Parshah Noach - Genesis 6:9-11:32
Make an Opening for Light
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This week’s Torah portion begins with the story of Noah. We read at the end of last week’s portion that the heart of God was grieved that He had made man. He looked down on the world and the people He had created in His own image and saw that their hearts, instead of being filled with wonder at the miracle of life and questions about their Creator, were instead filled with all kinds of evil thoughts.
And as God looks around He sees Noah and we read that Noah found favour in God’s eyes because he was a Tzaddik (a righteous man). In fact, Noah is the first man in the Bible to be called righteous. Choosing to live a righteous life in the midst of such depravity must have been a lonely place for Noah.
God decides to put an end to depravity on the earth and tells Noah to build an ark. This ark would be for Noah and his family a place of safety when the flood comes. When Noah had done all that God commanded and has built the ark God invites him and his family to enter the ark. Some English translations say ‘come’ others ‘go’ into the ark. But I’ll stick with the KJV and the Jewish Bible which use the invitation, instead of the imperative.
Interestingly, the rabbis tell us that the Hebrew word here for ark ‘teivah’ also means ‘word’. In synagogues today the place where the Torah scroll is kept is also called an ‘ark’. The Sephardic Jews use the word for ‘teivah’ for this ark while the Ashkenazi Jews (European) prefer the term ‘aron’.
It becomes a play on words. So the rabbis say that God invited Noah to come into the ark, He was inviting Noah to come into the Word. Perhaps, then, the ark for Noah was more than simply the means of surviving the flood but a place of sanctuary, a place of prayer, a place of meeting with God; the place that when the storms come keeps us afloat too.
Now when Noah was building the ark he was told to make a window; some translations say ‘roof’, yet that would imply that either Noah was simple or perhaps that we are missing something. In the Hebrew it says that God commanded Noah to make a ‘tzohar’. This word is connected to the Modern Hebrew for noon, tzohorayim, "lights" because it implies the time of total light when the sun is overhead. Considering the amount of rain expected to bring about a flood Noah would not need to have been told to make a roof but he might need to be reminded about a window as they don’t seem to be a common part of ancient shipbuilding.
I feel as if when I do a Bible study that it’s like going on a treasure hunt and that God gives us clues in the Scripture and encourages us to dig deeper. It’s as we look deeper and ask, ‘What is He saying to us?’ that we are rewarded with the treasures that are in His Word.
For behold, darkness may cover the earth, and a thick cloud the kingdoms, but upon you God shall shine (Isaiah 60:2).
The Lord may shine his light on us but what do we do with that light? Do our lives have a window that allows God’s light to not only shine upon us but to fill us? And it is all very well to have windows but they are not much use if the curtains are drawn. And if, as the rabbis imply, that this invitation was more than simply an invitation into the ark but an invitation to come into His Word – have we?
For the Jewish People the ark is seen as the symbol of protection which the Torah gives to our people. Yet when we talk about the Torah – God’s Word and God’s light, how can we avoid its inevitable conclusion in Yeshua, who is both the Living Torah (Word) and the Light of the world.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9).
In him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
Chatting to a friend the other day I found she too was pondering this idea: how do we let the light of Yeshua penetrate our lives? God is asking us, like Noah, to make an opening for His Light in our lives. Perhaps, like Noah, this is more than passively waiting for God but involves some participation on our part. God sends forth His Light and we have a responsibility to receive it.
It begs, of course, the question: How?
For many it begins simply with a prayer – when we ask God to shine His light into our hearts and allow that light to be a powerful revealer of our hidden sins and thoughts. In 1 John 1 we find a painful truth that un-confessed sin separated us from the Light of His Presence but we also hear words of tremendous hope: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Walking in the light simply means walking in a way that honours God, in obedience to His Word and when we do our lives are filled with the Light of His Presence. So I want to encourage us to come into His Light.
Moving on I was struck by some of the rabbinic criticisms of Noah. They say that it took him 120 years to build the ark and yet only his family went with him. The rabbis say that he had no concern for those around him, that in all those years of building he convinced no one of the impending judgment of God. They say that either he had no compassion for the rest of mankind or he was unable or uninterested in influencing them. It seems a harsh criticism but raises the issue for us how concerned about others we are.
The rabbis point out that the divine call to enter the ark was followed by the command to come out. Using the analogy of the ark as prayer, they see the time spent in the ark as an ‘island of godliness in a mundane world’. More than that, they explain that the holiness of our prayer time should influence the rest of the day and that the Torah, God’s Word, should be the basis for all our decisions. They talk about how when we come in holiness to pray we find that God’s Word becomes ‘bright and shining words that illuminate one's whole being with God's holiness.’
I want this Word to light up my soul, to be the strength of my heart and the framework of my thinking and I want to make a difference to impact the world. I want, as one rabbi wrote, to live a ‘teivah-contexted life’ because, as we do this together, the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). Yet, there is more; as we live Word Centred lives we fulfil the Command of Yeshua to be Light and, in so doing, fulfil the words of the Scripture: ... that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:15).
The next verse says as you hold fast to the word of life or, in other translations, hold forth ... but, let’s do both – hold fast and hold it out to others.
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