As we draw closer to Yom Teruah, the day of blowing or the feast of trumpets, I was reading in Genesis 22:1-19. I caught a couple of insights that I though may be of encouragement to us. In Exodus chapter 3, Moses is standing before the burning bush listening to Yahweh I identify himself as “I Am”, and recieve the instruction from “the voice of the principles to go and tell Pharaoh (the world system) to let Yahweh’s people go.
It wasn’t until some time after this that Moses recieved the principles from the same “voice of the principles” he originally met when he encountered the burning bush. This event in Exodus 3 sets up a bit of context for what I want to show us.
In Genesis 22, Abraham has been told to take his son Isaac up to the land of Moriah and make a sacrifice to the Yahweh. If we keep this in context, Abraham was asked to do this by the same “voice of the principles” as Moses heard at the burning bush. God spoke to Abraham and said “Abraham!” and Abraham answered “Here I am.” in verse 1. Refering back to Exodus 3, what name did YHWH reveal to Abraham? “I AM”. Continuing in the story, Abraham is ready to kill Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord but again the same voice (the voice of the principles) calls to him and Abraham replies, “Here I am.” The text describes this voice as coming from heaven. Is this voice coming from the clouds? I don’t think so. I think the “voice of the principles” is coming from inside Abraham. Remember, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Abraham, in his obedience and dedication to “I AM” was already following the principles spoken at Mt. Sinai to Moses in Exodus 20. How did he know the principles if they weren’t given yet? May I propose they were written on his heart? Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.” So the voice that Abraham was hearing was not coming from the clouds but from his heart. The principles were already written there because “the voice of the principles” existed even before Abraham or even before the creation of the earth (Revelation 13:8). Remember John 8:57-58, “Why you’re not yet fifty years old,” the Judeans replied, “and you have seen Abraham?” Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! Before Abraham came into being, I AM!” The “I AM” that spoke to Moses at the burning bush spoke the “I AM” in Abraham activating the torah already written on his heart.
As we hear “the voice of the principles” (The Shofar, Voice of the Bridegroom) in our hearts may we be found as Abraham, responding in obedience to the One (I AM/ Voice of the Principles/Yeshua) who called us by his glorious light.
Building the True Tabernacle 