2023 SHUV SHOW, Evidence of the Torah: pre-Mount Sinai, Christene Jackman

2023 SHUV SHOW
Evidence of the Torah: pre-Mount Sinai
Christene Jackman © 5.17.2023
https://www.ChristeneJackman.com/

EXCERPT: "Welcome to the Shuv Show. I’m your host, Christene Jackman. Grab a cup of coffee, settle back in a comfy chair, and together, let’s investigate Scriptural evidence of pre-Mount Sinai Torah laws or Terms of The Covenant. It is quite fascinating. What prompted my line of thinking was when I ran into Beresheet/Genesis 26:4-5. God is talking to Isaac:

“And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."

Say that again:
“Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."

Now—this is Abraham’s era, long before the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.
I thought, “What charge, what commandments, what statutes, what laws?”
Well, God has always had the same standard of holiness. He is not psychotic, quixotic, double-minded, fickle, changeable, nor can He be caught unawares.

Fact: God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel, is the All-Powerful, All-Knowing Creator. Think about it: In order to create the universe, He would need to know the end from the beginning. From the start, He designed all systems to work together, fashioning within, the ability to engage in adaptive engineering as needed. Go study the systems of the human body. The fingerprints of God are all over the design. He knows the end from the beginning in all circumstances. He is God.

On Day 1 of Creation, our Creator did this:
Beresheet/Genesis 1:1-5,
“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Elohim was *hovering (raw-khaf’) over the surface of the waters.

רָחַף raw-khaf'*: a primitive root; to brood; by implication: flutter, move, shake.

Then Elohim commanded, יְהִי אוֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר yeh-hee ore, ve-yeh-hee ore,
‘Let there be light’ (lit. “Light Be”) and there was light.
Elohim saw that the Light was good; and Elohim separated the Light from the Darkness.
Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, Yom Echad/one day.”

By the way, note that in Scripture, a day begins, not at dawn, but at sundown: “there was EVENING and there was morning. Day One.” This is how God reckons a day, sundown to sundown. Seven days equals a week, a cycle of sevens continuing to this very day.

So, Yeh-hee Or, Light Be.” Just what was this Light of Day 1?
What we do know is that the sun, moon, and stars were not created until Day 4, so they are not the Light of Day 1.

It is also interesting that Scripture uses the phrase: Yom Echad – Day One and not Yom Rishon—First Day. Rishon means first, as in Esau came out of the womb first. Echad: אֶחָד means essentially: united, i.e. one. With the Hebrew word, echad, there can be a sense of unity from plurality, of oneness. As in man and wife become echad, one flesh. So, this particular kind of Light was spoken into being by our Creator on Yom Echad, Day One. This Light is separated from the Darkness.

As is often the case in Biblical Hebraic, Near Eastern thought, the answer can be yes, no, and both—not an “either/or” insistence as is common in Western mindsets. The Bible speaks in cycles and repeating patterns. It is not chained to a straight line, linear, check box list view of the world.
Notice in Gen 1:4, God calls the Light good. He does not call the Darkness (chosekh) good.
In one sense, the Light is order and the Darkness חֹשֶׁךְ, chaos.

Yeshuayahu/Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness (chosekh) for light and light for darkness . . . ”

The Creator creates order on Day One. Light Be. And it is called, “good.”
All the systems of the Universe were given rules for functionality; intricately designed and interlaced. Just as the natural world was given laws to follow, so God also gave mankind laws to obey. These laws—rules or instructions—are also complexly designed and interwoven to form the Tapestry of the Torah; holy threads that artfully weave the Divine Picture, past, present, and future, repeated patterns.

Since God knows the end from the beginning, His holy, just, and pure laws need never change. The commandments He gave in the Books of Moses, Gen-Deut, reveal the Heart and intent of our Creator. So, if you are not studying these foundational books, why not? They define what love looks like, acts like. They spell out what is evil and what is good. God will not change His holy standard. Yes, God really did say! Who do you think does not want you to know and keep God’s holy laws? I’ll give you one guess. The Adversary (Hasatan) has schemed from the beginning to trip us up. He’s the one who wants us to be ignorant of the true nature of Biblical Near Eastern blood covenant. He is the devious one who casts a net of deceptive double speak, blinding the mind, dulling the ears of those who have more heart for a religious system, then for the Master. When God commands something, He means it. He never needs to change His mind . . . "