The Torah Portion ending on Saturday was “Chayei Sarah,” or the Life of Sarah. You can read about Sarah’s life in Genesis 23:1-25:18. Upon first look, it does not appear that there is a blatant enemy in this portion. However, a crucial enemy is lurking in between the lines. The enemy that Abraham guarded against was the mixing of his seed. In a chapter labeled “Sons of God” in my study book called EneME: Understanding Satan From a Hebraic Perspective, I attempt to shed light on the sons of God being a remnant of Abraham’s offspring as a holy and set apart people. When Sarah dies, Abraham begins to find a wife from his father’s house for his son to marry. We can get sidetracked by the customs of marrying a cousin or relative, but since I need help understanding that, I won’t try to explain it. It is mostly about bringing forth a holy seed or children.
According to the theory I explained in my study, “The “daughters of men” refer to the daughters of the nations God forbade the Israelite rulers, or the “Sons of God,” to marry in Exodus 34:11-16. We can also see this scenario play out in Ezra 9:1-2, where the Israelites “Have taken some of their (Canaanites and others) daughters as wives for themselves and their sons.” God punishes the Israelites for mixing their seed with the nations by delivering them into the hands of the kings of the nations, the sword, captivity, and plunder (Ez 9.7). Marriage between the Israelite rulers and the nations was no laughing matter because it led to idolatry.”
Judges 3:5-6: Thus, the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.
Abraham asked his right-hand man to go to his father’s house to find a daughter for his son Isaac to marry, and he gave strict instructions not to take Isaac back to the land of his origin. When we fall in love with someone who does not worship the same God as we do, we risk our hearts turning away to worship other gods because love is intoxicating, and it makes us do funny things. When two married people are not like-minded, walking in unity, they risk producing an unholy seed.
1 Corinthians 7:13: For the unbelieving husband is made holy through the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
We need to recognize the importance of not mixing. Leviticus details what not to mix, including fabrics in clothing, seeds, animals, intermarriage as discussed above, and worship.
Leviticus 19:19: You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.
2 Chronicles 33:7: He (Manasseh) even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and Solomon, his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.”
The fabric could symbolize our coverings, so don’t trust in the protection of man and God. Trust in the coverings of Yeshua- salvation and righteousness and not in your works. Seeds could symbolize words, so don’t mix Godly counsel with human knowledge, and rightly divide instruction and words you allow others to plant inside your heart. Animals could symbolize the work we do, so don’t put your hand to do evil and good because it will produce dead fruit.
Exodus 23:1: You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Proverbs 11:21: Though [they walk hand in hand], the wicked will not go unpunished, but the posterity (which refers to the future generations or descendants) of the righteous will be delivered.
Abraham understood the importance of producing after like-kind, as stated in the commandment that God gave the tree kingdoms and produce on the third day, along with the birds and the fish on the fifth day of creation.
Genesis 1:11: Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth,” and it was so.
Genesis 1:21: So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (bold accents added)
Rambam, a Jewish commentator, said regarding the mixing of created things, “Thus one who combines two different species thereby changes and defies the work of creation as if he is thinking that the Holy One, blessed be He, has not completely perfected the world and he desires to help along in the creation of the world by adding to it new kind of creatures.” This idea confirms the personal thought of humans piercing boundaries that the Holy One has instituted for us to abide by in humility. God’s creation is perfect, and we must keep our grimy hands off it, keep inside our circle of responsibility, and produce holy fruit.
Leave a Reply