Whether we like or don’t like what the Torah says is immaterial. It is still TRUTH. It is the definition of righteousness.
It is okay to wrestle with it, but in the end we have to make a decision: obey or disobey. We are accountable for every jot and tittle.
Selah!
Friend and co-author Al McCarn has just reviewed Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler’s groundbreaking (ground shaking?) Ten From the Nations. I highly recommend the review, but especially want to share a quote that is worthy of framing!
“…those who persevere in reading and studying even when the subject matter is uncomfortable tend to come out much better in the end – smarter, wiser, more tolerant, and better able to cooperate with others in the interest of a greater good.”
Truth requires reading and studying hard subject matter, sometimes even things to which we may be strongly opposed. Be willing to pursue truth, even the uncomfortable parts!
So, I’m learning a new job that will have me doing some classroom instruction. Typically, I can be anywhere in western SC with a class that will last four days or so. Yesterday, as I shadow my trainer, I began with a class of 12, just north of Greenwood.
This morning, while setting up, I asked if there were any questions and a hand immediately went up. The late 20’s lady hesitantly said, “Uhm, what, uhm, are those string things you have on your side?”
I smiled, inside and out, and took three minutes to quickly explain my background, what my tzitziot are, what they mean and where I get that from Scripture (Numbers 15:37-41). At least seven of the students were very interested with one even asking to look more closely and ask follow on questions.
There is a debate that has gone on for a long, long time as to whether this command is a private or corporate command. I.e., do I tuck them in and let them remind only me, or, as a peculiar people, do I wear them out as a reminder to others to keep the commandments and as a witness to who I am as a keeper of the Commandments. Personally, I have always worn them out and been convicted of such. I do not intent to fuel the debate so much as say, “If they had been tucked in, would I have had opportunity to give a witness to the veracity of the Torah and walking as the Messiah?”
Shalom!!
Yesterday was Shabbos Chanukah and if you check your Chumash or Torah reading cycle, you will find that the Haftarah was Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7. Certainly, because one of the main topics in Zechariah 4:2-14 is the giant menorah, this can be connected to Chanukah, but if we dig a little deeper, this Haftarah connects all of Scripture!!
It is hard to know exactly where to begin pulling threads, so let’s just jump right in!
Last week’s Torah portion, Miketz, is part of my very favorite series of Portions, the Joseph Portions, about which I have written much. With multiple levels of understanding hidden in the life of Joseph, it is no surprise to find considerable prophecy and allusion to the Two Houses of Israel from the interplay of Judah and Joseph. While we will not delve into that in this post, I want to demonstrate from this Haftarah that the interplay was on display yesterday in every synagogue that read this, whether they recognized it or not.
Popular among Christians is trying to understand, or guess, who the two witnesses of Revelation 11 are. Al McCarn and I, in Ten Parts in the King: The Prophesied Reconciliation of God’s Two Witnesses that is now being printed, spend chapters collecting and connecting data points not just from Scripture but also Rabbinic and historic sources demonstrating not only the veracity of the Two House position, but explaining and examining God’s intent. One passage we touch on is this Zechariah passage.
Quoting from the soon to be released book, Continue reading “Ezra, Two Sticks, Two Witnesses and Chanukah”
This year has been a string of prophetic pearls being revealed, one after another. Yesterday proved another gem in the string as President Donald Trump officially recognized Zion, the Eternal City, as the capital of Israel. Much, much has been running through my head ever since, but the very first thought that hit me was,
Ezra 1
Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”
5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem
How many of you remember last year about this time when Trump’s win and Presidency was being met with declarations that he was a type of Cyrus. Continue reading “Prophetic thresholds….”
I have been rereading Joshua this week and seeing some interesting parallels. Here’s one…
As hard as it is for us to imagine, Israel, all 13 tribes had the Torah and knew what was righteous, but still didn’t do it for 40 years of wilderness journey. Kinda like the ‘church,’ led by another Joshua, who has had Torah for the last 50 Jubilees, but has refused to observe some/certain of the commandments.
Stiff-necked then. Stiff-necked now.
Interesting that in Ezekiel we are told that it will not be until Abba brings us into the Land that He’ll sprinkle clean water on us and remove our filth. Here, Joshua does similarly after they cross the Jordan into the Land.
This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord , to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Joshua 5:4-6 NASB
The rest of this and the previous chapter reveal details that lead to the correct answer….
My longtime readers remember some older posts in the Tales from the bus series, valuable illustrations that came from work experience. Here is a recent addition.
A few weeks ago, a driver came in after their afternoon route and complained their bus was making a clicking sound in the left front end when making sharp left turns. I agreed to go take a look before calling maintenance and quipped it was probably nothing more than a rock stuck in the tire treads.
After strolling across the bus lot to the bus in question, I bent over to run my hand around the tire, looked down, and my jaw hit the ground!!!
Seven of the ten lug nuts were loose!! Some were backed off by as much as 1/3+ of an inch!! Wowsers!! How in the world?! My mind raced as I called maintenance to get a service truck over. I know the driver does a twice a day walk around inspection, I’ve witnessed it on multiple occasions. I’ve been by that bus dozens of times and so has the fuel guy. How had we missed this?
Ultimately, we found multiple dropped balls in the maintenance and inspection chain and numerous of us were culpable to varying degrees. By Yah’s grace, there had not been a disaster with a bus load of kids.
What did I determine was the major problem? ~All of us looking, but not seeing. Essentially, we were going through the motions of a visual check, turning our head and eyes to the right places, but habit was blinding us. We were not seeing what we were supposed to be looking at.
It occurs to me that we do that so often with Scripture. We look at it and think we know what it says, so we don’t see what it actually says, yet we are accountable! I’m guilty. I can go through the motions and see only what I want to see, or what doctrinal filters tell me to see.
Our prayer should be that Abba open our eyes and show us truth. We must ask Him to remove blinding traditions and doctrines that we see what is actually written!
I woke this morning pondering the New Covenant, and once coffee was made and poured, I sat to reread it. I was draw to begin reading at Jeremiah 30:18 to be reminded of the context and who the players are. This is a good opportunity for us to go back to the basics.
Christian theology centers on the New Covenant. We recognize Yeshua/Jesus as declaring that He is instituting this New Covenant, but we do not pursue the matter to a full understanding of the implications. So, let’s take a few minutes and be reminded of what Scripture says it means to be part of the New Covenant.
First, Yeshua and Paul’s use of the term,
Luke 22:17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
I Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Christendom hangs its proverbial hat on these verses, but the vast majority, pastors included, do not know Continue reading “Back to Basics: Reflecting on the New Covenant”
Do you?
Shema Israel…..
“But this I confess to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything written in the Torah and the Prophets.
Acts 24:14 TLV
11:3 Restoration 