Echad
By Eric Carlson in February-3 on February 1, 2023
(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 the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day.
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 1:5 “So there was evening, and there 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: “This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to 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: – “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.”
Sh’aul shared the same view in:
I Corinthians 6:16-17. “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.
God also taught us this concept about Himself in the “Shema”, a traditional Jewish prayer from Deuteronomy that is recited daily.
Deuteronomy 6:4. ““Sh’ma, Yisra’el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one];
We are Echad with God and our spouses. 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. “Moshe came and told the people everything ADONAI had said, including all the rulings. The people answered with one voice (Kol Echad): “We will obey every word ADONAI has spoken.”
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 unified reply.
Numbers 13:23 “They came to the Eshkol Valley; and there they cut off a branch bearing one (Echad) cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two of them; they also took pomegranates and 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 those who hope in ADONAI will renew their strength, they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings; when they are running they won’t grow weary, when they are walking they won’t get tired.”
The word “hope” in this verse (some translations use “wait”) 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 revelation is that strength and unity result when we bind our lives together with the Lords. This twisting, this binding, this gathering with the Lord makes us Echad (complete-one) 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! As David revealed, you and I were born into sin, darkness.
Psalms 51:5. “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, who is Yeshua as revealed in His own words in:
John 8:12. “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 Judeans who asked Him to tell them plainly if he was the Mashiach, Yeshua gave them an answer in:
John 10:25-31. 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 them 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, “One”, is the same word used in Deuteronomy 6:4, and by using it, Yeshua defines its meaning. He uses the word Echad in the same vernacular as used 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 rocks in order 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 “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 united with the Father, and the Father united 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 united with the Father, and the Father united with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves.”
Yeshua’s definition of Echad with God is: “I am united with the Father, and the Father united with 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 Adonai, 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. ““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 (Echad), just as we are one —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. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.”
Yeshua prays and teaches Echad. He prays that we, you and I, Jew, Gentile, Male, and Female, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, and Indigenous people will all 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 Humanity! Sh’aul reveals the secret of Echad in:
Ephesians 2:11-19. “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 Isra’el. 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 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 single new humanity 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 in himself killing 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 Spirit to the Father. 19 So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family.”
This scripture shows us that through the sacrifice and blood of Yeshua, God has made Jew and Gentile, One (Echad) New Humanity, 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 Humanity 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. Sh’aul’s writings refer to TODAY, NOW, OUR GENERATION! WE ARE ENTERING INTO THE ONE (ECHAD) NEW HUMANITY! When “grafted in” as Sh’aul 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 Humanity! 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, Gentile, Black or White, Hispanic, African, Asian, European, First Nations People, it matters not! God loves all the same and has made us Echad! THERE ARE NO CONVERSIONS! The One New Humanity in its freedom tears down the walls of Anti-Semitism, Racism, Bigotry, religious, 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 Sh’aul said, “It is life from the dead.” The One New Humanity will usher in World Revival! In Yeshua’s name I pray that we all become Echad!