mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: Mikketz (At the end of), B’resheet (Genesis) 41.1-44.17
Haftorah: M’lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 7.13-26, 40-50
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Mattityahu (Matthew) 27.15-46

Shalom,

“At the end of two years, Pharaoh had a dream….” Two years after Yosef’s (Joseph’s) interpretations of the chief baker and chief cupbearer’s dreams in B’resheet 40, Pharaoh had a significant dream – two dreams, actually, both pointing to the same conclusion. The ArtScroll commentary notes that this was twelve years after Yosef was first imprisoned. (Pharaoh is from the Egyptian word Phre, signifying the sun, and was not a name, but a title of the Egyptian kings of this period.) The dreams were so vivid that only when Pharaoh awoke did he realize they were dreams. Being naturally disturbed, he called for all those who were “expert” in dream interpretation from throughout the land of Egypt. But the hand of the Creator was involved here, and the meaning of the dreams was hidden from all of these “magicians and wise men”.

Then, as if coming out of a mental stupor, the chief cupbearer, whose life had been spared as prophesied by Yosef’s interpretation of his own dream, recalled his error. Some commentators believe the cupbearer’s announcement was not so much regretful and apologetic, but rather was a statement to make himself look good to Pharaoh – “I remember that I once met someone who can interpret dreams.”

So Yosef was brought up from prison, cleaned up, and taken before Pharaoh, who then related his two dreams of the seven fat and seven lean cows, then the seven full ripe ears of grain and the seven thin ears of grain.

You may wonder why Egypt was the land that the family of Yosef came to when they were nearly out of food. How was Yosef so easily accepted into Pharaoh’s court? To briefly look at a lengthy historical account, there is about a 150 year period during this time when official Egyptian government records ceased to exist. This is because the Pharaohs of the period would not record their defeats. There have been private writings found that did record events of the period. One account, by a historian named Manetho, records a time that raiders from the east came and defeated the Egyptian king. These raiders were of Arabic descent – thus they were Semites; Semites are descended from Shem. Arabs and Jews are both Semites, although the modern usage of anti-Semitism refers to anti-Jewish sentiment. The Egyptian king of that era who had been defeated did not record this fact, so official Egyptian history was lost for a season and the Egyptian Pharaoh’s for a season were in fact not of Egyptian blood. They apparently opted to retain the royal terminology of the newly conquered people.

So yes, the Pharaoh of Yosef’s day was not of Egyptian blood, but of Arabic blood, from this band of Arabic raiders. This would explain why Yosef was able to be received so readily in Pharaoh’s court – they were “cousins,” and the Egyptian-Jewish hostility of course did not then exist – at first. This also explains how the nation of Israel was able in their beginning stage to grow and prosper in Egypt under the Semitic Pharaohs, thus eventually incurring the jealousy of their native Egyptian neighbors.

The religion of Egypt at this time was Babylonian based, and had many gods and goddesses, and included much magic and sorcery. This religion was a very important part of the life of many of the Egyptian rulers, from Pharaoh on down. The magicians that Pharaoh called on were the experts in this religion. The wise men he called on were the ones who represented worldly science and wisdom. Both groups were stumped by Pharaoh’s dreams. The dreams that Pharaoh had were sent by HaShem, thus only HaShem could reveal the meaning of them, and this is what Yosef told Pharaoh. Yosef not only gave the interpretations, he basically took over, telling Pharaoh how to best deal with the coming years of prosperity, which would be followed by years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed, he put Yosef in charge of all details of preparation for the famine.

Because Pharaoh was “religious,” he had the ability to believe in a word from a “god;” as it turned out, this word was from the only true God, the Creator of all. If only in our own time would our highest ranking rulers bypass the “wisdom” of religious and secular leaders and seek the counsel of the Most High. However, what we have are vain religious leaders pushing an agenda of “anti-Semitism (anti-Israel, anti-Jew) and replacement theology,” while secular leaders yet exalt “science and wisdom (of man)” and scoff at anything to do with a righteous Creator. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God” (1 Cor 3.19).

The fact that Yosef and the Egyptian government exacted grain from the Egyptian farmers during the years of prosperity no doubt remained in the minds of the Egyptians in later years. Even though Yosef provided for them in the years of famine, still in their minds was the fact that the government in essence “stole” from them. This no doubt played a part in the Egyptian people growing to hate the descendants of Yosef and his family, for Yosef was the visible one in these transactions. We will see in a later parashah that he was the one who traded grain to the Egyptians in exchange for their livestock and their lands; thus the current “non-Egyptian” Semitic Pharaoh became owner of most of Egypt. This would of course incur the wrath of the native Egyptians upon the Israelites, who were prospering under this Pharaoh’s hand while the “natives” sank deeper into debt to him.

In later centuries, after Egypt defeated the foreign raiders who had taken over the government, the Pharaohs of Egypt were again of Egyptian blood, and were now in power to come against the people of Israel. Even though it was Israel that was prospering in the land of Egypt, and were living in freedom, the tables were turned when Egypt began enslaving them.

Back to our chapters for this week. The brothers of Yosef went to Egypt for food, because the famine had extended to their region. They didn’t recognize Yosef, because of his Egyptian appearance, but he recognized them. B’resheet 42.9 says that Yosef remembered the dreams he had had about his brothers. What followed were times of testing of the brothers by Yosef, a family reunion, a “return from the dead” in a sense for the old father Ya’akov, and more times of testing of the brothers, and a greater family reunion.

I was recently asked why we see the terminology Abraham, Isaac and Jacob more often than Abraham, Isaac and Israel. In B’resheet 43, the name Israel is used for the father of the brothers; the ArtScroll Commentary says it is because, “Israel is the name used to depict Jacob in his spiritual role as Patriarch of the Jewish nation.” I would imagine then that Jacob is used when referring to the human blood relationship – Jacob is a blood father of the Jewish nation; Israel is a spiritual father of the Jewish nation. But that reasoning is not set in stone, for if you do a study on the two phrases, they are often-times used interchangeably; that is, sometimes Jacob is used in the spiritual sense and Israel in the human sense.

One thing to point out is in B’resheet 43.33-34. Here the brothers were seated according to age when being served before Yosef, and the youngest, Binyamin, was given five times as much as the others. Commentators give various possible reasons for the preferred treatment of Binyamin – 1) to test the others to see if they were jealous of this one as they were jealous of Yosef; 2) Yosef was honoring the one brother with whom he held a common mother; 3) Binyamin was innocent of anything to do with Yosef being sold into slavery. Perhaps it was because of this blessing from the hand of Yosef upon Binyamin that the first reigning King of Israel in later centuries was from the tribe of Benjamin – King Saul.

Yosef has been given to us as a picture, a “type,” of Yeshua. Not that Yosef is in any way an incarnation of Yeshua; rather, when we look at how Yosef lived his life, how he treated others, we see Yeshua. Yosef was, in a sense, a pattern that Yeshua would follow. Yosef was only a man, so he cannot compare to the stature and holiness of Yeshua, but we can learn some valuable principles of Yeshua in what we read of Yosef.

Would that modern Israel (Jews globally and in the Land) would recognize Yeshua through Yosef. Pray for the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to open spiritually blind eyes and change spiritually darkened hearts.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: Vayashev (And he settled), B’resheet (Genesis) 37.1-40.23
Haftorah: Z’kharyah (Zechariah) 2.14(10)-4.7 Shabbat Hannukah
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Mattityahu (Matthew) 1.1-6; 16-25

Shalom,

Torah moves into the story of Yosef (Joseph) now, and for the rest of B’resheet he will be the primary character. Some of the commentators point out that as important as Yosef was to the history of Israel, he is not considered by the sages to be one of the Patriarchs; that role is filled only by Avraham, Yitz’khak v’Ya’akov (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). There is no real definite answer as to why Yosef is not considered a patriarch also; one idea is that as much as ADONI aided him, there is a marked contrast in the way that ADONI operated with Yosef. ADONI had direct 2-way communication with Avraham, Yitz’khak and Ya’akov, but He did not communicate that way with Yosef, even though Yosef saved and in a sense began the nation of Israel. The “why not” is not answered in Torah; we can only speculate. This does not in any way lessen the importance of Yosef, nor diminish his spirituality or his walk with ADONI.

The narrative begins with Yosef as a young man of 17 years of age pasturing sheep with a four of his elder half-brothers, the sons of the concubines of Ya’akov. This was Dan and Naftali, sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s slave-girl; and Gad and Asher, sons of Zilpah, Leah’s slave-girl (see B’resheet 35.25-26). Some commentators note that here Bilhah and Zilpah are called נְשֵׁי n’shey, from אשּׁה ishah, generally used as the term for a legal wife. The sages believe that by this time both Rachel and Leah had passed away, and possibly Avraham had elevated the two slave-girls to the position of legal wives. If this was so, that probably caused some turmoil within the family also.

The JFB [Jamieson, Fausset & Brown] Commentary notes that the Hebrew of vs 2 is literally, “‘Joseph, being seventeen years old, was a shepherd over the flock.’ This seems to imply oversight or superintending, whether so because he was son of a principal wife, or from the qualities of his own character. With this being a probability, we can know that Yosef was not coming to his father as a tattle-taleing gossip, but rather as a ‘faithful steward’ reporting on the bad conduct of the other sons.”

We get a clue to Yosef’s position from vs 3, “Now Isra’el loved Yosef the most of all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long-sleeved robe” (Complete Jewish Bible [CJB]). It has been pointed out that if just being a son of Ya’akov’s old age was the reason of favoritism, then Binyamin (Benjamin) should have been the favorite. The literal Hebrew meaning, according to JFB, is that Yosef was a “‘son of old age to him’ – a Hebrew phrase for ‘a wise son’ – one who possessed observation and wisdom above his years – an old head on young shoulders.” This would explain Yosef being in a position of authority at age 17 over some of his older brothers.

Note in the above verse that the CJB translates the garment Ya’akov made for Yosef as “a long-sleeved robe”. This is very probably the correct translation, as opposed to “a coat, robe, or tunic, of many colors”. In cultures of that day, noblemen, kings, and those of a preferred position would wear a robe with sleeves reaching to the wrists, and the garment reaching to the ankles. There may have been a few varied colors and multiple fabrics sewed together, but it would not be the bright multi-colored garment that many artists like to picture. At any rate, there was a favoritism shown that does not bode well in any family. Ya’akov had essentially promoted the younger Yosef to the position of a prince over his elder brothers. It was probably well known among all of the sons that Rachel had been the favored and chosen wife; Leah of course had been given to Ya’akov by Laban in a move of deceit and trickery. It would stand to reason then that the sons of the favored wife would be the favored sons. To elevate the second to youngest son, who was already favored, to a royal position was sure to cause problems. And to those familiar with the story, there were indeed troubles to come.

In fact, verse 4 states that his brothers grew to hate Yosef so much that they could not speak to him in a civil manner. The commentators say this means that the brothers could not even return the common salutation, “Shalom aleikhem, Peace be unto you”. JFB explains: “It is deemed a sacred duty to give all this form of salutation; and the withholding of it is an unmistakable sign of dislike or secret hostility. The habitual refusal of Joseph’s brethren, therefore, to meet him with ‘the salaam’ [the usual expression of good wishes among friends and acquaintances] showed how ill-disposed they were towards him. It is very natural in parents to love the youngest, and feel partial to those who excel in talents or amiableness. But in a family constituted as Jacob’s - many children by different mothers - Jacob showed great and criminal indiscretion.”

A favored child usually tries to get away with more, and oftentimes does. Yosef began relating to his family about the dreams he had been having, all which pictured him as ruling over the rest of the family. We, as readers of the story know that the dreams were prophetic, but at the time they did nothing but create more hatred of Yosef by his brothers. Yosef, in his youthfulness and more than likely feeling good about his favored position, was a little braggadocio about his dreams, which further ruffled feathers. Some commentators stated that it is possible that the brothers believed that the dreams could possibly come true, and they figured that if they got rid of Yosef altogether, there was no chance of the dreams coming true. What they had not planned on was the intervention of the Creator Himself in this drama.

B’resheet 38 is one of those parenthetical chapters that appear from time to time in Hebraic writing. Of course, the original text does not contain the chapter breaks, and scholars debate back and forth as to whether the events in this section could have taken place in the approximate time of 23 years from the selling of Yosef to the moving of Israel down into Egypt, with feasible arguments on both sides. The chapter begins with the words, similar in all translations, “At that time it came to pass….” The unknown factor is whether “at that time” is right after the selling of Yosef, or shortly after Ya’akov arrived back to Shechem from the abode of Laban. But we see from the events of this chapter the truth of Romans 8.28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” Some of the events of this chapter are indiscretionary; some are cultural of the day. But I think that inside, Judah loved ADONI, and ADONI used the events here to bring through this family line the Messiah Yeshua.

The narrative then moves back to Yosef, and the events surrounding his life at Potiphar’s home, his promotions, his being thrown into prison when he refused the advances of Potiphar’s wife and thus angered her, the interpretation of dreams of fellow prisoners, the interpreted dreams coming true, and the now freed chief cupbearer forgetting about Yosef in prison. And thus at the end of the reading we are left with a cliff-hanger – what will happen to the imprisoned Yosef? Stay tuned.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

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.

Torah: B’resheet (In the beginning), B’resheet (Genesis) 1.1-6.8
Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 42.5-43.10
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Revelation 22.6-21

Shalom,

“בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, B’resheet bah-rah Elohim…, In the beginning G-d….” Torah begins with the simple understanding that G-d is. Torah has no need to take a few chapters explaining if Elohim exists, or how He came to be. No justification needed; all we need to know is “In the beginning G-d….”

Creation is a mystery. Was it a literal 24/7, or were the days “long”? I personally have come to believe that each day of creation was a long-day – that is, the Creator did His work throughout the billions of years that are allotted for time travel across the universe. Not that He needed the time, but that is just how large the universe is. Contrary to short-day creationist thinking, one can believe in the long-day creation concept without being an evolutionist. I do not believe in evolution. It took a lengthy study and a new paradigm development to accept this teaching, and if one can refrain from throwing the baby out with the bath water, it is a fascinating concept, and doesn’t take away anything from the creativity of the Creator. The Hebrew term יוֹם yom (“וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָד, vay’hee bo-kehr yom ekhad, and there was the first day”) usually translated “day” does not necessarily have to be a 24-hour day, but can also be used “figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term)” per Strong’s definition. In the NASEC(1) definitions yom also be understood as “age;” BDB(2) lists one definition of yom as “a period of time”.

But the length of time of creation is not the thrust in this writing. Our concern is just with the fact that Elohim created. Nothing “just happened;” if there was a “big bang” it was from the hand of Elohim, and was not simply a gaseous explosive cosmic event. The AHLB(3) gives this definition for בָּרָא bah-rah, create: “The fattening or filling up of something. The filling of the earth in Genesis 1 with sun, moon, plants, animals, etc. And the filling of man with life and the image of God.” This definition helps to give the ArtScroll translation of the first few verses perfect sense: “In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth – when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters – God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” If the verses of creation are chronological, then the earth was created before the sun; also this “light” was created before the sun. Another thought is that this initial created “light” must not have been the light of the Creator Himself, but some form of an outward light separate from the “person” of Elohim. One hopes that when we step into eternity, there is a large-screen set up somewhere so that we can watch a replay of all the events of creation, as well as the rest of Scripture, and history itself.

So whatever it looked like, “God said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light.” And however long it took, evening and morning came to gather, and there was “יוֹם אֶחָד, yom ekhad, day one”. E-khad is defined by the AHLB as, “Two or more coming together as a unity. The sharp edge of a blade is the coming together of the two to one point.” This is the same term found in the Sh’ma (D’varim/Deuteronomy 6.4): “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI ekhad [Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one].”

The Jewish rabbis and sages have struggled with this word ekhad, and have explained it off one way or another. As Sha’ul discusses in 1 Corinthians 3, the Jewish people in particular have a [spiritual] veil over their hearts, which is preventing them from seeing Yeshua as their Messiah, and it must be our prayer that the veil be removed. On the whole, the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah (although they are NOT in any way to be labeled as “Christ-killers; there is a vast difference); “The stone [Yeshua] that the builders [Israel] rejected has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118.22, repeated several times in the Messianic Writings). Ekhad means “a unit of one”. Yokhanan (John) 1.1-5 relates this about creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

We don’t know at what point in “time” Lucifer rebelled against his Creator, but we do know this: when “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. God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Sha’ul expounds on this in his letter to the Colossian congregation of believers, “He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son (1.13)… For by him [Messiah Yeshua] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. He existed before all things, and he holds everything together” (1.16-17). “Let there BE light” – this indicates an ongoing action. I figure that when Lucifer fell, he had to have a location to be placed into until the final judgment, and that is the “domain of darkness”. And man was about to be created, and he would need a location to be placed in. This would have to have been the “domain of light”.

But early in the Garden, man got curious and wanted to check out the darkness, and it must have looked appealing. Seems it still does today. So essentially man, with his free will, chose to walk into the “domain of darkness,” where Lucifer, now hasatan, the adversary, was lurking about. There were men who “crossed over” (which is the definition of the word “Hebrew;” BDB defines “Hebrew” as “one from beyond”) out of the darkness from time to time – the patriarchs, the prophets – but overall, mankind tended to continue walking in the darkness. Since most of humanity had turned away early on from the Creator to worship the creation, He chose one man (Avraham) to begin a people (Israel) who would bring His light to the world. Israel only partly fulfilled that calling by maintaining the Tanakh through the centuries, so the Creator had to come Himself into the physical realm of man and offer that light to man. He came first to Israel to help this people find their way back into the light of the Creator. Many did, many more did not accept that offer; some turned totally away, others peered out at the edge of the darkness, yet would not venture completely out. When people turned to Yeshua as their Messiah and Redeemer, they found a way out of the domain of darkness. Some unfortunately wandered back into the darkness, others walked with one foot on both sides without a solid direction, with unclear eyesight, but others remained fully in the light and begin reflecting that light onto others who are still within the darkness. And the cycle goes on.

I hope that you who are reading this can now proclaim with me, “Barukh HaShem! ‘He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son’”! Thank G-d that in the beginning, He said, “Let there be Light”.

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May Israel be unveiled and step out into the Light. Romans 11.15: “For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead!”

1  New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance
2  Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions
3  Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible

Torah: V’Zot HaBrachah (This is the blessing), D’varim (Deuteronomy) 33.1-34.12
Haftorah: Y’hoshua (Joshua) 1.1-18
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Rev 21.9-22.5

Shalom,

This is the final reading in the cycle of Torah, and it ends as somewhat of a cliff-hanger. The great leader of Israel, Moshe, passes away in the final chapter and is buried outside of the Promised Land, but Israel remains encamped on the far side of the Yarden (Jordan) River. Their final destination is yet to be reached.

ADONAI Himself buried Moshe, and D’varim 34.6 says that no one knows where his grave is. But Torah does not end in a mourning note, but in a note of anticipation – there is more to come. Y’hoshua (Joshua) was filled with the Spirit from a personal anointing from Moshe, and the people of Israel were ready to follow him. Thus the sages of old chose the first chapter of the book of Y’hoshua as the Haftorah reading to follow this final Torah section. And a new chapter in the saga of Israel is about to be written.

Torah closes with the fact that as the written Torah was put together, there had not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moshe, whom ADONAI knew face to face. Thus we know that Y’hoshua, as great a leader as he was, was not the prophet like Moshe that ADONAI would raise up from within Israel (D’varim 18.15). Maimonides and other sages closed the book of Torah at this point, with the mistaken assumption that one would never arise like Moshe, in essence skimming over the promise of D’varim 18.15.

Various sects within Judaism have raised up men whom they believe to be the Mashiakh (Messiah) of Israel. From a Messianic organization in Israel comes this information: “In the 21st century, there are three rabbis with tens of thousands of followers who believe that they are the Messiah. 1) Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe who died 15 years ago at the age of 92, in New York, has tens of thousands of followers around the world who believe that he is the Jewish Messiah. 2) Rabbi Nachman, the Bratslav Rebbe (Rebbe means head rabbi) who died in 1810 is also a false Messiah. Even though he lived 200 years ago, more than 20,000 Jews from Israel and around the world visit his gravesite in Uman Ukraine every Rosh HaShannah to have their sins forgiven. 3) Yisrael Dov Odesser known as “Saba” (Saba is Hebrew for “grandfather”) also died 15 years ago, at the old age of 106. He had asked his followers not to call him Rabbi, but to call him Grandfather. He is buried in a Jerusalem cemetery, and Jews regularly visit his gravesite to have their sins forgiven as well. Saba was part of the Bratslav Chassidic sect and a disciple of the Rabbi Nachman.

“At busy intersections throughout Israel you will see Nachman Bratslavs handing out literature to people in their cars, as they are waiting for the light to turn green. The followers of Rabbi Nachman also stop their vans in the middle of the highway and start dancing and singing. They are usually singing a song about the Rabbi Nachman which they believe brings redemption to the world. I saw one of them dancing in between the cars yelling, ‘We are now in the end of days. The end of the world is coming soon!’”

In Luke 21:8 Yeshua said, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.” In Matthew 24:24 Yeshua said, “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible.”

The One not only like (compared to), but greater than Moshe (Hebrew 3.3: “Yeshua deserves more honor than Moshe”), did indeed arise in Israel – the One, the only One, who fulfilled all of the prophecies concerning His coming and the nature of His being. This One came in human flesh, lived as a man, was brutally put to death by his detractors, but resurrected into eternal life, returned to His Father in Heaven, is now awaiting the day when once again He returns to this planet to rule and reign, His followers serving under Him. This we know to be Yeshua of Natzeret (Nazareth). While we await His return, the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) is our daily helper, teacher, strength and guide.

And this is why we pray for the shalom of Yerushalayim. The Nachman Bratslavs and the other groups of Hassidic Jews, as well as all of the Orthodox rabbis and also the rabbis who are not as “religious” – they all need an encounter with Yeshua just as Rabbi Sha’ul (Saul, also known as Paul) of old had. It has been and is just as Sha’ul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.22, the Jews need a sign. But it goes deeper than that. From 2 Corinthians 3.14-17, “What is more, their [Israel’s] minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away. Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. ‘But,’ says the Torah, ‘whenever someone turns to ADONAI, the veil is taken away.’ Now, ‘ADONAI’ in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of ADONAI is, there is freedom.”

Further, “The god of the olam hazeh [this world] 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” (2 Corinthians 4.4). Let’s emphasize this: Sha’ul is NOT saying that the reading of the “Old Testament” only is the cause of the veil over the heart of the Jewish person. No, but rather, as we see from this writing of Sha’ul’s, the veil is removed when someone turns to the Spirit, the Ruakh, of God. And the Ruakh comes to one who has accepted the salvation gift of Yeshua. The veil remains when the Spirit is not allowed access to the heart. We should also clarify here that someone may have a gift and a calling from ADONAI that is a gift of the Spirit at large, so to speak, a creative gift, but that does not mean they have the salvation gift of the Spirit.

Sha’ul gives direction in 2 Corinthians 10.3-5 on how to pray for those who are strongly opposed to the idea of Yeshua as Messiah; in other words, here is how to pray for the Jewish people (as well as any of your resistant unsaved loved ones): “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful [spiritual warfare] for the destruction of fortresses (strongholds). We are [spiritually] destroying speculations [destroying arrogant reasonings, destroying human logic] and every lofty thing [destroying pride, destroying lofty opinions, destroying barriers] raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought [every deduction, every perception] captive to the obedience of Messiah.” So you see, we are to pray for stubborn mindsets and spiritual blockages to be knocked down, so that the “eyes of the heart” will be open to receive spiritual truth.

Torah has never ended. Torah is renewed with each year’s reading cycle. The written word also continued on with the Prophets and the Writings. Followers of Yeshua also have the Messianic Writings (New Testament). Yeshua Himself is the embodiment of Torah – He is the living Torah, the entire truth of the Creator in One special man. Yeshua, fully God, fully man. From the creation of Adam to the death of Moshe, from Y’hoshua to the prophet Mal’akhi (Malachi), on to Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist), the Greater One was still coming. He came, and for us serving him these days, we await His return. “Amen! Yes, be coming, Lord Yeshua!”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May Israel turn to seek the face of the true “greater Moshe”.

Torah: Ki Tavo (When you enter in), D’varim (Deuteronomy) 26.1-29.8
Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 60.1-22
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Luke 24.44-53

Shalom,

Our parashah this week deals with the ultimate in choice – the choice of obedience to the Covenant of ADONAI and being blessed, or disobedience and being cursed. This is where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. Or perhaps we could say where the camel’s hoof hits the trail. Israel has by this point chosen to enter into covenant with their Creator, and herein the consequences – good or bad – of being in covenant are explained by Moshe.

In D’varim 27.9, Moshe said to Israel, “שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה נִהְיֵיתָ לְעָם לַיְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ  Sh’ma Yisrael, ha-yom ha-zey nee-yey-tah l’ahm l’Adonai Elo-hey-kha; Be quiet; and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of ADONAI your God”. All of the blessings and the curses outlined in these chapters applied to Israel only after they entered into covenant.

The blessings of ADONAI’s covenant are wonderful. Everyone likes blessings, but there are requirements involved in receiving the blessings of a covenant with the Creator. The essence of the covenant was this: love ADONAI your G-d with all you’ve got, obey Him, and love your neighbor as yourself. Followers of Yeshua should be aware that 1) He is God (John/Yochanan 1.1 & 1.18); 2) He is a part of the mysterious triune Godhead (Isaiah/Yesha’yahu 48.16; 61.1; Luke 4.18-19); and 3) He is continuing to remain being the same always (Hebrews 13.8; Revelation 1.4). If He is our Lord, then we – whether Jewish or Gentile – are included in this ancient covenant with יִשְׂרָאֵל קְהַל K’hal Yisrael (the Assembly of Israel). The blessings from obedience of D’varim 28 will be ours, but so will the curses of disobedience. Some of Yeshua’s final words when He physically left this planet were that we are to obey “all that I have commanded you” (emphasis added, for He is God). Blessings are not to be our goal and purpose, but as our desire for our Messiah and Creator increases, the blessings that come can be enjoyed, and if/when there are hardships, trials and testings, through His grace they are easier to “digest”. And I hope we all realize that someone undergoing a trial is not necessarily being cursed. There is a vast difference.

There are some who say that Gentile believers were not expected to follow Torah, but a seldom-referenced verse, Acts 15.21, convinces me otherwise. In Acts 15, the council of apostles decided that, first of all, Gentiles who accepted Yeshua should be told to remove themselves from anything to do with idolatry. Then in verse 21, “For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat.” As I read it, Gentile converts were to denounce pagan idolatry (they were not told to denounce their “Gentile-ness;” otherwise, passages such as Revelation 7.9 would have no eternal significance), and get into a synagogue and learn from the writings of Moshe.

Once one is entered into a covenant with the Creator, the consequences of disobedience are very strong. In D’varim 21.22-23, preceding this week’s reading, it is noted that one who was hung on a stake was cursed, or despised, by G-d; the Hebrew here for cursed is “קִלְלַת, keel-laht,” which is the weaker of the two instances of curse as found in Genesis/B’resheet 12.3. This word means “lightly esteemed”. Now, as we get into the real depths of the covenant, the English word curse as found in D’varim 27 & 28 is ארר ah-rar, a much stronger curse, meaning, “to bitterly curse, to hem in with obstacles, to render powerless, to resist”. Thus we could read B’resheet 12.3 [the promise to Avraham and his descendents] as, “And the one who makes light of you I will bitterly curse, hem in with obstacles, render powerless, resist.” This subject is dealt with in Hebrews 10:28-31, “Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace! For the One we know is the One who said, ‘Vengeance is my responsibility; I will repay,’ and then said, ‘ADONAI will judge his people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (emphasis added).

First Fruits of Zion made a keen observation in a drash, regarding Israel: “All through the book of Deuteronomy, Moses drives home the message: ‘Keep God’s Torah.’ When Israel failed to keep the Torah, God sent prophets warning them to repent and turn back to Torah. When they repented, they were rewarded and blessed. When they did not, they suffered the maledictions threatened in the Torah. God continuously told His people for 1,400 years to walk in His commandments, keep His Torah and His covenant. Does it make sense to imagine that after 1,400 years, God suddenly changed His mind? Yet today many theologians claim that this is what God has done to Israel. The premise of their teaching is that for 1,400 years He punished Israel when they did not keep the Torah; then when Yeshua came, He cancelled the Torah and henceforth punished them for keeping it.” Absurdity of absurdities!

FFOZ continues, “Rather, HaShem is the Unchanging One, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He has not cancelled the words of His Torah. Even today, He longs for His people—all of His people—to repent, turn away from sin and come back to the good and beautiful commandments of His Torah, just as His holy Son, Yeshua, has shown us. In Yeshua His people will find forgiveness for sins, and through His Spirit we find the strength and joy to serve God with gladness.”

The days we are living in are growing darker; they are certainly becoming more spiritually intense. The only real safety is abiding in Covenant with the God of Israel, and walking in the Light of the Son. Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 60, the Haftorah reading for this week, is a chapter of hope. Look at the first two verses: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, the glory of ADONAI has risen over you. For although darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples; on you ADONAI will rise; over you will be seen his glory.” In a sense, you could say that the days we are living could be called “night,” for there is much darkness attempting to cover up the Light. As such, we are living in a night of sin, of punishment, of suffering, and of mourning. But keep your eyes open, ready for the coming of Light. As Tehillim/Psalm 30.5 relates, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

The essence of the covenant once again: love ADONAI your God with all you’ve got, obey Him, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then may the blessings of D’varim 28 be yours. We are currently in the Hebrew month of Elul; in Jewish tradition, this is a month of preparation, of self-examination leading up to the Ten Days of Awe, also known as Aseret Yemey Teshuvah, עֲשֶׂרֶת יְמֵי תְּשׁוּבָה, the Ten Days of Repentance, between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur. There has been only one Man who remained perfect throughout His entire life on this earth, so we all need to take the time to self-examine and repent of our sinful nature which so often encumbers our walk. But days of repentance need not be fearful, that is, we need not fear the Judge of all the earth if we are abiding in His love. The word Elul (אלול) can be seen as an acrostic formed of four Hebrew words from Song of Songs: “אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי  Anee l’dodee v’dodee lee, I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song 6:3). The days of Elul are not only days of repentance, but they should be seen as well as days of compassion, grace, love, even days of intimacy. Our Creator desires a loving relationship with us.

It is customary in some Jewish circles to blow a blast on the shofar each morning of Elul. It was in the month of Elul that Nehemiah finished rebuilding the Wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:15). For believers today, this is a time for securing all breaches, all places of vulnerability along our “borders”. Elul is also a period from ancient Hebrew tradition when HaShem, although always near and accessible to us, chooses to make Himself especially available to His people – when the “King comes into the Field” to meet with those who will come out to Him, those who will respond to the inner urging to “seek His face”. In fact, many observant Jews choose to read Psalm 27 (from which that phrase is taken) each day between the First of Elul and the Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. Psalm 27.8: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.’”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May Israel turn to seek the face of their true Messiah, so that they may reap the blessings in full again.

Torah: Shof’tim (Judges), D’varim (Deuteronomy) 16.18-21.9

Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 51.12-52.12

Suggested Messianic Writings: Mattityahu (Mathew) 3.1-17

Shalom,

Moshe continues in this parashah with more instructions for Israel to carry out after they enter the land that HaShem is giving to them. Back in Sh’mot (Exodus) 18, Moshe’s father-in-law Yitro (Jethro) encouraged Moshe to discontinue being the only judge for Israel, as he would wear himself out, but rather to appoint various leaders to help with all the judgments for the people. Moshe heeded this advice, and Israel’s first judicial system was set up. Now Moshe is giving the commandment that there shall be judges established in every city in Israel after he is gone and Israel has crossed over into the land.

HaShem set a high standard for the judges of the land – they shall judge the people with righteous judgment, מִשְׁפַּט צֶדֶק, mish’paht tseh-dehk. The definition of צֶדֶק tseh-dehk, righteous, is “accurate, fair, just”. The protocol was that the communities were to be responsible for appointing their judges; the sages understood this to mean that if the community had a hand in appointing unrighteous judges, then the community was to be held responsible if justice was perverted.

“You are not to distort justice….” The KJV says, “Thou shalt not wrest judgment….” Wrest is an older English word; the Hebrew is תַטֶּה nah-tey, which means “to stretch or spread out; by implication to bend away (including moral deflection)”. The Message Bible translates the line as, “Don’t twist the law.” Following that instruction, leaders are told “do not show partiality or favoritism, and do not accept a bribe”. Bribe in Hebrew is שֹׁחַד, sho-khad, meaning simply, “a gift presented to one in return for a favor”. Whatever the purpose of the “gift,” a leader is not to take such when dispensing justice, “for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of even the upright,” or put another way, “a bribe… undermines the intentions of the best of people.”

“תִּרְדֹּף צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, tseh-dehk tseh-dehk teer-doph, Justice, only justice, you must pursue;” or as another translation states, “Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue”. One reason that the word is repeated in the Hebrew is to emphasize two different aspects of the word. Some of the ancient commentators said that in the current context, it means that to pursue righteousness in general, one must pursue a righteous court. Another opinion given, one a little more personal, is that we are to: 1) pursue righteousness through our own deeds, and 2) pursue righteousness as a gift from HaShem. For example, in D’varim (Deuteronomy) 10.16, HaShem commands Israel to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart,” in other words, they were told to cultivate a right attitude which would then produce righteous behavior. Later, in D’varim 30.6, HaShem promises that He Himself will “circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children, so that you will love Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being”. HaShem will provide the gift of righteousness.

Righteousness is spoken of often in the Tanakh. Yesha’yahu (Isaiah), writing of the suffering of the coming Messiah, says in 53.11, “After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction. By his knowing [pain and sacrifice], my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers.” Much of what Yesha’yahu wrote can apply to both Israel and Yeshua, but not this verse. Only the Messiah makes many righteous after suffering for their sins. If we acknowledge that Mashiakh (Messiah) Yeshua makes righteous those who accept Him as Lord and Master, we have received the gift of righteousness; on the other hand, we cannot accept such a gift and do nothing with it, for this is a gift that we must pursue constantly by what we do, by how we live. In other words, we receive the gift of righteousness through faith, by trusting our Creator God, while at the same time we pursue righteousness in all that we do. We dare not abuse either way of obtaining righteousness.

Note that the commandment says to “pursue” righteousness – in fact, “you must pursue righteousness”. The Hebrew word for pursue is רדף, rah-dahf, which means “to run after”. Rabbi Hertz’ commentary (Rabbi Hertz was Chief Rabbi of the British Empire pre-WWII), regarding the entire phrase, states, “These passionate words may be taken as the keynote of the humane legislation of the Torah, and of the demand for social righteousness by Israel’s Prophets, Psalmists and Sages.” Shoes that perfectly fit both feet – if the justice system pursues justice/righteousness, then justice will be applied to the land. If the community that appoints the judges pursues righteousness, then the judge will be just, and the land will live in righteousness. A nation goes the way of its leaders. This is from Torah, if anyone thinks this is being bound up under Law, what are the options? Unrighteousness, injustice, oppression, unfairness, dictatorship! Choose this day whom you will serve. The G-d that Avraham, Yitz’khak v’Ya’akov (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) served is the same G-d that Kefa, Yochanan v’Sha’ul (Peter, John & Paul) served.

The prophet Mikhah, (Mee-kha, Micah) wrote of justice (6.8): “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does ADONAI require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The apostle Sha’ul (Saul/Paul) put it another way, in the letter to the Philippians (4.8), “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Think about (or on) in Greek is logizomai, (log-id’-zom-ahee), which means, “to take an inventory, to consider”. If one “thinks” long enough about something, one “acts” on those thoughts.

What is the purpose of this pursuit of righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice? The answer is given in the rest of verse 20: “So that you may חיה, kha-yah, live (def: come to life, give life, be healed, keep alive, stay alive) and ירשׁ yah-resh, possess (def: to take possession of, inherit, dispossess; to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place)) the land ADONAI your God is giving you.” The pursuit of righteousness/justice will bring a righteous/just reward.

Hertz’ commentary notes that, “Justice is not the only ethical quality in God or man, nor is it the highest quality; but it is the basis for all the others. ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundations of Thy throne,’ says the Psalmist [89.14]. The whole idea of the Divine rests on them.”

Only when we – from the individual to the community to the government – follow the advice, nay, the commandment of our Creator, will all go well. Where does the pursuit of righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice rank in your life? Sha’ul wrote similarly of this dual pursuit, that of chasing after what we have received (a Biblical paradox), in 1 Timothy 6.12, “Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you testified so well to your faith before many witnesses”. Take hold literally means, “to seize”. You see the double paradoxical pursuit? We have been called, we have received a high calling, but to retain it, we must pursue it, we must seize it! How do we seize eternal life? Sha’ul actually gave the answer in the preceding verse (6.11): “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.”

Someone once said that life can be so “daily”. I believe that a great way to take the daily-ness out of daily life is to be in hot pursuit of the righteousness offered by the Creator, which is the gift of eternal life that is given freely, yet with such a high price, by the Messiah Yeshua. He is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff (Matt 3.12). He is coming to set up an eternal kingdom that will continually pursue “righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice”. Author Jerry Bridges wrote a book on the subject, entitled, The Pursuit of Holiness, wherein he states, “Scripture speaks of both a holiness we have in [Messiah] before God, and a holiness we are to strive after. We can ignore neither [Messiah’s] role nor our own if we are to successfully pursue holiness. It is as simple as refusing to smudge the truth on a tax return or as complicated as forgiving the person who has most viciously hurt us. [We need to] take holiness out of the realm of the impossible and bring it into the real world of our daily lives and decisions.”

Israel (I speak of Jewish people globally in this thought) desperately needs to pick up that pursuit that their forefathers began in the days of Moshe. A true pursuit of righteousness (far beyond any good that humanity can do on its own) can only do one thing – reveal the King of Righteousness for who He is, Yeshua HaMashiakh, Yeshua the Messiah, the true Judge who will judge justly. “Awake! Awake, Tziyon [Zion]! Shake off the dust! Arise! Break out into joy! Sing together, you ruins of Yerushalayim [Jerusalem]! For Adonai has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim! Adonai has bared his holy arm in the sight of every nation, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation (yeshua) of our God, Yeshuat Eloheynu, אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְשׁוּעַת” (from this week’s Haftorah). The pursuit is on; got your running shoes ready?

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: Va’etchanan (And I pleaded), D’varim (Deuteronomy) 3.23-7.11
Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 40.1-26
Suggested Messianic Writings: Mattityahu (Matthew) 23.31-39

Shalom,

It must have been with mixed emotions that Moshe gave his final declaration to the people and new nation of Israel. This is what the book of D’varim (Deuteronomy) is – Moshe’s final message. He knew that he did not have much longer to live; he also knew that he was not allowed by HaShem to enter the Promised Land. How disappointing it must have been to have led the nation out of Egypt and through the wilderness wanderings for nearly 40 years, then because of a moment of anger and personal failure, to be prohibited from walking in the Land. And because of the several failures of Israel, Moshe was banned from the Land for those reasons also (see D’varim 4.21). So he had to have been upset with himself, upset with Israel, and maybe a little disgruntled at HaShem. But in a lesson for us all, Moshe did not dwell on his own problems. His primary concern was what would happen to Israel after they crossed over into the Promised Land. He knew by the Ruakh (Spirit) of HaShem that Israel would stumble greatly, yet he also knew that HaShem would never leave or forsake them completely. Moshe prophesied that after much dispersion and struggling, Israel would once again be gathered back to her Land in the acharit-hayamim.

The book of D’varim is a message by Moshe to the new generation of Israel who is about to cross over into the Promised Land. The generation that had come out of Egypt – at least all of the men – had all died in the wilderness (with the exception of Kalev (Caleb) and Y’hoshua (Joshua)). The text is not clear whether this was everybody, or just the men. The English is generally translated “men,” but the term may or may not be generically used. We are told in B’Midbar (Numbers) chapters 1 that a census was taken of all the men 20 years old and up who were able to go to war from the first generation; by B’Midbar 14 we see that the entire generation of those men was promised a death in the desert. So it’s not clear about the women, but at the entry into the Land, the oldest men would have been under 60, since every man 20 years old and up was to die in the wilderness, so a 19-year-old would have been the oldest survivor from the first generation.

This particular parashah is full of the richness of the promises and commandments of HaShem. It contains a recap of the Ten Words, as well as the Sh’ma. Through the passage of time the Word of G-d has stood firm in this declaration – obey G-d and live, disobey and die. This is referring to a lifestyle. Moshe prophesied in the center of D’varim 4 that Israel would be disobedient and would be dispersed among the nations. There may be a hint of the timing of the return of Yeshua in 4.30: “In your distress, when all these things have come upon you, in the acharit-hayamim, you will return to ADONAI your God and listen to what he says.” The three weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av are known as the “Dire Straits”. Israel has been troubled much in her history on this particular day of the year, but en masse Israel has not returned to her G-d. The word for distress in the Hebrew is צר tsar, which means “narrow, a tight place, affliction, distress, tribulation, trouble,” and in some versions is translated tribulation, and we may be looking here at the end-of-days tribulation. In fact, that is what the acharit-hayamim is – translated in other versions as “the latter days; the end of days”. Young’s Literal Translation has “the latter end of the days”.

A same form of the word is used in Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 30.7, which speaks of “the time of Ya’akov’s (Jacob’s) trouble,” another term for the end-times tribulation, but the word is in the feminine and implies “a female rival, a rival wife,” and we know this was the case in the physical life of Ya’akov, with Le’ah and Rachel. Now a rival wife may not necessarily be an evil one, but may imply that there is a competition for the love of the husband. The “bride” of Yeshua is all of those who follow him, and it is known that these people “vex” Israel (all the non-Messianic Jewish people globally would be inferred here) in her spirit. So when Israel is “in tribulation in the acharit-hayamim,” it would seem that this rival is right there, “vexing” her, until finally she recants of her disbelief and turns wholly to her G-d and Messiah. The acharit-hayamim, the end of days, the great tribulation, the anti-Messiah, etc, in the final analysis has little really to do with the enemies of Israel, but rather the “purpose” is the salvation of Israel, bursting into global salvation, and the defeat of hasatan with the return of Yeshua. Why would you want to watch that from afar if you could still be around to be involved?

Yeshua told Yerushalayim in Mattityahu 23.39 that until they say “Barukh haba b’shem Adoni – Blessed is He who comes in the name of Adoni” they would not see Him again. He went on in chapter 24 to tell His followers that they would be delivered up to “tribulation,” which has been translated back into modern Hebrew “New Testaments” with the word צר tsar. All the trials in the world up to this point will be nothing like the great tribulation, yet just as there were at the time of the Exodus, there will be pockets of safety, and I believe that. I also believe that we are near those days, and none of us knows our roles at this time. There will be martyrs, but there will be survivors. I believe that grace is measured and given out when it is needed to those who ask, not before.

Continuing in Mattityahu 24, when believers are placed into tribulation, many will fall away from the faith. I believe those are the many who were expecting an early escape plan, as well as those who believed that Israel had been replaced by the church. But Yeshua said that the one who endures to the end will be saved. When Israel calls Yeshua back, something will break in the spirit realm, and the gospel, the besorah, the good news of the Messiah will spread to the rest of the globe quickly. Tribulation will increase, but then the days are cut short and Yeshua will return and gather His bride from the ends of the earth. “But immediately after the tribulation of those days… the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky… And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”

Some may not accept this understanding of the acharit-hayamim, the end of days, and that’s okay, as long as your faith will stand strong when trials do come, and no one makes it a matter of salvation and judges the way another believes. If we are serving Yeshua, that is the important thing.

So pray that Israel would come to grips with her inheritance, and as a nation would desire to live by the Sh’ma (see D’varim 6.4f), the Ten Words, and the rest of Torah that was given through Moshe. May they heed the words of their ancient prophets. May they quit explaining away the word echad and accept the tri-unity of the one G-d – Av, Ben v’Ruakh; Father, Son and Spirit. May the come to understand how blessed they truly are: “they were made God’s children, the Sh’khinah has been with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the Temple service and the promises; the Patriarchs are theirs; and from them, as far as his physical descent is concerned, came the Messiah, who is over all” (Romans 9.4-5).  “From this you can know that Adonai your God is indeed God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot, to a thousand generations” (D’varim 7.9). If Israel would reach out to her Messiah Yeshua, very quickly would the “fast days of the fourth and fifth months,” the dire straits leading up to Tisha B’Av, become “times of joy, gladness and cheer” (Z’kharyah/Zechariah 8.19).

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!