It was a beautiful day in the morning of the world. Just a few days earlier on Days Two and Three, the world had been spoken into existence by the Word of YHVH, given light on Day Four, populated with plants and all manner of beasts on Days Five and Six. Finally, in great and deep joy, YHVH made man in His image and put him in the Garden of Eden, then He rested on Day Seven. All was perfect. YHVH smiled and the Heavenly Host sang for joy (Job 38:4-11, esp. v.7).
Recently a friend of mine (Zec) sent me and several other men a video and asked for feedback before it went public. It was absolutely stunning.
Men, this fits with the focus we have had over the last few months in our Restoring Kol Israel series. It’s a bold message with a lot of challenging truth packed into it that all men, especially fathers, need to hear. Here are a couple of the responses from that conversation:
Beyond incredible. You have packed so many concepts into a short video. I’ve listened to 2 hour sermons that haven’t had 1/4 the content.
Steve Turner
Wow Zec. Awesome. Rivetting, gold…What I just saw is the fruit of a hard won education and the heart of a warrior for the Kingdom. You are a man I want my boys around, one I am glad to call a brother and fellow sojourner. Have always had Hugh respect for you, but it grew this morning! The world may not receive it well, but men who do will be better men.
See Toldot from a new perspective! Consider the aspects of family dynamic, headship and patriarchy as you dig into this week’s Torah portion. Connect it with Proverbs and parental responsibility.
It started after Shabbat when I asked a young man in our fellowship what he wanted to study for and do when he finished school. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, “What’s the use? I’m gonna die anyway?”
I probed him with a couple more questions to diagnose the problem and quickly figured out that he was deeply concerned about the state of the world and the coming Great Tribulation. In his mind, there is nothing much to live for.
Why try?
My immediate response was a vigorous reminder that we have at least 1000 years to go! The Tribulation is not the end. It is a beginning!! A beginning to the millennial reign! Others gathered around, wondering what the hubbub was, and it turned into a wonderful impromptu lesson for all who had lingered.
I do not normally reblog entire articles, but usually provide a link. I am making an exception for this article because it encapsulates so well the reason why we must recapture the proper roles of men and women in marriage as God designed. The Torah pursuant community is so serious about learning and walking in God’s ways, but retain a huge blind spot regarding what the Bible actually says about marriage, men and women.
We will be held accountable for truth in this area because it is foundational to the Restoration of Kol Israel. Calendars, liturgy and minute details about the Torah throughout Scripture are meaningless if we get the roles of men and women and family structure wrong. Simply, Torah cannot be walked rightly if headship and patriarchy are not right at the very foundation.
“BGR, (my wife and I refer to you as Bigger Guy, phonetically pronounced), Just a word of encouragement, we decided over a year ago to switch the dynamic of our marriage to a more Biblical approach. Your blog has inspired a lot of the changes that we have implemented. We were “happily married partners” for many years. Since the change, our marriage has grown and flourished like never before.
I’m sitting here staring at my screen. Writing feels a bit like blood letting. Yet, my brain is totally full and I have no idea where to begin, which string to pull first so the dam will beak.
For weeks, months even, I have been pondering the many facets of the restoration of kol Israel. One might call it a minor obsession because it is where my thoughts go when nothing else pressing is at the forefront. Among those thoughts, I have been juggling the hot potatoes that few have the courage to touch, subjects that draw extreme ire and irrational unbiblical pushback. Post titles float across my mind, titles like Feminism and the Destruction of Western Culture, or Patriarchy, God’s Solution that Everybody Hates, or Where have all the Men Gone and Why don’t they Care?
Most whom I have conversations with concerning the restoration of Israel, the return of the whole House of Israel and what it will look like, have a lilting dreamy character to their voice until they understand that to be successful, we must divorce ourselves from Western Greek influences. It is one thing for most to erase Christmas or Easter and the many unbiblical elements absorbed from the nations, but it is another matter entirely to realize that future Israel will Continue reading “Restoring kol Israel: The ‘lost’ first post…”
As most readers know, we are just a
couple Shabbats away from returning to the beginning and again taking
up the annual journey through the Torah portions. Each year I seek
what the Father would have me focus on as an overarching theme. In
some years I have shared from those studies and in others it has been
a more personal matter.
Well, this year, I will be paying
special attention to elements of headship, patriarchy, marriage,
roles of men and women as well as how this all plays out in community
with a goal of understanding more about the restoration of kol Israel
at the family and then clan levels. Blog co-author, Jeremy, and I
have the ambitious goal of releasing a weekly blog post sharing some
of what we are learning from each Torah portion.
We hope you will seek the Father and
see what His focus would be for you, and if He leads you to join us
on this journey, we ask you to participate in comment and discussion
after each weekly post. Pray for us and walk with us in this critical
journey.
A week ago, in our post titled Restoring Kol Israel: No more male or female?, we made a huge statement that many may have glossed over. Because it is so monumental, we need to go back and parse it with implications spelled out. Here is the quote:
To be clear, Yah is delivering these commands through Moses to the men of the households and it’s the man’s responsibility to teach them and discern correct application for his women.
As demonstrated earlier in the cited post, the Torah commands, over and over, as given by YHVH to Moshe, are specifically addressed to the men. While this understanding is not in conflict with most of Orthodox Judaism, it is a decided cut against the western egalitarianism and feminism that has overrun the church.
To review a couple things very quickly, our heart’s desire is to see kol Israel, all 12 (13) tribes restored. That cannot happen unless the most basic building block is restored. That building block is the man and, if he has one, his family. Call it what you will, manhood, masculinity, patriarchy, etc, the simple fact is that the structure of a nation cannot be assembled from broken or improperly functioning family building blocks. The basis of the entire structure that Yah designed and implemented is focused on the man leading his family. It began in Gan Eden with Adam and Chava.
Headship and the Biblical order in both family and nation has been a recurring theme in our fellowship. Over the last few months we have been intensely challenged by the Father to consider HIS model for how men/women/family/clan/tribe/nation are supposed to function and operate. Yesterday was no different. While we had a ‘double portion’ in Mattot and Massei, we never actually got out of the first two chapters.
I thought I’d share a few thoughts that came out of our discussion as it directly relates to the ongoing series on this blog regarding the restoration of kol Israel and the roles of men and women. Consider them food for thought or discussion as we did not fully develop them, nor am I attempting to share every detail of our conversation…
11:3 Restoration 