ONE!

By Rabbi Eric Carlson

(Words in Parentheses are my additions to highlight concepts)

Bereshit 1:1-5 “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets. 2 Veha'arets hayetah tohu vavohu vechoshech al-peney tehom veruach Elohim merachefet al-peney hamayim 3 Vayomer Elohim yehi-or vayehi-or. 4 Vayar Elohim et-ha'or ki-tov vayavdel Elohim beyn ha'or uveyn hachoshech. 5 Vayikra Elohim la-or yom velachoshech kara laylah vayehi-erev vayehi-voker yom echad.”

Genesis 1:1-5 “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. 2 The earth was without form and empty, with darkness on the face of the depths, but God's spirit moved on the water's surface. 3 God said, 'There shall be light,' and light came into existence 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. 5 God named the light 'Day,' and the darkness He named 'Night.' It was evening and it was morning, one day.” There are supernatural key elements in this scripture. Through the study of these elements we gain insight and understanding of Gods purpose and plans for us in these end days.

Genesis 1:5 “God saw that the light was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness”

Darkness, translated from the Hebrew word: “Choshech”: Root word Chosh, which is the root word for lacked, missing, unenergetic, lacking energy, powerless, beyond repair, aimless, hopeless, feared, suspected, secret, secret place, worthless, meaningless. Darkness or Choshech is all of the previous descriptions! The enemy, HaSatan, the Devil, the Prince of Darkness is chosech or darkness

Light, translated from the Hebrew word: “Or”: Ha Or, The Light! A Beam of Light. “Or is the root word for illumination, joy, happiness, instruction, teaching, directive, order, puts in order, lawyer, attorney, woke up, roused, and parenthood. Light is all of these terms! Yeshua is the light of the world! He is all of these descriptions!

“Or” and “Choshech” are structured and unstructured energy. The Torah says that both Or and Choshech are Echad, that the two are one, chaos and order are one. The biblical day begins at sunset and ends at Sunset. Genesis 1:6 “It was evening and it was morning, one day” (Yom Echad).

What is Echad?

Echad is the Hebrew word for one that is a completeness through pluralism! What does this mean? Aleph represents the Numeral ONE. Echad is something different, a completeness, a wholeness. The root word of Echad is “Ached” which means to unify, to be in accord, in unison, no more separate parts!

Adam and Eve are described as "one flesh" or Echad in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” Echad Flesh! Complete, Whole, in Unity! This does not denote a sexual connotation. It is a spiritual concept! Let’s read Yeshua’s comments on the same subject Matthew 19:3-6 - 3 Some P<rushim came and tried to trap him by asking, “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife on any ground whatever?” 4 He replied, “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, 5 and that he said, ‘For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two are to become one flesh’? 6 Thus they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what God has joined together.” And Paul shares the same view in I Corinthians 6:16-17 16 Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? For the Tanakh says, “The two will become one flesh;” 17 but the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Father also taught us this concept about Himself in the “Shema”, a traditional Jewish prayer from Deuteronomy that is recited daily. Deuteronomy 6:4 . “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God , the Lord is one;” Our God is Echad, Complete! Unified, as the three cords of a rope are bound together and unbreakable!

We are Echad with God and our wives. There is also a warning to us from Paul in I Corinthians, sex outside the bounds of marriage make a person spiritually “One” or “Echad” with that person! If you have an affair, you become complete with all the negative spiritual baggage of the other person! You become cursed! Echad has a powerful impact in our lives and is found over 900 times in Tanach!

Exodus 24:3 “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice,(Kol Echad) and said, All the words which the Lord has said will we do.” Kol Echad, a voice of Unity! This is simply understood to be the voice of many people speaking in unison so that God heard one sound, one reply.

Numbers 13:23 “And they came to the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from there a branch with one (Echad) cluster of grapes, and they bore it between two on a pole; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.”

A complete cluster, individual grapes make up a cluster!

The concept of unity and wholeness is built into the tabernacle, whose curtains were fastened together to form one (Echad) unit (Ex 26:6, 11; 36:13).

The concept is further developed in Isaiah 40:31, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." The word "wait" in this verse is the Hebrew word Khavah (kaw-vaw) which means to "twist and bind, gather together, to be strong and robust from the idea of binding fast." Read this verse again replacing wait with the definition “But they that are bound/gathered together with the Lord shall renew their strength.” The concept is that strength and unity is the result when we bind our lives together with the Lords. This twisting, this binding, this gathering with the Lord makes us Echad (complete) with God.

Back to Genesis, The biblical day begins at sunset! The day begins in darkness, a chaotic, unenergetic, lacking energy, powerless, beyond repair, aimless, hopeless, feared, suspected, secret, worthless, meaningless time period. As the day progresses it gives way from the darkness and chaos to light and order! From nothing to life, order, illumination, joy, happiness, instruction, and teaching! The creation of the universe is from a formless void in darkness that gives way to order, life, and light! You and I were born into darkness. Psalms 51:7(5): “True, I was born guilty, was a sinner from the moment my mother conceived me.” David declares we are all born sinners, we are born into the darkness! But that darkness gives way to the light, which is Yeshua as spoken in His own words in John 8:12 12 Yeshua spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life.” Yeshua is our Order, He is our teaching, He is our Illumination, He is our Joy, He is our Happiness! He is “Ha Or Olam”, The Light of the World!

We, as created beings, follow the pattern as set forth in God’s creation of the universe and individual days, we all begin in darkness and proceed towards the light, from chaos into order!

In response to a group of Jews who asked Him to tell them plainly if he was the Mashiach, Yeshua gave them an answer in John 10:25-31 5 Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf, 26 but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, 28 and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. 29 My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch from the Father’s hands. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him. (Echad)." Echad, “One”, is the same word used in Deuteronomy 6:4, and by using it, Yeshua clearly defines its meaning. He used the word Echad in the same vernacular as in Genesis as well. Yeshua clearly identifies himself as Echad, complete with the Father, YWHW. The Jews of that time period knew exactly what he was saying. They became enraged and picked up stones to stone him. He was declaring that he and the Father are unified, twisted, and bound together, gathered together, complete, Echad. That they are in complete Shalom and harmony. Yeshua said “I only do what I see me Father do!”

Yeshua’s clearest interpretation and use of Echad is found in John 14:7-11, 7 Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him—in fact, you have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” 9 Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am one (Echad) with the Father, and the Father one (Echad) with me? What I am telling you, I am not saying on my own initiative; the Father living in me is doing his own works. 11 Trust me, that I am one (Echad – united) with the Father, and the Father one (Echad) with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves.

Yeshua’s definition of Echad with God is: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, united, bound together, gathered together, complete, whole! Just as the two parts of a day or Adam and Eve are Echad or complete, so too is Yeshua Echad or complete with the Father!

We, as believers are to be Echad as well! Yeshua teaches us that Echad is not an isolated principle between He and Father! Yeshua’s prayer found in John 17 reveals prayer not only for His disciples, but for all those who shall trust in him through their word. John 17:20-23 20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will trust in me because of their word, 21 that they may all be one (Echad). Just as you, Father, are united with me and I with you, I pray that they may be united with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given to me, I have given to them; so that they may be one,(Ecahd) just as we are one—(Echad) 23 I united with them and you with me, so that they may be completely one (Echad), and the world thus realize that you sent me, and that you have loved them just as you have loved me.

Yeshua prays and teaches Echad and prays that we may be Echad, united, bound together, unified, in accord, no more separate parts in the Kingdom of God! Yeshua tells us that this Echad, this oneness, will not only bring maturity in our lives with God but with one another. The manifestation of this Echad, this binding together, this unity, is love of the Lord and love for one another. Yeshua is our example of Echad with God. If a person says that he is Echad with God but does not manifest love for one another, then by Yeshua’s definition, they are not Echad.

Finally, Echad is the One New Man! Paul reveals the secret of Echad in Ephesians 2:11-18 11 Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth—called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised— 12 at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God. 13 But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. 14 For he himself is our shalom—he has made us both one (Echad) and has broken down the m<chitzah which divided us 15 by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a One (Echad) New Man and thus make shalom, 16 and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus killing in himself that enmity. 17 Also, when he came, he announced as Good News shalom to you far off and shalom to those nearby, 18 news that through him we both have access in one (Echad) Spirit to the Father.” This scripture shows us that through the sacrifice and blood of Yeshua, God has made Jew and Gentile, One (Echad) New Man, the Blood of Yeshua has made us complete, whole, in unison, un-separable! . The Gentiles were as Ephesians 2:12 states “without hope,” chosech, in darkness, aimless, MISSING! The One (Echad) New Man cannot exist without the Gentiles! They were formerly missing but now have been brought in! God has brought us all together to work towards accomplishing His divine purpose in the world. Paul’s writings refer to TODAY, NOW, OUR GENERATION! WE ARE ENTERING INTO THE ONE (ECHAD) NEW MAN! When “grafted in” as Paul explains in Romans Ch.11, the wild olive branch is fed by the Jewish rooted olive tree, but the branch still produces its original fruit. In other words, if a pear branch was grafted into an apple tree, the flavor of the fruit changes a slightly as nourished by the new root, but the branch still produces pears! That is the miracle of the One (Echad) New Man! All are bound together through the blood of Yeshua and nourished by the Jewish Olive Tree and each branch retains its own identity! We need to celebrate and rejoice in who we are, whether a Jew, Arab, Hispanic, African, Oriental, European, First Nations People, it matters not! God loves all the same and has made us Echad! THERE ARE NO CONVERSIONS! The One New Man in its freedom tears down the walls of racism, religion, and cultural barriers. We become united, joined together, unified, striving towards the same goal, sharing God’s plan of Salvation to the world and preparing ourselves for the return of Yeshua! As Paul said, “It is life from the dead.” The One New Man will usher in World Revival!