The Strength of YHVH

(The Understanding of Your Heart)

Primary Content (From 1 Sefer Moses, the Book of Beginnings):

• Chapter 22 – The Offering and the Promise
• Chapter 23 – The Law and the Sacrifice

Additional Reading (Comparison Texts):

• Genesis 12 from the Inspired Version of the Bible

Objectives:

• To take a moment and challenge everything you think you know

Kabbalistic Concepts:

• Strength
• Understanding

Engage:

Engage the Concepts through Comparison

The narrative of the story of Sarah and Pharaoh is significantly different between what we have on the plates of brass, and what we had before we received them.  The differences are very significant considering today’s near universal judeo-christian absolute inflexible understanding of how marriage is supposed to work.  Even in those abrahamic traditions that allow a man to have multiple wives, there is a universal unwillingness to allow a woman to have multiple husbands.  But Abram, Sarai, and YHVH were all ok with this arrangement.   And, in case you feel this might be possibly mistranslated, I invite you to look to 2 Moses 8:17-28, where Asenath, after being required by Pharaoh to marry Joseph was at first resentful that she would become the mother of slaves, but the angel of YHVH tells her in v27-28 “Behold, thy husband Joseph, he is a prince of Egypt.  For his mother, Sarah, was wife to Pharaoh in her day.”  I invite you to compare and contrast the two narratives of what happened while Abraham and Sarah were in Pharaoh’s court in Egypt, and take a moment to identify all of the details that have been added, and the repercussions of those details to the dogmas that define everything that society today believes about marriage, and the current social changes that are so divisive on our world, and where YHVH’s opinion is on these issues.

As if challenging  the definition of what sort of marriages are acceptable before YHVH isn’t enough this passage takes things a step further and says that the elohim of Egypt were not merely the imaginary gods that mankind created as dead idols, but that Egypt’s elohim had power enough in Egypt to plague the Pharaoh over his “sin” of tying himself to YHVH through marriage.  The structure of the divine council of the Elohim as understood by the writers of the plates of brass appears to be polytheistic in much the same way that modern scholars claim ancient Canaanite peoples were.  What do you make of that?  In the last discussion, we saw the comparison of the God who Created Mankind vs the gods created by mankind (idols).  But the elohim of Egypt appears to be neither of those.  What is this thing?  As you are pondering this, you might want to cheat and look forward a few chapters to the place where Abram, Sarai, and YHVH play out a similar narrative with King Abilelech who also has his own elohim who are not excited about the arrangement, and his elohim are “powerful” enough to see the problem and warn him in a dream not to consummate the marriage.  And, before you say that Abimelech and Pharoah’s elohim are really just the devil … this is plainly untrue.  Both of them are decent god-fearing people who live lives of relative righteousness, they are definitely not painted like Cain or Nimrod who serve the darkness.  Anyway, there is much to consider here about just how deeply this version of the story cuts into the dogma of our society’s entire worldview.

Engage the Spirit through Contemplation

Chapter 22, Vs 6-10 give a very rich imagery at a powerful moment of salvation.  This passage will be used later in the course as the clearest description of two kabbalistic concepts.  Strength, and Understanding.  Without diving too deep into the overall Kabbalistic journey and its goal (we do that toward the end of the course),  as you ponder these verses, it might be useful to know that Understanding is the allegorical place where we want to be so that we can be a witness of God’s Glory.  In this image, Abram is on the altar and discovers Understanding,  and is saved by the Strength of YHVH who arrives in a pillar of fire.  I have no idea how literal this moment is, but I recommend spending some time to really place yourself into the perspective of Abram and ponder on this particular moment.

Engage the Group through Discussion

When you meet together as a group to discuss the content of these chapters, here are some ideas to help get the discussion going:

• Modern scholarship has “debunked” the papyrus that were used by Joseph when he was translating the Book of Abraham.  They have looked at what’s left of the papyrus and declared them to be out of the standard Egyptian Book of the Dead, and have nothing at all that might imply a connection to Abraham.  This chapter in the Plates of Brass seems to be a witness that regardless of the actual contents of the papyrus that Joseph used, the Book of Abraham was indeed the story of Abraham and agrees with the ancient records.  This harkens to a concept taught in 2nd Nephi 12:38 RAV / 28:30 OPV. “For unto him that receiveth, I will give more; and from them that shall say: We have enough, shall be taken away even that which they have.”  As more and more comes forth, and all of these different revelations are woven together in compelling ways, we will discover that we either have to accept more and more, or reject more and more.   What are your thoughts on this phenomenon? And what are your thoughts on how this applies to the Book of Abraham?
• In the  John 6:60–66, we have a discussion between Jesus and his disciples, AFTER he has declared himself to be the Manna from heaven, and that anyone who wants to live MUST partake of his flesh and blood.  They have this exchange: “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”   The title page of the plates of brass declare it to be the manna to feed Israel in the famine of the last days.   Is what is being taught in these chapters too much?  Is it “an hard saying”?  Is this manna? Or is it something else?