteousness and it looks like a little man
standing upright with his hands in an upward position as if he was praising or
praying. Looking at these two meanings n relation to each gives us the picture of
us as believers, the Ayin or enlighten ones grafted into the Righteous One,
Tzadik, which is Yshua. What this shows us is that we get our righteousness
from Him and we do not have our own so that we can boast. What it also
confirms is the passage in the Berit Chadasha (NT) that says that He is the Vine
and we are the Branches.
There is more wisdom hidden in this Word Picture and that is that we receive
our Spiritual Sight or Revelation form YHVH, the Ayin on the right, that means
that it is a Gift from YHVH. Then we have to manifest this into the Physical or
the Left through the Tsadik and this means that we have to be and act
Righteous as He is Righteous in order to release what we received from Him
into the Physical. This implies that our Righteous living is not for our salvation
but for the salvation of others. We need to shine the light (Ayin) into this dark
World through the Tsadik or righteous living.
Q What gives us the Light or Spiritual insight?
We have to bring in another letter into the equation in order to explain this and it

is the letter hey

that means Light, Revelation and Breath because it is the
letter H in Hebrew that sounds like breath. Breath also represents the Spirit
and relates to YHVHs Spirit. Putting this together teaches us that YHVHs Spirit
breathes life into His people as well as giving Light or Truth and Revelation.
Light reveals things as they are and this is the definition of what Truth is; the
highest form of reality. The eye is connected to light because without light the

eye cannot define what exists in the physical. The Hey

or Spirit gives that
Spiritual Light so that we can see in the Spiritual. That means that the Ayin
on the Right of the word Ets (Tree) receives its light form YHVHs Spirit.

The letter Hey

is also significant because that was the letter that was
inserted into Abrams name to make it Abraham and to change Sara into Sarai.
Abraham and Saris name changes actually means that they have received
YHVHs Spirit and His Revelation that changed their Characters and their
Destiny. So when you receive the Sprit of YHVH He also changes your name
that will be revealed at the end of time (Rev 3:12-13).
We have looked at the word Ets or tree, now we will look at the word Chai

or Life. Chai consists of two letters, Chet that means Life and Yod
that means hand of YHVH or Spirit of YHVH. Yod is the smallest letter in
the Hebrew Aleph-Bet and is referenced by Yshua when He said the not one
jod or tittle will be removed from His Word, this jod is actually the Yod
meaning that His Spirit will not be removed from His Word.

Chet is on the right hand side and that means that it is Spiritual Life that comes
form YHVH and it is not form us, it is a Gift. The Yod is on the Left and that
means that YHVHs Spirit works in the Physical. The key here is that we are the
people or YHVH who allows the Spirit to work through us or we can resist His
Spirit, not releasing Spiritual Life into this World.

Choosing the Bride

Q How do you normally choose a Bride?
As a young man you SEE someone you like and then you make the first
approach after giving eye contact and hopefully receive the right signals back.
Then you approach her and start talking to her finding out who she. Through
talking you find out weather you are compatible or not. You discuss common
interests and sooner or later the butterflies appear every time you see her and
you know you are in love.
This is the way Westerners choose brides for themselves; it starts of with the
physical and then goes slightly internal exploring interests, likes and dislikes.
The main focus is not internal and no wonder there is so many people who are
divorced today.
In Abrahams day they did things slightly different. Lets look at how Abrahams
servant chose a Bride for his son Isaac. She was not chosen at random, or
based on how much money her family had. The choice was based on character
and internal qualities.
Q How did Eliezer find what he was looking for?
The bride to be was chosen based on a test to see if she would pass or not. The
test came in the form of something she was familiar with so it was not
unreasonable or too difficult.
Gen 23: 11 The servant had the
camels kneel down outside the city by
the well. It was evening, when the
women would go out to draw
water. 12 Then he prayed,
Yahweh, Elohim of my master
Abraham, make me successful today.
Show your kindness to
Abraham. 13 Here I am standing by
the spring, and the girls of the city
are coming out to draw water. 14 I
will ask a girl, May I please have a
drink from your jar? If she answers, Have a drink, and Ill also water
your camels, let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac.
This way Ill know that youve shown your kindness to my master.
Eliezer stood at the spring of water and asked her to give him a drink, if she
agreed and also offer to water his camels as well, then he will know she is the
chosen one. This is a very unusual way to choose a Bride.
Q What can we learn form this?

Eliezer not only asked a physical request but also had an unspoken request. If
she responds to the physical request as well as the unspoken request, then she
is the one.
YHVH deals the same with us and we see it in His Commandments. Every
Commandment has a physical component with something hidden inside,
packaged in the unspoken. You can obey the outer Commandment without
seeing the inner Commandment. YHVH wants us to obey both the outer and
the inner of every Commandment.
Q - Do you see the spiritual behind every Commandment?
Without the Spiritual you have an empty Commandment and the Leaders in
Yshuas time only obeyed the physical, they grabbed it with the left hand and
did it. YHVH wants us to grab it with the right hand as well and do it with both
hands.
Rebecca not only gave Eliezer water but offered to give water to his Camels as
well. Without being asked Rebecca fulfilled the unspoken spiritual request that
was hidden behind the physical request.
Q What is the significance of the camels?
She offered to give Him water as well as His Camels. Eliezer represents YHVHs
Spirit and this is a picture of spending time in the Word (water) with His Holy
Spirit. The Camels represents people that you reach with the Word of YHVH,
giving them the water of life, bringing them into the Kingdom of YHVH though
the Gospel message and the help of His Spirit.

Rebecca - Picture of Believers

Rebecca had an internal beauty and did the right thing by Eliezer but she was
not perfect if you look at the meaning of her name. Rebecca means; to clog up
or entangles or to lay snares. Believers in general have this problem where
we tend to clog up or block the work of the Spirit, we entangle the truth with
our own interpretation or ideas and lay snares with our mouths speaking
against one another.
In order to NOT DO these things that are part of our sinful nature we need to
engage with YHVHs Word and with His Spirit so that our old nature can be
changed.
Q Why the Word and the Spirit?
The Spirit of YHVH does an internal work and revives the connection we lost as
fallen man. When YHVH created Adam, He breathed into him and he became a
living soul. The word breathed is the Hebrew word neshama that means
spiritual soul and became a living soul nefesh.
Gen 2:7 7 And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath (Nesama) of life; and man became
a living soul (Nefesh).

When YHVH made the animals they were also referred to as nefesh. This
means that man has two souls; a physical soul that is similar to animals and a
spiritual soul that is similar to YHVH. When man sinned they were chased out of
the Garden and list their Nashama or spiritual connection with YHVH and
through receiving YHVHs Spirit we receive His Breath of Life or Ruach Ha
Kosedh, making us complete as He intended when He created Adam.
Secondly, we need His Word in order to renew our
minds in order to unlearn the ways of the world and
learn His ways. We as the Bride of Messiah also has
a role to play in bringing new children into the world
by receiving the Word of YHVH, His seed so that we
can become pregnant from our Husband (Yshua)
and bring children into this world that looks like the
Father.

Gifts given to Rebecca

Abraham (The Father) sent his servant Eliezer (Holy Spirit) to
go and find a bride (Believers) for his son Isaac (Yshua).
Isaacs name means laughter and Heb_1:9 we read that
Yshua is anointed with the oil of joy. After she passed the test
(choosing Yshua - salvation), giving the camels and the man
water and he gave her a ring and two bracelets.

Gen_24:22 And it happened, when the camels had

finished drinking, that the man took a golden ring of
half a shekel (beqa) weight, and two bracelets for her hand,
weighing ten shekels of gold.
These gifts he gave her was to show her that she was the
chosen Bride for His Masters Son. If she accepted she would
become the wife of the Son. These Gifts were to:

Show His adornment

Make her beautiful

Show that she is set apart and already taken

By receiving His Gifts, accepts His offer.

Nothing in Scripture is there by chance and everything has a specific meaning,

and so does the gifts. Why are these gifts specified by weight? It must mean
something. The ring had a weight of half a shekel. The word for shekel is beqa
and is found only one other place in Scripture.
Exo_38:26 a bekah for every man, half a shekel (beqa), after
the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone that went to be numbered,
from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand, five
hundred fifty men.


YHVH numbered His people, not by counting their
heads, but by counting their obedience through what
they had to bring. If someone did not bring his part, he
was not numbered. In the time of David, he counted the
peoples
heads and YHVH brought a plague upon him. Why is this?
Think about it. YHVH is not interested in quantity, but in quality.
These Bequas were used to make the bottom parts of the supporting structure
of the Tabernacle. The peoples contributions formed the foundation of the
House of YHVH where His presence dwelled. You might say, so what!
The word beqa links up in Hebrew poetry within the Ten Commandments.
Here is how it works. Each letter of the Aleph Bet is also a numeral and the word
beqa counts up to 172. There are exactly 172
words in the Ten Commandments. Pretty
amazing isnt it!
Not only that, the other gifts, the two bracelets
(weighing ten shekels) also represent the two
tablets with Ten Commandments.
The number two always means Restoration of
Relationships and the Ten Commandments, five
on each tablet, gives detail regarding the guidelines on how to have a perfect
relationship with YHVH and with your neighbour. The one bracelet is placed on
the right hand, the spiritual side, showing us the guidelines for our relationship
with YHVH. The other bracelet is placed on the left hand, physical side, showing
your relationship with other people. They are placed on the hands, symbolizing
our spiritual and physical actions that must be guided to ensure quality
relationships.
These form two witnesses that confirms one another, to show that these gifts
are representing the Torah that we need to guide our walk through the
Wilderness.
Eph 5:26-27 in order to set it apart and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the Word,1 Footnote:
1Rev. 19:8-9. (27) in order to present it to
Yshuas Marriage Proposal:
Himself a splendid assembly, not having
If she had not accepted the gifts,
she would not become the bride of
spot or wrinkle or any of this sort, but that
Isaac, in the same way, if we do
it might be set-apart and blameless.
not accept the gifts of YHVH, His
Commandments, we are not
accepting His marriage proposal.

As the future Bride of Y'shua, we accept and follow

Torah as His gift to us, used to beautify us and
prepare us so that we can be perfect when He comes
again. Some call it Legalism, but following His Instructions are an expression of
your relationship with Him that purifies you as well.

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