mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: Vayetze (And he went out), B’resheet (Genesis) 28.10-32.3
Haftorah: Hoshea (Hosea) 11.7-14.10(9)
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Yokhanan (John) 1.19-51

Shalom,

This week’s parashah focuses on Ya’akov (Jacob). In last week’s parashah, his father Yitz’khak (Isaac) had blessed him and sent him out to find a wife from the land of his mother’s relatives. It is of interest to note that some of the commentators believe that Ya’akov may have been over 70 years old at this time, but still relatively young for one who lived to the age of 180 (B’resheet 35.28). We do know that Yitz’khak was 60 years old when Ya’akov was born (B’resheet 25.26). We can also know that Ya’akov was over 40 at this time, for in B’resheet 26.34 we are told of his twin brother Esav (Esau) marrying a couple of Hittite women at age 40, which brought grief to his parents. In B’resheet 27.46, Yitz’khak’s wife Rivkah (Rebekah) made complaint of these women wearing her out, and urged Yitz’khak to sent Ya’akov back to their former homeland to find a wife. So Ya’akov headed out, apparently alone – a marked contrast to how the wife of Yitz’khak was pursued (see B’resheet 24). As he traveled, the sun began to set, and B’resheet 28.11 is translated as, “he came to a certain place…,” or, “he lighted upon a certain place…,” etc. The Hebrew for “came to, lighted upon” is פּגע pah-gah, which can also mean, “prayed, interceded.” Because of his experience that followed, we see that Ya’akov had stopped for the night and was unknowingly about to have an encounter with the Creator, which I believe was a result of the intercession of his father and grandfather. Per the events of the life of Ya’akov in the previous chapters, this may very well have been his first actual encounter with ADONAI.

Many people who have come to a saving faith in Yeshua as Messiah and Lord of their lives can define a certain point when they met Him, particularly if there was no prior level, or perhaps a low level, of familiarity with godliness in their homes or lives. But for those who grew up in a family of believers, there is not always a defined moment per se. There may be a marked point when a public statement was made of one’s faith, perhaps there was a public immersion, etc, but sometimes the exact point of personal awareness of G-d is blurred simply because one was always aware of G-d. But when a person is raised in a family of believers and they stay on that path, there comes a point which is more defined, when they realize that this G-d that my fathers have served is also my G-d. When the awareness surfaces that G-d is a personal G-d, the light comes on and a quest normally begins, just as it did with those who had never known [about] Him. A.W. Tozer wrote, in his magnificent book “The Pursuit of God,” that for a true pursuer of G-d there comes times when one’s hunger and thirst for Him becomes so strong that that one “will not be content with shallow logic… [but will] turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, ‘O God, show my Thy Glory.’ They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.” I feel this is the point Ya’akov reached after ADONAI came to him this particular night, a point of pursuit where all believers should be, but more often than not a point to which we need to return.

Daily life can so easily jade our hearts if we’re not careful. To counter that, we need to seek out that “lonely place” often, daily if life permits, to meet with our Creator. And if at all possible, as the Word of G-d tells us in Hebrews 10.24-25, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Believers in restricted lands are literally dying for doing what we in this free land too often take for granted, that of gathering with like-minded believers, whether in a home or a more public setting. For western believers in particular, the “things of earth” hold too much sway over our decision making. Yeshua told us in Mattityahu (Matthew) 26.41 to, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse in the Message as: “Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

Our spirit desires something greater, but is so often too easily overruled by our flesh. Stephen Charnock, in his great book, “The Existence and Attributes of God,” first published in 1853, noted this [definitions in brackets are mine]: “Now the soul of man finds an imperfection in everything here, and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity [great happiness; bliss]. In the highest fruitions [accomplishments] of worldly things the soul is still pursuing something else, which speaks a defect in what is already has. The world may afford a felicity for our dust, the body, but not for the inhabitant in it; the world is too mean [selfish, unkind, cruel] for that… There is, therefore, some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the soul, and this is God.” As Yeshua stated in Mattityahu 5.6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

So Ya’akov went to sleep and had a dream, “and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of ADONAI were ascending and descending on it!” This is probably to be more accurately understood as a “stairway,” but whatever it was, it was revealing a great mystery that Ya’akov would not be able to fully understand. As he looked up the stairway, he saw the angels ascending and descending, and “הִנֵּה Hee-ney, Lo!, Behold!, Suddenly! ADONAI was standing over it, or beside him,” depending upon the translation. ADONAI pronounced a great blessing upon Ya’akov; Ya’akov then awoke and realized that he had “stumbled upon” a holy place, and he worshipped.

And regarding what this “stairway” was, in Yokhanan (John) 1.51, from the reading this week, Yeshua tells Natan’el (Nathaniel) that he, Natan’el, would see heaven opened and the angels of ADONAI going up and coming down on the Son of Man!” By saying that, Yeshua declared that He is the stairway, the connection between the holiness of heaven and the desperate search of fallen man; to climb that stairway, to rejoin with the heavenly, is now possible, but only through Him. Humanity has an internal need to try to re-gain what was lost at the fall. Ya’akov was to take the message of the stairway and teach it to his children, who in turn were to teach it to the world. When the descendants of Ya’akov on the whole later rejected the “stairway,” that burden was given to the non-Jewish world to bear; sadly they for the most part rejected the children of Ya’akov at the same time. Now in these last days the children of Ya’akov are beginning to understand and accept the message of the stairway once again, and non-Jewish “stairway bearers” are beginning to stand with them.

One of our duties then, as believers, is to “light upon” that lonely place, that place of intercession. We are to let Him satisfy our own hunger and thirst, then seek for the welfare of others. We must be “full” spiritually before we can successfully intercede for others. On the other hand, we should not get filled up and then just “leave” the room; we need to “empty ourselves out” on behalf of others. When we desire for someone to understand the truth of who Yeshua is, we have through intercession the key to the removal of the blinders over their spiritual eyes, the veil over the spiritual heart, and this should be our prayer before we begin any discussion with them. Sha’ul says in 2 Corinthians 4.4, concerning people who can not see the truth of Yeshua, that they cannot come to faith “because the god of the olam hazeh [this world, this age] has blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God.” Sha’ul teaches a little later on that through intercession we are actually engaged in spiritual warfare. As he told us, the mind of unbelievers has been blinded by the god of this world. In 2 Corinthians 10.3-5, Sha’ul teaches us what to do in order to help open these blinded minds: “For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing [spiritual] strongholds. We demolish arguments [the logic of the mind] and every arrogance [the pride of the mind] that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought [the deductions, conclusions, and judgments of the mind] captive and make it obey the Messiah.”

This type of praying for someone is NOT what is sometimes known as “spiritual, or charismatic witchcraft,” or mind control, i.e., “praying” for a person do something against their will, or “praying” for our will to happen in their lives. No, true intercession is the crushing of the spiritual power that blinds the eyes of a person to the truth. Only then will that person realize what truth is, and hopefully they will direct their mind, or “will,” to that truth. Sometimes this type of intercession may take weeks, months, years, even decades. The teaching about intercession in Scripture is that it must be consistent with and insistent upon ONLY the will of ADONAI.

The point then: if you want to “see and understand” THE stairway to heaven, you must withdraw to the lonely place and ask the Creator to “show me Thy glory”. The busy-ness of life can be a roadblock to this time, yet all too often we are not too busy to sit in front of the tv, go shopping, etc. These things are not bad in and of themselves, but they should not be priority over our pursuit of G-d. Along with that, you must withdraw to the safety of fellow believers if and when you can.

The Haftorah reading ends with these words from the prophet Hoshea: “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of ADONAI are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May eyes Jewish be opened in that city, in all of Israel, and globally, to see and understand their father Ya’akov’s “ladder”.

Torah: Tol’dot (History), B’resheet (Genesis) 25.19-28.9
Haftorah: Mal’akhi (Malachi) 1.1-2.7
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Romans 9.1-13

Shalom,

I want to take a look at the Haftorah reading for this week, from the prophet Mal’akhi, rather than the Torah portion. [The Torah reading cycle may have been first established by Ezra; a few centuries later, it is said that during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes over Israel, prior to the time of the Maccabees, the evil tyrant Antiochus had forbidden the reading of Torah, so the rabbis came up with passages from the prophets that echoed thought from the Torah. When Torah reading was later re-instituted, the Haftorah portions were kept.] Mal’akhi was the last book of the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures; Old Testament) to be written; there is no internal dating, but the message infers that the book was written approximately 100 years after Babylon had fallen to King Cyrus of Persia, which was in 538 BCE; that was when Cyrus declared that Judah could return to their land and rebuild the Temple. In the early years of this return, Ezra and Nehemiah had rebuilt the Temple, restored Temple worship and reformed the Jewish faith, but sometime after that the Kohen (Priests) and the people had drifted into apathy and indifference and had become morally corrupt. By dating through various Biblical and historical references, scholars place the date of the writing of the prophet Mal’akhi to be somewhere between 433 and 400 BCE.

The message begins by stating it is, “An oracle, a burden, of the word of ADONAI to Israel”. This word of ADONAI being delivered through Mal’akhi had divine authority behind it. This was not a word from Elohim, or Shaddai, or any other name of G-d, for the four letter Sacred Name is used here. (Jewish scholars have chosen to protect the Sacred Name with written circumlocutions, such as ADONAI, HASHEM, G-d, or L-rd, to prevent the risk of the Name becoming defaced or destroyed on a written surface. Most observant Jews – Messianic or non – have also chosen not to pronounce the Name. This thought comes not only from the commandment to not take His Name in vain, but also from the inference that Jews are not to destroy or efface any holy thing. Hebrew scholars have come up with at least three possible pronunciations of the Sacred Name (Y-H-V-H), all uniquely different from each other, so no one can really be positive of the actual pronunciation.) Mal’akhi is about to unfold ADONAI’s love for Israel, but he begins by introducing the word as a burden, מַשָּׂא, ma-sah, “a load to be lifted up; something heavy”. It could be called “a weighty word full of meaning”. The prophet is delivering a burden of ADONAI, because that was the name used to express the Creator’s covenant relationship to Israel, a covenant to which she had become unfaithful. According to Jewish Sage Rashi, the Sacred Name represents G-d as the One Who carries out His promises. The Patriarchs had been familiar with the Name, but not until the time of Moshe did the Creator fully manifest Himself in this way, as The Promise Keeper. Israel had turned away, and Mal’akhi was about to deliver a hard word from the One Who never changes.

Mal’akhi’s message is addressed to “Israel,” which was the common term for the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes that had broken away from Judah and Benjamin, the Southern Kingdom, after the death of King Shlomo (Solomon). But as we saw above, Mal’akhi was written sometime around 400 BCE, yet the Northern Kingdom had been defeated by Assyria in 722 BCE, some 300 years earlier. So who was this “Israel” the prophet was addressing? A good part of Mal’akhi’s burden was to the Priests, who were serving in Jerusalem (which was in Judah), but the message on the whole was delivered to all of the tribes. Here we must note that both books of Chronicles, as well as archaeological records, reveal that only a small portion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was deported to Assyria, primarily the leadership and the military. The annals of Assyria itself have been uncovered, in which is revealed that they carried away only around 27,290 people out of an estimated population of 400-500,000. Scripture has record of when the Southern Kingdom of Judah returned from Babylonian captivity, but the remnant of the Northern Kingdom returned with little fanfare. This is because not that many returned, since not that many had actually been taken away. So we learn that the bulk of the Northern Kingdom remained where they were, or, leaderless, attached themselves to or drifted down into Judah. Some left the area, and descendants are being discovered in our day in India, China, Africa, and other far-off regions. Assyria did import people from conquered lands elsewhere into the northern regions of Israel; these people intermarried with the locals, and from there eventually developed the group known as the Samaritans. But because there was no formal recognized return of Israel from Assyria, as Judah had from Babylon, legends have developed regarding the “ten lost tribes”.

The Messianic Writings (New Testament) authors, just as the prophets, intermingled the terms “Israel” and “Jew” quite often, again because all tribes were represented in the Land of Israel at that time. Because the tribe of Judah remained strong and large, and much of the 10 tribes had assimilated into the region of Judah, they all came to be called “Jews” by the Romans. The majority of all of these people were later dispersed by the Romans, thus the term “Jew” cannot and does not refer to only descendants from the tribe of Judah in this current Diaspora.

Mal’akhi began his oracle by declaring ADONAI’s love for Israel. Through all the rebellion, and even though there had to be punishment, His love for His chosen people remained strong. The word for love in Mal’akhi 1.2 is in the Hebrew perfect tense, referring not only to His past love for His people, but His present love for them. And ADONAI’s love for Israel is deep; it is unconditional, it was sovereignly bestowed first through His covenant with Avraham, the father of all of the Jewish people. ADONAI’s love for Israel is everlasting; He did not make this commitment to any other nation or people group. His love for Israel is like a mother to her child, like a husband to his wife, like a father to his son. Israel is the apple, or the pupil, of G-d’s eye; the eye is perhaps not a more important part of the body, but a part requiring more protection and care.

Yet Israel questioned His love. Without going into great detail, this seemed to be largely because, although He had taken care of them constantly, it was not always to their liking. Echoes of modern day believers. It has been said that where love is most manifested, it is often least appreciated. Just as Israel questioned ADONAI’s unconditional love, we see the same thing oftentimes in otherwise strong families and congregations. Things don’t go to our liking, and we get upset and turn against one other; ultimately it boils down to a lack of faith in the unconditional love of G-d and the rise of human pride. So soon we forget.

ADONAI responded to Israel, as we continue in Mal’akhi, by declaring that He loved Ya’akov (Jacob), but hated Esau. Our human tendency is to understand these words only on an emotional level, but the word “hate” is used often in Scripture in another manner – Yeshua said that we must “hate” our loved ones in order to be His disciple (Luke 14.26). ADONAI does not necessarily use this term on an emotional level, a level that indicates that He is fonder of one than the other. Rather, He is speaking of His sovereign choice of Ya’akov and his descendants to carry out His spiritual purposes upon the earth. Israel may have become angry and/or discouraged as a result of her exiles, and a large percentage does not yet recognize this one fact today, that through it all, their Messiah has walked with them.

Mal’akhi continued on, and still Israel argued; Mal’akhi then declared to the Kohanim (Priests) that they had better straighten up and do their duties correctly, responsibly and righteously. Mal’akhi 2.7 states, “A Cohen’s [priest’s] lips should safeguard knowledge, and people should seek Torah from his mouth, because he is the messenger of ADONAI-Tzva’ot.” This is a word for all of us who are believers this day, for Kefa (Peter) tells us that we are all “a royal priesthood” (1 Kefa 2.9), so that “you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. This is not inferring that all believers are from the tribe of Levi, but rather that as followers of Yeshua we all have a higher calling upon our lives. We are to be proclaiming Torah with our lives – not just the five books of Moshe, for all of Scripture comes under the broader heading of Torah; beyond that, Yeshua is the living Torah, the embodiment of the written word. Thus, our lives are to be proclaiming Yeshua, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Can you and you and I say that we stand as a Royal Priest to Yeshua in all that we say and do, wherever we are? Certainly we can only do such a thing in the power of the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Imagine the day when millions of believers – Jew and Gentile – in Jerusalem and Israel will be proclaiming the excellencies of the Messiah Yeshua, who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light!

Torah: Khiy-yey Sarah (Life of Sarah), B’resheet (Genesis) 23.1-25.18
Haftorah: M’lakhim Aleph (1 Kings) 1.1-31
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Mattityahu (Matthew) 1.1-17

Shalom,

“Sarah lived to be 127 years old; these were the years of Sarah’s life.” Thus begins this parashah, and the Sages note that Sarah is the only woman in Scripture accorded the honor of having her age, death, and burial distinctly noted. But the real point of chapter 23 is to show how Avraham first came into legal possession of a parcel of land in Canaan. Through what I understand is typical middle-eastern haggling that continues to this day, Avraham bought land that had not only a cave in which to bury his wife, but a large field with many trees, referred to in Scripture as “the cave in the field of Makhpelah (Machpelah)”. This particular cave at Hebron later became the burial site also of Avraham, Yitz’khak (Isaac), Rivkah (Rebecca), Ya’akov (Jacob), Leah, and possibly Yosef (Joseph).

In Stephen’s account of Israel’s history in Acts 7, verse 16 gives on a surface read a glaring discrepancy, stating that the patriarchs were buried in a tomb Avraham bought from the family of Hamor in Sh’khem (Shechem). The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge gives this explanation: “The Greek word par-ah, ‘from,’ as it frequently signifies with a genitive, should be rendered, ‘And were carried over to Sychem; and afterwards from among the descendants of Emmor, the father, or son, of Sychem, they were laid in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money.’ This agrees with the account which Josephus gives of the patriarchs; that they [meaning Ya’akov and Yosef] were carried out of Egypt, first to Sychem, and then to Hebron, where they were buried.” This is where we see the possibility of Yosef being buried in the same tomb.

Avraham legally bought the parcel of land from Ephron the Hittite; he refused to accept it as a gift. Earlier, at the end of B’resheet 14, Avraham had refused gifts from the king of Sodom. In coming weeks we will see, in B’resheet 33, where Avraham purchased the plot of land near Sh’khem, where he had pitched his tent; this is the land referenced in Acts 7. Sh’khem is located between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, where Israel stood to recite the blessings and the curses (Deut 11.29; 27.12-13).

The burial cave at Makhpelah is today the second holiest site for Judaism, following the Temple mount. Unfortunately, the site is under Muslim control, and Jews are given very limited access to the site.

The fact that Avraham purchased these small parcels of land in actuality embodied the hope in HaShem’s promise that one day in the future it would all belong to him and his descendants. As time went along, the land was given to Israel by HaShem, and the land still belongs to Israel. Woe to those who divide the land up and parcel it out according to their own whims, for they are going against the dictate of the Creator Himself. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Heb 10.31).

I trust that we as believers need no reminder that prayer and unity is so needful these days. Current news headlines make it apparent that the United States government’s support of Israel is deteriorating. While our current President seems to favor Islam and the Arab/Persian world over Israel, it appears that even congressional support of Israel is weakening. In the past, Israel could always count on the support of congress to balance directives against them that came out of the White House, but that support seems to be changing. But we should not be surprised; the prophets warn that at the end of days all nations will come against Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). In Yo’el (Joel) 4.2(3.2) HaShem declares, “I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Y’hoshafat [Adonai judges]. I will enter into judgment there for my people, my heritage Isra’el, whom they scattered among the nations; then they divided my land.” Dividing up the land that He has given to Israel is no small thing in the eyes of the Creator of all. Psalm 83 is getting close!

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Pray for the declaration of Yeshua in Mattityahu 23.39 to become a soon reality.