Articles
And the Two Shall Become One: Division and Witness from Genesis to Revelation- Part 1
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
November 2018
Prophetic Words from Genesis Relevant to Final Preparation of The Bride
Maligning YHWH’s Character and Creation
Consequences of the Sin in the Garden Misinterpreted
Division and Witness Metaphors
Institutional, Cultural, Familial, and Individual Strongholds That Maintain Division
Two Major Division Issues Currently Straining Toward Restoration: Jew and Gentile/ Male and Female
His Purposes for Division Ultimately Leading to Witness and a Bride without Spot or Wrinkle
Part 1 of 2: Current Summary Statement of Book in Process
The God of Israel, YHWH, is an Elohim in Whom there is no shadow of turning, a covenant keeping God. He is not a man that He should lie. His intentions toward His creation are for good and not for evil. He created all things with purpose and desire to fulfill that purpose. Mankind was created with a special place above all else, bearing the nephesh/Breath of Elohim, for relationship with Him, and ultimately for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
YHWH provided His Written Word and His Living Word to teach us His ways. Known to man as the Written Word, before the Living Word came, “Torah” is often inadequately referred to as “Law,” carrying connotations in Greek/Western thinking that it does not have in Hebrew where it would more accurately be translated as “Yah’s Teachings on Righteousness.” The host of heaven and mankind were created with a will, and the opportunity to choose to fulfill His purposes or not, to walk in righteousness as YHWH defined it or to walk in unrighteousness or sin. All of history is about the struggle of will to be honoring to YHWH or to another god, whether it be material or spiritual, all too often being self. The host of heaven, both holy and unholy, have influenced mankind in both directions.
The phrase “abolishing Torah” was originally used in the sense of a teacher working with students learning the character and nature of Elohim through His Written Word and their walk with that teacher. When an interpretation was given that upheld the reputation and good Name of YHWH it was said to “fulfill Torah.” If an interpretation was offered that maligned the character of YHWH, it was said to “abolish Torah.” YHWH and Messiah stated that the Torah would never be “abolished” or pass away until heaven and earth were no longer: it would never malign the character of God.
Who can dispute that YHWH declared nearly all of His creation to be “tov” which means “good?” Yet, day two, in which the upper and lower waters were separated was not called “tov.” Ancient Rabbinical commentators interpreted it to mean that the separation wasn’t fulfilled/finished until the third day. In the Hebraic sense, using a paleo Hebrew pictographic understanding, for something to be “good” it meant for it to be “fully functional according to its purpose.” The Scriptural metaphor for the number two has to do with both witness and division. Both require at least two, whether individuals or groups, in order for there to be agreement in witness or separation in disagreement/division.
YHWH Who is outside of time— omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient— knew that sin would enter in and bring division. He further knew that mankind would long walk in that division in various ways and that it would not be until the end times when the prophesied restoration from that walk of division would begin. Perhaps it can be said then, that the separation theme of day two was NOT yet fully functional or “tov.” Opportunities for division and witness would continue until the end, and indeed, Sha’ul/Paul wrote that divisions were necessary in order to determine the approved among people. (1 Cor. 11:18-19) Yet, nearly the first instruction given to mankind, now male and female, was “And the Two Shall become One.”
Multiple separations occurred during the week of Creation: separation of light and dark, upper and lower waters and dry land from the seas, the separation of mankind into male and female, and the separation of the seventh day as “set apart/holy.” Multiple separations occurred throughout Biblical history and of course, since then as well. Primary among them has been the division of mankind from God through the influence of the nachash/serpent in Gan Edan/Garden of Eden. Secondary to that, the separation and then enmity between male and female, and then the enmity of the People of the Book; with some maintaining Torah while missing Messiah, and others upholding Messiah while missing the Torah.
Messiah did NOT come to deliver His people from the Jews or the Law, as it seems many Christian commentators/researchers see it, but to deliver His people from sin. Sin entered in through Adam and Chavah/Eve, which led to the various divisions, in this case, of division between Christians/Gentiles and Jews. He is a Redeemer, bringing restoration to YHWH’s original purpose/intent, Who came in bodily form through the lineage of Yehudah/Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Being separated, or “set apart” which we usually see translated as “holy” is a process that involves a special intention toward what purpose something is set apart to accomplish. It may be set apart for YHWH honoring purposes or for non-YHWH honoring purposes, even when those purposes may not be entirely clear to us. He has allowed and even determined some separations to happen for His own purposes. His ways are higher than ours.
I suggest that after the initial separation between mankind and YHWH, two primary separations that have occurred, though permitted and perhaps even determined to occur by our Elohim, are currently straining toward restoration:
When He declared to the newly separated couple that “the two shall become one” I believe there would be an immediate, intermediate and final fulfillment. What was not “tov” or fully functional, would ultimately be completed. The “2” of division will ultimately become the “2” of witness toward the final restoration of echad/unity!
The prophesied restoration of a way back to the Father was accomplished through the atonement work of Messiah Yeshua, though both finished and ongoing in sanctification. Mankind has the opportunity to choose to accept it or not. His words, known as “the High Priestly Prayer” of John 17 have to do with a yearning toward that final restoration when all would be one yet again. I believe we have the final picture in the Feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles, the Ingathering, which is also ultimately, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
The adversary has worked from the beginning in the Garden to destroy that possibility for restoration. He was unable to stop Yeshua, fully God and fully man, from completion of the atonement, though he has been successful in keeping many from accepting the work. He has been more successful with impeding the restoration of the two separations identified here, among mankind.
Even so, the restoration of witness from division will proceed because YHWH has declared it.
The people who kept the Torah but missed Messiah have been in the process of restoration with those who kept Messiah but lost Torah for several decades now, at least, though there has always been a remnant. Though this involves thousands of people all over the world, it is still a small percentage of each of the two people groups: those who claim belief in Messiah through all the many variations of Christianity and those who are in one form of Judaism or another.