Hebrew Food
Vayera "And appeared"
Genesis 18:1-22:24
2 Kings 4:1-37
Psalm 11
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
The recurring number in the text, whether through symbol or literal number, is 3. The tree represents the number three and resurrection as well as the third spirit of Adonai, etzah, or counsel in English. The seeds and trees bearing fruit were created on the Third Day of Creation. A tree in Hebrew is etz. It's no coincidence that the Spirit of Counsel and trees share the same root. Both symbolize resurrection. The Spirit of Counsel is not so much about GIVING advice, but to "meekly RECEIVE the implanted Word of God." (Ja 1:21) If never, received, then Counsel will not sprout, a real roadblock to resurrection.
The hope is in the Seed. The Word.
The fruit of the Word is in the Tree of Life.
The text gives us details:
- both the angels and Avraham were “under the Tree.”
- “Avraham lifted his eyes and saw”
Lifting the eyes implies a prophetic seeing or experiencing, an understanding of the future or of standing outside the purely physical realm. Paul writes of these things:
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But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you...Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Co 4:13-18)
Abraham saw, and then he saw. The angel promised “life” to Sarah at Passover the following year: Isaac, a type of Messiah.
In Lekh Lekha, Abraham arose and walked the Promised Land above. He saw the Garden of Eden, the place his resurrected descendants would inherit. He was the first Ivri, or Hebrew, the first to pass back over the Rivers and Eden and walk the length and breadth of the Garden. Abraham tells these angels that they will pass on [avar, root of Hebrew] after they eat because they “have passed over” him, using language of his new nationality, Ivri (Hebrew), and an equivalent expression of pasoch, (Pesach). Abraham recognizes the angels, feeds the angels, and centuries later, his descendants celebrate the Passover and then are fed the food of angels. Hebrew Food.
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My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, so that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on [avar], since you have visited [avar] your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.” (Ge 18:3-6)
The angels Abraham sees eat under a tree, and he attends them under a tree at the oaks of Mamre in Hebron. A tree is a symbol of spiritual counsel, for on the 3rd day the dry land (aretz) appeared and the fruit trees budded with the first fruits after their kind. They reproduced true to the Seed. The Seed is Yeshua. Yeshua is the Word. The trees of righteousness on the Third Day prophesied of the human beings to be created on the Sixth Day. These “trees” were created to reproduce true to their kind, Elohim, and their fruits were to hold the Seed of the Word in them.
Isaac, the promised seed, would be after Avraham’s kind, with a like seed in him. He would reproduce true to his kind, a Hebrew. A man of earth and heavenly vision. Perhaps this is why Avraham didn’t just bow, he bowed to the “aretz.” He saw the angels from his tent door. A “tent door” signifies the resurrection vision of the righteous man Abraham.
At the opening of his tent, Abraham first lifted, or nasa, a verb of prophecy, and he then he saw with open spiritual eyes, and then he understood what he saw. When he understood, he ran and bowed to the aretz (land). A human being is likened to a tent, and its door/opening symbolizes two realms, physical and spiritual. Abraham is positioned to see the “men” for what they are.
Avraham pitches his tent and builds his altars at key “resurrection” locations in Eretz Yisrael. Hebron is an important one because it was thought to be the burial place of Adam and Eve and an entrance back to the Garden. Abraham marks this spot with an altar, and later he purchases it as a burial place for Sarah, himself, Isaac, Rebekah, Yaakov, and Leah. Their burial at Hebron is a shout out to every generation of their descendants, whether of blood or faith, that there IS a resurrection because of the Promised Seed.
The angel tells Abraham of two returns that usually are translated as “Surely I will return.” The Hebrew text says “shuv ashuv,” or, “return, I will return.” Two returns: “Return, I will return...” In the literal text, he says, “like a time life.” [ka-et chayah]
Rashi explains the odd wording: “’At this time next year, there will be life,’ literally, ‘like this time, living’)...which will be living for you; that is, all of you will be sound and alive.” Think of this interpretation in the context of the resurrection. When Yeshua returns, Abraham’s children will be alive! Even if they have crossed over in death, they are not dead like the wicked dead, separated from the Garden. They are alive in Abraham’s bosom under the heavenly altar, which is in the Garden of Eden.
Resurrection must be both seen and heard from the opening of the “tent” of the earthen body.
The messenger stands “over” us, promising two Messianic returns that will bring and assure new life from the dead, even though we may have “dead” skin covering our bodies. The clue is in what Sarah says at the tent opening, at (not “in”) her “inward parts” b’kirbah, when she laughs at the prophecy:
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So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, am I to have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Ge 18:12)
Artscroll translates the words a little differently: “After I have withered (beloti), shall I again have clear skin (ednah)?” Rashi says, “a luster of flesh” based on Bava Metzia 87a. Paul discusses this “wearing out” of the tent in the context of 2 Corinthians 4-5. Rav Ḥisda says: “After the skin had worn out [nitballa] and become full of wrinkles, the skin once again became soft [nitadden] and her wrinkles smoothed out, and Sarah’s beauty returned to its place.”
This describes the process of resurrection! One’s youthful beauty, or “luster” returns:
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But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph 5:13–14).
It sounds as though even in her laughter over the angel’s words, Sarah is prophesying of her and Abraham’s partial resurrection, for she mentions Abraham’s inability “also.” Paul writes:
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Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless... So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. (Eph 5:25–31).
Isaiah clarifies this unity in Abraham and Sarah, who were given twin promises: “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; when he was but one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.” (Is 51:2)
Abraham and Sarah were ONE. Unity. As Sarah would be resurrected to produce Isaac, so Abraham also. As Yeshua is resurrected to return to the Garden, so his bride will be resurrected with him. The prophetic implication in Vayera is that the angels’ visitation produced a “pre-resurrection” of the body, similar to Naaman’s when he emerged from immersing in the Jordan seven times and his flesh was like a child’s. (2 Ki 5:14) Sarah’s prophecy implies both she and Avraham experienced a pre-resurrection transformation of reproductive organs, perhaps of the whole body!
No wonder Avimelekh believed they were brother and sister in Chapter Twenty!
This is a clue as to why Sarah returned to Hebron while Avraham and Isaac went to Mount Moriah to make the sacrifice. Having experienced a resurrection of her flesh to conceive Isaac at Hebron, she returns to that place of resurrection to pray for Isaac’s resurrection as well. Her faith carries her to the entrance back to the Garden.
And have you ever noticed how “young men” are always hanging around at key prophetic points in Scripture?
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Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, (ha-naar, “the youth”) and he hurried to prepare it. (Ge 18:7)
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Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed, and he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.” (Mk 16:5-6)
Our parasha is packed with prophecy. Abraham’s bread links a “seeing” of the promise of resurrection and bowing to the ground, or “aretz.” We are both physical, earthly beings, yet our spiritual nature is being restored day by day through Yeshua, the Promised Seed. It is through his “bread,” the Word, that we resurrect daily and produce the fruits of the Word with the hope that is in that Seed. Yeshua is the Bread of Heaven, the Manna, the Bread of Life, the Food of Angels. He is Hebrew food for those who will pass over to the Garden.
Read through the entire chapter of Luke 24. See if the following words and phrases now have context:
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...two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen...
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When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”
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...They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
Yeshua makes sure the disciples understand he is fully resurrected by eating “human” food. Like the tent opening, two realms, physical and spiritual. Only by eating Hebrew food will we be prepared to cross over to our Father Abraham.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
