Torah Portion Summary
The scroll of the Torah is the oldest and most sacred of all Israel's Scriptures. It contains five books. The Hebrew name for the first one is B'reisheet. It is also the first word of the book in the Hebrew text as well as the name for the first parashah (weekly reading). B'reisheet means "in the beginning." The English name Genesis comes from the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Genesis means "origins." Therefore, the Greek name for the first book of the Bible means "The Book of Origins."
Genesis describes the origins of everything. It begins with the origins of the universe, focuses on the origins of man, and then explores the origins of the nation of Israel. As we study the first week's reading from the book of Genesis, we will learn a great deal about God but even more about ourselves. After all, this is the story of our origin. When properly understood, the story of our origin helps us find our destination.
Haftarah Portion Summary
The Haftarah for Bereshit is from the prophet Isaiah. In his message, God declared that His creative program for the world includes a special mission for His people Israel to be a light of nations (l'or goyim). Israel is a nation called "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." In other words, Israel was originally called to be a missionary people, to share the light of God's truth with the world, and to call all the nations to return to God.
Modern Judaism regards the Jewish people as God's representatives in the world, but this message from Isaiah is ultimately about the Mashiach, the true Light of the world, who indeed opens the eyes of the blind, sets the captives free, and calls all the nations to repent before the LORD God of Israel.
That this is so is indicated by the shir chadash (new song) that is sung throughout all the earth to the glory of the LORD God of Israel. Surely Yeshua the Mashiach is the only Jew that has inspired the nations to forsake their idols and sing such praises to the LORD! Moreover Israel's rejection of Yeshua is cause of their present spiritual blindness and exile. Nonetheless, God is faithful to the Jewish people, and will one day regather them from among all the nations, remove the veil from their eyes, and reveal to them the truth of their Redeemer and Savior. In that day, all of Israel shall be saved and God's purpose of making them a nation of priests and kings will be finally fulfilled.
B'rit Chadashah Portion Summary
The reading from the first fourteen verses of the gospel of John deliberately echo the opening of the Torah by identifying Yeshua as devar elohim, the Word of God and Creative Power that commanded the entire cosmos into existence (the "logos" idea possibly hearkens to the idea of the Memra' found in the Jewish Targums). Yeshua is the True Light (or ha'emet) from God, the promised One who would bring truth to the nations and fulfill the mission of Israel to give birth to the Seed of Promise.
The promised Seed was delivered to Israel in the Person of Yeshua ben Yosef, the "Son of the Father, full of grace and truth," but tragically, his own people rejected Him. This temporary rejection will soon end, however, when all Israel will turn to Him and be saved (Romans chapters 9 thru 11). Until that time, the offer is still held out to all people to personally receive Yeshua as their Savior and thereby become banim leilohim (the sons of God). Becoming a Christian makes one a partaker of the original covenant blessings given to Israel.