This weeks Torah Reading Explained: Genesis 1:1 thru Genesis 6:8 The first word of Genesis 1, is the Hebrew word Beresheet, “in the beginning.” The first letter of Beresheet is the letter bet. When you look at the letter, it appears to be a house. The bet in Beresheet has a numerical value of two. Why would the first letter of the Bible have a numerical value of two? Because God created the world in twos.
He created heaven and earth. God created light and dark.
He created day and night and the sun and the moon.
He created the sea and dry ground.
God created man and woman.
The letter bet also represents blessing (bracha in Hebrew). Only when these two opposites come together is God’s blessing fully released. God will not bless woman and woman, or man and man. Notice He can only bless man and woman. This is why it says in Ephesians 5:31 and Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”Beresheet can also be read “in the firstborn (or through the firstborn), God created world.” Bet is a picture of the world and the world existing in the firstborn Son, Yeshua-Jesus. In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
The spiritual significance of the Torah, beginning with bet for us as followers of the Messiah, is that it also opens the word ben, or “son,” who is firstborn of the Father and is the Second Person (number two) of the Godhead. We, as believers in Yeshua King Jesus believe what is supported by Hebrews 1 and John 1. We believe original creation comes through the Son and new creation comes through the Son, the Messiah. He has already come and will come again.
Let’s go a bit deeper. As we’ve seen, when the letter bet is attached as a prefix to the word reisheet it can mean “through,” as in “Through the First, God created the heavens and the earth.” This reading makes reisheet the agent of Creation, which fits perfectly with John 1:1–3: “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being.”
Interesting enough, Beresheet has the numerical value in the Hebrew language of 931. Watch This:This numerical value is the Same as “Messiah” the first born of all creation (Col.1:15). (931)The number 931 also connects to death and resurrection through the Greek word egeiro (931). John 2:19, uses the word, “And in three days I will raise (this temple) up” (931). The phrase, “Adonai has made His Salvation known from Ps.98:2 also equals 931, which points back numerically to God creating the world due to the salvation of the first born.
Yeshua, King Jesus was God’s plan even before the foundations of this world, knowing He would become the sacrifice for man’s sin and disobedience.
You Can’t Make This Up but only God:The first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is “Bet” and it is the first letter of Genesis 1:1. The last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is “Nun.” Nun is the last letter of the Bible in Revelation which spells Amen. The first letter Bet and last letter Nun spells in Hebrew word “Ben” and “Ben” means “Son” in Hebrew. Here is the significance, from the first letter to the last letter in the Bible, everything in the Bible points to Yeshua, God’s son.
Our Prayer here at Wellspring Israel is that you and all your family experience Yeshua, King Jesus as both the beginning and the end. Blessings and Shalom! (excerpts copied from Rabbi Jason Sobel)
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