Shalom!

 
And so now, the everlasting covenant has been given to Avraham. Do not we all claim to be children of Avraham? Does not YHWH watch every descendant of Avraham, both natural or grafted in, to see how they respond to the offering of the covenant?
 
Avraham was declared to be a "friend of Elohim". What does it take to become His "friend"?
 
Isaiah 41:8 " But you, Yisra'el, are My servant, Ya'acov whom I have chosen, The descendants of Avraham My friend. 9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away
 

Most translations will say "Avraham, My friend," but what it literally says is "Avraham, My lover." Wow, is that not His desire for all of Avraham's descendants? So the question must be asked, how did Avraham attain this lofty status? By a close relationship that included humility, transparency, obedience, trust, and childlikeness. Avraham was not perfect. His life included successes and failures, laughter and tears, a process which brought him to his final test - the request of surrendering his beloved son.

 
Bereshith (Genesis) 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that Elohim tested Avraham, and said to him, "Avraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Yitzchak, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
 
At this point in Avraham's life, he no longer clung to what was attainable in this world. There were no questions asked. He completely and fully trusted in the goodness and the leading of his "lover":
 
Bereshith (Genesis) 22:3 So Avraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Yitzchak his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which Elohim had told him.
 
Now these directions given by his beloved Friend, could not possibly have made sense to Avraham. A very wise woman shared the following with me - "listen to the Voice that speaks to your heart. Your mind will take what He tells you and use logic and this world's ways to draw you away from the way of the Voice. And then you will miss out on the blessings of His perfect will for you." This advice sounded like a warning to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!
 
The Almighty knew something else about "His friend", Avraham:
 
Bereshith (Genesis) 18:19 "For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of YHWH, to do righteousness and justice, that YHWH may bring to Avraham what He has spoken to him."
 
YHWH knew that Avraham's life would lead to fruitfulness. The Elohim of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'acov would also be intimate with Avraham's children, and his children's children, and his children's children's children...and on and on until today and even beyond. Thus the covenant promises to Avraham continue. And the Holy One's desire for "lovers" is still there. Remember this verse of warning?
 
Revelation 2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
 

Let's do just a little comparison of Avraham with Lot:

 
Although you'd never guess it from this week's Torah parasha, Lot is described by Peter as a righteous man:
 
2 Peter 2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) --
 

Still, we know something is very different about Avraham and Lot. Lot is described as a "righteous man", yet what kind of righteousness is this? Mr. William Bullock puts it like this -

 
...a level of personal righteousness which stops short of adopting the shema lifestyle for oneself and one's family, but at least recognizes, and is grieved by, evil in its most egregious forms. After all, the only thing we are told about the level of righteousness Lot was seen by the Holy One as having is that Lot "was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked, and was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds."
 
The level of righteousness with which Lot is credited as having appears to be a level of righteousness quite inferior to that of Avraham, whom the Holy One knew (and who knew the Holy One) intimately, who 'taught his children and his household to keep the way of the Holy One, and do righteousness and justice'.
 
The level of righteousness with which Lot is credited is a level of righteousnesws that, strangely enough, tends to make its possessor miserable instead of blessed. Instead of yielding shalom (peace, wholeness, harmony, and well-being), joy, hope, love, faithfulness and goodness, health and life, the level of 'righteousness' Lot exemplified yields only 'distress' and 'torment'.
 
The righteousness of Lot, it appears, is like that of a man or woman who has tasted of the goodness of the Holy One, and had walked in His covenant for awhile, but who sadly cannot bring himself to surrender to it wholeheartedly. The 'righteousness' of Lot appears to be that of a person who truly loves the things of the Holy One...but who, alas, finds he or she loves the things of the world just a little bit more - and thus, though he or she fully believes in the one true God and willingly acknowledges the superiority of His just and true ways, still chooses to live a personal life full of compromises.
 
Here is the point. What good did it do Beloved for Lot, for his family, or for the world - for Lot to be 'very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked' and to be 'tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds...?'
 
What good does it do for us, for our families, or for the world, for us to share Lot's distress and torment over the lustful lives lived and the lawless deeds done in our world?
 
What good is such a form of 'righteousness' indeed?
 
Now do you understand the difference between Avraham and Lot? With Avraham there was an intimacy and fruitfulness in his life. With Lot's righteousness there was only torment. Only his daughters were saved, and we read how they handled their situation. It's all a choice! Go with your heart and yield to His gentle Voice! Go beyond your salvation and let Him lead you in the ways of the Covenant. Don't beg for another way (what Lot did - Genesis 19:20) when He speaks His desire for you. Then you will find intimacy with Him and become His "friend."
 
In last week's Torah portion we read how YHWH Elohim took Avram to the land of Canaan and from the location of Alon More, He spoke to Avram and showed him the Land:
 
Bereshith (Genesis) 12:7 Then YHWH appeared to Avram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to YHWH, who had appeared to him.
 

Yesterday we were able to visit this exact location and hear from Mr. Tommy Waller of HaYovel. He said on a clear day you can see Mount Hermon on the North, and all the way to Jerusalem in the south. So it is very logical that this beautiful place is where YHWH would have made the promise of the land covenant:


It is also near the city of Sh'chem which is nestled in the valley between the Mount of Blessing and the Mount of Cursing:

 
The grapevines in Samaria have been harversted, most of the workers with HaYovel have gone back to their homes but listen to these stats for 2016!
 
HaYovel volunteers harvested 434.48 tons of grapes, which equals 282,412 bottles of wine. Five Tons of olives were also harvested, which comes out to 1,000 liters of olive oil. The team planted 7 dunums of vines, worked 15,505 man hours, and were able to save the farmers 372,120 shekels in labor costs. Altogether, this year's harvest will bring approximately $5,374,686 into Israel's economy.
 
What a blessing the harvesters of HaYovel have been to their Jewish brothers!


Shabbat Shalom from the Promised Land!
Ardelle